Published at 5th of November 2026 9:33 am

Chapter 216. Into the mind

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“I don’t like it,” I said with a sigh, barely hiding my annoyance as I looked at another fork in the tunnel. “This feels like we’ve chosen the wrong way every time we’ve gone down a corridor.”

“Is it possible those tunnels shift?” Dave asked, stopping beside me. “Or lengthen?”

“It’s not a haunted house, is it?” Rey asked.

I was about to disagree, but caught myself. It was the fifth time we had come across a fork, and the fifth time both passages had looked almost identical. I was pretty sure that if we went down either passage, we would get nowhere yet again.

“Honestly, might as well be,” I groaned.

It was painfully clear we were trapped here, much like at the Vatican, but that had been a ninth-tier singularity, one of the most dangerous and ancient magical phenomena in the world. Here, it was… well, I had no idea what it was. It had popped up out of nowhere within a few hours. It did its best to keep us inside. We met no enemies, saw no signs, and found no further omens.

“Okay, stop,” I said.

The group came to a halt, with Dave’s people checking the corridors with their flashlights.

“We need to figure out what this is,” I said. “We can’t keep walking around blind like this.”

“That’s easy to say,” Luna commented. “Did you sense anything as we walked?”

I shook my head.

“Could this all be a nest of a hive mind? Like a living organism that doubles as a nest… like we’re inside a leviathan?” I asked, looking at Myhur.

“Nooo,” he boomed. “The hive queen is here with us, but away. I sense her sadness from afar. I don’t think it’s her doing this.”

“How can you sense that?” Ophelia asked.

“Through the mana,” the mushroom answered, his eyes glued to the tunnel's darkness.

This was similar to the aura of the hive worms in the abandoned factory building. Myhur could recognize the hive-related aspects of the attunement.

“So how do you propose we figure it out?” Filip asked, his eyes on the unconscious Josh. The empath’s condition hadn’t changed in the slightest. He was still in a vegetative slumber, neither in danger nor in the clear. “I’m afraid my experience as an investigator won’t do much here.”

“It just might,” I said. “But not now. For now, we need to know what we’re working with.”

“You wanna try and wake up Josh,” Ophelia said, catching on.

I nodded.

“Didn’t you say it was dangerous?” Filip asked.

“It still is. But… I don’t have any other ideas. Do you?”

They shook their heads.

“How do we do that?” Dave asked. “I don’t imagine a few shots right next to his ear will do the trick?”

“Sadly, no. The idea is simple. Get into his mind and see what’s going on. But if his consciousness is somewhere else, then…”

“You might have to follow him,” Luna finished for me.

“Where could he be?” Dave asked. “If he’s somewhere, can’t we all just go into that place?”

I looked at the muscular man. My first instinct was to snap back about group trips into a mind. But when I met his eyes, I stopped. He didn’t seem like someone trying to poke holes in the whole thing, but rather a man who wanted to learn. I could even see a familiar shine of curiosity in his eyes.

“To be honest, that’s a good question,” I replied. “Normally, what I mean by the mind is the mental energy, the consciousness. For normal people, it’s like one unmoving mass sitting in your head, but for mages, it can become pliable. The issue is that if you move it outside yourself, it can be injured or even lost. In his case, I believe it’s somewhere else.”

Luna frowned at my words. “It’s actually THE question. Where would it be? If it was pulled outside of him, we should have sensed it, right?” she asked. “Or are empaths different?”

I hesitated before answering, since my knowledge of empaths didn't go beyond one living specimen and a few books.

“I’ve felt his consciousness a few times before. It’s kind of like mist. It might be hard to detect, but I don’t think it’s outside his body.”

“Lost in the soul?” Bakari suggested from the side, joining the conversation.

“Might be, but… I have a different theory—” I began, but my own apprentice cut me off.

“Lost in the singularity.”

I turned to her, eyebrows raised, surprised that she had reached the same conclusion.

“So you think it’s a singularity,” Luna said.

“Well, apparently I’m not the only one who does. So why would it be lost in it?” I asked Ophelia, curious to hear her explanation.

She took a deep breath, gathering her thoughts before speaking. “Consciousness can be pushed outside the body, but also into another’s mind. That’s how you invade a mind. So if we assume this is a singularity, it would be a memory stored in mana, a creation made by the mind of magic itself. The few texts in Sam’s library—”

“Sam’s?” I asked, pleasantly surprised by her knowledge.

“The few texts in our clan’s library,” she corrected herself, “describe singularities as creatures of a sort. Mana here has ownership… technically. So if part of a magical mind is creating this space, then it should also be possible to invade or enter that part. I’m not sure how, but let’s assume that’s why all the texts mention needing an empath or an oracle to read a singularity and why normal mages can’t do it. An oracle can interpret divinations, while an empath, I’d imagine, should be able to read the fragment of the mind creating this space.” Ophelia finished. Everyone looked at her in surprise.

“What? I read about singularities after the Vatican,” she said, slightly offended by the stares.

“Well, that’s my theory as well,” I said with a smile. “But there is one problem with it.”

“If only empaths can enter this mind, then we shouldn’t be able to,” Luna said.

“Yes. But it depends. If it’s like a door we can’t find, then we might be able to go after Josh, assuming he left it open when he went or was dragged there.”

