Hours later, Rethys walked back to the entrance of the poachers' encampment, guiding its previous inhabitants outside.
All nine of them lined up before the door, six men and three women wearing thick leathers and furs. Their eyes were no longer blank, and their steps were once again even, they took time to check themselves thoroughly. They appeared quite awake, shuffling around as they did, but not yet sober, as their actions were still dictated by Sevi's commands.
"You will have no recollection of what took place in the past six hours, or of the location of this cave." She began. "Once I give the word, you all will leave this cave and head towards the closest center of governance you know of, and, upon reaching it, divulge the nature of the actions you took here and surrender yourselves to the law. You are to carry out this task to the best of your abilities, after which your minds may be free.
"That is all. Go."
Thinking of it more clearly, Rethys realized that the mercenaries would get off pretty easily aside from getting a fine or two and their credibility taking a hit. As for the noble, he truly did not know how things would work for him.
Hearing her words, the cohort of nine filed outwards in an orderly fashion, walking quickly and steadily until they disappeared from sight. Being unable to follow their movements through the ether confused Rethys for a second before he shook his head and turned around, walking back into the camp.
His first stop was their Antinem's laboratory, where an enchanted chest kept his food preserved with cold Water magic.
The container was quite decrepit, and Rethys could tell that it was hastily made. The wood evidently could not withstand the rigors of the magic it contained, and seemed to leak cold vapor from many angles. The whole room must have been quite cold because of it, though Rethys couldn't tell.
He pried it open, grabbed the best foods he could find, which seemed to be roasted meat and some sort of vegetable broth, sat on a table, and began waiting for the food to warm up enough to be edible.
"Sevi, are you sure we can just stay here? I thought we needed to get away as soon as possible."
"Yes, I am sure." She responded. "It is like you said, we can stay here a day or two whilst we plan our next move. As for why... well, the teleportation disaster should have attracted some attention, but it instead attracted none. Most peculiar, but nothing to worry about, I am sure. None would take these steps only to antagonize us in the end, for now we need only wait."
"What's with the wishful thinking." He frowned, staring the frigid broth he poured into a bowl. "I didn't expect you of all people to leave things to chance."
"There is no chance in this matter. If my theory is correct, then there would be nothing to worry about, good or bad. And if it is not correct, then we were simply lucky and have lost nothing."
Rethys shrugged, ignoring Sevi's usual cryptic musings and focusing on the food before him. Time passed before things looked edible enough, at which point he dug in.
The food was satisfactory. It didn't taste like anything, his body's numbness seemingly extending to that as well, yet didn't inflict wracking headaches on him like the previous things he ate did. It was underwhelming at first, yet the more he put in his mouth, the faster his hand moved.
He ate, and ate, then slipped into a feeding frenzy as his body acclimated once more to normal food.
The more he ate, the more his body wanted. He was hungry. He was beyond famished. He had forgotten that the battle with the Terminus Legionnaire had lasted an upwards of three weeks during which he had nothing to drink or eat, his body sustained solely by Sevi's magics.
He devoured everything he could get his hands on until his body could take no longer. And through it all, he felt a strange heat rising in gut, yet he ignored it up until he ran out of food and turned to the water, gulping all of it and dousing the furnace that he felt burning in his stomach.
He reclined on the chair, feeling the closest thing to fulfillment and relief his broken and twisted body could experience. And compared to everything he had been through until now, it felt like bliss.
"You can see that mages eat more than regular civilians." Sevi chuckled. "And in an hour or two, you will sorely regret eating all of that in the hurry you did."
"I don't care." He replied as he released a loud and satisfied belch.
He sunk deeper into the chair, letting his body relax and his thoughts untangle. The world without his magical senses suddenly seemed much more tolerable.
"So, what's the plan now?" He asked.
"Simple." Sevi replied. "We establish a laboratory where we can conduct research that would allow us to understand both our natures and bend them to our will. For you, it is freedom from the influence of that entity of yours as well as understanding of your element and cure from my corruption. As for myself, it is freedom from the soulstone and return to humanity."
