It took me a second to process that.

-A month?

-Yes. On day one I went back and reported all of this directly to the king. At first he was worried, but now, he probably will want you to come back to the castle and keep you under his watch.

-Oh hell no.

-Then explain yourself. Since you are awake and kicking I am either coming back with you in tow whenever you want it or not, or at the very least with a good explanation for all this. You did almost kill one of his most trusted people.

-Come on, you’re more than fine. It was not that bad…

-I was not talking about me. But if you’re going this way, it would be three people then. At least.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

-You are kidding me. What are the chances even?

-I am surprised as well. Not like we are weak or easy to find, but you seem to attract us one way or another.

-”Us”?

-I am aware that you are an outsider - said Odar raising his eyebrow - but I thought you’d at least heard of the Lost Church…

-Oh for… - I couldn’t help but hide my face in my hands. - A fucking cult… Why…

-Religion. And what’s wrong with that? - suddenly perked up Jacob. - Are you by chance a heretic?

-Fuuck… please tell me you are joking… - I muttered, raising my head, but to my absolute horror, all of them had the same, serious expression on their face. Jacob even looked like he was about to yell at me.

-Now, now, it’s not the time - stopped him Odar, before he even managed to open his mouth. - While I am also concerned, we have more urgent things to do. So, back on topic. Are you going to tell me what’s up with this crystal, or are you going with me to the king and want to argue with His Majesty himself? I do not recommend the second option.

-Or three, I don’t do either of those things and just leave never to be seen again.

-Please. With all three of us here you…

-I what? - I scoffed at him. - You already forgot why are we here? Next time I’m not going to save anyone. What are you going to do then?

Even though he tried threatening me, he very well knew that we were at an impasse, if not I had an upper hand here. But even if I was to leave here without any resistance, as the contract with For guaranteed, there was no telling what would happen after that. I can deal with these three, but can I do the same with whoever else comes after me? Who knows how deep that cult of theirs goes…

-Look, I sort of understand where you are coming from. Weird magic, even weirder people…

-So why not tell me…

-That would literally put my freedom on the line and, most likely, life. Some things are secret for a reason.

-Are you aware that not doing as I ask does the exact same thing?

-I have noticed - I muttered.

-So we are at an impasse… - he said, scratching his head. - Okay. Let’s speak facts. Legally, I am not allowed to just drag you out of here by force. While it is a distinct possibility that I would get away with it, I’d rather not.

-Not like I would just let you…

-Let’s glance over the “who wins the direct confrontation” issue for now.

I just shrugged and let him continue.

-And I need a statement for the king to be satisfied. Statement from someone trustworthy.

-What are you getting at? - I gazed at him, suspicious.

-I have a proposition.

-I have nothing to lose by listening, so get on with it.

-Right. King, while curious about what happened here, is not looking exactly for the reasons for all this nonsense. While he is aware that “something” happened here, he does not know about your “crystallized” state. Truth be told, I didn’t know either until recently, I just learned about it when I arrived last week.

-What are you getting at?

-The only thing he wants, and by extension what I need, is a confirmation of For 's safety.

-Well, as you can see, she is, so what’s the issue?

-Yes, right now - he nodded. - But what assurance do I have about that not changing as soon as I leave? Did you forget your blood contract? What insurance do I have that you won’t abuse it?

-I guess you’re right. So what do you want?

-I want you to upgrade your contract to a mutual one. It’d be a cheap price for your freedom.

-Okay, hold on! - spoke up Jacob, suddenly agitated. - I do not consent to this! That magic is not to be played with!

-Look who’s talking - I gave him a cold gaze. - But nevertheless, you’re not wrong. I am not agreeing as well. It’s not like I have anything to gain from that.

-Do I have nothing to say in this? - interrupted angrily For.

-I understand this is a very roundabout way of doing things, but let me elaborate first.

Since no one interrupted, he continued.

-As I am aware, you do have a contract, right? May I see it? Or at least know what its exact contents are?

-I am not summoning it - I said before For was even able to open her mouth - because I risk getting hit with a fireball in the face again, or worse. In short, I am just granted a free passage here and by extension free roam as well.

-Uh-uh. And in return you…?

-It was a deal, in return he was supposed to show us how to break from a cell - said For. - Long story short, we underestimated his power. If I knew he was able to wield such powerful magic, I’d never even consider this bargain.

-I see… I get it now… - he nodded with understanding, burying his face in his hands.

