The next morning, the four of us—Jonah, Ruth, Nimbus, and me—set out for Hebron, hitching a ride on the wagon of a traveling cabbage merchant named Thomas, who had been planning to make the trip that day himself.

We had actually met Thomas the day before we left Greenwood, during Ruth and Jonah’s training session outside the city but before my failed spellcrafting experiment. Thomas and one of his employees had been passing by when they saw Jonah use Bulwark Slam, leaving a smoking crater in the earth. That had immediately caught Thomas’s attention, and during our conversation with him afterward, we mentioned that we planned to travel to Hebron the following morning. Thomas had then explained that he also needed to return to Hebron, as it was the headquarters of his agricultural business. The Codexers he’d previously hired to protect his caravan on the way to Greenwood were unwilling to extend their contract due to a new quest they’d received from the Greenwood Codexium that forced them to leave town immediately.

So Thomas asked if we wanted to accompany his caravan as protection for his goods and employees on the return trip. He offered to pay us a respectable number of shekels as payment, and since we were short on funds, we agreed—though not without some haggling. Mostly because Nimbus insisted on being paid in bananas—and, to my surprise, Thomas could actually provide them. He paid the rest of us in actual money, albeit somewhat begrudgingly, which I couldn’t help but notice.

Before we left Greenwood with Thomas and his caravan, I said goodbye to my family and the other North Forest refugees—many of whom had been my neighbors and friends back home. It had been much harder than I thought it would be. Everyone—especially my family—seemed to want to talk endlessly about old times, as well as ask me questions about what exactly I was planning to do in Hebron.

I told everyone the same safe version: I had a Codex Quest to deliver a Node Fragment to someone important in Hebron. Only my family heard the truth

I had a lot of reasons for this. For one, with how dangerous my quest was becoming, I didn’t want to drag my friends and neighbors—many of whom had already lost everything—even deeper into the troubles I had to face. Troubles they never asked to be part of. Frankly, I was surprised they didn’t already blame me for the loss of our hometown. But I guess they saw it as Wolfbrand’s fault, since he was the one who killed so many people and destroyed so many homes. If I hadn’t stopped Wolfbrand, then none of them would be alive today.

That did little to ease my guilt, though. The whole reason Wolfbrand had targeted my hometown, killed so many people, and taken so many others hostage was to get at me. I sometimes still felt like things could have gone differently if I hadn’t been trapped inside the Verdant Seal during Wolfbrand’s rampage. But when I’d brought this up to Nimbus once, he’d pointed out that if we hadn’t entered the Verdant Seal, Wolfbrand probably would’ve killed us—because we would’ve been far too weak to stop him without the rewards and Words we gained from completing the dungeon’s first floor. That meant it had probably been a good thing in the long run, all things considered.

I still had trouble fully believing that, but there was no point in arguing with the past. Especially because the remaining villagers seemed hopeful that the discovery of the new dungeon would help stimulate North Forest’s economy and allow them to rebuild sooner rather than later.

I hoped they were right.

But I did tell my parents and brothers about my Codex Quest. I told them that the Arcane Codex had given me a mission to end the Codex Wars, and that I was supposed to meet with King Amphrael directly—though first I had to deliver a letter to the mayor of Hebron. It was a letter of introduction that Isaac had given me before we left North Forest. That letter, Isaac said, would grant us an audience with Mayor Caleb Jepunnah of Hebron, who could, in turn, introduce us to the king. Apparently, not even the mayor of the First Kingdom’s largest city could ignore such a document from a Codex Keeper. I hoped Isaac was right.

That was yet another act of kindness from Isaac that he didn’t need to do, but he’d insisted on helping us since we’d saved him—and the North Forest Codexium—from destruction. I still had doubts we’d actually meet the King of Shinar, at least quickly, but at least we had a direction to move in.

As for my family, I told them everything because I was tired of keeping secrets from them. They deserved to know why their lives had been uprooted, what I was doing, and why I might not come back. I knew the Codex had warned me against telling too many people about my quest, but surely I could trust my family. I doubted any of them would use that information against me, and even if I did make new enemies, at least my family would understand why someone might come after them because of me.

My parents and brothers were pretty shocked to hear about my Codex Quest, though I was able to share the Quest entry itself so they knew I wasn’t just making it up. Mom nearly tried to make me stay in Greenwood and forget about the quest entirely, but Dad convinced her that this was something I needed to do—even if it was dangerous. That made sense, seeing as Dad had been a Codexer himself in his youth before he quit after his portable Node got damaged and so understood the importance of completing Codex Quests as a Codexer, especially one of such importance.

At the same time, though, Dad had always been cynical about the Codexer life, so I was surprised by how understanding he was about my decision to continue this quest, even though it seemed so risky.

I really didn’t understand my dad half the time.

As for Moses and Joshua—Moses was supportive in his usual terse way, though he admitted he was glad he wasn’t a Codexer because my mission sounded “too insane for a farmer.” Joshua, predictably, was upset that he wasn’t a Codexer yet and couldn’t join me on my “epic quest,” even though I tried explaining to him that this wasn’t an adventure—it was dangerous, deadly, and not something to romanticize.

Nothing I said got through to him. Still, he hugged me before we left and whispered in my ear that he was going to figure out how to become a Codexer anyway, even if Mom and Dad wouldn’t let him. I told him that was nice, though privately, I wasn’t sure if I should doubt him—or fear that he would do it. Maybe if North Forest experienced the economic boom everyone was predicting, the Node Makers Guild might set up an Outpost there and Joshua could get a portable from them, though the odds of that weren’t great, to be honest.

Regardless, the goodbyes were nice. They even said goodbye to Nimbus, who they didn’t know nearly as well as I did. Mom gave him a banana-patterned scarf she’d knitted—a scarf he proudly wore, though he was disappointed to learn it wasn’t actually edible or made out of bananas.

All in all, when we left Greenwood that morning with Thomas’s caravan, it was as though a great burden had been lifted off my shoulders. Maybe it came from knowing my family, friends, and neighbors were finally safe—and that they’d be cared for in my absence.

Now, I could focus entirely on the next step of my Codex Quest. I didn’t have to split my attention between protecting my family and advancing in my path as a Codexer.

I’d still miss them, of course. But I’d shown them how to use the Greenwood Stationary Node to send me NodeLink messages if they needed to reach me, so hopefully, we’d stay in touch no matter where I went next.

And my next stop, of course, was Hebron—the capital of Shinar, and the largest city in the First Kingdom.