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"Saito" -Talking
'Louise' -Thinking/ Human-Human Telepathy
"Explosion!" -Spell
:Master: -Master/Familiar Telepathy
Chapter 20: Spiritual Problems Part 1
Princess Henrietta's Suite, Tristain Academy for Magic
The silence in the room, Saito mused, was deafening.
On one side of the table in the centre was a stony-faced Princess Henrietta. She was not happy about her sworn liegeman being drugged into falling in love with Saito. Hell, Saito himself wasn't any happier with it!
On the other side sat a shaking and pale Montmorency. She wasn't bound or wearing shackles, but having the eagle-eyed Agnès standing behind her with her hand on her sword hilt made her current status abundantly clear. Next to her sat a shell-shocked Guiche, while Saito sat in between both parties on the right side of the table.
Louise had been knocked out by Saito before coming here via a "Sleep" talisman administered to her forehead. It should keep her unconscious until they could figure out what they needed to do to fix this mess!
The ringlet-haired blond had just finished explaining herself to Henrietta.
"Well. This is certainly a surprise." The Onmyōji remarked, breaking the silence. "I think we've just discovered something that the magic of your world can accomplish that mine cannot."
"I beg your pardon?" the Princess asked with a raised eyebrow.
"This potion… Afrotiziac, wasn't it?" Saito asked, sending a frighteningly calm gaze toward Montmorency. Receiving a jerky nod from the ringlette-haired girl, he continued, "Afrotiziac isn't something that can be made in my world. There's no mention of any kind of spell or potion that powerful even if we go back to the times before the loss of Void magic, other than in tales of mythology. Spells that can gradually alter the way the recipient feels about someone or something, yes. Spells that can dominate the mind of the target and make them a puppet of the user, yes. But a potion that can actually enforce a state of artificial infatuation to a degree such as what we witnessed on a girl as strong-willed as Louise? No, that is something purely out of myth and fairy tale in my world. The closest thing would be a magical aphrodisiac that would place the drinker into an artificially aroused state once it is imbibed. The fact that the names of Afrotiziac and Aphrodisiac are so similar leads me to believe that there have been more people than just Johan and myself who have passed between the worlds over the years."
The Staff of Destruction had already made him suspicious of that, this incident merely added more proof to it. Osmond had told him of the soldier who had appeared in front of him to use the first of two Staffs in order to slay…was it a dragon? A wyvern? Something like that…before succumbing to his wounds. Based on the old Headmaster's description of his uniform, the man had been part of a jungle war of some sort, with a flag patch of red, white and blue on it. The only war that Saito knew of that had taken place at the time the Headmaster had been young would have been the Vietnam War.
That is, if there wasn't a time-axis differential between Earth and Halkaginia. Given that they were in entirely separate worlds, time passing differently in them wouldn't be that much of a surprise. He made a mental note to ask Emereldas and Kaede if that was the case at a later point in the day. Their own extradimensional nature should be able to sense any difference between the flow of time here and when he had summoned them.
"Be that as it may, the point remains that not only did Miss Montmorency brew an illegal potion with the intention of using it on her boyfriend, but the one who was actually got dosed with it was my friend." Henrietta's voice was as cold as the artic as she spoke, each charge falling on Montmorency like a nail in a coffin. "She should be thankful that Duchess de Vallière is not here to mete out the appropriate revenge for such a happenstance."
Enough, Saito mused, was enough. While he could understand the Princess' anger, and even shared more than a bit of it, terrorizing Montmorency was going to get them nowhere
"To be absolutely fair, Your Highness, Louise was the one who snatched the potion from Montmorency's hands and drank the stuff." He pointed out mildly, deciding to play Good Cop for a bit. "Were it not for that, Mr Gramont would be the one affected. Speaking of whom…"
Saito turned to regard Guiche with a stern eye. "While you may not share any blame for the actual feeding of the potion to Louise, or indeed the brewing of the potion, you are the main catalyst for it being brewed in the first place…because you seem utterly incapable of fidelity to your so-called girlfriend. Any excuses, Mr Gramont?"
The blond dandy gulped. "I-I…"
"In the interest of being fair to Mr Gramont, male Mages bedding female commoners is seen as permissible." Agnès spoke distastefully, a sneer of disdain on her face. "Mage/Commoner mixes rarely, if ever, produce a Mage child. Thus they are of no threat to the dynastic politicking and rites of succession common in most Noble Houses."
