And so I did. But as I was walking away towards where I thought was the road that we took last time, I started wondering: where the hell should I even go?

That was a good question. I could not return to the capital. That was the one place that I should definitely not be right now. While maybe Arbo was the last place that Axelrod would think I would be, that is if he thought that I was still alive, I was not going to risk that.

What else was there?

Well, to be blunt, I did not have many places that I could return to.

The Red Edge? Nah, that was also not a good one. Besides the obvious, and by that I mean that I had no way to even get there, that place still had very close ties to Axelrod and all that mess.

Melle’s island? The same problem. Still no fucking idea where that was, nor I had any way to actually get there. And since Odar somehow managed to teleport there, there was no doubt that he would be able to do it again - and the place was most likely monitored anyway.

I had to somehow get the hell out of dodge and try understanding the situation. While the prospect of becoming a hermit in the deepest part of those forests was pretty enticing, I couldn’t shake off that strange feeling of annoyance. Something was not allowing me to just let it go and escape.

No. I wanted to gather information. And so it happened that I knew just the person that would allow me to do so.

Jack.

But that was also the problem. From what I gathered, Jack was also selling his information to Odar, and by proxy, to Axelrod himself.

While I wanted to believe that he indeed was just a third party in all this, I still was not so sure about that.

He did not sell me out to them at the first occasion, that was true enough though. And he was the only person that I knew that had a reason not to trust the king - with the undeniable proof being the person he had locked up in his inn. He was also a wanted man, there was that too.

I also was wondering what happened to that guy? Did the potion that Melle made woke him up? If so, he could be a good source of information about the king too…

Hm. While I was not so sure if Jack himself had a way of making him talk, I, on the other hand, after all those experiences with enslaving and some surprise spells from Axelrod…

That could work.

But still, he was in the capital anyway. Even if I was to trust him, I was not going back to the capital. Bah, I was going to go the exact opposite way.

Speaking of the opposite way - there was actually a place that was somewhat outside of Axelrod's eyes, and, if I was lucky, could give me a way to contact Jack without going even remotely close to that stupid city.

Kruro.

Hell, I already visited it twice and it indeed was out-of-the-way. While it probably was also monitored, especially after Axelrod learning that I traveled with Bert, I didn't really have many options in the matter.

I tried remembering the maps that I’ve seen at the Red Edge, but that only brought more headaches and another stream of memories that I did not remember having. At first I did not try to suppress them and wanted to at least attempt to understand what I was seeing, hoping that I might learn something interesting, but it did not work - instead that was the source of the headache. I only saw my own memories, overlaid on top of someone else’s that also was in the same library, with details so foggy that it was impossible to understand anything besides the place I remembered.

Well, at least I learned that whoever those memories belonged to, was also in the Red Edge at some point, which did not help in my current situation.

But back to the topic at hand - Kruro. I did not intend for that port to be my last stop. While I wanted to get close, I was considering not even visiting town and, hopefully, I wouldn’t have to. If my assumptions were correct, and I was indeed back to a state of being constantly fueled by mana from my surroundings, the problem of provisions and rest had been eliminated, meaning only transportation and safety was my concern.

While, for now at least, I wanted to start small and not use any magic, I had some ideas how to hasten my trip. First of all, I wanted to get back to “my” ship, hoping that no one had gotten to it yet and get out to sea as soon as possible. Then, my target would be the island where I met Jack for the first time.

I assumed that he was not there, since I last saw him in the capital, but the deserted island that was seemingly some kind of safe haven for a bunch of shady operations was not the worst place to hide for now. At best it would be actually deserted and I could just stay there for a while, waiting for someone to appear - hopefully Jack. Didn’t he mention something about the regular auctions that were organized there? Knowing him he wouldn’t just pass on the occasion to rip off some customers in that shady inn of his.

And speaking of ripping off - there was also one other person that I could meet there.

That merchant.

I vaguely remembered him and our deal about his trinkets. Hell, that was unlucky. Back then I didn’t have much knowledge about deals and such, but now I realized that he did manage to strike a deal with me, meaning - if my sources were correct of course, and that was a big if - that I could try and “elevate” our deal, to maybe get something more from him. That is, if I was not a crystal person. As far as I could tell, my deals with For and Melle were broken, the marks were gone, and so was most likely that deal.

