Once more, this was the situation.
First and foremost, the realm was still dying. Some human tended to forget that. But yes, the mana drain had not stopped in the slightest. Second, said human had jumped into a pit and willingly become a monster's prisoner.
It's over. The human is gone. I wrote on the stone in front of me. I should give up and leave, find another one.
Third, that human could synch with me. Meaning she could let me control her from great distance and, in turn, control me. Could she read my thoughts? They were not happy ones.
I should go to Bayankam, see what this Veleter has to say.
She was the one making me write that. By now I had understood that, even without mist, her captor could observe me. Whatever plan my mistress had, it involved that monster staying oblivious. So we discussed by one-sided writing.
Still, I added: I am not losing another human.
And her, through me: So I should really think about insulation. What's better than seals?
What she meant was, she was in a hidden mansion, linked to Hashal and in turn Hashal, a massive temple, was hidden as well. What best way to hide? Insulation. Cutting the mana flow, detaching yourself from the realm.
How would you build a refuge and keep mana from draining there? Insulation.
But the realm was not so easily defeated.
Had we focused on reaching Hashal, we would have got that answer. It would have taken too long. But it was feasible. It really wasn't though.
I put my head against the stone, on the side so my marble and silver badger mask would not get damaged. She was a young adult and still had time for that kind of argument?!
I can do it. I can still do it. I have failed too many times to give up now.
I could not tell which of us had written that part.
So, with this silly war council out of the way, I could go back to the Parao. The ship was waiting on the edge of the abyss, one of its two hulls dangerously close to it. Trees had grown all around, blocking it in place.
A fool would have spent time cutting the trunks or burning a path.
I climbed on the nets, up to the deck and then to the bridge. Sails out, blocking the heavy sun. my hands steered both wheels as far to port as could be. The legged rapt onboard had come to hold my leg.
At the keel the scales started to slide, pushing the ship forward.
It pushed against the mass of trees, blocked first then rose and rode the foliage like a wave. The massive gravity glyph on the centerline made the angle feel like nothing.
Soon enough the Parao was sliding on the canopy. Its featherweight runes kept it from crushing the trees under. When the jungle died out, the vessel fell back into the sand and kept gliding on it seamlessly.
I did not know just how far my mistress could synch, so as soon as I felt the dungeon's influence fading I stopped. All that remained was to conceal the ship once more.
And then, establish a portal.
Back to arcane basics. The monster that had captured my human used mist to move around and interact with the realm. That included a cheap teleportation. I was now very familiar with its spell and had its trace.
I could open a passage on my side.
And with a beacon in its lair, I could reach the other side.
And because I had turned a room into a confusion chamber to use the mist as my own, I could theoretically open the portal without getting caught. Emphasis on theoretically.
For now all I needed was the faintest path to help with the human's synch and start spying on the monster itself.
And all the while I waited for that synch to come back, but it would not. Either I was too far or the young woman was too busy on her side. Again, not concerned: she was still a demigod. Whatever she met could not even scratch her.
That would not remain true forever.
It took... way too long. Possibly the most complex spell I had crafted, but I had the double task of breaking through a hidden barrier and not get detected, all of it holding on a double deck and masts. The Parao was too small! Yet with this star pattern I had outdone myself.
"Stand back." I warned the legged rapt that immediately stopped rubbing the arcanic lines and fled behind me.
It worked.
Well, it looked like it didn't because all it produced was a tiny crackling spot in the air but that was the point. No mist. Little trace. Lots of mana consumption.
And the moment it opened, I was not on the ship anymore.
I was a human again, sit at a decrepit table covered by an old napkin of gold and silk. The whole dining room a sad shadow of its past glory. Definitely the same humble mansion.
Three monsters around. The bird one with its colorful feathers and priest's attire. Two others whose kind I just... what was that even?
Humanoid too. Cat heads, broken bodies wearing maid liveries. They had just put a plate in front of me. And that wasn't human food.
When mantaras were sleeping, they would retract their legs and contract their globular eyes. It made them look like a plant, a giant water-filled pineapple. But this one was small, really small, the size of a human child.
The monsters had burned it to a crisp.
"You need to eat!" The bird monster chirped, almost scolding. "Oh, your face is so pale and your eyes so tired! I cannot let you whither, I cant!"
"Thanks for your care." I made the body say, then made it eat.
They had actually cooked it! I could not feel any taste and, to be honest, as a clay golem I would not have been able to tell anyway but, between the black, crispy surface and the steam flowing out I could tell it was a monster's delicacy.
"You are eating!" The monstrous bird rejoiced. "My mistress is finally eating! Wonderful! Oh, everything is as it should be! Oh, but what am I doing? Shoo! Shoo!"
It chased the other monsters away, then left too. I wanted to keep eating but the body would not move anymore.
"Took you time." It whispered.
"Your control got better." I made it say in turn.
"Find the mansion's records."
As my mistress wished! This was the dining room, the monsters were using the mist to flow out of it and into the dungeon underneath. I made my body put a finger on the table, just one pulse to confirm it. Coast clear!
