Sleep came hard that night, wrapped in my sleeping bag in the guest rooms of Mt. Umetsuji. All of us had agreed to spend the night here in the volcano, secure in the hospitality of Shurenga and her Children. After a surprisingly normal dinner hosted by the queenly daughter of Tarus herself, we’d all bedded down, ringed around the lava pit in the center of this obsidian room.

  But sleep was elusive, leaving me to stare up at the ceiling. The Shurengans must have polished the obsidian because I could faintly see my own faintly glowing emerald eyes staring back at me from that black mirror. The flowing, flickering light cast by the lava only enhanced the effect.

  I gazed up into my own eyes for what seemed to be hours. Perhaps it was my mind playing tricks upon me, but I swore there was a mocking glint in the stare that relentlessly bore into me.

  Had I done the right thing? Was it the right decision, to turn down the position of ‘Envoy’ in the service of Tarus, Great Spirit of the Sun? Hundreds, perhaps thousands of Kawamarans would have jumped at the opportunity for the honor. With their religion, I’m sure my refusal would have sent a number of them into a frothing rage.

  But…I was wary of entering into any kind of contract, with anyone these days. The freedom I’d enjoyed over my months of recuperation in Hinaga had been so intoxicating. Ever since I’d been tossed into the deep end of Vereden, I’d been running from one crisis to the next, but now that was finished. If I signed up with Tarus, who was apparently devoted to protecting the Veredenese from extraordinary threats, then I knew in my bones that freedom would vanish into the literal Aether. I would start running once again, at the mercy of another existence that was far older, and far, far more powerful than I was.

  Tarus’s offer…it was making me think quite a bit about the nature of my relationship with Grey. I...don't even know why. Perhaps it was because of his own apparent relationship with the Great Spirits, maybe it was just because he was another person I was aligned with.

  But...

  My mentor had never done anything to make me question him. From the day I had met the eclipsean eyes of Grey, he had been forthwith towards me. He had never hidden a single intention about what he expected from the two of us. We had started together as fellow slaves, bound together under the crushing grip of a spoiled madman. He’d been quite candid about how he wanted to see what I could do to free the both of us from bondage. Later, once we’d gotten to know each other better, he had extended the offer of apprenticeship towards me. Naturally, I had accepted. I mean, what else was I going to do? Turn down a kindness from a person of considerable means, when I was a castaway upon a magical alien planet? You’d have to be a madman to do something like that.

  Except…

  Had Grey been forthwith towards me? There was no need to make me his official apprentice. I…sometimes felt like I didn’t know Grey, in a manner other than official. Oh, we took meals with each other, and he had always made time for lessons. But…anything more than that was rare.

  Intellectually, I knew that the man had been deeply involved in the running of the Order, in the midst of an actual civil war. The little time Grey could spare for me was more than generous of him, in consideration of that. But…

  But…I couldn’t help wondering.

  Did Grey just want a weapon? Had he seen the opportunity to mold a Precursor into his own personal attack dog, when he offered me the chance to join the Nocturne Division? I had barely questioned it at the time. Thrown into the midst of a civil war, after having lost an arm not long ago, and after having been enslaved…

  I think…I had been desperate for a purpose. Had Grey…seen that, and decided to take advantage?

  Rhazal himself had told me that Precursors had been seduced into being divine weapons, in the ancient past…

  Perhaps I’d been too quick to accept. Perhaps I’d felt desperate to repay the debt I felt, at how Grey had so neatly found a spot for me in the Herztalian dynasty. He…hadn’t seemed angry at how I’d told him about my intentions to abandon the war, back in Elderwyck. More sad, really.

  I clenched my teeth hard. Hard enough that I feared the grinding would wake my companions, resting about me.

  God, I hated myself for doubting Grey right now. I hadn’t realized how fragile, in some ways, I still felt after the events of Elderwyck. Maybe it was just the gloom of this cave at this late hour that was getting to me. Maybe it was the odd echo of Tarus's offer ringing in my ears. But I couldn’t quell my fears.

  Maybe…they had always existed.

  Eventually, I think it was the exhaustion of several days of hard marching across the stony plains of Goryuen that did me in.

  Sleep crept over me like an insidious fog, causing my eyelids to drift to a fitful close.

  I doubted my rest would be pleasant.

  …………………………………….

  Crashing.

