Finally, on the eighth day’s riding from the crossroads, we reached the Feniran capital city of Helian.

The city had a loosely defined entrance, not in the sense of an opening in the middle of fortifications but rather a path, clear of grass and paved with stones.

It didn’t look anything like any of the major cities I’d visited before. Instead, it seemed more like a collection of small villages mixed and matched close to each other. There were no big streets leading up to the center of the city but rather many neighborhoods, filled with buildings no higher than two stories.

The stone-paved roads were surrounded by trimmed grass and trees while the overwhelming sounds of birds chirping gave the city a very rural feel. I definitely didn’t feel as if I was in a place similar to Elysia, but rather in a village like Nara.

While walking through the differently colored neighborhoods, looking for a place to stay and trying to gather any information we could about the two mysterious spellcasters and Myriam with Kai, we noticed that each of them had a different atmosphere to it. However, most of the neighborhoods were built around the same concept.

There were residential buildings, some of them with shops on the lower level and the living quarters on top. A few squares, void of any buildings but filled with trees and grass, could be found along the narrow rivers running through the whole city. In the background and a bit higher up than most of the neighborhoods, a giant white building could be seen. This was where they housed their produce, as Man informed us.

The people living in Helian were visibly hardened by working in the fields, but that didn’t take away the smiles from their faces. From the laughing children running up and down the stairs that connected different neighborhoods, to the elderly with deep laughter lines, one could tell that Fenirans were happy folk.

During our walks, many of them offered us refreshments, some of them going as far as inviting us for lunch as the sun was reaching its highest. But we wanted to waste no more time than we would actually need to gather information and find a place to rest before leaving again.

The latter was easy, as there were quite a few inns offering rooms at reasonable prices. Gathering information, on the other hand, proved to be a lot trickier than in Yubna.

Helians were people who cared little for gossiping, as we found out, and nobody had heard anything about a red-haired woman with a small boy passing by. However, once we reached one of the inns in a neighborhood filled with yellow and blue houses, the innkeeper informed us that two spellcasters had slept there the night before.

“Can you please describe them to me?” Seika asked the tall thin innkeeper.

“Well, they were normal people really,” he replied, clearly not knowing how to respond. “Brown hair and eyes, nothing memorable. They were wearing brown traveling robes and I wouldn’t have guessed they were mages if it wasn’t for them summoning horses out of thin air before they left today.”

“Did you get a look at their names?” Seika pressed him for more information.

“That is not the most polite thing to do and none of my business unless I’m requested to do scan them. But they did mention where they were heading,” the man replied, and suddenly he sounded excited to be able to provide a helpful answer. “They asked if I knew the fastest way toward Snjokomu, the capital of Fjalhun. I told them there was only one road that would get them there safely.”

“Thank you,” said Seika, who was now backing away from the counter of the innkeeper, leaving a gold piece behind her.

“Goddess Gaia be with you, my lady,” the man said merrily as he pocketed the gold.

“They must be going to the monastery,” my sister said, once we had all stepped outside the inn. “I don’t think we should waste any time here.”

“As much as I would like to sleep in a bed for a change,” Man said, “I think you’re right. They might be traveling there for a completely unrelated reason, but I still think we should catch up to them.”

We all nodded half-heartedly and soon were walking through the southernmost neighborhood of Helian, leaving the sounds of animals and rustling leaves behind us. We summoned our steeds yet again and resumed riding under the sun.

***

Our travel during the days got easier as the weather became colder again, the further south we were. The nights, on the other hand, were almost impossible to sleep through without our magically insulated sleeping sacks.

We rode hard for three days after we left Helian, but still were not able to find any traces of the priests, not even on the freshly fallen snow. Man made a point of mentioning that snowfall was a sure sign we were now entering the nation of Fjalhun.

The road became more difficult to follow since the snow piled higher as we galloped south. For this reason, we decided to take cover under a large naked tree on the side of the road and lit a fire as Seika looked over the maps with Man.

“Fjalhun is a very dangerous place,” Man began explaining, and I could see his breath form a wisp in the cold air. “Snowstorms and cold are only the beginning.”

“Shouldn’t we have caught up to the spellcasters by now though?” Kard asked, frustrated, his breath creating a puffy little cloud.

“If they belong to the Order, their magical horses would be much faster than ours,” Seika replied, her breath a thick white smoke as I felt the cold sting my face.

“Do you feel something weird?” Krysha asked, as a powerful gust of wind threw snow into our eyes.

“Take cover!” was all Man was able to say before a large rock came crashing in through the protective barrier generated by his necklace and hit his shoulder, knocking him back against the tree behind us.

My sister cast a powerful barrier spell around Man who was now screaming in agony while Krysha, Kard and I made ourselves invisible. I quickly glances at Man’s HP bar in our party menu and saw that he wasn’t in immediate danger though he really needed some healing.

We are under attack.