The wristband disappeared upon making contact with the strange book, it was sucked in and seemingly devoured!
“Ah. Please don’t worry, this is just part of the process! You will get it back in perfect condition, I promise!” Till noticed the woman’s gaze, she leaned over to observe what was happening, and she saw that the empty page began to fill.
It looked like the wristband was being drawn upon the page with the exact colours it had, every single detail was marked down perfectly, however only the front of the artefact was drawn.
Once the drawing was done, black ink appeared in the form of letters, slowly they spelled out words, the words chained together and formed into sentences; Till looked awestruck as his eyes read over every word that appeared, “Incredible! This wristband can absorb many kinds of poisons! Apparently, it protects its wearer by absorbing it in their stead.” he revealed with excitement.
“That’s an incredible treasure! I have to admit, I am kind of jealous.” Till scratched the back of his head and smiled, then touched the drawing, his fingers sunk into the page of the book, most of his hand moved inside, before he pulled it back out, along with the wristband.
The drawing faded away, the page became white again, even the text vanished until the book returned to its original state.
Till offered the wristband back to the hooded woman, she sat there unmoving in front of him, he hadn’t even noticed how close she had gotten to him.
He gasped quietly, her scent enveloped his nose, it was sweet, the smell reminded him of when he was just a kid, when his parents frequently brought home berries for him and his siblings.
Till got lost in his hazy dream, his smile became warmer as his eyes lost their focus, he remembered how he would quarrel with his brothers and sisters, and how his parents would scold anyone that took too many.
When he returned to reality the artefact had already left his palm, the hooded lady was currently fitting it around her wrist, her exposed skin was as pale as snow and drew in Till’s gaze, “Excuse me... may I ask where you are from?”
Till was unable to see her eyes, but even then, he was still certain she was looking at him with scepticism, deciding whether she should answer truthfully or not.
“Aventia.” she answered plainly after several moments, Till nodded, he couldn’t tell if she was lying.
“Aventia? Seems pretty dangerous to me to travel between here and there. After all, it looks like a war is brewing between the Ironhoofs and Aventia.” Matilda joined their conversation again.
“Ah! Did you run away to escape being conscripted?” Till followed up.
“I did not run away!” the hooded woman protested, she sounded furious, but quickly realised that her outburst was unfounded and returned to her usual silence.
Till bowed his head, “I am terribly sorry, that was very inconsiderate of me! I didn’t mean to pry into your private life.”
The woman shook her covered head, “No. It is my fault, I know you didn’t mean to offend me.”
Till averted his gaze, he was thoroughly humiliated and felt bad for inconveniencing this person he had known for less than an hour, the awkward silence returned, not even Matilda wanted to press the conversation.
The hooded lady cleared her throat, “About your artefact.” she pointed at the book in Till’s hand, “To be able to learn about the abilities of rank one artefacts... is it of rank two?”
Till’s eyes went wide as he heard her words, “Rank two?! No, that’s impossible... if I owned an artefact of such power, then there would surely be tens of assassins after us!”
“Moreover, the artefact doesn’t really belong to me. I borrowed this book- or rather, I rented it, because it can reveal information about artefacts, and we are looking for a magical staff that is imbued with-”
“Till!” Sarah interrupted him, preventing him from leaking the full contents of their contract.
The boy lowered his head in an attempt to dodge the scornful look his ally was giving him.
“Please pretend that you didn’t hear anything about a staff, as pleasant as it is to have you along, we are barred from revealing our goal to outsiders.” Matilda’s words were spoken in the hooded woman’s direction but were clearly intended as a reminder for Till.
Till was glaring holes into the floorboards of the carriage before spotting the blue tear-shaped artefact that was still resting on his lap; he was quickly invigorated as he stuffed it into his book.
But that vigour evaporated just as quickly, as the results started pouring in, or at least should have, “Huh? Why is it empty?” the boy tilted his head, a drawing of the tear appeared, but there was no text.
He waited and then waited some more, but nothing changed, “Do you know what could cause this?” the woman asked.
“The person I rented it from did tell me that it doesn’t work on every artefact, but he couldn’t tell my why either... but that’s supposed to happen very rarely.” Till pulled the tear back out and carefully inspected it, “Are you sure this is an artefact? Looks like a pretty gem to me.”
“I am pretty sure.” she answered, but she left no room, or expressions to guess why she was so confident.
Till held up the tear in the air, placing it between his eye and the bright sun far out in the distance, he squinted his other eye shut.
The blue of the tear lit up beautifully, the longer he looked inside the calmer he felt, like a cool spring breeze during the burning summer heat.
“You can keep it if you’d like.” the woman offered, but Till’s entire body shook, “I wouldn’t dare! This is yours!”
The hooded woman raised her head, she looked at the sky, and Till managed to gleam a sneak peek beneath a part of her hood, just enough to see a smile.
