Chapter 71 part 5

Riewis nodded, as if she was pleased with what Beth said. As if Beth was either working for her or a subordinate of hers.

While Beth didn't object to it right then, she had a feeling that she would be better off separating herself from Riewis as soon as possible. If only because she didn't think that it was a good impression for Riewis to have of her. As Beth certainly wouldn't accept the woman's authority over her.

"Now, let's get something to eat," Beth said, wondering what it was that Riewis had been making.

With her bladder empty, Beth was now able to focus on other parts of her that were empty as well. Like her stomach.

Riewis looked stunned. Like she'd forgotten entirely about her offer to give Beth something to eat. An offer Beth didn't plan on letting go of unless forced to. Which she hoped wouldn't happen. She kind of liked Riewis, even if she didn't think that Riewis would be someone she'd consider having a relationship with.

What Riewis made wasn't something that Beth could really identify. It wasn't bad, but it certainly didn't look familiar. Almost like one of those censored dishes she'd seen on some anime. As if it was supposed to be so bad that it couldn't be safely shown.

Despite the fact that this dish was at least edible.

When Beth had gotten something in her belly, even if it wasn't as much as she'd have liked, Riewis told the women with her to pack up the camp. That they were heading out.

Beth wasn't sure what she'd expected, but everyone was quick to strike the camp. Almost as if they had been merely waiting for the order. Like they themselves were eager to move on.

It wasn't until they'd nearly finished striking the camp, that Beth realized that she hadn't seen what it was that she'd been laying on that had been so soft. She didn't see anything around that could have been an answer for her, but she doubted that anything like a regular mattress would be too difficult for these women to carry easily through these mountains. Plus, if they didn't have multiple of whatever it was, Beth had a suspicion that it would have been whatever Riewis slept on otherwise.

Which gave Beth even more incentive to leave these people as soon as possible. As she certainly didn't want to even think about sleeping one the same surface that Riewis had slept on. Especially since she had a feeling Riewis wasn't the best of people for her to have thinking she had some inkling of authority over Beth.

She wasn't sure what the problem she had with Riewis, or if it was just her picking up on Riewis not liking her, but she was determined to get back through that gate as soon as she could. Especially if she was able to get a good haul of those rocks.

In the future, she planned on trying to get her other friends to collect the rocks. She didn't know if they'd have as easy of a time as she did or if it would be rather difficult, but she was confident that she'd rather not get assigned to this task again. Partly because she'd rather reduce the chances of encountering Riewis again as much as possible.

However, as they started to make their way down the mountain slope, Beth did her best to keep any of that off of her face. She didn't know the area very well and was willing to assume that these women knew it better than she did. Not to mention the fact that she'd already agreed to lead them to where she'd found the metal deposit.

While it had taken her more than a day to climb that high up on the mountain, the sun was merely getting close to the horizon by the time they reached where the metal was. Though, it took a little convincing Riewis about that fact, since the metal wasn't on the surface. That it started showing any kind of sign after digging a little into the rock.

Which made Beth wonder about who sent people to look for metal who didn't know how to look for it. From what it felt like to Beth, these women thought that the metal would be sitting out in the open for anyone to see rather than buried in the rock.

Though, the alternative option was that whoever had sent them didn't have any other options, which Beth couldn't help but wonder why that would be. As it certainly seemed like it was an exercise in futility with the chances of them stumbling on some kind of metal that could be seen on surface rocks without needing someone who knew what to look for on that note.

Then once she had them convinced the metal was actually there, they set up their camp right then. Not that Beth was surprised. She'd found it more surprising that the light had lasted long enough to let her show the metal under the rock. She'd had to use her magic to cut through it, which brought her headache back full force, but she considered it worth it.

At that moment she knew she shouldn't use her magic to scan an entire mountain again. That she'd do better to hold back a little about how much of the mountain that she scanned at a time. Otherwise she wans't sure if it would have some lasting health concerns for her. Especially since this wasn't the first time she'd overused her magic.

While the women and Riewis set up the camp, Beth carefully disappeared into the darkness. She didn't want to bother them any, nor did she want to deal with any questions they might have for her.

Even though she was confident that she'd be able to field them without trouble, she'd rather avoid being required to do so in the first place. Especially since she got the impression that they didn't think that anyone but them knew about the gate.

That if they learned others knew, they might not be so friendly towards her.

