A pair of purple gems scanned the slowly moving landscape around them. A tranquil atmosphere hung around the caravan but Iris couldn’t enjoy it as the undead mage sitting beside her on the driving seat was dumping her every emotion onto her. Kia idly swung her legs underneath the driver seat as her fingers lightly held a brown sweet semi-circular object which she was pressing against her lips. The elf furrowed her eyebrows as it has been almost a bell since the grumpy necromancer had started to nibble on Umbria's gift as if it was her last meal.

 

"Hey, are you there?" Iris poked the girl's half-filled cheek, reeling the beauty back into reality. "Could I have my hand back? I feel like the blood inside it clotted up." She complained as the cold numbness tug on her mind.

 

The short undead mage turned toward the elf beside her with a small pout and eyed her with feral perception before her eyes snapped onto her lap where her plaything's fingers moved to relieve the uncomfortable feeling of heaviness. Kia's arms pounced like a fox at the pale elven hand as it tried to escape, leaving the cookie hanging from her mouth.

 

"Savage monster." Kia's star-like eyes monitored her prey with profound alertness as if confirming her kill before lightly putting her left hand back on her snack and returning to brush the back of her hand on Iris's palm. "When did you become such a predator?" An even fiercer predator ran her finger on the girl's spine causing the mage to arc her spine in response.

 

"Iris?" The elf felt a wave of tranquillity wash over their connection putting a stop to the constant background noise. "Where are we?"

 

"We are in the demi-human territory."

 

"No, like could you show me where we are?" The hood covering the girl suddenly was flung backwards alongside her long hair as a strong gust of wind swept the caravan.

 

"Sure but why do you need to know?" Iris curiously asked as she dug the folded map out of her jacket.

 

"I don't understand something," Kia replied to the risen as she received the non-Theocratic map. "Ehh..."

 

"What's the problem?"

 

"I don't know what any of this means."

 

"Do you want me to show you," The elf asked the embarrassed undead, receiving enthusiastic nods as a response. "We are here. If you would imagine a line going from this dot, Flinter to this one, Arel and another line going vertically from the source of the river Neur. The river where we spend a day with Hudor... the large human with a big round beard," Iris sighed seeing the girl's blank stare." The place where we sat all day on the barque. This is where we are... roughly." She gently tapped on the map where she estimated they were.

 

"Wow, amazing." Kia's eyes twinkled in the sunlight as her gaze was more focused on the elf above her rather than the map.

 

"It's not really that impressive. I just keep track of our position every day using the sun. It's much easier to keep track of our day-to-day position than trying to guess our location when the need arises." The tall risen noticed Kia resting her head on her shoulder, seemingly forgetting to pout at the cruel and evil chief. Her fingers wrapped themselves under Kia's chin and refocused the kitten's attention on the map.

 

"And this is all flat, like this?" The girl asked while pointing at the grassland all around them.

 

"I would imagine so."

 

"And what is this?" Her finger carefully hovered over the eastern Ridge area.

 

"Those are the eastern Ridge Mountains. From what I know these mountains are smaller than the mountains west of Vitas which are so tall it takes weeks to climb them. I think the eastern Ridge is littered with many mountain passes and valleys across it but I may be wrong about that since I only heard of armies coming from The Pass from listening to humans." Iris pointed at the gap between the hand-drawn mountains.

 

"And what is beyond the mountains?" The girl probed the elf further.

 

"From what Theocracy teaches their citizens, beyond the Ridge there is wasteland ruled by Daemons..." Iris glanced at Kia with a troubled expression painted across her face. She wanted to help the girl solve whatever she was searching for but she lacked information only a scholar would know.

 

The elf grimaced in discomfort as her body suddenly recalled a deeply buried memory. Phantom pain flared across her body in recollection of a forgotten whip with a blurry image of half-naked Alisia sitting with her legs crossed in a large armchair with a human servant standing at her side.

 

---

 

"I don't know what that perv sees in you." The Astral Mage's green, distorted eyes gazed at her through the crystal cup in her hands.

