Golden rays of sunshine that worked as my alarm clock filled the entire room. I loved being in sunshine but I couldn't sleep in a completely bright room. As I looked through the window I noticed that the snow finally stopped falling. The streets were busy once again and many people in thick winter clothes passed by. I'll investigate everything about this town today. I put on the winter cloak Akios gave me and headed out of the room.

"Mistress! " Leo immediately greeted me when I stepped out of the room."Calytrix!"

It still felt surreal that I had my own zombie. He acted quite normal and I was still unsure how to behave towards him. Was it okay to keep treating him human? As a zombie, Leo was under the master's influence but I wasn't sure if that was everything a zombie had. Did Leo keep his free will?

I decided that it was the best for me and him to take separate action. Leo didn't oppose my proposition and we went our separate after we left the inn. Maybe he could never oppose me because he was my zombie but I wasn't sure. Our main task today was to trace the witch I saw yesterday and find out what did Akios do in town.

I felt great because I was free from pain which meant I could take my time to explore but none of the people I encountered wondering around didn't seem friendly. They didn't seem to like chatting with strangers so I couldn't get information from them. I revisited all of the places I've been yesterday but everything seeemd ordinary.

As I searched for information I bumped into Leo. I avoided eye contact when we were talking which he didn't seem to mind. His eyes reminded me  of black magic fat too much, of something that wasn't meant to be meddled with.

Leo didn't find out anything either. We decided to look around the town one more time to see if we may have overlooked anything but as we went our separate ways I heard a loud crashing sound.

A cart carrying too much mining equipment and iron stopped in the middle of a narrow street. It's contents fell all around it. I didn't take much note of it until I saw that Leo's legs were buried underneath a pile of iron. The man who was pushing the cart removed his hood to show a concerned red face. He was shouting at Leo while trying o remove the iron that was on him. Leo looked fine and didn't seem to be concerned with the situation.

"Are you blind? How could you just walk straight and crush into my wagon?" the man said in a loud voice.

"Sorry. I didn't see you there," Leo calmly said.

"It's not my fault if you broke your leg! I won't pay you for any damage!" the man shouted angrily.

I had to step in. Leo probably damaged something and I didn't want the townsfolk to find out his true nature.

"My friend often has his head in the clouds but he is a really lucky guy." I jumped in between the man and Leo. "He's such a lucky guy that I'm sure he probably didn't break anything even in this situation."

"Move it, missy, " the man pushed me to the side as he said this. "This is a problem between the two of us."

He removed the last iron pile that covered Leo and we clearly saw completely shattered legs.

"By the spirits!" The man screamed and fell to his knees.

I was also horrified by the sight but I couldn't look away because Leo was now my responsibility. The man looked at the ground and seemed to be was crying. He was probably feeling guilty but in the meanwhile, Leo stayed completely calm.

"Mistress. You came back to get me. Do you want to explore the town together?" Leo asked me with a smile.

I was supposed to stop Leo from talking too much but his calmness shocked me too. It was like he wasn't aware of himself. He couldn't feel any pain anymore but having both of your legs shattered was still supposed to be a big deal. I heard some dissatisfied mumbles of onlookers.

"Leo, don't talk," I said.

Leo nodded and continued looking at me. The man who hit Leo was fully absorbed in self-despair and didn't notice our obviously wrong interactions but I could sense the stares of the passerby that gathered and observed what was happening. I was sweating although it was freezing cold. Getting out of this situation as quickly as possible was my priority.

"I am a witch and I can heal him without a problem!" I announced it in front of everyone.

"By the spirit, I've never been this grateful that witches existed." The man on his knees turned to me and clasped his hands together like he was praying to me.

I heard the whispering of disapproval towards witches around me but I didn't let that stop me.

"Spirituum dona mihi virtute sanitatem!"

It was hard to focus because I felt a lot of negativity towards me but I managed to call forth the nice, calm healing magic and directed it toward Leo. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine how Leo's legs were repairing themselves. As always my healing magic was directed on easing the pain and fixing the broken parts so that nice warmth could come back to the person or animal I was healing but it was completely different from Leo. Usually, I could feel the warmth beneath the pain and I worked on getting it back but there was not a single trace of warmth in Leo. The magic I called forth was there but it was behaving like it didn't recognize Leo. It treated him like he was a thing, something that wasn't alive. The healing magic disappeared on its own without taking an effect because it was like I called it forth on nothing.

"What is it, witch? Why isn't your spell working?" The man was still on his knees but he started to notice his surroundings.

"No. It will work it just needs time," I lied.

The only option I had left was to treat Leo's legs like things, objects that don't belong to somebody alive and stick them together.

"Dispersus rerum intermisceo simul!"

I used magic for fixing things. Leo's legs were treated the same as a shattered vase and the magic worked without a problem.

Now that Leo was fixed and stood up on his feet I could clearly hear the whispers around me. The people noted how Leo called me mistress and didn't act normally towards the situation.

Did you hear how he called the witch his mistress? The guy completely ignored his pain to hold a conversation with her. And the way he looks at her like she's some kind of holy being? That's definitely not normal.

