Leaving Riverwell behind was bittersweet. I didn’t like thinking about the lich woman emerging from those ruins and unleashing her horde of palefiends on the town. But I could also hope Circa had found some way to stop her or at least buy us time before she died. When I was strong enough, I would come back here. I’d go into those ruins myself and put an end to that Forsaken if she was still lurking. I knew that much.

Bloody Steve, Perch, and Kass all walked to the front of the group. Lyria, Minara and I held up the rear guard behind the group of nine townspeople. The two kids and two elders were empty-handed, but the others all carried oversized packs of belongings. Every one of them looked scared shitless to be approaching the Black Woods.

I couldn’t say I felt much better about going into those woods than the first time. At least this time, I was with a group, and I had some abilities to defend myself.

Lyria and Minara seemed to be getting along well enough. They were talking about a theater in Thrask that apparently put on some kind of tournament. Both women sounded like they’d enjoy the chance to see it themselves.

I stuck back a little, working on my abilities as we traveled. With a full stock of mana, I could use my abilities about five times. How I mixed and matched them didn’t seem to matter, which made me think Forge Echo and Elemental Projection drained about the same amount. Every so often, my Elemental Projection ability would launch a mirrored stream of poison out because of my Chain skill, but it didn’t seem to trigger on Forge Echo. That, or I was just incredibly unlucky.

I was trying to see if I could make the poison originate from my fingertip instead of my palm when Lyria looked back my way.

“You don’t waste any time, do you?” she asked.

“So far,” I said. “I’ve been here… maybe three days? I’ve nearly died more times than I can count. Would you waste time if you were me?”

She chuckled. “Fair enough. But don’t drain your reserves below half. You don’t want to be caught with your pants down if we hit trouble.”

I nodded. “Yeah, got it,” I said, as if I had thought of that. In truth, I had already been running myself down to empty before trying to clear my mind and regenerate my mana. “Hey, uh, Circa said there were different ways to recover mana. I’ve just been clearing my head so far. Do you know any other methods?”

“No,” Lyria admitted. “I honestly just sleep. Clearing my head never really works for me. Once I’m drained, it takes a pretty long time to refill. I’ve watched how quickly you seem to get your mana back. That’s not normal, just so you know.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “If Circa hadn’t… told me what she told me, I’d be pretty amazed. But I guess you’d be kind of shitty at your job if you weren’t a little amazing. Right?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said. Nothing I was doing felt overly impressive. I was itching to progress faster. So far, it felt like crawling. I’d gone from feeling a loose, shaky grip on my ability to project elements to having a more confident grasp. I wasn’t as worried that I’d fumble the ability and fail to summon it in a pinch, but that was about it. With my Forge Echo, I still couldn’t uncork my phantom potion and dump its contents like I wanted. Once, I got the hazy cork off my weapon’s echo, but the contents were nothing but smoke that billowed away on the wind when I dumped it. I tried a few times with my common leather whip and found that easier but less useful. I didn't imagine it would have much effect if I was slapping things with a real or phantom whip.

“Sorry,” Minara said, drifting backward. She’d been so far ahead I was certain she couldn’t overhear us. “I heard you mention mana recovery techniques. I’m afraid I can’t share the Radiant Path’s techniques because we’re sworn to secrecy on that score. But, I can say I learned two from our family trainer. Those, unfortunately, are family secrets. I wouldn’t be violating any trust by telling you there are benefits to using other methods. Whichever method you use will train your connection mana flows. Some will improve your natural regeneration speed. Others will deepen your reserves. Some will shrink your capacity but improve the potency of your connection. There are countless others, and some prefer to mix and match the methods to cater their abilities to their needs.”

I considered her words and wondered what the method Circa taught me did. As far as I could tell, I hadn’t gained any capacity to use more mana since I’d been practicing. But maybe it did feel like my mana was coming back faster when I cleared my head. Or that could have only been because I was getting better at clearing my mind quickly.

“Any general advice to avoid crippling myself?” I asked.

Minara pressed her lips together, nodding as if she understood my concern. “External help,” she said. “Items, potions, scrolls, or things of that sort. If you use something to aid your regeneration, you’ll never learn to properly connect and will find yourself dependent.”

Minara’s eyes drifted upward. “You know the horns on your helmet are punching right through your hood, yes?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Lyria surprised me by touching a hand on my shoulder. “He’s strange. Can’t take him anywhere.”

Minara raised a dark brow. “Are you two a couple?”

“Oh, no,” Lyria said. “I’m his bodyguard.”

I almost laughed at that, then realized it wasn’t entirely untrue.

