The Flow doesn't allow him to tell who this man was? Nefaaya mumbled to herself as she watched Nelrue's back from behind. After Nelrue whispered that he knew everything, she felt all the hairs in her body prickled.

The wind blew in their direction, the leaves rustled creating an eerie sound. Nefaaya took hold of her white hair as she waited for the wind to weaken.

Then I was right, about last time. It wasn't just an intuition... he was really seeing me last night, she thought, more bugged than she had thought. She was irritated with Nelrue, to the Eye and to the Flow who seemed like to be messing with her.

What's the Flow anyway? Nefaaya had learned that it was not something that could be called a religion. She had learned that there weren't any major religions in the Southern Continent. Most people just believe in the Eye, the Creator of the World and to the Great Flow or the force that surges on the World that drives the Creation forward. It was also the same force that the Flowmages like her could control.

This world had also a belief in a figure that was opposite to the flow, their representation of evil—Madness. This was something released in the world during the early days of Creation when there was still no world. This Madness, ever since its escape, was trying to enter the Flow and changed its course to the shadow.

And the only way that people could avoid the influence of Madness or being Tainted was to do good and never follow the path of evil. At least this was how it was phrased in the South. The Chapel in the village was more like a small house for the people to pray for the Flow's guidance.

But seeing Nelrue around her, smiling giddily, Nefaaya thought that it would be hard for her not to get Tainted.

The journey inside the forest continued as far as two hours, with Nelrue playing the flute and Ettran singing along with him and Renaeril watching like a stupid country bumpkin. To be honest, she didn't know what she would feel towards him... He became more of a person of this world. This thought had made her shivered.

Blinding light peeked from the branches and giant trunks of trees in their front. They are finally closed to the outskirts of the forest. According to what Nelrue had said, the place outside of this forest was mostly made of endless hills covered in evergreen and grasses, lapsing like waves, frozen in time. But there is one ridge in its center, that most travelers and merchants used in order to reach this far of the continents.

Nefaaya looked back and wondered how far she had been from the village. A hundred kilometers perhaps, she thought as Nelrue led the road.

The ridge that they're walking was surrounded by small lumps of hills and protruding white rocks. At first she thought that this was a natural feature of the hill. But the smoothness of the white stone like the surface of a pond glinting under the light of the sun was not something you could call natural.

"Are those marbles?" she said to no one in particular.

Nelrue looked at her, "aye, they're... a remnant of the past."

The musicteller turned forward and stretched his arms on both sides, his small cape flapped against the wind.

"Once this place was called Araolinar. The White City," he said.

Ettran stopped and said, "I thought Araolinar was in the Empire?"

"Araolinar?" Renaeril asked, earning a visible glower from Ettran that made him petrified. Nefaaya's mouth gaped open as she stared at the boy.

"Araolinar was the capital city of Benel, a kingdom who once reigned in the Single Continent prior to its breaking some thousand years ago," he said. "But it was destroyed..."

"In the Ballad Of Kliath," Renaeril said. "The kingdom perished on the attacks of Rotseekers and alikes."

Nelrue nodded solemnly. Looking at him as if in a trance of reverie, Nefaaya had almost believed that he knew everything. Almost.

"Rotseekers," he said. "It was the name given to them after they destroyed the Prophet. Before they're called, Arhalath. Servants of an entity with a name that was forbidden to speak. The Darkservitors brought us the War Of Ascension," Nelrue said. "It was a really cruel one, we had been pushed back as far as the Northern Waste. And when we finally managed to claimed back the land that we had lost. Araolinar was already a waste. Broken marbles with growing lichen was all was left of its glorious past."

He didn't talk anymore after that, the mood hung in an eerie and tense silence. But it seems the two boys weren't aware of it.

The wind howled and as it passed on the crevices of the marble waste that lay below them, she thought he heard it whistling. Almost singing to her something.

Nefaaya turned left and found her head hitting Renaeril's back, the line had stopped.

At their front, Nelrue stood unmoving, Nefaaya stared at him and felt unease in his silence.

Is this where he finally, she thought unbelieving. Slowly she started Merging, the colors around her started to brighten and became hazy as if melting.

"Stop," Nelrue commanded and turned at the three. His eyes glowing violet, like the color of his brooch.

Nefaaya had once read about it, this was called the eyes of the Seekers. A talented mage who could see much farther than a normal mage who Merge.

The three took a step backwards, afraid of what they're seeing from the giddy musicteller. Nelrue turned immediately at their front. His eyes slowly scanned the surroundings.

"We have to change our route," he said and immediately descended the ridge. The three followed him.

"Why are we doing this? Isn't this the fastest path to the next village," Ettran said.

"I doubt it. I doubt if there would be a village for us to see," Nelrue said and laugh.

Nefaaya shivered in his laugh, piercing and small. But it wasn't a laugh of triumph, it was a laugh that marks annoyance and resignation to fate.

In that moment, as Nelrue scratched his head harsly, messing up his well-fixed and stiff red hair, Nefaaya felt pity for him and for his frustrations.

He turned, the corners of his eyes smiling but distant, staring at something dark. Gone was the giddy Nelrue who had been singing beside them, the man that they knew had turned into someone closest to being mad.

"There were Deprives," he started. "heading in this direction."

"Deprives, at this far?" Nefaaya demanded. "What would they want in this mountainous village?"

Nelrue turned to her.

"I do not know what they want. I don't even know what the Flow wants for us... but for now we ran, as far as away we can be from them. This Deprive was not alone, it is unusual since Deprives usually hunt alone."

Nefaaya's eyes widemed, mouth quivering on the unspoken thought. Renaeril saw her and shot her a worried glance, "are you saying... Rotseekers?"

Nelrue looked at her without seeing her, and she had done everything to prevent herself from shouting as she felt once again the eyes that were looking at her. As she started walking, Nefaaya wondered if this was just one of her dreams.

She looked up, the sun was bright and gold.