When we stepped out of the chest, I saw that it was set at the side of the road, behind a familiar series of trees. It was the place we had hidden before when we were planning to rest for the night.

“Another day,” I remarked. “Did you make a lot of progress?”

“We managed to clear two more intersections,” Adel said as he looked up at me from where he was sitting, his back against one of the trees. “Kai was very lucky in his picks though.”

“You should let me do more of the choosing from now on,” he said.

“Feel free to!” I said and took my place opposite Adel. “If you continue being lucky, maybe we can reach the end of the forest by the end of this century.”

“Oh, I hope it doesn’t take that long,” Adel protested. “I’ve got places to be.”

“I’m sure you do!” Kai joked.

“In all seriousness though,” Adel said, and revealed a basket containing our dinner, “it may very well be that we are just at the beginning of the forest.”

“Whatever it takes,” I said, and took a bite of a magically fresh loaf of bread.

“Whatever it takes,” Kai agreed.

We talked our way through our first dinner, since none of us felt comfortable with the absolute silence of the forest. I wouldn’t have said that the conversation was relaxed or flowed naturally, but we were getting there.

We spent some time trying to remember the steps of our old dances, the jabs and jokes we had with each other when we were living in Nara. Every now and then, we missed a step since Adel had abandoned the hope of receiving mana, while I was already excelling at spellcasting, and Kai was what he was now. But we were trying.

“I’m going to rest now,” Kai said and stood up once dinner was finished.

“Good night,” Adel said.

“I’ll be right back,” I told Adel as I followed Kai down the stairs of the chest. “I’ll keep you company since I slept enough for now.”

Kai bade me goodnight while I retrieved the shield from where it rested. I took a last look at him, safe in his bed, and ascended the stairs, the shield strapped on my arm.

“Are you going to battle me?” Adel joked, as I exited the chest and shut it behind me.

“I wouldn’t need a shield,” I said, as I sat in front of him.

“You should know I have trained specifically in fighting spellca—”, he started saying.

“But you do,” I interrupted him, and saw his face immediately become serious.

“These blades have served me well,” he said, touching the pommels of his dual swords resting on his belt. “I’ve trained countless hours with them and I trust them.”

“I am not saying you should stop carrying them,” I continued, as I held it out to him. “But two swords are used by avengers. A sword and a shield are used by protectors. You have to think about which one you are right now.”

He didn’t reply immediately and stopped to consider it for a moment.

“Don’t let fury devour you,” I continued. “I’m giving you this as a reminder.”

“Of what?” he asked, his eyes locked on mine.

“Of the fact that you have a purpose,” I replied. “A place to return to, a place to protect. People who are waiting for you, people who need your protection.”

Again, he didn’t say anything. However, this time he took the shield with his left hand and brought it onto his lap.

“Did you make this yourself?” he asked.

“I didn’t craft the shield,” I answered, “but I did put on all the enchantments on the gems and stones, and bound them onto it.”

“It’s beautiful,” he said, and I continued before he had the chance to say anything more.

“It will protect you from heat and cold, it will deflect spells, it will store spells, it’s immune to—”

“Thank you, Myriam,” he said, and put the shield down at his side.

“You’re welcome,” I replied hastily and continued. “It will also protect you—”

“Myriam, I can read all those things in it’s description,” he interrupted, and took my hands in his. “I needed this. I really did. Thank you.”

“I, uh… You’re welcome,” I managed.

“What does the big gem in the middle do though?” he asked, not letting go of my hands. “Its description is still not giving me any information.”

“Nothing yet,” I replied. “It needs time and food for the spell to manifest.”

“Food?” he asked.

“It needs stories,” I answered. “Experiences. It will feed on our bond.”

“I’ve never heard of a spell like that,” he said.

“That’s because it’s not written anywhere,” I said, proud of my accomplishment.

“Myriam, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a person creating their own spell so young,” he said and let go of my hands to pick up the shield again. “Not even my brother.”

“I’m not sure if it will work,” I told him.

“Well then, let’s feed it,” he said, and he set the shield front-side-up on the ground between us.

***

We spent the next couple of hours exchanging stories about all the places we had seen before reaching the monastery. Adel told me of the tower they found and how they traveled all the way to the south coast of Elysia and across the Endless Sea, while I told him the reason why I’d stopped trusting people once we were captured.

