"Well, I can't believe that actually worked!" Alexei exclaimed as he stood up from his heap in the sand. "I don't wanna hear it!" Risa snapped, she shot him a glare from her own position on the ground. "that was a genuinely terrifying experience and I never want to even think about it again!"Alexei fought the impulse to roll his eyes, he was sure that would make an angry Risa even angrier and he didn't really want to risk something like that. "Alright, alright, fine," Alexei said, "I'll defer to you now, then. What should we do next? Head straight back to Alandria or tell the old man what happened to his dragonhorse?"Risa stood up from the sandy ground and shook her head, which made sand fly in every direction. "Obviously we need to tell him what happened," Risa said, "otherwise he'll never know whether his dragonhorse is dead or not and I find that quite sad."Alexei nodded, he didn't disagree with her.It had seemed like the old man had a pretty strong relationship with both of

“Alexei… are you… okay?” Risa asked as the dark haze dissipated into the night time air. “Yeah… that was a bit weird, but I’m alright,” Alexei said, “Not sure what really happened there, but it was something to do with the tapestries I bonded with in the tomb. It shouldn’t happen again, though.” Risa looked at him warily, almost as if she didn’t trust him anymore. They didn’t have time for that. “I managed to convince the townsfolk that I was a demon of vengeance that was summoned by them killing the old man and his dragonhorse,” Alexei explained, “But we probably don’t have much time before they get over their fear and start looking around again, so we should get out of here while we have the chance.” Risa nodded, she was just glad that he hadn’t killed any of the townsfolk. When he had looked that scary it was entirely what she had expected to happen. They moved quickly and stealthily through the town. They were less worried now about sticking behind fences and more about get

As Alexei came to he couldn’t help but feel at least a little bit annoyed. He’d only just removed the Nilbog from the presence of his dreams, and now it seemed that the Demon Lord could simply step into them whenever he wanted to. However, there was also something to be happy about in that revelation. The Demon Lord certainly seemed unable to affect him in any meaningful way while they had been in the dreamscape. The evil ruler could pull his spirit to him and push it away again, but as for actual consequences for being brash and consequences for escaping him, well, there had been none. Overall Alexei considered that to be a win. There was something more concerning than the Demon Lord’s presence in his night, anyway, and that was the presence of the dark entity that the Demon Lord’s tapestries had been so fearful of. Alexei hadn’t necessarily believed that such a thing existed, but after hearing its voice for himself there was no denying it. The thing had so much more spiritual

Alexei landed hard on the ground and rolled in the dirt of the sparring arena. He used his momentum to flip himself back onto his feet, but Risa was on him in an instant, with her lightning-based magery flashing around her in arcs of power. She gave him no quarter, lashing out with melee attacks and ranged arcs both at the same time. The attacks forced him to keep on the move, ducking and weaving and swinging with his staff to deflect as many as he could. This was how most of the fights between them had gone since they had returned from the desert two weeks ago. But Alexei had improved a lot over that period of time, and now he was able to hold his own much better. As a punch came in from the right and an arc of electricity came in from the left Alexei stepped toward his attacker and swiftly jabbed upward with his staff, followed by a blast of empowered air that sent Risa careening through the air. He followed his attack up with a trio of empowered water blasts to block off Risa

It had been a long time since Alexei had walked the streets of Alandria, and nothing much had changed about the city at night. In the day it was a hustling and bustling area where goods were sold and people enjoyed their time together, but as the moon rose and the sun fell it became a much darker feeling place altogether. The night was almost identical to the one that he had left the Academy on. The water of the lake lapped gently at the underside of the pontoons that made up the city and the boats that were tied to their moorings. Moonlight glinted on the still surface, serving as the only illumination in the darkened streets. If it had been a cloudy night there would have been no light at all. Back then he had only heard rumours of people who had met a murky end on a dark and cloudy night at the bottom of the lake, but he himself had cast someone to the depths, and there was no doubt that their body was down there even now, bloated and trapped as the eels feasted on his distend