Athias, not quite climbing but unable to fully stand up least he lose his balance, grabbed hold of jagged rocks and pulled himself along a steep incline.

Auri was higher up, by far the most agile among them. It took her mere moments to find purchase among the cracks and sediment, the mountainside scaled with ease. The opposite held true for Remiel. She was just ahead of him, carefully choosing were to place her hands; she’d nearly tumbled off the mountain more than once, so he hung behind her to prevent the worse from coming to pass.

Athias looked back.

The base of the mountain was distant, trees and other significant landmarks like ants from this high up. The sound of the rushing rivers below no longer reached them.

He looked ahead. Remiel had just pulled herself over a large rock flat enough to use as a platform.

Athias pulled himself up and peaked over. He found her laid on her back taking deep breaths, face drenched in sweat despite the steadily dropping temperatures.

“Is….is there a reason we couldn’t take one of the main roads?” She struggled out between breaths.

“And what are going to find walking the same roads as everyone else?” Athias countered. He pulled himself onto the stable platform, crouching beside her.

“Fair point.” She groaned. “Why are there so many mountains in this place?”

“Don’t start complaining. You asked for this.” He said with a chuckle.

He hadn’t realized it while traveling with only Auri, but she was just as much of an outlier as him. Normal people wouldn’t have the endurance to spend entire days gallivanting through the wilds without a break. That went double for this region; there were almost no inclines to get over in Falkreath’s forests compared to this place.

“Starting to regret it.” She said. Scrap, who had been just a little ahead of them, skittered onto the rock. “Don’t worry about me, Scrap. Be a good boy and watch out for Auri.” The automaton whirled and resumed its clamber upwards, its many legs compensating for questionable motor control. “You two are something else.”

He could see in real-time just how true that was. His stamina bar was still damn near full and Auri’s a little over the halfway point. Then there was Remiel’s, her bar maybe thirty percent full? That might be pushing it.

The morning was just barely over, warm rays from the sun directly overhead providing a soothing contrast to the cool elevated air. Remiel wouldn’t be able to go for the rest of the day without wasting some potions.

Athias shifted his bag off his back and placed it beside her.

Remiel forced herself up immediately. “I know I was complaining, but let’s not do anything hasty. I’ll have you know that my bags aren’t exactly light and if I have to carry anymore more weight, I will fall off this mountain and die. After suffering several broken bones, head trauma, and possibly-“

“Shut up and get on my back.” Athias interrupted her. They wouldn’t make much headway if they had to keep stopping to compensate for her poor stamina. Best to give her a chance to rest.

“That doesn’t seem safe.”

“So you’d rather climb the rest of the way?”

“On second thought, it’s a perfectly sensible plan.” Remiel scooped up his bag, looped it around one arm, and -after getting over her reservations- got on his back, arms wrapped around his neck. “Are you certain this won’t be too much for you?”

“We’re about to find out.” Athias said, already getting a move on. He had to adjust for his new center of balance and while slowed, still navigated the mountain-side faster than Remiel had.

His stamina drained noticeably faster but he’d be over this massive obstacle before it ever dropped to the halfway point.

It didn’t take long for Auri and Scrap to climb over an edge and vanish from sight. They followed soon after, though just as Athias would’ve pulled himself over, Auri motioned for him to stop, hiding behind a gathering of rocks with Scrap.

People, dressed in the furs and bones of dead animals not unlike Auri, walked along a dirt trail. Tribal tattoos colored much of their exposed skin. A few carried dead animals, but one dragged a groaning man in an old cut up tunic along with them.

The Forsworn.

Auri reached for her bow but didn’t draw it. She knew how bad their position was.

Just a short distance way, the dark stone of ancient nord ruins stretched high into the air. Two towers rose over all else, more than likely manned by archers. There were several stone platforms where they could just barely make out fur tents and moving dots. Some of the structure was built into the side of the mountain’s highest point; there was no telling how many of these Forsworn were inside and unaccounted for.

Saving that man wasn’t possible. That entire camp would be upon them by the time they took out the returning group. Survival was already slim based off the Forsworn’s superior numbers; if they counted Hagravens and Briarhearts among their number that chance would plummet further.

“We are avoiding that place, right?” Remiel whispered once there was a large distance between them and that group.

Athias nudged for Auri to follow and descended down the mountain’s side. They wouldn’t head back down to the base, but instead circle around to ensure they weren’t spotted.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The whole time, the hair’s of Athias’s neck stood up, his heartbeat higher than usual. He could only hope that adrenaline was to blame.

Gaining the attention of the Forsworn meant bloodshed.

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

“Perfect?”

“Perfect.”

Athias and Auri rose, admiring the fruits of their labor. Bones, attached to the odd string-like material the latter used for her bow, blocked the cave entrance before them. The same went for the other entrance around the side.

They’d come across the small tunnel-like cave and made it their campsite after cutting down the den of wolves within. The corpses of those same wolves offered food and security.

These lines of bones, set up like mazes, would let them know if anything wandered into the cave. They were hefty enough that it would take a strong gust to move them and the night was calm, few breezes slipping into the cave.

One couldn’t be too careful after such a close encounter with the Forsworn.

They returned to the center of the cave.

Their three tents were set up around a crackling fire, Remiel twisting skewered pieces of meat over it. They joined her, opting to do their own thing as they waited on their meals.

Having another member in their little party was a bit different. Not a bad different. Remiel’s talkative nature foiled well with Auri’s natural curiosity about cultures and the former was extremely well read, able to share bits of information that he wasn’t aware of.

