A walk through the forest

Kaylin

Yesterday’s events had kept me from falling asleep the entire night. Once I was back at Inas’Gate before returning to Windbreak, I would have to file a complaint with the city guard. Inas was supposed to be a safe country; clearly they are not doing their jobs properly. I sighed, it had been a mistake not taking at least a book with me.

Not having much else to do, I spend my night staring at the two worlds illuminating the sky. It would be so freeing to leave this world, leaving my responsibilities behind, leaving my home, exploring other planes. But it was just that, a dream. Stumbling over a natural rift between worlds was near impossible. 

While daydreaming about abandoning everything, soon the first rays of Monos greeted me over the horizon. Soon, I found myself pacing around the campsite. There was not much ground to cover, and I avoided the still-sleeping guard snoring away. How uncouth. Passing the firepit, I heard the last embers crackle as they escaped into the air. Looking over, there still lying against the tree where I had last seen her was Tepin, the one that had rescued me from my precarious situation. Wait, it looks like she hasn’t moved at all since I last looked at her hours ago. Her lying position looked uncomfortable. My eyes had drifted to her often throughout the night. Her offer of accompanying me to the dig site had surprised me. She had not asked for any coils, something I had not expected from a member of Eventyr. From what I know, they were notorious for not doing anything unless there are coins involved. That, or that part of my worldview was still poisoned by my mother. I sighed, her influence over my life was still haunting me. A shiver ran down my spine, and I straightened. It was time to wake up my new companion. 

How could she sleep so well after what had happened? Those bandits might still be at large. Then again, she was an adventurer and probably used to this kind of danger. 

“Tepin, we should prepare to leave,” I tried calling out to her, but to no avail. 

“Tepin!” Speaking a little louder still did not do the trick.
“Tepin, I insist on leaving within the hour!” I said with a raised voice.
“H-Huh? Uhm what? Why am I supposed to stay here for another day?” A tired voice said from behind me. Turning around, I noticed that the still-sleeping guard had woken up. Ugh, rolling my eyes, I turned back to the still sleeping Tepin. What am I to do with you? There was no waking her, but my consciousness would not allow me to leave her behind either. Kneeling, I took a better look at her. I brushed some of her wild hair out of her face. She was an odd one, caring more for her armor than her wounds. Lost within my musings, I started poking her cheek. Frowning, I looked into the sky, not even this woke her up. What am I to do here? When I looked back down, my eyes met her blue-purple ones. With a thud, I fell on my behind. My face heating up.

Tepin

The crimson eyes that had followed me in my dreams stared right into mine as I woke up. Startled, I scrambled up the tree behind me, trying to make some space. Kaylin, just as surprised as me, fell on her bottom. Her cape fluttering off her shoulders, laying her arms bare. My eyes wandered to her right arm, or lack thereof. I hadn’t noticed yesterday, she always had it covered, but it was missing. Turning to look at her face, I noticed that she was beet red. As she stood up covering herself again, I stretched my arms, feigning a yawn. 

“Morning?” I said. 

“It has been morning for quite a while!” Kaylin said. Massaging my back, I looked to the side. 

“Heh, sorry. I do tend to oversleep.”

“How do you even… You know what doesn’t matter. Let’s just get going. It’s quite late,” she said huffing. I wonder what that was about? Either way, I stood up, flattening my clothes. Touching the area around my “wound”, I was reminded that I have to get this fixed once I am back in Inas. 

“Alright, I am ready to go!” 

“Huh-hm already you are not going to eat? We still have quite a distance to go.” Kaylin said. Ah, food! I forgot about that. People need it.   

“I am just not much of a breakfast person. I’ll be fine,” I said, putting a smile on my face. She shrugged at that and got her belongings together.
Tepin, you have to watch yourself more, people could get suspicious if you slip up like that. She is probably already a bit wary of me.

