Leo led us to an abandoned fisherman's hut. The place was very dark because the windows were closed off with wooden with planks. Dust and cobwebs were everywhere making the atmosphere unpleasant. Old, broken fishing traps and equipment were lying around and I had to watch my every step.

"Dona mihi ignis," I called forth fire in the air of the hut's middle to lighten up the place.

The walls made of dirty, rough planks were surprisingly sturdy and no water leaked into the hut. Leo picked a place of a creepy atmosphere, but I guess that it was the best we could find as an immediate shelter.

The first thing Akios did when we entered the hut was drying off his clothes with magic. After seeing him, I also dried off my and Leo's clothes by magic.

"Mistress, Akios, did you get the cooperation of the water spirit?" Leo asked us.

"Does our current situation look like we did?"Akios sarcastically remarked.

"I found you stranded on the beach in the middle of the storm, but I can't believe that the water spirit wouldn't help our cause," Leo said.

"That just happened," Akios said angrily.

"It happened because you were too aggressive Akios, maybe if we try to ask it again politely..."I proposed.

"No!"Akios cut my speech off."I won't ask it for help again."

"Why not?" I asked.

"You were there when it insulted us," Akios explained."We can't expect anything from such a self-centered spirit."

"But you aren't a behavior role model either," I said trying to make a compromise.

"That's different. To you, I'm different," he said.

"Why?"I asked without having the slightest idea what Akios meant.

"I am your teacher. You have to put up with me, Calytrix, but you don't need to put up with bad behavior of others," Akios said.

"Right," I said unconvinced, wanting to avoid a fight. "How will we close the black holes without the help of elemental spirits?"I asked.

"We need three spirits so instead of the water spirit we'll have to use the fire spirit. I'll force it out of its hiding place," Akios said that as he strangely glared at me and Leo.

"The fire spirit!" I said excitedly.

The moment I've been waiting for so long will finally happen, I'll finally meet the fire spirit. I wasn't bothered with the storm anymore and wanted to act as quickly as possible.

"Let's get going and find it," I said as I started to walk towards the door.

"Stop right there Calytrix," Akios stopped me at the moment before I walked through the door."Before we do anything I need to consult master Andrezey."

I was disappointed that we wouldn't search for the spirit immediately and I slumped my shoulders.

"Have some fun with your zombie until I return," Akios told me with a slightly evil smile.

"You'll track my location via the contract sign again?" I asked feeling a bit bothered how he could easily find me wherever I was.

"Yes." Those were Akios's last words before he teleported.

When the rain finally stopped Leo and I went outside the hut. Everything around us was wet and muddy. The earth near the ocean wasn't brown or black, the colors I've grown accustomed to seeing my whole life. It was red and we walked on a strange path of muddy red. That kind of earth was highly fertile, but to me, it simply looked like something out of the place.

I was feeling lost since I didn't know where to go or what to do next and I just walked forward in the opposite direction of the ocean, without thinking too much.

"Mistress, your eyes are still red. Are you okay?" Leo asked me worriedly as he deeply looked at my eyes.

"It's fine."I averted my gaze."Just give it time and the redness will disappear on its own."

"But it's been a few hours since you got out of the ocean," Leo said.

"My eyes are very sensitive. It will take some time for them to heal on their own," I said.

"Why don't you heal yourself?"Leo asked.

"I'm saving up my magic, because I don't know what could happen next," I said something Akios would say, but that didn't mean that I wanted to be or end up being a person like him.

Maybe he'll actually save the world, but he's still fishy. Why do I feel something odd about him? It wasn't just connected with him coming from another world. I think he's hiding something else that could be important.

"I'm sure you'll be better after you eat something," Leo's words brought me back from my daydreaming."I'm also feeling hungry."

I wasn't feeling hungry at all and I had more pressing matters to think about. Every time I asked Leo about the bloodstains on his clothes he didn't want to give me a clear answer. He gave me all kinds of answers that didn't explain anything. It was completely obvious that he wanted to avoid talking about it, but I'll need to find sooner or later.

"I'm not hungry. Let's just keep going," I said as I walked forward.

I wasn't sure where I was going, but I pressed on because that was better than standing in one place doing nothing.

"Mistress, you might change your mind when you see what I can hunt," Leo said and ran in front of me.