'And I'd bet my magic that in almost every single case, the commoner mother could trace her lineage back to a dalliance with another Mage.' Saito thought with a frown. 'This is becoming less peculiar and more worrying every time I discover something new about the way magic is passed down in this world. It doesn't make any sense!'
In Saito's world, there were three conditions needed to be fulfilled in order to have a magic user born, although any mix of two would do. First, lineal descent from a magic user, similar to Halkaginia. Second, a concentration of magical leylines, referred to in Japan and China as the Dragon Veins, nearby as the child grows. Third and finally, the condition of the land must be in at least reasonable condition, although the higher the condition of the land, the more likely a magic user is to be born.
With the pollution of the land with the increased technological advancement of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, most countries' magic users had focussed on the first two categories, instituting a requirement for the children of Mages to grow up in areas of high leyline density, as well as somewhat relaxing the monogamy spread by Christianity in order to have as large a population of magic users as was possible.
Japan had one of the largest leyline nexuses in the world in Kyoto, the Dragon's Nest, which was why over 70% of the onmyōji raised their families there, and why Black Star was based there as well. It was another part of the unspoken agreement between the two large organisations that children and mothers were sacrosanct; no one was permitted to attack a family, and no mother was permitted to take advantage of this fact in order to attack others.
In this world however, it seemed as if the bloodline of the parents was the only thing that mattered. Two mages made a mage, a mage and a commoner made a commoner, unless the commoner parent was of mage descent, in which case there was apparently a chance for the child to be a mage. It made no sense whatsoever!
"So the main complaint is sleeping with the Mages." Saito said aloud. "Fine. Why not be satisfied with the maids, if they're so willing to bed you?"
It came out, in stops and starts. Guiche was, evidently, somewhat terrified of commitment. He did indeed like Montmorency a great deal, but the marriage of his parents was…somewhat less stellar than what would be desired, even from a loveless arranged marriage. His older brother, who was in the army, was a bully to him and his wife, Guiche's sister-in-law, followed his lead, so the youngest member of the Gramont family was justifiably leery of marriage, as he had known nothing but bad experiences about it.
Thus, his impending engagement was something of a source of concern for him. He had decided to try and delay the marriage by sleeping around with the maids to rouse the ire of Montmorency. When that had only earned him a lecture to be careful and to use temporary sterility potions, he had gotten desperate and seduced several Mage girls who were charmed by him easily.
This gave Saito such a headache. Guiche had gone about it in such a roundabout and convoluted fashion rather than just talk to Montmorency. Then again, he had, by all accounts, been somewhat bereft of any decent form of male role model and advice, so maybe this instinctive flinch away from commitment and the desire to avoid confrontations was a result of that?
Evidently, he wasn't the only one with a headache, as Henrietta pinched the bridge of her nose as Guiche wound down into an embarrassed and nervous silence.
It wasn't the Princess, Agnès, or him who spoke first, but a rather angry and enraged Montmorency, who had tears streaming down her cheeks.
"YOU IDIOT!" she screamed at him. "You could have just TOLD ME this BEFORE! But NO! You men and your STUPID pride! Now we're both going to lose our Cloaks of Nobility and we'll be the laughing stocks of the entire COUNTRY! Because YOU would rather RUN from me than ADMIT YOU'RE NERVOUS ABOUT GETTING MARRIED!"
She punctuated every bellowed word with a punch to a part of her possibly-ex-boyfriend's body. Agnès let her do it but she was obviously waiting for the distraught girl to try and draw her wand before stepping in. Obviously, she felt that Guiche somewhat deserved the physical beating he was getting, which Saito privately agreed with.
"Is that the punishment she'll receive?" he asked Henrietta in and undertone as Montmorency continued to beat up Guiche.
"If I were to prosecute her to the fullest extent of the law and apply the letter rather than the spirit in which it was intended…yes." The Princess answered with a stormy look of mixed anger and indecision in her eyes. "Emotion altering potions were made illegal two-thousand years ago, when someone brewed a despair-inducing potion, Formaldahide, and slipped it into the meal of a noble family, who committed suicide in various ways within the next day. The guidelines for the law are mainly to prevent serious misuse of the potions so that such an occurrence never happens again. While modestly dangerous on an individual level, Afrotiziac is considered somewhat mild by the standards of the law. We allow people to think that all emotion-altering potions earn the same punishment to prevent situations such as this from happening."