-I still don’t - muttered For, looking confused.

-You used that magic without knowing how it works properly? - he shook his head with disappointment. - Listen. There is no distinction of “sides” in those kinds of spells, even if you specify beforehand. It’s more like a guideline for us, not for the magic binding us.

-What are you talking about?

-Meaning, that if ANY of the sides was to violate the rules stated by the bond, it would become the other’s property.

-So what? I don’t intend on breaking the deal. - she shook her head. - I never…

-Oh but you already did - I interrupted, understanding what he was talking about. - “A safe and uninterrupted passage” is what we agreed upon. I don’t know about what exactly counts as safe, but throwing fireballs at my face I am pretty sure is the exact opposite of that. Meaning…

-I broke the contract? - she asked with wide eyes.

-Looks like it. That means I own you now, I guess?

-There you have it. Whenever you wanted it or not, you granted him not just a safe haven, but also essentially your life and freedom. Instead of getting an easy slave, you got turned into one yourself. Good job. Good fucking job, both of you…

Both For and Jacob looked horrified with that prospect, clearly neither of them expected that to play out that way. Neither did I, to be honest. When I read about this magic in their library, there was not exactly much info about the exact wordings and such, there was just instructions along with a quick summary and a few cryptic warnings. Should’ve seen that coming, a magic like this never is just straightforward.

-Don’t look at me like that. It was not my idea. But thank you, this is good to know.

All of them looked very concerned and, in For’s case, frightened. Can’t blame her for that.

-This complicates things… - muttered Odar. - I didn’t think that your contract was that deep…

-What do you mean?

He sighed.

-I wanted to strike a deal. In exchange for signing a new contract with For, I wanted her to agree to modify it a little bit, so there are more stipulations… but I am afraid it’s too late.

-Too late?

-She did break it, didn’t she? One can modify a contract whenever they feel like it, if both sides agree that is. But if you break it, you willingly give up that right.

-So… you can’t do anything? I can’t do anything? - said For, slightly panicked.

-No. There is only one person in this world that can modify something like this. And even then, it can’t be voided.

-Who?

-That’s a stupid question - said Jacob, angry on himself. - Him.

-Yeah - Odar nodded. - Your new owner.

She shuddered when she heard “owner”. But I was more interested in another detail.

-I can modify it? What do you mean by that?

-You agreed to terms of this without knowing even that much? - he looked at me with disbelief.

-Yeah, I also am disappointed with myself. I scoured a local library and learned about this magic here. I never expected that such a prominent establishment would have info that is lacking that much.

Jacob looked offended by that remark, but did not say a word. He knew I was right and he himself was one of the victims of their shortcomings.

-Huh. In any case, yes, you can modify your contract, but not in the way you think. Before it’s been broken, you two would be able to freely modify terms that bound you, but now, that is already gone and done. Essentially, the previous deal is treated as finished and was replaced by what is, roughly speaking, a “certificate of ownership”.

-Come on, let’s not be that rude. It’s still a person we are talking about…

-Sadly, not any more. She is now nothing but an object. What you do with it is up to your discretion.

I expected for either For or Jacob to protest and be offended or something… but no. They both looked down and defeated.

Jacob, angry but quiet, knowing this is his fault, started pacing around the room, his knuckles white from gripping his own neck. For on the other hand looked… blank. Her face was pale, without any expression.

-Wow. That’s… a rough way to put things.

-But that’s how it is. I am not going to sugarcoat. Anyway, continuing my train of thought, what to do with your property is up to your discretion. At any time, you can summon your contract, or rather certificate of ownership, and set up rules that she will have to obey. Along with penalties. You just have to write them onto it.

Now I understood why Bert was so insistent to get me safely to the capital. If that deal also had potential to turn into a situation like this…

-Interesting… I’ll have to consider some things later then… - I said, wondering what I should do with this hand I was dealt.

-I bet. In any case, it looks like that’s it for me… - he said, standing up. - I lost my bargaining chip, and now I cannot safely try and extract you.

-Seems so - I nodded. - So what are you going to do? Announce that I am a monster or what?

-I… I am not sure myself - he replied, looking torn. - I don’t want to believe that I saved a monster, but… it’s undeniable that you are a danger to For.

-Let me remind you, that it was not my idea…

-Doesn’t matter now. It matters that she is now at your mercy.

-Eh… I am tired of this… everyone I meet wants to straight up put me in a cell one way or another, and then realize that they’ve made a mistake… this is getting old, you know.

