Night had fallen upon the town of Mazual. The town had gone dark as businesses closed up for the day and the people retreated to their homes. Mazual didn’t have a vibrant night life, most people were content with keeping to themselves and honing their crafts.

Ilon had returned to his own room after finishing his discussions with Quyon and Maymun. He had been slacking on training for the past couple of days due to all the occurrences happening, so he decided to use the free time he had to try and make some progress.

He had almost recovered to the control level he had pre-breakthrough, so his goal for the night was to get back to completing a fifth of the weave the Master had given him.

He worked tirelessly, making attempt after attempt, slowly climbing his way back to the point he was at before.

After several hours, Ilon was wracked with exhaustion to the point that he almost fainted when he got up. He wanted to just pass out on his bed, but decided that it was probably better to clean up first. Even though it was in the very early hours of the morning, Cudlin usually had employees all day and night keeping things in order.

Ilon left his room and headed downstairs to see if there were any employees that could fetch him some warm water.

“You’re still up?” A voice called out from behind the front desk before Ilon had even reached the bottom of the stairs. Ilon descended the last few stairs and looked over at Isoko who had called out to him.

“I decided to do some training.” Ilon responded as he took in her emerald green hair and ruby red eyes. She was one of the most gorgeous women he had seen, second only to the Master. He had to wonder how someone like Cudlin had managed to marry such a woman.

“You want some water for a bath, correct?” Isoko asked after seeing Ilon’s sweaty figure.

Ilon nodded his head at her. “I’d also like to have a conversation with you.” He had several questions that he wanted to ask her. She had directed him to finding Bi’wan in Bano’s Bathhouse, claiming that there was a helpful surprise there for him. Tain had managed to get the help of Bi’wan because of him reporting where Bi’wan was, so he owed that mostly to her.

“I’ll be available, take your bath first. I’ll go and get some water quickly.” Isoko said as she left through the room near the front desk. After a minute or so she came out with a shamanic tool that looked like a small barrel with a nozzle on it.

“A Shamanic tool? That should be pretty expensive.” Even Ilon couldn’t afford some of the high end Shamanic tools with the money the Master had left behind. Many ranged in the price range of dozens of gold coins to thousands, depending on what their purpose was.

“It was a gift from one of my friends.” Isoko said with her fake looking smile. “A handy tool that can absorb a lot of water and warm it up.”

“That actually sounds really nice.” Ilon thought of being able to have warm baths while travelling and decided that he had to acquire one, whatever the cost. “Where would I be able to get one?”

“You’d probably be able to get one in the Capital for a fortune, but we have an extra one that I can give to you.” Isoko looked a bit sad. Ilon was about to reject her, but she interrupted before he even got a chance. “You did save my husband and help my daughter.”

Ilon could only agree, his desire for a warm bath while travelling beating out his moral quandary. “Thanks.” He quietly said.

Isoko filled up his tub and left the shamanic tool near the tub. “I’ll leave this here. It’s yours now.” Isoko still had her stone cold smile on her face. She swiftly turned and left the room before he even got a chance to speak, leaving him alone to enjoy his time in the bath.

He greatly enjoyed the bath, but wasn’t fully able to relax as he spent most of the time thinking of what questions to ask Isoko and whether or not it was alright for him to take the shamanic tool.

Ilon quickly finished up and pulled the plug on the drain in the tub which had some rudimentary piping. He dried himself off and got changed, ready for the talk with Isoko.

Ilon hurried down the stairs and saw Isoko waiting at one of the tables in the restaurant portion of the inn with a cup of tea from what he could smell. Ilon wasn’t an avid drinker of tea, but he knew enough to know that tea prices were quite high currently. Even the low end teas costed around a silver for a single pot, but from the fact that Ilon could smell it from his current position indicated it was likely a very high end tea. It was something that a regular innkeeper certainly wouldn’t be able to afford, even if they were to sell their entire inn.

She certainly seems to have a lot of secrets. Ilon thought as he walked over and joined her at the table. Without saying a word, Isoko poured Ilon a cup and passed it over to him.

Ilon was hesitant to take it. She had already given him a shamanic tool that was worth dozens of gold coins and now she was giving him a high end tea that was probably worth a similar amount. If he took the tea he felt like he would be put in her debt, and he had a feeling that she would act on that debt.

“You don’t like tea?” Isoko seemed innocent when she was asking, but Ilon could tell that the only way he was getting answers to his questions was if he accepted the cup.

“I do, thank you. How did you get high end tea like this?” He countered while accepting the cup. The tea was the most fragrant he had ever smelled before and the taste was a blend of natural flavours that all complemented each other, making it the best tea he ever had.

Isoko sipped from her cup as her smile shifted into a more natural smile. “It was a gift.”

“I see. It seems you have some connections to high places.” Ilon offhandedly commented. He sipped his tea to hide his awkwardness, hoping that she didn’t take his comment as rude.

“I suppose so. Now, what did you wish to converse about?” Isoko seemed bothered about it, making Ilon let out a breath of relief.

“I wanted to ask you about how you knew about Bi’wan being in the bathhouse.” Ilon had been curious about this even since she had told him about the surprise waiting for him. He never would have gone if she hadn’t told him to go.

Her smile faded from her face as he asked, leaving only the stone cold mask. “Of course I would know.”

“What do you mean?” Ilon slowly asked. He couldn’t judge anything from her face or body language. It was like she was a living statue, moving and breathing, yet completely emotionless.

“Why else would he be there? He was a very smart man, why would a smart man go out to a bathhouse when he’s being looked for by both sides.” Isoko said nonchalantly.