Beth knew that she might be overthinking it, but she also wanted to get back through the gate as fast as possible. Without her magic, she was pretty vulnerable, even with Flare to help protect her.

As she moved through the dark, she couldn't help but feel better, even as the temperature dropped to where Beth was starting to shiver in the cold. While she wasn't especially fond of the cold, it still brought back memories she had of the past where she'd had to deal with temperatures like these.

Eventually she made it to the rock that she had been looking for. Though, if she hadn't known it was there, she'd likely have overlooked it, with how many trees were blocking her view of it.

Not that she was complaining. The problem came with how to harvest it without much trouble, given her magic being unavailable to her. Unless, at least, she wanted to risk any additional complications to using it, when it was already low, that she hadn't encountered before.

If she had any doubts that this was the kind of rock she'd been looking for, all she had to do was touch it and she could feel her magic getting restored. Not quickly enough that she'd be confident to use it to defend herself, but enough that she knew any headache she got from using it wouldn't be as painful as before.

As she rummaged through her pack, the best option she could find was a hammer. A regular claw hammer that would at least do some damage to the rocks and break a few off. Which was at least better than seeing if any would pry off with just her hands alone, unable to do anything more.

Of course, first she checked briefly to see if there were any that would come loose without any real effort, which netted her a few, much like the first one of these that Beth and her friends had encountered.

It was dark, so working by moonlight through the trees was difficult with how thick the trees were around her, but she kept working systematically.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been working when she realized that there was a growing light. She turned to look for the source only to find some of the women who'd been with Riewis coming through the trees, a couple carefully carrying torches so as to not catch the trees on fire.

"First I thought you were trying to escape into the night, but with how much noise you were making, I had to assume you didn't care if we knew where you were," Riewis asked as she came through the trees.

Beth felt stunned. She hadn't considered how much noise it'd make, but even still, she didn't think it made that much. It was only a hammer on stone.

"Anyway, I assume this is the rock that you'd been looking for, huh?" Riewis continued when Beth didn't say anything.

In the torchlight, Beth could see the stone was a vivid violet. A color that would have made Beth swear it was an amethyst if it had been clear and didn't restore her magic like it did.

"Yeah, this is what I'd been looking for," Beth admitted, not seeing a reason to lie at this point.

"And why didn't you wait for morning?" Riewis asked, talking like she was talking to an unruly child.

While Beth didn't care to get talked to that way, she doubted she'd be able to effectively protest that to this woman who's mere presence made Beth feel wary.

However, she was confident she could come up with a reason that would be able to stand on its own. One that she was confident Riewis would understand. One that she wouldn't look too much past.

"Because I just wanted to shorten the amount of time I spent out here," Beth admitted. "I like the mountains, but right now I'm just wanting to finish up and be done with this."

It wasn't entirely false, but it was also true enough that Beth was confident it'd pass whatever scrutiny Riewis passed on it.

"Well, you should have said something to us then," Riewis scolded gently. "That's why we're all part of the order."

Beth wanted to protest that she wasn't a member, but quickly reminded herself to not say anything about that. That she didn't want to deal with any of the questions that would come as a result of her being determined to not be a member.

It was hard to say how long it took them, but with the efforts of the women with Riewis, Beth quickly had her pack filled to the seams with pieces of the rock. A few were sharper than Beth would have liked, but she couldn't find it in herself to care enough to do anything about them. Especially with how tired she felt after having harvested the rocks.

Even with the rock restoring her magic, she was physically tired from the effort.

"By the way," Riewis asked, as they made their way back to the camp that had been set up earlier. "Why didn't you use your magic to speed that up? I'm sure it would have gone much faster if you'd done that."

Beth could only shake her head. "It might have gone faster, but my magic stamina was pushed to the limit when I scanned the entire mountain," she answered, not seeing a reason to lie about this. "That's why I slept for so long. I overextended myself with my magic and if I don't let it recover before using it again, I'll get that headache back, if not worse."

Riewis nodded, looking like she might understand. Beth was skeptical about that, but she couldn't think to argue about that. It wasn't important anyway. What was important was the fact that she'd gotten as much of that rock as she could. If Riewis and those with her took a few of the leftover pieces, that was fine with Beth.

She couldn't think of any reason to begrudge them that. Not when it was something novel to them as well. Although, with the flying ships eventually becoming commonplace, Beth couldn't help but wonder if maybe she should talk to the Marquis about entering into a discussion with the people of this 'Order of the Blue Rose' to secure a steady supply of the stone.

