The base of Loel’s Wrath was every bit as astounding as Arwen had hoped for. Once the near-endless plots of farmland capitulated into shrub-like foliage, it eventually gave way to a dark, earth-like material that reminded her of fresh charcoal. The patchwork of dark colour and grungy textures extended up the entire mountain, where a snow-capped peak added a splash of conflicting colour to the grim volcano range. The hills behind to the left of Tristwch were forgotten as the Princess gawked at the encapsulating site before her. She had to crane her neck so far back to see the volcano’s peak! And the weight of its looming presence encumbered her frame, making her feel like a small child in a large, large world. Such was the sight that the sharp pain which jolted her legs at every step was a distant part of the back of her mind. She was enjoying herself, truly, for the first time in her recent memory.

Walking by her side, forming almost a circle around her, Arwen’s retainers appeared mostly enraptured by the volcano’s thrall. Both Gwyn and Owen similarly stared upwards towards it vast, almost intimidating range when they could. The vampire, who was largely used to the sight, Arwen assumed, focused on the road ahead. Cai had recovered quicker than Arwen had expected and immediately demanded they set off once more. He kept pace with the group, though his face was set in a grimace and he kept his arms wrapped around his chest. He also said not a word since standing, which was fine by Arwen. She wasn’t about to let the knight ruin her fun.

Eventually, however, the volcano got boring to look at. It also didn’t help that the sun was beginning to dip its way under the distant horizon, darkening the terrain around them. They didn’t have much daylight left. Arwen was in a lot of pain, but didn’t complain after witnessing Cai stumble a few times himself. She allowed his suffering to soothe hers, instead.

Finally, just as it was becoming hard to see, Loel’s Wrath terminated into a dark expanse of empty terrain, of which Arwen could not make out any details. Though she heard birds cawing and chirping within the murky terrain, for the life of her she could not find the silhouettes of any. “We stop here,” Cai spoke for the first time in hours. “We’re at the beginning of the Veins of Wedi. It should be safe to camp out the night here. Princess Arwen, I know you are not accustomed to outdoor sleeping, but please endure for the night. The travel shelter in Lliwio Plains will offer much more comfortable quarters tomorrow.”

Arwen raised her eyebrows in response, but said nothing. She was confused at his sudden amiability, but chalked it up to the thrashing she gave him with her magic. Nothing like a display of power to put someone in their place.

The group got to work. Cai reached into his pack and brought out a variety of items. Dried food, their rapidly dwindling water, some small sticks and a piece of stone Arwen didn’t recognise. He knelt down and begun to construct a fire. Gwyn and Eryk volunteered to search the hills for any firewood whilst Owen got to work unfurling three woollen sleeping bags from the giant cylindrical bag he lugged around all day. Arwen felt stupid just standing there as the others worked, but couldn’t think of a way to contribute. Instead, she sat on the rough ground near where Owen was at work with the sleeping bags. “Only three of them?” she asked. “But there are five of us.”

“You try hauling five sleeping bags around,” Owen huffed whilst unfurling one of them outwards on the ground. “We’ll have to share.”

Arwen hesitated. “Share?”

“Yes, one will be for you, being a girl and all. But the other two will be shared between the rest of us.”

That was a relief. “Would that not be uncomfortable?”

“Immensely,” the quiet archer grumped. “But it’s what needs to be done. We do this all the time out in the field, share sleeping bags with other soldiers. It saves money, resources, and weight.”

By now, Cai had a small fire burning. Its gentle warmth immediately begun to juxtapose the chilled breeze, though the overall temperature remained pleasant for now. “This will burn for an hour at most,” he declared. “So, we better hope the others return with some firewood.”

Thankfully, Gwyn and Eryk had soon returned with bundles of dead branches in their arms. They had lucked upon a dead tree nearby and although it was picked near-clean by other travellers, they were able to salvage a decent amount. Once all was settled down, sleeping arrangements were established. Arwen would have a bag to herself, Cai refused to share with Eryk, so he was with Owen. Gwyn was therefore sleeping next to the blonde-haired vampire tonight. After that was arranged, the quintuple now sat by the fire. Gwyn was comfortably talking to Owen, who was caught in a rather chatty mood. “So,” Gwyn leaned forward as much as he could in his cross-legged position. “You got a girl waiting for you back at home?”

