“What a mess, indeed.” Dura muttered, once I had fully explained what I had seen, even if I had been vague on my methods.

“I know you and your group planned to travel onwards tomorrow but would it be possible to remain with us for a day?” she asked, after thinking for a moment, giving me the impression she had been making a quick decision.

I, in turn, shared a short look with Sigmir, who had been by my side the whole time. There was a frown on her face now and, over our link, I could feel a mix of emotions, some of which I could easily identify, worry mostly, but others were tangled up in a complicated mess that I didn’t even try to comprehend.

“We can do that.” I told her, after getting a quick nod from Sigmir.

“Good, thank you. Would you mind telling me some more about the way you work magic? Your scrying seems to work similar to mine, only harnessing the powers of the night, instead of the sun. But there is also a cold, Ice-magic around you, shrouding you like a cloak. It is curious.” Dura said, in a bit of a non-sequitur.

“I suppose I can tell you a few things.” I agreed, before focusing on Sigmir. “Love, do you want to sit in and listen or add your own observations to Adra’s lecture?” I asked, my mind frantically trying to decide just how to describe my abilities, what to explain, what to conceal and what to conceal, either by leading Dura to her own, hopefully wrong, conclusions or by actively lying about things.

“I will stay with you.” Sigmir quickly assured me, to which I nodded happily.

Instead of continuing to stand around, we moved to a couple of trees, which provided us with relatively comfortable backrests. For a moment, I considered conjuring up my throne but decided against it, partially because it wouldn’t be as comfortable for Sigmir as it was for me, partially because sitting on a throne while Dura had to sit on the ground would be a little impolite. Or rather, a lot.

As often, Sigmir pulled me onto her lap, her arms wrapped around me. It felt a little strange, sitting like this for a serious talk but at the end of the day, I felt good having her arms around me so I decided to simply accept it. By that time, I had somewhat of an idea what to tell, the Blood- and Mind-Magic were both something I would at most hint at, not coming out speaking of those skills. Mostly because they, in combination with my Outsider- and Ruthless-Traits might be enough to turn the Orcs hostile, something that would render our current efforts moot.

Similarly, my freshly acquired Death-Magic shouldn’t be mentioned, mainly because I hadn’t managed to do more with it than turn flowers to dust. I might be able to do more, fuelling a spell provided by Lenore, but that was another aspect I wasn’t sure how much I should tell about.

On the other hand, speaking of my Ice-Magic and some of my Darkness-Magic shouldn’t be giving away too much, I had shown some of it already. I had little doubt that an experienced Spellcaster would be able to guess at general usages of a particular magic, even if different people would be able to come up with different ways to go about things.

That left my connection to Lenore and what she brought to the table. something she had undoubtedly noticed when we clashed earlier, but how much of it she had been able to understand was anyone’s guess.

“I’m curious, what I just saw didn’t look like any magical tradition I have ever seen. Would you mind telling me which way you follow?” Dura asked, bringing my deliberations to a sudden end.

“There is no tradition to follow, I make my own way.” I admitted, curious how she would react. And I wasn’t disappointed, there was an obvious widening of her eyes, before she was able to hide her reaction.

“You’re a sorceress? And, just to make sure, you are a Traveller?” she asked, her voice a little confused.

“Yes, to both questions.” I replied, leaving it at that, curious what she would make of my answer.

“Interesting. I might have to ask you more questions about that and your experience, I only talked a little to Harms and a little more to another Traveller, a Shaman who is not with us on this expedition. When I asked her how she became a shaman, she just told me it was what she had been meant to become. A little cryptic, maybe you can shed some light. And explain how you became a Sorceress, they are supposed to be rare.” Dura explained, her voice musing and a little distracted, maybe by memories.

“I doubt I can tell you a lot more. We are visitors to this world after all, each with their own tales and reasons, I wouldn’t presume to judge the way another one of us sees the world. But how I became what I am now? I guess my past shaped me into what I am in the present.” I replied, trying to remain cryptical and not quite certain how to explain the idea of Road to Purgatory to someone native to Mundus. In many ways, it negated their existence or maybe degraded would be a better word. I was reasonably certain that Lenore had picked up on some of it from my mind but had never spoken of it, leaving me wondering. But I wouldn’t want to make Sigmir question things, I didn’t even want to question that part of my reality myself, certainly not with Sigmir’s arms wrapped around me. I might consider it, further down the road, but for now I didn’t see a reason to rock the boat, so to speak.

“Everyone has their secrets, no doubt about it. Would you consider telling me some of your abilities? Comparing our respective methods might enlighten the other, giving them ideas on their own. After all, Opposites complement each other, forming the sides of the endless Cycle.” Dura suggested, getting a nod from me in return. It sounded interesting, even if I didn’t conscribe to the idea of an endless cycle. There would be no cycle, only an eternal, dark winter. Eternal Ice, never to thaw, Eternal Darkness, never to be broken by Dawn.

Those were the concepts I had been focusing on with my magic, both absolute but complementing each other.

“We can do that, yes. I think the easiest to start would be to talk about my Ice-Magic, the cold of the freezing North and the endless winter.” I began, my eyes closed, remembering the distinct steps I had taken since coming to Mundus. How the environment I had found myself in had started to shape my ideas, of Ice and Snow, of freezing winds and biting cold.

As I spoke, I felt my magic react and forcibly kept it under control. It wanted to flow out of my, swirl around me, but doing so while on Sigmir’s lap would be painful for her.

I didn’t speak for long, didn’t go into too deep of details, it was not needed. I only realised when I had finished that what I had done was the equivalent to using a chant to cast magic, using words to invoke the memories to distinct concepts, allowing you to use those concepts without fully understanding them. That was the purpose of chants after all, to allow someone to cast a spell you had come up with, without them needing to understand the concepts, and thus runes, that made up the spell. No wonder that my magic had reacted, I had quite literally tried to cast a spell. Only a very long, convoluted one, nothing anyone would ever try for serious magic. But maybe for ritual spellcasting it would be useful, some sort of ceremony or something like that.

Finally, maybe a minute after I had finished, Dura cleared her throat, shaking her head a little, as if to clear out the cobwebs.

“Intriguing. I have seen some of the northern Lands, but never with your eyes, obviously. But now, let me tell you of my magic, of the burning heat of the fires, of the blazing light of the sun.” she said, her voice making it into something akin to a challenge.

And a challenge it was, that much became obvious quite quickly. The tale she was weaving was one similar to my own in many ways, describing how she had always been fascinated with fire and watching the flames dance. How she took the first steps on her own, before becoming a Shaman, how she had watched the flames of the sun in the sky, basking in the blazing light. It was interesting to listen to, interesting and it made me want to smother her flames, to extinguish them, crush their embers into dust and scatter the ashes in the darkness.

But that would have to wait, for now, working with her would hopefully be more useful.