Chapter 18: To Doran

“There it is, just on the horizon.” Lavian pointed out with her left hand. Sairek squinted his eyes against the darkness of dawn, hoping it would help him see better, but it did not.

They’ve only been walking for about twenty minutes, only making small talk during their small trek. The sky by now had made way to daylight as all the stars had twinkled out and it was now a deep dark blue on this side, though the sky was bright with yellows and pinks and even a faint green behind them.

“That forest looks really thick…” Nayleen muttered as they kept walking. "Are we seriously going to go through that?"

“...Am I the only one who can’t see it or something?” Sairek frowned, still trying to spot this so-called forest that was ahead of them.

“It’s probably because you’re so short.” Nayleen chided at him.

“H-Hey–!” Sairek protested.

“Then again, I think Cyial can probably see it too, can’t you Cyial.” Nayleen pressed.

“Come on, that’s not fair. He can see better than us, especially in the dark!” Sairek argued.

Cyial and Lavian exchanged glances with each other, watching Sairek and Nayleen bicker as they continued to walk and the two of them continued to do so until they reached the forest’s edge, where yes, Sairek could indeed see it now.

When they got to the edge, the sun had risen over the horizon and was casting everything in a warm morning glow, as well as giving everything long and stretched shadows. Sairek noted that the forest wasn’t actually wide at all, as enclosed around them were very tall and valley-like walls, that stretched onwards like they were in a gigantic wide ravine. It was like the forest over the years had been scooped up and squished to be long and narrow with how densely packed the forest looked.

“Is it really hard to get lost in a forest that has walls around it?” Sairek asked out loud as he examined the brush ahead of them.

“Well, we won’t be able to see much ahead of us once we get inside I bet. Getting lost in this thing and having to bushwhack our way through could take days in this kind of brush if we lose our way.” Nayleen explained. “I doubt we’ll be able to camp in this, either.”

“What about just following along the walls? The cave has to be somewhere along it.” Sairek asked.

“Well… no. It’s a man-made structure.” Lavian explained. “I guess the best way to explain it is a little building with a hole in the ground.”

“Oh joy. So it’s actually like looking for a needle in a haystack if you don’t know where it is.” Sairek frowned.

“That is indeed an apt way to put it.” Lavian agreed. “It’s not used very often because of… well, this.” She gestured with a sweep of her arm. “The path may have been a bit overgrown by now. Back in times of war, it was no doubt useful, useful for small groups of civilians to move through and enemy armies could in no way make good use of it, but now it’s just annoying.”

“Ceareste still being stuck in the old times, huh…” Sairek huffed. “I have my work cut out for me in a few years…”

Lavian chuckled at that. “Yes, but now and then people do use the tunnels, so they’re at least maintained and the structure of the tunnel is kept sound. There should be no chance of it caving in on you or anything.” Such news Sairek was relieved to hear. Last thing he wanted was the tunnel itself to be more dangerous than the long way around out in the wilderness.

They walked in, with Lavian leading the way and Sairek watched as she pulled out her sword occasionally slicing off branches or vines in the way that would have been minor nuisances to them, but did partially obstruct their path. The going was slow, but Lavian’s sword would hopefully keep it easy for the most part. Sairek noticed there was a lot of moss on a good chunk of the vegetation. He wondered why the forest was so thick here. Things like this weren't completely isolated though, maybe not with a forest, but sometimes it could be snowy in one area that wasn’t before, then be normal again perhaps next season, or even several years later. Ethereal could change the climate abruptly in many strange ways if a certain imbalance lingered for a time.

“Oh yes, I almost forgot.... Nayleen, you are not a citizen of Ceareste, are you?” Lavian asked abruptly.

Nayleen turned to look at her. “Nope.”

“Wait, you’re not?” Cyial asked, glancing over at her.

“How did you get in?” Lavian asked calmly, not even looking to her as she swatted another poor vine out of the way with her sword.

