The Paladins needed a few minutes to calm down the thaumaturges. Paper was brought and notes transferred. I saw a total of four Thaumonomicons brought out to reference their research. Whatever they were doing. The reason for that was obvious. My friend Truth had shown up in reality. Somehow. I looked inwards at my soul and quickly figured out he had used our relationship to project his presence through me into reality.

The trigger for that was currently staring into a bonfire, a Crimson Knight standing right behind. The man did not move but his presence alone froze the squad’s commander. Or she was otherwise deep in thought.

At my bare-bones explanation, Jane had simply shaken her head and dropped on her back. Circe was much more excited and had not stopped speaking since, asking few questions in many words. It essentially boiled down to: “Who was that?” and “What do you mean?”

The villagers were just waking up from their induced stupor. They looked even more confused than everyone else. I was guessing Truth had set them to sleep to prevent their minds from warping beyond the breaking point. Which brought forth the question of why Circe had stayed awake. Even Jasper had fallen asleep, after all.

Eventually, the commotion calmed down. Ludwig was shivering in the corner of the cart but other than that, everyone was back to normal.

“Circe!”, I said, “Slow down. I can’t answer you if you don’t give me time to do so.”

She froze mid-word, her mouth open. It closed as she sat down and once settled, she gave me a nod.

“Hold on”, the Crimson Knight closer to us said, “We all will listen.”

I nodded.

“Let’s get food first? It’s a bit of a story and people need to calm down a little.”

“But!”, Circe tried.

“You especially need to eat something. We’ve been on the road all day.”

“That’s right!”, Joachim clapped his hands, “Everyone, get out the rations. We’re in for a very interesting story tonight.”

At the sound, Jane looked up. She glanced at the Knight behind her and received a nod. A wry smile made its way onto her face.

It took maybe fifteen minutes to get everyone settled around two bonfires, rations in hand. The supply cart brought by the Church had some fruits and vegetables to expand the diet from dried meat and bread. The mercenary cart had been brought closer to serve as a stage for me. Circe sat by my side, Pytos on the other with a notebook. I noticed the villagers being just as interested as the Paladins. They had been caught up on the event, after all.

“Right… where do I best begin?”, I started.

“Maybe”, Pytos tried.

“No”, I stopped him, “No interruptions or I will stop talking. You can ask a few questions after I’m done.”

He nodded and made a locking motion in front of his mouth.

“I… will keep it simple. Parts of this story are private and I do not wish to tell them. What is important is that I have always had a very high tolerance toward warp. I jumped through the stages of vis enrichment in about half a year to reach my evolution. I met mind spiders and eldritch guardians since then. One of them was able to use my soul as a gate to return to the Empty.”

Furious scribbling silenced me for a moment. I took the time to collect my thoughts.

“For those unaware, I spent most of my life south of the plains. I lived in a goblin village for some time and later became a dwarven citizen.”

I saw Jane’s eyes widen at that.

“Said goblin village has a superior node in a cave below. A little over a year ago, we set out to reach it by way of mining. And when we broke through, a wave of vis shot out of the cave. It was so much it pushed my soul fully into the Empty, along with my Beast Core. I am not sure what would have happened had I not been able to return. I likely would have become a being of beyond, my body either dead or tainted. What I did there exactly does not matter. Important is that I met Truth. That was the eye you just saw. He is a soul of sorts that exists only in the Empty. And because all souls are partially there, only alive through a connection to reality, he was able to realize I was being attacked.”

Jane flinched. I met her eyes.

“You told me what your Skill can do. I do not approve. Never use it in front of me.”

She nodded meekly and muttered a ‘sorry’ I could only barely make out.

“And there you have it. I don’t know what it takes for him to manifest like that. I know my soul would break if he does it too often. It is already strained. Well, maybe not break. I might be pulled completely out of my body instead. It’s difficult to tell.”

I stopped. The thaumaturges were scribbling furiously, their food mostly forgotten. Jane looked like she wanted to sink into the ground. I met Circe’s eyes. She was bouncing up and down on the edge of the wagon.

“That! Is! So! Cool!”

“Scary is what it is!”, Ludwig complained from his corner. Cerberos was sitting next to him and trying to make him eat.

“Was that it?”, Pytos asked, “Anything else you can tell us? That Truth, is he the Truth? Everything that is this world and isn’t? Can we meet him? I have so many questions I want to ask him!”

I silenced him with a glare.

“You’ll have to figure out most of that on your own. As for meeting him, that's on you as well. What happened to me was incredibly risky. My soul is warped beyond what should be safe, as far as I’m aware. Maybe there’s sanity after insanity?”

“Ohhhh! That’s such a good idea!”

“No”, a Crimson Knight spoke up, “You will take notes but do not push without safeties.”

“I know, I know! But it’s so interesting.”

“We will pursue this avenue, of that you can be certain.”

“Right”, Joachim spoke up, “That’s all really cool but what does that actually mean?”

“It’s only normal you don’t understand”, the knight said, “This is a topic difficult to understand for even [Thaumaturge]s. We’ll need to figure things out for ourselves. Commander, take over. We have to do work.”

Jane looked like she wanted to protest but the knights were already walking off to their carriage. Most of the thaumaturges followed their lead, only a few still lingering with their notebooks out, likely in hopes of catching something interesting.

