“Good lord, my head.” Angela commented as she rubbed the wound on the side of her skull. “I’m gonna end the fucker who did this to me...” She sounded furious.

Gilliam couldn’t say much, he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, for her to realise her situation and... just take it from there.

She used several seconds to wake up and realise her situation, Gilliam was a bit surprised at how calmly she handled it all, especially being this far up in the air. She was just floating there in space, attached to the rope before but now she had gotten back upright and was analysing what was going on.

“Why am I naked?” She calmly asked in Gilliam’s direction.

“To be honest... Originally it was due to lack of time, not sure how long we could stay on the surface before getting swarmed, but when I got up here it sort of felt weird considering dressing you...” Gilliam decided to take the honest approach. He never really had a problem with nudity more than the modern man, but it felt oddly strange considering overhandling an unconscious person, it just wasn’t right.

“So you let me hang around here naked instead?” Her follow-up question left Gilliam a bit stumped for answers.

“I... don’t have much I can say there. Leaving you like that felt the least weird... Even though that also felt strangely weird...” Gilliam was at a loss for words, it was weird regardless and this was just the lesser weird. He also didn’t want to dress them up and have sand getting everywhere it shouldn’t.

“Well, I suppose there are worse things than being seen naked, did you get our clothes back as well?” Seeing Gilliam fully clothed most likely brought the question up.

Gilliam felt relieved that it wasn’t more than that, though he might have been overthinking this a lot, they were stripped as part of being captured by demons to be killed and eaten... This was hardly the worst outcome. He was still glad that it didn’t turn out more than this.

“I have all our stuff in the ring, might be a bit weird to dress while flying but I can produce a stream of water so you can wash off the sand before you get dressed.”

“That would be nice, I’m also hungry, and thirsty, so we can solve a few problems at the same time.” She smiled a bit back at him. Though as he was trying not to stare he barely saw it in the corner of his eye.

Gilliam re-cast the flying spell so she could control it herself, his Boundary was quite recharged at this point so it wasn’t an issue anymore. He then moved above her and started producing water in a weak arc, falling to let her have a weird shower. He could hear her drink some of it, something he couldn’t say anything against, it did feel oddly complimenting having his water consumed like this.

“I’m done, can I have my clothes now?” The washing took only a few minutes until she seemed done.

Gilliam took her clothes, or at least the clothes he thought were hers out of the ring, handing her a few pieces at once so it didn’t end up getting dropped. She referred to some pieces of clothing that he thought were Petal’s and a few that were Petal’s that he just put back in the ring. A few moments later Angela was properly dressed, which made it much easier for Gilliam to look her way.

“Why didn’t you clean and dress Petal?” She asked once she was done with herself. “From what I heard it’s not like there’s anything new or weird there, she’s even yours... in both senses of the word, so...”

She honestly seemed a bit confused about this. Gilliam understood her point, Petal was not just his slave and property, letting him do practically what he wanted, but they were intimate outside of this. So it shouldn’t be too weird in that sense.

“I considered it but I don’t know how they handle temperature, if I start washing her she might get too cold... or something. I do realise now that I could just make warm water... I also don’t want sand to be trapped anywhere weird. And since most of them are nude most of the time anyway I thought it could wait until she woke up.”
He did realise that it sounded dumb, knowing Petal she wouldn’t have anything against it but he still didn’t want to.

Angela shrugged, seemingly muttering something to herself that Gilliam couldn’t overhear.
“So, what’s the plan now?” Angela turned to Gilliam after asking.

“We wait for Petal to wake, let her get dressed and we continue.” As he was explaining the rather short plan, he took out some food and drink for Angela, who took it with great interest.
“The plan is basically the same, we just need to rest a little so we don’t have any aftereffects, you two seem like you were bonked out much harder than me. I also brought the fucker’s corpse for Petal so... we’ll see how that works out.”

Angela had barely taken a bite of the preserved meat she was handed as Gilliam continued. “You killed him?!” She sounded and looked surprised.

