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White-hot flames licked at the inside of my skull.
I stopped, curling my fingers and shaking my head as heat tickled the back of my eyes. My eyes narrowed, looking inward as I forced myself to take deep breaths. Each new breath of air calmed the white flame a little, but none of them were actually enough.
“What’s wrong with you?” a voice asked from behind me.
My eyes bloomed and I froze in place with my fingers twitching in the air. The white flame froze as well, stopping its advances momentarily before shriveling up and hiding in the back of my mind.
I dropped my eyebrows as soon as it left and turned on my heel, catching Jason’s imploring gaze from the door.
“Nothing,” I said, throwing a hand up and shaking my head lightly in an effort to make him drop it.
One of his eyebrows shot up as he stared at me, but he didn’t press any further. Instead, he just swung the bag he was carrying over his shoulder and leaned on the frame of the doorway to my room.
“You ready?” he asked, a smirk already building on his face.
“Almost,” I said, shooting him as confident of a smile as I could muster. His smirk tweaked upward, undoubtedly seeing through my lie, but I just shrugged it off and went back to packing my bag.
Gathering the rest of the things I still had laid out on the bed—my other ranger’s uniform, the backup knife that I carried, and the rest of my rations—I pulled open my bag and piled it all in. The little white flame crept back up in my mind as new objects cascaded out of my hands. I squinted for a second, gritting my teeth and getting ready to push it back. But as the last of the dried meat rations clattered to the bottom of my bag, the exact thing it was looking for flashed in my vision.
The map.
There, sitting perfectly-folded below all of my other equipment, was the unmistakable form of the map. Only its worn, yellowed edges poked out from underneath my change of clothes, but with white flames draping over my skull, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Jason asked, chuckling to himself.
I blinked, turning toward him with wide eyes before shaking my head. As soon as the map left my vision, the little white flame faded away again, leaving my mind cold and bare.
“Yeah,” I said, cringing. “I’m just—it’s been a long week, is all.”
That earned much more than a chuckle from the still-smirking swordsman. “That it has. But at least now we get to go home.”
I smiled. Something nagged my thoughts. “At least now we have to walk home, you mean.”
Jason’s smirk died and he glared at me, rolling his eyes. “Sure, whatever. Are you done?”
I laughed, nodding as I closed my bag once more and strung it over my shoulders. My hand fell to the sword still sheathed by my side as soon as the familiar weight fell over my back.
“Yeah,” I said. “I guess we should figure out if Myris is ready.”
The smug grin on Jason’s face worked its way back, inch by inch. “I actually have to admire the old man this time. He was up even before me. He’s finishing up with the innkeep as we speak. Really, we were waiting on you.”
I opened my mouth, trying to ignore the burn I felt at the tips of my ears, but no words came out. Instead, I just snapped my lips shut again and pushed past Jason. The swordsman’s roaring laughter carried me all the way down the stairs and into the inn’s main room.
A wave of warmth from the large, stone-lined fireplace burning quietly in the corner melted the frustration right off me.
My ears twitched in the room, focusing on the crackles of flame and relishing in the relative silence. As opposed to the normally boisterous tone that the tavern experienced each and every night, with the morning light streaming in through the windows, even bouts of light conversation were scarce.
The sound of Jason blundering down the stairs was multiple times louder than everything in the room combined. Clenching my jaw at the interruption but refusing to look back, I just walked across the room toward where Myris was tapping his foot by the bar.
As soon as he saw me, the tapping stopped. “Are you both ready to go?”
I nodded, flashing him a smile. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
Myris’ lips ticked upward, but he didn’t say another word. Instead, he narrowed his eyes, looking just over my shoulder to where I’m sure Jason was smirking behind me.
“What are we waiting on now anyway?” the swordsman asked.
