“Took you long enough. Was it really worth it?” We found Maverick leaning against the building outside with his arms crossed.

  “It was.” I nodded my head. “The pegasus… She was so serene and gentle. She felt so different from other animals.”

  “Pegasi are one of the most intelligent creatures in Etheria, or so I’ve heard.” Zephyr straightened his glasses.

  “I think we’ve spent enough time in the capital. What do you say we explore the rest of this continent?” Maverick asked, straightening as he moved away from the building. He looked ridiculously bored, and I started to feel bad that he was excluded—even if he didn't want to be there to begin with.

  “I couldn’t agree more.” Finn smirked back.

  “Avaline suggested the east, right?” I reminded, moving away from my previous thoughts.

  “Then maybe we should go west…? A part of me is inclined to go the opposite of what she suggested.”

  “Why’s that?” Marge asked, her eyebrows furrowed as she stretched her shoulders forward and back.

  Finn's expression grew more concerned and bothered, not daring to meet any of our gazes. “There’s something about her that rubs me the wrong way…”

  “Like the fact that she forgot to warn us about the plague?” I asked.

  “That’s part of it, yes. I couldn’t read her mind, which was to be expected of an empress.”

  “D-do you think she’s an Ethereal?” Aidan asked.

  “Or maybe something else entirely different. Like Sylvis,” Maverick added.

  “Could she be one of the princesses?” I asked. “One of Alina’s children?”

  “Could be.” Finn shrugged. “Might explain the whole sacred letter thing.”

  “Wait, aren’t Alina’s children all dead or something?” Marge raised an eyebrow. Right, she hadn’t been with us.

  “The leader of the Magus of Historia is one of Alina’s children,” I explained.

  “And none of you thought to tell me?!” Marge practically screamed.

  “I-I thought I mentioned it!” Aidan scratched the back of his head, taking a step back. Was it just me, or was he trembling?

  “Does that mean Sylvis is a princess too?”

  “If she is, she’s never said as much to me.” Maverick shrugged.

  “Why is it that Sylvis doesn’t trust you? You’ve been with her for two hundred years, haven’t you?” I asked, accusation in my voice.

  “It’s not like I spent all my time in Meridia those two hundred years either.” He crossed his arms. “Besides, Sylvis only needs one person she can trust. And that someone is Rosalie. I don’t exactly envy their relationship.”

  “Even the Rosalie part?”

  “Especially the Rosalie part.” He cringed.

  “Hey! Don’t talk about Rosalie like that!” Marge snapped.

  I wanted to grill Maverick more about his relationship with Sylvis. There was definitely more to the story—the cloaked members from the Magus of Historia I saw proved as much. But he wasn’t going to reveal anything else now.

  We decided to take Avaline’s advice and head east, mostly because the west had a lot of water and Finn didn’t want his nonexistent lance getting wet.

  “What do you think your weapon is?” Marge made conversation with me as we headed down the dirt path.

  “I don’t know, but I hope it’s something cool. Like Aidan’s orb,” I replied.

  “Aidan’s orb?” Marge raised an eyebrow. Right, she wasn’t there for that either. We really needed to start including Marge in more stuff.

  “Actually… Why haven’t you used your orb ever since?” I raised my voice to catch Aidan’s attention.

  He blinked at me a few times. “…I honestly forgot I had that.” He held out his palm in front of him, but nothing happened. “Guess I don’t have it anymore.”

  We were both stuck in the same place. Elemental magic but nothing else. My eyes had remained their brown shade, too, meaning the rest of my magic probably wouldn’t awaken anytime soon.

  “What’s your weapon, Marge?” I asked, realizing I had never seen her fight before.

  “Oh, it’s this!” She summoned what I could only describe as a spiky yo-yo. Sorry, two spiky yo-yos that were attached on either side of a wire. Sharp blades ran around their perimeters.

  “You know, I expected you to have something like a big sword or maybe throwing knives, but I guess this works too.” I chuckled. “How long did it take you to learn how to use those?”

  “Months.” She sighed. “You get a vague feeling of how to use your weapon. Mastering it is the problem. I nearly took my own head off a few times.” She laughed, but I imagined it wasn’t very funny when it happened.

  “The ether feels different here, doesn’t it?” Finn asked, interrupting mine and Marge’s conversation.

