“Outsider. When that term is used in the context of talking about planes of existence, it has a very different meaning. Outsiders, in simplest terms, are any beings that are born and exist outside of our world. These entities are exceptionally powerful.

“The exact number of outsiders that exist outside of our reality is unknown.

“Due to existing beyond our reality, outsiders can not freely enter our existence. Our world creates a sort of natural barrier that prevents such entities from manifesting on our plane. However, by using special summoning rituals, that natural law can be circumvented to a degree.

“As of the year 3134, there are three categories of outsider: hostile, indifferent, and unknown. Each of those categories is based on the outsider's general temperament towards life on our plane, and thankfully the majority of known outsiders seem to fall under the category of indifferent.

“Such entities as demons are classified as hostile. A powerful type of outsider believed to be born out of malice. They often take the form of humanoid beings with wings and horns. These entities seem to hate all life and will tempt people with promises of power to actively ruin lives. All known records on how to summon these types of beings have been destroyed thousands of years ago in both the West and East in what is known as the Lix Purge. Demons have not been seen on the western continent since then.

“Another type of outsider is the whispers, who are classified as indifferent. These entities take the form of something that looks like flowing black cloth that is vaguely in the shape of a humanoid. These creatures are not hostile and relatively harmless, but become hostile when people attempt to summon them. They show no interest in our world and don’t want to be on our plane, but people have still attempted to forcefully summon them as a means to gain knowledge, as these entities are thought to know all secrets.

“Then there are the most widely known of all the outsiders, the Nameless Gods. They are of the unknown class, but it has been debated that they may be of the hostile variety. There is no information on what these entities look like, as there are no known summoning rituals to summon these entities, and what is known of them is only tangential. These beings have never manifested on our plane of existence and any communication made with them was through a cultist, whose claims are unreliable. The motivation of these beings, if they have any, is unknown. So, while people might have heard about them, they might be the least understood of all the known outsiders.

“While these three types of outsiders are confirmed to exist, they are far from the only. There are still reports and claims of countless other types of outsiders. In the coming years, more types of outsiders will likely be identified.

“Knowledge on how to summon outsiders is extremely restricted and illegal, due to the danger these creatures pose to everyone.”

—“Spheres of Existence Volume 3” by Archmage Jenna Lor

An hour had gone by and Cid had just left, leaving Scarlett by herself. Alone in the secret safe house under the Cait Teahouse, she sat there sipping a liquid from a tea set she had received from John. The liquid in her cup was not actually tea, it was a potion of immortality. The exact same she mentioned to Cid earlier.

Scarlett named the mysterious teapot she received from John the “Soul Sipping Pot”. It had the power to brew eternity and was the only thing she knew that could possibly process the leaves of Yggdrasil. Without the soul-sipping pot, those leaves could only make a liquid that would send a person's soul instantly to the afterlife.

The potion the Soul Sipping Pot brewed was what saved her all those years ago.

She never truly recovered from what her former students did. The ritual performed in the Wildlands had stripped away years of her life and damaged her aether veins almost beyond repair. But, the most sinister thing about that ritual was that it also damaged the soul.

Recovery from what happened was already a difficult task that was only made possible thanks to John, but what was done to her soul was even more tricky. There was a general consensus in the mage community that souls can’t be healed. The damage to her soul was so severe that it also affected her ability to use aether, which she originally thought was her damaged aether veins that were the cause. That was why for many years after her betrayal, she wasn't able to use her full power until she started consuming this elixir.

The potion she brewed with the leaves of Yggdrasil had the power to heal souls, along with the effect of age reversal and life extension. In theory, this potion should have been able to completely heal her, but the potion can not heal what is not there. Scarlett’s soul was not just damaged, a chunk of it was missing. Something she only realized after briefly touching the afterlife when she collapsed in her safe house after meeting John.

Just like there is no way to heal a missing limb without some exceptional power, there is no way to heal missing chunks of the soul without something unheard of. Being able to heal a soul was already considered something impossible, and she still needed something beyond that for the missing pieces of her soul.

The elixir she was drinking could keep her soul temporarily stable, but she had to keep drinking it regularly or risk what was left of her soul separating from her body and immediately dying. She was frankly unbelievably lucky that the few years after the Wildland event, her soul didn’t completely separate.

That time in the past when she collapsed in her safe house and thought she was dying, was her soul separating and starting to leave her body. Thankfully, she had consumed the elixir of immortality just moments before that happened, avoiding a complete separation. If she had gone one more day without meeting John back then, she would be dead.

She stared at the soul-sipping pot and was reminded of her situation.

“I know one day John will fully restore my broken soul, but until then, I’ll continue following his will.” she thought to herself with misplaced faith in John.

She believed that John was not human, and held secrets beyond even the Nameless Gods. But, whatever she thought he was, she knew he was a kind being. And honestly believed that, in his own mysterious way, was working toward eventually fully healing her soul.

“But, I need to figure out what his will is first.” she thought to herself, before standing up.

She pulled one of the rings off her finger and laid it on the table in front of her. She then channeled a tiny amount of aether into it. The ring suddenly started to expand in size until it was about 2 feet (60 centimeters) in diameter.

