It took Edwyr a moment to figure out where he was when he woke up. The strange room he had been sleeping in almost made him think this was another strange dream before he remembered how he'd gotten here. Right, they had all rented rooms at an inn to stay in for the night. Paid for by Feyrith, to Edwyr's distaste, though now that fact was more of an annoyance to him than the night before. Edwyr had been too tired to care at that time, but now he certainly did.

It wasn't even the fact that Feyrith had paid that was the issue, though. No, what irked Edwyr about it was that to pay for it, Feyrith had turned a rock into gold—the same thing those bandits had wanted him to do, and apparently now it had been morally correct because it served to help Feyrith see his mission through.

So in other words, using magic was acceptable as long as an elf did it for themselves. Edwyr shook his head. Yes, he was being unfair in that assessment, and he realized it, but with Feyrith acting like he was better than Edwyr, he didn't feel like being fair.

He sighed, staring up at the wooden beams of the ceiling. The room was small but cozy, with its wooden walls and small window above the bed, letting the sun's morning beams in. He could hear muffled voices coming from downstairs, but he instead focused on the birdsong he could hear from the outside.

It made everything seem so peaceful when Edwyr closed his eyes. But the outside world was anything but peaceful. And based on their experience yesterday, perhaps it was getting even less so than ever before. Or was the situation truly so different here, even though they'd been traveling south for only a few days?

As much as he hated to admit it, the reason Sunwood was relatively safe was because of how close it was to Aendor. It was also the reason many human settlements were in that part of the continent. But Edwyr had never heard of it being quite this dangerous in this region.

Why had those tigers even attacked them? They were known for being deadly and hostile, yes, but only when someone was foolish enough to venture deep enough into the jungle to come across them. The fact that they had simply been out in the open like that.... It was unnerving and concerning, to say the least.

On the way over here, they had also almost gotten attacked by two packs of wolves and a scalewing, but thankfully Feyrith had managed to chase off all the beasts with fire. Edwyr would have made a snide comment about that being all the other elf knew how to do, but he full well realized that using fire magic the way Feyrith had been was impressive on its own.

For all Edwyr's talk about how incompetent Feyrith was, the elf's main shortcoming was truly only his lack of experience with the world outside that little magical island of theirs. Edwyr still remembered his time there, and therefore he knew full well that an average elf of Edwyr's age would have trouble summoning shielding spells. And Feyrith was likely younger than him.

Edwyr ran a hand over his eyes, breathing in and out deeply. He couldn't believe he was thinking like this. Only yesterday he could barely stand to look at Feyrith, and now he was trying to be fair to him. Perhaps it was everything else that had been going on that was making Edwyr too mentally preoccupied to keep up with his dislike of the elf.

He frowned, suddenly realizing something. He hadn't actually dreamed anything this time, had he? So did that mean his meeting with Wyn had actually happened? He was still questioning it, despite the logical evidence that it had happened. Simply the fact that Edwyr had never dreamed before should be proof enough, but the idea that another elf would be interested in talking to Edwyr without absolutely needing to was incredibly strange.

But perhaps Wyn had been lying when he'd said that he'd simply wanted to meet Edwyr. Perhaps whoever he worked for needed him for some reason, though that thought was ridiculous enough to make him want to laugh. No one needed a Cursed—a magicless—elf for anything. That was the entire problem.

Never in his life had Edwyr had so many questions. Yes, his existence had never been an easy one to bear, but at least he understood it. And now he felt like he understood nothing at all, and no one was willing to explain anything to him, either out of a distrust towards him, or to manipulate him.

Edwyr could understand the former, but his pessimistic side was leaning more towards it being the latter. For years he'd been left alone and forgotten and now suddenly both the Council and Wyn were interested in him. It was very strange.

He wondered if Feyrith knew anything about who this Wyn person might be. Or that woman, come to think of it. There wasn't a convenient way to ask without drawing attention to himself, but Feyrith seemed naïve—perhaps Edwyr could make do somehow. It would help to know at least something about Wyn and what he might want before Edwyr got involved in whatever this was.

