“Do you mean the other Spirit Keepers?”

  The figure in front of Ryan nodded, a soft but bright smile on her face. “Indeed. The Keepers have long—”

  Goria’s voice continued to sound out around Ryan, and he knew for certain that she was speaking. But at some point, her voice simply became inaudible. Like his body refused to hear what she was saying, filtering it out. Realizing this fact, Goria stopped herself.

  “My apologies; I … have not spoken in quite a while. I tend to forget what I can and cannot share.”

  Ryan frowned slightly, feeling a headache come on. “Does that have something to do with the seal on the spirits?”

  Goria seemed surprised, as the massive face opened her eyes wide and nodded. “I was not aware that you had already learned of this fact. I pray that you will continue to uncover more, but I may divulge more to you.”

  With a sigh, slightly disappointed that he couldn’t just be told all the secrets he had been wondering about, Ryan nodded. “I understand, but thank you anyway. So, if you can’t tell me more, what did you call me here for?”

  “I have prepared gifts for you to help you and my child you carry with you.”

  “Child? What do you mean?”

  Goria was silent for a few moments as the enormous mermaid moved her hands around as if she were shaping the water in front of her. Soon, Goria spoke again.

  “She is fractured, but a part of my daughter is with you. And you are bonded to another with my energy,” she explained, and Ryan glanced down at his arm.

  “So … the latter is Tiar, I would guess, and the former is … Violette?”

  The mermaid finished shaping the water, and three small objects floated toward Ryan. “You are correct. Though all spirits branching off the water are my children, the one named Violette has earned a special place amongst them. She was the first to—”

  Ryan could feel a slight pain in the side of his head. It was getting more uncomfortable, like his mind was actively fighting the words he was hearing. Again, Goria stopped.

  “My apologies. I will not attempt to divulge anything for the time being. Maybe in the future, when this knowledge has come to you independently, you may come to understand what I was trying to tell you,” Goria explained. Ryan slowly nodded, trying to push through the headache. And a handy distraction came soon enough as the three objects reached Ryan.

  The first that his eyes landed on was a bead.

  “An object meant to help guide you through your journey. I am aware that you are searching for lost fragments of my daughter. This will alert you when you are close to another fragment and, similarly, when another dormant core bearing the energies of water is near.”

  Ryan raised an eyebrow. This was perfect; it was exactly what he needed. It didn’t seem quite as potent as the guiding light that he had used to find Gaia’s last fragment, but this was still going to make the search so much easier. Rather, it would make the search viable in the first place, as without it, it was like finding the oldest gold coin in a dragon’s hoard. Ryan’s eyes soon wandered over to the next item.

  It was a metallic drinking horn.

  “A tool of the legends, able to take on many a form. However, actually making use of these forms is akin to taming a current. Your bond, Tiar, may also be able to make use of this tool.”

  This one was a bit more confusing. Ryan had no idea what she really meant, but it sounded like it could be useful in a lot of situations. He would just have to take a look at it later. But then, there was also the last of the three items.

  It was a pair of earrings made with greenish-blue pearls that had intricate carvings on their surfaces.

  “Magical accessories created to allow their wearer to freely move, breathe, and act when fully submerged.”

  The three items were placed into Ryan’s hands. They were clearly extremely potent magical items, ones that he didn’t quite feel he actually deserved. But he could tell that Goria wanted to give this to him no matter what, as if she had prepared them a long time ago.

  “Thank you so much,” Ryan said with a smile on his face, carefully putting the bead and the drinking horn into a safe place in his bag. He then took his stud earrings out and replaced them with these pearl earrings. They weren’t necessarily his style, but he did have to admit that they looked pretty neat.

  And the moment that Ryan put them on, he could feel a wave of magic come over his body. Since he had entered the temple, Ryan had been basically just walking in the water, breathing through the power of the shell that he had stashed away earlier, but now it was different. His body was no longer weighed down, and it was like he was swimming normally in water. He could see much more clearly in the water as well, and the sound of everything around him wasn’t a dull thud anymore. Ryan could hear the current flow through the massive, never-ending reef as if it were wind flowing through a forest, singing a melody he never even could have imagined before.