If nothing else, it'd keep Beth from having to come back here herself. Not to mention the fact that they'd become aware of the magic rocks as well.

The only challenge left now was to get out of here without having to reveal that she wasn't a member of this order that Riewis and these women were a part of.

_

Jenn couldn't help but feel relieved as the first building came into sight. Not only was she going to have an actual bed tonight, or what passed for one among her people, but she was going to be able to just relax for a little bit. Maybe not as much as the others in the party that had gone to look at the lands she'd promised Tchisa, but a good amount more than she had as they'd travelled.

On the return trip, Jenn had discussed a little with Tchisa about constructing even a dirt road to that other gate. She couldn't say what might be involved in that, but she was at least confident that with their current workforce, it would at least be a challenge.

So, when she climbed the stairs to where her bed was in one of the few sturdy buildings, she wasn't too happy to find a meeting getting started. Not that she was really surprised. With Murphy's Law in effect, she could only assume this was likely the worst possible time for this to occur. Otherwise it wouldn't have happened right then.

"I'm telling you she was a spy," Riewis' voice came through the door right before Jenn opened it. As she did so, the meeting came to a half.

"Uh, should I get Tchisa?" Jenn asked, feeling a little uneasy with the way the room went quiet.

"That would be a good choice," Riewis said immediately without missing a beat. "She'll know what to do about that girl."

Jenn felt like she was missing something, but didn't feel like doing or saying anything about it right then. She felt like she should wait for an explanation before saying anything. Especially with how she couldn't help but look longingly at the straw mattress that was hers.

Yet, since there wasn't anything else she could do right then, she turned and started to go back down the stairs. If she had to get Tchisa before she could get the rest she deeply wanted, then she'd get the woman and move whatever this was along as fast as possible so she could get to her rest.

Fortunately, she knew right where Tchisa was, so she didn't have to search very much. She just went to the tent that she was living out of and told her, "Apparently there's something going on that you need to be a part of."

Tchisa looked at Jenn for a minute before sighing. "So much for a little time off," she grumbled.

"I know what you mean," Jenn replied. "They were holding a meeting where I sleep, so I couldn't get to rest either."

"So because you can't rest, that means I can't either, right?"

Jenn shook her head as she smiled ot herself. "Not really. Riewis was the one talking about something right before I opened the door. Something about her being sure someone was a spy or something."

"Guess I do need to show up," Tchisa remarked, sounding like she found the whole situation ironic.

Jenn didn't say anything more. She just walked with Tchisa back to the building, wondering what else might have happened when they were gone. As with this new information, Jenn couldn't help but worry that this might have only been the tip of the iceberg here.

When they arrived, Riewis looked like she was ready to bite Jenn's head off when she walked through the door, but quickly changed her expression when Tchisa came through. Jenn wasn't really surprised at the difference, as Riewis did respect Tchisa more than Jenn, so she figured it was just par for the course.

"So what's so urgent that I couldn't get any rest when I got back?" Tchisa asked, her tone softer than her words.

"While I was out searching for hardwood or metal, my unit encountered a young woman whom we thought was sent on a mission from the Blue Rose. She was looking for these magical rocks and actually helped us find some metal, but then on our way back, she disappeared on us. No one from here knows who she is, either," Riewis reported succinctly.

"Did she give a name?" Tchisa asked, looking more confused than concerned. "And why would you think she's a spy?"

Riewis glanced at Jenn, scoffed, then looked back to Tchisa. "She said her name is 'Beth.' I think she's a spy because how else would she know about the gate?"

"How would she know about the magic rocks?" Tchisa replied, sounding even more tired than before. "If the Blue Rose knew of the gate before, then it's possible that others might have as well."

Jenn felt a little surprised at Tchisa. She hadn't given her any suggestions of how to respond and had effectively disarmed Riewis' argument.

"Not to mention the fact that the Duchess Versith was told about this gate as well," Tchisa continued, her gentle tone softening the blow to Riewis. "I'm pretty sure I mentioned that to you as well before we left. So, if she is a spy, then we'll need to wait until she shows up again and we can ask her. In the meantime, please fill Jenn in on the details and I'm going to bed."

Jenn stared in shock as Tchisa turned and left. Leaving Jenn with the mess to clean up when she herself would like to get some sleep as well!