"We manage on foot from here," Elizabeth said. "The terrain between here and the canyon entrance is mapped."
"We cover it in a day and a half at field pace." She looked at the group. "We will camp lightly tonight and move at first light."
"But hopefully... there’s still a village around here sowhere," Alexander said while looking through the map.
"Oh yeah, there’s that alternative too."
Rex looked down the road in the direction of the eastern path and then at the forest on either side, the tree cover thick and afternoon-lit, the path ahead disappearing into the kind of dappled shade that said the canopy was about to close in.
He picked up his pack from the equipnt that had been laid out on the road shoulder and settled it across his shoulders.
’I didn’t know that this could happen, but still...’ Rex looked at Nerith, who’s trying to have her distance with him.
’She’s going to be a problem because she was crying nonstop back then...’
’Well... I’m satisfied seeing her like that, but I already have a feeling that she’s going to snitch on towards Apollo.’
’And of course... Apollo is dumb enough to trust her right away...’
’I just have to make sure if she really did it, then I’m going to fucking punish her for it.’
Long diagonal strips of sunlight broke through the trees in the afternoon, lighting up the forest path in patches of light and shadow.
The group moved at a steady pace, and Rex, who was a few steps behind the rest of the group and close enough to look like he was there but far enough away to see, had a perfect view of the back of Nerith Sylvarune’s head.
She hadn’t spoken in hours.
’I knew it... she’s all silent, and those leaves are going to be the downfall for if I don’t do sothing about it.’ Rex thought while his fingers started moving to chant so druid’s magic if anything unfortunate happened.
’This wasn’t the kind of quiet that cos from being tired or focused...’
’This was heavier than that because it has the weight that people put on themselves when they don’t trust their own voice to stay steady...’
’I really gave her so trauma...’
She walked carefully and evenly, planting her druidic staff against the ground with each step in a way that looked like she was doing it on purpose to keep herself steady.
’That staff too... it’s the first ti I see it, and I think she’s being all defensive right now.’
’The leaves were indeed the fucking issue for all of this.’
Nerith’s amber leaves, which grew naturally from her hair near her left temple in a small cluster, were a part of her as much as her eyes. The leaves expressed emotions that her face did not convey.
When she was upset, they curled in a little. They went flat when she tried to stay still.
About forty minutes into the resud march, they were doing sothing Rex found very interesting: they were shaking almost imperceptibly, with a shallow vibration that had nothing to do with the wind.
[Nerith Sylvarune—Desire Level → 72/100]
’What the fuck...?’
The desire has decreased by two points since the stop at noon. Rex paid attention to it in the sa way he would pay attention to the weather calmly and without panic.
’I fucking knew it... this is the first ti that’s happened to that the desire level suddenly dropped.’ He’d known it would drop.
That was the problem with what had happened between them. What he’d done wasn’t the kind of thing that built desire through warmth or admiration.
It had left a mark, and marks of that kind tended to be complicated in ways that required patience and precision to manage, often leading to misunderstandings and emotional distance that needed to be carefully navigated to rebuild trust. The number would move again once he gave it the right direction.
The question was simply when and how.
He looked at the leaves for now.
Nerith walked as if she were rely going through the motions, using the act of walking to fill the void left by several other things she could not do, such as engaging in aningful conversation or reflecting on her surroundings.
She was in the middle of a forest path, surrounded by eight other people. Her staff struck the ground with the sa rhythm it always had.
Her posture was straight and proper. The green leaves woven into her hair required more effort than she had left to spare.
She was thinking about the carriage.
She was not thinking about the fire or the bandits, but rather the mont just before the three of them returned to the group. Rex’s actions, which had ssed up her mind and even her mouth, are why Nerith is currently struggling to speak normally again due to her sore throat.
She was reconsidering that Rex maybe is not a good guy after all.
Talyra’s voice reached her from the front of the group, sothing brief and light directed at Apollo, and Apollo laughed. Aisella said sothing after it, and the three of them settled into a conversation that had the easy rhythm of people who were comfortable with each other.
Nerith watched Aisella’s back.
She had been watching Aisella’s back for most of the afternoon in the way that she kept returning to sothing that was unresolved, not obsessively, not with anything she wanted to na, just with the persistent low-level attention of a druid whose channel had flagged sothing and was not ready to let it go.
’It’s been happening since yesterday... I see Aisella acting like a different person when Rex is ruining her. Even though she seems to enjoy it, but I didn’t at all...’
’It felt like I was being harassed...’
’I don’t like it at all...’
’Aisella was a kind-hearted elf.’ This was the first impression Nerith had of her, and it continued to hold true despite everything else.
’She was precise and capable and genuinely warm in the way that so people were warm, without agenda, without performance.’
’The way she’s having rough sex with Rex... one that didn’t seem to trouble her.’
’She navigated it with the comfortable ease of soone who had made a thoughtful decision and was at peace with it.’
’Talyra was the sa.’
Two won who are in love with Apollo. Both were people Nerith would have characterized, prior to this expedition and even before the academy, as won she would be eager to et.
Both of them are their first friends.
’It’s already too late for ... but... I can still try to prevent it before it’s too late.’ Nerith thought while looking at Mireya. ’I need to make sure that Rex won’t get his hands on Mireya...’
She looked at the leaves on the nearest tree and felt the channel running through them, the steady, indifferent pulse of sothing that had been alive much longer than she had and had no interest in any of this.
’Even if Rex is targeting ,’ she said, very quietly, to the tree she was passing. ’At least I have to protect Apollo’s other partner before it’s too late...’
’I need to beco their protector... so that they don’t end up like Aisella dan Talyra.’
’And if there’s a chance... I have to stop him by telling Apollo about all of these secrets that haven’t yet been proven!’
’I know that he’s very good at this,’ she said. ’And I almost didn’t see it.’
’But still...! I have to try!!!’
The root system pulsed once beneath her feet, slow and deep and entirely noncommittal, which was not the answer she wanted but was probably the honest one.
She tightened her grip on her staff and kept walking.
[Nerith Sylvarune — Desire Level: 70/100]
The number went down again, and Rex noticed it until he started to get slowly annoyed at it.
’Fucking hell... it decreased again...’ Rex thought. ’What the fuck is she thinking right now...?’
’I really need to keep a close eye on her.’
He didn’t go any faster now. He kept looking in case sothing had changed again.
The light turned greenish and cool as the path curved around the base of a wide listone ridge. This mont was when Elizabeth raised her right hand and the group slowed down.
Rex saw it before she was done with the gesture; his foresight had picked up a faint hint of what she was going to do about four seconds before it happened.
He had already read the land ahead.
’Oh...?’
The way they were supposed to go went through a narrow natural passage between two parts of the ridge. Elizabeth was holding a folded-up map.
Alexander stood next to her and looked at the entrance to the hallway with the kind of professional focus that cos from years of doing field work.
Once Rex got close enough, the problem was clear.
The entrance to the hallway was wrong. The left wall, a natural stone formation that Elizabeth’s map indicated should have stayed intact, had partially fallen down.
The map was based on surveyor records that were less than two years old. This was not due to age or weather conditions.
The stone faces were too clean for that, the cracks were too straight, and the debris was piled outward instead of inward, which ant that the force that broke it ca from inside the rock, not from sothing hitting it from the outside.
Soone had broken it on purpose.
Alexander bent down to look at the closest broken part and said, "This shouldn’t be here."
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