They sat in silence for a few minutes, with Brick staring up at the night sky and the distant mountains. Views they’d never be able to see this late dozens of kilometers further down in the dark.
“I wasn’t really that scared of you.” Brick said. “I thought you were more than you seemed since we met. Your mana feels so pure and powerful. The way you hold yourself is unbefitting of somebody at such a low level. You showed up at the same time James’ party got back and while they weren’t the most sane of people, they weren’t liars. I expected you to be a lot more than you led on.
“Even after James attacked us, you didn’t want to retaliate. You’re peaceful, Mara. Zoe.” Brick chuckled. “As peaceful as a monster like you can be, I guess. I do trust you, for the most part. I have to, really. If you let all this go,” Brick gestured around themselves. “I’d fall to the ground and die. But you won’t do that, will you?"
Zoe smiled. “No, no I won’t. But I do have a skill that tells me how other people feel, and you did feel pretty scared. Thanks, though. But I’m not offended.”
Brick laughed. “I wasn’t scared of you. I was terrified. Just, of everything. One moment I was asleep, and the next I was plummeting to my death in my underwear. Which reminds me.” Brick summoned some clothes from their ring and got dressed. A purple skirt reaching below their knees with a brown wool shirt that looked quite warm.
Zoe laughed. “I guess that would be pretty scary.”
“Yeah. It was terrifying. I’d been teleported by force before - that’s the point of my skill, really. But never so far up into the sky and without any warning like that before. I do trust you, as much as I did before.” Brick said. “Which isn’t all that much, but I kept you around in part because I thought you were hiding something and would at least be a last effort if anything terrible happened. Not to rely on, but to hope for if all else failed.”
Zoe nodded, and the two sat on the floating platform for another few hours in silence as the stars drifted across the sky. Before the sun rose, Zoe pushed mana into the earthen platform they sat on, and the chairs twisted around their bodies to form suits. The rest of the earth dissolved away into mana that Zoe claimed back, and she teleported them down a few times until she couldn’t see far enough.
“That way,” Brick said, pointing down and a little to the right. Zoe flew them downwards, not wanting to risk a teleport catching one of them on a stray branch that reached above the canopy until she saw the trees at the edge of her perception.
Brick continued gesturing and pointing in directions as Zoe flew them back down to Newtown and the two made their way back to the roots they’d been staying at to relax for the last few hours before light.
In the morning, Brick showed up at Zoe’s root with Blue and Spark and teleported the group in to talk about Zoe’s deception. Spark seemed excited more than anything and wanted even more than before to continue travelling with Zoe. They wanted to find more dungeons that lurked below the ground and throw themselves at them until they had enough wealth to buy their own city.
Blue was much less excited, but didn’t have any problems with Zoe being stronger than she pretend to be, and Zoe found herself relieved that she’d still get to travel with this party. It was fun, being a part of a more normal journey for once. Not by herself on a mountain, throwing herself into danger over and over. Not teleporting straight to the end and solving it all instantly.
Just a nice stroll — or sprint really, through the forest during the day. She learned more about how to use her mana more efficiently, the capabilities of her core skills. It forced her to think about solutions to problems she no longer had, which was fun and exciting because it showed she was capable of so much more than she thought she was.
And sure, she could restrict herself without being with a group. But she’d get bored. She’d race to the dragon just for a chance to see the dragon, and lose everything she would have learned along the way. Being with the group gave her something to ground herself with, an anchor to keep her from acting against her best interests.
Which wasn’t even mentioning the obvious and perhaps most significant boon of Brick having a tracking spell! Exactly what she wanted, the very thing she’d spent so long trying to achieve for herself was just sitting right here. The bane of her existence, the source of stress that pushed her to leaving Foizo and focusing on something different was so simple to find when she slowed down and smelled the roses.
“Mara - Zoe, sorry. Do you prefer Zoe or Mara?” Brick asked.
