Without a quick way into Bervolt, the night would have to be spent under the stars. Cody had studied the enchanted paper, or quest as it was called. It was a keyhole enchantment, and they needed to find the key, which was likely those pesky scuttles and nuttles.

Flat spots for camping were plentiful in the rolling grass hills, and after an hour of wandering and catching the stray reptiles, they had found a good clearing with a decent amount of coverage. Bervolt was still in sight, its distinct tower now as thick as Cody's thumb, and something they would easily reach once they had all the ingredients. The field they had found, far from the paths that stretched out of the town, was perfect for the three to rest undisturbed by travelers.

Cody hadn't seen any signs of undead in their journey, but wasn't looking hard for them. Hord'anne always pretended to sleep as a strange form of entertainment, but had never allowed a foe to pass close to Cody during the night. He was sure he would do the same for Sariel if she wandered.

He was partway through laying out a rune circle when a sound echoed through the field. Its deep reverberation gave away its distance, far enough away to shirk any concerns Cody had of meeting its source. But something in the animalistic howl tickled a memory that slipped through his fingers as quickly as it had come. It was drawn and lamenting, yet filled with raw, crushing power. No wolf or creature of warm blood could have made such a sound.

Cody waited for the sound to die, watching Hord'anne until the beast relaxed too. They were safe so long as they avoided the cropping of stones it had come from. A long ways in the distance, and a good hop and a skip away from Bervolt.

Sariel looked to Cody when he settled back down to finish drawing his runes. "Not heard a beast like that. Loudest thing I ever laid an ear on was a flying horse. Had a beak though, lady that landed with it called it Mary. She didn't like me none after I asked her what it might taste like."

Cody chuckled, his circle glowing a soft red as he placed his palms on it. "Her loss."

Cody watched his magic flow through the markings, connecting opposite of him with a flash as it shot a translucent bubble up and around them all. He got up, checking the thin layer for holes that could collapse it as they slept, but it was textbook perfect, as expected.

Sariel took a step, pressing her foot into an invisible layer over the grass that made the whole ground soft and bouncy. She crouched, poking at the ground curiously and rubbing her fingers together to try and figure out the substance she was standing on. When Cody explained the padding spell to her, as he had found himself doing every time he used a new spell, she seemed content. However, for Cody, a nagging feeling continued to grow. A warlock that didn't appear to recognise basic spell work, something that was as easy as breathing for any novice. It was far too strange, blatantly unbelievable.

But she seemed too genuine in her ignorance. Too genuine to be masking some nefarious plot. They had met by chance.

Cody reached for his necklace, staring at the gem. Unsure.

He sorted through his thoughts in silence until he noticed Sariel moving around. She held up three pieces of braided grass, finishing off the end with a knot and looping it into a bracelet.

Cody watched her crouch around the clearing to grab some tiny white flowers, picking a few to weave their stems into the tight grass. After she was satisfied with the simple craft, she thrusted it out to Cody, smiling giddily as he grabbed it in confusion.

"What's this?"

"A friendship bracelet!"

Cody flinched at her boisterous tone, sitting in confusion at the present. He'd never received a gift, short of a few spellbooks from his parents, so he really wasn't sure about how to handle the bracelet. His previous train of thought had completely derailed while he focused on addressing the problem in his hand. He settled on sliding it onto his wrist, oblivious as Hord'anne looked down in jealousy.

Sariel smiled at the giant purple demon, rubbing his arm consolingly. "Sorry Hord'anne, this grass ain't long enough, got anything small?"

Hord'anne grunted, unsheathing his toothpick of a sword and gently planting it in the ground for Sariel to inspect. She lifted the piece with a grunt, a sizeable silver broadsword with a reddish-purple hilt, that came up to her chest. After brushing some grime off the handle, she stuck her finger through a small hole at the end of the hilt, smiling wickedly as she grabbed a wad of grass to weave together. "My oh my Hord'anne, did I ever tell you how pretty yer sword was?"

Hord'anne grunted, his pudgy cheeks flushing a rosy purple as he looked away in embarrassment, closing his eyes and waving his hand at Sariel to shoo away her kindness before it killed him.

Sariel swiftly finished up the braid, weaving it through the sword and giving it a tight knot before moving on to the flowers. She gave Hord'anne a mothering smile as the beast gained an air of excitement. "Say Hord'anne, where ya from? Never seen people like you and Cody before."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Do you want me to tell her?" Cody smiled as Hord'anne nodded, motioning for Sariel to sit down with him on a dryer patch of grass. "It all started in my town."

"Yer town?" Sariel almost squealed in excitement. "You lived in a bonafide town?! Was it that one with that grumpy bartender? Stonesong?"

"Huh?" Cody searched her gaze for a joke, frowning at her persistent honesty. "Do I really look like I'm from here?"

"Well, where else would ya be from Cody?" Sariel said, pulling a bound map out of her bag and spreading it wide. She poked a dot named Stonesong on the parchment. "This is the one, though I suppose there's a lot of dots on this map here..." she continued, counting the little markers and giving up after ten. "So which one are ya from?"

