“Balefron.”

“Lowlands grass.” Auro said. “Celrion.”

“Clouds? Erithan.”

Auro bobbed her head in thought.

“Broad-leaves. Frigit.”

“Frigit…?” I thought for a moment. “Ah! Lantern glass! They both twinkle, right? Halfil.”

“Halfil!”

Auro twisted around in the saddle to give me a puzzled expression.

“When’s the last time you’ve seen anyone mention Halfil? And that lantern glass answer’s quite a stretch!”

“Well, it’s a Hearthstar, isn’t it?” I said with a smirk. “Really, it’s not my fault you don’t know your stars.”

“Halfil’s part of the Haliborne though…” Auro suddenly smiled. “Ah! Ripe grenfruit! Kelrione.”

My mind raced for a moment as I tried to think of something coloured pale purple, but nothing immediately came to mind. I bowed my head with a sigh, and Auro gave a small cheer with her left arm.

“Damn it… I really thought you’d trip up there.” I complained.

“You should’ve known better than trying to lie about it. No one’s better than a Minuan at star charts.” Auro said. “And picking three greens in a row didn’t really help you either.”

To be honest, I had thought Halfil actually was a Hearthstar, but I didn’t tell her that. Was it Falhin I was thinking of? Or was Falhin the yellow one that disappeared in the spring? It was hard to tell, there were so many stars I couldn’t be sure how anyone memorised them all. Nor had I gotten that much better at this game since we’d started playing it, distracted as I was with the forest around us.

This section of the forest was dark even at this time of day, so much so that I could only see by the light of the lamp we had clipped to the shoulder of the colg. Bramble patches sharp and pale passed us by, sudden branches looming out of the darkness like so many swords. Every once and a while we had come to pass a lonely beam of light that managed to penetrate the stifling canopy, but those moments passed with only fleeting joy. And when I looked too far into the dark, I almost could swear that something was watching back. Even the wind was dead, and the only noise was that of our own breath.

And so while we rode along on the same colg, me behind Auro, we had struck up a game to try to pull away some of the dread we both felt.

“Quite some luck that all the Haliborne are green, isn’t it?” I said, and then quieter: “Though I wish that we had a bit of their light right about now.”

Auro lightly punched my leg.

“I wouldn’t wish that. The Haliborne is the Spear, remember? Celrion is much more preferable.”

I simply nodded, and we fell into silence as we continued to plod along.

The most distressing thing to me wasn’t actually some shadows, of course, but the fact that we might not even be heading in the right direction at all. The forest was very hilly in places, so it wasn’t always apparent that we were going deeper in at all, unless you counted the growing unease as evidence.

The colg froze as something suddenly moved to our right.

I stared in the direction for a moment, but nothing came forward.

“It… ah, it was probably just a langier.” Auro stammered.

Realising I was holding my breath, I exhaled. Then, unclipping the lantern and raising it up, I scanned the woods. As the light uncovered more of the forest, a small lump suddenly appeared just five metres away, and I almost jumped out of the saddle in surprise.

“Pitch it!” I cried. “The hell is that?”

I quickly unslung my spear and aimed it towards the lump, but it didn’t move. Instead, its flank simply raised up and down.

“Oh, it's just an iren.” Auro said, sounding just as relieved as I felt.

I stared at it for a bit longer, noting the two bushy tails and canine-like face. It actually might’ve been somewhat cute, if it didn’t look drugged out of its mind.

“Do they normally just lay around like that?” I asked.

“I… don’t know.”

A sudden suspicion rose up in my mind, and I made to pull the colg closer to the beast. As I moved my hands, however, a certain apathy rose up in my mind.

Does it really matter what it is? Animals get sick and die all the time, this was just the atmosphere getting to me.

“Saphry?” Auro asked.

I shook my head and pulled the reins over.

As we got closer, I saw that while the iren was definitely alive, somewhat seemed to be… off about it. Its eyes lay open staring straight ahead, its tails unmoving. It looked to be just breathing and nothing more. Though, neither did it look close to death. It seemed to be a healthy weight to me, and its fur was somewhat glossy in the lantern light.

Our colg turned its head and chirped at the iren, but it didn’t react.

“I’ve always pictured these things as rather excitable.” I said.

“Yeah…” Auro sounded confused.

I poked it gently with the shaft of my spear, only to be alarmed when it limply raised one of its forelegs in a pathetic motion to bat it away.

“Must be some kind of quick-acting sickness.” I murmured. “Should I kill it?”

