Chapter Twenty-Six

Moira awoke to the sound of pounding hoofs beating against the ground. She sat up quickly. Myles had been standing watch at the edge of camp. He waved his hand, and the fire dissipated. Only the glowing wood remained. He motioned for them to get up and move back further into the woods.

They quickly and quietly gathered their things and moved back. Cyrus nodded and pulled out his sword. The sound of hooves slowed and stopped. They heard them dismount and move into the woods, approaching their abandoned camp.

Moira watched as the intruders moved quietly into the camp. As they moved closer, she noticed how gracefully they moved. She looked over at Cyrus and mouthed, “Elves” his eyes widened, and he nodded back. Sloane stiffened beside her and grasped her hand. Moira squeezed it in assurance.

The elves strode through the camp, examining the glowing wood and searching for any other signs of life. “They were just here. The fire’s still warm.” An elf with silvery cropped hair dressed in green armor whispered to the others.

An elf with dark hair approached from the left. “I’ve got their mounts. There are at least six of them.”

They all nodded and formed a half circle and eased toward them, heading further into the forest.

Sloane looked at the six of them with a panicked expression. She gestured quickly for them all to move closer and pulled out her pendant. She motioned for them all to grab hands. They quickly complied. Sloane closed her eyes, focusing.

Moira noticed that the world seemed to fade away, slightly turning gray around them. She turned and looked over at the approaching elves. They were quietly moving closer until they were almost on top of them. Moira closed her eyes and winced, expecting to be discovered. Then she felt her body waver. She opened her eyes and watched in astonishment as the elves walked through them. As if they weren’t there.

The elves stalked away from them, continuing their search methodically. Sloane winced beside her as she tried to maintain focus. Moira felt the warmth leech from Sloane’s hand. She was starting to wobble; her face turning deathly pale. The elves moved further into the forest, finally disappearing from view. Sloane gasped and collapsed onto the ground. The color of the world around them reappeared.

Myles scooped Sloane into his arms and gestured back toward the road. Ethan waited for a moment, staring back in the direction the elves had gone, frozen. She shook his arm.

“Come on. We need to move,” she whispered.

He just stared, as if shell-shocked. She turned back toward where the elves had gone. They could come back any minute.

“Ethan.”

They had to move. Moira grabbed his arm, dragging him with her as they made for the road. Duke followed behind, nudging Ethan as they ran. Cyrus took up the back, his sword in his hands, watching for attackers. They ran along the roadside, careful to not leave footprints.

Ethan ran beside her as she continued to drag him along. He was quiet, and his face was ashen. His eyes blank. It was like he wasn’t even there.

“Ethan, are you okay?” she whispered as they tried to keep pace with the others. “You need to snap out of it.”

His eyes stayed blank and unfocused. She turned towards Cyrus, “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. It’s like he’s not here.”

Cyrus moved closer and grabbed onto Ethan and shook him roughly. “I know you’re upset right now, but you have to come back to us. You can’t just leave Myles and I.”

Ethan slowly blinked, and his eyes focused back on Cyrus. He nodded and looked over at Moira. “Thank you.” He whispered.

Now that Ethan was back, they picked up speed, racing through the night. Their stamina and dexterity keeping them moving well past when a normal human would have collapsed.

Ding!

New Skill: Running lvl 1.

She panted as she read through the notification. At least she’d gotten a new skill. Her heart raced, her legs feeling numb from the intense running. Exhaustion threatened to overwhelm her, but she kept moving.

The two suns peaked through on the horizon, turning the morning sky red. Finally, Cyrus gestured for them to stop. Moira collapsed on the ground.

Ding!

Warning! Stamina low.

Stamina:10/94

Myles sat down beside her, dropping Sloane on the ground. She was still unconscious. Myles had carried her the entire night. She hadn’t made a single sound throughout the night. Duke sat down beside Sloane and carefully licked her face. She was still pale from using the pendant. He whined and plopped down beside her, resting his head across her chest.

“Why hasn’t she woken up? What did that thing do to her?”

The three men shared a look before Myles answered, “True invisibility is rare. Sloane’s pendant is even rarer. It doesn’t just give the user invisibility; it takes the wearer to the in-between. That kind of power always comes at a high cost. It uses Health instead of Mana to function. Sloane wasn’t just using it on herself in the forest. She used it to hide all six of us. It used up almost all her health and now it’s taking longer to recover.”

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“If she’d kept hiding us past her limit. Could she have died?

“Yeah, I’d say she was nearly there by the way she collapsed.”

“She risked her life for us, then.”

Myles shook his head as he stared down at Sloane. Moira thought she saw a glimpse of something on his face before he turned away. “She was willing to sacrifice herself to stop us from being discovered. I’m guessing the guilt of putting us in danger weighed heavily on her.”

Ethan sat down beside them, sadly glancing down at Sloane before turning to Moira and Myles. “I’m sorry for how I reacted before—in the camp and then after. I just can’t lose anyone else. I’m sorry.”

Cyrus patted Ethan on the shoulder, sitting down with the rest of them. “It’s okay, we know it’s been hard and adding new team members is stressful even without the extra surprises. I should have told you about Moira being an Outworlder, but I didn’t want to break the news without her approval.”

Moira nodded to Cyrus. “I appreciate that. It was my secret to tell. But, I’m sorry for keeping it from you. I should’ve realized it would affect all of you.”