"Leo, stop," I said as I stretched my right hand towards him, but he was already far away.

I didn't feel like running after him because I'd be completely muddy. The water spirit gave us a terrible storm and the aftermath was lots of mud. After the bad encounter, I doubt that the spirit would give us another chance. Akios completely gave up on getting help from it and immediately turned his attention to the fire spirit. I hope our encounter with the fire spirit would be much better, but a sudden fear struck me that the fire spirit wouldn't want to see me. I called it many times but it never came to see me.

Leo pulled me out of my thoughts."Mistress!"He was holding a dead chicken his hands.

"What's that? A dead chicken?" I said feeling slightly disturbed.

"Yes. It's still fresh," Leo said like he was trying to convince me of something.

"Put it back where you found it," I instructed him.

"No,"Leo said shortly and then snapped the chicken's neck while dividing its head from its body. Blood sprouted and I avoided my gaze.

"Leo, no! Don't do it," I said it too late.

He got close to me with it and I walked a few steps back.

"Mistress, you're acting really weird," Leo said."I'll eat it alone if you don't want it."

I averted my gaze once again and heard strange crunching sounds. Once Leo was done he grabbed my shoulder with both of his hands and started to beg me, "Mistress, please look at me. I haven't done anything bad."

I felt forced to look at Leo. His face looked like he was crying but he kept repeating how he didn't do anything wrong. He was like he wasn't just trying to convince me but also himself. His eyes were dead as always, but there was still something human about him.

His clothes got new blood spots on it, from the chicken. I hoped that the older stains were the same and not from something else, but I didn't dare to ask anymore and Leo stayed silent. We walked forward towards an unknown direction.

"I'm still hungry,"Leo broke the silence.

"Leo." I was at a loss of words and didn't know what to say except his name.

"Earlier I took a bite there." Leo pointed his index finger to the left and hurried there before me.

I had a very bad feeling about it, but still, I slowly retraced his footsteps.

Leo headed towards a big cemetery with countless headstones. Beneath them lay down the remains of countless loved ones. The gray stones accompanied with green grass beneath and occasional fresh flowers spread as far as the eye could see. Some of the headstones contained short poems for the deceased, a sign that they were loved deeply.

I wasn't familiar with the death of a loved one because my parents were alive and my grandparents died before I was born. Imagining it happening to my parents, friends or the people I knew was terrible and I didn't want to think about it. I was lucky that I didn't have to go to that kind of grief yet, but thinking about death made me feel uneasy. It was a strange feeling that would take me over and didn't give me peace.

The spirits were supposed to take care of things and the souls were supposed to find their right place, but there was no way to confirm it. In Leo's mansion I wanted everyone to live because I didn't want to witness deaths of everyone there.

"Leo!" I called out, but there was no answer.

I quickly walked among the headstones because I wanted to find him as soon as possible and get out of here. There was none I had to pay my respects here and hanging around a random cemetery was too awkward.

"Mistress!" I heard his voice from the faraway left side.

From the distance, I spotted Leo standing at a place where there were no more headstones. There was a medium-sized altar for worshiping spirits. Sometimes people would use such places to pray to the main spirits, the elemental spirits to guide the spirits of their loved ones which became lesser spirits to the place where they belonged. If that actually worked was never confirmed neither was it denied. We simply didn't know, because spirits would very rarely talk to us humans and even when they did they never answered all of the questions one would want to ask them.

The altar was well maintained: the flames have been lit, the water was flowing in a circular shape around it, the air was always all- present and special plants grew up in the central part that contained fresh soil. An altar that was taken care of like this one was a rare sight, at last back in my village.

As I ran towards the altar I noticed the presence of another human. Leo and I weren't the only ones there. An unconscious, pale man lay down near the altar. One side of his head was completely shaved off, while the other side had brown, medium-sized length. It was the sign of an old warrior tribe that used to live near the western ocean. I read a few books about the tribe. His clothes were completely soaked with his blood and he had some terrible gaping wounds.

"This is it,"Leo said.

"What is it?" I said barely focusing on Leo because I focused on the man in distress.

"Food," Leo answered in one sentence.

"I don't see any food here. Let me focus on healing this man," I requested.

