Kingdom of fire and shadows: Useless magic and Salamanders.

At first, the Morr Jungle did not look very different from the forest surrounding Humol. However, the vegetation was denser, and it was much more humid. Xavier fell to the ground when he realized that the knight was not chasing after him. As a precaution, he decided to curl up next to a tree and reduce his figure to a minimum. The excitement of running for his life had passed, and now only the fatigue, hunger, and the aftereffects of the torture remained. His body was weak, but he had lived through worse; hunger was not a new concept for him. After all, he was nothing more than a poor devil from a little border town. His spirit and his magic energy were in worse condition; his long exposure to the Leech stone had left him destroyed. He had barely recovered from his discomfort while Aleum was being prosecuted; fear and survival instincts made him pull through.

Some tears ran down his face as he remembered how his opportunities had disappeared before his eyes. Now he was worse than before, without family, without money, without food or water, lost in the jungle of Morr. He was an exile, and if he approached Liev's tower, he would be killed on sight.

After resting for a while and dealing with his thoughts, he rose up. He had to move on; there was no other way. He walked among the trees and grass. The jungle was very dense; the sun could not be seen, a gray fog covered the sky, and the tree tops. He tried to climb up one of them to orient himself, but he could see nothing but fog. He had no sense of direction. After walking for several minutes, the air became heavy and dense, and a dark fog was spreading around him.

'Miasma!' said Xavier to himself, horrified after recognizing the ominous fog.

The miasma spread all over the area. Xavier turned around and looked in the direction he had come from, thinking of going back on his steps, but the miasma already covered everything around him, as if it had always been there. A noise from a breaking branch and footsteps made him stiff. He looked to his left with his eyes to make as little movement as possible. Delfin had drilled into his students brains a clear warning.

"You must make sure that you do not move abruptly in the miasma."

A skeleton was walking in his direction. Xavier paid attention to his surroundings without moving. Mugrirers, about ten, as far as he could identify. He tried to control his magic energy and reduce it to a minimum. It was not difficult; the Leech stone had left him dry. Although he had recovered some energy during this time, it would probably take more than a day for him to get back to normal.

Both the mugrirers and the skeleton passed alongside Xavier. Unlike other magicians like Clinton, who had superhuman control over his body, if he moved, he would probably alert the monsters, so he decided not to move. The skeleton passed a few centimeters away from him and moved away in a short time. The mugrirers were another story; they were slow as slugs. It took what seemed to be an eternity, but in the end, most of the mugrirers had left. Xavier was already tired; he had no idea how long he had been standing there.

Maintaining concentration to suppress his magic energy, staying still, and breathing superficially were exhausting. A feeling of cold began to surround him. The jungle seemed to drop in temperature. It was getting colder by the second. At first it wasn't a big problem, but soon afterwards he was shivering, he could not control his muscles, his teeth started clacking, and his breathing became intense. However, to his surprise, the mugrirers did not react. The temperature continued to fall. The moisture accumulated on the grass, creating frost, and the tree bark began to freeze. Xavier couldn't help it, and he began to move. The mugrirers remained inactive. He approached them, but there was no response. They were frozen. Taking advantage of the fact that he could move at last, Xavier walked off, trying to get away from the mugrirers and the miasma.

The deeper he went into the jungle, the miasma became denser and the temperature became colder. It didn't take long for him to realize that he was freezing. With no choice, Xavier used the little magic energy his body had recovered to raise his body temperature. He could not cover his whole body nor keep the heat on permanently; his energy was still very low, and his fire affinity was lacking, so he emitted heat pulses on his body and mainly tried to keep his hands and feet warm. His scarce affinity for fire was saving his life at this moment. Although its energy reserves were very low, he should be able to keep its feet and hands above the freezing point for a few hours. He thanked the heavens that during his time at Liev's Tower he had devoted himself to studying and practicing as much as possible his fire magic. Like Aleum, his practice of shadow magic was focused on the magic of transformation, as shadow manipulation or illusion magic seemed useless.

He continued to walk through the dense jungle. A few minutes later, Xavier found himself in the middle of a very bad situation. Several mountains of stone and clay, almost three meters high, of a semi-humanoid shape, stretched out in front of him.