"So…her actual punishment would be?" the Japanese boy prodded. Montmorency stopped thumping Guiche to hear this.
Henrietta sighed. "Regardless of her intent, the potion that Miss Montmorency created was illegal and was drunk by a member of the Tristainian Royal Family's cadet branch. That she was apparently driven into a corner mentally is something of a mitigating factor, as is the fact that Mr. Gramont deliberately antagonised her to the point of doing it, although for her to go down this path was not his intent either. This is, frankly speaking, a tremendously inconveniently convoluted matter happening right when I need to focus on matters of state."
"Might I clarify a few things before you render judgement, Your Highness?" Saito asked with a frown.
"Certainly." Henrietta nodded.
"Miss Montmorency." The Junior Adept said with a sigh as the girl shrank back into her seat. "Is there an antidote for this… Afrotiziac?"
"Y-Yes, but…it's not easy to make because one of the ingredients is so rare and hard to come by." The potioneer replied hesitantly.
"Price is no object." The Princess stated firmly. "Should you create the antidote and remove the effect of the Afrotiziac, then your punishment will be reduced…and I won't inform Aunt Karin about what has happened here."
"O-Of course!" Montmorency stammered. "I would have offered regardless. But with respect, it isn't a matter of price Your Highness. The ingredient in question is the tear of a water elemental."
Henrietta froze at that before slumping. "That…is not good."
"Aren't water elementals common?" Saito raised an eyebrow in confusion. "In my world, one of the main duties of an onmyōji is to act as intermediaries between humans and spirits such as elementals."
"No, Mr Saito, they are not." Agnès replied slowly. "In fact, the only water elemental in all of Tristain that I can think of, off the top of my head, is the Water Spirit of Lagdorian Lake."
"That Spirit is even more reluctant than most other Elementals to gift such things, even in trade." Montmorency explained to Saito. "I can promise to try my best on Louise's behalf, however."
"Are there no other reagents you could use as a substitute?" the onmyōji asked in concern, which grew slightly when Montmorency shook her head firmly.
"The tear of a water elemental is not just an ingredient, but the main body of the antidote." She informed him. "Their water is pure, clean, unadulterated and possesses the unique spiritual power of water, which manifests as an internal body cleansing agent when mixed with the other ingredients. I could, if pushed, substitute all of the other ingredients with varying levels of difficulty, but the only one that is absolutely vital and irreplaceable is the tear."
"Of course it is." Saito sighed, leaning back and massaging the bridge of his nose in frustration. He was never more certain that gods existed than in moments such as these, when something as simple as an antidote snowballed into what was looking to be a quest!
'You're laughing at me, aren't you, you divine bastards!?' the onmyōji thought sourly as he glared out of the window before returning his attention to the room from his brief moment of introspective blasphemy.
"In which case I will come with you in order to attempt to mediate with the spirt." He said with a slight frown. "Louise will have to come with us as well."
"I do not like that idea." Henrietta said with a frown of her own. She was very protective of her vassal and childhood friend and did not like the idea of letting her out of her sight while under the effects of that damnable love potion. Saito was an honourable man, she could tell, but in the state Louise was in there was every chance she may try to seduce him and, lacking breasts or not, Henrietta was of the opinion that her pinkette friend was a very cute and attractive girl. She doubted Saito could refuse such earnestness from a girl.
"She can't stay here because the infatuation she has with me is literally overpowering." Saito pointed out. "She'd probably go nuts if she woke up to find me gone, casting spells all over the place. The last thing we need is for her to level the Academy."
"We could simply confiscate her wands." Agnès pointed out coldly.
"With ink and paper, she can create talismans to use. Basic ones, I'll grant you, but even the most basic of talismans can be dangerous if overpowered. And given Louise's abilities, particularly combined with an emotionally distressed state…" The onmyōji trailed off, letting their imaginations fill in the rest. "Moreover, we onmyōji only chose ink as a medium because it was the most convenient. Charcoal, graphite, paint…all she has to do is be desperate enough to try to use some of those and she may blow a hole in the wall."
"I thought she had to put her blood into the ink in order for your style of magic to work." Henrietta frowned.