Arwen rolled her eyes.

“I do,” Owen nodded. “Though she is quite a distance away.”

“Near Alaru?” Gwyn asked. “We could visit her.”

A small smile. “No, no… I doubt we’ll get anywhere near her in our journeys. What about you, Gwyn?”

“Eh, I used to have one, but I’m not about that life anymore. Much prefer being a free spirit.”

“Fair enough.”

“Say,” Gwyn gave a sly look. “How is that massively tall friend of yours doing?”

Owen cocked his head. “Mabon Cecil, you mean?”

“That’s him.”

“Well enough,” Owen broke into a smile. “Though still hitting his head on doorframes and such.”

“Hah!” Gwyn barked out a laugh. “I’ve seen him smack his head into crossbeams and the like plenty times.”

“One day he didn’t show up for training, so one of the overseeing generals put him on the quartermaster watch. You know that room? It has a really low hanging ceiling.”

Gwyn nodded. “Even I hit my head on those blasted beams sometimes. They really put him there, huh?”

“Yup,” Owen laughed softly. “I still don’t know if he was intentionally put there- I’d like to think he was. But less than a week later he ended up hitting his head really hard on one of ‘em, ended up in the infirmary with a concussion.”

“That blows.”

“Mabon wasn’t that pissed,” Owen shrugged. “He struggled with bright sunlight for a bit after that, plus was a bit… dim, for a bit, but he was more than happy to get out of punishment duty.”

Arwen was lazily listening in from her position near the burning fire, but a hand on her shoulder interrupted her quiet musing. She jolted a little and turned her head to find Cai standing over her. The fire cast an ominous light upon his mien. “Can we talk?”

Arwen shot him an odd look. “Now?”

“Yes, follow me,” the knight begun walking without even bothering to see if she was going to follow. Sighing, Arwen stood up and patted herself before tagging at a reasonable distance behind. Eryk looked up curiously from his mopey-looking gaze into the fire, but said nothing as she walked past, and the other boys were too deep in conversation to care much. Cai led the Princess towards the hills opposite the road, climbing halfway up of a small incline before settling into a leaned sitting position overlooking their little campsite.

Arwen stopped in front of him. “Well?”

“Sit, please.”

“Cai,” she warned. “I will zap you again if this is some sort of revenge ploy.”

“Just sit.”

Arwen let off a heavy exhale to signify her displeasure, but sat into a similar position next to him. “Happy?”

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Cai turned to her, leaning on one arm. “I want to apologise for my behaviour earlier today. It was unacceptable.”

“…” Arwen waited for more. “That’s it? Cai, you pretty much assaulted me!”

“I know,” the knight grimaced. “But I think I got my fair share of pain in return, don’t you?”

A retort came to mind, but the Princess opted for a more diplomatic tone. Cai truly did seem to want to try and have a mature discussion with her, and she also finally received an apology. “It hurts, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” he admitted. “I feel like my entire body is burning up. The pain was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before, and trust me, I thought I’d experienced every type and texture of pain there was until now.”

“You recovered well. When I first got hit with lightning magic, it took a lot longer for me to get back onto my feet.”

Cai froze. “You’ve been hit with lightning magic before?”

“When I was twelve,” Arwen affirmed. “My magic begun to manifest. Before I was allowed to practise, my father hit me with some of his. It was square in the chest- I still have the scar to this day. But it was a necessary lesson on how… intense, lightning magic can be. I could’ve easily killed someone when I was first learning, but knowing the pain helped me… tone it back at first, when my control was middling.”

“That is…” Cai hesitated, his face a mix of shock and slight awe. “Quite tough.”

“Such is the burden of royalty,” Arwen shrugged, echoing her father’s often-spoken adage.

Cai decided to change the topic. “About my sister… I realise now my anger was misplaced regarding your knowledge of her. I don’t know how or when, but I now know you must have met Brynne at some point in her life. I am unsure why she or my mother wouldn’t have told me about meeting Cyfoeth’s Princess, but I cannot think of any other explanation.”

