Ferdinand floated above the city, perched atop a water tower, as he attempted to clear his mind. While Carrion continued the final stages of vetting the complex for mental intrusion, Ferdinand had been hard at work searching for Alice Magrisal. His investigation suggested that she had been secretly taken away from Cylas before the attack, but her family reported her departure from the capital with a man named "Rigur Sherchower." Neither had been seen since, and the only hint of their whereabouts was a sighting at the border of Leltial and Skysea Adalay. This location was disconcertingly near the bandit camp incident that Arch Mage Down had dealt with just a few days ago. While the sighting was recorded after the event, the number of events involving the same group of people was alarming.

Ferdinand ruminated on the intensity of the storm that night while sitting on the tower. He had visited Skysea Adalay many times over the years, but this was a storm that penetrated his soul. Despite the potency of magic, he sometimes feared that the natural world could still generate such forces, which could rival even the greatest mystical techniques. In a world where one tiny incident could have gone differently, he could even envision a future where humanity harnessed the force of nature instead of following the path of magic.

As Ferdinand pondered the power of nature, a bolt of lightning struck the city, causing a deafening noise and blinding light. He was stunned to see that the lightning had struck a building in the upper area of Aeroae, causing significant damage.

Ferdinand descended to the site of impact and evaluated the wreckage. The wooden and stone structure was ripped apart by the force of the strike, and the source of the damage appeared to be the atomized remnants of a chimney. He spent the next few minutes searching through the rubble and assisting the residents out of the building while doing his best to repair the damage.

The roof sustained damage to over 30% of its area, and most of the eastern walls were destroyed. Mending would not suffice, as the internal structure of the building was also demolished. It was a miracle that the whole building had not collapsed.

As he worked, the storms had grown stronger, and to his surprise, a strange feeling crawled up his spine for the third time. It was familiar yet distant, similar to his own technique for embedding "Strangeness". There was something otherworldly about it.

While he finished restoring the roof of the destroyed building using creation magic, lightning struck, and shattered a nearby window. He suspected it was just the wind, but the storm had grown so fervent that Ferdinand would not have been able to stand straight if he hadn't steadied himself mystically.

Ferdinand assured the homeowners that their home would be safe from another lightning strike. However, just as he was about to take off, lightning struck again, and the building across the street erupted with the sound of breaking glass. Another sense of strangeness overwhelmed him.

Despite not knowing the source of the strangeness, Ferdinand felt anxious and urged to investigate. He hovered near where the original window had broken, and when he poked his head through to look, he was met by the sight of a young man and woman standing opposed to each other in the hall.

*"I am very calm, furious beyond words, but calm. I already said I don't care what your excuse is. I don’t trust you. The only reason why I haven't been more direct about showing you my fury is that I have some amount of fondness left over for you,"

These were the words the young woman said, and the young man nearer to him stood in silence. The young woman spoke again.

"So, if you'll be so kind, I’d like to leave. I would greatly wish to not cause anyone harm, but I get the impression that nobody else will grant me the same kindness."

This is when Ferdinand stepped in.

As lightning struck once more, he pulled himself through the window and cleared his throat. Notably, the young woman seemed to react just as the lightning came down, while the young man did not.

"Who is that?" the young woman said. The young man spun around, and Ferdinand watched as his face visibly lost all color. He stumbled over to a nearby wall and threw up.

"Excuse me," Ferdinand said.

"What are you doing here, Lord High Magister?" the young man said.

"Oh, so you recognize me? Who are you?" Ferdinand asked.

"I-" he started to say, but then the young woman stepped forward. As she got closer, Ferdinand could see the clouded fog in her eyes that told him all he needed to know.

"His name is Albert Nedely, and I believe he kidnapped me. Or at least had a hand in it," the young woman said. Albert reacted badly to this assertion and scrambled back to a state resembling a respectful one.

“That’s not true, I can explain if all of you would just-”

With thunder cracking again, Albert gazed up at Ferdinand to see the face of a man whose remaining patience was less than the words Albert could muster. The intensity in Ferdinand's eyes sent a chill down Albert's spine, warning him of the dire consequences that would follow if he didn't speak carefully.

Ferdinand turned away from Albert and walked toward the young woman. As he suspected, she did not look up at him as he approached. But interestingly, when lightning then struck again, she did. The strange feeling that radiated from outside the building was sourced from this young woman. With every breath, the flow of mana in the air shuttered, and as soon as thunderstruck, the shuttering flow violently tore itself apart and put itself back together.

“I take it you’re Alice Magrisal?” Ferdinand asked.

Alice was being led through the halls of a place she didn’t know. Even though the halls were pleasantly warm, and there was a fresh smell in the air, she could feel something wrong. A feeling she knew well as Mana in abundance. It tickled the hairs on her arm and burned her nose.