"It is the blood in the ink that provides the link to the pattern magic on the talisman." Saito agreed. "This need only apply when the talisman is out of physical contact with the onmyōji. As long as she is touching the talisman, she can forcibly send magic into the magic formation and activate that spell woven into it. It is rarely done except as a last resort because it exhausts a lot of magical power, but Louise doesn't have that issue."
"Indeed." Henrietta sighed, giving into the inevitable. "I will render judgement before you leave, however."
"As Louise's liege, that is your right and prerogative." Saito acknowledged. "I do ask that Miss Montmorency is not punished too severely. As previously discussed, Louise is equally to blame for her taking the potion and it was never Montmorency's intent to give it to her."
Even a Servant in a Master-Servant Contract was bound by the oaths they made before the signing of the contract. In Louise's case, she had sworn her fealty to Princess Henrietta, who had accepted it. This was a very important part of a feudal society and came with rights and responsibilities for both parties. Henrietta had the right to command Louise to act in her name, even at this time, before she took the throne, but the blade cut both ways; Henrietta also had to protect Louise as much as was possible, as well as avenge attacks on her. This was especially important to someone who had sworn personal fealty, rather than the secondary fealty such as the vassal of a vassal.
More than simple lord-vassal politics, Louise was Henrietta's best friend. She had been helpless to aid her friend during the time when she was bound by two spells, which must have been both galling and a slight on her honour. Now that Louise had technically been 'attacked' by someone, in front of her no less, Saito was really hoping that the Princess wouldn't go overboard to compensate.
"Montmorency Margarita 'La Fère' de Montmorency, you are guilty of brewing an illegal potion, to whit the love potion Afrotiziac." Princess Henrietta said formally, making the ringlet-haired blond cringe in her seat for the nth time. "You are also guilty of attempting to use aforementioned love potion on Guiche de Gramont. The charge of deliberately potioning Louise de Vallière…is dismissed due to evidence suggesting that it was at least partially her own fault for grabbing it from you."
This official verdict made Montmorency very much relieved. Had she been successfully convicted by the princess of potioning Louise deliberately, she would have been imprisoned in jail until she was an aged spinster. Zero or not, Louise was a member of a Ducal House, two ranks above the House of Montmorency, as well as a sworn vassal of the future ruler of Tristain. Name-calling and a bit of minor bullying was one thing, but to do something like attacking her physically, magically, or chemically on purpose would be the very height of stupidity.
"As you have agreed to brew the potion necessary to undo the effects of the Afrotiziac, as well as aid in gathering the most vital ingredients, the severity of your sentence is hereby reduced." The Princess continued. "Additionally, as you were being driven mentally into a corner by outside influences-" she shot a disapproving look at Guiche at this point, "-the duration is further reduced. For the crime of brewing the illegal emotion altering potion Afrotiziac, I sentence you to three years of penal service to the Crown of Tristain. You will brew potions for us as and when required, with no pay other than for what is necessary for ingredients, which will all have to be accounted for. For the crime of attempting to potion the scion of a Count, you are sentenced to an additional three years of penal service to the Crown of Tristain. These sentences are to be served consecutively and are to commence upon the completion of your magical education at the Tristain Academy for Magic."
Montmorency's jaw dropped at the sentence. She was essentially going to take up the currently vacant position of Royal Potion Master. Granted, it would be without pay, but the prestige of the position was not to be underestimated.
"I see you realise what this sentence offers you." Henrietta smiled a little, albeit coldly. "I happen to know the difficulty of the recipe for Afrotiziac. Seasoned potioneers have tried and failed to brew it. Even the previous Royal Potion Master could not do so. So yes, I can see that you are indeed worthy of your Runic name of 'La Fère' and I will take this opportunity to conscript that skill for the sake of the Kingdom of Tristain. Should you prove your skill and worth by the time your sentence is at an end, I shall consider making the position a permanent one and pay you for your work, as well as the standard wage of the position. However…"
The Princess' voice dropped into a low, threatening tone. "Should you commit any more crimes before your graduation or during your punishment or even look at Louise crossways in the meanwhile, this mercy of a sentence will be dismissed and you will not see the light of day for the rest of your life. Am I understood?"
"Y-Yes Your Highness!" Montmorency squeaked in terror.
