We stumbled through the trees heading toward the light still half-tangled together. It'd probably have been easier if we weren't so drunk and… uh, pushing and pulling.
I kissed Llewellyn again and he tugged my wrist and pinned me to the nearest tree.
"I think," Llewellyn said after a kiss, looking down at me, "that we should take a sobering potion."
What? No way.
"Hard disagree," I said, pulling him into another kiss. "It'd be a waste of Destabilized Whiskey."
"We might have to fight," Llewellyn said. Which was a reasonable point, but—
"We won't," I said.
I don't know how I knew it, but… I did. Even though I was plastered, Intuitive Drift felt clearer than usual.
And besides, the pull wasn't even that urgent. We could definitely make out some more.
I tugged Llewellyn back close and he let out a helpless noise, letting me lead the kiss.
A few moments later, Llewellyn pulled back just enough to do something with the System window and… took two potions out of his inventory, or the System Shop, or something.
"Here," he said.
"I don't want to take—"
He slid one into my trench coat pocket.
"First sign of trouble, we drink these," he said. "They take effect in three seconds. Let's not make our lives unnecessarily difficult."
I sighed.
Fine. But… less talking, more kissing now.
Seemed like Llewellyn liked my plan anyway, because a second later I was pressed to the tree trunk again.
If Penguin wasn't with us, we could've just—
But I didn't want to send him away now.
Besides, he was the only one sober here.
As if on cue, Penguin chirped, impatient.
"I know," I told him when Llewellyn pulled back, looking down at my pocket. "I'm sorry. We're going to check now."
Intuitive Drift was also still tugging at me, but— Honestly, it wasn't as persuasive as a make out session in a forest under the moonlight with a visibly tipsy Llewellyn.
Penguin chirped again.
"Let's," Llewellyn said, stepping back. "We can continue later."
"Alright," I sighed.
I wasn't too happy about this, but… he was right.
Also the itch in my chest was going insane now.
We made our way through the undergrowth, in the direction of the light.
Then, not too far off from where we'd landed…
Some sort of luminous pool of water was in front of us, giving off a purplish glow under the moonlight.
Huh?!
We hid behind a tree trunk, just in case, and poked our heads out to check.
"What the hell is that?!" I whispered, baffled.
Now that we weren't so wrapped around each other, I could feel the hum of Magic emanating from it. It was insanely strong and it felt... There was something sacred about it.
"I don't know," Llewellyn said, looking just as startled. "It clearly isn't water."
Penguin chirped too, sounding awed.
There was no one around and this place didn't seem guarded or protected.
Still.
"System?" I called. "What is that?!"
[System Notification: Pool of Sleeping Magic detected! 100,000 Coins awarded!]
What the fuck?!
First, what!? And second, how many Coins for this?! Fighting for our lives didn't even get us to 5,000 most of the time!
"You mean like the shard we left with Gléonwon?" Llewellyn asked.
Oh wait, he was right.
I wasn't sure why we were still hiding behind a tree, there was no one here, but… it felt disrespectful to just come out into the open.
[System Notification: Correct. However, while a Shard of Sleeping Magic is a crystallization of Magic, happening when a deep impulse within pure Magic condenses into solid form, a Pool of Sleeping Magic is Magic in its fluid, undisturbed state—suddenly made visible.]
I didn't know why, but my breath had gone weird.
"Is anyone else aware of this?" I asked, keeping my voice low.
I expected the usual The System is not allowed to disclose this information reply but the System actually said,
[Negative.]
"Wait, really?" I asked. "No one?"
[System Notification: Innishae's Ruler has correctly sensed the existence of pockets of Living Magic in her Kingdom. However, she's not personally come across any.]
What?
I blinked.
Damn, that Destabilized Whiskey was great, but… Thinking like this was difficult.
"What about the shards? Has she found those?"
[Negative.]
So not the Shards either. Well, assuming that there was more than one.
"So she's aware of Living Magic in Innishae, but… has not encountered any of it."
[Correct.]
But…
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked, baffled. "And why would I even be able to locate them, if she couldn't?!" Wasn't the Queen supposed to have a living magical connection with the land? Or was that just rumors?
[System Notification: Destabilized Whiskey has lowered User Ryo's resistance to his own Authority as well as to Living Magic's inherent pull. Paired with the User's high Intuitive Drift, this has allowed Living Magic to successfully guide the User to this location. Previous attempts to draw User Ryo here were blocked by the User's natural resistance.]
Huh? Previous what?!
"What about the Queen?" Llewellyn asked, frowning. "This is an insane level of Magic on her land. If she can sense it, why wouldn't she look for it?"
[System Notification: Queen Seolene's own Authority is bound by the Vows.]
I stared at the notification.
"But… she had my Authority."
I mean, mine wasn't bound by any Vows and it had dragged me here the second my resistance was lowered.
[System Notification: Until recently, User Ryo's Authority had been otherwise employed.]
What? Wait, wait. Employed for what?
Fuck, this was too confusing a conversation with this level of alcohol in my system! Maybe I should really take the potion? But… I didn't want to. I mean, I could always ask the System again later.
"Otherwise employed how?" Llewellyn asked.
There was a pause.
[…Information should not have been shared. Retracting.]
What! No!
"Not this again!" I groaned.
Llewellyn eyed me. "Again?"
Ah. He hadn't been with me the last time the System had retracted a statement because it had been about his… text messages.
Er. Anyway.
I cleared my throat. "The point is, why can't you tell me about my OWN Authority! I don't even know what that is!"
[System Notification: The System is not authorized to disclose that information.]
Damn it, here we were again.
I looked back at the pool.
It looked amazing, the surface completely still, emitting a faint light.
Penguin chirped again.
"You want to get closer?" I asked him.
He chirped emphatically.
Um.
Well, we were here anyway.
However, the hum of Magic was so strong it was making my head spin.
"Let's see how close we can get," I said.