"Now that makes it more difficult…"
It was Nephis that said these words, echoing what most of them had been thinking.
Regardless, being finally back, Ray put her down, and immediately after caught a bottle tossed to him.
"You got to be tired…" Henry said, what everyone should've remembered.
Ray was thankful, but he waved his friend's concerns away, there were more important matters to discuss, right now.
He then turned his gaze over to Kai, who was sitting next to the fire place, until just now, "Kai… please tell me, you haven't found anyone else…"
"No. I did not find a single human trace, even less survivors…" His friend answered.
The others had already heard that answer, but with the way Ray had phrased it, he hadn't found anything as well, besides the girl before them, of course.
"The arrivals have always followed a pattern. There can't be a mistake!"
It was Seishan, who surprisingly insisted on this fact.
"There is still that one person in the artisans compound, right?" Ray asked, making a few of them understand immediately.
Knowing that he knew how she looked, Caster was soon sent, by Nephis, to bring her to them, while the new arrivals had the chance to rest for a moment.
There was enough food, and water for the two of them, but they did not seem that hungry, nor thirsty, which made the waiting seem all that longer.
Some of the others tried talking to Skyla, but for some reason, she stayed close to Ray. Much to his annoyance…
A few minutes later, Caster came back with her. When she came into the room, she seemed extremely tense, not exactly knowing why she was suddenly called here, since no one had known they were searching for any possible new sleepers.
They didn't make it into any overly exaggerated scene, and just told her to use her ability on Skyla, and with nearly every member of the council present, she did dare to disobey, ask for a price, or even hesitate.
Each of these people was known to be sublime combatant, or excelled in some other way, which made them severely more 'important', compared to other sleepers on the forgotten shore. This, was at least how the inhabitants of the bright castle looked at it.
As everyone waited in tense silence, the artisan only grew more anxious with each second, until she finally had the information, they all wanted.
"Zero. There are no people here on the forgotten shore that this person knows…"
"Alright, thank you. You can go, then."
Everyone was still shocked in silence, but Ray still relieved the young woman of her duty, for the moment, of which she seemed rather glad.
She then only bowed once to the entire group, before hastily leaving the room.
When she was gone again, Ray could only sigh, before putting his hand on Skyla's head, "...those are good news. That simply means that there are none that needlessly died, out there. I'd say; her being here is merely one of the spell's machinations."
"Indeed. That also means we can continue with our actions, exactly as planned." Gunlaug added.
And finally, Nephis concluded it all, "In one week, we will lay siege on the crimson spire… and get out of this place. Once and for all."
Everyone nodded, and slowly but surely began heading out again.
Eventually, there were only Gunlaug, Henry, and Ray around, as well as Skyla, who still remained close to the winged Bright Lord.
"This is so unfair!"
All three of them turned to the girl, who had remained mostly silent, until now.
"What is 'unfair'?" Ray probed.
"This whole situation! You all said it yourselves; the arrivals always followed a pattern. But, now I'm here too, even though there were probably none meant for this year!"
"Then… are you saying that it is fair that all of us, landed here, in this god-forsaken place?" Henry asked with a dark expression on his face.
"No… of course not." She replied hesitantly, only now realizing the meaning of her own words.
"You're right. It isn't fair! Not in the slightest. But, what are you gonna do about it, now? Will you just sit here, and cry about how unfair it is? The spell was never fair, or anything. It is all just an illusion, after all…"
Skyla looked up at Ray, with a pained expression, not completely understanding his words.
"All of the 'fairness' people credit the spell for, is merely a minimum, if you want to call it that. Said fairness means a restriction of the nightmare creatures in the nightmares, but everything beyond is not considered. But… humans always look for excuses and such, and therefore make it sound like the spell simply punished bad people, and rewards good ones…"
Loosing somewhat track of the topic, Ray sighed before standing up, to head out.
Before he could, though, Skyla spoke again, "Then… how do we survive this unfairness?"
A small smile appeared on Ray's face after hearing this, "Seems like you finally ask the right questions. Gunlaug will train you, over the course of the next week. He may seem rather uptight, sometimes, but you'll have to deal with that. I'll be busy."
And then, he walked out, leaving a snickering Henry, as well as a dumbfounded Gunlaug and Skyla standing there.
"Hahaha, good luck, teach!" Still chuckling, Henry also quickly left the room, not wanting to be pulled in on this.
'Traitors!'
