The trio's return trip to Riverwall was nothing but a sidenote to their expedition, a repeat of their way here, with Jordo pointing out nearby lifeforms, Niala incapacitating anything she could, and David punting away anything that she couldn't.

  They spent some time discussing the events at the repository, asking Jordo what he knew about Liches, or Luces as he kept referring to them.

  Contrary to what David and Niala had learned, Luces were not twisted evil spirits, or, more accurately, were not automatically evil spirits. The process to sever one's soul from the cycle of rebirth to become a Luce did require a certain strength of will and unshakable belief in self-determination, and these traits were more prevalent among the narcissists and power-hungry maniacs, but not exclusively so. There were plenty of examples of good-natured Luces within Jordo's limited records of the Reign's history.

  The golem also debunked the popular belief that Liches could raise undead monsters, explaining that what a Luce actually did was to manipulate soul energy, including their own. By drawing on the scraps of lost souls and stitching them together with mana, they could create poor copies of souls and forcibly implant them into inanimate matter, creating a sort of proto-life.

  Jordo further explained that these new constructs were highly dependent on a constant flow of mana to sustain them, or their fake souls would quickly disintegrate.

  The lovers were surprised to learn that this meant Luces were not limited to animating dead things, but Niala had reasoned that it made sense. Imbuers and alchemists had long known that matter exposed to mana for a long period of time became more “porous” to it. She guessed that meant ex-living things, which naturally gathered and circulated mana their entire lives, would be easier to animate and maintain. Why animate one pile of rock when you could spend the same energy and animate four skeletons?

  Jordo had commended Niala on her sharp deductive skills, like a proud teacher would, which the catkin had immediately used to jab at David.

  “Hear that, David? I'm the smart one! But it's ok, you're a great monkey! Everyone has their own strength, I guess!”

  Niala apologized later that night when David had refused to unpack their mobile shelter, stating that monkeys slept in trees.

  She had to promise to create a new version of the Old Woman brew, with a different aroma and side effects, before he relented.

  Jordo had also spent some time digesting through some of the mana materialization research Data they had retrieved from the repository.

  Although it was only the surface-level summaries of those experiments, Jordo could at least explain the general idea behind the theory. As David and Niala knew, mana could generally only exist in the physical world by being contained within physical things. Any mana found outside of a physical “container” would be reabsorbed back to the aetheric realm, which is why mana could be used to create effects, but could not, under normal circumstances, be directly used.

  Mana materialization, then, was a simple answer to a complex problem; if mana in its natural aetheric form cannot subsist within the world, then simply change its nature to something physical.

  From what Jordo understood, the luminaries thought it would be possible to use mana to create the effect of materialization itself. In a sense, it was like freezing water to craft a container made of ice and using it to hold water. The fact that mana crystals existed had formed the basis for the validity of the hypothesis.

  Preliminary experiments had supported the theory, but the immense amount of research data that Jordo still had to sort through showed that the process was anything but simple.

  The possibility still left David lighter of heart, especially when Jordo had pointed out that even partial mana depletion would help stave off mana stagnation. He simply had to spend a lot of mana then.

  His imbuements would be getting a lot of use, and the Fairies would get their money's worth out of him. Niala also said she'd look into brewing a potion that would innervate his mana, to try and get his mana moving.

  David had been surprised that potions like that existed. She'd replied, sheepishly, that it wasn't exactly a potion.

  “A poison, then?” David asked.

  “Hmmm, not quite, either.”

  “What else is there?”

  “Well, huh, solvents, acids, disinfectants, glues...”

  “You're going to make me drink glue?” He asked, tilted his head.

  “No! Not glue!” She waved her hands. “Mana innervaters are usually used to clean arcanomagical engines...” She explained.

  David stared at her. “You're going to feed me engine cleaner.”

  “I'll make it safe to drink!”

  “As long as it doesn't include bat poop.” He said, sighing.

  “Ah... well...” She muttered, hands clasped in her back, squirming.

  “You're going to make me drink bat poop-based engine cleaner.” He confirmed, disbelieving.

