With every kick, it became clearer that this stone archway wouldn’t budge in the slightest, despite how weathered it already looked. Even beyond the fact that it was made of stone, it seemed unrealistically stable. Which made sense. If this was the kind of world that Ayden thought it was, then people could gain power at superhuman levels, and a regular stone archway like this wouldn’t stand a chance against those people.

However, soon, Mari’s eyes sparked up and she noticed something. A thread flowing through the air, on the other side of the barrier. She quickly hit Noah’s shoulder to get him to stop kicking at the archway, and pointed the others toward the inside of the barrier.

“What? What’s going on?” Noah asked, weirdly disappointed that he was supposed to stop, and Mari quickly turned toward him, “Just look over there, something is coming down the mountain.”

“Really?” Ayden asked curiously, hoping that his plan worked and one of the sages living on the mountain was coming down here.

Everyone was eagerly staring at the other side of the barrier. They were patient, and just waiting. But what they saw approach them wasn’t a person. It was just a cat. A soot-black cat, quite a bit larger than a regular house-cat, but from the way its fur was groomed and its overall appearance, it also wasn’t a wild-cat by any means. However, the thing that made it most obvious that this wasn’t a regular cat was the fact that it had three tails instead of just one.

“It’s just a cat?” Mari muttered with a wry smile, and Ayden quickly looked at Noah, whose eyes had already sparked up in emerald green at that point.

Ayden looked at the cat, and instead of seeing just it there, Noah saw a figure standing beside it. It was a woman with grey hair, but that didn’t seem to have come from old age. She did seem quite young; older than Noah, Ayden and Mari, but still quite young. Her clothes seemed to be of higher quality than anything the three of them had seen in this town the whole time as well.

To Noah, it was obvious, “It’s not just a cat, it’s one of the sages. Well, not really, but I think she’s looking at what’s going on through it’s eyes? Is that possible?”

Mari tilted her head to the side, “Eh? I mean... It might be? I don’t know enough about magic to know that...”

“Hm...” Noah grumbled to himself with his arms crossed, before just groaning loudly in annoyance. They could hear the cat making noise from the other side, so it was clear that this cat could also hear them, “Yo, grey-haired lady, can you just... let us in? We need help, some people in the village we come from are really sick, and it can only be healed through magic. We heard rumors that there’s a mage here, so we came to get your guys’ help.”

Noah could see the expression of the woman change. Before, she just seemed bothered and annoyed, but now, she seemed confused and nearly startled.

“Yeah, I can see you. If you wanna know why, just open this thing up or come talk to us yourself.” Noah grinned, and the woman turned her head to the side, mouthing something. It was clearly not meant for them, though.

And to the surprise of this group of four, the runic writing on the archway began to shine in a soft blue, almost white, light. Guessing what just happened, Ayden stretched his arm out beyond where the barrier was just a few moments ago. And then, he took a step forward, taking the initiative in entering this place.

It didn’t take long for Noah to join him, though, and Ness also walked through there as if it was natural. Just Mari was left standing there, perplexed. She didn’t really get what just happened, and she was still trying to figure it out when Ayden looked at her, “Are you coming, or do you want to wait for us here?”

Her face turning a light pink, Mari shook her head, “N-No, I’m coming!”

Just like that, the four of them entered the last stretch of the mountain’s path. At least starting from here, everything was paved and there were proper steps here instead of just steep slopes. And the cat was directly guiding them from a bit of a distance, so there was no way for them to take a wrong path somehow.

Just about an hour of hiking later, which made the group wonder how the cat came down there so quickly, they stood in front of a wooden gate. It had more runic writing on it, as if there was a second barrier installed here.

A moment later, before anyone was able to try and open the gate, it opened up on its own with a loud creak, and the woman that Noah saw beside the cat just an hour ago stood behind it.

The cat proceeded to rub its body against her legs, as the woman spoke, “Now, explain to me how you were able to figure out who I was.” She said immediately, not letting anyone else say anything. She was just interested in what Noah had to say.

“Ah... You won’t believe if I say I just guessed, right?” Noah asked with an awkward laugh, scratching the back of his head, and the woman rubbed the bridge of her nose annoyed.

