Scarlett held the thick wool shawl close as she looked out across the water. She stood at the bow of a ship, traveling northeast, down a steady stream that stretched out miles before her.

The Three Streams river was wide. Wider than any river she’d seen. They were close to the western bank, and the other shore was far in the distance, outlined by rocky outcroppings and the low, hilly area north of Kilsfell. It made for a rather dull scenery for any listless maritime passengers.

This was the first time she’d traveled on a body of water like this for any longer than a few minutes, and although it was a somewhat novel experience, she couldn’t say she was especially fond of it. Seasickness hadn’t proven to be an issue, fortunately, but it was much colder than she thought it would have been. Even though the sun stood high in the sky the temperatures were still declining as autumn began settling on the land. They had also been subjected to chilly winds for a while, which might have something to do with the large mountain range immediately to their west. Maybe. She wasn’t a meteorologist, so she couldn’t say.

The ship they were on wasn’t particularly large, lacking all but a tiny sail at its center that felt far too small, even for this vessel. A group of rowers had been working hard for the few last hours to maintain their speed, though Scarlett imagined the river’s flow helped a bit as well. Still, they weren’t moving fast. She had long since stopped counting the larger ships she’d seen travel past them.

Unfortunately, this vessel had been their best option under their current circumstances.

They had taken the Kilnstone to Angersong Post earlier this morning, after her staff had somehow managed to arrange passage for their group. It had actually gone much faster than what she feared. But six days had still passed since Fynn’s awakening, and they were probably skirting on the edge of what time they had left by now.

Scarlett had considered whether it wouldn’t be quicker to charter a ship in Freybrook, making the journey all the way from there, but Fynn had been unconscious up till two days prior, and there also didn’t seem to be many ships willing to stop near their destination.

So instead, after they’d arrived in Angersong Post earlier today—which turned out to be one of the few places that was no larger here than it had been in the game, not being much more than a village on a thin piece of arid land, with a small forest nearby—they had instead gathered up a bunch of the local men and convinced them to bring Scarlett’s party up north with one of their ships. It had cost a few thousand solars to get things moving on such short notice, but she didn’t really have the privilege to care about things like budgeting at the moment.

With Fynn having been unconscious for far longer than she had expected—possibly a consequence of them interrupting him when he was first awakening—the stress had built up. At one point, Scarlett had been afraid he wouldn’t wake up in time at all, which would have spelled disaster. Then, when he did wake up, he’d appeared somewhat out of it. Scarlett had tried to roughly explain the situation, but he hadn’t seemed to care much. Not even the fact that she had shared some of his past with the others had brought much reaction. Instead, he’d been entirely focused on leaving to deal with his awakening.

It had taken some real persuading on her part for him to wait until they could take the Kilnstone and the rest could join him. And he had been antsy ever since then.

Currently, he was sitting at the back of the ship, absorbed in his own little world. Scarlett assumed that was another consequence of the awakening itself, though she wasn’t sure about the particulars. She just knew that the longer he went without performing the first trial in the Howling Gale’s Haunt, the more it’d affect him. Eventually, he would lose control completely.

“We’re pulling in near that cliff!” a gruff voice called out from the center of the vessel. Scarlett turned to look as a burly man pointed towards an outcropping to their left, shouting further orders at the men manning the ship.

Her eyes turned to the others in her party who also sat at the back. It was the only section of the ship that had space for them to sit around. She’d gone up to the bow because she was tired of huddling together with everybody, though it was only marginally better here with the wind beating at her. Garside had repeatedly gone up to check that things were alright, giving her this shawl, among other things.

Rosa had also refrained from sitting at the back. Instead, she was sitting on her lonesome on a small, uncomfortable-looking crate at the center of the ship, near the rowers. The bard had started the trip with her usual merry display, pulling jokes and playing songs for the crew to enjoy. But she’d stopped at some point when Scarlett wasn’t paying attention, shifting to tuning her klert with a distant look on her face.

Scarlett was pretty sure it didn’t take that long to tune the instrument.

She observed Rosa as the ship started moving closer to the shore. Her concerns regarding the woman had grown since talking with her the week before. This facet of her character wasn’t something Scarlett had witnessed in the game, and it was always hard to judge the woman’s state because of how she often carried herself. But it felt like these bouts of melancholy, or whatever it was, were growing more and more common.

Scarlett could probably understand where it came from, but it had still surprised her the first time she’d noticed it. She was still hoping it was just her imagination. Or that she was jumping to conclusions because of her game knowledge. There was enough on her plate with Fynn’s issues right now, so if something else was to crop up, there wasn’t a guarantee that she could deal with it.