“Exploited the council.” Nayleen said plainly.

“W-Wow. You say that like it’s not a big deal...” Sairek muttered dryly.

“Well, I don’t think it is. It’s not like I’m gonna do anything.”

“Technically, you assisted in my escape…” Sairek began.

“You were literally in the middle of running away anyway. I was just the anvil of which you struck the hammer upon to craft your escape route.” Nayleen argued.

“The… The what?” Sairek blinked.

Lavian looked behind her at Cyial again. The demon looked back at her and just shrugged. “Ahem… anyway…” She cut into their debate. “Nayleen, what is your surname?”

“Lachiel. Why?”

“How do you spell it?”

Nayleen proceeded to tell her. Lavian stopped for a second, leaning her sword against the trunk of a tree and began to scribble something down out of a card she pulled out of her pocket.

“Sheesh. You even bring the paperwork with you? Well, I suppose you are deadly with it after all...” Sairek said jokingly with a smirk.

Lavian sent him a credulous look of ‘you owe me still’ which caused Sairek to shrink back a little and wipe the smirk off of his face. When she finished writing, she twirled her pen in her fingers in finality and handed the card out to Nayleen.

“Um… What is this?” Nayleen asked, taking the card into her fingers and examining it.

“It’s basically a passport. With this, you’re not a trespasser anymore and you won’t have to sneak around. For the sake of simplicity, I’ve stated you as a temporary resident of Lamen. I’m bending the rules a bit here...” she looked directly at Sairek, “...so please don’t abuse it.”

“Oh awesome! Thanks Lavian!” Nayleen grinned, taking the card and carefully pocketing it. “This is definitely going to come in handy.”

“Also just for the sake of convenience, I’ll make you one too Cyial.” Lavian said, pulling out yet another card that she began writing on. “I shouldn’t have to, but unfortunately demons get the short end of the stick. I’d hate for you to have another Balgira incident…”

“O-Oh… Thank you, Lavian.” Cyial stammered a bit nervously.

When she finished, she twirled the pen again and ‘sheathed’ it back into her pocket, which made Sairek snicker quietly to himself as she handed the card to Cyial, who took it graciously.

"And finally, for you..." Lavian said turning to Sairek and simply handed one he had prepared beforehand.

"...Do I really need one?" Sairek asked. "I've got the royal jewel. That should be proof enough, won't it?"

"Probably not, but it's better than not having one." Lavian insisted. "You haven't exactly been very public. Many people may not recognize you. This is just more proof of identification."

"Fair enough." Sairek concluded, reach out to take it. He examined it for a moment, before stowing it away inside an inner shirt pocket to keep it safe.

Their casual small talk continued as Lavian slowly made work of the forest with her sword on occasion, the going was still slow and morning sunrise eventually burned its way to noon. Sairek was glad that the forest canopy was so thick that they were at least constantly in the shade from the summer heat, though it had drizzled with rain last night, the humidity was starting to do him in. However, Lavian finally stopped as they entered a small clearing along the faded path they had been following for a little while now. “This is it,” she announced.

Sairek looked past her and saw a small stone structure, almost like an outhouse in size that just stood alone in the forest clearing. It wasn’t much to look at. The stonework was the same white from Lamen, though now it was fairly stained with green from moss and built in large, white brickwork. “So um, what can we expect when we get inside…?” Sairek asked.

“...A very, very long tunnel.” Lavian answered him simply.

Sairek frowned at that. “C-Could you be a bit more specific?”

“I hope you have a light. It’s just a long, straight tunnel, from here, underneath the mountain to the other side.” Lavian said.

“Oh man…” Sairek sighed.

“You’re the one who wanted to go this way.” Nayleen chastised him.

“Doesn’t mean I’m looking forward to it...” Sairek countered. “I guess on the bright side, it should be cooler down there than up here.” He then turned towards Lavian before bowing. “Thank you for guiding us all the way here. Thanks for everything in general, really.”

