As we walked, I brought up the messages the System had sent earlier, allowing the words to appear in a window before me. At first it obstructed my view, but I imagined it shrinking and moving to the right, and the window obliged.
I smiled as I read the message.
Quest Complete: Escape
You escaped the Empress's prison camp through a hole in the wall.
Reward: 1300XP
Congratulations. You have reached Level 6.
+3 Attribute Points.
Another level. That meant I was getting closer. It was still a long way from what I needed to unlock my dragon form. The window shifted again.
Quest Detected: Return to Caelthara
Quested Objective: Brave the wilderness of the western lands and return to Caelthara. You have unfinished business waiting for you.
Leveling up also netted me more Attribute Points, which had made an enormous difference when I'd provisioned them back at The Slumbering Drake. And if I remembered correctly…
Free Skill Points… I thought the words and the words in the message shifted.
Congratulations. You have unlocked 3 Free Skill Points. These points may be allocated into any currently known skill, thus increasing its level and proficiency.
Would you like to allocate your Free Skill Points now?
I confirmed with a thought. I had several skills that would be useful to increase, not the least among them my [Shadow Walker] and [Ironclad Body]. There were also the more combat related skills, like [Short Blade] and [Long Blade], as well as [Intimidation]. It was difficult to say for sure just how often I might get these kinds of free points, which meant I needed to make the most of them while I had them. I allocated two of the points, deciding to save the third to use later.
2 Free Skill Points allocated.
Shadow Walker +1
Ironclad Body +1
1 Free Skill Point remaining.
It was tempting to spend that last point, but upgrading [Ironclad Body] and [Shadow Walker] would help with my plans once I returned to Caelthara, especially as I tried to lean more into the strengths of my class and what the System had given me to work with.
Images of Irinda once more flashed through my mind. Was she still safe with Will, or had Brin come looking for her? I did not know if he even knew who Irinda's cousin was, or even if he knew she still had family in the city, but men like that—ones with no true power—always looked for ways to hold on to the little they thought they had.
Why did I even care?
That was another question that continued to nag at me. Something about that woman, and even Ophelia, had tugged at me. Were those my feelings? My connection to them? Or was it some kind of aftereffect from whoever used to reside within this body? I decided to make finding out more about who this body used to be a priority once I got back and settled my debt with Brin.
I smiled at the thought of digging a blade into his groin. I would take my time finishing him off. Shaking my head, I tried to clear the thoughts from my mind and refocus on the shimmering window and its contents. Once again, I dismissed the message and instead focused on my Attribute Points. A new window appeared.
Attribute Points remaining: 9.
Would you like to allocate them now?
Just like in the bathtub before, I focused on where I wanted the points to go.
Health increased to 100
Stamina increased to 100
Mana increased to 100
I also put two points into [Dexterity] and one into [Strength]. Because I earned more of these with every level, I didn’t see much point in holding onto any, at least not right now.
The System popped out a full report of my updated Attributes.
=Attributes=
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Vitality: 10
Endurance: 10
Strength: 6
Dexterity: 11
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 7
I let the information sit there, floating in front of me as we walked. The sun was starting to set behind the trees, with the top of it the only thing visible through the canopy now, and I could see the telltale signs of the first moons rising to their nightly stations.
"Will we be there soon?" Sil asked before I could. He shot me a look, as if he'd somehow known I was about to ask the same question.
"We're still a few hours off," Lilan called from the front. "We'll make camp soon. The forest gets dark at night, and we wouldn't want to stumble across any patrols.
Everyone agreed with the plan and after several more minutes of walking, Lilan called a stop in a small clearing between two groves of trees. It didn't take long for everyone to settle down. Because of how close we were to the camp, we all opted not to build a fire. It meant the night was likely going to be miserable for sleep, but considering we were free, being cold was a small price to pay.
Since we didn't have any blankets, we broke off small limbs from some of the trees, using the leafy parts to create a bed-like surface. It wasn't the most comfortable thing ever, but I'd certainly slept on worse. Once everyone had settled down, and Lilan and Kev had taken up watch on either side of the camp, the clearing settled into a hushed noise of conversation. I sat alone next to Ophelia's unconscious form, gently caressing her cheek until Sil nestled in beside me, moving a particularly pokey-looking branch out of his way.
