We stood before the vast gates of the Blacksand Citadel in the pre-dawn light provided by the rapidly dimming desert. The frigid wind gusted about us as I was once more glad that I had bought some warmer clothes.

To my left stood Darina, who seemed immune to the cold; it was one more thing I found annoying about her. The apprentice was pointedly ignoring me, her gaze locked on her own master, who stood a little way away speaking with Walker and Raaf.

Reff stood to my right – along with his sister. It seemed she had finally convinced her oldest brother to let her accompany us, though given the initial resistance, I could only imagine it was through persistence rather than any logical reasoning. Riffa looked smug, and I caught Reff rolling his eyes at her every time she reminded him that she was coming with us. Which was a lot.

Aella had already come to wish me good luck – in her own way. I did not think she had slept yet, if her breath and wobbling gait were any clue, but she seemed quite genuine, around the insults at least. She had made me promise to keep practicing, but not to actually use the chain in any real fights until we met again so she could judge my progress. I did not blame her for that, it was a complex weapon to use and I could see myself getting in trouble, at least with my current skills.

I straightened as I saw Walker and the other turn in our direction, and I watched as the three Apexes approached. They all moved with an easy grace and confidence that I hoped to one day emulate.

Raaf was the first to speak, his voice like the grinding of stone on stone.

“With everlasting thanks, Hunter you have assisted in saving my people from a grave illness. I am glad that my brother found you, and you will always be welcome within the Citadel. But now you – all,” With this, Raaf glanced at Riffa and grimaced slightly, “have another task. An Elder phoenix would cause much harm before they could be curtailed – the egg you carry must be delivered safely to its parent.”

His garnet-on-black eyes swept across us all before finally locking on Reff.

“With grim authority, you will bring your sister home safely. The Sha Forest can be a dangerous place.”

“With absolute assurance, it will be so, brother.”

My friend’s voice was serious as he met his brother’s eyes, and I felt very sorry for whatever tried to hurt Riffa.

“In exasperation, I am not a child! I can, and have looked after myself. When I return I will be stronger than Reff and I will show you who needs looking after.”

Riffa’s voice rose to be as loud as I had ever heard it, and certainly as close to shouting as I had heard a risi come. Raaf opened his mouth to reply, but hesitated at his little sister’s glare, before holding up his hands in surrender.

The next to speak was Sonja, her bright moon-like eyes flicking between us, only resting for slightly longer on her apprentice.

“Careful you should be. More than a single Elder, the Sha is home to.”

“We will be careful, Master. I am used to the propriety of the Sha Forest and will be taking charge of the expedition, in order to ensure its success.”

Darina bowed low at the waist and I found myself shaking my head. She was right – she was there as our guide and we should be following her example on our arrival, but did she have to phrase it like she was in charge?

“Good for you, I believe this trip will be, Apprentice. Too long secluded were we, perhaps.”

Sonja’s voice was a little sad at the last, and I wondered how long she had been training Darina. Riffa had said it was recent, but what was recent when a person could live for thousands of years?

Last up was my dark mentor, his blindfolded gaze tilted to the side in our general direction.

“I will wish you all good luck – this is an opportunity for you all to grow stronger, though it is especially so for you, Hunter. Practice, progress and remember that to wield the blade is to seek perfection. I will expect you to be closer to that goal, upon your return. You have come a long way in a short time, but the world is wide and time is deep – there is a long road ahead of you.”

Walker’s words were solemn and I redoubled my determination that I would be at the Path stage when I returned.

“I’ll do my best, Walker. Good luck with the whole, gathering of the Apexes thing.” I grinned up at him and he gave me a wry smile in return, before giving me a bow of his head, which was quickly followed by the other two. The four of us bowed back, and as I came out of it, I frowned slightly to see both Walker and Sonja turn in opposite directions, both pointed away from the Citadel.

There were two deep booms and an explosion of sand; covering my eyes to protect them from the cold grit I waited for it to settle before looking up to see them gone, with no visible trace anywhere. A glance at my companions told me they were not surprised, and Raaf even looked a little bored before he turned his back to us and casually walked back into the colossal edifice that was the Blacksand Citadel.

I had seen Walker do something similar before, when Aella had been poisoned, but it was still a shock. I considered how fast a person would need to be to search the world in a handful of weeks and something he had said the night before came back to me – a Peak Pinnacle stage cultivator was five-thousand times faster than a normal person. I stood staring at the spot Walker had departed from as I tried to comprehend exactly how fast that would be; numbers began to spiral through my head as I tried to work out drag, friction and a dozen other factors, but I failed to come up with an accurate speed, settling instead on, ‘Really Damn Fast’ as an answer.

Turning back to my companions, I grinned, eager to depart despite Darina’s sour presence.

“So, shall we start walking? You said weeks, right, Riffa?”

Despite my question being directed at Riffa, it was of course the apprentice that answered me, her red-jade gaze mocking.

“Walk? It will take far longer than that if we walk. We will be running. I do hope you can keep up.”

*

***

*

They were all faster than me. That fact was not a surprise, of course; they were each a stage ahead of me, so they had all completed their Cores meaning they were all about fifty times faster than a normal human, and while I was certainly faster than I should have been, it was difficult to determine exactly how fast I was, due to the marked lack of normal people in the group.

When we had set out, Darina had insisted on everyone going all out so that we could get baseline for how much slower they would all have to travel, due to me being present. What this meant in practice was that the three of them left me behind very quickly.

I had been running on my own for about an hour when I saw them come into sight in the distance. I was glad that I had managed to maintain the correct direction with only the Citadel behind me as any kind of guide in the dark desert. I began to bleed speed and slow as I approached them, but a warning from Instinctive Precognition warned me that I was moving faster than I thought I was and I ended up overshooting them before I managed to slow down sufficiently to engage.

