They struck camp early the next morning and set out along the road once more. Not used to rising so early in the day, Samuel yawned constantly for the first two hours of the day, rubbing his eyes and slouching along behind Shigeru. His taller companion, more used to the hardened lifestyle of a warrior, which included nothing but early mornings, was as wide-awake and alert as ever.

Samuel noted how, every so often, Shigeru would turn his head to the side, to check the brush of the path they traveled on. Even more infrequently, he would turn on his heel and without breaking stride, scan the path behind them before turning back to face the front. Every few times he did this, he would snap back around almost at once. Curious as to what he was doing, Samuel cleared his throat.

“Are you really worried about someone ambushing us in these open plains?”

Shigeru blinked as he looked at him, his face blank for a second. Then, understanding what Samuel was getting at, he became thoughtful. “Not necessarily. It’s nearly impossible to approach us from any direction. But they are old habits. Very hard to break.”

Samuel nodded but wasn’t sure he saw much sense in it. “But why risk a crick in your neck with the extra snap to look back?”

As he asked the question, he knew that it was a mistake. Almost at once, Shigeru’s expression became confused, then pitying. As quickly as the emotions had formed on his face, they were gone, however, replaced by the usual blank mask.

“Ah yes,” the swordsman said quietly. “I forget, you have never been on a campaign. The second look, coming so quickly after I turn around, is intended to catch out anyone who stopped as I turned, then broke cover.”

“That is interesting,” Samuel said, finally nodding in understanding. “There are many things about the world that I have yet to learn, it seems. But can you not use your own energy to explore the area? It would waste less movement.”

You speak of magic. Grimr’s voice came to them. This is not Shigeru’s first instinct. He has the potential but is too reliant on his body to think of such things right away.

That made sense, he supposed. “Oh right. I just thought it might make the task a little easier, is all.”

Shigeru showed no sign of offense or consternation at the remark, but rubbed his chin thoughtfully, apparently considering the idea. “That is unmistakably a good idea. How would you go about performing this feat?”

Samuel opened his mouth to reply at once, then realized he wasn’t sure. Frowning slightly in concentration, he turned to view the area around himself. Now that he came to think of it, he’d never found a spell that could do what he’d just described.

Take your time if you must. Astori’s words came back to him, repeated many times whenever he tried to learn a new piece of magic. Picture the problem clearly in your head, and use your talents to solve it in the most effective way possible.

He supposed the problem at hand was that he could only see so far, and his senses weren’t nearly as sharp as he needed them to be. He needed to spot everything within a certain distance around him. If his eyes and ears weren’t up to the task, then he’d have to use his mana. This posed another problem, however. So far, he’d only used his arcane senses to locate others who used mana. The more experienced and powerful a mage was, the more brightly they shined when seen with such a method.

Shigeru certainly had magical capabilities, though they were of a different kind. He was easily sensed by the burning energy within his body. It seemed to fluctuate slightly with his physical state, but unlike mana, it was dense and potent. Other living creatures would be more challenging to sense with his mana, given that they were less likely to have the same hidden power inside their bodies.

Nevertheless, he gave it a try. Extending his mana much as he did in his Divination exam, Samuel pushed out a thin field to envelop everything around him. He imagined a large, transparent dome stretching out some distance, reaching nearly fifty feet in every direction. He was surprised to feel his mana come in contact with several small sources of energy. They were small animals, hiding from predators in the long grass of the plains.

There was easily enough room for attackers to lie in wait unnoticed with how long the grass was, but Samuel couldn’t sense anything around them apart from the animals that his mana had come in contact with. There could be some farther than fifty feet away, he supposed, but not if they wanted an efficient ambush.

He opened his eyes to see Shigeru staring at him with intrigue. “I think that feels about right. Something like that should-”

He broke off his sentence, curious as to why Shigeru looked so put out. He thought perhaps the swordsman’s confusion was due to the fact that Samuel hadn’t explained his process. He opened his mouth at once to elaborate but was interrupted as Shigeru finally spoke.