Gilliam couldn’t fault her, though he didn’t know how much she knew about him or how much she was awake, but at the very least she should have been briefly awake while they were carried on the bones when he woke the first time.
“Yes, however, I couldn’t have done it at all without Savia.”

Almost as if they had planned it, as soon as her name was mentioned she popped out of Gilliam’s ponytail and climbed onto his head, using her clawed feet to hold onto the hair she was standing on as she flapped her wing-arms happily.
“Savia did good!” She shouted with the glee of a child who got complimented.

“Savia did good indeed. Not only did she help break his concentration so I got out of the illusions, but she tracked down and fetched our stuff afterwards.” As he simplified the events that happened he reached up to find Savia on his head, he intended to pet her but as his hand came in range she glomped onto it instead.

Pulling his hand back down, she let go of his hair and came with it, ending up in his hand for him to pet her properly. As he did he more accurately explained the events from his perspective.

“Hmm... I didn’t have all of that.” Angela started after pondering a moment once Gilliam had completed his story. “Though I had the first with you in the jungle. After we got out from that I think I was just knocked out. He can’t target you if you’re not mentally present, I suppose.” She shrugged at the end of her explanation and didn’t seem to think more of it.
“Because of my healing I’m fine now, though much slower if I’m knocked unconscious as long as I’m not killed I’ll most likely recover, if I’m awake I’m usually fine as long as I don’t die. My self-healing is... and I say this without bragging, quite amazing.” She didn’t seem to boast or have a better-than-thou tone or anything, it just sounded like a fact was shared.

Gilliam nodded slightly, she did have a point, in the chaos he sort of just forgot it all. Given her healing and her resistance from all her training, they probably knocked her out more than once, which is why she was out that long and her healing might be why she woke up before Petal.
“I can heal but I don’t have proper training or education on the brain... I can heal some of the body but I don’t feel comfortable messing around with the brain... Which is why I didn’t try to wake you with healing.” He was referring to the both of them when saying ‘you’, something Angela seemed to pick up on.

“Smart move, never a good idea to mess with the brain without understanding it.” She smiled as she tapped her head with her index finger. “Besides, we really don’t know if their brains are different than ours... might have been extra dangerous.”

She had a good point but this also reminded Gilliam of something. “Yeah, I agree but I also just remembered something. Their body is very adapt at absorbing and using magical energy, I can just feed her mana and it should help... right?” He felt a bit uncertain but at least this wouldn’t hurt her. If anything she’d just wake up with an energy kick.

“That’s a good point, just... don’t... give it to her in that way.” She put a funny pressure on ‘that’, strongly hinting at their intimate life.

Gilliam chuckled. “Not the way I intended to join the mile-high club, so I think I’ll refrain.”

Angela looked at him with a questioning look, which reminded Gilliam that this was a bit of a modern term, he dismissed it with a small headshake.
Instead, he commanded the magic which kept her flying to move her closer, they were all still on the rope but this was easier. As she got in range he placed Savia back in his hair, moved his hand on Petal’s chest and started channelling mana into her, based on her reaction to just being close to a mana gem before this should hopefully do something. He didn’t want to aim at her head due to the earlier mentioned possible brain thing, but her body took healing well and they handled mana well so the chest felt like a much better target.

While doing so, through the momentary calm they were in, Gilliam first now took the time to look properly back down onto the ground. Though they were far enough away that nothing could be made out in any form of detail, he could now see something looking like a much larger town, if not a city. It looked like there were mostly buildings, even what seemed like a large oasis or park in the rough centre of the city, there was water there.

“Huh... Am I seeing things wrong or... do they have water down there?” Gilliam blurted out without actually thinking about it properly.

“It seems like it.” Angela seemed oddly apathetic about the situation but did confirm that he wasn’t seeing things.

“I suppose the inner lands of the world are better off? Perhaps some hierarchy thing?” He didn’t know how to word it, but everything did feel surprisingly... well... human. “The outskirts slums of the world get to fend for themselves but they still have to work for the inner-city rich people, paying taxes in the form of labour and powerful people in the world they invade... Perhaps?”

