When I woke up in the morning, the warm rays of sunshine greeted me. I looked outside and saw all the weather signs pointing out to a bright new, sunny day ahead, but then I remembered... Akios was in the next room to mine and my thoughts of a sunny day turned black. I turned my back to the window and the sunshine suddenly got replaced by darkness. The rain fell and colored the sky gray. It was like the weather changed according to my mood, but I didn't want to have dark thought from the early morning and dedicated the next few minutes to a daily beauty routine.

I carefully combed my hair and applied some face cream because my skin got dry quickly. I used common herbal ingredients to make face creams and as long as I was on the move, I'd surely find good ingredients somewhere along the way. 

When I was done with morning rituals, I went out to the inn's hallway where I saw Leo. He was sitting on the floor and reading the book of myths I bought yesterday. I didn't even notice that he took it. Leo was so immersed in the book that he barely noticed me standing and looking at him."Did you find a new, interesting tale?" I asked him.

"No. I already know all the contents," he answered.

"You must have read in the past, but if you're reading it again you must like it," I said with a smile, thinking I found someone with similar interests to mine.

"Past? Like it? I don't need it. My life began anew just to serve you," Leo answered, looking at me straight in the eyes.

His words pierced me and I shivered a bit. It was something I never wanted.

"Leo, I..." I took a breath to explain myself.

"Well said, zombie. At least the slave knows his place and how the world works," Akios interrupted us from the behind.

"Akios!" I said as I turned around to face him.

His dark, curly hair was in a mess. I've never seen it properly combed, but it was especially messy today. Akios had dark circles under his eyes. I guess he didn't sleep at all. The question was, what was he doing? He was probably up to something no good.

"Akios, you didn't sleep tonight?" I asked him directly.

"I am a busy man. Sometimes I have no time for sleep," he answered.

Since I got to know him, I knew from the start that his explanation would end with those words.

"Of course you are always busy," I said, slightly annoyed.

Akios didn't dwell on the topic and stood in front of me and Leo.

"Today we're going to ask the water spirit for help," Akios announced proudly.

"Water spirit? Help? What's going on?" I was full of questions.

"To close the black holes completely, master Andrezey will need the help of elemental spirits. The wind and the earth spirit already agreed to help us, but we still need to convince the water spirit," Akios explained.

The solution to the problem seemed so simple when he said it. Elemental spirits were the primary, true source of magic in my world, and if anyone held the most power, it was them. The true answer to closing the black holes was always here, so close. Why didn't I think of asking an elemental spirit for help? I guess it was because I've never met any of them. Even so, I could feel their presence everywhere. They were a big part of what granted life to this world, but why didn't the other witches think of it, too? Maybe they did, but some kind of problem raised with utilizing the power of the elemental spirits.

"Are you regretting now that you didn't think of the elemental spirits solution?" Akios asked with his eyebrows raised.

"I-Wait- Did you just read my thoughts?" I said in a high pitched, panicked voice.

"I don't need to. You're easy to read," he calmly answered.

II didn't sense a spell being cast, so it was probably fine. It was just like he said. He could read me as a person without using magic.

After I calmed down, I asked, "We're going to ask the water spirit for help? That's the opposing spirit of my main element. I'm not sure if I'd be able to communicate with it well."

"He'll surely help now that the world is at a stake," Akios said and I nodded.

"How do we find the water spirit and how do we communicate with it?" I asked, genuinely interested.

"You'll see soon," Akios said, uninterested, and I knew I had hit my limit of questions he wanted to explain to me.

Somehow, Andrezey and Akios already communicated with the other spirits and got their cooperation. I could never address with any of the elemental spirits, but the way Akios will communicate with the water spirit will show me how it's done. When I was alone on my journey and Akios disappeared, he may have been searching for spirits. If he told me that, I would have loved to help.

"And what about the fire spirit? You didn't mention it?" This was one thing that was still bugging me and I wanted to know the answer right away.

"The fire spirit..."Akios shortly glanced at Leo during his explanation."We can do without the fire spirit. Three spirits and Andrezey's power are more than enough to save your world."

I felt disappointed that I won't meet the fire spirit. I slumped my shoulders. Will I never get to meet it?

"Chin up Calytrix, your world will be soon safe," Akios said with a slight smile.

"Yes," I said as I tried to convince myself that everything will work out in the end.

"I'll teleport us to the ocean now," Akios said and started the teleportation.

The ocean? The big blue watery mass with a salty feeling? I've never seen the ocean, I only read descriptions of it in books. There was no more time to talk anymore because the teleportation was underway and it blocked all the sounds.

