-Blaire

She had remained tense throughout the whole evening, seated with her back against the far corner, holding the spear, and watching as the both of them were gathering various objects and items on the large wooden table.

Arwen’s silence was understandable considering his inability to understand anything but some very few words, but the red-headed half-elf eyed her every time he came to drop something. It unnerved her, she was used to being looked at in various ways, but while Arwen’s gaze would merely acknowledge her presence, Uryuc’s was one filled with suspicion.

And yet, it was the human who made her more nervous.

It was dusk when Arwen called for Uryuc and they gathered around the table. The human stood on one side looking at the pile of stuff they’d gathered and gestured Blaire to come closer.

She did, as had the half-elf, the both of them looked at Arwen, he shifted his focus to the pile of coins the both of them had found throughout the house. It was only a gold royals, handful of silver, and several copper.

Arwen took out a piece of parchment and drew two short parallel lines. Then, setting the parchment on the table, he placed five copper coins on one end of the two parallel lines, and then another five on the other side. Afterwards, he removed the coppers and placed two silver on one side and another on the other. Then he did the same with a single gold royal. The humans eyes were fixed on both Blaire and Uryuc as he then placed a single silver coin on one end of the parallel lines, and then bunched up the copper coins near the other edge of the paper, but not quite in front of the lines.

“Oh.” Uryuc chuckled, stepping forward and placing fifteen copper coins. “Fifteen copper to one silver.” He spoke, then he removed the silver, placed a single gold coin, and on the other side he placed eight silver coins. “Eight silver for one gold royal.”

“Fifteen. One. Eight.” Arwen repeated the numbers and then grimaced, not appearing very pleased about something.

Taking the parchment, he drew some odd looking glyphs. The first was an elongated circle, the second one a short line… and from there he drew a total of ten glyphs. Then, on the eleventh, he drew the second glyph followed by the first, then the second glyph repeated two times… and continued all the way until it was the third glyph followed by the first.

“Uon.” He pointed at the second glyph, moving a single copper coin underneath. “Too.” Two coins. “Thri.” Three coins.

Blaire nodded, he was trying to learn numbers. She felt like slapping her own forehead at not having realized it sooner. A slight tension on her shoulders left her, she stepped forward and pointed at the “Uon” glyph. “One.” Then at the next one. “Two.” And from there she continued counting until twenty. But stopped, coming back to the first glyph. “This one?”

“Ziru.” He said. He took three coins on his hand. “Three.” He removed one. “Two.” Then another. “One.” And then the last one, leaving his hand empty. “Ziru.”

“Zero.” Uryuc nodded.

“Zero.” Arwen repeated with a slight smile. Then turned to the pile of coins, took the piece of charcoal, and began scribbling his strange glyphs on it in a very odd order, with new ones appearing in the mix. Then he stopped, and paid close attention to the glyphs he’d written to divide the coins into three piles.

A quick mental calculation told Blaire they were of as close a value as one could make them to be considering there was no spare change to be handled. An approximation of twelve silver coins per pile. Arwen pushed one pile towards Uryuc, and the other towards Blaire. The third pile he took and emptied into the strapped pack he was carrying.

The half-elf glared at the pile that had been pushed towards Blaire, reaching out to her pile of coins. “She wasn’t a slave, she doesn’t deserve anything.” Blaire deflated slightly at that, clutching the spear.

“Uryuc.” Arwen levelled his gaze at the half-elf. “No.”

He did not pull out his dagger nor did he make any movements, the human merely looked at Uryuc firmly, remaining perfectly still and holding the half-elf’s gaze. Until the later looked away and pulled his hand away from Blaire’s pile of coins. It was only then that the tension diffused and Arwen smiled again, nodding firmly. He paused, then reached into his pack and pulling a silver coin out, tossing it at the half-elf.

Uryuc caught the coin and looked at the human with confusion, was this meant as a reward of some sort? But his silent question was ignored, Arwen had taken the parchment once more and begun to draw. Blaire stepped closer to see him drawing a single long line, followed by a tree at one edge and the sun above. “Daee.” He spoke, then he covered the drawn sun with his finger and drew it again but beneath the line where the tree stood. “Nit.”

