“I think we might have a complicated situation on our hands,” the Housekeeper moves a strand of hair off her face.

Does she have a body that tough? Is she strengthening it? Does she have healing? I don’t think she will answer me if I ask, and what the heck is that weird skill of hers? It has some disruptive properties, but there is something else as well.

Should I get angry at my duplicate for ruining my learning opportunity?

“There is nothing complicated about this,” Clonthaniel answers, “Me and my buddy over here kinda have you guys in the palms of our hands. I don’t think you have anyone capable of facing us, and even your “oh so amazing barrier” proved useless. Us choosing not to nuke this city is proof enough of our ‘’good will’,” he says mirroring the Butler’s words as we were leaving.

That only gets a laugh out of the woman. A loud, amused laugh. Like an adult dealing with a child. “So, why don’t we go out of the city and fight properly? It would be…”

I ignore her and turn to my duplicate, “I have located it.”

The duplicate lets go of the Butler, kicks him with the tip of his shoe, and puts his hand on my shoulder.

The Housekeeper charges us, but before she reaches us, we teleport toward the anchor I placed deep inside the Bastion.

“What a clingy woman,” the duplicate complains. “Was her skill really that much fun?”

“Yup. She wasn't very versatile, she mostly strengthened her body, and she was really tough and quick, but she did it really really well. One of her skills seemed similar to [Disruption], but it worked against any attack I tried, mana-based or not. It also didn’t seem to cost her that much mana, it was super efficient.”

I take a step, and we start walking through a circular tunnel with a flat bottom, through which we sense a source of mana while leaving some nasty traps behind us.

“That’s it?” Duplicaniel asks.

“She also used some skill that allowed her to cut anything apart. Flames, mana, stone. Yes, yes, I know she has a Voidsteel blade, but it wasn't just that. Every attack she cut apart seemed to lose its effect.”

“Maybe I should fight her too.”

“We have a bit of time,” I agree.

Exiting the tunnel, we find ourselves surrounded by vegetation. The room is a half sphere and it’s big enough to take probably 20 percent of the Bastion’s base; it's just that big.

The walls are covered in terraces, filled with plants and trees bearing fruits and simple vegetables.

Even the floor is fully covered in grass and plants. Colorful, vibrant. The air smells nice, and there is even a soft wind blowing.

“Did you know that if you grow a tree in a room, it tends to be weak and often falls under its weight?” A short man with a shaved head and wearing simple clothes says making his presence known.

He continues, “The reason is simple. There is no wind. The wind blowing against the tree forces it to struggle and grow its roots deeper and stronger. Trees grown inside don't have that.” He smiles, it's almost a friendly smile. Almost.

“You must be the Armorer guy,” the duplicate says in an effort to poke fun at him.

“Yes, I’m the Armorer,” he nods seriously.

I can see the confusion on Clonthaniels face.

Before he says anything, the man continues, “Of course, I’m not the Armorer, I am the Gardener, you dipshit.” The man turns to me, “Are you the more reasonable one here?”

I really really want to throw in some lame joke, just to be included, but in the end, give up and nod.

“Good, as I said, I’m the Gardener, and I really have no interest in you kids fighting. So, will you please remove the traps you left in the tunnel before the Housekeeper triggers them all just to test them?”

I do just that, and a moment later, the duplicate does as well.

“Thank you,” the Gardener bows his head slightly and gestures for us to follow.

I already feel another conversation coming on. Damn, I really miss Tess. She would be much better at this.

Reaching the small summer house, we sit there and wait. The feeling of the wind blowing is nice, and the crystal producing the light is amazing. It even seems to produce heat and without looking, I would find it hard to distinguish it from the sun.

While we wait, the small man starts sending his mana to a series of tiny low-quality mana stones. He uses them to trigger watering or to make them radiate heat for the plants. Some bigger stones even generate wind, as they sit on pillars riddled with dozens of holes for the generated wind to flow through.

And all of that is powered by something even deeper underneath us.

I notice that Duplicaniel is looking there as well, and so I wonder, what powers a place as big as the Bastion? I really want to find out.