"Good." Henrietta relaxed back into her seat. "As for you, Guiche de Gramont, I defer your punishment to Professor Saito as, while your conduct in this matter offends me on a personal level as a woman, you have not technically broken any laws."
"My thanks, Your Highness." Saito bowed his head. "Miss Montmorency, to clarify, you do not actually seem to mind Mr Gramont's dalliances with the maids, true?"
"I do not." Montmorency replied hesitantly. "I have a little sister as a result of my father's own dalliances with maids, and I have another sibling on the way from the same woman."
"I see." Personally, Saito couldn't see why she didn't mind commoners while she did mind other Mages, but reasoned that it was because of the whole Noble/Commoner class system. At some point, a merchant class would arise, or it should have by this point, which would throw some spanners in the works, but that wasn't his business. "In which case, I shall punish Mr Gramont with an altered version of a Chastity Spell for the duration of his education at the Academy."
"What?!" Guiche yelped.
"When you mess around with the maids and other commoners, you will have to tell Miss Montmorency beforehand, so she can deactivate it." Saito informed the boy. "She will also be able to set a duration to it before the spell reactivates, so you will have little ability to play around with other Mages."
"Just how is this fair?!" Guiche moaned.
"I had to have an ironclad Chastity spell put on me from the moment I hit puberty to the day I graduated from my own Academy." The onmyōji stated unsympathetically. "If I could hack it, so can you."
"Can I ask what will happens if he tries to romance someone in spite of the spell being in place?" Montmorency asked meekly. "As well as what the limits are to him setting it off?"
"It'll feel as if he was hit in the groin by a weak lightning spell." Saito paraphrased. Saying 'a weak Stun Gun strike' would be meaningless to them. "The limits are basically if he tries to go beyond casually kissing or groping a girl. Kissing's fine, deep kissing's fine, groping over the clothes is fine, but anything more will set off the charm. Er…self-gratification is permitted also."
He blushed red at being forced to say these things in front of the Princess, who was also a bit red.
"A most…apt punishment." Henrietta willed her face to return to normal as she spoke. "You can emplace the spell as soon as you return from Lagdorian Lake. But I would like it if you could ward my rooms before you leave."
"Of course, princess." Saito nodded amicably. "Were she in her right mind, I'm sure Louise wouldn't hear of me leaving your suite unprotected."
The Princess smiled at Saito. "You, Professor Saito, are a charmer." She informed him.
"My thanks, Your Highness." The Japanese boy bowed his head politely, a smile on his face also.
Agnès' face twisted slightly before she slammed her neutral mask over it. She may not like Mages (Princess Henrietta and her mother were exceptions), but this otherworldly Mage had the favour of not only the Princess but of his 'Master' as well, so getting the Princess' dander up about how she treated him was inadvisable.
'Besides…I do owe him a debt for protecting the Princess when I was unable to even slow that arrogant bastard down.' She reluctantly conceded with a mental sigh.
Sometimes, being a Chevalier and having to uphold a code of honour was the biggest pain in the posterior about her job.
Later
Louise and Saito's Suite
Emereldas was five centuries old. She had seduced heroes, heroines, kings, queens, paupers, priests and people belonging to most occupations that humans could think of. She had brought the proudest of men low with a single word, made the haughtiest of women climax with a single touch, had both beg for more and given them what they wanted. She was a goddess of the sexual arts, a mistress of lust incarnate and a very cynical and practical person about whom and what she wanted in her existence.
So, given all of that, the reaction to seeing that pink-haired little bint latched onto her Master like a limpet greatly surprised her.
Pure, unadulterated jealousy flowed through her veins like the venom of a chimera. For a demon of one Sin to feel anything from any of the other Sins was very rare, and always it was those who were contracted to a human who felt such thing. Emereldas was a succubus, thus a creature of Lust. Lust held sway over many things and affected most of the other Sins, but especially Envy. For her to have this sort of reaction about her Master was something the Demon of the Eighth Circle had not expected.
"Master." She ground out, feeling the urge to introduce the insolent strumpet to hellfire. "What. In. Pandemonium. Is. Going. On. Here?"
Saito, who was adroitly preventing Louise from kissing him, sighed. "It's a tale of stupidity, sexual escapades and short-sightedness."