  Roaring.

  Screeches in the dark.

  Silence…deep, echoing, all-encompassing silence.

  The twang of endless bows.

  A finger lifting my chin.

  “You want to know why?”

  A shadow…

  A shadow of MADNESS…

  ……………………………………..

  I jerked awake, violently shooting straight up into a sitting position, eyes wide in panic, breath coming in short, sharp gasps.

  Or rather, I tried to sit up.

  Turns out, someone had been trying to wake me up. Whoever they were was bending down towards me with an outstretched hand, moments away from shaking my shoulder. My core ring, immune to my panic, idly noted that they must have been trying to wake me.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  But I was blind to its rationality. My eyes felt clouded almost artificially, to the extent I could barely see who or what was trying to take my hand.

  My jerking instead turned into a lunge, shoulder-checking the person and sending them flat onto the obsidian floor of Mt. Umetsuji. I stared into golden eyes, the shade of dwarven nobility, and for a moment…

  For a moment, I saw a dead man.

  Or rather…a dead dwarf.

  My ears rang, and through the ringing I swore I heard a hateful voice.

  “Throwing a tantrum, cattle? Typical of your kind…”

  An old hatred rolled over me like a wave, and I tightened my grip on…something. I was holding something…wasn’t I? My hands were curled around a haft as familiar to me as the pencils from my youth, and yet I was barely conscious of it.

  All I could focus on was the gold dominating my field of view, the depths of those pools growing ever more alarmed by the second.

  Good.

  You should fear me, Magnus.

  I’d kill you a thousand thousand times and never feel satisfied.

  Distant shouting from my surroundings penetrated the haze of madness I found myself drifting in. Slowly, ever so slowly, I grew more and more cognizant, the murk of poor sleep and the disquiet of nightmares fading away.

  I…for the first time, I realized what I was doing. Consciously, that is.

  I was crouched over the still form of my best friend, one of my daggers held to his throat. The razor-sharp edge of the Oninite blade was close enough that I could see a handful of fire-truck red hairs had been shaved away, to drift onto his Adam's apple.

  Azarus.

  I stilled. For a moment, I was petrified of making a single movement. Had I…had I almost killed Azarus?

  How…how could I…do that?

  Below me, Azarus must have seen a change in me, that my alarmed companions could not. “You there, Nate?” He whispered up to me, careful not to enunciate too hard.

  Lest the blade do its purpose.

  My lips parting in horror, I slowly, slowly drew the dagger away from him. I shook my head as I did so. “Azarus…I’m…so-”

  Before I could finish speaking, two pairs of hard armored hands clamped onto my arms and shoulders and wrenched me away from the prone dwarf. The dagger fell away from my limp fingers to clatter onto the obsidian below, and four strong arms wrapped around me in restraint. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t struggle my way out of this grip, not with all of my Skills.

  But I didn’t want to. All I could do was stare at the form of my oldest friend in Vereden, gingerly accepting a hand up from Renauld. I wanted to flinch as I saw him rub carefully at his neck under his beard, but I was too numb to do so.

  I didn’t even react as a renewed Kazuma came to stand in front of me, a wrapped blade strapped to his back, and his usual bared defensively before him.

  Bella took offense, despite me thinking he had the right idea. In a flash, she drew her own cutlass and laid it across the Kawamaran samurai’s throat, standing off to the side. “Now what are ye goin’ ta do with that, eh?” She murmured dangerously. Kazuma stilled and dared not move an inch.

  The tension in the room only increased, but I was barely aware as it was, still stuck in horror from my own actions.

  “Stop, all of you!” A sharp female voice said, cutting through the chaos in the guest rooms. Unnaturally so, in fact.

  Everyone in these volcanic walls, including the watchful, wary forms of Sena and Gin along the far wall, froze in place. So much so that I could barely blink, much less think of struggling against the steel bars of the arms holding me.

  I was still able to watch as Shurenga padded into the room to interpose herself between the battle-ready Kazuma, and my restrained form. “There is no need for that, Lord Higanashi,” She murmured towards him, before turning to look at me. If I had the will, I would have quailed under her gaze. There was a purity to her slit amber eyes, but I would have flinched away from them if I could.

  The gold reminded me of who I had mistaken Azarus for, and what I’d nearly done to him.

