Nateaser: Reborn As My Love Interest

Omerta - Ch. 92

"Look at those beauties!"

We all gathered in Nati's room. It became crowded fast, even if it wasn't small. She sat on her bed with her little sister. Gitaut and Lambert awkwardly stood in the door, and the Fire Witch camped on the floor with me. We stared at our magical crystals.

"They are something!" Ember nodded, comparing them one by one. The original, that Nati got from the fox girl sparkled in a clear, bright, almost cyan color and looked transparent. The ones the shaman copied were larger and deep purple. You couldn't see through them either.

"They look very different," I noted a bit suspicious, grabbing one of the purple stones. I raised it in front of my eyes, aiming it at Gitaut. "You sure your spirit friends copied them perfectly, shaman?"

"Feel free to try them out, Omerta." He shrugged, looking a bit offended. He stole glances at the girls on the bed, desperate to impress them. But his words came out awkwardly. "They won't be the same as the original, but, um... They will function just as well. I had the spirits overwrite the original stones, so whatever purpose they possessed, um... It might affect the result."

"They controlled the lizards." The Fire Witch claimed without even looking up. "They tried to take over my mind, but couldn't quite manage... I drained the mana from them a few times."

"That sounds dangerous." Nati sat up on her bed all of a sudden. "If the Elder made them, then... What if she infiltrates your minds?"

"Impossible." Gitaut shook his head firmly. "Only traces of the original magic remained, I reused the stone and the mana inside them, but completely overwritten the content. It should be perfectly safe."

"I don't know, the Elder knows a few nasty tricks..." Lambert joined the discussion. He acted a bit strange lately, which seemed understandable. We found him almost immediately with the Goddess' help, but I couldn't imagine how she treated him. He refused to explain, and I didn't pry much.

The Elder mopped the floor with me twice already, the court wizard was lucky to survive unharmed. He wielded expert healing magic so I couldn't see the marks of torture on him, but I felt certain, he went through something terrible in those days.

The shaman confirmed that Lambert drained an insane amount of mana in the last week. He failed to hide his exhaustion too, and seemed shaky in both body and mind. We ensured nobody followed us back here, although the Elder probably guessed where we took him.

Thanks to the wyverns surviving the big battle, we actively searched for human spies to prevent surprise attacks on Nateaser. Not even this brought my brother back of course, but we made sure to cover our backs.

"Well, some mental threads connected them with the unknown... But I made sure to sever them all. They are safe to use, I can vouch for the spirit's work!" The shaman confirmed once more. There was no other way to make sure than to test it myself.

I touched the purple stone to my forehead, and images and thoughts flooded my brain. The tone was different, they looked a bit more vibrant and violent, but they inherently mirrored the same pictures I saw from Nati's pure blue crystal. The others curiously looked at me.

"Yeah, I guess it works!" I nodded, releasing the stone a few moments later. Of course, I couldn't wait to use it in action. "I want to build another iron golem to test it... Using the original made my process much more efficient, even though none of the spells contained within seemed to be related to golems specifically."

"You should make a staff out of it," Lambert suggested. I heard this idea the second time, but every eye turned towards him. The court wizard spoke softly and seemed embarrassed all of a sudden. "That way you can keep the connection without extra movements... And... It helps focus its powers too. No idea what kind of crystals they are, but they remind me of the cores I saw mages use in their staffs."