She must have put a spell on him.

Avoid any kind of contact with her, who knows what she'd do to us.

And here I thought we'll finally be free from witches. Only one of them stayed but it seems she called for backup.

The last piece of information was crucial to me. It seems that the witch who attacked me yesterday was still somewhere around and there were other witches here too but they left.

"Mistress, why are you standing in one spot and not moving?" Leo broke my focus on the whispers around me.

The crowd that gathered slowly scattering and even the man with the cart was pushing it far away from us.

"Let's go back to the inn for now but we'll take the far way around," I said.

"Sure thing mistress," Leo agreed.

We were silent on the way back to the inn because I was trying to overhear what the people around us spoke. I couldn't ask them anything directly but somebody might slip useful information while talking to his friend or some other town member.

The witch I was looking for wasn't in town anymore because I couldn't sense any magic but my intuition told me that she was somewhere near. She treated me like an enemy yesterday but the townsfolk seemed to think that all witches were friends. I concluded that there was some kind of gathering of witches here who were friendly to each other but I didn't have any more information to draw any kind of other conclusions. Sadly nobody spoke of witches anymore.

As we were walking Leo bumped into a person standing in front of us on the street. Instead of walking around the person he walked straight and bumped into the person and a short while later he stumbled on a pile of ice left on the street.

I looked into Leo's eyes and noticed something different. The look was still dead but instead of the deep dark brown color, I could spot some cloudy parts on his eye's lens. It was the first warning sign of blindness. I've witnessed it firsthand in my village by some very old folk. There was no helping it once it was fully developed but as I grew as a witch I could stop its progression if I put a healing spell right on time, meaning before it developed on the entire eye.

"Curatio caecitas ignorantiam recti at humilis!"

My magic didn't react to Leo, it treated him as an object again although I was treating Leo as a human, my healing magic refused to recognize him no matter how hard I tried. If I wanted to get his complete sight back I'll need to figure out another way.

The people around us didn't whisper anything about witches even after they saw I preformed another magic on Leo. They ignored us and focused on their work. I heard that they mentioned nearby mines a lot. It seemed to be the newest source of income and everybody was super excited about it. They were trying to make the most out of the mines.

I asked Leo if he was bothered with losing eyesight but he only answered this:

"As long as I can see Mistress I'm happy. I don't need to see anything else."

I guess it was a typical zombie answer. Although it could sound flattering I didn't like it because it felt like he lost his free will. When I asked him if there was something he wanted to know he said that he doesn't know. I think it was a sign that he had some of his free will left because I would sometimes answer the same to the question. It is difficult to find one's way in life. Wandering around and getting lost was supposed to be a normal part of life. Leo and I could actually be similar. I was also wandering without a very clear goal. I had some immediate goals like finding the witch, canceling the contract with Akios and closing the black hole but beyond that, I didn't know what I was going to do with the rest of my life.

We got back to the inn because we were rapidly losing light. It was already twilight outside. Our search in town was concluded and the only thing left was to explore the outskirts of Lumi. I didn't want to search during the night because it was unknown territory and I didn't like walking in the dark if I had no strong reason. Wandering through the dark was something I reserved for times when I was really bothered with something but I was calm now and sure I'd find some trace of the witch tomorrow.

Since the night was longer than the day it was too early for me to go to sleep. The inn didn't provide any sort of entertainment but I already decided on a quality way to spend the time. The first thing on my to-do list was to check whether my grimoire contained any useful spell for Leo's vision problems.

I quickly flipped through all of the pages but I couldn't find a spell that would work on Leo. Everything connected to healing magic was something I had to avoid because it wouldn't work, but there was no magic that would restore eyesight to unliving things because they had no eyesight. Leo was similar to a human and a unliving thing at the same time. It was so frustrating and complicated. I completely ruffled my own hair during the search which, of course, didn't bring any closer to finding a solution.

As I read, Leo walked in circles around the room. He was acting like his consciousness was cut off and his movements didn't seem well coordinated. I found it odd but maybe he was just bored.

"Leo, if you're bored you can go to the inn's lobby," I suggested."But be very careful about how you walk because your vision isn't complete."

"Okay," Leo simply answered and went outside.

Leo's movements became better as he walked out of the room. He should be fine on his own in the inn.

After some time, I gave up on searching for the spell. My grimoire didn't have any answers. I'll need to find a solution in a better book or maybe I should ask someone, but both options weren't available at the moment.

There was still some other book research I wanted to seek. I had a lot of questions about zombies lately so it was time to refresh my knowledge. The last page of the grimoire was blank because it was magically connected with the encyclopedia of supernatural beings I had at home.

"Coniunctionem verbis de immortui hominem!"

The chant would temporarily connect my grimoire to the page of the supernatural being I wanted to read about. I read the first passage about zombies:

A zombie is a dead person physically revived by the act of necromancy. It remains under the control of its master as a personal slave, having no will of its own.

