Night had fallen on the first day of the pilgrimage to the legendary Starlight Grove. For everyone sober on the magicarriage, the day was spent in tedium for the most part. Neither Arden nor Nux did anything of note. Arden spent most of his day perusing the books that lined the bookshelves. He had hoped that having a repository of otherworldly fiction would give him something to take back to give to Sya. No such luck was found, as most of the literature to be found was erotic in nature.

  ‘Not that there’s anything wrong with that,’ Arden had thought at the time. ‘It's just not appropriate to gift something like that to your sister.’

  Naturally, Arden read through most of that book, out of sheer boredom and for no other reason at all. He eventually came to realize that while erotica took up the majority of the magicarriage’s archives, there were also plenty of books about the history of this world. Arden tried to read through them, but they were filled with so many ridiculous proper nouns that the books were as twisted and impenetrable as the icy chaste villainess from the erotica story he read previously.

  Arden absentmindedly tried to slide a few of them into his inventory from the shelf, but forgot that he had no inventory during the trial, so instead they tumbled to the floor, drawing the attention of Nux. After a rather sumptuous meal in the form of a grand buffet set up and eaten by everyone in the convoy, everyone had retired to their carriages to sleep as the magicarriages recharged overnight. Arden couldn’t enjoy the meal as much as he felt he should have. Between pretending to be a mute and having to stick by the prince’s side, he didn’t have much of an appetite.

  Ever since the discussion after the beginning of the journey, Arden felt that Nux was keeping too close an eye on him. Right now, when Arden was sequestered away in his small room fit for a servant, was the only time that Arden felt he wasn’t being fastidiously watched.

  Incidentally, Arden’s room matched the rest of the magicarriage’s grandeur. At least in taste, if not size. The room was at the back of the magicarriage and was a bit more spacious than a large walk-in closet. It too was decorated to the nines, with a small bed, magified digital alarm clock, and ironically, a small walk-in closet which contained several more sets of his outfit.

  Arden glanced at the clock that sat next to his bed and grumbled upon seeing that it wasn’t even midnight. Once again, insomnia was creeping in. It had been long enough since his last bout of insomnia that he thought it was a thing of the past, quelled by the constant string of action set pieces that his life had become as of late.

  It took a little bit, but he managed to figure out the source of his uneasiness and insomnia. At first he chalked it up to being in an unfamiliar land with no one by his side. Then he thought it was not having control of the situation, but on reflection, he hadn’t been in control of anything for the past while. But after that, he realized that it was because there was nothing to do.

  All he could do was help in the prince's journey of preventing and/or mitigating the damage caused by the StarFall. He had no doubt that this trial would be a sprint following the marathon, but right now he had to suffer through the marathon part in boredom. Arden needed to do something. If he had more room and a sword or literally any weapon, he would be training, having not done any since his time in a cell with Vera.

  “Oh right,” he said. “I can do that.”

  He had forgotten that what Vera taught him was in fact a training method. It was more meditative at this point, but it was training of some kind. This was his trial, and if Arden was successful, he’d get much more mileage out of the circulation technique.

  He could use the practice.

  Arden closed his eyes, and began to picture a warm energy around his heart. A mental image of Vera appeared as well, and Arden was unable to get rid of it. Her warm smile, her soft touch. Her playful attitude. The way she made him feel when she was trying to make him improve. None of the memories would leave him alone.

  It took a few minutes of meditation for him to realize why he couldn't get her out of his head.

  His heart beat a little faster when he did realize.

  *****

  Arden wasn't the only one who sleep continued to elude. Only a small distance away from Arden’s room was Nux's. His room was larger than Arden’s by quite a large degree, and also had a lot more gold accents.

  Nux Valtorin was laying in his bed, just like Arden was. Although, unlike the outworlder, Nux was an insomniac tonight because of stress. And tonight would be his second night of no sleep in a row. His hands shook on the hilt of his sword, the same one he nearly killed Arden with the same before. His eyes were bloodshot as he stared daggers in the direction of Arden’s room.

  “How did he know?” Nux whispered.

  The events of that afternoon were replaying in his mind over and over. The outworlder was pretending to browse through the books, and he ended up knocking a few of them to the floor. In the space where the books were was the catalyst to open the vault where the Godstone was stored, along with a slew of other treasures.

  Arden pretended to tidy up the shelf, but Nux saw through him. The outworlder's shifty eyes and self-satisfied smirk gave him away. The only thing that was stopping Nux from executing the outworlder was his lack of action following his discovery.

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  Nux smiled.

  “I see. He's waiting for me to go to sleep before raiding the vault. That won't happen. I will not fall asleep. I won't give that vermin the chance.”

  Nux had seen people like Arden before. People who only served their own self interests. Arden was just like the nobles that Nux despised so much, except he was so much worse.

  For once, Nux believed Arden. The outworlder's goal was indeed his own survival. He would go so far to steal the Godstone to survive on his own. He didn't care about the survival of the world. He alone needed to survive. That was how he would be able to survive the StarFall. And survival was the only goal in that little mongrel's head. He said it himself. He didn't even try to defend his actions. He only said that he was helping Nux because doing so was currently aligned with what he needed.