"How is she?"
Shrugging, "I wish I could tell."
I'd tried using [Insight] on her twice since we'd stopped, both times hoping that my [Basic Medical] skill might give me something. Anything. But, it never did. I mentally kicked myself for not upgrading that skill with my Free Skill Points.
He leaned in close, keeping his voice low as he spoke. "Before, in the wagon, you stared at my ring, like you could see something in it."
My hand hesitated just over Ophelia's cheek and I turned to him, taking in his curious look. His face had begun shifting sometime during our walk, and he now carried more of the smooth features that he'd worn when I first met him. I chewed on the inside of my lip for a breath and then nodded. "It's an ability called [Insight]. I don't really know why I have it, but it lets me figure out information about people and things. You don't have anything like that?"
He shook his head. "Do you see anything when you look at me?"
I tilted my head. "Yes, though it's mostly impossible to decipher. It reminds me of the old runic language of the dragons." I kept my voice especially quiet as I said the last part. I glanced around right after, but nobody seemed to have heard. Everyone was lost in their own conversations.
I let out a breath of relief.
"That's interesting," Sil said, leaning back on his hands. "I don't know wh—oh. I guess that would probably explain it."
"What would?"
Red colored his cheeks. "Well, you remember how I mentioned all that about my family before? I probably should have specified that they weren't from here. Neither am I."
Understanding suddenly blossomed within me. Sil, like Aurelion, was from another world. Another piece of the cosmos. And yet, he had ended up here as well. Just like Aurelion. Had the [Hero] been to blame for his family's suffering, too?
"I don't really know how I got here," Sil continued, unprompted. "One day I woke up in the middle of the forest. I was myself, but I also… wasn't. I stumbled to a village about a half a day's walk away, and everyone looked at me like I was strange. Like something was wrong with me." His usual confidence was missing from the lines in his face as they continued to shift and straighten. "I didn't realize until an older woman threw boiling water at me that my skin was sagging and my face didn't look like a face. It was like all of my skin had just stopped working."
"You couldn't do that before?" I asked, motioning to his body with my hand.
Shaking his head he let out a heavy sigh. "No. I had to learn to control it. For a while it was terrible. Like I was a living nightmare walking around. I spent weeks hiding away, hoping nobody would find me. Even had a group of villagers threaten to burn me alive if they found me around their families again. They said I was a demon of some sort. A mafram, I think?"
"Ah," I responded. "Mafram are demonic creatures that are just myth to most people. I suppose to many of them you would be, since you can change how you look. Did you mean to do that? Change, I mean?"
His eyes settled on mine. “No, I… I didn’t even realize. I guess I felt comfortable for the first time in a while.”
I watched as his blue eyes swirled with other colors, eventually shifting to the same dark brown I’d seen when we had reunited in the camp. His face also shifted slightly, the wrinkles of the soldier’s face slowly settling back into place.
A quiet settled between us. Neither of us seemingly wanting to push the other any further. It was difficult because I had so many questions still. How did his ability work was at the top of the list. But, something about the way Sil carried himself tonight made me hold back my questions. So I did.
"I have to kill them to take on their form, you know," he said, breaking the silence. "At least, if I want to properly mimic them. That's what the Voice calls it. Mimicry."
"Does the Voice ever tell you anything else?"
"Not particularly," he said, looking up at the sky through the canopy. "It gives me pointers sometimes. Like, little hints of what I should do. But never anything outright. Except the big instructions."
"Like stopping the empress?"
He nodded.
"You know, when Ophelia and I broke into the palace, we were trying to figure out what the empress is doing. I already shared some with the others, but there was more, Sil. A lot more."
He lowered his head and looked at me, bright blue eyes like ice staring into the pit of my being. I stifled the shiver that threatened to run up my spine.
"That bad?"
Nodding, I looked down at Ophelia. "She wants to conscript more humans into her armies. To force them to fight for her in whatever war she plans to wage. But, even more than that, she wants to train a group of dragons who specialize in taking out humans."
"That's not really that difficult, though, is it? I mean, dragons are bigger."
"That's true," I said, trying to keep the worry from showing on my face. "But there's one big problem that regular dragons might not be able to handle; people like me and you."
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