With the suspicious looking liquid tested, it was clear that it was probably not fatal… Unless it had a delayed effect or something like that, causing long-term health issues… Oh well, sometimes in life you’ve just got to take risks! I took a closer look at the once again plain and unadorned black, stone chalice. The previous inscriptions had entered the elf’s body and the chalice consequentially looked as it did when I first entered the room. It gave quite a foreboding aura. Serenity took the opportunity to closely look the item over while I held it, curiosity quite clear from the keenness with which she scanned it over. Well she was as she had previously admitted, unfamiliar with it.

I’d explained the heroes’ revealing ceremony to her earlier on when she recovered from that incident after the companion choosing, so she was up-to-date. I decided to continue on with the ceremony a second time and drew the knife across my hand, tightly clenching it into a fist over the chalice and letting some blood drip down, soaking into the dark stone. With it in my hand, I could feel a light vibration coming from the chalice as my very own inscriptions began to appear. If the trend continues then a human’s figure should form… Hmm?

The figure that appeared looked a little bit different than what I’d expected. The elf had been a rather simple outline of an elf with some bog standard features, but the inscriptions the second time round had lined up to arrange quite an accurate representation of me; There was a male human figure, with vaguely similar attire to mine and even a little owl on his shoulder. It wasn’t quite so specific for the elf… The face it gave me was a tad weird though. You could see tiny inscriptions forming an unnaturally wide smile on the small image, with cracks in the form of even tinier inscriptions spreading from that very same smile. It didn’t make the elf limbless, so why all the detail? Whatever, it’s probably a good thing.

I filled the chalice with the oily, black substance, giving it a swirl before my I took sniff and nearly emptied out the contents of my stomach. The vile liquid smelt Sol awful! It was hard to describe; almost as though it was everything I found nauseating and just mixed it all together. The inscriptions began to jerk around unnaturally once again, but more synchronised than it had done with the elf, almost as though the entire little figure was restlessly shifting around. Some might think it suspicious, but you never know, this could be a good thing.

Cyne, are you sure you want to try this?

I appreciate the concern Serenity, but if I don’t down this liquid, this entire endeavour will have been for nothing. Wasting my time isn’t something I can allow. Time is money… and more ‘interrogated’ suspicious individuals… and more burned heretics. Time is a valuable commodity. Not drinking this disgusting liquid would be like not burning heretic who had been convicted, caught and tied to the pyre… sort of. I decide to get the entire thing over and done with and pinched my nose before gulping down the liquid as quickly as I could.

It felt and tasted exactly how it looked: oily, disgusting and so on. I felt the inscriptions travel onto my skin and begin to crawl to my chest. The sensation was far from pleasant, in fact I’d compare it to feeling of ants crawling under your skin. Unfortunately, I’d felt that before; an accident in the torture classroom, where one hysterical child, shouting about ‘not being able to take it anymore’, ran from the room, knocking a bowl of flesh eating ants onto my arm. Thank Sol for healing magic. Not pleasant, but as compensation the same child was my next practice for torture class. Good times.

I stopped reminiscing when the pain began to worsen as it felt as though the inscriptions were burrowing their way to my heart. I dropped the chalice and clutched at my chest, falling to my knees. I was panting as sweat dripped off of me by the bucket. Very unpleasant, almost Serenity contract unpleasant. Serenity had flown off of her perched spot on my shoulder, positioning herself nearby as she worriedly looked me up and down. Hehehe, it’s nice to know she cares.

Surprisingly the pain got even worse. If I had to describe the sensation, it would be akin to those inscriptions snake around and constricting my heart. The pain wracked my body and I lost all composure, reacting in a similar way to the pain as I did when contracting with Serenity; rolling around on the floor with no dignity. Just need to stay positive and tough it out. Next thing I knew, everything went black.

Oh dear… I certainly hope I’m not dead. I looked around, but nothing. Just endless darkness even deeper than that of the cave I was just in. It was empty, seemingly devoid of anything, except myself of course. The afterlife appeared rather dull in the end. Wait, stay positive! Not necessarily the afterlife.

Isn’t the world unfair?

Why it certainly is, creepy, disembodied voice. The voice appeared in my head, similar to how serenity and I would communicate, but of course it wasn’t Serenity. Her voice was beautiful and soothing, whereas whoever this fellow was had a voice that was raspy and a bit off-putting if I had to be brutally honest.

You agree? Don’t you want change?

I don’t know. It wasn’t exactly a topic I’d thought on that often. I mean how many people are there in history who can actually change the world. I’ve always like to just live life for myself and to stay happy.

Why do you do what you do?

You mean my job? Well because I enjoy it I suppose. I’d started conversing with this fellow in the hope too alleviate some boredom, but all he was doing was asking question after question. Wait, was this some sort of trial?

