Chapter 35: One Soul, Two Lights

The nymph left the veela boy with the human soul and made her way toward the heart of the forest — its magical center, the tree that had birthed her many winters ago. She didn't need to walk. She simply wished it, and she was there.

This wasn't teleportation, apparition, or any human method of movement. In her forest, the nymph named Dimitrida was truly like a goddess. All lesser gods were like that in their own domains. But outside her forest, she was hundreds of times weaker.

One thought — and the vines that covered her loins and chest, modesty for the young mind, slithered to the ground. She ran her hand over the ugly scar above her breast, a reminder of the first and only time she, still a young and naive nymph, had tried to live as a human. Her emerald-green eyes clouded with the veil of memory.

***

It had happened thousands of winters ago, when she hadn't even lived two hundred years. Back then, magical energy was denser, the air cleaner and fresher.

As a conscientious nymph, she tended to her duties — making sure bark beetles didn't breed too much on healthy trees, that predators and herbivores stayed in balance, that epidemics culled only the sick and old, that the forest expanded in every direction. These were the tasks of forest nymphs, and the reason they usually disliked humans, who barged into the forest and disrupted nature's balance.

But it hadn't always been that way. Long, long ago, the first people who came to the forest left generous gifts for her, its mistress. In return, she would guide hunters to animals that could be killed, to dry trees that could be cut, and she wouldn't let predators attack people or let people get lost.

Then, one day, she met an unusual human. As she later learned, he was meditating in the forest. He wore a white Roman toga, carried a bag on his back, a wooden staff, and a thick book in his hand. 

He was handsome, even beautiful — curly hair black as a moonless night, shining with health and strength, a Greek profile. And his soul… he seemed to overflow with magical energy, but he controlled it skillfully, turning wild power into a gentle beast. Animals weren't afraid of him, and Dimitrida herself felt a calming aura around him.

For weeks, he did nothing but explore the forest, while the curious nymph hovered nearby, burning with questions but too shy to approach.

"Young nymph, did you want to ask something?" Suddenly, his voice sounded in her head, making Dimitrida want to flee like a frightened doe and hide inside her oak. "I won't harm you. I'm a wandering mage who wants to understand this world."

"Why?" she dared to ask, ready to run at any moment.

"Because I'm not like you, child of nature. What is natural for you, like breathing, is a great mystery to me. Will you share a meal with me?" The man knew what would please a nymph. He pulled from his bag — which was bigger inside than outside — piles of fruits she had never seen before: grapes, dates, peaches, oranges. All fresh, as if just picked.

"May I?" she asked timidly, not embarrassed by her nudity. There was no need to be embarrassed by what was natural.

"Of course, help yourself!" the man replied with a smile, biting into a juicy peach. The nymph couldn't resist and grabbed a foreign fruit, saving the pit to sprout later.

"My name is Avdicius. I'm a master of yoga and battle magic from the Roman magical school," the man introduced himself.

"I have no name," the nymph admitted.

"Hmm, would you mind if I named you?" The girl shrugged — it made no difference to her. "Demeter is the goddess of nature, so you'll be Dimitrida."

That was the first time the nymph had come out to a human herself. Then there was a second, a third, a fourth time. More and more, Dimitrida spoke with the strange human who could work wonders just as she could.

Actually, not quite — for the nymph, words and gestures weren't needed. One mental impulse, and a sprout began to grow; another, and it withered. But that was why he fascinated her — he had access to things she could not do.

They spent more and more time together, and somehow it just happened that the nymph fell in love with the Roman mage and shared his bed. Together, they built a living house and lived in it for several winters.

But Avdicius hadn't come to the magical forest for nothing. A group of people came after him, people from whom she could feel power even greater than her beloved's. Dimitrida knew about this, but didn't think it would happen so soon. Avdicius had offended Juno with his refusal, and she had sent her apostle in punishment.

