I stared at Aleah Jeffers for several moments, before an idea came to mind. She invaded my dream, my soul. Perhaps she knew about my current condition. If so, maybe she knew how to… I don't know. Hide it? Change it? It didn't matter as long as it stopped being a problem.
"Excuse me," I said. "I need to speak with Captain Aleah about something."
Everyone, aside from Anna, looked at me in confusion. Before they could say anything, I marched over to Aleah Jeffers.
"Captain Aleah, may I have a moment of your time?" I asked in a polite tone.
She nodded. On the surface, she acted polite. However, I noticed the twinkle of amusement in her eyes.
The two of us walked out of the training area and entered a storage room nearby. Aleah Jeffers, or the Wandering Witch rather, chuckled the moment I closed the door behind us.
"Oh, that was too amusing," the Wandering Witch said. "The looks on their faces when they saw your appearance."
I tore the wooden mask off and glared at her.
"So you were behind this!" I said.
The Wandering Witch snorted.
"I'm not the scheming, manipulative mastermind you seem to think I am, Gabriel," she said. "Nor are you the sole focus of my attention. You're important to me, yes. However, you're not the center of my life."
"Then how do you explain this?" I asked, pointing to my face.
The Wandering Witch sighed.
"If I help you with this little problem of yours, will you treat me with less hostility?" she asked. "Yes, you have good reason to hate me, but it does get tiresome. When we start our lessons, I don't want to have to put up with your attitude the entire time."
I rolled my eyes at her.
"I'm sorry that my hatred for you is such a burden," I said in a sarcastic tone.
"I accept your apology," the Wandering Witch said with complete sincerity.
I opened my mouth to respond, before I shut it and shook my head. Some battles weren't worth fighting.
"I promise to be… civil," I said through gritted teeth. "Don't expect more from me."
The Wandering Witch smiled.
"That's all I ask," she said. "To answer your earlier question, you look like this because of the new cultivation technique you're practicing."
I narrowed my eyes at her. This wasn't new information. I had already figured out that much.
"Did you have something to do with that?" I asked.
The Wandering Witch made a so-so gesture.
"A little," she said. "I came across the transmigrator who created it. He wanted to return to his former peak by changing his body to match his soul by cultivating soul magic. I found the idea intriguing, so I offered him some advice.
"However, I never expected it to end up in your hands. I wanted you to start cultivating your soul at a later time, but you skipped ahead." She grinned at me. "I'm so proud of you, my little prodigy."
A shiver ran down my spine and I opened my mouth to retort. However, I remembered my promise in time and closed it. The Wandering Witch smirked, as if she read my thoughts.
"So why did it make me look like this?" I asked. "It didn't have this effect on my great grandmother."
"Of course not," the Wandering Witch said. "You're different. Unlike her, you have a severed fate. It is one of the requirements for achieving godhood."
I stared at her in shock.
"Are you saying that I'm becoming a god?" I asked.
The Wandering Witch laughed.
"Oh no," she said. "Not if I have anything to say about it. Divinity is not the only path to Ascension."
A part of me wanted to scoff and mock the Wandering Witch for her delusions of grandeur. However, another part of me feared that she wasn't being delusional at all.
"Gabriel, what do you think divinity and Holy magic is?" the Wandering Witch asked.
I frowned.
"The power of a god?" I said, turning it into a question.
The Wandering Witch gave me a disappointed look.
"What a shallow answer," she said. "You have all the knowledge required, yet you still haven't figured it out. How disappointing." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "I'll give you another chance. If you say the correct answer, I'll reward you."
I wanted to throttle her, but I reined in my anger and frustration. If I wanted the Wandering Witch's help, I needed to play her game. Otherwise, I'd be stuck with a face that could cause a war.
After I took a deep breath to clear my mind, I thought back on our conversation. Soul magic and divinity. How were those two related?
Then an absurd idea came to mind.
"Are… Are divinity and soul magic the same thing?" I asked.
The Wandering Witch's eyes lit up.
"Correct!" she said. "Divinity is the power of a god's soul. Holy magic is a manifestation of that. This is why Holy magic is so diverse. Its powers depend on the domain of the god in question." She gestured to me. "Your appearance is a physical manifestation of your soul magic." She wore a disgusted look. "Your nascent divinity, if you want to call it that. I'll tell you the proper term after Mirkvale Forest, once we begin your education in earnest."
I stood there, trying to come to terms with what I just learned.
"So, am I some kind of demigod?" I asked.
The Wandering Witch shrugged.
"In a manner of speaking, yes," she said. "A weak one though."
"Wouldn't that just make me an even bigger target than I already am?"
The Wandering Witch nodded.
"Yes!" she said with alarming enthusiasm. "There are many demons who would find your soul particularly delicious."
A thread of despair wrapped around my heart.
"How do I hide this?" I asked.
The Wandering Witch gave me a chill-inducing smile.
"I could teach you," she said. "But why should I?"
I blinked at her in surprise.
"Because I'm important to you and you want something from me?" I said.
