By the time dawn announced itself by sending a painful spark of Light Magic through the window I used to project the Astral River into reality, I was quite exhausted. Staying awake throughout the night wasn't all that bad; not only was I used to it, but I was superhumanly tough to boot. That didn't mean channelling that much power for that long simply passed me by. No, at the end of it, I was exhausted, and the painful jolt I received from channelling magic that was deeply inimical to my existence only made things worse. Still, I managed to let the projection fade away slowly while Luna spoke one last prayer of gratitude towards Lady Hecate, helping everyone to gather their bearing after being immersed in the Astral for so long. Or, rather, being immersed in an ocean of Astral Power while not being in the Astral River itself, as the exact metaphysical implications of my accomplishment were something I hadn't been able to consider in their entirety. Something to think about later when I was rested and recovered.

Just as I was thinking that I felt a familiar power fill the shrine, an ocean of silvery power infusing me and washing away the exhaustion I felt. Not just the exhaustion from a sleepless night but all the aches, pains and little inconveniences stemming from months of travelling, countless hours of magical work and all the other challenges of living in a Changed world, it felt as if I was born anew.

At the same time, a notification popped up in front of me, telling me that we had accomplished the 'Longest Night' quest set by Lady Hecate and performed a ritual pleasing the lady greatly. Quite flattering, especially as the next notification told me I received enough EXP to reach level one-hundred and seven and another informed me that we had all received Lady Hecate's blessing, lasting from now until the next 'Longest Night', so for the entire year. The blessing did nothing but slightly increase the pace at which we would be able to learn arcane magic. Not a huge deal in and of itself but given that it would last for an entire year? It was an incredible boon, one I would gladly take. Additionally, I realised that the channelling I had done further increased my Astral Meditation skill by four, bringing it to sixty-two and my Mind Magic skill went up by another point, to seventy-seven. All in all, excellent results for such a safe quest.

All around me, there were exultations of joy, some of which were in reference to the EXP people had gained, a few others in regards to the blessing, and, lastly, the vast majority stemmed from raised magical skills. It sounded as if getting immersed in Astral Power for as long as they had been, thanks to the projection I created, which helped the various people a great deal, pushing their skills just that little bit further. Granted, I doubted I'd be able to repeat the performance I had just accomplished for about a year, but even so, I was quite proud of myself.

As I was feeling quite content and considered what I would want to do with the time I'd normally spend sleeping to ready myself for the next night, I felt the most curious tugging sensation, one stemming from the two blessings of Lady Hecate upon me. Taking it as an invitation to talk, I focused inwards once more, following the sensation to see where it would lead me.

Doing so felt curiously similar to the Astral River, only that instead of the fundamental force deeply embedded into the bedrock of reality, I was now moving through something less dense, a uniform stream of power all attuned to a single concept. It only took me a moment to realise that this was almost certainly the power of prayer, essentially processed Astral Power donated by a fair amount of mortals towards the Lady Hecate. With that realisation, I started to spread my senses and quickly realised that it wasn't all that much. Sure, on a human scale, it was an overwhelming stream of power, but it was more along the lines of a wide river compared to an immeasurable ocean. Fascinating, though I doubted it would be all that relevant to my personal existence. At least not for quite some time if I chose to go down that route at all.

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For a moment, I had to pause my thoughts and chuckle at my own confidence. Or maybe my hubris, but then, I did have the trait Titanic Ambition, an outgrowth of my old Mortal Hubris trait, so maybe this was completely on-brand, and I simply took that part of my mind for granted by now. As often as I was introspective regarding my magic, trying to do the same thing with my core personality and behaviour was a less common thing. Maybe my studies into Mind Magic could be furthered by trying to understand my own mind, as atypical as it was. It might also help with the problem of retrieving Sigmir's memories from my Legacy if there was any chance of doing so.

But for now, I had a path to follow and after an indeterminate amount of time, I reached a familiar place by an unfamiliar route and found myself on the endless grey expanse of Lady Hecate's realm, only now, I could sense something faintly different.

Where before, the realm was just that, something I could see superficially; I could now perceive a whole lot more, though I soon had to avert my senses to avoid getting overwhelmed. The entire realm was a thing of magic, soaked with Astral and Divine power to an extent that made the Astral River I was accustomed to seem like a mundane brook filled with nothing but water.

"Greetings, young Jade," Lady Hecate's voice came from all around me and moments later, her tree-faced form appeared as if growing from the very ground. It took me a second to realise that the form I was looking at was nothing but an outgrowth, quite literally in this case, of the realm, making me think that the realm was Lady Hecate and Lady Hecate was Her realm, at least on a conceptual level.

"Not bad, your senses and understanding are growing, as is your power," the Lady complimented me and I couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction flow through me, if there was one thing I had learned about Lady Hecate, it was that She wasn't giving compliments just to say the words and influence people.

"I hope the performance we put on was to your taste, Lady Hecate?" I asked, doing my best to act with the right decorum, which was somewhat difficult as I still wasn't sure what that would mean. I knew how to treat a superior at work, and I knew how to treat a teacher, but I had no real idea how to treat a Goddess, especially not one who decided that your face, and that of your daughter, was the right face to represent Her in the mortal world.

"That it was," the figure I was speaking to nodded, "And it is the reason why I invited you here." She paused for a moment, taking on an amused expression, "What you did was quite impressive and something somewhat new. Not completely, just that particular execution was something I hadn't seen as part of a religious ceremony in my name, so I wanted to ask you if you would want to observe how I turn what you came up with into a ritual I can spread to those following me in the future. It would give you some additional insight into divine magic and our works, something I believe would interest you," she offered, striking me dumb for a moment.

While I had been confident that the projection I came up with was something new on Terra, to hear that it was something new to an ancient deity was something else entirely. Her offer, on the other hand, was something I didn't need to consider; it was something I immediately knew to accept; after all, how often did a mortal get the chance to look under the divine hood, so to speak? I doubted it happened all that often, if it happened at all outside of Lady Hecate's realm.

So, with a nod of acceptance, I opened myself as Lady Hecate instructed, only to realise that even the act of observing her actions would be a challenge. Lady Hecate worked on an entirely different level, as I quickly realised while sensing the streams of power all around me, some of which I recognised as parts of my project, others were beyond my current understanding. But, even if I couldn't understand what was going on just yet, I recognised some of the techniques used as versions of tricks I had picked up during my magical studies, only far more advanced.

On one hand, watching Lady Hecate drove home just how far I still had to go on my Arcane Path. On the other hand, I could see where I might end up eventually, like a far-distant ray of light on the horizon. Now, I only had to make sure that I saw that as an inspiration to guide my path, not something that would crush my spirit due to the vast distance I still had to walk.

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