When I woke up the next morning and let my hand roam over my head, I noticed that I had started to regrow my hair, maybe a centimeter or two, over the night. My first reaction was gleeful surprise, knowing that in the real world, the same length would have taken a few weeks, maybe even a month. But then I considered what it meant for my magic, if I assumed that I would be unable to keep magic in my system until my hair was back at full length, that glee vanished as fast as it had appeared. I would be down for two weeks or thereabout, limited to using my blades and instinct. Just at a guess, I would be weaker than Rai, simply due to being unused to not having magic in my fighting.

Wanting to be positive, I decided to wake Sigmir up by kissing her. Doing so banished all negative thoughts about my magical impotence and made the day look brighter by the second. Sadly, we could not stay on our furs and make out, I heard Adra call us over for breakfast. A few, maybe a few more, kisses later, we both stood and I pulled my hood back down, hiding my lack of hair. Lenore made a couple joking comments about my vanity but it wasn’t vanity that drove me, it was vigilance. If anyone had noticed the fact that my hair was magical, which wouldn’t be too hard, after all few people had softly glowing hair, it would be easy to draw the conclusion that I was weakened without hair. And that was without taking into account the stories about witches losing their magic when their hair was cut off, which would make that conclusion even more obvious. No, for now, I needed to hide my short hair.

Sigmir and I both ambled over to the others, with me grimacing a little when I noticed the influence the gem was still spreading. I wondered why the chunks of Eternal Ice were not acting in such a manner. My guesses were that either, they were and everyone was just too accustomed to the influence of Ice due to our surroundings, or that I was just too sensitive to Fire Astral Power, due to my racial weakness and probably the weakness due to the infusion of Ice Astral Power into my soul. The other possibility was that the enchantment on the gem was causing it to spread its power into its surroundings, trying to keep the bear’s magic fueled, only that the bear was gone. Or it could be something else entirely, if there was one thing I had learned about magic, it was that magic could always surprise you.

We had breakfast, not really talking much, before packing our things and moving on. Once again, Adra and Kelgorn went ahead, scouting, while Rai stayed back a bit.

I noticed him scowling when we split, and asked him about it, curious about his displeasure. The fact that he blushed a little and denied that he was any such thing only stoked my curiosity, while Lenore was equally curious. He decided that he would be the rearguard, together with Ylva, so that Sigmir and I were in the middle. I didn’t mind, I knew that I was greatly weakened so a secure position was appreciated.

Lenore and I discussed whether it was smart to have her fly patrol, after all, if she was in her Hallow, she was able to pass her Astral Power into me, allowing me to cast a spell or two, despite the draining effect my regrowing hair was exhibiting. On the other hand, if she was up there, it would be far harder for anyone to sneak up on us or surprise us in an ambush, so it was a wash. In the end, we decided to have her fly, if she spotted anything, she could return and still add her power.

“I think I know what’s wrong with Rai.” Sigmir told me, a few minutes after we had started out.

“Really? Please, tell me, love. He’s my disciple after all, if he has trouble, I should know about it and offer help.” I answered.

Sigmir laughed a little about my eager tone, before continuing.

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“Adra paid a lot of attention to Kelgorn, even now he’s the one in front with her. I think Rai is jealous but doesn’t want to admit it.” she grinned. I thought about it for a moment, and frowned.

“But, whenever she pulled him into a hug, to keep warm, he squirmed and struggled. And now you say he loves her?” I asked, confused.

“Love? That I don’t know. But attraction, lust, possessiveness? Those are much easier to see.”

“So, you mean he’s attracted to her but his attraction embarrasses him?” I asked, trying to understand. When I had felt attracted to Sigmir, I had acted upon it. She had reciprocated and that was it, why was there a need for embarrassment?

“Mhm. When we first met, your forwardness was a little embarrassing to me. But we were all alone, in your cave and I felt alone in the world. So, I simply enjoyed the closeness, the feeling of peace when you are with me.”

“I’m glad you did. I’m not sure how I would have acted if you’d rejected me. When I saw you, I never wanted anyone or anything like that, never in my life.” I confessed, remembering our first meeting. The strange sensation of needing to protect her. The feeling of deja-vu, of knowing her. And the feeling of belonging, that I desperately wanted to hold onto.

Grabbing her hand and squeezing a little, I asked. “So, what do we do about Rai?”

“Nothing. You won’t allow Kelgorn to travel with us, will you? That means the problem will solve itself. As soon as we are in Kolyug, we’ll tell the Guildmaster about the bear, give him the gem, get our rewards and get back onto the road. The agitation radiating from you makes me twitchy, so I can guess how uncomfortable you are. Once we are on the road, Kelgorn will be out of the picture and what happens, happens. I’d avoid trying to meddle with their relationship, I doubt that either of us have the experience to get the results we want.”

I thought about Sigmir’s explanation for a moment and had to agree. If I tried to meddle in their relationship, it would very likely backfire. I might ask Adra for some help, when it came to demonstrating holds and grapples, so that I would be able to demonstrate on Sigmir and Rai copy my actions on Adra, but that would have to wait a little longer. I had no desire to show Kelgorn more than I needed to.

For the next two days, we continued on our path, travelling towards Kolyug as fast as we could. Well, almost. Adra and Sigmir convinced me to take the time and hunt down what was missing for the normal hunting-quests, gaining a few more EXP in the process. I hadn’t checked mine since killing the bear, so I was happily surprised when I got the message that I had levelled to fifty-eight. I had gained a few skill-points during our hunt, but the level-up was what really made me happy.

What made me less happy was that, on the second evening after we had killed the bear, I had taken the plunge and maneuvered Adra away from camp, allowing me to talk to her about Kelgorn. Not about her closeness to him, but about my suspicions. That I didn’t trust him and needed her to be vigilant, so he couldn’t guide us into a trap. I didn’t tell her about the backdoor I had placed into his mind, that would likely be a step too far, in her opinion.

Sadly, the talk went downhill from there, she accused me of being paranoid and that he had only been friendly and helpful towards us, while I had treated him with suspicion. She even mentioned that he had talked to her about my hostile attitude, asking if it was something he had done or if I just hated males in general. When I frowned at that, she explained that he had asked the question because of the relationship between Sigmir and me, that such an unnatural relationship would only happen if both females hate males.

Once again, he only survived because of my magical impotence, or else I would have ripped his mind apart for that. Who was he to question our relationship? I was about to go after him with knives drawn, but Adra held me back and called Sigmir in, to distract me.

Her distraction worked, I calmed down when she held me in her arms. And my mind perked up when she explained to me that it didn’t matter what some idiot thought; there were only two people who had to enjoy and accept our relationship and that were the two of us. Her words and kisses helped but afterwards, I kept an even closer eye on him, almost hoping that he would betray us, just so I would be able to rip his mind apart.

Just thinking about it made me smile with wicked glee.