“Right”, the woman said, “Once again, I’m sorry. To be honest with you, this is my first mission as a commander. It was supposed to be an easy one but I jumped to conclusions.”

“I won’t just forgive you”, I said, “But we can try again.”

“Thank you. Our mission was to ascertain the presence of thaumaturgy and aura nodes near Greypeak village. I suppose that would be you?”

I nodded.

“Sort of. I’m not a [Thaumaturge] by Class but I know the craft. A little, at least.”

“And your node is too far out to be a risk?”

“What kind of risk are you considering?”

“Taint or hungry nodes. Or, if it is riddled with the evil aspects. Those tend to create zombies from dead bodies or hold souls as ghosts.”

“I am pretty sure none of that will be a problem.”

That was a lot of information just like that. And she was not even a [Thaumaturge] if I understood correctly.

“Is there anything else of note?”

“My family joined the village as citizens. They are all sapient after sufficient exposure to vis.”

“Right… And there’s really no node nearby?”

“Not within a day’s walk”, Cerberos said, “I trust her on that.”

“Thank you”, I said.

Jane sighed.

“Fine. I guess… that’s it? I’ll go write my report.”

“Hold on”, I said, “Was there an ork [Thaumaturge] arriving near this area about a year ago?”

The woman blinked.

“Well… I’d have to check. I don’t know about every newcomer.”

“Please do. He was accompanied by his aunt. Their names are Ugark and Sra.”

She nodded before walking off. The remaining thaumaturges started bombarding me with questions which I deflected carefully. While I knew little about the answers they were looking for, I did not want to compromise my friend. He may be Truth but there was more to him than just knowledge.

When Pyros asked for the sixth time how much essence he would need to open a gate to the Empty, I grabbed him with my shadows and hoisted him away as far as I could. Two Paladins had taken out their swords but quickly put them away after seeing their man was unharmed.

“Leave it be”, I said, “I don’t have your answers. And even if I had them, I would not share with just anyone.”

“But we always share!”, he said.

I narrowed my eyes.

“That’s awfully nice. I’m not one of you guys, though. I don’t even know why you’re so fixated on this. I can understand curiosity but leave me some space.”

One of the Crimson Knights left the carriage at just that moment.

“Return to your duties. We will rest here for all of tomorrow. Fio Catori, would you join me for a while?”

He gestured a little ways off into the plain. I nodded and took off as he had to use his feet. Once out of earshot, he stopped and I landed about two metres away. Far enough that I could easily react to any shenanigans. A few tendrils of darkness lay ready in the grass to shift out of the way at any moment.

The knight looked off into the distance.

“Do you know what the Crimson Church does?”

“Not really. Some sort of government control. And preventing thaumaturgy from affecting the people?”

“That is part of our mission. The true reason for our control of the craft lies beneath the Cathedral. Maybe you will see it one day. Fio. May I call you that?”

He turned his head to me and I nodded.

“We are working to protect the human plains. Thaumaturgy is fearsome in the wrong hands. I would like to confirm that you are truly a dwarven citizen. Can you show me proof?”

“I left my library card in Borsdown. Will a dwarven artefact suffice?”

The helmet turned to me. I could just make out the glint in his eyes.

“Like that amulet that lets you speak? That is clearly thaumaturgy.”

I blinked.

“Well, it is. But I have this.”

I opened my storage off to the side. I could hear the knight’s heart rate and breath accelerate but his posture showed no reaction. My heating plate dropped onto the grass.

“What do you think?”, I asked.

“That… Yes. I recognize the lack of infusion. Artificing as the dwarves do it is a path not leading far towards Truth. Though I suppose you have no need for that.”

“I don’t know everything. We’re just friends.”

“Very well. We do not want a war with the dwarves. That would diverge important resources. As such, I will let you go your way. But I must ask: Would you join us?”

I tilted my head.

“Join the Church? And then?”

“You would undergo a basic examination of your understanding and be put to assist the survival of mankind.”

“That sounds like a prison…”

“It is a very time-intensive task. We could need someone like you.”

“I’ll have to decline”, I said, “I value my freedom.”

The knight snorted.

“I expected as much. As for your earlier question, Ugark joined us. I can not tell you more unless you do as well.”

“As long as he’s happy, I don’t mind.”

“Where will you go next?”, the knight asked.

“I wanted to see more of the world. For a start, we were aiming to visit the Cathedral.”

“A good choice. My brother will lead a few Paladins to Greypeak but most of us will return. We may travel together.”

“For a bit. I want to see Brookfrid and the capital as well.”

“I see. Thank you. If you ever reconsider, simply find a church. Though I suppose you can just fly to the Cathedral. We would gladly have you.”

A thought came to my mind.

“Could we work together without me joining the Church?”

“What do you have in mind?”

“I want to know more about hungry nodes and how to close them.”

There was a soft click as a gauntleted hand closed. I met the knight’s eyes. They were pressed thin and scanning me up and down.

“I will assign Eternal to you. She will lead you to the Crimson Heart. We can discuss any further exchange of information there.”

With that, he turned on the spot. I shrugged and put away the heating plate. I seemed to have gotten more company on my journey. I just wondered what had gotten him so riled up there at the end.