We departed at first light. Our caravan was composed of two carriages, six knights on horses and Uther also on a horse. In addition to me and Blue there were also two soldiers that would be our coachmen, a medic and a combat mage.

  Most of our trip would be over stone roads, and the weather had been forgiving so far, so we should arrive in Ironwall in two to three weeks. Professor Locan and his colleague had departed earlier to do whatever crazy geniuses from the academy do, and we would meet them at an inn further south, right before things started to get really dangerous.

  The south was the region most devastated by the invasion, and it was still plagued by wandering monsters with an intensity that made resettlement impossible. Our frontier with Cartographer's Bane was protected by token forces that would not be able to stop a determined bandit incursion, let alone any real army.

  Since the invasion, all efforts directed to the south were merely political, just to maintain our claim over that territory, but the truth was that it had become a no-man's land.

  We traveled during the day and camped at night. I spent most of my time with Blue, teaching her about her new duties. In most things, she was just average, with the usual fumbles here and there, but she was a really good cook—much better than I was.

  “My mother is the castle’s main cook,” she said timidly, eyes downcast, when one of the knights praised the dish she improvised with potatoes, dried meat, and eggs on the first night we made camp. “She always says that any food can taste good if you season it right.”

  Blue was not used to being around men, and it showed, but they were actively trying to make her feel at ease. The knights, in particular, were older and possibly had children close to her age.

  But she was most nervous around Uther. In the castle, the masters were almost divine figures to the slaves; there was this insurmountable distance, as if they were not the same species. However, here he was just a guy sitting next to her, telling bad jokes to a bunch of old men.

  She looked at him at times, opened her mouth, and gave up before any words had left it. She remained locked in that indecision for some time, until she finally gathered all her courage and blurted:

  “Master Uther, I... I am really sorry for what happened to your sister.”

  “What happened to her?” Uther asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “The burns.”

  “What burns?”

  “The ones from the teapot that fell on her lap.”

  “That?” He made a dismissive gesture. “That was nothing. It wasn’t even a burn, just some redness on the skin.” Uther gave another bite. “This is really good.”

  Blueberry fell silent, her face displaying an ambiguous expression. I couldn’t imagine what it was like to have your entire life uprooted by something so trivial. I knew she would be fine in the long run, but that was still an open wound for her.

  For the most part, the first leg of our trip was uneventful.

  When I wasn't teaching Blue, I indulged in my new favorite pastime: worrying. I worried about Uther’s marriage, about what we would face at the end of this journey, about my powers, about my responsibility in bringing this threat to the world, about what I was and what my future would be. There was an endless list of things to worry about, and spending hours and hours stuck in a carriage gave me plenty of opportunities to do just that.

  Sigh.

  By noon of the sixth day, we arrived at a village adjacent to the road. You could see new houses among partially destroyed ones. Fields that showed signs of recent harvest, surrounded by those that remained unkempt. There was an inn bristling with activity, but most shops were closed. It was a mix of devastation and rebirth.

  If Central had a border with the no-man’s land plagued by monsters to the south, it would be Darkmoon village.

  This is as far as the real efforts to rebuild what was destroyed during the invasion reached.

  We arrived at the inn. The building was original, a large three-story structure made from stone, but it had undergone extensive repairs. There were many people around the entrance and inside the reception hall—the kind of people that would make me turn back and leave if it were any other place, but here it was a necessity.

  This inn doubled as the Guild’s office in the village. From here, quests were issued, and bounties were posted to mercenaries that the Guild euphemistically labeled ‘adventurers.’ Most of the gold for those missions came from the coffers of Central’s government, but private requests were also accepted.

  That was the core of the efforts to clean south Central from the monsters.

  ***

  Uther entered the inn with me accompanying him. The entrance hall resembled a typical tavern, with a counter and tables. There were some thuggish looking patrons talking, eating and drinking, but no signs of actual hostility. To the left, there was a large blackboard displaying brief descriptions of available quests and bounties. The atmosphere was warm and relaxed, with the pleasant aroma of stew being cooked.

