Dia’s ears were twitching as they mana-walked towards the northeast, where Farah County was situated at. The reason for that was fairly simple; Farah herself was busy plying her aunt with lots of questions, each of them asking about Dia as a child. Of course, Aunt Lumine had taken the necessary precautions by pretending to call her Isolde once more twice, before being suitably reminded that Dia was in disguise as herself.

The whole set-up, however, was more than enough to make Dia doubt herself over and over.

“Aunt Lumine” —Farah had taken it upon herself to claim familial relations with her aunt and thereby Princess Dia— “who was more skilled at a sword? Princess Dia or our Dia?”

A flicker of amusement crossed Aunt Lumine’s face, and the sorrowful visage she had up almost all the time weakened for a few seconds. “Well, erm…both of them are equally matched?”

“Oh. Wow. The princess sure is talented, if she can match up to Dia in her sword skills.”

Dia wanted to roll her eyes at Farah’s serious countenance. It had been sometime since the object of her worship had vanished, but for some reason, the countess still remained a diehard fan. Even if she liked the princess and what she represented, there had to be other people of importance, right?

Rubbing her head, Dia watched on as Farah continued to ask questions. Most of them were about comparisons between Dia and the, uh, real thing, which made it incomparably easy for Aunt Lumine to reply. By the time noon rolled around, Countess Farah had been suitably convinced that Dia and the real princess were equally talented, which, in the countess’ own words, was why Dia was the princess’ double.

Settling into the shadow of a nice tall tree, Dia busied herself with setting up some rudimentary defences. She hadn’t had the chance to display those habits back when she was travelling with Risti, but now that she had so many spare artefacts on hand, tossing out a few to ensure that their lunch wouldn’t be disturbed was nothing much.

At the same time, Farah started setting up a small fire, gathering some firewood and creating a small flame to cook some stew. The food and utensils used here all came from Aunt Lumine — she had a storage artefact that contained all the necessities for travelling.

That storage artefact was also why she could wear a flowing robe and look ethereal the whole time; if she had to wear a backpack, the effect just wouldn’t be the same.

“Child, why are you busying yourself with such trinklets?”

Dia, who was placing the last of her artefacts, looked up. “Why not? It’s safer, and if animals are attracted by our stew, we don’t need to waste time chasing them away.”

“…That’s your reason? Granted, it is a fairly good reason, but might not be it troublesome?”

“Not at all, aunt,” Dia replied. “And it’s also safer when we’re sleeping or resting. See? Farah’s just humming away and pouring all sorts of meat into her stew now.”

“Hmm. Well, in that case…” Multiple artefacts appeared in her hand. “Here, dear child. All yours, for you to play with. They were lying down unused anyway. You’ll make better use of them after a while. Just set them down on the ground and press the button here. You can use them ten times a day, and they can block quite a few attacks from bi-folders too.”

“Bi-folders?” Dia gulped.

“Weaklings, yes,” Aunt Lumine replied dismissively. “They might be of a threat to you, but with these artefacts, you can at least sleep at ease outside. Now that I think about it, it’s a rather good use for one-folders like you two.”

Chuckling, she walked over to Farah, before giving her the same gifts. Dia didn’t quite understand why her aunt had ten of the same artefacts, but the minds of important people were hard to fathom. After setting up the new artefacts, Dia returned to the stew that was currently boiling. It was a rather nice pot, and the surrealness of eating well-cooked food elegantly outdoors made her head light for a moment.

“Heh heh.” Farah rubbed her hands together. “How nice to have an actual proper meal outdoors. One less day of eating barbequed food and preserved meat.”

“You kids should get a storage artefact,” said the Lamenter of Sorrowful Partings. “Really useful for you kids.”

“It’s not a matter of ‘should’, aunt,” Dia replied. “Who doesn’t want one? But those things are so rare nowadays. I don’t think it’s even possible to make them anymore.”

Aunt Lumine ladled some stew onto her own bowl, before sniffing at it. “Well, you could make do with compound artefacts. There should be some that can shrink the size of items inside, while removing the issue of weight. If you combine them together, you get an approximation of a spatial storage artefact. Of course, it won’t be as convenient as the real deal, but it still will improve you camping life outdoors.”