The Wandering Witch nodded.
"True, but even if you die, I can always start over with another soul."
I stared at her, not sure what to make of her words. She put all this effort into… I didn't even know how to describe what she did to me. Shape? Yes, that seemed fitting.
She put all this effort into shaping me, but was willing to let me die? I didn't believe it. However, the expression on her face made me doubt myself.
"Then what do you want from me?!" I asked, confused and exasperated.
The Wandering Witch stepped forward until we were less than a foot apart. I stood taller than her. However, with her presence, she seemed to tower over me. I resisted the urge to step back.
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Sometimes I forgot that the Wandering Witch was old, powerful, and dangerous. However, she found ways to remind me.
"Simple," the Wandering Witch said. "Give in and accept me as your master."
Everything within me rebelled against that idea.
"I will never be your servant!" I snarled.
The Wandering Witch let out a mirthless chuckle.
"Not that kind of master," she said. "I don't want you to become my servant. I want you to become my apprentice. My disciple. My student."
I blinked at her in surprise.
"I already have a teacher," I said.
"In martial arts, yes. However, not in soul magic." The Wandering Witch shrugged. "Besides, a person may have more than one teacher in their lifetime."
"Why do you even need my acknowledgment?" I asked. "You're going to do what you want anyway."
The Wandering Witch made a conceding gesture.
"True," she said. "However, there is a world of difference between teaching a favorite and an apprentice. Accepting the latter comes with more obligations and duties for both parties involved. That is what I want between us. A formal master/apprentice relationship."
She was right. According to Teacher, the relationship between a teacher and their student, or a master and their apprentice in this case, was akin between that of a parent and their child. Even if the two ended up severing their relationship later on, that bond would always remain.
I loathed the very idea of having that sort of relationship, that sort of connection, with the Wandering Witch. However, I didn't know if I had much choice.
Yes, I could hide my face using disguise rings, but there were ways to circumvent them. Not only that, but if a demon or some other being discovered that I was a nascent god, then things wouldn't end well for me.
"You hate this, don't you?" the Wandering Witch asked, smirking at me.
I glared at her.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" I asked through gritted teeth.
The Wandering Witch gave me a sadistic smile.
"Of course. This moment makes enduring all your whining and complaining worth it."
I clenched my fists and resisted the urge to punch her in the face. It wouldn't work, but it would feel satisfying in the moment. However, only for a moment.
After an internal struggle that lasted for several minutes, I made my decision.
"Fine," I spat out.
A wide smile spread across the Wandering Witch's face.
"Excellent," she said. "We don't have time for an elaborate ceremony, so we'll keep it simple for now."
I grimaced.
"Do we have to?" I asked.
"Yes," the Wandering Witch said, a serious expression on her face. "This isn't a mere formality. This is a mystical act that will bind us together for the rest of our existences."
I sighed.
"Fine," I said. "Let's get this over with."
"Indeed. Repeat these words to me."
The Wandering Witch leaned over and whispered in my ear. Hmm, sounded simple enough.
"Do you accept me, Gabriel Sturm, as your apprentice?" I asked.
The moment I finished speaking, I felt something strange. A vague presence started to form. It felt similar to the bond I shared with Aurora, when we first made our contract. However, this one felt incomplete.
"I do," the Wandering Witch said in a formal tone.
The bond between us grew clearer and stronger. A part of me feared what would happen when it became complete, but there was no backing out now. I was already in too deep.
"Do you accept me, Nox, as your master?" the Wandering Witch asked.
Nox? That sounded like the name of a goddess, one of night, but there was no such goddess. At least, I had never heard of one.
Who was the Wandering Witch?
I opened my mouth to ask, but stopped. My intuition warned me not to interrupt this particular ceremony. I would regret it if I did.
"I do," I said instead.
With that, the bond between us formed. It wasn't as intimate as the one I shared with Aurora, but it felt far stronger. Whether or not this bond was a lifeline, or a noose around my neck, remained to be seen.
"Who are you?" I asked the Wandering Witch, all my anger and hatred forgotten for the moment.
The Wandering Witch, or Nox rather, gave me a mysterious smile.
"I'm merely someone searching for a suitable successor to my legacy," she said. "With luck, you're that person. We'll see what the future brings."
Maybe it was the bond between us, but my intuition told me that this was a lie. Rather, her answer wasn't the complete truth. However, I kept this to myself. Now that we were master and apprentice, we would be spending more time together. I would figure out her motives sooner or later.
"Now then, to hide your current appearance," Nox said. "Well, you know how you merge with your familiar to achieve full unity?"
At this point, I wasn't surprised that she knew about that. I just nodded.
"Do that, but with your own soul. Pull it back, so to speak. Use the bond between us as reference. That will help find the edge of your soul."
I opened my mouth to ask more, but she spoke up first.
"Now then, Lord Gabriel," Nox said, putting on her public persona once more. "We will reach Mirkvale Forest in a few days. How do you want to approach it?"
I studied her for several long moments. Nox, as Aleah Jeffers, looked back at me with a calm expression on her face. I considered trying to force the issue, but decided against it for now.