“Of course. I’m glad to be of service.” She saluted him, before she returned back to a neutral pose and her expression became softer. “Please, stay safe, you three.”

“Oh don’t worry, I don’t think neither Cyial and I plan to keep him out of our sights anymore.” Nayleen reassured her.

She smiled at Nayleen. “I am relieved to hear that. Please take care.”

The three of them waved to Lavian as they entered what Sairek gracefully called “The… shack, thing,” and closed the stone door behind themselves, where it was pitch black. Sairek used ‘balinzer’ to light up their way and indeed, it was a tunnel, though one leading straight down with a wooden ladder.

“I’ll go first.” Cyial offered, putting his book away into his robe, then blinked his glowing eyes down into the pit. “I can see in the dark anyway.”

Cyial took his place at the ladder and began to climb down, while Nayleen and Sairek glanced at each other. “You can go next. I’ll still need your light to see.” Nayleen suggested.

“Okay.” Sairek agreed, moving to take his place next, awkwardly shifting the weight of his staff, trying a few different ways to hold it before just settling on placing it on the ground until he got his hold down the ladder, then slowly, carefully climbing down it while he held it in one hand and climbed down with the other.

Nayleen followed after him, the light strong enough from Sairek’s staff to illuminate the way down. “You keep your head looking down. If you look up, I’m going to kick you in the head.”

“Huh…?” Sairek began, turning to look up in reaction, then stopped himself in realization.

“Because I’m a girl!”

Sairek sighed, and looked down at Cyial below him. “How long is this?”

“Quite a bit… it’ll take a few minutes to reach the bottom at this pace.” He answered.

“Come on, this isn’t that bad.” Nayleen chided in him.

“Ah yes, because climbing a long ladder in a long dark tunnel as you threaten to kick my head in is such a thrill.” Sairek replied dryly.

“Do you hate tight spaces or something?” Nayleen asked.

“No. I hate dark tight spaces.” Sairek replied. “Though I suppose being locked in that closet for a while probably hasn’t done me any favors...”

About three minutes later, they one by one, reached the bottom and looked ahead to see that Lavian had put it about as adequate as she could; a long, tunnel made of loose stone brickwork, with metal support beams dotted along the way that went on and on, until disappearing into the darkness. The cave was wide enough for the three of them to maybe squeeze side by side…

“Well, better get walking.” Sairek sighed, taking the first step forward. The other two aptly followed him.

“Maybe we should stop for lunch. I’m getting hungry.” Nayleen said.

“Why not eat and walk at the same time?” Sairek asked.

“What would you do if you were eating a sandwich and suddenly something attacked you?” Nayleen questioned him.

“Drop the sandwich and defend myself.”

“That’s a waste of a perfectly good sandwich!” She scolded. “Think of how the sandwich would feel, just being dropped on the floor, wasted, because you couldn’t pause for a couple of minutes to just eat it!”

Sairek looked back and raised an eyebrow at her in concern.

“...She’s not wrong.” Cyial chided in abruptly.

“Oh Sweet Lands, not you too...” Sairek sighed. “Fine, I suppose at the very least it will give our legs a bit of a break. It’s kind of cramped in here, though… would have preferred to take a break on the surface instead.”



After they ate, with Cyial declining to eat anything, they resumed walking again with Cyial leading the way, and Sairek behind him with Nayleen at the back as they walked single file down further and further into the tunnel.
Sairek had thought the tunnel would be nothing but straight, but there was actually a gentle downward slope at some point, it went down like this a little bit, but eventually flattened out again. It was nice and cool down here, but the air was mighty stale.

After a couple of hours, the scenery was still the same, and Sairek groaned. “Lavian was right. This is boring...” He complained.

“After everything that’s happened to you in the past few days, I would have thought nothing happening would have been a welcome change of pace.” Nayleen observed.

“Something positive would be more preferred than being bored to death. Just how long is this?”