“Day and night.” Uryuc nodded, wondering what would be the purpose of these new words he wanted to learn.

Arwen nodded, then made a circular gesture with his hands, pointing at himself, then Blaire, then Uryuc, and then at the ground. “One night.” He said, and then pointed at the door. Afterwards, he returned to the parchment, drawing the sun just above the line of the horizon. “One night, no one day. One night.” And then the door again.

He returned to the parchment, drawing a horse… well, a very badly made horse, but it didn’t seem it could mean anything else. “One night, no one day.” The human placed both hands besides his head, closing his eyes, then made an exaggerated yawn, then marched on the spot, and then closed both hands into fists, placing them besides one another and bobbing them up and down as he made a whinny sound distantly similar to a horse’s.

The absurdity of it all couldn’t prevent Uryuc from breaking a slight smile on his lips, and even Blaire had to admit she found it hard not to grin.

“We leave tomorrow morning.” The half-elf nodded.

Arwen nodded vigorously. “We leave tomorrow morning.” He repeated the words, mouthing each part silently, taking a minute or two to do mimicry of the meaning of each word and getting some corrections from the other two along the way.

A strange air was settling around the three, it was hard to describe it, but the struggles the human was having with learning Common was helping in reducing the tension.

Then he returned to the paper, drew a line, the tree, and the sun right above the line. “Morning.” He said, getting a confirmation from the other two. Then he drew a square with a triangle on top, and once he added the two windows and door it became clear it was a house. Arwen pointed at the drawn house with one hand and then made a circular gesture to the kitchen around them. “Manur.”

They nodded, teaching him the word. Then, he drew an odd line that began at the floor next to he house, rose high, then made a zig-zag while traversing above the house, and then descended back to the floor. Arwen pointed at the chimney and spoke three words that made Blaire feel a chill.

“Morning, house, firaga.”

What followed was an immediate argument between the three. The human was going to burn the house to the ground.

Uryuc had been reluctant of leaving and had instead tried to argue to stay and turn the place into their stronghold. Blaire was quite happy about the idea of leaving, but she couldn’t bear the thought of the stables being reduced to ashes.

But neither of their arguments deterred Arwen. All he needed to do was pull them towards the Master’s office and point at the smouldering city. Hew drew a badly proportioned dragon, and then drew a second one, and then he pointed at the ground.

Neither understood what he meant, but at the same time they noticed the tension on the human’s face as he kept pointing at the dragons and then at the floor.

The message seemed clear enough: this place would be ruined. Either desperate vandals from the city, or Cu himself coming back, staying here would be a calamity for them. And under the circumstances that the place would undoubtedly be reused by others, burning it down would ensure that at the very least it would not serve to allow more slaves to come through.

Or at least that was Uryuc’s interpretation after a good half hour of looking at the two drawn dragons.

Blaire had to agree with the idea at least, even if reluctantly.

The house would be burned come morning, the thought left her restless.

In the darkness of night, she found herself unable to sleep. She rose from her bed and looked at it through the dim moonlight that slipped from the window. This would be the last time she would see this place… it would be the last time anyone would sleep on that bed.

Bitter memories surged from these thoughts, and quite suddenly she couldn’t stand being in there any longer. She put her shoes on and left, traversing the manor and heading outside, but before she opened the door, she spotted Arwen through the window.

The human was standing in the middle of the yard, his head was tilted backwards and he was looking up into the night sky.

She couldn’t help herself from wondering what he was doing.

Blaire didn’t want to draw his attention, so she decided to just stay still and wait, carefully observing Arwen as he remained looking upwards. The human had an awed expression in his face, as if it was the first time he had seen the stars and moon.

Not for the first time, she wondered just what kind of person this human was.

-Arwen

Turns out that waking up early was not a simple task; specially when you’ve spent a whole lot of hours stargazing while also recovering from multiple beatings. I mean, I might be feeling irritated and exceedingly tired, but looking at that night sky for so long my legs had gone a bit numb was totally worth it.

