She turned and mimicked my actions to Miles, patting her back and bending her knees. He looked between us with raised eyebrows. “No, I’m too heavy. I’ll walk.”
“Climb on, Miles. You won’t be able to keep up otherwise,” Lia answered curtly.
“I’ll be fine if—”
“Miles, please,” Lyn called out, “just do it.”
He blinked at her in surprise, then gave her a small nod and did as he was told. When he was situated on her back, I rounded the wagon and knelt beside the shrouded sledge, retrieving the reins. “Lyn,” I said softly, looking at her out of the corner of my eye, “hold on tight, okay?” I started forward when I felt her arms tighten across my chest, rapidly accelerating from a light jog into a magic-enhanced sprint.
“Primes,” Lyn gasped as we rushed forward. She buried her face in the side of my cloak’s hood to hide from the wind that whipped past us. I wasn’t happy with the idea of showing off such a blatant display of our abilities, but my discretion was far outweighed by my desire to get Lyn and Miles to a safer place.
Lia matched my speed, taking her spot a few steps ahead of me on the road as we raced through the dark. Taking advantage of our combined senses, we pushed our Detection out in two separate directions: She spread her mana out in all directions to hold a safe perimeter, while I reached out straight ahead of us, scanning the entirety of the road between us and Lienna. The space was entirely empty apart from the expected wildlife, and more importantly, absent of the caustic void the monster had created within our Detection.
Our sprint continued uninterrupted for hours, with the clear road providing optimal traveling conditions under the light of the moon. Miles and Lyn both dozed in and out of consciousness as we went, far too exhausted and in shock from the day’s events to be disturbed by the bumpy ride. We reached the outskirts of Lienna an hour before dawn and left the comfort of the road to find a more secluded waiting spot. Lia left Miles with me and dashed ahead into the waking city, intent on procuring a room for our two remaining friends and beginning to arrange Layne and Josephine’s funerals.
After a half hour of quiet waiting, Miles awkwardly sidled over to my lookout point at the edge of our impromptu camp. “Lux?” he asked tremulously. “Do you...have a moment?”
“Of course, Miles,” I answered, opening my eyes as I paused my meditations. “What do you need?”
“I need to, uhm…” he trailed off, nervously glancing over his shoulder to where Lyn slept, curled in a tight ball beneath my cloak. His voice was hoarse and low when he continued. “I need to apologize. For how I acted, before. Back at the wagon.”
“No, you don’t,” I said curtly. “Miles, you experienced a really traumatic event yesterday. You lost people that you loved, and you saw a lot of things that probably still don’t make sense. You had every right to be angry.”
“But not at you!” he replied. “You and Lia, you were just trying to help, and I just...said those awful things.”
“Really, it’s okay,” I emphasized. “We hardly know each other, after all. I’m just a random stranger who suddenly asked you to trust me with your lives, after everything you had seen and been through.” I looked over his shoulder to where his last remaining companion slept. “I know you were just trying to look out for Lyn.”
He spun to look at her again, then gave me a meek nod. “I just...I don’t know what we’re going to do now.”
“It’s going to take time,” I answered. “You’ll have a safe place to stay at the inn for as long as the two of you need, and the Church will take care of the rest of your affairs.”
His lips pursed. “I don’t have the money for that, though. Not with me, anyway; everything was paid for on our trip down, and I was going to be working in Ellawynn, and, of course, with bandits and the like, I didn’t want—”
I cut him off with a wave, then reached into the coin purse on my belt. “You don’t need to worry about any of that.” I fished out a fistful of golden Imperials and held my hand out to him expectantly. After a few moments of hesitation he held out an upturned palm, and I deposited the heap of coins. “Take as much time as you need, and don’t spare a single expense. For the two of you, and for Layne and your grandmother.”
“No, this is too much,” he muttered, stunned. “We could stay a month in Lienna and have a regal service with just...three of these.” He plucked three coins out of the pile in his palm and then offered the heap back to me. I crossed my arms and stared back at him, expressionless. “Then...five. We don’t need it, but we’ll take five,” he said, sifting two more coins from hand to hand.
“You’ll take the lot,” I countered. His eyes jumped from mine down to the fistful of coins and back again, then began to waver as he slowly accepted the money, sliding it into his pocket. “I wasn’t lying before; Lyn is going to need someone to help her through all of this. That money is for both of you.” I gave him a hard look through narrowed eyes. “Are you up to the task?”
“Yes,” he replied immediately, with a sudden strength he had lacked before. “I can do it.”
“Good.” I put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry that
