"This will be fine," I said, holding onto the rope dangling down the hull with two hands. To my relief, Lark began slowing down and stopped a good distance away from where we had seen the Worg. I didn't know if it would chase us out of its territory, but it was worth the try. Any further would take us too far, though. Besides, being dragged behind a magically powered boat wasn't my idea of a fun time.

Looking up, I saw Eliandra stare down, the grin on her face not able to hide the worry in her eyes.

"I'll lower the first of the packs!"

I nodded, using the rope to pull myself closer to the Lark. I placed my hand on the hull, and immediately Lark began shouting enthusiastically.

What wasss that thing? It looked good!

I blinked. What do you mean, good?

If I get a body, I'm coming back here to eat it! It must taste much better than rout-fisssh and demon's entrails.

"Rout-fish?" I muttered, not even wanting to think about why one demon would be eating another demon's entrails.

They are small, red fisssh that travel in packs and attack wounded demons around the Forlorn caves. I was clever enough to catch them many timesss!

My smile at Lark's smug tone turned ugly at his next words.

If you eat one alive and open your mouth, it will ssscream, causing the othersss to flock inside without looking! Just sswallow them all!

"Est, incoming!"

Looking up, I saw one of the packs dangling down from another rope. Again pleased at my four arms, I grabbed it while simultaneously holding on to the other rope and the hull to keep my balance. The pack was mine, and my armor was tied into a bundle atop it. I put the loops around one of the branch ends sticking up and untied it.

"Done!"

The rope was drawn back, and a few minutes later, four-packs, two big ones, and two smaller ones caused the makeshift raft to tilt dangerously.

"There's no more room on here! You guys will have to jump and swim!"

My shout caused a startled cry, and a second later, Eliandra's grinning head looked down on me. "Haltir says he can't swim."

I blinked, shook my head in astonishment before looking around. "Alright, tell him to jump beside the tree! I'll drag him on and swim with you three!"

A bit of speaking came from up, but it was hard to understand. After a second it sounded like they were arguing, then Haltir's voice shot up.

"No! I'm not jumping in there, and that's final! I can climb down by a- Wait! What are you! No, let go of me, you lying…. NOOO!"

My eyes widened further and further, and when Haltir came sailing through the air and splashed into the water, I hurriedly ripped the rope I had been holding. It tattered in the middle, and with two more jerks, it released while Haltir was splashing in the water. Something hit the water beside him before I could throw the rope, and a second later, something shoved him up. He was staring around wide-eyed, coughing and sputtering, grabbing onto the tree when he was close enough. His movements almost made the tree flip over, and I quickly jumped backward in the water to hold it in place.

"I'm going to use her for ax practice!" Haltir roared, climbing on the tree while searching for his ax that was tied to his pack.

"Calm down!" I shouted when the tree began bobbing. If he continued like this, the packs might sink, ruining all our supplies.

Haltir looked at me, and slowly his furious face calmed down. After a moment, he spat in the water and looked at something behind me. He snarled like a dog before shaking his head. "You're laughing now, Laurel, but I'll get you back for this!" Then he turned and stared at the land, his jaw set.

Above me, Eliandra was still standing at the top, and I could see she was having a hard time holding in her laughter. I could see the metal breather glistening behind her lips.

"Ewerything awwight?" she shouted.

"Yeah. Come down here, so we can get ashore!"

Eliandra nodded and hopped over the railing. When she came back up and held the tree, I swam two strokes back and put my hand on Lark's hull.

Be careful, Lark! I said, feeling slightly sad. You're sure you wouldn't rather stay a ship and meet us at that spot I showed you?

No! I want to eat and swim! And to see thisss land you have told me about!

I shrugged, not having expected anything else.

Alright, I'll see you after you get a new body!

Bye Massster! Eat some of those hairy thingsss and tell me if they are good next time!

Sure!

I grinned and swam back to the tree, helping the others to push it away.

"Think he will be alright?" Laurel asked as she swam beside me and helped push.

"As if you care!?" Haltir grunted, his back still to us. "You lie and throw people in the sea to die! You probably just want to know so you can use his wood for something!"

Laurel just grinned at Haltir's back before turning to me and raising an eyebrow.

"Hell if I know," I sighed. "He seems good at evading other demons, but I have no idea what will happen when he gets to those Forlorn caves…"

"I think he'll be fine," Eliandra said from my other side. She sounded pretty sure.

"How come?"

"Because I have the distinct feeling he was more powerful than he let on. I'm more worried about how big he will be when he gets back."

"What do you mean, how big?" I asked, surprised. My mind whizzed across my interactions with Lark, trying to find what I might have missed, but I couldn't come up with anything. He just seemed like a juvenile, somewhat dangerous demonic entity that sometimes called me master.