  At a table in the back corner, we found Professor Locan Havak and a redheaded woman engaged in a heated argument about what seemed to be a matter of great importance.

  “No, healing potions are not a valid beverage!” Locan stated, exasperated.

  “Of course they are! Potions have all the qualities of good liquor: They have rich and complex flavors, and they make you feel relaxed...” the woman argued.

  “That’s because they rebuild your entire body!” Locan buried his head in his hands. “And I’m not even talking about the price; potions are incredibly expensive.”

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  “Don’t you drink fine wine? I mean, not you, but someone with actual taste. Fine wines can be almost as expensive, or at least they were before the potion shortage...” she added sadly.

  “Why are we even discussing this?” Locan mumbled to himself, shaking his head. He noticed our presence with an expression of relief.

  He got up and came to us, shaking our hands with vigor.

  “Uther, Gift, I am happy you two arrived well”, he gestured towards the woman in front of him. “This healing potion junkie is Professor Dahlia Lancaster.”

  “That’s rude,” complained Dahlia before turning to face us. “Good day, Prince Uther. It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person. Professor Havak talks a lot about you.”

  “Good things, I hope,” Uther replied, shaking her hand.

  “And you must be Gift,” she abruptly changed the subject. “Havak put me on par with your ‘condition.’ This is so exciting! There is a lot I would like to discuss with you later, in a more discreet place.” She shook my hand enthusiastically. I could feel that her hand was missing the pinky and ring fingers.

  I wondered if there was a prerequisite that you needed to be really weird to be hired by the Academy, but I kept those thoughts to myself. She did not appear to be a bad person, just... strange.

  Locan and Dahlia brought us up to speed on what they had been doing. Adventurers from Darkmoon usually ventured as far as half the distance between there and Ironwall, so Locan was talking with all the returning parties to see if they found anything out of the ordinary: odd creatures, monster migrations, unusually mangled bodies. Just about anything that could give a clue about what they would be facing.

  “I got no useful information,” Locan reported, “but lack of information is still information. We can discard the Titan, that would be easily spotted, and the Swarm, because we would already be facing vanguards.”

  That was good news. Of all the Cataclysms, The Shadow Warlord, The Last Titan, The Endless Swarm and The Eye of the Abyss were considered the most powerful ones, it would be impossible to win a fight against any of those four.

  After that strategy meeting, Dahlia left to get something, leaving us and Locan alone.

  “Sorry, I had to tell her.” Locan apologized to me. “You are our main weapon; it would be impossible to even plan without Lancaster knowing it.”

  That was a solid argument, but I was not exactly comfortable with a virtual stranger knowing my secret.

  “Can we trust her?” asked Uther.

  “To keep quiet about office gossip? Absolutely not. To keep quiet about world-shaking secrets? Yes. She may not look like it, but she is an exothermic conjurer with Class III clearance.”

  “And that means...?” I inquired, squinting and leaning forward.

  “Class III means you have access to the forbidden section of the Academie’s Library. You know those books that ‘if they fall into the wrong hands, the whole world is in danger’? This is where we guard them. If she can keep a secret about that, she can keep a secret about your ‘condition’.”

  That would have to do, it was not like we could undo what Locan did anyway.

  We spent the rest of the day making preparations. We would depart tomorrow at first light, but at least for tonight, we would sleep in a proper bed inside a heated room. There weren’t enough vacant rooms, so Blueberry and I would have to share a small one with a single bed. I’d had worse, so I didn’t mind.

  I had just finished using a basin and a jar of heated water to clean myself—probably the last time I would enjoy this luxury for a while—when I heard a knock at the door.

  “Miss Dahlia?”

  “Hi, Gift. Sorry for coming so late, but there are two things I wanted to discuss with you before we depart.”

  I gestured for her to come inside. I was already in my nightgown, ready to go to sleep, but I could spare some time for her. With no other real furniture in the room, we sat on the bed.

  “First things first,” she said theatrically, presenting me with a wooden box. “This is a gift for you … Gift.”

