The girls left Baromiir as soon as they were ready. They rode hard and fast and remained quiet for the most part until the town was but a distant memory. Rowan was glad to be done with the place, but at the same time she was a wee bit sad. Baromiir was a nice enough town, but Rowan would never be able to look at it the same way again. It would forever be proof that a single bad apple could ruin a bunch.

When they stopped for lunch on that first day, Rowan decided to ask Seres about the badge.

"It looks Soulforged," Seres answered in between bites.

"Really?"

"Yeah, but it almost seems like it's dormant."

"How is that supposed to work?"

Seres took a moment to ponder it. "Honestly? No idea. My best guess is because it hasn't been used in a very long time, like a thousand years long. I'm also guessing the Soul within hasn't acknowledged you yet."

"Ouch! I didn't know that was a thing, but it makes sense."

"I've only seen it happen once or twice. The Crown has, on occasion, granted people the honour of wielding a Soulforged Artifact and every so often, the artifact in question disagrees with the decision. It didn't look quite the same as this, but there are certainly similarities."

"Well thanks for looking. There's no helping it I guess; your mother did say that I needed to grow into the role of Ardent Flame, after all." Rowan punctuated her remark with a hefty sigh before puckering her lips contemplatively to the side. "Any idea what it might do?"

"Difficult to say, really. So much of our history from the founding has been mythologised and the deeds and nature of the first Ardent Flame are no different. The only thing that I can say for certain is that he was an Ardent, so it will probably tie into your abilities."

"I guess we'll have to wait and see."

"Indeed. Now let me get back to my lunch."

Once they had finished eating they were on the road again.

The countryside flew by from naked fields, to verdant grasslands and onto forests of deepest crimson. Signs of autumn were everywhere; every mile they travelled had been touched by the gentle passing of the fall

Rowan had forgotten how beautiful her homeland could be, and seeing it helped with the trauma. It helped to remind her that she was free, that she would soon be home again. It was by no means enough to eradicate her nightmares, but it was another positive thought she could draw on to keep them at bay. Thanks to that, along with Seres' company and thoughts of Alena, she was even able to have the occasional good dream.

Keeping busy was another thing that helped. Of course, this was mostly achieved by training whenever they'd set up camp. Part of that was teaching Seres, but she was a quick enough learner that she didn't need much supervision. That fact was greatly appreciated during the first night after Baromiir, considering how exhausted Rowan was. It also meant that Rowan could spend most of her time dancing and blade dancing. Whenever they set up camp near some suitable trees, Rowan added arboreal agility into the mix.

Gods she had missed this.

There were still limits to how much exercise Rowan could do, so she needed other ways to keep herself busy. Some of that came in the form of some portable games that she and Seres had brought with them. With a few exceptions, the games were all new to them, which was both fortunate and embarrassing.

Games that relied on snap decisions and quick reflexes were instantly banned. Rowan's superhuman reflexes just sapped away all the fun, especially when the reflexes were fueled by anticipation. They did, however, consider what it would be like if two Ardents went against each other. Rowan would need to test that out in the future.

Out of the games they could play, it became quickly apparent that they were both particularly bad at card games, especially the ones that relied on bluffing. Unsurprisingly, being an Ardent didn't help Rowan when it came to having extremely obvious tells. As for Seres, she started with lots of small tells, which she managed to suppress for the most part. That is, if you ignored her ears and tail which were perhaps more expressive than Rowan.

They eventually found themselves going back to one game in particular, word chain. It was a childhood classic and had the advantage of not needing any material components so they could even play it while on the road. Furthermore, both girls were well educated so they could challenge each other without either having an unfair advantage.

Besides games, dancing, and exercise, however, there was one last activity that Rowan truly treasured; singing. It helped her keep the memory of her mother alive. Even if she would never leave Rowan's side for as long as she had Elan Fiir, Rowan wouldn't let the world forget her. So she sang. She gave life to her mother's music so that it would never die again.

Rowan's singing never failed to brighten the less exciting parts of the journey. She had taken, almost unconsciously, to singing whenever they were setting up camp or while she was cooking. Occasionally she would improvise her own lyrics, sometimes comically so, but she typically stuck to the classics alongside her mother's songs. Songwriting was hard.

*****

After a few days on the road they arrived in Telmaris. Immediately Rowan found it to be a rather charming town, aesthetically speaking at least. The majority of the buildings that Rowan could see were log cabins and alpine style lodges. It gave the whole place a wintery hunter's feel, which made sense considering it was home to one of the largest branches of the Midiran Hunter's Guild. The only one of comparable size that Rowan knew of was the one in her home of Næmyris.

Stolen story; please report.

Telmaris was also notably less ostentatious than Baromiir, which probably factored into Rowan's opinion. Even so, she had expected the town to have a little extra as a show of its wealth. It did have some considerable advantages in that regard compared to Baromiir, after all.

The most notable advantage from an outside perspective could be seen in its architectural inspirations and the aforementioned Hunter's Guild. A fair number of the fur pelts used in the capital actually came from Telmaris.

That advantage was still relatively minor next to the one gained from its relative location and proximity to Feldran. Most merchants from outside the area were typically only able to go as far as Telmaris as their boats were unable to navigate further upriver. Instead, Feldran traded with Telmaris and Telmaris traded with the merchants. The markup wasn't even that bad when you considered the alternatives, but it was all more wealth for Telmaris.

Alas, even with its charm, Rowan and Seres had no desire to stay there any longer than they had to. They almost considered skipping it entirely, but it was getting late when they arrived and it was worth stopping even if only for a nice warm bed and some supplies. The night was largely uneventful and they left early the next morning.

