In the story of Seventh Lord of Mindsna Saov was described as an incredibly magical land. It was also deeply cursed. I suppose that explained why Jacques de Asper was so desperate to become its sole ruler. If he succeeded, nothing could stop him to go all the way beyond the borders of Saov.

Potentially he would even be able to deal with the Eternal Battlegrounds breaking the curse that create them in the first place. In Seventh Lord of Mindsna there was a passage describing that calamity.

According to saovian legend local mages, alchemists and warlords united again the tyranny of Elder Dragons and created a weapon. With aid of this arcane weapon they should be able to shoot down the dragons from the sky. They fire it only once and something giant plummeted down. However, what they killed wasn’t actually one of the Elder Dragons, but one of their children.

Before the people of Saov were able to harvest the fallen dragonling, the Elder Dragons noticed the crime and converged. For a long time they disputed ways in which they should punish inhabitants of this land until they agreed on the only fate truly worse than death. 

Together the Elder Dragons descended on the island and with their claws ripped the rift in the world of the living, letting the Mist, energy of the world of dead pour into Saov.

That was a lot of background lore but it explained why the west and south coast of this land looked as they did. What was touched by the Mist was ripped out of the time and sometimes even its rightful space. Battles that never happened would be fought in ruins of cities that no longer existed. Forces of Vramus, Northern Dominion and Priat-Gva constantly crashed in the fogged forests, fighting over who will be the first to reach the heart of this labyrinth of memories and ghosts. To take the claim over Saov and its magic.

I liked those few chapters of the novel that took place on the Eternal Battlegrounds. It felt like a real adventure. Now, however, looking at the map of Saov with more or less marked the zones touched by Mist I felt a shiver running down my spine.

I would do anything to not end up in the middle of the Battlegrounds.

But it seemed it didn’t have that many options. Even if I tried to escape Saov completely, find a ship here, in Fonyas, one that will take me anywhere but away, how would I know for sure I can reach my destination? I was now inside the book. Within this fictional world, it was entirely possible that nothing that wasn’t described in the novel didn’t actually exist. I could board a ship sailing to Vrasmus and never see the empire because other than a few outposts in the Battlegrounds it simply didn’t exist.

Would I even be able to find such a ship if it was never mentioned in the book?

Either way, I couldn’t even walk out to the docks and see for myself, because Gael was already here. I wondered briefly if it was possible for me to even get rid of him or if his fate was sealed so if I tried I wouldn’t be able to kill him myself. Irrelevant.

In a way, the plot of Seventh Lord of Mindsna had already started and I was only another piece on the board. Somewhat aware of my surroundings and the story, but still only one of many pieces, not someone with real power like a protagonist…

Protagonist.

I smiled to myself as an idea struck me-

Suddenly there was banging on the front door. Even louder than Gael’s, and soon a gruff male voice followed.

“Open up! It’s City Guard!”

Gael walked out of the kitchen, face stuffed with a sandwich and eyes wide in alarm. “What’s going on?” he whispered.

I cursed under my breath. Of course, the idiot’s loud behavior just a few minutes before would draw someone's attention.

I rushed to the door, grabbed his backpack, and tossed it to him. “Hide yourself!” I whispered.

Gael grabbed his things without issue, but remained standing looking at me questioningly. I realized he didn’t know about the secret passage leading out of the house.

「 “Who knew your house would be as boring as-” Jacques couldn’t finish as Reyc hand slammed over his mouth. The man looked equal parts exasperated and horrified. Jacques suppressed the urge to lick his palm.

Reyc breathed slowly, waiting in nervous silence for the patrol outside of his house to pass by. Maybe he hoped that they won’t notice the broken seal over his front door. Jacques didn’t care either way.

The voices of patrolling men were incomprehensible but from the tone and raising volume, it was quickly becoming clear that Reyc’s scheme didn’t pay out. He cursed under his breath, and Jacques just snorted with laughter. It was such a nice evening to set something on fire.