It was just very suspicious that they wanted him for something. Any normal elf could do much more than Edwyr, so what could they possibly want him for? It didn't add up, and Edwyr would do his best to be as suspicious as possible.

Heaving another sigh, he sat up, rubbing his eyes and pulling the linen bedcovers off himself. He did feel very rested, but unlike Lanna and Arbane, he'd never been one for mornings, or getting up in general. Still, he was glad for at least the rest itself. They still had a long way to go if they were to get to that ruin.

Before Edwyr could start wondering just what exactly was going on with the ruin, he shook his head, got up and put on his armor as quickly as he could, pulling all of the leather straps taunt with barely a thought. He absently ran his fingers over the few metal plates that were attached to the leather in the front, noting how scratched up this part of the armor was.

He was sure Feyrith could fix that, but there was no way Edwyr would ask him to. Arbane or Lanna would probably tell Edwyr something sentimental about battle scars and whatnot, but he had never understood that. Sure, this was mostly cosmetic damage from years of wear and tear, but if he had enough extra coin to get new armor, he likely would have by now.

Edwyr collected the rest of his things, putting on his belt with his dagger and slinging his bow over his shoulder before leaving the room. He walked down the corridor, only briefly looking over the three closed doors, which he assumed led to similar rooms to the one he'd slept in, before reaching the wooden staircase at the end of the corridor and heading downstairs.

He could already hear Lanna and Arbane talking loudly before he even got to the bottom of the stairs, making it very easy to find them. Unfortunately, Edwyr's mood worsened as he also heard Feyrith talk in his much softer, neutral tone.

Edwyr really wasn't liking that his friends were being so welcoming to Feyrith. It wasn't surprising, but he would silently disapprove anyway.

"Hey, Edwyr!" Arbane greeted him as soon as he saw him. He was grinning at him with such delight that it made it hard for Edwyr to keep up his annoyed attitude. But all he needed was to look over at Feyrith to ruin his mood all over again.

Edwyr sat down at the table they had chosen in the corner by a window, ignoring everything else around him. The inn was half empty, but with their group now including two elves, he knew people were bound to stare at them. It was for the best to stay out of sight as much as possible.

"Slept well?" Lanna asked, also grinning. Edwyr envied their enthusiasm.

"Surprisingly." He looked over at Feyrith, who was all of a sudden staring out the window and avoiding Edwyr's gaze. He was sort of pleased by that, though he didn't give it much thought as all of his attention was immediately taken up by the food that was on the table in front of him on a wooden plate.

The dough it was made of looked like small braids, and it was also clearly fried, judging by the brownish gold color. But strangely the pastry smelled sweet. Humans never failed to puzzle and surprise him, did they?

"Oh, you have to try these," Lanna said, pointing at the pastries with a look of awe. Edwyr was confused, but he did pick up one of the 'braids', biting into it. His eyes widened at how much sweeter it was than he would have thought, immediately frowning down at what was left of it.

"It's good, right? The innkeeper called them sweetbraids." Then Lanna proceeded to nudge Arbane with her elbow. "We have to make this when we get home."

Edwyr let out an amused huff. One could count on humans to give things the most straightforward names, while also making needlessly complicated food. Simply the idea of frying anything in fat was very strange, no matter how good it tasted, so whoever decided it was a good idea to do it with sweet, bread-like food must have been drunk that day.

Humanity's fascination with food was intriguing in itself because they struggled to make do every day while also fending off whatever beast may try to either kill them or steal from them, and yet they found the time to invent new types of food, while elves could create things simply with their magic, but stuck to bread and water for the most part.

"You sure you don't want any, Fae?" Lanna asked the elf, who immediately looked up, his eyes wide. He took a moment's glance at the sweetbraid Lanna was holding out to him, but almost immediately he shook his head.

"No, thank you."

Edwyr didn't like that his friends had given Feyrith a nickname. He had at first found it amusing, as it seemed to make Feyrith confused and maybe a little uncomfortable, but now it simply served to irritate Edwyr, and he couldn't quite figure out why exactly.