Leo, Akios and I found ourselves standing on a small wooden rowboat in the middle of the ocean. Akios and I sat down on the opposing ends of the rowboat and Leo sat in the middle. The guys were pretty calm, but I could barely hold my excitement.

The deep, watery, dark blue spread as far as the eye could see and the sky above us was a colored in a beautiful cloudless azure. There was nothing else besides us and our dark brown rowboat that perfectly contrasted the heavenly blue around us. I looked around in all directions: in front of me, left, right, behind me and up. The ocean air was different too, it had a salty feeling to it which I had never experienced before. I gazed at the bottom of the ocean to see if I could spot some fish, but there were none on my right side, so I decided it would be better if I stood up and changed my position to look left.

"Calytrix. Why are you standing up?" Akios asked."We need to be calm and collected so that the water spirit comes to greet us."

"I can't see everything very well while sitting on the right. Don't worry, I'll be calm," I said with a smile.

While I was standing, I once again carefully examined my surroundings. Being at the ocean was an amazing feeling. I couldn't describe it in words. I did originally plan to visit the ocean at least once, but due to Akios all of my travel plans timeline became messed up.

The ocean was one of the best places I visited so far. The water was calm and there were no waves, but I read about storms that make the ocean a dangerous place. I'd love to see the wild side of the ocean too. As a witch, I should keep myself safe if danger arises.

"Did the two of you ever hear any deep, philosophical quotes about the ocean?" I asked Akios and Leo.

"I heard lots of them," Akios said, uninterested.

"I can't recall any of them," Leo said.

"Great! Then there's no other choice but to inform you, Leo," I said with a big smile.

I was hoping one of them would ask for my quotes. Special places and times need special words.

"We're all tiny sailors on small boats imprisoned within this realm of life, which is infinite, like an ocean." I proudly said as I waved my hand to emphasize the words.

"Tiny?" Leo was confused."But all of us are tall, especially Akios. He is above average."

"That's how the saying goes. I didn't make it up myself," I quickly responded to the critique.

"I'm sure the saying was different, but you couldn't remember the right words," Akios said.

"I see... you're a tough crowd to please, but I have better quotes." I kept my composure and tried hard not to show any signs of feeling rejected."Inside a deep ocean filled with chaos and darkness. The civilization is just a thin layer of ice on the surface."

Akios slightly smiled and said, "That was actually deep."

This time Akois was pleased, but Leo wasn't showing any signs of liking or disliking it. I decided to say another quote which Leo should find interesting.

"I am still not done. This one will be the best and everyone will like it," I said and almost struck a victory pose, but I held myself back in the last moment."Each one of us is an ocean because people are actually deep and if you search deep enough, you can find rare treasures in us."

Leo wasn't pleased by my saying, but he wasn't displeased either. I felt like I failed because I was out of quotes, but if I think quickly, I could think of something.

"Yeah, if you look deep into people, you can find valuable organs in them," Akios remarked.

"No! I didn't mean that!" he reminded me of the business the evil king from my Awroteaton dealt with."Don't say that."

I was feeling bad about it and, as a sign of displeasure; I stomped with my foot, but that was a terrible choice because the rowboat wasn't very stable and it started swinging. Leo stood up and tried to balance it with his movements, but the swinging got worse.

"Leo, stop moving. You're making things worse," I said.

"Understood Mistress." Leo obeyed, but the swinging didn't stop.

Akios calmly sat down as he observed my and Leo's actions. I guess he wanted us to deal with the situation on our own. It's not like he's on the same rowboat with us and could fall like us, I sarcastically thought, but didn't say it out loud because I need to focus on stabilizing the swinging.

"I'll go stand here on the right sight side and you go there to the left side," I told Leo, and he nodded.

As we were positioning ourselves, the swinging got really dangerous and the rowboat almost flipped over. I thought that all of us would fall into the ocean. At one point, I was only a centimeter away from the ocean water when something pulled me back and I fell down in a sitting position on the rowboat. The swinging suddenly stopped, and I was safe. Akios was the one who pulled me back, but Leo was nowhere to be seen.

"Why didn't you use magic to stabilize the boat?" Akios asked.

"I cannot focus under pressure," I blurted out and immediately regretted it. Now Akios knows about one of my weaknesses. I can't cast magic when I'm not calm enough.

Only the two of us were on the rowboat and Leo was nowhere to be seen.

"Leo."I looked at the ocean."Leo!"

"Calm down, he just fell into the water," Akios calmly said.

"I don't know if Leo can swim," I said."What happens to a zombie in an ocean?"