"Come on!" Sighing deeply, Gunlaug also made his way over to the door, only looking back once, to make sure she was following him.
Skyla could only follow the blonde man with a blank look on her face.
---
Later that day, Ray could be seen sitting in a small room, in the artisan part of the castle, with a forge burning brightly before him.
Sweat was flowing down his exposed upper body, but his eyes showed only deep concentration, as he was hammering away on the thing before him.
Eventually, he stopped, and pushed the hot item into a ton of prepared water.
When he saw the result afterwards, though, only disappointment, and even disgust, to a certain point, could be seen on his face. Ray didn't even hesitate in tossing the finished sword into one of the corners of the room.
'Tsk! Another failure…' He grumbled, as he took the book next lying next to him, back into his hand, and continued where he left off.
This book looked slightly different to the tome he had been reading all those past months, and the runes on it were different too.
'Choices'
It was the second tome, he had acquired from his aspect legacy, and since the application methods of the supposed 'awakened' ability were off-limit, the only benefit it brought him was a similar chapter, to the Oblivion tome.
Here, it wasn't about a direct type of sorcery, but rather about crafting, and so much more… but, nothing ever really worked, no matter how carefully he followed the instructions, and weird notes left behind.
Seeing no point, in trying another time, Ray closed the tome, dismissed it, and then sat himself down in a meditative position.
Soon, he dove back into his soul sea.
"Your instructions are shit!" He immediately accused the second form, which had appeared the day of his second transformation.
"Your talent is just shit!" The being countered, without any hesitation.
"Those damn notes make no sense! How are those even meant to be instructions?!"
"It's your fault, if you can't even manage to make simple enchanted weapons, you moron. And… those notes are better instructions, than any mortal could ever give you. So, you should be thankful!"
The first 'roommate' of Ray just sat quietly to the side, enjoying the drama, which came normally daily, but was put on pause, for the last week.
After all, there wasn't that much entertainment, in someone's soul.
Eventually, it sighed, and waved Ray over, making the still irritated young man sit before it.
"Listen. The notes are made by an eccentric. No sane person could ever understand anything, with just them… but, he is right, what secrets they hold, would be unattainable for any normal mortal. So, continue, and you will eventually succeed."
Ray listened, but couldn't help but grumble, by the end, "Why are you two always saying mortal this, mortal that… you're just parts of my soul…"
"Who knows what we are. It just feels natural, in a way, to say 'mortal'…"
His first 'roommate' had definitely quietened down, after the second one appeared. It had also become a lot more bearable.
Ray guessed it either was due to it knowing the other being, in some way, or that it was just warming up to him, after all these months.
Who knew.
Their existence was still weird, since they somewhat resembled him, but were entirely different. They also came from his aspect legacy, which was literally labeled: Demon Diaries. But, it was too far-fetched to say that these were actually some century, or millennia old daemons.
Especially, since they were supposed to be dead, not that Ray had actually much information on them, whatsoever.
Even information about the six gods was not in high quantity, since most of the information on such topics, came from reports made about nightmares, or very rarely, new regions in the dream realm.
Though, to be fair, the average person, probably did not care in any way, about what happened to the gods, and what they actually were.
Wanting time to properly make sense of the words said to him, Ray left his soul sea again, extinguished the still burning flames in the forge, and headed out.
There was honestly so much to do, and yet, so little time for it.
Ray was wandering through the long halls of the castle, initially heading back to his own room, but somewhere along the way getting lost in his thoughts, only being pulled out of them by a familiar voice close by.
"Stand up! That much will only get you killed by some nightmare creature!"
"...i know! Again!"
It seemed he unconsciously found the training hall, where Gunlaug had taken Skyla.
With his curiosity taking over, Ray peered through the nearly closed door, into the room.
Inside, Skyla, armed with a pair of twin hatchets, was continuously trying to hit Gunlaug, who wasn't even using a weapon, and was instead parrying every attack with his arm guards and gauntlets.
Contrary to her, he wasn't sweating a single bit. He looked rather relaxed, though, apparently not bored, if the small smile on his face was anything to go by.
Still, it looked like Skyla would have no chance in even putting a finger on him, today, nor in the days to follow. Therefore, it was a good thing that she wouldn't fight someone as lethal, and dangerous as Gunlaug, but mostly mindless Nightmare Creatures.
Being content, with what he saw, Ray stopped watching, and simply went back on the way, leading to his own quarters.
In a week, they would finally escape this damn place… or die trying!