This era might not have running water nor a properly functioning waste-disposal system, but nothing, and I do mean nothing was more astoundingly breathtaking than the night-sky when things like light-contamination and air-pollution didn’t exist.

NOTHING.

Still, I had something else to look forward to once the stars were gone: fire.

The little-big pyromaniac in me was guiddy at the prospect, I spent a good portion of two hours spreading oil and hay and making piles of wood throughout the manor to ensure it would burn well and burn bright. Uryuc and Blaire spent the time giving the place one last-second look-over for anything we may need. Once they were out I lit the flames on the roof, moving down floor by floor and lighting up the other piles as I went.

By the time I’d stepped outside, the first flickering flames were licking at the rooftop and smoke was spewing out the open windows. I rushed towards the others that were waiting outside the stone fence that surrounded the property. There the three of us watched for nearly an hour, myself with a manic glee while Blaire and Uryuc appeared conflicted in some way… and worried once they noticed the massive grin on my face.

As the smoke turned to fire and soon the house was a raging inferno. When the roof collapsed in a cloud of smoke and dust, we set out to follow the road opposite to the one Cu had taken to escape.

The ride was quiet, we kept at it a couple hours. Blaire was at the back of the line again, with her spear, but I noted there was a complicated look on her face, as if she couldn’t quite settle on what to feel about things. I could sort of understand her. A bit.

Soon I called out to stop, my bruises had endured enough. Frankly speaking I’d pushed myself too far this past day and a half. I should be staying in a warm cozy bed… somewhere far away from where a pair of pissed-off dragons may show up.

With the break, we tied the horses to a tree, and I pulled out the hand-drawn map I’d made copying the one at Cu’s study. The map was of the local area, it only contained Highcastle city and the neighbouring towns. I’d copied the names from the map, but I’d lie if I said I could read them.

My drawing got the attention of the other two, so I decided that maybe it was time to inquire if I should grow to trust them properly or not. On the dirt I drew three letters. An A, an U, and a B. “This is Arwen.” I circled the ‘A’ and pointed at myself. “This is Uryuc” I circled the U. “And this is Blaire.” I circled the B.

Stretching my hand, I touched the A. “Arwen.” I looked at the other two.

They hesitated for a moment while I remained still, then, they each reached for their letter and said their name.

Nodding, I then brought the map. Right now it was mid to late summer, there were several months ahead before Hero was summoned into this world, and before that happened I had to not just stay alive, I had to get capable enough I could trail or even aid Lucas’ cliqué without getting in their way. I needed to learn magic, however, considering that it took years to reach a level that could pose a threat to humans let alone other more mystically inclined critters; I would have to ‘cheat’.

To do that, I needed to create a special item. And to create that item I needed some pieces of technical information that were from the “details” of the setting that as an “overview” author I had never drawn or fully fleshed out in my head. Fortunately this information was readily available in most if not all magically-pertinent libraries, so I was going to head out to the biggest library containing detailed information on magic that was within travelling distance… well, the second one, the first one got burnt during Rëa’s rampage last night if I remember properly from the story.

So, with my dirt-stained finger, I drew an ‘A’ on the edge of the map that was south of Hightower, following the river.

I turned the map towards them, and left it at their feet, watching intently. This was the lingering question, whether they’d want to tag along or go elsewhere.

Uryuc looked at me with a frown, then at the map. There was hesitation in his eyes, he raised his finger, eyes were scouring the paper to find an answer that wasn’t really there. Then, he drew the ‘U’ on top of my ‘A’, passing the map to Blaire.

She took longer to decide than Uryuc, but she drew the ‘B’ on top of the other two. Uryuc didn’t seem quite happy about it but kept quiet.

I ignored the half-glare, the smile on my lips was matching the swell in my chest, I couldn’t help myself from jumping with a happy shout (and immediately regretting it because of the bruises). Their faces showed restrained smiles as I folded the map and hummed a happy little tune while munching on a little jerky snack.

