(Ryla)

“Ryla, the sun is rising.” Eve said as she gently shook me awake.

I grunted and slowly pushed myself up from the cold stone floor of the cave, rubbing my eyes lazily. She handed me a pouch of water to drink but wouldn’t meet my eye for some reason. Sighing internally, I walked toward the cave entrance to stretch my limbs.

The closer I got, the more I felt the warm light of the rising sun pierce through the cold darkness of the cave. When I eventually got to the entrance of the cave, it was so bright that I had to shield my eyes briefly as I exited.

“This is the best the weather has been throughout our journey.” I marveled as I looked over the unusually calm landscape.

“Why do you think it’s so calm today?” Mayla asked behind me, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“Trying to make sense of this place is pointless. People have lost their minds and their lives trying to study the Borderlands, but no one has ever succeeded. All we know about this place comes from eyewitnesses, survivors whose minds have shattered, and salvaged records we found in ghost villages.”

“Ghost villages?”

“Yeah, they’re random settlements you find out here in the Borderlands. Oddly though, they seem completely abandoned, as if forgotten by their makers. Like the one…”

I choked on my breath.

Kalan…

“...Anyway this is the perfect opportunity for us to continue our travels, after all we don’t know how long this will last.”

“Then where should we head?” Eve asked, her fingers tapping on her chin.

“We should probably continue…”

I started to say before I was cut off by a sound we’d become all too familiar with.

“We should probably check that out first.”

I crossed the nearby sands headed in the direction of the sound until I saw a small supply cache laying neatly in the sand.

Despite knowing it was futile, I released a pulse of mana into the surrounding area. I desperately wanted to locate our helper, at least a single sign of where they used to be. It was worrying that there was someone out there that could escape the senses I trained alongside Kalan through the years.

‘If you were here, would you be able to find who’s doing this?’

It had been a few days since the last time this happened, the supplies becoming less and less frequent as Eve got closer to being fully healed. But we were thankful for the supplies nonetheless, after all finding food and water was no trivial matter out here.

Just as I was about to open the cache, however, I sensed something. It was extremely subtle, but I felt its presence.

Mana.

I quickly rummaged through the supplies, I found water skins, small food rations, and the usual bandages. However, for the first time, our mysterious helper left a note.

‘Follow’ Reading the sparse note in my head.

The mana presence I sensed was heading south of where we were, like someone had created a pathway of pure mana to lead us.

‘Great, not only is this person impossible to sense, but they’re also extremely cryptic.’

Shaking my head, I quickly stood up and showed the girls the note as I distributed the water and food evenly.

“What do you think, Ryla?” Mayla asked, handing the note back to me.

“They’ve done nothing but help so far, and if this person wanted to kill us they could have easily done so when we first arrived here. We may as well follow their instructions and see where we end up.”

“I agree with Ryla, if it weren’t for them I doubt I’d even be alive right now. So I don’t see any harm in doing this.” Eve said, which Mayla nodded her head to in response.

“Then let's head out, the quicker we get there the better.”