Akios chuckled a little," Like all the other zombies that fell off a ship, he'll have to spend an eternity trapped at the bottom of the ocean."

"That's not funny." It was clear that Akios was mocking.

I carefully looked at the ocean water and soon Leo swam back up. Even though his hair was completely soaked, it shined in a bright red in the afternoon sun.

"Leo, you can swim! Let me help you get up on the rowboat," I said, smiling as I stretched out my hand to him.

"Mistress..." Leo said as he was swimming close to the rowboat.

"The water spirit isn't here. It was supposed to already show up," Akios said, his thought out loud as he looked at the ocean.

Leo and I temporarily ignored him, but we couldn't do it for long.

Just as I pulled Leo up, Akios said: "Maybe it's the zombie. The spirit doesn't want to have any business with dark magic."

"But you also cast black magic Akios, maybe it sees you as a black magic user," I said.

"No. I cast many different types of magic, and black magic isn't even my forte. It's the zombie," Akios explained.

Akios turned his attention to Leo and said, "Wait for us at the port."

He quickly teleported him, and only Akios and I were left on the rowboat.

"What do we do now? How do we call the water spirit?" I asked.

"The other two spirits came to me and Andrezey because they felt our strong magic power, but the water spirit isn't coming. I'm sure it's in the area, but we'll have to drag it out by force," Akios said the last part as he looked at the deep ocean like he was trying to pinpoint the position of the spirit.

I felt my face twitch. The plan was to use violence against an elemental spirit, which was one of the most powerful and important entities of my world. It didn't sit with me right.

"How about we wait some more... maybe it didn't come because of Leo as you said," I suggested.

"Fine, we can wait for some time, but don't flip the rowboat again," Akios said.

I felt like my cheeks flushed red. It was my first time at the ocean and I got carried away, but I'm not sure I can easily justify my actions. One could say I acted like a silly little kid.

"Why was here such a small empty rowboat in the middle of the ocean when we teleported here?" I asked.

"I created it during the teleportation and it appeared just in time so that we don't have to swim," Akios explained.

"How nice," I sarcastically, remarked because I remembered how he teleported me in front of a lake.

Akios and I spend the next few minutes in silence. He didn't talk, and I also didn't feel like talking. The ocean around was very calm, there were no waves or fishes swimming around.

"We waited long enough."Akios was the first one to break the silence."If the spirit won't come to us, we'll have no other choice but to call it by force."

"Is there really no other way?" I asked.

Akios shook his head, "I sensed its presence nearby, but it doesn't want to show itself before us. We'll use a strong trapping spell and I'll borrow some of your magic."

"No! Please, anything but that," I said as I remembered the pain from last time."I can cast the spell together with you for a stronger impact."

"It's impossible for you to even try the high-level spell I'll use now. I'm only doing this to save the world," Akios said, dead serious.

He started chanting a spell, and I knew that soon some of my magic will be gone. I couldn't deflect his spell because of our contract. The same thing I promised myself not to allow to happen is my reality again. I had no place to run. We were on a rowboat in the middle of the ocean. He said he would say the world, and he was serious, but there was something off about it. I can't explain it to myself: he was working on the goal of saving the world, but at the same time I feel like he had a different agenda. I had no proof of anything, just my intuition.

The pain as he extracted my magic started slowly, but was growing stronger. His chanting words still made no sense to me, but I could recognize some sounds now.

"adljladfh," he continued the spell in an unknown language and my pain was getting intense.

I clutched my head with my hands and brought my knees close to my face. I was in a sitting position that was supposed to help ease the pain, but it had very little effect.

"Why does my spell hurt you so much? I'm not intentionally hurting you," Akios said as he looking at me carefully, but due to too much pain, I couldn't respond.

Akios worried about my condition for a brief period and immediately started chanting the trapping spell. As usual, his spell words sounded like a strange mix of syllables, but I could sense that it would be a very strong spell. It was much stronger than the spell in Leo's mansion, but he was using more of his own magic now. That meant that Akios was still saving some of my magic for later extraction if he'll ever need it. He used up almost all of his own magic power and a fraction of mine on the spell but he managed to only achieve half of Andzerey's magic power.

"daslueujeje..."Akios chanted a very long spell without stopping.

After some time, I felt that something got trapped in the spell, but Akios still continued his chant. Glancing to my left, where most of the spell focused, I saw a strange, transparent, watery mass of a very messy shape in the air.

"The spirit..." I said in a low, painful voice.

"klhdfldlgf," Akios was still chanting."hjkhdhkd..."

"The fire spirits kind were never this weak. Seeing this for the first time, I really get the feeling the world is ending," the spirit spoke to me in a stern and a dignified voice.

