“Doesn’t it just itch in your fucking fingers to find out whether that ‘Darala’ stuff is more than ritualistic sword dancing?” Reysha asked, glancing at the Felmer that followed them at a safe distance. It had been well over a day since they had left the keep to the west and since then at least one guard had followed them at all points. They only shook them off when they entered their Mobile Estate.

“Dalara,” Aclysia corrected, “and there is no need to make a stir. We will be beyond the borders shortly.”

“Again, big difference between itching to do a thing and actually wanting to do it, bubble butt.”

“You will excuse me if I deem that you have a propensity to execute what you are itching to do on a whim, regardless of the merit of the action.”

“It’s saved your ass a bunch of times.”

“It has also gotten us into trouble several times.”

“True, I do make our lives more fun,” Reysha chirped.

Aclysia sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “In any case, my deliberation has come to an end. I now firmly agree with you in your distaste of this place.”

Reysha’s lips spread in a smug grin. “What did it?”

Aclysia pulled out the map that she had bought from a member of the trader caste a few hours ago. It was a notable upgrade from their previous sketch of the same and they had gotten it for a few copper pieces. To the trader, that had been a fortune. The kind of rust-free copper used for their coins was the standard coin of this place. In other words, with their current money they were rich beyond comprehension. A gold coin probably was worth so much here that they wouldn’t be able to use it even if they found someone who would be willing to trade something of fitting value to them.

Which would be difficult.

“Crafters cannot sell their own produce, they must go through the trader caste. The traders must be given licenses by Orissas or Maya-Casts to trade in goods and areas. This fundamentally annoys me. Worse is that I learned that there is a way to rise and fall through the castes. A person of a caste at least two further up may ascend someone one caste. A person of the upper three castes may descend someone of any caste below them.” Aclysia stopped and shook her head. “It is convoluted, it is inefficient, and it is a recipe for disaster.”

“Told ya,” Reysha purred.

“Yes, but you did not know it.”

Apexus hummed at that. “What is more valuable, concrete knowledge or swift intuition? A question of circumstance.” He scooped Aclysia up into a princess carry. Laying across his arms, her wings vibrated quickly enough to create a noise akin to blankets fluttering in the breeze. “It is good you confirmed.”

“Thank you, darling,” Aclysia whispered.

“Can we pick it up a bit?!” Korith shouted from several dozen metres ahead. The kobold was hopping from one foot onto the other. “Hoard does not respect the weakness of local currency!”

“Seems like we’re all motivated to leave,” Reysha cackled and began to jog.

Apexus and Aclysia looked at each other for a moment and then shrugged in unison. The metal fairy giggled and held onto her darling. Bare feet trampled the dirt road. Whatever they would do with Mayana in the future, for the present they did not care to stay.

____________________________________________________________________________

There wasn’t even a border fortress. The party followed a valley that cut through the mountain chain that enveloped the country. Then they made way for the coast. Reyha hoped that they would come across more of the mantis lobsters. No one protested the mild addition to their travel time.

To be in the wilderness was liberating to Apexus and Reysha. Even Aclysia and Korith preferred this particular stretch of undeveloped land to the country behind them. They came across ruins that had decayed past the point of usability. “Guess there was an attempted exodus in the past?” Aclysia theorized.

“Or a catastrophe,” Apexus suggested. “Too old to say for certain.” He looked around for any signs of human activity. There was some ash from campfires mostly. All of it was old. Whoever lived beyond the bounds of Mayana, they stayed on the move.

They spent no further thought on it. Any interest in the country was fleeting. To have encountered it was a curiosity in their travels. Except for one of them.

“It does gnaw at me,” Reysha stated out of nowhere. The tiger girl was sitting atop the rim of the sitting area of the serpent they were travelling on. Her eyes were directed west, towards the landmass they were leaving behind. “Are we supposed to be heroes?”

“You were the one to rebuke that question,” Aclysia reminded.

“Yeah, and now it gnaws at me.” The tiger girl looked at her hand, at the dried remains of algae and other marine life that had stuck to the surface of the vehicle. It had looked barely more used than the previous one. “Are we…. No, am I not supposed to do more?”

“Reysha….” Aclysia let out a heartfelt whisper and tried to sort her thoughts.

“Just, I still have a lot of stupidity to make up for,” Reysha kept talking. “There’s a lot that went into the mess that we’re in, but I pulled the final trigger. I… try to forget that… the fire… the screams…” she quivered, as exaggerated images and sounds resurfaced. They bubbled past the barrier that she had erected around them. “All of the things that I’m responsible for, just because I wanted a select few to suffer the same fate I thought you had.”

Apexus had put his hand on her back. He said nothing, because he had nothing to say that could guide her. All he had was his presence. The quivers he felt go through her gradually calmed down.

“I want to forget what I did… but I can’t… I shouldn’t…. I have a fucking obligation to remember.”

“You have a responsibility to be better,” Aclysia weighed in. “Not to torture yourself. Self-flagellation does not solve the world’s woes.”

