The way back to Ewana was apparently a much greater distance than Jake had been ready for. After being knocked out by Darius, Helena kept Jake asleep with her magic while the Elf carried him through the tunnels. There hadn’t been a lot of Maedra to fight, which helped with keeping Jake sedated and Darius was able to hold his own for the most part against the smaller numbers. However, once they had reached the cavern- things changed. The number of Maedra waiting for them and the overall pressure of mana spiked immensely. Going further by themselves, with a body in tow, was too dangerous. Darius had called for a stop so he could awaken Jake before they went any further.

The Elf was determined to make it to the nest and if Jake had truly turned down the Elf’s offer, Darius would have sent Helena back to the village to get a replacement. Who that was, Helena didn’t know. All she knew was that Darius had become far more dedicated to fighting the Maedra recently. He never shared why. Jake, having not known Darius long enough, couldn’t even make a guess as to why the Elf would change his ways all of a sudden. All Jake could think of was pressure from the village’s Council, or maybe Darius himself knew of the growing danger of the Maedra. Thankfully, they were successful. However, the Elf’s life was the cost.

The destruction of the Nest wouldn’t bring about a massive change to Ewana’s current situation, though. One nest was enough to slow the Maedra. Not stop them. It wouldn’t reduce the overall number of Maedra within the vicinity nor would it affect their chances of stumbling on the beasts in the tunnels. What it would change was the replenishment of Maedra within the connected tunnels. Once the tunnels were cleared up to the nest and Collector crystals placed throughout them, there would no longer be any threat of Maedra again. It would allow further expansion into the tunnels and the village could even develop the converted nesting area into a forward post if they wanted.

But the Maedra would return. They would find a new breeding area. Find a new nest. Reproduce and then attempt to fight their way back to the converted location. It wouldn’t be an aggressive or direct move but that was just the nature of the tunnels. Of the Ravine. The Maedra would naturally expand outwards and gradually move closer and closer to the converted area. While they wouldn’t be able to return to the converted nest immediately, in time the effects of the spell would weaken or wear off entirely. Then, the Maedra would once more turn it into a nest. The people of Ewana, or whoever decided to take over the converted nest, would need to secure it and continue to push into the tunnels around it to keep the Maedra out.

A dangerous dance. One that favored the Maedra. The Oryks could reproduce but the maturation of an Oryx child took years. A Maedra’s maturation cycle was far shorter. The actual timeline wasn’t known but their ability to be cleared out and then retake an area that had been entirely emptied was a common problem in the tunnels. Collector crystals weren’t always readily available. Due to this, sometimes tunnels needed to be wrestled from Maedra hands several times before they could finally be secured by the village. The spell Jake had cast would buy them time, though. With the mana in the air purified there were no raw nutrients or seeds for the Maedra to be birthed from. The tunnel, for the time being, would be safe.

Even so, Jake kept his guard up as they walked. He carried both his and Darius’s packs and walked ahead of Helena and Lydia. His Night Vision was active as was his Sensory magic. While he walked, he let his body cycle through the stages of fatigue as he lumbered along with the heavy weight of the packs. Helena had offered her Weight Reduction rune to help him but Jake had learned the importance of physical conditioning.

Magic was convenient and would help him be a capable killer. But if his body was slow, weak, and fragile- then it would eventually wear down and break. His opponents could end up being stronger or faster than him. Their reaction timings might be better. Most of all, if a fight ended up going for longer than expected then Jake would eventually tire. His magic could reduce his physical fatigue but not the mental. Conditioning his body would strengthen his muscles and his mind. Darius had taught him this and he would not let either side of himself get left behind.

Thus, he walked without Helena’s aid. Whenever he grew too tired to advance, only then would he spike his body back into shape through magic. It was a vicious and rigorous cycle but over time Jake found himself walking further and further with less need to recover. It wasn’t much, as conditioning his body would take time, but Jake was at least finding it easier to carry the weight.