Cody let out a disbelieving laugh, his eyebrows almost permanently stuck to the top of his forehead as he looked around awkwardly. He thought she'd known who he was, or in her people's terms what he was, simply from his looks. Unless she was born under some kind of rock.

He glanced at the small map again. It didn't even cover the whole region they were in.

"There's hundreds of towns, thousands even." He watched her intrigue, biting his cheek as he contemplated continuing. "I'm from... across the waters."

"The waters? What are the waters?"

"It's a giant pool of water as far as the eye can see," Cody replied whimsically, sighing with nostalgia at the thought of home. "You haven't been to the coast?"

"Fraid not," Sariel replied, tapping the map. "If you could point it out on here though I could maybe give it a visit."

Cody hummed, looking at the small compass marked at the corner of the paper. He drew a glowing line from Bervolt and off into the grass, molding the light enchantment to mimic the eastern coastline he had boarded at. He made his own glowing dot, spelling out Fri Pristav above it. "You would have to go here for a boat that's willing to travel there."

"Past the edge?"

"The edge?" Cody eyed the map curiously. "Of the map?"

Sariel's voice quieted, now unsure as she pinched the edge that Cody's line of light was covering. "Of the world...?"

Cody quickly moved past her statement, drawing a few more lines from memory. "It's keeps going and going. If we think of the world as a cake..." He eyed her. "You know what a cake is?"

Sariel cocked an eyebrow. "Everybody knows what a cake is Cody."

He nodded. "If the world is a cake, this map here is just a little sprinkle on it. There's lots of other sprinkles and icing. Now you may see places that look a lot like an edge, but that's just the cake curving." Cody said, fueled by Sarial's growing wonder at his description as he pointed at the sky, a few stars visible as the sunset closed on the horizon. "And all of those bright dots up there that we call stars are also their own cakes. We live on a cake, in a giant shop full of cakes."

Sariel breathed out in wonder, looking at the map, and then checking the bountiful fields around them. "This map... is a sprinkle in a cake shop."

Cody nodded.

She folded up the map, her voice so loud it startled Crow from taking a sneaky peck at Cody's ear. "I need a bigger map!"

Cody chuckled. "Seems like you do, so I'm assuming you've never been to the coast?"

"I don't suppose I have."

He smiled. "I'll take you to see one after we destroy this village, how about that? They're really pretty." He looked out over the lush field as the final peek of the sun made the sparse fluffy clouds near it look like tufts of candied sugar. "Especially at sunset."

Sariel nodded with an amused hum. "That would be nice, wish I could tell Medila about all these fancy places I've been to. If I don't find a new boss, I should probably bring something back or she'll fire me for sure." Sariel looked up at Hord'anne, who was squinting at a flock of tasty birds nestled in a tree. "So Hord'anne's from across the waters like you?"

Cody nodded. "I found him in Tarsus' Roost. The place was so old it had sunken below sea level, and my village didn't dare to try entering the place without proper training." He leaned back on the soft grass with a sigh. "My parents shoved books down my throat until I could chant a fear curse backwards, so exploring its secrets was easy enough. I think I was..." he counted his fingers. "Thirty-six or so..."

Sariel sized him up. "Why Cody, thought you were as old as me."

He greeted her with even more confusion. "Well, how old are you?"

"Dunno, but I look about as old as you, so I must be thirty-six too."

Cody chuckled modestly. "I'm forty-eight now, I'm past my adolescent years of running around and invading ancient temples. Most of my friends were pure, so I grew up way faster than them."

Sariel tilted her head. "Dunno what you mean by pure there Cody, but I suppose I'm forty-eight then."

He shook his head. "I don't think so, you're human. I might be a little older than you."

"Nonsense! You look like a baby bristleback fresh out of the womb!" She ignored the disgusted grimace Cody wore at the remark. "You were talking about that Tesus temple or something now, weren't you?"

"Tarsus," he corrected. "I went there, after rigorous magics training to find out there wasn't a single enchantment or guard at the place, short of a lock on the door, and illusion of a massive sea serpent." His voice swelled with a bit of pride. "I basically walked right in there..."

"Didn't ya say it was under water?"

Cody choked on his words. "It sounded better than swam... and the main chamber didn't have any water, just Hord'anne sitting smack dab in the middle of the pedestal."

Sariel stared at Hord'anne's hulking mass, thinking about the size of the pedestal required to hold such a beast. When she had a good mental image, she turned to another nagging question. "What made ya go there?"

Cody stopped. "What?"

"What made ya decide to go to that temple with Hord'anne?"

Cody quieted as the question sunk in. He remembered growing up, his village, his family. Then the memories jumped over a gaping black void, and on the other side of it he stood before Tarsus' Roost with a mysterious drive to conquer the temple and release the curse it held within it.

It wasn't the only void in Cody's mind. His memories of home were strategically dotted by his own volition. But that void was the one he often went back to, his first one. He knew why it was there.

Alina's gifts were bought with stories after all.

"I don't remember that story." Cody smiled, rubbing his pendant between his fingers. "It mustn't have been that interesting, if I was willing to give it away."