  “For me? I... I... Thanks,” I replied, surprised. Receiving presents was rare enough as it was, but from a virtual stranger, it was completely unexpected.

  Inside was a silver circlet with a mana stone embedded at the front. I could see the fine engravings of a magical circuit etched into its surface.

  “I... I can’t accept this. It’s too expensive...”

  “Don’t worry.” She pushed back the box I was trying to return. “The reason I’m giving this to you is a practical one.

  “The Seal of the Forgotten Gods is the most powerful way to control monsters, but it’s not the only one. There are spells and magical tools designed for that purpose, but they come with severe limitations and drawbacks—like the monster becoming extremely angry at the caster once the magic runs out,” she waved her hand with the missing fingers.

  “This Circlet of Monster Control is a modification I worked on, but it never quite functioned as intended. After hearing about you, though, I thought of a new use for it. I completely removed the active circuit and added a decoy. To anyone who isn’t an experienced caster, it will appear to be a genuine magical item.

  “As long as you don’t do anything outrageous, you can use your ability and make it seem like the circlet is doing the work.”

  I looked at the circlet, neatly nestled in its velvet housing, with a newfound appreciation. It was an ingenious idea. This would make our travels significantly safer, allowing me to influence monsters even in front of the knights—something Uther had previously instructed me to reserve for life-or-death situations.

  “In that case, I will gladly accept your generosity,” I thanked her, bowing my head respectfully.

  “The other thing is…” she leaned in closer, as if we were two teenagers about to share secrets about romance, and whispered to me: “Is it true that you killed the Armored Sorcerer?”

  “It would be more accurate to say that he killed himself with me holding the sword.”

  Dahlia let out a hearty laugh. “I would have loved to see the look on that smug face of his.”

  “Did you know him?” by the intonation of her voice it appeared she did.

  “I knew him a long time ago, when he was just an adventurer. He had a huge ego, but I would never think he would become what he did…”

  She cleared her throat and faced me with a serious expression:

  “Anyway, what I wanted to say is: Thank you.” I remained still, unsure of what she meant or how I should respond, but Dahlia was kind enough to elaborate. “I was defending the main gate during the siege, blasting spell after spell to hold back that unending horde of monsters. I was completely drained, all my mana crystals were depleted, and I had to resort to using the witch’s curse from the dead soldiers to fuel my spells—which is just technically better than cannibalism. If you hadn’t killed the Armored Sorcerer, I’m certain I would have died there…”

  She fell silent for a moment. Her eyes, just for an instant, held the same haunted stare I had often seen reflected in my own mirror.

  “So, thank you.”

  She looked into my eyes intensely, but I couldn’t bear it and lowered my gaze. I could feel the warmth of her gratitude, but to me, it was completely misplaced.

  “It was just a strange incident; I don’t deserve any credit for what happened.”

  “You don’t need to be so hard on yourself.” She gently lifted my chin. “When you’re at the wrong place at the wrong time, people blame you without hesitation. That’s just how the world works. So, you should let yourself enjoy a little credit for being at the right place at the right time.”

  Her logic made perfect sense, yet I still couldn’t feel that way. I was just a terrified girl, doing whatever it took to survive a few more minutes. I was a coward, and to accept any acknowledgment for what was nothing more than a stroke of luck would tarnish the bravery of those I had witnessed.

  “Well, I need to sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day,” she said, rising from the bed. “I’d like to talk more about your ‘condition’ when we have the time.” With that, she opened the door to leave.

  Blueberry was there. I had completely forgotten that she would be sleeping with me.

  Her eyes were wide, though she quickly tried to mask her surprise with a curtsy to Dahlia as she left the room.

  Had she heard anything?

  Her reaction could simply be due to Dahlia opening the door so suddenly...

  The worst thing I could do at that moment was ask her.

  I decided to hope for the best, pretending nothing of importance had been discussed, and called her to join me so we could go to sleep. She complied, but there was a moment's delay.

  Was that... hesitation?

  I couldn’t be sure.