“I think we should rest,” Helena called out. Jake agreed, and they walked until they found a comfortable area to settle into. The trio had been walking for several hours already and with no more urgency forcing them onwards, they could enjoy more breaks. They had been walking for almost a day already and apparently, they were only halfway back. Great.

Jake dropped the packs and then utilized his magic to create a large hole in the wall of the tunnel. He created a space large enough for the three to rest comfortably and carved a large pit in the middle of the circular room. He utilized two Light-elemental runes to illuminate the space and then placed a fire rune at the bottom of the pit. The Fire-elemental rune glowed brightly at first, spitting out heat into the space as it punched through the chilled air.

Lydia waddled into the room first, quick to find her spot and drop her pack so that she could flop down on top of it. Helena coaxed the Halfling to at least get food before sleeping, but Lydia just grumbled and flailed her arms a bit as she lay there in defiance. Jake entered last after the other two had chosen their places of comfort, placing himself on the opposite side of the fire pit. He then closed the entrance to the room, sealing them in just in case something other than Maedra was prowling within the tunnel.

Though he had already cleaned them at their prior stop, Jake pulled out his three sets of daggers and short swords. Two were his, one was Darius’s broken pair. As Helena and Lydia began their ritual of eating, Jake briskly performed maintenance on his tools. He hadn’t utlized them since their last cleaning but he made sure to clean them of dust and defects anyways. He rubbed the metal over with a cloth to add to the luster of the weapons and then gave the edges a few runs over the whetstone. Doing so ensured their sharpness was kept but he didn’t perform the motion more than a few times. Over doing it would also damage the blade. This was just to keep them in working order.

After his regular task of cleaning his weapons, Jake fetched his own set of rations and began to eat at a sandwich and some nuts. Darius’s sandwiches were a lot lighter in terms of meat and a lot higher in seeds and nuts. Thus, Jake had salvaged the leftover meals and dispersed the meat into his own sandwiches. Jake had also distributed the seeds and nuts into the other ration sets and gave a large amount over to Lydia. The Halfling lived off that kind of food anyways so Jake figured she would appreciate the excess.

Jake’s meals were a lot larger because of that and he found himself able to actually sate his appetite. The constant physical effort he had to put out between fighting and walking with the heavy packs was not only dragging on his muscles but it was putting a hole in his stomach. He was almost constantly hungry. Helena had noticed this and offered up some of her food. Yet once more, Jake politely declined her offerings. She needed to eat just as much as he did.

By the time Jake was finished eating, Lydia was unrolling her mat and setting herself up to sleep. Helena offered to take first watch but Jake told her, firmly, to go to sleep first. The woman stared at him, a bit of worry in her eyes, and stubbornly elected to stay up with him. Jake didn’t argue and quietly stared down at the fire rune as he waited for time to pass. He wasn’t quite tired enough to sleep just yet. He could feel it coming but if he lay down now he would just roll around, bored. At least this way he could amuse himself, train a little if he grabbed a sword, or watch the other two sleep.

If Helena was going to stay awake with him, though, then he figured he would take advantage of the down time. He didn’t know anything about the woman other than she was a friend of Darius and a very good mage. Though, he didn’t particularly find her history to be of importance. What she did in her life and how she became who she was, was likely quite a tale- one that Jake would rather hear in a more comfortable setting. What he was curious about, though, were her eyes. Her knowledge of the Maedra. Her relationship with Darius, Lydia, and Ewana. And her own reasons for fighting the Maedra. Darius had done it due to his race and lineage. Lydia did it for revenge and to protect others. Jake did it out of hate.

Why was she in the Ravine?

“Something the matter?” Jake must have been staring, as Helena was staring back at him. The blindfold she had utilized was torn off her face during the initial explosion of the catalyst and she hadn’t got around to making another. Jake found himself staring at her face a lot. Both out of poor habit and curiosity.

“Your eyes,” Jake said, missing the question part of what he was actually trying to ask. “Are they… natural?” He wasn’t quite sure how or what to ask in order to get the information he wanted to know. Honestly- he had no idea what he even wanted to know about her eyes. They were an anomaly to him and his interest in them was growing quite a bit. Jake was willing to bombard her with a slew of questions to learn about those eyes but he found it tasteless and rude. He hoped she wouldn’t be mad.

