The road out of Old Town and towards Hargis' keep was old and unpaved, the path was littered divits and bumps that made the experience less than enjoyable. Alder pressed himself against the thin wooden wall beside Jeann and Albert, and breathed. Just breathed. 

He tried to look at his arm, to recognize what had happened, but he just couldn't. It couldn't be real, it couldn't have happened. Losing a limb was nothing if you were a caster, but without that, well...

At least its just the left, and you don't really need arms to read scrolls and tomes. 

Correct, Nadeas words in his head was a new experience, and one he didn't want to grow acustomed to. It felt invasive and predatory, to see and feel everything another felt, and to do that before they could register the feelings. Look, if we're going to work together then we need to make an arangement.

"What did you have in mind?" He asked. 

"What?" Jeann looked at him, "have in mind about what?"

I'm speaking to you, your body is my host. I can choose to communicate with those around you, but I figured you'd want this to be somewhat private.

I suppose I should thank you. 

I suppose you should.

"Nothing," He said "Just talking with Nadea."

Jeann dipped her head in understanding, but Alberts faced remained a painting of concern and internal struggle. 

"Honestly," Alder said "I'm okay."

"You lost an arm, Alder." Albert said

"A wrist." Alder countered. "I know I should be concerned about it, but I think I might just be too tired to want to make it an issue currently."

"And Nadea," Jeann said "She's listening now too, right?"

Thats correct, Jeann. Anything Alder hears, I hear. Shared body, shared experiences.

"Great," Alder mumbled

"So what are you?" Jeann asked

"Are you sure hes fine?" Albert added.

Other than losing the wrist, Alder is in perfect health from what I can tell. Well... Perfect may be an exaggeration.

"Hey! Thats still my body you're talking about."

As for what I am. Thats... more complicated. I'm not sure, because neither Alder nor I know. I was a being before this, I know that.

"But you're a creature of the Ethereal," Jeann said "Like the Abyssal Dragon."

I'm nothing so ostentatious, but that doesn't mean I know what exactly. 

"More importantly," Alder said "You were the beast both times I'd encountered you. What stops you from doing the same to me."

Jeann shifted her weight, clearly uncomfortable at the question. As she did so, Alder caught a glimpse of a short, thin blade held in both her and Alberts hands. They were hanging on Nadeas every telepathic word, making the decision of whether to cut him down or let him live. He'd have been more upset about the concept of betrayal, but he was currently trying to think through a way of removing the new resident. 

You can't get rid of me, not without dying. I'm tied to your life. Two beings in coexistence.

"Parasite and Host." Alder said "You get privilage of my mind, and what do I get?"

"Alder," Jeann placed a hand on his shin, the closest point to her "Will she take over? Do you feel yourself... I don't know... Changing?"

"No," Alder said 

Whatever I was before is far different than what I am now. I was ignorant and filled with rage. I still am both, but now its like... Its like somethings changed and new sensations are being created for me. 

"Exactly what you needed," Jeann said "A pet."

"Or a child." Albert said 

I'm more than both. To answer your question Alder, you get what you've wanted most. Understanding.

"I wanted to be able to use normal Physical and Mental magics, without it straining or being so damn impossible. I didn't ask for understanding."

You of all people should know that knowledge is power in its own right.

"That sounds like something you've said," Jeann sighed "Some quip or proverb you'd coined sometime past."

All the same. I'm going to teach you to use your magic, like we agreed. 

"So what do we do now? You drip me bits of learning and I sacrafice more and more of myself to you until I lose everything?"

"Rather pessimistic," Albert grumbled

"Actually, he's pretty close to accurate." Jeann said

I'll teach you as fast as you can learn, but I won't be taking your body or soul. I'm already working on a form, or did you think losing a wrist was mere spectacle. 

"I think I rather did, actually." Alder sniped "Monsters oft deal with terrible injury."

I'm still in YOUR head, Alder, lest we forget what that could mean.

"Maybe we should end you," Jeann said "Better than dealing with something so tempermental."

"It's fine," Alder said "For now. Teach me then, Nadea, teach me to be a caster anew."

I feel a strange sensation of discomfort at those words, or rather your wording of the concept. 

"Even abstract beings find you to be quirky, isn't that fun." 

"And you're sure you're fine?"

"I'm sure Albert, I promise. I need to rest though, that much I know for sure."

