The others were, indeed, already waiting for them at Caulis’s gates by the time Linden and Sophie got there. Ingrid stood next to two newcomers – a tall woman with light brown skin and long brown hair wearing teal robes, and a thin, pale man with messy blonde hair and navy blue robes of his own who was laughing loudly at something the unfamiliar woman was saying.

All eyes turned to Sophie as she arrived, and she felt that odd sort of anxiety at the idea that she was meeting real mages – at least, they both looked like mages. Somehow, Linden hadn’t made her feel the same way. Potentially because of Acacia’s incessant interest in the man.

“Margaret here is our water mage.” Linden began the introductions and gestured to the tall woman who waved and gave Sophie a friendly smile. “And Theo primarily works with fire, although he’s more of a generalist.”

Theo grinned as well and stepped forward, holding out a hand for Sophie to shake. “You’re a priestess, then?” he asked, and Sophie nodded.

“Sophie’s a brand new priestess,” Ingrid cut in. “She still learning the ropes.”

“I’ve never gone on a quest before,” Sophie admitted. “Is this a typical number for a party? Don’t we need a healer?”

Both Margaret and Ingrid exchanged confused looks between the two of them. “Healers are quite rare, even in Sentus,” Margaret explained. “We wouldn’t bring one on a small quest like this.”

“That’s why were lucky Acacia can make mana bread,” Linden added, and Sophie didn’t miss the healthy dose of appreciation in his voice. She was definitely going to have to figure out what was going on between the two of them when she got back. But she also hadn’t realized that healing was some sort of rare ability. She supposed it made sense given how insistent Calli was about Acacia making that bread for the quests.

“But we better get a move on,” Linden continued. “It’ll take us a few hours to get there, and we don’t want to be heading in when it gets dark. If we make it in time, will do the run today. Otherwise, we’ll camp and do it first thing tomorrow morning.”

Sophie frowned, glancing around at their party. “There are no horses?”’

Linden shook his head. “No need. It’s incredibly close. So close, in fact, that our own Watch is the group that found it. It’s hard to say what could’ve caused something like that to pop up so near Caulis, but it’s good news for us. We’ll see if we can salvage it and reroute it for the shrine.”

Ingrid rubbed her hands together in delight. “Perhaps a bonus might be in order?”

Margaret laughed and shook her head. “You and your coin.”

“I’m not sure about that,” Linden admitted. “Let’s just see what we’re working with and go from there.”

That sounded fine to Sophie. She was still somewhat worried about the idea of walking to some sort of corrupted mana well. On foot. She had nothing against the idea of walking – although she couldn’t say the same about camping – but she wondered if she’d be able to manage walking at a sustained pace for several hours. She supposed she had time to practice given her walking back and forth to Caulis from the shrine. Surely, she’d be able to manage.

Camping, on the other hand… Well, she hadn’t gone camping in ages, and she was honestly not looking forward to it, although it would probably be an improvement over her first night in the shrine with the broken window. She wondered if Linden or someone else held some sort of camping gear in one of their tailored bags, but she felt like she had asked enough questions for the morning.

“I’m ready,” she said, adjusting the tailored bag she carried. The others nodded as well, and Linden took that as the cue to head out – leading the way down the main road in the opposite direction of Caulis.

Away from everything Sophie had known since coming to this fantasy world.

Well, then, she thought with no small amount of trepidation. She supposed she was about to go on an adventure.

***

Adventuring, on a whole, was much less exciting than Sophie’s limited experience with fantasy novels and movies had led her to believe. In fact, navigating the streets of Seattle on foot during rush hour was far more thrilling and perhaps even more dangerous than the slow, steady pace they made towards the mana well. Linden led them to a side path after walking down the main road a ways, and the path was already fairly cleared out for them. He explained that the Forester had done the work here, as well, just as he had for Sophie’s path to the shrine.

“It’s not usually this nice,” Linden added, laughing. “That’s why we wanted you to come along on this one.”

Sophie was thankful for that at least. Perhaps the camping part wouldn’t be so bad either.

Ingrid and the two mages kept a steady patter of conversation as they made their way towards the mana well, with Linden leading the charge. Sophie answered a few polite questions here and there when they took a short break, but once they got back on the path the others seemed more interested in gossiping about people they knew back in Sentus, and they had been on that topic for an untold amount of time. Apparently all three of them, including Ingrid, had gone to the College of Mages together in Sentus. Sophie wanted to ask more about that, but perhaps not at this exact moment.

