I still stared at my hand and then back at the obelisk before me. “Did everything just go black?”

“What do you mean?” Cellestra asked, cocking her head as she peered into the spider eyes at the back of my lower head.

“When I touched the stone, everything went black. It was as if it was in the middle of the night, but… worse. There was no light whatsoever. It was only for a second before everything went back to normal.”

“I… I did not see that.”

I thought about touching the pillar again for a moment, but I had no idea what happened the first time. Doing it a second time would be a terrible idea.

“And I am certain I did not imagine that. What is this thing?”

I eyed the obelisk from top to bottom one more time. “These things were supposed to have run out of magic, you said, right?”

“Do you think it has anything to do with your special kind of magic?” Cellestra suddenly suggested.

I took a moment to process her words. I possessed a special kind of magic, thanks to Elysa’s blessing. The strange events happened when I touched the stone.

“I think you may be right. Whatever just happened, I didn’t like it. The darkness was overwhelming, sinister. I want to get the hell away from here.”

“In that case, let’s move on. If we want to, we can always try to find someone with more knowledge about these obelisks later,” The brunette suggested.

I will say I’m very interested in what just happened,” I said, thinking about it.

“Can’t you ask Elysa?” Cellestra said.

“Perhaps I could,” I let out. “If anyone knows what these things are, it has to be her, right?”

“I would hope so,” The elf replied.

I turned away from the obelisk and started running north again when suddenly a bright red light caught my attention. It came from the top of the obelisk. Both Cellestra and I stared at what was going on.

From the top of the stone, a piercing beam of light rose into the sky. That was the tipping point for me to get out of here as quickly as I could.

While running, I stared at the obelisk. As soon as it had appeared, the light also disappeared, leaving both of us speechless.

“By the goddess…” Cellestra started. “What was that?”

“I’m starting to think I’ve done something I shouldn’t have,” I said, trying to shake off an ominous feeling. I felt as if something dark had seen me, was keeping track of me. I felt as if something was… out to get me. I cursed in my mind for being so reckless.

“Cellestra…” I called out the elf’s name softly.

The elf turned her head from the obelisk to my lower set of eyes.

“I’m sorry,” I finished the sentence.

“For what?” She asked, equally softly.

“I don’t know. I just get this gut feeling that something is wrong. The darkness that I saw and felt when I touched the stone… I feel like it’s out to get me. I can’t explain…”

“Let’s… just get out of here quickly,” Cellestra suggested. “I would say, forget about this, but I’m sure you won’t, and I’m not sure if that’s smart, either.”

I heeded her words and ran quickly. The grass under my legs passed by even faster than before as I increased my speed. I felt too uncomfortable to remain anywhere close to those weird stone pillars. Cellestra had to hold on tight, but she managed. After some time, I slowed down to my normal pace.

Theories about what happened swirled around in my mind. Most of them were bad, and I felt like Cellestra could read it in my mood when she asked if I was okay.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Even so, there’s not much I can do about it now. We’ll hopefully get to Len Asari soon. With some luck, there’s a temple to Elysa nearby.”

The elf nodded. “No need to worry about it for now.”

“Cellestra?” I asked. “Could you use your magic on me? You know the one we use for training. I’d like to know if you can sense if there’s something wrong.”

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“I can do that,” The elf replied with her warm voice.

She closed her eyes as she sent her magic through me. I felt the warm flows grow throughout my body, extending to every bit of my being, before they converged again in her hand.

“I don’t see anything wrong, it’s the same as usual.”

I sighed. “That’s a relief, at least.”

I took one last glance at the obelisk that was now far in the distance and was about to leave my sight.

For some reason, it had reacted to me, but there was something else that bothered me. This was only one out of three obelisks. What were they, why were there three, and why did one of them react to me? Despite my fear and hesitation, curiosity was ever-present.

Shortly after the strange object had left my vision, a herd of wild horses came into view. They appeared on the horizon to the west and seemed to be running in our direction. I looked at the sizable herd approaching.

“Why do I get the feeling those horses are running in reaction to what happened earlier?” I asked.

“I was about to say the same thing,” Cellestra replied almost immediately.

“So you’re familiar with animals being able to sense danger?”

“I am,” The elf replied. “I’ve read about animals abandoning a place just before a volcano erupted once. It was quite interesting.”

I kept up the pace so the herd of wild animals would pass behind us. After they did, I noticed darkness coming in from the horizon. However, it wasn’t anywhere near evening yet. It became clear quickly that dark clouds were gathering, and rolling in quickly.

“As if things couldn’t get any worse,” I said with a sigh. “There’s bad weather coming… and there’s no shelter nearby.”

This day was deteriorating rapidly. I looked for a solution to the shelter problem by summoning an ice wall big enough to cover my entire body. I then let it float above me as I ran forward.

“That might just work,” Cellestra said, a smile forming on her face. “Cheer up, Kealyna. We’ll get through this.”

“You talking about the rain or?”

“Anything,” She said confidently. “You’re strong, smart, and you have a goddess’s knowledge at your disposal. What are you afraid of?”

Her words put a smile on my face and made me chuckle. “You’re right. So far, I’ve dealt with everything thrown my way. I’m sure this can be added to that pile.”

“There we go,” Cellestra said. “That’s the confident knight that I like to see.”

“Thank you,” I said, grateful for her words.

Our journey continued on, even as dark clouds closed in. I practiced some more with my ice wall before it arrived, hoping to manipulate the spell to better suit my wishes. I tried making it as large as possible but found out that I couldn’t make it much bigger than the space my body occupied.

I summoned a second wall in front of me, using the ability to cast two spells at the same time. This would allow me to block the rain coming in from the front as I didn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon, while at the same time, allowing me to still see what was in front of me.

“That’s… I don’t know what to say,” Cellestra let out. “That’s amazing.”

“I know right,” I said, proud of myself. “Another advantage of the ice wall spell.”

Cellestra giggled. “I don’t know if you still count as cavalry at this point. You’re more of a carriage now.”

I grinned at her joke just as I heard the first drops of rain onto the ice wall above us. “Well,” I started before thinking for a second. “I would hate for you to catch a cold. That would be a hiccup in our… I would say relationship, but we’re not quite there yet, I heard.”

Cellestra smiled warmly which came as a relief to me. I had carefully selected my words and was happy to see her smile at them.

“Well,” The elf started as she slowly ran a hand through my spider hair, soothing me. “I do care for you deeply, you know that. I also told you I don’t mind keeping an open mind about things. Maybe we are in a relationship. I mean, who decides that anyway?”

“Good question,” I let out. “I don’t know. I do know that I’m so very happy, and also lucky, to have you around. You really lift my spirits, you know that?”

Cellestra smiled widely. “Yeah, I know.” She then started giggling. “Your ears show me exactly that.”