Tercius interrogated the spirit by nudging the invading being to build up its thoughts towards a topic he found useful, and that nudging was as simple as giving it a single word. A short, pointed question proved much more effective, however. After the being's thoughts on the topic grew large enough, Tercius would again share a repetitive kind of thought and the built-up thoughts were again discarded behind, all the while leaving the spirit a confused mess. At that time, Tercius' thoughts swooped in and collected the discarded blue and white lightning-looking thoughts quickly, immersing themselves in the information stored within.

Most of it was incoherent gibberish, but here and there, because Tercius kept repeating certain questions over and over again, a nugget of real substance appeared and those he placed aside for later contemplation.

The information he gathered was alarming.

The spirit was here for him, but, more importantly, it was not the only one looking. The being had no idea who or the number of these pursuers, but it knew that it wanted to be the one to complete the command. The next alarming thing was who it was that sent the being after him. Without a shadow of a doubt, the spirit’s thoughts told Tercius that the being had gotten its directives from Divine Sky, or at least the being believed it so, and that “Divine Sky” gave the spirit Tercius’ general location. In a few snippets of thoughts, Tercius caught the sound of a strange voice speaking— perhaps speaking was not the right word. Humans had no organ to receive that kind of transmission, of that he was almost sure. Throughout the thought, even as Tercius’ {Distant Mind} worked to thin them out to nothingness, thin strands of spirit’s pure adoration lingered inside, a desire to please so firm that even his high leveled Skill had an issue differencing emotion from thought. The bird spirit thought highly of the speaker, that much was plainly obvious to Tercius. Other than disturbing him on a primal level, this particular thought showed itself as highly dangerous for it nearly consistently showed the ability to bring the spirit close to the lucid state.

The first time it happened he panicked and allowed the lucid spirit to rage for a bit before he threw it back into a looping state. The dozen times after, however, Tercius was prepared to share a looping thought at a moment's notice and within moments of showing a hint of lucidity, the bird was reverted back to the nearly robotic mess. After each time he did it, he had to let the bird have some time to restore a certain measure of cohesive thought process. Without it, the bird's thoughts were useless, while with too much of it, the bird became lucid.

As it was an important thought to him, as Tercius had to make sure nothing was missing from what he knew, so he kept going back to it over and over again. It was difficult, at first, to find an appropriate spot where his questions would prompt the bird spirit to form a cohesive thought, without actually allowing it to regain its mental faculties. But as he tinkered more and more with the bird’s thoughts, he found that sweet spot easier.

Another thing he found out was why the being needed him.

In the spirit’s thoughts, Tercius was to be brought along to unlock something. Something dark, something that the bird shuddered at in both fear and desire. Something that could end it… or make it as strong as it used to be.

Zerakronoz of today was just a shadow of what the spirit used to be at the peak of its power, when hundreds of thousands of human creatures bowed their heads as Zerakronoz streaked across the skies. Actually, Zerakronoz was a shadow compared to a week ago...

In those moments between having to reduce the spirit's thoughts to nothing and allowing them to build back up that Tercius analyzed what he learned and even indulged himself and worried about the ramifications of his actions, not only in regard to the relationship between him and the bird spirit, the people, the spirits, and whatever else stood behind it but also about what this Skill's application meant to him.

Even before he had added the alteration to allow others into his {Distant Mind} space that a change always had unintended consequences. This discovery was already a powerful tool in his arsenal and with time and experimentation, it could become even more so. It would be a criminal disservice to himself not to use it and develop it further.

The problem was how and when to use it. An important problem, no two thoughts about it, but a problem best left for another time, when he wasn’t so tightly pressed.

The biggest problem here and now was that he could not leave {Distant Mind}.

He had been hesitant to try leaving the first time, but he knew that it had to be done so after he looped the spirit, he tried it. Since failing then, no matter how he tried going about leaving, the Skill was intent on not letting him out. Plainly, the most obvious reason for that obstinacy on the part of his Skill was the new addition to the space.

It had to go.

Tercius had hoped to keep it trapped here for multiple reasons. For one, the spirit could prove to be an excellent source of information. The spirit had paved the easy path for Tercius, one that many called the moral high ground. That, along with the emotional drain of his Skill in tow and he noticed that at no point in time did he muster even a single tingle of any kind of sympathetic emotion on behalf of the spirit. In the cool realm of thoughts, it was simple: it had struck first with malicious intent and in doing so lost even the shreds that would usually inhibit Tercius from using it as a lab rat. That raised some interesting questions of its own, but again they were better left for later.

As he saw it, he had two options. Well, three, but the third one was rejected immediately based on the simple fact that all indicators told him that bringing a spirit into his anima could only end with him being ended.

So, Tercius could either expel the spirit from his mind or… well, try to destroy its mind here and now.

He was fairly certain he could accomplish the first one rather easily, simply by thinking of leaving as usual, only this time by targeting the bird instead of himself. But releasing the being from here could end up releasing it out there, in the real world. Who knew what it could do then? As of right now, Tercius was pretty sure that his body was alive, otherwise, he would not be here, thinking. It was a top priority that he ensured his own continued security.