"So a teenager mix-up?" the Succubus asked with a twitching eyebrow. 'I must not immolate the pinkie, I must not immolate the pinkie and make her scream in pleasurable agony for a thousand years…!'
She was then treated to a tale of what was indeed stupidity, sexual escapades and short-sightedness. Both of those little idiots were responsible for this situation and Emereldas swore that she'd make certain to visit them in their dreams at some point and make them exhausted the next day for this!
Succubae, at Circle 1, were insubstantial, ethereal existences that had no physical presence. They frequented places that possessed a high amount of human lust, such as brothels, love hotels and honeymoon resorts, in order to scrape together the energy needed to advance to Circle 2 and progress towards a corporeal body. One way to increase the amount of energy they received was to enter the dreams of humans and induce them into lustful ones. Overdoing it with both the dreams and energy drain could result in the humans in question suffering from a lack of sleep and general lethargy for the next day or so.
It had been over four-hundred years since Emereldas had last needed to use the techniques to enter the dreams of humans, but she was definitely thinking about dusting them off. Just to make certain that she was still able to use them, you understand.
"Anyway, as you shouted at me last time for not telling you, I'm going to be dealing with a seemingly powerful Water Elemental, so you and Kaede need to stay away." Saito told her as Louise decided to settle for hugging him.
Elementals did not get on well with those of infernal origin, so Emereldas and Kaede being present would be very much detrimental to any negotiations that their Master would have to undertake. Still, it sat wrong with her to let him go out without any protection whatsoever…
"Do you have to go? Can't the girl just wait until the potion wears off?" Emereldas asked in irritation as Louise turned to glare at her while hugging Saito possessively. 'Oh, you are asking for it, you little tramp!'
"Afrotiziac's effect lasts a wildly variable amount of time; it varies greatly between a month and a year." The onmyōji grumbled. "If you honestly think Princess Henrietta will let her best friend stay in this state for even half as long as the shortest timeframe, you are out of your demonic mind."
"I…suppose you have no choice then." The succubus admitted sourly. "Very well. I shall inform the Ginki about this matter and I can assure you, she will not be happy."
"If anyone is going to be unhappy, it's going to be Louise when she is back in her right mind!" Saito retorted. He shuddered to think what kind of apoplectic eruption would occur once she was restored to her normal self from this super-dere-dere lovey-dovey version of herself. She'd definitely go Tsun on him and most other people once the embarrassment overcame the anger, at the very least.
He made a mental note to have Princess Henrietta in attendance to prevent his Master/Apprentice from doing something she'd regret.
Once Emereldas vanished and Louise was put to sleep again under a stronger sleeping charm, Saito lay on his bed and wondered in confusion about this new world he was living in. The magical system was primitive, the inheritance of magical power was decidedly queer and biased, the Church of Brimir was obviously up to something, even if no one here could see that, and they enjoyed influence and powers that the Roman Catholic Church would have drooled at during the time of the Crusades.
'This place doesn't make any sense whatsoever.' He thought in frustration. A five millennia old church that kept technology, magic and social progress at pretty much the same level? Not unheard of; the Ancient Egyptian Priest-Mages had done the same by collaborating with the warriors who rose to become Pharaohs. Enforced magical inheritance limited to bloodlines? Almost certainly the influence of an artefact of some sort.
What it all came back to though was one burning question: Why?
Why go through all of this? Why specifically create five separate kinds of Void Familiars summoned through the spells of specific kingdoms? Why work tirelessly to ensure that no kingdom vanished over the passing of the years? Why go through the effort of assassinating nobles in order to gather relics of Founder Brimir? Why, why, why, why, why…?!
The questions kept mounting in his mind and he had too little information to answer any of them. With a huff, he turned over and closed his eyes, dismissing his thoughts for the moment. Time would reveal more hints that an outsider like him would see and he'd get to the bottom of the seemingly disparate, but apparently interlinked, mysteries that Halkaginia seemed to extrude. If he had the time before going back to Earth.
'I don't care if it's been done before or not. I WILL go home!' he thought determinedly before sleep took him.
Unseen by either of the occupants, a pair of runes flashed into existence. One was the Gandálfr runes on Saito's left hand, while the other was the wand symbol on Louise's forehead. Shining with light blue light, they blazed forth for most of the night before falling dormant once again.
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Next Chapter: Spiritual Problems Part 2
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