Day and night, day and night.
The cold, dark room of the dungeon is occupied by the archmage, his faithful companion fairy, and the monstrous undead that is experimented on.
The objective is to learn how it works. He knows that burning them deals with them permanently yet the knight is still...alive if it could be called that away. Animated perhaps? Even with the mana fire that now rests inside of him, constantly burning but never eating the knight from the inside out.
Days have passed and the corpse seems no different than when Das brought it with him from the village.
He sits on the chair with his face in his hands, exhausted after four full days without sleep. Feeling like he may be about to fall asleep he quickly stands up and lets his art help him pull one more night.
Magic.
His hands glow with the green light of life as his worn-out brain is filled with renewed strength. Yet even he knows this has a limit.
Drachen whoever is resting comfortably on his neck, her head is the only part of her body visible, mouth digging into his skin, sucking his blood to feed herself.
This never bothered Das, he literally felt nothing from her bitting except a minor need to scratch now and then but it was so fleeting and mild that he never actually tried to.
The room of the dungeon now looks slightly different. It is cleaner, to begin with, and extra tables have been added, now the resemblance with his own room back at the tower is almost uncanny.
If it wasn't for the dismembered body of the monster knight laying on the torture bed, now placed horizontally for better comfort when slicing him open, this would almost feel cozy for Das.
The books and scroll in all places. Books were always for looking up information while the scrolls used to write his own analysis and theories or observations. There were far more scrolls than books and many more were thrown on the ground without care and step on. Useless ones that proved wrong or lead to nothing.
He stretches an arm to the side and struggles to find the leftover bread from last night. It's once he stands up to look for it on the messy table that he remembers he already ate it.
Letting out a tired, heavy sigh he turns to look at the dissected monster on the table. He approaches it and rests his hands on the wooden bed.
The creature is cut open in the middle. Exposing the burnt organs that somehow still move despite missing entire chunks of flesh, courtesy of Das's fire blast that left a hole in the chest of the monster.
The mana fire still burns, like the barely lit campfire of an abandoned outpost or encampment. Exactly how it still doesn't eat him fully confuses and frustrates Das, it is his magic, yet he can't understand one bit of it.
"How" He whispers, looking at the face of the knight who returns his stare with a blank and indecipherable look of his own "Nothing makes sense, you have no mana in your body so you are not kept alive by it but it would be impossible for you to be animated in any other way"
He walks up to another table and stretches a large scroll with a detailed drawing of the knight's anatomy. Not different at all to that of a common human being.
"I found no marks of stitches or otherwise unnatural bodies inside of you, so you can't be a golem of some kind either, and even if I had found any, never before has anyone seen something like that"
The haunting image of the self-proclaimed, Phantom King, appears like an ironical ghost in his head. Within the security of his mind, the image is no longer intimidating or mysterious, instead, it is analyzes as much as possible.
All the questions that come from what he faced that day, the stranger's ability to levitate, his capacity to become an ethereal being, weakness to healing light, and shadowy, deadly copies of himself.
Was he another mage?
The thought almost made him shiver.
But it wouldn't make sense, for mages never have a weakness to one of the primal elements like the stranger did and what was more important, he didn't have black hair. There was always the possibility that he had dyed his hair but it wouldn't look so real...or well, what did he knew about hair?
He runs his fingers through his own hair and the weight of his burning questions seems to be lifted momentarily, he's been locked up too long in this place, it's about time he goes out and gets some fresh air.
He grabs a large, brown blanket and covers the knight beneath it. It is obvious he is getting nowhere with his research and all that's left is to wait for Afzal to appear with a sudden discovery about this unknown art.
While it angers him to have to depend on someone else for something he needs, given the uniqueness of this problem, he knows there is nothing else he can really do.
Leaving the room of the now-empty dungeon and the silent barracks he is greeted by the orange sky and the cool morning breeze. It already alleviates his body.
He walks the long path to his tower, thinking all the way through how much easier would it be if he could just levitate there. Cursed runes.
"DAS!!"
The young archmage jumps when he is shouted at, he turns in the direction of the voice and sees princess Lioth rushing towards him in a new extremely elaborate dress, her hair moves freely behind her.
She comes to a full stop directly in front of him and grabs his arm. She looks pissed.
"You never came to see me!" She complains tugging his arm "I haven't seen you in ages! Come with me to the city!" Her face lights up at the last words as she moves both of them towards the corridor Das just came from.
"Oh! I have been so busy, sorry I couldn't make it, but-"
"I FORGIVE YOU! now let's go!" She says flashing him a wide smile.
"Actually, I was thinking about taking a bath and changing clothes" He says showing her the now brownish ends of his cloak.
But all he manages to do is make her realize that he has blood on him. Her attitude changes and she leans closer to him to inspect the stain on his tunic.
"Are you alright? Did you got hurt?" She asked, her concerned eyes looking at his face now.
"N-No! I was doing some experiments in the dungeons so I got a little dirty" He makes sure to hide his body with the cloak.
She eyes him suspiciously, but this is fleeting, her optimistic smile returns and she resumes her attempts to drag him to the city with her.
"I'm glad, let's go now! I will buy your favorite sweets!"
Das feels the temptation to agree to her offer but the thought of going to the city is enough to overcome his love of sweets.
"Really, Lio, I should just return to my tower. It's unbefitting of a princess to have a mage as a company" Das manages to free his arm and takes a few steps away from the princess.
"I have read many stories where kings used to have mages as their right hand! An those were not tales!" She says folding her arms in front of her.