But that did not mean that he knew that. I still could use him.

Jack did mention that he knew about him and that he was appearing on the island from time to time, so it was not a stretch to think that he also knew him. If I was lucky, he could even have a way to reach him. That was wishful thinking though.

Well, at the very least I had my destination, and that was all that I needed.

Still, that did not mean that I knew exactly how I would get there. True, if I was just to walk, I’d get there eventually. I did know a couple of spells that would be handy. Finding direction and all… But that did not mean I would get there fast.

While I was not in a hurry, spending that much time in the wilderness did not really instill me with optimism.

To get to the boat, on foot it would’ve taken me at least a week. Probably more if you consider the fact that I was not exactly familiar with this place.

That did not mean that I was going to take this trip on foot.

The flight spell.

It’s been a good while since I’ve tried it. In my spare time I did a couple of times try to remember more and check if I had made some kind of mistake, yet the progress I made was still nonexistent. I still couldn’t really get why exactly it was failing.

I didn’t even have a lead at all. Since that day when I successfully managed to use it, I never was able to reproduce that. At first I just assumed that it was the spell that was at fault there, it was an experimental one after all, but the longer I was studying the incantation, the more I was sure that it should’ve worked. It did not have to be stable nor very efficient, I just wanted the confirmation that at least the main piece was correct.

But nope. I was never able to reproduce the effect, even the small gust of wind. Once I even started thinking that this place was getting into me and I lost the power to use the wind based magic, but no. I was able to use any other spell beside that one.

I even tried every single word from the incantation on its own - well, that is the ones which it would’ve made sense - and on their own they worked flawlessly. Just when I tried combining them, the spell immediately failed.

That’s why I didn’t have much faith when I tried it again this time. But, to my absolute surprise and amazement, it actually worked.

Hell, it worked better than last time. That startled me so much that I almost broke the concentration on the spell and barely avoided falling down, instead just made a full flip in the air, bouncing away from the tree on accident.

But that was where the good news finished.

As soon as I regained my balance and was about to try and fly further up, I felt a very sharp pain in my head. Not just like a headache, no, something more. It was somewhat similar to all those pains that I was having when I was getting the glimpses of memories melded with mine. But this time it was a hundred times worse and it did not seem like it was going to end there. The pain was pulsing and spreading from the head further down, starting to envelop my whole body.

I instantly dropped the spell. Or rather I just lost concentration from the pain, falling down on the hard ground. I did not manage to hurt myself, as I was pretty hard to chip to begin with, but during my fall some bandages managed to unwrap from me and I accidentally touched a tree that I was next to, along with some other bushes nearby.

I don’t need to mention that before I managed to gather myself, the plants were already gray and dead. But at least I was not glowing.

As soon as the mana from the drained plants reached me, the pain stopped and I quickly gathered myself, covering the crystal again.

While unfortunate, that gave me a hint about the spell I had so many problems with.

It’s not like the spell was wrong, incorrectly written or something like that, no. It was just very, VERY inefficient.

I only managed to use it here after being overcharged from “eating” so much plantlife. And I even didn’t manage to get very far, just barely launched off the ground.

When I first used it, I was, after all, lying for an indefinite amount of time in a crater next to a ruptured leyline.

Wait, no. That was not possible. If that was the case, wouldn't my earlier spells go haywire too, like they did every time I started glowing? But, when I think about it, I was not glowing then… Not yet at least. If I remembered correctly, the first time I noticed the glow was next to the pond… I did not try flying then, but did have problems with other spells…

Hm. Well, the environment was still very mana-infused, so maybe I just absorbed mana from the air? Or maybe from something else? But what…

Then I remembered.

The crystal.

I did find some crystal pieces back at the accident site that were peculiar and definitely very full of mana. They also did disappear after a while…

What if they didn’t though? What if… they were used? By the spell?

That made my heart stop for a second. I was a crystal after all. What if…

I immediately started patting myself down from head to toe and as soon as I reached for my head, I froze.

I was missing a good chunk of my ear.

