The change in scenery wasn’t immediate but I could tell that we were seeing far fewer rocky formations and many more hills and prairies. Once we reached the mainland of Fenira on the end of our first day after the crossroads, the scenery was green as far as the eye could see.

The days were fairly monotonous since there were no surprises and very few encounters with just the occasional farmers working the land. But monotonous was good. We had decided to travel west precisely in order to be safe and this had held true so far.

There were no forests or caves for us to hide our camps in, and so we slept in the wilderness. Not wanting to draw undue attention to ourselves at night—despite the relative safety of Fenira—we were discreet and didn’t light any fires. During the day, we had regular communication with our people back in the tower.

The word was that fewer than ten people had decided to return to Elysia and none of them admitted they would stay there forever. Another, more interesting piece of information was that since the archons returned to Elysia, they had informed the public that The Divine would not return until they found the individual carrying Its essence.

Apparently, they had been very open about the truth and everything they had found out about us. This led to many of the manaless who were supposed to have received their mana during the last liturgy crossing the Endless Sea in search of a new life in Leka An. These people found their way to the tower and were surprised to see how many and how organized we really were.

The first of the manaless to arrive were obviously the sons and daughters of rich families, since they were able to teleport across the sea, something that was pretty expensive even by archpriest standards. Those first few teenagers reported hundreds of people following or intending to follow on ships, not knowing anything about the tower but wanting to see a different world—a world where people did not need mana to thrive, much like we had.

We were confident that our men and women would be able to handle a sudden influx of people in the tower, but Krysha nevertheless spent a lot of our riding time talking to them about designing an admittance process for all the people who might want to train with the tower while at night, before going to sleep, we discussed what else we could offer any new arrivals apart from martial training.

The days went by with us drawing minimal attention in Fenira until the fourth day of our travels, when we were trying to cross a fairly narrow stone bridge above a wide river. At first, it seemed there were three people resting on the opposite side of the bridge, but as soon as we were in the middle, three more appeared behind us, blocking the way we came.

They had probably been hiding at the base of the bridge, waiting for us to arrive. This was the oldest trick in the highwayman’s book, but we weren’t the typical party of travelers. We got off our horses and waited for them to make their move.

“This bridge has a toll, ladies and gents,” said the largest of the three guys, standing in front of us as he produced a giant double ax from his back.

Name : Derek Hum

Race : Human/Orc

Class : Totem Warrior

Level : 24

“The toll goes both ways too,” said one of the men behind us, who were all holding swords.

Name : Stree Canil

Race : Human

Class : Shadow of the Open Fields

Level : 22

As the other men in front of us unsheathed their swords, I noticed that all three of them had scorch marks on their clothes and the man with the ax had what looked like a fresh burn on the left side of his face and his left hand. Yet it seemed he was leading these people.

“Now, now,” Man said, with a smile on his face as he took a step toward them. “There’s no need for violence, is there gentlemen?”

As soon as I saw Man make his first step, I tipped my hat and disappeared from their view. By the looks on their faces, I realized that both Krysha and Kard had done the same, leaving a smiling Man who was not yet holding his swords, next to a chanting Seika.

I ran to the side of the bridge, jumped up on its ledge and sprinted around the three people in front of us, sure that Krysha and Kard would handle the ones behind us. I jumped from the ledge back onto the bridge, just behind them, the sound of my steps and landing completely damped by my magical boots.

“Mages!” their leader shouted, and raised his ax in a wide arc, ready to strike Man who had moved forward and was now almost upon him.

His voice was loud but not loud enough to cover Seika’s incantation. She was casting a fairly simple 32-word binding spell which made vines grow from the ground, even if it was not soil, and bind the legs and hands of its targets.

The giant man managed to bring the ax down toward Man, who simply stepped to the side, his hands still in his pockets. Before the man was able to bring his ax back, he was met with a kick on the side of his knee, knocking him down to the ground, just as I brought the other two to the ground by kicking the back of their legs.

The three opponents behind Seika also lay flat on their backs, trying to hide their faces with their hands, protecting themselves from the invisible threat that was attacking them. At that moment, thick vines started growing from the ground, loud cracks announcing them as the rocks of the bridge split in order for the magical plants to grow. The vines wrapped around all six of the highwaymen, and Kard, Krysha and I reappeared.

“I did tell you that there is no reason for violence,” Man said, as he bent over on top of the man with the burned face.

“I’m sorry, Master,” the man said, in an attempt to soften the blow he thought was coming.

“This job of yours does not seem to be good for you,” Man replied, not taking his right hand out of his pocket and pointing at the man’s burned face with his left.

“We’re terribly sorry, Sir,” said another one. “We didn’t know you were also mages. We don’t want to mess with mages but—”

“What do you mean ‘also’?” Krysha interjected. “Did more mages pass through these parts?”

“Yes, Miss,” the man with the burned face replied with a pleading expression. “They were the ones who gave me this injury. They were not as kind-hearted as you are, my lady.”

“Who were they?” Kard took his turn in asking. “Where are they going?”

“Please spare our lives,” another man from the back pleaded, “and we’ll tell you everything you need to know.”

“We’re not going to kill you,” Seika said, and with a wave of her left hand she loosened the vines. “So speak up.”

“We don’t know much about them really,” their leader replied, as he struggled to remove his hands from the binds. “We tried to… we wanted to get paid for letting them pass on the bridge. We thought just the two of them would be easy targets. Instead, one of them summoned fires in front of us, pushing us all to the edges of the bridge. Their horses didn’t even slow down at all as they passed through.”

“Did you at least get a look at them? Were you able to scan them?” I asked, frustrated. “Did anything stand out about them?”

“Like I said,” the man continued, “the fire pushed us to the edges of the bridge. They were completely covered. We were about to jump into the water when the fires vanished and we could only see the backs of their horses.”

“They were both men,” another one said. “We didn’t get a chance to see their faces but they were definitely men, wearing brown traveling robes. That’s all we managed.”

“I see,” Man said, and stepped a little closer to their leader, both of his hands back in his pockets. “This is what’s going to happen. You are going to get out of your binds, you will stand up and leave this place to find an honest way of living.”

“Yes, Master,” they all said in unison.

“We will leave you be, but we will cross the bridge again on our way back,” Manal Im continued. “If we find you here again, the vines will not hold you down on the ground but pull you under instead. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Sir,” they all said, much more convincingly this time.

We rode our horses away from them as they struggled to get rid of the vines, which were now only hanging loosely around their arms and legs.

“Who do you think those spellcasters were?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” answered my sister, “but I hope none of our information leaked to the Holy Order and that this is just a coincidence.”

“I don’t believe two spellcasters rushing to the south could be a coincidence,” Krysha stepped in. “But I highly doubt that they know Myriam and Kai are also going in that direction.”

“Well, we can ask about them once we reach Helian,” Man said. “For now, all we can do is make haste.”

***

And so we did, for the next four days. We traveled through the open fields of Fenira much faster than we had done before the bridge, making fewer stops, sometimes even skipping breaks and eating fruits as we rode instead. Our communications with the tower gave us no information about the mysterious spellcasters moving south ahead of us and neither did any of our few encounters with local farmers.