  He smiled broadly, looking at the figure in front of him. The enormous mermaid looked at Ryan, looking at him just as gently as she had before.

  “Do you think I can thank Goria directly?” he asked, and the mermaid’s smile dropped, surprised. The water was silent as the mermaid began to chuckle, though not a single sound left her body. She stretched her hand toward Ryan, who slowly swam onto her palm. Carefully holding his body, the mermaid started carrying Ryan away, over toward the whale where she had come from. A distance away, the mermaid stopped, letting go of Ryan, and he swam a bit closer to the whale until he felt it was enough.

  Ryan was faced with the whale. If the mermaid was the size of a building, the whale was a mountain. Now that he was closer, able to see the giant barnacles protruding from the being’s skin, he couldn’t help but marvel at the sight in front of him.

  “Thank you, Goria. For inviting me, and for giving me these gifts,” he said with a smile on his face, and the Great Spirit in front of him was silent for a few moments, until her voice reverberated through the ocean, as it had been since the beginning.

  “… It is unusual for someone to see through this little act during our first meeting,” she pointed out, and Ryan laughed.

  “Yeah, I guess I have good instincts for this kinda stuff,” he said.

  “Instincts, you say … Most are simply satisfied with the fake image I portray. Melusine, my eldest daughter, acts in my stead, as her image is easier to accept than my true form. But you … you were always looking past her while speaking to me, were you not?”

  “Well, of course; I could tell that she wasn’t you. I mean, I was a bit taken aback, because she looks exactly like all the paintings I’ve seen, and the carvings outside in the temple, but when I was here, it was kind of obvious.”

  Goria’s body was stationary in the ocean as if it had always been there. “I see there is a seed within your mind.”

  “Huh?” A bit taken aback, Ryan turned back around toward Melusine, and then back to Goria, thinking about the seed that was solidly set in place in the space between the domains. “Do you know anything about that? It was left behind when I cured a bit of corruption from someone. Actually, the lake’s spirit also dropped something similar when I cured him. Is it … bad?”

  “Bad? No, it’s the seed of a blessing. If treated right, it can bring you much fortune. Let me assist you in that journey,” Goria said, but Ryan tried to immediately shake his head.

  “No, no, you already gave me so much! I—”

  “Please. I insist.”

  Goria’s body slowly began to shift as she opened her mouth. The ocean bent in response. Water flowed around Ryan’s body, tightly enveloping him. But it wasn’t what was going on outside of his body that was concerning him but rather what was happening inside. It started to rain in the space between the domains. And it wasn’t just a light rain, either. It was a storm that clouded Ryan’s mind for a few moments. But when the rain settled, a change had been done to the space between the domains.

  The seed had grown into a solid sapling. Its roots had dug deeper than before, and a small mound was formed underneath it. But around that mound a pond had formed. The energy of cool, calming water filled his mind.

  “Whoa …” Ryan let out instinctively, and he noticed Goria let out a slight laugh. Hearing of a “Great Spirit,” Ryan would have expected that he would be dealing with something like a god. Something so far removed from him that he could never understand her. And sure, Goria was beyond anything Ryan could have ever tried to imagine beforehand, but in the end, she was quite … approachable.

  “Again … thank you,” he said. Though he wasn’t sure exactly what this change meant, he knew that it was something special and something good.

  “Now … it is time for you to return. Good luck on your journey, Ryan Aglecard.”

  Before he could respond, Ryan felt a current push against his body. He was thrown backward, all the way to the entrance to Goria’s domain, seeing Melusine wave at him from a distance. When he was outside, the door closed in front of him, and Ryan’s mind took a few moments to catch up to what had just happened.