Myris nearly rolled his eyes, turning back to the wooden door behind the bar that looked like it led to some sort of kitchen or back room. “I’ve already paid, and all of us are already packed…” He eyed both of us. We nodded in return. “So now I’m just waiting for the innkeeper to come back. He said he wanted to give us something before we headed off.”
Jason’s brows knitted together. “He wants to give us something? Why does he even care?”
“Not sure,” Myris said. “But I’m not opposed to just seeing what he has to say… as long as it doesn’t cost us too much daylight.”
At the last half of his sentence, a yawn grew up from my throat. “I don’t think that’ll be that big of an issue,” I said. Only the faintest rays of sunlight were poking in through the windows at this point. We didn’t have to worry about wasting time. It was barely even past the crack of dawn.
“Are you tired?” Jason asked, sarcasm lining his tone.
I rolled my eyes, stifling the last of my yawn. “Of course I’m tired. We got up—”
The slam of a door stole the words from my lips.
I whirled, turning on my heel to see the smiling innkeeper walking swiftly to the bar with a small sack in his hands. A gift of some sort, I reasoned. That only made me narrow my eyes further.
The barkeep stepped to the counter, his smile growing with each passing second, and plopped the jingling bag right down on the counter. All of our eyes darted to it without even a moment to spare.
The innkeep guffawed. “You all are up,” he finally said.
“We are,” Myris confirmed, carefully lifting his gaze. “What’s this?”
“A token of appreciation.”
Jason’s grin seemed to almost split his face in half. “It’s money.”
The smiling man tilted his head, nodding with more of an awkward laugh. “Yes. It is. Really though, it’s the least I can do, considering what you did for Farhar. At first, I dismissed you lot… but there haven’t been any terror attacks on our town in days.” He paused, a pure, genuine smile lining up on his face. “Thank you for that.”
I nearly spluttered, taken aback by the sincerity in the man’s tone. But unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same for another one of my companions.
“You’re very much welcome,” Jason said, leaning his weight on the counter. “We’re here to serve.”
All gratitude drained from my face, replaced with only pointed annoyance as I glared at Jason’s cheap ploy for more praise. The unsatisfied grunt that slipped between Myris’ lips told me he felt the exact same way.
“Yes…” the barkeep said, turning back to Myris. “This should cover what you paid for the rooms along with any food you ate here. It’s the least I can do.”
“And we appreciate it,” the older ranger said with a firm nod, grabbing the satchel of coins right out from under Jason’s nose. “Thank you for everything.”
The innkeep’s smile warmed up again and he offered us one final nod before Myris stashed the still-jingling sack of coin in his bag. He started off toward the door only a moment later.
A creaking wooden slam split the brisk morning air as we stumbled out into the street.
The morning light stung my eyes, forcing another yawn out of my throat as we walked through the winding, cobblestone streets. Light gusts of wind and the idle sounds of nature swirled around us, filling up the silence left by the very nocturnal town. There was hardly anybody in the streets. Only the beggars who couldn’t find a place to stay or the people still drunk from the previous night that had never found their way home were up.
Well, there were those people. And then there were also the guards.
“Finally,” a familiar voice called out. I turned on my heel, only barely stopping on where Nesrin was standing with a flurry of other familiar faces, leaned up against the guard building on the in-road to town. “It took you long enough.”
“Nesrin,” Myris said, his stoic expression turning up into a smile. “What are you doing up so early?”
Nesrin’s eyebrows raised slightly and her lips split into a smile as she pushed herself off the wall. “I’m the head of guard, Myris. I’m always up.”
Myris chuckled at that. From the corner of my eye, I saw Jason rolling his eyes. And seeing the grin the older ranger returned as soon as he stopped laughing, I was tempted to do the same.
Instead of focusing on Myris and the woman who’d apparently become a good friend of his, I looked over the rest of the group standing behind the head of guard. Westin smiled at us, his body leaned up against a wall and all of his weight placed on one leg. Beside him, Mayin stood looking as tired as I felt, still nodding as she scanned over us.