“Yes ma’am.” They both answered in unison.

~~~~~~~~~~

I wasn’t sure how long we had been walking, before we slowly climbed over a sand dune that allowed a village to finally come into sight.

I let out a sigh of relief at the fact we weren’t being led astray by the presence, before I turned back to look in the direction we had come from.

I could see a massive storm building in the distance as lightning bolts pranced through the clouds. In which I sent a silent prayer to the gods for allowing us to not be caught up in it.

“Alright, let’s head down there and see why we were sent here.” Getting a quick nod before we started to make our way down.

As we walked through the streets of this small village, it was easy to tell something was going on around here.

All the village natives would retreat into their homes upon seeing us, many houses were destroyed, and everything looked in disarray.

“What do you think happened here?” Eve asked, her body turning in circles to look around.

“I’m not sure.” I replied, as I turned to see a man coming towards us. “It looks like we’re about to get our answer.”

I enhanced my vision with mana to get a good look at the man approaching us, and became a little saddened at the sight. His brown hair was unkempt and looked like it hadn’t been washed in days, his clothes tattered, and his figure could only be described as malnourished.

“Hello, h-how may I help you?” He asked with a shaky voice.

“Hello sir, my name is Ryla. The one to my left is Eve, and the other to my right is Mayla. How may I address you?”

“Greetings, my name is Riley. May I ask what brought you here?”

‘I don’t think it would be smart to answer that we came from the Church, after all we don’t know if they’re sided with the Satanists or not, but I also can’t say we’re adventurers as none of us have adventurer cards.’ I thought to myself, before an answer clicked in my head.

“We were traveling through, and ended up being attacked by a group of bandits. Thankfully we were able to make it out okay, but our horses were killed in the process, also losing our way in the chaos.”

“Ah, it seems we have something in common then.”

“Yes?”

“Many months ago, a group of raiders made their homes nearby. At first it wasn’t a big deal, but then things got worse. They would break into our village at night, steal livestock from us, abduct women from their homes, kill children, and so much more. We hashed out a plan to stop them, but all of our village warriors were killed in the battle, which has forced us to live under their thumb now. They only leave us with enough food and water to barely survive, but many of us still can’t make it. I’m sure if this keeps up, we will all soon perish.”

I felt my anger burn inside me as his story went on, but I had to put it aside as Eve’s own aura began to flare out.

“I’m really sorry to hear that. Have you thought of moving?”

“How can we? Everyone here is tired, underfed, and there’s not even accounting for the impossibility of moving through the Borderlands with all the elders and children. We’re not like the nomads.” Riley said with a shudder.

“What you say makes sense, I’m extremely sorry that you’re going through this, I wish there was something we could do to help.”

“It’s fine, we shall continue to pray to the ancients of the past in hopes they shall deliver us a savior.”

‘The ancients? Like the ones who came before the gods? But that’s a fairy tale, do people really believe they exist?’

“I hope you’re right, but we must get back on our journey.”

“Sorry for keeping you, may you have safe travels.”

I quickly nodded in acknowledgment before I began to walk away.

“One last question, how often do these bandits come?” I asked over my shoulder.

“Almost every night.” He answered with a distraught expression before walking away.

“Ryla, aren’t we going to do something?! After what we just heard we can’t just leave these people here to die!” Eve asked, barely keeping her aura from leaking out.

“There’s a cave over there.” Quickly pointing a little ways off in the distance. “We will make camp there, and wait until the raiders come. As soon as they do, we will come back and slaughter them all.”

“Why wouldn’t you let them know we’re going to help them?”

“Because, we don’t know who in this village we can trust or who the information would be relayed to. It’s possible one of the villagers is working with this bandit group. While it’s true the bandits likely aren’t stronger than we are, it's best we don’t take any chances.”

‘Does our helper want us to protect the village?’

“Yeah, that makes sense.” Eve said, her demeanor and mana deflating..

“Don’t worry Eve, you’ll have the chance to take out your anger when they come. Until then let’s wait patiently.”

“Yes ma’am.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

Night had finally fallen on the village as I left the cave mouth to scout what was happening.

I was glad the weather had remained calm even now, or it would have put a real dent in my plans. But now I was able to watch over the village from a distance.

It didn’t take long for my watch to bear fruit, as a dozen raiders quickly started to descend down towards the village.

Thinking quickly I decided to send out a pulse from my mana sense to try and gadge their power strength.

‘They’re all quite weak, they shouldn’t pose any problems for the three of us.’ Hurrying back to the cave.

“It’s time.”

“Finally.” Eve quickly responded as she ran out of the cave. As Mayla and I quickly followed behind.