“Yeah, that soun- wait, what?” Auro twisted around in shock, grimacing as her wound pained her. “Why would you do that?”

“To put it out of a slow death, of-” I frowned. “Well, actually I suppose I don’t quite feel like doing that. Nevermind it.”

“Then don’t!” Auro cried. “What a horrible thing to joke about…”

Would it really be so evil to kill and eat it? We’d eaten a couple on the way over from Minua, though they tasted horrible. Certainly it’d be better than leaving it to starve to death or die of exposure.

Or that’s what I’d originally thought, at least. It seemed like more effort than needed, now.

I led the reins back to our prior course, wondering what had come over me just then.

----------------------------------------

I pulled on the reins to stop as the first ray of light I’d seen in hours appeared in front of us. It shone down through the canopy directly onto the top of a tall hill covered in trees, a lone ray of white starlight upon a small shrine and an accompanying two story building. It seemed different than the others, dimmer and somehow malevolent in a way I couldn’t quite explain.

Still, light was better than no light.

“That’s… eh…”

I swallowed, the words dying in my throat. Instead, I jostled Auro’s sleeping form, careful to not touch her wound. She continued sleeping, dead to the world. The starlight continued to shine down onto the shrine, and I felt a weak wind emanate from on the top of the hill.

Was it really already night? How long had we been walking? No longer than three hours, wasn’t it?

I felt my stomach rumble in response, and I instinctively unbuckled one of the saddlebags, only to blink in surprise at how low it was.

“Did we unpack a bag…?”

I checked through the other bag, but it was still the same size I remembered. Confused, I fought off some of the travel fatigue and shook Auro again. She had laid back on me and fallen asleep at some point, and I felt a small pant of jealousy that I couldn’t do the same. Grumbling as she woke, Auro looked up at me with groggy eyes.

“There?”

Troubled by something I couldn’t explain, I could only point to the hill.

“No, I just thought we might rest on that hill for a while. Don’t want to tire the colg.”

Auro’s eyes drooped again as she glanced at it, but she didn’t get up.

“Whatever you want.”

And then she fell back against me and promptly started snoring.

“Why did I want to bring you along again…?”

With a sigh I pulled the reins towards the hill, only for the colg to chirp unhappily. It clawed the ground weakly, obviously exhausted.

I reached forward and pat the beast's neck.

“I know, I know, but I at least want some shelter, so can you make it up the hill first?”

Still, the beast only chirped.

I sighed in frustration.

How in the pitch was the colg so tired anyway? It’d seemed perfectly fine when we were sprinting after Auro, and we’d only walked the beast since then. Was having another person really that burdensome? Though even that didn’t make much sense, for even the two of us combined might not equal the weight of a large male in maile. It just didn’t add up.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“It’s the last stretch.” I said with another pat. “Get up there and I won’t make you walk again. For a few hours, at least.”

The colg seemed to weigh that in its mind for a few more moments before letting out a resigned hum. The sensation reverberated through the beast like a helpless sigh, and it began to plod up towards the light.

As we climbed, a dreadful line of thinking came over me.

Wasn’t this a bit like how it’d been in the capital? The ‘thought demon’ there had messed with our memories in an incredibly insidious way, so wasn’t it possible the same thing was happening now? That something was manipulating us to feel tired or maybe even lose our memory of time passing? Everything recently was certainly somewhat unusual.

Just in case, I lowered the mask over my face. I immediately felt a little better, though I couldn’t tell if that was because of some actual benefit or pure placebo.

As we approached the shrine, I realised that the house beside it hardly fit the typical Veroline style of stone and wood. Instead, it was all vertical panels of what looked to me like thin hide or paper painted white. The roof was not as sharply angled as the normal snow-cautious design either, though it retained the stone like shingles. Thin columns around the house supported a shallow roofed patio, and while there was a window it seemed to be covered not in glass but with wooden stacks of wood. Nor was there a door knob to be found, but what looked to me like a thin panel of oak with a handle carved into its centre.

The shrine itself was fairly nondescript, consisting of only a small stone bowl filled sitting on a stout column that couldn’t be more than three feet tall. Algae surrounded the rim, though none seemed to reach over and into the bowl. Sunlight shone down through the canopy directly into the bowl.

My first impression was that the place was old as dirt. Maybe even older, given the old window. I had thought glass was an expensive commodity, but it had been surprisingly common in every village we’d passed so far, so much so that it was obvious there was some efficient method to produce it. It would then make sense that this place either predated that method or was so isolated or poor it never got it. Any one of those seemed likely.

