After the Grandmother gave us our tasks, we quickly left her house, not wanting to overstay our welcome. The door instantly vanished after we exited, leaving us standing on the porch, wondering just what had happened. Lenore took that moment to retreat back into her Hallow and to my surprise, Ylva did just the same.

As we walked off, I felt the need to talk with Sigmir, while I was truly happy about her loyalty and protectiveness, I did not want to have her sacrifice herself for me, it was not worth it. Especially now, during Beta when my character would be wiped anyway. We moved to the outskirts of the grove, where the Crystal Trees were replaced by normal trees.

“You should not talk about giving your life for me. I am a Traveller, this is just a guise, a fake. It houses part of me, yes, but even if I were to completely lose this guise, the real me would be no worse for wear. In addition, those who let us travel here and gave us these guises will reset them in the future anyway. I'm not worth your life.”

As I spoke, I was pacing back and forth, not really watching or walking anywhere. I was trying to make sense out of my behaviour, it was strange and illogical. But I also felt a need to say my piece.

Suddenly, my pacing was stopped, my body was bodily picked up and my back pressed against a tree. My eyes were level with Sigmir and for the first time since I started talking I truly saw her. Her Body was shimmering with a red light and her eyes had a red glow to them.

“You want to tell me what to do?” she asked with anger in her voice. “You want to tell me what is 'worth' it? You want to tell me how to feel?” now the anger faded from her voice, only passion remained. “I don't think you understand. All my life, I was going through the motions. I wanted to make my father proud, I wanted him to be proud of me so he would love me. Guess what? It did not work. There was respect, there was pride but never affection.

Then he was taken from me and everything crumbled. The shaman destroyed my strength and the chieftain and his thrice-cursed son forced me out of the tribe. Only stubbornness kept me going, I did not want them to win, so I kept going. But even stubbornness has a limit and I was at that limit, to the point that I was hoping to enter the Cycle just to end the pain.

That was when I met you. At first, I knew that by saving me, you would be hunted as well. For a simple act of kindness, my tribe would hunt you, just because the act of kindness was towards me. That's why I gave my oath to serve you, to compensate for making you a target and to satisfy the code of honour my father taught me.

You did not care that I was hunted, you did not care that my strength was wasting away. You simply embraced me and promised me everything would be taken care of. You have no idea how that felt, do you?

I will not give you up, I don't care if the gods themselves try to stop me, I will be with you. From now, for evermore. Those were your words. Now they are mine. We will be together, from now, for evermore.” With that she pressed her body against mine and gave me a kiss that tried to melt the snow around us.

At first, I was surprised by her aggression, then I felt my objections, the questions on the difference between AI and reality, all those thoughts, I felt them melting away in the heat of her declaration. The world shrunk until it only consisted of the two of us and the feeling of her lips on mine. I don't know how long we stood out there, trying to melt the snow. We came up for air a couple of times but went right back to it.

After a while, the need to make herself understood - to make me feel her passion - faded from Sigmir and she let me down but still held closely onto me. “With you, for the first time, I feel warm. Not my body, but my soul. I don't ever want to freeze again.”

There were no words, no thoughts. Just a feeling of contentment radiating from my core, a warm glow of happiness unlike anything I had ever felt.

“Yes, I think I know what you mean. I never knew what I was missing, until I met you. Together, for evermore. May the Cycle have mercy on all that try to stop us. Because I certainly won't.” I said with a smile.

“Oh, there is one more piece of wisdom my father had for me. Don't ask what tomorrow might bring. Use today to make tomorrow.” At that I had to smile. Carpe Diem, indeed. Why should the worry about tomorrow destroy my happiness today? Yes, I would seize the day.

When we walked back to the grove, I felt better than before. We were holding hands and it just felt right to me. Both of us were grinning like fools and had not a care in the world.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Now that the anxiety I had felt since arriving here and talking with the strange tree had been lifted, I was able to really take in my surroundings. Looking at the houses, it was as if some strange, jumbled movie-set had been transferred here, no two houses looked even remotely similar in their building-style. The village, if you wanted to call it that, consisted of fifteen, maybe twenty houses that I could see, all set back quite a way from the Nexus-lake in the middle.