Eventually, she shifted her gaze to the approaching shore. To the right of the cliff they were aiming toward, the shoreline consisted of a long bed of stones that stretched northwards. Following the bank with her eyes, she saw paths that led up to a more elevated area where there were signs of a settlement. They had reached Dimfrost.

The village was located close to the northern border of the Whitdown Mountains. Here, the closest mountaintops were actually visible, compared to how most of them had been hidden by clouds further down south. Soon, they’d be climbing up those mountains.

Overall, it took about ten minutes for the ship to get lodged on the stones in a safe enough manner that it wouldn’t damage the ship and allow all the passengers to get off. Most of the crew also took this opportunity to rest on some of the larger rocks. After leaving Scarlett and her gang, they would soon continue back to Angersong Post. She had considered getting them to stay here until she and her party were finished, but she doubted she could get any of them to agree to that without paying a king’s ransom.

She took one last look at her party. Allyssa and Shin were decked out in their usual Shielder attire, looking about as prepared as one could expect. Rosa had her klert strapped over her shoulder, back to wearing her usual smile now that things were moving again. Scarlett had procured some decent traveling attire for the woman, as well as giving her some simple magical equipment gathered from their different dungeon runs. It wasn’t anything special, mostly just a couple of leather bracers and other items that raised some resistances and such, but it was the best they’d found for now.

Garside, in comparison, wore an interesting set of what looked like studded leather armor. Instead of leather, however, it was some sort of black fabric, similar to ordinary wool. It was clear he hadn’t worn it for some time, being a bit too wide along some seams and around the shoulders. Still, it made the old butler look a lot more adventurous than Scarlett was used to. He was also in charge of the [Bag of Juham], which hung across his left shoulder.

She wasn’t sure exactly what kind of armor it was, but he had assured her it had served him well through many conflicts in the past, and would be more than enough for him now. It was almost definitely better than anything she could give him, at least. And considering how he was probably the most powerful member of their group, that made sense.

She turned to the last in their group. Fynn was staring off towards the mountain peaks with a focused look, as if he was listening to something the others couldn’t hear.

Scarlett was indeed stressed about the whole situation, but the usually innocent—if somewhat boorish—young man was without a doubt the one worst affected by the delay in getting here.

Finding that everyone seemed ready, they set out and followed the shore and climbed up the paths towards Dimfrost. At the top of a small hill was the building that Scarlett had spotted from the water. It looked to be an old outpost, presumably built to look out over the river. It was a small ramshackle shed with a stone fire pit next to it. Neither looked to have been used for a while.

Passing by, they continued up. When they reached the crest of the path they were climbing, they were afforded a view of a wide valley leading down to the northwest, surrounded by high cliffsides. Nestled in the valley was a village, with wooden and stone buildings spread out across the land. There weren’t many people moving around however, and the far end of the valley was blocked off by a massive barrier of stone that almost looked like it might have been carved straight out of one of the nearby mountainsides.

“Is this Dimfrost?” Allyssa asked, gazing out over the valley.

“It is,” Scarlett said. She turned to look at Fynn. “Do you wish to visit them before we continue?”

He fervently shook his head. “No. Not now. They’d want to come.” He pointed to a narrow passage that began at the mouth of the valley, leading into the mountains to their left. “We don’t have to enter the village at all.”

Scarlett’s eyes followed the path. It continued up the base of the nearest mountain but quickly disappeared among the steep ridges. It might not be an issue for Fynn and his people, but the thought of climbing all that certainly didn’t enthuse her. While over a month of training had helped her get in much better shape than originally, she was still far off from what she would describe as ‘athletic’.

She glanced back at Garside, who had an unreadable expression on his face.

He was pretty old as well. She had no idea if his strength—as, she presumed, a magic caster—did anything for his stamina. She also didn’t have any stamina-boosting items to help. The only one she’d gotten so far was the [Plate of Torn Resilience], which sacrificed HP for stamina. And she’d sold that long ago.

There should be an item like that after defeating the first boss here in the Howling Gale’s Haunt at least, so hopefully she’d get her hands on that. In the future, when she didn’t have to prioritize other things, she might also have Allyssa make some stamina potions. For now, they would just have to make do, though.

She prayed that she didn’t end up giving the old butler a stroke or something.