Naturally, the girl couldn't let her beloved be harmed, and together they gave battle. It was during that terrible fight that she received a blow from a strange curved dagger, which by miracle didn't pierce her heart. It brought monstrous pain — physical, but even more so, spiritual.

Avdicius, though he took the enemies with him, together they inflicted monstrous damage on the forest, burning it with magical flame. Dimitrida couldn't recover quickly. Worse, she couldn't recover because she was carrying a child, which the cursed dagger had also touched.

Barely crawling to her tree, the nymph could only fall into slumber for thousands of years to recover. What grief it was when she learned that her daughter's soul was too severely damaged. Though the scars had healed, if she were awakened, she would be mentally retarded. And Dimitrida herself hadn't fully recovered, even after becoming a lesser goddess.

***

The nymph tried everything she could to heal her daughter, but even her powers — or rather, her knowledge and spectrum of power — weren't enough. So she decided to merge her daughter's damaged soul with another magical being. Yes, it wouldn't be quite her daughter anymore, but at least she would live fully.

But another problem arose — nymphs are born and die with their tree and can't go far from it, drawing sustenance from it. She didn't want such a life for her daughter. She wanted her to be free, but also understood the danger of the outside world, which meant she needed a protector. Faithful, kind, and honest.

For centuries, Dimitrida waited for such a person, never stopping her attempts to heal her daughter or find another way. And then, when she had almost despaired, she saw a strange creature — a veela boy, which was curious in itself, but also with an adult soul and a fragment of an ancient evil mage's soul.

For a long time, the nymph watched as the boy tortured himself with training and meditation, fumbling like a blind kitten. She saw how he played with fire and launched it into the lake, how he treated nature carefully and loved animals. He reminded her of Avdicius with his spontaneity. At first, she didn't think the boy could become her daughter's protector — she simply liked him and decided to help.

But when, at the request to help the forest, he set up an entire system for extracting energy from the dragon vein, she saw in him not just a protector, but potential. Potential that was held back by the fragment of the ancient mage, and that's why she destroyed it.

Now, when Arthur had returned after a long absence, Dimitrida felt that he had become stronger, felt that he wasn't chasing power for its own sake. She understood — here he was, the perfect protector. And no, she hadn't lied when she said a nymph would be born in the apple tree. It would be born, yes, in a couple thousand years. Brief communication with Avdicius had taught her to play with words.

And for the half-truth to become truth, she approached her black tree with white leaves, and, extending her hand, thrust it directly into the heartwood of the trunk, pulling out a wooden seed the size of a fist, on the right side of which a ragged scar stood out distinctly.

The embryo of her child. Stroking it, she put it back — first, preparation was necessary. She would need all the forest's energy in her condition, so she began sprouting the tree's roots to the apple trees' roots, uniting them all into one common system.

***

"Wingardium Leviosa," I pronounced, waving my wand first horizontally, then from top to bottom, lifting a small feather into the air. "Did you remember everything, Pixie? Swish and flick."

"Pi-pipipipi," the little one waved her wand with a wise and tense expression, but the hair she was using as material for levitation only stirred, making her start poking it with her finger and complaining to me about it. "Pi-pipipipi!"

"No one gets it perfect on the first try," I smiled, hiding my anxiety. Would the nymph deceive me? Did she tell the whole truth? After all, I didn't know how nymphs actually appeared, and probably no one alive did — these creatures were too rare and secretive. But I had no choice.

 Actually, there was one, but I wouldn't go for it — stuffing Pixie's soul into obsidian. So I could only trust the nymph. Still, as they say — trust, but verify. That's why I decided to play it safe.

"Pipipipi!" Proudly raising her wand and placing her free hand on her hip, she demonstrated the raised hair to me.

"Good girl," I said sincerely, transmitting my emotions. "Get ready, it's time for us to go."

These three days before the ritual, I wasn't going to sit idle. I made a long-distance portkey to England, since tracking such movement is practically impossible — this, by the way, is why there's a state monopoly on their creation and a ban on private sales. I moved to England, or more precisely, to Essex.