"Necrogólems! What did I do in another life to have such bad luck?" he asked himself. Everything in his life has been misfortune since he became a magician. The golems did not move; they were probably frozen, like the mugrirers. Xavier began to slowly approach the mountains of rock and clay. The necrogólems were considered to be among the most difficult to deal with of all the monsters inhabiting the miasma. Their only weaknesses were the water magicians; the middle and upper-class fire magicians could deal with them; while the wind and earth magicians could only run for their lives, the golems were immune to earth magic by nature. The noise on his right made him stop thinking about what he learned from his classes. The base of the rocks and clay of one of the golems had moved.

"Shit, shit. Now I'm fucked." It happened too fast; he didn't notice that the temperature of the jungle was rising again. Soon, more noise was heard in front of him, more golems began to unfreeze. Xavier started to retreat. The panic he managed to avoid by encountering the mugrirers and skeletons appeared now. The necrogólems were monsters on another level; Xavier had no experience with them. He turned and ran without thinking where he was headed. He stumbled on a root and fell to the ground, hitting himself with a rock. Between the blow to the head, the exhaustion of prolonged use of magic energy, and hunger, his willpower failed, and he lost consciousness. The roar of some beast awakened him, putting terror into his bones. It wasn't a dream; he was in the Morr jungle. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious. Minutes?, hours? The headache from the hit was mild. It didn't seem to be anything serious. The beast roared again. Now that he was awake and paying attention to it, it seemed to be getting closer and closer.

"I have to hide; I must hide."

Xavier looked in all directions. To his left, something caught his attention. He dragged his body slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible. A smile came to his face when he confirmed his suspicion. There was a crevice in a rock, and the top was covered by trunks and roots. There was enough space to accommodate his body with ease. He had just settled in the crack when a creature like a giant black serpent passed by, crawling at full speed. Xavier had no idea what kind of monster it was, nor did he care; he only prayed for it to leave as soon as possible while holding his breath and suppressing his magic energy, which was a little more difficult now.

Just seconds after the serpent monster disappeared, Xavier allowed himself to breathe. He relaxed a little and was able to feel how unconfortable his hiding place was; something was poking at his back. After paying attention to his surroundings and confirming that nothing seemed to move, he began to try to settle down in the crevice and change his posture to a more confortable position. The crack between the rocks was dark. Alongside the penumbra created by the miasma and the jungle blocking the sun, the vision was difficult, but he had experience with that; at least the month that he spent in the dark at Liev's tower were useful to him for something. Each movement created some noise; so he had to move slowly and calmly. It was a pleasant surprise to take out what was stabbing his back; it was a small dagger in its scabbard. As he continued to search around, he felt something tearing apart.

"This is cloth."

He kept looking around, after finding a half-destroyed skull, Xavier confirmed his suspicions: he was lying on the remains of a corpse. For a second, he was perplexed; his initial instinctive reaction was to get out of the crack, but his memories of the monsters that could be lurking around him made him overcome that impulse immediately. Mugrirers, golems, skeletons, and a giant snake could be roaming around waiting for a victim.

"Skeletons".

A corpse in a miasma area would become an undead in a short time; however, the skeleton had deteriorated. The skull and other bones that Xavier extracted were fragile and broke easily. This skeleton had been in Morr Jungle for many years and had not been reanimated. He found other objects. A magician's badge confirmed that the remains belonged to a fire magician. Xavier found a necklace with a metal amulet, and when he opened it up, what he found made him happy.

"A leech stone. This will be useful."

The stone was small, but for someone with its magical energy so reduced at the present moment, it was more than enough. In any case, he just had to try to use his fire magic to spend all his energy in seconds and then use the stone. He also found some coins, they were dirty and dusty, but by the size and weight there were two made of silver and some of copper. Everything that was not made of metal was already rotten and fragile.

For a moment, he felt some peace and managed to relax a little. Without the adrenaline and tension, the fear returned to his mind; the events that had passed in the last hours would mark anyone. The way in which he had been accused and charged by the Masters of the Tower, the torture, the hunger, and the attempted murder. The fact that he was a shadow magician in the jungle of Morr, from which no shadow wizard or magician had come out alive, was the height of bad luck. Not even with the heavens conspiring against him would so many misfortunes happen to him in such a short time. Even if he managed to get out alive, he would be an exile. He had nowhere to go; his eyes were filled with tears as his mind was full of defeating thoughts.