 

"I guess I answered my own question, wouldn't you agree?"

 

"..." The bruised elf remained quiet causing Alicia to switch her legs and to curse the Fingersmith for a little while longer.

 

"At least you quickly learned my last lesson but I don't like how silent you are now, that is something I will have to work on." The human's words hung morbidly in the air as she turned around and dismissed the mute servant with her hand. The woman with pinkish ponytails scurried toward the entrance while the heroic companion lazily watched her back before grabbing the sheet of paper stuffed hurriedly inside a drawer as the young girl disappeared. "You know what, Elf? Like all humans I once fantasized about being a heroic companion, fighting alongside the Hero to save humanity from the daemons but who would have known that the greatest threat against me would be the dim-witted clergy with heads so far up their asses they can see through their mouth. Miracles my ass, do you know they still think magic is ontologically evil and that it comes from Molik'Gor, instead of the land beyond Ridge? Why am I even asking a fellow example of their idiocy?" Her new master softened with alluring sweetness as she idly read through the contents of the scroll. "Who taught a mongrel dog like you to write? I can not read this you daemon spawn, this is not a wall painting for your mud pits but a translation of the Vetarii tablet... Still silent?" Alisia stood up on her metal high heels and slowly walked toward the naked elf, who was pressing her head against the cold floor as the sound of metal clicking loudly on the marble floor tormented her mind. "You are useless... but that is something I will fix for you, one lesson at a time."

 

---

 

"Salty." Iris felt the memory wash away by something cold touching her face. The comfortable feeling of numbness returned to her body. When she opened her eyes she saw the blurry pale shadow in front of her. Before her eyes could focus on the cold radiating figure she felt something wet brushing against her cheek.

 

"Did you just lick me?"

 

"It's your fault for not feeding me," Kia whined on top of the elf while her eyes remained glued on the risen with a questioning look. "What did you recalled?"

 

"Something I wanted to forget. *Sigh* How do you know I recalled something?"

 

"Because I know everything about you." A proud and intimidating smile appeared on the necromancer's face, whose pale skin glistened with sunlight like the brightest of stars in the night sky.

 

"Really, then what did you felt just now?" The elf asked causing the short undead to rub her face on the elf.

 

"Why is it so hard to copy you?" Kia frowned, frustrated that her elven tactics haven't worked on Iris.

 

"Could you tell me what did you feel?"

 

"That's so unfair! Why can't I do this when you do this!?" The girl complained before sinking unsatisfied into the hoplite's warm arms. "I don't know everything about you but I heard you muttering and sensed you were angry and sad at something."

 

"You haven't sensed fear in me?"

 

"No. I actually feel very little from our connection since your body blocks many mana signatures from exiting your body." Kia explained.

 

"Why is that?"

 

"When System ratified you as a new race, it gaved you abilities I didn't expect you would possess. Many of these abilities are immunities from being magically controlled and nothing the System gives is completely free."

 

"Is that a bad thing?" The elf asked as she scanned the wind-swept grassland around them.

 

"I say it's a good thing since being the first of a race comes with benefits but it also means I can't feel and understand your emotions as much as you can do mine."

 

"I sometimes feel I can understand you without any words but are you sure you are correct, for most of the day I barely feel anything?" The elf asked while pulling the girl's hood.

 

"That's because you haven't learned how to use it," Her creator commented with a shy smile.

 

"Can you teach me how?" Iris adjusted in her seat as she desired to know more.

 

"No," Kia covered her face with her hands as she snuggled deeper into the elf. "Because the age of our link determines our ability to use it."

 

Iris started to play with the strand of obsidian hair, twirling it around her fingers as she thought about the girl's words.

 

"Before I forget. I remembered that I once heard that the wind from the north comes from the same direction as the source of mana in Niuran... allegedly."

 

"Mmmmm..."

 

In response to the risen's words, the petite mage sat up straight and began to lightly tap her chin with her slender finger. Iris could watch the adorable kitten deep in thought for eternity but after a bell, the undead cat's eyes sparkled with power as she began to hurriedly scan the horizon.