Once, in my past life, I'd gone there to vacation with friends. There was also one of the magical forests, which would hide the emanations of the future soul-binding ritual.

Why England? Because it's one of those countries whose guardians don't care, even after Grindelwald. In any other normally developed magical country, they would have grabbed me as soon as I removed the dome of secrets.

What did I want to do? An advanced version of familiar binding, which allows you to adopt your pet's abilities, and for the pet to become fully intelligent in the future and adopt the master's abilities. Why hadn't I performed this before? The familiar's death in such a case hits the mage very hard with backlash, and it takes a lot of time to adopt the powers.

Choosing a level area, I pulled from my bag with spatial expansion a reduced granite ritual stone, on which I had already carved the necessary signs. Canceling the reduction with a powerful Finite Maxima, I not only removed the charms but also dispersed the residual energy inside the stone, which could have affected the ritual. The simplest method, which Phineas had suggested to me, because that's precisely the purpose of Finite — to disperse magical constructs and energy.

The ritual stone was a circle with a radius of two meters, inside which was inscribed a Star of David made of runic chains, and in it, in turn, were inscribed runes of different sizes. Some larger, some smaller, some also surrounded by additional runic chains forming circles, triangles, and squares. After this, I cast a dome of secrets over the surrounding area from my ring.

I had refused for now to create multifunctional bracelets, because the complexity of such an artifact increased several times with each addition of new Sumerian charms, which could conflict with each other, resonate, or cause interference. In general, it was simpler to make rings, which I did.

And so as not to walk around like a gypsy with a bunch of rings, I made a stone-changing system, creating expanded space inside the ring. Yes, I wouldn't be able to instantly throw all shields on myself, but it was quite good this way, and I didn't need to keep them in memory.

"Pixie, lie down in the center," I said. Inside the star was a designated free space for two people. If souls needed to be bound with a larger animal, then the size of the ritual circle would be proportionally increased.

"Pipi-pi!" she replied, flying inside. For such a little one, there was even too much space. I took off my bag and changed into a white canvas shirt, since the charms and embroidered runes of climate and auto-adjustment on my clothes could interfere.

"Cut your hand and take my finger," I told her, cutting my finger with charms, and Pixie used a miniature blade, which I then threw beyond the circle. After this, she grabbed my finger with her little hand, mentally complaining about the pain. I apologized to her and continued. I began chanting the incantation and started pouring mana into the Sumerian symbol under my hand.

*Arbitu Arvahana* 

*Fi Aismac* 

*Nahn Mutahabin* 

*Rakel Ormanuk*

The drawing began to fill with bluish light, a magical haze appeared around us, which, however, didn't go beyond the dome of secrets, remaining inside. Activating astral vision, I saw how countless finest threads began connecting us at a deep level, and then suddenly there was such a painful blow to the soul that I cracked several teeth — it was so painful. Eh, I'd have to drink Skele-Gro again and regrow teeth. But I endured it, not for the first time, but the fairy lost consciousness.

***

Dimitrida watched with a tired smile as Arthur walked with his familiar. Yes, she immediately saw the many new connections that bound him to the fairy. The nymph ironically thought that these connections would only help her.

"Something seems to have changed here," said the guy in blue jeans, a jacket, and a red t-shirt with a moving black man with a strange lute on it. On his shoulder sat a miniature blonde girl with pouting lips. On his finger and chest, quite good artifacts for the current level of mages were distinctly felt.

"You felt it? Good sensitivity. I connected all the trees into a common chain, this will accelerate the nymph's maturation, and I'll help too," Dimitrida replied. "By the way, your fairy looks displeased about something."

"She's sulking at me," Arthur tried to pet the fairy, but she fought back with her hands and feet. But most interestingly, she wasn't going to fly away. The guy offered her a piece of chocolate, and though she didn't refuse, she didn't stop sulking. "We had a little quarrel recently."