“That’s certainly an interesting way of achieving that. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that.”

“Well, how would you do it then?” Samuel asked, feeling a bit defensive.

Shigeru seemed to realize that his words had come across as condescending, and raised one hand in apology. “I wouldn’t be able to do it at all. To my knowledge, no technique has been created to perform what you just did.”

Samuel turned his head to stare with curiosity at Grimr. “Have you seen or heard of someone doing something similar, Grimr?”

The black cat, from where he was nestled in the hood of Samuel’s cloak, blinked slowly. Not that I have heard of. I know there are search magicks that exist, but none are designed to scan passively, as you are doing now.

“Does that mean..” Samuel’s voice trailed off, not sure if he was right, not wanting to jump too far ahead.

“It means exactly what you think,” Shigeru said with a grin, nodding respectfully to Samuel. “I believe you’ve just invented a new type of magick.”

Samuel didn’t respond but thought to himself for several long moments. If that was true, that was a great accomplishment. It was said that the invention of a new type of magic was a rare occurrence. It was only done once every few years, and the mages who accomplished such feats were honored above all else.

“Interesting,” Samuel replied, not sure what else to say just yet. “I’ll have to share it with Astori when I get back to Milagre.”

They said no more as they continued their trek down the long and dusty road. They were deep in the plains at this point, and Samuel knew they’d travel at least a few more days before they reached the forest. He’d drawn, copied, and edited maps of this section of the country so many times that he could picture it clearly in his head.

This knowledge helped quite a bit as they continued on throughout the afternoon and into the night. Twice, he saved them from taking unneeded detours onto paths that, at first glance looked straight and quick, were actually winding and sometimes led off to somewhere completely different.

“That’s one good reason we have for taking you along, I suppose,” Shigeru commented, breaking the silence that had lasted for a few hours.

Samuel grinned easily at him, glad for the disruption to the monotonous silence. “Glad I could be of some use. I may not be much of a fighter, but I know the paths well.”

They traveled at a fairly quick pace. Walking briskly for half an hour, then falling back to a more relaxed pace for fifteen minutes, they were able to cover ground much quicker than Samuel had expected. They were eating up the distance to the Dagorra Forest, and the young mage estimated it would probably take two days to reach their goal, instead of the expected four days.

The efficiency was all well and good, but Samuel found quickly into that first day that he was not cut out for a rough life. He’d always been unfit, but the pace that Shigeru was setting showed him just how out of shape he truly was. By comparison, Shigeru moved smoothly, showing no sign of tiring all day. In fact, Samuel suspected that the warrior was intentionally keeping them at a slower pace out of consideration to him.

By the end of that first day, Samuel was all too ready to collapse into his bedroll and fall asleep. He did so almost as soon as he laid down after Shigeru assured him that he and Grimr would keep watch throughout the night. They didn’t expect any trouble until they reached the forest, so it wasn’t much of a burden. Samuel accepted the offer with only token resistance, eager to sleep and recuperate before another day’s marching.

And so set the pattern for the next day. Bright and early, after a rushed breakfast of dried meat and cold water, Shigeru had them up and moving, continuing to push towards the distant forest. Samuel’s body groaned and ached from the previous day’s exertions, and he spent most of the morning stifling grunts of pain until his tired muscles began to warm, and the pain receded to a dull pulse in his joints.

The traveling was a little easier that day, but only a little. Samuel still struggled through, determined not to give up before the swordsman did. He marveled silently at the resilience and stamina that Shigeru showed. Towards the end of the day, the swordsman declared that he would move ahead in order to scout. Without the slightest sign of hesitation or exhaustion, his pace increased, and he jogged ahead, gradually fading out of sight.

“I can’t imagine running right now.” Samuel panted to Grimr, who had stayed behind. The Ancient was in his human form and walked slightly ahead of him. “I’d collapse if I tried.”

