“Does it hurt, Irwyn?” the delicate boy questioned as he looked at Irwyn's bandaged arm. It was now certain that Minet was in fact male. Irwyn was only certain because Daisy made them wash together the previous day.

“It does, but it's much better thanks to your mother,” Irwyn answered him from his bed. The child was almost foolishly empathetic, but he would make it far if he didn't die to that trait.

“You are brave Irwyn,” the gentle feminine voice comforted him “last summer I burned my palm on a stove, and I cried for hours. I can't image what you must feel compared to that.”

“I am just used to this sort of thing.” Irwyn said that and bit his lip: he said more than he wanted to again. Was it perhaps the current weakness of his body; or maybe it was the rampart pride Irwyn harboured despite knowing better.

“Used to it?!” Minet seemed appalled at the statement: No doubt he would bring those concerns to his mother.

“You misunderstand,” Irwyn tried to salvage the situation “what I meant to say is that I got burned in an accident before,” the boy seated next to him frowned, apparently sceptical. That was fine: He needed just a bit of further distraction and he might forget or at least delay speaking to Daisy about it.

“Let's go outside. I could use some fresh air.” Irwyn suggested and departed from his logging before the boy could stop him. He only left the house 2 times since he awoke 3 days ago. When he asked he learned that the ambush happened 5 days ago: That made today the day Irwyn should had returned to the Blackburg mansion. Things would begin to stir soon.

It was already past noon when Irwyn and Minet left the house. The sun shined over the snow covered village; or perhaps encampment would be a better term for it. There were only a few wooden houses at the core which were reserved for important figures white the rest of people apparently lived in large fur tents.

The omnipresent pickaxes and the filthon people's faces gave away that this place was filled with miners and their families. Irwyn wasn’t sure what this place was, but it was most likely they were mining crystalized mana. Unlike any other continent the North had abundance of it. It was in fact quite possible that the North had more sources of crystalized mana than all of the other continents combined. It was not a coincidence that it became the cradle of mages and sorcerers.

“...Absolutely not!” the moment he stepped out Irwyn heard Daisy's raised voice at the edge of his senses; that meant it was way out of what could be considered earshot so he eavesdropped. She sounded rather furious, uncommon for someone like her.

“Daisy, I really respect what you do for our people: You saved my life more than once, but this is beyond us. If we cross the nobles they will not leave a single woman or child alive. We have no idea who is looking for him or why.” A male argued with her, but it seemed futile.

“I don't want to repeat myself,” she shot him down and left with loud steps. The man who spoke could only helplessly sigh.

“Irwyn, are you alright?” Minet next to him and with obvious worry since Irwyn did seem to freeze when they left the building.

“Yes, I am alright. I was just appreciating the clean air.” the air was actually swarming with the filth carried from the nearby mines, but that was only a detail.

“This is nothing compared to the Cliffs of Everwhite.” Minet smiled with a bit of melancholy.

“You had been there? They are hundreds of kilometers to the north.”

“Yes,” he nodded with sudden embarrassment.

“Did you use to travel a lot with your mother.”

“Yeah, we used to wander from place to place ever since I could remember, but we have stayed here for over a year now.”

“Why do you think that is?”

“I don't know. Mother refused to tell me.”

“In that case…” Irwyn was about to make a proposal when he was interrupted

“The two of you,” Irwyn suddenly heard Daisy's voice from behind him; it was far harsher than usual. He could not quite sense her without manifesting his powers, especially so if she tried to be stealthy, so she sneaked up on him “what are you doing outside.?”

“Mother, we…” Minet instantly grew panicked when he heard the tone. Daisy walked into their field of vision with both hands behind her back.

“I wanted to breathe a bit of fresh air.”

“You are still not healed; get back to bed. And you should know better Minet.”

“I am sorry, mother,” the boy replied on the verge of crying. He was only a fragile child in the end.

“Alright, go wash your face at the lake and bring me a bucket of water on your way back,” Daisy said; if she was feeling any guilt she did not let it seep into her picture perfect visage.

“Yes mother,” the child agreed dutifully swaggering away before he actually broke into tears.

“What are you still doing out here, Irwyn. Go back inside.”

“Yes,” Irwyn agreed without any qualms. Daisy followed him inside and the moment he was back in his bed she opened her mouth again.

“I will try to teach you how to replace your bandages yourself,” she stated with slight discomfort and revealed bandages she was grasping behind her back.

“I don't think I will be able to do that. I am rather clumsy with these things,” Irwyn admitted; he understood that it was not possible for him to create proper bandaging. It would just result in unnecessary pain.

“You can't know that before you try. First you need to carefully remove the old bandage,” she encouraged him with the damnable alluring voice. At least there would be no trouble with the removing; Irwyn was perfectly capable of doing that. Just to not look suspicious he slowly followed Daisy's instructions until his hand was laid bare. It was still horribly blistered, but it was getting better by the day. Irwyn faked a shutter as he looked at it.

“Now…” Daisy was about to begin he explanation when a loud horn sounded out of nowhere.

The deafening sound was clearly enchanted by some kind of magic as it pierced right through the walls as though they were not even there. In haze Minet just entered the room with a half filled bucket of water in his hands; the rest was spilled in the hallway.

“Both of you, stay here. Don't move an inch out of this room!” she commanded before whispering something under her breath. The next moment she was no longer in the house.

“What just happened?” Minet questioned, apparently at loss.

“Unexpected guests,” Irwyn bluntly stated as he stood up from his bed.

“Where are you going? Mother forbade us from going outside,” Minet blocked the way without really thinking about it. Irwyn placed his hand of the boy's shoulder.

“You will make it far as long as you don't die along the way. This won't be the last time the two of us meet,” Irwyn said and injected mana into Minet’s shoulder; the boy almost immediately lost consciousness, and Irwyn gently sat him next to the bed.

“Sleep well,” Irwyn whispered as he left the room.