It was jarring, walking in his own steps. In every new village, people knew Gavin. They asked him how his duties went, if he caught his culprit. If someone named Hank was alright. They would ask him many questions he had no answers to.

What was even more confusing, was that he actually recognized them after a while. It was as if he was walking there spiritually, rather than physically. As if he was a on a path to bettering himself and he told Cormac as such. But he just laughed it off.

"It is not that funny."

"Oh please. You are saying that this is a soul searching journey because a couple of village woman recognized you. While you completely disregard the fact that a ghost has been accompanying you since the start." Cormac laughed at him.

"Actually yeah. You are right. Should have trickled to me sooner."

"No shit. If I knew that a random lady waving at you would be enough, I would have possessed some people to wake you up sooner."

"Wait, you can do that?" Gavin asked with wide eyes.

"Unfortunately no. I have no amazing ghost powers." replied Cormac "What about this place? Seems to be nice enough." he said as they came to a small clearing. The sun was only halfway, so they had enough time to wander on, but it was true that Gavin felt fairly tired from all that unexpected socializing. He put his things on the ground and gathered some timber, it was too early to light a fire, but he wanted these things prepared beforehand. Then he spread out the blanket he was gifted today and sat on it. Then he motioned Cormac to sit there as well.

"That's nice of you, but I don't really feel a difference."

"Oh yeah. Sorry. My bad." Gavin said as he looked into the empty campfire he made for the evening. "You know a funny thing happened today."

"What is that?"

"Someone asked me why I am missing an eye."

"Really? That was really forward of them. Not really that funny though."

"The funny thing is, I didn't realize it myself. That my left eye is gone." Gavin started brushing his fingers against the rough skin, where his eye was supposed to be. "Imagine. Something that vital and I did not even think about it." Gavin laughed a little. But to his surprise, Cormac's face was "Do you know why it is gone?"

Cormac sighted and then sat down next to Gavin on the blanket.

"Yes, but I won't say. Not today. I think that we'll have plenty enough time for it tomorrow."

"Well, there is still plenty time today. We stopped far earlier than usual."

"Do you know where we stopped by the way?" When Gavin shook his head Cormac continued. "You slept here once already. With the one they call 'captain Hank'. You knew him, even if you don't remember. He was a very nice man, treated us…treated you very kindly."

"Shame I don't remember him."

"That it is. He tried to impart some lessons onto you. To make you a better person, thought there was good in you."

"I hope there is." Gavin wanted to ask more, but he was scared. As if it would bring about some kind of revelation, something that would…change him. He would enjoy this last day of his. As someone still taking bliss in ignorance. He felt the ghost's gaze on him, but decided not to meet it.

"I do too Gavin. I do too." The ghost shook and a smile appeared on his face. "Anyway, tomorrow is tomorrow. We will speak of important things then. Now, different topic. Did you see the figure on that elder's daughter?"

Today's lesson has been especially boring. The history of their kingdom. For some reason, Darius opted to start with her mother's reign, than her grandfather's and slowly, but surely, they were moving deeper into the past, until they got to its very beginning.

Aviana realized about two months ago, that Darius was much more ignorant than she would have thought. He was the perfect doll for her mother's bidding. Blind.

From that point on, she had to force herself into the flirting with him and it kept getting harder for her to do so. Enough to completely stop with it today.

She lived through the lecture, even if it was boring and nonsensical. Darius seemed to be as obsessed with 'the kind god' as any other enforcer. He was speaking for longer than an hour without stop, detailing the place of his favored god amongst the others of his kin. How he was the only one that blessed humanity with such power and that we should be grateful for it.

"So he is the patron of every man, child or woman?"

"Precisely, he is the one that guards us against the evils and temptations of this world. His hand is righteous and his will is justice." Darius stood straight. Aviana half-expected him to salute while speaking his dogma.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"He doesn't really have a hand or a will anymore right? You said that he torn himself into pieces. Even if the pieces live on inside us, doesn’t that still make him dead?" she tested him.

