'It is so bright! And huge, I read about it and saw it in the mediation rooms but that can't really prepare you for it.' He'd have lived his entire life inside so when he got out of the tent he'd been staying in he was stunned. He didn't get fully as terrified as he though because it reminded him of the mediation rooms that projected a landscape all around you he used as Firth.

After a brief goodbye to Teres, while he was the only one in this world Renal had spoken more than a few words to they didn't get close, he slowly got into a carriage on his own two feet. It was a black carriage with two horses in front and a noble seal on the side, he noticed that it four squares; one had a city, one monochrome yellow, one striped yellow blue, the last had a boat, the entire crest was bordered by a crown of leaves he didn't recognise. Seating himself in the carriage he thought about sitting still for the entire day.

'I've not taken a leak once since I regained myself. Cleaning body and clothes can easily be done on a stationary target like me when I was sleeping with magic, but waste? They did feed me normal tasting food and the water seemed wet.' It wasn't that it was unheard of for this to exist but it was an expensive and inefficient formation that he couldn't imagine being on a temporary thing as a tent, were they that advanced in magic and if so did I make a mistake joining my family instead? As such looking for possible ways you could do this he was in his own world until he noticed the carriage started moving. After jolting awake he noticed Nina and Erica sat across from him.

"So now that we are a bit away from the Templars, and that escort we have don't seem that interested in us, should we talk about who you are?" Nina seems to have realised that he wasn't Renal. He just sat there staring at her while feeling dumb thinking he had fooled them.

"I'll go sit outside." Erica stammered and jumped out. This again woke him up from his stupor and once she heard her sit outside by Carl, they surely heard them from the coachman box but they weren't as much a part of the conversation, he started talking.

"Haahhh I was hoping I'd get away." And he lay down on the bench with an arm above his eyes. "I for some reason got both the language and the pronunciation right so I had some hope. So now what? The 'escort' as you put it is there to make sure you won't kill me for not being Renal you know." Well he wasn't, he was more there to make sure that Teres 'resurrecting' him wouldn't get out, but any protection he could get was a bonus.

"Really we 'should' eliminate you since you're a liability, but we also need 'you' to be a witness for us about how your former master was colluding with bandits. Also killing you when someone as strong as Teres doesn't want us to is not an option."

"So who are you? Who do you work for? Nobody is fooled thinking that you're a servant when you are dressed like that." He did get a reaction from her with that, she both looked embarrassed and a bit angry.

"How would I know Renal would run off in the night and we would run into templars?! This is a lot more comfortable than the rough weave that servants wear!"

'Oh I got her angry, a lot easier than I thought to rile her up.' Renal thought while trying to calm her down with his hands.

"Well I work for the king, we like the templars heard bad rumours about 'your' former master so we came to investigate, but the only evidence we had was 'you' seeing him talk to bandits."

"Umm, 'we'? Was I also sent by the king?"

"You? Goodness no! Renal was a good for nothing lecher that tried to put his hands on me every time he could. It was me and Carl, your father... well 'your' father, not getting used to that soon, sent him. So again who are you?"

"This is difficult, I'm a shard of a soul that was mistakenly put into this body, meaning I get some memories of Renal but only a small fraction. I should have lost most of my previous memories as well so don't expect too much about that, but I know quite a bit about magi. Really the only things I got from 'Renal' was the language so far. And really don't spread any of this, if you do Teres will probably come silence you since this is quite damning for their church as well. Life magic being close to necromancy is kind of a secret everyone knows but having proof running around talking about it is not good."

"So that is why I'm not 'Renal', who I am is a bit trickier. I was a herbalist named Firth living in a mage commune inside a mountain sanctuary. We never had a single visitor until the caves collapsed, so there was nothing to tell me if I come from the same world or not. I know this language isn't my own but I can't recall my own either." Lies with a large dose of truth makes it easier to believe than the truth or a full lie. And while he really was a herbalist the fauna here didn't seem to be the same he'd seen in books, not to mention he'd never even seen trees before. Then he looked at Nina, who didn't seem very happy with his explanation motioning him to continue. 'What else is there even?'

"Well, just how much DO you remember of Renal's memories?"

"Ahh... Yea pretty much that I can speak your language, and I felt a familiarity when I saw the three of you, and since I realised someone was missing I also know him. Umm and that he seemed to think of you as his lover, but no matter how I look at it seems false." She seems a bit agitated when I said she was his lover. "I don't know anything about his family, and the magic I know all seems to come from me, not Renal."

"No wonder about that. He was sent off to become a magician as a child so he never got to know his family, and he never focused on learning anything as a magician either."

"So is there anyone apart from that valet of mine that knows me that isn't here? Feels odd knowing that I can just waltz into a body and nobody will care." Renal was a bit sad yet again at the state of his former soul's presence, it made him happy that it was easy to replace him but it made him sadder that real Renal was just replaceable.

"Well he did have a couple of friends among the apprentices, and also he was doted on by his sister." This was heard through the small window up to the coachman's box from Carl and he felt a bit shocked at first after it wasn't Nina that replied. It made him a bit conflicted about being happy that someone should care about the gone Renal, but that it wasn't as easy to pretend to be Renal wasn't great. "However the sister was mostly through letters so if you read through them it should be easily faked."

"Okay, thanks!" He wondered just how much he knew about magic compared to the natives if he was coming back to his family he wanted to be good but not shockingly good. "Do you have a magic tome? I don't really know what level my knowledge is compared so I want to make a comparison." Nina just handed over a leather-bound tome she had next to her. Opening it he felt despair.

'What language is this? Is it in code?'