They set down towards the valley, veering off onto the path Fynn had pointed out. It was obvious Fynn wanted to go faster, but Scarlett had gotten him to promise not to go off on his own. While she knew where the Howling Gale’s Haunt’s entrance was in theory, the Whitdown Mountains were bound to be one of those places that was a lot larger in reality than it had been in ‘Chronicle of Realms’. They didn’t have time to search through the range by themselves just to find it, so his guidance was vital.

Thankfully, the path they were climbing wasn’t as bad as she had feared. There was a clear trail up the foot of the mountain, which was relatively bare of trees and other vegetation. The section they were climbing also wasn’t overly steep, so while she definitely had to pause to get her breath back at some sections—and was certain to feel some serious soreness in her legs later on—they made some good headway, with Fynn leading.

After about two hours of trekking, they reached an overhang where this section of the mountain connected with another, smaller mountain further into the range. Scarlett inwardly let out a sigh when they stopped near it. This part was another point on the list of things she wasn’t terribly excited about.

Fynn looked down the steep precipice. “Now we go down.”

The others all looked at him.

“...You’re not serious, are you?” Allyssa asked.

“I am,” he replied. He walked even closer to the edge, leaning over with almost his whole body—Scarlett felt deeply uncomfortable at the sight—and pointed down at the mountainside.

Scarlett didn’t bother going closer and checking as the others did. She already knew what was there. A small crevice on the face of the mountain, which they would have to climb down to.

“We’re going down there?” Allyssa sat down on her knees and peered over the edge, one hand firmly grasped around Shin’s leg. “How?!”

Fynn gave her a bewildered look. “We climb?”

She stared at him. “We’re hundreds of meters up, and there’s barely anything to grab hold of here. We’ll die if we fall!”

Fynn furrowed his brows. “I learned to do this when I was six.”

Allyssa shook her head in disbelief. “The more I hear about you, the more amazed I am. Are you even human?”

Fynn looked like he was about to answer her, then paused and look at Scarlett. “I thought she told you? She already knows everything.”

“I only shared what was necessary with them. If you wish to tell them more, that is up to you.”

Scarlett was unsure what was going through his mind as he looked at her for several seconds.

“I think I might be able to make this climb, but not everyone can,” Shin spoke up, gathering everyone’s attention. He glanced at Scarlett. “Is there a plan?”

Garside took a step forward, clearing his throat. “I believe this is where I involve myself. My Lady has already prepared for this scenario.” He pulled off the [Bag of Juham] hanging over his shoulder and extracted a set of thick ropes, iron pitons, and leather belts to tie it all to.

Scarlett had asked him to procure it all before they left and, remembering what it had been like when she last did this with Kat, took some extra precautions this time. The butler had given her an odd look at the request, but as with most things, he carried out her order without issue. He also seemed to have a flair for the dramatic she hadn’t known about, judging from how he announced it like that.

His exact thoughts regarding this whole situation were a mystery, however. She knew he’d been in contact with Evelyne about things, but she didn’t know how much the younger Hartford sister had shared about their situation. It certainly seemed like the old man had accepted the sudden changes in Scarlett’s personality with grace, at least. And for now, that was enough for her.

“Well, well~” Rosa hummed as she picked up one of the ropes. “I expected no less from our resident Baroness."

Scarlett saw Garside frown slightly at the woman’s speech, but he stayed quiet.

“It’ll still take a while to get down there,” Shin said, peering over the cliff edge. “If we’re doing it safely like this, it’ll probably take up to an hour.”

Fynn scowled. “What?”

“We can’t all go down at once. Preparing all the equipment and a way to climb down will also take a while.”

“That’s too slow.” Fynn’s tone grew serious."We need to get there faster. They’re calling."

“Who’s they?” Allyssa asked, but Fynn didn’t answer. Instead, his eyes focused on Scarlett and the edge, moving back and forth between them.

For a second, Scarlett thought he was thinking about continuing on alone, but just as she was about to speak, he stepped closer to her and lifted her up in his arms. Her eyes widened. “What are you—”

A cry escaped her as the air surged up around them and Fynn leaped off the edge. A sinking feeling tore its home in her stomach as their speed increased at a terrifying rate. Her mind froze for a moment at the stone protrusions on the ground moving closer, and she unwillingly closed her eyes as she reflexively activated [Sidhe’s Flowing Garbs]. Suddenly a powerful gust pushed at them from underneath and the side, followed by a jolt through her entire body as they landed on hard ground.

Opening her eyes, she saw they were now inside the crevice.

As Fynn let her down on the ground, Scarlett had to take a moment just to regain her balance, feeling a tide of anger well up from inside.