“I’m hoping that I won’t need to camp outdoors that many times, though,” Dia replied.

“I am a Named folder, and I still camp outdoors all the time.” Aunt Lumine began to take a few sips. “That’s just how life is, if you want to become someone strong. You’ll have to leave your safe spaces, venture into the wild, earn a keep suitable for your needs…things like that, if you don’t want to be a pawn in the approaching great game.”

The air crackled at those words.

“Aunt Lumine?”

“Yes, you know what I’m referring to, no? Six hundred thousand years ago, the Primordial Pantheon overthrew the ancient ones. Sixty thousand years ago, the Six Gods of Virtue ripped the Primordial Pantheon from their thrones. Six thousand years ago, the Coloured Gods crushed the Six Gods of Virtue.” The Lamenter of Sorrowful Partings smiled. “Soon, the Coloured Gods will understand the inevitability of destiny. In less than a millennium…”

The stew’s aroma weakened as her voice died away, but those words continued to bounce off the inwards of Dia’s head. The familiar sensation iron hammers pounding on her skull descended once more, and Dia braced herself, but before she could sense anything, a thunderclap drowned out the rest of her aunt’s words.

The echoing utterances of her aunt began to dissipate, and the torrent of pain Dia was expecting ebbed away, like ice in the sun.

“Sorry, child.” The Lamenter of Sorrowful Partings bowed her head, a broken skillstick falling from her hands. “My musings have exposed you to certain…unsavoury influences. You are a one-folder. There are many things you cannot come into contact with yet.”

Dia winced. “Things I cannot come into contact with yet? What does that have to do with being one-folder?”

“Many things,” Aunt Lumine replied. “That’s just how it is, so don’t glare at me like that. Burning one’s lifespan isn’t just for power, it is also for authority. Continue on your path. You’ll understand eventually.”

After leaving these annoyingly cryptic words behind, the stately Lamenter of Sorrowful Partings returned her attention to the bowl of stew in her hand, digging in without a care in the world. Dia felt her lip twitch randomly, and then decided not to pay too much attention to her aunt’s image.

It was good enough that she had managed to escape the mind-shattering pain earlier — as for her aunt’s image…forget it.

“Hmm.” Aunt Lumine placed her empty bowl down, and as Dia goggled at the speed in which she had finished her meal, she said, “You seem experienced. As if you’ve encountered a similar pain before. What happened?”

“The…” Dia glanced at Farah, who was clearly trying to listen in, and hurriedly paraphrased her next words. “The true identities of those who challenged the Six Gods of Virtue, and how many remained.”

“I see.” Her aunt stretched her arms. “Yes, that is not a secret you should be privy to. But that implies you have been in contact with minimally a tetra-folder. What happened?”

“Well, I was travelling with a friend of mine, and she also had an aunt…”

“…I don’t feel that special anymore, for some reason.” The sorrowful aura around Aunt Lumine deepened. “But by all means, do go on. Still, just what have you been up in the past four months? How did you make so many friends?”

“Long story,” Dia replied, before picking up her bowl, which had been neglected through and through. “I’ll tell you everything over the next few days. It should make for a good distraction.”

“Sure.” She lowered her voice. “About your father…”

“Don’t tell anyone about me yet,” Dia replied. “Shadows are chasing.”

“Still chasing?”

“Not sure.”

She nodded. “Very well. He isn’t that worried; no news is good news. Make sure to stay out of news. News is bad.”

Farah, who was listening to their conversation, had a weird look on her face. Stifling an urge to laugh, Dia forced her face to remain impassive and nodded in reply, before turning to eat.

Dia had a feeling that if she spoke anymore, Farah might just pick up on some hints. It was best to stop her here before her aunt gave the game away, which manifested in the form of one of those absurdly sweet bars.

As Dia watched her aunt stuff her face with those HELPS, she took a long breath. This trip to Farah County was going to be a very long one.