"Aye, that ye all do." Hargis said "Alder, Ma'am." He nodded his head towards Jeann who smiled and waved in response. 

"Friendly enough man," She said "but you act like you know us. Have we met?"

"They were the robbers on our way into town. Hargis agreed to let us pass after a trade."

"An he agreed te hold ye back, i'd wager he saved a few lives that day."

"Oh Alder," Jeann sighed "Ever the hopeful."

"Well it worked out this time."

"Worked out?!" Jeann pulled her hand away in a throwing motion and seemed visibly frustrated. "How can you consider being infected with an Ethereal being as 'working out'?!"

"I'm not dead."

"Hardly a win to become a monster in the process of escaping death." 

"Alder," Albert tried to smile "just be careful."

I have no intention of consuming Alder in anyway similar to what was seen before. I'm not aware fully of what I was before, but I'm not that now.

"Yeah," Jean leaned back, "yeah, sure."

The sloping greens of Hargis keep were a welcome sight to the group as they rode in, smoke and sounds of activity ringing through the valley. Hargis seemed to relax as they approached, and Alder took that as a good sign of their temporary safety. 

He was trusting a stranger, but at least it was a stanger that had listened before. Plus Oridi seemed to know him, and she seemed reasonably trustworthy. Albert had left her in charge of the planning, which seemed to workout fine for everyone involved afterall. So he rested his body back against the rocking of the cart as the dirt paths grew worse from the recent rains. He could smell the scents of wet, the damp pools that hung just out of view but still within proximity enough to fill ones nostrils with the aroma. 

"Almost there." Hargis said to no one. 

"Quiet enough ride," Alder said. He wanted to spark a conversation that wasn't about his injury or the fact that they were likely criminals against the Empire now. "Peaceful place, this spot. You've a nice home Hargis."

"Ye ain't seen te yet, but I apprecaite it." Hargis seemed to be making extra work to properly speak the words on occasion, after the entire group had been forced to request echoes of his statements on the off chance they couldn't understand. 

"It is though," Albert said, leaning over the sides and watching the wind run a line across the shifting farmland nearby. "Wonderful."

"How long did it take to build?" Jeann asked

"Oh, several years." Hargis said "I decided te quit after losin Oridi."

"Funny, hadn't seemed that way when we met you on the road."

"Well..." Hargis trailed off. He'd had this conversation before, and didn't wish to reopen the topic for a discussion. "It don't matter."

"I'm just thankful you're willing to help us." Alder said "Considering the stance we took last time."

"Ye got a fine enough brain in that head," Hargis grinned "Kept te fools alive another day. Thats all I coulda asked."

"But you had to save face. I understand." Jeann said. Hargis nodded. 

"Any chance of being followed back?" Albert asked. He was content watching the vines as they passed, but aparently not enough to ignore any concern. 

"Eh?" Hargis gave a half commital shrug and looked back to the path. 

"Either way, It means we'll have to take care of the Count now. For sure." Jeann pursed her lips "Sooner than I'd anticipated but slower than I'd want."

"Never pleased, are you?" Albert joked. He pressed an arm into the side of Jeanns massive armor frame and tried to play it off. 

"Never."

"Hargis," Alder started

"Aye?"

"Do you still have those uniforms and weapons from when you robbed us?" It wasn't trying to start anything with the words, merely stating the facts everyone knew. Hargis seemed to take it well because he scratched his chin in contemplation. 

"Well... that that ye mention it. I think we just might."

"Does that help at all?" Jeann asked

"It might for Oridi, right?" 

"Thats not a bad point." Albert said "Though it does us little good without her here."

"What about you, Nadea?" Alder asked. He wasn't used to mental communication, and he wasn't used to the presence for that matter either, but he was stuck with this being in his head and he was going to make the most of it. Besides, it had mentioned teaching him magic properly and that was something he was willing to risk for. 

Theres nothing for me to add to this. The possibility does us little good without your planner here.

"See?" Albert said, sly grin across his face. 

"Wonderful," Jeann groaned "Now he'll be on about how he was right."

"I was though," Albert laughed

"See?" 

Hargis didn't take the flat to the front of the manor, instead he rode around to the back and took them through to the barn and make-shift storage wharehouses. Inside were carts and wagons loaded with differing supplies, and barrels or crates with similar contents strewn about the floor. A small stables was attached near the rear, a small boy was working on shifting dung into a bucket. A scalehound slept nearby, blissfully unaware of the recent arrivals, and Hargis waved them away from the boys view.

