“It’s morning!” Silinth’s voice boomed over the camp. “It’s time to rise and shine!”

“Screw you.” Andrew’s tired voice followed. Mr Crow joined him and berated Silinth with what sounded like expletives.

Mila opened her eyes to meet Isabel’s sleepy gaze. A ray of sun had broken through the canopy and shined on her friend's face. “Good morning.” She greeted Isabel with a smile.

Isabel blinked as if not believing what she was seeing, then bloomed into a wide smile. She mumbled a return greeting and looked content. At least she didn’t look like she was going to get up.

But the rest of the group was not going to let them sleep. Andrew laughed about something Mr Crow had screamed at Silinth. Kefo was cursing, and the wolf huffed. Only Tiff was just as quiet as usual.

“I’ll skewer you for lunch,” Silinth threatened the little bird circling around his head.

Fighting against the expected muscle ache, Mila crawled out of her sleeping bag. Only now, Isabel’s gears started to turn as she realised how obvious she had been with her affection. The blush on Isabel’s face was delicious.

Of course, it wasn’t actual food. Mila spent a minute watching Silinth and Mr Crow argue before moving. Tiff was already preparing food, so Mila decided to take care of her needs.

When she came back refreshed, Mila was handed a sandwich and a water skin. There was a long road ahead of them. No one mentioned it, but the possible pursuers were weighing heavily on everyone's mind.

And just like that, they were back on the road. Or, in this case - a neverending onslaught of greenery. For several hours, all Mila saw was an endless wall of branches and leaves.

They were pushing directly north. Mila’s mind wandered back to the blue rock. She still had not found time to ask Silinth about it. Right after the breakfast, they had moved out, and the man had spent all his time tortur- not that - tutoring her friends.

Mila herself had done well with her own advancement. She could now proudly say she was capable of casting a spell. Of course, it did nothing flashy. There weren’t any use cases in the forest either. Not unless she had to hunt something by herself. After all, ‘Hide Presence’ was primarily a hiding spell.

But it was a building block. Mila wasn’t proud of her choice, but it was practical. Becoming something akin to an assassin didn’t bother her nearly as much as it should.

Only after a paltry lunch did Mila manage to speak with Silinth. The foliage had grown sparser, which made their advance harder to track. She listened to Andrew and Isabel bicker somewhere behind while Tiff and Kefo were leading their charge.

Silinth was patiently waiting for Mila to speak. She took a moment longer to sense the changes in the man’s body. There was a growing wrongness within him.

While she didn’t dare to prod any deeper, it still worried Mila. In the end, they had to hope the healer would be able to help Silinth.

“I apologise for taking your time away from teaching.” Mila started. “I hope my friends have been attentive students.”

Silinth scratched his stubble. “Yeah. They are good. Especially Andrew. He finally shows proper eagerness to learn. Although I bet they are happy, you interrupted my lessons.”

“Unfortunately for them, this won’t take long.” Mila allowed a cruel smile.

“That’s good.” Silinth shared the smile with her. “We do want to shape them up before we get to Ochoen.” He glanced back, making sure the duo saw his smile. “But I doubt this is what you wanted to talk about. So shoot.”

“Indeed.” Mila nodded. “A recent event has jolted my memory back to when we just arrived. You handed me a locket.” She studied Silinth’s reaction. “And inside it was a blue rock.” There was none. He simply looked at her, wondering where she was going with this. “The question is - where did that rock went?”

Silinth tilted his head. “You absorbed it.” He simply stated.

“That’s it?” Mila found it hard to believe.

“Yes.” Silinth reaffirmed. “Don’t ask how or why because I don’t understand either.”

“And you didn’t mention it because?” Mila asked.

“Well, I figured it has to do with one of your secrets. I am not prying into those, now am I? Not at all. I am sure I don’t want to know what you know.”

“So it’s gone,” Mila concluded. “And what about the locket itself? She wondered.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I have it.” Silinth started to rummage under his cloak. He pulled out the simple locket and handed it to Mila. “Here.”

Mila took the item and carefully studied it. It felt ordinary. There was nothing to it, and she felt no reaction from the being inside her either. After a while, she handed the locket back to Silinth.

After a few minutes of small talk, Mila fell back and let Andrew and Isabel take her place. With their lessons resuming, she had time to think.

Well, all Mila had was time to think. She couldn’t even spend her time teasing Isabel as she was constantly busy.

But that was beside the point. Mila contemplated what had happened with the blue stone. If she had truly absorbed it and the being had pointed at another one, it could mean there were more.

Whatever the stone had been, it was guarded carefully for generations from times immemorial. It couldn’t be simple. No, it was clearly significant if the being was interested in those rocks.