"Oh, come on," Arbane told him, taking a sip from his mug of milk while never taking his eyes off Feyrith. "I know you elves are all weird with your food—"

"We are not weird—"

"—but these really are good."

Edwyr was torn between enjoying Feyrith's obvious discomfort and feeling annoyed with Arbane's instance on being nice and patient. Edwyr truly didn't understand why his friend bothered. Feyrith would not appreciate it, anyway, simply because elves tended to see humans as less than them.

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But surprisingly enough, Feyrith's expression seemed to change from confusion to hesitant curiosity as he peered closely at the pastries. Edwyr rolled his eyes, choosing to look around instead. The inn was actually not as empty as he'd thought as first because of how quiet everyone was being, not going beyond murmuring.

A few people immediately ducked their gaze as soon as Edwyr looked at them, but at this point Edwyr would have been shocked if that hadn't happened, so he barely paid attention to it. He wondered if they had already managed to pester Feyrith and ask him to fix their problems. He was sort of hoping they had, especially since now Edwyr wouldn't have to deal with those types of requests as long as Feyrith was nearby.

"I shouldn't," Feyrith said, finally responding to Arbane's encouragement. Edwyr was honestly surprised he had even bothered continuing the pastry discussion. "We aren't supposed to."

Edwyr locked his gaze with Feyrith's when he'd said this, narrowing his eyes at the subtle, disapproving look the other elf was giving him. But instead of telling Feyrith to mind his own business, Edwyr decided to take another bite of the pastry in his hand and letting that speak for itself.

Feyrith's look of disapproval immediately turned into annoyance. Good.

"Why not?" Lanna asked, apparently completely missing the way the elves were looking at each other. But Edwyr was glad because he didn't want to talk about it again. He knew Lanna was completely right about Edwyr needlessly giving Feyrith a hard time, but he couldn't seem to stop himself, anyway.

"Straying away from simplicity distracts us from our true purpose," Feyrith replied, frowning at Edwyr with more disapproval. "I see Edwyr didn't explain this to you."

"Simplicity?" Arbane chuckled. "Your robes are gold."

Even though Edwyr knew very well that Arbane was simply poking fun at Feyrith in a good-natured way, he couldn't help but enjoy the brief look of shock on the other elf's face as he scrambled to defend himself.

"It's to honor our Goddess," he finally said, his voice noticeably a little less steady and composed than usual. And now Feyrith was avoiding everyone's gaze again. But before Edwyr could use that as an opportunity to change the topic of the conversation to something other than food or elven culture, Arbane spoke up, patting Feyrith's shoulder.

"Oh, come on, Fey, I was just teasing."

Feyrith said nothing, only staring at Arbane's hand with bafflement. But he didn't look annoyed or offended. Unfortunately.

"I still think you should try the sweetbraids, though," Arbane continued, letting go of the elf's shoulder. "It's not like you'll start avoiding healing people, or whatever else you're supposed to do, because of food."

Edwyr wasn't too sure about that. Human food was a bit too distracting sometimes, for better or for worse. But of course, he wasn't going to say it, as that would not only mean taking Feyrith's side, but also agreeing with how the elven society did things—something Edwyr would never do.

Feyrith didn't reply, though he was once again looking down at the pastries. Would the Council reprimand him for eating these? Edwyr couldn't remember if he'd ever heard of anything like this happening, but given the fact that Feyrith seem to be considering this—

Why was Edwyr even thinking about this? He didn't care. They had better things to talk about, anyway.

"We need to plan our journey better," Edwyr said, looking at Lanna and Arbane only. "Sleeping outside is clearly not ideal."

"You can say that again," Lanna replied, shaking her head. "But I think if we took the time to find a cave, or something, we could do it."

Edwyr wasn't sure he liked that idea very much, but she was probably right. Assuming that there was no beast hiding in the hypothetical cave in the first place, but they could check beforehand. Still, Edwyr would prefer staying in towns. He knew there were still quite a few settlements they could pass through before getting to the ruin.