"Welcome te my Pura. My home and respite." Hargis said 

"We get the barn?" Jeann asked "really?"

"Really." Hargis untied the animals and let them wander towards their pens, leaving the task of wrangling them to the boy. "You're a bunch of Pere, and wanted ones at that."

"No sense in poking the bear," Albert said, hopping down and giving his new surroundings a once over. "might as well make do. Is there an upper level?"

"Ladders te your right, there. No, no the otherside. There you go."

Albert dissapeared up and into the darkness above, while Jeann and Alder were left on the lower floor. He did his best to seem casual about everything, but as the adrenaline had worn off and the effects of Nadeas hampering began to fade Alder felt a sudden urge to sleep. To sleep and never wake up, to just lie there and enjoy the comfortable bliss of inaction. 

"So we make do." Jeann said. She eased herself, all 7 feet and hundreds of pounds in the armor, through the space as if she were taking in the contents of a new command station. Inspecting all the tiny details and bits hidden away. 

"You'll be fine," Hargis said "I'm gunna run in and tell the others that theres a...situation."

"Thats a kind word for it." Alder said. 

"Oh, and we need to get you something for that wrist. I think we have a spare from when Dria lost her wrist. I'll see if I can fetch it."

"Thank you, but I don't want to-"

"Thank you Hargis." Jeann said firmly. "We need some time to ourselves I think." 

"Right."

The man walked off and out of the barn, Jeann paced the room at a speed that seemed unnaturally natural for a being coated in a hundred plus pounds of metal plating and Arc Gewels. 

"You," She started, frustration drawing the word out, "Merged with it."

"I did."

He did, thats correct.

"Nadea, all respect, but not now." Jeann bore her gaze into Alders very soul. "Why?"

"I told you I would try."

"I know you did, but I didn't-"

"Think it would work?" Alder asked, "Neither did I. I don't honestly know if it did. All I know is that I'm not actively turning into a creature of ooze."

"He isn't indeed." Albert called from the rafters. "This space is lovely. We'll have plenty of room to sleep up here."

"So what?" Jeann asked "So what if you're not turning, that doesn't mean you won't. It also doesn't guarantee that you'll stay sane, or healthy, or actually GET MAGIC!"

Alder didn't flinch. "Somethings changed, Nadeas proof of that."

If I might-

"NO," The pair said in unison. 

"Alder," Jeann softened her tone and stepped over to a sturdy beam and leaned against the massive support structure. "I trust you. But this," She motioned to him slowly "isn't your field."

"I'm not my own field of study?"

"Not when it comes to these kinds of monsters. We hunt them, we track them, we study them. You've spent more time looking after dusty recipes than manuals on swordplay or monster killing."

"That's not a problem," Albert added "It just means we may know more about this than you."

"Get down here Albert if you're going to talk," Jeann snapped

"Not during this conversation. Its safer up here."

"Jeann I appreciate you looking out for me, but it isn't your duty to make sure that I survive my actions."

"You say that like you don't expect to survive them," She said

"I don't, not always."

"But its worked out so far so..."

"Exactly." 

Jeann sighed, pinched her brow, turned, muttered a scream of frustration, and turned to walk away. 

"Fine," She said "Fine you stubborn fool, make your decisions and die by them."

"I don't try to get in these positions."

"You did in this case," Albert said, sliding down from above. "And a few others before if I recall."

"It wasn't like that! It isn't like that!" Alder needed to make them believe. Get them to understand that he was just following the feelings in his gut about certain things, that he'd needed to do those things because they'd felt right. He couldn't help that, no more than anyone could help breathing. "I was always just following a hunch."

"A hunch?" Albert asked "A hunch that leads you right into the waiting arms of a group of angry tribesman, explicitly after we told you it'd be best to avoid that area?"

"I got the journal in the end, didn't I?"

Albert sighed and gave a weak smile. "Just, give some consideration to the people who have to pull you out all the time."

"I do, and I'm grateful." Alder looked around and took in his surroundings again, then at his nubbed wrist, and made a decision. "This was something I wanted, and I took the chance to get it."

"I hope it works out for you Alder." Albert said, and walked out of the Barn. Leaving Alder alone in the empty room.