Elora awoke suddenly, sitting up until she rested on her elbows. She blinked slowly, her eyes heavy from sleep. It was morning, the pale light illuminating the tall grass they had been sleeping in. Clouds passed overhead, muffling the light, but never getting rid of it completely. She was home in Veridun.

She sighed deeply, lying back in the grass with her arms spread out. It felt like forever ago when she had been talking to Ragen. She didn't know how long she had spent in Nowhere, but it couldn't have been more than a few hours.

She stared up at the sky as the clouds passed overhead, thinking back to everything that had happened while she had been asleep. When pieced together most of what her father told her didn't make sense, especially the fact that he didn't want to help, but did anyway. She could only assume that he felt a little guilty for not helping earlier as if he knew he should have. He probably knew that they needed it.

They did need it, she needed it. He'd been right, she had been losing hope. She believed that there was nothing she could do, that she wasn't strong enough to defeat the Zlohiel. She thought they would all die. Most of her still believed it, but there was a tiny part in the back of her mind that thought that maybe, just maybe, she could do it.

He had said she needed to discover her power, but as far as she knew she had all her powers. Maybe there were more she didn't know about, something her father had hidden deep down. It could even be the strength she lost over time, or strength she never had in the first place. She would find out, she knew she would, it was the whole point of her trip to Nowhere.

She turned her head, her cheek lying flat against the ground. Ragen and Mikhail were sleeping nearby, the former's hand over the latter's mouth in an attempt to muffle the snoring. Last she had talked to them, Ragen was going to keep watch. It must have been some time since then, someone else must be keeping watch.

Twisting her neck upwards, she saw Nyal sitting cross-legged in the grass, his sword over his lap. He never used it, not that she had seen, but he kept it anyway. Just in case, she assumed, he ran of water. He looked stressed, for lack of a better word. His body was stiff, eyes wide and darting to and fro. Something must have happened.

Feeling as though she had gotten no rest that night (it may as well be true, she had felt wide awake in Nowhere) she sat up, letting out a little groan.

"You're awake!" Nyal cried, seeming to forget for a moment that the other two were still sleeping. He moved over to her on all fours, sword falling to the ground with a thud. "Are you alright?" He sounded scared like she shouldn't be awake, like something had happened.

"Yes," she muttered, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. She looked behind him, at a splash of dark blood mixed with the pale green of the grass. "What happened?"

Before he answered, Nyal put a hand on her arm, near her shoulder, squeezing tightly in a reassuring way. She wasn't sure if it was to reassure her or him though. "We were attacked in the night, this black dog-like creature. It was huge, bigger than Mikhail when he turns. You were still asleep when it attacked, I tried to wake up to help, but you just wouldn't. No matter what I did you wouldn't wake up."

"Are you all okay?" she asked, sitting up straighter. "Was anyone hurt?"

"Mikhail got caught on the shoulder by the thing, but I got it fixed up pretty quick," Nyal explained. "I'm gonna need more water soon too."

"We'll find some on the way, we're in the south anyway," Elora replied.

Nyal shook his head. "Not important, it can wait. What is important is the fact that you would not wake up no matter what I tried to do." He sounded distressed. She'd never thought she would hear his tone like that, especially towards her. "Do you know what happened? Why you couldn't wake up?"

"I... I was in the Gate," she said with a frown, staring at Nyal's shocked face. She went to say more, but a groan from nearby interrupted them.

Mikhail sat up, rubbing at his eye with one hand. "You're awake," he muttered when he saw Elora sitting up in the grass. "That's good. I'll wake Ragen soon and we can leave."

"No, no, wait a second," Nyal exclaimed, standing up suddenly and gesturing wildly at her while he spoke. "You were in the Gate? How?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Mikhail asked, going ignored by both Elora and Nyal.

"My father took me there in my sleep," she started. "They call in Nowhere. It's dark and cold and filled with fighting and death. I don't know how they even survived so long in there..." She trailed off, thinking back to the land he had taken her to.

"Why though? What was the point?" Nyal asked, his face contorted in rage. It reminded her of how her father had used his face and the expressions she had never seen before.

"He wanted to explain why things are the way they are," she started, pushing to stand up next to her friend. "He wanted to help."

"Help?" Nyal repeated sounding sceptical, and rightly so, her father had been useless throughout the entire journey to the Gate and afterwards. "What could he possibly say that would help us? Is he getting rid of the Zlohiel for us?"

She winced, shaking her head. "No," she said. "He doesn't want to. All he told me was that I- I mean, we, are powerful enough to take them all out."

"How?" Mikhail asked from his spot on the ground next to a still sleeping Ragen.

"I don't know," she answered. "He didn't tell me, he just said I was strong enough to do it."

Nyal sighed, running a hand through his hair and turning away from her. She wanted to glare at him, swing him around and tell him to stop being so angry. But if she did, she would only be seen as a hypocrite.

Before anyone could say anything, Ragen awoke. He grumbled loudly, glaring at all three of them. It was probably their fault he was awake after all. The glare dropped from his face when he saw the expressions the others wore on theirs. "What in Veridun happened?" he demanded. "You're finally awake and it really doesn't look like a good thing."

"She was in the Gate," Mikhail said by way of explanation. Ragen gestured at him, obviously wanting him to go on, but the other man said nothing.

"Well, at least we know we can do it, I guess," Nyal sighed. "It's more than I expected him to do."