She asked about this, but the woman who was leading her through said she felt nothing out of the ordinary, something Alice had a hard time believing. This woman was a magister, she could tell from the callous on her hand. It was the same as her Dear Teacher.

It was something she would ask about later, as right now she was being led to Andromeda’s location. This put Alice in a difficult situation, as she didn’t know how to feel after not seeing her for so long. What would she say? Would Andromeda even want to see her?

She didn’t have time to think hard about this, as instead of being led into a quiet room, or whatever else she was expecting, she the hushed ramblings of a small group standing in a small room. As she stepped through, she heard the voice of a man clear his throat and turn everyone’s attention toward her.

“Ah, this must be her,” a man said, his voice tinged with an accent she couldn’t place.

“Yes, this is Alice Magrisal,” another voice said. This one belonged to High Magister Ferdinand Delerous, the man who had brought her here.

“I know that we are in a difficult situation, but it would be best to do proper introductions,” the first man said. Alice heard him introduce names to her, presumably while pointing at each one, but after the first, she stopped him.

“Sir, if you are pointing, I am blind. I can’t see who you’re pointing at,” she said, followed by a sharp inhale and the cough of a man who didn’t know better.

“I am sorry, Lady Magrisal. I wasn’t aware. Should we go through in order?” he asked.

“I would be grateful if you would,” Alice asked. She felt bad about making a point of it, but being blunt would get the introductions past first and on to the situation at hand.

“I am Arch Mage Carrion of Skysea Adalay,” Carrion said. Hearing this gave her a similar feeling of vertigo as when Ferdinand informed her of his identity before. She suddenly felt very small and out of place in his company.

“Greetings, Lord Arch Mage,” she said, doing her best to bow before Carrion dismissed it.

“By all means, you can just call me Carrion,” he said. Ferdinand announced himself, but as they were already introduced, he didn’t go on. Next was the voice of another man.

“Hello, er, milady? I’m Argo,” came the voice of a large man. She could hear his voice reverberate in his chest. He reminded her of her own father, but his accent placed him somewhere in the north. Possibly King’s Grove.

“Hello, sir,” she said politely. She didn’t recognize the name and didn’t want to stress about position.

Next was the soft voice of a woman. “Hello, Milady,” she said. “My name is Catherine Lander.”

“Hello, Miss,” Alice returned.

It was a very eclectic gathering, with the heads of state and seemingly random people. She herself was probably the first person in her life to be in the absolute middle of standing, which was a strange position to be in.

“I believe that brings us to this,” Carrion said, with another pause filled with pointing, “I mean, Andromeda.” He finished. The five of them were now situated at a table in the observation room, and they were having an impromptu meeting to discuss plans moving forward.

“Could you describe the situation please?” Alice said.

“Of course, a couple of hours ago, after an event that I won’t get into for the sake of brevity, I somehow managed to reduce the mana saturation from inside the containment room from instantly lethal to a level that we can sustain for a few days.” Carrion started.

“Before this, Andromeda seemed to enter a state of semi-consciousness. She is moving around, as though unable to see her surroundings, but speaking and tracing the perimeter of the room. We have verified that she can hear. But only extremely loud and obvious noises can reach her.”

“I’m going to need you to back up, I am still lost for the most part. What has been happening, why is she in such a condition, and what is our involvement in this?” Alice asked, Argo and Catherine agreed in turn.

“I guess it would be best to start from the beginning, or at least as we’re aware it began,“ Carrion said, “Lady Magrisal, I am sure you are aware of a situation involving Andromeda being kidnapped by an unknown party. Correct?”

“Hold on, what?” Argo interrupted. Surprised by the news.

“Please sir, I’ll explain in a moment.” Carrion said.

“Yes, it was a strange affair considering how she suddenly reappeared in her room. It was also the first time I noticed that her flow was different.” Alice said.

“Right, in reality, the identity of the kidnapper was actually Arch Mage Rapture. Though her true reasoning for this isn’t entirely unclear, we have reason to believe they were not malicious.” Carrion said.

“She was kidnapped by an Arch Mage?” Alice asked.

“Yes, and because of this, and owing to her own status as Arch Mage, we believe this caused some kind of instability due to a ritual being performed without adequate precautions in place.” Carrion said.

“Did you just say that Andromeda is an Arch Mage?” Alice asked, completely unable to hide her plain faced shock.

“Yes, I am surprised you were not informed of this already. She is the Arch Mage of King’s Grove.” Carrion said.

"That explains why you’re here, and if I had to guess, that is also where Mr. and Mrs Lander are from." Alice deduced, her hand vaguely gestured toward Ferdinand.

“Precisely, moving on, the attack happened shortly after, but not before Andromeda herself left. At the current moment, we have no strong reason to believe that the two events are related. However we do know that Former Headmaster Ander Plact resigned shortly after the attack, and was also the one who instigated the assassination attempt that Andromeda is dealing with.”