Grimr flashed him a grin over his shoulder. “You never thought walking could be so exhausting, did you?”

Samuel shook his head ruefully. “I’ve walked plenty. But this, just short of running, for hours on end? My joints feel like they’re ready to crack.”

Grimr nodded. “It’s only to be expected. A person such as yourself cannot expect to be in very good condition after a lifetime of study and reading.”

Samuel could hear the light teasing in Grimr’s words, and humphed. He turned his head to see the barest hint of a mountain range in the distance, peeking above the horizon. He knew that was the Estavor Mountain Range. He also knew that, though it sat on the other side of the Dagorra Forest, the peaks were so high that they could be seen long before the forest itself.

They caught up to Shigeru in half an hour, just as night was beginning to truly fall. They saw the smoke of a campfire first and approached curiously. Samuel thought that they might try to avoid the campfire, but Grimr showed no sign of altering their path as they walked swiftly up to the pillar of smoke that stood out against the setting sun.

“Don’t we want to avoid strangers on the road?” Samuel asked tentatively as they slowed down in their approach. “You have no way of knowing who’s camp this is.”

Grimr shrugged slightly. “Shigeru obviously found them to be no danger, so I’ll follow his lead for now. It seems like he’s not an enemy.”

The two of them approached the campsite. Samuel could now see the fire that had signaled its presence, and the two men seated beside it, speaking to each other in low voices. One of them was the familiar figure of Shigeru, sitting with his legs tucked up under him and completely relaxed.

The other man was significantly older than Shigeru, somewhere in his mid-fifties. He wore simple white robes adorned with deep purple hems, and the backs and arms were home to several intricately stitched symbols. Based on his limited experience with the language, Samuel guessed they were Nihon-Jan in origin. On the front of his robe, standing out against the white background was the symbol of a hammer. There were thin lines around it as if to depict the hammer vibrating slightly.

Shigeru looked up and around as they drew close, and nodded in greeting as he rose to his feet. The older man rose as well, showing no sign of pain or discomfort. He moved with a grace and balance that belied his old age, and Samuel thought at once that there was more to this man than was apparent at first glance.

“Oto-san, I’d like you to meet my newest compatriots,” Shigeru said, leading the man forward and gesturing gracefully towards Samuel and Shigeru.

 

The old man peered with great interest first at Samuel, who stood a few feet away breathing heavily from the fast walk here, then at Grimr. His eyes widened slightly as he saw the Ancient, and he leaned forward to get a better look. Then a wide smile spread across his face, giving him a boyish look at least 30 years behind him.

“Grimr, you said?” He said, his voice deep and excited. “You wouldn’t happen to be Grimr Lance, Paragon of Ahya?”

Grimr arched his eyebrow as he was identified. “You know of me, human? I take it Shigeru has told you my true identity?”

Oto waved one hand in dismissal. “He told me that he was setting out with a friend named Grimr, but I never thought it would be you! I never thought I’d meet a living Ancient, let alone the oldest of them all!”

Grimr glanced at Shigeru, then the old man, his face making it clear that he was missing something from this discussion, and didn’t like that he was known by a stranger. His hand drifted casually to the knife at his waist. Shigeru and Samuel both spotted this movement, but neither stepped in to stop it or even commented on it.

“I must say, from all the tales my master told me, I thought you must have either laid down to sleep or ascended by now!” Oto continued, seemingly unaware of the tension of the moment. Either he didn’t notice, or he didn’t feel it was important enough to comment on.

“Your master?” Grimr said, blinking in confusion. Then his eyes locked on the man’s robes. “I see. You are from the Sanctuary. You are one of Raveonic’s students.”