Well shit. That confirmed a lot of things. That stupid fly spell was just a piece of shit - it burned through the mana so fast that I couldn’t even wrap my head around it.

When I first used it, I flew for so long, during which I burned through the crystals I had in my bag. Since they’ve been lying right next to the cracked leyline, they had been absorbing mana for, well, who the hell knows how long. If we assume that they were indeed the pieces of Origin Crystal and had similar properties to my body now, they had to be unbelievably powerful. Strange that they were not glowing though.

Just now, when I tried flying again, I had a lot more mana than I usually had, thanks to my body being transformed and enhanced by the Origin Crystal and me sucking on surrounding plants, getting a good amount of mana.

Even then, I burned through all that in an instant, and then the unbelievable happened. The spell, not having enough loose mana stored within me, started consuming the crystal itself - hence my missing ear, the headache and all that. I was pretty sure that I only avoided taking more damage thanks to accidentally draining even more plants.

This sudden epiphany felt strange, but for some reason I had a feeling that I wasn’t wrong. I had nothing but scraps of information about all this, I knew that I still was missing some pieces, but… this conclusion felt… right. Like someone was steering me in the right direction. A certain someone.

You are still there, aren’t you?

There was no response. Nor I expected one, really. Okay, maybe I did. Deep down I wanted to have a confirmation to all this, to know that I am not going insane. All this… was just too fast for my liking.

It’s okay. Take your time. I can wait.

And so my lone-not-really journey started.

Getting back to the road was easy, same as establishing direction. It was not the first time I’ve been on this road myself, and with help of some basic spells I quickly was able to tell where the north is and started heading towards the coast.

Even if my own instincts and experiences were not enough, I started having more flashbacks to someone else walking the same path as me and I took it as a confirmation that I was indeed going in the right way. Or at least towards some kind of settlement. Either way, it was good enough for now.

Even though I wanted to get to a more populated area, I did not want to meet people - reason being plain and simple - if Axelrod was THAT hostile seeing my body in partial crystallization, what would a random person do if he was to see me? Well, at best he’d just run away, at worst I’d be chased by some guards or whatever.

So, to prevent any unexpected developments, I slowed my march and focused. I wanted to use my mana sense to scout for any presence ahead or behind me as I was walking.

Unnecessarily, apparently. I quickly realized that I was even better in detecting mana sources than before. Even while walking at full speed, the area I could feel was enough for me to have time to hide when I would feel anyone, even if they were to travel by a horse. Just to check, I tried running while doing the same thing, and even then the area I could scout didn’t even shrink a bit. By now I should’ve expected that my body was just too good to be true.

I still was lacking one ear, supposedly consumed during my flight tests. I tried absorbing mana from some plants, but that was not a good idea for a long run. I could feel that the mana was traveling towards the wound, or the chipped piece rather, but nothing grew back, yet I absorbed a full tree. I was glad that I did that when I was still in the village, or it would be very suspicious.

I would have to find a better source, like another leyline, or maybe try one of those mana fruit. Probably more than one.

Good thing that was just one ear though. While I did not really care about the aesthetics and my look, if I was to be missing an arm again, that would be a bit annoying. In this case I was just going to have to hide my head - not like I wasn’t going to have to do that in the first place, being made out of crystal and all.

Speaking of. What was that Axelrod called me? Crystal remnant? Hm. I was wondering about those beings for a good while. At first I did not think to doubt his words, but after all these developments, I couldn’t help but wonder - what if what he told me was a lie? Or if he was just plain old wrong? After all, I did meet something akin to one. Hell, I had a feeling that it even saved me. After all, it did have the memories of people I thought to be dead. Or at least missing.

But what does that mean? Did it kill them then absorb their memories? Or was it just a plain misunderstanding? There’s been a lot of those lately. After all, the presence did mention being human once.

All and all, it all was coming back to one thing - I had to get more information.

Man, I really wish that we were able to talk some more…

Of course, no reply. Although I am not sure if I just imagined that, but I did feel a hint of satisfaction. The feeling was strangely out of place in this situation, but almost immediately it faded, so I just assumed that it was my tired brain playing some tricks on me.