As Glimpses of the woman's memories ran through his mind, Hadrian stretched the woman's fingers. A daughter who'd refused early marriage and went on to make a path for herself.
I don't judge you for the things you had to do to survive, but you did tie me up to a tree as bait.
He pulled out her short sword and bags of coloured sand.
All of this vessel's innate talent and skills are unique to it.
As Hadrian had seen, the woman was a good fighter. Although this isn't something transfarrable to his other vessels, he could use it to train them.
It is indeed better to have the original vessel.
While he'd discovered he could kill the vessels and obtain their essence fragments, he doubted his chances against actual same rank mages when it came to utilizing the abilities.
Looking at the bags of coloured sand, he sighed. He had not obtained the language of the "terra sorcery" from the woman's memories or essence.
There is still some previous enchantments on her body, weapon and armor, though.
Even without running magical essence through her channels, Hadrian could feel this was no regular human body.
Her short sword, too, shimmered with dust under the moonlight.
If I do try and face them head on, and they are all like this, I won't stand a chance.I wonder if I'll be able to use Alia again. These are experienced hunters, they might get suspicious after it happens twice.
The cold wind blew, accompanied with distant screeches, howls and restless cicadas.
Hadrian's eyes, through the woman and Alia vessel, went to the circles they'd drawn on the ground around their little camp.
Protective magic? Or rather, sorcery? It is to my benefit, in any case.
He went to the tent where the injured member was. All he needed was a momentary glance at the man's essence sea then, even divided by walls, he could still call at the fog tendrils as long as he was still within the ten metres range which, by the size of the camp, would be no problem.
Acting normal now after half an hour, she was let to walk to the small tent.
Crouching, she pushed her way through.
"Not mad anymore?" The bearded man asked.
Hadrian was late to reply, his attention caught by what the man was doing.
Breaking down ingredients into mixtures. They included red leaves, which Hadrian had not come across yet.
So that's the purpose of the tent.
He had wondered about it. Though the bearded man did take charge, the hierarchy of power in the cohort seemed non-existent to Hadrian. So, even for the "leader" of the group, getting a personal tent had not made sense to him.
"Yes." The woman muttered, "I don't know what got into me." Saying this, she turned to the man laid opposite the bearded man and peered into his essence sea, calling at his fog tendrils.
The man had his arm over his face, his chest rising and falling with slow breaths.
"Well, I'd only come to apologize."
The bearded man's brows creased as he looked duo to the woman, but he didn't say anything.
The woman nodded, pressed her lips tightly and made her way out of the tent.
Inside, the man twitched but did not wake up. Hadrian walked some distance and sat down. The woman's eyes started feeling heavy and sleepy drowsiness washed over him.
What…. What's happening?
Hadrian saw the ground and space In front of him stretch in an unreal manner, his vision blurring and turning grey at its edges.
Time seemed to slow down, so did his heart beat.
In the next moment, he found himself in daylight. Looking around, he wasn't in the forest anymore. Hadrian let out a sharp breath.
It was a calm grassland. The wind was cool and calm on his skin. Raising his head to see the sun, his mouth parted. It felt like noon sun, directly above him, but he could not locate it.
Bringing his face back down, he focused his gaze at a distant ancient looking manor. It had looked to be a few minutes walk away, but with two steps, he was already at its door.
It creaked and the wind hissed, passing through its molded wooden walls. The door creaked open and Hadrian found himself inside.
The scene inside was not what he expected. It was clean and a family sat by a long table. His eyes went to a face he recognized, it was that of the man he'd snapped his knee, although the man was younger in this scene.
Is this…. A dream?
They smiled and passed around the food as their laughters echoed from a great distance in Hadrian's skull.
As Hadrian observed this, not knowing what to make of it, the man's head rose and he looked directly at Hadrian.
His eyes widened and his lips shivered.
"Who…. Who are you?" The man asked, pointing.
Suddenly, everyone at the table turned with a snap towards Hadrian and the smiles on their faces died. They all ran around the table to the side of the man pointing his shaking finger at Hadrian.
"I…. " Hadrian began, not knowing what to say.
"It can't be." The man muttered, "you are supposed to be dead."
Looking down at himself, Hadrian realized he was in his main vessel form, the teenage boy who'd been tied down and torn apart by the beast.
"He's supposed to be dead!" A young girl, holding tightly to the man's clothes, shouted.
"He's supposed to be dead."
"He's supposed to be dead."
They all began to repeat, stretching out their hands and pointing their fingers at Hadrian.
Hadrian heard his heart drumming and he swallowed. He wanted to turn around and run from the house but could not.
A girl let out a sharp ear piercing scream and Hadrian's eyes widened as he saw their faces stretch and elongate, stuck in that screaming expression.
The wooden walls of the manor began crumbling down. Thunder roared and the strong wind howled.
Once the whole manor had disappeared, Hadrian saw reality at the far distance crumble as well into darkness.
He pressed his eyelids tightly as an electric pain travelled through his body and mind. He felt himself sinking, being pulled under.
"What's wrong with them?" He heard the muffled voice speak.
His vessel's body shook violently with his eyes rolled back and saliva puffing at the mouth.
All his vessels went through this.
As he rained control of his consciousness and body, his main vessel was under intense pain.
His left arm was nearly chewed off.
In the tent the injured man shot up, sweating.
"It's the boy." He said as his right arm held tightly to the bearded man's shoulder.