The following day, Lasula was mostly focused on training with Lyra. I don’t mind all that much, I’ve just been training on my own, doing some practice swings and stuff while we walk. A part of me wants to get jumped by some monsters to see if I’ve actually improved. Another part of me is scared stiff of that happening. Not that I’d ever admit that.

  Not much has happened on Lyra’s end. I was kinda expecting her to be able to float rocks and stuff by now, but apparently it’s way more complicated. The way they make things happen has to do with visualizing some obscure runic language in their head— and that’s literally the only way. Didn’t know there were so many different kinds of spellings for the word ‘air,’ and to be honest most of it went way over my head. So I’ve just been sticking to my own thing and letting them do theirs.

  But come mid afternoon on the sixth day since setting off, we come across something almost spiritual. Spiritual, at least… for me, who’s gotten sick of trudging through thick grass for just about a week.

  “Is that…” I mutter.

  We’ve just created a large hill, and see now just how close we are. What’s more…

  “Yes,” Lasula nods. “That is the road which connects Dresnia’s capital to its westerly neighbor, the Rim Empire.”

  What we see is, indeed, a road. It sits at the far bottom of the hill, snaking left until disappearing beyond a distant ridge. But in the other direction, it curves straight forward… directly into the mountains that now loom high over us. And to top it all off are these two massive sculptures, carved directly into the stone of the cliffs, of two robed men on either side of the mountain pass.

  “The Pass of the Two Kings…” Lasula awes. “I’d always wanted to see it, someday.”

  Name’s a bit on the nose, but whatever. It’s awesome.

  “How… long will it take to get across the mountain?” I ask.

  “Not mountain, but mountains,” Lasula says. “There are thousands of them in this mountain range going east to northwest, dividing most of the continent. The charted path takes about five days to cross.”

  “Huh,” I breathe. From beside me, Lyra tugs on my shirt. I turn to her and bend down a bit. “Oh, uh… You tired?”

  She nods.

  I crouch down and let her climb onto my back. I lift us both up.

  “Should we go?” I say.

  “Yes, let’s,” Lasula nods.

  With that, we begin down the hill towards the mountain pass. And at the bottom… we take our first steps onto the well traveled road, paved in cobblestone. Feels like a miracle.

  “Hell yeah—! No more shitty grass! No more shitty hidden rocks that keep tripping me up!” I exclaim, lifting my arms into the air.

  Lyra reciprocates the emotion by holding up a middle finger towards the prairie.

  “—L-Language, you two. No need to be so vulgar,” Lasula mutters.

  “Eh— Oh, uh… my bad,” I grumble.

  “I will just say it once, but our language is a vast one. There are plenty of other ways of expressing emotion without a heavy use of expletives,” she says, holding up a finger.

  “Y-Yeah. Sure,” I nod.

  But seriously… fuck the prairie.

  “There is a lot of history in this pass,” Lasula says as we begin to approach the towering statues. “It was first excavated when a trade agreement was struck between an early Dresnia and the Rim Empire. Their friendship has admittedly grown strained over recent years due to the Rim adapting an isolationist policy, but even so the pass remains open to this day for any to travel.”

  “Isolationist?” I ask.

  “It means that they closed their borders,” she replies.

  “Huh… How come?”

  “W—Well…” Lasula pauses. “…Up until around fifteen years ago, there existed a nation to the north that shared a border with both Dresnia and the Rim. It was a very power hungry nation and constantly warred with its neighbors further north. However… when it turned its armies south towards Dresnia, it also threatened the Rim to not interfere. They accepted their terms and allowed them to invade their ally. Perhaps it was due to that shame that they removed themselves from the rest of the world.”

  “Sad,” I say.

  A few quiet moments pass by. And as my mind drifts away from that conversation, I find myself watching as the whole of the mountain pass becomes visible around the bend.

  The dark, craggy cliffs are sheer on either end, casting a thick shadow on the stone-cut trail. A fog hangs low much further ahead of where we are, preventing me from seeing beyond the straightaway. The statues that are right above us now seem like they’re watching us from the corner of their eyes. Reluctantly, we keep walking forward through the pass.

  “Our path from here on out will be a long one,” says Lasula, “but luckily it is a fairly simple one. From what I’ve heard, the trail winds along the safest path through the range. It will be grueling at times— but safe, assuming we keep away from any chasms.”

  “And… it’ll really take that long to get across, huh…” I mutter.

  “If it were straight across, it would likely only take a day or so,” she replies. “But due to the many ravines and sheer cliff faces in the way, the trail is forced to wind and bend to avoid them.”

  “Oh…”

  “Shouldn’t be nearly as claustrophobic after this bit, though,” Lasula smiles.

  “Counting on it…”

  We continue on while we fall into silence. But that silence is soon after broken by Lyra.

  “I would like to practice magic some more,” she says.