“We have to ask Petal, I think. But I haven’t seen water until we got here. And based on what she said before I strongly doubt they properly care for their people out there. It might be a resource problem as well, imagine an oasis in the desert; it would have to be protected. Or something.” Angela didn’t seem entirely sure either, sort of pushing it onto Petal for when she woke.

“Well, at least it seems that they are d-” Gilliam intended to comment on them doing better but was interrupted.

“AAAAAH!” Petal woke with the subtlety of being electrocuted, fists clenched, muscles tensed and eyes looking like they were about to pop out of her head.

Her shout startled Gilliam enough to accidentally command the flying magic to separate them, however, the rope between them all ended up yanking them along for the ride which not only stopped Petal from flying away but pulled both Gilliam and Angela along. This did give Gilliam the moment to stop the push but everyone got a sharp tug on their rope before things stabilised.

“Oh... Fuck.. Holyshit that startled me... Sorry but..” Gilliam was very taken out by it, letting out a short nervous laughter in his response, he didn’t expect this to suddenly happen and was quite startled.

Petal looked around with darting eyes and twitchy movements, she had the expression of a startled child with a strong caffeine rush as if she had her first energy drink while already being excited about something.

“My... My lord, I feel... weird...” She looked back at her hands as she opened and closed them, seeming to not even react to being naked.

Gilliam did consider her lack of reaction to clothing, however considering that she had only been clothed for a brief time after she was bound to him, it might be strangely more natural to her.
“I didn’t really know how to heal your mind, so I just channelled mana into you... I might have given you too much.” This was just a wake-up call that he didn’t properly understand much about magic... He was gifted in its usage but he severely lacked understanding.

“I feel like fighting, I want to run... I... this feels weird...” She was practically vibrating with excess adrenaline, not knowing what to do with it.

Gilliam thought this could be a good thing to consider when a large fight was about to break out, but for now, she would have to ride it out...
“I don’t really know how you handle mana... I’m... I’m sorry but you just have to calm down on your own... Your energy might be good if we have to fight but right now I think we need you calmer.”

She seemed to understand what was said, but at the same time having her first proper energy kick made it hard. She was just floating there, mainly due to Gilliam controlling the flight spell, but she also didn’t have anything specific to do with all this pent-up energy.
“What... What happened? I remember the green place and seeing Lord Margol, but nothing after that.”

Gilliam lifted an eyebrow. “Margol? Is that the name of the faceless demon?”

Petal nodded rapidly, not out of excitement but more like she couldn’t properly control her smaller actions.
“Yes. Lord Margol is the Lord of the Hand. He’s not as strong as many other Fracturians but he’s smart and powerful.” She nodded to herself as she explained like she was repeating something said to her more than once.

“The hand? Weren’t we... somewhere else?” Gilliam had to calm himself not to raise his voice. It wasn’t her fault but this could throw a metaphorical wrench in their progress.
He didn’t exactly know the names of the landmasses but based on their earlier assumptions they should be somewhere in the core Body... or something... At least not in the hand anymore.

She shook her head. “I think we left the Arm. He might have followed us or just been here, the Lords don’t always stay in their zone like we do.”

She had explained the rough hierarchy before, she was originally at the very bottom of the list, so she didn’t get to go anywhere and was lucky if she got to eat or go a while without being beaten or just killed for sport. She didn’t seem to know too much outside of what went on in the Finger where she was bound, but she had minimal information about the general information level.

“Is there anything in the Fracturian culture that could help us now that we killed him?” Gilliam needed to know, he brought the body with them mainly for Petal’s sake, but if it could help them somehow it would be even better.

“You... you killed him?” Petal’s eyes widened, not in disbelief but in surprise.

“Yes, I somehow managed with Savia’s help.” He couldn’t stop himself from smiling at the thought of his tiny seemingly innocent familiar messing with someone that problematic to fight.

Like before, as if it was a practised trigger, Savia popped out. “Savia helped!”

