Weeks passed, and Viren worked hard. In nearly four weeks the caravan had hit three cities, four towns, and two small villages. In the villages and towns they didn’t stay longer than one night, sometimes setting up, trading, and leaving in a single afternoon.

They were about a day away from leaving their current stop, a city by the name of Darla. It was a smaller city with no particular gimmick. However, Viren wouldn’t be leaving with the caravan. It was a good job that he had enjoyed, but he was ready to move on.

Right now, he was walking around caravan as the merchants packed, wondering how to tell Nevron his plan. ‘Eh, I’ll just tell him. He’ll get over it.’ With that thought he continued patrolling (Nevron was impossible to find during ‘work’ hours). He would tell him that evening.

…

Starla was debating between her trusty gold hilted dagger, or the one she had just bought a few weeks ago. “Hmmmmm.” She glanced between the two, looking from one to the other and back again. “…I’ll just bring them both.” She put them both in the pile she was making for things she had to bring to the Academy.

Every student was told to bring no more than one trunk and a travel bag full of things from home. So far, she had packed a dress and a set of mage robes- the academy would provide uniforms- a couple of her favorite books, a few pieces of jewelry, and now the two daggers. The Academy basically provided everything you needed, so she didn’t really know what else to pack. ‘I guess I could ask Cook to pack me some food.’ Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea.

She crossed the room to her desk and grabbed some paper and a pen. She quickly scribbled a list of all the food she wanted to bring. Then she left her room in the direction of the kitchen.

…

“Cool, have fun.” Viren didn’t know what reaction he was expecting from Nevron, but it sure wasn’t that. ‘I must have made a miscalculation. In every story I’ve read, the goodbyes are always very dramatic.’

“The Aureum Postal System keeps track of the Thendall Caravan, so we can keep in contact with letters,” Nevron continued. “But,” he said seriously, laying a hand on Viren’s shoulder. “I would like to thank you… for showing me that someone in existence is actually more socially inadept than me.”

“Will you stop with that; I am not that bad!”

“Hmm,” Nevron said disbelievingly. Viren frowned and crossed his arms. He sat for a few minutes, contemplating life, before hauling himself to a standing position.

“Do I just go to your dad to tell him I’m quitting?”

Nevron shook his head. “No. You just report to the senior guard, Valor, and leave.”

“That’s surprisingly simple,” Viren said.

“Why don’t you try making a bunch of mercenaries comply with an actual system,” Nevron retorted. Viren shrugged in agreement. “By the way,” Nevron continued, “Darla isn’t a good market for mercenaries. It’s a smaller city, and the soldier outpost to the west is close enough to chase away any criminals.”

“Thanks,” Viren said. “That would have been annoying to figure out on my own.”

“No problem,” Nevron responded. Viren got up to leave. He had already packed his bag, so all he had to do was let Valor know he was leaving.

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

…

Starla snapped her trunk shut with a sigh of relief. She had practically filled her entire trunk with various dried fruits, jerkies, spices, hot sauces, and other non—perishable snacks. Now that she was finally done packing, she could relax. At least until tomorrow morning, when she would leave for the Academy.

“All ready?”

Starla turned around to see Khastri standing in her doorway.

“Yeah,” she said. “I never knew packing for this would be so hard.” He laughed.

“That’s because, compared to most nobles, you’re a minimalist,” he teased. She moved to sit on her bed, and he plopped into her desk chair. She gazed around her (huge) room.

“I wonder if they’ll give me a roommate,” she said absentmindedly.

“I think it depends on how full they are,” Khastri responded. She hummed. They sat in comfortable silence.

“How are things with the Dark Lord situation?” she asked finally. Khastri sighed.

“As well as could be expected,” he said. “the Elves want an alliance against him, but the other countries are being stubborn. They want more resources than they’re worth.”

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“Has he done anything recently?” Starla asked.

“No,” Khastri said. “But,” he added after a moment, “We’ve gotten several reports of suspected spies in Edgedale and some of the surrounding towns.” His eyebrows furrowed. “It’s odd. The Shadows we dispatched said that they weren’t spying on the nobles or anything, and that there isn’t anything of interest to him out there anyway.”

Starla frowned as she thought. ‘Edgedale is the closest city to the Dark Lord’s fortress… But what would he want there?’

“Could he be preparing to invade that city?” she suggested.

“He might,” Khastri said, “But he hasn’t shown any interest in Edgedale before, and it looks like he’s been more interested in conquering the Elves first, especially after his most recent defeat at our hands.” He shook his head.

“Sometimes you have to wonder what goes through that guy’s head,” he said. “What could possibly drive a person to be so… so bad?”

They fell into silence again, this time thinking about all Kastra had done. And for what? World domination? More power? Why would someone fall so deeply, refuse so stubbornly to fight for what’s right? Why, oh why, did he have to hurt them all so terribly?