  “It's for your own good!” Niala exclaimed.

  “I don't think good means the same thing for both of us.”

  Jordo spoke up. “Madam, I applaud your initiative! It is a novel idea, and well worth investigating!”

  Niala looked at the golem, then at David, smiling as her idea was approved of.

  David's shoulders slumped. “So this is it then. Betrayal.”

  The golem's eye flashed a few times. “Sir, as Madam said, it is for your own good.”

  “That's right, David! It's for your own good!”

  “That is exactly what betrayers would say.”

  Niala shook her head. “No, no. Betrayers would feed you a potion spiked with tiny, near-invisible dream worm eggs. They'd hatch, crawl up to your brain, embed themselves in there and sap nutrients while releasing numbing toxins, leaving you in a perpetual languid dream-like state and very pliable, taking our suggestions as orders.”

  Jordo, eye pinning, and David, mouth hanging, stared at Niala.

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  She blinked and looked back at them.

  The courier closed his mouth. “How do you know this?!”

  “To make antidotes!” Niala defended.

  “Did you learn how to make every single poison to be able to brew better antidotes for them?” He asked.

  “Not every single one... I'm sure there are some I don't know about.”

  David looked at Niala before walking up to her and putting his hands on her shoulders, staring into her eyes.

  “Niala. This is like a healer learning every torture method so they know how to treat the wounds they leave.”

  “What? But that makes sense as well!”

  “I agree, totally. Let us never speak of this ever again.” He said, turning around and continuing back to Riverwall.

  He felt her eyes bore a hole of suspicion into his back.

  That day, David made the vow to never get Niala actually mad at him, even though she probably wouldn't actually do anything. Probably. Almost certainly.

  When they reached Riverwall, eleven days had gone by, and although they had camped in relative comfort and hadn't had too many problems dealing with the wildlife, returning home, their home, felt special.

  The sight of the old patched-up building lifted a discomfort they hadn't felt had been pressing upon them until now. This was... normal. A normal that had formed faster than they had thought possible, over barely a season and a half.

  They were glad to be home.

  After checking in with Linzy that everything had went well and that she still had enough stock to run the shop for at least a little while still, David and Niala chose to take a few days off, celebrating the start of their vacation with a warm, long, and shared bath, followed by cooking up a dinner worthy of a royal banquet, and inviting Leandro and Karline, who happened to be in town, to join them, along with Linzy.

  The couple told their guests about the trip, ignoring Linzy's repeated questions on how their nights had gone, and hearing back about what had happened in town during their absence. The answer was: not much, except for Burton, the Boot Inn's proprietor, who had come to order a third shipment of Old Woman herbs, three times as big as the previous one.

  Finishing the evening over a bottle of good wine and sugar pie, everyone retired to their lodgings, David and Niala falling asleep about as soon as their head touched their familiar and comfortable bed, well interlaced with each other.

  There really was no place like home, and especially your own bed.

  The next day, they opened Geralkko's package inside Niala's safety box, just in case. Within, they found a few grey-green spheres and a formula for an Eternal Life Potion, a short description saying that whoever drank the resulting potion would see “their essence unbending to the approach of the arcane.”

  They looked at each other, both silently agreeing that this was a trap. Niala would still research the potion out of curiosity, but for now, they repackaged the “gift” and locked it in the safe.

  Next, they unpacked the inactive Curator golem and began the process of replacing Jordo's missing arm. After some poking around at his shoulder joint and following his instructions, they managed to remove the broken-off part of his previous arm, exposing the connections within.

  Whatever had destroyed his arm had also damaged the connecting mechanism, and some remedial work had to be done. This turned into a multi-day process, with the blood metal that Jordo was made of being so resilient that not a single tool within their disposal was able to even dent it. David ended up having to saturate every piece with an absurd amount of mana beforehand, softening the alloy just enough for it to be workable.

  They eventually, finally, managed to attach the new arm with a combination of welding, riveting, bolting and gluing, hiding the patchwork job underneath the smooth outer casing.

