"The black hand"

I have to admit that she took me by surprise. I had relaxed after defeating the barbarian and never expected her to kiss me that way. I did not reacted fast enough to avoid her.

She achieved her goal and immediately stepped back and met the rest of her group. On her face I seemed to observe a look of self-loathing and despair for a brief moment before hardening again.

The kiss had not been long. Only a couple of seconds. Just enough to open my lips with her tongue and put the little sphere inside my mouth.

Then, immediately, the sphere began to dissolve. I tasted the dead mana in its core, hidden behind the void element coverage, and also the runes written with fate element.

The core of the sphere erupted in shock, throwing the runes through my body and my soul. In my mind, I could see a black hand approaching. Suffocating. Powerful.

If I let the hand touch me, a web of silver runes would envelop my core being with the aim of transforming me into the slave of the creator of the spell. But if I did not leave the spell be, I would lose the opportunity to find out if this technique could control the Ardsheall.

I took a moment to meditate my decision. The pain was considerable and forced me to get on my knees and grab my head. I looked at the group with narrowed eyes. I could saw the discomfort, shame and regret on the face of most group members. But there were two who were smiling openly.

Hiding a Geas made of destiny element and dead mana within a void element envelope was a novel approach. Only a very talented magician with long experienced in handling mana could have invented an object like this. Definitely, it was not the smiling human wizard of the group of adventurers the one who did it.

I was sure of that, even though I felt the link between the web of runes that spread through my body and the magical orb that the magician possessed. The reason was very simple. The runes were elven.

The other person who smiled was the redheaded priestess.

Damn! I should have probed her.

I extended my senses and, now that I knew what to look for, I could see the web of runes hidden behind the void element inside the bodies and the souls of Bob, the red-haired ranger and the muscular barbarian.

They were completely subject and retained. A chain of destiny runes joined them to the magical orb of the magician and, to a lesser extent, to the divine amulet that the beautiful blonde priestess had hanging from her delicate neck.

The monster inside me stirred restlessly. The black hand in my mind had already reached me and the web of runes was enveloping us both. Thinking on my own felt like moving in the mud. From now on every movement, every word, every thought required the permission of the human magician.

Geas. An extremely strong restriction spell that forced the victim to submit to the caster's orders. The spell was especially powerful if it had been cast by an experienced magician. And its power increased when the victim was exposed to the contact with a catalyst, for example, a small edible sphere.

The other possible way to increase the effectiveness of the spell was through a portable focus being carried by a person designated by the launcher. This focus had to be permanently in the vicinity of the victim. In this case, the one who did this was the magician with the magic orb.

The spell managed to hold the Ardsheall.

But only for a second and a half. Maybe two.

The fury of the unstoppable creature that lived inside me became tangible for a brief moment and destroyed most of the web of elven runes before I forced him to behave again.

It was not yet time to show my cards.

No. The right time would be when I was in front of the spell caster.

The mastermind behind all this. The lord and master of the human magician and the elven priestess. The person responsible for forcing Bob, the red-haired forest ranger and the muscular barbarian to act as slaves. The one magician that was powerful and talented enough to invent something capable of holding the Ardsheall for a brief moment.

Until then, it was best to keep my composure and pretend that the spell had achieved its goal. Keep a low profile and find out as much as possible about the creator of the spell.

A person I was looking forward to meet for multiple reasons.