He told me how strong and supportive Kard and Krysha had been and how the people of the tower became his new family. And I told him how we’d managed to reach Leka An and settled on the outskirts of the jungle city of Yubna.

He told me of Manal Im, his father the king, and how he fell in love and was going to have a baby with Seika. I, in turn, had only boring theories on spells and the origins of The Divine to tell him, though he seemed really interested in hearing them.

Next, he told me of his trip through the southern continent in search of me and Kai while I recounted our own journey to the monastery and how we’d tried to get access to the book we were after.

“I’m very happy to hear you have so many good friends,” I said, and I saw the blue topaz orb shine as it had its daily fill.

“I do,” he replied, and took my hands in his again. “And you are one of them. You always have been, Myriam. I missed you. Once all of this is over, I want you to come to the tower with me. I want you to meet my friends and I want them to meet you.”

“I would love to,” I said, and smiled at him. “Kai as well?”

He didn’t reply immediately, but pulled his hands back into his own lap. I could see he regretted his reaction but there was no point in hiding it now.

“One step at a time,” he said, as he lowered his eyes to the ground.

We remained silent for a few moments until I decided it was time for both of us to get some rest. I did not bring the shield back down into the chest with me, but told him we should continue doing this for some days, so that the spell could manifest. He was happy to do that and so was I. Things would never be the same, but we were making an effort to get to know each other again.

***

Over the next twelve days, we made our way through the magical forest, selecting our paths and walking for hours on end while also spending at least a couple of hours talking about our past experiences and dreams of the future.

During this time, I made two observations. Kai didn’t care much about me spending time with Adel while he was sleeping downstairs, whereas in Nara he would have become very antagonistic toward him. He really had grown a lot.

I also noticed that Adel got used to Kai’s golden skin at some point and we didn’t try to fix his skin color every time we took a wrong turn. Taking the wrong path now happened much less often since we’d made great progress in the forest, but every mistake meant we would have to walk through scores of intersections over the span of more than four hours at a time.

And just like that, minutes before we were about to give in and have our lunch break, we took one final path in the latest split we were trying to solve and were met with the end of the forest. The path opened as if it was a river reaching the sea at last, while the trees stopped as abruptly as cliffs by the shore.

The floating lights swirled around, more lively than ever, stopping at what looked like a wall in front of us and floating upward. The wall seemed like it continued infinitely up into the void, with no sign of a way to climb it.

“Isn’t this a let-down?” Adel said, as he realized we had reached a dead-end.

“Mana is still flowing,” I said, as I moved closer to the wall in front of us. “That should mean we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be.”

“This wall is very long,” Kai said, as he tried to reach the edges of the dead-end before us, “and there’s no end I can see. At least not without getting lost in the pathless part of the forest.”

“Kai, stay where you are please,” I said, and walked along the wall in the opposite direction.

“What are you trying to do?” Adel asked, puzzled, as he started knocking on the wall.

I tried to confirm my theory. I pressed my face on the cold but soft surface and looked toward Kai. We were quite a distance away from each other, yet the purple orbs provided ample lighting for me to see him.

Looking from this angle, however, I could not see all of him. Half of his body was concealed by the giant wall. The wall had a slight curvature, which could only mean one thing.

“I don’t think this is stone,” Adel said, as he pointedly knocked on the wall, further confirming my thoughts.

“No, it’s not,” I agreed with a smile. “It’s wood.”

“You mean—” Kai muttered.

“This is the Mana Tree,” I announced and looked upward. “We made it.”

The realization of the Tree’s enormity left us speechless for a good few minutes. We were trying to fathom how tall a tree could be if it had a trunk as colossal as this.

Looking at the flow of the purple orbs going upward, I could sometimes make out some of the Mana Tree’s lowest branches which themselves looked bigger than any tree I had ever seen. I would have loved to marvel at the Tree’s beauty and size in daylight but this was not the reason we came here.

“Let’s start then, Myr—” was all Kai managed to say before a number of yellow orbs carrying a golden net flew directly over him.

The net pinned Kai to the ground and small bursts of thunder shocked him with every movement of his body. Before I knew it, Adel was standing in front of me, holding his archangel longsword in his right hand and the shield I’d gifted him on his left.

I focused my eyes on the two figures emerging from the forest and started casting a barrage of tactical battle spells.