Angela let out a chuckle but it seems that Petal might have missed that and instead replied to Gilliam.
“Did you challenge him first?”

Gilliam pondered for a brief moment and realised that her question had a good point. If he had challenged the demon first it would have carried weight, right now it was just murder. “No, it was sort of an in-the-moment thing so... no.”

“Then as an outsider, you won’t gain anything from it. You’re not a Fracturian so a challenge will only work if they accept it. Most Lords are very arrogant so I think that could work out.”
Though still quite energetic she seemed to have gotten somewhat a hold of herself, vibrating almost as if excited for something but somewhat under control.

“Well, I brought his corpse in the ring, so if I could do something with that.” Gilliam commented as he looked at the ring which was displaying the entire cylindrical crystal illuminated.
“I brought it so you could have his heart, but I don’t know what to do with his body.”

Petal’s vibrations seemed to increase at the mention of this .”You... You brought his body for me?” She sounded both excited and surprisingly touched.

“Well, yes, you explained how you might get some neat powers or knowledge from hearts so... this seemed like the most effective way at the time.”
He didn’t think much of it, but now that she reacted as she did he was reminded of how even the smallest thing for her sake might become huge in contrast to her whole life.
“And I suppose, if his face is somewhat recognizable, we could use it as a scare tactic or something.”

Angela chimed in, breaking the mood slightly. “That’s a good idea, I haven’t seen others like his face so, we might be able to carry that as a badge or sorts. Perhaps talk or lie our way through things?”
She didn’t entirely sound convinced of her idea.

Petal pulled on the rope to Gilliam, closing the distance between them. “I... I would like his heart now.”

She seemed slightly desperate, something which caught Gilliam off guard, on one hand, he was glad that she was getting assertive but they had time, right?
“We can wait, can’t we? I mean, isn’t it easier to take the heart out while on the ground?”

She shook her head. “That’s true, but the heart loses quality fast, this is why Lord Vozellath is said to eat people alive and whole.”

Gilliam thought for a second about this, it did aid a lot of reasons as to why they would bother with taking live victims instead of just taking their hearts out and sending those off. Save the... more food part...
Taking Margol’s body out of the ring was not an issue, but to stop it from just plummeting to the ground he reached out with a tendril of mana and kept it floating with telekinesis. Not having made a Structured spell for this yet he simply used Unstructured magic for now. The wounds that killed him as well as the spear wounds through his face were still quite fresh but had stopped bleeding a while ago.

As soon as he was in range, Petal didn’t waste a moment. Using her clawed hands she dug her way through his chest, breaking ribs and ignoring the gore that followed it. Margol might be very dead but his body was still relatively intact, so this was anything but a clean affair.
The whole process took about a minute, and though she ignored damage to the body she seemed to be careful with the heart to get that out properly. As soon as it cleared the body she didn’t waste a second and scarfed it down like she hadn’t eaten in days.

As she was eating, Gilliam put the corpse back in the ring. He was slightly uncomfortable having a mangled demon corpse in the same ‘bag’ as their food, but earlier tests showed that things aren’t touching in there unless they were touching before they were put in. So there wouldn’t be any cross-contamination. It still felt weird.

Seconds after it was consumed there seemed to be a flash of energy in Petal’s already glowing eyes, she looked around slightly confused. “S... something changed..” She didn’t seem to know how to vocalize it. “I feel like... I’m noticing things...”

“Oh, what kind of things?” Gilliam requested. “I can... understand more of... what you do or think... I think?” She stared at Gilliam for a second. ”I also feel... warm... The energy in my body is moving...”

She looked incredibly confused, both at the seeming new knowledge that made its way into her head, but there was something else as well. Gilliam’s mana sense was not as trained as even the simple student of the Academy, but he could tell that the mana he infused her body with was indeed moving, it was gathering.

“My lord. I...” Petal had a scared expression, she didn’t seem to know what this was and was asking Gilliam for aid.

Before Gilliam could even consider reacting, Petal’s entire body flashed in bright light and pulsed with magical energy.