Morgan screamed. It was a wordless animalistic scream, a scream that was loud enough to echo in the room and forced both Mary-Ann and Hypocra to clap their hands over their ears.

The two forces exploded out from Morgan’s heart into his body like a burst dam and was accompanied by a truly mind searing pain. Even Morgan, who had lived with pain for as long as he could remember, had his entire consciousness overwritten by the indescribable pain. Morgan’s body convulsed on the slate his limbs contorting and his head shook as he screamed.

Yet Morgan noticed none of it, all he could see, hear or sense was pain, as if all of his sense had been replaced with but one PAIN. Morgan echoing scream, the burning sensation of mana being poured into him from the slate, the soothing cold of the Blizzard Tear none of these reached him. None of it even registered to him as a blip in his universe that was but filled with pain.

“What’s happening?!” Mary-Ann shouted terrified by the almost inhuman scream. “We have to help!” She stood not thinking about anything except that she had to somehow help Morgan.

“There is nothing we can do but pray!” Hypocra shouted in her ear to be heard over the defending scream as he restrained Mary-Ann.

“But we must help!” Mary-Ann insisted as she feebly struggled in Hypocra’s arms.

She did not hear what Hypocra said next as Morgan convulsed once more and the scream grew in pitch forcing Mary-Ann to clap her hands over her ears once more. Morgan’s spasms made it look like his twisted limbs were struggling with some invisible restraints.

“MORGAN!” Aspartos’s shout cut through both the scream and the pain like a knife. “RELAX! You must not fight it!” He moved one of his hands from the slate to Morgan’s chest and bright white light shone around his hand.

Aspartos pressed Morgan’s convulsing chest back onto the slate and after a few moments that could have been hours for all the spectators the convulsions slowly lessened.

Morgan felt as if his body was being ripped apart from the inside, as if every organ, every bone and tendon was being torn to shreds. Still he had somehow heard the voice through the pain that robbed him of all senses and he tried his best to relax. As he did it felt like he was being burned alive from the inside and for just the briefest of moments felt like giving himself to that almost sweet sensation.

In the next moment he was on that beach again. Smooth black sand beneath him and countless stars above him. He gasped clutching his chest. He still felt the pain but it was a distant thing here. Sitting up he heard a voice that sounded like the grinding of metal.

“I told you so.” The voice spoke in a slow drawl.

Looking towards the voice Morgan saw a being that towered over him like a giant. It had long thick arms that reached the ground as it sat half crouched looking at Morgan.

“Tsk.” Arian clicked their tongue as they stood next to the giant being. “You just got lucky, don’t get too full of yourself barbarian.” Arian snorted.

The being laughed massive bare chest heaving and the vaguely apelike face contorting into a vicious grin. The being clapped his chest revealing the dark fur that grew from his back to the back of his arms and up his neck to join his shaggy hair. The rather massive black eyes stared intently at Morgan and he found it hard to breath.

“You know who I am boy?” The apelike giant grinned.

Morgan nodded he did indeed know who this was. This was Kas’Vahek the enduring, the god of war. Morgan was almost startled by how similar he looked to the church's depiction of the half giant. Only the absence of the countless weapons that he was said to wield could have caused any doubt.

“Good, good.” He smiled widely revealing jagged teeth. “You are on the verge of death, boy.” He sounded almost amused as he said this. “Thus I have come to this god-awful place to offer you a boon.”

“Hey, are you trying to make me angry barbarian?” Arian said in a growl yet this only caused Kas’Vahek to laugh. “I am more than able to aid you myself Morgan, would you not prefer that? Surely you must see that I am far superior to that oversized monkey over there.” Arian added looking at Morgan with a self-assured smile.

“Why are you trying to interfere you fossil, have you gone senile in your old age and become unable to see that I am the better choice?”

“Ha!” Arian scoffed. “Like you would ever be a good choice barbarian.” The two glared at one another.

Morgan took the opportunity to breathe when the pressure was off him. But as he did the pain pulsed and seemed to grow closer and trembling he clutched at his chest. His arms began shacking as the distant pain gradually came closer. The two gods turned back to him as this happened and the first to speak was Kas’Vahek.

“It seems we are running out of time.” He frowned at Morgan who looked back at him with a pained expression.

There was a moment of silence as the two looked at one another, Morgan felt as if time stood still as he looked into those bottomless dark eyes. Suddenly Kas’Vahek smiled broadly.

“I have made up my mind.” He reached toward Morgan with his massive scarred hand.