“I don’t really mind, they’re both my name. I haven’t used Mara in decades though, so I’m more used to Zoe. But it doesn’t really matter to me.” Zoe answered.
“Okay, I won’t force myself then, Mara. You’re welcome to stay with us since nobody has a problem with it. But a few things are going to change, alright?” Brick said.
“Okay, like what?" Zoe asked.
“First, when we get out of town I need a full breakdown of all your abilities. Everything you can do to help us. You want to travel at the same pace we’ve been moving at, and that’s fine. But we’re going to be travelling safer, at least.” Brick said.
Zoe thought on it for a moment before she answered. “I’m not willing to share everything, but I’ll tell you more, sure.”
“You need to tell us everything that you can use to keep us safe.” Brick said.
“I can do that, at least.” Zoe answered.
“Good. Second, we’re going to be camping in the sky. You’re clearly capable of it, Spark wants to do it, and it will be much safer than having to be down on the ground with the wanderers and whoever else decides to pursue us.” Brick said.
“Sure, I can do that.” Zoe answered. “I do like staying on the ground though, if we can do that. I can make it safer, but it’s fun to build the little homes we’ve been staying in.”
“Once a week, we’ll stay on the ground, then. The rest, we camp in the sky.” Brick said.
“Twice a week,” Zoe countered.
“Fine,” Brick said. “Third, you don’t hold back on healing anymore. James talked about some odd green creature that healed them. I want you to give us one of those, as well.”
“I really didn’t hold back on healing all that much, honestly. I wouldn’t have let anybody die. The green creature that healed them isn’t really worth using if I’m around anyway. It uses a lot of mana and doesn’t do as good a job as I can do myself. I won’t restrict my mana when I’m healing, but if you do something stupid because of that then I won’t heal you.” Zoe lied.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Fine.” Brick said. “Lastly, you take us to the peak when we’re done with the dragon journey.”
“I already told you I’d do that last night,” Zoe said.
“Really!?” Spark shouted. “We’re going to the peaks?”
Brick laughed. “Yup. Once we’re done with the dragon.”
“Is it safe up there?" Blue asked. ”I’ve heard they’re full of dangerous monsters.“
Zoe laughed. “No, down here is full of dangerous monsters. Up there most people don’t even know that you all exist.”
Blue nodded, “Well if it’s safe, then it could be fun.”
“Then it’s agreed, we’ll head to the peaks when we’re done with the dragon.” Brick said.
“Screw the dragon! I wanna go now!" Spark said. ”Lets go now!"
Brick shook their head. “Mara wants to finish the dragon journey first, Spark.”
“But the dragon’s so boring compared to the peaks! I know people who’ve seen dragons. I’ve never met somebody who’s from the peaks before. Let alone somebody who could take me to the peaks. That’s way cooler.” Spark said.
“That’s enough, Spark.” Brick said. “If it was just us, I’d agree. But it’s not. We can’t get to the peaks without Mara, and Mara doesn’t want to. There’s no point in a vote. We either go find the dragon with Zoe, and have fun after. Or we piss her off and she leaves, and we never make it to the peaks. We decided we would keep on looking for the dragon, and that’s what we’re doing to do. When we’re done, then we’ll go to the peaks. But this isn’t up for argument.”
Spark sighed.
“It’s fine, Spark. We already found a dungeon and met Mara.” Blue shrugged. “Maybe we’ll find something else, too.”
“Fine, fine. But we better go to the peaks as soon as we’re done.” Spark looked at Zoe.
She shrugged in response. “I just wanna have fun exploring down here, is all. Once I’ve had my fun, I don’t really mind going wherever. I don’t even really mind if we change what we do as long as we keep doing it down here, but I would like to see the dragon. I’ve never seen one before, it sounds exciting.”
“We do have a few more days to spend here, anyway. Maybe a week, I’m not sure. We’ve gotta get these items identified, and buy some more supplies. Or at least find somebody who knows where we could get these items identified so we know where to go next.” Brick said.