And of course, there was the other guard that I couldn’t have possibly missed.
“So you lot are on your way out?” Tiren asked, gesturing to all of us as his eyes locked with Jason’s.
Whatever words had been coming out of Myris’ mouth stopped dead in their tracks. “Indeed we are,” he said, turning toward the pale guard. Tiren smirked, trying to look as confident as he could. I didn’t miss the tired, glossy look in his eyes.
“Which is actually why we are here,” Nesrin added, raising her hand. “We know you all have to get back to Sarin, but we wanted to thank you for your assistance over in our neck of the woods.”
A small smile crept up onto my lips.
Jason’s smile was nowhere near as small. “It is our pleasure,” he said. “We’re glad our assistance was as effective as it was.”
Nesrin eyed the swordsman, her smile tightening. “Right. Thank you again for your help. Since our assault on the source, there hasn’t been a reported terror attack anywhere near Farhar.”
Myris held his head up. “I’m glad. Hopefully that same trend is happening in Sarin as well. Hopefully this wretched cycle is finally over.”
“Hopefully,” Westin said, piping up from behind. He pushed himself off the wall a little bit as attention was drawn to him. “There’s no guarantee, but I’m just glad we did it with no casualties.”
I nodded along with multiple others in the group. My lips slipped open, a question ready on my tongue, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask it. As silence settled in around us, it felt criminal to break it—as if breaking the silence meant making the truth even worse than it already was.
“That’s assuring...” Myris finally said, tilting his head as he stared at Westin. “But it wasn’t as if we didn’t come back with our fair share of injury.”
The brown-haired guard captain chuckled, subtly shifting his weight. “That was to be expected when we went in. I’m just frustrated that a wound took me out early. I wish I could’ve been there with you all.”
“It’s fine, Wes,” Mayin said as soft as a mouse. Looking over at her, she was still twiddling with her fingers as she stared at the ground. “We’re just glad you’re alright.”
Westin smiled, twisting toward the robed pyromancer. “I’m glad you’re alright too. You got out pretty well for the person that did the most damage.”
Mayin’s mouth opened wide as she looked up, but she bit down on whatever she’d been about to say. Instead of talking, she just nodded and looked down again, trying to get the shadow of her hood to hide the increasing blush in her cheeks.
“I’m glad we’re all fine,” Tiren chimed in, stepping forward. “I know I certainly am. Although, I do feel bad for Rian.”
I tilted my head, the mention of the brutish guard making me furrow my brows. Scanning the small collection of guards again, he was the only one missing. Well, Cas was missing as well, but something told me that was to be expected.
“What happened to him?” I asked.
“He’s alive,” Tiren said, trying to warm his smile up enough to be reassuring. “But he definitely came out worst of everyone. That last terror broke him pretty good.” The normally confident voice of the theatrical guard wavered for a moment. “Our healer says he will be fine… but he hasn’t said a complete word in days.”
Myris straightened up, his fingers curling into a fist. That experience probably hit close to home for him. “He’ll be fine. And he’ll be back to guarding in no time.”
“I certainly hope so,” Nesrin said, tilting her head upward to look at the sky. “Just because the terrors are gone doesn’t mean guards don’t have their duties.” Each of the guards behind her shifted uncomfortably, except Westin.
The guard captain just grinned. “Speaking of which, Nes, we do have to work out an agreement with the new caravans this morning.”
Nesrin smiled, her expression becoming a double-edged sword as she turned around. “Yes, we do. Which is just about what I was getting at.” Sliding on her heel, she looked back at us. “A friendly farewell is nice, but the world marches on.”
Westin chuckled, pushing himself into a standing position. “Well then I guess we should wrap this up.”
Nesrin nodded, already walking away. Then, at the last moment, she stared back at Myris. “Send Lorah my regards, will you?”