"Yes, but still—"

"Yeah, yeah, you're right," Arbane interrupted him, waving his arm dismissively. It was a very common gesture for him, though Edwyr couldn't help but take it a bit personally this time. It felt like he was being brushed off. "I had a brief talk with the innkeeper. Apparently, this town's been having trouble with some bloodfeathers."

"We don't have time to—"

"Yeah, not why I brought it up," Arbane interrupted him again. "Those tigers yesterday, and now this.... It just got me thinking about if things were getting more dangerous." Arbane grimaced in worry as his gaze turned thoughtful. "I feel like we've had more problems to deal with the past two years or so than when we started doing this. Or is that just me getting old and lazy?"

Lanna shook her head at him, smiling to herself. But Arbane brought up a very good point. In Sunwood, the average number of major attacks per month were one or two, but there had always been exceptions. And maybe those had been more frequent, now that he thought about it.

All of this left Edwyr's mind when he saw Feyrith reach for one of the sweetbraids. Edwyr watched in shock as Feyrith hesitantly took a bite out of it, his eyes widening. It was somewhat funny to see such a strong reaction on an elf.

"What did I tell ya?" Arbane said, chuckling at Feyrith, who still looked far too shocked by what he was experiencing to react beyond a weak nod. And now Edwyr was confused, not sure how to feel about this. He did like that Feyrith wasn't perhaps as blind of a follower as Edwyr had thought at first, but seeing it made him even more annoyed, if anything. The relative freedom human society offered was the only thing that made Edwyr's situation at least a little less terrible.

And here Feyrith was, enjoying both magic and that freedom.

"All right," said Lanna, rummaging in the bag she had next to her chair. Edwyr had definitely noticed her looking at him before she'd done so, however. So maybe she was aware of the tension between him and Feyrith after all. Edwyr would be hearing about this later, he was sure.

Finally, Lanna brought out her map, spreading it out over the table. "We're here right now."

Edwyr studied the map closely, noting that this town was larger than Sunwood, and that it was called Highbreach. That sounded familiar, actually. He was fairly certain one of his friends' distant relatives lived here, and he was willing to guess it was Lanna's because he didn't think he'd ever heard Arbane talk about his family. There wasn't much opportunity to move anywhere when it came to humans, given how dangerous it was, and it was also incredibly difficult to join another town due to everyone being cautious and suspicious. It made sense, though, since exile was common practice for lawbreakers.

"If we leave before noon, we should be able to make it to the next village by sundown," Lanna continued, tracing the road with her finger and stopping at what seemed to be a village called Mistglen. It truly didn't seem to be too far away, so it would hopefully be all right. The jungle seemed dangerously close to this village, but perhaps that was simply the way the map was drawn.

"Sounds good to me," Arbane replied, as carefree as ever.

"Are you not concerned about continuing?" Feyrith spoke up, half the sweetbraid still in his hand. He wasn't trying to keep eye contact with anyone, which was very strange, but beyond that Feyrith's face was entirely neutral, so Edwyr could only guess what was going on between those strangely long ears of his.

Or were Edwyr's strangely short? It had been so long since he'd been around other elves that he couldn't tell anymore.

"Why? Because of those tigers?" Arbane waved his hand. "We do this for a living."

Feyrith finally looked up at that, once again his eyebrows knitted together in confusion. But he didn't say anything. Not that he needed to. He was definitely thinking something along the lines of how strange humans were.

"Yeah," Lanna joined in, smiling at Feyrith. "No worries, Fey. Besides, we've got you and your magic to help out."

Edwyr gritted his teeth in the most subtle way he could manage, so as not to show that this was bothering him.

"Why do you insist on calling me that?"

"It's a nickname," Arbane replied with far too much enthusiasm for Edwyr's taste. "We humans do that."

Feyrith didn't seem offended anymore—he mostly looked curious as he leaned onto the table with his elbows and stared intently at Arbane. "Yes, but why?"

Arbane shrugged, finishing his milk. "I don't know. It's friendly and easy. Names are hard, elven names are harder."

Feyrith nodded seriously. "Fascinating." And then to Edwyr's absolute shock, Feyrith proceeded to take a journal out of his satchel and write down something with a pen that didn't seem to need ink. Of course Feyrith would have that.