“It’s fine. You just remind me of a boy I knew...” her smile shrank, until it returned to a blank state, “A boy that I failed...”
“Keep the artefact. Consider it payment for the information you gave me on the wristband.” she continued, now facing Till.
Following her words a somber mood settled in; the day passed, and night creeped onto the horizon, they passed through several flatlands and small forest passages as the sun completely disappeared.
With no more sunlight, the cold winds grew harsher, even the horses looked dead tired and in need of a warm campfire.
Matilda ordered the caravan to halt for the night, and had Miser bring out some of the firewood from the carriage, they collected along the way.
She borrowed one of Sinnah’s arrows that had a metal tip and clashed it against her hammer, to create sparks that would start the fire.
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It took her several attempts and caused the arrow to become unusable in the process, but at the centre of their makeshift camp now was a source of light and warmth.
They separated the horses from the carriages, and everyone took a seat somewhere around the campfire.
The horses neighed in content, and the wood cracked ever so often, creating quite the relaxing ambiance.
Smoke rose into the vast black night sky as Till and Sarah unloaded bedrolls from the carriage that acted as a soft bedding underneath, as well as a warm blanket by covering most of the body, except for the head.
There were five of these bedrolls, and separate blankets for Tomalta, as the bedrolls were far too small for him to fit inside.
Matilda turned to the hooded woman, “We don’t have any bedrolls to spare, so I suggest you rest in the back of the carriage, I left one of Tomalta’s spare blankets over there.”
“Thank you, but the cold doesn’t really bother me.” the woman returned.
“Well, suit yourself. The nights can be quite harsh around these parts, though they are nothing compared to the icy storms of the Whitewood family’s territory.” Matilda turned back towards the fire.
“Boss. Who will stand guard tonight?" Sarah asked her party’s leader.
“Miser and Tomalta will take the first half, I’ll be doing the second, along with our newcomer here.” Matilda answered while gesturing at the hooded lady.
“Any complaints?” she questioned, but there were none, as usual.
“Alright, make sure to keep the fire going, wards of potentially hungry animals. Good night everyone.” Matilda made her way into her bedroll, the others that weren’t on guard duty also did the same.
The hooded woman wrapped herself in the blanket at the back of the carriage, it was rather thin, now it made more sense why Tomalta had to use several of these...
She closed her eyes and leaned against the walls made of wood, hardly a comfortable place to sleep, but still better than the dirt all around her.
The singing of birds was long gone, in their stead crickets were loudly chirping.
Although her eyes were closed, she didn’t feel tired, partly because she had slept throughout her journey to Pyrehaven, but also because there was no chance, she would let her guard down so easily around a group of strangers in a place far off from any civilisation.
They offered her a blanket and some travel rations earlier on, but just those gestures were far from enough to gain anyone’s trust.
Even if she wanted to get some shut eye, it wouldn’t amount to anything beyond superficial sleep.
The giant, Tomalta, sat at the bonfire, ensuring that the flame wouldn’t go out by feeding it dried twigs, while Miser made some rounds to the outskirts of their small camp, and back, warming himself by the fire for several minutes before repeating this same loop.
He took light and slow steps when approaching his sleeping allies, but the hooded woman heard every blade of grass he stepped on.
Several hours went by, there was no conversation to be had with Tomalta, so Miser used his walks to stay awake and focused; he woke Matilda, who then absolved the two of their duties, allowing them to get a few hours of rest.
Matilda climbed up the carriage and looked at the stranger, she held her breath and was able to hear the faintest of snoring.
Her eyes narrowed, taking a look underneath the woman’s hood would be incredibly easy now... perhaps even possible without waking her...
Matilda reached out with her hand, but she decided to shake the woman awake.
“Is it already time to...?” the woman suppressed a yawn.
“It is.” Matilda got up and climbed back down the carriage to take a seat around the fire.
The hooded lady took her blanket along and used it to sit on as she found an empty spot next to the horses.
They both glanced at each other, then the fire, “You mentioned the Whitewood’s territory.” the hooded woman spoke first, it was a semi-whisper, just barely audible over the cackling off the campfire.
“I did. Are you interested in that place?” Matilda held her chin.
“My brother lives there. I don’t know much about that place, only that there are many small tribes that fight to make it through the frequent storms.”
Matilda smiled, “That’s honestly more than I expected. If one has never been there themselves, they might not understand just how horrible their living conditions are. Though it would seem you have.”
“But I guess you are asking mainly to hear about their capital, right?”
The hooded woman lowered her head, “I don’t know where he is exactly, but I would assume so.”
“So, it was like that, huh? Two siblings living far apart, hoping to find each other again... well, the capital is called ‘the White Mound’, and it's pretty much a fortress city built atop a snowy mountain. Very easy to defend, even though the perpetual storms make it a bit harder to spot invaders, at least until halfway up the mountain.”