“I know, I know.” Reysha closed her eyes and wrestled the memories down. It had become easier, through routine and distance. One and a half years had passed since that day. “I know that there’s no way we could leave that place better than we found it…” she gazed back out west. “Still though… it gnaws at me.”

“Remember them,” Apexus said. “We’ll help them when we come back. That’s as much as we can do as we are now.”

Reysha gave him a short nod. There was a loud ‘thump’ next to her. With uncharacteristic sluggishness, she turned her head – too slow to realize Korith was giving her a full body hug until it happened. The unarmoured kobold held the Rogue in her arms with all she had to give.

“H-hey… you’ve… you’ve done wrong but… you’re alright to me, okay?” the Warrior stammered.

Reysha gave that a single laugh. “Thanks, Korith.”

_______________________________________________________________________

Apexus walked forwards.

The stag raised its head. It was white, from the hooves all the way to the antlers. Only its eyes were of a different colour. An icy shade of blue, interrupted by a pupil that seemed more like a crack than a proper seeing organ.

Apexus did not direct his eyes at his prey. He did not think of it as prey either. Slouched shoulders and a relaxed gait signalled disinterest to the deer. A false sense of safety kept the animal at a distance. It danced back slowly when the Monk came a bit too close for its liking and never let the new arrival at the water hole leave its gaze.

Like most herbivores, the deer was ready to fight or flee at the first sign of danger. Whether they were danger or not, sapient hunters knew to mask. The animal did not know what exactly to do, whether it was worthwhile to expend the energy that running or combat brought with it. Not until Apexus suddenly turned heel and charged straight at it.

The stag had not anticipated the degree of acceleration the Monk was capable of. It lacked the experience and the faculties to play such a scenario out. By the time it had turned around to dart away, the humanoid chimera was almost upon it. Apexus kept up, deftly dodging a stomp of the creature.

The ground around where it put its hooves down froze, forcing the Monk to take awkward routes to avoid slippery surfaces. The stag built a little bit of distance and bolted towards nearby trees. Barely, it caught a flash of red in the corner of its vision. Rearing its front legs, it avoided the strike of the whirling axe that embedded itself in a tree.

Reysha had pure murder in her eyes and drew a throwing knife to serve as her next projectile. The threat of sharply glistening steel distracted the animal for long enough that Apexus could catch up. He swung his arm. The palm slammed against the neck of the animal. Where fur, fat and muscle would have normally warded against the impact of such blunt force, the combination of the Rippling Palm and punching power of the Growth in his wrist overcame all resistance. The guided force travelled deep – severing nerves and bones.

Like a sack of rocks, the stag collapsed. Apexus had hit a vital bundle of nerves, ending its life in an instant. The humanoid chimera stepped out of the way of the corpse, watching a few last twitches of confused reflexes kick its legs.

Reysha had no such patience. With two knives, she carved into the hide of their prey. Sharp tools tore through layers with ease, until the meat below the fur and fat became visible. At that point, the sweet smell of blood sung to the redhead’s instincts. A lick of her blade confirmed the taste of magic. Swiftly, the tools were discarded. Dispatched in favour of her claws and fangs. Like any other predator, she took hold of the carcass and stained her maw crimson with the raw flesh, tearing strings muscle off the stag’s ribcage.

Aclysia and Korith caught up with the hunters of the group. The metal fairy frowned at the sight of the tiger girl, so utterly indulged in her first proper meal in 5 days. As much as she found the gorging to be unappealing, she swallowed her complaints.

“Never gets any less ewww,” Korith stated.

“I am incapable of putting it any more succinctly,” Aclysia agreed and averted her gaze. “This does, however, beat watching her be sapped of all her usual enthusiasm.”

Reysha wasn’t even capable of hooking into the conversation there. Any quip she could have thought of was buried under several layers of hunger and satisfaction. A starved beast, she kept tearing into the carcass.

Apexus followed Aclysia and Korith to the watering hole, out of the splash zone of Reysha’s meal. “A bit muddy,” the metal fairy stated, looking at the water. Then she looked around. There were some pebbles and sand around. With a few rags, she could make a basic filter. Boiling what came out at the end would give them halfway clean water. “Should I go through the effort?”

“No, I think we’re good,” Apexus responded and looked at Korith for confirmation. Personally, he had no problem drinking even dirty water. Soil would either stop at his membrane, or be concentrated into a clump that was then pushed back out. That was, if it wasn’t digestible in the first place. A lot of dirt was made up of tiny remains of life, like leaf-litter or fungus spores. The only water they needed was what Korith and Reysha drank as they travelled. It was bothersome to open the Mobile Estate each time either of them wanted to refresh themselves.

“I mean, we’re a coin catch away from Pernero, so,” Korith’s armour clacked from her shrug. “Plus, we’re staying here tonight, right?”

The party was on the final island before arriving in the city and had already located the Serpent Shrine that would bring them across. The only reason they hadn’t activated it was the time of day. The journey would take several hours and they didn’t want to arrive in the middle of the night. According to the map, they would arrive at the city’s edge and given Mayana’s reception, they anticipated they would attract attention. Best to arrive during daytime, when people were less defensive towards unusual occurrences.