After the eighth consecutive failure, I let out an angry grunt, no longer interested in trying. So far, Lenore and I had attempted eight different ways to understand the warding around Phalladri and while we had gleaned some information, the only thing we truly knew was that we didn’t know enough.

The magical protections around town were sophisticated and subtle, not tremendously powerful but incredibly tricky, making it difficult to guess how many there were and how they interacted. According to our understanding, the outer layer was merely the first part, set up to mark beings as they passed through and the inner layer we had barely glimpsed from above was actually the primary defence that you could only bypass if you were marked.

That combination made the city quite secure as trying to bypass the outer layer would render you vulnerable to detection from the inner layer, which was set up to only focus on unmarked people, making the amount of power it could apply to the problem tremendous.

Avoiding pursuit was often accomplished by becoming a needle in a haystack, but the combination of magical warding made sure to detect all the hay beforehand and if a needle tried to slip through the cracks, it would immediately get noticed. And trying to look like a piece of hay, while getting marked for further examination wasn’t easy, the way the magic seeped into people as they passed through the outer ring meant that my Twilight Cloak would likely be defeated by it. Or rather, I could either let the magic seep in and have it possibly detect those problematic traits and titles I had accumulated or I could keep it away and thus make myself vulnerable to the detection mechanism in the inner ring. Avoiding both seemed to be impossible, the challenge of washing my hair without getting wet.

So far, neither Lenore nor I had any idea how to circumvent the magic, even remaining in my Hallow wasn’t a surefire way to defeat their magical detections. We had attempted to carefully move into the outer layer, once with me hiding within my Hallow and once while I wasn’t inside and the magical trace she had picked up had been different each time, indicating that the formation had some sort of detection-mechanism capable of detecting my hidden presence.

“I see two different possibilities,” I told Lenore, as we hopped onto a branch some distance from the warded area.

“Oh?” she asked, quite curious, as neither of us had made real progress when it came to this problem.

“Mhm, either circumventing it and flying out to the ship, once the others have boarded or we can be tricky,” there was a mischievous grin on my face as I suggested the second option, “Let’s try something else, I think it’ll work. Move into the area again,” I told her, pushing myself into my Hallow, just as I had done before. Only now, I wasn’t just sitting inside, but I pulled on the concealment magic as well as I could morphing the environment of my Hallow into a deep, dark void and wrapping myself into that void, trying to become one with it. My mind was completely filled with the concept of concealment, the rune forming in striking clarity in my mind. All those small, tiny nuances I had learned about it were circulating as Lenore was flying towards the formation.

I thought I could feel the change, the tiny feathers in my neck sticking up from the sensation of a predator lurking somewhere unseen and I immediately tried to improve my concealment, wanting nothing more but to completely hide within the Shadows. I even tried to morph the darkness around me into that perfect, light-devouring void, the perfect Darkness that absorbed everything. Inside that void, I felt myself relax, though I also noticed that I wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long. While it was far easier to conjure the dark void up while in the darkness of my Hallow, it still took a lot of power.

The void was so strong, I couldn’t even contact Lenore so I simply waited for ten minutes before letting the Void fade away to the point that I could feel Lenore’s presence again.

“Did it work?” I asked, realising that we had left the area again.

“It worked, but can you keep that up constantly?” she asked, noticing just how much Astral Power I had used.

“No,” I admitted, feeling a little dejected, “I guess we need to cheat,” I admitted, the dejection turning into annoyance at my incapability.

“Try again,” I told her before triggering the ultimate move: Logging out.

Sitting in my capsule, I patiently waited for five minutes, so ten would pass within Road to Purgatory, before logging back in. A part of me was deeply annoyed that the only way I could think of to get around the barrier was basically cheating but in this case, results mattered more than honour. If we could get around the barrier without having to fly out to sea, and hope that no monsters decided to turn Lenore into a tasty afternoon snack before hitching a ride on the ship the others took, a bit of creative exploitation of game mechanics wasn’t too much of a problem.

“Did it work?” I asked, once my mind was synced with my Avatar again.

“The effect was akin to the effect while you weren’t in your Hallow to begin with,” Lenore confirmed, “We can’t be sure if there’s a difference between Spirit Beasts bound to someone or if there are other effects but I think this could work. We should try with Adra and Rai again,” she suggested, getting my nod of approval.

And so, instead of letting the others head into town as soon as they arrived, Adra and Rai had to each walk into the warded area and wander around for a few minutes, before walking back out, all under the watchful gaze of Lenore and I.

The results were quite encouraging, the trace on them didn’t look different to the one on Lenore after she had been in there on her own, or while I was logged out in my Hallow, giving me some confidence that sneaking in that way would work.

“I’ll have to be gone for a few days until you are on the ship. If you don’t get a cabin or some privacy, I might even have to remain gone until you reach Arbotoma,” I quietly told Sigmir, after Lenore and I were confident in our findings.

The look on Sigmir’s face was far from a happy one, a deep frown marring her normally stern face.

“I don’t like it,” she admitted, looking a little bit lost.

“There’s no other way,” I sighed, carefully caressing her face, trying to smooth out her worries.”I’d love to be with you the entire time, but I just can’t risk getting caught. If the people here knew what I’ve done, they would spare no effort to see me hang, or whatever method of painful execution is used here.”

My assurance didn’t really make her happy but it made her accept my words, especially after I took quite a bit of loving effort to coax her into happiness.

“Fine,” she finally nodded, after we had been kissing for quite some time, “I’ll miss you.”

“And I, you,” I looked into her eyes, feeling the tender emotions flooding over our bond. There were no words, maybe there didn’t need to be words, but what I felt was far more expressive than any words, poems or songs could ever be.

“How long do you think it’ll take to book passage on a boat and head out to sea? A few days, or maybe a week?” I asked, trying to estimate how long I’d have to remain gone.

There was deep regret in Sigmir’s eyes, even as the others considered the question.

“Probably at least a week,” Sigmir sighed, looking none too happy.

“Better make it two weeks,” Adra suggested, the regret in Sigmir’s getting deeper. “We need to be certain, if you return while we are within the shield, things won’t be as simple,” she reminded us and again, there was a round of sighs.

“Fine,” I nodded, giving Sigmir another, deep kiss, trying to fill the hole that would be left by a two-week separation. At least for me, it would only be one week, but for her, she’d have to endure the whole two weeks.

Finally, after trying a few times unsuccessfully, we split apart and I pushed myself into my Hallow, aware that Sigmir and I hadn’t been separated for that long ever since our meeting, almost two years ago.

With a heavy heart, I began the log-out, knowing that it would be a week until I could return to meet her again. And by all Deities out there, I hated the feeling.