When night came, Gareth and Thea stopped for the night in the forest. They lit a fire between them, to ward off wolves. Gareth didn’t hear any wolves, but Red Wolves were often quiet until they let out that horrible roar just before they attacked. They always attacked in groups. He ate dried meat and bread from his pack, but Thea wasn’t touching her food.
“You’re not hungry?” Gareth asked.
She was silent for a moment. “Not yet.”
He wondered, but he thought it would be rude to ask. She would have to take off at least her scarf to eat. Maybe she didn’t want him to see her face. If they were going to travel together, hopefully she would get more comfortable around him. Enough to be able to eat and drink. Both were important while traveling.
“I could turn around,” Gareth said. “You at least need water.”
Thea laughed quietly. “Saw right through me, didn’t you? Don’t worry, I’m not hiding anything dangerous.” She turned her back to him. “But I won’t ask you to turn around.”
After they finished eating, they traded off keeping watch. Gareth kept the first watch. It was a peaceful, warm night in the forest. It was almost too hot with the fire, but being hot was better than being attacked by Red Wolves. He woke Thea halfway through the night before going to sleep himself. In the morning, the two continued on their way. Gareth hoped they were still going in the right direction. It was easy to get turned around in the forest of Hari.
“We should be in Votum tonight,” Gareth said.
“Have you been there before?” Thea asked.
“I delivered a message there once,” Gareth said, leaving out the fact he’d been lost in the forest for three days before reaching the city. He hoped he had gotten better at reading the map and the forest since then.
“Are you looking for something in Votum?” Thea asked. “Or are you just following your father’s travels to see the places he saw?”
Gareth thought about this, almost tripping over a root half hidden among the underbrush. “A little of both. According to his journal, Votum is where he found a fragment of Nightstone. Probably the one that’s with the journal. He bought it at a shop of oddities. I was hoping the shop would still be there, that I could ask the shopkeeper if she remembers him, or remembers where she got the stone.”
Thea was silent for a moment. “So that fragment is Nightstone? It is as strange as I’d heard.”
“How much have you heard about Obsertus?” Gareth asked.
Thea took a deep breath. “The fallen city, the perfect subject for a summer day.” She sighed. “I don’t know much. I don’t think anyone does, except maybe the gods. Something happened in Obsertus, but it was a very long time ago. At night, fragments of Nightstone appear and disappear on the plains, but not every night. On the nights it happens, there’s supposed to be a terrible feeling on the plains. Supposedly, people have disappeared on the plains of Obsertus at night. And no one who enters the city has returned. I don’t know how much of what I’ve heard is true.”
“Neither do I,” Gareth said. “My father wanted to find out what happened there. His last entry in his journal was just before he entered the city. I want to find out what happened to him, but if I can’t, maybe just following his trail will be enough.”
The two walked mostly in silence for the rest of the day. At sunset, they reached the open gate of the City of Truth. Votum felt more lively than Ravita had, or maybe it was because there were more travelers entering the city and none of them looked terrified or nervous. The Knights of Truth didn’t wear full armor or helms, just a cuirass over their light blue clothes. It was getting late, but not late enough for shops to be closed.
“We could find the inn first,” Gareth said.
“If you’re going to the shop, I’ll go with you,” Thea said. “I’m curious about the stone as well.”
It was nice to have company, even if he knew so little about her. Gareth and Thea set off for the market road, which was busy even with the sun setting. It didn’t take long to find the shop of oddities. Inside, there were various objects piled on tables and shelves everywhere. There were even two other people roaming around, looking at both the strange and ordinary items. Gareth and Thea went to the counter at the back of the shop, where an older woman sat on a stool. She looked up at them through thick glasses, stifling a yawn.
Gareth was nervous now that they were there. “Were you working here seventeen years ago?”
The woman smiled, pushing some of her long white hair out of her face. “I’ve been running this shop for fifty years. How can I help you?”
Gareth took the journal out of his bag with a shaky hand and set it on the counter. “I was wondering if you recognize this stone. My father’s journal says he bought it here. It would have been about seventeen years ago.”
The woman frowned hard at the fragment, then she leaned closer across the counter, staring at Gareth so intensely he looked away. “You look a lot like him.”
“So you remember my father?” Gareth asked, looking back at her.
The woman nodded slowly, glancing at the fragment again before scooting her stool further back from the counter. “I remember him, and I remember that piece of stone. It wasn’t actually a part of my inventory. I don’t know where it came from.” She shuddered. “Your father was drawn to it, fascinated by it. I wanted to be rid of it, so I sold it to him.”
He was drawn to it?
“Did you know it was a fragment of Nightstone?” Thea asked.
