I had walked for what was probably a few hours and exhaustion wore down on me, while my emotions seemed to be all over the place. The pain in my head beat a steady and debilitating rhythm as I regretted not having strangled the imp when I had the chance, but Zackary was just misunderstood, if I had been more considerate we would not be at odds now. I rubbed my forehead, the complete lack of any respect from the imp grated, but quite probably I had not earned any, though the creature could at least behave! I closed my eyes to ward off a flash of pain that made spots dance before my eyes.

I stopped thinking and just focused on getting out of here and back to somewhere I recognized.

While where I walked was rather dry and solid, that soon gave way to swampland yet again just a short distance away from the mountain wall, for all my plodding along it appeared I still had quite a ways to go. I rubbed my temples once more, I really did need sleep soon and I hoped that would rid me of this headache.

After what might have been half an hour of walking, I spotted a break in the mountainside and I went to investigate, wishing for a shelter to rest in. I had not felt comfortable just laying down to sleep out in the open, though I had started to consider it more and more as time went on.

What I found was an opening at waist height leading into a cave that was about three meters across and two meters high. Finding a cave or crevice empty of inhabitants might normally just have been wishful thinking on my part, but since I had yet to see or hear any animals it did actually seem likely, and after a glance around inside I spotted nothing that lead me to think any creature inhabited this cave. I was starting to become tired enough that I had problems focusing my eyes. I lay down against the far wall to the left of the entrance, though I wanted to make an effort to be less conspicuous and thus lay down with my feet against the wall with the opening in it to shelter myself from any cursory look inside. I was not comfortable with having my head or feet just next to the entrance, and while I made myself a bit easier to spot by my chosen placement, I hoped it would still be difficult enough to see me in the dim cave.

I felt that having my pockets full of stones of Fire Burst was not a safe choice, and so stacked them up just between me and the wall before closing my eyes.

**

I woke with a start, immediately trying to figure out what had disturbed me, as my heart raced. My attention was drawn by a low moan and I kept myself as still and quiet as I possibly could, while I listened for any further noise. It seemed like a fog creature was nearby, or there was something else out there moaning. If it indeed was a fog creature and it somehow found me in here, I would have to fight as there was no way to escape the cave other than the single entrance. Fighting had not gone too well last time and I felt no need to repeat the experience especially without an option of escape.

I could hear the sounds the creature made moving outside, I could see part of the opening from where I lay, and soon the creature from about waist down came into view in the cave opening, while upright as it was it could not see inside to where I lay and my hope was that it would stay that way.

The fog creature actually seemed more solid in the afternoon light than it had been in the dark earlier. It leaned over and touched a roiling arm to something on the ground, whereupon it flashed with dark colors for a moment and then turned its featureless face in my direction and I fought down a shout of fright.

Letting out another low moan the fog creature glided through the passage and came at me as I scrambled backward. Fighting off panic I realized I had stupidly moved away from all my stones of Fire Burst, the fog-creature was gaining ground and I did not dare to move towards it only to gain weapons that had already proven ineffective.

I began to cast my first ever spell, holding back tears of frustration at the full two seconds it would take, a seeming eternity. I fumbled for only a heartbeat before my practice at enchanting helped steady my focus as the structure was familiar. Casting a spell was both similar to enchanting and very different, the construct of the spell lacked what I felt was the connection to its surroundings, and it felt frail, making me suspect that the reason for the time it took was that the structure could not handle a quick influx of Mana without collapsing.

Two seconds passed as the fog-creature closed in on me, it did not move very fast and the distance between us had been large enough with my scrambling to the back wall that I finished my spell in time. The creature was just close enough to reach me, as a shimmering red light flew out from my hands and exploded into fire as it came in contact with the fog-creature.

The thing's low moaning turned into a screech as flames washed over it. The screech, just like the moan had strange distortions making it seem to come from both nearby and very far away.

Now knowing that the spell worked, I shuffled along the back wall of the cave as I began to cast yet again, I was painfully interrupted though, as the fog-creature dove at me, a translucent claw raking down my chest.

The pain was distant and strange, making my head spin and my knees buckle. The structure of the spell I was casting fell apart as another claw swiped crosswise at me, sending me tumbling as bile rose in my throat.

I tried to control my rising fear as I mentally fumbled at how to use Fervent Casting and my tumble took an abrupt halt against the cave wall. As the fog-creature moved in and raised both hands above my prone form about to strike at me once more, I managed to understand what to do and used Fervent Casting.

I lost control over my hands as they formed strange shapes with my fingers and Mana flowed into the spell structure of Fire Burst in very different ways from when I had cast it earlier. The whole thing seemed to take several moments but the fog-creature did not move at all during that time, I saw a dark blue light form between me and the monster as everything faded away.

**

I woke slowly, bleary-eyed in the dark, feeling sore all over. The memories of what had happened came back to me quickly and I patted at my chest expecting bleeding wounds, but found not a scratch at me or my worn clothes, with some confusion I shifted my focus to the Order.

