I don't quite know why, but when I thought of what that asshole Shade was doing, I got chills running a marathon down my spine. It was really freaky. Maybe it's better that I don't know.

After that, I desided to meditate once more and have another chat with Dagon. Why? Because there were a few things I forgot to ask from him the last time. Seriously, it feels like my memory is really starting to let go. The other reason is that I want the girls to have their sleep. Plus, I'm pretty sure Elie will go to bitch mode, or something, if I wake her up.

…...........

”Why back so soon?”, Dagon asks. ”I didn't expect you to appear here so frequently. The Hall must really like you.”

”Yeah, the thing is...” Hold it! What was that? ”The Hall likes me?”

Dagon perks up slightly. ”I...... No.” He said and sighed. ”You deserve to know.”

I raised a brow. ”Know what?”, I asked suspiciously.

”Remember when I told you it was I who saved you and brought you here?” I nod. ”The truth is, it was not me who made the desicion. The Hall of Blank did.”

Wait, wait, wait! This place brought me here after I was shot? How does that work?

”You see, The Hall is not simply a place I reside in.”, Dagon continued. ”The Hall is sentient and even older than I am. It may have been here since the dawn of time itself.”

I looked around. ”So this place is alive?”

”That is puzzling me as well.” Dagon admitted. ”I don't feel the spark of life in this place, yet The Hall acts like an sentient being. It seems to have thoughts and preferences. Even with that much knowledge of this place, I am not even sure if it exists at all.”

This was getting way too confusing for me. ”You know, why don't we drop this subject until a later date?” I see him nodding. ”Good. Now as I was saying, I forgot to ask a few questions from you the last time I was here. My memory has been a bit funny lately.”

”Ask away. We have a little time.”

”Okay, first question. Can there be fragments of my soul that I am not aware about?”

”Naturally.” Dagon said. I gave him a questioning look. ”What I mean is, every living being has many sides. Some more apparent than others. Some are hidden so deep within that there is no way to notice them.”

Okay, makes sense.

”It is also possible for a single fragment to fragment even more, making multiple Demi-Soul Fragments. All pieces of one fragment.”

That is interesting. Okay, next question.

”If there is magic in this land, who can use it?”

”Well, unicorns mainly.” He said. ”But there is an alternative for non-magical races, though this is not widely known knowledge. Certain words from a certain language can be used for different kind of magic. That language is Latin.”

Latin? Is he shitting me? I know it's supposed to be a magical lost tongue, but seriously? I need to try that when I get back to reality.

…............

I opened my eyes..... I just jinxed myself and cut my visit even shorter, didn't I? Oh well, let's try some of this magic.

….........

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Bling!

I facepalmed.

I don't know any latin! I knew I should have taken that crash course in school. But hey, it's not like I knew it would be useful one day! Besides, why would you want to learn a dead language that barely anyone can speak? It makes no logical sense!

Okay, calm down. Think. There has got to be at least one word you know. Seach for it!

Search.Exe initiated.

Please wait....

….....

.........

.........

1 File found.

Oh yeah. Now I remember one. I opened my mouth and said one word.

”Ignis”

The moment the words left my metaphorical lips, I was blinded by a bright light and deafened by a loud explosion.

”........!”, I heard a faint noise. Must have been either Eve or Elie. My ears were ringing like mad. My vision was switching between black and blurry. I could literally see the world spinning and spiraling. Talk about a serious case of vertigo.

”Hol........ou......a...ight?” Faint words, bits and pieces. I was really starting to get worried.

'Y_u a__ al____t?'

….... What was that?

'D_ _o_ h__r _s?'

What is this voice I heard. I couldn't understand it. It was way too broken and large portions of it were missing. It allmost sounded like it was inside my head.

'__u ca__ot __ar _s?'

'P__y.'

What were these voices? Why can't I hear what they say?

I felt pressure on my hand.

”Hollow?”

I finally could hear again. I was still mildly blinded and everything was blurry. I recogniced the voice though. A certain diamond dog.

”I'll live.” I said gruffly and couched a couple of times. I tried to get up but couldn't move. Well, I could but the tsunami of pain stopped me. I couldn't help but grunt slightly. I felt like I was run over by a train.

”Hollow okay?” Eve asked, worried. How sweet of her.

”Can't move. A little bit hard to see as well. Other than that, I'm okay.”, I said and grunted once more as a wave of pain rushed trough my body. ”Okay, maybe not so okay.”

”What the heck happened?! Why are you in the middle of a big hole in the ground?”, Elie asked.

”A big....” What!?

My eyes started working again and what I saw left me speechless. I was at the bottom of a two foot deep crater. Did that explosion cause that? But what could've caused..... Oh. Oh my.

”I think I did this.”, I said.

”...... What”, Elie said, baffled.