Though, to be honest, it was a little difficult to remember where I’d come to the conclusion that glass was expensive to begin with, so the whole premise could be wrong.

As soon as the colg stepped on top of the hill just outside the light, it collapsed to the ground, asleep before its head even hit the grass. The saddlebags and my spear clattered to the ground beside it.

The same sort of exhaustion tugged at my mind, but a sudden suspicion about the building took precedence, and I clambered off the colg with a wand in hand. Then, after making sure nothing was sneaking up out of the forest to snatch the sleeping Auro or our colg, I approached the building.

The wood creaked with age as I stepped onto the porch, much too loud in the silence of the forest.

So it was ancient… strange that the wood hadn’t rotted yet, wasn’t it? Or was there some magic in it? Perhaps even demon magic?

I glanced around the outside walls suspiciously, looking for any runes that could explain the building’s condition, but nothing stood out to me. As far as I could tell, it was mundane.

Which, knowing my luck, probably meant it was some demon trap.

I chuckled softly at the paranoia. It wasn’t entirely unfounded, of course, but the thought of turning into a pseudo-inquisitor at every abnormality didn’t seem so far away anymore.

Then, after regretting the fact that I hadn’t bothered to learn any investigative spells, I grabbed hold of the wooden handle and pulled to the side with the expectation of a sliding door. Then, when it didn’t budge, I tried pushing in.

Unexpectedly, the door fell inside with my push, and I barreled to the floor after it.

“Ow…”

Without leaving the floor, I clipped the lamp at my hip and cast it around the room, finding that it was fairly bare. The floors were rough wood planks, and the roof was low. Six long mats were stacked up on one wall, and a low sitting table dominated the middle of the floor. On the right wall, shelves and a stone stove sported cobwebs, and in the corner there was a narrow flight of stairs leading upwards. A layer of dust covered the room like a thick blanket.

Satisfied that it was simply spooky, not murderous, I climbed to my feet and beat the dust from my skirt. Then, I inspected the door again.

Looking at it again, it was obvious that it was just a panel that had been leaned against the opening, nor were there any indications that it had ever been attached. There were no hinges around the portal either, nor any fastenings or tracks for a sliding mechanism.

Bit of a cheap door, wasn’t it? If you could even call it that. They must’ve had some problems importing hinges. Or the place was older than the practice.

But if that was the case, why hadn’t the place rotted away yet? It must’ve been the first. Or… it was as my paranoia suspected and the hideout of some demon.

Keeping my wand out, I walked around the place inspecting the various furniture. The mats looked to indeed be beds, and though it wasn’t stocked the kitchen was well suited for travellers. Curiously, there was not one speck of metal in any of it, with everything instead being fashioned out of wood, hide, or fur.

Could it be that we’d stumbled upon a traveller’s shrine? I’d certainly read about them existing throughout Verol, though it was a stroke of luck that we’d found one in a place like Fangpeak. It definitely beat sleeping outside in the forest.

Still, the place seemed eerie to me. Why was it so well-maintained? Was there a village nearby?

My suspicion outgrowing my exhaustion, I crept over to the stairs.

“Vie” I whispered.

Immediately a soft crack broke the air, and a fledgling ice bird wriggled into existence. It chirped happily as it shook itself dry before taking off around me.

I extended a hand, and the bird landed on my finger.

“Could you check around upstairs?” I asked. “Make sure there’s no strange demons hiding about?”

Really, we’d have to be the unluckiest people possible to run into something like that. In all likelihood, the exhaustion was a normal reaction to all the excitement, if Count Ephren could forgive me for calling it that.

But it never hurts to be sure.

The bird chirped again and flew up the stairs, disappearing into the inky darkness at the top.

“I swear to the Star, if I’m right about this…” I muttered.

The dull fear within me steadily rose as I waited, but I held firm. If it really was a demon, wouldn’t it have reacted by now? Was it possible I was just being overly suspicious of what was in all likelihood a traveller’s rest?

No. That line of thinking was how horror novel characters got brutally killed. In fact, it was probably better to just rouse the colg and drag them out of the place. It might suck, but sleeping in the forest was… On the cold ground…

A silent war raged within me between my desire to not die and my desire to sleep on an actual bed.

…I mean, I’m a big shot mage now, right? Surely a little demon wouldn’t be anything too difficult for me to take care of at this point. If there was one here, it couldn’t be worse than the fire wyrm back in Minua.

Just as I was debating whether I wanted to go get my spear from where I’d left it on the colg, the bird came chirping back from upstairs. It landed on my finger again happily.

