The eighth Moon. This wasn’t the first time Dallion had heard about it, but definitely the first and only time he had seen it carved or drawn anywhere. According to Nil, there were still arguments if the Moon even existed. Some academics insisted that it was a metaphor, others said that it was a representation of the Star, others still speculated that it was one of many Moons that remained hidden, watching over the world.

The dryad refused to say anything about the Moon, of course, as did Harp. As for everyone else, they had no idea.

“There are seven more depictions of it,” Euryale said. She had spent a while examining the corridor and had found that the moon was present in a few more scenes. Sadly, there was nothing that gave any idea of its significance. Neither the symbols, nor the carvings provided any additional information.

“Five siblings,” Dallion said, trying to lighten the mood slightly. “You must have had a fun childhood.”

“Six,” the gorgon corrected. “And no, not much. Half were sheltered, the others didn’t believe in consequences.”

“Any idea what color it is?” Dallion glances at the wall again.

“Colorless. Which probably means crystal.” She paused for a moment. “Or anything.”

“It’s said that the color of the star is black.”

“At this point you know as much as I.” A secret the size of an orange appeared in the gorgon’s chest. She was lying, and in the sort of way when Dallion lied when dealing with something, he didn’t want others to get involved.

If you could provide me any info now would be a good time, Moons, Dallion thought.

Nothing happened. That was expected, if somewhat disappointing. Deep inside, Dallion was hoping that one of the Moons would emerge and reveal some long-lost secret. However, nothing of the sort happened.

“Have you seen anything of the sort?” Dallion probed the water.

“A few times.” The size of the secret diminished, though it didn’t disappear altogether. “It was present in a few of the finds in the wilderness. Condition was worse than here, but pretty much the same thing. Then again, I’ve seen a lot more that had six Moons, or seven.”

“Six, seven, eight.” Thinking about it, Dallion wanted more than ever to join Eury, Jiroh, and the rest of the hunters on an expedition in the wilderness. However, for some reason, he didn’t feel it was the right time to ask. “We should continue the forging lessons,” he said instead. “I’ve already made ingots of everything I could think of.”

“Once the festival’s done.” The gorgon slid her fingers along Dallion’s cheek. “I promise.”

That didn’t feel too convincing, but Dallion nodded. It wasn’t like he had all this free time, either.

“I’ll be heading back. It’s time I head out scouting.”

“Sure.” Dallion wanted to stay a bit longer and examine the walls a bit more, but that was something he could get back to when she was gone. “What lies ahead?”

“According to March, nothing interesting. Steppes, animals, hills and rivers… the usual. It should be safe till the next temple, but she wants to be sure.”

“I can have Lux travel with you,” Dallion offered. The bird chirped. “He likes wide open spaces.”

“You’re sweet, but no. He’s better close to you, as is the other one. Besides, I’ll be fine. The role of the scout isn’t to fight, it’s just to get a feeling of what’s going on—in this case tell March what she already knows.”

“Steppes, hills, and valleys?” Dallion repeated.

“Pretty much. A few rivers. Possible settlement remains.”

Euryale put both hands on Dallion’s shoulders, then pulled him closer for a kiss. Dallion wasn’t sure if this had become her way of answering difficult questions, but wasn’t going to complain about it, definitely not with the perception level he had. Even so, it felt like it ended too soon. After everything, even when working, Euryale continued to be both a flirt and a tease.

Almost all of the party members were asleep as Dallion and Eury returned to the main temple hall. Vend, wasn’t.

“Took you a while,” Vend said, giving both of them a stern glance. “Anything I should know?”

“Nope.” The gorgon smiled in the sort of way a tiger smiled before ripping off something’s head.

“Better go. March won’t be happy if you’re late.”

“I’m sure you’ll know.” Eury crossed her arms. “Any other orders from the flawless?”

“Don’t fight unless you have to.”

“Right.”

Euryale turned around and left. A few seconds later, Vend too walked away. He didn’t even attempt to say anything to Dallion. That was for the better, especially after what Dallion was thinking of doing.

Nil, is taking a piece of temple considered desecration? Dallion asked.

That’s the general idea. Temples were made to worship and communicate with the Moons. Breaking them tends to send the wrong message.

Even in this place?

I see your point. There was a slight pause, which the echo took to consider the possibilities. I’m afraid you’ve entered unknown territory, dear boy. Logic suggests that you’ll get in serious trouble if you do something foolish, then again, I’m sure you’ll be able to come up with a solution. You usually do. Sometimes it even works.

Normally, Dallion would consider that an insult, but his mind had already started plotting. There were a few things he wanted to do. All of them ranged from reckless to extremely dangerous. However, he also had a good feeling about it.

There was little doubt that breaking and stealing something from a temple would get him in trouble. However, he didn’t need to steal anything. Instead, he could do what thieves did in all the action movies back on Earth—make a mold.

