Stunned, Aletta and Cale exchanged glances. Cale jerkily released his grip and took a few steps back, while Aletta stepped next to him and reached for Vonstetten's hand. The latter backed away a bit in surprise, but did not refuse her. Cale could feel her beginning to make use of her mana.

"Did the mark leaked trough my barrier?", Cale asked nervously.

"No, it didn't. The mark is gone."

"Nor a second one that we missed?"

"What are you talking about?", Grischa interrupted.

"High-Magician Vonstetten, what's the last thing you remember?", the young healer inquired a moment later, without answering the question. Aletta remained completely calm compared to Cale. She continued to hold his arm as she looked up at the High-Magician. Grischa returned her expression for a moment, obviously trying to remember, before abruptly putting on a frightened expression.

"The fight. I remember fighting during the second wave. I also remember the order to retreat, but... I don't remember getting back into the barrier. What happened?"

His last words were directed rather to Cale, whose throat tightened. Grischa was alive, that much was certain. His mana was fine and his physical condition was improving. The mark had disappeared and the Kormandent was dead. But why was Grischa missing his memories? Was that a reason why no one could remember the Kormandent, or did his amnesia have some other trigger?

"And the starfire?", Cale inquired tensely.

"Starfire? What kind of...?", Grischa replied, looking down at the ground as if trying to remember something. "I'm not sure. Faintly... yes, I think I remember that too."

"Cale, I don't think it's from the Kormandent", Aletta raised softly.

"Kormandent?", Grischa repeated in wonder, looking up.

"Then what is it?", Cale answerd Aletta's statemend, deliberately ignoring Grischa.

"It looks more like amnesia triggered by traumatic experiences. A protective reaction, if you know what I mean."

"Traumatic experiences?", Grischa repeated, but Cale breathed a sigh of relief at the statement. It wasn't because of the creature or his failure. It was because of Grischa himself.

"By the Eldest's beard, I was beginning to think it was something bad."

"That's bad! What exactly had happened?", Grischa retorted loudly, visibly annoyed. The High-Magician rose, causing Aletta to instinctively dodge to the side. Grischa yanked the blanket to the ground as he moved, taking only two steps toward Cale before losing his balance and toppeling off to the side. Immediately, Cale was beside him, grabbing under his arms as his legs gave way almost completely.

"What the...", Grischa muttered and Cale could literally feel the nervousness in the High-Magician's voice. "What's wrong with me? My legs..."

"Lack of muscle strength, it's completely normal", Aletta spoke up, trying to reassure the High-Magician with her statement. She reached for her cloth cloak and buried her hands in it while looking at Grischa's body with narrow eyes. "Take it slow, Sir Vonstetten."

"Due to lack of exercise?", Cale spoke up as he carefully set his friend back down on the bed.

"Among others, but mostly due to the mana poisoning. It's going to take Sir Vonstetten a while to filter your mana, Cale. Don't let him do anything strenuous."

"I'll keep that in mind", Cale replied sympathetically. "I'll let the Eldest and the council know he's awake."

"Do that. I'll get ready and report to the healers in Frignez later."

Cale nodded in agreement before the girl disappeared from the room and the door slammed shut behind her. Cale had not expected so much excitement the very next morning. Secretly, he had hoped to have some peace and quiet for at least a day, but the world just wouldn't allow it. Carefully, he let go of Grischa and knelt on the ground in front of him, while Grischa looked at him skeptically. When Cale made the communication crystal appear with his hand, Grischa reached in between and grabbed his arm. Cale, of course, knew why he was doing this.

"Don't. You don't have to call the Eldest just because I have memory lapses."

"I have to, Grin. I am going to explain you everything, just let me tell him you're awake", Cale explained calmly. Hesitantly, he let go of Cale's arm and watched as he slid Mana into the crystal. Not a second later, the Eldest spoke up.

"Is he awake, Caleb?"

At the lack of greeting and the unexpected direct address, Grischa looked at Cale in surprise before speaking up.

"Good morning."

"Vonstetten! You can't imagine how relieved I am to hear your voice. Give me a few minutes, I'll finish my work, let the others know, and join you in a moment."

"Eldest, Grischa has no memories since the encounter with the Kormandent", Cale calmly replied.

"No memories of... the mark?"

"The link has definitely been severed. Aletta Merensen just checked it. It's probably just amnesia. Do me a favor and don't bring everyone with you right away. Sefra and Odin maybe, I don't want to... overwhelm him."

A loud sigh could be heard from the Eldest before he quietly spoke up.

"Just the two of them, yes, good idea. We should get an overview first."

"Thank you", Cale replied, and a moment later the High-Magicians severed their connection. Cale set the crystal down on the bed and picked up his chronicles to get to the drawing of the Kormandent.