  Chapter Sixty

  Seed of Blessing

  Along, deep groan sounded out as Ryan stepped out of the water. It was the middle of the night by now, and he had been walking back for hours. It was a pretty damn exhausting hike, but he had everything that he needed with him.

  When Ryan looked around, he saw a group of Goria’s acolytes waiting nearby, talking to each other. Before he could even call out to them, though, one of the acolytes saw him, and they all rushed over to him a moment later.

  “Young lord Aglecard, did something happen? How are you back so soon?” one of them asked, and Ryan raised an eyebrow. Soon? This whole thing had taken so long. But then again, he had managed to cut the travel time almost in half.

  “I was running for a lot of it; that’s all,” Ryan responded, pulling out his phone so that he could call someone to pick him up. But when he did, and his phone connected to the network, a flood of messages and missed calls came in from friends that were trying to reach him to make sure he was okay. Confused, he looked at the acolytes. “What happened? What’s going on?”

  The acolytes looked at each other hesitantly, though one of them quickly explained, “Something happened in the city. Some spirits went wild and attacked the Magic Tower’s expo.”

  Ryan’s eyes widened, and he immediately dialed Modak’s number. It rang a few times while the acolytes continued explaining.

  “Of course, you do not need to worry; things were taken care of quite well before it got too bad!”

  They were clearly just trying to calm Ryan down, but he wasn’t even really listening to them anymore. He was just focusing on his phone. And a few moments later, the call connected.

  “Hey, I—”

  “Modak, are you okay? What happened over there? I just heard; I didn’t have any signal while I was heading down to the shrine, so—” He was so frazzled that he didn’t even realize that it wasn’t Modak that answered at all.

  “Calm down; Modak is okay,” Yanna reassured him. “He broke his arm, but that’s about the worst of it. Some bruises here and there; that’s all.”

  Letting out a relieved sigh, Ryan dropped into a squat. “Alright, great. Uh … is he around?”

  “He’s sleeping right now, filled up with pain meds. Healing items don’t work on him, so they had to do it like that,” Yanna explained. “I saw that you were the one calling him, and Modak was talking about you earlier, so I figured I should answer. Where have you been this whole time? What did you say about a shrine?”

  Ryan’s heart skipped a beat as he realized what he had said when the call connected. He closed his eyes and let out a long breath, trying to think. “I …” he started, trying to come up with some kind of lie. But when he thought about it a few moments longer, he realized … why would he need to lie? Talking about Goria wouldn’t reveal anything about the Aglecards, since they weren’t directly connected, so Runar wouldn’t be able to complain, no matter what he said. “After what happened at the lake last night, Goria invited me to come down to her shrine. It’s a bit complicated, and I can’t tell you any details, but I was underground, so my phone didn’t have a signal. I left right around when Modak’s big presentation should have started.”

  There was a bit of silence on the other side of the call, before Yanna asked a very simple question.

  “What the fuck are you talking about? Why would Goria invite you, huh?”

  “It’s one of those details that I can’t tell you, sorry. But really, what happened over there?”

  Again, Yanna was silent for a few moments, though this time it was probably more because she was struggling to find the right words to explain everything to Ryan. “… About when Modak finished his presentation, three spirits showed up. Like, technology spirits, or something. And … uhm … Yeah, they went wild. Hijacked everything. Things blew up and moved on their own. A lot of people got hurt and were attacked by the spirits. And Modak’s coworker, Margaret, she … she was found, dead. Apparently, it really wasn’t pretty.”

  Ryan’s face went pale as his stomach dropped. That wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all. They did it. The Shadows managed to corrupt some spirits at the worst time and in the worst place.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Ryan yelled out, as he started to pace. “What about Liam? H-He was with Modak’s family; is he okay?”

  “He’s fine; don’t worry. That’s actually how Modak got hurt. One of the spirits tried to jump out at the crowd in front of the stage, but Modak managed to stop it. Apparently because of his mana rejection disorder, the spirit was basically weak to him, or something. I don’t get it, but … some Heroes showed up pretty fast and took care of everything and trapped the spirits.”