“What are you up to now barbarian?” Arian said suspiciously.

“I am just going to grant him my boon, that way he will in time be able to choose for himself whose side to take.” He glanced at Arian and grinned

“Such madness.” Arian shook her head and snorted in disgust. “I should have expected nothing less of a barbarian.” Arian snorted.

Kas’Vahek laughed and stretched out a finger to touch Morgan’s forehead.

“Morgan Kiath, I grant you my boon. May it protect you and guide you to my side in the future.” He spoke in a far deeper voice that felt like it reverberated in Morgan’s every bone.

“Showing your true nature at last barbarian.” Arian said in a growl.

Kas’Vahek just laughed and Morgan felt something enter his body and with a flash of heat it seared itself into his very being. Before he could open his mouth to ask what had happened the world around him crumbled and he was once again assaulted with pain.

This time however he could clearly hear Aspartos’s voice and feel the heat of the slate beneath him. He could even hear the echoing scream and after a moment he realized that it was he who screamed.

With great effort he forced his mouth shut and muffled the scream. As Aspartos told him he did his best to relax and his body, this eased the convulsions and left him shaking. In the next moment he felt the searing pain starting to flow out of his skin.

“We need to close the vessel.” Aspartos said in a voice that was just loud enough to be heard over the muffled screams.

In the next moment Morgan felt something flow into him from Aspartos’s hand and a different kind of pain that was oddly soothing came with it. Morgan convulsed.

“Bear with it, your body is unable to form the boundary of the vessel itself so I must do so myself by force.”

Morgan could feel the pain ebbing and flowing out of him but Aspartos just poured more of into him. Morgan shook violently and light flashed before his eyes. His throat was so torn that blood leaked from his mouth and he was no longer able to scream.

“MORGAN! MORGAN!” In the silence his painfully burning and ringing ears could barely pick up Mary-Ann’s shouts.

He gritted his teeth hard enough that he was sure that he would chip some of them. He did not know how long it all lasted but at some point his body had become still as the mana that flowed into him from Aspartos slowly began coalescing in his skin. Soon the pain mercifully began fading.

When Aspartos removed his hand from Morgan’s chest the tiny thread of awareness Morgan had been holding on to snapped and he fell into blissful unconsciousness. The light from the magic circle faded plunging the room into absolute darkness.

“Light” Aspartos voice sounded tired and he wiped away the thick beads of sweat from his face.

A ball of light blinked into existence bathing the room in warm yellow light. Hypocra released Mary-Ann who ran over to Morgan, a beat later he slowly followed her. Hypocra gingerly ran his fingers under his ear and frowned when they came away bloody. He walked up behind Mary-Ann who had stopped and was dead still a few paces away from Morgan. As he reached her side he too stopped as he looked down on Morgan in surprise.

Morgan was as pale as a ghost and he was gaunt like he had been starved. They could clearly see the veins in his arms and hands and his chest rose and lowered roughly with every shallow breath. Even his hair which had once been brown and slightly curly had changed. Laying in a tangled mess around him it was now straight free of the previous gentle curls and were the same white colour that belonged to the elderly.

“I-is… is he alright?” Mary-Ann choked back tears fearing the worst.

“What do you think Grandmaster?” Aspartos said before frowning at Hypocra.

Hypocra still had blood running down from his ears as he observed Morgan. Aspartos walked over to the Grandmaster’s side and Mary-Ann gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth as she saw the blood running down the sides of Hypocra’s face.

Aspartos placed a hand on Hypocra’s head and the Grandmaster started before shrugging. In the next instant a green light enveloped Hypocra’s head and Aspartos spoke words that Mary-Ann did not understand. When the light faded Aspartos pulled his hand back.

“Sorry bout that.” Aspartos gave Hypocra a troubled smile.

“Don’t worry about it.” Hypocra said with a shrug as he cracked his jaw and rubbed his ears. “Boy sure can scream.” He said and laughed.

“Indeed.” Aspartos added and cackled. “Would you mind taking a look at him?” He added in a more serious note.

“Sure.” He moved forwards and placed a hand on Morgan’s head.

There were a few moments of silence where Hypocra mumbled to himself as he with eyes closed and head lowered he fully examined Morgan with his magic.

“Is he going to be alright?” Mary-Ann asked worriedly as she looked at her friend that suddenly looked not only malnourished but deathly sick.

“We will soon know.” Aspartos leaned in closer to Mary-Ann. “Hypocra is really good at what he does you see, even better than I.” Aspartos gave Mary-Ann a conspiratorial look. “But keep that between us, young’uns tend to get a big head if tell them such a thing.”