“Please, stay a bit longer, and I will try to explain everything I can,” the Gardener takes his attention off… well, gardening.

“Five minutes,” Clonthaniel says, mirroring my thoughts.

A minute later, the Housekeeper joins us along with the Butler who is already awake. The man is still missing half of his majestic mustache, and still doesn't show any reaction as he sits there, the picture of elegance. As if all of this were planned. The Housekeeper does the same.

The Gardener slaps his hands together, “So, I like what you did a few days ago. We asked you three questions, and you asked us three questions. So why don't we continue that?”

“To slow us down so the Armorer can prepare countermeasures?” I ask, somehow amused.

“Yes.” The Gardener nods.

“Sounds good,” I agree. “Tell me about the Bastion,” I ask. That’s my first question.

The Gardener looks at the Butler who straightens in his chair before starting, “The Bastion is a Skyhold Bastion, category three, meaning we were allowed military-grade upgrades from the Enchanter Guild. It was privately owned by Lord Lothain and used as his summer house.”If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The Housekeeper already seems to be dozing off, but I can feel her sharp senses on me.

The Butler looks around and, after a dramatic pause, he continues, “Me, the Housekeeper, the Gardener, and the Armorer used to be servants of Lord Lothain. The Gardener took care of food, the Armorer used to be a low ranking member of the Enchanters’ Guild and took care of our defenses. The Housekeeper worked with the other servants, making sure the Bastion ran smoothly, while I was in charge of the guards.”

“Butler, shorter answers please,” the Gardener says gently.

“Savages,” the Butler complains and reaches to touch his mustache, only for his hand to freeze mid-air, remembering he is missing half of it. He puts his hand down and continues, “Simply, thanks to our tendency to fly in places where the Veil wasn't so dense, we were one of the last to fall. Before we got destroyed, the Veil turned its attention to monsters, and by extension to the forces of the planet Paired with us.”

Not giving us a chance to react, the Housekeeper asks, “Are you drifters, mercenaries, are you from another planet?”

I shake my head, "I can say that we are not from the paired planet, nor are we mercenaries fighting in this war. Drifters would probably fit us the most.”

“What powers the Bastion?” the duplicate asks.

I don't even mind as it's the question I would ask as well. So, while I wait for an answer, I fight against the pressure slowly closing in on me. And my duplicate. It's almost unnoticeable, preparations to face us. Most likely the work of the Armorer with the help of some built in defensive mechanisms. It’s slowly trying to analyze us and stealthily disarm us.

I find it fascinating, so I let it happen.

“Lord Lothain,” the Housekeeper answers this time.

Oh boy, are all people of this planet like this?

“I assume it's not voluntary,” I ask.

“It's not,” the Housekeeper smiles.

“This planet is full of weirdos. Instead of catching some animal and healing it to create food, they become cannibals. Then, instead of finding something else to power the city, they use their boss to do that. I mean, maybe he is a douchebag, and maybe he deserves it, but damn, you guys have a problem,” the duplicate just says straight up.

The Gardener opens his mouth to ask something, but finally, by extending my domain in one direction, I pierce through defenses and place an anchor. I put my hand on my duplicate, and teleport us.

He looks around the dark room we appear in and sends a disrupting wave toward anchor-like things in the air that the Butler uses to create rifts.

The pressure from the defensive mechanism on us increases, and I know if we stayed just a bit longer, it would have become dangerous, even for the two of us. That's how much I think of their barrier.

As before, the pressure tries to locate us, but down here, its reach is weaker; the rooms are either shielded or excluded from the system of the base.

While my duplicate keeps disrupting the Butler's attempt to open a rift, we head toward the source of all this energy.

There are no doors at all, no entrance other than the Butler's rift or teleportation. I find that really amusing, and seeing how eagerly my duplicate disrupts rifts, I think he agrees.

“Do we think the same? Checking the core of the Bastion, maybe a bit of fighting with the Housekeeper, testing how much we can handle the Armorer and the barrier, and then we bail after stealing some mana conductive paint and other materials?”