No, at this particular moment, she was desperately trying to ignore the too-familiar flap of leathery wings zipping through the air above them. The others either hadn’t noticed due to their lively conversation or hadn’t cared, but the little wyvern appeared to be following them. Sophie was quite sure it was her wyvern, specifically, and not a different one. She didn’t know how she knew this to be true, exactly, but she could tell somehow. There was just something about this particular wyvern…

Sophie hung back a bit, slowing down to let the others gain a bit of distance in front of her as they continued their gossiping. The wyvern took that as its cue to swoop down next to her, flapping its wings briefly before finally landing on her shoulder.

“Oh, I see how it is,” Sophie teased it gently. “You haven’t visited me in ages. Can you tell I have more of the mana bread today?”

The wyvern made a small noise that almost sounded like a chirp and craned down to nose at her bag.

Sophie laughed. “Well, you can’t have any, you little thief. I need to save it.”

Of course, in that very moment, Ingrid turned around – whether to ask Sophie a question or just to make sure she was still following them, Sophie couldn’t possibly guess because Ingrid suddenly let out a yelp like something had bit her.

Naturally, the entire party reacted to Ingrid’s sudden noise – Margaret immediately turned around to see what was wrong, Theo pulled out something that for all intents and purposes looked like a wand, and Linden spun around as well, immediately taking a defensive stance.

Sophie could see each one scan the area to ascertain what threat might have appeared on their so-far pretty uneventful adventure, before their eyes landed directly on her and her new traveling companion.

“Um,” she began. “It’s totally friendly.”

“It’s a wyvern,” Ingrid pointed out, quite obviously Sophie thought – although the Sophie of a few weeks prior might have disagreed.

“They’re not actually dangerous, you know,” Sophie countered, remembering what Elowen had told her previous. “At least not to a priestess,” she amended, since she had no idea if it was true for mages. Either way, Ingrid would have nothing to worry about, and her reaction seemed a little extreme.

Ingrid rolled her eyes. “I still wouldn’t let one near me,” she said, shuddering dramatically. “How disgusting.”

Margaret gave Ingrid a playful push. “We can barely get you to go on quests, if not for the coin,” she teased, and that was news to Sophie. “At least the path is cleared for us today.”

Ingrid made a face at Margaret’s comments but didn’t deny them.

“Don’t let her get to you, Sophie,” Margaret continued. “My aunt works with creatures like wyverns, and she’s said as much as you have. They’re harmless for the most part. Unless they’re corrupted, of course, but that’s an entirely different matter.”

“They’re pests,” Ingrid stressed. “And besides, just look at it –” she waved a hand in the wyvern’s – and therefore Sophie’s – general direction. “It’s a nasty little thing, isn’t it?”

Sophie had no idea how to respond to that. She was entirely offended on the wyvern’s part and was starting to see why Calli didn’t like Ingrid very much, but Linden laughed aloud, shaking his head. “If it’s not doing any harm, let’s get going again. If my estimation is correct, we’re nearly there.”

Ingrid sniffed and turned away, while Theo gave Sophie an apologetic look and shrugged. The wyvern dug its talons into Sophie’s shoulder gently, as if to say it didn’t mind, and Sophie decided it was for the best to let the whole thing go. Who knew such a friendly little creature could cause so much drama?

They set out at a steady pace again, but the mood of the group had changed somehow. Sophie felt a little weird about it, but she was mostly still annoyed at Ingrid’s reaction to the wyvern. It hadn’t done anything wrong after all.

Sophie wished she could offer the little thing some mana bread in apology, even if she wasn’t sure that it could actually understand anything that had happened. Before she could carry that thought much further, however, she felt an odd shiver run through the creature. It made a small displeased noise before its weight shifted on her shoulder suddenly and its talons dug into her skin again, and then it took off in flight. Sophie stopped, turning around to see where it had gone, but she could only see it zipping off into the distance, back the way they had came.

She wondered what had startled it so much that it decided to leave, even after it had not budged an inch during the confrontation with Ingrid.

She turned back to the path to see the others further ahead, still chatting, but all a little more subdued than earlier, and she hurried to catch up with them, figuring she’d see the wyvern again another day.

And that was when she felt it…

Corruption.