"Cassian will be mediating until sundown, please do not disturb him." Tharion stated after he returned to the group. "In fact I advise all of you to finish preparations before dusk and retire promptly, the battle that awaits us tomorrow won’t be easy."
"Speaking of the battle..." Isara looked up from her book. "How are we going to attack the round table directly? Won’t there be hundreds of knights standing in our way?"
*I wouldn’t worry about that." Nickolas shook his head. "No sensible knight will attack us once they see Tharion."
"Does it mean you don’t count the remaining members of the round table as sane?"
"Of course, you’d have to be nuts to follow a guy who talks to his swords – the people who had even a shred of sensibility left run away when they could."
Isara considered his words and nodded before going back to her book.
Calen looked at Elira who was still meditating, completely unaware of everything going on around her.
"Should we tell her about everything? She might spend the entire night like that if we don’t."
"There’s no need." Tharion said. "Focus all your senses on her and you’ll understand."
Calen wasn’t quite sure what he meant at first, after all what other sense than sight he could use on her? It’s not like Tharion wanted him to smell her.
An then it hit him – the divine sense.
Because he was only using it subconsciously so far he often forgot that he gained the ability to actively sense divine power after the ritual.
He directed the sense at Elira, and the moment it reached her he gasped.
A mass of divine energy unlike anything he ever seen swirled around her, almost like it was being attracted to the young alchemist.
No, not to her – to her bracelet.
"What the hell is this thing..." Calen frowned. "Was it really a gift from Sylara?"
"It wasn’t." Tharion admitted. "It’s an artifact called Nature’s Embrace – it used to belong to the Green Lady, Sy’s master."
Calen decided to not question the lie, and something else interested him anyway,:
"Why did you have it?"
"Because she gave it to me – one of the few mementos she left behind for me."
"And you gave it to us? Should we like... give it back later?"
"No need, it was just gathering dust – I coud give out most of her gifts to me." His hand fell on the handle of his sword. "There’s only one that actually matters to me."
Calen looked closer at his weapon and finally understood why it felt weird to him earlier – it wasn’t made of metal but instead dark polished wood.
It wasn’t carved though: it was a living weapon, just like the one Lydia used – although compared to this one the things created by her seemed like a work of an amateur.
Despite its relatively simple design, the sword was a true piece of art – which shouldn’t be a surprise since it was created by an actual goddess.
Tharion seemingly caught him staring because he soon spoke up:
"If you don’t have a plan then I suggest working on the efficiency of your flame, with the power you have you should be capable of much more than you’ve done so far."
Calen obediently found a spot where he wasn’t risking burning anything down, and began his training.
Soon enough, with some help from Tharion, everyone had a task of their own.
When the dusk came Calen was spent – while physical exercise didn’t tire him as much anymore, anything pertaining to his powers was still tiring.
He didn’t even remember falling asleep.
But he was sleeping – at least he hoped so, because he couldn’t really explain the expanse of nothingness that surrounded him if this was the real world.
Calen was in the spirit dimension once more – although he couldn’t see any of the regular visitors.
He probably didn’t enter this place of his own volition so he simply had to wait for whoever pulled him in here.
While he stood alone he noted a few new things around him – the darkness around him felt much more real than before, not in the sense that it looked real, but that he no longer felt like he was dreaming.
Additionally he noticed that he could move with much greater ease than before, although he still felt some pressure pushing against him when he walked, it diminished to a degree where the force was negligible at shorter distances.
"You’ve grown stronger."
Calen turned around and saw the familiar golden man.
This time his features were even clearer, in fact Calen knew he could see the man’s face now, it’s just that for some reason that face simply didn’t register in his brain.
What did register however, were the alarm bells he felt from his divine power sense.
Whoever the person in front of him was, there was no mistaking them – they were a god.
And a powerful one at that.
Perhaps before this fact didn’t click because he was simply too weak to even perceive the power he was faced with, but he definitely was now.
"I wanted to talk with you-" T he figure began, but its head snapped to the side and Calen felt another presence.
"You’ve interfered with him so much – don’t you care about your precious cycle?"
A sliver silhouette of a woman stood nearby, staring daggers at the golden man.
"The cycle is already skewed, I might as well experiment." The man scoffed. "What are you doing here?"
"Putting an end to your interference."
He narrowed eyes at her.
"You wouldn’t dare..."
"You really think so?" The woman snapped her fingers and the golden man disappeared.
"Queen." Calen greeted her.
"You remember me, good. Since that guy is gone, would you mind taking a stroll with me? We have a few important topics to discuss"
"I’m down to talk, but could you please reconsider the walk?"
"Ah right, that might be not very pleasant with your current power – alright then, I suppose we’ll exchange crucial information while standing awkwardly."
Calen had issues seeing her face just like with the golden man, but he did understand that she smiled at him.