“If I remember correctly, it should begin to widen up a little bit soon.” Cyial said. “There should be an old set of minecart tracks, too.”

“What were they used for?” Nayleen questioned.

“Probably had the intent to make the tunnel bigger and wider, then changed their way partway through or something I guess and then just never bothered to get rid of them.” Cyial shrugged. “Oh look, there they are now.”

It actually took several more paces before they came into view for Nayleen and Sairek, only showing how much better Cyial’s vision compared to theirs actually was.

“Too bad there’s no cart for us to ride in.” Nayleen pouted.

“Even if there was, someone would need to push it anyway.” Sairek said.

“Just jump in and push us with your wind magic, then.”

“That would take an even greater effort to do!”

Cyial glanced back at them both while they bickered. “Why do you want to go to Yggdrasil anyway, Sairek?”

Sairek looked back at Cyial, then frowned. “It’s a bit of a long shot… but I want to try and understand why my mother got sick and died the way she did.”

“That’s… definitely a long shot.” Cyial agreed.

“Well, I do just want to see it in general, too. You hear about it all the time in books, but the details must pale in comparison to seeing it for real, right?”

“I’m sure they indeed must be.” Cyial again agreed.

Eventually, Cyial’s prediction came true and the tunnel began to expand to be wider, allowing them to walk together side-by-side more comfortably. Sairek sighed in relief. “Phew… that must mean we’re getting close to the end now, right? We must have been walking for three or four hours in here by now!”

“Uhhh… this is only the halfway point.” Cyial informed him quietly.

“What!?”

At this rate, he didn’t know how long he could keep Balinzer burning for. He wasn’t burning the light to be strong, but hours at this point was starting to give him a massive headache and fatigue. Could he handle another four more hours...? “Uugghhh…” He groaned in reluctant acceptance.



Another three or four hours after that, Sairek was practically dragging his feet as they finally emerged from the other side of the tunnel. Fresh air never felt so good to him. His head was pounding but relieved that he could finally relinquish the spell, his legs burned terribly from the non-stop walk. When they got out, he immediately sat himself on the ground with relief, then flopped on his back. Cyial and Nayleen both followed similar sentiments of relief by collapsing on the ground in the soft grass to give their legs a much needed rest.

“I was joking at first, but that was awful…” Nayleen grumbled.

Sairek could only grunt in agreement, closing his eyes and raising an arm to drape it over his eyes to block out the late afternoon sun. “G-Gimme a few moments… my head hurts something fierce… Lands, I’m never holding a spell that long again…”

“Maybe we should have just rented horses or something.” Nayleen frowned.

“That wouldn’t help much. The terrain in the south is too mountainous to make much use of them. That said…” Cyial began, looking down ahead of them. “This is one of the very, very few meadows down in the south, surrounded by mountains and valleys though as you see. Doran is still a couple hours away, but we’re almost there. It should be at the base of… that mountain over there.”

Sairek took a moment to let his eyes see again, rolling his head in the direction of where Cyial was pointing towards. “Oh man…” he groaned. “That’s still so far away.”

“And then after that is yet another tunnel? Damn.” Nayleen muttered. “Living down south in Ceareste is damn inconvenient. I guess it was chosen to help against attackers way back when, though. Not many armies would want to march in through all of this crap, for sure.”

“Doran is the mining town and is what supplies Lamen the most of its stone, so really the village is nothing more than a temporary stop gap. I’m pretty sure it’s been abandoned for a little while, though.” Sairek mused, returning to roll his head back and shield his eyes with his arm from the sun again.

“Abandoned? We’re going to rest in an abandoned village?” Nayleen questioned.

“Drought.” Sairek answered plainly.

Cyial nodded. “It’s been months since it rained there and there’s no water supply nearby. You just experienced how obnoxious the shortest path here was, too, so…”

“Marid tried at first, but it was just deemed too complicated. Not like Lamen needs the stone now anyway.” Sairek finished in reply. “No rain means no water for the well.”

