By the time I was logged into Road to Purgatory again, the mundian night had passed and the others had already broken camp and returned to the road. A quick check from inside my Hallow made it obvious that they had pushed themselves hard. While Sigmir looked relatively well, likely thanks to her high endurance and vitality, the others all showed signs of exhaustion. Given that I had a reasonable grasp on the physical specs of Adra and Rai, even Olivia to a lesser degree, I was a little shocked at their fatigued state.

“Good Morning.” Lenore greeted me, becoming aware that my consciousness had returned.

“Good Morning, I hope there weren’t any problems here?” I returned the greeting, receiving a condensed stream of memories in reply. Instead of trying to formulate an answer, Lenore opted for the most expedient option, sharing a highly condensed version of her memories. The sharing effectively made it as if I had been present the whole time, noticing what Lenore had noticed, remembering what she had subconsciously deemed worthy to be remembered.

Not that there was a lot, mostly memories of sitting on Sigmir’s shoulder or flying overhead, watching the others speedily move through the forest, until they reached the ancient road where they started to speed up, not quite running but definitely a speed that was only possible thanks to their system-strengthened bodies. There was even a soft glimmer around Olivia, hinting at some sort of divine assistance, allowing her to perform at the same level as the others. They had continued on, until the last rays of the sun had almost vanished, before making a cold camp, resting for the bare minimum time and returning to the road, as soon as the first rays started to creep over the horizon.

Just from the distance travelled I could see that they had taken my warning seriously, making me quite pleased. It would certainly help to sell the idea that there had been something we had luckily managed to avoid, allowing us to return to a normal pace in a day or two.

For a moment, I considered showing myself but decided against it. Staying in my Hallow had a couple major advantages, primarily that it allowed me to ruminate magic without having to pay attention to my surroundings. Falling over your feet because you weren’t paying attention was rather embarrassing after all. Not that such a thing had ever happened to me.

The next couple of hours passed peacefully, as I was trying to form the Ice-Runes and the connecting patterns I had learned from the dwarves and later improved upon myself into a smoother picture, allowing Astral Power to flow through an inscribed spell smoother. If I wanted to recreate the staff we had broken the day before, I either needed to improve the Astral Power Flow or I needed to use a stronger material, which would require me to figure out the processes around Eternal Ice. The best case, obviously, would be to do both, giving me a staff that might allow me to use it as a focus even while in our Avatar-State. Not that I truly knew if that would even work, the staff had been a tool to allow Lenore and me to combine our powers into a combined spell, something the Avatar-state already did, at least that was my perception.

Finally, the others slowed, asking Lenore to look for a place to camp. Taking flight, the two of us looked around, trying to find a nice spot for a break. The airborne perspective was quite useful, allowing us to find a good area within half an hour, close enough to the road that it wasn’t too much of a detour but far enough away to give us some privacy. Even from above, we hadn’t been able to spot any signs of civilization, other than the ancient road, making us quite confident that we could relax.

Feeling a little impish, I asked Lenore to land near the spot we had decided on, before pushing out of my Hallow, gently landing on the ground.

“I’ll prepare some lunch, why don’t you get the others?” I asked, a grin on my face.

Lenore was quite amused at the idea, taking off after to get the others. Closing my eyes to consider for a moment, I decided that some light stew should be quite manageable and would provide just the right visual for the others. While part of me wanted to set up one of my Ice-Cottages, doing so would simply take far too long, even if it would have been hilarious. The earlier grin still on my face, I set out to get things done.

The others needed about twenty minutes to reach the place Lenore and I had chosen, my connection to Lenore allowing me to witness their approach. Both Adra and Rai easily detected the cooking fire I had set up, making them wary and cautious. On the other hand, Sigmir had undoubtedly noticed the fire as well but she also had our connection, allowing her to perceive my position and general state of mind.