After an hour of drowning in his sorrow and with the sound of the rocks of the golems moving around the crack, he began to look for an escape option. If things froze again, he would need his fire magic. He closed the amulet that contained the leech stone as he saw the golem silhouettes move. After some time, he had recovered some of his magical energy. His stressed mind now had the extra load of controlling his magic energy, but he had to endure. Several hours later, the golems stopped moving. The atmosphere was getting cold, and Xavier rejoiced at his decision as he used his fire magic to warm his hands and feet. When the golems completely stopped moving, he risked getting out of the crack.

The monsters were frozen. Xavier approached them without getting any response. He could not waste his time in such a dangerous place. Although the crack seemed safe, he couldn't stay there. Hunger, thirst, and that monster snake that roamed the area, everything was dangerous. Xavier took advantage of the cold to go deeper into the jungle.

He didn't know how much time had passed or how far he had advanced, but as it passed over a fallen tree trunk, the miasma suddenly disappeared along with the cold. Xavier turned, but the only thing behind him was a forest similar to the one he had in front of him. The air was cleaner now that the miasma was gone; it was difficult to know the time of the day or his direction, but without the miasma, his vision improved.

As he walked, something caught his attention. Right in front of his feet was a snake; it was wrapped around itself, ready to attack, but it was not a monster, just a normal snake. For Xavier, it was a blessing from the heavens; it was dinner. Without losing sight of the animal, he took a long stick. Breaking it from the main tree was not difficult. The stick in the shape of a long "Y" would be his tool to capture his prey.

"Slowly, slowly," Xavier repeated as he slowly approached the reptile. The last thing he wanted was to run after the animal or let him escape.

A quick movement allowed him to press the snake's head against the ground. The dead, damp leaves prevented him from seeing its head clearly, but the rest of the body was visible and coiling around the stick. Xavier cut off the body with the dagger, and it began to twist and twitch. Without wasting any more time, Xavier grabbed the snake's body, it wrapped around his hand. The feeling was unpleasant, but he didn't care. He stretched the body to drain the blood and the intestines. When you are poor, you learn to survive. Hunting small animals of all kinds was a common thing on the border in times of drought, hunger, or postwar.

In the woods or in the forests, the smell of blood means death. If there's any monster or a larger animal nearby, it'll smell it, and anything could happen in Morr's jungle. He continued walking, leaving behind the hunting area as fast as he could. His fire magic allowed him to cook the snake with his own hands as he walked. His magic energy was still far from recovering, but by being in direct contact, passing the heat to the meat was easy. The smell of burnt meat could attract some animal or monster, but being hungry and eating a raw snake was suicide. Walking while ripping off the roasted skin of the reptile and chewing the meat made him slow, but it was worth it.

A long time later, a drop fell on his nose. He looked up, but couldn't see anything. The trees and the thick fog covered it all. Another drop fell again. For a second, Xavier remembered how thirsty he was, and the idea of drinking from the rain provided him with a great joy, which died as soon as it appeared. After the two drops, there was a downpour of black water with a strong smell; it smelled and felt like tar, but the liquid was less dense. Everything was painted black; his clothes had turned black in just a few seconds.

"How lucky I am!" complained Xavier, exasperated.

He broke a branch from one of the nearby trees and used it to probe the way in front of him. Now that everything was turned black by the rain, if he met a snake again, he wouldn't see it until it was too late.

He continued to walk under the heavy black rain; the ground became more and more muddy and sticky; it was difficult and heavy to take a single step; short on breath, his legs were tired, but he had to continue. Suddenly, the rain stopped. At his next step, the ground was dry; he turned, and the jungle behind him looked the same green color as ever, without any trace of the black storm. He would swear that he had dreamed all of it if it weren't for the fatigue, the mud on his shoes, and the black, dense water in which he was soaked.

"This place is going to drive me crazy."

What seemed to be words came to his ears.

'It will take us three days to get to Tormon,' said someone.

"Are there any more people around here?" Xavier thought as he doubted his ears. Maybe he finally went insane.

'I know, but the cart is broken. What do you want me to do?' said another man.

'Hello, is there anyone?' Xavier started yelling. 'Hello, I'm lost in Morr jungle,' he yelled at the top of his lungs as he ran in the direction in which he believed the voices were heard.

'Hello, is anybody there? Please, say something!' He continued shouting and running.

After several minutes of running, all he managed to do was be sweaty, tired, and even more thirsty. His mouth was dry, his saliva thick and sticky; the last time he drank was while he was being tortured in Liev's tower, the night before his exile.