“Nothing dangerous?” I asked. “Or spooky, or foul, or gross? Or perhaps even nefarious?”

The bird paused for a moment, but eventually shook its head rather intelligently. Somewhat satisfied, I murmured a quiet thanks and transferred the bird to my shoulder.

Slowly I climbed the stairs, my wand still held in front of me. At the top I rounded the corner and thrust the lamp into the one empty room that dominated the floor.

Thankfully, it was empty. No demons, effigies, cult symbols, or butchered corpses decorated the walls, but only more mats and tables. A shelf with boxes and a few books leaned against the far wall, but that was the most of it.

“Thank the Sta-“

A freezing hand clamped down on my shoulder.

I instantly dropped the lantern and dove forward, coming up on a knee with my wand pointed at my attacker. My heart beat a thousand times a second as half a dozen spells flashed into my head, and only the sight of who stood outlined against the wall stayed my lips.

With a sword sheath on his hip and another in his hand, a certain Summarkan swordsman stood casually at the top of the stairs. His clothes sported cuts and splits of dried blood, but he looked as relaxed as he had the first time I saw him.

“Fredrick? You’re alive?”

“I apologise for the fright.” He said with a small smile. ”But I suppose I just couldn’t help myself.”

----------------------------------------

Was it too much to suspect Fredrick of being a demon’s illusion? Or was that straying into paranoid derangement?

As the three of us sat around one of the now ration-laden tables in the dim lamplight, I couldn’t help but feel suspicious of him.

Soon after he had arrived, the exhausting pall had seemingly left us, replaced only by what seemed to me like a more normal level of tiredness. Auro had woken up and bombarded Fredrick with questions about the others and his plight. For his part, he had been more worried about her wound than anything else, and had promised to speak more once he had probably dressed it and we had eaten.

But despite that, I still couldn’t bring myself to completely trust him. It felt almost more like a dream than reality to see him sitting across from me.

“As much as I’d like to say we won, the truth is hardly thus. I was the only one left, and only because the others defended me so.” Fredrick looked down at his mug. “I fear I don’t deserve such sacrifice.”

“Nonsense.” Auro cried. “It’s the Star’s gift you’re with us now.”

A small grimace tugged on his face.

“More so than one of the other men? Who else am I more deserving of life than? Some of them had children, mind you.”

Auro opened her mouth and closed it, a difficult expression overcoming her.

Personally, I felt conflicted. On an ideological level, he was right. No man should have precedence over another. That was simply common sense. Or it should be be.

Only… though it pains me to think it, I am a selfish person at heart. I couldn’t honestly bring myself to feel sad that Fredrick had lived at the expense of the guards. He was a Maverick, after all, a noble. And more importantly, he was one of my friends. I’d probably have sacrificed many more to ensure any of their survival.

I frowned.

Was it even okay to accept that? What a horrible line of thinking.

“But still, our foe had only been routed, not annihilated.” He continued slowly. “So I could not follow Luis and the other down the common path, and instead thought of intercepting you two, however slim the chance of us crossing. Truly, it must’ve been the Star that guided us both here.”

“The Star indeed.” I said, privately doubtful.

“And you didn’t even think of returning to Minua?” Auro looked away, ashamed. “I… I had some mind to go back that way myself.”

“If we are to make those sacrifices worth it, we must complete our mission.” Fredrick said sternly. “Fangpeak must join Minua if Andril and all of Verol are to have a chance.”

“O-of course. It was just a fleeting thought anyway…”

I hid my face in my cup. After fighting in that naval action and now surviving this ambush, it was becoming ever more clear to me that it’d require a lot of death for Andril to accomplish what he wanted. Whether there’d even be a workable country at the end was debatable.

Fredrick looked around the room dubiously, pausing on the panel ‘door’ and cobwebbed roof in turn.

“I must say, however, this place is remarkably eerie. And I had the most unusual feeling as I approached. In fact when I saw Auro laying on the grass I’d almost worried that she’d succumbed to whatever light I saw dancing about inside…”

“So it wasn't just me?” I asked. “This place seems like prime haunted material. I don’t think I would’ve approached it if I hadn’t felt so tired.”

“Yes, I was perhaps too relieved to see you creeping up the stairs in front of me.” Fredrick chuckled. “I could only think: ‘Of course Saphry found the most ominous place in the forest!’”

“I was hardly ‘creeping’.” I muttered.

“It is rather disquieting.” Auro agreed. “I’ll be glad to be on the road to Ithin Narnil.”

Fredrick’s eyes flicked to me instantly.

