The temperature in the room crashed as our group registered Raverly. While I wanted to be the one to take his head off, Stefanie got to him first, screaming, “Why did you kill me?”

“What the hell?” Raverly scoffed, backing away from the ghost that had materialized in front of him. “Guards, get that thing away from me!”

Two Wraiths appeared behind him, creeping from the shadows and towering over Stefanie. Before any of us could speak, the dark corners of the room erupted to life as Shades emerged from everywhere. The one that usually spoke announced, “Leave the false shadows to us. They are nothing but puppets playing at being dark.”

Then, in an overwhelming flash of darkness that reminded me of a catfight, the Shades overwhelmed the Wraiths and pulled them back into the shadows.

Everyone stood frozen in silence, Raverly looking around frantically for his guards. Then Stefanie smacked him. The contact was solid which was not something I thought she was capable of.

The voice of Elysiana echoed in my head letting me know that the gods could see everything I could while they occupied their respective tattoos. The bond between two people who share trauma can occasionally be more significant than love.

I looked over at Kalli.

Not in our case!

Kalli screeched at me. Focus, Melvin!

I looked up just in time to see Raverly draw a sword and try to stab the ghost. Before I had a chance to react, mechanical arms whizzed past me and clamped down on all four of Raverly’s limbs. Then next thing he knew, he was pinned to the ground by an automaton that I’d never seen before.

“Get off me!” He screamed as he struggled weakly. “I am here on behalf of the Archmage. If you don’t let me go, you’ll be sorry. She will be sure of it.”

King Thomas stood abruptly. “Unhand that young man. He is a diplomat for the high house.”

Joe and I exchanged a glance as he commanded the automaton to let the boy up. Raverly made a show of dusting himself off and sat at the head of the table.

Stefanie struck him again, screaming in his face. “I trusted you. How could you sick that…thing on me?”

Raverly reached for his sword but it was gone, confiscated by the automaton in the scuffle. “I didn’t kill you. The Wraith did. You were just in the way. Sorry about that. Speaking of which, I demand you release my guards at once.”

King Dabia gave Raverly a weary look. “Who are you talking to? Are you alright?”

“I’m talking to Stefanie’s ghost,” Raverly replied, pointing at Stefanie. “She thinks I killed her but it’s all been a big misunderstanding. You see, I was just trying to kill Melvin here.”

The Kings stared at Raverly like he’d seen a ghost. He had, of course, but Thomas didn’t seem to believe it. When Raverly caught on, he reached up to grab Stefanie, who deftly backed away. “Are you telling me you can’t see her? She’s right here!”

I could see the pity in King Thomas’s eyes as he looked where Raverly was pointing. He cleared his throat and said, “Perhaps we should with the matter at hand. For what purpose has Lady Mardella sent you? Does she not intend to make an appearance herself? It was her, after all, that requested the contract.”

Raverly glared at Stefanie who was rolling up her sleeve to hit him again and replied. “Yes, let’s continue. I am here today as her proxy. Additionally, once Melvin here is forced to consummate his contract, I bear a proposal from the High Lady. An alliance between the house of Celestea and the High House of Lobo. We can secure lasting peace through blood. All I need is your approval, Queen Celestea.”

“Preposterous.” King Thomas barked. “Lady Mardella has no son. Her only heir is her daughter who is already…”

“I am her heir.” Raverly interrupted with a smug look on his face. “I have a proposal here for my engagement to Kalliphae Celstea. She is to marry me immediately since she has come of age.”

All eyes were drawn to a sealed document that Raverly slid across the table to Queen Celestea. She looked at Kalli with a manic look in her eyes. “We cannot turn down an invitation from a High House. At least you will live your life in luxury.”

“Like hell she will!” I shouted, moving between Kalli and Raverly. “I will die before I let that happen.”

In my state of excitement, mana began to seep out of me. I could feel Kalli tense up behind me and Raverly smirked as though he had already won.

Behind me, Celestea tried to reason with me. “Melvin, you need to calm down or step outside.”

Something felt strange. Unlike Kalli where her mana coated her body in a thin layer of flames when she lost control, mine seemed to be going somewhere as if through a funnel.

I looked down at my hand to see the most peculiar sight. The ring was sipping hungrily at the mana, sucking it off of my body as soon as it could escape. The effect drew more and more until I was subconsciously feeding the relic.

Then the ring spoke, causing me to jump.

Do you want some advice?

I looked back at Kalli who had bristled as well.

Did you hear that?

She nodded silently. Yes, and I don’t like it.

The voice repeated itself.

Do you want help? I can give you the power to fight this.

Kalli shook her head, but I was at a loss. The last thing I wanted was war but I was prepared to let the world burn before giving Kalli up to Raverly. Not knowing how else to communicate, I spoke out loud. “Yes. Please help.”

Celestea stopped midsentence and asked, “Did you say something, Melvin?”

Only, I wasn’t listening to her.

Come into the ring. You know the way. Follow your mana.

Giving Kalli one last look, I probed the ring with my mana. This time, I went with it. The first thing I noticed upon entering that ring was that I was once again cut off from Kalli.

The next was that I was no longer just my mana. I had formed a body just like the one I had in my dreams and I walked through a long hall with doors on both sides. Each door had slits that allowed me to look inside.

The first room contained an old man with a long wispy beard. He sat in a yoga post with his eyes shut. He didn’t seem to notice me so I moved on to the next door.

The second room was occupied by a young woman in a brown jumpsuit with short brown hair done in a pixie cut. She winked at me but said nothing.

