Following Nikolay’s sudden change of heart, they decided to set up their own tent amongst the masses of other stranded civilians.

To Raine’s surprise, there wasn’t too much disturbance during the night, despite the sheer amount of people packed in such close quarters.

The next morning, Raine and Nikolay woke up early for a productive day.

“Heading towards the construction site?” Raine asked.

Nikolay nodded. “There’s no time to waste when the bridge is still mostly collapsed.”

“Good luck. I’m going to ask around for more information. Something about the whole ‘sorcerer fight broke the entire bridge in half’ doesn’t sit right with me.”

“Wait,” Nikolay said, putting a hand on Raine’s shoulder. “There are a lot of hostile people around here. Let me put a ward on you, just in case.”

Raine shrugged. “Sure. What does it do?”

“It’ll alert me if anything tries to harm you by getting through the ward. It won’t be much help if a meteor happens to crash into you, but otherwise it should suffice.”

Raine couldn’t stop a grin from forming. “I’m surprised you have the capacity to joke around about me becoming a pancake.”

“It’s completely humourless, don’t worry,” Nikolay replied with a straight face. “A meteor isn’t out of the question when the gods are involved.”

With a flick of his wrist, the air around Raine glowed blue for a moment before fading away.

“The ward is in place. I’ll meet you back at the tent when it gets dark.”

Raine stepped out of their tent and took one last glance back at Nikolay. “Sure thing.”

—

The sprawling of tents around the bridge had grown exponentially larger since they’d last arrived. In the end, it took the entire morning for Raine to fully explore the outskirts, though his meticulousness was rewarded by coming up empty-handed. It turned out that most people were too busy caught up in their own lives to bother talking to Raine.

Just as Raine was about to throw in the towel and head back for lunch, somebody tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hey stranger. Are you lost?” the stranger asked.

Raine turned to face them. A woman dressed in professional business attire stood before him, completely dirt-free despite the conditions everybody was living in.

“Just looking for someone to talk to,” Raine answered truthfully. “Not much to do while you’re waiting for the bridge to be repaired.”

“Well, it’s a good thing you happened to stumble into someone with the same problem. I’m Ferin. Nice to meet you,” she said, holding her hand out.

“Raine,” Raine replied, accepting her handshake.

The instant that their hands touched, Ferin abruptly withdrew her hand with wide eyes. She shot him an apologetic look, wringing the hand like she’d been shocked.

“Sorry, I didn’t realise you had a ward around you,” she said. “It wasn’t noticeable.”

Oh, crap. Raine had completely forgotten about it.

“No, I should be the one saying sorry. It didn’t hurt you or anything, did it?”

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“Ah, it’s fine,” Ferin waved her hand in front of her with a grin. “I just got a little shock when I accidentally pushed my magic into the ward. Not a big deal or anything; the ward didn’t even budge.”

“You’re a sorcerer? I didn’t even realise.”

She nodded, her bangs bobbing up and down. “That’s not your fault at all. I hide my aura on purpose. It’s just a privacy thing.”

“I didn’t realise the whole broken bridge situation affected sorcerers, too.”

Ferin cocked her head. “What do you mean?”

Now Raine was just as confused as Ferin. Did he say something wrong?

“You know…” Raine scratched his head, unsure. “Can’t you just… float over the ravine with your magic?”

Ferin was stunned for a brief moment, before she suddenly burst out into laughter.

“Oh, I thought you were a sorcerer! Sorry for assuming,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes. “No, sorcerers can’t do that. Your friend who put that ward on you is a real joker, I’ll tell you that. They must be trying to impress you or something, because there’s no way anyone could have enough magic to beat gravity itself.“

Ahhh, now things made sense. Raine thought that it was normal to be able to levitate or something similar, given how nonchalant Nikolay had been when offering to carry two people, Rascal, and their bags across the ravine.

But this made Raine wonder… Just how powerful was Nikolay?! Or had he bitten off more than he could chew when offering to carry them?

Raine laughed lightly at Ferin’s remark. “I guess he can seem a bit crazy sometimes. What brings you to this side of the bridge, anyway? I hear that sorcerers are treated better in Veritas.”

“It’s not that sorcerers are treated better in Veritas compared to Marque,” Ferin rubbed her forehead. “It’s that non-sorcerers are treated worse. Hell, nobody cares if you have magic or not in Marque. It’s like no-man's-land out there.”

She sat up in her chair again, adjusting the cuffs on her sleeve. “But to answer your question, I’m out on a business trip. Believe it or not, there’s still some semblance of an economy in Marque, despite the rampant crime happening everywhere.”

“I guess you can’t really disclose much more, right?” Raine sighed. “Company secrets, and everything.”

“Regrettably,” Ferin dipped her head. “And what about you? I don’t want to make another assumption, but you don’t act like you’re from the major cities.”

“It’s still obvious…” Raine groaned, putting his hands to his face. “Do I just reek of foreigner or something?”

Ferin nervously chuckled. “Well, it was just a hunch. Don’t get too down about it.”

“I-”

A sudden flash of blazing blue light cut his sentence off. It seared into their eyes as if they were staring directly into the sun, forcing Raine and Ferin to recoil and squeeze their eyes shut.

After a brief moment, the light subsided. Raine cautiously cracked his eyes open.

Nikolay, leaning over Ferin — who he’d pushed to the ground — with a raised hand wreathed in crackling blue sparks.

Raine bolted out of his chair, eyes now wide open in panic. Even though it seemed completely useless, he grabbed onto Nikolay’s hand to stop it from delivering a sure death sentence.

“What are you doing?!” Raine shouted.

Nikolay kept his eyes fixed on Ferin, but the magic subsided from the hand Raine was holding onto. “Was she the one who triggered the ward?”

“Yes, but-” Raine grit his teeth in frustration. “It was just a handshake! She didn’t mean to do anything. Is it too much to have a conversation with other people?”

Yelling at Nikolay was far from an enjoyable experience, but it was only a matter of time before Nikolay did something that he would regret. First, it was Gremory — which was at least a little understandable — but now it was affecting innocent bystanders like Ferin.

For a second, he wasn’t sure if Nikolay had heard him or simply ignored his reprimands. Nikolay remained completely still, his head turned away from Raine.

Finally, he released Ferin and stood up.

No longer hunched over Ferin, Raine could clearly see Nikolay now. Only then did he realise the exhaustion written all over Nikolay’s face. Raine had wandered a decent distance from the bridge during the morning, and it looked like Nikolay had gotten here on foot.

“I shouldn’t have been so harsh,” Raine sighed. “You went through the effort of running all the way here; it must’ve exhausted you.”

Meanwhile, Ferin pushed herself up into a sitting position. Unlike what Raine was expecting, she looked unbothered by the entire situation. Almost bored, even. It was no wonder why she seemed casual about doing business in Marque.

Ferin, donning a diplomatic expression, nodded in agreement. “You can stay if you’d like. You’re already here, after all. Might as well have a cup of coffee to rest up.”

“That’s not necessary,” Nikolay plainly replied. “The construction workers are waiting for me to return.”

“Suit yourself. We won’t keep you waiting any longer.”

“I’ll be leaving, then. See you tonight, Raine. And…” Nikolay paused, biting his lip. “Sorry for ruining your conversation.”

Raine said nothing, but a wide grin stretched across his face. His reaction went unnoticed by Nikolay, though, as the latter had already turned on his heel to quickly escape from the situation.

Ferin stared at Nikolay’s back with a raised eyebrow. “Funny guy, eh?”

“Sure,” Raine sighed. “You could say that.”