As we made our way back up through the tunnels, I could feel something different about myself. It was a similar feeling to how I’d felt after I had trained my ability to sense essence in the library. My senses were going crazy from the training I had completed. However, that had been a lot more subtle since I had undergone a significantly smaller and less potent level of training. The practice I’d had since was considerable and sensing essence was almost like a sixth sense at this point. However, due to the seriously accelerated rate that I had trained my ability to sense life energy, my mind was going a little bit wild.

The sensations I was feeling all around me were a bit overwhelming. I realized I was visibly wincing when Viktor looked back at me and stopped before quickly rushing back to me.

“Avien! Are you okay?” he asked as he placed his hand on my shoulder.

I nodded, trying to clear my head a bit. “I’m just a bit… overwhelmed…”

He frowned, looking somewhat disappointed, but not with me. “I’m sorry… That’ll happen. We trained you up really quickly. Even with the intervals I had, it was still way faster than anyone should ever do it. I wish I knew how to help, but I’ve never trained anyone quite that quickly before and I can honestly only imagine what it’s like to feel all the life energy around you in such shuddering volumes.”

I didn’t have to imagine. It was like someone was constantly bouncing waves of pressure off my body in continuous pulses. My whole body was shaking with each movement and keeping still was simply impossible no matter how hard I tried. It wasn’t painful, exactly. It was just like a constant and overwhelming annoyance that constantly loomed over and around me on every side. It was hard to deal with, but I had to because there was another constant overwhelming feeling right now, hunger.

Since I’d been underground for so long, I hadn’t eaten in somewhere close to eighteen hours. While I was usually used to going over twenty-four without eating anything at all, my body was slowly becoming adjusted to eating more frequently, so this sudden jolt back to my old frequency of eating wasn’t very pleasant in any sense of the word.

I waved off Viktor, realizing he was still standing over me in concern. “It’s okay. While it isn’t really fun to deal with, I’ll become more accustomed to it. Plus, it had to be done. If we hadn’t done this, I don’t know if we would have been getting out of this forest in any timely manner.” I gave a soft chuckle and tried to produce a smile as best I could, but I probably looked a little crazy.

“What’s wrong with crazy? Sanity’s far too overrated. You can always let a little madness in to your life,” Sylak called from inside my head.

I rolled my eyes. They had clearly forgotten about the purple streak currently displayed atop my head. I had let a little bit of the madness in, but it hadn’t affected me as much as my good side had affected them.

Before I could answer, Viktor and I rounded a corner and he quickly removed the ceiling. We had finally arrived back at the surface. We stepped out of the opening and Viktor closed it back up once again. I hadn’t seen it from the outside, but now that I had, I was even more impressed by how well it blended in with the surrounding ground.

Viktor just smiled at me. I smiled back which probably came off a bit pained considering the earthquake-level migraine I was still dealing with, but he seemed to find it appealing and I even thought I saw his face get a little flushed, but before I could catch it, he turned around, surveying the forest around us.

“We don’t have as much ground to cover as we would usually and I don’t know what kinds of animals we have roaming around in here.”

I thought for a moment. “Couldn’t you just make us some food?”

He shook his head, turning back around to face me. “I wish, but culinary magic isn’t something I’m particularly skilled with. So, if you’re okay eating something that might taste like literal sand, I’m your guy. Otherwise, we’re going to need to go hunting.”

I nodded. “Alright. I think we should split up and then reconvene back here in a little bit. Damien’s not going to be out right now, so we’ll be good to go.”

He seemed a bit hesitant, but after a few minutes of silent contemplation, he nodded and conjured a torch. I gave him a salute before I dashed away, my vision being completely engulfed in teal as I streaked through the forest.

“You do realize that boy is in love with you, right?” came a high-pitched voice from inside my head.

The sudden voice and the topic of it caused me to trip on a root and go tumbling directly in to a tree in front of me. I frowned as I picked myself up and dusted off my jacket. “This is really not the time to be talking about that kind of thing.”

She cackled, apparently greatly amused by my comment. “Oh, don’t even pretend like you haven’t noticed too, but I imagine you’re more-“

“Enough. I need to find something to eat and you talking inside my head is really not helping with that.”

“Whatever, but when you get back and finish eating, I want to talk to him,” she said, her voice trailing off.

She was ridiculous. How could she talk about something like that at a time like this? We had a mission and far more important things to deal with. I could think about dating later. For now I needed to find… food. My eyes locked on something shifting in the distance. I sprinted forward and stopped just behind a tree, peaking out slightly. I had to be quiet. Whatever was out at a time like this could obviously see too.

I conjured a wind arrow. Using the wind arrow was something I had found easier once I imbued it with a bit of life energy. It didn’t make the conjuration much easier, but causing it to spin and controlling its movement was leagues ahead of where I was before.

