As expected, Sigmir was conflicted when I suggested she should head into town with the others. She could easily understand why I didn’t want to head into town, having seen my troubles with civilization from the start and I could see that she was curious about cities, having heard some of her father’s tales, about adventures in distant places.

She brought up the obvious suggestion, that I could hide within my Hallow, while she carried Lenore on her shoulder, so that I could be with them, and under her protection, while leaving the Hallow during the night so that we could be together then. But even as she suggested it, she must have picked up my hesitant feelings, her voice petering out before she finished voicing the idea.

It got even worse for her, when Olivia mentioned that Ladrin was famous for its large, public bathing facilities, allowing you to lounge in warm water as long as you liked. To me, thanks to my affinity for Cold and the Ice-Astral-Power constantly flowing through my body, that sounded pretty much like torture, unless I used said power to lower the temperature to a point that I could enjoy. But if I did, everyone else wouldn’t be too happy and I would soon run out of power, making it non-viable. Sadly, it would be an interesting prank. Freezing over the hot-springs, maybe I would be able to create a build-up of pressure, until there was an eruption.

On the other hand, Sigmir enjoyed warm baths as much, maybe even more, than any other humanoid. It was something she could never have as a child, making it a special indulgence. With that added as an argument, she soon accepted that they would spend a few days in the city and use the connection between us to signal me, when they were leaving.

Once the plans were made, I stayed next to Sigmir for the next two hours, until we were near the city and I decided that anyone seeing us as a group would become suspicious if only four of a group of five entered the town. After giving Sigmir a lingering kiss, I shifted myself back into my Hallow and Lenore took off, waving her wings in parting.

For the first time in almost a year of travelling through Mundus, I parted from Sigmir with the intention of not meeting up for a few days. It was strange, when knowing that I’d see her again in a few hours, even when leaving Mundus entirely and not seeing her for a day, the sense of longing was less intense. Now, knowing that we wouldn’t meet for days, I was missing her intensely, just moments after we split. Once again, feelings, even my own feelings, confused me. Maybe especially my own feelings.

Luckily, I had Lenore with me, my dear, avian friend giving me a comforting presence, reminding me that I wasn’t alone. It helped, the feeling of companionship, especially when we joined our minds together to look at the scenery below. Lenore had quite obviously focused on altitude first, soaring quickly thanks to a combination of physical ability and magical support, allowing us to view a massive area of land.

From that high up, the city below seemed puny, insignificant, a mere speck of dust that wasn’t worthy of our notice. Or so Lenore wanted me to believe, the truth was, sadly, a little different. Due to the close connection between our minds, I realised why the high altitude we were at was a rare treat for both of us, normally Lenore kept a lot lower, closer to the ground, for security reasons.

The further away from the ground of Mundus we got, the less stable the Astral River around us became, with some streams surging with overwhelming force, while others were barely enough to keep the magic we generally took for granted alive.

Projecting my gratitude to Lenore, she started a gentle, slow descent, while letting us see as much of the city as possible, before we got too low and into danger of detection.

North of the city, the land slowly changed to wooded hills, quite unlike the rugged, cragged mountains of the Turan Range, giving both Lenore and me an impression of safety and comfort. If only the terrain was snowed in, that would be perfect, alas, to hope for snow during the early autumn was impossible. In a month or three, things would change and give me the advantage I had enjoyed for so long in the north.

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As we were flying above the city, heading towards the hills, the two of us were studying the streets below. There was a bit of fascination within me, as I watched the tiny humanoid figures mill about. going about their business. Maybe that was the perfect way for me to deal with large groups of people, keeping myself apart and observing them, without interacting.

“What are we going to do for the next couple of days?” Lenroe asked me, before continuing, “Where do we want to fly?”

I considered for a moment, before suggesting to head towards the north.west, not quite heading into the mountains but keeping an eye on the region between the road we would travel and the mountains. According to Olivia, more powerful monsters had to hide in the difficult terrain of the mountains, which meant that if there was something worth the challenge it would be in that region. At the end of the day, I was interested in power, even if I had a feeling that this region was quite picked over in that regard, with generations of Adventurers having taken the worthwhile bits for themselves long ago. Yet, at the same time, there should be something hidden away by Pantheon, for those who were carefully looking.

And for looking carefully for secrets, Lenore was the best partner, as most hidden secrets should use magic to conceal them, which she could see. In addition, we were able to cover a lot of ground and search from the air, giving us another advantage.

“North-West, it is.” Lenore agreed to my suggestion and I could feel her focus her magic, our flight-speed suddenly increasing by an order of magnitude. We had moved this fast before, but it had always been in a dive or a short, magic-assisted dash.

“I want to test something. Can you try healing and strengthening me with Blood Magic, while channelling as much Astral Power as you can into me?” she asked, bringing a grin to my face.

It was so similar to some of my ideas of magical experimentation and given how often she had gone along with me, there was no question that I would go along. Both tasks she had asked of me were both familiar and quite difficult to accomplish due to the fact that I was within my Hallow.

The easier of the two was the channelling of Astral Power, it merely required me to delve into the Astral and draw power into me that I could then channel to her. While I wasn’t sure how easy it would be if I had to sense the Astral in my surroundings, I had a major advantage, thanks to one of my traits granting me a greater connection to the Astral. Following that connection, I could reach out and increase the flow of power, allowing me to channel the surplus into Lenore, without impacting her own magical operation.

The healing was a little more difficult, essentially she wanted me to do what I did to my own body, when pushing myself physically. But that worked mostly because I was familiar with my body, or humanoid bodies in general. When using it on others, I had to be incredibly careful not to cause damage by accidentally increasing their strength to a point their bodies couldn’t handle.

So, how was the best way to get to know Lenore’s body?

“Can you do it?” she asked over our connection, bringing the realisation that there was a simple way. While merging into our full Avatar-form wasn’t wise, I had no idea how well that form could fly, bringing our minds close together was quite possible.

Closing the mental distance after a short warning, I almost became Lenore, our thoughts merging to a point just short of our Avatar-State. The complex wind-magic she was using to propel us forward became apparent and I gained a new appreciation for her efforts. At the same time, I understood why she hadn’t used it before, it simply being impossible to keep up, unless she had help.

When I questioned how we would find anything interesting if we moved this fast, she countered with the fact that so close to the city, there wouldn’t be any secrets. We would fly fast for the rest of the day, maybe for the next day, too, and search from there. Accepting her proposal, my mind went back to the magical challenge she had posed.

Carefully, with meticulous care, I formed the appropriate Blood Magic runes in a corner of my mind, letting them take effect slowly as the formed power started to flow outwards, out of my Hallow and into Lenore. It was a gradual process, allowing me to monitor her state from within her mind, each small twinge of pain giving me a little more information on how much we could take.

Finally, both of us started to tire in a way that was more than physical or magical, simple exhaustion forcing us to take a step back and only then I realised that we might have pushed a little too far. Where Lenore was sore, her muscles taxed beyond their capacity, my own mind was in a similar state, making magic a little difficult.

“Looks like a good place to sleep.” Lenore decided, having noticed a nicely large tree below.

Soon after, she settled down on a high branch and our minds drifted apart, as we went to sleep.