Back on our way to the archaeological site, we left the road, and with that the sound of cartwheels and boots that accompanied me yesterday disappeared. Still, the little path through the forest showed plenty of signs from people who had moved through here. The dirt was pressed flat with signs that carriages had been through here. Thanks to that, it was easy to follow the trail that would lead us to our destination. The slightly sweet and woody smell of the needle trees surrounded us as we continued. I noticed that Kaylin would occasionally peek at me, she wasn’t good at hiding it. All the while I was contemplating how to start a conversation with her, I was still dead set on befriending Kay. My resolve fortified, I turned towards her, trying to think of a topic to start with. My eyes glanced over her missing right arm, and I just couldn’t stop myself. Pointing at it, I asked.
“Hey, Kaylin, I was wondering, how did that happen?” I stumbled as I realized how insensitive my question had been. Good job, Tepin. I looked to her, preparing myself for the worst.

“Oh, that? I lost it during the civil war in Thelledell.” She answered, shrugging. 

“Sorry, I just blurted it out, I did not want to be insensitive!” 

“It’s fine, it happened a long time ago. It’s just not something I try to draw attention to,” she said. 

I let a breath out. Good, I hadn’t upset her. 

“I was wondering, you are from Windbreak, right? How is it there? I had been thinking about visiting.”

“You have been thinking of visiting?” She said, staring at me. “Do you know how taxing the journey there is?” 

“I, uh, yes, I do, it’s the reason I haven’t gone yet. But I was wondering if it was worth the trip,” I said.
“If you just seek to visit, then no. If you are looking for an education, then it is worth a trip. That is, if you possess the necessary funds to pay for tuition. Or are skilled enough that they chose to sponsor you,” Kaylin answered.

“I see. Well, I wasn’t planning on enrolling, I was more curious about the libraries and what information they hold about ancient history.” 

“Interested in history? In that case, I will have to disappoint you, only faculty members have access to the libraries,” she said.

“Oh…” I lowered my head, so that avenue had closed itself. Unless, was I willing to become a student again? It wasn’t that high of a price to pay to gain access to the knowledge I seeked. That is, if they even had any. Could I just ask her? I was hesitant, until now nobody knew anything, and I wasn’t prepared to see that blank stare again when I ask. Sighing, I continued trotting along, having lost interest in keeping the conversation going. Kaylin seemed to be fine with the silence. When the light started warming my back, I started running low on mana once more. Looking around for a while, over the needle-filled ground, I found a comfortable-looking log of wood.
“Hey, Kaylin, do you mind if we take a short break?”
“Sure, my feet could use some rest.” She answered. I walked over to the log, sitting down on it, crossing my legs. 

“That’s good to hear, I will be closing my eyes for a bit,” I told her. Preparing myself to refill my sphere with energy.

Kaylin

There I stood in the middle of the forest. Looking around, the only place I could sit down at, except the ground, was beside Tepin. That would be awkward with her sitting there, her eyes were closed. She looked like she was meditating. Why? Odd.
That’s when something shifted. At first, I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was until I realized the surrounding mana was becoming denser by the second. Spinning around, I tried to find the source of the phenomenon. Mana doesn’t just densify naturally like this. My pulse heightened. If there was a mana beast nearby we would be history. Sweating, I tried to calm myself. There cannot be a beast nearby, this area is supposed to be safe. Remembering how well Tepin had done in the fight yesterday, I decided to wake her. How had she not noticed this anyway? As my eyes fell on her, my mouth fell open, my thoughts vanishing. 

There she was, mana was dancing around her like little fairy wisps; while wind lifted her wild hair off her shoulders. Little sparks of energy shooting off her. I could feel the warm embrace of  mana just from standing close to her. Staring, I could not move my eyes from what I was seeing. What was she doing? It almost looked like she was trying to compress her sphere. But this was neither the place nor the time to attempt such a thing. The warming energy caressing me on its way to dance around her calmed my thoughts.
She looked absolutely stunning, with the purple streaks of mana shimmering around her frame. I just couldn’t look away, the sight too mesmerizing. So I gave in and just kept looking at Tepin. 