  “You try to have fun, don't you?”

  Nux's eyelids grew heavy, but he forced himself to stay conscious. He needed to outlast Arden.

  “I'll have the last laugh.”

  He couldn't let anyone else use the Godstone. They would misuse it.

  Not Nux though. He made a promise to his mother. He wouldn't become a villain. He wouldn't become corrupted.

  “I am a hero…”

  *****

  Three days had passed since that night, and it was becoming increasingly easy for Arden to tell that the prince was unwell. No one else spent as much time with the prince as he did, with the exception of Bellum, who had also noticed his master's change.

  His once pleasant face now looked hollow. Arden made the observation that his eyes resembled the creatures born out of the Advent of Life back home with how red they were. Whenever they were on the road in the magicarriage, Nux looked lost. He stared off into the middle distance constantly. Whenever they would pull over for the night and have their meal with the rest of the entourage, he would fake a smile and positivity to ease the hearts of the people with him.

  Most of them bought it too. It went to show how much the people of the convoy believed in their leader.

  The only time he became animated was when he saw Arden. Arden felt chills run down his spine when he felt the prince's glare. The amount of malice dripping from his eyes was something that Arden found hard to believe came from the so-called saviour of the world.

  Day four of the journey was winding down. They still had another two hours or so before the magicarriages needed to rest, and Arden had gradually exhausted the few books that kept his interest. He got off his bed and stretched. Only a few days had passed since his last bout of strenuous physical activity, whether in the form of actual training or fighting, and Arden felt that he needed action.

  He didn't think he'd miss the backbreaking exercise that Vera gave him, but he was proven wrong. Though perhaps that was more from missing Vera than the training itself. His face went warm at the thought of her, and he couldn't help but feel guilty. She was his friend. And now he realized that he was developing romantic feelings for her. It felt like a betrayal of her trust. What would she think of him if he ever revealed them? What if she thought that he was only putting up with the training because he was infatuated with her? He forced his misgivings down. He could dwell on them later.

  Arden entered the main cabin and noticed the silence. Looking around, Arden could see why the only thing he heard was the magical whir of the magicarriage.

  Bellum was sitting at the table next to the window, his head flat against the table with a pool of drool next to his open mouth. Arden furrowed his brow seeing the several empty bottles of liquor next to him.

  ‘Wow. He takes his vacations seriously.’

  Arden had to respect the bodyguard. To be so drunk before dinner as someone charged with protection of the most important person in the world took balls.

  With a few books under his arms, Arden continued through the cabin. He was going to return them to the bookshelf. Sya would never let him hear the end of it if he wasn't respectful with the otherworldly tomes.

  Along the way, he saw something he had wanted to see since the start of the pilgrimage.

  The prince was sitting on one of the chairs facing the bookshelf, with his head leaning back. His eyes were shut, and Arden could tell from the rhythmic rise and fall of Nux’s chest that the hero was asleep.

  “Finally,” Arden said, coming to the bookshelf.

  ‘He definitely needed the sleep. All of the stress must have been keeping him awake the past few nights. That must be why he was so irritable. Hopefully he doesn't try to bite my head off anymore after catching a few z's.’

  When Arden returned the books to the bookshelf, he paused, noticing a strange pattern etched into the surface of the wood. He was reminded of the carvings in the Mausoleum of the Maverick, and how Vera told him that the carving was symbolic.

  Now, Arden wondered what this could be a symbol of as he traced his finger over the engravings.

  ‘A star surrounded by a pair of rings…What’s that circle in the middle supposed to be?’

  Arden’s investigation was cut short, as he felt sharp pain explode in his chest. A sword ran him through, painting the bookshelf and the literature red with his blood. He stared at the sword emerging from his chest in shock.

  “I knew you were waiting for an opportunity to steal it,” Nux whispered into Arden’s ear from behind him. “So I gave you one. And you fell for it.”

  Arden coughed up blood and slowly turned his head to look into the prince’s spiteful face.

  “What… are you… talking about?”

  Arden’s entire body reflexively tensed up from the immense pain of Nux twisting his sword inside of him. He could feel it destroying some of his insides. Cold steel was far stronger than organ tissue. Nux yanked the sword out of Arden, sending him tumbling to the ground. Arden looked up at the prince as Nux began to wipe the blood off of his blade.

  “You don't have to fake it anymore, outworlder,” Nux said. “I know you were waiting to steal the Godstone. This world is not yours to take from. The people of this world need the power to survive. I’m not going to let someone like you take the chance from them.”

  Nux plunged the sword back down into Arden’s chest, causing him to scream out in pain.

  “Cry out all you want, monster. No one can hear you in my magicarriage.”

  Arden reached out to grab the sword with ire written on his face. To remove it, to break it, to do anything.

  But he couldn't.

  Nux twisted the sword again, and everything went dark.