There exists a place where the soul calls home, each one is unique, and if you can find it… interesting things begin to happen.

  -Lost Archive of the fallen Uthean Pantheon-

  Light shapes from my hands becoming an orb as the spirit I called takes form. He doesn’t look like he did when I knew him. He doesn’t even look like he did in his memories, when he was still a young man with hope, a man with dreams. He definitely doesn’t look like the man who took the peace of my dreams. In a way I feel sorry for him. Seeing his memories… changed me. It made me realize that even the most noble intentions can become corrupted.

  “Why do you keep summoning me…” he rasps, his ethereal eyes glow red, fixed on the sunset, “Can’t you let me wallow in my grief?”

  “Once you teach me what you know.”

  He looks down at the sand, it wouldn’t move even if he had legs. It’s like when Sera is here, but not here. He’s unable to interact physically, besides emitting light and faint traces of my mana.

  To me and everyone else, the once proud Lich Adaraic just looks like a small ball of red light with slightly darker red eyes plopped in the center of his orblike body. Little wisps of flame dance on the edges of him. Sage told me the red color is because his spirit is corrupted. Apparently, if my synergy with the skill improves, I’ll be able to make the summons look more like they did before. There hasn’t been much time to try it, and summoning takes a decent amount of mana. Being level seven again, my mana is pretty shit. Between summoning and honing my healing skill with Dorliac, I don’t have much by the end of most days.

  Adaraic turns to glare at me, he’s been pretty moody, understandably so.

  “Teaching you is like slamming my head against a stone wall to churn butter.”

  I blink at him, fighting back the urge to say he doesn’t have a head anymore, since I crushed it under my boot. More flies with honey… more flies with honey.

  “Be that as it may, I’m ready for the next lesson.”

  He snarls, but I can’t see it, I can just hear it. Still haven’t figured out how to give them mouths yet. The whole summoning thing is much more complicated than I thought it would be.

  “Mana is the lifeblood of magic, the soul accumulates it naturally, but it cannot use it easily without a body. With a soul tethered to a body, it can shape reality, so long as it understands the basic principles of it. The system wants you to believe that you must possess a skill before you can use it.”

  This is the first time he’s said this. Sage told me something similar before, about runic classes. The system bridges the gap of understanding and allows them to use runic imprints that would have taken much longer to manually make. It’s the same with most skills, it acts like the blueprint, making a skill that would have a ridiculous cost for someone unskilled in it be more manageable. A shortcut so to speak.

  “Before the system came, my world had magic… as did many others which I burned.”

  There is no pride in his tone, just the slight undertone of regret, like he’s realized everything was for nothing. He pauses for a while before continuing.

  “I can teach you the fundamentals of mana tracing, shaping will into a physical thing. I can teach you what Azeroc taught me. What we used to gain advantage when our levels reset each cycle change. Something that the system can’t take even if it removes your levels.”

  This is what I really need from him, besides teaching me about his spells. The unbound question I asked Sage led me to this moment. Sage told me that he couldn’t teach it to me. Teaching a mortal of such a thing is expressly against the rules. My one question wasn’t enough to ask that one too.

  Adaraic looks at me with measured intent. Here comes the catch. It’s not the first time he’s asked.

  “But you must agree to tether me to a body so I can…”

  “I’m not helping you get a body so you can find another god to pledge yourself to, and start your revenge arc on me and Earth.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  He snarls again.

  “They were never going to resurrect the ones you loved, part of you knows that.”

  “You’re lying.”

  I shake my head, “Sera, the one above Azeroc’s pantheon of death gods, she told me they never pay up. They just wipe your memories. Rinse and repeat, endlessly.”

  I intentionally left out the part where they all thought it was hilarious to corrupt good natured people, and that they collected them, like trading cards.

  “He would not lie… you are the deceiver.”

  “Did he come to help you in your time of need? Or was he too afraid to step on Ulana’s domain?”

  He doesn’t respond, his ethereal wisp eyes move back to the sunset.

  “He was right to stay away from your trickery. Without it…”

  “Yeah, I know, you would have won.”

  He sighs.

  “Look, I don’t want to be another asshole who lies and says I’ll bring you and your loved ones back,” I begin, shifting my stance, “But what I can promise is that I will try to get you to them. In the afterlife, or whatever happens after.”

  “You don’t even know what comes after and yet you make promises…”

  “I said I’d try, I’m not promising I can. Just that I’ll try.”

  “You are a mortal, no one will give you what you seek, not as you are now.”

  “Then help me get stronger. Help me so that I can try and help you.”