“But it just rained last night. Not a lot… and then the storm before—” Nayleen frowned.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t rain there. I guess the weave is screwed up right now.” Sairek answered, peeking at her from under his arm. “It can happen from time to time but usually not for such a long time. It’s unfortunate.”



They took fifteen minutes to rest before they decided that they best get going so they arrived at Doran before it got too dark. Sairek’s head was still pounding, and he wasn’t very talkative or paying much attention other than forcing himself to move one foot in front of the other behind Nayleen and Cyial. The headache pounding into his state of mind was going to last hours, and he intermittently found himself clutching the front of his head with his left hand most of the time as they walked in a vain attempt to try and ease the throbbing. Occasionally, he saw Nayleen looking at him with a concerned expression, then whisper to Cyial. He knew he wasn’t in any danger or anything and Cyial probably reassured her as such. It just… sucked. A lot.

His legs were beginning to feel fatigue again, as were the other two’s legs he could tell, the speed of their travel was beginning to decrease, but at least the walk through a meadow was far more enjoyable than one in the tunnel, even if it was a bit hot. Another hour and a half as the sunlight began to burn its way to sunset, they finally reached the base of the mountain and saw rudimentary stone walls ahead of them that acted as a gate, though they were left unlocked and nobody was there to greet them. Sairek pushed the gates more open as they approached and stepped through them before pushing them back shut again. It didn’t stop anybody from coming in, but at least it would keep most of the wild animals or even monsters that could harm from getting in.

“Wow, when I heard abandoned, I wasn’t expecting much, but uhhh…” Nayleen began.

Sairek concurred. Doran looked like a little settlement made primary of tents and very basic stone and wood structures that had just been built into a dirty hole. The place was so small, that from the gates, Sairek could already see the tunnel they needed to access straight ahead. There were only about eight actual buildings in total, with the well in the middle and a dozen or so tents scattered about. There was a little area for farming that was barren and empty, crops that had been set to harvest there were long dried up and wilted from a half-grown state.

“It’s kind of creepy.” Sairek frowned as they approached the center of the town towards the well.

Nayleen jogged up to the well, and grabbed a rock as she looked down at the bottom, then she dropped the rock. She gave them a shushing gesture with her finger and they all leaned into the pit, listening.

A few seconds later, there was just a ‘clunk’ as the rock hit the bottom. No splash.

“Yikes.” Nayleen commented. “That’s a deep well, too. I wonder where everybody went?”

“Probably either to Lamen or Shimira. Either way, this isn’t necessarily a place for people to permanently live, just to live while they work until their term is up, then they rotate out with someone else and that person takes their position.” Sairek said.

“Not sure how I feel about spending the place here, but I guess I’ve slept in worse places before.” Nayleen frowned.

“At least we’ll have roofs over our heads.” Sairek frowned as well. “I wouldn’t be surprised if all of the furniture and stuff has been vacated though, if not already taken by scavengers.”

“Let’s go check, then.” Nayleen said, jogging up to the first building, He and Cyial followed after her more casually, where she raised her fist and knocked once, before the door slowly leaned forwards, and fell to the floor with a clatter, Nayleen’s fist still raised, poised to have been ready to knock on the door again.

“...I think this one is abandoned.” Sairek supplied helpfully.

Nayleen cast him a look of ‘I noticed’ and peeked inside through the doorway. “It’s kinda dark in here… don’t think I see anything though. Wow, this place kinda looks like it’s in shambles. I wouldn’t feel safe with this roof over my head.” She pulled herself back out and looked at the other two. “Let’s split up and search around. I’ll handle the buildings over here and you guys handle the others on the opposite side.”