Tepin

For the second time today, when I opened my eyes, I saw crimson ones staring back at me. Kaylin stood before me with her mouth agape. Putting my feet on the ground, I tilted my head to the side.  

“Is everything okay?”

Blinking, her face again for the second time went beet red.
“A-Apologizes, I didn’t mean to stare. But I have to ask, what were you doing just now?” She asked.
“Uhm, I was gathering ambient mana to refill my sphere?” I asked, unsure why this would be unclear. Her eyes widened. 

“Wait, you can do that? How good is your mana manipulation, I have only ever heard of archmages that can do this,” she answered.

I gulped, oh wait, was this not normal? Did I just assume again? How is it that I make this mistake time and time again? 

“Well, I just learned this by myself. It just felt natural.” I said.
Her eyes narrowed. “You are telling me that you learned how to gather mana this way by yourself? What compression stage are you at anyway?” She said. 

I did not learn this by myself, but the story of my past would be even more unbelievable. 

“My sphere is still at stage one.” I answered, only then realizing that this might also sound ridiculous. 

“You are telling me you are this good at mana manipulation and still at stage one? Not to mention, you are clearly skilled at offensive magic, as you demonstrated yesterday. Just who are you?” She said, voice raised. I flinched back at that. Why was this so upsetting to her? 

“I-I-I am sorry? It’s just w-w-what I learned. I didn’t mean to upset you.” I stuttered. Looking away, a blanket of silence laid itself around us for a moment. Sounding a lot calmer, Kaylin said.

“I see that I have to apologize once more, it was wrong of me to attack you in this way.”

“It’s okay,” was all I could answer. 

“In that case, let’s move on,” she said. This whole situation has me confused. Why had she been so upset? No, why is she still irritated? It was written across her face as clear as day. Uncertain, we moved forward. 

Out of nowhere, Kaylin stopped before me, turning around. Taking a deep breath, she said.

“Look Tepin, my entire life, people expected me to excel at magic. Seeing you so effortlessly use it threw me off. I did not mean to snap at you, okay?” I nodded in return, having not seen this coming.

“Good, I know it is not my place to judge you, but you are still a conundrum in my eyes. I have rarely seen people as talented as you outside of Windbreak,” she said. Taken aback, I spread my arms.

“All this is not talent. I trained a lot to achieve what I can do. But it’s okay; I understand.” 

I was happy, that she seemed to be more upset with herself than with me. Silence again surrounded us. Glancing over to her, I got the distinct feeling that she was still wary towards me. As much as I wish I could just tell her my whole story, I did not know her well enough. That and the situation when I told Dust and Olgore helped make it more believable. 

While contemplating how difficult it was for me to bond with the people around me, the trees gave way to an open field. They somehow had decided not to grow in this area, creating a round open space in the middle of the forest. At its center was what looked like a large hole, little wooden sheds were erected to the side of it, shovels leaning against some of the walls. On the other side I could spy multiple tents. People were rushing between the structures, going about their jobs. 

“We have arrived.” Kaylin said beside me. I couldn’t help but notice the wariness in her tone. Maybe I should give up on trying to make friends with her? Letting my shoulders hang, I followed her towards the large hole until we could see what they were excavating inside.

The top of a tower made of a bluish-black material was visible in the middle of the hole. It was partly dug free, and they seemed to be in the process of excavating an entrance.

Immediately, I recognized this, it was a building core we used back on Eriphynia. They were made from mana crystals treated in a way that made them nearly indestructible. Most of our important buildings used these; the rooms within them would house highly important things like archives, magitek, vaults, and so on. My eyes threatened to start leaking once again, there was proof that my people were here, buried here before me.
Finally, something that might give me the answers I seeked.