In that whole day, Abrial and Dal only stopped once so that Dal could drink water at a stream and munch on some grass. Abrial wanted to mount and get moving as soon as he was finished, but Dal whinnied and nudged her until she filled and chugged her own gourd of water.

Before she swung back onto Dal’s back, Abrial pulled on the magnificent, shadowy black robe. She had thought it would feel silly to wear when she’d first seen it. But when it actually rested on her frame, rippling slightly as though an evasive breeze lived inside of it, Abrial felt powerful. As in…badass powerful. She grinned when she saw herself in the steam. An intimidating, mysterious blade master stared back at her!

As the sun moved through the sky, Abrial’s crooked grin gleamed wider and wider with anticipation. Dal, being a very intelligent horse, sensed her excitement. His pace accelerated throughout the day along with the rhythm of her heart.

Together, the two of them were a beautiful yet intimidating pair as they sped across the hilled countryside. Abrial’s robe flowed like pure shadow, and Dal’s coat shimmered like onyx. Abrial’s eyes glittered determinedly, two dark pearls of obsidian.

At last, when the sun was reaching the west, Abrial hollered,

“Stop! Stop here, Dal!”

Dal brayed, skidding to a halt. Grass tickled at Abrial’s shoes.

She slid off Dal’s back and looked around. A frown creased her forehead.

“The magicians’ camp should be right around here…but…”

There was no sign of a camp in sight. Neither was there any sign of human life. The grassy, rolling hills were empty as far as the eye could see, besides the occasional dot of a greeting pine, or the dip of a river. All was quiet.

Abrial frowned in thought.

“Did Finley get the directions wrong? Is the camp somewhere else? No, that can’t be…Finley’s never wrong…”

“Hey there!”

Abrial whirled around. Her hand flew to her dagger as fast as lightning.

Leaning against a tall greeting pine was a girl.

She had to be just a few years younger than Abrial, fifteen or sixteen. She wore a grin even more crooked than Abrial’s, and a worn knit cap that sagged slightly over her very curly dark hair. Her skin was tanned from the sun. Like two lanterns, her eyes shone out at Abrial, a striking brown.

Abrial stared at this girl’s clothes.

They were…interesting, to say the least.

Instead of a robe or a dress, this girl wore a miscellaneous assortment of knit pieces that seemed to have been washed and worn so many times that most of their color had faded out. On her forearms she wore patched, fingerless gloves. Abrial counted the items in her ensemble: a vest, a shirt with short sleeves, short pants, somehow-knitted boots, a hood…Wow. Just observing this wild outfit made Abrial’s mind reel.

“Like my outfit? I made it myself!” The girl twirled, showing off her style to Abrial. “It’s really comfy. Your getup’s pretty cool, too. I love the glittering dragon on the back — that’s peak craftsmanship for sure! Anyways, that’s beside the point. You should get out of here! ASAP!”

Abrial frowned at the girl.

“Why? Am I not supposed to be here?”

The girl blew out one of her cheeks, crossing her arms. “Well, it’s not that, necessarily. It’s just, this is a super dangerous area! Haven’t you heard about the tigers that terrorize these hills?”

“Tigers?”

“Yeah, the tigers. Why do you think no one lives in this area for miles and miles around? They’ve all been eaten by tigers! ROAAAR!” The girl held up her gloved hands and curled them menacingly, badly imitating a tiger’s roar. “Speaking of which, the sun is gonna set soon. They always come out after sundown. You’d better leave.”

Abrial’s brow furrowed deeply in puzzlement. “But…if there are tigers, how can there be a camp here? Finley must have heard wrong…”

“Did you say a ‘camp’?”

The girl was watching Abrial with sudden interest.

“...Maybe…?”

“What kind of camp?” The girl crossed her arms. Her gray eyes seemed to pin into Abrial’s keenly.

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Abrial eyed the girl.

From what I’ve seen, most people would want to see a magician beaten to death or driven out. If I tell her what kind of camp I’m looking for…how would she react?

Abrial scanned the girl’s outfit briskly again. There were no knives or swords hanging on her belt. If she wanted to attack Abrial for being a magician or go and find someone to capture her, what could she do? Abrial could incapacitate her in seconds.

All right. Tell the truth it was, then.

“I’m looking for a camp of magicians,” she explained bluntly. “I was told they had a camp under the largest star…which should be about here.”

The girl’s gray eyes sharpened.

“Why would you look for a magicians’ camp? Are you a magician?”