“There’s twelve of them, and they seem to have split off into three groups of four. We will split up and take one group each. From what I could tell, none of them are anything to worry about, but don’t hold back. Understood?” I asked, to which they both nodded in agreement.

“Good, then let's go.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

Once the three of us were in position, I spread out my shadows around the small gathering of quivering travelers to keep tabs on everything going on around us. I said that the girls would be able to handle them, but you never know what can happen in battle. Eve’s… instability right now is a worry.

I focused on my group of bandits just in time to watch them drag a woman out of her tent by her hair.

Snapping into action, I melted into the shadows and traversed the darkness until I was directly behind them. Wanting to get their attention away from the defenseless ones, as soon as I surfaced I released a portion of my aura.

They noticed me and stiffened for a second but their experience took over and they tried to shout out in warning. That second was enough time. My hands extended and I called the shadows underneath their feet. Darkness coated them like hot oil, seeping into their bodies and silencing their just escaping cries of warning.

I could feel their bodies succumbing to the weight of my mana, blood seeped from them and sizzled against the cloak of death until I heard two sickening crunches which lead to their cease of movement.

Hearing the sound of the two bodies drop, the others quickly began to turn in my direction but it was already too late.

Taking the throwing knives from my boots, I quickly let them fly without coating them in mana and followed their trajectory through the skulls of the remaining threats.

‘I should have left them all for the girls, this could have been a good experience for them.’

“Wh-who are you?” I heard the woman I had saved ask suddenly.

“We’re here to help, don’t worry about a thing just head inside this will be over quickly.”

As the woman got up and followed my instructions, I heard a scream ring out from the middle of the village.

My blood ran cold.

‘Was this too much for them? Was it too soon to leave this in their hands?’

I ran towards where the sound had come from, praying that nothing bad had happened to either Eve or Mayla. This had been the first real problem we faced since… How could I have been so-

I came to a halt as I rounded the corner of a small building. There was Eve, holding a man up by his throat with two arrows lodged in his knees. Eve remained still, just staring into his eyes with a dead expression.

The moonlight glistened off her silver hair, and skin which was shimmering from her mana enhancement. I wasn’t even sure when she had managed to learn that. Eve slowly pulled out her dagger from the sheathe on her back, before mechanically bringing it up and slitting the man's throat. As if she were trimming a flower in a garden.

Blood spurted out from his neck, coating her face and torso with its slick warmth. That seemed to snap her out of whatever trance she had been in. Her body jerked slightly and she dropped the now lifeless body to the ground at her feet. She calmly turned to me, and I only now noticed the rest of the dead bodies on the sand around her.

With arm blood still smeared across her face, she gave me a small smile.

‘What happened to the girl I used to know.’ Was all I could think.

Eve had already gone over to her group of survivors and was talking to them when I remembered that I needed to check on Mayla too. I wasn’t worried about her, she was… special. From the moment I first met her I saw a depth to her I hadn’t seen in anyone else. Her skills and mastery of her element were far beyond her age and I had this sense from her ice, like it was similar to my shadow. It was part of her, rather than simply being used by her. With the right mentor she could become a monster in her own right.

I could sense her mana from the other side of the small settlement so I sank into my shadows in pursuit.

When I arrived, all I could do was sigh. What else did I expect, Mayla was kneeling by her group of survivors and behind her were all the bandits. They were alive but sealed in shackles of ice, whimpering against the cold and their powerlessness.

I surfaced behind her and patted her on the shoulder. To her credit, she didn’t jump.

“Well done, Mayla.”

She looked at me from the corner of her eye for a moment before straightening.

“Amelia.”

“Huh, my bet was on Grace,” I chuckled.

“Astor,” she said without looking at me.

I froze. Astor…that family is… I tried to say something, anything, but I couldn’t find the words so my mouth hung open.

She turned to me with a beaming smile, “It’s nice to meet you.”

I shook my head, “I really thought all the surprises were over.”

“Last one, promise. At least from me. Eve seems pretty excited about something, she’s running over here.”

‘How developed are her senses? I could sense Eve from here, but should someone of her level really be able to?’

We were making sure no one was harmed and were trying to figure out what we wanted to do with the prisoners when Eve bounded down the abandoned pathway, carried by the wind.

She skidded to a halt in front of us with a giant grin on her face. I saw a flash of her dead expression earlier but ignored it. She’s been through a lot, that must be how she is coping for now.

“One of the bandits was nice enough to talk. I know where their main camp is!”