  Jordo's eye pinned, turning into a single horizontal line, before flashing a few times. He then slowly and carefully tested his new arm, finding that it moved just as he wanted it to and barely made any scraping sounds. The new arm, being a one shade darker than the rest of Jordo's body, gave him a rather fetching “custom model” aesthetic.

  “Sir! Madam! This unit is incredibly grateful for your assistance in restoring my full effectiveness! Oh, I will be so much more useful to you now!” Jordo exclaimed with more mirth than usual, the warbling of his voice one tone higher.

  Niala's ears wiggled. “Maybe... we could also replace your voice box?”

  “My voice box? What is wrong with it, madam?” The golem wondered.

  “It's very distorted, warbled. You don't notice it?”

  “I am modulating my voice to be as tone-neutral as possible. You are saying it's not the case?” Jordo asked, his head tilting.

  “No, YoU SouNd LiKE thIS!” She warbled.

  “That is intriguing... Sir, do you concur?”

  David nodded.

  “Hmm,” The golem pondered, his body leaning forward as his eye began flashing rapidly, then turning off and back on. He then raised his head to look at Niala. “My voice box shows no fault. My hearing module, however, might be damaged. Madam, could you tell me if you sound like a wounded harpy when speaking?”

  David snorted while Niala blinked. “N... no? I sound pretty normal? Maybe a bit squeaky?” She turned to David. “What does my voice sound like?”

  His face went stolid as he cleared his throat. “Like a sweet angel's song that lifts my spirit, love.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, turning to look at Jordo. “And what does my monkey's voice sound like?”

  “Sir's gravely voice reminds me of two elephants rutting.”

  Niala fell to the floor, holding her sides, puffs of laughter escaping her clamped mouth.

  David dejectedly stared at the catkin rolling around on the floor, before looking up at Jordo. “We have to replace your ears.”

  “I take it you do not sound like pachyderm love calls?”

  David shook his head, while Niala lost her fight and began guffawing.

  Jordo's eye flashed. “Then I do believe my audio captors need to be serviced, sir.”

  The operation took another day and was much more nerve-wracking, having had to remove Jordo's head casing, which uncovered a mish-mash of delicate-looking parts laid on top of one another.

  Still, Jordo's instruction remained clear and precise, and just as the sun was setting, they bolted the rear half of his head back on.

  Jordo nodded before his eye began to flash once more, displaying various symbols in quick succession, and returning to its usual shape. He looked up to David and Niala. “Sir, Madam. Sir, Madam, Siiiirrrr, Maddaaaaammm” He intoned a few times, his voice starting as warbled as before, but gradually levelling out.

  “Sir, Madam. I see what you meant. I believe my voice is now more uniform?” His voice was now a rich and gentlemanly tone, with perfect pitch, as far as their ears could tell.

  “You have a very charming voice now, Jordo!” Niala congratulated the golem.

  “Oh! Madam's voice is delightful! Oh, I can't wait to hear what everybody actually sounds like!”

  “What about mine?” David asked.

  Jordo's head turned to him, eye pinning. “Sir, your voice is very stately! However, I regret to inform you, analyzing your wavelength, you still have an 11% overlap with love trumpets.”

  David's head slumped as Niala's mouth drew into a full smile, eyes turning his way.

  “Love trumpet!” She blurted out.

  “What?”

  “Trumpet! That's your new nickname!” She happily explained.

  “Please don't.”

  “Don't worry, trumpet! Nobody will know but us! They'll all think it's just a sweet little name!”

  “I'll know.”

  “Yes! Exactly!” She said, walking up to him and grabbing his arm, rubbing her face on it.

  He looked down at the overjoyed catkin, then up at Jordo. “I can't tell if she's making fun of me, or if she actually finds the name endearing.”

  “Sir, I'm afraid I cannot answer this,” Jordo admitted.

  David squinted at the golem. “Can't, or won't?”

  “I'm afraid I cannot answer that either, sir.”

  David kept staring at the Golem, while Niala kept blithely rubbing her face on his arm.