One of the houses, a single-story house built out of simple logs, had an open work-area with some tanning racks and a strange looking man was working on them. He had a stubby nose, no hair on his head but a full beard. On a closer look, there were small horns growing from his temple and his ears were slightly elongated, pointy and furry. When we stepped up, I saw that he was not wearing boots but had hooves instead.

“Greetings. My name is Morgana. The Grandmother gave us some tasks and suggested we should offer the people here help in trade for help with our tasks. Would you be open to something like that?” The being turned and looked the two of us over, at first I thought he was evaluating us, then I noticed that he focused on the clothes we were wearing.

“Hello. I am called Praxi. Help you say? Well, there is something you could do for me and I'm sure I can find something to trade for your help. The winter pelts of the Deavers are quite useful but going out there in the winter to hunt them is a pain. If you would bring me, let's say ten pelts, cleaned but otherwise untreated, I will make it worth your while.”

“Yes, we can do that. But what is a Dreaver?” I asked.

Quest Alert! Collect Dreaver Pelts for Praxi Quest Difficulty Easy The tanner Praxi in Neyto wants you to collect Dreaver-Pelts for him. 0/10 Quest Reward Help from Praxi

“Dreaver are rather large, belligerent cousins of the Beaver. There pelts are incredibly soft if treated right, making them a joy to work with. You can find them close to the rivers and streams in the area. If you find one of their dams, you are golden. Oh, and I'll pay extra if you find more than ten pelts.

You should ask old Thekk, the Smith and Kallista as well. They might have something for you.”

With that he pointed two more houses out to us.

We walked over to one of the houses he had pointed out, this one made fully out of dark stones and with a large, open smithy and looked inside. There was a stout, grey-skinned being with a large branding on his face. The rest of his face was dominated by a large beard and an unwashed, curly mane of hair, the colour of granite. Every fantasy-reflex told me 'That's a dwarf!'. He must have heard us enter, as he started yelling without even looking up. “No, I already told you, I will NOT craft weapons for you. You could not pay me enough to do so. Now, go away, I already moved out here to get peace!” as he yelled, there was a slight feeling of power coming from him, reminiscent of the Grandmother but weaker by a couple orders of magnitude.

“Greetings, Master Thekk. The Grandmother told us that the inhabitants of Neyto might have work for us, in exchange for help with the tasks she set us. Praxi recommended asking you. Oh, and I'm called Morgana.” I was able to see him take a deep breath to shout me down and then, as I mentioned the Grandmother slowly expel it. Then he looked up, seeing Sigmir and me for the first time. Suddenly, I felt as if thousands of ants were crawling over me, creeping me out.

“Tasks for the Grandmother you say. Well, if the old Lady wants to play with you, so be it. I guess with your strength, you could go collect me some Fangwood, I could use it to make more Fangcoal. Here, take this Bag of Holding with you, it's large enough that you can fit the wood inside without too much trouble. I only need the trunks though, 5 would work quite well. Oh, and here is an axe to chop the wood with, no need to abuse your weapon, Miss Giantblood.”

As I took the offered Backpack and Sigmir moved to grab the axe, I got a screen.

Quest Alert! Harvest Fangwood for Thekk Quest Difficulty Easy The smith Thekk in Neyto wants you to harvest Fangwood for him. 0/5 Quest Reward Help from Thekk

“Er, excuse me, where does one find Fangwood? I've never heard of it.” I asked.

“Obviously, Fangwood grows on Fangtrees, ya numpty. There are a couple of them about half a day's march east of here. Rule of thumb, if the tree has fangs, it's a Fangtree. Now, git.”

With that, we left the charming blacksmith to his own devices.

Outside, I asked Sigmir, “Did you also have a creepy feeling when he looked at you?” she looked back at me and said “Yes, he observed us and he didn't bother to be casual about it. But impressive, a blacksmith who reached the second divide, that's rare, and in such a remote place at that.”

“The second divide? Was that the feeling of power when he yelled?” I asekd.

“Yes, most of the time, powerful people restrain their aura, mostly out of courtesy. You wouldn't want to be around people permanently shouting, would you?” Sigmir answered.

“One day, you will have to teach me.” I smiled. “But now, let's go see that Kallista woman.”