Sol’s POV

That night, for the first time in a while, I was back in the ethereal world. However, this time, Nephthys was nowhere in sight, and instead, I felt like I was the only one in this world. As I recollected my memories that I had forgotten in a daze, I remembered that Nephthys was still awake and likely looking around, doing whatever she wished to do in the real world. Then why was I in this ethereal world? I had learned from Nephthys that this world was only available to people she reached out to through her emotions, she had never mentioned that I would be able to enter the dream of my own volition.

As I tried to move around, I realized that it had become much harder to do than before - one arm did not provide much movement. Perhaps because it was a world created by Nephthys, it felt rather comforting and it felt like I was being embraced by someone gentle and kind. My thoughts drifted around, trying to figure out what was going on, but at the same time, enjoying the atmosphere I was encapsulated by. I thought that maybe some kind of bond had been formed between us in some way, but I could not figure out what could have caused it. On the topic of Nephthys, I began to wonder how she had survived in the mines.

There was no doubt that she needed blood to survive and the only sources of blood were beasts and people. Although there were beasts in the mines, there couldn’t have been enough to survive for nearly a year. The only options left were that of blood from other slaves. I found it hard to believe, but it would explain why she was able to survive alone without any help from the adults around her - all she needed was the blood that came from them. There were a lot of missing pieces, but I had a general assumption as to what had happened in those mines - after all, it did bring out the worst in people and I’m sure no one was an exception. In my mind, as long as Nephthys had a justified reason for doing something, she hadn't done anything wrong by trying to survive on her own - I had barely survived with a group of people supporting me.

I pondered on Nor and Rosa, but I was not as worried as before. They were incredibly strong people and if they were to try, they would probably be able to survive - two children alone had made it rather far. Then, I felt my body being pulled out of this world.

“Wake up. The sun’s risen, Sol”

I heard Nephthys’s voice resonate throughout the ethereal world and I was immediately kicked out. Tiredly, I opened my eyes to the sun that was starting to rise, which marked the start of another day for the two of us. Nephthys told us that we were nearby something or someone, but was unsure of exactly what it was. On the other hand, I had a hard time believing her because all I could see in every direction was a stretch of trees that seemed to last forever. We poured the dirt back into the divot and hurriedly made it look as natural as possible before getting ready to walk for the day. I had been trying my best to become less of a burden to Nephthys by training myself to stop instinctively using my nonexistent right arm, but until I became successful, Nephthys would have to continue to help me do the majority of daily activities.

* * *

We were making steady progress throughout the day until Nephthys suddenly stopped and turned her head in the middle of our travels. I hadn’t heard or seen anything happen, so I wondered why we had stopped so suddenly. She seemed to be focused so I stayed as quiet as possible for the time being. A light, cool breeze blew through the mountains and felt extremely refreshing - especially after having walked nonstop for most of the day. After a little while, she turned back around and faced me with a nonchalant expression.

“... mmmm…”

Nephthys just looked at me with a questioning eye and I wondered if something bad had happened.

“What?”

“... Would you risk your life for someone you didn’t know?”

“... No… Is that a bad thing?”

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“Then why did you help me?”

“... I couldn’t just leave you after you risked your own life to save me”

“So… would you have abandoned me if I didn’t save you first?”

At this moment, I was confused at both Nephthys’s question and my own thoughts. I had always held the belief to not help others because, in the slums, people didn’t have the opportunity to help others. But if that was the case, I would have died within weeks, if not days, after reaching the mines. Without people like Rosa, Nor, Nao, Sho, and those of group B, I would have died from starvation, beasts, or cave-ins. Although I didn’t want to risk my life to save others, others had done exactly so to save me in many ways. But then the thought that many would still be alive if it were not for me did not escape me. If I had just died within the first week, then perhaps those who had died in the mines would still be alive. My thoughts were drifting all over the place and eventually landed at Nephthys’s original question.