“I see. Are you from a noble family as well? One that… perhaps doesn’t have extensive knowledge of the outside world?”

“Something like that,” Lyria said. She seemed eager to answer for me, so I stayed quiet and let her do the talking. It was probably safer. “They’re from the outer rings.”

“Oh.” Minara’s tone made me think this fact was something I should be a little embarrassed about. But maybe not something that was kind to mock openly. She plastered a quick smile and did another one of those well-practiced curtseys. “Well, then, welcome to the inner rings, Brynn. What’s your family name?”

“My family name?” I stammered, scrabbling for something that sounded vaguely important. “Stygos,” I said after a beat.

“Hm. I haven’t heard of them, but well met.”

Minara picked up her pace and fell in behind the townspeople, leaving me with Lyria.

“What are the outer rings?” I made a point to whisper much more quietly this time. Minara apparently had some kind of super hearing.

“Rings of influence,” Lyria said, matching my low voice. “Ithariel’s protection extends for thousands of miles, but not infinitely. It suppresses some infestation growth and the strength of dungeons and wild beasts. Eros is large beyond imagining; nobody knows what you’ll find deep into the outer rings. But I know stories don’t come back from very far beyond Ithariel’s influence. Infestations grow unchecked out there. People out there face hard hard lives and constantly have to pack up and move. Imagine things like that Forsaken we saw, but far worse. I’ve heard of beasts taller than castles—feet so big they leave crushed trees in their wake.”

“And people are supposed to believe I’m from there?”

Lyria smirked a little. “Well, it would explain you being so clueless. Just act like you’ve spent most of your life running and hiding. And like you’ve never so much as sniffed a book. It should be easy for you.”

“Funny,” I said, voice dry.

I went back to practicing and noticed, with amusement, that Lyria had joined me. She was coating her shield in icy spikes.

“Look who isn’t wasting any time,” I said.

“Yeah, well, you do seem to attract danger like shit draws flies. If I’m following you, I probably should keep myself in shape.”

“How does that ability work, anyway? I asked. “Is each element a different ability?”

“I just have two abilities,” she said. “I don’t get to pick the element. Would be nice if I could, but it seems to just… happen. I focus on condensing mana around the shield, and it does what it does.”

“Could you do that to your sword?”

“I think I could,” she said. “But the only useful one on my sword seems to be the molten lava effect. If I knew I’d get that every time, I’d try it more. They’re all pretty useful on my shield since there’s more surface area. Sometimes, it seems like the element kind of matches my mood, but other times it seems completely random.”

“And your other ability?”

“I’m supposed to be able to get a burst of speed. I guess it would let me close the distance quickly or run quickly. But I haven’t ever been able to make that one work.”

I considered making some obvious suggestions but figured Lyria had already tried anything I could think of on the spot. So I just nodded, changing the subject. “Do you think you could learn to get your mana back faster? I already feel frustrated with how often I need to recover. I can’t imagine it taking even longer.”

She grinned. “You’d go crazy in my shoes, then. I can get a little back if I try, but usually I just have to sleep. That’s why I don’t usually practice the way you do. Then I’d be tapped out if we hit a fight.”

“Have you tried what Circa said? Finding peace and clearing your head? That’s all I’m doing.”

“All you’re doing is defying everything that’s supposed to be possible,” she countered. “People aren’t supposed to figure out their skills this fast. They’re not supposed to get their mana back so fast. Even normal people who are relatively talented. Most Woods I know would probably need all day to get their mana back. You’re doing it in what, minutes?”

“Ten or twenty. And it’s hard work.”

“Yeah, well, it’s damn impressive. But keep in mind that it’s odd. You’ll want to know which things you do are odd so you don’t get the wrong kind of attention. If anyone here asks, just tell them you have an item. Let them think you’re crippling yourself like Minara said.”

I nodded, then let out a breath. “I didn’t feel impressive in those ruins,” I said.

Lyria’s mood seemed to darken at the mention of the ruins, so we walked the rest of the way to the Black Wood, silently practicing. Lyria only summoned an element to her shield twice before she apparently decided she needed to hold off and conserve her mana.

Stepping inside the darkened trees of the Black Wood dampened the patter of rain on our armor and hoods and made everybody more tense.

I took one last look over my shoulder toward Riverwell. Small groups, similar to ours, were streaming out in all directions. I noticed none of them were heading toward the ruins, though. If anything was that way worth traveling to, it seemed people were planning to circle wide around the Forsaken who might still be lurking in there.

I spared a quiet thought of remembrance for Circa and everyone who gave their lives, then headed after the group and into the woods. Toward Thrask, and the promise of new power it held.