“So she really was in danger, who is at fault? Entai Algoer?” Alice asked. There was a moment of silence, and then Ferdinand cleared his throat.

“How do you know that name?” Ferdinand asked.

“A mutual friend of Andromeda and myself, Rigur Sherchower, came to the conclusion that her departure was out of the ordinary and that she was potentially in danger based on a letter she received before leaving.”

“I figured that he was involved somehow, I heard of him in my search for you. You two made quite the commotion in the capital.” Ferdinand said. Carrion continued.

“From there, she traveled with a man named Elias Boreus as support during the journey. Several events led up to a situation where she and Elias boarded a ship bound for Aeroae, but while in route she was attacked by Elias, A man named “Aldir Algoer”, and the rest of the crew. The details following this are fuzzy, but she came to rest in the office of a man named “Argram Gallery”, a known associate and former member of the Gallery Crowd here in Aeroae.” Carrion said.

“How long was all of this? I mean, this is a lot.” Argo asked.

“Ignoring the travel time between Trevias and Aeroae, everything from the moment Andromeda arrived on the island to now has only been roughly a week and a half.” Carrion said.

“Good lord, that poor girl…” Argo said.

“There is more, not long after meeting with Argram, it seems he played some part in accelerating the assassination issue. However, just before this situation came to light, I was assulted by a mage who seemed to know of her, and wanted me to find her. Once this man was dealt with, High Magister Ferdinand and Arch Mage Rapture found me, we then discovered Andromeda walking through the streets, of Aeroae, and we have contained her since.”

“That brings us to the current situation.” Ferdinand said. “At the moment, we have at least one unknown assailant looking for Andromeda, another assailant by the name of “The Arbiter” demending we bring her to their designated location, and Andromeda at the same time is currently experiencing severe trauma from an event that we can get into later. Needless to say, it has caused massive instability in her mind, body, and spirit that we must address.”

“This is where you three come in, after Ferdinand communed with Andromeda in her current state, she personally asked for your presence. She seemed very confident that between both of you that you might be able to help.”

“I’ve already said I’ll do my best’, but I don’t see anyway someone like me could help her out of this. I’m just a farmer, not some fancy mage or noble like the rest of you.” Argo said.

“Be that as it may, Andromeda did ask for your assistance, regardless of how new she is to the position, her word does carry weight. We only ask you do your best.” Carrion said.

Catherine frowned as he looked at the group gathered around him. "I need to ask, what is stopping you from simply taking her from the island and investigating this situation?"

"Andromeda is currently trapped by an oath of her own design. If she leaves, then it will be broken," Ferdinand explained.

Catherine was quick to ask, "What's wrong with breaking an oath?"

"When two parties perform an oath ritual, it binds their soul to the ritual in totality. Breaking the terms of the oath will cause the punishment clause to execute," Carrion interjected.

Ferdinand added, "That's nothing to say about having the status of Oathbreaker. There are numerous laws throughout Legoria that limit the actions of Oathbreakers."

Catherine nodded in understanding. "I see."

"Andromeda at the current moment has her soul destabilized, if she were to break an oath, the reverberations of that action might cause her situation to worsen," Carrion continued.

Ferdinand sighed. "That leads me to our current course of action, we need some sort of leg up on this 'Arbiter' person, as well as-"

Alice interrupted him, "Hold on, can we focus on finding a way to break the oath without harming Andromeda?"

The group fell silent.

“Did you not hear what was said before?” Ferdinand asked.

Alice took a deep breath and spoke up. "Hear me out, Andromeda is an Arch Mage. The social situation is one thing, but seeing as people already want her dead, I don't think it could get worse. Assuming we could prevent her soul from being damaged further, then there would be no real change overall."

Ferdinand looked at her skeptically. "And how do you propose we prevent her soul from being damaged further?"

“I can’t say for certain, but knowing Andromeda, it is likely due in part to her withholding something she shouldn’t.”

“Ah, yes, I mentioned it before. But I think that now is a good time to explain just what has happened to her.” Ferdinand said. He cleared his throat, and as he breathed, Alice could hear a tremor, as if something had shaken him deeply.

Ferdinand's words echoed through the room, each syllable landing with a heavy weight.

"Andromeda has bonded her soul with a Xixial," he began, his voice low and ominous. "Her reasons are her own, but I can attest that this isn't precisely what caused the trouble."

Alice felt her blood run cold at hearing the word “Xixial”.

"Rather," Ferdinand continued, "it was that in a bid to assist this being, she broke the boundaries between their minds. This drowned her in the memories of the Xixial."

Alice gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. Even Carrion, who had been stoic throughout the conversation, looked shaken.

"Andromeda, at this current moment, has genuine memories of killing thousands," Ferdinand went on. "And due to the way she bonded with this Xixial, she personally remembers it as her own actions."

“She…” Alice started.

“Andromeda truly feels as though she has killed thousands.” Ferdinand said grimly.