Abrial gave the girl a conflicted look. With her thumb, she pushed her dagger Dohyun silently a smidge further out of its sheath.

“Um…are you someone who hates magicians by any chance?”

The girl’s eyes darted to Abrial’s hand, which rested on her belt. The dagger was still concealed. The girl grinned lopsidedly, shaking her head.

“No, I’m not. So, you are a magician? That’s great! I’m also a magician.”

Abrial’s grip loosened.

The girl continued:

“You’ve come to the right place! I was just sounding out the waters for danger. It’s my shift to be on guard. Always gotta be on alert, you know? But now that I feel more confident you’re not an agent of the Emperor…” She grinned brightly. “I’ll go ahead and take you out, then bring you inside!”

Abrial frowned.

“How can you take me out…and also bring me inside? Am I not already outside?”

The girl laughed with a noise like uncontrollable hiccuping. She slapped her knee.

“You’re funny! I didn’t mean ‘take you out’, like take you outside…I meant like, ‘take you out’! As a necessary precaution, of course!”

With that, she lunged at Abrial.

Abrial’s dagger, Dohyun, shinged from its sheath in a silver arc. With her hands poised to either grab Abrial by the neck or bash her on the head, the girl froze. Dohyun’s tip hovered a hair’s breadth away from her neck.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Abrial growled. “Move another inch and I’ll slit your throat.”

The girl’s grin wavered. She gawked at Dohyun, swallowing nervously. The tip of the blade nearly scratched her tanned neck as the swallow traveled down her throat.

“So…you’re a blade fighter? Cool, cool…Damn, you’re really fast! You must have been taught by the best of the best!”

Abrial scowled. She shifted Dohyun slightly closer, so that it grazed the girl’s tanned neck.

“Yeah, that’s right! I was! Now, tell me what you’re trying to do, and fast! Who are you?”

The girl raised her hands into the air on either side of her head in surrender.

“My name’s Lyra! I’m a rebel magician who believes in the cause for overthrowing the Emperor. I’m on guard for the camp right now. We’re supposed to take anyone who wants to enter in for a memory examination to weed out spies. But I was going to knock you out first, to practice my fighting skills! It didn’t really work out, though…”

Abrial studied Lyra’s brown eyes as she spoke. They were clear and honest.

She didn’t move Dohyun.

“So, if I lower my dagger and come with you, you’ll take me to the camp? And give me a memory examination, or whatever? And then let me inside?”

Lyra nodded. Her sagging cap bobbed on her head.

Slowly, Abrial lowered Dohyun. She continued to eye this girl suspiciously.

“Where is the camp, exactly? I don’t see it anywhere.”

Lyra’s nervousness evaporated. She grinned and shoved her hands into her pockets sheepishly.

“Can’t tell you that yet. You’ll see in a minute.”

With that, she flung her hands out from her pockets, as though casting handfuls of pocket lint at Abrial. But what flew out from her fingers weren’t harmless pieces of fluff. Instead, a flock of small silvery metal shards zoomed through the air towards Abrial. She raised Dohyun to deflect them away.

To her shock, they dodged her blows! The shards swerved her blade like swift hummingbirds.

Suddenly, she was flying backwards. The collar of her robe pulled tight around her neck.

With breath-ripping force, her back slammed against the trunk of the greeting pine nearby. The shards — which were tiny, arrow-shaped pieces of silvery metal when seen up close — had pinned her to the tree by her flowing robes.

Abrial tried to pull her arms away from the tree, but they were pinned so securely she could hardly wiggle them! This was…so irritating! What the heck had just happened?! What kind of technique was that?!

Lyra strode up to Abrial, her hands back in her pockets. She was grinning apologetically.

“If you hadn’t lowered the dagger, I wouldn’t have had an opening. I can tell you’re great with blades! Maybe you can teach me some day!”

Abrial scowled, radiating utter murderous intent with her dark eyes.

“Let! Me! Go!!!”

“Sorry for the inconvenience,” Lyra rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “And sorry about this.”

She raised a fist and bonked it down onto Abrial’s head.

Abrial went limp. Dohyun slipped out of her hand into the grass with a muffled thump.

Lyra’s grin faded slightly. She rubbed her neck at the spot Dohyun had lightly scraped.

“Wow, that was close. I’ve never seen someone so fast with a dagger…except Master Wei, maybe! Imagine having to fight someone like her head-on?”

She shuddered.