"Great..." Rethys sighed. "Research... fantastic..."
"I say research, but what we need to do is first find a way to insert ourselves into Voldren's institutions and systems, at which point we can siphon off their knowledge and work and make both our lives easier. This includes either joining the nation itself and its forces, or those of the international Mage Order, though both are restrictive and inquisitive, and trying to find our way into either of them is not without its risks.
"If push comes to shove, we can move into another of the southern domains, though from what that Antinem told us, that would be quite the downgrade. Your kingdom seems more competent than I expected of a monarchy, and much more than you give it credit for, Rethys. Especially in magic, as even though theirs has not overtaken that of my kingdom in power, it certainly has in intricacy."
"You haven't seen the worst parts. The slums and useless nobles." Rethys spat, his voice loathsome.
"I understand your frustrations, but..." Sevi sighed. "It matters not. You will see, in time. We will both see, for that matter. In any case, let us for now focus on a method of establishing ourselves. You will obviously be the one serving as the face of the two of us, and already things are being too troublesome."
"Yeah..." Rethys sighed, covering his face with his hand.
Antinem, though a second-rate magician and nothing to write home about, had good enough knowledge of all the institutes of magic in the Voldren Kingdom. This included all its Noble academies, the Royal academy of Naldras, and the Order's magic towers peppered here and there. And Rethys' chances of entering any of them was close to nil.
Put simply, he was too strange to not arouse suspicions, and the slightest mishap would get both of them found out, then killed or worse.
"You are far too old to be a candidate for the academies. Perhaps the Order's towers can provide a suitable alternative, but then we would have to find a way to explain your talent in such a strange age, and that is after figuring out an element for you to adopt that is not Origin or Blood. This is troublesome indeed..." Sevi mused.
"Explain the second part there." Rethys interrupted.
"In short, magical ability either appears in the very young, who are talented, or the very old, who have simply lived long enough for their element to manifest naturally. What you know as mages simply perform core evolution or have it performed on them at an earlier age, it eventually happens to everyone given enough time, you see. Your age of seventeen is... unhelpful at best." She explained.
"Yeah..." He sighed. "So, what are our options?
"Well, we have three options. The first is to risk it all and go through with trying to work our way into some institution or other, which I do not recommend. The second is to simply live as hermits and search for knowledge away from prying eyes and without any foundation to speak of, which-
"-Is completely impossible." Rethys completed it for her.
He remembered how it went for his master whenever they sold materials and tools or bought them themselves, with Fulgrith carrying badges and papers and proofs of station and credentials, passing screening after screening to acquire the simplest item. Voldren was very, very tight with handling anything magical, and Rethys knew that first-hand.
"-would take time." Sevi resumed. "It would not be outright impossible, though it... may as well be, yes. As for our third option, it would be to join daemon worshippers while pretending to be part of their ilk. I would rather not do that."
"I understand..." Rethys groaned. "If only I was younger, huh..."
It was at that moment that he realized he was too old to even reliably get a regular job or learn a trade amidst commoners. The only thing he ever had was his apprenticeship under Fulgrith, and that...
He shook his head, the ether wasn't there to distract him anymore, and he felt his emotions bubbling to dangerous degrees. He exhaled, trying not to think of it.
Instead, he thought of how hard it would be as he currently was. If before he was a street orphan, now he was at best an incredibly suspicious outsider to the country.
"We'll think it over tomorrow." He uttered as he rose.
"As you wish." Sevi answered.
He headed towards the washroom Antinem had prepared for himself, which was just a few large tubs and a magic tool fitted with an etherstone that served as a water source. He noted that the etherstone was strange, nothing like the ones he knew from Yvtar. He touched it, sending his senses into it directly. It appeared to be of much lower quality.
"How can a civilization of eight hundred years ago have better magic than us?" He muttered.
"Yvtar fell a thousand and a hundred years ago, actually. Give or take a few dozen years." Sevi chimed in. "But regardless, it is natural that those used by these poachers are lesser than those we found there."
