They both sat on the bench outside the inn. The owners were kind enough to let them come back inside, but Andromeda politely refused.

Both Eli and Andromeda were surprised for a variety of reasons. The first and most pressing one was that they were both so far away from King’s Grove, and it just so happened they would be working together on pure chance.

“How are you here right now? What happened to the draft?” Andromeda asked.

“I could ask you the same thing, what’s with the getup? That doesn’t look like an enlisted mage’s uniform.” Eli said.

“It's not, I had these custom made just the other day. But seriously, what happened?” Andromeda pressed. Eli sighed and leaned back. He could feel the damp back of the bench pressed against his already soaked shirt.

“Honestly? I could barely tell you. According to the folks back at the guild something was done to my mind. I’ve been staying with them while they look after me. Despite that they say I have the fire in me to be a mercenary. That’s how I got out of the draft. It was hell at first. But hey, at least I get paid to travel.” Eli said.

“What’s wrong with your head?” Andromeda said.

“I don’t know, apparently something got in my head and did something, but Donavan managed to get to me before it did something worse. Nowadays my mind is foggy and it's hard to remember things before it happened. Sometimes it feels like I’m looking at someone else’s memories through a telescope.” Eli said.

Andromeda felt a pang of surprise in the back of her mind, it seemed that White felt some kinship with that feeling.

“Funny thing, this happened right after I- Well, after I took off.” He said. Andromeda’s eyes opened wide and she punched Eli in the arm.

“Oi! What’s your problem?” Eli shouted.

“That’s for leaving me alone with that crowd, what kind of person just leaves someone out to dry like that!?” Andromeda said.

“Don’t get mad at me, I didn’t want to get involved in all that. Besides, it looks like it worked out for you in the end.” Eli said.

In the course of becoming a mercenary on short notice, Eli got a crash course in everything from combat training to political issues throughout the country. One of the subjects he had drilled into him was mages and their work. He could tell just from a look that what she was wearing wasn’t some off the shelf product, even if she hadn’t told him it wasn’t already. It almost radiated a feeling that made his hair stand on end. This was likely the mana contained inside of it, enchantments.

“Well… It's complicated, a lot of things have happened in the last few weeks.” Andromeda said.

“Yeah, but your clothes look about as expensive as my entire life is worth. That reminds me, how did YOU get out of the draft?” Eli asked.

The answer was a long and complicated story that ended with her becoming embroiled in the politics of the country, being kidnapped, and having her mind messed with on at least two separate occasions. But she couldn’t say all that, he probably wouldn’t believe her if she had.

“I can’t say.” Andromeda weakly replied.

Eli stared at her for a few moments then shook his head.

“Yeah, I suppose not. We should talk about the job at hand.” Eli said.

Throughout the next hour they hashed out the job and the plan to accomplish it. The first thing that they tried to get straight were the exact details.

From Eli’s perspective, he was hired for a simple “there and back” escort. He received a portion of the payment (around 20%), the guild would take 60%, and on successful completion of the job Eli would receive another 20%. The only details he was given was that Andromeda had complete say over how they went about getting there. So in effect he was more a bodyguard than an escort.

Andromeda on the other hand had an entirely different idea of how this was going to go down. She was expecting a team, not a single person. Second, what she meant by “complete say” was the team she would take, not necessarily that she was taking charge. This seemed to be because of a very strange communication error.

In the time after she locked in her deal with Headmaster Plact, but before she received her new gear, she was deciding her team. Her original choice was a group based out of the capital because of their good track record in jobs like this.

As Eli tells it, they received correspondence from that very same guild to cover a contract for them. It was forwarded from Cylas college despite the messages apparently lacking any official markings, fearing a trap or something similar they sent Eli as a kind of sacrificial lamb. If it worked out then this would be a good learning experience, if it didn’t it could still turn out to be a good learning experience, but not a healthy one.

Once that order came in he got special permission to use a jump door from King’s Grove to Trevias, then he made the trek down south to meet Andromeda.

The only reason he was allowed to use the Jump Door at all was on the name of the capital guild he was technically doing the job for. Essentially being a contractor for them.

The timeline for Andromeda’s exodus from the school was similarly rushed. By the terms of her oath she had to leave the moment she received her items, and because the escort team business was already settled she had no other reason to stay. This almost wasn’t the case, but right as the robes came in Plact had delivered to her a small medallion that he claimed was his collateral. He wouldn’t say what it was or why it was important, but considering it didn’t break the oath it must have been.

Any kind of delay would risk breaking the terms of the oath, so she left just before noon the day before and walked south until she came to this inn just before midnight. When she explained the situation to the innstaff they said that they were the last stop for a while and that despite seeing no group of mercenaries, if there was to be one then they would stay there.