“No, of course I will not believe that. Just speak. If you choose not to, I will be forced to remove you from this mountain. By any means necessary.” The woman said, clearly threatening Noah to not try and lie to her. The young man turned to the side nervously, where Ayden was standing and nodding at him reassuringly.

“Eh, fuck it. I have a personal skill called ‘Eye of the Heart’, and I can see stuff that’s part of other people’s ‘hearts’. I don’t even know what the fuck that means anymore, but yeah, that’s how I was able to see that you were using that cat to get a closer look at us. Please don’t ask me how it works, it’s a fucking mystery to me.” Noah said bluntly, and the woman just stood there without her expression changing in the slightest.

“Hm. Alright, come in.” The woman said, swiftly turning around and walking closer toward the main building of this seemingly quite large complex. But the four people left standing there were stunned. Ness was the first to take the woman up on the offer, running through the gate on all fours, while Noah grabbed onto Ayden’s shoulder in a panic.

“Dude, what the fuck is wrong with people here? Why do they let people into these places after they say the most ridiculous sounding shit?”

“How would I know? I literally know as much as you do right now.”

“Well that’s a first!” Noah exclaimed, even more nervous since even Ayden didn’t have an answer, “I guess we just go in?”

The three people left standing in front of the gate looked at each other for a moment, before walking through the gate in unison. The group kept following the woman until they entered the building on the other side of this courtyard.

Some people that seemed like servants or acolytes of sort opened the door for the woman, greeting her as well as the group of guests she brought with her. Once they were inside the building, the group continued walking through some hallways, until they reached a slightly larger room. It seemed to be a study of sorts. There were bookshelves filled to the brim with thick books that made Ayden’s heart skip a beat, bottles and vials filled with mysterious fluids, and some random statues lined up along one of the walls.

The woman sat down on one of the chairs inside and crossed her legs, looking at her four guests. She looked at them as if she was waiting for something. And a few seconds later, she let out a deep sigh, “So? Tell me of the village you were talking about.” She said, and Ayden immediately raised his brows.

“Of course! It’s just a small place, a farming village. Some people were quarantined because they’re sick, and some of them already died from the disease. The symptoms looked quite a lot like a disease I read about. One of the names for it was ‘The Withering’.”

“A case of the withering? That does sound concerning... If it isn’t properly taken care of, then it could spread and kill everyone in that village. You made the right choice to come here, we had to deal with that disease quite a few times already.”

Noah and Ayden looked at each other with broad smiles, happy that they were able to find someone that could help them.

“There is just one small issue with your story.” The woman pointed out, and directed a deep glare at Ayden, “How does a boy from a small, humble farming village know how to read texts complicated enough to speak of the withering in detail? And how were you able to even get your hands on those texts?”

The happy expressions on the faces of the two young men changed from happy to afraid, as the woman continued talking, “On top of that, one of you clearly is a magic user. No regular person can simply gain a personal skill that allows one to see through such an ability such as what I used just before. I believe that you possess it, since you weren’t lying earlier. But still, this just doesn’t add up.”

“I-I...” Noah stuttered, unsure how to explain this, “...I was born with this ability... I think at least. I’ve had it for as long as I can remember.”

After this explanation, the woman became even more confused, “Once more, you are telling the truth. But how...? Is there something you are hiding from me?”

“Well, everyone has their secrets, right?” Noah pointed out with a wry smile, and the woman glared at him, “Fine. Then instead, I will give you a choice. Tell me the truth, and I will send someone to that village of yours to heal the people there. Keep your secrets, and those people may have to keep suffering.”

Ayden turned his head toward Noah, “Wait, before you say anything, let’s just-“

But it was too late, he could already see it in his friend’s eyes. Ayden let out a deep sigh, “Let’s hope this is going to turn out alright for us. And that’s although we promised Charles to keep it a secret...”

Hearing Ayden’s words, Noah felt a bit bad that he was about to just do this despite the warning from that kind man, but they had no choice. Noah felt that this woman was telling the truth as well. If they didn’t tell her, then she wouldn’t help them. There were kids suffering from that disease. And people with families. They were just laying there, literally withering away while nobody could do anything about that. Noah didn’t want that to keep happening.

And then, Noah said something that shocked not only the woman sitting in front of them, but also Mari and Ness, who had been listening to this conversation patiently.

“Ayden and I... We’re ‘lost ones’.”