"Even in the most blighted soil, a seed of truth can take root. The challenge is not in the planting, but in having the courage to see what grows."

  — The Culinarian's Chronicle

  “RIX, LOOK OUT!” Leo barked, from his position on the perimeter.

  Thinking quickly, he scooped up a flat piece of slate and hurled it with all his might. The rock struck the creature high on its shoulder with a sharp crack. The nesce faltered, its head snapping around to fix its glowing violet eyes on Leo. It diverted its charge, now thundering towards him.

  Leo slammed his hands together, desperately reaching for his power. It felt like trying to draw a breath in a vacuum; he could envision the shape of a shield in his soul, but the aether around him was too thin to give it proper form. He tried again, his teeth gritted with strain. A wall of green light flickered into existence before him, a massive, shimmering barrier that seemed more like a heat- haze than solid energy, its edges wavering and dripping like wet clay.

  The beast was closing, its claws tearing up the ashen ground. Leo braced himself behind the wavering shield. A loud, whining whir of machinery cut through the air from his left, where Rix now had a clear shot at the creature's flank.

  "BRACE!" she screamed, dropping her goggles over her eyes a split second before a huge flash of light erupted, followed by an absence of sound. The world went white. A beam of pure energy, so bright it bleached all colour, slammed into the corrupted nesce. For a single moment, the creature was silhouetted against the blinding light. Then, with a sound like shattering glass, it imploded, its form collapsing in on itself.

  The light vanished, leaving a lingering afterimage in Leo's vision. The world rushed back in, leaving his ears ringing. He turned, his own magical shield dissolving, to see Rix lowering what was left of the weapon. It was a ruin of smoking, half-melted metal and crystalline components. A spent mana battery popped from its housing with a sad hiss, its internal light extinguished. Rix flipped her goggles back up onto her forehead, looking at the destroyed instrument.

  “What was that?” The question felt distant to Leo’s own ears, spoken through the high-pitched whine left by the blast.

  "It was a calibrated geological laser cutter," Rix said, her voice a mixture of triumph and dismay as she looked at the ruined instrument. "I just overloaded the core." She pointed to the spent battery, now a dead, grey cylinder. "That was supposed to last for months…... I spent half my field incidentals on that battery."

  Leo gave her a slow nod, his voice quiet but heavy with relief. "Thanks." His hand found the solid warmth of Bocce’s chest without needing to look. The great bird was already there. Leo leaned into his friend, feeling the muscles still coiled with tension. "It's alright," he murmured. "I'm okay."

  Bocce responded with a low trill of affirmation, then, satisfied that Leo was unharmed, the great bird jogged over to Rix and gently nudged her with his head.

  A giggle cut through the ringing in Leo's ears. Rix, her face bright with adrenaline, threw her arms around Bocce’s thick neck in a grateful cuddle. “I think he’s happy I didn’t let you end up as lunch!” she chirped.

  Leo offered only a vague look in her direction. His attention had already moved on, his gaze fixed on the spot where the nesce had imploded. A pile of fine, grey ash was all that remained, and in its centre, a single shard of black crystal pulsed with the monolith's malevolent, purple light. Approaching the pile of ash cautiously, his senses on high alert. "Rix," he called out. "There's something here."

  Rix hurried over, her hand-held scanner emitting a series of high-pitched beeps as she focused it on the object. The aetheric readout on its screen spiked violently, the display overloading with a cascade of error messages before a thin wisp of smoke curled from its casing with a foul, electric smell. "Scrap," she muttered, quickly packing the damaged instrument away. She pulled out a pair of tongs and a heavily insulated containment tube from her pack. "This is it," her eyes wide with a manic glee. "This is the source. It's not just draining the mana; it's entropy. It's stripping it down, twisting it into… this." She carefully picked up the shard with the tongs and sealed it in the tube. She looked up at him, her eyes alight with urgent purpose. "I need to get this back to Highforge. The Archmagister of the Academy of Arcane Convergence needs to see this."

  There was nothing more to be gained from this place. They began to retreat with a shared trepidation, but the path out of the mountains was not a simple reversal of the path in. The land, sickened by the monolith’s influence, was unstable. A rockslide caused by the blast—–its stones strangely colourless—–had erased the trail they had followed, forcing them onto a high, treacherous ridge pass that would undoubtedly add days to their journey.

