The rest of the week passed by almost in a blur. It was the same as it always was – class, then studying, along with carrying out her assigned duties as an artificer. Pale had to admit, having a routine felt strange to her; she was used to being out in the field for extended periods of time, carrying out her orders. Even when she'd first landed planetside, every day had still been fairly unpredictable. That had all changed with her arrival at the Luminarium, though – suddenly, things were simply… monotonous, it seemed.

At least, she thought that was the correct word for it; nothing else really seemed to fit appropriately.

Part of her still wasn't sure what to do with herself during those moments when there was simply nothing to do. Generally, she helped Kayla study if she was truly that bored, but there were times when Kayla was busy or otherwise simply wasn't around.

And that felt strange to her, too. Ever since she'd arrived on this planet, Kayla had been a constant presence, and now she simply wasn't. At least, not in the way she had been.

And Pale wasn't sure what to make of how that made her feel.

Perhaps that was the reason why she was lying awake, staring up at the ceiling, despite still having an hour before waking up.

Kayla let out a small noise from the other side of the room, and Pale turned over onto her side to make sure she was alright. She wasn't surprised to find Kayla curled up on herself, the hair on her ears and tail standing up on end. The sight of it caused a scowl to etch its way across Pale's face.

Another nightmare, then.

They were becoming more common by the day, and she was sure she knew what the cause was. Pale herself had been plagued by them every now and again… unusual, given that she shouldn't have had the capacity to even dream, let alone have nightmares, but perhaps the brain mapping that had created her consciousness had been a bit more accurate than her creators had intended it to be.

Pale bit her lip as that thought crossed her mind, burying it as soon as it had reared its ugly head. She still had a job to do, and that meant staying as unfeeling and efficient as possible. Her creators still needed her, and she couldn't afford to compromise her goals by allowing herself to get attached in any way.

Kayla let out another whimper, and Pale turned towards her again, frowning as she did so. It was going to hurt to leave her behind, she knew, but it was an inevitability they were both just going to have to accept.

As her creators used to say, the mission always came first, no matter what.

Her silent musing was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door. Immediately, Pale sat up, reaching for the knife she kept on the bedside table nearby. Across from her, Kayla stirred awake, her ears perking up as she blinked groggily.

"Pale…" she managed to get out through a yawn. "What time is it…? And who's at the door, anyway?"

"Go back to sleep," Pale told her. "I'll see what this is about."

Kayla gave her a bleary blink, but then nodded and laid back down. She was asleep again in a matter of seconds, indicated by her gentle snoring once again filling the room. Pale stared at her for a moment before climbing out of bed and approaching the door.

"Who is it?" Pale said, just quietly enough that the person on the other side of the door could hear her. For a moment, she didn't receive any kind of response, but then…

"It's me," Sven said from the other side of the door, a combination of disgust and reluctance in his tone. "Open up, would you? I'm here to take you on your expedition."

Immediately, Pale tensed, her grip on her knife turning white-knuckled as her eyes narrowed dangerously. "You really think I'm going to fall for that?"

"What's there to fall for? If I wanted to kill you, I'd just bust down the door and do it. You really think I'm stupid enough to try something like that in a school full of powerful mages? Give me a fucking break."

"I still don't believe you."

"Professor Marick sent me. I'm gathering up the other students who are going with you."

"So then let me speak to one of them."

There was a pause. "You were the first one I approached."

Pale rolled her eyes. "How stupid do you think I am, Sven?" she hissed. "Give me one reason not to open this door and cut your throat right now."

"Because, like I said, this is a school full of powerful mages, and if either of us does something like that, we wouldn't live long enough to regret it," Sven explained. "But if you don't want to open the damn door, that's fine, I'll just tell Professor Marick that you refused to come along on your expedition. I'm sure he'll be very pleased to hear you say that."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Pale bit her lip out of rage. Through gritted teeth, she said, "Then get one of the other students here as a witness."

"Fuck you. Are you going to open the door and join me, or should I just move on to the next one and forget about trying to coax you out?"

Pale let out a low growl. Against her better judgment, she reached for the door and unlocked it, then threw it open. Sven was standing there, just inches away from it, a fist already raised to knock one final time. He must have seen the knife she was clutching tightly in her hand, as he suddenly lunged for it and ripped it from her grasp in one fell move. Pale's eyes widened as she was disarmed, and for a moment, she thought he was going to kill her with her own blade.

Instead, he simply stared at it, held loosely in his one remaining hand, and then shook his head before turning back to her.

"You shouldn't play with blades," he warned her. "You might get hurt."

Then he threw the blade down, embedding it point-first into the stone floor between her legs, before turning and walking away. Pale stared at him as he began to march down the hall, her artificial heart hammering in her chest and cold sweat running down her face. It only lasted for a moment before Sven paused and turned to face her once more.

"Are you coming or what?" he demanded.

Pale didn't give him a verbal response, instead reaching down for her knife and sheathing it at her waist before hesitantly following him down the hall.