He gathered the remains of his power and started conjuring the fireball between his outstretched hands when Reyc yanked him back by the collar of his robe. With a yelp, Jacques staggered back letting the magic dissipate. He was ready to turn around and maybe even do something terrible to his companion, but by now Reyc was just stuffing him into the cupboard under the stairs.

There in the darkness, under a few floorboards, was an opening leading to the sewers of Fonyas. 」

I remembered this detail from the book very well and swiftly recreated the scene, closing the passage after Gael and returning to the door before the knocking could become even more insistent.

On the other side, I saw two City Guards, a human and a dwarf, and accompanying them Exalted warrior standing a bit in distance behind.

“Oh, finally,” grumbled the human. “What are you mister thinking, making a ruckus in the middle of the night and then immediately falling asleep, huh?”

“I told you already,” chimed in dwarf while eyeing me, “doctor Reyc suffers from that somnambulling or whatnot…”

“Somnambulism,” I corrected the dwarf before I could stop myself. And then added at the confused look on the human guard’s face “Sleepwalking. I’m afraid I have fallen down the stairs in my sleep.”

I was amazed that not only these two City Guards seemed to know Reyc, but they also appeared to have enough respect for him to outright lie on his behalf right in front of the Exalted.

“Oh,” hummed the man as he took off the hat to scratch his bald head. “Would be bad if our good doctor broke something horribly. Well, since nothing happened and, you sir, look healthy enough, we’ll be going. A long night of patrolling…”

“Of course, of course…” I nodded and started to close the doors. However, Exalted’s deep voice rumbled momentarily spooking all three of us.

“Where is the other man?”

The City Guards looked at each other and then backed away, making space for the Exalted. They would no longer be of any help.

“What man?” I lied.

Exalted growled and stepped closer, slowly reaching out with his hand toward me. 

And at that moment, in the corner of my vision, I once again saw the notification window. But now instead of information about the character, I saw an expanding list of things that I immediately recognized to be spells.

Of course. In the end, Reyc was a mage of sorts and now I seemed to have all his abilities as well.

Some of the positions were unavailable to me, and greyed out, but others I could choose from. Unfortunately, most of them just, looking at the names, seemed to be incredibly destructive. I didn’t want to end up burning down the street just to distract the Exalted.

Finally, something caught my eye.

「 Charm of Forgetfulness

Cost Level: medium-high

Condition: None 」

I selected it and immediately felt as if something briefly took over my right arm and positioned my hand, with fingers outstretched in front of the Exalted’s forehead. There was heat accumulating in my palm, radiating out towards the Exalted. I felt as if there was something deep inside of me being ripped open - painful, as if something was bending my ribcage to the outside, and an enormous force was bursting from my core. Something powerful was inside of me and it wanted out. Now.

In the next second, the Exalted screamed in pain, falling to his knees, hand grabbing onto his massive horns. He cried, big fat tears falling down his cheeks, and he was mumbling something in his own language. Wherever his skin came in contact with something it started to flake off, fall down, and fly carried away by the gentle breeze. He whined in pain as he slowly fell apart and disappear until all that was left in front of my door were his clothes, halberd, and golden horns ornaments.

The guards looked at me confused and scared, questioning what just happened.

But I didn’t know either.

For the second time tonight, I just closed the door. 

I locked them and then just backed away, still stunned, and joined Gael in the dry sewer. 

He looked at me in the light of the torch he somehow obtained. He looked just as shocked and scared as these two guards outside.

“Reyc?”

“I don’t know,” I said truthfully.

“But you did cast something, didn’t you?” I just nodded. “I could feel it… It’s like something opened- I…”

“Gael,” I interrupted him. “We need to go. Now.”

Gael nodded and after picking up his bags, he started to run following what I believed to be the northern corridor.

If even Gael could feel me using the magic that meant the spell I just used was very powerful. Whenever someone cast a spell, even a tiny one, there was always some residual magic lingering. But something this big? Exalted mage hunters wouldn’t even need any of their magic-detecting toys to find me.