  He doesn’t speak for a time, I’m not sure if it’s to burn my mana or because he’s debating helping me. Each time I’ve asked he gives crumbs to show he has knowledge, but he never follows through with…

  “The first step is to build a mana core.”

  “How do I do that?”

  “You need to feel magic in its natural state. Become saturated with it and enter the realm of your soul.”

  “Okay, and where is that?”

  He turns to look at me again, “The place between reality and your soul. The place they are connected. If you cannot find it, then it is hopeless to teach you.”

  “If I find it, then I can use magic without the system?”

  He sighs, “One can always use magic without the system. So long as they understand it, and it is present to use.”

  ***

  My lessons with Adaraic for once seemed to go well. Not that I like learning from him. He’s more patient than I thought he would be though. I think Mwangi was right, he might come around. Not like he has much choice.

  Sage told me that the process I needed to learn from Adaraic was a foothold, eventually I’ll need to find another to teach me. He had a few in mind, of the ones I know, I only liked one. Though I’m not sure if Ulana would help with that. Either way, this is a long plan, one that will take many, many years apparently.

  Plant the seeds, see what grows. My new outlook on planning. If getting pulled around by cosmic entities taught me anything, it’s that you should always plan for a shitstorm.

  “Scouts came back,” Greymore says as I approach, he’s standing with Mwangi.

  “I know, I saw them when I was doing my lessons.”

  “Did Mr. Grumpy-ass-bitch give you anything useful?” Greymore asks, folding his arms.

  “For once, maybe.”

  Mwangi smiles and pats me on the shoulder, “Progress then. What about with those foxes and the Wyvern?”

  “Wyvern still just growls, and I promised Cleo that I wouldn’t call the foxes when Niva is around, at least not until I can summon them as they are meant to look.”

  “Understandable, what about the rest?”

  “Didn’t have time, running low on mana.”

  I’d use mana stones, but they mess you up for a few days if you use them too much. Besides that, I don’t really agree with how most are farmed, and only want to use them in an emergency. Just another fucked up thing they do to fight the gates. Carry the torch.

  Looking at Greymore, “What did the scouts say?”

  “There’s a settlement of some kind about two days north.”

  “Two days, how’d they manage to find it in a day?”

  “Quickstep rogue skill, a bunch of mana stones,” Greymore spits, looking up stoically, “And a whole lot of hooah.”

  “Huh, they okay?”

  “Eh, they will be. Not their first rodeo. Anyway, they said there’s an oasis there, lots of vegetation and stuff as well.”

  “Looks like we have a plan.”

  Greymore nods, “Get some sleep, we should leave early to beat the sunrise.”

  “Roger that.”

  Moving toward my sleeping area I see Mira and Cortez in conversation, it looks… civil. Verantha is near them as well, surprisingly. Looks like she got over her terror of Mira, or perhaps she’s just keeping an eye on her. Keep your enemies close logic. She seems different though, more… relaxed.

  “Well, having a dragon is not like having a pet. It’s like having a partner, the bond is different for me and her. Given that my first class was…” she pauses, looking up at me, a wry smile wisping the side of her mouth, “I hear you keep a pet Lich, darling, fun isn’t it?”

  “I think our definitions of fun might be different,” I say, recalling how her old companion was turned into a bone mask. I take a seat next to Cortez.

  Tran and Barlow soon follow over and sit in the growing circle.

  “Mira,” Tran begins, his face scrunching a little, “I’m sorry that I tried to touch your… horns.”

  Her eyes narrow.

  “And that I’ve been staring at your… yeah.”

  “For fuck’s sake,” Barlow grumbles.

  “What? You said be honest in my apology.”

  “I didn’t mean… never mind,” Barlow sighs, giving me a weary nod. He’s been on ‘get Tran to behave’ detail and it’s wearing on him more than normal. I think there’s something weighing on him lately. Something he wants to talk about, but hasn’t found the words. He’s not one to complain though, and he always does more than his share, which generally makes up for Tran not wanting to.

  “Thank you for attempting an apology,” I say to Tran.

  Mira rolls her eyes, but doesn’t dignify it with a verbal response.

  “Everyone should get some sleep, we have an early day tomorrow, Greymore wants to leave before the sun comes up.”

  “I’m not tired,” Mira says musing her silver stranded hair on her finger, “My kind don’t require sleep as often as most.”

  “Demons?” Tran asks, perking up.

  She squints at him, as though she’s imagining making him into a mask. Then she sighs and says, “Drakaroth, but I believe your people mistakenly know us as, Dragonborn.”