  “Well you’re not doing it up there,” I mutter. “…On the off chance you end up making something explode…”

  “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that,” Lasula laughs. “…I suppose there are a few things I could have you do. But why don’t we wait until—“

  As she says this, a certain… observation by my subconscious has me abruptly summon my sword and quickly spin to my left. I raise it in front of my face just as I hear a metallic clang emanate from it, like something was deflected by it. Before I can register what happened, Lasula quickly spins around and a powerful field of blue light explodes out from her, tugging at my shirt as it passes by and traveling all the way down either side of the trail. She protectively gets in front of Lyra and I, as she concernedly scans the area.

  A moment passes. And then another. There isn’t the sound of the wind nor the chirp of birds. It’s utter silence.

  Lasula bends down, picking something off the floor. She examines it by carefully rotating it in between her fingers.

  “…I hadn’t expected to be attacked in such tight quarters… and from where, I am still unsure.” She pauses. “…But they are gone now. Without a trace.”

  “…M…Monsters…?” I mutter, holding my sword tightly.

  “No,” Lasula replies, shaking her head. She turns to me and holds out her hand. In it… a small arrow, broken in two.

  “…Humans,” says Lyra from over my shoulder.

  Lasula clenches her hand, which snaps the bolt into further pieces before frustratedly tossing them at the wall.

  “D…Dammit—!” she bursts, which surprises both Lyra and I. She seems to immediately notice this as well, and is probably thinking of how to explain her outburst. “O-Oh, sorry… I should have been able to see that. Instead… I put you both in danger. I…”

  Well that’s bullshit. What she’s saying is that she couldn’t snatch an arrow out of the sky, after we all thought there was no one else around. What kinda unreasonable expectations does she have for herself?

  “…Anyways… Are you proud of me for deflecting it? I feel pretty damn good,” I say. “You alright, Lyra? Good to keep going?”

  “There is no issue,” Lyra replies.

  “No issue,” I affirm.

  I begin off again before she can reply.

  Of course I’m scared of what just happened. We were attacked out of nowhere… and they’ve already disappeared, meaning they could attack again. I’m terrified. But Lasula doesn’t need to know this. I don’t want her to feel guilty. And I mean… if she hadn’t taught me how to sense attackers, I would’ve just up and died back there. That was what she was teaching me… right…?

  I think to myself as we begin to pass through the heavy wall of fog that obscures our way forward.

  Several uneasy hours of traveling the narrow pathway later, all while hardly able to see further than our own feet, slowly I feel the density of the mist begin to thin. This goes on for a while, gradually being able to see further and further until—

  Lasula quickly grabs the back of my collar as I take my next step, unaware that there is no more ground in front of me to step on. She yanks me towards her, causing me to fall backwards onto my butt. The fog continues to disperse, allowing me to see the cliff’s edge I nearly threw myself off of. Stupidly.

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  “…We will need to be very careful from here on out,” says Lasula. “As you probably can’t yet tell… we are very high up, and will be for a very long time.”

  “Y…Yeah… I’ll watch where I’m going,” I mutter, my life still flashing before my eyes.

  She nods, and holds out a hand. Moments later, I find myself slowly being brought to my feet by this weird magical pressure. Once done, the magic, a yellowish color, goes away and Lasula looks down at me with a smile.

  “…Other than that, this mountain is sure to be teeming with fun,” she says.

  “Really…? This place…? Teeming with fun…?” I mutter.

  “…In good perspective,” she smiles.

  “S…Sure…”

  She’s acting a little weird. Like she’s trying to compensate for what happened. And her smile seems a little off. Hope she gets over it.

  We can see the path ahead a little better now. It veers off to the left, with a huge rocky wall along the leftmost edge and the sheer cliff on the other. The path itself is probably big enough for one carriage to pass through, but not much wider than that. It gives us plenty of room to walk, but not without the constant threat of the drop-off just a few paces away.

  “…So…” I mutter.

  “Yes…?” Lasula asks.

  “Oh, uh… just hated the silence,” I reply.

  “I see. What do you feel would best fill this quiet moment?”

  “…S…Sword practice…?” I ponder, tilting my head.

  “If I cannot practice magic on your shoulders, you will not use your sword while carrying me,” Lyra retorts.

  “Hey, nobody’s forcing you to be carried,” I mutter. “In fact… If you’re fine, then get off already!”

  Lyra defensively wraps her arms around my neck. She’s not exactly strong enough to do any harm, but… I’m pretty sure she’s trying to choke me out.

  “Alright, alright. Do whatever,” I mutter, pulling my head free from her grasp. “…But if I end up catching on fire or something… you’re walking all the way to Gale.”

  She makes some kinda satisfied huff, like she pulled a victory over me. Whatever.

  “If that’s settled… Alright then, Lyra dear,” Lasula says. “Now that you’ve begun to memorize the first few runes of the Mana Scripture, it’s time to put together a bit of everything you have learned thus far…”

  This’s more or less where I begin to tune things out. Not that I’m not at all interested, it’s just that Lasula let it be known my mana supply is even smaller than Lyra’s… so I wouldn’t even be able to make rocks float or anything. Kinda disappointing.

  As I walk, I start to feel the hairs on the back of my head stand on edge, causing me to shiver.

  “H-Hey, the hell are you doing? Cut it out!” I stammer.

