'Did he just rip her mana core out of her body?' Lith asked, incapable to believe his own eyes.

'Yes, I mean no.' Solus didn't know how to reply.

'Pick one, dammit!'

'No, he didn't. Her core was orange, not yellow. What's terrifying is that after locating the substance that generated the vortex, Manohar exploited its effects to move it all in the same spot before extracting it.

'What we have just seen was him collecting the vortex after enveloping it in several layers of life force and mana. The sphere is not her core, but it resembles it because it's made of that poor woman's life essences.'

"Did you just kill her?" Jirni had no idea what had happened, yet she knew that whatever was the answer, she wasn't going to like it.

"Of course. Because of these stupid arrays, I couldn't store the sample inside my dimensional amulet. The next best thing was to collect the sample together with enough life force to prevent it from degrading, and that's what I did." Manohar shrugged.

"A sample of what?" Jirni asked.

"Good question. There was something inside her body that allowed her to absorb mana. That's why she could cast so many spells and why those like her die when struck by a spell. It's just mana poisoning." He explained.

"Was it really necessary to kill her? I was hoping to capture her alive and have her tell us how she gained her powers."

"It would have been a waste of time." Manohar objected. "Her body was about to collapse from mana overload. This way at least we obtained something more than the ramblings of dying woman."

"What if we arrived here earlier? Would you have been able to save her then?" She asked to both Manohar and Lith.

Lith shook his head. He had been barely able to identify the presence of a foreign substance in the woman's system before almost collapsing.

"Not yet." Contrary to everyone's expectation, Manohar's usual unwavering confidence seemed to have taken a day off.

"I don't know if this is the result of a spell, an artifact, or alchemy." He said pointing at the glowing sphere floating above his left hand.

"What I'm certain of is that, after studying the sample, I'll be able to find a solution."

Lady Ernas sighed while looking at the remains of the burned building. They had risked so much and obtained sc.r.a.ps in return.

"Let's call it a day. You go back to the a.s.sociation and find out what the heck we are dealing with. Until then, I'll instruct the city guards on how to deal with the 'made mages' in case another attack happens."

Lith, Tista, and Manohar did as instructed. With a new toy at hand, Manohar wouldn't leave his lab until he found a solution to the enigma. They spent the rest of the afternoon studying the sample.

There wasn't enough to conduct a complete a.n.a.lysis but what they found was disturbing at best. The magical components of the unknown substance were all too degraded to be recognized.

All but one.

A small piece of human tissue that was able to grow as long as it was able to feed on mana.

"Fascinating. This is indeed Forbidden Magic, just as I predicted." Manohar said while placing it inside a locked array isolating it from the world energy. The specimen was surrounded by mana crystals that would provide it enough energy to live, but not enough to grow.

"Please! You also said that it was about a cursed object. Whatever that is, it's not an object." Tista mocked him.

"Maybe I'm wrong." Manohar p.r.o.nounced the last word as if it was the worst insult he had ever heard. "And maybe not. We'll resume tomorrow."

He would have liked to continue, but he couldn't afford to be late for curfew. Jirni didn't trust him enough to leave him unsupervised and alone with such a potentially dangerous specimen.

Once Tista and Lith left for dinner, he was forced to leave the lab as well.

"By the way, why you didn't buy a tent for your travels? That way you could always sleep, mana geyser or not. That or maybe you could make yourself an artifact." Tista asked.

"I wish it was that simple." Lith sighed.

"I'm paranoid, so forgive me if a wall made of cloth doesn't make me feel safe. I could set up an array, but my knowledge about non combat formations is limited. Even if I learned one, to make it last a whole night I would need a lot of mana crystals.

"Otherwise it would crumble after a few hits. Don't let me started about an artifact. The best I can do right now is replicating my own equipment. I lack the knowledge and the experience necessary for realizing such a thing.

"I might as well throw my money into the gutter. It would be much quicker and I'd obtain the same results."

"Do you think Kamila will be angry because of my babbling? I kind of messed up big time this morning."

"You sure did." Lith's tone turned sour.

After dinner, Tista went to sleep in her own room while Lith decided to stay up.

He was a bit worried since Kamila had yet to arrive and he knew that something was wrong. Even with all of Tista's blunders, Kamila had been too tense and distant compared to her usual self.

It was only an hour later that she finally returned to the hotel. Her smile was forced and she looked like she was close to exhaustion.

"Do you want to order something for dinner?" Lith had a vague idea about what was happening, but didn't want to pressure her to talk.

"Yes, please. I'm starving." She replied without looking him in the eyes.

They spent the time before and during her meal making small talk about how they had spent their day. Lith avoided mentioning the dead woman or the living tissue since the mood was already gloom as it was.

"I don't think there is a nice way to put this, so I'll just say it." Kamila said while Lith poured her a cup of tea. The nicer he was to her, the worst she felt.

"I think we should slow down things a bit. Maybe take a bit of time to think about our relations.h.i.+p. Is it okay with you?" She said in one breath, trying to relieve the burden she felt oppressing her chest.

"Absolutely not." Lith blurted out a bit too fast for his own liking. "I mean, I'll respect whatever decision you'll take, but… why? Is it because of what Tista said?"

"No. Of course not." She chuckled while remembering that silly conversation. Both her smile and her laugh made Lith sigh in relief.

"Then why?"

"It's complicated." She had spent every minute she was away from her desk trying to make up her mind, but to no avail.

"Complicated as in 'I don't want to talk about it' or more like 'I don't know what to do'?" Lith hated riddles. He preferred to be blunt rather than to be left hanging.

"Both." Kamila replied not knowing what to say.