I continued down the hall, looking in all of the rooms. Most of them were occupied by a variety of people who ignored me. It wasn’t until I got to the end of the hall that I found out who had spoken.

A well-groomed man in a deep blue robe stood just inside the door with his hands clasped behind his back. “Greeting, child. I am grateful that you heard my call.”

“Who are you?” I asked, taking a step back from the door.

His red eyes felt like they were piercing my core as he replied. “That is irrelevant right now. You came for power. Power to make things right. Did you not?”

“What’s the catch?” I asked, remembering Lavender’s warning.

The man held up a hand. “There is no catch. Rather, I should say there is no catch yet. You will have to get used to dealing with me but I doubt that will be possible without first building some trust.”

Realizing I had probably stepped into a trap of some sort, I inspected the man through the door.

ERROR: NO SUCH PERSON EXISTS

I frowned. “Why can’t I inspect you?”

The man laughed. “That would be because I existed before the system was created. If you want to know my name, you need but just ask. I am Malric the Magnificent. No, I did not give myself that name. The people of my time bestowed it upon me because of my greatness. I used magic to help the people and they loved me for it.”

“What happened?” I asked. “There is always a second part to a story like that.”

“Oh, I’ll tell you what happened.” He shouted through the door. “An upstart betrayed me and sealed me in this, this ring. We don’t have time for pleasantries though. You are vulnerable while you’re in here. I need to tell you how your relics work. That will turn the tide in your current conflict. Do you have a quill?”

I laughed. “No, I don’t have a quill. I’ll remember what you say so just spit it out. I’m Melvin, by the way.”

Malric matched my laugh. “I know your name. We all know your name. We see the world through your eyes so long as you wear the ring. Forget about that though. You possess a few artifacts and have no clue how to use any of them. Would you like to know more?”

I moved a few steps closer to the door, curious about how the man knew about my relics. “Yes. I’d like to know. How do you know about them?”

He waved me off. “Irrelevant. Let’s start with your armor. It’s alive. The reason you can’t control it is that you are treating it as an object. Feed it mana and tell it what you want to do. The armor will communicate with you through the system. It was designed for that. As you’ve already seen, the only other way it works is when your life is in danger.”

“What is it called?” I asked, remembering the system labeled it as XXXX XXXX.

“Hah.” Malric laughed. “If I had to give it a name, I would call it the Dark Passenger.

“Oh, that doesn’t sound evil at all.” I chuckled sarcastically, wondering if it was a good idea to feed mana to such a dark artifact.

Malric stopped laughing. “Even though the artifact is living mana, it still obeys its master’s command. It is no more evil than you are. Send your will with your mana and the artifact will respond. Next is the band on your arm. It’s called Signet of the Bonded. The only reason it exists is because of the way you bonded yourself to that girl. I am still not sure it was wise of you to link your destiny with such a person.”

“You’re wrong about that!” I yelled at the door. “Kalli is perfect!”

“Child!” Malric scoffed. “You are young. You will fall in love dozens of times before your first century. Not only have you prolonged that girl’s life but you have also hitched your wagon to her for the foreseeable future. It may end up spelling the end of you.”

I turned to walk away. “I don’t care what you say. I’m not giving up Kalli.”

Malric sighed and continued. “That band on your arm channels the mana from Luna normally only available to The Queen. When you restored the castle, the right of magic was bestowed upon the two of you. You should be able to call on World Class magic by funneling the mana through the Signet. This is the true goal of that woman who calls herself the Archmage.”

“Do I know World Class Magic?” I asked in excitement, heading back toward Malric.

He laughed, shaking his head. “That is doubtful. Only a select few know the intricacies of World Magic. There were some manuscripts that still document such spells but I am sure they are all lost to time.”

“Okay,” I said, feeling frustrated that I couldn’t just drop a meteor on Raverly. “Is that everything?”

Malric laughed, shaking his head. “Nope. Not quite. I’ve saved the best for last. This lovely place that I call home is known as The Ring of Lost Souls. It’s basically as the name sounds, the souls of the awakened can get trapped in here. As the wearer, you have access to our combined mana as well as the ability to use the ring directly on anyone deserving and trap their core within this artifact.”

“Why do I have trouble examining artifacts?” I asked, looking down at the ring on my hand. “It has question marks where it should tell me the name.”

“There can be two reasons for that,” Malric explained. “Most artifacts existed before the system, so it might have trouble discerning what it’s seeing. The second would be that the creator of the system doesn’t want anyone to know what the artifact is called or what it does.”

I froze. The gods had mentioned the system too. “The system was created by a person? I thought it was just a thing that existed. Can you tell me who made it and when?”

Malric laughed and asked, “Do you have time to be asking all of these questions? Time isn’t standing still out there while you stand there staring blankly off into space. Very well, the system came to be several thousand years ago. While I am not going to tell you who created it, I will tell you that he did so to control the awakened and limit their power. There was one other reason but that is irrelevant.”

“But I…” I began.

“Enough,” Malric spoke in a firm tone, giving me the feeling that he had attempted words of power on me. “I am willing to tell you one final thing for free. To use the ring, press it against the person you wish to seal and pass your mana into the ring. It will do the rest. The next time we speak, there will be a price. Now go and conquer the world with your newfound knowledge.”

After that, I tried to ask him more questions but he turned his back on me and refused to answer. Withdrawing from the ring was as easy as pulling my mana back within myself.

“Are you ill?” I heard Celestea’s voice say as I regained my senses.