“I want to know how to free Solus from her tower. How to fix Lith’s life force. How I can turn from a hybrid into a complete being. How-”
“That’s enough.” His Mogar double cut Nalrond short. “Each question requires a complex answer and I doubt that your human mind can even grasp one of them.”
With a wave of Mogar’s hand, three small spheres of light appeared behind its back. Nalrond moved to take them, but the doppelganger stood in front of him.
“That knowledge is mine and you didn’t do anything to deserve it. Do you understand as much?” Mogar said.
“Are you going to stop me?” Nalrond asked.
“Of course not. It was just a friendly warning.” Mogar stepped away, leaving the path clear.
Nalrond had no idea what sphere answered what question so he started from the rightmost. The moment the Rezar extended his hand, the sphere shapeshifted into a man with sharp features, a well-groomed beard, and cruel silver eyes.
The unknown figure had both his hand and feet chained to his waist. He wore dirty rags that bore the insignia of a broken Griffon, the mark of traitors sentenced to death.
His body was dirtier than his clothes and it bore the marks of prolonged torture, yet the man stood as straight as an arrow. The authority the man emitted and his steel gaze intimidated Nalrond, making it hard for him even to meet the man’s gaze.
“How dare a peasant attempt to touch the King?” Arthan said while slapping Nalrond so hard that the hit sent him sprawling on the floor.
Even though the Mad King had been dead for centuries and none of the events in the white space was real, Nalrond felt pain. In the real world, his lip split and his cheek turned purple as if someone had hit him.
With his sight still blurry from the shock, the Rezar approached the middle sphere. The moment it started to transform, he jumped back before what looked like a precious Forgemastering hammer bashed his skull open.
“You’ve got guts to try stealing my secrets, kid. Do it again and they will be all over the place.” The woman wielding the hammer was quite short, barely 1.56 meters (5’1″) tall, with hair of the seven colors of the elements that reminded him of Faluel.
Menadion was covered in wounds and blood, most of which belonged to her. Her disheveled head and ripped clothes made her look like she had just finished a fight to the death, yet the light in her eyes told Nalrond she was ready to start over.
“Let me guess…” He extended his hand toward the last sphere and dodged just in the nick of time before a clawed hand ripped his throat.
A Rezar had taken its place, but unlike the other apparitions, it didn’t speak. A snarl conveyed everything it had to say.
“What does this mean? You agreed to answer my questions?” Nalrond said without taking his eyes off the spirits.
“When did I do that, exactly?” Mogar tilted its head. “I came here because you called me and I asked you what were your questions because that’s the only reason humans seek me. To take what doesn’t belong to them.”
“For the last time, I’m not human. I’m a hybrid!”
“So says the man who literally thinks the world of himself and who can’t even shapeshift inside his own mind.” Mogar shook their head, annoyed.
“I’m not a library. This is how I process information. By recording the entire existence of all those who walked my surface. If you want your answers, all you have to do it’s to touch them. One single touch will be enough.”
“If they are just memories, how can they be so strong?” He asked.
“Death doesn’t make a mind weaker. Those shades represent all they were and all they knew. To get what you want you must overcome them.” The doppelganger said.
Nalrond tried to activated Fusion Magic, but nothing happened. Then, he tried to weave a spell to restrict the shades just to realize that there was no elemental energy to call upon.
‘Dammit, I keep forgetting this is my mind. I don’t get why Mogar even bothers receiving non-Awakened if anyone without Spirit Magic has no way to fight. Dawn has…’ The thought struck at him like a hammer.
‘Dawn has been inside the Fringe for centuries and yet when Lith and I faced her, she resorted to Odi technology to research a way to solve her problem. Why would she do that if she had already gotten her answer from Mogar?
‘The good news is that if she failed, then there must be a way to succeed that isn’t related to Spirit Magic. The bad news is that I don’t know what it is.’
Nalrond rushed against the Rezar, the enemy that he knew best. The creature sidestepped the extended hand and slashed at his head with its 30 centimeters (1 foot) long claws.
Nalrond dodged the attack while following the enemy’s movements. The other two shades didn’t interfere in their fight, even returning to their pure energy form.
Nalrond felt reassured and pressed forward. In the white space, speed wasn’t a matter of muscles, only of will. He almost grabbed one of the arms of the creature multiple times as he realized the truth about his condition.
With each failed attempt he made, Nalrond could feel ideas popping in his mind, reaching a clarity and understanding about hybrids like never before. The problem was that as soon as the Rezar got even one step away, all the knowledge Nalrond had gained would fade away, like memories from a dream.
After Nalrond’s hand grazed one of its claws, the creature snarled and unleashed a spell that closely resembled Dawn’s Daybreak. Scorching spears of light pierced Nalrond’s limbs and chest while the cloud of darkness that surrounded them ate at his whole being.
Nalrond tried to conjure his own hard-light construct to defend himself, but failed. Life fusion didn’t trigger as well, leaving him completely open to the attack. As his being started to fade, the white space cracked from every direction, letting Mogar’s flow of consciousness in.
“You bit more than you could chew, human. Now come to me.” Nalrond-Mogar said.
Nalrond could feel his mind going adrift as a choir of voices invaded his head. In the real world, his body had sustained the same injuries as his mind, bleeding profusely from wounds so big that his companions could look through them.
“What the heck is happening?” Friya started to heal his injuries the moment they formed, just like she had healed the damage from Arthan’s slap.
Yet without the protection that only Quylla’s circle had provided him, Nalrond would have already died on the spot like all those who had failed to commune with the planet.
“I guess he’s failed and Mogar is claiming its prize.” Morok said while doing his best to support her. Despite their best efforts, the Rezar’s body was slowly dissolving due to darkness magic.
“Less chatting more healing. Go all-out.” Quylla said while using her tier one healing spell, Injection, to spread nutrients potions and tonics directly into Nalrond’s bloodstream.
