I finally rolled myself into my cloak, shivering slightly under the cold autumn night sky, and closed my eyes. I would try again tomorrow, sleeping in the bed and under a roof that is. But today I was too tired for nightmares or anxiety. I had crawled into the net under the bowsprit. I needed the open sky. I needed the stars and the clouds and the limitless horizon.

I had not been able to find any rest with a roof over my head. The first time I had tried, I had tossed and turned for hours until I grew too restless and followed my instinct out of the ship. It had been the first time I slept on that net.

And instead of trying to sleep a mortal’s sleep, I entered the meditative state, resting my body while I entered my Demesne.

Silence. No roaring waterfalls. No winds in the riggings of ships. No questions.

A weight fell off my shoulders immediately, as I took in the sight of my Demesne. The silvery tree glowing in the warm lights of the paper lanterns. The ragged cliff, the moon, and the stars. The ancient marbled statues spread around the lake, with the twinkling lights inside.

But there was dissonance as well. A tunnel wrought of crystalline spider silk, leading to a gate to the Fulcrum. A mausoleum, or a prison of the souls, for the Betrayer and his cohort.

“This place has lost some of its appeal.” I murmured.

“What? Why?” Lily came fluttering, hovering beside me.

“I don’t know. It was a perfect counterbalance to the horrors of the deeps. A place of peace in a time of darkness and struggle. But now…every time I come here; I feel that it is lacking. Especially compared to reality.”

“You have found a truly beautiful place in Ravenport, that is true. But your Demesne is yours to mold. Change, what you do not like.”

“It is not change I am looking for at the moment. It is comfort.”

I sat down with my back to my tree, my gaze wandering aimlessly over the nonsensical stars in the sky.

“Maybe you don’t need a retreat anymore, Raven.” She inflected that last word especially. “Maybe you need a place of work, or a place of training. A place where your confidence is grounded…Again, the possibilities are endless.”

“Maybe. I do have work to do.”

“Like what?”

“There is so much to do.” I put the back of my head against the bark, looking up as I recalled the problems. “There is a creature in the bay. And that is well outside my realm of competence. But there is more. Protecting the settlement. Making it thrive. Who am I kidding, how about bringing them through the winter, for starters.”

“We tackle these problems as any other. One at a time.” Lily chirped.

I sighed once more. I was in a strange mood. I had not felt that much anxiety in the Abyss. Not as I climbed out from the lair of the magmaworms. Not as I battled the White Beast.

“It is just that I feel the need to protect them. Every one of them. I freed them. I am responsible.”

“Are you? Are you really? Is that what freedom means to you? Is that what freedom means to them?”

“I don’t know. But they are too weak to do it on their own.”

“Hannibal. Listen. You may have a position of responsibility. And you can do all you can to protect them. But at the end of the day, their lives are theirs to live. It is on them to grow. It is on them to level. It is on them to make mistakes, even dangerous ones.”

“I understand that. Intellectually. But I cannot help my feelings.”

“It is why I like you so much.” She chirped happily. “So, have you done anything you can to improve the levels and skill of the warriors that protect Ravenport?”

I thought long and hard about that. “I give them the best training I can. The hunters learn from the best we have and live in the hostile environment. They will level fast. The warriors train with the Wyldlings. No. I have not done everything I can. I have sent Grim and I have sent Simue.” I finally said. “Training is not everything. I can take them into the Wyld myself. If the hunters can do it, the warriors can as well. And I can provide them with the best gear possible.”

That felt good. A way to progress.

“What gear?” Lily asked.

“Reptile leather. You will see.”

I spend a few hours weaving Mana. Just to take my mind of things for a moment. I had done so a lot over the last few days. After raising my Core Skills to 3 across the board and my Mana to 50, which I had finished just now, I had a total of 1808 EP and 165 Shards left floating around my Lake of Essence.

I stopped. I could not bring myself to raise Mana higher than 50. Just because I felt anxiety and enjoyed the process of weaving, I would not mess up my progress. It was an arbitrary goal I had set for myself. I had reached it and that meant one thing. I had to act now.

“Lily.” I said, looking for the little blue ball of light. “We need a couple of probes. Three to start with.”

“You got it, Hannibal. What are they looking for?”

“One for the Demesne of the Wanderer. One for a place of learning or a library. You said there are such places?”

“Yes, indeed. And the last one?”

“Just send it out. I want to know what is out there. A general survey of the area.”

“You know that it doesn’t work that way. But I caught your intention, it will be done. Since you already have a Gate, the probes are the only things you need to pay for now. The costs for the Gate will come later when you decide to establish a connection. 20 EP per Probe.”

I nodded. That was one idea I had taken care of. I did not know enough about being a Twice-Born. I needed the council of the Wanderer and more, hence the library.

“Are you still fighting off probes looking for me?” I asked Lily.

“Nothing for a couple of days.”

“Hmm, has something changed?” I mused.

“Hannibal!” Lily shouted in surprise, interrupting my train of thought. “You just received an EP!”

“What? Why?”

“Someone is praying to you.”

My jaw dropped and a cold hand gripped my heart. It felt wrong and right at the same time. So wrong, from the position of the mortal I still was. So right for the godling part of my soul.

“Dead gods.” I muttered. “Who is it?”