“I suspected,” the woman said. “All the more reason to get rid of it.” She frowned at Gareth again. “I’m sorry if anything bad came of it. I did feel a little remorse after I sold it to him, since he seemed so unnaturally interested in it, like it was calling to him.”
Gareth glanced at the stone, with its points of light within and faint glow. Like a starry night. He didn’t feel drawn to it. It was interesting, but he found the journal far more interesting.
“Please, take it away,” the woman said. “I suggest you toss it in the sea. Such things can only be bad luck.”
Gareth put the journal back in his bag, thanked her, and left the shop. Thea was close behind him. The shop had suddenly felt very hot. It was warm outside, but Gareth felt a little better in the fresh air.
“That was ominous,” Thea said. “You’re not drawn to it, are you?”
Gareth turned to face her. “Not at all. I’m more interested in the journal and what happened to my father, but his entries do get more… Maybe something was wrong.” Did it have to do with the fragment?
“Why was he so interested in Obsertus?” Thea asked gently.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“I’m not sure,” Gareth said. “He left when I was two and never came back, so I didn’t really get a chance to know him.” He took a deep breath, trying to clear away his doubts. “The next place he went was Rime, the main city of Acantha. He read a book of Felethian stories and found a clue about Obsertus there, but he didn’t write down what he found.”
“That seems odd,” Thea said.
“The journal leaves out a lot,” Gareth said. “It mostly only details where he went.”
“Evens stranger…” Thea muttered. “Gareth, maybe you should go back to Arium. All of this seems odd, possibly even dangerous.”
He had come all this way, and there was nothing left for him in Arium. Was he just making excuses?
“You’re calling this odd?” Gareth asked. “You haven’t even told me anything about yourself and suddenly decided to travel with me.” He regretted it as soon as he said it.
Thea sighed.
“Maybe I should continue alone,” Gareth said.
</a> When she said nothing, he turned and walked away, but part of him didn’t want to. The shopkeeper’s ominous words hung in his mind. He didn’t want to continue alone, but he would only feel like a coward if he went back to Arium now.
</a> “Sorry…” he muttered as he bumped into someone wearing a dark blue cloak with the hood up. He glanced back as the person went past, never having seen a cloak that color before.
The thought quickly left his mind as he resumed mulling over what the shopkeeper had said, and what Thea had said. He went to the inn. He had traveled alone a lot in his time with the Messengers, but the thought of leaving Hari alone was suddenly very daunting. Gareth felt Thea’s absence more than he’d thought he would, but what could he do about it? He slept little that night, leaving the inn early in the morning. After restocking his supplies for the next stretch of the journey, he made his way to the gate.
Thea was waiting beside the gate and hurried over when she saw him. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have tried to talk you out of this, seeing as we barely know each other.”
“I shouldn’t have said what I did either,” Gareth said. “I’m sorry.”
Thea stood straighter. “Do you mind if I continue on with you?”
“I don’t mind,” Gareth said quickly, then felt his face turn red.
Thea laughed. “Being nervous isn’t anything to be embarrassed about. I’m nervous about leaving our country too, even if we’re just going to Acantha. The only scary things I’ve heard about Acantha are about the Forveth, which just sounds like something parents would frighten their children with to make them behave.”
Gareth relaxed a little, feeling better about all of this already. The two of them set off back into the forest. He still knew hardly anything about Thea, but this was better than traveling alone. Wasn’t it? He pushed back that nagging doubt, that lingering worry about Thea’s motives for traveling with him. Gareth glimpsed other travelers on the faint path, but he quickly lost sight of them among the trees. Hopefully they weren’t trying to go to Acantha. Either they were going the wrong way, or he and Thea were going the wrong way.
“Do you think the border is far?” Thea asked.
“Further than it was from Arium to Ravita,” Gareth said. “Further than Ravita to Votum. At least, that’s what I’ve heard. My father’s journal isn’t very detailed, though his map is better than the one I made.”
“Was he a Messenger?” Thea asked.
Gareth absently patted his bag, where the journal was. “I’m not sure.”
Thea looked away. “Sorry. You did say he left when you were two.”
“My mother didn’t like to talk about him,” Gareth said. “I don’t know if he always traveled, or if he just one day decided to travel all over. The only country he didn’t visit was Immutatus. He went through Acantha, down through Lachra and Morus, then back up through Consilium to get to Obsertus.”
Obsertus was just below Acantha, but the mountains were impassible from this side.
“For what?” Thea muttered, so quietly he almost didn’t hear it.
