Stars filled the heavens with a density few of them had ever seen, a thick glowing band of countless lights dominating the center of the sky as the valley framed it on either side. Moonlight reflected prettily off of the enormous lake as it lapped gently against the shore some fifty feet away from their camp in the middle of the gravel pit that surrounded the enormous body of water. All was still and peaceful save the sound of the mountain wind in the pines that dominated the northern territories.

“It's odd that there's no night birds or animals coming to drink from the lake.”, Gaius remarked over the crackling fire and Nari’s surprisingly heavy snoring.

Guide chuckled as he stepped around the elf and walked across the cleared section to join the rest of the party not sleeping at the fire, “What's odd is how this one looks like he was thrown from the highest tower and bounced when he hit the ground. I wish I could ever be half so comfortable.”

Blackstone stifled a yawn while everyone else chuckled at the observation. Nari had built quite a large bed of coals out of the fire he had lit when they arrived at the lake then gone to sleep immediately after bathing and cleaning his equipment. Blackstone couldn't blame him, elves naturally didn't need much sleep and Nari had leveraged that advantage over the last ten days for the benefit of the group. Between extra scouting, extra watches, and his own distrust of Guide for the first few days he'd finally run out of steam and all but collapsed at the first opportunity.

“He doesn't talk much, but he's dedicated.", Blackstone nodded towards the elf as he continued to snore in a decidedly undignified way.

“True."

“Aye."

Roland interrupted the chorus of agreements, “Wait he doesn’t talk to you guys? We talk for hours every watch I have with him.”

“Bull. What could you two possibly talk about for hours every night?", Gawin cut in sleepily from around a mouthful of stew, wooden spoon paused halfway to his mouth while every eye turned to Roland in surprise.

“N’iyah aralu wesh’uo ara kilai?”, Roland replied smugly in a rapidly spoken, oddly musical language Blackstone couldn't identify.

“Huh?”, Gawin nearly choked to death on his next spoonful of food in shock, “Elvish? That's a devilishly hard language to learn, boy. Are you fluent?”

"I am, actually. Had an…uh…acquaintance that taught me. It was hard to learn though, there's about three to five variations for every word that changes situationally. Absolutely massive vocabulary, and I'll admit I never learned to read or write it.”

Blackstone nodded thoughtfully as the rest of the group, including Guide, continued to look at Roland as if he had spiders crawling out of his ears while the man laughed. Roland stood and shrugged, rinsing out his own bowl with a spray of water he produced with a flick of his wand. He stuffed the bowl into his pack and yawned before excusing himself and trundling off to bed still chuckling.

“I've known him for almost twelve years and haven't ever heard him speak it before."

They turned to look at Gaius as the man watched Roland settle into his bedroll a dozen feet away before turning back to the fire. Blackstone smothered another yawn and stretched hugely, shoulders entirely grateful to be free of the heavy coat of mail after so long. Gawin shot him a rueful smile as he rolled his own shoulders in sympathy with the younger man. Blackstone paused with his arms still up and cocked his head at Gawin thoughtfully and took a good look at him out of his own armor.

“You know Gawin, you're looking pretty sprightly for a man your age that just ran uphill for almost two weeks.”, he remarked in a surprised voice.

Gawin laughed good naturedly and grabbed at his belly through the linen shirt he wore, revealing there was surprisingly little left compared to when they had entered the dense forest. Everyone made some appreciative noises at his self deprecating humor as he stood and flexed heroically.

“Yes I suspect the constant physical activity while being continually healed had something to do with that. It'd be a novel method to quickly train troops if healing wasn't such a rare talent.", Gawin rattled off as he sat back down and shot Blackstone a warm smile, “I'm surprised that Angnar could even spare a healer as powerful as you Blackstone.”

"I was never this strong before uh..”, Blackstone tapped the flower at his ear, which had closed up as soon as night fell, "It's really mana inefficient to heal other people. It's also much harder. Better to just grab a shield, make some barriers and funnel them into the sharp bits.”

"Well, you have my gratitude.”, Gawin sighed and sank off the rock he'd rolled over to use as a seat and propped his back up against it while he looked up at the stars.

"Now that he mentions it, I feel like I've gotten stronger as well.”