"hkdasdks," Akios finally chanted his spell completely.

"The fire spirit used to be the strongest of us, yet now it's the weakest and almost completely disappeared," the water spirit focused on me.

I was at a loss for words. The spirit was silently judging me, but I didn't know how to justify myself. I would love to be stronger.

"Let's not waste each other's time and beat around the bush. You must know why I called you here, spirit," Akios said.

"Andrezey and you are going to close the black holes with the help of us spirits?" The water spirit asked for confirmation.

"Yes. I'm sure that it isn't in your interest for the world to end, so you'll lend us your strength," Akios said with a self-confident smile.

"I refuse!" the spirit firmly said.

Akios raised his brows. " You'd refuse to help your word? You would just watch as it gets destroyed?"

"Even that is a better option than helping the likes of you. I have principles," the spirit said.

"Even if those principles would lead to the destruction of everything?" Akios mimicked the tone of the water spirit.

"Yes! You won't be getting any help from me," the spirit firmly stayed by its beliefs.

"I can't believe this." Akios clutched his head with his right hand."If it meant saving the world I'd take anyone's help, no matter how good or bad they are, even if they were the worst possible existence in the entire universe."

Akios clearly stated his true intentions, but I felt a strange inconsistency. He really was trying to help my world by closing the black holes, but when he talked about it, it was like he was looking at something distant, something that wasn't here. There was a strange contradiction about it.

The spirit didn't talk want to talk with us anymore, but it remained trapped.

"I'll use force to get your cooperation," Akios said and quickly started a chant.

"Akios, stop!" I said.

Forcing an elemental spirit to do something was probably the biggest violation, a taboo one could do in my world. Nobody ever messed with the spirits. They helped create everything around us and who knows what kind of terrible consequences would befall someone who insults a spirit. I'm sure we could come to some kind of conclusion if we talk to it again or we could try to find the fire spirit which Akios refused at first.

Akios didn't listen to me and even though my physical condition was still bad, I had to do something.

"Inrita magicae!" I tried to stop Akios spell.

I wasn't successful at canceling his spell, but I managed to break off his focus and his spell got weaker.

"Calytrix!"Akios angrily shouted.

"This isn't the right way," I said.

Akios let out a frustrated sigh and cast another spell, but the water spirit itself canceled Akios's spell before it reached it.

"Consider yourselves saved today," the spirit said.

The spirit was still bound by the trapping spell, but the ocean wasn't calm anymore. At first, small waves got bigger. Sudden lightning, strong rain, and wind quickly changed the peaceful scenery. The rowboat was swinging around while being carried by gigantic waves. Akios tried to calm down the surrounding water, but the water spirit powers were too strong.

The water spirit freed itself and left us in the middle of a raging storm. Since the trapping magic got canceled and my stolen magic wasn't in effect, anymore, I felt a sudden relief. The pain left me, but I had to worry about our current situation. Both Akios and I cast a few spells to calm down the waves and to stabilize the boat, but the water spirit's response to our actions was overwhelming. The water spirit's power pushed our small rowboat in an unfamiliar direction. The rain and the ocean waters completely drenched both of us. It got into my mouth and my nose, leaving an unpleasant, overly salty experience.

Since our spells couldn't yield the desired effects, all we could do was to hold on to the rowboat and hope it won't fall over, but even that proved to be difficult. We were both thrown off the rowboat and sent flying in the air. I closed my eyes for a moment because too much salty water got into them and with my eyes still closed; I felt that my body hit on something hard. The ocean water withdrew, and I forced my eyes open. Akios and I were stranded on a beach. My eyes stag badly, but I quickly got up to survey my surroundings.

My vision suddenly sharpened, focusing on one person."Mistress, are you okay?" Leo was standing in front of me.

"The water got into my eyes," I said with my eyes half-closed because I felt a certain relief now that Leo was here.

I rubbed my eyes with my hands to get the salty feeling out of them, but I only made things worse because they were still wet with grains of sand in them. Leo got very close to me and rubbed my eyes with a handkerchief. I felt a little better, but my eyes still stung.

"Thank you, Leo," as I said, that I took a good look at him.

Leo had dried blood all over him."Leo? Is that blood on you? What happened?" I said in a state of shock.

"His zombie instincts have fully awoken," Akios said as he was sitting on the beach and gazing at the ocean.

"Mistress, let's find shelter. The storm is getting worse by each second," Leo suggested.

I nodded because standing in the middle of a storm to talk was one of the worst ideas ever. Akios and I quickly followed Leo who was leading the way.