At some point, I had found myself in a trance as I mulled over what to do come morning. In the end, the safest choice would be to travel on my own as soon as the sun sets but I had a glaring problem of no money. I really disliked having to rely on others for that but in this case, I had no choice, and Larry had mentioned shopping at one point and that he felt like he owed me. At the very least a place to stay while I got my bearings would be nice as I could not stay here for much longer.

The issue with this however was that it was already getting bright outside and the fog was lifting. They would set out before I could go outside again and the opportunity would be blown. I could only hope they would decide to stop by but I had my doubts.

I grew more and more anxious as time passed and it grew brighter, but a flicker of hope alighted when I could not see any sunlight. I got up and approached the door to see a grey, overcast sky. I precariously stuck out a finger and then my hand, elated to find the cloud cover protects me. Even with this, however, I felt exposed and hesitant to step out from under a solid shield.

If only I had a tarp or parasol.

That was when a thought occurred to me. I had some spare clothes stored inside Qubit and I had seen it modify items, such as the altered clothes and blood in the jars. This could be an opportunity to test the extent of how it could manipulate what it has stored.

"Qubit, can you alter the spare clothes into something I could wear to protect me from the sunlight?"

I deliberately left it vague to see what it would produce and did not have to wait long for my request to materialize. What came out was a full set of clothing in the same coarse material what I was wearing was made of but made thicker. Included were a pair of pants, hoodie, cloak, gloves, footwraps, shawl, scarf, bandana, and a veil. It was all neatly placed on the table where it looked like someone had vanished and left all their clothes behind. I was very much surprised at this capability and after gearing myself up and triple checking for any gaps, I felt ready for my excursion into daylight until I put on the veil. It pretty much blocked my entire vision as it was thick and left me no choice but to navigate by looking at the ground.

I decided that with the weather being as it was, now was probably the best opportunity for me to set of regardless whether I go with them or not. I still had a concern about food but reckoned that stockpiling and then waiting for such perfect weather again could take way too long. There was still the werewolf corpse which I might be able to grab with Qubit if they leave it be.

Just in case I do decide to go with them, I had Qubit make a backpack which I filled with a bunch of things I might need so I would not need to take stuff out of Qubit's storage around others, and had a plausible excuse where I could have kept something in case I had to. I stuffed in the blanket from the bed as well and carried the sword in my hand as I had dropped the sheath somewhere while unconscious.

At this point, I felt like I was as physically prepared as I could be, but mentally I was anything but so. I kept on imagining them turning on me or chasing me away after finding out I am a vampire, which I kept imagining being super obvious. I started feeling ridiculous in my getup picturing myself showing up in front of them.

I thought of being upfront about it and straight-up telling them, but as the conversation played out in my mind I found myself unable to find the word for vampire in the new language. This confused me somewhat as it was the same with phone. It probably either meant the word did not exist or was the same.

Even the possibility of them not knowing made me hopeful and gave me confidence that they would not think too much of it if I simply told them I am sensitive to the sun. Whatever questions come after I will have to deal with as they come.

With a final deep breath, I stepped outside and for a moment almost felt sad to leave the house that had provided me shelter for the past few days. I was finally going to leave this place behind and hopefully all the horrors with it.

With one hand holding the veil up for a better view, I carefully crossed the stream to not get wet and enjoyed finally getting to see the outside world during the day. I spotted tents set up around the cart and hoped the couple hours I waited were enough time for them to be up, as it was hard to tell when exactly it would reach midday. I was glad then when I saw Lucie sitting on the grass while leaning against a tree a little ways away from the camp. When she saw me too, she got up and seemingly stared at me from a distance.

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I realized that I was walking toward her with a drawn sword so I gave her a wave, dropping the veil back over my face in the process. As I got closer, I was able to make out a mixture of both confusion and relief in her gaze as she waited for me.

"I think I dropped the sheath somewhere. Didn't want to damage my bag." I said while gesturing at the sword. "Mind if I sit?"

