POV: Greg

  We stopped for the night, and Aurora declared,

  "We will walk at night and sleep during the day. We'll cover more ground that way, and the sun won't fry the vessel."

  "Why don't we just teleport?" I asked.

  She replied that she wanted to study the human terrain better. We had to walk. I trudged behind, trying not to fall asleep on the move.

  Half an hour later, a pillar of dust rose on the horizon. Someone was rushing our way. Soon we were surrounded: one was riding a giant lizard, three were on horses, and ten camels trailed behind them. The man on the lizard dismounted and approached. He started saying something in the local language. I understood the gist of it, but the dialect was strange, prickly.

  "I don't understand what he's blabbering about," Aurora tossed over her shoulder.

  The man switched to our language. He wasn't very good at it, the words coming out broken.

  "Who are you? Where are you coming from?"

  "What's it to you?" Aurora snapped.

  The man answered calmly,

  "These are the lands of our state. We guard them against spies. Because of the war, we are driving out all suspicious strangers."

  I was surprised by his politeness. Aurora was clearly already preparing to tear him to shreds, so I chimed in first.

  "Hello. My name is Zenkhald, and hers is Secret."

  "Aurora," she corrected me sharply.

  What? She lied to me, but told her name to the first person we met?

  The man looked at me in bewilderment.

  "I thought you were an old man, kid."

  "Hey! I'm young! What made you think that?"

  "Why are you wearing a blindfold?"

  "I'm blind," I lied.

  "Then why do you need a blindfold if you can't see anything anyway?" That question caught me off guard.

  "Well... I'm blind, and you probably wouldn't want to see my ugly eyes. Plus, there's a lot of sand here, I don't want it getting in there," I said cheerfully.

  "Alright," the man said. "Take off the blindfold."

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  I took it off. Magic had made my eyes completely white, like empty scleras. The man nodded.

  "I apologize. There was just an incident where some Demons of Fear left marks on the eyes of those they made a pact with. So, why are you traveling?"

  Aurora answered,

  "We are looking for the last bastion of magic. We were told it's still taught here."

  "I see," he said. "It's dangerous to wander alone at night. Spend the night at our camp."

  They gave us a camel. Aurora sat in the front. The man watched us with interest.

  "You are strange. Dressed like beggars, yet you've come so far."

  "Have you all been carrying muskets and sabers for a long time?" I asked.

  The man looked at me like I was a fool and stayed silent.

  Aurora conjured a water sphere and started drinking from it. Those riding in front abruptly stopped. The ones in the back also froze, talking among themselves in their language.

  "Are you mages?" the man asked.

  I didn't understand why they were so surprised. Just a regular ball of water. The man immediately started acting even more polite, saying, "Excuse me, forgive me."

  "What are you so surprised about?" I asked.

  "What do you mean? Mages have become rare in our world. After muskets appeared, everyone abandoned the art. An ordinary fool with a bullet is more dangerous than a novice mage. And in recent years, our lands have been plagued by drought. The wells have dried up. Water magic comes hard to our mages. It seems the wise men are right: the time of mages has left us, and we will never see a miracle again."

  Those words made my chest ache. As if I myself was a part of that fading era.

  "I understand," I said.

  "Where is the school located?" Aurora asked.

  "In the new capital. Nineteen days of travel. It used to take two weeks, but it's become harder due to the lack of water."

  We reached the camp. We sat by the fire, and they gave us flatbreads. Aurora turned the bread in her hands, not understanding what it was.

  "It's bread," I explained.

  She started eating. I personally don't like bread—it tricks the stomach, and then you want to eat even more.

  The man translated his guys' question:

  "The guys are asking, what is your relationship to each other?"

  "None," Aurora cut in.

  They started discussing this heatedly. The girls in the camp were whispering too. I fell asleep.

  When I woke up, I saw Aurora filling their empty barrel with water. Then she sat down next to me.

  "The people here are different from others."

  "It's called culture," I said. "Every nation has its own quirks because of the climate and where they live."

  A local warrior walked up to us and started saying something enthusiastically to Aurora. She asked me to translate. I listened to his dialect, trying to make out the metaphors.

  "He's saying... uh... 'light of the moon,' 'flower on the mountain'... Basically, he's offering you thousands of rams and two hundred horses so you'll be fat... no, well-fed and happy. He also says you have a nose like a nose, and hands like hands. And eyes like the sun—beautiful and scorching. 'Bird dropping of happiness'... Damn, what a jargon they have. Anyway, he wants to marry you, and you'll be the happiest woman alive."

  I looked around. It seemed every man in the camp wanted to try his luck. Aurora smiled maliciously.

  "Translate this to him: 'You arrogant freak, you aren't worthy of my words. Go back to where you crawled out of.'"

  I passed it on just like that. For some reason, the man glared at me angrily instead of her. As if I had made it all up.

  "Hey! Don't hit me, I'm weak!" I yelled.

  He muttered something—either cursed or said thanks—and walked away. A local girl approached. She looked at me and said,

  "You are a cripple, but do not be sad. Everything will be fine. You are so pathetic and skinny... Eat more, don't starve to death. And don't be upset that you are so ugly."

  "Thanks... I guess," I replied.

  Aurora burst out laughing. We moved on. The man wished us luck.

  I walked and thought:

  "What the hell? What do you mean, pathetic? In what universe am I ugly?"

  "Aurora, am I really ugly?"

  She looked at me.

  "And how am I supposed to judge that?"

  "Well, when you look at me, do you feel good or bad?"

  "Very ugly, then," she answered.

  Damn it.