Moving Forward

Osiris eventually calms down. He's still a little shaky, but he can stand; exhaustion courses through him. The run had drained him, and casting a spell didn't make things any better. His mind was also heavily burdened by the spirit's attack.

After a few minutes, he pulls himself up with a grunt. He regretted it almost immediately as he felt his soul creak with soreness. The Knight Slayer then proceeded to ignore his body's and mind's protests by looking for his horse.

He first made a point to look for the fog before making any mistakes. However, it seemed like the malevolent fog had left, its misty visage no longer in sight. He moved forward through the grasses with caution anyway as in his current state, he doubted he could do much to an attacking foe.

While he scoured the plains in search of Dusk, he noticed that the presence in his eye had vanished. He supposed that the druid knew that he had returned to a state of relative safety. He wondered what Sylixis was thinking when she became aware of the danger he was in, not that she could have done anything about it considering she was so far away.

Though, in a way the druid had played a very important role in saving him, her presence allowing him clarity in a place that stripped him of the invaluable resource. He doubted that the druid would seek him out however, she had her own issues to deal with and she had already seen that he had escaped imminent danger.

After searching through the dreadful plains, he was starting to believe that Dusk had been lost, either killed by the fog, or having long since run away. Despite autumn being in full swing, the heat he felt in the grasslands was still a little overbearing.

It made his search for Dusk even more gruelling than it should have been.

Finally, after almost an hour of sweeping the boundless grasslands, Osiris came across the laying figure of Dusk.

He had expected the worst but was surprised that the steed was merely sleeping. This alleviated his fears, if only a little bit. If Dusk had been injured severely or dead Osiris would have had to have found a settlement in these godforsaken plains. Not only that but his chances of making his way to the shards would have been completely dashed.

However, with the survival of Dusk, he still had hope to retrieve the shards, and in little more than fifteen minutes, the stubborn Knight Slayer was back on his way to the Maw.

He dearly hoped that the journey to the imposing mountain range would be the easiest part of retrieving the shard.

For some reason, he doubted this.

Osiris, now back on the move, contemBplated his run-in with the spirit. It was terrifying, to say the least. The beings' use of illusions and manipulations had shaken Osiris to his core. He usually veered away from anything too related to his past, unwanting to bring it up in the little conversation he had.

When he realized his mother was a fake, it was as though someone had poured salt onto the wound his mother's death had left him. It made him angry, not only at the fact the spirit had used her visage in an attempt to ensnare him, but also at himself.

When his mother died, he was hopeless, unable to do a thing to protect her. When the spirit played as his mother, it reminded him of that feeling.

However, Osiris forced himself to bury these feelings deep within his heart.

He had to keep moving.

The Knight Slayer continued along his way. the sweltering heat hitting him like a battering ram. The only good thing in the plains was the wind, acting as the only relief from the torturous heat.

One may question why Osiris didn't cast a spell, however with his new eye still in the process of assimilating, it was possible that using any more magic would cause irreversible damage. Though Osiris didn't hold the greatest of knowledge, he knew that the assimilation process was a delicate one.

The eye the druid had given him was made up of plant matter and held a shaky connection with his brain. It would slowly use the magic in his body to strengthen that connection until it became nearly the same as his other eye. The difference of colour in his iris would remain and so would the magic detecting properties that the eye held.

As of now, however, the eye was still slowly using up his magic in order to retain its function.

The way a human regains the magic is most commonly through breathing, however, some have devised ways to directly rejuvenate their magic supply through their skin or other methods. Osiris, like most, regained his magic through breathing, where it would circulate until cast, or was used by his body's natural functions.

Osiris usually took around an hour to have a "full" magic reserve. Having a full magic reserve simply meant that your body was saturated by magic to a point where casting multiple spells would hold no detrimental effects and that you had more magic than your body needed.

If you used more magic than what you needed to function, it would cause serious consequences. The druid's eye, while in the process of assimilation, acted as a well and increased Osiris' body's need for magic. This subsequently caused him to be unable to use as many, spells. When he cast a spell it would deprive the eye of the necessary magic it needed to assimilate. When he cast a spell in the fog it caused him pain because of this.

Casting another spell was beyond risky, and to use a spell for something like the heat was something Osiris found stupid. Of course, Osiris knew that dozens of people died of exposure and the elements on a near bi-weekly basis, however, the heat the Knight Slayer was experiencing merely caused him discomfort.

He would struggle through.

Osiris also believed that the heat would soon be the least of his worries.

The peaks of black, impossibly tall mountains soon made themselves known, he had almost reached the Maw.