Instead, I gave her instructions before I put on the wooden mask and left the storage room to meet up with the others.
After leaving the storage room, I met up with the others to touch base and tell them about my plan to approach Mirkvale Forest. None of them objected to my idea. Rather, they still seemed a bit too dazed. It appeared that my nascent divinity had a stronger effect than I realized.
This emphasized the importance of hiding it. The fewer people who saw my current appearance, the better.
I finished touching base with the others, before I returned to the cabin I shared with Anna. There, I spent the next several hours practicing "pulling" my soul back, to make my nascent divinity stop leaking through.
This proved much more difficult than I expected. Pulling on my bond with Aurora was easy, since I could feel it. However, pulling back my own soul felt like trying to grasp nothingness.
Thankfully, I had two bonds to use for reference: the one I shared with Aurora, and the one I shared with Nox, the Wandering Witch. According to the latter, these would help me find the edge of my soul.
Aurora also offered help and guidance. We shared a bond, but she was her own independent being, one that could explore my body and soul. The two of us worked together to find the edge of my soul. After countless failures, we succeeded.
The edge of my soul felt like… Well, no words could fully describe it. If my soul was the sum of my entire being, everything that I was, then the edge of my soul was the boundary between my being and the rest of the world. Not just in a physical sense, but a spiritual one.
I was both part of the world, yet also separate from it. It was in that distinction, that nonexistent line distinguishing me and the rest of the world, where I found the edge of my soul. It was like an ephemeral liminal space that marked the boundary of my existence.
Of course, finding the edge of my soul was just the first step. Pulling it back proved even more difficult. After a while, I gave up. There was no need to hurry. I already made some progress. I could figure out the rest in the coming days. And if we arrived at Mirkvale Forest before then… Well, I'd figure something out.
When I looked out the window, I saw that it was late afternoon. I had spent the entire day in my cabin, and ended up skipping lunch. Maybe even dinner too.
That wouldn't do.
I decided to get up and fetch some food for myself. However, before I reached the door to my cabin, it burst open and all of my companions entered.
Anna came in first, followed by Cally and Leroy. Priest Jaime and Priestess Natille brought up the rear.
The cabin I shared with Anna was meant for two people. It felt very cramped with six people in it. I looked between my companions, confused. Thankfully, I was wearing the wooden mask, so my appearance didn't affect any of them.
"What is going on between you and Aleah Jeffers?" Cally demanded.
I blinked at her in surprise, caught off guard.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, feigning ignorance.
Cally snorted, before gesturing to Anna.
"This one refuses to tell us, but we know something is going on. We're not blind."
I glanced at Anna, who gave me an apologetic look.
"And before you try to deny it," Cally said. "Remember that I'm the one who told you about what Aleah Jeffers did in the first place."
Oh, right. I had forgotten about that. Cally was the one who told me that Aleah Jeffers, and a few others within House Sturm, had plotted to kill me. Of course, at the time, I hadn't known that everything had been an elaborate plot orchestrated by Nox.
"So, why do you keep meeting with her in private?" Cally asked.
I glanced at Priest Jaime and Priestess Natille. Neither of them expressed surprise or confusion at Cally's words. I narrowed my eyes at her.
"Did you tell them about what happened?" I asked, gesturing to my two newest companions.
Cally shrugged.
"I told them that she was behind your Incident, as you like to call it," she said. "They put the rest together themselves."
"That wasn't your secret to share," I said in a heated tone. "You had no right to do that!"
Cally pointed a finger at me.
"You gave me that right when you started acting strange and erratic," she said. "We're supposed to be a team. Everyone has the right to their own secrets. However, when those secrets start affecting our mission, the rest of us need to know." She leaned forward. "And yes, your recent actions count."
I looked at the others. They all nodded, including Anna.
"You too?" I asked, surprised.
"Yes," Anna said. "I know you like to keep things to yourself, but I think it's best if you tell the others."
I studied her for a moment, before I looked at Cally.
"And you want to include Priest Jaime and Priestess Natille?" I asked. "Weren't you the one who said that they were sent by the Church of the Sun to spy on us?"
Cally snorted.
"That was before I met them," she said. "Besides, your little display earlier made an impact on them."
I looked at Priest Jaime and Priestess Natille. Now that I took a closer look, I realized that they looked at me with awe and reverence in their eyes. It gave me goosebumps.
"I apologize for my rude attitude towards you, Lord Gabriel," Priest Jaime said. "And I ask for your forgiveness. I looked down upon you because the gods hadn't blessed you, or so I thought. However, now I know how wrong I had been."
Priestess Natille nodded, a fervent expression on her face.
"It's clear that the gods didn't grant you their divinity because you have your own," she said. "You're a god in the making, aren't you?"
Cally smirked. It was clear that she didn't believe Priestess Natille's claims. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Fine," I said. "I planned on telling you guys the truth at some point anyway. Why not now?" I looked at all of my companions. "Aleah Jeffers is the Wandering Witch."