Galen roused himself from his deathlike sleep, having regained a small portion of his energy back from his leeching spell while he was unconsious. Dusting himself off, he looked around. The forest around him was dead. The grass was shriveled and many of the trees had died and rotted through. A few even had fallen to the ground, unable to hold up its own dead weight. This was why he never went into areas with people in them after a strenuous task. They would drop unconsious and if too close for too long, they would be sapped of their energy until they lacked the strength to breathe. He placed a gradual growth spell, as was his custom, to begin the growth of that patch of forest anew.
His small task completed, Galen began to walk toward the castle once again... but something felt different. Everything felt darker... somehow the aura of the city had changed... and it was somehow....... familiar. A shiver crawled up his spine and seemed to extend through all his extremities. That wisp of familiarity frightened him. He knew the feel of many ancient, powerful, and near uncontrollable forces, as well as the aura of many who sought to harness their power.
As First Wizard of the Council of Kingdoms, he was once called upon to defend it from enemies of all kinds, and during one of these times of need, he had been imprisoned and tortured with magics of every sort. Every magic user has a unique accent or aura attached to themselves and their magic, which usually takes years of being around to sense... But The Tyrants had tortured him to the brink of death and past it only to bring him back again and again. He endured their spells of pain and torment, but to this day could not be rid of their touch. Their magic sometimes seemed stronger when he was weak, and his mental and magical defenses were not at full strength, so maybe that was all it was. The remnants of the aura a spellcaster left on him decades ago...
As he approached the castle, he never felt it get weaker or grow stronger, as if the multitude of spells he had set to protect himself from this were simply not reforming as they should. Shaking his head, he stopped just inside the castle gates and looked around. Nothing out of the ordinary, it seems... maybe a bit of meditation in the garden would help him calm his mind.