She sighed sadly, then drew herself up. Perhaps Dark Lords would run rampant over the whole world. So what? Nothing would turn her from the path. Not evil, not ‘hopelessness’, nothing. When she met Khastri’s gaze, fire flashed in her eyes. He smiled back at her, confidence once again filling his posture.

“See you tomorrow,” he said, getting up. “you’ll do great at the Academy.”

…

It was only a couple hours till midnight. Viren had walked through Darla briefly before deciding to leave that same night. Now he snuck out of the city and went a little way away, where nobody would see him. He planned to spend the night flying, as he had done during his escape. Hopefully he would reach another city soon.

He tromped through the tall grasses until the city was far enough away that he couldn’t see the guards patrolling the city walls. Then he turned back into a dragon.

With a flap of his wings, Viren flew up, and soon he left the ground far behind. He ascended higher, until he was level with the clouds. Then he dived. When the ground was in sight he broke out of the dive. It has given him momentum, and now he was soaring along very fast. Fields, then a lake, blurred beneath him.

Viren closed his eyes. There was nothing in the air for him to run into unless a mountain sprouted out of nowhere. He was a creature of the wind and sky in this form, and more closely connected to nature than any human or elve or fay.

He twisted in the air and flew just a little closer to the ground. He was kept in the air by his momentum and the wind, so he didn’t have to flap his wings anymore. Rather, he just let himself soar along, and listened. It was quiet, but not silent. The wind whispered and sang.

‘I need a map,’ he thought suddenly. Right now, Viren was just planning to go to whatever city he came across next, but maybe he would go farther. Aureum had a few cities next to a sea that led to the ocean. It might be nice to settle by the sea. His water affinity worked best when he was near large bodies of water, especially the sea or ocean.

Around midnight, when the moon was high in the sky, Viren flew over a city. It was smallish looking and surrounded by a pine forest. He didn’t stop. Perhaps it was traveling with the Thendall caravan, or that it was his first time flying totally free from the clutches of Kastra, but he wanted to go farther, see what else there was.

He wanted to go near the ocean, or wherever the wind took him. Hours past, and he only saw one other city. The deep dark blue of the night sky started to lighten, and the stars shone less brightly. The sun was not yet visible, but soon it would rise and Viren would have to land for the day.

Then a shiver ran down his spine and the fins running down it twitched, and a moment later he smelt it. Sea. ‘I traveled that far in one night?’ It seemed that he had previously underestimated how fast he could go.

At the smell of salt water Viren put on an extra bust of speed, and soon found himself soaring over the sea. He pulled up and flapped in place.

The land abruptly dropped off and waves dashed against stark cliffs. Wildflowers peppered the open grasslands near the cliffs, and not three miles away a lush forest began that extended for miles. The sea was open and blue, and the pre-dawn light made it glimmer invitingly.

Viren had only seen the sea once, at Kastra’s battle against the king of Aureum, and never in his dragon form. He stared down into the waters… and let himself fall. As he fell, he tucked his wings against his body and arranged himself into a diving position that felt instinctual.

His snout pierced the water, and he slid seamlessly in with hardly a splash. He flipped his tail fin a little and it propelled him deeper into the water. There wasn’t much to see, but that didn’t matter. Just being in the water was pure joy. ‘I could stay under for hours,’ he thought gleefully.

…

It was about seven in the morning. Most people were just beginning to wake up in Selsiboro, a bustling city right off the northern coast of Aureum. The northern coast was not a very significant place economically, though the view was amazing. The reason for this was that it was all high, dangerous cliffs. Sels was set on a place where the cliffs weren’t so high, so the city was home to many fishermen and people enjoyed diving off the cliffs in the summer, when the water was less cold.

Anyway, somewhere in the city was an inn. It was one of the better-known ones in the city. Jefairy, the owner’s brother, was assigned the morning shift and was just beginning to take breakfast orders. Breakfast was always a busy time because lots of locals would pop in for a bite. Molly, Jefairy’s sister-in-law, was an excellent cook.

The windchimes over the door chimed as the door opened. A boy entered and walked straight to the counter. He might have been a local, except Jefairy had never seen him before. His hair was a bit damp, and he looked tired, though there was a twinkle in his eye.

“Breakfast for you?” Jefairy asked. The boy shook his head.

“No,” he said. “Just a room.” Jefairy glanced at him questioningly but didn’t say anything as he handed a key to the boy.

“Room 11,” he said. “It’s a single. I can change it if you want.”

“A single’s good,” the boy said jokingly, “seeing as there’s only one of me.” Jefairy chuckled.

“You’d be surprised,” he said. They’d had two mercenary companies show up recently, and each had sent a single scout ahead to rent enough rooms for all of them. Just those two companies had taken up nearly all the rooms. The kid was lucky the inn had added a third floor last fall.

“How much for a week?” the boy asked.

“15 coin for a single,” Jefairy responded. The kid nodded and slid the money over the counter. Jefairy crouched to add the money to the coin drawer, and by the time he straightened the boy was gone.