“But you don’t know if getting back is possible. Or whether you’ll die the moment you try to follow Josh,” Luna said.

“Yes.”

Silence once again fell over us.

“Any other ideas?” Dave asked.

I was surprised he hadn’t asked about any of the terminology. Judging by his reactions, he had understood the conversation.

“We could take a few more corridors, see if anything changes,” Bakari said.

It was always an option, but I had a bad feeling about this whole setup. Whoever did this was clearly trying to waste our time. Something nasty might have been going on outside. We needed out.

“I assume that silence means the decision has been made,” Dave commented. “One of my men can use his consciousness as you described. But I want to keep him on my team, in case you… well, don’t return.”

“Reasonable,” Luna said, giving me a sidelong look before I could begin asking about the guy—who he was and how he had learned to do it.

“So who should—” I began, but Myhur’s booming voice cut me off once again.

“Iii shall go,” he said.

I actually wasn’t sure it was such a good idea. Whatever mind was in here was clearly influencing him, but I also knew how stubborn mycanoids could be, and when it came to hives and collectives, that trait only got worse. I exchanged a look with Luna.

“Well, then, Bakari stays to protect our bodies. No offense,” I added, looking at Dave.

“None taken.”

“Peter doesn’t know how to use his consciousness that well for now.”

“So I go,” Luna said, but to her surprise, I shook my head.

“No. If we get injured in there, we will need a healer.”

“I can’t do much for minds yet,” she warned me, worry clear on her face.

“Not much is still better than nothing.”

“But you need more backup there,” Luna continued.

“You want me to go,” Ophelia said. It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.”

“Even though I’m still in the first circle.”

“Show me your scroll,” I said, and we moved aside so I could look at the attributes.

Magic Circle: 1

Standard Spells per circle:

1st: 16 -> 21

Attributes:

Body

Strength: 19

Dexterity: 20 -> 21

Endurance: 18

Constitution: 19 -> 20

Mind

Intelligence: 17

Wisdom: 18

Willpower: 19 -> 20

Mental Defense: 21 -> 24

Spirit

Soul: 14 -> 15

Instinct: 0

Faith: 15 -> 19

Manifestation: 20 -> 21

Social

Empathy: 14 -> 13

Charisma: 13

Pressure: 10 -> 15

Passion: 16

Skills: Poison Resistance, Familiar Manifestation, Minor Darkvision, Spell Casting (beginner), Qi Control (novice -> beginner)

Secrets: Life (apprentice), Death (apprentice), Mind

Mysteries: Mind (novice)

“Your knowledge of the mind actually registered as a secret now. Most of your key attributes are close to being ready for ascension, aside from faith, but I imagine that sacrifice will be the last act of devotion before you ascend. And your mental defense is firmly in the second circle.”

“Courtesy of your altar of fucked-up shapes, I imagine,” she said flatly.

“I imagine,” I said with a chuckle. “Your mental power should also be resilient, especially since you interact with eldritch powers—and there is another thing.”

“Our familiars.” She caught on quickly.

“Yes. Their minds are connected to ours. We should be able to take them with us.”

Ophelia looked around, her eyes slipping over the smooth cavern stone dotted with concrete here and there until she finally gave me a sharp nod.

“Fine. But… what about Myhur?”

“What do you mean?”

Ophelia began to fidget slightly, clearly uncomfortable about the conversation.

“He’s acting strange… I trained with him for some time, and he was never this… I don’t know, sad? Out of it?” she asked, looking for the right descriptor.

“Ahhh,” I said with a sigh. “I’m not sure… The strange thing is I don’t feel much sadness in the magic. The mana feels tinged with pain and depression, but if we can fight off the effect, so should he.”

“So it’s resonating with him in some way.”

“Most likely. I don’t think he’ll back down. And I don’t want an argument now. That and…” I paused.

I didn’t like the thought that my old friend might let me down, but Ophelia was right. He was kind of off, and I would need to lean on him for something. I looked to Ophelia. She was weaker than the mycanoid and had far less experience, but I had trained the girl myself. What was the point of having an apprentice if not to trust them?

“That is something I’ll need your help with,” I finally said.

Ophelia tilted her head slightly, surprised by my serious words.

“I don’t feel fear. And that means that in a space reflecting emotions—like a mind—I can miss dangers and warning signs. In mental spaces, their inner workings might evoke feelings, and before I analyze their symbolism, you might simply feel an emotion when you look at them. If you ever feel something is wrong—subconscious fear—you have to tell me. By the time I sense it as pressure or analyze it, it might be too late. Do you understand?” I asked, earning myself a short “Got it” from her.

This was the first time I would be entering a mind that was actually dangerous enough for me to be on my toes, one large enough to lose myself inside. If emotions came into play, I might have to rely on Ophelia if Myhur failed.

We got back to the others before walking farther into the corridor to a spot that was easier to protect. Then Ophelia, Myhur, and I sat around the unconscious Josh. Once the others were ready, we extended our consciousness beyond our bodies, using most of it, leaving only enough to know whether our bodies were alive and well.

We could extend just a small part, but exploring an untrained, lost mind with a thread that thin was asking to get injured.

It’s all or nothing, I thought, with excitement coursing through my veins at the thought of entering or even glimpsing part of magic’s very mind, as I sank myself into the empath’s mental space.

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