Leo was silent and I focused on my incantation. The man was badly injured so I'll need to cast a strong healing spell.

"Spirituum dona mihi virtute sanitatem."

I chanted the spell and completely focused on healing the wounds. Leo said something to me but if I were to focus on anything else the spell would fail so I had to ignore him.

The man quickly regained consciousness after my spell and started talking while still being in a laying down position,"My wounds don't hurt anymore, but I am not dead, right?"He looked all around him."A witch and a zombie."

"What happened to you?"I went straight to the point.

"The enemy gave me a deathly wound so I crawled to the resting place of my ancestors where this zombie found me and started biting me," he said as he changed his position to sitting.

I was at the shock about what Leo did and I couldn't respond. For a minute I was standing there without moving trying to explain to myself who would Leo do such a thing.

"Mistress. This man would make a good meal," Leo said.

Leo's words shocked me again and I was still at a loss for words.

"You're the zombie's master! Wipe off that disgusted look you're doing now just for show. There's no point in lying, witch," the man said in a threatening tone.

"I am not pretending!" I tried to justify myself.

"I won't let you defile the resting place of my ancestors," the man said and reached for a knife hidden in the pocket of his pants.

He firmly grasped the knife and directed it toward me.

"Mistress! Don't you dare to touch her!"Leo shouted.

The man threw the knife in my direction but it was deflected back at him, barely missing his face for just a few millimeters. I noticed how he prepared another knife in his other hand but it also got knocked out of his hands by strong air magic.

"Are you stupid, Calytrix? Why are you just standing there and making an easy target of yourself?"Akios appeared very displeased and in a lecturing mode.

"I-I am sorry..." He was right and I didn't know what better to say instead of a simple apology.

"I leave you for a minute and you find yourself in such a pointless mess," Akios said with a highly judgmental look in his eyes.

"It's been way over a minute," I said."...but thank you for helping me."

"If something were to happen to you I'd have nobody to extract magic from," Akios said and turned his attention to the altar.

I didn't want to engage in further conversation and also focused on the empty worshiping altar. The man used the chance when I and Akios talked to each other to run away. My healing spell worked perfectly and that man was probably fully healed.

"That man, the food is running away. What do we do, mistress? Should I chase after him?" Leo said in a hurry.

"No, Leo. Please, stop," I said sure that he wouldn't listen to me.

As I expected Leo started to walk towards the direction where the man ran off to.

"Prohibere et rigescunt indutae motus!"I paralyzed all of Leo's movements and actions except speech.

"Why are you disobeying everything I say lately, Leo? Why are you acting so strange and crazy?" It was high time we discussed things.

"I don't want to do it, but..." Leo didn't finish the sentence and stayed silent.

"He is a zombie that was denying his instincts for too long and now they're out in the open," Akios explained.

"But zombies don't need to eat," I immediately said.

"That's true, but they are a form of existence on the borderline of life and death. They aren't part of the living anymore, but they aren't truly accepted to the ranks of the dead yet."It was the first time that Akios properly explained something."Being living is more familiar than being dead and they are forced to stay in the world of the living so it is only natural that they envy the living and want to be truly alive again."

"I'm still not sure why would that mean treating those alive as food," I said with a sad, downcast look.

"Eating is one of the natural instincts of humans and zombies tend to mimic humans. You must have seen Leo pretending that he's breathing,"Akios said.

"I did see it, but now that I think about it, Leo couldn't possibly breathe. It was a pretense of a living human" I clasped my right hand in the form of a fist in my stretched out left hand.

"Zombies want to get out of their borderline status and they want to become alive again, but they can never achieve that. Despite this universal, logical truth they don't give up on the idea and they think that pretending to be like humans and eating humans would help them transform into a human again,"Akios finished his explanation."Isn't that right, Leo?"

Leo was silent for a few moments until he spoke,"Mistress, I don't-didn't want to hurt anybody."

Leo looked like he was actually sorry and I felt very bad about him, but I couldn't let this situation continue.

"Zombies are like that, they psychologically feel an intense thirst for humans that transforms into a physical carve for human flesh," Akios finished his reasoning."You've been starving Leo all this time, denying him the right to eat what he needed. No matter how obedient a slave is if you deny one of its basic functions it won't listen to you."