Eliandra looked at me, and I saw her eyes glitter. One of the corners of her mouth was going up and down as if she was unsuccessful in keeping from smiling, something that usually happened if she knew something I didn't.

"You'll see when he gets back, won't you!"

I grunted, annoyed at her fun at my expense, and turned my attention back to paddling the tree to shore. My eyes flickered around, making sure there wasn't some Worg or Wirg ready to jump us as soon as we got to shore.

There was none, and we successfully dragged ourselves and our baggage on land. Haltir glared at Laurel, who just shrugged and began to wring out her clothes while still wearing them.

I'll have to talk with Haltir later and try and calm him, I decided.

Soggy and dripping, we still decided to move away from the coast as fast as we could. Walking in single file, me at the front and Laurel at the back, we moved through the quickly darkening woods. A few hundred meters in, there was barely any light coming through the thick canopy of black leaves. I'd have loved to say our pace was slow because Eliandra and Haltir couldn't see, but even if they had been able to, it wouldn't have helped much. The undergrowth was dispersed unevenly, sometimes so tight I had to use my ax to chop us a path, and sometimes spread out for us to see a few meters in every direction.

I constantly scanned the trees, hoping I would spot another Winding Weed tree so I could make myself a better ax. If I could make a normal wooden ax as deadly with Harden Wood, who knew what would happen if I cast it on one made from wood that was already special.

Two hours later, we were perhaps a couple of miles in, if that much, and Haltir had stopped cursing.

This is as good a place as any, I thought as I looked around the seemingly unending forest. I'd been hoping to find some clearing or anything that was defensible, but we had no such luck.

Seeing a couple of fallen trees, their horizontal trunks almost as high as I was tall, I scanned their leaves and barks.

No signs of rot or fungi, I thought, nodding to myself. I should really head back to Sart after this and thank Astra.

"Let's stop here tonight," I said, moving to the trees and dropping my bag beside one. Eliandra was holding onto my hand, her palm all sweaty, and she let go with a relieved sigh.

"Finally," she said, slumping down beside my pack, not even taking her own off. Haltir didn't even bother with moving to us but just dropped on the ground, his chest heaving as if he had run a marathon.

"Boy, did you turn into some monster since last we traveled?" he said as I climbed atop one of the trees to have a better look around.

Looking at him and Eliandra, then at Laurel, who was walking around the area, picking up twigs and small branches, I shrugged. I wanted to point out Laurel was fine but thought better of it. Besides, Haltir had a shoddy leg, and Eliandra was doing this without a class.

Besides more trees everywhere and thick undergrowth to the south, there wasn't anything to see, so I climbed back down.

When Laurel and I had finished setting up camp, nothing more than the small, half a meter high tents she and Eliandra had bought, the other two had gotten some energy back. We were staring at a small pile of wood, looking at each other.

"I really don't want to sleep without a fire," Eliandra said, and I agreed with the sentiment. Even with my night vision, the grey surroundings were creepy. Now that Eli had lost Flowheart’s powers, she couldn't see in the dark anymore. I couldn't even imagine how frightening that must be. From what I could tell, they couldn't see their own hand in front of their face.

"You know we can't," Haltir said. "Too many things will smell it and locate us with it."

"The old man is right," Laurel said, looking around. "It's better we just make do until tomorrow." She turned to me, ignoring Haltir's grumbled complaints that he wasn't old. "First watch?"

I sighed and nodded. "I'll wake you in four hours."

Laurel nodded and crawled into the tent. It had a flap to close the opening, but she didn't bother to do so. Haltir sighed and moved to his.

"Haltir, wait for a bit," I said, getting up from my spot beside Eliandra.

"Est, I'm tired. Can't this wait?"

"What, you don't want your leg fixed? Well, I guess it might be fun walking like that," I said, trying to lighten the mood.

Haltir stopped, and he turned to where I stood. He was looking somewhere to my left, though, showing just how dark it was. There was hope on his face, and I suddenly realized I wasn't even sure if this would work.

Looking around, I moved to one of the bushes. "Come here for a second?"

Haltir moved towards my voice, almost tripping over a branch. Still, he didn't even curse, showing how much he was anticipating what I might do.

Shit, this better work.

Grabbing a wrist-thick, gnarled branch, I put my hand on Haltir's knee. "Hold still," I said when he started.

"Could have bleeding warned me before," he said but held still.

Focusing, I decided to start slow and cast a single Share Lifeforce targeted at the tree. As soon as I felt energy begin to stream into me, I cast another Share Lifeforce, but this time towards Haltir. A shock ran through me, and then I felt energy go through my one hand, my arm, chest, and other arm, and out of my other hand into Haltir.