The ring was a storage ring. A special type of arcane tool that stores items in a small portable space, as its name would suggest. These kinds of rings are rare as they're very difficult to craft for enchanters. Fortunately, Scarlett was an archmage of enchantment and the best enchanter on the continent. It was no trouble for her to make such a thing.

The air in the center of the ring shimmered. She reached her hand into the center of the ring and it suddenly disappeared. Her arm moved around, rummaging in some unseen space until she pulled out what looked like a nearly empty bag of dried leaves.

Scarlett: “Hmm, I had fewer leaves than I thought,” she said while looking at the nearly empty bag. “I guess it’s good that he sent some more,” she said as she looked at the leaves Cid had brought her.

She then put the nearly empty bag of leaves back into the ring along with the other bag Cid brought. Reaching into the ring once more, she pulled out a box with soft padding on the inside made to store delicate dishes. Walking around the table, she picked up the tea cup and soul-sipping pot and gently put them in a box before placing them inside the storage ring.

Scarlett activated the ring once more and it began to shrink back down. She then placed it back on her finger and quickly left the safe house and out into the dark hallway.

While walking down the dimly lit hallway, she grabbed another one with her rings on her hand and twisted it. Her form shimmered and then suddenly her hair color changed to blonde and her eyes turned green. The structure of her face was altered slightly. Once all the change settled in, she looked like someone else.

This was another one of Scarlett’s enchanted tools she made, a ring of illusion. Design to create an illusion that changes her appearance just enough to be unrecognizable to most. The illusion wasn't good enough to hide from the eyes of a discerning mage, but it was good enough for her purpose.

She continued to walk down the hallway up to the stairwell and out onto the main floor of the teahouse.

There was no one in the shop except the two waitresses and a goat mutant man named Thom, who all turned their heads towards Scarlett. The moment they saw her they started glaring at her. The dislike of Scarlett they were demonstrating was almost palpable. She responded in kind by also glaring back at them.

The employees at this store and the mutant pretending to be a customer all worked for someone Scarlett despised. Scarlett was a petty person. Simply by association with the person these people work for, was enough for her to not like them.

She also went out of her way to make these people's lives more miserable, which she normally wouldn’t have done if it was just a simple dislike of them, but they were also harassing her. Likely by order of the person they worked for.

It was nothing major or got in the way of her work. They just wouldn’t serve her food when she asked like they were supposed to, and wouldn’t tell her anything unless it was absolutely necessary, while also just generally being rude to her. In return for the disrespect they showed her, she repaid in equal measure by being rude and obnoxious. She would also every once in a while put a petty curse on the waitress Lise to annoy her.

Scarlett wordlessly sent a little bit of aether to the floor beneath her feet.

She had secretly installed something like a magic circle enchantment on the entire floor of the store. It was hidden and would be impossible to find without the assistance of a very competent mage. The circle Scarlett installed had a variety of useful functions to it. One of them was allowing someone to cast a minor spell on someone standing in the circle without their knowledge. A minor spell like a petty curse.

Aether moved through the floor, following the path of an unseen magic circle from Scarlett to right under Lise's feet.

As the spell took hold of Lise, suddenly a pair of brown floppy dog ears sprouted out of Lise's head. They looked like the ears of a bloodhound. Thom the goat mutant was the first to notice the sudden physical change.

Thom: “L-Lise! Ya got mutt ears! Someone’s cursed you again.”

Lise: “Wha?” she mumbled as reached up to feel her head.

Lise immediately felt the dog ears lying on the side of her head. She grabbed one by the ears and pulled. It harmlessly popped off in her head with very little resistance. She examined the dog ear she just pulled for a few seconds before it disappeared into thin air, and a new one sprouted on top of her head.

Lise: “Ahhg, fucking burning abyss!” she yelled, before angrily turning toward Scarlett. “You fucking bitch. It was you, wasn't it?

Scarlett: “Looks like someone should go back to school. Everyone knows you need physical contact of some kind to apply a curse.“ she said, knowing that her magic circle was one of the exceptions to that rule. “Although, an idiot like you probably wouldn’t benefit from school.”

Lise: “FUUUUCK YOU!” she angrily said, while flipping Scarlett off with both hands.

Lise knew the weird curses being put on her lately were from Scarlett, but had no proof, as the former archmage was incredibly subtle about it.

Scarlett: “If you were smart enough to be a little nicer to me, I might break the curse for you. I might not be a professional cursebreaker, but any half-decent mage can dispel a petty curse.

Lise: “As if I would ever ask for YOUR help!” she said while grinding her teeth.

Scarlett just shrugged and casually walked out, leaving Lise to constantly pull out the dog ear on her head, only for them to immediately grow back.

On Eld Street it was bright outside and many people were walking about on the paved street, many of them mutant with varying animistic traits to them. They were just people casually going about their day, walking around and shopping at one of the many stores offered here.

There were no vehicles on this street.

