Following their run-in with the Mage Knights, Desmond and his companions weren’t keen on wasting much more time on their journey to Sayavila. Tensions were high for the remainder of the day after the altercation, but once they settled down for the night, they seemed to be at least a little close to their usual selves again.

Arika chided Euric for taking off his boots in the middle of the campsite—the putrid stench of which wafted up even to Desmond's perch in a nearby tree.

She similarly chided Desmond, however, for never sitting with them before they turned in for the night and, in a rare moment of goodwill, the boy decided to join them on the forest floor for the night.

They ate, though Desmond had to smack at Euric’s fingers to keep him from trying to catch a taste of his last few cuts of demon meat, and relaxed as a group in silence.

Desmond laid on the ground, hands behind his head as he stared up at the sky between the foliage absent-mindedly; his mind aflutter with thoughts.

‘They’re going to Calcheth.’ The single line of thought that he couldn’t rid himself of, no matter what. ‘They’re going to see what happened. And then...’

The boy frowned in realization.

‘Then what? It’s not like there’s anything they can do. What’s done is already done. That hoard of demons is probably long gone by now.’ He sighed, trying to shake the thought away. ‘It’s a waste of time to even think about it. They’re wasting their time, too.’

He rolled over onto his side, his brows furrowed at the prospect.

‘Whatever. I can’t do anything about it, either.’ He resolved before finally moving on to the next train of thought. ‘What I can do...is try and figure some things out.’

Desmond rolled onto his back once more before sitting up, turning to look at his companions. Euric was similarly lying on his back, staring up at the sky, whereas Arika was hugging her legs, staring into the dying embers of the fire Desmond had made prior.

“Arika.” She jumped, turning toward him with an eyebrow raised. Desmond thought he saw that look of fear in her eyes at him again, but he ignored it. “What did that knight even do to you earlier?”

Arika recoiled in surprise, her mouth hanging open as she seemed to try and find words. Quickly, Desmond put his hands up in mock surrender.

“Sorry. I’m not trying to be rude about it. I just...” He shrugged, sitting up completely and crossing his legs. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

As opposed to Arika answering, Euric rose from the ground, yawning loudly and obnoxiously like a grizzly bear.

“Well, makes sense that you wouldn’t.” He mumbled, a hand covering his mouth. He stretched his arms over his head, his joints popping in response. “S’magic. Or...well, weird magic in her case.”

When Desmond tilted his head in question, clearly not understanding what he meant by that, Arika picked up the slack and continued.

“Euric’s not wrong, that’s just a terrible way to put it.” She sighed, limply waving a hand in the man’s direction. “It was magic, that much is true. But it’s not the kind of magic we’re used to from the Mage Knights. It felt like priest magic.”

Desmond furrowed his brow.

‘That explains nothing.’ He thought, clearing his throat. “I’ve never seen any kind of magic before, though. What’s the difference?”

Euric frowned, scratching his chin, while Arika simply shrugged.

“I’m not exactly sure? I’m no mage or anything, Desmond, they just...give off different feelings.” She said, frowning. “The Mage Knights usually only use magic for fighting. Magic swords, shields, armor, things like that. I’ve never seen them use magic that can detect lies, or that looks like that in general.”

Desmond hummed, cupping his chin as he mulled over what little they’d given him.

‘So there are different kinds of magic that do different kinds of things? But...’ He hummed. “...Then how do people learn how to do it at all? Is it just...”

Finding himself at a lack of words, Desmond just flailed his hands around in hapless directions, hoping that it got his point across. Euric nodded understandably, as if his motions made the greatest amount of sense possible, but Arika said nothing and almost seemed to deflate.

“I’m not sure, like I said. I never really understood all that magic stuff and I’ve never had a reason to look any further into it.” She paused, looking over Desmond in a way he couldn’t decipher. “But...well, I’ve heard some things, I guess.”

Desmond perked up, snapping back in her direction and Arika almost recoiled, putting her hands up defensively.