“Okay.” Sairek blinked, looking at Cyial. The two of them trekked off to the other side of town, passing by the well again as they did so. Sairek didn’t bother knocking like Nayleen had, just pushing a door open. It creaked and groaned loudly in protest of having to move, but at least it didn’t fall off of its hinges immediately. He held the door for Cyial and gestured him to step inside to take a look before stepping in himself. He could feel the house wasn’t built very well. It had a slight incline, which caused the door to creak back shut behind him as he stepped in.

“Well now I can’t see a thing.” Sairek grumbled. “I don’t think I have it in me to use balinzer again for light, either… my head is pounding hard still.”

Sairek could see Cyial’s garnet eyes glowing in the dark, moving around as he examined the surroundings, then stepped over towards a wall, pulling dusty curtains to the side from two windows so Sairek wasn’t at least in total darkness. Cyial waved his hand and coughed from the dust. “Not much to see… just dirty and a lot of dust—woah!”

Cyial ducked and something black swooped at Cyial before heading towards Sairek at an alarming speed. He yelped as well and ducked too, yanking the door back open, both for light, and to escape out of the building as he heard the black mass screeching loudly at him, before flying above him and out the door, where he got a good glimpse of the creature.

“Goodness… it’s just a damn bat…” Sairek sighed. “How the heck did it get in here? There must be a breach in the structure somewhere.”

“That’s no good. We’ll probably be bombarded by mosquitos in here if that's the case.” Cyial frowned. “Let’s look at another I guess. After that, this building gives me goosebumps anyway…”

They walked back outside, and Sairek took another glance at their surroundings again with a deep frown. “Is… peasant life seriously this bad?” He murmured.

“Well, it’s a bit different here I think. The buildings here are for the workers to rest in rather than live here permanently.” Cyial said. "The homes don't have the usual things and funding a proper home would have."

“...A place to live in barely habitable conditions only to just have to do more dangerous physical labour at minimum wage?” Sairek asked, his frown becoming even deeper. “The things we take for granted…”

“Well, mining doesn’t require an education, so… but from what I hear, all of this,” Cyial gestured around them “...is still better than what most people actually get. This may be better for them, to get a chance to save up money or to pursue an education, rather than just living homeless on the streets. I hear in Kior, they don’t even get places to live in for free or an opportunity to get a job... and with how over saturated the population is over there, it's a really, really big problem. Your father is actually more generous than most, all things considered. These people can still earn money and work. In Kior, stuff like this is automated by machines, replacing the people. But I guess there's no risk of casualties if a tunnel collapses or something.”

Sairek took a moment to think of that, then shook his head. “If it were me, I would try to have houses for everyone regardless… but I know it’s not at all as simple as that. I had to handle some of the paperwork for the relief supplies here myself, but I always thought it was because the location was just annoying to get to, not because the living conditions were so… undesirable.”

“Not much that can be done with a drought, though. Either way, the stone in the mines will still be there whenever the drought stops.” Cyial replied.

“Yeah, I guess. I also suppose the soldiers here would have relocated to Shimira for the time being while the workers would probably be relocated to Lamen for the time being. Shimira is a place that always needs soldiers to rotate out since it’s such a crossroad point. A lot of people are going in and out of there all the time.”

“And hopefully by tomorrow we’ll be just another group doing the same.” Cyial nodded. “Let’s search the rest of this place.”



Everytime Sairek rapped his staff on a door just in case, there was never any answer, and investigating inside of each building led into similar places like the first one they visited, albeit no bats. There were a couple of tents as well that were completely empty and dusty, but they could work, but Sairek would rather that they just used his own in that case.

However, there were two buildings that were in a bit better condition than the rest of the others had been. Dusty, but in far less state of collapse or disrepair, and they were also right next to each other. After examining the design of them, Sairek guessed that they were used to house the guards and the inventory. They were the two biggest of the buildings here, after all. For the one for the guards, there were even beds inside of them still.

“Eurgh…” Sairek groaned as he examined them. “Straw beds…? Who would want to sleep on these? And they’re dusty now, too…”

“Well, this is the cheapest of the cheap.” Nayleen reminded him, having reunited with Cyial and Sairek again. “The idea of these beds is that you lay on top of the blanket instead of underneath it.”

