Chapter 25

“Can it do anything useful at all?”

Jiang Fei looked at Arran with a look of frustration . She had spent much of the morning testing out her new Shadow Realm, but so far, the only thing she had accomplished was sending out a large blast of Shadow that merely disappeared the moment it touched the tree she had targeted .

“Nothing I’ve been able to accomplish,” Arran answered honestly . “But Master Fireheart could use it to make himself disappear . “

He still called Master Zhao ‘Fireheart’ when speaking to Jiang Fei, although by now he was starting to doubt whether either identity was actually real .

“Disappear?” Jiang Fei knitted her brows . “So it’s not completely useless, then…”

They practiced as they walked, occasionally sending blasts of Shadow at the roadside, or trying to manipulate it into moving . Whatever they tried, however, none of it was useful in the least, and Arran found it growing increasingly hard to stay focused on his practice .

Before Master Zhao had left, he had paid little attention to their surroundings, instead practicing Fire and Wind while occasionally trying to wrangle knowledge from his master .

Now, for the first time since they had left the monastery, Arran found himself looking at the landscape around them .

In the distance, he could still make out the vague outlines of the mountains, which by now looked like shadows on the horizon .

The terrain that surrounded them had changed, he saw . Where the hills at the foot of the mountains had mostly been filled with grass, with barely a tree to be seen, the road now meandered along copses and thickets .

While the more varied landscape did little to ease their journey, at least it provided Arran with some small distractions from the boredom of travel .

“Do you know where it is?” Arran asked not long after midday . “The Shadowflame Society, I mean . “

“On the western border,” Jiang Fei said . “Don’t you know that?”

Arran shook his head . “But where is that?” Turning slightly red, he added, “I know it’s to the west, of course — but how far is it?”

The truth was that he knew little of the Empire’s geography . Growing up in Riverbend, all he had known was the region around it, which was mostly filled with woods and hills and farmlands, with some small villages scattered in between .

Traveling merchants had told stories of cities further out, like Fulai City, but even those places had been far from any borders the Empire had .

Traveling with Master Zhao had not given him any great insights, either . They had avoided most cities and towns, and all Arran had learned about the Empire was that it was frustratingly large — far larger than he had ever imagined .

“You don’t know where the border is?” Jiang Fei looked more puzzled than anything, as if Arran had just told her he had never drunk water before in his life .

“I grew up in a small town,” Arran said with a shrug .

Somewhat to his surprise, Jiang Fei did not mock him . Instead, she abruptly stopped walking, sat down, then produced a large scroll .

As she unrolled the scroll, Arran could see that it was a map .

“Sit down and come have a look,” she said . “This is a map of the Empire . Have you ever seen one?”

Arran shook his head as he sat down next to her . He had seen maps of the regions around Riverbend and Fulai City, but he had never seen a map of the entire Empire .

“Where is Riverbend?” he asked .

“I’m not sure,” she answered . “I’ve never heard of it, and the map only shows major cities . “

“What about Fulai City?” If Riverbend wasn’t on the map, Arran thought, surely Fulai City would be .

“I’ve heard of it, although it’s still too small to be on the map . But it should be about…” Her finger hovered above the map for a moment, then touched a spot about halfway between the center of the map and the eastern border . “Here . “

“And where are we now?” Arran asked, trying to figure out the path he had traveled with Master Zhao .

Jiang Fei found their current location in an instant, pointing toward a spot southwest of the map’s central region, just north of some triangles that Arran took to be mountains .

“This is where we are now,” she said .

Arran’s eyes went wide with surprise as he saw that in the months he had spent traveling with Master Zhao, they had only covered less than a third of the way to the western border .

“Just how long will it take us to reach the Shadowflame Society?” As he asked the question, he realized the answer would be an unwelcome one .

“It should take us about a year,” she said . “Assuming we don’t meet any major delays along the way . “

“A year?!” Arran was astonished . It was even worse than he had expected .

“The Empire is large,” Jiang Fei said in a calm voice . “And travel takes time . “

“So we’re stuck with each other for the next year?” Arran regretted the words as soon as he spoke them .

Jiang Fei scowled . “It’s not like I’m happy to be here with you,” she said with a huff .

“I’m sorry,” Arran said . “I didn’t mean it like that . It’s just… I hadn’t expected we’d have to travel so far . I thought we’d reach the Shadowflame Society in a few months, at most . “

“I’m not happy about it either,” she replied with a sigh .

“Then why did you join me?” Arran asked . “You could have left when Master Fireheart did . “

“Master Fireheart gave me a promise,” she said .

“What was it?” Arran asked, wondering what Master Zhao could possibly have promised that would convince her to not only join the Shadowflame Society, but spend a year’s travel to get there .

“That’s my business . ” The look on Jiang Fei’s face told Arran that the conversation was over .

They set off again not long after .

Jiang Fei was mostly quiet as they walked, and Arran silently cursed himself for what he said . If he was going to spend the next year traveling with her, the last thing he wanted to do was offend her right at the start .

On the way, they occasionally encountered other travelers, mostly merchants and local farmers . Arran was puzzled at the strange looks the others on the road gave them . At first, he thought it was because he looked like an Easterner, with the blond hair that was rare in this part of the Empire .

When he finally figured out the real reason, he had to bite down a curse .

Immediately, he examined the contents of the void bag, only to be disappointed at the clothes Master Zhao had packed — there was a great variety of robes, ranging from fine to very fine, but little else .

“Are there any towns or cities nearby?” he asked Jiang Fei .

“There’s a town less than a week’s travel from here,” she answered . “It isn’t much, though, just a few thousand people . Why?”

“We’ll need to go there,” Arran said . “And quickly . “

“Why?” Jiang Fei asked . “We have enough supplies to last for months, and the town is out of the way — it’ll cost us several days, at the least . “

“Have you noticed the looks we’ve been getting?” Arran asked .

Jiang Fei gave him a nonplussed look . “What?”

“We’re both in robes,” Arran said . “Dressed like a pair of scholars, or nobles . When we were with Master Fireheart, people would have thought he was a traveling scholar with some apprentices in tow . But now…”

“You think nobles would be dressed like… this?” Jiang Fei asked, but her expression turned thoughtful . “You think we’ll draw the Academy’s attention?”

“The Academy?” Arran shook his head . “It’s bandits we need to worry about . Dressed like this, we’ll look like a pair of easy targets, ripe for the picking . “

“Why would we worry about bandits? If we meet any, we can just…” She stopped speaking as understanding set in .

“That’s right,” Arran said with a nod . “Without magic, we’re all but defenseless . “

“But we have swords,” Jiang Fei said, still not convinced . “Even if we are attacked, can’t we defend ourselves from a few bandits?”

Arran shook his head . “If they’re smart, they’ll just put a few arrows in us, then take our belongings from our corpses . And even if they aren’t… if there are more than a few, we’ll be in trouble . “

Jiang Fei paled a little at those words, but she still hesitated before speaking . “We can make it in three days if we hurry,” she finally said .

Arran nodded . “We’ll do that, then . “

When they continued, their pace was a little faster than before, and traces of unease could be seen on their faces .