I would not have met her if I hadn’t bothered to save her, but I was also alive only because of her. So if the question was if I would have abandoned her at the time, then I would probably say yes. But now that I have gotten to know her, I would be willing to risk my life to protect her, no matter the situation.

“I would have because I didn’t know any better at the time.”

“So… then what would you have done now”

“I would save you without question.”

She stared at me without changing her expression - she was neither angry nor annoyed as I thought she would be after what I had said to her. Instead, she changed the subject as if that was only a side conversation for her own information.

“Anyways… there are some slaves in thick, iron bars being transported somewhere. Did you want to save them?”

“... we wouldn’t be able to even if we were to try. I can barely move and you’re weaker under the sun.”

I felt bad for slaves, but there was little we could do in our current state. We were but children who were in a severely weakened state. Then I realized, if a slave trader was traveling, there had to be a road they were traveling on… which meant that there would be some sort of civilization at the end of the road. Completely forgetting about the slaves, my mind was running on the thought that we had finally found a way out. There was finally some hope after everything we had gone through.

“Do we have a way out!?”

“... yes, but I don’t think it will be that easy”

“Why? All we have to do is make it into a city!”

“And what if that city has been alerted of the rebellion in the mines? We would be caught immediately… before even entering the city”

We were so close to being able to escape our horrendous past, but the biggest obstacles were still ahead of us. I couldn’t even begin to think of ways to be discreet about her presence if we were to enter the city - what did a city even look like in the first place? Meanwhile, Nephthys had already thought of a way to enter the city.

“We don’t have to save the slaves of our own good will… we can use them to make our way into the city while freeing them as collateral.”

Nephthys’s POV

I had caught wind of some slave traders and knew instantly that Sol and I had found our ticket out of here. Before I told Sol, I wanted to figure out where they were headed in order to follow close behind them. They were a good distance away from us which would give us some room to move around them. After some time, I faced Sol to ask him some questions. I had come up with a plan in order to finally escape into the city that the wagon seemed to be heading towards, but it would require us to use the slaves that were captive in the wagon.

Sol seemed to be confused about my questions, but he answered in a way that was satisfactory to me. He did not care for those he knew nothing about and although I had asked about my own circumstances out of curiosity, it seemed that he saw me as a close companion after having many close encounters with death. I was elated to know that he thought so much about me now, but I did not allow it to show on my face. After asking him a few more questions, I concluded that he wouldn’t mind using other people as long as he was not attached to them - which meant that he was attached to me.

After telling him about the slaves being transported, he quickly caught on to what was going on, but he didn’t think about how we would be getting in. Fortunately, I had found a loophole that would allow us to cross into the cities without many problems for Sol. After all, no plan was perfect and I wouldn’t allow Sol to exert himself more than he had to in order to enter the city. The basic idea of the plan would be to get in contact with the slaves and blend in with them as they entered the city walls. Neither Sol nor I had attempted to enter the city nor did we know the procedure that would happen at the gates - we would have to make things up as we went along.

Sol seemed to be on board with the idea and I led the way in following the cart from far behind - a distance at which nobody would notice. We were still heading the same way we had been when we first set out in the morning so it seemed my senses had not been off this time around. Leaves rustled as the wind blew and I occasionally looked up to see the sun shining down upon me. It made me frustratingly weak and I couldn’t do as much for Sol as I wanted to do - sometimes feeling like I was being a burden on Sol when I was supposed to be helping him. It would take some time to reach the city walls, but I predicted that by nightfall, we would have arrived there - or else the slave owner would have hired more guards to protect the shipment. These guards looked like guards at first, but they were less uniform and seemed less organized as a group.

Although they looked as such, they could still probably easily beat both Sol and me at our respective peaks. They had the build of an incredibly strong guard and seemed to brag about their feats as well as successes constantly. The sun continued to move and the skies continued to change as Sol and I quietly made our way through the woods, avoiding making unnecessary noise as much as possible as we moved from point to point. And finally, we arrived at the gates of the city.