“Ah…” Arwen blushed. “Well…” she reached into her pocket and retrieved the Light Gem before letting in dangle by the chain in front of her. It was time to open up, she thought. Perhaps she had been too harsh, and her guilt at weaponizing Cai’s sister was still fresh in her heart. “I never actually met your sister.”

“Excuse me?” Cai frowned at the artifact.

“Do you recognise this?” Arwen asked, gesturing at the necklace with her eyes.

“… it is a rather odd-looking piece of jewellery.”

“It’s an artifact. From the Light God himself, according to my father. It’s called the Light Gem.”

Cai’s eyes widened as he once again regarded the viridescent gemstone. “An… artifact? Is this how…?”

He reached out to it, but Arwen jerked the necklace back. “Don’t touch it!”

Her volatile reaction clearly perplexed Cai, who gave her a surprised look. “Physical contact is one of the conditions to activate it,” Arwen explained. “And you do not want to inadvertently rifle through one of my memories.” Though she did wonder what one would see should they use it on her.

“It lets you see memories?”

“Yes, and apparently the dead, too.”

“Wait,” Cai’s eyebrows scrunched in concentration. “Is this what yesterday was about? With you acting so weird all the sudden?”

Arwen nodded. “I saw one of my father’s… unpleasant memories. On the way to the tailor’s, I accidently saw one of yours, too.”

Cai stiffened. “You saw my memories?”

“On accident,” Arwen assured before he could grow offended. “I genuinely did not intend to. I was forced to maintain skin contact with it, and meeting someone’s eyes activates it.”

“What… did you see, exactly?” Cai asked ambiguously.

“You had just come back from a hunt,” Arwen recollected. “And was led to your sister’s body by Harri.”

Cai closed his eyes. He was silent for a good minute, before finally speaking. “I’ve tried so hard to forget the way she looked on that day… but horrors never truly fade.”

“My father claims the Light Gem selects memories based upon the target’s thoughts at the time. I suppose emotionally charged ones are… preferred. I noticed that you were looking at me when it activated. We had eye contact. And when I remembered how Brynne looked, I was struck by our similarities.”

“So that’s why you were suddenly so scarily insightful towards me,” Cai exhaled deeply. “I… don’t know what to say. My sister was everything to me, you know?”

“I do.” The Light Gem showed her as much.

Cai fidgeted as he spoke. “When she died, it tore me apart. I changed and never reverted. When I first saw you, I was struck at how much you reminded me of her. We always argued… it was all just harmless fun, you know? But when I saw how, well, different, you are to her, it reminded me of the loss. I got angry, sullen. It didn’t help we never got along from the start.”

“I am not her.” Arwen reminded him.

“I know, more than ever,” Cai replied sadly. “You’re just so… I don’t know. How old are you?”

Arwen hesitated, then answered. “Sixteen.”

A sad smile. “Only two years older than Brynne. When she turned ten, merchants and travellers from Cyfoeth started to remark on how much she looked like you. It became somewhat of a running joke among my home.”

“The Light Gem was supposed to let you see her again…” Arwen confessed. “I do not know why it kept her from you.”

“That would have been nice… to hear her voice just once more. But maybe it would have done more harm than good. Re-opened closed wounds, yeah?”

“Perhaps…”

“Anyways, I digress. I just wanted to apologise to you and maybe clear the waters between us. We’re stuck together for a while now, after all.”

A spiteful part of Arwen wanted to refuse, just to piss him off, but after hearing him pour his soul out to her over his sister, she offered a gentle smile instead. “I agree to your terms.”

“Great,” Cai returned the smile, but quickly smoothed his expression. “Just to ask, how many of those lightning blasts of yours can you manage?”

Arwen cringed. “I hit you quite hard, admittedly. At that level, probably two before I start to feel the exhaustion. I can do more with weaker jolts, but I would estimate around five of those strong ones before I get dangerously close to mana madness.”

Cai looked contemplative for a moment. “Anything else you can do?”

Arwen turned scarlet. “No,” she admitted. It was a very sore point indeed for the Princess, despite her father’s assurances that her training was seeing massive results. “I can charge a weapon’s blade with the magic, which will incapacitate someone even if they block the attack, but I need to be holding the weapon to do so, and the effect is temporary.”