"Yeah, sure, go ahead." She said and retook her place amongst the roots. "It should still be around where you, uh, collapsed I guess. Didn't really think to look around after all that happened."

"Is Tristan alright? He looked pretty bad last night. Sorry for running off on you all like that." I apologized while joining her and dropping the sword to my side.

"He'll live. He mostly just exhausted his mana and won't be any worse for wear than before that last fight after some rest. In fact, I think he may have even expanded his thunder gate. As for you running away, don't worry about it. It was a stressful situation and we all cope differently." She gave me a weary smile and her eyes looked tired.

"Have you slept?" I asked and got a shake of the head as a reply.

"Someone has to keep watch, even now. I got out the least hurt so I can't complain."

"What about your arm? Is it alright?" As a response, she lifted her right arm and made a fist, only to wince in pain and let it drop.

"Just...dislocated my shoulder. Not as bad as it sounds. Popped it right back in after it was all said and done."

"And Larry? I know I saw him and he looked fine, but you said you fared best."

"Mana exhaustion as well. Wouldn't trust anyone to stay awake for long like that. Can I ask you a question?"

I felt myself inadvertently tense up and I was somewhat glad my face was concealed.

"I don't know what happened or what you and Larry talked about, and I promised him not to pry too much so you don't need to answer if you don't want to. I don't feel so much indebted as I do guilty for involving you and nearly getting you killed."

I was about to reassure her that I was going to head back anyway but kept it to myself as I still needed to get them to agree to a place to stay. I felt just as guilty and swore to make amends to them one day.

"It's about my outfit, isn't it?" I decided to be the one to broach it.

"That too, but I wanted to ask about your enhancement. You said you did not have one but I don't see any other way you could have survived, let alone get out uninjured. Are you an ascendant?"

My blood froze at the unexpected and unknown question. There was obviously much I still did not know or understand and could be asked any number of things that I would not be able to think of. After a brief moment of consideration, I decided to be honest.

"What's an ascendant? This isn't my native tongue."

"You aren't from here? But you speak so well. I guess it would explain your hair. It's when your body becomes more like that of a spirit. Like a permanent enhancement but of your own natural body state rather than an element. It's my goal so I can fix up my eye."

Is that what happened to me?

I did not know the process behind it but it sounded like what might have happened to me. At the very least it might just be my first clue if I indeed am an ascendant as she thinks. If it will clear me of suspicion and explain my vampiric healing, then it might be best I latch onto that explanation.

"Then I guess my answer is yes. But I'd rather keep it to myself."

"You might have to tell Tristan at least. I doubt he will be able to keep quiet once he wakes up. What about your outfit? It's, uh, highly unusual."

"I'm very sensitive to the sun. I get really bad burns quickly when exposed. I had to make do with what I had to put this together."

"But you're an ascended. How...?" I could see her eyebrows crease in confusion, and then turn to shock as she looked away, placing a hand on her blind eye. "I'm sorry."

I was both startled and troubled by her sudden reaction, worried I might have made a mistake saying I was an ascended.

What's done is done.

"For what?" I asked hesitantly, looking to perform damage control.

A brief moment of silence passed by us as I saw her fiddling with the grass.

"I was talking about fixing my eye and started feeling envious of you being an ascendant when you..." She trailed off, leaving me even more confused but this was not the time to show it.

"It's nothing to be sorry for. Come on, chin up. You'll get there." I dared not say more and instead just gave her a light pat on the back.

I felt relief when she gave me a smile, glad to have crossed what seemed to have been the biggest hurdles so far. There was still the matter of lodging but felt now was not the time to ask. They said it was a two-day journey meaning I had time for it to potentially come up in conversation and maybe even get it offered without having to ask.

There was only one thing left on the agenda and that is food, which in this case means the werewolf body. I did not see it on the way here and was sure it should still be where it died. With Qubit's ability to extract blood it should be quick and discreet, so I rose to my feet and turned to Lucie.

"I'm gonna go look for the sheath. You can go sleep, I'll keep an eye out for you."