Rushing back to the corridor, Dallion found the eight instances of the carvings, then summoned a few ingots of gold. Once he had them, he had Lux warm them enough to be a bit more malleable and pressed them against the sections of the eight moons. In a matter of minutes, the result was unsummoned, returning to Dallion’s own realm, where Gen was to take over.

Got them, his echo replied.

Get Harp to make a copy out of ice and then… do stuff.

Fine, you have fun, while I do all the work, Gen sighed.

You can get Shield to help as well. And maybe Nil too. The old man’s probably itching to expand his knowledge on something not in the library.

I heard that, dear boy. And actually, it’s not the worst of your ideas. However, one thing to keep in mind. Now that you’ve started this game, please see it through.

Evening came, and with it so did March. Those who managed to get enough rest got up, putting on their backpacks, ready for the trip to come. Vend made one final check, then on March’s order, the party continued.

The first part of the trip was fairly calm. Dallion had feared that with the guardian gone, all the predators would fill the area previously occupied by the jackalears. However, that turned out not to be the case. On the contrary. A lot of the smaller creatures had become more noticeable, including birds.

Despite the calm and flat terrain, Dallion couldn’t help but feel slightly nervous knowing that the moons were watching him. The scary part came from knowing that sometime in the past, the same moons had watched over a world of dryads, only to have that world fall into decay and abandonment.

No one stopped to rest, reminding Dallion of the marches during the chainling hunt. At the time, he had been taught how to sleep in the realms of his clothes so as not to waste time in the real world. Now he had the stamina and endurance to keep walking for two days straight without food or rest.

“No break for food?” Dallion asked Vend. As being one of the fortunate few designated to be in front, he didn’t have a lot of options with whom to talk. March was out of the question, Eury wasn’t here, and everyone he knew well was further behind.

“There will be food in the morning,” Vend replied. “That’s when we’ll rest.”

“Is there a point in resting during the day? Even with the Moons and a high perception level, it’s easier during the day.”

“There are fewer distractions in the dark.”

“What do you mean?”

Vend didn’t reply right away, as if waiting for a go ahead from March. When the captain didn’t say anything for several seconds, he finally continued.

“Ruins. Think of this world as a—”

“Sword,” Dallion smirked as he interrupted.

“Sword.” Vend nodded, not too pleased. “The heart is somewhere around the hilt. That’s where the capital and the major cities should be. The further away we get from there, the more backwater the settlements. The town of tears must have been a military outpost to warn against an invasion coming from the starting temple. That is before it took on a later role.”

“Why is seeing cities a bad thing? I thought our goal was to find out what happened here?”

“Yes and no. Our main goal is to mend the word and fulfil its destiny.” That was a lie. Dallion could see it clearly. “We must get to the area that needs cleaning and clean it from any cracklings and other nasties. There’s no point in being reminded of what’s happened to this place until then.”

“Won’t the knowledge help?”

“Maybe it will, but that’s not for you to decide. Your only job is to help, grow, and don’t die early on.”

That was another lie. Through his emotions, Vend had pretty much told Dallion that he had a part to play further on. The question was what that part was. It definitely had to do with him being from another world. Come to think of it, there was a large chance that Euryale was also here for the same purpose. Having a hunter was no doubt a positive, but more and more it was looking like that wasn’t the only reason for March’s decision.

You’re getting a bit paranoid, dear boy, Nil said. This isn’t the first time Eury’s been a scout in guild business.

There’s no denying what she is, though.

True, but you have it backwards. The reason she’s invited is because she’s that good. She’s that good because, like you, she doesn’t have limitations.

“You don’t like Eury much, do you?” Dallion asked.

“The expedition could have done without her,” Vend sounded annoyed. “Pick up the pace. We need to reach the hills before dawn.”

When dawn came, the hills were still a significant distance away. The ruins that Vend had spoken of weren’t. At first glance, there was nothing special about them. Most of them were mere statues of now unidentified shapes, sticking out of the ground. Sometimes there was what could have been a building nearby, sometimes there wasn’t even that.

As the hills got nearer, so did the number of ruins, and this time they weren’t a single structure out in the wilderness. Here, they were entire settlements.

An eerie feeling of déjà vu shook Dallion. The closer he got to the villages, the more they reminded him of Dherma. When the village he’d been born in had fallen upon hard times, it had gone through the same process. First, some of the outer buildings were abandoned and left to slowly crumble. If there had been any awakened at this point, they must have focused on the more important buildings further in, or had taken the opportunity to leave the settlement altogether and move to a better environment. Maybe they had gone further in, towards the capital of this world, or had been the first to try and escape it. The end result remained the same.

“Has anyone tried to rebuild these?” Dallion asked, looking at the distance.

“Only the Town of Tears,” Vend replied. “The rest were too far gone.”

“Do things change further on?”

“Definitely, but not in the way you think.”