You have taken unknown damage! You have lost one Constitution!

You have taken Death damage! You have lost one Constitution!

You are suffering from Magic Strain.

Effect: -2 End, -3 Con, -3 Wis, -6 Will. Mana Regeneration stalled.

Duration: 22 hours, 12 minutes, 9s

You have been victorious! You have slain an enemy! You gain 0 Experience!

You have defeated an Unraveling Spirit, you have been awarded 400 Experience!

You have made discoveries!

You have discovered a new damage type!

You have discovered a foreign creature!

You have been awarded 1400 Experience!

Congratulations! You have advanced to level 5!

Congratulations! You have advanced to level 6!

You have unallocated Attributes! You may choose a new Trait or Ability!

I took all that in and closed my eyes again.

By the sound of it the two swipes I had taken reduced my Constitution permanently, there was nothing in the description of events that made it seem like a temporary thing.

Magic Strain might have some thing to do with Fervent Casting, or possibly be something caused by fighting the Unraveling Spirit. The idea of casting a spell now made me feel like throwing up, no doubt a part of the effect of Magic Strain and thus something that would last almost a whole day.

Then there were the mysteries, the fog-creature, or the Unraveling Spirit had not given any Experience, instead it had seemed as if I had been awarded that Experience after the fact by the Order, presumably. Why though? It seemed as if I had discovered both the damage type and the creature, but surely neither was new knowledge to the Order? If it was though, did that imply that my enchanting was new knowledge to the Order as well, the idea seemed ludicrous, which left the question; what did the Order mean by discoveries?

"Status."

Ewynne

Age: 18

Level: 6

Experience: 956/1000

Race: Half-blood

Class: Enchantress

Strength: 6

Dexterity: 14

Agility: 12

Constitution: 9 (-3)

Endurance: 8 (-2)

Intelligence: 20

Wisdom: 12 (-3)

Willpower: 15 (-6)

Perfection: 14

Charisma: 12

Health: 23/60

Mana: 220/380 (0/minute)

Stamina: 60/60 (12/minute)

Unallocated Attributes: 6

I felt some joy at the fact that I was close to level seven, along with surprise at the amount of experience it took. Getting from level four to five had only taken four hundred, I had never seen the experience needed to go from five to six, but it seemed to have been five hundred, and then it doubled that to reach level seven.

My Constitution had indeed gone down by two full points and then even further by the Magic Strain, as expected my Mana regeneration was nonexistent, my Health and Mana pools were lowered as well. It did not seem as if I had the ability to cast magic while under this effect as even the idea made me feel nauseous. I had some hope that the Unraveling Spirit I had killed had been the same one I saw earlier and that there was not a horde of them out there in the swamp, searching.

Trying to be optimistic and finish my leveling, I brought up the Traits and Abilities.

Hardened Heart

You have seen the suffering of others, and walked away from it.

Effect: +5 Willpower, -1 Perfection

Survival of the putrid

You have wallowed in filth and have become more resistant to disease.

Effect: Immunity to natural disease.

Blank Mind

Your mind has suffered trauma and you have learned strange things from your experiences.

Effect: -2 Willpower, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, +9 Perfection.

Discoverer

You have discovered things that makes the world a more interesting place.

Effect: +1% Experience from all sources.

I did not appreciate the Traits I had on offer. The first three felt as a testament to my failures and shortcomings, the idea of having them as a permanent reminder among my Traits was unsettling.

While in many ways Discoverer might be the most useful in the long term, it would take a long time for a single percentage to amount to anything. But it was better than taking Hardened Heart or Survival of the putrid, to my mind.

Having made a decision about that, I turned to my Attributes. It was decidedly uncomfortable to feel so close to death, and the lost Constitution made me more than a little uneasy. I decided to put three points into Constitution. The remaining three were really not a question though, I wanted to branch Willpower.

My new Attributes made an obvious difference in how I felt, even though it was not an overwhelming change it was enough to make a clear contrast between before and after. I was sad to note though, that the now ever present headache remained at a dull throb. It took some work to get to my feet and I stood on increasingly steady legs as I got a hold of myself.

The Unraveling Spirit had left a small mound of black flakes on the ground that looked a lot like glass, I considered taking them with me, but even moving closer to them made me feel weaker. I crouched to peer out of the cave into the night.

I was planning to set out again, along the mountainside until I reached something that could help me orient myself toward Logate, so far I had been fairly sure I had moved in a roughly straight line, but the moon was more hidden behind clouds this night, while it was not pitch darkness, it was by no means bright enough for me to say with any certainty that I could keep track of my direction.

Loud thumping footsteps from what was no doubt the undead abomination made me decide that sleeping here was not such a bad idea. At least the opening was too small for that monstrosity to enter, and with any luck its arms were too short to reach all the way in, I hoped. On that cheerful note I moved my pile of stones of Fire Burst to the back wall, away from both the strange flakes and the entrance, and lay down there to rest. I wondered if Zackary was cold out in the dark.