[https://i.imgur.com/VGCFMQy.png]

"What about when he gets hungry and tries to eat us as a snack on the way to the next town?" Nia asked him, still bent double from dry heaving, a terrified look on her face.

Refenial stood looking at the surrounding forest. What would he do? What would he do in a forest once more with a monster that wanted to eat him. He looked back at the girl. "I don't think he will, but if he tries, I'll kill him," he said, trying to reassure her. From the look on her face, he wasn't sure if it worked.

"What are you saying?" Nox asked nervously

Refenial turned to look at him. "You mean us no harm?"

Nox shook his head. "No, absolutely not. I'm still the same person you were travelling with the last few days, the one that hired you two when everyone else turned you away."

"You said you'd look like a monster before we get to town. What's your plan when we arrive?"

Nox seemed to relax a little as the conversation moved on to future plans. "There are more of my kin in the town. There's at least a few in most towns. If you meet them, they can give you some meat for me."

After Refenial finished translating, he nodded, "That's fine by me."

Nia still looked at him wearily with a sickly look, but she also agreed.

Nox seemed to slowly return to his normal self as his nerves left him. "Shall we set off? It's going to be a long walk."

"What are we going to do to protect ourselves against monsters? Also, all our camping gear was in the caravan?" Refenial asked them both.

"Perhaps use your whistle to scare off the monsters. The way you play, it sounds like someone trying to strangle a chicken." Nia quipped. Refenial gave her an unimpressed look, choosing not to translate.

Nox spoke next, "You could play that whistle of yours. It sounded like someone trying to murder a banshee. If I was a monster, I'd run away." Refenial shared the look with Nox instead of translating, silently berating the pair.

Both Nia and Nox were chuckling at his reaction.

Nox straightened up after a moment. "I have pretty good survival experience, it won't be fun, but it'll only be a couple days if we push it." Refenial started translating again.

"I also have survival experience, although not in this climate," Nia said.

With that agreed, the trio set off. They were still following the road, so travel was quick as they walked through the forest.

Refenial looked around, still uneasy. The forest, with its bare trees, and branches sticking out like a hundred thousand grasping fingers, all reaching for the blue of the sky, creeped him out now more than ever. He'd felt uneasy before entering the forest, memories brought unbidden by it, and now they'd been attacked. He felt even more unsettled by its icy stillness.

[https://i.imgur.com/oMrGBK6.png]

As the afternoon wore on, Nox suddenly stopped. Refenial, who had been staring into the forest, slammed into his back, sending Nox hopping forward a couple of steps before he regained his footing. "What's wrong?" he asked the man's back.

Nox pointed ahead of them, and refenial stepped to the side, following the man's gesture with his vision. He was pointing to a huge tree in the distance. Much of it was obscured by the surrounding trees.

"What's going on?" Nia asked, her voice tense as she began reaching for her wand.

"Something moved in the tree. I think it was a person." Nox hissed. Refenial strained his eyes as he stared at the tree. After a moment, he thought he saw a flash of movement.

"There's someone in the tree." He quietly told Nia.

Nia squinted at the tree, then began to tiptoe forward down the road. Refenial wanted to call out to stop her but was worried it might alert the person in the tree. Nia crept a few feet forwards, looking at the tree for several moments before she snuck back.

"It's a woman, high up too, yellow hair. Maybe a bit older than Nox." She explained.

"I've travelled this route a few times, single travellers are rare, usually titled, but I've seen them before." Nox opined once hearing the translation and stepped forward more relaxed.

"I guess we'll follow him," Refenial said to Nia.

The trio walked forwards. Refenial glanced up at the woman in the tree as they approached.

She seemed amused by their approach. Her pale young features were harsh. Her stare was intense and perhaps a little mad. She certainly wasn't pretty, but Refenial supposed a generous person might have called her handsome. Her blonde hair was shoulder-length, and her clothes were black and severe but functional.

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Refenial noticed with surprise that she didn't seem to have a bag or be carrying any of the equipment you would expect of a lone traveller.

He looked away anxiously at the floor as they began to pass. "Stop slouching, boy." She called out in a voice that, while no longer weighted with age, he instantly recognized.

Refenial turned to look at her in shock, pulling himself up straighter as he did. "O-Old Mother Hecate?"

"And stuttering now too? You disappoint me." She said with a cruel smile.

Nox looked between the pair, "You know her?"

"He should do. I named him," she said dismissively.

"What's going on?" Nia asked, so far left out of the conversation.

"Oh, an enchanter. Not a very skilled one, though." Hecate said, speaking clearly in Nia's language.

Nia looked up at her in surprise.

"Refenial, I told you I no longer go by that name." She paused, glancing between the trio. "Although, I guess there's no harm."

Nox looked confused. Now it was his turn to be left out. He leaned towards Refenial and whispered, "Is she your mother? Seems pretty young."

She switched back to the native tongue of the land. "I'm here to have a conversation with Refenial. Knowing when to shut up is a useful skill in life that I suggest you start learning now." She finished in a menacing tone as she glared down at Nox.

Nox went quiet.

"Why are you here?" Refenial asked coldly.

She sighed in response, "You retire for a few hundred years, and your power base goes to shit. All of the mortals that owed me favours are dead, most of the immortals that owe me favours pretend they don't remember me and half the resources I stashed away have been nicked and sold two dozen times, so good luck trying to track those down."