  I look over my shoulder to see that Lyra’s got an open hand hovering just inches from my neck. It’s glowing a faint yellow. She’s got her eyes shut with a concentrated look on her face.

  “It isn’t working,” she says.

  “Well clearly you’re doing something,” I mutter. “The hell are you actually trying to do?”

  “Make us float in the air,” she replies. “I preferred the challenge of preventing us from falling off the cliff.”

  “Make yourself float off the cliff and leave me out of it…!”

  Lasula slows her pace and turns to look over her shoulder.

  “For better or for worse, you won’t be able to do anything advanced for some time, Lyra dear,” she says. “But that you did anything at all shows you are on track with your training. Continue to feel what each rune represents when you envision them.”

  Again, they’ve lost me. Magic clearly isn’t my thing, or I’d be able to make at least some kinda sense of this ‘rune’ talk, or whatever they mean about envisioning some kinda… invisible… flow of energy.

  “You may set me down now,” Lyra then says, tugging at my shirt.

  “Why thank you, your goddamn majesty…”

  I crouch down and let her step down off of me. I then pop back up. Lyra brushes her clothing to straighten it out.

  “…What is my next objective?” she asks, turning to face Lasula.

  “Next you will be focusing on trying to draw the mana to your fingertips much quicker,” Lasula replies. “In order to do this, you will be—“

  She abruptly stops, her eyes widening as she spins around. Another rapid blast of blue energy leaps from her palm, rustling my hair and forcing me to shield my eyes.

  And as I come to my senses… I see that we’re surrounded.

  Five figures face us in a circle, each crouched with long knives in each hand. They wear these tattered gray robes and black face paint.

  By glancing around, I see three men and two women. Can’t tell how old any of them are, but they’re probably adults based on their body compositions.

  “…L…Lasula—“ I breathe.

  “…Remain still, Marco, Lyra,” she replies. At the moment, she’s totally calm and collected. She addresses them when she speaks again, slowly moving her gaze from one to another. “…I would say you are highway bandits… but with how scarcely this pass is traveled, you would sooner have starved.”

  Despite the utter silence, I can’t even hear their breathing. Through it all… they don’t say a word.

  I look to Lasula again. She seems calm as ever. That is… until I look closer, and see that her teeth are gritted, and her hands are shaking.

  One of them abruptly lunges for me with deadly precision. It all happens in slow motion. I struggle to reach down and summon my sword in time. They’re already almost at my neck before the rift can form. I can’t—

  A thick stone shaft juts up in the small space between us, rumpling the ground and interrupting the sudden attack. But as it does, several cracks form in the ground, originating from where it sprouted up. I take several steps back, finishing the summoning of my sword and holding it defensively as more and more of the ground cracks and shifts.

  “The ground is too unstable, Marco! Get back!” Lasula warns as the other four suddenly turn towards her in unison. “Protect Lyra!”

  I nod and hold up my sword as my attacker skirts out from around the crumbling pillar. Lasula casts various rapid enchantments to deflect each of her assailants’ blows. Sparks fly in every direction. In the meantime, my own problem— one of the two women— has me locked in their sights. She bares down on me like a wild animal, slashing with both her knives in unison, dashing around me in an attempt to break my defense.   And even when I block, she’s still able to knock me around like a ball of yarn.

  The cracks in the ground only grow more pronounced as time goes on. I don’t know how Lasula’s magic works, but it must’ve weakened the stone underneath us. As I feverishly block the woman’s attacks, I’m hardly able to concentrate on where I’m stepping. At some points, I can feel the ground shifting under my feet.

  “Marco—!” I hear Lasula shout. “Move towards me now!”

  I quickly block the next attack before leaping away, trying my best to get some distance from the assailant.

  But as I do, my foot breaks the surface of the ground, and goes through it. A rift suddenly spreads out from where my leg went in, snaking between the cracks that were already made. The ground rumbles and shakes as the fissure worsens. The woman attacker loses her balance. It’s then that I notice she’s dangerously close to the ledge.

  I don’t know what caused it. But as I free my leg from the rift, I slowly begin to crawl towards her on my hands and knees. And as the ground suddenly gives way underneath her… I reach out my arm and grab her by the wrist.

  The full of her weight hits me as she falls. I grit my teeth and reach down my other arm to prevent myself from dropping her. My eyes naturally snap to the ravine far below, a cold, menacing void of no return. I can almost feel the frigid hands of death reaching out from its depths. But I shake my head and fasten my grasp on her wrist.

  This moment, however… is interrupted as a heavy boot is pressed into my back. The weight of it takes the air out of my lungs. I struggle to turn my head, just to see one of the assailants, a thuggish younger guy, with a knife held in both hands. His mouth is obscured by his robe. But the look he’s giving… He’s gonna kill me and let the girl drop.

  A fear washes over me, a sheer panic. But I can’t do a thing. I can’t struggle, I can’t fight back— I’m totally helpless.

  But then another spire shoots up just beside me, angled in a way that forces the man to retreat to safety. Lasula appears in my vision, and urgently appears by my side to help me up.

  “—Quickly now! I can pull you both up, you just—“

  And then… The ground splits where I lay, collapsing out from under me. And I fall.