the journey north

My night passes without (further) incident. I set the corestones on my nightstand as promised and fall fast asleep. Kieran and Sola return at some point in the night, but I don't see Rav until morning. He smells extra-Ferin when he gets back, so I make him take a shower before we go anywhere.

"Don't tell Bree!" he panics as I push a towel in his face and close him in the bathroom.

As Rav is cleaning up, I sit on the bed with Kieran. We're both already packed and ready to go - Rav might be a while.

"Rav is unhinged," Kieran says quietly. He looks at me seriously but he can't hold it and bursts into laughter. 

"Don't I know it."

"We had a lot of fun last night," Kieran reminisces. "Everyone wanted to dance with Rav. He really is a celebrity here. And I was with him, so that means everyone wanted to dance with me, too! It was a blast! I've never had fun like that before, just letting loose. You know?"

"Yeah," I say, standing up from the bed and walking toward the window. I'm picking up an ominous presence, but I can't tell from where, or why. 

Kieran frowns. I guess he wanted to talk more about his night. "Sorry, I thought I heard something," I say. "I'm glad to hear you had fun. Doesn't sound like my kind of jam."

"Well, me neither," Kieran murmurs, playing with the fraying bits at the edge of the bedsheets. "But, you know. Maybe a once in a while kind of thing, yeah? We did this one dance called 'The Electric Whorl'. Everyone got in a big line and made a spiral. Then Rav ended up on a chair, being held by a bunch of people..."

I sit back next to Kieran, but I'm not listening as much as I want to be. I'm just not all that into the 'party' atmosphere that Rav seems to embody.

"He's a good guy, Rav. I know you think he's...well, you know. But the people here, everyone loves him. They treat him like a god. And...it's because he's earned it, in a way. He put his life on the line every day for them. He saved the entire world from being consumed, and the Ferin Village would have been the first place to go.

"You should hear how they talk about him, Augs. Some people were brought to tears, telling me stories of when he saved them, or a family member. Hell, this village started out as a place where Ferin were being removed from society and forced to work for barely any pay. Rav...he changed all of that."

 "He's told me most of the stories, believe me."

Rav wanders out of the bathroom, soaking wet with his towel covering his hair and nothing else. As I see him, I cover my eyes and exclaim. 

"What the hell, Rav!? Put some clothes on, I can see everything!"

Rav shrugs cockily. "So what, we're all buds here, right?"

I peek. I guess I've always been curious - No! August, stop!

"You're a savage, cover yourself up!"

"Yeah, yeah," he rolls his eyes as he rifles through his backpack and finally puts on some underwear. "Man, when I bring you two to the hot springs, you're going to have a heart attack, ain't ya?"

I lower my arm and my eyes casually glance over at his torso.

"That's a big scar," I say quietly. In the center of his torso is a cross-shaped scar, seared into his flesh. Whatever hit him there must have almost cut him in half. 

"Hm?" he replies, before looking down. "Ah, yes. That was a gift from the Magician of Lightning. Don't you worry, little Auggie. I gave him much worse."

He rolls a turtleneck on and buckles his belt. "And by that I mean I killed him."

Yeah, Rav. I figured.

"Gave him one of these!" Rav exclaims, shooting a puffy cloud out of his hand. It looks like the most harmless thing he's ever conjured. "And one of these!" He throws a kick. Another fluff, floating idly by.

"It's just like I told you yesterday, Augs. If you're fighting a Magician, there's no 'taking prisoners'. You kill, or you are killed. Our magic is too powerful to do otherwise."

Rav looks over to me and hops onto my bed, fiddling with the corestones next to me. "Oh yeah," he chirps, putting his fingers all over them. "Sola said you blew some guy up last night? How'd that go?"

I dip my head toward the corestones. "Pretty well, as you can see. Say, Rav. What do you know about corestones?"

"Not much," he says, rolling on his back and juggling the two corestones back and forth. "I'm a Magician. Never had much use for 'em - Bree's a great Vessel."

"I found out last night that they're made with living people," I sigh. "Those two corestones, were once human. They were brothers."

"Hm," Rav thinks, placing them back down on my stand. "Explains why the red one started burning my hand when I juggled it."

"Yeah, the red one's a little feisty," I remark. It was only just last night when that thing shot a bolt of black lightning at me, as soon as it learned I was holding his brother. 

"He's called Cralla Dem, but I doubt that was his name when he was...human-bodied."

"Most intriguing. I suppose this wasn't done with their consent, now was it?" Rav clicks his tongue and shakes his head. "Technology will be the death of all of us, you two. Mark my words. So, what will you do with them? I suppose 'freeing them' is off the table?"