I was not particularly mad at being left behind – even if I thought it had mostly been done as put-down, it was still a good idea. We would need to move as quickly as possible, and I knew that even at my best I would be slowing down travel compared to Riffa’s initial journey. And honestly? I felt great. I had never been a particularly physical person in my last life, and towards the end I could only just about walk, let alone run for hours on end.

I walked up to the three with a grin on my face, and I could see a touch of disappointment on Darina’s face, which only made my smile wider.

“Wow, that’s was pretty great! I’ve never run for so long before!” My voice was excited, even in my own ears and I saw Reff smiling along with me – he knew my situation, and that this really was my first time.

“So, you can run slightly faster than a child? Congratulations. We should go, we’ll be held back enough by you that we need to make use of as much of the day as we can.”

Darina’s words were mocking, but even her attitude could not spoil the high I was feeling. Cultivation always felt good, but there was just something about just running that spoke to something deep inside me. If Darina wanted to run, I would run, and I cultivate the entire way so that I could run faster.

“With doubt, Hunter runs significantly faster than a child, Darina. Perhaps you know a number of speed Focused children?” Reff’s voice was genuinely curious, and I saw the apprentice's face shift in consternation at the fact that her mocking had flown over my friend’s head.

“No, I don’t know any speed Focused children, Reff. I was – never mind. Can we go?” Without waiting for a response, Darina took off, this time at a more sedate pace and I laughed as we took off after her, simply enjoying the rush of the wind in my hair and across my skin.

*

***

*

The sun had set by the time we stopped again; I was expecting to be exhausted, but I had once again underestimated either my new body or the benefits provided by cultivation. I was definitely a little tired, but I thought I could probably continue on through the night. When I mentioned this to Reff, I was told it was too dangerous to run at speed in the dark, due to potential holes and irregularities in the ground. Considering it, I had to accept the wisdom of it. Getting a foot stuck in a hole running as fast as we had been would probably break a leg quite badly, and not everyone healed as fast as I – or Darina – did. I had never really occurred to me that we could run through the Everwood when we had been on our way to the Citadel, but looking back I could see similar issues with running through a dense forest.

The last time I had spent the night out in the desert, I had been shielded from a lot of the wind and cold by the massive bulk of the Plainsrunner. Knowing that this time around I would not have the benefit of a huge living radiator, I had purchased a number of alchemical flasks that I had been told would produce heat when combined with the accompanying liquid. It was supposed to last for hours, though I had been told it varied a little per bottle; I hoped it would last through the night though, as I was not keen on dying from hypothermia.

As it turned out, I was not the only person to have taken precautions – both Reff and Riffa pulled out flasks of their own when I did, though Darina turned her nose up at them with a sniff.

“How about we use mine tonight, and we can trade off?”

My friend agreed and I pulled the cork from the top of the flask and poured in the small vial of blue liquid into the clear liquid in the flask before replacing it and shaking gently. The blue disappeared quickly and the whole thing began to glow a soft white. I could feel a rapidly growing heat coming from the glass and I quickly placed it down on the dark sand

“Reff, Riffa, would you spar with me? I need to stay sharp.” The apprentice spoke up as I placed the flask, her voice polite. I glanced up to find her ignoring me, but I was not particularly surprised to be left out. Reff glanced at me to make sure I was fine being left out and I gave him a nod; there would be plenty of time to practice on our way, and I needed to put in some more time with the sword anyway, if I was ever going to actually use it in combat.

The three moved off, and even from where I stood, I could feel the heat as my large friend donned his molten armour. I watched for a few minutes as the three fought back and forth; Reff seemed to be dominating the fight, which was not surprising given that he seemed to have almost completely integrated his Exemplar. I grinned as Darina was sent skipping into the desert by a sharp blow from Reff, but she shot back into the fray a few moments later, seemingly none the worse for wear.

Shrugging, I pulled my sword free and stepped a couple of feet from the flask to give me space and began to practice. My body was getting more used to positions and stances that were a part of the sword form, and while at first it had been a bit of a strain grinding through the motions meant to be done at speed, it was much easier now.

I spent several hours carefully going through the motions as my friends fought in different configurations; I did my best to ignore them, concentrating instead on the sword and my own body, but it was tough, as I kept catching glimpses of Darina being flung out into the desert.

“Thank you for the practice.”

I heard a stiff voice growl out and my practice came to an end when the aggravating apprentice stomped back over to the flask and sat down, arms and legs crossed and a look of vast irritation decorating her face as she stared off into the rippling light around us. I looked over at Reff and Riffa who were stood where they had been fighting, glancing back over at us.

Putting my sword away, I wondered over to them and spoke under my breath.

“Is everything ok, what happened?”

“With subdued caution, I do not think Darina likes to lose.”

Reff’s voice was not quite a whisper, but given how deep his voice was, I did not think it would carry, though I would not be super-put-out if it did.

“Yeah, she doesn’t seem to be the type to take defeat well. I’m surprised she tried to fight you both.”

“With quiet agreement, Darina is quite aggressive; on our way to the Citadel, she challenged me many times, and was always most annoying if I won. I think she wishes to live up to her master.”

Riffa’s words struck me, and I thought I understood her a little better. I did not know a lot about her life, but she did seem to place a great deal of importance in her relationship with her master. Despite how irritating I found her bratty attitude, I would try to see past it and hopefully get to know her a little better. Judging her based on what I knew, while fun, was what she was doing to me, and I wanted to be better than that.