 

Raveonic? Samuel thought quickly to himself. Wasn’t that the name of the man who had taught Grimr Travel magic? Samuel frowned, carefully tracking the line of thoughts that had just popped into his head. Grimr hadn’t told him when he’d met the man named Raveonic, so it was entirely plausible that Raveonic had taught this man. He stepped forward now, eager to join the discussion.

“You were a student of Raveonic’s?” Samuel asked. “I’ve heard about him. He must have been a great teacher.”

Oto grinned at Samuel now, and it was a genuinely warm smile without deceit or treachery. He threw back his head and laughed. “I’ve never stopped being that man’s student! Nobody in this world knows more than him. Except perhaps Grimr here, I suppose.”

Grimr abandoned his semi-hostile stance and scoffed. “That man’s brain is a bottomless pit. I could never come close to knowing as much as him. It’s not worth my time. Is he still sitting within the Sanctuary?”

“Yes indeed, Master Grimr,” Oto replied, bouncing a little on the balls of his feet. “I don’t think anything can convince that man to leave. Well, I mean to say, he’s already traveled the world many times over. What more is there to see?”

Grimr nodded. “Well, at his level of notoriety, legends will come and find him. He doesn’t have to do much.”

Samuel couldn’t help but stare at Oto. Judging by appearances alone, Samuel wouldn’t have given the man much thought. Sure, his robes were of excellent make, fit for a noble, but there were many countries in which non-royalty could have fine clothing. He lived in one such nation, he reminded himself. Still, even wearing such fine robes so far from a city, he looked like any other man you could see, in either city or country road.

Except that he clearly wasn’t. He had connections to two of the most legendary people he’d ever met, and one who was so mysterious, he’d only heard him mentioned in passing. Grimr had made Raveonic sound like a powerful, wise figure. But surely, if he were so old to have both met Grimr, and taught this old man in front of him, he would be dead. But there was no doubt, judging by the words the others used to describe him, that he was not only alive but still powerful.

“Shigeru,” Samuel said tentatively, not sure how to put his question into words. “You said you were trained by an old master. This master taught you everything you know. You said that, didn’t you?”

Shigeru turned to him and nodded, his face austere. “Yes, indeed. He was the greatest man I’ve ever known. He had much honor.”

Samuel nodded in reply, still seeming to hesitate in his questioning. “What was his name, might I-”

“You are correct in your thought, Samuel,” Grimr said, cutting him off. “The same man that taught me travel magic, and taught Oto here whatever he knows, is also the same man that taught Shigeru to fight.”

“I see,” Samuel said, though he didn’t. “He must have been quite skilled, considering how you’ve turned out, Shigeru.”

Shigeru grinned at him. For once, he seemed to share Grimr’s amusement. “Indeed. If I don’t count spars against my master, I am undefeated in combat.”

“Well, that’s not true,” Grimr said.

Shigeru bowed slightly to the Ancient. “Of course. You have defeated me as well.”

“But,” Samuel blurted out, unable to contain his burning question any longer. “If he was able to teach Grimr, and Oto, and also you, he must be quite, err, elderly.”

He feared for a moment that he’d been rude, but the others didn’t seem offended by the remark. Quite the contrary, they all laughed uproariously as he finished his remark. Samuel flushed as they shared a chuckle, now a little annoyed. He opened his mouth to retort, but Grimr held up one hand to forestall him.

“Age is but a number, young Samuel. It does not weaken all. In fact, it strengthens quite a few. I am nearly as old as the world itself, yet you know that I am more powerful than most.”

“Yes,” Samuel admitted begrudgingly. “But you’re not human. You’re an Ancient, one of the oldest races to exist.”

“The oldest.” Grimr corrected him, traces of a grin still lingering on his face. “But humans can attain great power too, you know.”

“Sure, but we’re still mortal. We grow old and eventually, we die.”

“True.” The Ancient agreed with a nod of his head. “But as you’ve seen yourself, no doubt, magic can accomplish many great things. The more skill you have, the more powerful you have. You can even be powerful enough to elude death.”