  Ryan let out a long, long sigh of relief. “I’m glad you guys are all alright. Tell Modak to call me when he wakes up, okay? I need to call my mom.”

  “Of course. I’ll let him know … And explain to me a bit more why you were called to meet Goria later, okay?”

  “Sure, I’ll try to tell you what I can. Talk to you later,” Ryan said, then hung up. Immediately, he dialed his mother’s number, and the first ring was interrupted as his mother’s voice sounded out.

  “Ryan! You’re okay! Wait, you’re out already? I thought you would take until the morning,” she said.

  “Yeah, I was jogging, but that’s not important. I heard about what happened; is everything okay on your side?”

  “Yes, I’m fine; don’t worry. I’m at the house with Liam; he’s pretty shaken up. And your uncle had to head out and take care of some things; he wouldn’t tell me what …”

  Ryan slowly nodded. “Alright, that’s fine, then. I’ll call him in a second; I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

  “It all happened pretty soon after you walked into the water, so we were still up there when things started,” Mary explained, and Ryan clicked his tongue, annoyed. If Ryan had still been there, he could have tried to help out with the cure and prevented a lot of damage. But like this … he was just useless.

  “I’ll let you know when I’m on my way home,” Ryan said, saying goodbye to his mother before hanging up. Now he just had to call Runar, who also answered pretty fast.

  “Ryan? How—”

  “I rushed a bit; that’s not important. What happened?” Ryan interrupted his uncle, who thought about it for a moment but soon responded.

  “Some spirits were corrupted and attacked the people attending the expo. A lot of stuff happened, but the Heroes that were already nearby were able to reduce the damage as much as possible. When I got there, I used the cure you gave me and treated the spirits. We’re trying to converse with them and find out what happened, but … we already know.”

  Ryan let out a long sigh. “Richie … Fuck, okay. Do you need me for anything right now? I’d like to go home and see Mom, and maybe talk to Liam a bit after everything.”

  “You’re fine; there’s really nothing right now. Uhm … I hope I’ll be home by morning, and then we can talk about what happened at the shrine. I’ll send Yamada to come pick you up, but it might be like half an hour.”

  “That’s fine,” Ryan replied. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  They hung up, and Ryan let out a loud groan. He turned around toward the acolytes, who were eagerly looking at him. “I’ll be picked up in a bit, so I’ll just be waiting over there, okay?”

  He pointed toward a rock that he could probably sit and wait on, and the acolytes immediately nodded. “Of course! Please, go ahead!”

  Ryan walked over to the rock and dropped on it, grabbing something to eat from his backpack. He had gone through quite a bit down there, but he still had some left. And stress-eating didn’t feel like the worst idea right now. Though, as he was eating, he could see the eager expressions of the acolytes, staring at him.

  “Uh … can I help you? Do I need to do anything? Like, sign something, or … I don’t know how this kinda stuff works,” Ryan said after swallowing the food in his mouth, trying not to be rude.

  The acolytes looked at him curiously. They clearly weren’t amongst the group that had glared at him jealously when he went down earlier. They were all on the younger side. Aquarian folk who probably heard stories of Goria since they could remember.

  “So, what was it like? Was Goria as beautiful as they say?” one of them asked, and Ryan smiled lightly. They were probably talking about Melusine, who was the one depicted in most imagery of Goria. Though, whether it was Melusine or Goria herself, Ryan didn’t need to lie.

  “She was beautiful, unlike anything I have seen in my life,” he explained, and the young acolytes looked at each other excitedly.

  “What was she like?”

  “What did she call you there for?”

  The acolytes continued to ask questions along those lines, and Ryan tried to answer them for a while, but he pretty quickly got quite annoyed. “Listen, guys, I’m sorry, but I’ve got a lot of stuff on my mind right now—”