I won the election fair and square. The gem stayed in a box for the duration of the election time. Somehow, the shifted reality was very much for the restoration of environment; it seemed that many factory workers who had been unhappy had enjoyed the restoration work at the field. The change worried me, but I reminded myself that there was no going back. The investigators came and went, never apparently finding the gem despite the mages that started walking around the town.

The goo eventually disappeared with the smoke-or-miasma and I was able to move on what was now a lush field. There was not even a hint of the factory I — and many others — had worked at left. It was like it had never even existed.

I had a terrible, terrible feeling as I walked to the ruins of the factory. The gem in my hand left my chest feeling tight. My body was telling me that this dark magic, whatever exactly I was holding, was not something I was meant to wield.

The black gem that the fortune teller was offering me was… suspicious to say the least. There was something oozing out of it. If I were to compare it to something, I'd say it was like smoke or miasma.

I looked up from my screen, puzzled by an oddly familiar sound. It rang out again, and again... like footsteps? Others in the office were looking up as well, everyone looking either confused or irritated by the sudden noise.

The forest fire was raging around us. If we needed proof that the local dragon had to be dealt with, we now had it — and we were not in the position to engage it at all yet.