-So what do you want me to do? It’s not like I have a choice…

-Just take her, man. My property or not, I don’t give a fuck. It’s not like I wanted her in the first place. If she’s with you, I can’t hurt her and we are fine.

-Of course you can. The contract doesn’t have any range limitations, you know. You can always…

-What, set a rule that she will die if she speaks up or something dumb like that?

He did not reply, but the look on his face said more than words.

-Oh come on, I am not some kind of sadist like that. What’s the point?

He shrugged.

-Okay, if you want it like that, fine. Let’s start talking your language. She’s important to the king, right? Why the hell would I want to get rid of a leverage that just casually dropped in my lap? I am not going to do anything to her. Just her existence is a boon for me. As you said, I can’t just dispel this thing.

I leaned back on my bed, thinking what should I do in this stupid situation. Whatever I choose it felt like yet another batch of problems would spring up.

-You know, fuck this. All of you get the hell out of this room. I am gonna dress up and I am coming with you. I have an idea.

Before I even finished the sentence, For was already outside. I guess the contract was working.

-Might you explain, what? I can’t just let…

-Yes, yes, you can’t just let me meet the king, yada yada.

I looked at Jacob and Eise, trying to remind them what I just said.

-I said, leave.

Eise immediately complied, but Jacob just stared at me with annoyance.

-Are you kicking me out of my own place?

I rolled my eyes.

-Yes, yes, I am sorry, but what I’m gonna say is for Odar’s ears only. Unless you want to deal with his king’s business… Besides, isn’t that technically For’s place? And since I own her now, don’t I own this place as well?

-You…

-Jacob, please… If you would be so kind…

He was about to say something but bit his tongue and instead started walking towards the door. Before he left and slammed it behind him, I could hear him mutter a few swears.

-So what’s this all about? - he started questioning me immediately after the door closed.

-You said you need to be sure that I do not have anything hostile towards For planned, right?

-Towards us as a whole, but yeah, more or less. Without that I cannot guarantee…

-Yes, yes, I understand. Would her word be enough for that, or…

-I already said - he replied annoyed. - You can just make her say whatever you feel like and I wouldn’t be the wiser, so…

-But what if you were though?

-What, do you have a pocket lie detector or something?

-No - I shook my head. - You do. That’s why I wanted Jacob to leave.

He looked at me confused.

-I am not sure I follow…

-You gather slaves for your king and yet you don’t know what are they capable of?

-What slaves?

-Don’t play dumb.

He looked at me, perturbed.

-Look, I seriously don’t know what you are talking about. I know a lot about people in our kingdom, and that includes individuals with unique abilities. If we had someone like this, we would not be having this discussion - he scratched his head. - I am not even sure if Jack even has someone like this in his records…

I looked at him with disbelief.

-And besides that - he continued his train of thought - I am not some kind of slave collector. While it is legal and indubitably a part of our society, we try to use it as little as possible and try giving those unfortunate people a second chance.

-People? Not “objects”, eh? You change your views pretty quickly.

He sighed.

-That was just for show. I obviously didn’t mean that.

-So why talk like that?

-So those two idiots stop getting themselves into trouble.

-What, your… “cult” is that important to you, eh?

He looked at me with surprising tiredness, but almost as quickly as the emotion appeared, it disappeared as well.

-If you are done making fun of my “cult”, as you nicely named it, can we get to it? Can you finally explain, what the hell do you want?

-I want nothing, that's you who tries to force me to do crap. I feel like I am the only one who is trying to find a solution here.

-And the solution is…?

-Listen. Your most recent slave has a pretty handy skill. She can prevent people from telling lies. I am willing to come with you and let one of those be cast on me…

-What the hell are you on about? - he asked, annoyed. - First of all, I have never in my life had a slave, nor was even in contact with one for a long while, if not counting For. Second of all, how the hell would that help? You say you will willingly just start answering questions thanks to that?

-If you let me finish, then maybe.

He leaned back and shut up, letting me continue.

-So, I want you to take For with us and get the spell cast on her as well. Hell, even better, I can modify her contract so she cannot lie. With that, you can have her question me however you like, and I can tell her everything without me risking any information leaking out. I just have to modify the contract accordingly.

-Or I could just interrogate you on my own…

-And spill everything about me to the king? And fuck-knows-who else?

-Hmm…

He stopped to think for a second.