Therefore, terminating the spirit’s mind seemed to have a rather good short-term payoff.

But what about the long term? These beings were old and some of them got along with other spirits, even those who were of other Divines, thought that was more of an expectation than the rule.

Even leaving aside the fact that Zerakronoz apparently had a direct order from one of the Old Divines— which his own Mentor repeatedly claimed could never interact with the physical world, especially now that its grasp on the population had dwindled— Zerakronoz was, at least in its own thoughts, highly known and respected among its own kind. Now, that could be a delusion on the bird’s part, but who was Tercius to say that it couldn’t be true? Strange things do happen and exist, regardless of who thinks them possible.

Successfully terminating the mind of Zerakronoz could end up causing him bigger problems down the line. Hell, he was not sure that he could successfully do it. He could try, certainly, but success was up in the air, and to him, this looked like a situation where it was imperative for the nail to be hammered in with a single swing, both on his and on the spirit's behalf.

Tercius took his time to consider both sides. His thoughts swirled and wove themselves into dark tendrils and like always it didn't take long for him to lean more towards the long-term benefits. Perhaps, while he was in a clear position of power, he could actually talk to the spirit and have it make that… pledge, was it? It was more than worth a try…

Tercius let loose all of the unnecessary thoughts, sharpening his focus to optimal size, and then he stopped sending looping thoughts to the spirit. Within what seemed like minutes, the tiny blue blip started gathering looping feathers of blue and white lightning around its form.

One dark tendril reached out through the darkness and touched a feather on the barely grown baby chick. “Who sent you, Zerakronoz? Why were you sent?”

The transformation brought about by the questions was neither fast nor slow, but soon enough the bird started to grow in size and the feathers stopped swirling about, gaining a visible sharpness, color, and clear definition. It was incredible to observe.

“What… is this?” an arc of lightning flashed into the darkness. “What… What manner of trickery is this?! Where is the mind of the human creature?!”

“Around here somewhere.”

“A lurker in the dark…” the spirit accused just as a spike of apprehension hit it. “You are doing something to Zerakronoz…”

“Calming your emotions, yes.”

The bird puffed up with a spike of anger. “Stop it! Stop it right now! Zerakronoz demands it!”

A dark tendril brushed against the bird’s gathered thoughts, sending along a calm response. “It cannot be done.”

Like a few times before, the bird's thoughts went into a frenzy. With a flap of its wings, it headed for Tercius. Unlike before, Tercius stood his ground. As the bird's thoughts crashed into his, Tercius acted with all the focus he had and engulfed and entangled the bird like a strangling vine. The direct contact over a large surface allowed an almost instant transfer of a mass of images, sounds, emotions, and more, which almost overwhelmed them both.

Tercius was first to recover and his focus sharpened. He dispelled the unnecessary thoughts and reined in the mass exchange of screams and chirps. His remaining thoughts gained an elasticity while keeping their previous strength.

The bird’s thoughts buckled and chirped in vain even as they grew larger, but with each passing moment where its size didn’t help it to extricate itself from his tentacled grasp, Tercius showed it just how effective its struggle was.

“Settle down, will you?”

“Zerakronoz now sees who you are, human creature. Let go of Zerakronoz this instant.” the bird chirped, alarmed. “Or—”

“Or what?” Tercius asked calmly. “You saw what I thought and even so I only let you see what I wanted you to see. You saw what the alternative I have in mind for you is. So settle down now—”

“And bow to the likes of you? To a human creature?! Never!”

The spirit was far too excitable. At every corner of a thought, there was a spike of emotions that his Skill had to take away and numb.

“I can feel the fear bubbling beneath your surface, spirit. No need to act in front of me.” Tercius responded calmly.

“Fear?” the bird’s thoughts bristled in indignity, but even it couldn’t deny the truth of the statement. “Mortal, you will suffer Zerakronoz’s wrath! Then you will see who fears who!”

“No need for such excitement, spirit. I will let you go now, but you are going nowhere,” Tercius sent, slowly releasing the hold he had on the being’s thoughts. “Out there, you might be more powerful than me, but here the roles are reversed and you are not leaving until I get what I want. Keep that in mind.”

The bird seemed confused as it regained liberty, so much so that it seemed hesitant for a bit, but then out of nowhere a pillar of a flame of indignity roared to life within the bird's thoughts. "Might be more powerful? Might be?! Zerakronoz can turn you to dust on the spot!”

“You are not the brightest of birds, are you now?”

“Zerakronoz… is not… a… bird creature!” the bird thought, as if through a clenched beak.

“You look like one, you act like one. In what ways are you not a bird?”

“Zerakronoz is a spirit! A spirit, you dumb human creature!”

“Well, whatever creature you are, you came here and tried to invade—”

“Zerakronoz was to take you to his—”

“I know what you tried and why you tried it and who sent you, Zerakronoz. I know everything. I can see all the answers in you.”

That plain admission disturbed the spirit, especially since it saw some things earlier.