Much to my surprise, Uryuc approached me a moment after, he spoke a single word. “Truoca?” I tilted my head, and he took the map from the pack, he opened it and pointed at where I’d said I’d be going, then pointed at me, and then raised his hands at the same time he tilted his head.

“” I spoke, looking at him in confusion. This was one of those complicated words wasn’t it.

He kept pointing at me and then the spot on the map, muttering “Truoca?” over and over, shooting me that inquisitive tone and tilted head.

I spotted Blaire watching us with a great deal of curiosity while Uryuc’s frustration grew.

Eventually he just gave up, sighed dejectedly, and mounted up with the rest of us. The half-elf looked quite defeated. I just patted his shoulder as I passed him to go back to the lead position.

My mind began to wander back towards the subject of magic, now that I had a destination and a plan in mind, I was all too aware that even if I created the item, I’d be unable to use it if I didn’t have at least a basic grasp on magic. So, I needed to learn the basics.

The basics were quite simple really. Step one, find your core. Step two, open your core and make the mana flow out and about inside your body. Step three, push the mana out of your body. Step four, manipulate the mana outside your body to the shape of the desired spell. Step five: Firaga.

I’d written a whole lot about the process of learning magic, specially during the various training phases the Hero had had to go through. I had also made plenty of mentions about how it ‘felt’ and of several techniques that helped learn it better.

There was only one problem, right now my body wasn’t just wounded, it had had its magic forcefully extracted until it went dry several days in a row. I had little doubt there was damage inside me at this point, and I also knew that trying to do manipulate mana when I have 0 experience with it would worsen the situation; doubly since there were no experts to make sure I wasn’t doing something stupid.

Worst came to worst? I could end up crippling myself into being unable to do much more than shine a light.

I wasn’t going to take that risk, so I promised myself that I would only do the first step of the training until I’d recovered from all my booboos.

Closing my eyes while we rode on, I tried to focus and look within myself.

“Ahck!” I screamed out a second afterward, I'd nearly fallen from my tall-pony. Instead of my mana core, what I’d found had been a low hanging branch that nearly made me fall off from the panic of the shock.

Lesson learned, I begrudgingly opted to continue my attempts albeit with my eyes open.

I ignored the sound of an amused chuckle behind me.

-Uryuc

Arwen was slowing them down.

Uryuc felt that there was a strong need to hurry out of there since the dwarf-noble had been left alive and as such it would only be a matter of time before they’d have to make a run for it. The short-horses were branded with Cu’s crest and surely someone would realize they’re stolen sooner or latter.

So the farther away they were from Cu and those he’d talked to, then the better.

But Arwen wasn’t just wounded but also had a poor physical condition. The human wasn’t fit enough to ride all day and had to take breaks every handful of hours. Not to mention that he always had them help him learn more Common whenever they made camp, which was not ideal since the talking could draw attention in the worst of times.

Though the half-elf had a sinking feeling part of it was to cover for the dwarf’s own clear shortcomings when it came to riding.

Uryuc had tried to push for an explanation from him regarding why they were going southwards rather than straight east and out of Frostshield kingdom, but he’d yet to know enough Common to properly be able to even understand the question of “Why are you going there?”.

It was vexing.

As they settled down to make camp, Arwen crossed his legs and closed his eyes as he’d usually do and sighed wearily. “Long day.” He muttered, cupping his hands together and becoming very still.

That always managed to unnerve Uryuc, the half-elf was quite aware that Arwen was paying close attention to them, but by all accounts the human looked like he was two steps away from falling asleep.

The female dwarf glanced at the human with the curious expression once more, Uryuc decided not to less it pass this time. “You’ve seen someone do something like that before, haven’t you.”

She hesitated, probably from him having decided to talk to her for the first time in over a day. “Master Cu…”

“Cu.” Arwen spoke, a correction he seemed to insist upon was not calling the former Master ‘Master’, which for Uryuc is was just fine.

“...Cu… sometimes became like this, but I never asked about it.” She said, she hesitated a moment, then nodded to him. “Were you a slave before… Cu… uh… acquired you?”