Haltir sucked in a breath of air, and I felt a shiver run through his leg. "What are you doing?" He sounded far more shocked than I had thought.

"Healing your leg," I retorted, casting another set of spells and feeling the energy speed up. Within moments my arms started tingling, and my muscles cramping up. Even from such a small amount, I could tell this wasn't going to be something I could do too much.

Haltir was quiet, and when the stream ended after a few minutes, he sighed contentedly while I sighed in relief. I felt like I had worked out for a day, then before healing up, worked out again the day after. My two top arms hung limply down my side, and I gingerly massaged them with the lower two.

Haltir stepped back and began bending and stretching his leg before dropping in a battle stance and starting the most flashy combat maneuver I had seen him do. How he managed not to fall without seeing anything or where he got the stamina was beyond me

Ten minutes later, he stood, panting and grinning like a madman. "I don't know if I would call this healing, Est. I have not felt like this in decades! Like this, you won't be the only one joining the next battle of the arms-masters. Those old fools, prancing about with their swords and spears! I'll show them!" Haltir barked out a laugh, and I flinched. He was making too much of a ruckus.

"Pipe down, old man," Laurel hissed from her tent.

I expected Haltir to snap, but instead, he just sat down, looking a meter to my left. He was quiet for a while, and I was about to say something when he beat me to it.

"Est, what you just did…did you do it before?" he sounded serious, more serious than I had seen him before.

"No," I said, and he nodded as he turned to face me.

"Don't ever show anybody what you can do. At least not until you get far more powerful than you are right now. "

"Why?" I said before adding, "and I'm already pretty powerful!" I felt slightly uncomfortable saying it, but I did mean it. From what I could tell from everything that had been going on, I might not be the strongest Prime around, but I had killed other Primes!

Haltir barked a laugh, and his back straightened as he stared almost straight at me. "Let's start with, no! You are not pretty powerful! If I had been in my prime, you would have been dead if I had desired it! And I'm no Prime."

Well, that was straight to the point, I thought, my eyebrows shooting up. I looked at Eliandra, wondering what she would have to say about this, but she was quietly looking in our general direction. Her eyes were slightly narrowed, and her lips pursed. I had no idea what she was thinking.

"Don't go all grumpy on me now," Haltir said with a grunt. "It's better to know how things stand before you make a big mistake."

"Alright, how about you start by explaining why I shouldn't show people that skill, and then continue by telling me why you think I'm weak," I said, deciding to listen to what Haltir had to say. He hadn't proven to be a liar yet.

"I didn't say you're weak. I said you're not powerful," Haltir said. "Even if you become the most powerful Prime there is, if one of the Deities decided they want you dead, they will send all of their Primes after you!"

I blinked, thinking of Cinderage and Preyatar's followers. From what I knew, they had already put a bounty on my head. So far, that had worked out alright, although I had to admit that was more luck than anything else. But that's where you guys come in, I thought, patting my shin guards.

"You don't have to worry too much," Haltir said a lot softer, and I realized he must have taken my silence the wrong way. "I can't think of any reason for them to do that right now, not if you keep that skill of yours hidden until Rathica has more Primes to back you up."

Eliandra snorted, and I remembered she knew about the bounty on my head.

I can think of a few more reasons, I thought. I couldn't remember everything Rathica had told me back in Orlion, but I knew the other Deities were grabbing Earthlings as soon as they found them.

"You're right," I said softly. "I can't take on all of those Primes by myself… But what's so special about that ability? There's plenty of healing potions floating around, aren't there?"

"Each of those costs more than you seem to realize..." Haltir's voice was soft now, and he seemed confused. "You have to know how hard it is to make those!"

Well, no. I've got no idea, I thought, but I kept my mouth shut.

"What the long-winded old man is trying to say is that there are perhaps four people on this continent who can just heal someone. Each is held captive by one of the Deities in their main seat of power and used to heal injured Primes," Laurel's voice drifted out of the tent. "Unless Rathica can battle those three, they would snatch you up and force you to do their bidding."

Haltir sniffed. "Yes. The liar is right."

“By Lischen’s saggy tits! Stop calling me a Liar, old man," Laurel hissed from the tent.

"Quiet!" I snapped, not in the mood for this childish battle between them. I sat back, confused questions bubbling up in my mind. What was up with those healing potions? It seemed like there were enough, as Three had used two on me and Laurel, one on Eliandra. Why didn't those Primes just go and gather those? And how could healing powers be this rare? Those Primes could just go to The Library and find a skill that matched them!

Haltir grumbled a bit, then did some squats until a smile came to his face before retreating into his tent.

"Night, Est," Eliandra said, crawling into her tent.

"Sleep well," I replied automatically, as my mind continued churning.