My muscles still sore and tired from the training Mrs. Wu had put me through, I slipped back into the capsule, letting out a sigh of relief at the relaxation. If nothing else, the soft, cushiony memory-foam inlay of the capsule was incredibly comfortable, good enough to be marketed even without the electric parts, as some sort of futuristic bed. Possibly with a side-market for vampires.

Chuckling to myself, I closed my eyes, my mind going through the latest movement-sequence Mrs. Wu had shown me. It was a strike to sever the spine at a certain point, low enough to paralyse to render an enemy completely helpless but not so low that they would die quickly, in order to allow for interrogation. Quite vicious, especially considering that she had explained how one could dangle the false hope of getting treatment for the paralysis as a carrot before their eyes, in order to motivate the disclosure of information, but from what I had read in the book she had given me, such tactics actually worked, especially compared to torture. The trick seemed to be to turn working with you into their best interest, where their future welfare and success was directly linked to your interests. Merely avoiding pain just didn’t work, you would only learn what they thought you wanted to know, in order to make the pain stop. Psychology was such an interesting subject.

Luckily, sore muscles didn’t transfer over to Mundus, even if some of my mental fatigue remained, telling me that I’d need to sleep at some point in the near future. For once, I was unable to easily perceive the surroundings of my Hallow and it took me a moment to realise what was going on. Normally, the majority of information I received came from Lenore’s senses and was filtered through her mind. But what if Lenore’s mind didn’t provide information, her senses in a passive, dormant state? While her sleeping mind was somewhat vigilant, the difference in sensation was quite stark.

For a moment, I considered waking her up but quickly decided against it, mainly because I wasn’t willing to risk her retaliation for such a vile deed. Knowing her, she would come up with something so nefarious that I didn’t even want to consider it and there was little I could do to stop her retribution. By now, the connection between us had turned incredibly deep, allowing us to share vast amounts of information and detailed memories, but it could also be turned against the other. Though, at least according to my understanding, the connection had only developed in such a way because Lenore and I were compatible minds, with a similar mental make-up. Whatever that meant.

Floating in the darkness of my Hallow, I let my mind drift, back to the realisation I had a few days before. For a while, I had wondered how Darkness could ever be brought to the extreme, how there could be Darkness without Light, and conversely, how could there be Light without Darkness?

The answer I had realised, if true or false, was that true Darkness, or whatever one wanted to call the pinnacle of the path of extreme Darkness, was not the absence of Light, it was emptiness. Out in the night, in the depths of space, there was a nigh infinite amount of Light, shed from countless stars radiating out, into the void. But without matter, without something to reflect that Light to the observer, the Light didn’t matter, leaving only Darkness.

The Void, a perfect nothingness, that was the pinnacle of Darkness.

But what to do with that realisation?

How could I turn the concept, the idea, that the ultimate embodiment of Darkness was Emptiness into somethin, for lack of a better word, tangible? How could I incorporate it into my magic? So many questions, so little time. But it was a question I wanted answered,

Alas, before I could find an answer to that question, sleep overtook me, the empty darkness of my Hallow acting as a blanket, a cocoon, allowing me to rest in ultimate comfort.

Lenore and I woke from the same stimulation, the sun rising across the horizon, its warm rays setting the world alight. There were no words between our sleep-addled minds, awareness slowly returning, bringing with it separation between our minds. There were a few moments during which I wanted to spread my wings, flapping them a little to check their preening, before my conscious mind caught up with the foreign instincts I had mentally ingested from Lenore. Similarly, I was a little amused as Lenore tried to cover her beak with one of her wings, in a gesture that could only be the covering of a yawn.

Pushing outwards, I moved out of my Hallow, greeting Sigmir, who had been on watch, with a gentle wave of my hand. The others were still asleep and I didn’t want to needlessly wake them, not before it was time to get ready to set out.

Carefully picking my steps, to avoid making noise, I moved next to her, nuzzling her cheek while giving her a hug. There was no need for words, simple, physical affection allowing us to convey more than saying a hundred words ever would.

Settling down on her lap, I considered going back to sleep, at least for a bit, but decided against it. Instead, I simply snuggled against her chest, listening to the steady beat of her heart.

Sadly, such tranquility couldn’t last forever. In this case, it was ended by the noises the others made, as they were waking up. With them on the move, I decided that staying within Sigmir’s arms would be impolite, instead, I began to move as well and started breakfast.

Luckily, the others had managed to get some shopping done, back in Neamov, giving us a nice supply of preserved foodstuffs that could be used together with a couple of rabbits someone had brought down the day before. Looking at the carcasses, I was quite sure that someone had been Ylva, unless Rai had decided to forgo his blades and hunt with his mouth, the mental image bringing a grin to my face.

Soon, breakfast was ready and the others had done their own morning preparations, settling down nearby.

“Olivia, you raised an interesting question yesterday, about the path going forward. While I have my own thoughts on the matter, I would like to hear all of yours.” I spoke up, changing the topic from the simple breakfast-conversation, looking at each of my companions in turn.

It was a little amusing to instantly get three careless shrugs in response, with Adra, Rai and Sigmir signaling that they didn’t care. But then, the whole journey had worked that way.

Adra had set out from her home, now located to our South-East with a plan to see the world, without a set destination. As long as there was something new to be seen or some unknown to be uncovered, she was happy to go along. All the better if she was able to gain even more power on the way. But the gain of power was not the main part, of that I was quite certain.

Sigmir and Rai were even simpler, in many ways. Rai had joined up with us because he had lacked a choice and getting trained by me helped to alleviate the powerlessness. He had gained a great deal of power, to the point that he’d likely be able to return home and be fine, but there was his Oath to me and his involvement with Adra that kept him with us. In addition, I had a feeling that he enjoyed the adventure in and of itself, similar to Adra. Maybe that had helped connect the two of them.

Sigmir on the other hand was a little sad, in some ways. Originally, we had joined because she was hunted and I had helped her. Despite her impressive physical size and prowess, she was rather young and without anyone to rely on, she had grabbed onto me. While we had dealt with those hunting her, and in the process took revenge for her father, that hadn’t created a place for her to return to. Nor did she ever indicate she wanted to, something I was grateful for, as I needed her and the connection between us at least as much as she did. Just the idea of losing the connection caused a great deal of discomfort, to the point that I preferred to keep it as far from my mind as possible, instead focusing on the idea that exemplary performance in the Beta would allow me to avoid it.

Lastly, Olivia. She had joined us only recently, which left her motivation for coming along in the dark. While she certainly was useful, for her knowledge and her impressive support-abilities in combat, I didn’t fully trust her, even my current trust in her conditional on the oath she had sworn in the name of her Goddess.

“As I’ve told you before, I’ve been wandering these lands for a while but it might be time for a change of scenery. Making the crossing once more and wandering around Arbotoma or Aletoma sounds like a great plan. But for me, the Journey is what’s important, the time spent on the road a devotion to my Goddess.” Olivia told me, a carefree smile on her face.

Accepting Olivia’s statement with a nod, I decided to simply run with it for now and keep an eye on her, just in case there was more to her motivations.

“So, you are fine with tagging along. What can you tell me about the respective routes we could take, if the destination of our journey is Arbotoma?” I asked, hoping that her knowledge might make up for the lack of maps.