Almost the entire east side of Graheel was one giant pedestrian zone, except for some main roads. It was part of the city that never had its street updated to allow vehicles to drive on it, as there was never a reason to do so. People living around here couldn't afford to buy aether powered vehicles in the past, so the city council never bothered to make roads for them. Even when money started flowing into the east, the roads were never updated to allow vehicles. As the locals actually liked the walkable streets.

Scarlett walked along the road. With her illusions changing her appearance enough not to be easily recognizable. She didn’t attract any more attention than anybody else around. Some people did stop walking briefly to stare at her before continuing their way, likely just someone who was attracted to her appearance. Thanks to the elixir she regularly consumes, her body was restored to her prime. And, during her prime years, she had the figure of a supermodel that still managed to come through the illusion. If a list of the top ten most attractive archmages was something that existed, she would be on that list.

She ignored the odd stare she got and continued to her main destination, the mystic emporium. Scarlett needed to talk to John about the warning he gave Cid today.

The recent warning he gave made her completely re-evaluate John’s power. It didn’t make sense to Scarlett that he would warn Cid. She honestly thought that he had the power to control fate at first, but if he did, why give a warning. If you control fate, just change it so that whatever danger Cid was facing didn’t happen.

She was starting to think that maybe John couldn’t control fate and that Scarlett had stretched the limits of his power beyond what it actually was. She thought that maybe there was some sort of limitation to this power. There was something about his power that made it complicated, and she knew that nothing with John was simple.

Scarlett just knew John was doing something to influence fate, there were just too many strange coincidences that constantly happened around him. Never in her wildest dreams did she ever consider that John accidentally destroyed fate, and that the strangeness going on around him was due to some inconceivable eldritch entity.

Eventually, she stood facing the mystic emporium, staring at it with some newfound curiosity. Rethinking her hypothesis that John has complete control over fate raised all sorts of new questions about him.

And, one of those new questions she was staring at.

“If he doesn't control fate, why is this store so hard for others to find?” she thought to herself.

There was no illusionary enchantment around the store, but people would constantly walk by this store every day and never notice it. Not even a high-level mage would notice this place. She didn’t even notice this place while living on Eld Street until one day she suddenly did. There was no magic involved she could detect, yet it's like people can’t see it, but at the same time, it’s not invisible.

She thought that if John controlled fate, then he made it so that only certain fated individuals could find this place, but it was starting to seem like that wasn't the case.

Scarlett pushed her curiosity to the side and brought her focus back to the main task, figuring out his warning. She quickly ran the scenario of conversation with John through her head, planning out what she was going to say. Once she had an idea on how to ask her question, she deactivated her illusion and pushed the door open, entering inside.

Taking a few steps inside, she looked around. The layout looked the exact same as the last time she was here, albeit the contents on the shelves seemed to have moved or were different, which was normal for this strange store.

She focused her sight on the back of the store where John was usually sitting, but was then surprised. He wasn't there. Which was strange enough, but it was compounded by the fact there was someone else here. Someone she’s never seen before.

Sitting in a chair facing towards the table John sat at, looked like a man with brown hair that had a few streaks of white through it. He wore a blue suit jacket that looked very expensive.

Scarlett was left momentarily stunned.

There was a series of a bunch of unprecedented things happening all at once today for Scarlett. John giving warnings, him not being here, and a person she had never seen before inside the Mystic emporium.

The man, hearing someone entering the store, stood up and turned to look at Scarlett. The man's appearance made it hard to tell what his age was. He looked like he might be in his thirties, but she was unsure. His appearance didn’t make him stand out much or invoke much of a presence. He looked very bland.

Mysterious Man: “Who are you?” he said, with a very deadpan face.

Scarlett: “Who am I? Who are y—” she stopped mid-sentence and her eyes widened.

Scarlett had used her eye ability on the mysterious man while talking, revealing his aether to her. The aether she saw was unnatural and something that shouldn't exist in a person. Aether in a normal person gathers in one spot in the body. The person in front of her had thousands of tiny pockets of aether throughout his whole body, something that was impossible. It only meant one thing to Scarlett.

“This man is not human.” she silently thought to herself.

Not knowing if there was danger or not, she gathered her aether. Preparing to attack this person if he made any hostile action towards her. As she did so, a cold chill ran up her back and frightened her. An otherworldly feeling pressed down on her, making her feel ten times heavier. It filled her entire being with an indescribable dread.

It was a hard feeling to describe. It was like a warning, a threat, a revelation, and a promise of something awful if you went against it. There was only ever one other time Scarlett felt this. That was when she was about to break out of character and just ask John directly how to reanimate the dead using fire elemental power. It stopped her dead in her tracks back then, like it was doing now.

She looked at the man across from her to see that he was also wide-eyed. Scarlett just knew that he also felt it.

There was now an awkward staring contest going on between the two of them. They just stared at each other in silence. No idea what they should do as they were both paralyzed by this strange pressure.

The overwhelming feeling suddenly let up and the sound of the front door being open could be heard behind Scarlett. She turned to see John walking in with his dog Lunar following behind him.

John: “OH! Hello there. Nice to see you, Scarlett, also you too Luke,” he said, surprised to see two of them at once.