  The daughter of Tarus seemed to stare into my very soul for a moment, before abruptly nodding. “I see what has happened,” She announced to the room, still frozen in place. “This was an attack. Nathaniel Hart was not in control of his own actions.”

  I wanted to blink.

  What?

  Everyone in the room unfroze all at once, as if released from a literal spell. Some stumbled in place, but not Venix, who I could tell had grabbed me off of Azarus. Slowly, Bella lowered her cutlass from Kazuma, who stepped away, eyeing the pirate warily. She just ignored him to focus on me, with a concerned look on her sharp features.

  I couldn’t meet her eyes.

  Liora was the first to recover, and stepped forward to give voice to our collective confusion. “Please elaborate, Lady Shurenga.”

  “I shall. You may release him, Sir Venix,” Shurenga said, nodding to the Antium. “The danger has passed.”

  Warily, the monstrously strong arms holding me…withdrew. Without them supporting me, I started to bonelessly slump to the ground. I…didn’t have the strength or the will to hold myself up.

  Someone unexpected caught me before I could hit the stone.

  Azarus.

  Despite nearly killing him in a fit of madness only moments before, the dwarf had rushed forward to catch me in his hairy arms. I clung to them, and wanted to weep at what that meant. I drew in a shuddering breath and met his eyes again. This time, I didn’t see the person who had enslaved me.

  Only the most loyal person I had ever met greeted my eyes. Wordlessly, he nodded at me.

  Shurenga watched us for a moment, sadness in her own eyes, and then turned to Liora. “Sir Hart’s…kind,” She said, dancing around actually saying the word Precursor.

  I…appreciated it. I’m not sure I wanted Kazuma to know that about me.

  Not yet.

  “Are unusually susceptible to spiritual influence. There was…a disturbance, in the Concord last night. I suspect that everyone with even a trace of trace of a connection to that realm was affected by it.”

  Sena padded forward, casting a considering gaze at me as she did so. Still, her attention was on her progenitor. “I…did sleep poorly last night, Mother. I considered it odd, after such an enjoyable evening. Was that why? What happened?”

  Shurenga took a deep breath then and seemed to frown. “The Mad God stirs.” She announced grimly.

  …oh. That…didn’t sound good.

  Alveron’s grandsire…and the last god on Vereden was now active.

  “Shit,” I heard from above me. Shockingly, the curse had come from Venix, who had crossed his arms in displeasure. I’d never heard such a thing from the samurai.

  With Azarus’s help, I struggled to my feet. “What does that mean? Is he attacking somewhere?”

  Shurenga shook her head sharply. “No, thankfully. I had time to consult Father before your…episode, Nathaniel, and he believes he knows what happened. Normally, the Mad God rests in the ruins of Smaragd, quiescent from the bloody sacrifices of his barbarous subjects. But last night, he stirred, and it was as if a titanic foot kicked out at the Concord, disturbing the...'surface' of it, so to speak, to send waves across the whole of Vereden. They crashed over the Spiritually connected and sensitive, and the echo of his own madness infected the dreams of hundreds. Perhaps more. I believe you were…especially receptive to it due to your nature.”

  “I nearly killed someone, Shurenga,” I said hoarsely. I felt a wide, rough palm come to a rest on my shoulder, but did not turn to face the owner. Bella came to stand at my side and discreetly slid her hand into my own. I don’t think anyone even noticed, caught up in the ancient Mystic Beasts' explanation.

  But I did, and I appreciated it fiercely.

  “But you didn’t,” She replied gently. “The madness of Fynneas is not to be underestimated. You are still a mortal, Nathaniel. With your connection to one of Elys’s children, you are doubly sensitive to matters of this nature. I highly recommend you take up the study of Mind Magic as your first true school, if only to build sufficient defenses.”

  I was starting to calm down now and shook my head slowly. “That’s going to be a problem,” I muttered, thinking about my troubles channeling Mana. At Shurenga’s curious look, I changed the subject. “What caused the Mad God to stir the way he did? Did Tarus know?”

  A troubled look crossed her furry face. “He did not. And neither did Lady Elys, when he spoke to her. But this does not bode well, young ones. I suggest you hurry and finish your business here upon Goryuen. Events of import are happening upon the mainland.”

  Nobody could gainsay her, and so we rapidly began to pack our supplies once more.

  It was time to begin the final push into the heart of Goryuen.