Lira woke the following morning a little after the sunrise peaked through the trees.

She lay still, listening to the sound of the forest. Birds, something small scurrying nearby. Calm, collected. An easy morning, especially compared to yesterday's start.

Lira stretched out along the ground, giving her muscles a chance to wake up with her. She caught sight of her spirit arm, remembering her glove was cinders somewhere in the middle of that inn with a huff. Shari rumbled a greeting, lifting her paw off Lira's side. Lira gave her partner a scratch under the chin and sat up.

The fire was nothing but the few remaining coals. The dark-haired girl was still asleep, curled beneath Lira's cloak, but there was no sign of Thea. Lira glanced around the clearing, but all of Thea's belongings--her few pieces of spiritsteel armour, her pack, her staff--they were all gone.

"Did you see where she went?" said Lira, already strapping her knife belts back on to her body.

Shari gave an affirmative rumble and looked back towards the town.

Lira hated herself for it, but worry curled in her gut as she followed her partner's gaze. With her knife belts on, she picked up her bow and quickly strung it. She glanced at the dark-haired girl still in her cloak, then looked at Shari. "Can you stay here and watch her while I go make sure Thea isn't getting herself killed?"

Shari plopped her chin on her paws, tail swishing.

"I hope you know this is your fault we're stuck playing babysitter," muttered Lira as she belted on her quiver. "She can have another strip of meat if she wakes up before I get back."

Lira left the clearing at brisk walk that quickly became a nervous jog, right up until she reached the edge of the forest.

What remained of the town was still smouldering, giving off lazy streams of smoke into the early morning sky. The majority of the townsfolk had camped on the flat, grassy area that lay between the forest and the main road. They were in groups, most still asleep with the exception of a few armed men patrolling between them.

It all looked calm enough, but Lira still couldn't see Thea.

Cursing herself for caring at all, Lira walked out of the forest, keeping her weapons sheathed as she walked towards them.

It didn't take long for one of the guards to notice. They approached her, holding up a hand--like they'd be any kind of threat to her if she'd had ill intentions.

"Hold!" said the man. "What--"

"Where's the spirit mage?" said Lira. "The blonde girl with the stick, a little shorter than me? The one you idiots almost killed yesterday?"

The man pointed, back towards the town. "She took a few of us inside to see if anything could be salvaged."

"Of course she did," muttered Lira, stepping towards the town. The man tried to block her, starting something about going around the camp--like you could go around some few hundred people and their belongings strewn out over a field. Lira just stepped around him and kept going. "Escort me if you want, but I'm going through."

So off they went, Lira ahead of the idiot with a sword who tried to keep up with her.

Luck was on her side. As Lira stepped onto the road, a small group was walking out of the ruins of the town. Thea was at the front, speaking to an older man who looked like he'd been lucky to hobble away from the fire the first time, let alone tempt fate by going back in.

Thea spotted Lira and gave her a small, hesitant wave.

Lira responded by throwing her arms out to the side and almost slapping her 'escort' in the face. She glared at him, then put her hands on her hips, waiting for Thea to come to her.

"I'll do whatever I can to find who did this," Thea finished saying to the older man as they finally got within a few metres of Lira. "I promise."

"Your concern is appreciated," said the man. "Again, I apologise for how you were treated yesterday. I wish there were cause to punish, but I can't bring myself to--"

"I don't want anyone punished," said Thea quickly. "I get it. They were scared."

"Scared and stupid," muttered Lira, earning herself a stare from Thea and a derisive look from the man. She ignored him and returned Thea's stare. "You wanna explain what you're doing here?"

"Helping," said Thea, giving a farewell nod to the group as they continued on towards the main camp. She leaned on her staff, waiting until they were out of earshot. "I just--I kept waking up. I couldn't sleep properly knowing that--"

"They almost killed you yesterday. You realise that, right?"

"They were terrified!" said Thea, keeping her voice low. "They'd just watched everything they had burn, had no idea what would happen next, or if everyone had even made it out. They barely had food, couldn't--"

"And why is that your problem?" said Lira. "Are you going to save all of them, all by yourself?"

"I have to try," said Thea, glaring directly at Lira and meeting her gaze. "Unlike you, I haven't given up on everyone else yet, so excuse me if I'm still trying to help."

Lira snorted and stepped away. "If they won't help themselves, they don't deserve your help."

Thea tightened her fingers on her staff and dropped her gaze to the grass at her side. "They deserve the chance."

"Whatever. If you're done helping, let's get back to camp."

They walked with silence between them. A few of the townsfolk called out to Thea as they passed, thanking her. Thanking her--the same people that would have trampled her yesterday. Thea responded with a few small waves and a reminder or two about how often to apply to healing paste.

Lira just shut her mouth and kept walking.

They reached the forest. A few trees deep with the people out of sight, Lira finally let herself relax a little.

A glance at Thea told her most of what she needed to know. The girl had barely slept. There were new streaks of ash across her clothes and one on her cheek, remnants of healing paste on her fingers.

Lira set her gaze ahead, scanning through the trees. "What did you promise them, anyway?"