  “Yes. I could sense as much as we arrived, but the further down this road we go, the more chaotic the ether feels.”

  I stopped walking, trying to feel what everyone else had felt. I held my hand out as if ether were some attainable object you could hold. And for a moment, I felt it—something similar to what I had felt at the manor when Sylvis went missing. An abundance of ether.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “Do you think Vafir has a conduit like Meridia?” I asked.

  “Probably,” Zephyr replied.

  “Do you think it’s broken?”

  Zephyr paused for a moment. “I wouldn’t say it’s broken. The ether in the capital was a lot more stable. It seems like there are fluctuations across Vafir. Something else is likely responsible.”

  I nodded; his explanation made sense.

  Thunder clapped in the atmosphere. I looked up to see dark gray clouds looming over us. While I liked rain, I didn’t particularly like it when I was outside hiking.

  “Looks like rain,” Marge stated the obvious, still gazing up at the sky.

  “S-should we head back?” Aidan asked.

  “No. We won’t beat out the rain.” Zephyr shook his head.

  “Should we look for cover?” I asked, not thrilled about getting drenched in water.

  “What’s a little rain?” Finn shrugged, completely ignoring my thoughts.

  Something hit me. It wasn’t wet in the slightest. In fact, it actually felt quite painful, as if being assaulted by dozens of tiny pebbles.

  …And then I realized I was literally being assaulted by dozens of tiny pebbles.

  “Shit. One of Vafir’s rock storms.” That was the first time I had heard Zephyr curse.

  “Uh, I’m going to second with Elaina’s suggestion of taking cover.” Marge covered her head with her arms, mouthing the word “ow” every few seconds.

  “It doesn’t look like there’s any cover nearby.” Maverick swatted away the pebbles, which did absolutely nothing besides further irritate him.

  “Then do something about it! Like teleport us out!”

  “You know, you guys always look to me to solve your problems. Have you thought about taking matters into your own hands for once?”

  “Have you thought about not being an asshole for once?!” Aidan suggested.

  “Or not thinking with it?” I added.

  “Just shut up and do something!!!” Marge’s voice was exasperated.

  “I’m not teleporting six people back to the city just to teleport us back here in an hour,” Maverick insisted.

  Suddenly, a gust of wind surrounded us, almost like a shield. The wind blew the pebbles away, giving the illusion of the rocks bouncing off the makeshift shield. I realized Aidan’s arms were stretched out on either side of him, his expression focused yet also pained.

  “We need to hurry and find cover,” I urged. “Aidan won’t be able to keep this up forever.”

  “And when he can’t, it falls on you to take over, Sir I Have A Stick In My—” Marge was quickly cut off.

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Maverick rolled his eyes.

  We found a boring cave on the side of a cliff where we had a boring time waiting for the boring storm to end. It was quite boring.

  “Rock, paper, scissors, anyone?” I suggested to pass the time.

  “W-what’s that?” Aidan asked.

  “Oh! I know! It’s a game!” Finn said excitedly as he scooted closer to us.

  “You only know that because you’re a mind reader.” Aidan huffed and crossed his arms.

  “You make a sign with your hand. This for rock, this for paper, and this for scissors—” I began making the signs.

  “That’s a death threat in Meridia,” Marge casually said.

  I blinked. “Scissors are a death threat?”

  “I don’t know what scissors are, but that sign typically represents a guillotine.”

  “…I beg to differ. Anyway, paper beats rock, rock beats guillotine, and guillotine beats paper, I guess.”

  “This game is much easier to understand when you put it like that!” Aidan said excitedly.

  “It's easier to play with just two people. I’ll start with Finn. We go on three. One, two, three—”

  I made the sign for paper, but Finn didn’t do anything.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “…I forgot the signs.” He closed his eyes, scratching the back of his head.

  “What do you mean you forgot?! You’re literally a mind reader! Wait… I shouldn’t be playing with you if you’re a mind reader! Aidan!”

  The boy in question moved closer to me, and we started again. This time, I picked rock and he picked scissors, or what they were referring to as a guillotine.

  “I win!” I beamed.

  “T-this game is harder than it looks…” Aidan looked lost in thought.

  “Wanna go again?”