“Young’uns?” Mary-Ann said looking at the grey-haired Grandmaster.

Aspartos cackled as Mary-Ann looked at him doubtfully and ruffled her curly hair. Mary-Ann gave Aspartos a sour look but did not move away. As Aspartos raised his hand having had his fill Hypocra took a deep breath and took a step back and turned to Aspartos.

“I’m not sure where to start.” Hypocra thought for a moment.

“Will he live?” Aspartos said unhelpfully.

“I can’t be sure, but…” He gave Aspartos a rather meaningful look.

“Yes, he is a rather greedy boy isn’t he?” Aspartos said with a cackle. “That amount of mana is enough to send even the greatest of mages reeling.” Both Aspartos and Hypocra knew this to be a rather massive understatement so they chuckled.

“Well.” Hypocra spoke in a serious voice. “His body is spent, it is recovering but it is still a close thing.” He shook his head. “I am surprised that he is not withered to a corpse from the amount of energy he has spent.” He Looked over at Morgan. “He must be rather lucky.”

“That was not luck.” Aspartos said confidently and when Hypocra raised an eyebrow at him he grinned. “I had him drink alchemist’s secret every day for over a month.” He laughed confidently and made Hypocra grimace.

“That forest vomit?” Mary-Ann said surprised.

“The what?” Aspartos blinked at Mary-Ann.

“Um, that green concoction that Morgan got from the, um…” She hesitated for a moment. “From the large man, Morgan called it ‘forest vomit’.” She blushed slightly until she saw Morgan in the corner of her eye and pale once more.

“Haha, yes that is a far more apt name than alchemist’s secret.” Hypocra laughed. “That would explain how he managed to store enough energy in his body to survive. That concoction has rather long lasting effects.” He looked over at Morgan and smiled a bit sadly. “He must be very tenacious, I feel sick for the entire day after I have been forced to drink that crap.”

“Well it still got closer than I would have liked.” Aspartos frowned with a shake of his head. “I had planned on waiting until midwinter but well, what is done is done. What more did you find out?”

“Humm, well at the very least the disease is gone. Probably completely burned away by all that mana.” He said as he looked at Aspartos. “His mana is also trying to repair his body but since he is utterly spent it should take some time before we can see any result of that.”

“Oh, would it help if I gave him more mana?” Aspartos sounded doubtful.

“No, no that would probably kill him.” Hypocra said with a snort. “As I said his body is spent, there is no magic that miraculously restores the body to a healthy state. All magic can do is boost, improve and guide the body’s natural ability to heal itself, so if we forcefully try to heal him now his body would quite literally fall apart.”

“Figures.” Aspartos clicked his tongue. “Well as long as he survives now we can almost consider it a perfect result.” He nodded and smiled as he walked over and removed the few strands of hair that lay tangled over Morgan’s face.

“Why is it only ‘almost a perfect result’?” Mary-Ann asked astutely. “It doesn’t sound like it is only because the state he's in is it?” She looked over from Morgan to Aspartos.

“Well…” Aspartos sounded a bit disappointed. “Since he failed to establish the vessel himself I sort of had to stop his mana from escaping by force.” He scratched the back of his head. “Since I had to use my own mana to do so his vessel is quite a lot stronger than if he had made it himself.” Aspartos laughed awkwardly and looked off into the distance.

“Is that not a good thing?” Mary-Ann said confused.

“He will not be able to cast spells, will he?” Hypocra’s voice was regretful.

“What?” Mary-Ann looked from Hypocra to Aspartos.

“Well, no. Not until he is able to get good enough control of his mana to take perfect control over his vessel. Or until he is strong enough to force his way through…” He laughed a bit nervously.

“Does that not mean that he won’t be able to use mana?!” Mary-Ann said dazed.

“Not at all!” Aspartos said confidently. “It will just mean that for a time he will only be able to use mana internally. It might be a bit harder and slightly more dangerous but there are plenty of advantages in doing so.” Aspartos took a deep breath and was about to go into lecture mode when Hypocra stopped him.

“That can come later. I would like to move Morgan to the healer’s wing where we can keep an eye on him until he stabilizes.” Hypocra pressed two fingers against Morgan’s throat. “We also need to feed him so that he doesn’t just wither away.”

“Yes, we should do that. I would hate to have all this effort wasted.” Aspartos nodded and looked confused when the two gave him harsh looks.