Nox's eyes were wide with shock as she spoke. Nia, who was once more left out, stood quietly and uncertainly.

Hecate continued, "So, now I've got to drag myself back and forth across the world, smacking sense into a bunch of idiots and tracking down who nicked what and taking it back again." She gave Refenial a sour look. "Then I check in on my apprentice, and what do I find? He's heading in the wrong direction in the middle of nowhere in winter. Without even basic camping supplies with a flesh eater and an enchanter who clearly doesn't know her magical arse from her magical elbow."

"You killed Maxit," Refenial said, glaring at her.

"Yes, I did, but I can see it in your eyes, boy. You're still too angry at what I did to ask why I did." She glared back at him as she spoke.

Three rucksacks apparated beside the tree. "I know you won't thank me, but here is some more camping gear, and food, including flesh for your friend there. I thought you might be heading to the academy to train and get strong enough to save Obit, but it looks like you replaced him right quick enough." She said, gesturing at Nox and Nia.

"You don't care about Obit. You're just saying this to use me as a weapon against Griselda."

Hecate stood up, looking down at him. "Maybe, maybe not. The question is if you care more about Obit or your fear of not getting used by me?"

Refenial let out a frustrated sound, too angry to reply.

The Old Mother smiled slightly. "Thank you, Refenial, for saving my life in the ruins. I know you blame me for a lot, but we don't need to be enemies. Once you're ready to talk, I'll explain why Maxit and the villagers died. Until then, remember I took no pleasure in their deaths."

She turned as if about to go, then looked back at him. "And if you really are that determined to be my enemy, you'll need every scrap of strength you can find, so go to the academy."

She stepped forwards, dropping behind the back of the tree and out of sight.

Refenial ran around the tree, looking for her, but she was gone.

"What's going on?" Nia asked, having missed most of the conversation due to the language barrier.

"W-Who are you?" Nox asked, his face a complex mask of emotions.

Refenial didn't answer either one and carried on walking on the path. Nox and Nia exchanged glances, then rushed to catch up with him.

"Hey! I told you my secret." Nox said angrily.

Refenial said nothing as he kept walking, his mind a jumbled mess of emotions.

"What's happening, Reffy? Who was that woman?" Nia asked him gently.

Refenial closed his eyes as he walked, fighting back tears.

[https://i.imgur.com/oMrGBK6.png]

After several minutes of silence, Nox spoke, "I'm sorry. You don't have to tell us if you don't want to."

Refenial nodded. "It's fine. She's Old Mother Hecate, though she has another name, too, Hildegard Crowchild. She took me in as her apprentice and taught me ma..." Refenial trailed off as he realized Nox had stopped walking. He turned to look at Nox. The young man had turned white as a sheet.

Nia gave Nox a confused look before looking back to Refenial. "I think you broke him. What did you say?"

Refenial shrugged uncertainly. "I was just telling him that she was Old Mother Hecate. Apparently, she's also called Hildegard Crowchild. I was her apprentice. She's the one who taught me magic."

Nia's brow wrinkled "Old Mother? She seemed young to me."

"She was old when I met her, but..." Refenial lapsed into silence.

"Hildegard Crowchild, as in the Hildegard Crowchild?" Nox asked finally.

Refenial shrugged. "That's the name she said."

"bloody hell!" Nox exclaimed.

"Do you know her?" Refenial asked.

Nox looked at him wide-eyed as he spoke slowly, as if doubtful that the words even belonged in his mouth. "Hildegard Crowchild, the Hildegard Crowchild, founder of the Kingdom of Frull. Hildegard Crowchild, the Crimson Queen. Hildegard Crowchild, the immortal slayer. Hildegard Crowchild, the witch who could level cities on a whim. that Hildegard Crowchild?"

Refenial remembered the devastation of the spell she'd used to destroy the village, the burning bright light, the mushroom cloud and the shockwave that slew a forest in a single blow. "I think so." He said somberly.

"bloody hell," Nox said again, under his breath this time.

"What do you know about her?" Refenial asked.

Nox began to answer, Refenial translating for Nia as he did.

"About 500 years ago, Frull was divided into a bunch of little kingdoms. Hildegard conquered them all and made herself queen. My dad used to talk about her. He'd say she was the best ruler we ever had. She outlawed slavery and said that even the highest noble had to follow the same laws as the lowest peasant. I went to a Systemic Order school; they hated her. Apparently, she drove them out of the country after they tried to work with a bunch of nobles to overthrow her."

He gave a smile at that thought. "If they hated her, she can't have been too bad."

"Why is she called the Crimson Queen?" Refenial asked.

"Oh," Nox paused for a minute thoughtfully "I can't remember exactly but there were some nobles that got angry with her over something or other and tried to assassinate her together, I think a bunch were titled. There's a famous line about it I learned in school 'a hundred nobles and one queen walked into the room, and only a Crimson Queen stepped out."

The trio travelled on, talking about the history of the kingdom, but Nox didn't know much else about Hecate, and Refenial didn't want to share. Refenial helped Nia learn the language of the kingdom as much as he could during that time.

The days soon passed, and they neared Waterhill.

[https://i.imgur.com/3vZaHAB.png]