Information was power. For Leo’s old world, this held incredibly true. Information in Jessica’s world was similar while different. Information could be power. It could also be the same as a diamond in the possession of a slum resident.

Unimaginable danger, that resulted in a swift death, being but a wish.

This was also true in Leo’s old world. For the average person, they couldn’t make use of much of the information they had. One had to have the ability to decipher the useful bits, status to make use of, and the ability to safeguard that information.

In hopes of stopping travesties from spanning the continent, many powers had a large number of restrictions on much of the knowledge that was available to its members. Jessica had no restriction.

However, Everwood was just a single individual. Even as an Ever, the information he had that was useful or interesting to Jessica was all things he gathered when he was younger. Therefore, she nor he could be blamed for her lack of understanding.

The information on the nightless grounds was not something she had received from her father’s library. As she heard the name in one of those books, there was just a passing reference to it. Having been on the road, most of her information wasn’t very concrete, as there were never many places she could have access to this knowledge.

Much of what she knew was from scattered pieces, pieced together to form a stitched whole. She wasn’t to blame, nor did she have anyone to blame for her lack of knowledge. That was if she even knew.

Nightless grounds, were always with hidden dangers. One stood above the rest. A hill and a large tree, for example. If she had more information, she might have risked the dangers and not advanced through it, having been marked by the beast king of the nightless grounds.

There was also some luck in her encounter, the panther that played this game with her wasn’t the beast king, but a descendant that had awoken to see her during the day. Since the beast king didn’t bother with her, she was fair game.

With a slight bit of disappointment, the panther watched silently as Jessica disappeared into the darkness as she was swept away by the raging river. Turning in the direction of the large dog, another playful expression appeared on its face. Completely forgetting about the woman that had escaped.

Jessica only remembered the first few seconds as the cold water swallowing her whole. A different type of pain rushed through her as her tense body relaxed as she struggled to keep her self at the surface. Being pulled under, she soon was met with a sharp rock.

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In the same way the water had swallowed her bloody body, the darkness soon swallowed her stressed mind.

Jessica’s determination paid off. It wasn’t a total hopeless situation to begin with. The raging river was truly fast. This meant that most creatures didn’t live inside it, only using it as transportation on occasion.

At the same time the largest danger was exactly what she encountered, without being able to control herself she was soon taken advantage of as she was knocked unconscious and at the mercy of the water.

The first thing she felt was pure pain. This wasn’t the searing pain from before, no, this was a brittle pain. Opening her eyes, she saw the parting of trees and the softly lit sky.

Wanting to move, she quickly gave the idea up. She could tell that nothing was broken, but everything was very close to being so. A splitting headache was like something was stabbed into her head and continued to stir the insides.

There were small cuts and a few deep gashes all over her body. Not wasting time, she could only close her eyes. Without knowing the true extent of her injuries, there was no knowing how long it will take to heal.

First and foremost, Jessica had to reinforce her cracked bones to allow her to move. Once she could move, she could better inspect and deal with serious injuries. At the moment she didn’t sense any danger, that wasn’t to say there wasn’t any.

Even if danger was sitting just out of sight, knowing about it wouldn’t help. It was faster and easier to concentrate without distracting thoughts. As time passed, more light continued to shine down from above.

After an unknown time, Jessica was able to open her eyes as the sun went from not even on the horizon to already passing the highest point. Staggered breath escaped her nose as her mouth opened to expel the rest.

Not a single noise escaped her, even if she desperately wanted to scream uncontrollably. After sitting up, she slowly turned her head to inspect her surroundings.

To her left and right, the front and back. All four sides were surrounded by rock walls. Trees covered much of the sky. A small break in the trees the size of a human body was seen between the broken leaves and branches.

Most of the light was coming from the sides of the trees, reflecting off the walls. The air was filled with moisture as small bits of mist could be seen as tiny bits of water would splash down from a corner every so often.

An idea of what happened could be heard somewhere outside. The torrent sound of a water fall could clearly be heard not far. The sound wasn’t a straight roar as there were plenty of different sounds as water was clearly hitting more than just a body of water.

Finally done with looking around, she focused back on her body. The leather did a fairly decent job. Her legs were horribly cut up, and she could see a number of deep gashes through the holes that tattered her pants.

Outside the horrible cuts from the panther, her torso was good. Her left arm was fine, though the right had lost the upper arm protector, a bone deep gash could be seen. With a breath of relief, she found the missing bag that had fallen next to her body.

If she couldn’t find it with all her supplies, not just the loss of a spacial bag, the loss of the medical and food supplies might have spelled her death.