Blackstone snickered as Gaius began to poke himself in the belly. Selda snorted with laughter and threw pebbles at him while he preened a bit. Guide joined in and together they drove Gaius away from the fire towards his bedroll while giggling like a bunch of children. Even Gawin threw a few halfhearted pebbles just to join in on the fun. Blackstone grinned happily as he watched everyone unwind for the first time since they'd really gotten to know each other.

Gawin mumbled something about old men's beauty sleep and joined the others in bed, leaving only three left around the fire. Blackstone glanced between Selda and Guide, each red faced with suppressed laughter.

“This is nice.", Blackstone sighed as he too sunk down to prop his back up against the rock he'd been sitting on, “I needed this. We needed this, I think.”

Guide nodded happily along with Selda in agreement before he hesitated slightly in thought before speaking, "I agree, it's just… enjoy it while it lasts. Once we cross the lake it's the deep wilds. There's almost nothing out there, we won't have to be stealthy just fast."

“What do you mean, nothing out there? I remember you saying it gets worse, not easier.”, Selda barked suspiciously at the man.

“I mean there's nothing. No game, no beasts, no birds, not even bugs. Only…", Guide paused ominously for a moment, “...Automata. They killed everything else, they just can't get out. They avoid water, even a tiny creek can save your life as long as it's not a swarm of them.”

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Blackstone frowned at the man as Guide stared off across the lake with a worried expression for several seconds before fixing his eyes firmly towards his feet. He laced his fingers together and appeared to be considering his words carefully. Selda scooted closer to Blackstone, throwing a suspicious glance over her shoulder at the placid lake behind them. He was pleasantly surprised when she planted herself directly next to him with a smug expression.

Guide grinned despite himself as he finally decided what he wanted to say, “You remember that Automata we encountered? That was a Hunter. They're one of the worst kinds, and about the only kind you'll find past the lakes towards civilization these days. Solitary, intelligent, vicious. That thing with the voices? They all do that. They also perfectly copy voices and names they hear. They can almost hold a whole conversation if you give them enough time to study you.”

Blackstone sobered up quickly as he listened, sitting up slightly and narrowing his eyes as he committed the information to memory. He remembered Guide constantly reminding them not to talk, not to use any names if they could avoid it, then finally teaching them simple hand sign communication. It all made sense now, and he felt a bit ill remembering all the times they'd treated the warnings flippantly.

“They're not the issue, we can probably handle one of them. The problem is the common Automata, the swarmlings. Little crab looking buggers about the size of your hand, thousands of them, and they're quick. Even normal people can kill them by the hundreds, but they build and repair the other ones. Even if you smash them, they'll just drag them back into the pile and fix them. They never stop, it never ends. Unless you can kill all of them at once.", Guide continued, "There's a few big ones too. All unique as far as we can tell, four of them. I'm sure some idiot named them but I refuse to use them. Killing machines don't get names.”

"Sounds like you have some experience with them, then?", Blackstone's query felt a little rude as it left his mouth but he soldiered on with the question anyway m.

“Aye, we used to live out past the lake when I was a small child. My village was about a day's journey northeast of here. My father went looking for them after the first rumors started floating around. Got a good look too, he was back before dawn the next day and all but whipped us past the lakes and halfway to Farrim before nightfall.”

Selda cut in as she fed a few more hefty pieces of wood into the fire from nearby, “Guessing that saved your lives?"

“...Yes. The First Wave hit the gates of Farrim Keep a few hours after we arrived. Father died on the walls protecting us and everyone else. By the end of the Third Wave we were out of food and water and the damned things had built their own fortifications all the way around the keep. If the Adventurer’s Guild hadn't gated in that big damn airship we'd have been dead too.”

“You saw the Disproportionate Retribution?!"

Blackstone jumped in surprise as Selda almost shouted the question at Guide, who also spooked a bit at her intensity. He gave her a cool look but nodded in confirmation. The dwarven woman's eyes grew huge as she sat for a moment in silence, visibly at a loss. Blackstone thought she looked like she was trying to decide what to ask him first before she suddenly remembered the tone of the conversation, took a deep breath to calm herself, and gestured for him to continue the tale.