That aside, however, the poachers seemed to have gotten themselves quite comfortable and established in this place, as it was well furnished. There was even a magic tool fitted with a Fire etherstone, presumably used for heating up the water, though Rethys did not bother with it.
Turning around, he caught his reflection in a mirror, eyes glowing with Origin. He had looked like shit the last time he saw himself, and now he looked even worse. Still, that was why he came here.
He lingered on the sight of his missing left arm, cut off at the shoulder. It was still hard to wrap his head around it.
He then looked at the rest of himself, at the grime that covered every bit of his body. He had not thought about any of this while in Yvtar, and still couldn't feel much of it, yet it dissatisfied him nonetheless.
Tearing what remained of his tattered pants from his skin, he walked towards the wooden tubs, soap in hand, and got to work.
A while later, he walked out of the washroom and into the nobleman's bedroom, wiping his body and drying his hair on towels before rummaging through the previous inhabitant's belongings looking for clothes. He found them, pants and shirt and the rest of it, all woven from seemingly good cloth, nobility material. He wore them, and though he could not feel their touch on his skin, he was still satisfied with their apparent smoothness and the sound they made.
He then plopped down on the soft mattress, tried to think back to the food he ate and the comforts of the washroom and latrine, but in the end couldn't spend but a few moments before falling asleep.
"Good night, Rethys." Sevi voiced.
"Good... night..." He replied before his mind slipped into the dark and quiet.
*****
Rethys stirred, his mind trying to snap back to combat readiness before first realizing that his senses were withdrawn and feeling the intense hunger clawing at him. It seemed that even with the staggering amounts of food he had gone through yesterday, his body remained insatiable, asking for more.
He spared a glance with his senses at Sevi. She was fast asleep, and he didn't bother her.
Having eaten all of Antinem's own food, he walked toward the mercenaries' canteen, his steps sluggish and drowsy. He couldn't remember when he last afforded himself such carelessness, though remembering Sevi's words, he felt that he had earned it.
He arrived at the canteen and, grabbing anything edible he could find, sat down at a table and began going through it.
But just as he was beginning to enjoy his meal, something changed around him. Something had arrived, something so wildly different from anything Rethys had ever seen or experienced before that he didn't need his Origin senses to feel it coming. He instantly moved to awaken Sevi.
"We have company." He briefly stated as the Stabilize spell reverberated through him.
"I can tell." She replied. "Keep your wits about you."
Then it spoke.
"A living magical anomaly and the corpse of a god walk into a poachers' camp." A deep and serene voice resounded from behind the duo. "Don't be so alarmed, you two. I come in peace."
Rethys didn't dare turn around or move in the slightest, for though the voice sounded and even felt amicable, its aura was beyond anything he could imagine.
He saw a shadow pass by him, propping a chair on the opposite end of the table and sitting on it. The man then leaned on the table, peering into Rethys' eyes that peered at him in turn.
The man's appearance was thoroughly unimpressive, but in no bad way, with long jet-black hair and soft brown eyes. He was tall and handsome, though not so much as to stand out, and with a sturdy build that retained a certain agility. His visage exuded at the same time a cold and hard intelligence, and a warm, familiar air. He seemed wise but friendly, trustworthy even.
The man's magical aura on the other hand, was wholly unique, and extremely vivid regardless of whether or not Rethys' senses were active. Yet Rethys couldn't use that aura to gauge the mysterious man's power, the only thing he could tell was that the man's primary element was that of Earth.
His aura communicated one grand but simple message, that of absolute dominion. A complete and utter conviction that nothing would befall anyone as long as they were near him, nothing that he did not will.
Rethys knew then and there that no matter what he did, no matter how long he lived, or who he defeated, or what he wielded, or who or what he was, or who stood behind him, that he would never be able to defeat this man. Before him sat the apex of all might, wholly and without question.
He felt like an ant, facing against the mountain whole.
"The Titan..." Sevi murmured, the words sending shivers down Rethys' spine.