I burst forth from behind the tree and slowed my vision, watching as the animal, a dark fox-looking creature began to scamper away in slow motion. I felt a little bad for killing it, but right now, my survival was above this creatures. I flung the arrow straight through the creature before dissipating it and walking forward. I knelt down and closed my eyes.

“I thank you for what you have given me and I apologize for what had to be done,” I said to the body laying in front of me before picking it up and slinging it over my shoulder. I reoriented myself and then quickly made my way back to the cave. Viktor hadn’t yet returned to I walked out and used my swords to cut down and cut up the logs of a tree. I super-heated the air around the logs and caused them to quickly catch fire.

I then used my swords to cut up the fox in to less recognizable pieces. I waited for Viktor to return so that he could make a stone bowl to cook all the meat in. He had caught something that looked to be a mix between a very angry and extremely aggressive-looking rabbit and a monkey. It was a bit terrifying to behold, but I quickly cut it up and we threw all the meat in to the bowl.

The two of us just sat in silence as the food slowly cooked. I knew it wouldn’t taste all that great, but at least it was something. Viktor had added a bit of salt that he conjured to make sure it wasn’t too bland, but I still wasn’t very hopeful for what this mystery animal would taste like.

Once the food had all finally finished cooking, we pulled it out of the bowl and placed it on some wooden plates that Viktor had conjured for us. He then created forks and knives for the two of us and we quickly dug in. Despite the fact it tasted like burnt death, it was still amazing. To have my stomach full was an amazing feeling after these past few days. A sigh of relief escaped my mouth as I fell backwards, settling in to the comfort of the less than comfortable surroundings.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have too long to be comfortable because a familiar voice called from inside my head.

“Alright, you’re done eating. Now let me talk to him! We have some… things to discuss…” her tone was so ominous I almost didn’t want to let her out, but I figured there couldn’t be too much harm in letting her talk to him.

“Fine…” I grumbled as I flicked a finger over my eye and allowed my body to change as I felt myself fall backwards. I landed inside my mind and opened my door before quickly making my way up the stairs to the main area. I saw the window of vision in the distance and was about to make my way over to it before Jester’s voice boomed around me.

“Don’t peek in on our conversation. That’s very rude. This is a one on one exchange, okay? It won’t be too long, so just wait by your door.”

I frowned. I really didn’t want to leave the two of them alone, but she probably wouldn’t say anything if she knew or even suspected that I was just sitting by the window listening in to their conversation. I trudged back over to the stairs and descended back in to the room. As I reached the bottom, I drew my attention to the black door. I was about to walk back to my door, but decided against it and instead headed towards the black door next to it.

I placed my hand on the surface, running it along the entire length of the door. It was completely smooth and was absolutely freezing to touch. It was the only one of the four doors that emitted no form of glow. I pressed my ear to it and heard something. It was like heartbeats. They were pulsing in a somewhat odd rhythm, but then I realized that was because there wasn’t just one. There were three different heartbeats. Each of them beating in different time. I recognized one of them though. It was my own. I could feel it through my chest and it was mirrored on the other side of the door.

My hand flew right to the door handle as I furiously tried to turn it and open the door. It jiggled slightly, but the door didn’t budge at all. I sighed and collapsed with my back to it. This door was so frustrating to deal with. It gave no clues as to what it was. None of us had created it and none of us could change it at all. This whole room was like that though. It was perplexing.

“Alright, Avien! We’re done. You can come back now!” Jester shouted from above.

I once again climbed the stairs and immediately felt myself being pulled towards the window of vision. Eventually, I was sucked inside, my body slowly returning to its usual state. Once everything was back to normal, I looked up at Viktor. His face was bright red and he was looking down at the fire between us.

“Viktor? Are you okay?”

He jolted up, the red of his face growing even more defined. “Oh! Yeah! S-Sorry! I was just… never mind… We should probably head back underground for the night…”

I nodded and we put out the fire before making our way out of the cave. We were about to head back when I noticed something in the distance. I tapped Viktor on the shoulder and turned him to face where I was facing. Off in the distance, there was a flicker of some kind of moving light. It had just passed through where the blood barrier ended. Apparently it kept people from leaving, but not from entering.

Viktor and I exchanged glances and, without a word, bolted towards the source of the light. Within a minute we were right on top of it. I made sure to move silently so as not to alert whoever it was. Without knowing who they were, we couldn’t be sure whether or not they would harm us, so this was the safest option.

Once we were close enough, I was able to see that it was basically a caravan of sorts that was being carried along by two large purple creatures that did not look very friendly. They had two carts tied together with torches on each side of the cart. There was only one man outside and he didn’t look too pleasant either.

I turned to Viktor. He seemed to understand my expression and nodded. We needed to get these people out of here.