He wondered that as well. What about this fragment, about the mystery of Obsertus, had compelled his father to travel all that way? And why hadn’t he written down what he’d discovered? Had he actually discovered anything? Neither Gareth nor Thea said much more for the rest of the day. They stopped around midday to rest before continuing through the forest. The forest was still the dense pine forest of Hari when the sun was going down, but Gareth thought it might be colder than the other nights. It would get colder the closer they got to Acantha.
“We should stop soon,” Thea said. “The sun’s almost gone—”
A loud, deep roar came from off to the left, like that of a bear. Gareth froze at the sound for just a moment, but that was all it took for two small wolves to dart out from among the trees. Their fur was a dark shade of red. They moved fast, hardly a blur as one leaped at Gareth and the other at Thea. Gareth stepped back, the wolf’s jaws closing on air. He drew his sword and struck, but the wolf leapt to the side, the blade missing its flank. The wolf ducked low to the ground and snarled, saliva dripping to the ground. The wolves were mildly poisonous. Their saliva weakened the victim, making it easier for the small wolves to take down their prey.
For something like a rabbit, the effect would be much stronger. Gareth would at least still have a chance if he was bitten, but he would prefer to avoid that. The wolf leapt at him again and he moved to the side, but not fast enough. The wolf sank its teeth into his left forearm. Gareth cried out, flinging the wolf off. It hit the ground, rolling back to its feet just as at least five more wolves came out from among the trees. They usually attacked in a group. Three of the wolves jumped back to avoid a wide sweep of Thea’s sword.
Gareth struck at the rest of the wolves, which moved plenty fast to avoid his blade, but he and Thea kept striking, advancing on the group of wolves. They had to look like a big enough threat, not worth the effort for the wolves. Thea’s blade caught a wolf in the shoulder. It yelped, turning and fleeing, with the other wolves close behind. Gareth leaned on the tree beside him, a sudden weakness gripping him. Blood ran down his arm from the bite.
Thea was breathing just as hard as he was. Her scarf had fallen forward. She fixed it quickly, but not before he caught a brief glimpse of her face, only enough to see something matte black that looked like armor, and a blue light. What had he just seen? He leaned on the tree harder. For the moment, the bite was a more pressing matter than Thea’s appearance. The poison would pass, but not likely before morning at least.
“I’ll get a fire going to keep the wolves away,” Thea said.
Gareth sank to the base of the tree and leaned back against it. Thea made quick work of gathering dry branches and pine needles and making a fire, but when she was done, the sun had finished setting. Gareth thought he heard the roar of a Red Wolf in the distance, but he hoped it was just his imagination. They used that sound to confuse their prey before attacking in a fast moving group. Thea knelt beside him, bringing him back from his thoughts. She took his arm gently in her gloved hands.
The bleeding had slowed, but the bite was red and swollen. At least it wasn’t as deep as it had felt. Gareth took bandages and salve from his bag, as well as a rag that he wet down with water from his flask. His hands were shaking from the venom. Thea took the rag and cleaned the bite. Gareth breathed in sharply as the cloth brushed against the wound, but he didn’t have the energy to pull away even on reflex. The Messenger who had told him the poison was mild was either tougher than him, or had never actually been bitten.
The salve burned even more than the rag, but it was over faster. Thea covered the bite with a bandage, then moved to the other side of the fire, sitting back against a tree. After a while, Gareth worked up the energy to drink water from his flask and eat some bread. Thea turned away while she ate and drank. Did she know he’d glimpsed her face earlier? The stories, more like rumors, about Knights of Corruption came to mind. Maybe they were real after all.
He had met her in Ravita. But if she was one of Varus’s favored knights, why would she keep it a secret, let alone travel with him away from the city of her god? Gareth was too weary to think about it further right then. When he put his flask back in his bag, something caught his eye. He pulled out the journal, staring at the stone that hung from the faded ribbon. The glow that came from it was much brighter than usual, as though the stars in the darkness within were burning as brightly as they could.
“Has it ever done that before?” Thea asked.
“Never…” Gareth said, still staring at it.
He had an odd feeling, looking at the stone. Like it was calling to him. He put it back in his bag. The feeling was something he could ignore, but would it get stronger? Would he be drawn to the stone how his father had been? This made him worry only more about what might have happened to his father. Gareth didn’t mention the odd feeling to Thea. With her face covered, he couldn’t even guess what she thought of the stone’s strange glow. She said nothing, so neither did he. He leaned his head back against the tree behind him and closed his eyes.
</a> It wasn’t a restful sleep that awaited him. He dreamed of a dark place, with points of light all around him. It was like a starry night sky, the same thing he saw inside the fragment, but it was everywhere he looked. That would have been only odd on its own, but there was a feeling someone was watching him. The feeling was behind him no matter which he way he turned.