Alexander looked out over the supermassive lake and watched the light push through the rain, causing the water's surface to ripple.
The wandering fangs traveled along a rocky pass called the serpent's tail. Contrary to the name it was the only path free of the dangers that lurked in these depths. Not to mention it skirted around the majority of the Wyrms that made their homes near the center islands. The downside was that it added almost a week to their journey. After they had lost Emily, and the entirety of team two, Kael had decided to step lightly going forward. In Alexander's last life, Kael had also taken this route but he heard months later that some powerhouse from the church of the Five Pillars had come through and killed one of the apex predators allowing their people to pass through the ‘Maw’ with relative ease.
Their problem now was that they no longer had the manpower to handle that many trolls. Of course, Kael was leading them so he managed to keep them out of any real danger, but this further slowed down their speed. With Atticus gone, Alexander was having to step up, –which he didn’t mind– however detecting the troll lying in wait had become harder.
Ashe had moved up to the front with Nox and they worked together to act as an early warning system while Alex kept them on track.
The maps Kael had brought were detailed, so they weren’t hard to follow, but every obstacle seemed to take them further from their destination. Alexander was just poring over the pages when Nox brought his wolf alongside Svent’s—Alex had been riding with him ever since Mist had been lost.
“Hey, there’s a group of three trolls up ahead. Go around, or through?” Ashe said from the back of Nox’s mount. She had recently developed a skill that could detect movements in the earth—even minor tremors, like a slow, beating heart beneath the stone and rock.
Alexander thought about their current position and turned to look back at Selia who was never far from Ashe.
“Tell Kael I can get us around but it’ll be a thirty-minute delay.”
Selia nodded quietly and shifted in her saddle to head back to Kael and Gerade.
When she was gone Ashe turned to him again.
“Hey, Alex?” she muttered. “Do you think Emily will be alright? I only just got to know her and I’m aware she’s capable, but the things out here are just so vicious.” her voice filled with concern.
The corner of Alexander’s mouth twitched when she used Emily’s nickname for him. More and more people were starting to call him that and he’d given up on correcting people.
“I don’t think we need to worry about her, Emily is just as fierce as whatever is out there. I do hope she doesn’t meet any trouble out there, as she has a talent for getting into it, but I’m certain she can handle whatever comes her way.”
Ashe glanced down at Nox and muttered something to him which seemed to reassure the teenager.
“You know I never asked how you two met. Was it on the road like she mentioned?”
Alexander snorted even as a wave of melancholy washed over him. Eva’s face flashed into his mind. Not her current one– he had long since come to terms with the fact that Emily was staying. No, the image that came to his head was of a young woman. Her face filled with defiance and determination on the day he’d first met her.
Alexander often wondered what his life would have been like had she not challenged him at the gathering.
Eva’s natural light brown hair and free demeanor stuck in Alexander’s mind even after a lifetime. But after only a couple of weeks, Emily’s vibrant crimson hair and piercing eyes had risen to overshadow that faint memory.
At first, Alexander just thought Eva had made a deal with an evil spirit from one of the negative planes, but Emily was something more. She was certainly capable of great violence, yet she seemed to follow a code that he couldn’t make sense of.
Then there were all those strange pearls of wisdom she seemed to pull from nowhere, as if they spoke of a life lived in a different land. At one point, Alexander even thought she might also be a reborn person, perhaps from a time much before—or much after—but he eventually ruled that theory out, as she simply knew too little about the world.
It wasn’t that she didn’t understand people—though he was pretty sure she had a few blind spots there too—but it was more like she was accustomed to playing by different rules. When Emily had told him that she didn’t know what titles were, Alexander had been at a loss for words. Something like that was impossible. How did she manage anything? How could someone sharpen themselves into a useful instrument without them?
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Being unable to call to the stars seemed like such an alien concept that it didn’t make any sense. From what he could tell, Emily was adapting at a terrifying rate. She’d taken minutes to learn what took others years. Just being able to call to the stars while awake was a feat that took most geniuses weeks, if not months, to achieve. The average person might take years to reach such a level or might even restrict passive title changes to their sleep.
With all these details, Alexander had no other choice but to believe her words: Emily was from another world entirely.
Nox startled Alexander out of his thoughts with a curious glance around.
“Alex? You okay? Were did you guys meet?” He asked mirroring Ashes curious tone
“Oh, Emily and I only crossed paths recently, but our goals aligned so we decided to travel together. The first time I met her she was neck deep in both trouble and blood, so nothing new there.”
Nox snorted as he kept his mount steady.
“This is my first mission outside the Keep for the wandering fangs but I heard you two were part of the last job, how in the world did you get away from a team of Blood Mages?” Nox said.