“I never knew the name, but yes. They were firing before they even got out of the gate. I'll never forget it. The cannons were so loud they hurt; it made your vision blur every time one went off, even from far away. The ground started shaking and it just didn't stop...”, Guide trailed off and just stared into the fire for a long time without speaking.

Blackstone and Selda exchanged guilty glances as the silence stretched on and on without Guide moving so much as a hair. Blackstone was convinced he didn't even blink for long minutes before he simply stood and wiped his face with his hands, shooting them an incredibly fake smile. He made a pointed excuse about the late hour, assured them they were safe to rest without a watch, and immediately stomped off to his bedroll. He laid down without a word and promptly rolled over.

They sat quietly next to each other for a long time after that, just barely touching as they became lost in their own thoughts. Blackstone tried to remember everything Guide had just told them about the Automata, the variations, their strengths and weaknesses, the implications of it all. Instead he just felt like an asshole for inadvertently asking the type of questions that led to the man staring into the middle distance and reliving what was probably the worst day of his life. He had been trying to warn them, again, and-

Selda suddenly sighed and leaned into his side as they sat together, “I feel like such a jackass! Gods! ‘Oh, everyone you knew died in, like, two days? But did you see the airship?’ He's gonna hate me forever.”

Blackstone wrapped his left arm around her before his brain caught up with the situation and he froze slightly. She tensed up a bit and shot him an incredulous look that he managed to return steadily for once in his life. Her green eyes sparkled as she gave him a sneaky little smile and unrepentantly snuggled into his side. She quickly snatched his arm by the wrist when he tried to move it slightly, repositioning it back where it had been.

He chuckled a bit and let her move his arm around a bit before he spoke, “We’re all to blame for that, even him. We shouldn't have asked and he shouldn't have answered. You're right though, I feel bad too. Gaius asked me about…the Warlock, that night I met my little friend here.”

Blackstone paused to indicate the flower with a tilt of his head that made both the flower bounce and Selda giggle quietly. He liked the way she snickered to herself like she'd be scolded for it if anyone heard. It made him happy, though he wasn't entirely sure why.

“He wanted to know how badly it had gone for us and I told him…including the part where the bastard killed my grandfather. Well, great grandfather. He always said just call him Grandfather and that he wasn't that Great.”, Blackstone paused for a moment before she patted his chest while he looked down at her and continued, "I miss him. He was there for me a lot. We had the same Talents.”

Selda hugged him while he tried not to make a fool of himself as she spoke, “I'm sorry. You told us a little bit back when we met up. For whatever it's worth I think he'd be really proud of you right now. Look where we are, didn't you say this was all because of his work?"

“...Yeah. He spent his whole life digging up old stories and learning from them. He'd have loved to have seen this though.”, he waved at the almost solid smear of stars across the sky framed by the silhouette of the craggy mountains that ringed the valley.

“...I still feel like a jackass because I want to go wake him up and ask him a hundred questions about the Disproportionate Retribution!", Selda blurted suddenly in a pained voice, "Do you know how few people have ever seen it? They must have thought Farrim was already overrun to have sent it in the first place!”

He turned to look down at her and saw she was blushing furiously. When she met his eyes he promptly forgot what he was doing to say, and thankfully she interpreted that as an invitation to continue. The embarrassed woman then launched into a guilty rant that revealed she knew absolutely every single damn thing about airships, culminating with an increasingly muttered exposition about the airship in question.

Blackstone continued to hold her gaze as she spoke though he only interjected as she finished speaking, “So you're saying they almost never actually deploy the airship?”

"They don't. Most people don't even know what it looks like, but I've heard it doesn't look anything like any other design. Besides, it'd be overkill. There's only a few reasons they'd ever Gate it, it's too expensive.”

“Like what?"

“Pfft, I dunno Blackstone. Uh…", she trailed off as her eyes wandered around his face conspicuously until she eventually made her way back to his eyes and blushed again, "I think it's only ever been deployed to defend their allies' capital cities?”

He fell silent as the contemplated that for a moment before he returned a bit of the lean into her and let his head rest on top of hers. She made a happy noise and they watched the fire together for a while as the exhaustion slowly crept up on them.

“Remember when I said I liked this earlier?", Blackstone asked quietly.

“Yeah."

“I like this more."

“...yeah."