What she didn’t get was an idea of my costume, as I had dug deep into my magic-bag, taking out the simple peasant clothes my Avatar had worn when first appearing in Mundus, giving me a far different appearance, at least at first glance. Sure, my face and hair were dead give-aways, but the costume was good enough to cause Adra to freeze for a moment, staring at me in disbelief.

“Why, good afternoon. You look like you’ve been running quite hard.” I greeted them, carefully trying to emulate the ‘kindly Grandmother’-appearance the Grandmother had used when meeting us. While I lacked her gravitas, it must have been good enough, causing Sigmir to giggle softly, her eyes flickering between me and our companions.

“Get comfortable, everyone, I’ve made some lunch.” I added into the silence.

Once the original surprise wore off, the others plopped down, leaning against trees or sitting on a nearby rock. While I could see their desire to question me, their exhaustion and hunger won out.

But after they had sated their immediate need, the question I had anticipated resurfaced, namely what had happened.

“Adra, do you remember the centaurs and wolves that we have come into conflict with, again and again?” I asked, answering their questions with a question on my own, singling out Adra as an individual.

“Of course.” she nodded, a frown on her face, not understanding why I was asking.

“Lenore and I noticed something, a problem that would have caused us massive problems if left alone.” I continued my explanation, carefully staying clear of any outright lies, instead doing my best to misdirect them using true but unrelated facts. It was similar to what I had tried on the Road to Purgatory-Forum, only using a different set of facts.

“We turned back, to buy you some time to make your get-away, while I relied on Lenore’s wings to make my own escape. But as you saw yesterday, the magic we used was quite large in scale.” I finished my explanation, causing Adra to slowly nod. Olivia, on the other hand, latched onto the original question about the centaurs and their wolves, just as I had hoped. While we had shared some details about our previous travels, the details had remained vague. Now, with her asking about it, I told her about the centaurs and their push into northern Aretia and their apparent alliance with the black wolves.

The tales about our previous clashes served as a distraction, turning the attention away from the previous topic and onto the unrelated one, allowing me to continue talking for a while, until they decided that they had rested enough and could continue back onto the road.

Before we left, while I was dealing with the dishes, Adra covertely pulled me aside.

“Now, why don’t you tell me what really happened?” she asked, speaking quietly so that only I could hear her.

“What do you mean?” I raised an eyebrow, trying to keep a straight face.

“When you headed off, Sigmir was calm. If you had headed towards some sort of fight, especially a serious one, she wouldn’t have kept as calm as she had. No way, not possible.” she explained, before continuing.

“Additionally, after you returned, while we knew you were resting in your Hallow, she was a little anxious, keeping a close eye on Lenore. That makes no sense and don’t think that I didn’t notice that you never actually explained what happened? We only felt that massive Ice-Spell, what was that about anyway, and assumed from there on out.” she finished, leaving me no real way to wiggle my way out, unless I wanted to lie to her. Which I did not. Not to Adra, anyway.

“Did you check your quest? The one to hunt down bandits?” I asked, drawing a grumble from Adra, who likely thought I was trying to do the same thing I had done earlier.

“No. Back to what I asked.” she prodded, a frown on her face.

“It is related to the question. The bandits we killed, they were adventurers. I saw the Guild-Cards in their bags. I don’t know if we simply mistook their approach for an ambush, if they thought we were bandits or if there was something else going on, but at the end of the day, we killed those guys.” I explained, causing her frown to deepen a little further.

“Without witnesses, there wouldn’t be a problem, but I don’t know Olivia well enough to be confident in her keeping things quiet. Which is why I decided to orchestrate a bit of misdirection. Lenore and I got rid of their packs, simply dropping them in the woods, and wasted a massive amount of Astral Power as distraction, trying to convince you that there really was something.” I finished, getting an acknowledging nod.

“Huh, I didn’t expect that. But good to know, we’ll talk some more later.” she muttered, turning back to the others, so that we could continue our “flight”.