“...But that would leave you incredibly cold.” Sairek noted.

“Yup. But better than sleeping on the ground.”

Sairek blinked at her response. “Yup? That’s dumb! Surely we could supply better beds than this! And a few extra blankets as well! Ridiculous...” He grumbled. “I’ll just sleep in my sleeping bag on top of the bed itself.”

“We’re keeping watch?” Nayleen asked.

Sairek looked at Nayleen and Cyial with a frown. “Well, it’s probably safer here, but I don’t know about being completely safe… so yeah, I guess so.”

“I guess abandoned towns do give a bit of a spooky and uneasy feeling, especially at night.” Nayleen concurred, rubbing her left pinky finger into her left ear gently. “Who gets the first watch, then?”

“Um… I don’t need to sleep.” Cyial said a little quietly. “I can keep watch all night.”

“Oh right… I keep forgetting you don’t need as much sleep as us.” Nayleen replied.

“Are you sure though?” Sairek asked him.

“Yes, I’ll be fine. It’s no more exhausting for me than if you were up for a couple of hours during noon, or something like that.” Cyial explained.

Sairek frowned. “I know, but—”

“Sairek, stop. He’s a big boy who can make his own decisions. He’s older than you after all.” Nayleen chastised him in a teasing tone.

Sairek blushed slightly at that, but thankfully it was too dark for Nayleen to see.

“We’ve been walking non-stop from sunrise ‘til sunset anyway. You guys will need a full night’s rest for tomorrow.” Cyial said. “My body has physical limits too of course, but I don’t need sleep to recover like that. Sitting down and letting my legs rest is enough. Besides… I got this to entertain me all night.” Cyial said, gesturing to his book in his arms.

“No wonder you and Sairek both get along so well. Both of ya are a bunch of bookworms.” Nayleen snorted in amusement.

“...Well, I suppose you won’t struggle to read in the darkness. What is that anyway? You carry it around with you everywhere.” Sairek asked.

“It’s… a magic tome, I guess you could say. Father Abbot gave it to me a couple years after originally adopting me. Simply put, the pages change texture based on what I’m looking for and what information is inside of it from previous owners.” Cyial explained.

“...So you can literally think up anything you want and the pages will just transform into that material?” Nayleen questioned.

“Well… I guess very simply, that's a way to put it, yes.” Cyial replied.

“Cool. Who wants grub before we sleep?” Nayleen asked, raising a hand into the air.

“...Food again?” Sairek sighed. “Fine… I’ll give you something to eat. Help yourself, I’m not hungry right now. Besides I want to take a little peek into the mines before it gets too dark so I know what to expect for tomorrow. Erm… do you want to sleep in a bag as well, by the way?” He asked, pinching the jewel in his left hand.

“Nah. I’m used to sleeping in beds like this.” Nayleen shrugged.

“I guess I’ll join you at the mines then. Just a quick look, right?” Cyial asked.

“Yeah, no more than five minutes tops.” Sairek answered, conjuring forth a sleeping bag in front of him and some food for Nayleen to feast upon on top of it.

“Yipee! Time to chow!” Nayleen cheered.

“...Not on the sleeping bag, please. I’d rather not sleep with a bunch of crumbs over it.” Sairek grumbled.



“Why check it out now, why not tomorrow?” Cyial asked as they both made their way towards the end of the town and up a set of stairs towards the large gap in the cliff walls.

“Just curious, that’s all.” Sairek said.

The moon was out and full right now and there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, which illuminated the area quite a bit, but Sairek forced himself with great effort to use Balinzer again so he could see around himself better anyway. His head was beginning to protest again and it was protesting rather quickly, but the amount of time they spent loitering around gave him enough of a break to be able to push a little bit of effort back into the spell. They made their way towards the entrance of the mines, where Sairek could see minecart tracks present at the mouth and leading inside.