“What are you suggesting,” Blue asked.
“Well, I can do all that myself here. Newtown is safe, for the most part. So you two could go up to the peaks with Mara while I run some errands down here. If you’re okay with that, Mara. You want to see the dragon, Spark wants to see the peaks. I think this is a good compromise.” Brick suggested.
Zoe shrugged. "I can do that, as long as it’s not going to add much delay.“
“None,” Brick said. “You were all going to just relax here anyway while I got the work done.”
“I couldn’t do that, Brick. I’ll stay with you.” Blue said.
“I could. I’ll go. Lets go. Right now.” Spark said.
Zoe looked at brick who nodded. “Alright, lets go then. We won’t stop at any cities or dungeons, and we’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Brick said.
Zoe and Spark vanished a moment later, and were wrapped in suits of earth as Zoe teleported them further up into the sky. She turned around and looked down at the forest — thankfully the town was set in an enormous forest with trees that towered over the surrounding forests. But unfortunately, the taller trees also took up a much larger portion of the land than the other distinct forests that surrounded it.
Finding the forest the town was in would be simple. Finding the town within the forest? In particular when the town itself seemed to trying to hide from prying eyes, would not be so simple. Were they hiding from wanderers? Did they have such poor vision?
“Woaaah,” Spark said as they floated in the air. “This is crazy.”
Zoe teleported the two of them further up and towards the distant mountain casting shade over the forests while Spark continued to spew out an increasing awe and wonder. They landed at the edge of the near sheer cliff face in an open field.
“The grass,” Spark said, bending down to touch it. “It’s so green. Why is it so green?”
“I could ask the same of you. Why’s your grass blue?" Zoe asked.
“I don’t know,” Spark said. “It’s grass! Grass is blue!”
Zoe laughed. “No, it’s green. In some languages, that might be the same thing though. The way we talk about colours is always something that amused me.”
Spark leaned over the edge of the cliff and stared out at the forests down below. From so far above, it looked like little more than dark green smudges with patches of blue where the forest opened up to fields of grass.
“This is amazing. So much more amazing than I thought it would be. Can you take me back?” Spark asked.
“You don’t want to see anymore?" Zoe asked.
Spark shook their head. “Not without Brick and Blue. I really want to see more. I want to see these cities, I want to see the night sky. I want to see everything. Explore everything. But it could be months before we’re done with this dragon thing, and Blue and Brick won’t know any of it. I couldn’t handle that. Knowing all of this, and knowing that they’re missing it all.”
Zoe nodded. “Okay, I’ll take you back, then. I was a bit worried about knowing how to get back honestly so this works out.” She laughed.
“You don’t know how to get back?" Spark asked.
“Nope. Not a clue. It’s over there,” Zoe pointed to the tallest trees hundreds of kilometers away. "But we’ll have to try and find Newtown in that mess once we get down. Shouldn’t be too bad since it’s still fresh in my memory, though.“
“You’re insane.” Spark laughed. “I like you.”
Zoe laughed and teleported them back down. It took a few minutes to get back to the town after they got back to the trees, but they managed to find some familiar looking branches and marks then ended up back with Brick and Blue less than ten minute after they’d left.
“You’re back already?" Brick asked.
“Yup.” Zoe answered.
“It was pretty boring, honestly.” Spark said. “I’d rather figure out what those items are I think. The peaks can wait.”
Zoe laughed. “They thought it was too cool to see it all without you two.”
“Hey!” Spark shouted. “I told you that in secret!”
“You did not,” Zoe shot back. “You never told me not to tell them.”
“You should have got it from the context.” Spark said.
“I did, but this was much more fun.” Zoe said.
Brick and Blue both laughed. “Alright, lets go see if we can find somebody to tell us what these items do and get back to tracking down this dragon then.” Brick said.