Myris bobbed his head up and down giddily, a smile growing on his lips. He opened his mouth to respond, to call out to the head of guard, but she was already gone. And with a final flick of his wrist, Westin followed after her, supported in his walk by Mayin, who only spared us a light wave.
“I guess this is goodbye,” came Jason’s voice beside me. I jerked my head back, shaking it in disbelief at his tone. When I saw the swordsman offering the most genuine smirk he’d ever done as he looked Tiren in the eyes, though, I couldn’t have been that surprised.
I had to hold back a chuckle as Tiren stared at the ground. “I guess it is. We’ll see each other in the future though.”
“I hope so,” Jason said. “I’d be glad to come save this town whenever you all need it.”
Tiren sneered, squinting at his new best friend. “And I’ll be glad to do all of your work for you whenever you come around.”
“Oh, is that so? Well, we’ll have to see about that.”
“Yes,” Myris said, stepping in. “We’ll see about that when we come back. But right now, we’re burning daylight.”
Tiren nodded, failing to hide his smirk as he shuffled away. “Yes, yes. The world marches on.”
The raven-haired guard spared us only one last nod before slipping all the way out of reach and going to catch up with his companions. The look on Jason’s face was one to rival that of a hurt puppy.
But, stifling my laughter, I walked right past him, slapping him lightly on the shoulder as the words repeated in my head. They were true, after all. We’d done our duty, but it was time to go home. And we did have ground to cover.
Then, staring out at where the cobblestone road met back up with the lined dirt path, I sighed.
The world marched on.
Dusk descended on the world to steal light from the trees and warmth from my heart.
I sniffled, huddling arms in my cloak as I walked forward on the dirt path. Beside me, Jason did the same, but his sword was already out. Up ahead, Myris whipped his head to the side, scanning the treeline with magic spiraling in his irises. As soon as the darkness had fallen, he’d started casting. It didn’t matter that we’d destroyed the source; it didn’t matter that the terrors were gone. He didn’t want to take any chances.
And watching the dark, twisted trees while the wind lashed my body, I couldn’t really blame him. Despite all of the truth I knew, the unease never truly went away. Thinking about our incursion to the source, only a bad feeling surged to the surface of my thoughts.
I swallowed, feeling the knots in my stomach. My lips twitched, contorting into an uncomfortable wince as I longed for the comfort of the inn back in Farhar. Soft, flaming heat licked the back of my eyes as they settled against my skull.
Thoughts trickled into my mind, slowly flooding my attention with images of Farhar. Each time I thought about the place, validating one of the images, the little flame flared up. Eventually though, I just shook my head and forced the images away. The white-hot presence faded away into the back of my mind.
Instead of focusing on it, I focused on the present. I focused on reality, on nature, on putting one foot in front of the other. And focusing on all of that only made me realize just how tired I was.
“How long until we make camp?” I asked loud enough for Myris to hear.
The older ranger squinted, turning his head to the side, but not looking at me. “Soon.”
Jason tilted his head. “Soon? Could you be any more vague than that?”
“I don’t want to commit to a time,” Myris said, still staring at the trees. “I’ve got a bad feeling. So ideally, we will be out here for as long as the last dregs of daylight allow and even past that if there are no threats.”
Jason groaned and lowered his blade. “We’ve already been walking the entire day.”
Myris narrowed his eyes even further. “If we want to make the same time we did on our way here, we’ll need everything we can get.”
Beside me, Jason grumbled some more. I smiled. Honestly, I felt the exact same way he did—my burning legs were proof enough of that—but seeing Jason get frustrated would never cease to amuse me. “At least we’ll get back to Sarin quicker.”
The swordsman turned to me with gritted teeth. But watching the way I tilted my head and grinned, he nodded. “That’s the positive. Myris’ idea has one this time, at least.”
I chuckled. Not so much at the joke and more at the reaction I knew it would garner from the older ranger in front of us. And, just as I’d expected, Myris whipped around to glare at Jason.