You do it because you enjoy it? To stay happy? To keep sane? Why?

I don’t recall mentioning staying sane in what I’d said previously, but what do you mean ‘why’? Everyone wants to enjoy themselves. This suspicious voice wasn’t getting to whatever its point was with any great speed. What exactly does sanity have to do with anything here?

The world is unfair, so you do your job to stay happy? The world is unfair, so you do your job to stay sane? If the world was fair would you be happier, would you be saner?

…Would I? How would one even go about making the world a fair place? I was sceptical of the voice to begin with, but for some reason, he was starting to make sense. His words started melding with my surroundings as well as appearing in my mind, echoing endlessly to form a mind-numbing droning sound.

You can do your job and be happy while working towards a fair world and greater fulfilment. You just need to change a few things as you go along.

I do? I was struggling to think at this point. Everything felt hazy and unreal. The voice was starting to sound more and more convincing. Is this some sort of magical effect? Or am I just agreeing because he makes sense?

YES. Just follow a bit of guidance from myself, someone who wants to make the world a better place.

It can’t hurt, I suppose. Did the elf go through all of this? She wasn’t out long enough to get through a conversation this long.

The elf was unsuitable. She couldn’t understand that the world could be happier. She also couldn’t make the world happier. But you can. All you need to do is taking my hand.

An ebony coloured arm materialised in front of me. It certainly wasn’t human. It had elongated claws on the end of its finger and spines running down its arm. It was barely distinguishable from the surrounding darkness, but it had a sense of existence the rest lacked. This fellow was obviously trying to pull me into some sort of contract, and had even partially clouded my thought process. Should I say yes?

Yes.

I wasn’t asking you. Well, if I was to look at the pros and cons… I don’t know the pros and cons. What are the pros and cons?

You get stronger. All you have to do afterwards is follow your instinct. The heroes will take you where you need to go.

Get stronger and follow instinct… He might not be telling the truth…

I am.

Yes, yes of course you are. Well, I’m no stick in the mud, why not? Nobody ever told me forming a contract with no clear specifications with a creature of clearly suspicious origin was a bad thing to do, so I accept your proposal. With that, I reached out and clasped the hand in front of me. As I did so, I felt a surge of power flow from that arm and into my body. It was vague and didn’t have a particular elemental trait I could assign it to, which is strange since I would have though for certain it would be darkness of some kind, but it felt unspecified.

When I opened my eyes, I was back in the cavern and had an owl’s face directly next to mine, staring at me intently. I sat up, throwing her off, causing some annoyed sounding clicking, and immediately tried to examine my body. I felt a bit lighter and stronger… but it was a rather disappointing increase for all the big dramatic contract I just agreed to. I was expecting to be able to break mountains down into pebbles with a single punch or something like that.

Cyne, are you alright? You went still for a number of minutes. What happened?

Sorry to worry you Serenity, I was just chatting with some suspicious individual and made a contract with him about something or other. The owl scowled at me upon hearing my brave actions. After a minute or so of berating, which I couldn’t take seriously as the little owl hopped around furiously in front of me, she eventually calmed down.

I suppose that explains the change in your soul purity.

Hmm? I just heard something interesting. One can’t know their own soul purity without going to test it at the church in Sol city. I guess since Serenity lives inside my body, she’d be familiar with such details. What happened to my soul purity?

It jumped up to 90% in total, so you’ll be capable of tier 9 spells in the future.

That… is also a bit disappointing. How is that enough power to change the world or whatever that peculiar fellow said earlier? It was at this moment that I felt a slight tugging. Not of the physical kind, but the instinctual need to travel in a particular direction. 6 particular directions to be exact. How strange. Perhaps that’s what was meant by following your instinct. The heroes should supposedly take me to those places… Maybe there’ll be more opportunities over there. Hehehe… That would be wonderful if that was the case.

I then proceeded to explain the characteristics of the creature’s arm, which left Serenity thoroughly confused. I had to suppress a sigh in the end; she had no ideas as to what I met actually was. It was at times like these when Serenity’s lack of knowledge became truly evident. Despite having been alive for so long, her worldly experiences and general knowledge was severely lacking. Maybe the church archives for the higher echelons know. Well, that’s for another day; worrying over the small details now is just a waste of time.

Before I left the room to retrieve Hina, I looked the area over again to check if I’d missed anything, and what do you know, something convenient had popped up. I swear that oddly convenient staircase leading upwards wasn’t there before. Am I losing it? No, I shouldn’t think too hard on such matters, perhaps that suspicious individual somehow created the convenient-looking staircase. Well, if my luck is good, that should lead to the entrance or somewhere close. Now just to collect meat bag number 2 (Hina). I left meat bag number 1 (sack full of elf) in the room and went back to retrieve meat bag 2, who was still sprawled in an uncomfortable-looking position on the stone floor.