Aidan woke up from a mind-numbing, head-splitting pain. He felt like he was mercilessly pulled out from peaceful nothingness into the cold, raw reality of having a damaged body. Slowly, fragmented memories of being brutally tortured flooded his brain. He still couldn't remember most of it – the weird hallucination had shielded him from the horrible experience. And Aidan was grateful for this little mercy.

Not quite sure where he was, he tried to look around and immediately realized that he only had one working eye. On the other hand, even if both his eyes were perfectly fine, he would only be able to see the high ceiling. That didn't really tell him much.

After a while, Aidan noticed that the bed seemed soft, and he even had a nice pillow that actually supported his head instead of stabbing it. All signs indicated he wasn't at General Minn's "great" manor.

Aidan collected all his strength to turn his body, and inadvertently a painful moan escaped his lips. He didn't even manage to get embarrassed when a stuffy servant in the blue palace uniform walked into the room.

"General Minn, have you woken up?" the man asked as he approached Aidan.

Aidan only sighed in response.

"Very well, I will inform His Excellency at once! For now, please drink your medicine," the servant pointed to a bowl with murky liquid that stood on the table beside the bed... just out of Aidan's reach.

Aidan was about to point it out, but the man had already left.

The situation didn't seem too bad so far. The fact that Aidan was still alive and chilling in the palace meant that his message had reached its destination.

Soon the door opened again, and the Regent came inside. He looked much more ragged than the last time Aidan had seen him. The man had dark circles under his eyes, his hair was in an unusual state of disarray, and even his white cloak looked somewhat grayish.

"How are you feeling?" the Regent asked, slowly taking a seat on the side of Aidan's bed.

Aidan coughed for a while before he finally managed to push out an answer. "What do you think?"

He didn't want to imagine what he looked like right now. Judging from how it felt, most likely, he was going to be disabled for life. As Aidan thought about his experiences in the tunnel again, he remembered the poor children that were sold to the savages and were about to be killed and mutilated. He opened his mouth to ask the Regent about their fates, but the man had obviously read the panicked expression on his face and answered without even listening to the question:

"I got your tip about the tunnel. My people are already dealing with it."

It was clear to Aidan that the Regent wasn't keen on talking about the topic, but he pushed anyway. Aidan was now a cripple – it couldn't have been all for nothing?

The Regent sighed and continued: "We detained everyone who had their hand in the illegal honeypot, namely, all the court nobles and everyone from General Kear's very wide circle of friends. I'm still questioning General Kear to get all the details from him, and I've arranged for the tunnel to be thoroughly searched and then sealed."

"Sealed?" Aidan jerked up but immediately fell down due to the pain. "What about the fresh batch that they have captured? They might still be alive!"

The Regent furrowed his brow and shook his head. "I can't rescue anybody who is already in the savage territories. That would be considered an act of war or a blatant provocation. Now that they have Miri in their hands, I can't take risks like that."

"Then start the damn war!" Aidan was angry. "At this point, it's inevitable anyway. Then you can rescue everyone these brutes have kidnapped, including Lady Miri."

"Me and what army?" Suddenly the Regent snapped."There's almost no one left who's loyal to me and willing to fight for this cause. And with all of the nobility behind bars and General Kear exposed, the Empire is literally one step away from civil war. I can't fight on two fronts. The savages will have to wait."

Aidan had nothing to say to that, so he just quietly stared at the Regent. For some reason, that stare made the Regent visibly uncomfortable. He moved closer to the edge of the bed and looked down on the floor.

"I need your help, Aidan," he said quietly.

"Haven't I helped enough?" Aidan thought to himself but didn't say anything while the Regent continued. "You have to get better as soon as possible so that I stand at least a fighting chance."

"Well, I don't know about that. Maybe one day I'll be able to walk again," Aidan sneered. "By that time, I guess, the Sun will explode anyway, so all these problems will be meaningless anyway."

The Regent looked even more uncomfortable as he shifted his gaze all over the room.

"I haven't been entirely honest with you," he said finally. "Your condition is, for the most part, my fault."

Aidan frowned. "Nah, I'm pretty sure it was a big burly savage guy who poked, prodded and cut me. Besides..."