“One of my first ever requests came from that place, although back then they were much simpler compared to now, like delivering food to a village or another. Now its escort influential noble A to place B or go out and risk your lives to find noble C a new toy to play with.”
“If the pay wasn’t good enough, I’d probably have turned to thievery or perhaps banditry already.”
The hooded woman looked back up, “Are you that violent and sinister?”
“I can be. But not to my allies. I treat them like they are my family, because it's the only one I have left. That’s true for all of us.” Matilda was half joking and half serious.
“Whenever someone mentioned the Land of Fog, they told me how dangerous that place is... why are you so confident that you would head there without even a rank one mage in your party?” the hooded woman asked.
“It’s not confidence, I guess you could call it hope. Hiring a rank one mage to aid us would eat into our funds, like, a lot. They aren’t cheap you know. So, us going there without one is just us hoping that we get in and out, achieve our goal, and don’t suffer too much damage throughout it all.”
“We don’t really have a choice. Our contractor insisted on hiring regular humans, because according to him: ‘you cannot trust a mage to head into the Land of Fog and not just keep whatever they find, I have no leverage against them whatsoever’, and I agree. If it was me and I managed to survive that place, I’d obviously keep whatever I found to myself, or maybe sell it at an auction for a much better deal, either way, that noble would never see me again, and he wouldn’t come looking for me either, afraid that if he tried something I would level his domain in my anger.”
“But our situation is different, without the funds and material support of someone we wouldn’t even consider heading in there.”
“Aren’t you the same? You are travelling alone even, where is your mage entourage?” Matilda threw the question right back at her.
The woman kept quiet; she was about to lower her head again when her head instead shot to the side.
Matilda glanced into the same direction, squinted her eyes even, but she neither heard nor saw anything out of the ordinary, it was just a regular forest’s edge.
“I’ll be right back.” the woman spoke as she stood up and walked away from the fire, Matilda glanced after her but remained seated.
... ...
Armed soldiers were marching in a small formation, every third had a torch in hand that lit the path they took through the forest, at the helm of their formation walked a man with tar-black hair, and a thick beard above his lips, Serka, the rank one mage and winner of the Magic Brawl.
He was conversing with what appeared to be a commander, they were whispering to each other while choosing the most optimal way through the thicket.
Both of them carried a torch, all of which produced fresh fire particles in the air.
“Halt!” the commander suddenly shouted, the soldiers behind him tensed up and drew their weapons, they spread out slightly to take cover behind trees and rocks, “Who goes there?!”
“Were you following us?” a female voice answered the shouting, her entire body was covered by a cloak, and her head by a hood, she stood at the edge of the torches’ range.
She looked like she was alone, but that just made the situation more unsettling for the people in front of her.
“That should be her...” the general quietly gestured to Serka, who took a step forward, making it obvious that he was leading this group.
Serka placed his hand onto his chest and bowed lightly, causing the soldiers behind him to gasp; the man they were forced to respect, a devastating weapon in human form, a rank one mage was bowing to some random person!
“Please excuse my bluntness, but there is one thing I must ascertain before we continue...” he continued to bow, but his head rose to look at the hooded figure, “Are you Lord Cykrus Aventia’s enforcer... Lady Agnes?”
The commander’s expression soured, he switched between looking at the woman and Serka, and his frown became worse as a sudden realisation hit him...
“What if I am? Are you here to take me captive?” she answered, she sounded full of herself, but Serka smiled helplessly, she had every right to be.
“Ah, no, no.” he stopped bowing and waved his hands in the air to show that she was mistaken, “I am not so foolish as to interfere while a mage of rank two is going about her business...” another bout of gasps rang through the ranks of the soldiers, “I just... came in hopes of finding the artefacts that should rightfully belong to me.” Serka explained, his smile looked more forced by the minute.
“You came here with an armed platoon-” she spoke, but Serka chose to interrupt her, “Don’t misunderstand! I am not associated with these people. They just, uh, tagged along.”
“What?” the commander recoiled as he stared at Serka.
“I don’t have your artefacts. Look elsewhere.” Agnes answered.
Serka gnashed his teeth, his nails dug into his skin as he balled his hand into a fist, “Would you allow me to inspect your pockets to-” he stopped mid-sentence as his eyes landed on the object that was wrapped around her wrist.
His eye twitched, he felt like an idiot but stopped pressing the issue, “I advise you leave, before you manage to find the limit of my patience.” Agnes warned him, to which he enthusiastically nodded, “Of course, right away!” he lowered his head again, then turned tail and ran.
The commander and the soldiers watched him leave; their mouths open wide... along with Serka left their last bit of confidence to make it out of this place alive...