I look to the corestones. "I have no idea," I say. "But for now, I'll keep them together. They seem to like that, and it's the best we can do for now."

"Cute. You can keep them in a little coin purse. You needed a pair of stones, from what I understand."

"They're much nicer than yours, I can say that now from that little stunt you pulled - "

Rav whacks me with his fan on the top of my head, forcing my head down as I wince and defend myself. He didn't hit me too hard - I don't mean to start an anti-Rav campaign. 

I look over to Kieran. His gaze is lingering on the corestones. "They're Vessels," he says to himself. "Immortal Vessels, able to give magic to those who don't have Guides..."

He's reflecting on his own role as a Vessel. I wonder if he feels some kind of kinship with the two corestones, now that he's learned what they are.

"Alright, guys. Let's go."

We hit the road, leaving the village from the north. It's not a direction I've ever been in, and the landscape is all new to me. Here, the yellow grass that surrounds the Ferin Village is more muted in color, and the ground is uneven, with stony crags jutting from the ground, requiring us to do some acrobatics to maneuver. It's no challenge - not for the three of us. 

After darting around the rocky outcroppings, we find our way back to the Divide - a long, snaking system of bottomless chasms that cut up the surface of the earth. The stories say that each area carved out by the Divide was completely separated from all other lands for a thousand years, and in that time there was a great change on the surface. It's why the areas near Asteria, close as they are to here, look completely different - different animals, plantlife, you name it.

This gap is a touch shorter, and the bridge looks infinitely sturdier. Even better, in this area of cliffy lowlands, there's not a lot of wind. We make it over the bridge in one piece - no Volches or other threats.

I shouldn't jinx myself. It's been a long time since I've encountered an Encephalim, and I prefer to keep it that way. Maybe Rav was onto something - his mana might actually ward them off.

After we cross the bridge, we're surrounded by red - the somewhat alien plants of the Asteria region. The spiky red bushes are thinner here, more sporadic and spread out. The further we travel north, the less I see, until eventually all the land around us is barren dirt. 

Several hours in, and the land remains desolate and bleak. Rav tells me that a large battle was fought here, once, one involving multiple Magicians. Ever since, the entire northern end of Asteria has been unable to bear any life. It's hard to believe a place like this exists, and yet our journey is taking us somewhere even more downtrodden still.

As the sun begins to set over the horizon, Rav stops us. "Heenas roam this region in packs," he informs us. "Nasty little things. Nocturnal. I prefer to avoid them, if it's all the same - I never much liked dogs."

We pick a high hill to set up camp, and Rav establishes a smoky perimeter with his cloud magic. When he's finished, I can't see a thing beyond the barrier - just a thick blanket of fog.

"Nothing's getting through that," he smirks. "Don't worry one little bit!"

Rav retires early for the night after eating some dried animal jerky. "Just because they can't get in, doesn't mean we won't be able to hear them. They have this creepy yelp and - ooh. I better get to sleep before they start howling."

Kieran and I sit by the fire, surrounded by the billowy white fog. Rav's magic never ceases to amaze.

"We'll be there early tomorrow," Kieran notes, his voice soft and barely audible over the crackling of the wood. "Bree's meeting us, and then we'll be in the northern country."

I'm inclined to look toward our destination, though all I see is the swirling, cloudy barrier. The night air is cool, and fresh - for a place that is so devoid of life, the air is oddly comforting. Clean.

"This will be our first real test as Magician and Vessel, Kieran. I'm excited. More excited than nervous. I want to see what we're capable of. We'll never defeat the Flamekeeper without experiences like this to guide us. So let's learn from every moment."

Kieran laughs. "Hard to believe a magical famine is somehow less threatening than the Flamekeeper. We really know nothing about this guy, huh?"

"Leoni was one of his disciples, a close one," I note. "He wasn't too tough, but he did have access to some powerful corestones. We have to assume the Flamekeeper has many such disciples, each one with corestones, or maybe even full-out Magicians."

"Yeah," Kieran says, lying down on his blanket. He always prefers to sleep next to the fire when we're camping out. "I guess I'd rather try to figure out a famine than run-up against an army of Magicians. That's for sure."

I don't answer, but I'm with Kieran in spirit. I stare into the swirling fire, feeling its warmth on my skin.

"Good night, Kieran."

"Good night, August."

'Good night, Rylin.' I think to myself, staring up. Even through Rav's fog, there is faint illumination flowing in from the moon.

We both fall asleep to the sound of fire, and keep warm, even into the early hours of the morning as our fire burns to embers.