Common knowledge was written in the first few paragraphs. There was nothing new or useful so I skipped to the paragraphs at page's ending:

The zombie astral is a part of the human soul. A dark witch can capture a zombie astral to enhance her spiritual power. A zombie astral can also be sealed inside a special potion bottle and it is said to bring luck, healing, or business success to whoever has it in her or his possession. It is believed that the zombie's soul will be eventually reclaimed and returned to the realm of lesser spirits so a zombie can only be a temporary entity.

I didn't make any contact with Leo's zombie astral. It was intact within him and I wanted it to stay that way. Judging from what I read Leo's soul will go the realm of lesser spirits like those of humans. If I don't touch his astral his soul should be intact and that could break the rule of zombies having no free will. I wanted him to be as close to a real human as possible.

"Calytrix! Mistress!" Leo interrupted my thoughts.

I didn't notice when he entered the room. It seemed like he was calling out to me for a some time, but I got lost in thoughts about what a zombie truly was. I tried to convince him to call me just Calytrix again, but he seemed like he didn't want to. Maybe that was actually a good sign because if he could refuse my orders it must mean that he had free will. I still felt a bit of displeasure of being called mistress but if it meant Leo had free will I was willing to put up with it. Our argument didn't last long and Leo excitedly told me why he called out to me.

"Mistress. I overheard the people speaking about witches in the inn," Leo said.

"That sounds like useful information." I was excited I got more information and a lead.

"The witches used to gather in the mines but now that they are gone the townsfolk are extracting ore to make a new profit," Leo explained.

"It would be worth to check the mines. We should go there now because there'll be no workers at night," I said.

"I'm glad I was helpful," Leo said cheerfully.

"I think you should wait for me here. I'm worried because you're eyesight isn't good anymore and walking in the dark could prove difficult."

"No! I'll accompany you. I won't be a burden," Leo insisted.

It was easy to find the mines on the outskirts of Lumi. We followed the trail of a big icy path with mining equipment scattered along with it. Lumi had only two big main paths, one was the main road from which Akios and I entered the town and the other was the way to mines. It was a lot colder during the night and I almost wished I was back at the inn but I need to find more information.

The opening in the ground was very big. There was no way anyone could miss the mine entrance but it was very dark inside. That didn't pose a problem because I called forth flames easily but the faint magic I sense from the mines made me a bit nervous. The magic wasn't black, at least that was a good sign.

"Dona mihi ignis," I called forth flames to light the darkness.

This is the first time I was in a mine but I read about them in various books. The mine was exactly as the books would describe one. The underground consisted out of many hard rock passages whose width and length were just the right dimensions for men to pass through easily. The excavation was in progress at the beginning but the deeper, inner passages were left intact.

I couldn't get lost because my destination was the source of magic and it was easy to follow the magic trail. It was steady and growing stronger as I walked closer to the source. As i was walking closer I was getting more convinced that the magic was from the witch that attacked me in the town yesterday. I hope she won't attack me this time but I need to take my chances because I really wanted to talk to her.

"Obex!" I called forth a protective shield on me and Leo.

"Mistress. Let me go first if you're worried," Leo said and walked in front of me.

The way he walked seemed normal. His movements were coordinated. Maybe he adjusted to his lower eyesight by now.

"It's okay Leo, "I said."I can manage this situation."

"No. I'll go first, Mistress," Leo insisted.

"But you can't' sense magic," I reasoned with him."And you're going the wrong way."

Instead of going left Leo turned right.

"Wait, Leo. We already found what we were looking for," I said."It's right here."

I pointed to the hard rock wall in front of us.

"There isn't anything here. Our search here was a failure." Leo said disappointed.

"That's what witches want others to think, but this wall is only an illusion," I explained.

"I see," Leo said and walked through the wall.

I immediately went through the wall after him only to witness something I didn't think would happen even in my worst thoughts. Leo was immediately attacked and had a gaping hole through his stomach.

"Leo!" I said in a crying tone.

Leo was pretty indifferent to what happened and gazed at the witch with ruby red eyes who was glaring at us full of hate. She wore a black winter cloak that covered her entire body and a hood over her head which shadowed her face but her red eyes seemed like they sparkled in the dark.

"Magnum spirtuum dona mihi praesidio contra oppugnatio!"

I called forth my strongest magic to protect both me and Leo.

"Leo! Are you all alright? Does it hurt?" Tears fell from my eyes.

"I'm okay, mistress. It doesn't hurt at all," Leo said with a slight smile.

"I promise I'll fix you, "I said.

Leo took the attack instead of me because the witch surely anticipated I'd be the one to walk in. The protection magic I put on us was too weak and it shattered easily. If only I chanted stronger magic. It was horrifying to think about what would happen if I was in Leo's place. I'd surely be dead by now. Leo saved my life.

"Akios and Andrezey's disciple, Calytrix the witch traitor. This is the end of the line for you!" The witch shouted.

This was no time for tears. I'll surely fix Leo once I deal with this insane witch.

"Your journey ends here!" she declared.

She started chanting an attack and I chanted a counterattack at the same time. There was no way I'd let everything end here. I don't know anything about what's truly happening around me and I want to live of course. It's not yet my time to return to the realm of lesser spirits.