-That could work actually… I’d have to validate the contents of the contract beforehand though and after and… - he started muttering to himself, but almost immediately stopped. - What the fuck am I thinking about! I told you we don’t have anyone with that kind of ability! How powerful and useful would that be!

He started to annoy me. “King’s right hand” my ass!

-Whatever. I’m just going to have to talk to the king himself then.

-Oh no, that’s not happening - he immediately stopped me. - I cannot just…

-So what? - I interrupted, annoyed. - We’re going to just be talking like this forever? Please. I made up my mind and gave you a solution. It’s up to you if you want to take it or not.

-Your solution doesn’t work - he said calmly. - But yeah, I agree, that’s enough of the talking and you are coming with me to the capital. Your “solution” gave me my own idea that should work.

-Mine’s better, but whatever. Just don’t try anything weird or it’s going to end poorly, most likely for both of us.

He nodded.

-I am not risking anything. I will notify you beforehand, don’t worry. When do you want to leave?

-Give me a couple minutes so I can properly remove those bandages and then I’ll tell you. Or maybe a bit longer… If the rest of my body is in a similar state as this - I stretched my new arm - it might take a bit…

He nodded once more and stood up.

-I will be waiting upstairs, in For’s chambers.

-Sure.

With that, he finally left the room and closed the door behind him.

Without delay, I started removing the rest of the bandages from my lower half, paying close attention to not touch them with any piece of crystal. With… moderate success ratio let me add.

I am glad that no one was around, because if anyone would be watching I am pretty sure I would’ve given them an epilepsy attack. My hand was still a bit shaky and even the slightest touch of the bandages was making me numb.

Speaking of, how did they even manage to wrap me like this? I was pretty sure that those bandages and by extension the “ointment” were made out of very potent infused water. In fact, I was pretty sure that they were packing more mana than the river next to the ruptured leyline, and that’s saying something. That did not make sense though, she said that she used my water, and if she had something stronger then why the hell would they even send me for it in the first place?

It also made me realize how weird that interaction was. When you overdose on mana you can get more energetic and your senses sometimes even get heightened, but that’s not that common. Usually you’re just getting wasted.

While I was feeling pretty rested, the pain and numbness might have been the VERY edge case of that - the touch itself was painful, and to cope with that, the body tried to compensate and numb the whole limb. Too bad it wasn’t effective.

It took me a good while to finally get rid of all the bandages and finally be able to see the scale of the “crystallization”.

I honestly expected for it to be worse. Since it managed to reach my head, I thought that at least one of my legs was gone, but nope. The crystal only covered about a half of my thigh and that’s about it. It was pretty strange, seeing my skin turned into this weird rock, but I did not have much time to dwell on it. I quickly turned away from the bed and reached for my clothes, just to realize that my old rags were replaced.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, I did get burned after all, but it was still a shame. Ragged or not, I started to like that old coat. The replacement wasn’t that bad anyway - and was a lot better quality than my last set of clothes.

What I was left with, was a dark green, almost black, leather pants, with a shirt made of a strange material - somewhat similar to that I’ve seen used on the island before, but a bit thicker and rough - without sleeves, and the buttons replaced with a long string, the same color as pants.

On top of that, I was given a coat as well, or rather a robe - I was pretty sure that it was exactly the same as I’ve seen people wear here, but mine was completely black. The sleeves were long and baggy enough for my crystal arm to be hidden completely and, if I wanted to, I could even tie a knot at the end.

After putting all the clothes on, I realized that it had to be done on purpose - all the baggy clothing, along with the large and deep hood made it quite easy to hide my “unusual” parts.

While my old clothes were nowhere to be found and most likely already destroyed or torn to rags, my bag and Melle’s were still here. Mine looked untouched, but hers had definitely been rummaged through. I remembered that Eise mentioned that, but up till now I didn’t realize that I had no idea what exactly was in there besides the bottles that I needed, so I was not sure if anything else was missing.

Minutes later I was already upstairs and knocking at For’s door. Eise was the one who let me in, still looking a bit shaken and scared, even though she was the one that was taking care of me all that time.

-Thanks for the care, but next time try not using that much infused materials - I said pointing at Melle’s, bag. - Especially if you’re not sure how potent that is.

-I’m sorry… I feel like this is partially my fault… - she muttered, gesturing to my crystalized side.

-Don’t need to be. And it worked out anyway, I now have my arm back. Just be careful.

She nodded and led me further into the room to where everyone else was.