"What about... where's Aaron?"

Cale winced at the statement. Inevitably, he couldn't help but think of the Eldest's story, which was why all his hair stood on end. He couldn't just block out the fact that he knew Aaron's past. The whole subject had become quite uncomfortable for him and he couldn't judge at all how he would behave towards him now.

"Is he... ?", Grischa added in a low, frightened voice. Cale reached for the book, turned around, smiled at Grischa and ran his fingers through his wet hair before, with the help of Magier, he pulled the chair towards him and took a seat in front of him.

"Don't worry, he's fine. He's just not in the house", Cale explained with amusement, though he didn't feel like laughing. "I explained to you what happened. You're not going to like it, though. Promise me you'll do what I tell you."

Grischa leaned his head just slightly to the side, but didn't reply.

"You seem to be missing the memories of the last two months."

"Two months?", the High-Magician cried out in horror, raising his whole body, but Cale did not move an inch.

"Yes. We will look into the cause at our leisure later. Please don't go anywhere alone, you hear me? The last few weeks have been pretty stressful for all of us because of you. Without exception, every one of us has been very worried sick about you, Grin."

Carefully, Cale levitated his book from the table and pulled out a drawing of the Kormandent. He wasn't sure it was a good idea to confront his friend so directly with the truth, so he hesitated for a moment.

"In the battle, you collided with a creature we call a Kormandent. These are creatures that can teleport. They don't have their own mana, but it can steal other people's mana and use it for themselves. This monstrosity...", Cale raised and contorted his face as he recoiled from his insult and continued with his explanation. "... creature got you and permanently stole your mana over the last few weeks. You've been living on only 12RM for two months, your mana budget has been a mess and your Igrikum.... it wasn't pretty to watch."

Cale decided against showing him the drawing of the creature. Instead, he highlighted the strange mark and showed that image to Grischa, who didn't seem to know what he was looking at.

"If this is supposed to be a joke, it's not funny, Caleb."

"Do I look like I'm making jokes now?", Cale retorted, looking at his friend with serious eyes. "That had been really... been anything but funny. You owe a lot of people your life, so take it seriously."

His friend didn't reply anything and just stared at the muster.

"Last night, you were on death's door. Thank the gods you survived, to see you like this now... you can't imagine how relieved I am. You lived with me all those weeks and with each passing day you could be seen losing your humanity. There were many days when you weren't yourself anymore."

Grischa let go of the note and put his hand in front of his face as if examining his body.

"When the others killed the creature yesterday, your body was finally able to recover. From all that, all you should still feel is my Igrikum on its back, right?"

"I was wondering what that was. You can place your barriers in others' bodies without killing them? How and why did you even do that?"

"How it works is harder to explain than you think. You had an alien-like growth in your body that attached itself directly to your mana heart and stole your mana. I merely trapped it, so it could no longer access your mana. Getting to the point of doing that without any consequences for your body was not easy, believe me. I'll remove my Igrikum in the near future, but only after consulting Aletta and the healers from Frignez."

"Healers from... how many know about this?"

"Quite a few by now. At first, just you, me, Aletta, Aaron, and the Eldest. When we had no successes, the Eldest reached out to quite a few mages from around the world and Aletta had spent many hours talking to the healers on Frignez. The other High-Magicians, Yusuf, my friends... quite possibly some other people overheard this that I don't know about right now."

Grischa winced at the statement, but kept a comment to himself. His eyes wandered to the books on his right before spotting the mess on the small table. Briefly, he opened his mouth as if to ask another question, but he didn't seem to know how to phrase it.

"Your family is fine, they don't know about any of this", Cale replied at his frightened look. He already guessed what Grischa was thinking and could see a hint of relief on his face. "You said to me at the time that you didn't want them to worry, which is why we kept it quiet."

"That's fine", Grischa merely muttered, looking up at Cale. "But it's strange that I don't have any memories of what happened. Don't you think so?"

"Yes, I do, somewhat. But to be honest, I don't really care about the reason. I'm just glad you're alive", Cale explained, pausing for breath. "Please don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you think I had something to do with it. I know that look. The what-have-you-done-again look."

"Was that... mark really that bad?"

"..."

"Caleb?"

"It was", Cale replied hesitantly as he recalled the many nights of despair. The moments when he began to realize there was nothing he could do. "For me, it felt like doom and gloom, and you will have felt the same way. It was horror. Just pure horror."

"Strange", Grischa merely interjected, rubbing his hand over the spot where Cale had placed his Igrikum. "How about you tell me the whole story, or are you planning to leave me in the dark again?"

"I don't plan to", Cale brought to the floor with an amused snort and stood up. "I'm just going to dry my hair off and you should put some clothes on too before the others get here. After that, I'll tell you what's actually been going on here."