Alexander had Svent pull his mount to a stop as they waited for Kael.
“We managed somehow, the trip back was the real hard part… ” Alexander said not willing to give him any more details.
“I mean sure, but it's a strange coincidence, isn't it? The job they took was for Blood Mages and Emily just happens to be one. She wasn’t part of the group everyone worked for, as I hear team four was the one to pick her up.”
Alexander didn’t answer right away but he didn’t need to as Ashe spoke up.
“What are you saying right now, Nox? Emily has saved you on multiple occasions, so she uses blood to fight. What of it?”
Alexander glanced at Ashe, he didn’t expect her to come to Emily’s defense so quickly.
“Look, I’m just saying it's strange, it’s like she came out of nowhere,” Nox said frowning as he gazed at the road ahead.
Alexander nodded at the teenager.
“You’re right its a little strange, but coincidences happen all the time. Emily has shown me that I can trust her so I’m going to do that and hope that we meet again.”
Nox made a dissatisfied grunt but fell silent.
Alexander also noticed that Ashe was looking despondent while clutching onto the book Emily had gotten from the head Mage.
This surprised him because Emily had always been so territorial of her possessions. He was only allowed to use the red siphon when he was near his limits and even then Emily snatched it back the moment he was done.
The small leather-bound book was one of the few items Emily held dear. Alexander had first assumed she’d taken it for the knowledge within—after all, every Mage coveted new spells, and stealing another mage’s spell book was one of the fastest ways to gain it. But knowing what he did now, he’d revised that assumption. It seemed more likely that the book had simply caught Emily’s eye and she’d wanted it for no reason beyond that.
It was only after she found out what it was did she probably wanted to start learning blood magic the hard way. Emily had said her abilities were blood-related and Alex had quickly confirmed this. She was too skilled with blood manipulation to not have some sort of gift for it, in all the time he had known her she’d never needed a single gesture to cast her blood about. It just seemed to move to her will.
Thunder rumbled above as Kael got to them, startling all of them out of their thoughts.
“Keep it moving guys. We’re going around. We need to try and arrive at Lorthil as soon as possible to avoid being caught up in the battlefield.”
They all nodded and pressed on. It had already been three days since they had lost Emily. Knowing her, if Alex let her get to Lorthil first, she’d never let him live it down.
***
Emily woke for the fourth time since all this happened. Her fever had reached a peak after the second day, but since then had been subsiding every time she had woken up.
When she cracked her eyes now, the warmth had all but left her, falling back to reside deep in her chest.
The experience had not been a pleasant one, but she had survived until now because of her blood's natural healing properties, allowing her to keep repairing her body. Emily now knew why Atticus had said very few people survived. Without enough vitality to spare the average person's body would slowly wear down until they died of exhaustion or overheating.
Over the last few days, Emily had suffered alone, doing her best to push to the surface. If only to shovel food and water down her throat and then pass out again.
She had finished all the rations yesterday, even going so far as to crunch through the wax layer to get to the nutrient bar quicker.
Emily had no food or water left but she was alive and for the first time she remained awake for longer than a minute.
As Emily’s eyes adjusted to the dim space, more details emerged than she had caught in her brief, groggy moments of wakefulness. Atticus had been true to his word and put her somewhere safe, though she was more than a little irritated to be awake so soon; had he stayed for a few more days, she could have beaten the shit out of him. But that would come later. For now, she forced herself to take slow, shallow breaths to endure the stifling heat in the cramped room.
Emily considered drawing on her vitality to soothe the remaining aches, but then a sound outside caught her attention. It began softly, quickly growing louder as something pounded against the rock near the cave’s entrance. She heard sniffing, followed by the press of a nose against a crack in the stone, probing the room’s scent.
Emily sat up, calling on her power to ease her sore muscles. She was almost certain she would have been found sooner if she hadn’t been so well concealed. Rising to her feet, she prepared for a fight, drawing more power from her core. As her energy flowed, she noticed something different—her blood responded faster, her power coming with a new, effortless ease. It was subtle but unmistakable; Emily knew her abilities well, and this was new.
In moments, her aches had vanished, fatigue melting away as her body renewed itself. That’s when she felt a connection opening up, one she hadn’t noticed before, perhaps hidden by her fever. On the other side of the stone, she sensed a familiar excitement. A grin spread across her face as she sat back down, waiting.
The digging outside intensified until, at last, Cupcake’s head poked into the room like a determined groundhog. With a soft yip, she scrambled over to Emily, her tail wagging as if to say she’d been searching the entire world for her.
Blood points: 272