Cale was thankful for a particular quirk of shared visions, which was that he didn't actually need to process everything he'd seen imdiately. They hadn't all been sucked into the mories Flia had experienced, exactly. Instead, her Spark had drawn it out into a sort of ntal package, which allowed Cale to step back the mont he realized what it was going to entail.
It still left him with conflicted feelings, though. That temple was certainly a temple to Vital, and if it hadn't been destroyed, then it was probably still around, sowhere in the desert. Go figure the Source of Vitality wouldn't let sothing like death completely eradicate him. What remained was more a remnant than the true Vital, but it didn't an sothing in Cale didn't ache when he felt that familiar intent within Angus's mories.
He'd have to pay his old friend a visit, once he got the chance.
It was a good thing he didn't let that mory fully unfold, though, because his attention was jerked away rather rudely by a presence he hadn't been expecting. This was largely because he hadn't been expecting any presences at all, of course; being in the middle of a deadly mage-killing storm tended to preclude any possibility of being followed.
And yet, here they were. That was worrying. It ant that whatever this was, if it was dangerous, then it was a level of danger he would almost never willingly expose novice mages to. Especially the incredible up-and-coming ones, like his apprentices! In fact, Cale was still rapidly revising his opinion of them upward, considering how often they kept exceeding his expectations.
That ant he was going to have to deal with whatever this was, though. The way it forcibly stole his attention was another point of concern—there had been a ti when he was alert to anything that entered his mana sense, but he'd long since trained himself to react strictly to signals that were sufficiently powerful or interesting or familiar.
In this specific case, it was all three, except the last part felt odd and sideways. Cale would have been excited if Damien wasn't effectively in the middle of soul surgery; if anything interrupted them now...
Well, he'd just have to make sure that didn't happen. Besides, he was still a little excited.
Cale made a series of rapid calculations, then frowned slightly. If he ended up having to fight, he'd have to maintain this barrier around his apprentices the entire ti, which wasn't ideal. It would have to be sothing of a last resort. As much as Flia had managed to calm Angus's soul down, the enormous quantities of magic already invested into the Aspect Cascade would take ti to settle.
And until that happened, the Utelian portion of the realm overlap remained incredibly dangerous. It'd be best if he went out there to confront this new presence before it got to them, especially since his barriers weren't entirely reliable within this overlap.
"Flia," Cale said, tapping her on the shoulder and making her jump. She was semi-preoccupied sharing the power of her Spark with Damien as he reached out toward the soul fragnts; Damien himself was barely paying any attention, already doing his best to reach out to Angus. "Sothing's here. I'm going to need your help."
Flia disengaged for long enough to shoot Cale an incredulous stare. "What?" she asked. "We're inside the Aspect Cascade and in a pocket realm. That shouldn't be possible. Should it?"
"It shouldn't be, which is exactly the problem," Cale said dryly. "I need to go investigate. Worst case scenario, if this barrier collapses and lets the Cascade in for any reason, I need you to get everyone evacuated. Just shunt them all into the Abyss. I'll owe Lev a favor, but she'll take care of you until I can get there."
Flia made a strangled sort of noise in her throat. "That's a terrible escape plan," she said. "And the Cascade alters mana aspects."
"It's the best we've got," Cale said, already striding toward the door. He paused for long enough to explain. "The storm can forcibly attune your mana, but it won't be able to get rid of the Spark you imbue inside it. This is a last resort move, don't worry. I'm going to do my best to keep the barrier up. I just want you guys to have a backup plan so you stay safe."
"Oh, now you act like a proper master," Flia grumbled. "Do you have any idea how much responsibility this is? We're all going to die if I screw this up, you know."
She was complaining, but Cale saw the way she was clenching and unclenching her fists, readying her mana just in case. He grinned at her, and she made an exasperated sort of noise before shooing him out of the tree. He laughed. "I'll be back as quick as I can," he promised.
Then he stepped back outside into grassy fields, and felt the shade of the tree he still didn't want to look at looming over him.
Thankfully, the presence that was setting off his mana sense wasn't hard at all to find. It wasn't even trying to hide itself, for one thing—it practically lood over the horizon as it approached, in a way that would have been ominous if not for the fact that it very clearly had no idea where it was going. Cale would have been amused if not for the fact that it very clearly held enough power to be an existential threat despite its own confusion.
He was still a little bit amused, in fact. That amusent was replaced quickly by a twist of concern and pity when he noticed that it seed to be limping.
It looked mangled, and even that wasn't quite enough to accurately describe the condition it was in. There was, he supposed, a very vague suggestion of a knight in its shape and form—with heavy emphasis on both the words "vague" and "suggestion
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