I nod, “Sounds about right. Would be nice if they stopped trying to kill us or kidnap us, but we can’t have everything. And how can you trust the people that did this to their lord.”

We enter the central room where the mana crystal, working as the core of the Bastion, its power source, is. There, tied to the crystal, is a man. He seems older but he is muscular, and his clothes and hair are well-kept. A sense of authority seems to radiate from his face, the dignity of a person used to ordering people around.

And he is dead, his body is missing beneath the ribs. Belly, hips, legs, everything is gone. The rest is tied to a crystal, with the spine which extends a bit further beneath the ribs, the white bone feeling unnatural.

Yet, still, the heart of the man beats slowly but powerfully, each beat sending a pulse of mana into the mana crystal which glows in sync.

“What do you think, used to be level 300, maybe 350 at most?” I ask.

“Probably something like that, but there is no way chumps like them killed him.”

“Maybe there were more of them, and only they survived, or they killed him in his sleep?”

“Or he fell down the stairs.”

Both of us move closer, and without even looking, I know that his eyes are active, our minds trying to collect that immense amount of information. To avoid aftereffects, we both turn them off right after.

“Oi, I just thought of something,” I start. “I, we, have plenty of mana, right? Our hearts generate a lot of it, much more than someone at our level should. So…”

The duplicate understands where I'm going, “Okay, let's hide it a bit better to not end up as some creepy mana battery.”

“Sneaky mode will help.”

“Sneaky mode is perfect for that.”

“True,” I agree and look around. “Did you find anything interesting?”

“Nothing we don’t know about or aren’t working on already, but man, is the Butler angry. He keeps trying to teleport in.”

“It makes sense now, why they tried so hard to distract us from getting here,” I step closer to examine what remains of the owner of this Skyhold Bastion when I feel a movement behind my back.

Armor forms around my body, and I throw a burst of kinetic energy behind me, only for it to be absorbed as the armor is disrupted.

For a short moment, something holds my movements, and in slow motion, I watch as my duplicate tries to put a silver collar around my neck.

Mana under my skin moves, tearing it from inside and forming into a spike that stabs into the duplicate's hand. Right after, I change the frequency of my kinetic energy, and a short concentrated burst sends him a few steps back as he is unable to absorb it quickly.

I send some thermal energy to the wound I created, and it starts healing.

“Well, I had to try,” he says shamelessly.

“The null collar is still on me,” I say.

“Yup, I found this one here and hid it from you. Anyway, you can't really blame me.”

“That’s true, but I can fucking kill you for trying to do so.”

“You can try,” he says, returning my gaze.

Later, I will deal with him later. There is too much to be gained from our cooperation, and it's not like I didn’t expect this behavior.

“So, what was the plan?” I ask and start examining the Lord again, "Isn't it too soon for confrontation?

“That's why I gave it a try right now, and it turned out successful. It really caught you by surprise. The plan was to stop you from using mana, getting you under my control, and come up with a way to either inscribe myself into your mind, kill you, and take over your body. I didn't think of it that far.”

I pause, “That’s a good idea, it is probably much easier to use my body and try to replace my mind, rather than creating an entire personality imprint from scratch.”

“Right? Anyway, that clingy woman, the Housekeeper, is digging a tunnel down there, and the Armorer seems to be trying something as well, so let's hurry.” He passes by me and burrows his hand into the chest of the dead man in front of us and pulls out the still-beating heart which continues to do so even outside of the man’s chest.

The amount of mana it generates seems equivalent to the entirety of mine with the Mana Reservoir included.

In my duplicate’s place, I disrupt the Butler’s attempts to create a rift. They become much more aggressive, and I can feel the desperation coming from him, the Housekeeper as she digs, and even from the Armorer.

“I will keep the heart going and our defenses up. I should be able to do it for ten or fifteen minutes before the heart needs to go back into the chest. So you will have to do the talking.”

“Sounds good, let's get ourselves some nice stuff and more information. Something tells me they will be more willing to cooperate now.”