Xavier fell down, sitting on the floor; he could not walk anymore. The temperature began to drop suddenly.

'Again?' he complained.

He managed to get up, no matter how tired or thirsty he was; he was only sure that he couldn't stay in one place. Using his fire magic to keep himself warm, he continued the march between the trees and bushes.

A few meters later, the cold disappeared again. Xavier was no longer surprised; Morr Jungle was an irrational place. He stopped using his fire magic. A hiss alerted him. Something was behind him. He turned around, only seeing trees behind him; he turned around again, and in front of him there was a huge red serpent. The head was almost a meter wide. In a matter of seconds, his body responded to the threat, turned on his heel, and ran in the opposite direction. The cold came back, he looked back, and the snake was gone, but he continued to run. A few minutes later, he was freezing, his thirst was becoming intense, his dry tongue was sticking to his palate, and his irritated throat bothered him. Hunger was a part of his whole life, but thirst, on the other hand, was a new unpleasant experience.

Xavier sat on the floor to rest. For a moment, all the tragedies of the last few months passed through his mind. He thought about what happened at Liev's tower and the way in which he almost died. Xavier was not clear about what had happened, but he was sure that Aleum was not an arcane magic practitioner; he was too lazy for that, and the only reason he remained in the tower was the food. He was convinced that it was nothing more than Delfin's evil plan to get rid of them, but to kill Aleum, that was way too much. Although he didn't want to think about it, he suspected that Clinton had something to do with the whole matter. Xavier wasn't a genius, but he wasn't stupid either. When he realized that one of the reasons he attended the Liev Tower was Clinton's insistence, he came to a frightening conclusion.

"Instead of Aleum, It could have been me..."

He started to tie loose ends, maybe Delfin knew who used arcane magic; maybe it was Clinton, and they needed a culprit. Who better than a shadow magician for a fall guy? Clinton had asked him to borrow his book once; it was the only time he treated him like a person after entering the tower. The invitations, the party, and the approaching. Clinton needed someone to blame. He had been played from the beginning. A feeling of anger invaded his body; the anger made him forget for a moment about his hunger and thirst.

"That son of a bitch was using me from the beginning." His dehydrated body could barely produce some tears as he closed his fists and tightened his jaw.

A noise startled him. That hiss was the same as before, the one he heard when he saw the giant snake. A mixture of anger and fear flowed through his body; his heart beat fast and strong; a new hiss came from behind him; something was approaching at great speed, and he threw to his right by instinct. The huge head of the snake passed, rubbing his legs. As he fell to the ground, Xavier noticed a detail.

"This one is green."

The red snake went out to attack, and the two snakes wrapped up around each other in what seemed to be a fight. Xavier had no idea what was going on, but he wouldn't stay to find out. He rose from the ground with the intention of running away; he could not die there. He would not give Clinton, Delfin, and all those magicians and nobles satisfaction. He had barely taken a step when the tail of the green snake struck him, throwing him into the air. The impact pulled out the air from his lungs, and he fell to the ground, losing consciousness.

When he woke up, he was lying on the grass, his back, his abdomen, his troath... his whole body was nothing more than a collection of beaten, tired, and painful parts; the blue sky and the sunlight bothered his eyes. He covered his face with his hands to try to protect himself from the sun.

"Heavens, I can see the sky." This thought had stunned him; for a moment, he forgot his pain, his hunger, and his thirst.

He entered and smiled at the wonderful revelation. He was out of the Morr jungle. It took him a few seconds to accept that it was real and that, despite everything, he had managed to survive. He threw himself on the green grass again, and with a few tears in his eyes, he looked at the blue sky.

A few minutes later, the joy of survival had passed, and in its place, hunger, thirst, and pain made a comeback. Between whining and blasphemy, he managed to rise from the ground. Although his whole body was hurting, he didn't seem to have any broken bones. He started walking towards the open field. After the horrifying adventure, the only thing that was clear to him was that he would never go back into a forest.

After walking through the open field, he found a path. The clothes he was wearing now, black, ripped, dirty, and full of grass and branches, had lost their finese. Very little was left of the charm of the noble garment that he wore; he looked like a wanderer dressed in black clothes. However, Xavier was glad because, with his current clothes, he would not be the victim of thieves, nor would traveling merchants try to scam him. He had to avoid attracting attention; after all, he was still an exile, and his sole presence in the Dinasty was already a crime. Although he didn't know where he was, he was pretty sure no one knew him. Still, it was better to avoid trouble.