“It's nothing serious, just...some tips I’ve picked up around the right people in Sayavila.” She began. Desmond nodded however, suddenly giving her all of his attention. “Well, apparently magic is kind of a two-sided coin. Magic is everywhere; like in the air and everything around us, and it’s as much of a mental task as it is a physical one, or something like that.”

Slowly, Desmond knit his eyebrows together as he mulled over her words.

“So you could think about the magic around you forever and understand it well, but if you don’t act on it, then...something different happens?” She groaned, slapping her forehead with her open palm. “I don’t actually know, okay? I’m just...slapping things together and hoping they make sense.”

Arika huffed, but Desmond wasn’t listening anymore. Already, he’d dived back into his thoughts.

‘All around us huh? So...knowing that it’s there, no matter what, is the mental part and...figuring out how to make it do stuff is the physical?’ The boy curled his lips to the side, clearly displeased. ‘I don’t get it. But, well...she’s not a mage, like she said. So maybe there’s an easier way to think about it.’

Desmond sighed, then shrugged and fell back onto the ground again, cupping his hands together behind his head.

“Magic doesn’t make any sense.” He stated confidently. ‘I don’t really need them to know I’m interested, anyways. Better they think I’m like them.’

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Arika let out a breathy chuckle as Euric snorted in response.

“Yeah. It’s all...gobbledygook.” Arika snickered, making Euric giggle in response. Desmond rolled his eyes, but didn’t stop the small smile that graced his features as he opened his eyes and he gazed back up at the sky.

It was easily past midnight—they had traveled much further and longer than they usually would have, on account of how shaken they’d been—and the dark sky filled with stars was evident of that.

Desmond hummed quietly, simply looking up at nothing. Absently, his eyes bounced from star to star as he tried to remember some of the constellations his Father had once taught him.

‘Father always told me to find the biggest, brightest star first. The uhm...’ He faltered. ‘...well, whatever it’s called. From there, finding the forms should be easy.’

But, try as he might, none of the stars lined up the way he envisioned. He thought he’d found the brightest star in the sky, only for a similarly bright one to make its presence known out of the corner of his eye and confuse him.

Eventually, he dug his fingers into his hair as subtly as he could and let out a tense sigh.

‘I give up. This doesn’t make any sense.’ Desmond decided. He moved to shut his eyes but, just before they closed completely, something bright flashed across the sky and he snapped back to attention almost instantly.

But the sky was just the same as it was a moment ago. Desmond squinted in frustration, trying to find a trace of what he’d just seen. For a long, extended moment, nothing happened. The stars twinkled, the wind rushed through the forest quietly, and the occasional hoot of an owl echoed far away.

Then, just when Desmond was about to give up again, the flash returned. He watched as, from the two bright stars he’d taken note of before, a shimmering white line extended between the two of them, like a thread, and connected them before his eyes.

Desmond blinked curiously, watching the line shimmer and twinkle much like the stars it was connected to. Absently, Desmond unfurled his hands and slowly reached one out toward it.

‘This is stupid.’ He thought, though he didn’t stop himself in the slightest. ‘This is so stupid. It’s not like anything will happen...’

But he continued regardless, sticking two fingers out toward the line as if it were a string on an instrument. He didn’t know what he was expecting; maybe he just thought his fingers would pass through it and it would dissipate, or that whatever the line was would clearly be much too high in the sky and he would simply flick the bare air above him.

What he wasn’t expecting, however, was for his fingers to slip around the line and grasp onto it. His eyes widened and he opened his mouth to exclaim, but no noise left him.

‘It’s...soft.’ Was the only thought he could fathom at the moment as he experimentally tugged on it.

At the same time, he felt something reverberate through him. It was strange. As if something had tugged on him at the same time as if he were a string. As if an echo had rang through him, starting at his toes and trailing up his body before it got to his head and faded.

Desmond pulled on it again and it bent at his whims before, in a flash, it dissipated into thin strands of light that quickly faded off into nothing.

For a moment, he left his hand hovering in the air, seemingly hoping that the string-like object would return. But it didn’t. And eventually, he let his arm fall back over his chest as he let out a breath he wasn’t aware he was holding in.