“...” Ilon was speechless at the revelation. He looked back in his memory, trying to remember how Bi’wan had been when he first met him. He remembered that Bi’wan seemed off when he first saw him. He was in a daze with unfocused eyes as well as having quick and shallow breaths.

After getting his attention and talking to him a bit, he seemed to snap out of his daze and seemed like he was normal. Ilon had figured that it was because Bi’wan was probably tired and stressed back then, he didn’t think it was because of the girl in front of him, Cudlin’s wife.

“What else do you wish to know?” Isoko asked the shocked Ilon. He took a moment to try and compose himself, realizing that there was another player in the grand game of politics.

“Why?” Ilon was only able to ask this one question in his semi-shocked state.

“Because I wanted to mess with him.” A cold smile appeared on Isoko’s face. Ilon had no clue who she was referring to though.

Bi’wan? The person with violet eyes? The other figure that was with them? Or someone else entirely different. Many possibilities flashed through his head, but he figured it was better to just ask then to dwell on it.

Ilon lightly cleared his throat before asking. “Who were you messing with?”

Isoko just kept her cold smile, but her eyes shifted from her cup of tea to Ilon’s eyes. She stared at him for several seconds, creeping him out.

“I’d love to tell you, but I can’t. All I can say is that He’s who you’re thinking of.” Her smile faded back into the stone cold mask as she continued to sip on her tea.

Ilon assumed that the most likely case would be the person with violet eyes. If that was the case, then they at least had one more feature to work with now.

“And you can’t tell me because?” Ilon was confused why she couldn’t tell him. He also wanted to know how she knew about Him, but he doubted that she would answer either question.

“I can’t say.” Isoko responded with a bit of sombreness.

“Then, how do you know about him?” Ilon questioned.

“I can’t say.” She repeated.

Ilon was getting a little frustrated. She obviously knew something about the man with violet eyes who was doing unspeakable things, yet she wasn’t telling him anything.

“Can you give some sort of hint as to why you can’t say?” Ilon fished for at least something.

Isoko took almost a minute before she responded. “It has to do with the fundamentals of the world. That’s all I can say, and even that’s skirting the line.”

“Fundamentals of the world?” Ilon muttered out, not expecting a response. He had heard the Master mention it a couple of times before, but She never went into details about it.

“I can’t explain all of what it is, but due to what you are I can give a vague explanation.” Ilon widened his eyes a bit. Isoko had been very secretive, so hearing that he would finally get something of use shocked him for a moment.

“Better than nothing.” Ilon said as he focused on paying attention so he wouldn’t miss anything.

Isoko took a sip of her tea before she started. “You know of intent, correct?” Isoko asked. Intent was something that only the Cursed and Horrors could use. It was what made them more powerful than regular warriors or Shamans. The violet energy gave an edge, intent gave them victory.

She continued after seeing Ilon nod. “The world has a will, intent is manipulating the will of the world. You imprint onto the world, and the world imprints onto you. It’s an act called retention.”

“Retention?” Ilon was confused how this had to do with the fundamentals of the world. He had expected something like ‘the natural elements do this’ or ‘all beings are part of a system’.

“Every living thing is in the memory of the world’s will. As someone who is highly connected to the will of the world, I cannot speak of certain things to others. Specifically, I cannot speak of those who are not imprinted.” Isoko said with a grim tone.

“So the man with violet eyes isn’t imprinted into the will of the world. Without the retention of him, you can’t give information about him?” Ilon theorized.

Isoko didn’t give an answer, but instead sipped her tea.

There was one more thing in what Isoko said that Ilon was curious about. “How are you highly connected to the will of the world?”

“I’m a partial manifestation.” Isoko grinned.

“What do you mean by a manifestation?” Ilon asked in disbelief. If she was a manifestation of the world’s will, then he was talking with what was essentially the world itself.

“Seeing as I’ve answered so many questions, if you want the answer then you’ll have to do something for me.” Isoko deviously said.

Ilon’s curiosity was in full blast now. He really wanted to resist, but he was never one that could. “What is it?” He asked first. Even though he wanted to satisfy his curiosity, he wouldn’t stupidly agree to do anything.

“I can only tell you if you agree.” Isoko maintained her grin.

“On two conditions. The first is it has to be within my ability to do so. Second is that it can’t be something that I morally disagree with.” The conditions left a lot of room for him. He wouldn’t do something that was akin to suicide and he wouldn’t do something that would leave a scar on him forever.

“Don’t worry. It’s something you’ll definitely agree to do.”

“Fine, I agree.” He had to know what she meant by manifestation. If she was the will of the world, then he had to ask her about why so many Horrors had started to appear recently.

Isoko’s face returned to being a stone cold mask. “Good. My assignment is for you to try your best to find out the true cause of the rapid spread of the Northern Deadzones.”

“I’ll do what I can, but I don’t know how helpful I’ll be.” Ilon said unconfidently. He didn’t know much about the Deadzones. He had never gone there before and it was a topic that mostly everyone liked to avoid. There had been plenty of people that tried to research it, but always came up to the same conclusion. Nothing could be determined. “Is it not the Horrors like the Killian Empire assumed?”

“We're not sure. It’s the only place that can’t be accessed by us.” Isoko cryptically said.

“And who is us?” Ilon questioned, to which Isoko only shook her head.

“Then, can you answer my question?” Ilon would try to get more information about the Deadzones later, but first he wanted to know what she meant by ‘partial manifestation’.

A reminiscent look on Isoko’s face appeared for just a moment, fading back into the stone cold mask. “I used to be a totem for a grand figure who manifested me into the world.”