"Until we continue living on in his image, he will never truly die." Darius nodded his head with his

"Uh huh." Aviana nodded back, unimpressed with the response, though Darius was too much into it to realize that.

Spoken like a true fanatic. She thought, but she did not want to anger him on purpose. There was no upside to making him keep tabs on her.

"So, he is a patron to the people of the wilds too, I presume."

"That is…a complicated situation."

"How so? They are people, they breathe and live as well as we do. They are in dire need of protection as much as anyone." Aviana said, unwilling to hide the judgement of his ideas in her voice.

"The people of the wilds are heretics. They throw away all good teachings about our world and they suffer for it. As all that forget the one kind god do."

"They suffer for it so much, that we have not been able to integrate them into our society for as long as it existed."

"I think this is a good place to stop today. It seems that the talks of our history made you…emotional. We will continue with your studies the day after tomorrow."

That piqued her interest. Darius never skipped a day he could have spent drilling knowledge into her. Especially now, when the topics were 'getting interesting' as he called it.

"Why not tomorrow?"

"I apologize." Darius seemed confused. "I thought you would be notified before me."

"Notified of what?"

"The queen plans to visit you. Personally."

The forest was slowly thinning, as the group got closer to their goal. They spent more time on the road than they wanted, since they had gotten lost a few times, before finally utilizing Obscurno's scouting capabilities.

They had been walking for the whole day and even if Nery did not complain about it, she had problems walking every day. So Cormac made the call and they settled for the night.

They were close enough to get to his family's estate tomorrow, so they decided not to light a fire. Thankfully, they were able to grab a number of blankets from the house, so they would keep warm.

Cormac sent out Obs. He was supposed to scout around, see if they weren't close to an outpost, that might find them by chance. He still felt his thoughts all the while, no matter how far the crow flew.

If he focused really hard, he could almost see, what Obs saw. Not fully yet and he still did not understand it clearly, but maybe, maybe he could really see with his eyes one day.

He grabbed a thick blanket from his pack and sat on the log opposite of Carl and Nery. They were both already covered with their respective blankets. Though they did seem to huddle closer and closer with each day. It made Cormac smile.

"So, we should form a plan or something. From what Obscurno is telling me, the estate seems to be far, and I really mean it, far more guarded than it ever was before. I still think that we can get there fairly easy, I know the servants paths in the walls. They won't be guarded as much. But still, it will be dangerous. I think that you two should stay outside, wait for my signal."

"If you think I ventured out with you just to wait here you are sorely mistaken Cormac." Nery replied, stabbing at him with her eyes.

"Yeah, I thought so." He just lifted his hands in defeat. "But still, this will be it, you know? Will you be able to handle it?"

"Are you saying I am weak?"

"No! Not at all, just that…" Cormac had trouble finding the right words

"It's not…easy….the stress….the blood…" Carl added.

Nery looked at him, with a much different look than the one she gave Cormac.

"Is it really?"

"You never saw it? A body?"

Nery shook her head.

"Yeah, it is. It is a very weird feeling. And I did not even kill the person myself." Cormac looked at his hands "At least not directly."

Nery looked at Carl, but he shook his head at her. She turned to Cormac with a confused expression.

"Obscurno. He was the one to deliver the fatal blow. It was brutal."

"How could Obscurno kill a man?"

Carl motioned plucking his eye with his fingers. Nery looked horrified when she realized what happened.

"Thankfully, I was completely out of it by then. But Carl saw the whole thing."

"It was…disgusting…squishy…"

"You picked it up?" she yelled at him. An uncomfortable chill ran down Cormac's spine at the thought and he looked at Carl much the same way Nery did.

"No!…just looked….squishy…"

"Wow, okay. I don't think I will eat today." Nery summarized her feelings.

"More rations then." Cormac joked. "But you should though. You will need the energy tomorrow."

"I think you should worry about me less and start focusing on yourself. I am not the one expecting to get my life turned over with the truth."

"Fair."

"Are you ready?"

"We'll see tomorrow. Maybe the explanation will be simple."

"Knowing you? I doubt that."

Cormac laughed. But really, he doubted that himself.