“But this is ridiculous! How can there be ‘a bullet with my name written on it?!’” I exclaim.
Terra eyes the now fully reformed bullet again and then shakes her head, “In all honesty? I don’t know. But this bullet clearly was meant for you. And it was not supposed to leave behind any traces.
“Never fire an arrow that could come back to you…” I mutter, recalling the old proverb. Someone was afraid that I’d survive and trace the bullet back to them...but how would I even…
“Say Terra...you up for helping me find the person who did this?”
Terra gives me a slightly irritated look and then puts her cocky smile back on, “The way I see it, there’s exactly two ways this little meetup will end...either you help me find the piece of shit that shot my sister and just maybe they’ll live, or I will do it myself. And trust me, you won’t be getting any of your precious answers from them any more once I’m done with them.”
My detective mode kicks back in and I ask, “...you’re saying you have found a way to make sure people stay dead in this place?”
“...no, but ‘death’ isn’t what I had in mind anyway. I have a few things in my toolbox that are infinitely worse anyway…”
I find myself gulping at Terra’s threat of vengeance. ‘Infinitely worse than death’...now that I think about it, there’s plenty of that, actually. People often tend to think that ‘death’ is the worst thing that could ever happen to them. But that’s not true. Torture for example. Keeping the poor sap alive to inflict more and more pain. No, death is really not the worst thing. If anything, it’s the end of suffering...and joy...and...well, everything really. Though now, that I am stuck in this place where the supposedly dead reside, not even that is true. Not even ‘death’ is the end of it. I know that a bunch of religions speak of an afterlife, but I doubt any of them prophets ever imagined it to look like this...not even remotely.

I shake my head and extend my hand, “Very well then, glad to be working with you then.”
Terra takes it to shake it, but immediately her face distorts into a pained grimace, but her hand is like iron around my own, I would’ve needed to cut it off to get away from her.
But fortunately the seizure like attack doesn’t last long and Terra lets go of my hurting hand and I ask, “What in the world was that?!”
Terra looks up at me, something dark and wild in her eyes and just for a moment it feels like I am not sitting across a humanoid girl, but some hungry beast that looks at their next meal.
But just as quickly as it came, the murderous intent disappears from her eyes, she turns away and holds her head as if suffering from a heavy migraine.

After recovering, she says, “Well, that one was new…” as if it was no big deal whatsoever.
“‘New’? You looked as if you were just about ready to keel over! What happened?!”
“...a vision. When I took your hand. I saw...a grand abyss. Where none who dare tread can ever return from...just who...or what are you?”
“...sorry to say this, but your guess is as good as mine…” I reply, unsure what to make of that. She touched me before, why’d that vision pop up now? Because of what happened? Because she let her guard down? I really don’t get any of that magic stuff.

Terra wipes off multiple beads of sweat from her forehead and extends her hand again, saying, “Alright dude, I’m ready to go again.”
“Excuse me?!” I exclaim, jumping to my feet. This girl must be frigging nuts if she wants to go through...whatever that was again! I mean, I wasn’t even part of it, but it sure looked painful.

“Pshaw, the vision just got me on the wrong foot, that’s all. But I want to know what triggered it.”
“And what do you promise yourself from that?! I mean, what—”
“Listen up, pal!” Terra says with a sharpness that commands absolute respect, “Visions like these always mean something. I made the mistake of disregarding a vision once and it just about cost me my home, my identity and almost my life! I’ve learned my lesson. Now hit me again or I’ll hit you!”
“Um...well...you’re not going to jump into my face or go all psycho on me...right?”
Terra gives me an annoyed look and grabs my hand...but nothing happens. Something that’s obviously not lost on Terra as she lets go of my hand again and mutters, “Of course…”
“...you...didn’t see anything this time...right?”
“Right. And I also don’t feel any magic from or within you.”
“...could’ve told you that I’m not magic,” I retort, chuckling involuntarily.
“You’d be surprised how many people are ‘magic’ without knowing. Either way, since I messed up this chance to learn something new, we need to use our heads instead...so what’s the next step?”

I take a deep breath and go over what I’ve learned thus far. Always a good idea when you’re unsure on what to do next. Though it should really be apparent. I need to find the guy who went to the trouble of making an iron-coated bullet with some sort of heat spell on it. Which is actually what I wanted to ask Terra about prior to the little episode.

“Right, you’re knowledgeable. Who do you think even could ‘enchant’ a bullet with this spell?”, adding in thought, ‘Please don’t say “Just about everyone here…”’
“...any decent sorcerer could do that, really. But you’re right, the spell is probably our best bet. Let me check if I can recognize the signature.”

Terra picks the bullet up again, but then starts cursing violently as the bullet suddenly combusts into nothing but smoke and ashes right before my astonished eyes.
“W-what happened just there? Didn’t you there…”
“...damn it all, that frigging smart-ass...he hid a second spell beneath the first one causing the bullet to destruct immediately if anyone tried to use magic to look at the first spell.”
“...self-destructing evidence? How every convenient…” I mutter, looking at the ashes, “So much for that clue.”
“…let’s go,” Terra says, getting up, pulling out a knife from seemingly nowhere.
“...go? To where?”
Terra gives me a wry smile and then says, “Why, dear detective, we’re off to go see the wizard.”