Thea's head turned towards her, but Lira kept her attention forward. "I--um, mostly just that I'd communicate their needs to the capital, see if I could get them help with rebuilding or relief supplies. I infused a few plants with spirit energy so they could use it for healing paste in the meantime to help with infection from the burns."

"What about 'finding who did this'?" asked Lira. "Did you tell them about what we said last night?"

"No," said Thea. "They have enough to worry about. I just told them it was deliberately lit, and to be on the lookout for outsiders promising them things."

More steps. More silence.

"Whatever you do, don't give them money," Lira said finally. "Ask directly for supplies to rebuild. I've seen too many times what happens to large amounts of money in the hands of a few greedy idiots."

Thea offered her a smile. "Noted."

This time, Lira looked at Thea and gave her a short nod in return.

Camp was how she'd left it. The dark-haired girl was still asleep in the cloak, the campfire smouldering. Shari stood up as they returned, headbutting Lira's thigh for a pat, then sauntering over towards Thea for a second one before wandering off into the forest.

Lira pulled out two strips of dried meat from her pack, tossing one to Thea and keeping the other for herself. She sat down on the opposite side of the clearing to where the dark-haired girl slept, and when Thea hesitated, Lira rolled her eyes and patted the ground beside her.

"Wasn't sure if you wanted to be left alone," said Thea.

Lira took a bite of her strip. "Certain company isn't as bad as most. You can nap for a while though, if you want." She jerked her head towards the dark-haired girl. "Figured we'd wait til she wakes up before leaving."

"I don't think I could sleep if I tried," said Thea. "What are you going to do with her?"

"She's spirit bonded. I'll find Arden, tell him to take her back to the capital." Lira shrugged. "Let them figure out what to do with her." Another bite, chewy and dry, but it was better than nothing. "How'd you get so far ahead of your group yesterday, anyway?"

Thea nibbled her strip, nose wrinkled as she turned it over in her hand. "I asked the Sovereign to speed me, and he apparently thought you'd need the help."

"I've never heard of a mage who has cast more than one Sovereign spell a month, let alone three in one day," said Lira. "Doesn't it ignore you or something if you annoy it too much?"

"There isn't really a rule to how often you can cast a Sovereign spell," said Thea. "Well, except that you can't use blood magic. I don't think I know of any mage who can cast Sovereign spells who's also drawn a seal."

"Damn, does that mean I'll never earn my own stick?"

"It's a staff," said Thea, elbowing Lira in the arm, who smirked in reply. Thea huffed, holding the rest of her strip between her teeth as she pulled out her ponytail and shook her hair loose. "Sovereign spells are sacred. The energy comes directly from the Sovereign spirit itself, which is why the energy is gold, not blue, and why they're so powerful."

"But it can ignore you."

"Yes," said Thea with a sigh. "The Sovereign can choose to ignore your request."

"What makes you so special then?"

Thea paused mid-way through re-tying her ponytail to shrug. "I don't know. I've always just been able to... sense when the spell would work, I guess? A few of my tutors assumed it was just something to do with my eye."

Lira took another look at Thea--really looked at her this time, not just the quick, dismissive assessment she'd made previously.

With her pretty pieces of spiritsteel armour and shining gold hair, Thea was the definition of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to charge headfirst into anything and save the world, one problem at a time. Yet there was something else beneath it. A quiet fear that recognised the weight on her shoulders, put there by a younger version of herself that hadn't quite recognised the world for what it was yet--maybe still hadn't. "How old are you?"

"Nineteen," said Thea. "Spirit mages adopted me pretty early once they found out about my eye. I've been doing this a while, even if it feels like I'll never escape the novice rank."

Only two years younger than Lira herself. She leaned back against the tree behind her, finishing off the last of her dried strip and reaching for the water. "It's not just something to do with your eye."

Thea raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?"

Lira smirked. "Who knows. Maybe it's just something to do with my arm."

Thea smiled at that and made another attempt at her strip of dried meat.

The next hour passed fairly quickly. The sun climbed higher into the sky, and at some point, Shari returned. She dropped a bunch of berries in Thea's lap, complete with spirit saliva, and refused to move until she'd eaten a few. A little while after, the dark-haired girl finally woke up, though Lira had the sneaking suspicion she'd been awake longer than she let on. As the girl ate, Thea checked over her injuries, confirming she'd be fine to walk.

By the time they were ready to leave, there was still no sign of Arden, not that Lira had really expected any. He'd probably made camp somewhere, and he liked sleeping in. It wouldn't surprise her if they arrived and found him still snoring in his cloak.

With the coals of the campfire quenched and their few things all packed up, Lira found another delay.

"You can't stay in that, kid," she said to the dark-haired serving girl, gesturing at her dress.

While fine for serving ale of questionable quality at the inn, out in the forest with a Wilds so close, it'd be all too easy for the dress to snag and get her killed if they had to run. Not to mention that it was ripped in several places, charred, singed and otherwise struggling to hold together. It'd be rags within a day, but at least she had some semi-decent boots on.

The girl narrowed her eyes. "I'm not a kid. I'm sixteen."