"Leo, is this true? Do you feel what Akios just talked about?" I asked.

"Yes," Leo said simply avoiding his gaze.

"Calytrix, you're really not suited to be a zombie's mistress. Denying a zombie its right to eat is like denying a human to breathe, you can't deny its elemental carvings," Akios said."And it's especially hard on Leo since it is in conflict with your morals. You've been guilt-tripping him for having its primal instincts he could never even hope to avoid."

"Leo never told me anything about this desire," I said feeling unsure of my closeness with Leo.

"He could guess you'd hate the idea just by looking at you, Calytrix. You're easy to read, just like a book. People with strong morals are boring, but you tend to be fun in an odd way," Akios said with a smile.

"Is that a compliment?"I said unamused.

"I personally wouldn't care too much if my zombie ate or ate others," Akios said disinterest.

"You're trying to save the world, but at the same time you act like you don't hold people in high regard," I said.

"Those are two different things!"Akios said with a stern look."A normal human should be able to fend off a single zombie if he or she can't do it it's their own fault. If a group of humans gathers against a zombie it would have a very bad time. Casualties by a zombie would be in very small numbers."

"Even if they hurt a zombie it'd be able to regenerate after some time, but no matter how many times it'd try to hurt a group of humans it would lose every time if they are well organized,"I said my thoughts out loud.

"Now, you're starting to get it. See? A zombie can't make too much damage," Akios was pleased how he managed to explain everything to me.

"Leo, how do you feel? Do you want to hurt humans?" I asked.

"I don't want to, but the desire is too strong...mistress, please let me eat,"Leo said with a crying face.

I didn't want to hurt others and I didn't want to hurt Leo, I was in a terrible situation in which either way I'd lose.

"What about Leo's soul? It's close to him? How does the soul react to a situation like this?"I asked.

Having a soul was the most important thing about being human. Zombies also had souls, but they weren't in their bodies anymore. They separated, but couldn't go to the realm of the lesser spirits until the body takes its final rest.

"A zombies soul? Who cares," Akios said with complete disinterest.

"I care!"I shouted.

Akios put his left hand on his head and moved his head in a disproving way.

"I already told you to treat zombies like tools. Leo isn't a friend, he is just a thing,"Akios said.

"No! I can't agree with you,"I said as I glared at this person in front of me who treats others horribly yet claims he wants to save my world and acts in a way that should help my world.

I sat down on the soft grass, in front of Leo, closed my eyes and focused on concentrating my magic.

"Mistress, what are you doing?"Leo curiously asked me.

"Calytrix?"Akios also got curious.

Their questions didn't break my concentration. I slowly opened my eyes, still focusing on the strong spell I had in my mind.

"I need to check how Leo's soul feels. Is it conveying sadness or some other emotion," I answered.

"Whatever, just do it quick. We don't have all the time in the world,"Akios said with an annoyed look on his face.

"Mistress, tell me what you find out,"Leo said.

"Of course,"I said as I looked at Leo.

I closed my eyes again and started chanting, "Spirituum dona mihi unam animam de potestae intueeri!"

The spell slowly worked and I completely focused on it as I ignored everything else around me. It was a strong spell that would drain a lot of my energy and could easily fail if I get distracted. I won't be able to take a direct look at Leo's soul, but at least I'll be able to sense the main emotions his soul is emitting.

Sadness...heartbreaking sadness...tears flowed from my eyes too, because I strongly felt the sadness Leo's soul had in it.

"Your souls doesn't want to hurt others either, but your body can't listen to it," I said to Leo as my tears were overflowing.

I decided in that moment that I couldn't keep this up. It was time to put Leo to rest and free his soul. The dreadful sadness it gave off shouldn't continue for a very, very long time during a zombie's lifespan. The part of my journey with Leo needs to end.

"Akois, teleport us back to Leo's mansion,"I requested. The place where it started should also be the place where it ends. Where the final rest and goodbye will be properly held.

"Calytrix, you're making such a big deal out of this, out of nothing. I don't get it why you're acting so stubborn," Akios said and sighted.

"I'll owe you a favor," I said.

"Two favors,"Akios negotiated."After this, we need to get serious and focus only on closing the black holes."

I nodded and Akios started teleportation back to the place where I first met him and Leo.