The Regent interrupted him by putting his hand over Aidan's mouth. "Let me finish. I should have told you long ago about General Minn's spiritual powers. At first, I admit, I didn't completely trust you, so I didn't say anything. And later... A lot of things happened, and it just slipped my mind."

The Regent finally took his hand away, but Aidan kept quiet. He was curious what was this big secret that made Jake feel so much guilt.

"There is a reason why Adnan Minn is an ascetic. This is his own special way to cultivate spiritual and physical powers. It's a very rudimentary approach - it's slow, and almost nobody can persevere on this path. But say what you want about Minn - his self-control is legendary."

"And here I thought he was just a weirdo," Aidan sneered.

The Regent ignored his remark. "Minn's regeneration powers are outstanding. He has reached a level at which he is basically impossible to kill. Believe me, I tried."

"Are you telling me I'm going to recover really quickly because of these special powers?" Aidan asked, suddenly hopeful. He remembered how quickly his back had healed after the lashing.

"That would be the case...if you had continued on that path," the Regent raised his eyebrows. "But you've been taking a lot of liberties with this body of yours. And judging from the damage you've sustained, you've possibly destroyed more than half of Minn's life's work."

"So I'm not going to recover," Aidan sighed. "How cruel of you to give me hope and then snatch it away."

The Regent gave him a long look. "You can still recover. If you return to Minn's path of cultivation."

"What does that even mean?"

"Mainly, that you can't drink anymore."

"..."

Aidan was not going to gratify this ludicrous suggestion with an answer.

The Regent rolled his eyes. "You will die if you continue drinking as you do. Do you understand?"

This couldn't get any worse.

"You also can't eat any more meat. Just leafy greens. Some rice. But very rarely and as little as possible."

"Are you shitting me?" Turns out, it could get worse. Aidan was about to cry.

"And you can't ignore your training anymore. You have to practice sword techniques and train your body."

Absolutely not. Aidan wanted to lie down and do nothing all day long. He had no energy – just lying in bed made him tired, okay?

Seeing Aidan's reluctant facial expression, the Regent said very softly. "Corus and his people need your strength. I need you. The people in this Empire who are just trying to live their lives peacefully need you... Please. Is drinking really that important? "

Aidan didn't know what to say. How could he explain to somebody who had no idea that alcohol was the only thing standing between him and total insanity? Was he ready to lose his sanity just to gain some kind of superpowers?

Or maybe he could keep the memories and the flood of emotions at bay just long enough to help Jake? And then he could go back to his old ways of dealing...

Suddenly Aidan felt somewhat nostalgic.

"What do you miss the most... you know, from our world?" he asked Jake, swallowing down the tears.

"My wife," the Regent answered in a heartbeat.

Aidan smiled. "Oh, of course. And I miss weed and techno. Seems shallow when I say it out loud."

The Regent didn't respond, as he seemed to be deep in his own thoughts and memories.

"How did you meet her?" Aidan asked, suddenly curious.

"It will sound stupid, but I ran into her while walking in the woods. She stood there in her long white dress, the sun shining right through her... Like some kind of forest nymph. For the longest time, I thought she wasn't real," Jake smiled.

"What did you do once you realized she was real?"

"I pursued her like a madman, of course. We were going to be the happiest couple in existence..." Jake's voice trailed off, and Aidan didn't pry anymore.

"By the way," the blonde man suddenly snapped out of it and picked up the medicine bowl from the table. "You have to drink this. It's made from the leaves that Corus gave you."

Aidan took a big gulp and immediately spat the liquid out. It tasted like rotten garbage. No, probably worse.

"Is Corus trying to poison me?"

"It's actually a very rare plant to help you regenerate without relying on your spiritual powers. Corus probably witnessed all your drinking and thought you might need this at some point. Smart guy," the Regent explained.

Aidan wrinkled his nose. "And how long will I have to drink this... poop?"

The Regent shrugged. "At least a couple of weeks. Depending on your recovery. I think, at least until your eyeball grows back."

Excuse me, what!!!???

Aidan was so done with all of this. When he was a child and still could dream, he had many aspirations, and funnily none of them was to be able to regrow eyeballs.

"Come on, be a good boy and open wide," the Regent pushed the bowl towards Aidan's lips again.

As Aidan struggled against the stream of nasty liquid, somebody barged into the room.

"Get away from him," Aidan heard a familiar cold voice, and it sent chills down his spine.