"Has she ever told you why she has two finger bones?" Mordred asked.
Lin Ze shook his head.
"She wants... to become a god..." Mordred's voice was very soft, but it stirred up huge waves in the hearts of the two of them.
"A person who collects five finger bones will become a container for the gods, but the term "container" is too polite. In fact, the remaining will of the gods in the finger bones will swallow up the consciousness of the container itself little by little. When the five finger bones merge into one, the container will no longer exist, and only the gods will be left."
Sirius was leaning against the inner wall of the tree hole. Hearing this, he couldn't help but interrupt, "Then Morgana wants to be swallowed by the gods?"
"No... she thinks she is the god... so... she should be planning to devour the god." Mordred stared at Lin Ze's face and said.
"I have been studying with her for a long time. She never hides anything when she teaches me. Whether it is Elf Race's life magic or the death magic she has figured out by herself, she will always give it to me. From this point of view, she is a very competent teacher."
He paused.
"It's just... then one day, she told me that she found a way, a way to see God with her own eyes."
Mordred's voice deepened. "I was happy for her at first, until I figured out what was at the end of that road."
"She doesn't care?" Lin Ze asked.
"Of course she doesn't care." Mordred nodded.
"She has lived for so long that she has forgotten why she is alive. Only contacting gods or becoming gods can make her feel interesting."
The fog outside the tree hole slowly billowed in the forest. Occasionally, the wind came in through the cracks and rustled the dry grass on the ground.
"I tried to persuade her for a long time, but it was of no use." Mordred said.
"What makes me despair is that she has already started refining the "life" finger bone, so I have to take measures..."
"Are you worried about her?" Sirius asked.
Mordred smiled bitterly, "Actually, I can't say I'm worried. I'm just worried that she won't be able to suppress the so-called god in the end. When an uncontrollable factor comes to this world, we can't guarantee what it will bring to this world."
"It's just that her magic power was too strong. If she hadn't stopped in the end, I almost died in her hands. In the end, I used what I learned from her to set a trap for her and trapped her in Crow Valley."
"Curse?"
"It's not a curse, it can only be said that it put a shackles on her." Mordred corrected.
"Her own magic power has put a shackles on herself. As long as she still thinks about becoming a god, the shackles will not be opened. If she can really let go of this idea, the shackles will be released by themselves."
"So, you stole the "Life" phalange just to prevent her from collecting all five phalanges?" Lin Ze put the bone fragments into his pocket.
"Yes." Mordred stood up, walked to the hidden compartment on the inner wall of the tree hole, and took out something from inside.
An ivory-colored finger bone is about the same thickness as the "space" finger bone in Lin Ze's hand. The surface is also warm and matte, but the color is lighter, close to milky white.
"This is the "life" finger bone." Mordred put it in the palm of his hand without any intention of handing it over.
"Morgana told you that you can find the "time" finger bone by collecting all the finger bones, right?"
"Yes."
"She lied to you." Mordred said this in a calm tone without any emotion.
"The "time" finger bone is different from the other four. That thing doesn't stay in any fixed place at all. It is hidden in the long river of time."
"When I cast the spell on Morgana, I also blurred her sense of time, so she couldn't accurately calculate the progress of time. This is very important to me. The fruit of Tree of Life has matured a few years ago."
Sirius murmured, "So..."
"So, now the finger bones are completely under my control, and I can erase the teacher's mark from them at any time." Mordred sighed deeply.
"Erasing the mark... Morgana means..." Sirius said softly.
"Yes, since the teacher integrated the finger bone into her heart, her weakness has become this finger bone." Mordred chuckled.
Lin Ze leaned against the inner wall of the tree hole and stared at Mordred for a while.
The relationship between master and disciple is much more complicated than the "backlash" mentioned by Morgana in a few words.
"Then what should we do now?" Lin Ze asked, "You said that the "time" finger bone is hidden in River of Time and is not in any fixed place. What do you mean?"
Mordred stood up, walked to the hidden grid on the inner wall of the tree hole, and took out something else from inside. A rolled-up sheepskin, older than the one given by Morgana, with browned and brittle edges that would fall off when touched.
He spread the sheepskin on the haystack and pressed the corners with his fingers.
There was a mess of lines drawn on the sheepskin, like a child scribbling on the wall with charcoal, but the lines were moving.
It moves extremely slowly, like the blood vessels of a living creature.
"This is the teacher's record." Mordred tapped his fingers on the lines.
"This is what she saw when she spied on River of Time. You can imagine the river as a rope with knots on it. Each knot is a point in time. Most of the knots are dead knots. You can't open them from the outside and can only move forward along the rope."
"What about the "time" finger bone?"
"The phalange is part of the rope itself." Mordred said, "It is not at any node."
Sirius squatted nearby and listened, and couldn't help but interrupt, "Then how did your teacher know?"
"She has forcibly intervened in time, as far as I know, more than once, just to get the "time" finger bone, but... she failed in the end."
"The few times she forced her way into time, she paid a heavy price each time. Once she came back and lay in bed for three months. Most of her magic power was exhausted and she couldn't even speak."
"I once asked her why she was so obsessed with gathering five finger bones. She told me that after living for hundreds of years, there are not many things that can make her heart beat faster, and seeing a real god is one of them."
"Having said all that, do you mean that we can't take away this "life" finger bone from you?" Sirius asked very straightforwardly.
"No... I just want to tell you that Morgana is actually not that trustworthy..."
"I'm sorry... even if what you said is true, I still need this "life" finger bone in your hand because we need to go home..."