She turned to glare at Fynn. “Never do that again without my permission.”

He paused and gaped at her, quietly opening and closing his mouth. As if he didn’t realize what he’d just done wrong.

She felt a serious urge to teach the little fool a lesson and snap at him some more, but she forced herself to rein some of it in as she took a deep breath. Her heart was beating like crazy, and she’d seriously thought she was going to die there for a moment. Voices could be heard calling out from above.

After taking a short while to calm down, she looked back at Fynn. “Return up and inform them that I am fine. If it is within your abilities, you can also bring them down in the same manner. However,” she stressed the last word and locked eyes with him. “Make certain that you do not do so without both a warning and their explicit approval.”

He looked back at her with was probably a mix between embarrassment and displeasure—which just made her even more irritated—but soon gave her a brief nod and disappeared out the opening of the cave.

She let out an audible sigh as he left. It didn’t matter how much more efficient it was. This was most definitely worse than last time with Kat.

Turning away from the opening, she looked deeper inside the crevice. It was a few meters wide at the mouth, continuing just far enough into the mountain for the light from outside to not reach all the way. She put her hand down to her waist, where her [Pouch of Holding] was tightly fastened, and pulled out a pair of black-tinted glasses. Putting them on, she squinted her eyes as the light from outside grew marginally stronger and the surrounding darkness cleared up significantly.

There was a stone obelisk placed at the far end of the crevice, with peculiar markings etched into its face. Several of them resembled fangs and wolves, but she wasn’t sure about the rest. They were centered on a circular space on the stone that had been carved into the shape of a handprint.

A loud scream sounded out from behind as Scarlett felt the wind flow past her. She turned to see Fynn land at the opening with a flustered Allyssa in his arms. The young Shielder quickly climbed off him, hand pressed against her chest. Fynn himself immediately disappeared once again.

“I take it you are not fond of heights?” Scarlett asked, stepping over to the girl.

“I don’t mind as long as I’m not falling down them.” Allyssa raised her free hand to fix her hair, also checking that her goggles were still there.

Scarlett gave a slow nod. “I am inclined to agree.”

The young Shielder’s gaze moved past Scarlett and into the darkness behind her. “Wait, does this even lead anywhere?”

“It does.”

Allyssa gave her a surprised look, but seemed to accept it without further questions. She pointed at Scarlett. “Are those the enchanted glasses you ordered?”

“They are, yes.” Scarlett touched them with a finger. “They are quite useful. If you are curious, however—” She waved her hand and conjured a large sphere of fire closer to the roof. Its bright, orange light swallowed the dark darkness surrounding them.

Allyssa blinked a few times, but then her eyes moved towards the stone obelisk. “What’s that?”

“That is a good question,” Scarlett replied, looking towards the obelisk. “Perhaps we should wait for the others before we pursue the matter any further, however.”

They did not have to wait long, as within a few minutes, Fynn had climbed up and jumped down with the other members of their party. Seeing him carry an old man like Garside—in what almost amounted to a princess carry—was certainly a sight to behold, though Scarlett wasn’t quite sure if the amusement she derived from the odd sight was enough to assuage the remaining irritation she felt towards the young man.

“Fynn,” she eventually said as their group pressed together in the crevice's opening, with Fynn having placed himself the furthest away from Garside. While the butler had stayed quiet down here, Scarlett had her suspicions that the butler had some choice words he’d shared with Fynn back up at the top. “I believe it might be time for you to demonstrate what it is we must do next.”

Fynn threw one look at her, then started walking deeper into the crevice. “It’s simple,” he said, stopping in front of the obelisk. Raising his hand, he touched it to the center of the stone where the handprint was. A brief flash of light filled the space as he vanished.

The others all stared on.

“Is... Is that a Kilnstone?” Allyssa asked.

“I do not believe so,” Scarlett said.

“But it just teleported him somewhere, didn’t it?!”

“The Kilnstones are not the only artifacts capable of magical translocation. Have you forgotten the pavilion in Temisbrook Glade?”

“Oh...right.”

“So, we’re following wolf-boy through that, then?” Rosa gestured towards the obelisk.

Scarlett started walking towards the stone object. “It would appear that is our only avenue.”

“Is it safe?” Allyssa asked.

Scarlett stopped in front of it, throwing one last glance back at the others. “I would certainly hope so,” she said and raised her hand.

Garside stepped forward. “My Lady, wai—”

Her palm touched the cold stone and everything turned white.