“That is the purpose of the idea in the first place. I swear, I wonder sometimes why Lorah recruited you anyway.”
Jason grinned. I rolled my eyes with a laugh. Knowing or not, Myris had played right into the arrogant ranger’s hands. “It’s because I’m the best swordsman in Sarin, and I can hunt better than most.”
Myris snorted, turning back to the woods. “You’re barely a better hunter than Agil is.”
My laughter was cut short as soon as my name was mentioned. As frustration bubbled up, the white flame flushed against my skull yet again. “I’ve only been a ranger for a few months.”
Myris nodded, throwing his hands up. “I know. I really do know.”
Jason chuckled. “At least I destroyed the source.”
“Right,” I said without even thinking. “Even though all of us were there, and it’s not like you dealt the final blow.”
“Maybe not, but I was instrumental to the attack,” he said, shrugging.
Falling to my side, my hand slipped around the grip of my blade. “Instrumental? Even with all of the other terrors you never even fought? Even though Rian was still broken and burned?”
Images of the vile creatures and the havoc they’d wrought rose up in my mind. I swallowed hard, adding to a lump in my throat. I’d only had to deal with terrors for a few weeks, and I already wanted them all dead. With how much they’d already done, I couldn’t imagine what it must’ve been like to live with them year after year.
The grip on my blade got even tighter.
“At least the attack was successful,” Myris added. I looked up at the grey-haired ranger to nodding.
He was right. Our attack had been successful, no matter who had done what in it. And despite the costs, our losses could’ve been much worse. Taking a deep breath, I relaxed my fingers. We just had to be glad we got what we did.
“And hopefully we saved Sarin the trouble as well,” I said. The picture of the lively town—of my home—flashed. I held it close and smiled, picturing Kye smirking right back. We were on our way.
“Hopefully,” Jason said. “I wonder what we’ll meet when we arrive.”
Myris cleared his throat. “Well, there’s really only one way to find out.”
After that, and the brief set of grumbling that had followed, we’d all fallen in line. As the daylight slipped away, leaving only its purple traces in the sky, we talked less. Instead, we huddled in our cloaks and kept watch on the trees, hoping and praying to the world that we’d be able to have a safe night.
Somewhere along the line, Myris had finally let up and we’d set up camp. The procedure was the same as normal as we gathered rocks and firewood for the fire and set up our bedrolls all around it. Before I knew it, I was in an eerily similar position to one I’d been in only days before, staring into the fire as my mind raced.
“Are we going to figure out watch, then?” Jason asked from his bedroll across the fire.
Myris shot him a glance as harsh as nails. “Yes. We’ll use the same schedule as last time, but I’ll go first.”
The swordsman narrowed his eyes but agreed. Eventually he stashed his knife away and accepted his fate, leaning back onto the ground.
I glanced up at Myris, feeling the air around me lighten as his soul channeled energy through it. He took a deep breath and, meeting my eyes for a single moment, turned his attention to the woods. His fingers twitched in the air as he watched. I could feel the energy and despite the fears poking their way up, I knew that I couldn’t have wanted a better guard.
And so, trusting Myris’ guard, I plopped my head down as well. Relief washed off my shoulders and I let my scabbard fall to the ground. However, as I’d known it would be but desperately hadn’t wanted to believe, my little peace was all too short-lived.
“No,” Myris said. I blinked open my eyes to look at him. “No, no, no, no, no. No.”
I furrowed my brows, pushing myself up. “Myris what are you—”
Then I heard it too. Distantly, pricking my sensitive ears, was the rustling of bushes. Somewhere out in the forest, something was moving—and it was moving toward us.
I jolted up, grabbing my sword. Fire poured into my veins, white and hot, and I readied myself, grasping for any scrap of power I could. For the first time, the white flame complied as well, pouring its own fire into the mix.
But no matter how ready I was, I barely got any time to react as a blurry, rabid terror flew directly out of the trees.
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