My eyes fluttered open as I withdrew the extended mana. “Well,” I said, scrunching up my face, “I did what I could. There were a couple of small fractures I was able to heal, but...she’s just old. She’ll probably be a lot more comfortable for now, but it’s only a matter of time until the bones break again.”
“You still helped, though,” Lia encouraged. “I didn’t expect you to...I don’t know, cure her old age or something.”
“You’re right, as usual,” I said with a slight grin. “I guess I’m just disappointed that I found another limitation to our healing magic.”
“You can add whatever it is to the list when we get home. Might as well add ‘fix old age’ and ‘cure death’ while you’re at it,” she joked.
“That would certainly be a good one to figure out.” I gave her a quick hug, then shook my head and patted my cheeks. “Okay, no more moping. We’re on vacation, right?”
“Right. No moping allowed on vacation!” She tilted her head and kissed me, then resettled herself in her sleeping position. “I love you.”
“I love you,” I murmured, closing my eyes again. As I drifted off to sleep, I was surprised to find myself in relatively high spirits. The feeling of Lia held snugly in my arms combined with my excitement for another day of travel with Layne, Lyn, and Miles easily banished my earlier disappointment, and I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
---
The following day of travel passed us by in a flash. We grew comfortable with our new friends almost immediately and spent our time talking as if we had known each other for years. I fully indulged in my passion for blacksmithing, trading stories with Layne for hours on end, while Lia asked Miles and Lyn for more stories about the capital. Josephine seemed to be in a better mood as well, as she stopped voicing her displeasure at our company at every given opportunity, but I couldn’t determine whether it was due to the reduced pain in her hip or simply growing accustomed to our presence.
Even though I was focused on my own conversation, I was able to pick up some useful information from Lia’s conversations, as well. As Miles was a well-regarded artist, he was often in the company of diplomats, royalty, and wealthy merchants, many of whom had a tendency to speak in front of him about matters otherwise kept private from the general public. While he was always careful to hide the names of his sources, he talked about the information they revealed openly, often with a sly smile.
According to the latest news from the major seaport traders, the Elta’Sahn Company’s presence had all but disappeared from the southern ocean. Various tales reported massive gatherings of their ships, the location of which never seemed to align from report to report. The most notable landowners around the capital reported similar disappearances of the usual ground forces. Strangest of all, every intermediary for the Company had gone completely silent, without a clue as to where they had gone, how long they would be away, or if they would ever come back.
The reports from Kaldan were even more troubling. Although trade with the coastal cities was at an all-time high, strange stories of trouble in the north had begun to filter back across the shipping routes. The details varied wildly from source to source. Some said a massive crop failure had plagued the northern fields and forced the farmers to abandon their harvests; others reported that the weather had grown abnormally harsh, forcing smaller towns to leave their homes for the warmer refuge of Yoria. The most troubling stories were those that mirrored the information Val had relayed to me: terrifying, unknown monsters were running rampant across the northern countryside, wiping out entire villages in the night. Whatever flavor the story took, one thing always remained consistent: People were fleeing from northern Kaldan, and those that didn’t were disappearing.
While we engaged in our own separate conversations, Lia and I also kept a dialogue running through our mental connection. Along with the comfort her presence at the back of my mind provided me, our connection also served a functional purpose: a private place to share information without the need for hushed tones or fake backstories. We shared a silent moment of pride at our involvement in the Company’s disappearance from Lybesa and joked about the potential meetings led by Jeremiah “Quickblade” Eltann. When Miles mentioned the rumor of monsters in northern Kaldan, Lia was quick to assuage my anxieties, and despite the news, I was in good spirits by the end of the day.
When the sun set on our day of travel, we stopped in a small roadside settlement for the night. It was composed of a dozen buildings at most, which, aside from a small five-room inn and a general store, were entirely residential. According to Lyn, foot travel through the Midlands was uncommon during even the safest months of the year, so most major townships were spaced apart by roughly a day’s travel by wagon, not walking. She estimated that we would finish the first leg of our journey before noon on the following day with our arrival in Lienna, where our group would part ways; Lia and I would continue into the Midlands on foot, while the rest of the group would wait for their chartered wagon to arrive the next morning. With our plans set, we shared a quick meal in the cramped common space of the inn