Cai nodded to himself. “Very similar to one of my abilities… still, those two are very useful skills indeed.”

“How so?” Arwen genuinely was curious. She saw little merit in attacks that required physical contact when her father could fire off bolts of white-hot lightning and shield himself from attacks with a charged aura. A full-fledged lightning mage like her father was a true danger, but Arwen was still weak and inexperienced.

“You are obviously not near the levels of what a proper lightning mage can do,” Cai said. “But you have an incredibly effective way to take down opponents without lethal force. Sometimes, even after you disarm a Helvetian soldier, he’ll fight you tooth and nail until you are forced to either kill or seriously wound him. Your magic can circumvent that.”

“Interesting…” and she meant it. “What can you do?”

“I am still new, like you, but I’m well on my way to the Light Mage certification. I have a fair few abilities, but the number I am confident enough with to rely upon in battle are small. Like you, I can enchant a weapon with light magic, which gives it the very useful property of being able to melt through even steel. It can also be used to cauterise wounds. I can also wrap my magic around myself. It makes me faster, stronger, more resilient, but not by much. A passive perk is that I never fall sick, never have since I manifested. I can shoot beams from my hand, but not much, and I’m embarrassingly inaccurate. I almost never rely on that last one unless I’m desperate.”

“Okay,” Arwen nodded slowly. Mages sharing their full capabilities with others were rare, for it was often a sore point for the inexperienced and a tactical manoeuvre for the strong. “That was very honest of you.”

Cai shrugged. “We’ll be working, possibly even fighting, together. Secrets will only harm our survival long-term.”

Arwen hesitated. What she wanted to tell Cai next gave her pause. Her ‘lightning sight’, as she called it, was an ability her father forewarned her to keep quiet about, since most people found it invasive for some reason. Yet she felt it necessary to inform her protector of her full abilities. “I should tell you, now that we are being honest… and this is a closely guarded secret of the royal family, okay? So please do not speak of this outside of our group.”

“What is it?” the knight cocked his head. His curiosity was piqued.

“The reason my combat prowess is so weak, is because my efforts have been focused on mastering a rather… technical side of lightning magic. You see, I can see people’s… I do not even know how to describe it. Everyone on this earth, even you and I, have some sort of innate lightning that traverses our bodies. It pulses a soft blue colour in most, and will spark and dim depending on their emotional state. When I suffuse tiny motes of magic into my surroundings, I can view people through their own personal lightning, if that makes sense. It allows me to tell if someone is lying to me, and whether or not someone is a mage.”

Cai nodded along, silent. But when she finished, he frowned deeply and rubbed the ridge above his mouth in thought. “I have two questions… firstly, why is this such a sensitive secret?”

Arwen leaned in conspiratorially. Inwardly, she felt an odd gossipy thrill over sharing secrets. “King Blayney uses it all the time, on important people like subjects, Helvetian emissaries, even King Fiske. It has been utilised throughout the entire Blayney family history. It is how we are so adept at avoiding assassination and engaging in political wrangling. We cheat, so to speak.”

“Ah,” a look of realisation filled Cai’s face. “I see how that can be troubling to expose in the open.”

“I don’t think anyone would trust us anymore, least of all Helvetia.” Arwen agreed. “What we need right now is trust, especially in such volatile times.”

“Second question, then… what do you mean you can tell if someone is a mage? Is that how you just… knew I was a light mage?”

Arwen nodded. “Instead of a blue colour, yours shines a radiant white. I have come across earth mages in my social interactions who appear brown. Dark mages are a void-like black colour.”

“I see,” Cai considered. “Can you use it to check for vampires?”

Arwen had that exact same question when she was younger. “Unfortunately, no. They appear blue, like any other human.”

“Hmm, that’s no matter. They always have their ears to give them away.”

Rambunctious laughter reached the pair from the fire down by the road. Glancing towards the silhouettes by the fire, Arwen felt a shudder encapsulate her body. “I grow cold, can we return to the fire?”

Cai nodded, and the two stood and set off in a friendlier silence than when they came.