  As they moved, Leo felt the pressure behind his eyes recede, the thin, stretched feeling of his connection to his power slowly returning to its normal, steady hum. The world seemed to come alive again; the air no longer felt sterile, and the muted colours of the dying landscape began to give way to the richer tones of the living mountains. But the ridge looming behind them was a stark reminder of the lingering blight. The wind howled through jagged, grey peaks, a mournful sound that seemed to carry the memory of the valley’s silence.

  Hours later, they reached the crux of the pass: a vast, narrow chasm spanned by the remains of a rope bridge, its slats dangling uselessly into the abyss.

  “Scrap!” Rix swore under her breath, kicking a loose stone over the edge. They watched it fall for long seconds before it vanished into the gloom. “Well, that’s not ideal. Going around will take two days, maybe three.” She unslung her pack and pulled out a small device that unfolded into a set of powerful binoculars, scanning the far side. “The anchors on the other side look solid. The ropes look like they were sheared clean through.”

  “The rock here is brittle,” Leo said, the words cutting through the wind with quiet authority. He tapped one of the anchor posts with his boot. The post wobbled as the rock around its base was fractured. “The aetheric decay you talked about… Iit’s affecting the stone itself.”

  “Geological instability caused by mana deprivation,” Rix murmured, more to herself than to him. “Fascinating. And incredibly inconvenient.” She looked at Leo. “Your turn, magic man. Can you just… make a bridge?”

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  Leo shook his head, a wry, tired smile touching his lips. “Not one I’d trust to hold my own weight, let alone his,” he said, nodding towards Bocce. He walked to the edge of the chasm, his eyes scanning the opposite cliff face, then looked back at Rix. "Bocce could take us over.”

  He swung himself up onto Bocce’s back, landing on the familiar, worn leather of the saddle, then gestured for her to come closer. "Get on. Hold tight, and don't look down."

  Rix’s eyes widened. “With both of us?”

  “He can make it,” Leo said with a quiet confidence that left no room for argument. A lopsided grin crossed his lips. “More useful than an autobike, eh? C’mon, get on.”

  He reached a hand down to Rix. She took it hesitantly, and he pulled her up behind him with an easy strength. She settled in, wrapping her arms securely around his waist. The firm pressure of her body against his back was a shock—a warmth and closeness he hadn’t felt in years. A hot flush crept up the back of his neck. He pushed the thought away, focusing on the chasm ahead.

  "Just try not to get us killed!" Rix yelled, her voice muffled by his jacket.

  Leo just grunted in response, leaning forward and speaking a private word to Bocce.

  Bocce took several steps back from the edge, his talons digging into the brittle stone for purchase. He lowered his body, coiling the immense muscles in his legs. For a moment, he was utterly still. Then, with an explosive cry that was both a challenge and a promise, he leaped over the void.

  Launching high into the air, a powerful arc that carried them up and over the chasm. For a breathless moment, they hung at the apex of the jump, suspended between the two cliffs. Then gravity reasserted its claim, and they began to fall. Bocce’s massive wings shot open, catching the wind and slowing their plummet into a glide.

  They were losing altitude too quickly. "We're not going to make it!" Rix screamed, her voice snatched away by the wind.

  Just as it seemed they would fall short, a silver-blue light began to emanate from Bocce, spreading rapidly through his feathers until his entire form was sheathed in a gentle, ethereal glow. The light seemed to push against the air, arresting their fall and giving them a final, impossible surge of momentum. They soared the remaining distance, a silent, glowing meteor against the grey sky. He landed on the far side with a gentle thump, the magical light flaring brightly for a moment before fading away, leaving the great bird looking just as he always had, albeit breathing heavily from the exertion.

  Rix slid off Bocce’s back, her legs a little shaky. She stumbled for a moment before finding her footing on the solid ground, patting the great bird’s flank with a grateful hand. "Thank you, you terrifying creature," she whispered, awestruck. She turned to Leo, who was dismounting with practiced ease. "The glow," she said, her eyes wide with a hundred unasked questions. "Was that you?"

  Leo just gave a slow, deliberate shrug as he checked Bocce’s legs for any sign of injury. "Bocce," he said simply, "is a mystery."

  They made camp that night in a basin beside a clear stream, miles from the dead zone, where a grove of hardy copperpines offered protection from the wind. The oppressive dread of the valley was gone, replaced by a focused sense of purpose. As Rix began to pull out another MRE, Leo held up a hand. “No,” he said, his voice firm. “That’s not food. Never again. We’ll be fine with something small.”