“I get why you kept it a secret at first. I mean, you told us on the first night together, so it could’ve been worse. You could’ve kept it to yourself until Mons Caput.”

Moira nodded, and then looked down at Sloane. Duke was still resting his head on her. “When should we worry that she hasn’t woken up?”

“It should be anytime now. If she hasn’t woken by tonight, we could have a problem.” Ethan answered.

“Should you examine her or something?” Moira asked.

“I’ve been analyzing her status while we’ve been sitting here. Everything seems pretty normal besides her health levels. She should be okay in theory.”

“In theory?”

“Well, you never know with those kinds of tools. Anything that messes with the in-between could have detrimental effects that we aren’t seeing. She used it to hide almost six people for several minutes, which is insane. But her Rogue class is suited for this type of pendant. So—in theory, she should be fine.”

Moira sighed, unhappy with the wait and see tactic. She’d never been a patient person.

“What’s the plan then, boss?” Myles asked, looking over at Cyrus.

“We need to rest for a bit. Moira isn’t at a high enough level to continue running. Let’s move into the forest a bit and make camp. No fires this time. It’ll only draw attention.”

“But what about the elves? They were obviously after the pendant. They could be tracking it somehow.”

They all looked over at Sloane again. She hadn’t had the chance to hide the pendant again after she’d used it. It laid open on her chest for all to see. The pendant glowed slightly red in the morning sunlight.

“I don’t have the magic to check for tracking spells.” Myles said, watching Sloane as she breathed shallowly.

Moira’s head perked up at that. She’d learned a lot about Mana during her time in the white room, how Mana seemed to vibrate at different rates. Maybe she could help. While it wasn’t an actual skill, the ability didn’t seem to be limited to a type of Mana like Myles’ magic was.

“I may be able to help,” she said carefully.

Myles looked at her in confusion, “I don’t know how you’d be able to help. Since you’re a Ranger, you should be limited to nature magic.”

“When I was in the Dungeon, I learned something. It’s not a skill—but I think I may be able to help. It just may take some time. I think with your help, I could determine if there’s a tracking spell.”

Myles stared at her, open-mouthed. He closed it slowly and then opened it again as if to say something, but remained silent. He turned to Cyrus and Ethan, giving them both a look.

“I don’t think anyone’s ever shut him up before.” Cyrus joked.

Myles shook himself out of it and glared back at Cyrus. “If you’re not limited to nature magic, which should be impossible. Then, I may be able to help guide you into determining if there’s a tracking spell.”

“Okay.” Moira replied. “Let’s get started then.” She scooched closer to Sloane and Duke. Duke lifted his head to allow her to get closer to the pendant. She gently lifted it off of Sloane’s neck and approached Myles.

They both carefully examined the necklace. Moira closed her eyes and stretched her presence out to it, listening to its internal vibrations. “It’s different for me. I can only effect fire Mana, but I know in theory if you’re really able to manipulate this type of Mana, then you should be able to note if something is off about the pendant. If there is some other spell layered on that shouldn’t be there, it should be apparent.”

Moira listened closely, searching the pendant with her mind. As she brushed up against it, she heard the sound of the pendant. It was a slow-beating drum. She spread her mind around it, listening to the beating of the necklace and searching for anything that didn’t belong. After a moment, she heard it. The sound was like the flicker of a hummingbird. It vibrated quickly against the pendant, pushing up against the slow beat. Moira touched the invading magic and tried pulling it away from the pendant.

The spell hung on tightly, like a leech. Unwilling to let go. Moira pulled again; this time harder. Focusing on yanking it away. The pendant screamed out to her as the invading spell hung on. She stopped, not wanting to hurt the necklace. She approached again, but this time she focused on slowing the spell’s vibration. It worked.

She could feel it slow down and as it slowed, the spell seemed to fall away into nothing. Unable to sustain itself without its own vibration.

Moira opened her eyes and smiled. “Well, did it work? Did you figure out if there’s a tracking spell?” Myles asked.

“Not only did I find the tracking spell, but I got rid of it,” she said a bit proudly.

Myles stared back at her in shock. “How’d you do that so fast? You’ve only been sitting here for five minutes.”

Ethan and Cyrus watched from where they’d been sitting. They stared back and forth between Myles and Moira.

“It wasn’t that hard once I figured out where the tracking spell was. Shouldn’t we be moving off the road?”

Cyrus jumped to his feet, “You’re right, come on, let’s move into the cover of the forest. We should really only stay here for another hour. They could be able to track the last location of the spell.”

They all nodded, and Myles went to pick up Sloane. Duke was still loyally sitting beside her. “Is it okay if I move her, bud?” he asked, softening Moira’s heart a bit. Duke licked his hand and stood up. Myles picked her up, holding her in his arms. Duke stayed next to Myles, watching as he moved into the forest.

Moira patted him on the head. “You’re a good boy, buddy. They think she’s going to be okay”.

He looked up at her before replying, “Friend hurt—stay close.”

She nodded back to him, and he bounded after Myles. Ethan stood beside her, waiting for her to head into the forest. She gave a small smile and headed in.

“Thanks again for your help back there.”

She shrugged. “Anyone would’ve helped. I was just closest.”

“Still. I’m sorry about earlier—how I reacted.”

“It’s okay. I understand. You don’t want to lose any more friends.”

He nodded.