And she wasn’t. Rather than scoff, roll her eyes, or snap at him, Helena smiled softly and folded her hands neatly in her lap. Her head tilted as she looked down towards the rune. At least, that’s what Jake thought. See, her eyes glowed a pale white. It wasn’t bright like the sun. Just a soft shine to the white orbs within her head. Her eyes were also blank. They had a set of two black rings that were very difficult to see, but Helena’s eyes didn’t have an iris or a pupil. They were just… white.

“No,” she answered solemnly. “They are not.”

Jake expected such an answer. While he wasn’t prepared to ask the follow up question so quickly he at least had a feeling that her eyeballs weren’t that way from birth. She looked Human, all things considered, and hadn’t displayed any traits that would make him think otherwise. If she truly was Human and not just another closely related race of some kind, then her eyes should be much different than glowing white circles in her face.

Jake pressed his lips together and tried to think of a few different ways to ask about them but he couldn’t quite settle on a safe or polite choice of verbiage. He could straight up ask except he didn’t want her to be uncomfortable with responding. From how she reacted, he figured it might be a touchy subject.

“Would you like to know about them? About me?” Helena asked on her own, peering over at Jake curiously as the boy stared at her. With his lips still locked together, his jaw tensed as his teeth began to grind as well. Rather than verbally returning his answer, Jake forced himself to nod lightly. Helena gave him another smile as her fingers laced together and her eyes lowered back to the fire rune.

“I was born blind,” Helena started with quite a punch of a line. Jake felt as if he had been socked in the gut. Still, he kept his outward reaction minimal and listened intently.

“My parents didn’t know what to do with me and they were scared of what would happen to me when I grew up. I was born to a village in the far outskirts of my home country and monsters were very common in the region. A blind girl with no way to support the home was nothing more than a wasted mouth to feed in such a poor land. They raised me until I was old enough to stand, never quite letting themselves get too attached, and then they sold me off to a nobleman who…” Helena paused, her face growing quite tense. The gutted feeling in Jake’s stomach returned for a moment as he waited for her to continue. It felt like an eon passed before her lips opened again.

“...enjoyed the presence of younger girls.” She finally said in a soft voice. Jake felt a mix of emotions wash over him. “He paid my parents a decent sum, took me away, and for several years I was trapped in his house. Unable to help myself, I lived and did as I was told. Until one day, a maid helped me and a few other girls escape the manor and brought us to the Church. The Church helped us move to another town where they taught us how to live normally and helped us heal from the abuse of that man.” She paused again, likely remembering her time spent at the Church she mentioned. Jake had to wonder. How did she remember such a place? Was it through the noises in the air? The feel of the walls, the floor, and faint scents loitering in the air? Or maybe was it the food they fed her that she remembered most?

“It was in that Church that I heard a voice call out to me. It wasn’t one I had ever heard before. It was soft, warm. It guided me out of my room and I followed it through the halls as it led me into the main foyer of the Church. It called me forward to the altar and I was told to sit. I listened, though afraid and a bit confused. The voice called out to me and told me that if I was willing to go through many hardships and become a close friend of Death herself, that I would be given the blessing of sight.” Helena’s lips curled into a smile as she let out a very soft and warm giggle.

“Knowing what I do now, I was quite foolish. I didn’t think of the offer at all. All I wanted was the ability to see. The ability to live without someone having to hold my hand or guide me to my food. I hated being left alone, of being told to sit and wait until someone finally would come to grab me. I hated being excluded from schooling just because no one had the patience to teach me. I had no friends. My family had abandoned me. It was as if life itself had created me just for some kind of joke.” Helena’s usual soft voice grew a bit harsh. She gripped onto the bottom of her long skirt, the cloth crumbling beneath her long fingers. They weren’t perfect hands. Her fingers bore many cuts, scars, and a few burns. Her skin, though pale and smooth, wasn’t untouched by the harshness of the world.