He eventually blocked the two out to focus solely on the tome in his hands.

Infusion: the most difficult of the basic electromancy spells. It allowed the caster to hold active electricity in an object. The object would act like any weapon enchanted to disperse sparks, the spell’s energy used up with every hit.

Auri said something and Athias nodded absent-mindedly.

He planned on learning the spell to supplement his lack of enchantment knowledge. Use infusion on both his blades and his opponents would be in for a nasty surprise no matter how shallow the attack.

After that, he’d take another look in the alteration tome; he had glanced over a spell involving gusts of wind.

Shooting wind from his hands? High mountains? The world itself was telling him to learn the spell. Plus, wind manipulation might just be the gateway to an unorthodox method of flight or some form of gliding. Once again, gliding? High mountains? The idea was dangerous but far too tempting to ignore.

His hair shifted about.

Athias snapped to attention. A slight smile was spread across Remiel’s face and Auri stood behind him, hands running through his messy hair.

“What are you doing?”

“See, he doesn’t hear a thing when he’s reading.” Auri said to Remiel. She ran several fingers through his hair then abruptly raised them. An instinctive wince won out, several tangles ripped apart in an instant. “I’m going to help you with this mess. You already agreed so I don’t want to hear any complaints.”

So this is what she had tried to get his attention for. “Did I agree or did you take advantage of me?”

“Does the answer matter when it’s not going to stop me?”

Athias chuckled, letting her do as she pleased. Someone might as well pay the mess on his head some attention; aside from basic washes he couldn’t be bothered to do much with it. There was a whole world to see and things to learn. He couldn’t care less what his hair looked like.

“You study quite a few different types of magic don’t you?” Remiel said, eyes on his bag. A few tomes were jutting out from the top.

“Preparation is the best form of prevention.” Athias said. He closed the electromancy tome and instead began to spark dark purple electricity between his hands, attempting to control the wild arcs. He wasn’t going to get any deep studying done while talking but magicka practice was still within the realm of possibility.

“Good advice for any profession. Even if they taste bad, my potions have saved my life plenty of times.” Remiel leaned forward, brow furrowed. “How long have you been studying magic?”

“Two, maybe three-“

“Three, almost four, months.” Auri corrected. She had started running something hard through his hair after undoing most of the tangles by hand. A comb made of bone knowing her.

Had that much time really passed? It didn’t feel nearly that long to him.

“And you learned all of the spells you know without a teacher in that time?” He gave as much of a nod as he could. Remiel leaned back, mouth slightly agape. “That’s amazing. You know, when I was a child, people bullied me for being bad at magic, but I don’t think anyone of them could've learned so many different spells in such a short time.”

It sounded like his learning rate was impressive. He really needed to find and compare himself to other fledging mages. He had nothing but battle experience and her words to gauge himself with, neither of which struck him as perfect measuring sticks for the norm.

“Our friend here, is as odd as they come.” Auri said. “But you seem quite good at magic in my opinion, Remi. My mother tried to teach me the ways of a Spinner long ago but I had no talent for it.”

“Tell that to everyone who finds out I’m a breton that can only use Ward and Healing.” Remiel lamented. “But thank you, it’s nice to hear that.”

Their light hearted conversation carried through their meals and well into the night. By the time first watch rolled around Remiel had retreated into her tent, but Auri remained sitting at the campfire while he went to check out one of the entrances.

“Shouldn’t you be getting some sleep?” Athias asked, gazing out into the darkness. Nothing out of the ordinary caught the moonlight.

“I will. I’m just making sure you appreciate my work.”

Her work, as she called it, were a few random braids so loose that a shake of his head would be rid of them. She’d taken upon herself to mess around with his hair after straightening it.

“I’m sure I’ve never looked better.”

“And you never will.” Auri said with a laugh. That laugh tapered off into a deep sigh. Too deep a sigh to mean anything good.

“What’s wrong?” Athias asked as walked to check the other entrance. Auri was staring intently into the crackling fire, a heft to her eyes.

“Oh, it’s nothing.” Auri said, though she gave off another sigh. “My sister and I use to do that sort of thing often. I guess I just feel a little homesick.”

He spotted nothing out of the ordinary beyond the other entrance either. Not that that was saying much; he should’ve asked Remiel if she knew how to brew up a long lasting night vision potion. “Why not head back and pay her a visit?”

“I can’t go home.” The simple answer came quick. Final and definitive. To Auri, that was a statement of fact.

He should’ve let the conversation die right then and there. If it were anyone else he would’ve, but this was Auri. It was one thing to avoid bringing up any serious topics and a whole other thing to blatantly ignore something bothering her.

It wouldn’t feel right.

“Why not?” Athias asked against his better judgment, looking her way.

“I-“ She stopped herself, took a deep breath and smiled at him. “We have an adventure to finish don’t we? I can’t just up and abandon you because I’m missing home.”

It wasn’t a lie. That smile of hers, so much smaller than any of her others ones, was genuine. Something weighed it down. That something was the real reason she felt so downtrodden. And more than likely connected to whatever caused a person as friendly and extroverted as her to live in isolation in some foreign land before they met.

If Auri didn’t want to talk about it, he sure as hell wasn’t going to force her.

“Of cou-“ As he turned back to the cave’s mouth, his eyes locked in on the blue reflective object speeding at his chest. Athias moved, left hand raised to form a ward.

The magical barrier shattered like glass and his left arm flew back, a shaking bloody mess.