He looked around him and saw the state of the green grass, the moderate heat, the flowers, and the smell of the air; it was spring. That didn't make any sense; it was winter when he was driven out of Liev's Tower. It was not to his knowledge, but several months had passed since the events of the tower. The time in Morr Jungle was not a constant.

A few hours after walking under the burning sun, he met the first settlement. A village composed of small houses made out of wood, mud, and straw. It was similar to the poorest villas in Humol. Xavier immediately went to the well in the center of the village. The feeling of fresh water wetting his cracked lips, dry mouth, and throat was one of the most pleasant sensations of his life. For a moment, the inhabitants looked at him with some resentment. Women, children, and the elderly were the only ones left in the place; the men were in the fields, toiling, as was the case in Humol. This was perfect for Xavier; he had no intention of connecting with the locals. A couple of questions, and he would go his way.

'Good morning,' greeted Xavier, trying to be polite. The old man, sitting in a wooden chair in front of what was supposed to be his house, looked at him with an unfriendly gaze. His scarce and white hair; his skin, full of wrinkles and burned by the sun, gave him an even older and worn-out appearance. His cold gaze and mouth, likely lacking a few teeth, added to his face a permanent frown. Xavier knew the prototype, old, tired, and somewhat lazy, which goes straight to the point of things, so he doesn't have to talk too much to anyone. The classically grumpy old man.

The old man said nothing and only whispered. He looked at Xavier with feline eyes; his clothes were a disaster, but by the cut, it could be seen that they were once those of someone of fortune. The old man didn't like nobles.

'Abu, where am I?' asked Xavier.

Hearing the familiar tone and nickname used by most villagers in the border areas, the old man relaxed.

'This is Fuera de Mola, boy,' replied the old man.

'Fuera de mola?' asked Xavier with a doubtful face. He had no idea where he was.

'Yes, Fuera de Mola. That way, in about two days, you should reach Mola,' answered the old man, pointing to the west. 'How can you not know where you are?'

'I'm from Humol. I was traveling with a caravan, but we were attacked by thieves. I managed to escape, but I got lost. I have to go back to Humol with my uncles,' Xavier lied.

'If you go further south, in about four more days you will reach the Duero citadel; from there, you can follow the road to Flam or to the Farpas citadel, passing the Blam river,' explained the old man.

The information surprised Xavier. He hadn't spent weeks in the jungle of Morr. To be so far from Farpas and in the opposite direction of Liev's tower, he had to walk for many days. The distance from Liev's Tower, the change of season, time, and space itself worked differently within the jungle. For the first time in a long time, he felt lucky; by this time, they should have already taken him for dead.

'Thank you, Abu,' said Xavier, turning toward the potter shop. All the villas were similar, and the few shops were easy to identify.

The old man had seen a lot of people pass through his life: criminals, young adventurers, mercenaries, fugitives, and a myriad of unfortunate people wandering around the world. He himself, at one time, had been one of those stupid boys who believed in going out of their villa to explore the world, looking for fortune and fame. The majority then returned to their villages with more than a remorse and a bag of misfortunes in their minds. He saw in the boy a young man who was embarking on a journey of suffering and regret. For some fugitives, a reward could be sought, but the old man was no longer seeking fortune, and there was no guarantee that he was a criminal, so he let it pass.

Xavier went to the Potter Shop, which also doubled as a bakery using the same oven. In one of his pockets, he kept the two silver coins and some copper coins that he found in the body inside the cracked stone he hid, and in the other pocket, he kept the leech stone and the fire mage insignia. The dagger was hidden in his waist, under his clothes. He searched in his pockets a bit longer than necessary and looked pained to pay for the stuff he needed. That way, he made the shop owner believe these were his only copper coins; he bought two loafs of hard bread and a water higüera.

It was already late; the sun would hide soon. It was a bad idea to be on the road at night. Xavier decided to spend the night in the village. The men of the village had returned from work; some noticed his presence, but the rumors spread quickly in a small villa. The shop owner took care that everyone knew that he was a poor devil without money. The village ignored him. Xavier approached a pile of straw from an open stable where the bulls used to plough the fields rested, and soon fell asleep. At dawn, Xavier filled the higüera with water and departed for Mola. It was easy to avoid the guards; he only had to circumvent the larger towns and move around the villages or their surroundings.