Despite its name, there was almost no light in the Forest Of Light. The beech trees were tall and towering enough, but there were much taller trees with deep-green leaves with lichens clinging to their giant trunks. Every minute she would hear the sound of a bird flying inside the forest. And a scuttling that almost sound mechanical like hinges hitting one another, when those sounds came she can't help but think that there was something with many feet walking around, scouting the four of them. And the closest that she had imagined was a huge centipede.

When Nelrue decided to call for a stop, no one was so eager to sit in the thick undergrowth of the forest or lean in the closest tree for support. Nefaaya would rather stand. Renaeril too has some expressions that she couldn't explain. He kept his white brows in a knot, as his glinting blue eyes surveyed the area around them—he was still not giving up on prolonging his Merge with the Creation.

Beside him, Ettran stood uncomfortable. His good eye without the patch that Nelrue had put for him moved around, occasionally scratching the cloth. She thought that perhaps it was time to change the cloth in his face. She reminded herself to do that after.

But despite their outward rejection to settle, no one was so eager to move either. Nefaaya kept glancing at Nelrue worriedly, the man was sweating so much and pants too much. His face was pale and the redness of his lips had vanished too. Nelrue was leaning his back to the tree, with closed eyes that looked sunken. His clothes would speak of what he had suffered. The elegant-looking tunic that he had was full of grimes and sweat. Some parts especially on the sleeves and hem show the seams to be damaged. He had removed his short cloak that was fastened by his brooch earlier when they entered the forest. No one in the world would likely believe that he was a musicteller.

Nefaaya walked to him and asked, "Master Nelrue, do you want us to rest here now?"

His eyes opened, flashing as if delirious.

"No," he said. She reached her hand to him but he slapped it away.

"It's just that I felt Spent from using the Creation," he said. "You too should know this too."

Nefaaya nodded, slightly hurt by his gesture. Renaeril had once carried her after he burned her enemies to ashes.

I know it, but I also know that being Spent could cause death to some Mages.

Merging with Creation and trying to manipulate its Flow, took a great toll on someone's strength. According to the grimoire, the Flow is an energy and trying to control an energy you need to have to put an equal amount or perhaps much more to have it control. In other words, a Mage was also using his own energy on Pulling. But she believed that there could also be another reason, the Flow was radioactive. She had learned that some lights in the light spectrum have radiation, and since the Flow exhibits so many colors it would make the radiation theory likely possible.

They continued to trudge their way inside the forest, the only thing that had made her know that it was night was the moonshiners scattered around the undergrowth.

Nefaaya sat unconsciously before the tree, there was a fire at the center. And four more that were scattered around them. When Ettran asked why they had to make four fires outside, Nelrue had given them an answer that the three of them did not expect.

"There were things," he started, his breathing much easier than it had earlier. "In this forest that only comes at night. The fire threw them away."

Nefaaya raised her hand like a giddy student. And Renaeril does the same too. The musicteller sighed and started whispering about how he hates children. He pointed at Reaneril.

"Would the fire save us?"

Ettran nodded on the question.

Nelrue shook his head, "the fire would only make us aware if they're coming for us."

Then he pointed at her. "What?"

"The scuttling, what is that?"

Earlier when she kept hearing the noise moving around them she was bothered that she kept looking around her. Now that the sound had stopped, she found herself more bothered.

"I don't know," he said. "Perhaps some giant centipede?"

Nelrue chuckled but Nefaaya didn't.

"Now that you mention it, the sound really stopped," he said with some unspoken thought in his green eyes. His eyes hovered around the darkness that was trying to break the barrier of fire that surrounded them.

"I'll guard," Renaeril said. He had already stopped from his Merging practice. Nefaaya thought that he looked almost sick to be able to guard.

"No, you sleep, you look like hell," she said unaware.

Ettran smirks at him before he looks up in confusion. "What is Hell?"

Nefaaya's eyes widened. She had forgot, that in this world that they don't have a concept of a place for eternal punishment. She find Nelrue staring at her, unshaken. She almost believed that he really know everything just like what he had said to her.

"Something... I read in a story," she said and turned her back to the others and sat cross-legged before the fire.

It wasn't long before she heard Renaeril sleeping soundly behind her. She looked back. Renaeril had really become a person of this world, there was less Dylan of him now. She stared at him as her thoughts flitted back to her previous life, the life of Mara. As the day goes, her memory of that life that she once had slowly fades to oblivion. Nefaaya didn't know what to think of it, if she was afraid or perhaps sad of the fact that she was forgetting the life that she had once treasured.

The night passed with her barely having a sleep, Nelrue took her and Ettran's place three hours before morning.

As soon as they heard the bird chirping in the lowest branches of trees, they immediately raised and carried their bags once again. Renaeril had caught a fever that day, Nelrue had to carry the boy groaning as they walked.

"Would he be fine?" she asked worriedly. He saw his cracked and dry lips, while sweat beading in his forehead. Renaeril had a pale complexion, and this fever of his had made him as red as beet.

Nelrue looked at him. "He would. That's the effect of his training to reach Half-Merge."

"Can you Heal him?"

Nelrue looked sharply at him, "do you know someone could Heal?"

"My mother could, she was in the army before," she said.

"Vanishers are much rarer than Willbreakers," he said. "Perhaps you could too, with training and knowing what to Pull.".

Nefaaya didn't understand anything from what he said. He carried the boy, this time the musicteller has a stick with him that he used for leaning as he made his way deeper to the forest.

As soon as the three started walking, the scuttling sound came alive. She stopped, hair pricked by the sound. She thought that it was much closer than it was yesterday. Nefaaya looked back and saw nothing behind her.

She started walking to follow Ettran's back. The scuttling sound roared to life behind her.