I walked to the forge with a dumb grin on my face and began the process of building a fire. My mind wandered as I stacked the wood autonomously, carrying out the process I had done a thousand times before. Maybe tonight’s the night. I summoned my sword and held it up to my eye, examining the golden band around the pommel. I’m ready. Fire sprang up from the furnace as I invoked the rune on my ring, and the emberwood began to crackle and char, filling the air with a pleasant, smoky aroma.
I sent a quick pulse of mana out around me to watch Lia and Marin train while I waited for the wood to burn down to coals. My Detection found the two in the center of our training field, sitting comfortably across from one another in meditation. Lia’s eyebrow twitched as Marin began to talk, and after a quick reprimand, the pair returned to their quiet introspection. I laughed as I watched the scenario unfold, impressed by both Lia’s resolve as a teacher and Marin’s persistent garrulousness.
Just before I pulled the energy back, a second set of mana signatures appeared on the opposite edge of my Detection. A familiar carriage marked with the Three Barrels insignia was rumbling down the winding forest path towards the Corells’ residence at a dangerously fast pace. Elise and Bella sat side by side at the back of the wagon with dour expressions, locked in a clearly serious conversation. While the scene alone was enough to alert me that something was wrong, Elise’s coat was the final detail that set off the alarm klaxons in my head; the usually flawless jacket was stained with two long streaks of blood and a messy handprint across her chest.
Leaving the furnace burning behind me, I sprinted inside to find my armor. Lia, come home and get your kit ready, I messaged her urgently. Something’s wrong.
***
16. NO MORE LIES
My mind raced to puzzle out the mystery of Elise’s arrival as I sprinted through the forest on an intercept course with her carriage. It was clear that neither she nor Bella were injured, indicating the bloodstains had come from a third party, but exactly who that party was eluded me. Marten and his wagon were both absent from the Corell homestead, leaving him as a potential answer, but his close relationship with Elise meant he would no doubt have been in the carriage with her no matter how injured he was. Whose blood is that? Why is she coming here?
An answer scratched at the back of my mind like a coil of thorns. Monsters. No matter who had been injured, the fact that she was coming to find us told me everything I needed to know, regardless of whether I wanted it to be true or not. I scowled as the conversation within the carriage unfolded silently before me through my Detection, hiding the confirmations I needed. While I was only a few minutes of sprinting away from finding my answers, the increased processing speed in my head from the Combat Acceleration enhancement would make it feel like an eternity.
Without pausing to consider the improbability of my action, I suffused an extra wave of mana forward into the carriage and attempted to diffuse the energy into the air. Since its discovery, the ability had never been used for anything aside from controlling small currents of air, but I was desperate to focus my mind on anything aside from the churning in my stomach. I fought against the unconscious barriers I held in place as I struggled to remember the feeling I had found in my initial breakthrough, but after a few moments of concentration, a tugging on my mana reserves told me I had succeeded.
The excess energy I had channeled into the carriage diffused through the air inside, slowly filling the gaps in my mental map with a bizarre, sourceless glow. Having never attempted the idea before, I simply shifted my focus to the inside of the carriage in the hopes that I could perceive sound through my Detection the same way I could see. To my surprise, I immediately heard Bella’s voice as if she were sitting directly beside me, although the effort it took to maintain the ability forced me to slow my frantic pace through the woods in order to avoid colliding headfirst with an emberwood.
“Ma’am, I still...be headed south, not...for your friends.” Bella’s voice cut in and out as my focus constantly adjusted. “The Ellawynn Guard...effective than two random…”
“There’s no time,” Elise answered, her nostrils flaring. “Another caravan...in our backyard. The Ellawynn...make it in time to stop...to Mayaan.”
Bella leaned forward and put a hand on Elise’s knee. “I’m sorry. Losing people...had to deal with before. I...whatever you need.”
I nearly tripped over my own feet as I watched Elise lean in and kiss Bella deeply. When the passionate exchange was over, Elise pulled her face back a few inches and leaned her forehead against Bella’s. “I know. This isn’t...are supposed to be.”
The sound of horse hooves pounding against dirt grew louder in my ears as the first flashes of the carriage appeared through the trees ahead of me, and I withdrew my extended mana to allow the couple a final moment of privacy before I arrived. I burst from the treeline a few feet from the carriage door and matched its pace, sprinting alongside as it continued to bounce down the uneven road. “Elise!” I shouted, much to the surprise of the driver and horses. A second later, the curtain pulled back to reveal Bella’s face behind the window, and the door swung open.
Elise watched me with her head slightly