"Is that so?" The goddess only smirked at such an amusing attempt to hide the truth. Because it was obvious that the ritual had been quite painful.

"Yes, so when do we start? And what do I need to do?"

"We'll start right now. Lean against the tree, relax, and let your fairy take as much ether as she wants."

"Can I light a fire? I get more mana from fire," Arthur asked.

"That won't be necessary, your apple trees will share their power with you if needed. Oh yes, your blood will also be required."

"A lot?" he asked grimly, because giving your blood to another was quite a dangerous thing. And the nymph hadn't warned him about this, though he had blood-replenishing potion in his bag.

"Don't worry, you won't feel the loss," she said, waving her hand. Blood began seeping from the guy's pores and gathering into an ever-increasing sphere, and he really didn't feel the loss. Even when it seemed he had already given a whole liter. And he wasn't an ordinary mage, but a yogi, yet he didn't even feel it. This showed how strong the lesser goddess was in her forest.

When the sphere reached the size of an infant's head, the nymph chuckled and added several drops of her own green, glowing blood, after which she sent it all inside the tree, where it was absorbed like a sponge. Arthur didn't know that his daughter's embryo was located there right now, absorbing into the cocoon.

"Ready?" Dimitrida asked.

"Ready," the young mage replied, and then it all began.

With astral vision, Arthur saw an amazing sight — how thousands of tree roots lit up from the energy overflowing them, and all this power was directed toward the tree behind him. 

The proud and beautiful nymph suddenly transformed into her true form of a tree elemental, covered with bark, branches, vines, and all kinds of flowers. She looked simultaneously terrifying and beautiful. Particularly frightening was the green glow showing through the cracks in the bark and the eyes blazing green without pupils.

Dimitrida placed one hand on the apple tree trunk and drew the non-resisting Pixie to her with the other. However, even if she had resisted, it probably wouldn't have helped her.

 The nymph blew, and the fairy's pseudo-material shell seemed to blow away, leaving a small glowing silhouette of a soul that trembled as if ready to disappear at any second like flame in the wind. But suddenly it filled with light and power — the master shared his strength with the girl.

The nymph smiled and sent the soul inside her daughter, where the most complex work of merging two souls began. Merging two souls isn't difficult — even a dropout necromancer or soul mage can do that. But doing it so that the merger is balanced, so that both creatures don't lose their minds and themselves and don't become some vile monster — that's real mastery.

Moreover, one of the souls was severely wounded and was trying to "drink" the little fairy, which the lesser goddess wouldn't allow and compensated with enormous mana expenditures.

Arthur supported his familiar with all his might, constantly feeling huge energy flows passing through him from the trees, from which his soul began to ache and his body to break down. But of course, the nymph couldn't allow this and helped him recover.

Finally, after what felt endlessly long but actually took less than twenty minutes, the souls merged. Even the fourth shell fell into place, and two cores began orbiting around each other. 

What this would lead to in the future, no one knew except the Creator, but such souls, though rare, did occur. For some, the cores merged together, while others later split into two souls connected to each other and eternally sought their "other half."

Arthur didn't see any of this. Just as he didn't see the goddess multiply and strengthen the soul connections he had created. Just as he didn't see the beautiful young girl with green skin, emerald eyes, and red hair who fell from the tree, who, upon falling, embraced Arthur and transformed into an ordinary-looking veela girl, the guy's age and very similar to him in appearance.

"Live happily, my child," Dimitrida said in farewell, kissing both on the forehead and heading to the heart of the forest to recover. She had fulfilled her main desire — her daughter would be strong, healthy, free, and under the protection of a good and strong mage.

She couldn't dream of more than that. And there, who knows, maybe she would see her again in a hundred or two hundred years, when the young man died. Human life is fleeting for such long-lived beings.

***

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Thank you for the help with the power stones!!!