“All I could think of was being able to see for the first time in my life.” Her normal tone returned as her shoulders stopped shaking. “The voice then told me to close my eyes and take in a deep breath. I did. I took a few long breaths as the voice lulled me into a trance. Then, I fell asleep. When I awoke, it was to the sound of a Sister calling out to me. She was kneeling over me, scared and confused. She shook my shoulders and called my name… but I couldn’t see her face when I opened my eyes.” Helena stopped and looked up at Jake.

The boy was confused and met her gaze. She was staring at him, quiet, and likely for reason. In her silence, Jake let himself wonder what she saw. Hadn’t that voice gifted her with sight? Or maybe it wasn’t “sight” as he would normally attest seeing to.

“Your eyes don’t see the world normally… do they?” He asked. Helena shook her head.

“No, they do not.” She answered. “I can see objects and I can see the outlines of shapes. I can see faint glows of things that shine, of fire, and of smoke. However, most of all, I can see mana in the air.”

So, that explained it. The glow in her eyes was because that was the mana within her reacting and perceiving the world. Her sight was likely similar to Jake’s Sensory spell but just a perpetual deal. The glow was her own mana leaking out into the air, a natural effect. If that was the case, then it also explained why she had looked at him so coldly after his battle in the Nest. Much like Helena’s eyes were not natural, Jake’s mana wasn’t either.

“Is that why you said my mana was vile?” He asked. She nodded.

“Even now, I can see it. There is a sinister air to your mana. Far more so than even the Maedra. It’s as if I might be eaten if I stare for too long…” she trailed off, looking at him with a pensive expression. She let out a faint sigh and turned her head back towards the fire rune.

“After I awoke and realized the kind of sight I had been given, I began to cry. While it wasn’t what I had expected, it was truly a blessing. At the time I did not know it was not normal. The Sisters didn’t know what to do with me and the glowing of my eyes scared them quite a bit but the Priest was a kind man. He was willing to keep me at their Church and gave me a blindfold to cover my eyes. I could see through it but it helped the world deal with me. For the first time, I could go to the classes. I could learn and study. I made my first friend after a few years and in time, I grew more comfortable with the world.” She looked down at her hands and turned her palms up towards her face. She stared at them for a few moments before looking over at Jake.

“Your mana is indeed vile. It is scary but it is tame. You control it well. If I look closely, I can see beauty and balance within it. It is very unique,” she said. She gave him a warm smile as her hands lowered back into her lap. “I can see much of a person through their mana. Those who are unkind, wild, and violent. Their mana tends to have a very rough look. Almost as if the mana might strike me. Those more kind, gentle, and warm, have softer and more calm seas within them…” Helena’s eyes drifted to her side. She looked down at Lydia, who was fast asleep on her mat. Helena then looked across the fire towards an empty space.

“Those who are brave, selfless, and courageous. Warriors at heart… Their mana is a mixture of both. Calm when they are at ease. Powerful when they are in battle. They are like guiding lights.” She looked away from where Darius would have been sitting and her eyes once more settled on Jake. “Your mana is at such a crossroads. I can see it,” she whispered.

“You are close to the edge, at the fine in between of Warrior and Beast. Your mana rages within you. It calls for battle. However, it is hesitant to be released. As if at any moment it may lose control of itself and shatter.”

Jake stared at her glowing eyes for as long as he could while she spoke. He eventually couldn’t meet that gaze any longer. He looked down at his own hands, at himself. He felt his stomach quiver and he grimaced as her words poked into his mind. As much as he was willing to argue and disagree, he couldn’t find the words to do so. Not because they weren’t there. He simply could not muster the courage to deny the feeling of fear within him that aligned with her diagnosis of his current state.

He could feel what she was talking about. The teetering on the edge. When he fought the Maedra, his emotions ran wild. He could feel the rage within him and it was almost impossible to control. Whenever he looked at one of the creatures, he remembered Chul. And now, he also remembered Darius. He hated the Maedra with every fiber of his being and that rage boiled to the surface every time he even caught a whiff of them. His desire to kill them until they were extinct was so powerful that he didn’t know where to start when it came to controlling such hate. Even if he did, he didn’t know if he wanted to.