That led to this evening. Where Eli walked in the door and started asking around about a mage. Eli didn’t recognize her because her face was obscured. Andromeda had a very slight idea who it might have been, but between the sheer unlikeliness and being a bit tense she thought she was just imagining it when she thought it was Eli. It didn’t help that Eli wasn’t being forthcoming about what he was doing there.

She never intended to cause him any harm, and Eli similarly had no interest in fighting a mage. But she was still concerned enough to try bluffing him into leaving. It wasn’t until Eli told her his name that the realization hit her.

It was obvious to both of them that something was up. Andromeda had it on good authority that the group out of the capital was available, and Eli thought it was strange how they would push such an important contract off on a relatively less important guild.

There was no sign that the oath was violated, so it couldn’t have been Plact that was the issue. As well, the money was verified good by Eli’s guild, so there was nothing wrong in the business sense.

“What’s our course now?” Eli asked. Andromeda thought on it, but there wasn’t a lot of wiggle room.

“We make our way to Skysea Adalay.” Andromeda said.

-----

The two gathered their things and started on the long walk toward the southern edge of the continent. By Eli’s estimation it would take around a month to get there on foot. If they could get some kind of transportation then less.

Andromeda had two weeks of rations for a single person, if they rationed they could make it last two weeks for them both, but it wasn’t enough to get them all the way there. Eli suggested that they return to Trevias to resupply, but the worry that Andromeda might violate the oath by backtracking worried her to try it.

Food was one thing, but another issue they had to consider came courtesy of Eli’s briefing before leaving. While the majority of Legoria was relatively peaceful, Skysea was the worst in terms of quality of life. It was the victim of an invasion that left the region in devastation over 50 years ago.

While the major damage was repaired over the last few decades, the damage to the economy and the lives of its people were left damaged for generations to come. This drove many to turn to crime, the most common form being banditry.

While it wasn’t unheard of to see roving bands of criminals in the rest of the country, it wasn’t common and travelers were usually safe. Even considering the path from Trevias to Aeroae was safer than average it would still be dangerous.

That meant they had to decide their battle plans if it came to it.

“We’re going to be relying on each other from here on out, we should get a good grasp on what the other is capable of.” Eli said.

“Is that not literally your job to keep me safe?” Andromeda said. She was saying it half jokingly, expecting a joking response in turn.

“If you think a single greenhorn like me can keep you safe against several hardened criminals then I respect your optimism.” Eli said. That caught her off guard, but she could tell he was being serious.

“I wasn’t being serious, you do have a point. You’re the one with the spear so I guess you should take point.” Andromeda said.

“Fair enough.” Eli said, he for his belt and undid the leather latch holding his spear.

“I’ve got two weapons on me, this winged spear and a dagger in my boot.” Eli said, then he dropped the spear and it seemed to be suspended in the air just below his hand. Andromeda looked closer to see a thin rope was attached to the end. It led to a strap on his wrist.

“Everyone at the guild tells me I have aim like a hawk, but I can’t shoot a bow to save my life. So they gave this to me.” He said.

“That’s… Impressive.” Andromeda said.

“That’s what people keep telling me, but it doesn't seem all that hard. I picked it up pretty quickly. I’m still not better than Donavan, but he’s had a few years to pick it up.” Eli said. Andromeda was feeling a strange sense of deja vu, but elected to ignore it.

“What about you, you’re a mage so it must be pretty impressive.” Eli said.

“About that… I’m a pacifist. I’ll protect myself, but I won’t harm someone if I can help it.” Andromeda said.

“Ah…” Eli said. She watched as his eyes darted back and forth in his head, likely doing the internal calculations to figure out just how the hell he was going to make this work.

“On a positive note, I can mend pretty much anything, purify water, and control the flow of many pretty well. So all your stuff will stay in top shape.” Andromeda said.

“Well that’s nice, I’m sure my spear will be in tip top shape when someone sticks it through my ribs.” Eli said.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked to see it was Andromeda’s. She looked him dead in the eye with a serious expression. It might have been a trick of the light, but he could swear that her eyes were red.

“No one will die, that means you too.” Andromeda said.

“G-Got it.” Eli stuttered. She reached to her belt and grabbed the mask she was wearing earlier. She put it on and looked back toward Eli.

“On another note, I think it would be best if we used code names from here on out. We already know that something is wrong. It’s better if we don’t advertise ourselves.” Andromeda said. Eli stretched his arms as he walked and gave a subtle nod.

“Fine by me, I’m used to code names myself. Got any ideas.” Eli said.

“Let’s pick something simple. Call me White.” Andromeda said.

“Just a color? Alright, I pick Red. It’s my favorite color.” Eli said.