"Okay, you can't stay in that, girl who is slightly older than a kid but equally as useless," said Lira, swinging her pack off her shoulder and onto the ground.

"I'm--"

Thea interrupted them with a dramatic groan. "For the love of--her name is Anya, since you're both too stubborn to talk!"

Lira paused. "Oh wow, that changes everything!" She looked at the girl--at Anya. "You can't stay in that, girl who is slightly older than a kid and is also named Anya!"

"Sovereign save me," muttered Thea, walking a few paces away with a hand over her face.

Anya glanced down at herself, having apparently decided to bite her tongue for a second. "I know it's not ideal, but I don't have--"

Lira pulled out a spare set of her clothes from her pack and threw them at Anya. She was a little shorter and didn't have as much muscle, but it was better than nothing. "Put those on. They won't be perfect, but they'll work until you get back to the capital."

A few minutes later, Anya was dressed in some far more practical pants and a tunic with Lira's cloak around her shoulders. With a few quick adjustments, such as a thin leather belt and getting Thea to plait Anya's long, dark hair, Lira felt a whole lot more comfortable about her chances.

"You know where we're going?" Lira asked Thea.

"Why, are you two finally done arguing over who's the biggest idiot?" Thea tapped the jewel in the head of her staff. "Yes. Should be able to lead us straight to Balnor's staff."

Lira gestured, and their walk began.

After debating it with Shari in a series of gestures and facial expressions for a few minutes, Lira unbuckled one of her smaller knives with its sheath from one of her belts and passed it to Anya.

"Given that I don't know what we're walking into, until we get to the capital, hold onto this," said Lira. "If someone attacks you and you can't run, you stab them to keep Ryn safe."

She showed Anya how to buckle it to her own belt, then dedicated a few minutes teaching her how to hold it properly and effectively deal damage if someone got close. Anya got the hang of it almost concerningly quickly, an almost vicious glee on her face every time she swung the knife through the air as they walked.

"This thing is spiritsteel," said Lira. "It will cut through anything if you hold it right, but I want it back when we get to the capital, along with my cloak. Got it?"

Anya nodded, turning the knife over in her hand a few times. "Are those blood seals on the blade?"

"One of them makes the dagger glow, the other one has a kind of paralysing effect on anything you stab with it."

Anya raised an eyebrow. "Those seem like weird seals to have permanently etched on a knife."

"I'll take it back if you keep complaining instead of just saying thank you and shutting up about it."

"I could stab you now."

Lira took one glance at the position of her fingers and laughed. "Not like that you couldn't."

They kept walking.

Lira lost track of exactly how long they'd been going, but as the forest around them began to change into Wild lands with still no sign of Arden, her concerns grew. There was a small chance Arden had simply gone back to the capital in the hopes of forcing her to follow, but Thea's backward glances between taking care of various carnivorous plants told a different story.

If Arden had tried to be sneaky, he hadn't told his younger spirit mage--and if that were the case, Lira was going to kill him.

The further they went, the louder that some buried instinct was screaming at Lira that something was wrong.

A quick word to the two girls had Anya following closely behind Thea. Lira brought up the rear, while Shari took up a wider, more unpredictable patrol. They stayed quiet. Lira kept her bow out, an arrow resting across the string that she could nock in a heartbeat, listening to every sound, watching every branch.

They reached the ravine Lira had crossed yesterday. The vine rope she'd made had grown into what looked like an exceptionally leafy tree branch. Thea made a flat bridge out of her spirit shield that they used to cross the ravine, all of them far too busy looking elsewhere to spare a nervous glance downwards.

There was still no sign of Arden.

Lira came up behind Thea, lightly tapping her on the shoulder. "How certain are you that you're following the other mage's staff? Can you tell how far away it is?"

"As sure as I was when I followed Shari yesterday," said Thea. "It's like a beacon. I can't tell exactly how far it is, but I know we're closer than this morning."

"Could you track Arin?"

Thea lifted her eyepatch, glancing around in a few different directions before putting it back on with a shake of her head. "It's hard in the Wilds. Everything is already packed with spirit energy. Shari's presence is a lot stronger than Arin's, and I was following her out of the Wilds, not further into it."

Some twenty metres away, Shari stopped, one paw lifted mid-air as she lifted her head into the air.

Sniffing.

Shari gave a low rumble that drew the attention of the other two girls and darted off to the left, further into the trees. Lira was already after Shari, pausing only to make sure Thea and Anya were following. Some plant grabbed for her ankle. She smashed it into the ground and kept running.

Shari didn't go far, maybe fifty metres from where they'd been walking. Lira caught the sickly-sweet scent and knew what Shari had found before she saw it.

One of the large, bulbous plants had caught a meal and was currently digesting it.

Lira shoved her arrow back in its quiver and drew her hunting knife. She slashed vertically through the lower half of the plant's mouth to open it up.

A body tumbled out.

Lira recognised him.

It was one of Arden's fighters, dead and completely drained of blood.

*+*+*+*

A/N - The chapter meandered a bit, but hey. ITS NANO THEY'RE WORDS THEY COUNT