The power that came with such a willingness to kill was exactly what he was training for. Not a single Maedra could stand against him. He could slaughter almost an entire nest with his strength. How could he deny such power? Why would he fight against such a thing? It wasn’t like he would be thrown into a frenzy or lose his mind during such an event. Jake knew what he was doing. He was always in control of himself. He chose to kill those Maedra. He chose to burn them, to cut them to pieces. Why should he change?

“You say it like it’s a bad thing,” Jake muttered. Helena’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly for a moment. As if those few words had revealed all of Jake’s cards. Cards that Jake wasn’t hiding in the first place. There was no move to cover up his hatred of the Maedra nor did he conceal his ultimate goal. If she asked him, he would tell her his desire. He felt no shame in it. The Maedra deserved to die. If that were true- then he had no reason to restrict himself from growing.

“How you chose to use your strength is your choice alone,” Helena said, her tone flat. Jake could hear a bit of disappointment in her voice. “But, do not let it consume you, Jake.”

“I won’t,” he answered. Several times, Jake had come to feel the pain of his mana and he knew firsthand the dangers of having such power. His mana was a poison. It could erode his Life Essence and cripple him if he were to lose a handle on it. Keeping his magic under control and contained within his mana flow was less of a concern and more of a necessity. Though, in his fight at the Nest- his mana had run wild.

Just after he had broken free from Helena’s binding sigil, Jake’s mana began to burn and he could feel it run hot within him. As if triggered by his struggle, the mark flared to life on his chest and brightly glowed the same ruby-like color of his mana. It was so bright that he could see it through his shirt. During the fight, Jake could feel the mark burn his skin and it felt as if it were fueling his mana flow. Each time the mark pulsed, Jake could feel his mana react. It responded to his calls and the boy was able to cast with it but due to the new mark’s influence, he was unable to truly contain his mana flow. Not that he wanted to at the time. All he wanted was to kill the Maedra. The marking on his chest worked almost like a conductor in the chaos. It fueled Jake’s need for mana by pushing his Mana Source to work harder and it funneled the necessary mana to wherever Jake needed it.

However, while it helped, Jake wondered what might have happened if Jake had tried to resist it. The mark had faded after the battle, dimming and losing much of its color as though its job was done. If Jake had tried to struggle against the mark and tried to control his mana- would he have been able to? For as long as the mark shined on his chest, Jake’s mana flow felt uncapped. Just like when Jake had first begun to cultivate. It had poured out of him, unbound and untamed. If he wanted to ensure that he wouldn’t let his power consume him or run amok again as it had, he would need to cultivate more. That, and there was someone he was going to have to visit. The person who had given him that mark in the first place.

“...He had a lot of plans for you, you know,” Helena said suddenly. Jake blinked and looked over at her.

“Who? Darius?” He asked. She smiled and nodded softly.

“When he brought you to us, all tied up, and asked me to ensure you stayed asleep, he had a smile on his face,” Helena looked at the fire rune, her smile softening as she remembered the scene in her mind. Even her eyes looked gentle. “He said you were one of Mur’s best. Your talent was better than his own and your desire to learn and train had excited him. It was his first time coming across a pupil that truly wanted to learn, and he was so happy to teach you.”

“He didn’t have to be so mean about it,” Jake grumbled as he recalled none of that happy or joyfulness. Darius was always a bit cold to him.

Helena chuckled.

“No, he didn’t. But that was how he chose to teach you.” Helena pushed on her knees and stood up. She stretched a bit before placing her hands on her hips. “And you are better for it. I’m going to rest. Please awaken me so you can get some, too.”

Jake scoffed a bit and rolled his eyes. While he was stubborn, he wasn’t stupid enough to not get any sleep. Helena eyed him a bit before finally pulling out her sleeping mat and laying down on it. Silence took over the sleeping area and Jake stared down at the fire rune, waiting patiently for time to pass. His hands folded together, his fingers lacing between one another as he let his thoughts wander.