Jason sent him the image of a high five when she took the bait. As they moseyed in the direction of the center, Serafina told him about her life as the child of a prostitute. Her mother had tried to keep her away from her men, but some were very interested in her maidenhead from a young age. She would dirty herself and she always needed to have a full bladder. Several regular patrons of her mother sexually assaulted her. Soiling herself was the only defense she had. One hour passed with Serafina weeping into his shoulder, laughing at a joke and thinking about a profound truth about life.

Somehow Jason’s tactic had backfired. Res felt closer to Serafina with every passing minute, and she got more comfortable with him. She wouldn’t blush as often and show her witty side. Xenia would throw dirty looks at Serafina, but they ignored her. For some reason, they hadn’t been attacked by anyone, nor had they detected anyone. It seemed like a peaceful walk in a park, not the deadly hell he had envisioned it to be. Serafina told of how her brother died from hunger and how she was picked off the street by the royal family. The training hardened her, but in a way that broke her into million tiny little pieces. Then melted her back together into a weapon. She would live in constant fear of getting poisoned by their instructors or getting killed during sword practice.

Over a third of the potential royal bodyguard suitors didn’t even survive the first year. As a trainee, she had to watch as her friends died one by one from the training. She was the only one out of one thousand street kids to survive the training. Despite being forced into servitude, she made the best out of the situation. It struck Res how she didn’t give up as everyone she loved died. Still, she found some form of happiness. Finally, there was a contemplative silence between the two of them and Serafina said: “Tell me your story.”

Res was grateful when he felt his neck hairs stand on end. “I have a weird feeling about this part of the woods. Can you please look around with your new sight?”

Serafina frowned, but closed her eyes and then opened them again. He hoped that the light of the setting sun wouldn’t obstruct her sight. Immediately, Serafina drew her sword and whispered. “I can see the shapes of people … hundreds upon hundreds of them above the trees. Some of them are holding rectangular objects and … ”

Res realized that those must be the black-box guys and waved that away. “I knew that they had to be somewhere, they aren’t dangerous. Look around us.”

Serafina turned all the way around and gasped out something incoherent when Res felt something rushing towards them. Out of instinct, he yelled and tackled Serafina to the ground. With a loud crash, an enormous sand spike impacted the spot they had been in and cut down one of the enormous trees. Seconds after the crash, Res heard the shrill shriek of the ape-like creatures. Serafina’s eyes widened, and she flung Res away into the underbrush while rolling behind a tree into the opposite direction. Another sand lance missed Serafina by only a slim margin. The stalker-apes cried out in jubilation at the use of aether and Res could hear the rustling of leaves in the distance.

The voice of an acquaintance resounded through the forest. “Come out, ghost. Hiding from me is useless, I will usher you into your afterlife.”

Akeem and the princess had run away for a time and were now watching from a safe distance. A stupid plan came to him. Making eye contact with Serafina, he pointed to her fingernails and mimed climbing up a tree. She got the jest of what he tried to say. As he had thought, if she extended her nails, she turned into a perfect climber. When she looked down at him and saw him staring at her live form, she blushed, but didn’t seem affronted. She even seemed to swing her hips some more.

“Bro, I am the last one to say such a thing, but you are handling a madman. You can’t let yourself get distracted right now.”

When Serafina had reached the first branch, Res shouted: “Please don’t … ”and immediately threw himself to the side. As he had expected, another sand spike impacted the spot he had been in. He had glimpsed Adrian’s unmasked face for the first time and his suspicions were confirmed. Adrian was a young man overwhelmed with the circumstances. Res tried to speak, but another sand spike immediately landed in the spot where he had stood.

“Hey Adrian …”Res jumped to his left. “… Why don’t we …” He had to use a small bit of aether to push out of the way of a spike going for his head. “… talk?”

Adrian snarled and flung sand spikes wildly in his general direction. “You are deceit reincarnated! My ghost has told me everything. Do you think you could manipulate me into believing that there is such a thing as a balance between the living and the dead? One can uphold the resemblance of a balance for a day or two, but there will always be someone pushing for more power.”

The howls of the stalkers continued to increase in frequency. ”You lure me into trusting you by casting a mesh of dark and forbidden mind control magic. Do you think I won’t realize how unnatural it is that I like you?”

Res stepped out of the cover of a tree and raised his hands. “Let’s assume that you got me. Let’s assume that I am a ghost. Why should you kill me? I have done nothing wrong; I haven’t massacred people and instead I have helped many. Why should you kill me? Is that who you are? A mad killer?”

Adrian’s hand was trembling and sweat was running down his forehead. Adrian looked like a normal southerner: Black hair, hazel eyes, tanned skin and sharp facial features. In his hand, he held four compasses and Res pointed at them. “I know this is difficult, but try to look at your actions objectively.”