While Edwyr was busy staring at Feyrith, Arbane laughed again and turned to Lanna. "He's cute. Can we keep him?"

Lanna laughed too, putting a hand over her mouth to muffle it. Edwyr wondered if his friends' lack of awe when it came to elves was due to him working with them for so long, but either way he was glad for it. He wasn't sure how he'd handle them treating Feyrith as someone to revere.

Feyrith for the most part looked a little annoyed, but he was clearly doing his best to hide it as he closed his journal again, putting it and the pen back in his bag. "I simply find your culture interesting."

"Right, well, add friendly teasing to the list of things humans do, then."

Edwyr couldn't tell if that had been sarcasm on Arbane's part, or if he was being sincere—probably a bit of both—but after a brief, suspicious hesitation Feyrith once again retrieved his journal and actually wrote it down.

"And what is the point of that?" he asked once he was finished, looking up at the two humans curiously. Edwyr wasn't sure what the answer to this was either, and he'd lived among humans for a long time. He was somewhat curious about what they would say as well.

Arbane and Lanna looked at each other and then shrugged at Feyrith in unison. "I don't know. It's just something we do."

Feyrith was apparently unfazed by this, only giving them a nod and writing something else down. Edwyr would love to look at what else was in that journal. He was sure it would be amusing.

"Elves are really different from us, huh?" Lanna mused, finishing the rest of her tea before continuing. "I didn't really get that impression when we met you, Edwyr."

Edwyr shrugged and picked up and ate the last sweetbraid to busy himself with something. This wasn't a topic he would enjoy discussing—he knew that much.

"Well, Edwyr is Cursed," Feyrith replied, making Edwyr flinch and freeze mid bite. "He is not truly one of us."

It was one thing to say this to him in private, but it was another to hear Feyrith talk about him like this in front of Arbane and Lanna. Edwyr didn't even look at the two humans to see their reactions—he could only focus on Feyrith, the source of his anger.

"And I could not be happier about being exiled," Edwyr said through gritted teeth, his voice so cold that it surprised even him.

"Whoa, wait, what?"

Edwyr continued glaring at Feyrith, who was now glaring back, not bothering to look over at his friends despite them continuing to speak. He could barely even hear what they were saying until he was suddenly pulled to his feet and out of the inn by Lanna.

Before he could protest, they were already outside. Edwyr sighed, yanking his arm out of Lanna's grip as he glared off to the side at the two humans unfortunate enough to be passing by just then.

"Damn, Edwyr, you okay?"

Edwyr sighed. He was so tired of that question by now, but it was warranted. He breathed out, forcing himself to unclench his fists. He needed to calm down.

"You looked like you were about to hit Fey just then."

Had he wanted to do that? He didn't think so, though the elf would deserve it. Edwyr shook his head. No, it wasn't Feyrith's fault—it was their society that had taught him Edwyr was...different in the worst possible sense of the word. It was just so difficult not to turn all that bitterness against him.

"Apologies."

Lanna gave him such a tired look that it made Edwyr forget what he'd wanted to say next. And then she proceeded to narrow his eyes at him. She didn't even need to say anything—he knew exactly what she was thinking. He could practically hear the words in his head.

"I want to help him travel to that ruin. I do," he began, sighing again. He wasn't sure how Lanna did it, but she always managed to get him to talk. No matter how much he didn't want to. "But I get...furious with him over the littlest things."

Lanna patted Edwyr's shoulder, grimacing. "I think you two will just need to talk this out."

Edwyr had feared that she would suggest that. And it was unlikely to help, in his opinion, but silent resentment hadn't worked well so far either. And he wasn't so sure he would be able to keep up the silence for long enough, either. They still had two days of travel left, at the very least. And that wasn't counting the journey back.

"Come on, let's get our squawkers. We should get going."

Edwyr nodded, grateful that Lanna wasn't pushing the issue further. At least he would hopefully be able to avoid Feyrith and his opinions as long as they were actively traveling. Edwyr really needed time to get his thoughts in order, and his emotions under control after this incident.