Always the optimist that one, she heard her father whisper in her mind. She wanted to tell him to leave Nyal alone, but she didn't. Perhaps she didn't want to seem like a crazy woman, or perhaps she didn't want to make her father pleased about having riled her up.

"He said," she paused, trying to shake away her father's mocking voice. "He said I would need you. I can't destroy them without you." She stared at Nyal, right into his blue eyes, angled in such a way that he always looked angry. His light brown hair blew across them in the wind, but he took no notice.

"Why me?" he asked, staring right into hers. It always surprised her when people did that because it showed that they weren't scared of her and her unusual eyes. Her pupil and sclera were pitch black, like the darkness she wielded, while her irises were a bright eerie green that would scare most people she talked to.

"You're the only Healer left that can actually do something now, Nyal," she answered. "The dragons are in charge of the rest of the Zlohiel. That's what my father showed me. Getting rid of the dragons would hopefully disperse the rest of them. To do that, I need you."

"Hopefully?" Ragen remarked nearby. "How is that reassuring at all? If you're wrong and we defeat the dragons, then we still have the rest of the Zlohiel to deal with."

"Yes, I know that," Elora said, barely looking at him, only sparing him the slightest of glances before staring back at Nyal.

"It's worth a shot, isn't it?" Mikhail asked. "I mean, we were hoping for a way to defeat them, won't we? I know most of us thought it was hopeless, but now it might not be. No one is going to do anything, so it has to be us. Or you two."

"Of course, we do," Nyal finally said, looking away from her and towards the other two. "No one knows about this, not really. And while I may not be happy with what Yararanje is doing, I am grateful for the little help he gave us. If it's us who has to do it, then I'm not going to shy away from my duty. I vowed to protect the realm, and that's what I'm going to do."

There was a silence for a while, the three of them trying to register Nyal's words. She smiled, proud of him in a way she never expected to be. It was a similar feeling to the one she got when she thought back to Corpius. Her long-dead friend was exactly the same as the man she had met all those weeks ago back in Silas's guild building.

"You really are a noble person, you know that," Mikhail said, breaking the comfortable silence. Nyal only huffed sheepishly, looking down at the grassy ground. She could see the tiny smile that pulled at his lips.

"It's what I need to do," was all he said like it was the simplest thing in the world when in reality, it was the exact opposite. They were talking about wiping out entire races of monsters, discovering powers they never knew they had. It was far from simple.

She knew he was practising his magic, growing more powerful by the day. He grew stronger while she weakened and wallowed in her guilt and sadness. She was sure that one day he would grow stronger than her. While the warlocks had weakened over the years immensely, Nyal reminded her of a time when they were a force to be reckoned with.

"Well, did he tell you where we need to go?" Ragen asked, startling Elora out of her thoughts.

She blinked, thinking back to the night before. "No," she replied, sounding surprised. She figured that would be something he had to tell her. It was important.

Nyal sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Can you ask him?" he suggested. He averted her eyes when she turned to him, looking down at the ground again instead. She knew he felt guilty for asking. He knew a lot about her father, she had told him plenty and she was sure he figured out some on her own. She knew he thought her father would insult her, treat her like dirt if she dared ask him anything. She wasn't sure if he was right.

She thought the question, knowing he would hear her. There was an uncharacteristic silence as if he was enjoying watching them squirm in anticipation. Knowing him, he was probably doing exactly that.

You can find out for yourselves, he finally said, echoing in her mind the same way it would if she were in a cave. The answers will come to you, I know that much. My dear, you can't rely on me for everything.

She repeated what he said, word for word, frowning at the annoyed expressions on her companions' faces. "We can barely rely on you for anything," Nyal muttered, his voice barely audible.

You two are the ones that messed this up, you let them out! You couldn't stop the hybrid dragon! You fix it! You find the answers you need. I've done enough already!

She huffed angrily, repeating her father's words in a dog-like growl. Part of her had known that would be his reply. There was no way he would actually tell them where they needed to go and what they needed to do. He just wanted to watch them like they were some kind of entertainment for him. He would get angry, but he wouldn't ever fix it.

Ragen threw up his arms and turned away, walking a few metres through the tall grass. Mikhail watched him go but said and did nothing. Nyal only sighed, giving her a sad expression that spoke volumes about how he felt. He didn't want her talking to her father.

"I figured as much," he muttered. "What else would he say?"

She looked him up and down, her lips pursed. "He's given more help than he wanted. We know we can do this if we try hard enough. All we have to do now is figure out how," she said.

"And where are we going to go?" Ragen called over to her. "Is there anywhere you know of that could give us that information. I really don't think so, because if there was, you would have mentioned it by now."

"There isn't," Elora started. "All we can do is keeping heading south and hope that there is something left when we get there."

"So what you're telling me is," Ragen began, ignoring the muttered scolding from his partner. It wasn't like it would do anything anyway, Elora had quickly learned. "Despite the fact that we know we can defeat the big ancient evil trying to kill us, we're still right back where we started?"

It was quiet for only a second before Nyal said, "It seems that way."

Ragen sighed. "We go south?" he asked.

"We go south," Elora assured, reaching down and grabbing her pack and Ringwild's book, which she had left on the ground during the night. She was happy to see it hadn't been damaged during the fight. The others followed suit, and soon enough they were trekking through the long grass, on their way south. Elora didn't know what lied ahead, and a part of her dreaded finding out