“I don’t see anything special.” Cyial said, looking in himself with his glowing garnet eyes.

Sairek stepped in a bit himself, the mouth of the cave narrowing considerably quickly, but still wider than the tunnel they had gone down. Cyial followed him in. Sairek glanced back behind them to see the mouth of the cave was still visible when they reached a wall in front of them. Already there were two branching paths, one going to their left and one to their right. Sairek could see something etched on both the wooden support beams up above each entrance and he forced more power into the spell with a grunt of discomfort and raised his staff up like a torch so he could read, squinting his eyes. The support on the right simply read “MINES” while the other one read out “SHIMIRA”.

“Well, that’s helpful.” Sairek supplied through a bit of a tensed voice and grimace on his face.

“Indeed. That makes it pretty straight forward. Hopefully it continues to be that straight forward until the end of the mines.” Cyial agreed.

“Shimira is north west of here and that’s roughly where this way leads, so yeah.” Sairek nodded. “Well, that answers my question. Let’s head back out and tell Nayleen the good news.”

Sairek turned back around and Cyial followed him back out where Sairek exhaled, releasing the spell again. They went back down the ramp of stairs and were silent for a moment, until Cyial broke it with a question. “Sairek… did you want me to sleep with you again tonight?”

Sairek nearly tripped on a step. “E-Err…” He let out. “Y-Yes…? But it’s… um…"
Cyial was patient and watched him expectantly as they walked. Sairek cleared his throat quietly. “This place is pretty creepy and… I never did like sleeping alone in the first place… sleeping with you felt… better.” Sairek admitted.

Cyial smiled gently. “Thank you for the compliment, Sairek… that kind of actually means a lot to me. However, if I sleep with you too much, Nayleen might get suspicious, you know.”

“...Suspicious? Is it wrong or something?” Sairek asked.

“No, no, I did mean anything like that. I mean about you being scared. She might notice.”

“I’m not scared! I’m just… uncomfortable here!” Sairek huffed, then looked down at the ground as they walked. “...Though I don’t need her to have even more leverage to tease me with, I suppose.” He grumbled.

Cyial chuckled good-naturedly. “Well, it wouldn’t be fair to have her stay up all night when I still have a few nights in me anyway. We should be at Shimira tomorrow, so it shouldn't be a problem. We should be able to sleep at an inn there with our own rooms. I'll be fully recharged by then to stay up a couple more nights.”

Sairek snorted. “She already did that to me you know, the morning we met you. She just stayed up until the early hours of the morning. I only had to do watch for two, maybe three hours.”

“I get the impression that she tries to act stronger than she actually is so we don’t have to worry about her.” Cyial frowned.

“I don’t know. She’s very dependable at times. She single-handedly helped me escape from the castle the first time.” Sairek said, frowning. “...Kind of embarrassing on the castle’s part, actually. Though I guess I did escape with her willingly, so…”

He paused their conversation there as they walked back towards the building and creeped inside. Sairek really struggled to see inside, but he didn’t need to. The gentle sound of snoring lead them towards Nayleen who was already fast asleep on a bed, undisturbed by the noises they were making.

“She fell asleep so quickly? We were only gone for five minutes…” Sairek mumbled just above his breath.

“See? I told you, she must have been tired. Again, we were walking from sunrise to sunset.” Cyial replied in an equally hushed tone.

Sairek wandered over to his bed and… sleeping bag, and pulled the bag off the bed for a moment to dust off the straw bed as best as he could before putting his bag back on top of it again.

Cyial looked around the building a little and seeing only the one exit, began moving his way back towards the door. “I guess I’ll take my watch now. Just remember I’ll be right outside Sairek. Don’t feel too ‘uncomfortable’, alright?”

“Oi…” Sairek let out in a warning tone, but was cracking a smile.

Cyial returned the smile. “Good night, Sairek.”

“Good night, Cyial.”