Hunting down something suitable for Lia to snack on had taken quite a bit longer than I originally had thought. We had ventured into the fields around the city, checking out a different part of the area instead of heading back towards the farm, but the fields there were just as deserted as the rest.

Maybe it was due to prior urbanisation, large swathes of land in the area had been turned into suburban developments, replacing the golden fields of wheat and corn with white picket fences, white-washed homes and a disturbingly uniform assortment of lawns and hedges. Either way, it took us a bit of time but Silva managed to pick up a scent, allowing us to follow after what I was reasonably certain was a hog of some sort. I wasn’t quite sure how wild the previously domesticated pigs had become over the last two months, but it was an interesting thing to watch. It was almost like domestication happened in reverse, just instead of it happening over the course of many generations, the change had made it happen in a few months. It made me wonder if my transformation into a Firn Elf was something similar, that maybe there was some sort of evolutionary connection. The idea somehow disturbed me, with it being in such a direct contradiction to the information I had received in the capsule when making my Avatar and later on Mundus. Maybe I didn’t want there to be a connection, maybe I truly wanted to believe that I was something other than human. That I was supposed to be something else?

Sometimes, I didn’t understand my own mind, let alone the strange twinges, shivers and bubbling sensations I occasionally felt since the change. At times, I felt as if something was pulling at me, altering my thoughts and pulling at my reason. There was a part of me that felt confident in what it might be, reminded me that I had felt the same sensations on Mundus, making me wonder if it was somehow related to the Legacy of Morgana, or maybe to my blessing.

Whatever the case may be, it was something I had been trying to keep an eye on, simply because I didn’t relish the idea that there was something other than my mind controlling my body. Something… irrational.

The only relief I felt about the situation was that the sensations were, almost certainly, not bestowed upon me from outside of myself. They were too fluid, too chaotic for that while, at the same time, too consistent. In addition, there was no sensation of magic around me, no unfamiliar scents or anything that I could detect. If anyone were to try influencing me from the outside, while having enough skill and power to prevent me from detecting the attempt, they’d do something more useful than put a strange, fluttering sensation into my gut when thinking about Sigmir, right?

Even right now, as we were tracking the hog, there were some shivers running down my spine, pushing my body into a state of alert. Vigilant, paranoid, cautious, a mix of battle-ready and anticipating the coming action, knowing that we would fight soon.

It didn’t take long for us to find the pig, as it was resting between some shrubs. Thanks to Silva, we were forewarned, allowing me to move quietly into position and strike with my Mind Magic. It was my old staple, a simple, almost crude, blast with my Mind Magic that stunned the pig, giving me enough time to push it into unconsciousness. There was little to no damage to it, not even any real harm, it was merely asleep. For now.

Lia quickly moved in after my attack struck, while I started to move the earth with my magic, carefully creating holes right under the pig’s legs. Pushing the earth aside like I did compressed it into the surroundings, hardening the walls of my little pitfalls as the pig’s legs slid in with a bit of guidance from Lia. Once the legs were buried in the ground, the pig was completely immobilised, simply because it couldn’t get any traction. It’s legs couldn’t bend, and its feet didn’t touch anything, making it impossible to do more than wiggle around. Even if it did manage to somehow roll over, doing so would almost certainly break its legs, unless it was resilient enough to dig them out with the movement. Incredibly unlikely, but given what attribute points and skills could do, I wasn’t completely certain.

But the plan worked out perfectly. There was no resistance as I walked up, drawing one of the blades I had enchanted as I did. It wasn’t a real athame, the only enchantment the blade had was one that would make the wound difficult to close, but it was better than nothing.

A swift cut and blood started to quickly flow from the pig’s neck, the pain enough to break through the Mind Magic I had put on it, causing it to frantically wiggle around as it made a racket to the best of its ability. Not that it had a lot of ability in that regard, immobilised as it was, but it certainly tried.

But it couldn’t stop me from placing a hand over the bleeding wound, using my Blood Magic to draw out its magical essence. Maybe it was thanks to my additional ability in Water Magic, maybe I simply had never actively tried to do anything fancy with Blood once it was out of the body but I was now able to magically move the liquid around without touching it. Not a terribly useful skill most of the time, but it certainly kept my hands clean in the literal sense. Amusingly, Lia wasn’t a huge fan of it, she apparently liked to be fed from my hand, even if my blood was a little too hot for her, after I had crossed the divide. Maybe if she crossed it herself in a week or so, but for now, it would overwhelm her.

As Lia sated herself, refilling her reserves, I began to wonder. On Mundus, there had been Blood Crystals, somewhat useful orbs made from magically enriched Blood, allowing the storage of Astral Power for later use. They had serious drawbacks, mostly in their highly limited shelf-life and the fact that they had a minute aura of Miasma, attracting Nethersprites, but they had their uses. While the aura had been an annoyance on Mundus, especially after I had gained multiple Deflier-Traits, I had yet to come across a Nethersprite on Terra. Without that trait increasing the amount of Miasma my Blood Magic created, though it also increased the amount of Power I could draw, it might be a serviceable idea to create a few Blood Crystals. It certainly would give me that extra punch when the time came to attack the Withered seriously. Rituals were about power, it didn’t matter where that power came from.

Carrying a few marble-sized crystals around was far preferable to lugging around life sacrifices, especially given that the sacrifices couldn’t be too damaged in transport or they’d lose their value. Something to look into, once Lia was happy.

Sadly, the pig was just too weak to have more than a few dregs left over after Lia had sated her thirst. Certainly not enough to create anything useful. Once it expired, we proceeded to the next step of our supply run, namely butchering the pig. We weren’t completely efficient, we didn’t bother taking some of the more annoying, and less desirable, parts of the pig, instead taking only the good parts for ourselves while allowing Silva to gnaw on the rest.

Suddenly, as Silva was going to town on her feast, her head shot up and she let out a soft growl, the noise she used to warn us of unseen enemies. My own reaction was to let my tongue flick out, trying to scent if there was magic in the air, as my eyes darted around, looking for what Silva had noticed.

Finding nothing, I realised that the wind had shifted a little, carrying scents from elsewhere to Silva’s nose. So, we couldn’t really know how far away the enemies were, only in which direction they were.

“Engage or leave?” I quietly asked Silva, knowing that she was the best to make an informed decision, given that she had all the information we had.

She let out another growl, licking up what little blood had stained her snout and started to move forward. It was clear that she wanted to hunt down whatever she had noticed, her intent almost as strong as back when we had first met the army of dog.

Quietly, like ghosts in the night, Lia and I started after Silva, Alex keeping hold of Lia’s cowl. They liked riding on her shoulder until it was time to engage or there was a need to split up. But now, we just needed to go somewhere, to do something only Silva knew about. But she was determined to see whatever it was done.