But as always, Mila lacked the information to come to a conclusion. It was an exercise in frustration to figure out what all of this meant.

And so, another day concluded.

The next day was much the same. As was the one after. And then more. The party grew increasingly grumpy and tired. Mila tried to spend her time with Isabel, but it wasn’t as easy as she had hoped.

After a couple of days, they had entered what Silinth had deemed the wild parts of the neverending forest. It meant it was largely unexplored and wild. Animals here did not know what humans were and were generally much more dangerous.

Some predators were known to prey on humans, so they had to be constantly vigilant. And it wore them down even more.

Andrew’s bonds turned out to be a valuable asset during their travel. Not just once, they had detected a prowling animal closing on their position. Silinth had shown his mastery with a bow, shooting one of them, earning them a fulfilling dinner that night.

The rest had retreated once they realised they were noticed. It still meant they had to keep close to each other. It also meant Mila couldn’t do any flirting, as she tended to be aggressive, and it was not meant for other people's eyes.

And it annoyed Mila. Isabel was right there, but all she could do was a couple suggestive whispers and touches here and there. It was frustrating. She couldn’t even find a moment to spend alone to take the edge off her nerves.

At least her friends had managed to cast their first spell. Andrew had succeeded first. His choice had been the translation spell. Despite just learning it, he was already better than their guide to Gerakril had been. It mostly came down to Andrew having more mana than Martin had.

Isabel, on the other hand, had chosen mana bolt. The same spell Mila had contemplated getting first. She was clumsier with her first spell when compared to Andrew, but Isabel improved remarkably over the following few days.

And Silinth had constantly been getting worse. There was now an edge to the man. He seemed to be constantly on guard. The only time he was his old self was when he was teaching. But even then, he was twitchy and sometimes forgot what he was saying.

Kefo had been- Well… In Mila’s eyes, he was simply jealous of Andrew’s and Isabel’s success. The boy had been constantly grumbling. It started right after Andrew managed to successfully cast ‘Translation Spell’ for the first time. Even Tiff’s soothing words didn’t improve his mood.

They were dirty, miserable and tired. But they were alive. As the third week started, there were no signs of any pursuers. They had successfully managed to get away.

All in all, they were slower than predicted. The weather had grown turbulent in the second week, and unrelenting rain had made it difficult to progress. It had poured for several days, making their path a hell to traverse.

But they were now close to the city of Ocheon. The trees grew sparser, and dangerous animals didn’t pursue them anymore.

When the treeline finally parted, the party saw a path leading in both directions. They could see a few travellers walking both ways. A cart trudged towards the city with its cargo.

“It shouldn’t be far now.” Silinth studied the surroundings. The corner of his eyes twitched when he looked at the party. “We should be there by nightfall. When we are closer to Ocheon, I’ll send a message to the healer to inform them about our arrival.

“I hope they have a bath.” Andrew wished.

“They do-” Silinth looked at the wolf next to Andrew. “Are you sure he understood what you told him?”

“Yes, yes.” Andrew airily replied. “Terminator will wait outside and keep away from humans. Mr Crow will keep in touch with him.”

“Good. It will make it easier to slip inside the city.” Silinth nodded. “Then let's go.”

A party of this size was easy to recognise. By now, the temple of the Pillar of Eternity had likely started to widely search for them. It was probable the guards would be informed of the party's composition.

They didn’t walk any closer to the road and chose to walk parallel to it. It took them a few more hours until they finally saw the city of Ocheon in the distance.

The city was much larger than the town they had visited before. Mila studied the sturdy walls that surrounded Ocheon. Behind them were countless buildings of different sizes. Several gates led inside the city and a couple of populated areas that reminded her of slums.

While Mila was analysing the city, Silinth began to cast. Uncharacteristically, he messed up the first time and had to repeat it.

Mila pretended to not notice. She pretended to not feel the foul air the man possessed. And the message was sent.

“Now we wait,” Silinth growled, then shook his head and spoke in a neutral tone. “Our contact won't arrive sooner than nightfall.” He sat down and rested against a tree trunk.

They gathered around him. Mila watched the man. She hoped the healer was just as good as claimed because at this rate-

There was not much left for Silinth to live. And furthermore-

Silinth was becoming more and more hostile towards them. He masked it well, but Mila saw it. She saw those hateful glares. Not aimed at her, but-

Mila doubted anyone else noticed. Not with how shitty their travel through the forest had been. All of them had been in a bad mood. But this was different. Every morning, Silinth grew more tainted.

The healer had to be great. Otherwise…