  “Hold on, I’m thinking of the statistics of every choice…”

  “It’s the same statistic,” Zephyr replied. “Each choice has one strength and one weakness. I imagine that is the beauty of this game.”

  “What if we added a fourth option that was strong against two and weak against two?!” Marge suggested. “Oh! It could be something like an axe! It could be strong against rock and paper, but weak to the guillotine…and also rock.”

  “Why are we adding weapons?” I asked.

  “There’s already a guillotine!”

  “You’re overcomplicating the game!” Finn added.

  “Well, guess what? You’re banned from the game for being a mind reader!”

  “He could still play against me.” Maverick was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed as usual.

  “Exactly! Let’s play with the original rules!” Finn quickly ran over to him. “One, two, three— Why didn’t you pick anything?”

  “I said you could play with me, not that I would.” Maverick yawned.

  Finn sighed and turned to Zephyr.

  “Sure, I’ll give it a shot.” Zephyr shrugged.

  “Wait, since when can Finn not read Zephyr’s mind?” Marge asked.

  “Since that self-entitled mutt entered our apartment.” The words were forced through Finn’s teeth.

  “Am I supposed to know who that is?”

  “I wouldn’t worry about it.” I shook my head.

  “Come on! Let’s play using the extra sign!”

  I decided to humor her. Knowing she would pick her newly added choice, I picked rock.

  “I win! Wait, no, you win? Uh…” Marge frantically looked between me and Aidan.

  “So that’s why there isn’t a fourth option…” Aidan noted incredulously.

  “Heh… I guess my suggestion was stupid after all.”

  Hours later, the rock storm eventually stopped, and we were able to continue our hike. Vafir seemed to have many mountains and hills, which of course we happened to be trekking. From where we were, I couldn't tell if it was a mountain or a hill.

  “Mountain,” Finn whispered.

  Right, Avaline did say the mountains to the east, now that I thought about it…

  “Why did Avaline want us to see the boring mountainside again?” Marge asked.

  “M-maybe this is where she plans to kill us… No one will ever find o-our bodies…” Aidan mumbled.

  “I’ll second that,” Finn added.

  “If she wanted us dead, she would have killed us already,” Zephyr explained. “Her people have high respect for her and wouldn’t question her exterminating foreigners for the sake of peace.”

  “So we’re not going to die on the side of a cliff. Right…?” I asked for reassurance.”

  What I heard was a jumble of “yes” and “no”. How comforting.

  “It’s getting dark. We should rest for the night,” Zephyr suggested.

  “Over there.” Finn pointed ahead and slightly to the right. It looks like there’s a clearing.”

  There was. Grass spread out as far as the eye could see, and the night sky above us was beautiful, with millions of twinkling stars. The only cliffs in sight were the ones behind us.

  The night air was chilly, especially with our altitude. Now that we had stopped walking, it hit me in full. I was thankful when Maverick started a fire with branches he summoned from who knows where. Part of me pictured some other camper’s fodder just disappearing.

  “See how useless all of that luggage was?” Maverick yawned.

  “It’ll still be there when we go back to the inn.” Marge shrugged before pausing, her expression turning aghast. “We are going back to the inn, right?”

  “I wasn’t planning on it.” A spiky yo-yo landed next to Maverick’s head that was already lying on the ground. “Okay, we’ll go back. Goddess. You take after Rosalie too much.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment!” She beamed.

  “I would like to enjoy a peaceful night that doesn’t involve the murdering of friends.” Zephyr sipped a cup of tea—

  “Where did you get that teacup?” I asked.

  “Maverick summoned it for me. The kitchen staff back at the manor often leave out piping hot cups of tea for anyone to take.”

  “You know, I don’t think we ever ate dinner,” Finn noted.

  Everyone’s head spun to Maverick.

  “If you want dinner, you’re going to have to get it the old-fashioned way. Nobody leaves out food at the manor at this hour.” Maverick closed his eyes, preparing for sleep.

  Everyone (except me) grumbled at the idea of meat.

  “M-maybe there are some non-poisonous berries around?” Aidan suggested.

  “Doesn’t hurt to look.”

  Everyone except Maverick, who was already snoring, and Zephyr, who seemed satisfied with his tea, got up to look for dinner.

  I just hoped we weren’t someone or something else’s dinner. I was starting to wish I was the one with the spiky yo-yo…