“We could, but why should we explain our actions to you?” I sulked, leaning back into Sigmir’s embrace. “We saved you and now you are questioning the methods we employed and how we acted in saving you?” I paused for a moment, shaking my head before looking out into the mists I still maintained around the clearing and loudly sighing, “Humans…”

“You were a little theatric with them, you’ve got to admit that,” Adra remarked, moving out of the darkness as well, Rai at her side. I could see that Rai was both a little embarrassed at the act I had performed but also rather amused.

“So what?” I asked, not admitting any wrongdoing. “Why shouldn’t they repay my efforts by providing a bit of amusement to me? Are their lives so cheap that they aren’t even worth that much?” I paused, letting my gaze pass over the four humans, a vicious grin on my face. As I studied them, the eyes that were looking back at me started to become visibly worried.

“In that case, I don’t mind taking their lives as repayment. I’m certain I could get some worth out of their bodies and if not from their bodies, them from their minds and souls,” I mused, trying to estimate just how much power I would be able to harvest if I deliberately kept those three alive and slowly drained them. Maybe the dryads of Tegi did have the right idea, using worthless mortals as fuel for their ward. The biggest problem would be transporting my human resources unless I somehow managed to figure out a way to permanently enslave a mind. My one, and only, experiment in that direction had ended with such abysmal failure that I hadn’t tried again. Maybe I should.

“No, no, no, we are grateful,” Isabel quickly assured me, while the previous look of anger on Daniel’s face had morphed into fear. Somehow, that only served to widen the smile on my face.

“Yes, thank you very much,” Daniel joined in, though his words of gratitude came with a pungent wind of fear. Still shielded behind him, Jenn nodded along, though the expression on her face remained a little… odd.

Before I could decide what to do next, Olivia rose from the kneeling position she had taken when healing their spellcaster.

“He should be fine, soon, though he lost a lot of blood,” she reported, looking over to me, “Would you?” she asked, clearly asking that I helped him replenish his reserves. For that task, her Divine Magic was far less suitable than my Blood Magic.

After considering for a moment, I rose from Sigmir’s arms, calling a tendril of mist from outside the clearing. Mere theatrics, but I had decided on a role and I wanted to play it as much as possible. The looks of awe and fear on the faces of those three humans tickled something deep within me, making me feel a weird satisfaction.

Stopping next to the fallen spellcaster, I let more mist float in, making an act of weaving it together in the air above his body, part of it drifting down, towards his eyes, nose, mouth and the wound in his torso. At the same time, I stretched my senses as far as possible, to use Blood Magic without actively touching the body I was working on. Without a connection to the blood, using that sort of magic was incredibly difficult but the connection I kept with the Astral Power still bound up in the mist allowed me to stretch that link. It wasn’t powerful, greatly limiting the amount of power I could channel into the body at once, but it was good enough.

Hidden in the mist around my hands, I put together a formation of Blood Runes, the deep, crimson glow lending a macabre atmosphere to the whole thing, making it look like I was weaving together a large cloud of dark blood, the glow slowly seeping down and into the body at my feet.

From the sounds I could hear behind me, the three companions of the guy I was helping weren’t quite certain what was going on, but under the suppression of my teammates, they could only watch.

With more and more power, and moisture, seeping into the body, I realised that he was about to wake up. Letting my control of the mist fade, it started to seep downwards, some of it melting away, some of it seemingly flowing into the body. Keeping a close eye on the body, I managed to step back, just before he rose into a sitting position, letting out a loud, almost desperate-sounding gasp.

“He should be better now,” I announced, casually turning around and walking back to Sigmir.

“Now, where were we? I believe you wanted to thank me for the help I provided you?” I prodded, sitting back on Sigmir’s lap.

“Maybe they should give us information,” Sigmir suggested in a rumbling voice, speaking for the first time in the whole encounter, “They called themselves rebels, but never went into details.”

“Mhm, yes, information would be something good. I’m curious about your view on the nobility and governance of Aletoma, I’m sure you’d have fascinating insights,” I mused, my voice a little mocking. Though there was some merit to Sigmir’s suggestion, if the official faction didn’t have the sort of quests and content I wanted, looking elsewhere was a perfectly valid track to take. If these people could introduce me to a different quest-faction, it wouldn’t be a loss. We didn’t have a lot of time to play around on Aletoma, not if I wanted to complete the quest regarding the Soul Prison, but a couple of days could be spared.

Creating a line of benches with a wave of my hand, I gestured for them to sit. The benches just happened to be smaller than the seat I had created for me, and with Sigmir sitting below me, it meant I was easily looking down on them, despite my diminutive size.

After they sat down, Daniel started to give us information, while Isabel took care of their companion, quietly explaining the situation to him. While my eyes remained fixated on Daniel, I made sure to keep an ear on their conversation, as it revealed somewhat more interesting information.

Daniel mostly spoke of the oppression from the nobles, famine, high taxes and the need to survive, even if one had to break the law. While I couldn’t truly emphasise, having grown up well in a first-world country, I could understand to a degree. If you had to choose between breaking the law and watching your loved ones slowly starve to death, taking risks and breaking the law seemed to be a natural reaction.

On the other hand, the conversation between Isabel and the spell-caster, whose name turned out to be Nick, was focused on them and the task they had before. The three fighters had been escorting Nick on his way back to their camp, making sure that a precious spell-caster didn’t get hurt after he had done some sort of mission.

“What should we do with them, Olivia?” I asked, once their tale was finished, “You worship Freedom, but aren’t these people very much in need of that? At least to my ears, it sounds as if they are being oppressed, yearning to breathe free.” I prodded, curious how my companion would react. There had always been that dichotomy, she was preaching about liberty but how could one be truly free, if there was always the divine above you?

How could Freedom and Submission co-exist?

As I waited for her to respond, I began to wonder. Would I have to break the law, not just the laws of Mundus, but those of the world outside, in order to stay with Sigmir? And if so, would I be willing to take that risk?

Looking into myself, I realised that I was asking the wrong question. It wasn’t so much a question of if I was willing to break the law, but a question of whether or not breaking the law would bring me closer to her.

If I failed, I would get into trouble and I highly doubted they would allow conjugal, virtual visits if I got myself locked up. On the other hand, if I didn’t take the risk and failed to find a way to keep Sigmir with me if I returned to Mundus, wouldn’t there be hope to find her again?

If not her current persona, wouldn’t her essence, that which made her who she was, remain, waiting for me to find her and make new memories?

Before I could find an answer to that odd question, Olivia spoke up.

“We should help them,” she announced, the strength and conviction in her voice surprising me a little, “If nothing else, lending them some indirect support, but I believe we should actively support them.”