The half-elf flinched and crossed his arms. “I was not a slave.” He said with a harsh bite to his words. “I’d been a smith.”

“How did you…?” She began to ask, but saw as he shook his head, she lowered her head and looked at the ground. “I wasn’t born a slave, but my parents sold me because they had a big debt… or so I’ve been told.” Pausing, she glanced at Arwen’s still form.

Uryuc raised an eyebrow. “So you and him…?”

“What?” The dwarf blinked for a moment before connecting the dots, her face immediately scrunched up as she shook her head. “No.”

“Then why did he take you in?” Uryuc asked unabashedly, taking a gulp out of his wineskin. His words instantly earned a glare from her, which he didn’t hesitate to return. “You weren’t a slave, not really, you had access to the free stables and as far as I could tell you had plenty of chances to get away had you wanted to.”

Blaire hesitated, but the glare did not abate. “If you don’t know why, then ask him when he can understand the question.”

“You don’t know either, don’t bluff.” The red-head snapped in irritation.

“Then maybe I’ll ask him.” She growled.

That brought a wave of amusement from him, gesturing at Arwen but stopping, realizing the human had had his eyes open and watching them intently. “Ask what.” His voice had an eerie calmness to it, Uryuc could feel something was… odd about him, like his presence had shifted in some way he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

The dwarf paused, thinking her words through. “No more chains Uryuc.” She said, snapping her wrists away from one another. “No more chains Arwen.” She pointed the space between her wrists and repeated the gesture again. “Chains Blaire where?”

“Where? I do not understand word.” Arwen spoke, tilting his head.

Blaire groaned and scratched the back of her head, standing up. “Where Uryuc?” She pointed at the half-elf. “Uryuc there. Where tree? Tree there.” She pointed at the tree behind Arwen.

He tilted his head slightly. “Where Arwen yesterday?”

She paused and then pointed far off in the distance. “Arwen was there.”

“Where, there.” He nodded, then frowned. “Where chains Blaire? Ask?”

She nodded, tensing, clearly apprehensive to Arwen’s answer. Uryuc made sure not to show it, but he too felt an inkling of curiosity. The both of them looked at the human tilt his head and sigh. He stood up and walked towards the dwarf until they were face to face. “Blaire chains here.”

He poked her forehead, startling her into taking a step back. “Chains there… uh… many.” With a shrug, he returned to his cross legged position with a self-amused smirk.

“I want to ask something.” Uryuc stepped forward. “Why…” He paused, then took a moment to bring out the map from Arwen’s pack. “Why us go there.”

“Why, go.” Arwen muttered.

“To go is to…” He paused, then breathed deeply. “I go there.” He pointed to a spot and then moved towards it. “I go there.” He then moved to another place.

“Why go. ‘Where’ is ask. ‘Why’ is ask?” He inquired, raising his hands to the air and bending his fingers into hooks to emphasize ‘Where’ and ‘Why’.

“Why is ask.” Uryuc nodded, this time he felt the anxiousness rising slightly.

Arwen lowered his head looking at the ground while holding his chin in thought. Then grinned widely. “Firaga.”

That made Uryuc’s thoughts stop.

“I go there. I… Firaga.” He made a ‘pew’ sound as he pointed his palms towards the flames of the campsite.

“Wait.” Blaire blinked as she heard this. “Is he saying he wants to be a mage?”

Uryuc frowned, remembering the bracelet Arwen had had him remove before he’d used it on Cu to seal away his magic. “I think he may actually be one.”

“I doubt it.” Blaire shook her head with a frown. “Maybe he was going to become an apprentice before Cu captured him.”

Just as she spoke this, the dwarf appeared to have thought of something, she stood up, grabbed the map, and settled in front of Arwen. “Where you?” She asked, causing him to frown and point at the area around Hightower in the map. “No, where you forty yesterdays.”

“Oh.” The human didn’t look at the map, he was instead glancing at her and then at Uryuc. Slowly, he shook his head, sighing heavily. “No where.”