"Then I'm sure you also know of the countless other stories of mages burning cities and eating children. Time's change, princess" Das says giving his back to her and walking away.
"But! I don't care what they say anyway! I want you to come with me!"
"It's for the best, you will understand when you get older" Das waves her goodbye with the back of his hand.
"TODAY IS SUNDAY!" She yells, her voice cracking.
Das stops.
Lioth looks at the ground and tightly grabs the skirt of her dress. The two of them remain silent for a moment, when enough time has passed Lioth releases her hold of the skirt and turns around.
"Alright, I'm sorry to bother you" She says and walks up from where she came from.
"Wait" Das says, making her immediately turn to him "Just, let's not go through crowded places, I have only been to the city a few times" He walks up to her, giving her a weary smile.
Her face lights up in excitement as she crashes on him, hugging him tightly and taking his hand.
"I promise they won't even know you are with me!" She says giggling with happiness.
Das lets himself be dragged by the princess, confident that with his get-up, he may just pass for an old advisor or scribe or guardian. He however realizes two things once they are in the city.
First. Of course, she wasn't going to be alone.
Six of her personal guard stand around the two of them in a large circle, making sure there are five meters between the princess and them. Everyone nearby watches in awe at the princess or scoffs in the annoyance of having to suddenly move away from whatever stall they were in because she wanted to check what was in the sale.
Secondly.
While he may pass by a beggar or very old, wise man that takes care of the princess. His young face and the obvious, magical artifact on his hands were a dead giveaway of who he was.
"Look at this troll toy!" The princess excitedly shows off the wooden doll of a poorly made troll that doesn't look like one at all at Das.
"W-Woah, it's just like one" He replies.
"I thought they were less hairy" She whispers turning at the merchant "I want it! How much?" She smiles at the well-dressed man standing in front of the wooden wagon that probably served as both his store and living quarters.
"For you my princess it's free!" He says pressing both hands together and smiling at her.
"For real! Thank you!" She happily says walking near one of her guards.
Almost instinctively the guard, whose whole aura remembers one of the vultures, lifts his arm and shows he is carrying a bag where to store whatever she buys. Also, showing what lies beneath the leather cloak.
An elaborate set of leather armor, with many straps and knives, completely covered in it not a single spot of the flesh beneath is visible. Everything was as white as his cloak.
She happily stores the toy and moves on to the next wagon.
"You saw it first! The princess LOVES my product! She has a fine eye! Come see for yourselves!" The merchant immediately shouts and manages to catch the attention of a few, impressionable people that quickly run to his wagon to inspect what he offers.
As the two of them moved around the street, Das felt a different kind of calmness seeing the young princess so full of life. It made him realize how pretty the city was around him.
How every house had a different design on its doors or how the street was as clean it could be. The smell of freshly baked bread made him hunger and the sound of laughter and awe felt like so much more than the usual annoyance.
"Das! Look, look!"She shouts, pointing at a nearby bakery that was just placed on the tables their finest apple pies. Das's favorite.
She races forward and Das follows close behind.
"My beautiful princess" The owner of the bakery, an elderly woman, bows her head at the sight of the young girl "Please, have a taste" She smiles warmly at her while holding out a slice of pie
"Oh my, thank you" Lioth blushes and bows her head in response, and grabs the slice, she takes a bite of it and screams with her mouth closed, chews, swallows, and speaks at Das "Take a bite! It's so good" She hands him what's left "It's an amazing pie" She turns at the old lady.
"Please, you embarrass me my princess" She humbly bows her head once again, a welcoming smile on her wrinkled face.
His eyes too lighted up and a thin smile grew once the warm baked good was firmly held by his hand. He couldn't actually feel the warmth, he couldn't feel anything at all on his arms. But he knew it was warm.
He takes a bite out of it and the sweetness is shocking. The smoothness of it, the texture, and especially the flavor, it was all perfect.
"It's really amazing" He says out loud, looking at the old lady.
Whose eyes remind him of who he is. For she looks at him the same way you would look at a thief who smiles at you after taking that which you treasure the most. Full of hatred and disdain.
As if his touch had corrupted the work of her life and, maybe it had.
Das's expression returned to the usual, serious one. He turns around and keeps following the princess in her spree of receiving free stuff and glamorous ovation from the simple fact of her birth.
He looked at her. Blessed since the moment she came to the world.
And looked at himself. Cursed, by existing in the same world.
They were separated by only a meter of distance and yet, it felt like each second it increased more and more. Until she looked far away, out of reach. The laugher and compliments that were thrown at her by everyone around them soon grew quiet.
Replaced by the whispers about the mage that walked beside her. He could hear them, he knew what they were saying.
"The monster"
"Don't look at him"
"He shouldn't be here"
Cautious parents, mischievous children, elderly people. They all beret him and tormented him. For the sins of a people he never knew, for things he never did.
"Are you alright?" His father asked.
He blinks and is the princess who stands in front of him, not his father.
Looking around he realizes that they are back inside the palace grounds and the princess looks at him with an eyebrow raised.
"You haven't eaten your pie" She says pointing at what's left of the treat in his hand.
"I was just thinking" He says, giving her a small smile before taking another bite out of the pie. It's bland.
Suddenly, the princess crashes onto him and squeezes him hard in a hug.
"Thank you so much for coming with me. I know you don't like crowds but...I missed you"
Das now smiles with genuine joy and hugs her back.
"Any time, Lio"
"Now, bath! You smell like the dead!" She says suddenly pushing him away, before smiling broadly and leaving with her guard to enter the palace.
Das then laughs to himself, amused by the energetic princess.
But happy.