She was careful to keep her distance the entire time.

XXX

There were ten of them, as it turned out, not including Sven and Professor Marick; apparently, these expeditions happened every week, with a different group of students each time. Pale could only guess that they intended for these to be much more intimate, practical lessons compared to what they got in school.

Of course, it was just her luck that both Valerie and Joel were part of her group, too.

It had taken everything in her power to avoid cursing aloud when she'd realized they would both be joining her. For their part, neither one looked too happy about it, either; Valerie's reason was obvious, but Joel's confused her. Most likely, he simply wanted to try messing with her again and knew he couldn't so long as Professor Marick was present.

That, at least, brought her some small amount of relief, though she suspected she'd have to stay close to Professor Marick if she wanted to ensure Joel left her alone for the duration of the trip… or, strangely enough, Sven. And that was a strange thought, though it was true – for as much as Sven hated her and she hated him, he at least did not seem to approve of the way Joel acted towards her. Granted, she knew that was almost certainly less because Sven thought it was wrong and more because he simply thought that petty bullying was beneath a young man of noble birth such as Joel, but still. A strange thought, nonetheless.

In any case, they'd all been bundled into the back of a large, covered, horse-drawn wagon. Sven and Professor Marick had taken the front seats, leaving the rest of them packed in together.

"Try and make yourselves comfortable," Marick called out to them. "We'll be riding for about an hour until we get to the ruins."

A few of the students groaned at that, but Pale stayed silent. Marick snapped the reins and the wagon started to move, and she looked around, watching as the Luminarium began to steadily fade away as they rode ahead.

Normally, she'd try to get some sleep in a situation such as this, but between Joel leering at her and Valerie glaring daggers at her, she supposed the best thing to do was to stay awake for the entire hour, boring as it may have been. Idly, Pale found herself wishing Kayla were there with her.

At least she'd have had someone to talk to, in that case.

XXX

Thankfully, while Pale had opted to stay awake, Joel had fallen asleep about twenty minutes into the ride. Valerie hadn't, unfortunately, but still. Small miracles, she supposed.

Eventually, though, the wagon stopped, and Professor Marick urged them all to step out. They did so one by one, each of them wincing and bringing a hand up to shield their eyes from the blazing sun. It only took Pale a few steps outside of the wagon to realize why.

They were at the very edge of a desert. It was almost unnatural-looking – it was divided into two by a large, rocky mountain, with the side they were on boasting a few trees off in the distance, while the other side was completely barren save for sand and rocks. Pale blinked at the sight of it, then turned towards Professor Marick.

"This doesn't seem like a natural formation," she observed.

To her surprise, he nodded. "You've got a keen eye," he said. "You're standing in the aftermath of a military campaign from thousands of years ago, between the Kingdom of Zaniel, where we've just come from, and the Otrudian Empire. To make a long story short, the Otrudians lost. Badly. So badly, in fact, that the then-king of Zaniel demanded that their side of the border be razed and the earth salted to the tune of several dozen miles of territory as recompense for what they'd done."

"And what did they do to deserve that, exactly?"

"Again, to make a long story short… what started as a basic dispute over territory steadily devolved into a full-on war that lasted several decades. All of the king's sons save for one were killed during that war. As you can imagine, he didn't take it well."

Pale said nothing, instead turning her attention to the mountain that stood before them. It was several hundred feet tall, and from what she could tell, about two-hundred feet wide; it looked extremely out-of-place on the border, almost as much as the desert itself did.

"And the mountain?" she asked. "That doesn't look natural, either."

Marick nodded. "Again, good observation. This mountain itself was raised by skilled earth mages as a tribute to the fallen soldiers of Zaniel who fought a battle nearby; their remains are interred here, in a mass grave over which the mountain rests. Think of it as a giant headstone dedicated to their memory."

"More like a giant insult to the Otrudians," Pale said. "I imagine they don't appreciate having a giant headstone paying tribute to their enemies looming over their territory like this."

"That, too," Marick conceded. "And you're right, they didn't. Hence why I'm here giving this history lesson instead of someone like Virux."

"You make it sound like you expect them to try something."

"It'd be stupid of them if they did, but every now and again, some idiot gets a thought in his mind that he'll make the Kingdom of Zaniel pay for what they've done by going after some of the students from the Luminarium. Never mind that the school hosts Otrudian students as well…" Marick let out a tired sigh. "That's why myself and Greymane are here, at least. Consider us the dedicated idiot patrol in case someone does decide to try something, though if I were a betting man, I wouldn't put money on it."

Somehow, that didn't help ease Pale's fears at all.

Professor Marick adjusted the bag slung over his shoulder, then motioned for the students to follow him.

"Come on," he said. "There's more to this mountain than just rocks and sand. Let's get inside and out of this heat, already."

He motioned for them all to follow him, and the others did so without question. Pale, for her part, hesitated before following them all in.

She wasn't sure what it was, but part of her suddenly really wished she had her guns on her person once again.