Lenore’s flight-speed was markedly lower than normal. While most of the burden of the spell we had woven was born by me, she had contributed enough to exhaust herself, though not to the same level I had, leaving me with a throbbing headache, lethargy and a general unwillingness to move, speak or even think. Casting spells, even if I somehow had the Astral Power, would be an impossible task, even pushing myself into my Hallow had been a daunting, if necessary, effort.

“Was it worth it?” Lenore asked, getting nothing but the mental equivalent of an affirmative grunt in response.

We had done what was necessary to sell the fiction to the others that our sudden change of plans had been facilitated by something Lenore had seen in the distance, not the killing of the supposed bandits. The final effort, which had left me in my exhausted state, had been a massive spell of wind and ice, as we had spread out the effects of a weak spell to an absurd degree, using almost all the Astral Power the two of us had combined for a simple ruse.

The spell had been powerful enough to shatter the staff I had created using the Crystal of the Northern Wind we had received from the Winter Wolves, the Hard Ice I had used no longer strong enough to withstand the combined power of Lenore and I. Luckily, I had managed to catch the crystal, before it could drop from the tree we had perched in. The breaking of the staff had caused the spell to get a little out of control, dispersing it even further than planned but at the end of the day, the difference was minute.

I was reasonably certain that the others, certainly Olivia and Adra, had felt the expended power, though I doubted that they had the sensory accuracy to read the actual spell-effect at that distance, which meant they should have felt that someone had used a tremendous amount of Wind- and Ice Astral Power. With me, joining up with them soon after, completely exhausted, the connection should be obvious.

My mind must have checked out for a moment, as Lenore was mentally poking me for directions. I hadn’t realised that we had already returned to the clearing we had created with the earlier fight and the subsequent clean-up. Looking into the depths of myself, I could feel the connection to Sigmir, a slight sensation that pulled me, almost like a piece of iron getting pulled towards a magnet. Truly, Sigmir was attractive to me.

Letting the directional information flowing into Lenore, I let myself drift again, happy that I could soon check out, either by logging out or by sleeping. The earlier magic had drained me quite a bit, leaving me laughably weak. Finally, I felt Sigmir’s proximity and forced myself into activity. If I wanted to sell my earlier performance, the others needed to see me.

Taking in the outside world, I was able to perceive Lenore sitting on Sigmir’s shoulder, who was bringing up the rear. It looked like they had stopped when Lenore had approached and were now looking closely at her.

Rousing my tired mind, I pushed outwards, leaving my comfortable Hallow for the outside world. Luckily, Sigmir paid attention and steadied me, otherwise I might have fallen, my body influenced by my weary mind. Even the task of standing upright was a challenging one, my body swaying while the ground beneath me tried to slip away.

“We… did it.” I told the others, not even trying to hide my exhaustion. There was a brief moment of confusion, as they realised what condition I was in, with Sigmir being the quickest to speak.

“Are you alright, love?” she asked, her voice caring, even if our connection was likely telling her quite a bit about my state.

“Just… tired.” I replied, fighting to keep my eyes open, “Didn’t want you…” I paused, a yawn trying to break my jaw. “...to worry. I’ll slip back into my Hallow and... sleep for a bit.” I paused again, my eyes falling shut for a moment. “Please, keep moving.”

With those words, I yawned again, shaking my head, trying to get rid of the fog that clouded my mind. For a moment, darkness enveloped me, the noise of the others getting distant, before I managed to force my mind into motion one more time, pushing myself into my Hallow. The familiar sensation of ultimate comfort around me, sheltered in the space my magic had created to perfectly suit me, I let go of my mind.

The sensation was a strange one, as if I was floating on a calm ocean, surrounded by nothing but darkness. There was no light to see, no air to transmit sound, nothing to make my nose tingle, nothing to touch, nothing around me but a comfortable void. Not certain if my eyes were open or actually closed, I tried to blink, only to realise that it didn’t change a thing. My mind drifting, I thought that I saw light above me, countless, tiny flecks of light, akin to the starlit night sky.

A dark canvas, filled with light. True Darkness. It didn’t need an absence of light.

Opening my eyes, I was greeted by the familiar top of the capsule, the dim, red light giving some illumination, allowing my eyes to adjust after being closed for a while. It gave the user a bit of time to process, to get back into their own body, so to speak, which was a good idea, even if my Avatar was very similar to my actual body. At least physically.

Just lying there for a moment, the change between dead-tired and reasonably awake was a strange one, my mind slowly recovering from the effect my Avatar’s state had on it. It also made me realise that, for the first time, I had experienced one of the safety features, that I hadn’t consciously made the choice to log out, but that the system had forcibly logged me out, likely due to my mental exhaustion reaching a threshold.

As I did most of the time, my first stop after leaving the capsule was the bathroom. A long, warm shower restored my mind quite a bit, with some food helping me to restore the rest. I was still tired, but that might be more due to it being the middle of the night. At this point, my biorhythm was more than a little weird, the time spent in the capsule throwing it completely out of whack. It was another thing I would have to pay attention to in the long run.

After eating, I considered a return into the capsule but instead, I stood at one of my windows, letting the cold night air flow around me. The sensation calmed me, especially after I replaced the brightly lit night outside with the darkness achieved by closing my eyes. Darkness, it was more than a lack of light.

Shaking my head, I decided that I wouldn’t return into the capsule and Mundus, instead I set an alarm for the next morning and slipped into my bed. The sensation of a bed-sheet, a modern mattress and my familiar blanket was a little weird for a moment, sleeping in the capsule had become a habit since I had received it and there was a distinct lack of Sigmir in my bed. Still, there was some psychological exhaustion clinging to me, letting me quickly slip off, into dream-land, spending my time soaring above a frozen world.

When my alarm woke me the next morning, I needed a moment to orient myself, awakening in my own bed, not something I was used to. It was a strange sensation, but after a few moments the routine I had followed for many years, especially during University, reasserted itself. By the time I was in the kitchen, with a cup of tea brewing in front of me, my mind was fully engaged and firing on all cylinders.

Following my routine, I started browsing the internet and stumbled over a thread regarding my recent shenanigans. It took me a bit of time to come up with a suitable deception, misleading yet without a single lie, letting people jump to the conclusions I wanted them to take.

With a smile on my lips, I considered jumping back into the capsule right away but decided against it, instead putting on some clothes, a coat and went out for a short walk. The cold air of the night before had given way to a light coating of snow, bringing a smile to my face. It wasn’t Mundus and I wasn’t Morgana, the Witch of Darkness and Ice, but the snow gave the world a pristine stillness, especially once I got away from the buildings and into a nearby park. It allowed my mind to rest, to calm, to leave behind the conditioned reactions that allowed me to act like society expected me to. In the quiet park, with nothing but the crunching snow beneath my feet, I could be myself. Closing my eyes, I could almost smell the pine-trees of the northern forests of Mundus, could almost feel the Astral River flowing around me. It was a phantom sensation, but so familiar.

Opening my eyes, I was reminded that I was still Samantha, not Morgana. Shaking my head, I cleared the cobwebs from my mind, continuing to walk while bringing back the mindset I had cultivated. The shackles that bound me.

Mundus was truly a wonderful escape.