Theo finished gathering the last shiny black scale from the young basilisk's body, placing it carefully in the leather bag Celia had given him.
His hands were still trembling slightly, not from effort, but from the effects of the icy gaze that had almost cost him his life.
He felt a general weakness in his body, residual nausea, and slight dizziness, as if part of the creature's lethal coldness had seeped into his blood.
Celia stood watching him in silence, her face like an icy mask showing no expression.
She offered no help or words of comfort.
When Theo finished and stood up, she merely pointed north, a silent signal to continue walking.
They resumed their journey, delving deeper into the ancient Forest of Whispers.
The silence between them was heavier than usual, burdened by Theo's failure and Celia's rare intervention.
Theo replayed the battle in his mind repeatedly, he had been reckless, he had underestimated the small creature.
He had relied on a direct attack and brute force instead of the tactics and precision Celia had tried to instill in him.
Most importantly, he had failed to rely entirely on his alternative senses when it mattered most, allowing the basilisk's gaze to paralyze him.
"The weakness you feel," Celia said suddenly, interrupting his dark thoughts. "It's not just exhaustion. It's the effect of the basilisk's gaze. Even young ones, their gaze leaves an imprint on the mana flow, causing a disturbance that lasts for some time.
If it had been the gaze of an adult creature, you would now be just another stone statue adorning these ruins."
Theo didn't look at her, but he listened attentively.
Her words were cold, but they carried valuable information, this weakness was not just a psychological failure, but had a physical and magical basis.
"These creatures," Celia continued, her eyes sweeping over the increasing ruins that began to appear among the trees, crumbling walls and shattered arches covered in petrified ivy. "Are a constant reminder of Eilander's folly. Not content with draining mana from the world and distorting its fabric, they sought to play the role of creator, crafting instruments of death beyond even their own understanding. The basilisk, the griffin, and perhaps the manticore we'll talk about later."
"All of them could be the results of experiments by different factions within Eilander, each striving to surpass the other in creating the most deadly monsters."
She stopped before a collapsed wall etched with strange, weathered symbols. "This symbol," she said, pointing to a shape resembling a twisted eye within a serrated circle. "Was the emblem of a faction known as the 'Soul Burners'. They were obsessed with merging living essence with raw mana, creating monsters with destructive innate magical abilities. The basilisk, with its lethal gaze, bears their imprints."
Theo absorbed every word, every piece of information, like dry earth.
The history of this world was not just ancient tales, but was carved into the stones, embodied in the monsters he faced, and explained the reasons for the ruin surrounding him.
His recent failure was not just a tactical error, but a failure to understand this history, to understand the nature of the enemy he had faced.
"You will continue your training in seeing without eyes," Celia said sternly, interrupting his contemplations. "But this time, not for intermittent seconds. You will tie this around your eyes." She threw him a dark, thick piece of cloth.
Theo looked at the cloth, then at Celia, his expression a mixture of hesitation and surprise. Walking completely blindfolded in this place?
"Don't hesitate." Celia said coldly. "Your last failure proved that you haven't learned the lesson. Mana must become your eyes, your ears, your skin. You must feel every stone, every root, every change in air current, every living or non-living presence around you. You will learn to trust the 'flow' not as an aid, but as your primary sense. Come on."
There was no room for refusal.
Theo tied the cloth tightly around his eyes, and the world plunged into immediate, complete darkness.
For a moment, he felt panic rise, a sense of helplessness and disorientation, but he quickly suppressed the feeling, forcing himself to focus, to extend his mana senses outward.
He began to walk very slowly, guided by Celia's quiet steps, which he felt as slight vibrations in the ground through the mana flow.
It was much harder than he had imagined, every step required immense concentration.
He began to feel details he hadn't noticed before – the texture of the ground beneath his feet, the cold emanating from different stones, the changing air currents around the trees, and even the faint mana of small insects or strange plants.
He stumbled several times, bumped into tree trunks, and almost fell into a small crevice in the ground were it not for Celia's sharp warning in his mind.
Every mistake caused pain or discomfort, but it was also a lesson.
He quickly learned to expand the range of his sensation, not just to focus on what was directly in front of him, but to build a three-dimensional image of his surroundings in his mind, an image made entirely of mana.
They continued like this for hours, Theo struggling in his imposed darkness.
The training was physically and mentally exhausting, but he felt something changing within him.
His senses began to sharpen, to become more precise, he began to feel confident in his ability to navigate, albeit slowly and cautiously.
He began to understand what Celia meant by "seeing" without eyes.
The ruins around them were growing denser and clearer now, even through the mana Theo felt the enormity of the collapsed structures, the towering columns that still stood defying time, and the stagnant, sorrowful energy that permeated the place.
These were the remnants of a powerful civilization, a civilization that had reached astonishing heights in magic, but ultimately destroyed itself.
"Stop." Celia suddenly ordered.
Theo stopped, feeling a change in the atmosphere, a change in the mana flow before him.
There was something different, something with a strong, chaotic signature, mixed with a faint, metallic scent of blood.
"Remove the blindfold." Celia said.
Theo did so, and his eyes blinked, adjusting to the dim light again. They stood at the edge of a relatively open area, an ancient square paved with cracked flagstones and covered in moss. In the center of the square, there were clear signs of a recent, violent battle.
Theo saw huge footprints resembling those of a lion, intertwined with drag marks of something heavy, and scattered bloodstains on the paving.
More alarmingly, there were several long, dark quills, similar to giant porcupine quills, embedded in the ground or in the tree trunks surrounding the square. Some were broken, others still intact, gleaming with droplets of viscous, dark fluid.
"Manticore." Celia said quietly, her eyes meticulously surveying the scene. "It seems it was hunting here recently. Perhaps it was fighting another beast, or a group of stray orcs."
Theo approached cautiously, examining the strange quills.
They looked incredibly sharp, and carried a dangerous feeling of poisonous mana.
"These are its primary weapons," Celia explained, carefully picking up one of the intact quills, holding it by its blunt base. "Its tail quills. It can launch them with astonishing accuracy and speed."
"And this viscous fluid is venom. The strength and type of venom vary with the manticore's age and lineage, some cause rapid paralysis, others terrifying hallucinations, and still others merely a painful death by decay."
She tossed the quill away with slight disgust. "It's a cunning beast, relying on ambushes and surprise. Its human-like face isn't just a deformity, it sometimes uses it to confuse prey or even mimic sounds to lure them. And it's incredibly voracious, devouring everything, leaving no trace."
Theo looked around, feeling a new shiver. Manticore. Another monster added to the list of horrors in this forest.
Every creature here seemed deadlier and more malicious than the last.
"Its presence here means we've entered its territory," Celia said. "We must be more careful. Your mana-vision training is no longer just an exercise, but a necessity for survival, you must feel it before you see it, anticipate its attack before it launches its quills."
Theo nodded, feeling the weight of responsibility.
His failure against the basilisk had been a harsh lesson, but it was necessary.
"We will continue walking," Celia said. "But keep your senses alert to the maximum. Feel every change, every unnatural movement. The manticore is a patient hunter, and it might be watching us now."
Theo's caution immediately heightened, he knew that if his aunt said something like this, then it was indeed present.
She was a wind element sorceress, in one moment, she could sense everything in the forest.
And although the Ancient Whispers was not just an ordinary forest, Celia was not an ordinary sorceress either.