After Telmaris they entered the foothills that surrounded the Kærinsiir mountain range. The road continued to follow the river as it snaked through the hills, though it was occasionally diverted to allow for a slightly steeper, more direct path. It was also getting colder with being less than two weeks away and the mountains fast approaching.

As they set up camp one last time before reaching Feldran, Rowan had an idea. She waited to broach it to Seres until after they finished doing their stretches.

"So, hear me out, Seres. I've got an idea that could help both of us but it's a wee bit risky."

"Go on?"

Rowan gave Seres the biggest, most confident grin that she could muster before starting her pitch. "So all this practice is great and all, but what I really need to do is work on my dodging. Furthermore, you haven't done any training with your abilities besides lighting our campfires.

"I don't think I like where this is going," Seres muttered quietly.

"So what I was thinking is that you conjure things up or whatever else it is that you can do and then you try to hit me with everything you've got. While you do that, I work on dodging. Simple."

"You're right. That is dangerous. And stupid. Recklessly so. When did you become an idiot? Do you want to get hurt? Is it something you ate?" Seres started looking all over Rowan for any abnormalities that might hint at a cause for her newfound idiocy.

"I don't think so…" Rowan had ignored the first two questions, but the trailing answer to the third didn't really help her case.

"I'm not convinced," Seres replied, her arms crossed.

Rowan rolled her eyes. "Just listen. Your abilities have excellent combat potential…"

"And I can practice with them without trying to hit you," Seres interjected.

"Which has some merit, but it's not enough. You need to be able to aim at a moving target, otherwise it's next to useless in combat. If you can come even close to hitting me, you'll be nailing normal people left, right and centre. Trust me, I'll be fine." Rowan responded with complete confidence in her own abilities

Seres stared right into her eyes for a good minute before throwing her arms up and turning back to her packs. "This is on you if it goes wrong," she said as she returned wearing a bracelet and a couple extra rings.

"No holding back."

In response, Seres threw a small frozen dart straight at Rowan. This was Rowan's first time seeing Seres do anything other than lighting their fires and she was impressed. She didn’t even see the ice form and it would have hit her just above the heart if she hadn't dodged.

Seres alternated primarily between more ice darts and jets of flame as her means of attack. It took some getting used to, especially as Seres kept switching up the order, speed and intensity. Alas, with her enhanced reflexes, Rowan was able to evade with ease once she got a handle of the variations. She wasn’t even breaking a sweat.

After five minutes, however, Seres proved that she had no intent of holding back. Light flashed from one of her rings, blinding Rowan for a second. When Rowan's vision returned, Seres was in the air, far higher than should have been possible and she was raining hail on her location. Rowan dived to her left in the nick of time and landed in a roll, though she had to stop herself from going any further as she nearly ran into a wall of fire.

Seres returned to her original gambit after that, this time only for a minute. There was another flash of light. Rowan looked up expecting another frozen hail. Instead, she felt something wrap around her ankles. Seres was touching the ground causing gnarled roots to erupt and trap Rowan in place. With Rowan unable to move out of the way, Seres launched one final jet of flame. There was a glint and Rowan was cutting the flame in twain, her sword striking the hidden ice dart.

Rowan saw Seres fall to her knees in exhaustion as the flames dissipated. She cut the roots away and rushed to her side. The concern on her face was palpable.

"Seres? What's the matter?"

"I pushed the Resonance too far," Seres panted. "These crystals aren't meant for that level or rate of output so I had to amplify the Resonance on my end. It isn't easy."

"When I said don't hold back, I didn't mean to the point of you collapsing."

"I wanted to impress you," Seres replied meekly.

"You certainly managed to do that," Rowan smiled, "but you really didn't need to."

"How else am I going to shine next to an Ardent?"

"You already shine, Seres. Even without any powers, you are loved. Do you not remember how people celebrated your return? Do you not remember what people call you? The Star Flower Princess. If that isn't enough, you're a sister to me in all but blood and I would happily take the ritual to fix that."

"You would?" Seres asked, tears starting to well in her eyes. "You aren't going to disappear? I was so scared when my ring told me you were in danger. I thought I was going to lose you and that there wasn't a thing I could do about it."

"I'm not going anywhere," Rowan answered, hugging Seres firmly. She wasn’t used to seeing her like this. Seres always put on the strong face, but Rowan realised that it was naïve to think that she wasn't suffering, that she didn't have her own issues. If anything, Rowan felt Seres' pain deeply for it was something she feared every single day as well. "It's going to be a double full moon tonight. We can do the ritual then, if you want?"

"I do."

*****

Later that night, under the light of two full moons, Rowan and Seres created a delicate ring of flowers and placed a knife wrapped in white silk in the ring's centre. Had one or both of the Goddess' eyes not been open, they would have had to wait. That was the main reason they hadn't done it in the capital. Ideally, Queen Elarin would have been there to grant her blessing. It wasn’t needed, especially as she had given her implicit approval.

They knelt down in the ring of flowers and faced each other. Rowan took hold of the knife and let the silk slide off.

"In lunar witness we stand together."

"With knife and heather."

Rowan placed the knife to her palms and cut, blood dripping onto the silk. She wiped the blade and handed it to Seres.

"To draw upon bonds of blood."

"So that the familial flower might bloom."

The girls placed their bleeding palms together, blood passing between them.

"Spin the thread."

"And tie the knot."

"Together we swear."

"On crimson and Azure."

"That Seres Talyren El Ria Lanafae."

"That Rowan'efrii Alyris Naliir."

"Is family."

"A sister as true as any other."

"My sanguine bond."

To end the ritual, they ignited the silk that had been touched with their blood before casting the ashes to the wind so that it might reach the Goddess.