“Now it’s time we turned to more serious matters—”

“Do you know to whom you are speaking to? Never in Zerakronoz’s life has there been someone so… so… Zerakronoz has never been this insulted, so disrespected! Oh, there will be a terrible storm for this, Zerakronoz can promise you that—”

Threats again. This was getting nowhere.

Tercius loomed closer to the spirit’s thoughts and felt the tiny quivers reverberate in the surrounding darkness. This was his pond. Nothing could escape him here.

The bird flapped its wings and moved back slowly. Not only were Tercius' thoughts larger in size, but all of them were razor-focused on one thing only— to try to get a good deal out of this, by any means necessary. Behind the bulk of him, a dozen threads kept the options he was willing to entertain. Another dozen held all the tools he was willing to use to get what he wanted.

“Try it then. Go right ahead, spirit. See of how much use your storms are to you here.”

Tercius' thoughts stilled and let the bird's blustering thoughts go unanswered for a while. Suddenly, Tercius felt that the edges of his Skill were trying to draw back. In the far distance, a little bit of light dawned. Since this was not his doing, there was only one thing left that could prompt a response like that. The spirit was trying to escape and, in response, the Skill was receding. Tercius swooped in and hardened the Skill back into place. The emerging dawn turned to dusk faster than it emerged and Tercius felt a little bit pleased with himself.

“Well? What’s the matter? Where is this promised storm?”

“Just you wait!”

“I’ll be right here,”

The bird's thoughts tried to leave a couple of more times, but Tercius was always there to intervene. Eventually, the blue and white bird turned dark blue then black and its form grew menacing as it tried something. Like once before, Tercius felt a tiny quiver from his Skill for a bare moment—

The bird chirped in laughter. “Now you will tremble before Zerakronoz—”

But, just like before, nothing happened. The bird’s dark color slowly drained.

“I can keep you here forever, spirit. And we both know why you are here right now. You are spent. You came here to hide, spirit, thinking it a safe shelter. A place to wait and regain some of your spent strength only to then take me to your “human creatures” by any means necessary. That plan… Well, let’s say that it’s no longer viable, shall we?”

For the first time since they met, the bird seemed unable to form a single thought in response and not because of any direct meddling on Tercius’ part.

A calmness like never before was spreading throughout the spirit's form, as a strange realization of its situation started to dawn on it. A spark of something new came to life as something it never felt before slowly started to creep up and grow. Feeling it happen and observing it indirectly through the reverberations in the darkness awoke a curiosity in Tercius and for a moment of weak impulse, he had to keep himself firm as not to let his thoughts brush against those new formations.

He held himself back and contained, merely waiting for the spirit to be the one to initiate contact.

“What do you want?” the being finally asked with a mere hint of haughtiness.

“I showed you what I want.”

“What you… showed Zerakronoz is… cloudy.” the being admitted with some difficulty.

Ah. Yes, that could very well be true. While reading thoughts, there were instances where he had to go through them a couple of times to make sense of it all. Did the bird not go through every thought a couple of times? That would explain some things…

“I want your pledge to never—”

“A pledge is reserved for Zerakronoz’s peers, not for the likes of a human creature.”

Mistress Kalina did not tell him that. “This can be an exception to the rule, then.”

"Never shall it happen that Zerakronoz falls so low." the bird denied with clarity and firmness that surprised Tercius.

“You do know that I only have one option left? Or was that part cloudy too?”

“But… but you must come with Zerakronoz, human creature. She ordered it to be so, and so it must be.”

Amusement rippled through Tercius’ thoughts. “I must come?”

“Yes, yes, yes! You must—”

“What I must do has no room to accommodate this… whatever this affair is that you want to entangle me in. I have no time or desire to go with you. Spirit, I ask you one last time. Give me your pledge— that you will go back from where you came from and pretend that we never even met. You will in no way speak, write, hint or in any other way communicate anything about me, my abilities– or anything else at all– to anyone or anything. You will not try to follow– or follow, for that matter– or even find me after we part our ways. We both leave this place, never to meet again nor stand in each other's path. If you can pledge all of this, you are free to go immediately."

“But… but… If Zerakronoz does not complete the command, then—”

It was then that Tercius felt it. A hint of another presence in the void, one that appeared directly where Zerakronoz was. In alarm, Tercius hurried to place some distance between himself and the spirit.

"Yes… yes…" the bird chirped in agreement, waves of pure happiness radiating off of it. "But… Zerakronoz has no power left for that…"

The spirit's thoughts suddenly came alive with light. Blue and white drove darkness back and then the new presence was simply gone as if it was never there.

As Tercius observed the bird, which seemed completely unchanged once the light died down, he understood that he had to focus for a possible fight, and so he hurried to to banish all thoughts of what that presence was or how it got here or—

“Oh, yes! Finally! After so many years! Yes, Zerakronoz will comply with Your will! You there, human creature! Rejoice, for you have been chosen to be Zerakronoz’s new attendant!”

With the speed of lightning, a streak of blue and white collided with Tercius before he even knew what happened. The bird was gone.

{Zerakronoz} develops {Spirit Pact}. Obtain Yes?

Tercius’ thoughts stilled in quivering shock. What the— where was the no? Where was the fucking NO?