  Rix observed, fascinated, as he went to work. He took out his crock of sourdough starter, its tangy scent a welcome contrast to the barren mountain air. With a small amount of flour from the saddlebags, and water from the nearby stream, he began to work a piece of the starter, his hands moving with an old, familiar rhythm. His focus then shifted to the rest of the meal. He carved long strips of meat from one of the raw gryphon medallions, perfect for a quick, hard sear, and sliced an onion into thin, sharp slivers.

  Only when everything was ready did he find a large, flat stone and place a hand over it. He saw Rix lean forward, her expression one of intense, clinical focus as a faint, orange-red heat haze shimmered around his fingers—Ignium. She watched, unblinking, as if committing every detail to memory.

  With a brief flicker of his will, the stone became scorching hot. He cooked the thin, rustic flatbreads first, setting them aside. Then he laid the pieces of gryphon meat on the stone, where they sizzled and seared instantly. While the meat cooked, he pulled a handful of parsley-like mountain leaves and a single, fiery wild pepper from his saddlebags. He crushed them in a small bowl with a drizzle of oil and a pinch of salt, creating a crude, fragrant green relish.

  With the care of an artist, he laid out the components. "You build it," he said, his voice a low rumble. "Start with the meat, then the onion, then the sauce. Don't overfill it."

  She followed his lead, her movements less practiced but full of a new reverence. When she took her first bite, her eyes went wide. A deeply contented groan escaped her lips, followed by a little wiggle on the spot—a spontaneous happy-dance of unadulterated joy. “Wow,” she whispered after she finally swallowed. “The bread is so warm, and the meat has this satisfying chew… then the onion adds this sharp crunch, and the relish just has this bright, fiery kick! It all just… works. Perfectly.” Leo silently agreed. It was a masterpiece of simplicity, a testament to his ability to create something beautiful and nourishing from the most basic of ingredients.

  Watching her, an unforced smile touched Leo’s lips. He realised, with startling clarity, that her unrestrained joy in his cooking was a forgotten warmth he was happy to feel again. They ate in a comfortable silence for a few moments, the shared meal an acknowledgment of their budding partnership. "I can make us some borsmenta tea after dinner, if you'd like," he said. "Then you can tell me about Highforge."

  Rix paused mid-bite. "Borsmenta? That's…... that's Krev'an, isn't it? Brewed peppermint?"

  Leo just nodded, retrieving a small pouch of dried herbs from his saddlebags. He set a small pot of water to heat on the still-warm stone. "I rode past its walls on my way south—Highforge, that is," he said, his back to her as he worked. "Never went inside. Tell me about it."

  Rix’s face lit up. "You'll love it! There's street food, and markets, and inventors, and all the guilds have headquarters, and the Stryzan Sea is sooo pretty to the east, and the Academy of Arcane Convergence is there, and there's a nexus of SEVEN Leylines—"

  Leo held up a hand as he turned, cutting through her torrent of words. "The Academy," he said. "That's where your friend is?"

  "Well, yes," she confirmed, "the Archmagister of the Academy of Arcane Convergence. Strongest mage in ?therra. They're the big boss of the academy, and that's where anyone who wants to get licensed to practice magic goes. They have a bunch of different tracks: political, mercantile, channeling, rune magic, artificing; that's what I did, I studied artificing there under—"

  Leo held up a hand again, cutting her off. "And you think this Archmagister can help you figure out this blight problem?"

  "If the most knowledgeable person on aetheric theory in the world can't figure it out, then I don't know who could," Rix said, with a shrug.

  "Is Highforge still a free-city?"

  "Is this about your problem with the Krev’an?" Her voice hushed despite them being alone. "The Krev'an have a small presence, but it's mostly bored soldiers guarding trade rights. We can get you a change of clothes and…... oh, that reminds me!" She rummaged in her pack and pulled out a small, intricate bracelet made of interlocking copper rings and a single, dull grey crystal. "I’ve made some final adjustments! This is a mana masker. My own invention. It should act as a housing conduit for your aetheric output, creating a recursive null-field that—" she caught his blank look. "It'll hide your magical signature."

  Leo looked at the intricate bracelet, then back at Rix. He gave a deliberate nod. "Thank you," he said, his voice carrying his gratitude. He took the masker and secured it around his wrist. The pot of water on the hot stone was steaming now. He took two simple cups from his pack, dropped a pinch of the dried borsmenta leaves into each, and poured the hot water over them. The clean scent of mint rose into the cold mountain air, a comforting ritual in the vast, dangerous wilderness.

  “I guess… to Highforge.”