“So I was correct in my assumption then? You plan to go from that town to Ithin Sele? Instead of the straight path?”

I sensed a deeper question buried in there, and I felt a certain nervousness come over me.

“We felt it safer than the straight path.” I said. “That they might intercept us if we went that way, much as you have.”

“I suppose that’s an understandable reason. Though, I do find it strange how conveniently your desires align here.”

“What are you saying?” Auro grabbed my arm protectively. “That she planned any-“

Fredrick waved her off before she could finish.

“I don’t mean to say anything of the sort. I just question, in perhaps too roundabout a way, mind you, why she cares to wander through that town. I doubt it was a choice made reluctantly.”

“I would’ve preferred not to have a dozen people die violently in front of me.” I snapped. “Breale is right, you are much too cruel sometimes.”

“Agreed.” Auro said.

Fredrick frowned at the mention of his sister.

“Fine, fine, forget I asked.” He eventually said. “I meant no harm by it.”

“Speaking of Breale…” Auro began after a moment of silence. “Is that her sword?”

Internally, I relaxed at the change of conversation. I didn’t have an explanation that would properly satisfy him and make me not sound suspicious, so it was altogether better if it were redirected every time it came up. Even Silst would agree with me on that.

Fredrick’s frown deepened as he fingered the second sword.

“Indeed. She left it when she fled. Though I have no doubt she is alive. She’s probably already met up with Luis and is halfway to Ithin Sele by now.”

He said the last part with a shaky conviction, almost as if he were trying to convince himself of it, and I frowned.

Surely a demon’s illusion wouldn’t put on such a good performance, would it?

“Are you going to carry it the whole way?” Auro asked. “Would it be better if I wielded it?”

Fredrick froze for a moment before shaking his head.

“You have no experience with a sword. You’d be better off using Saphry’s spear.”

I looked up sharply.

“Do you want me to hold onto it then?”

Logically, it made sense for all three of us to be holding weapons, especially if we had any experience with them. That being said, I had only held a sword once before, and it certainly wasn’t against a human foe, so if he was offering it to me there was some other reason for it.

Fredrick paused again.

“That would… be better, I think. You’ll make slightly better use of it than I would with it on my back, and you bonded fairly well with Azhachi when I gave him to you before.”

Reluctantly, he unclipped the second sheath and passed it over. I took it gingerly, finding that it was lighter than I expected. It seemed to hum in my hands, as if filled with some indescribable power.

They had mentioned many times before how much magic was baked into these swords for them, a fact that seemed twofold of Breale’s than it had Fredrick’s. Or was it the fact that I was more sensitive to magic now that tricked me? When I’d taken up Azhachi, I’d only had a little self-taught training, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think I had a better understanding of it now.

“What is this one’s name?” I asked. “Did Breale name it?”

Fredrick shook his head.

“Nay, the smith. It is called Rintazh, ‘Choice Stopper’.”

“…Rather literal, isn’t it?” I asked.

“It sounds somewhat different in dwarven.” Fredrick said. “I guess something more like ‘the last choice’ would be more appropriate. The smith wanted Breale to think of it as a weapon of self-defence.”

“I can’t imagine that worked.” Auro said sceptically.

Fredrick smiled fondly.

“No, I’m afraid it didn’t.”

I turned it over in my hands, drawing it out of the sheath by a few inches to admire the blade.

“Does it have a special spell to activate the edge?” I asked. “Or is that something innate to the Mavericks?”

“That’s a family secret.” Fredrick said. “Only those born to or married into our line may activate the blade.”

“Married into, huh? Might as well perform the ceremony now so we can get some extra firepower.” I joked. “Though, seriously, hopefully it won’t come to…”

I trailed off as I noticed the dead silence from the other two, and when I looked up found Auro looking away with a red face. Even more surprisingly, Fredrick was also avoiding my eyes.

“…What’s wrong?”

“Y-you shouldn’t joke about such things.” Auro said. “It disturbs the heart!”

“What?”

“That was exactly how my father proposed to my mother...” Fredrick said with a grimace. “Almost word for word.”

I blinked, more surprised than anything.

“Your father used a shitty joke to propose? That’s…”

He nodded.

“My mother still holds a grudge for it.”

…That poor woman.

The three of us grieved silently for his mother for a minute as Auro recovered.

“We should probably finish up eating and head to bed.” Fredrick finally said. “Lest we use up our last chance for a bed by talking all night.”

Auro yawned in agreement, and we all turned back to the rations sitting in front of us. As we ate, I had to wonder what still lay in front of us.