“I have no idea.” Lily said. “We have nothing to influence or interact with believers. I do not even know how to do that. We need more information. But they cannot effectively pray to you without a place of worship. Maybe you can find that.”

I nodded. “I will.”

“Hannibal.” Lily said sternly. “Do try to not be an idiot about this.”

“What do you mean?” I had already gotten up, readying myself to leave my Demesne and find that individual.

“There is literally not one negative aspect of you receiving EP for the prayers of your subjects. Be careful if that is a practice you want to stomp out.”

“I am not a god.”

“And yet, you are the closest thing these people have. The others are gone.”

I fell silent. Because she was right.

“I will promise to try not to be an idiot.” But I could not promise anything else. “They shouldn’t even know that I am a Twice-Born. Only a few people know about that.” I complained.

“Words travel.” Lily just said. In the end she was way less experienced with mortal behavior than I.

I tried calming down. I really did. But being prayed to was a new and strange experience…and I did not like it.

“I realize that the people need some sort of religious outlet. But this feels wrong. It is not me.”

Lily sighed. “Can I just for once work with a greedy narcissist?”

I smiled. “No. You cannot. I will build a shrine for the Wanderer. He led me here.”

“Do what you must.” Lily said dejectedly. “Now that that is taken care of, what is next?”

“I want to do a couple of things in the Fulcrum. But I have to do two things first. Weave [Hidden Sheath]. And I have to have a…difficult conversation.”

I did the easy thing first. I wove [Hidden Sheath], payed my 460 EP and anchored the Skill into a hidden crack in the cliff. I held my breath for a second, but my unity did not go down. So far, so good.

After that, I exited my Demesne and took Kingsbane into my hands. I activated the Skill and concentrated on the sword. It just…ceased to be. I gave the mental command to make the sword reappear. And in the fraction of a second, Kingsbane was back, in exactly the position it had been before. It smashed to the ground, as I had a hard time to pre-lift the heavy sword, so I was not ready when it suddenly appeared. I had to train with that.

I had an Idea and begun to swing the sword horizontally. I made it disappear mid-swing, then changed stance and the position of my hands. It appeared in an awkward angle, still in the position it had been. But it had lost all momentum. Interesting.

It did not work on anything that was not a single weapon. It did not work on the rotting head of Barak Bloodbraid, it did not work on Zero, who had jerked back in indignation, and it did not work on my Dimensional-Flexible-Chest.

Good enough. I returned to my Demesne, after I had placed Kingsbane into my [Hidden Sheath]. Then, I finally strolled over to the Edge of my cliff, looking down on the sea of fog, which hid the prison of the Betrayer and his followers. I took one more deep breath and activated [Aura of Authority]. I would need it for this.

Then I jumped down, floating through the air down to the fog-gate, willing it away with a swipe of my hand.

He was right there. Just a foot in front of me. The Regicide, sneering at me with his hateful eyes. He was more substantial as he had been. He had lost a bit of his ghost-like quality, seemed more material, more present.

“The failure comes to bargain.” He said. He was bigger than me, looked down on me physically, if only by an inch or two.

My heart fluttered in my chest, even if my body was not real, but it was easy to suppress. I had beaten him once. I had unchained him. He was in my Demesne, now. I had all the power here. [Aura of Authority] hid every bit of nervousness I might have shown, regardless. So, it was easy to play a confident man.

“It does not become you to guess wrong.” I said, masking my feelings under faux confidence. “The stories about you do paint you a traitor, not an idiot.”

“And yet it is bargain you seek, is it not? What does that make you if you call me ‘traitor’ so easily.” He spat the word traitor with disgust.

“I do not wish to bargain. I want a story. The story of Whisper.” I flicked my wrist and held out Kingsbane, letting my eyes wander over the dark metal and the fine engravings. “The finest sword I ever did see.”

“A sword is only as good as the wearer. And we know what a disgrace to your family you are in that regard. The blood of the Raven must have been diluted and washed away by lesser men and women, whoring their way into the legacy of our family. And look at you now. Holding a sword you are not worthy to wield.”

“Our family, huh?” I smiled. “History knows you to be the murderer of a king. But it has nothing to say about you or your family.”

“Does it not?” he raged. “After everything I have given…no, you will not deceive me. I know you to be the Raven. And I know the only way that could have happened. The fact that you have unchained me is proof enough.”

“So, you are of Raven-blood. You are an ancestor of mine. Pray tell, Regicide, where do your hate come from, then.”

“You mean beside the fact that you are a disgrace? Beside you tricking me to defend your enemies for you? Beside you killing my vessel under the Divide and releasing the Dragon of Darkness into the world? Making my vow and those of the men under my command worthless? You broke our guard. You broke the seal. You made our deaths mean nothing. You took everything from us. Everything that was left. And you dared to bar our souls from moving on, after our sacrifice was done. Instead, you imprisoned us like dogs.” He started out calmly but was shouting at me in rage at the end.

I let him rage. I let him shout. After he had nothing else to say, I interjected as calmly as I could: “I did not know. I just fought to survive. And the Dragon of Darkness walks the earth this very second, swallowing what is left of the corpse of our empire and more. And I still stand to fight his minions. Think about that. Really let that sink in. We will talk again.”

I made Kingsbane disappear and turned away, feeling his cold eyes burn in my back. And I heard him hammering his fists against the invisible barrier he was imprisoned by.