‘That...that was just weird.’ He finally thought, rolling onto his side and peering into the dark forest instead. ‘But...there’s no doubt about it.’

He felt his lips curl back as a large, giddy smile spread across his face.

‘That was magical.’

►⚉◄

From that day onward, Desmond and the others didn’t waste any more time. If they’d continued moving at their usual pace, they would’ve reached Sayavila in about four more days.

After running into the Mage Knights, though, all three of them seemed eager to get the trip over with sooner rather than later. So they picked up the pace; traveling faster and for longer periods during the day and resting for less time at night so that they could get moving even earlier in the morning.

Though he stopped sleeping in trees and instead began to rest with the others on the forest floor, Desmond didn’t spend any of their downtime sleeping. Thanks to ⦓Otherworldly Resolve⦔ allowing him to stay up when he otherwise shouldn’t, Desmond instead spent the time trying to replicate the ‘string phenomena’ that he experienced the first night.

The only problem was that he didn’t know how he’d made it happen.

Desmond was certain he’d caused the string to appear somehow, as it felt like it was connected to him in a sense. But without knowing how he’d done it, there was no way for him to reliably replicate it.

So every night, he laid down and just repeated what he’d done that night. He gazed up at the stars, tried to find the brightest stars he could find, and tried to force a connection to form between them.

Most of the time, it didn’t work and he felt a little bit more like an idiot each time. Regardless, he always went back to trying anyway.

Sometimes, though, it proved fruitful and he was able to see that thread again. It always dissipated after he tugged on it a couple of times, but eventually, it began to feel sturdier the more he toyed with it and lasted longer before it eventually vanished again.

He would stay awake until the sky lightened, the stars faded, and the thread disappeared for good before he would rise in the mornings with the other and they would continue on their journey.

Thanks to their quickened pace, they managed to clear the forest in its entirety in two days before they rose up over a hill as the sky began to go dark again on the third day.

Arika huffed from exertion, wiping sweat from her brow as they crested over the hill. Euric similarly groaned, but had a wide and almost giddy smile on his face. The speed they’d picked up on this tail end of their journey had clearly affected them, but neither seemed to care now.

Similarly, Desmond's brown skin was covered in a thin sheet of sweat and his white hair was almost constantly plastered to his forehead. But he couldn’t find it in him to care, either, when he gazed down at the sight on the other side of the hill they stood atop.

The green fields extended a fair distance down the hill, rolling up to the tall stone walls that surrounded the town of Sayavila. Buildings rose up here or there, with clear streets and paths going through the entire town in every which way possible.

At the far end of the town, docks and piers extended over the shimmering blue sea that stretched out across the horizon, with a small collection of boats floating in the harbor. Lights flickered across town as the sky darkened further, and Desmond found himself staring and taking in the entire town in awe.

‘We’re here.’ He let out a sigh, using a hand to wipe the sweat and hair from his forehead. ‘Sayavila.’

Arika huffed and let a hand gently fall onto Desmond's shoulder. He looked up at her and she returned a gentle smile down to him.

“Told you we’d get you here, Desmond.” She chirped pleasantly, followed by her patting him on the shoulder. Euric groaned aloud, raising his hands to the sky excitedly.

“Finally! Can’t wait to get home and lie the hell down on a bed!” He exclaimed, beginning to storm down the hill. Desmond watched him before snorting as Arika sighed in exasperation. She patted the boy on the back before taking more controlled steps down the hill and gesturing for him to follow.

“Come on. I’ll get you in and show you around.” She said as he picked his feet up and began to gingerly follow her down the hill. He looked past her, gazing at the walls that rose higher and higher as they got closer to town.

Walls that reminded him of Calcheth. Walls that he was certain now weren’t nearly as strong as they looked. The thought sent a disturbing chill down his spine, though he made sure not to show it.

Arika smiled in his direction once more, unaware of the turmoil in his mind, as she let out a sigh and continued to move forward.

“Welcome to Sayavila, Desmond.”