Then tried to make the body eat again: wasting that food was just terrible manners.
And back on the ship. And back in the room. Oh well.
The mansion had no records, but the dungeon did. While I walked back to the bedroom, my image rode the fog to the closest passage underground.
So. I was a clay golem on a ship. And a human walking upstairs. And a human's image flowing down. Fine as always.
Here it was: a breach into the mansion's floor, where monsters had clawed their way into that sanctum a long, long time ago. A whole dungeon thirsty for mana surrounding a preserved pearl.
Still no monster in the way. I could feel them roaming in the depths - and on the dungeon's cliffs - but none approached the mansion. That discipline suggested some form of mind control.
As for the dungeon's records, I knew exactly what to look for.
Caparaces.
Due to the human's presence, the whole dungeon was drenched in mana. Caparaces were perfect ghosts under those conditions. Yet one appeared at my approach. Writing its eternal message.
Human. I am Veleter. Come back to Bayankam. I will wait.
They never tired of it.
"You should have gone there." The human said.
I changed the subject entirely. My human body retorted: "It should not have seen me."
The mist was supposed to hide me, that was the whole point. Yet this little creature, that purposefully denied mana and sought only to hide, had found me with ease. How it did that was just one more mystery I had currently no time for.
Regardless the insect would guide us. I followed its massive chitin shell through the tunnels to reach a small chamber where two dozen of its brethrens appeared in turn, hiding there away from everything.
The stelae almost all broken.
We said: Show us that refuge...
We said: You invited...
We said: You need to bring your wife to Hashal, or we will be found. The magister said: She has suffered enough. I will not...
"She was a liability." The human remarked.
That mansion had been a magister's. A recluse to live in such a small abode. But those at Hashal were meant to be the best and brighest? Maybe the strongest were all eccentric.
We said: A few is enough...
We said: Surrender Earth or we will destroy you. The magister said: You will...
Whatever happened back then, it probably ended peacefully. The dungeon was in pristine condition given the mana drain and the mansion as intact as could be. Whatever damaged the records so badly was likely much more recent.
Was Earth brought elsewhere? Or was it still in Hashal?
"There is a gathering of monsters, take me there." The human cut me in my thoughts.
"Why do you need me to do it?"
"I am scared."
I failed to see what she meant. She did realize she was powerful enough to kill anything just by breathing on it, right?
"Fear is not rational." She continued. "I know what I need to do, I just... can't."
"You jumped off a cliff."
She kept silent for a moment, then whispered: "It's different."
Well I was not familiar with fear beyond what spells could do, so I dropped the topic. At the very least it didn't feel like the human was toying with me.
Back in the tunnels and into an underground lake from which pillars of coral rose to touch the ceiling, then stretched into porous walls. The whole place glimmered, magnified by the human's magic.
I approached a slope where nearly a hundred mantaras were laying, with more nest holes left empty. Was that the gathering the human was interested in? Apparently not, but she still seemed interested.
Those looked exactly like the one that had been served earlier - the whole burning aside. Small ones, practically newborns, that pretended to be dormant. They looked juicy, like grape.
I made her touch one. It twiched, but otherwise didn't move.
I was starting to get worried. I could not tell if those monsters could actually feel the image's presence. Was the mist really working for me? Was it the human's magic still emanating even from that image? A startled monster would have attacked.
"Shouldn't they attack us?" She wondered aloud at almost the same time.
I made her kill one. As it died, the whole colony shivered, then went quiet.
"Well this is weird." Is all I could make her say. "They know, they are fearful, yet they won't move. They are... like plants. They are like plants!" I had her voice stay low. "Monsters can be that cunning!"
"What are you talking about?" She had taken back control of her voice to raise it. "They are just!" She sighed. "They are just standing there."
"Can't you see? If they hunt, they are likely to waste their efforts, get attacked and die. But by standing there and doing nothing, not even growing... they are thriving!"
"But anyone can kill them!"
"Well? Are we?" I asked. "Are we going to prove them wrong?" And after she said nothing: "This is likely where your meal came from. A few get picked, the rest survives. New ones get born and the cycle continues."
"You are not making sense. They are still dying. They should defend themselves."
What had happened to the human's usual calm and cold demeanor?
"All monsters care is mana. From there, it is simple, cold numbers. Those who fought lost more than those who waited. By betting they won't be next, by letting their own get devoured, they win."
"That's... monstrous." The young woman muttered.
She moved before I gave any instruction, away from the slope and the sight of all those plant-like mantaras. I only got back in control further down, in a new passage leading to the actual gathering.
Even with the mist, getting close was dangerous. Dozens of monsters occupied the new cave, with more creeping in the crevices. A restless dungeon hummed in unison.
Before them, the terraces of a small pyramid, with stairs leading up to an altar. Malformed humanoids along the stairs, with the two grotesque cats in livery near the altar. Behind them stood the bird monster with her scepter raised high.
That ritual looked like an incoming sacrifice.