”I tried to do something, but it seemed to backfire.”

Did that spell I tried to use have something to do with this? Most likely. But why would it do that?

Did I say it wrong or mess it up some other way? Or maybe my body just isn't meant to use such power. One more thing to ask Dagon the next time we talk, I guess.

The pain started to go away. I looked to my left and there was Eve, on her knees right next to me. I looked at my hand.

”Ummm, you can let go now.” I said.

Eve blinked and then looked at my hand and saw that she was still holding it. After a few seconds of ackwardness, she jerked her hand away and..... Did she just blush ever so slightly? Oh well, doesn't matter now. I tried to up, now with less pain holding me down. I jumped up and was now standing. Bad. Move.

I immidietly felt dizzy and was about to fall over but Eve caught me and gave me enough support to stay standing. ”Thank you.” I said and shook my head to make the dizzyness go away. ”Must have gotten up too quickly.” I quickly regained my balance.

”Don't worry about me. As I said, I'll be fine.”, I assured them. ”We need to get moving. The sooner we are out of this forest the better.” It was true. I didn't want to stay in a place this dangerous longer than I had to. Elie nodded, followed by Eve.

I turned to take down the tent and throw it into The Void.

…........

............

I'm doing this alone again, aren't I?

…........

Well, better get to work then.

-At the same time, somewhere in Trottingham-

”Scatter! That creature couldn't have gone far.” commanded Green Shield as the guards split into different directions.

The hunt for the creature in the dark coat was so far unsuccessful. The creature was nowere to be seen. Or, so some would think.

Shade was snoozing on top of an old watermill. Well, he wasn't really sleeping, he just had a blank mind. Not thinking of anything. Basically, he was a vegetable.

”Man, this sure blows.”, He broke the trance. ”God, if you are there, care to give me a bottle of rum? Just asking, is all.”

Just then a bottle dropped right into his hand. Shade looked at it. ”Sweetness.”, He said as he gave the sky a thumbs up. He stood up and opened the bottle. He was about to drink the heavenly liquid. He could almost taste it.

*Thonk*

An arrow flew past and shattered the bottle before sticking to the wooden wall. Shade just looked at his hand, which now only held a broken bottle, the liquid inside pouring onto the roof.

”What the fu-!”

”There it is!”, A shout bellowed from the ground.

Shade looked down and saw two unicorn guards holding bows with magic. Both took another shot at the coated man, the other one missed and the other arrow was caught from the air. Shade hadn't even flinched as the other arrow flew a few inches next to his head.

He touched the tip of the arrow. ”Ow!” It was sharp allright. He just jumped down from the roof and landed on the large waterwheel, which was now pretty useless as the water had dried up long ago.

He gazed down to the guards and saw that they had been joined by three other guards, these ones normal ponies. ”Ya better remember me, yah?”, He said in a ridicolous voice. ”Ya better remember the day ya almost caught Shade Me-” He was interrupted by a loud crack, as the wooden pole that kept the watewheel in place snapped. It was old after all. Shade gulped. ”Well. Shit.”

The wheel hit the ground and started to roll forward, Shade starting to walk backwards so he would not fall off. As the wheel went, it rolled over one of the eath pony guards.

”Sorry!”, Shade yelled as the wheel kept going. He looked ahead and saw that he was heading straight for a steep downhill. ”God dammit!”

As the wheel started decending downhill, Shade started frantically running backwards and trying to keep his balance at the same time. ”ShitshitshitshitshitshitSHIT!”, he screamed in rapid succession.

A bumb on the wheels path made it shake lightly, making Shade lose his balance and fall off. The wheel kept going forward. He hit the ground hard.

”GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Right on top of a sharp, pointy rock.

Shade layed on his back and shortly rose his head to inspect himself. Everything seemed alright.

”I'm alive! Hehe. HAHAHAAHAA! Praise be to Yevon!”, he yelled out and raised his hands up in the air. He was silent for a moment. ”Why can't I feel my legs?”

He heard a rumbling sound and raised his head to see what it was. ”No. Fucking. Way.” The wheel was now coming back at him. It had started to move into the upposite direction after meeting an uphill.

”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”, Shade screamed(like a girl) as the wheel rolled over him and he lost consciousness.

So, Hollow tries out Latin based magic with suprisingly painfull results. And while that is happening, Shade is getting rolled over and knocked out by a big wooden wheel. And, once again, is denied his booze that fell from the heavens.

Now, what is the reference? It shouldn't be too hard to pinpoint. Here's a hint: It's the waterwheel. You know, Pirates of the Caribbean? Anyone? I thought so. Now, this took longer than usual to finish, mainly because of the combined efforts of an low attention span and writers block. Curses!

Watching you,

Doctor D, The Shadow Broker Next Chapter: Team Rocket Blasting off..... wait, no. Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 3 Minutes