Adrian whirled around to all sides as if he could spot his non-existent spell. He pointed an accusing finger at him. ”You are doing it again.”

Res tried to object, but Adrian flung his hand outward, which made one of the enormous trees next to him turn into sand. All the sand turned into a colossal twenty-meter-tall snake. Yet, it wasn’t the hiss of the snake, but the shrieks of glee around them that made a chill spread through his bones. “Do you want to die?”

Res tried to point at the black shapes jumping between trees, but Adrian didn’t notice or care. The snake drew back and sprang at him like a spring. He had to use a significant amount of aether to push himself back two feet. Res felt a claw ripping at his shirt and a part of his body, which now consisted out of aether, drained away. He only glimpsed the stalker that had attacked him before he dropped back to the ground. He tried to assess his shoulder and realized that a part of his shoulder had been cut away as if it had never been there. It didn’t bleed and healthy white skin lay beneath it.

Res filed the information back for later because the enormous snake realigned itself to strike him in the air. He had to push himself back once more. A hasty look at his compass revealed that he only had a quarter of his allowance left. The landing used up even that and he was left with a small slither. The bulk of the stalkers was concentrated around a lone figure that was walking towards him. If he had used his entire allowance to escape the sand snake, he couldn’t imagine how much aether Adrian had used. In front of Adrian hovered another sand spike and he sneered at Res.

“I got …” Adrian didn’t see the shape falling down from a nearby tree with her sword gleaming in the light of the setting sun.

Before Serafina could impale Adrian, Res called out. “Don’t kill him!”

Her sword entered his right shoulder and cut a bloody path down his body. The cry of pain was mirrored by several stalkers who dropped down from the trees and approached their prey. Res called out as calmly as he could. “Are you able to carry him?”

Serafina looked at him confused, but nodded. As if Adrian wasn’t two times her body weight, she threw him over her shoulders. She began to walk backwards while hissing at the creatures who were shrieking and clawing at the air. With this primal back and forth between human and beast, Serafina reached Res. Both of them were now walking backwards while keeping an eye on the shifting stalkers in the trees. Serafina muttered: “Why are we saving him?”

“He isn’t evil, but his ghost has twisted him.”

Serafina looked at him with sudden interest. “Are you a ghost possessing a body? I wouldn’t mind.”

“No. I am instead working side by side with a ghost. His name is Jason, I will tell you the story when we get out of this mess.”

One of the more ragged stalkers shrieked and Serafina threw Adrian’s limp body at Res. It was not a moment too early, as the stalker lunged at her and she impaled his brains on her sword. The stalker wasn’t finished though and clawed at her in his death fits and Serafina only narrowly avoided a hit. Seamlessly, she started walking backwards again. “I can’t take more than one at the same time. They aren’t dangerous by themselves, but they take an awful long time to die. Touching them means you get sucked dry of aether.”

It might have been the knowledge that a misstep would kill him that made him stumble. But stumble he did. One unseen root was enough for him to lose his balance and fall on the flat of his back. Jason gave him a burst of aether though and shouted: “Push off!”

All the adrenaline he had built up made him pull in all the aether he could, harden his body and push towards Serafina. Her highly trained mind had assessed the situation as hopeless too and she immediately understood what he tried to do. Her claws dug into his flesh as she clung onto him, but he didn’t mind. Yet, an instinct told him it wouldn’t be enough before the stalkers above the trees would impact them. After the weird blackout had transformed his body, he hadn’t reassessed his reserves.

He was blinded by the accessible aether and he greedily pulled on his right arm. When no sudden burst of power racked his body, he realized with delight that he could now control how much power he drew. Despite pulling only on his thumb cap, Res was flung forwards at ridiculous speeds. Serafina’s hold was nearly broken, and Res felt how she dug her claws even deeper into him.

“BRO, this new body is fucking sick! I wish I discovered that technique in my lifetime … Wait, I have changed my mind. I can’t imagine how depressing it would be to lose your crown jewels.”

Res wasn’t up for banter as he pushed through the trees to get the stalkers of their trail. Several of them materialized in a tree above him and jumped at him with uncanny precision. Dodging the trees while also avoiding the stalkers was tantamount to suicide. It was only pure luck that he didn’t get pushed off into another direction and headbutt a tree.

With a push of aether, they burst into a small clearing. Amid which stood a small tent with the Gamemaster sitting in front smoking a cigar. Akeem and Xenia stood next to the Gamemaster, waving wildly. The wild shriek of those horrible creatures and the Gamemaster’s advice was the only reason he stopped. With a small burst of aether, Res touched down.