The forest shifted as they walked, the trees growing taller and older the farther they moved from the valley. Shoko walked beside Ariandel, the air cool against his skin. Tilli poked her head out of Ariandel's hood every few minutes, ears twitching at every sound.
They had never traveled this far together before.
Shoko tightened the strap of his satchel. "How far is it?"
Ariandel didn't look back. "Three days if we keep a steady pace. Two if something pushes us."
Shoko didn't need to ask what "something" meant.
He walked in silence for a moment, listening to the leaves crunch under their boots. The world beyond the valley wasn't hostile, but it wasn't friendly either. The air tasted different—wilder, almost restless.
Ariandel noticed the tension in his shoulders. "It's alright to feel uneasy," she said gently. "The first time I left home, I threw up in a bush three times."
Shoko raised an eyebrow. "You?"
"Yes, me. Stop looking so surprised."
He couldn't help it. Ariandel radiated confidence. Imagining her panicking over travel seemed almost illegal.
Tilli meowed as if laughing at him.
Shoko glared weakly. "I can feel you judging me."
Tilli blinked smugly.
Ariandel smiled. "See? Traveling builds personality."
"Personality or trauma?" Shoko muttered.
"Both," she said. "Usually both."
Shoko sighed. "Wonderful."
They walked through a narrow path between moss-covered boulders. Light filtered through the canopy in thin beams. Shoko kept glancing behind them. He knew the hunter wasn't close—not yet—but the fear sat on him like a cold hand.
Ariandel sensed it. "You're thinking too loudly."
Shoko frowned. "I wasn't saying anything."
"You don't need to. Your shoulders say it for you."
He exhaled. "Do you think he'll find us?"
Ariandel picked up a fallen branch and tossed it aside, clearing the path. "Eventually. But not today. And not tomorrow."
"How do you know?"
"Because if he were close, the world would feel wrong."
Shoko considered that. "Wrong how?"
"Like someone is gently pressing the edge of a knife to your spine." She paused. "That feeling has followed me before. I don't feel it now."
He nodded slowly. Ariandel always had a strange sense for danger. She called it intuition; Shoko called it unfair.
He adjusted the wraps around his wrists. "So where exactly are we going?"
"To the Whitepeak Conclave," Ariandel answered. "My old home."
Shoko blinked. "The mage sanctuary?"
"That's the name outsiders gave it. We called it something different."
"What?"
Ariandel hesitated. "…A prison with good scenery."
Shoko nearly tripped over a root. "A prison?"
"Metaphorically."
"Ariandel."
She sighed. "Fine. Not metaphorically."
Shoko groaned. "Why are we going to a prison?"
"It's not a prison anymore," she corrected. "But it used to be a place where mages who were considered dangerous were kept."
Shoko stared at her. "Were you—"
"Yes," she said before he finished. "I was one of them."
He looked down at the path. His throat felt tight. "For what?"
"For being too powerful. For breaking rules. For refusing to be controlled." She glanced at him with a small smile. "And for being very, very annoying."
Shoko looked away so she wouldn't see the way his expression weakened. He hated imagining her trapped. Controlled. Hurt.
"You're not going back as a prisoner, right?"
"Of course not. I doubt they'd even recognize me. And even if they did—" she tapped the staff in her hand "—they would not dare try."
Shoko relaxed slightly.
Ariandel stopped suddenly.
He bumped into her back before he could react. "Wh—"
She raised a finger to her lips.
Shoko quieted immediately.
The forest was silent again. Too silent. Even the bugs had stopped buzzing. Tilli's back arched subtly.
Shoko felt a small shiver crawl across his spine.
Ariandel lowered her voice. "Three steps to your left. Don't look scared."
Shoko obeyed.
A moment later, a shape rustled in the bushes ahead.
Shoko's hand lifted instinctively, threads forming at his fingertips.
Ariandel whispered, "Don't attack. Not yet."
Something stepped out.
Not a hunter.
Not a monster.
A deer.
It blinked at them, large and gentle, then bent down to chew on a patch of flowers.
Shoko sagged in relief.
Ariandel smothered a laugh. "You looked ready to battle a dragon."
"You said you felt something dangerous!"
"I said I felt something. You assumed it was dangerous."
Shoko glared. "You could clarify these things."
"Where's the fun in that?" she said.
He groaned loudly. Ariandel's smile grew, warm and bright.
They continued walking.
Hours passed. The trees grew thinner and the air grew colder as they approached the mountain foothills. Shoko practiced weaving threads between his fingers as they walked, strengthening the fine motor control he needed for Third Weave.
Ariandel watched his hands. "You're improving already."
"I've had a good teacher."
"That's true," she said, nodding thoughtfully.
Shoko snorted. "Your modesty is overwhelming."
"I try," she said.
By late afternoon, they reached a small stream. They stopped to rest. Shoko knelt by the water, splashing his face. Ariandel filled their flasks. Tilli hunted a bug with intense hatred.
Shoko sat back on a rock and stared at the reflection of himself in the stream.
It was still strange sometimes.
He saw white hair. Violet eyes. A sharper jawline. A stronger posture. A person who looked like he belonged somewhere.
Not a slave.
Not an object.
Ariandel sat beside him. "Penny for your thoughts?"
"What's a penny?"
"Exactly," she said, smirking.
He sighed. "Just thinking."
"About?"
"Everything."
"That's very specific," she said dryly.
He flicked a droplet of water at her. She flicked one back. Tilli meowed like she was witnessing a crime.
Ariandel leaned back on her hands. "You've grown so much, Shoko. You know that, right?"
He looked down. "I don't feel like it."
"That's because growing doesn't feel like becoming someone new. It feels like becoming more yourself."
He stayed quiet, letting the words settle.
Ariandel stood and brushed off her robes. "We should keep moving. We'll reach the cliff path before nightfall."
They traveled until the sky turned orange. The forest opened to a wide overlook—a cliff stretching outward, giving them a view of rolling hills and distant mountains painted gold by sunset.
Shoko stopped, breath catching.
It was… beautiful.
Ariandel watched his expression. "You've never seen the world from this high, have you?"
He shook his head.
She stepped closer, voice soft. "This is the first of many places I want to show you. There's more than pain out here, Shoko. More than fear. There's beauty. There's wonder. There's life."
He swallowed, eyes still fixed on the horizon. "I want to see it all."
"You will." She touched his shoulder. "And I'll be right beside you."
A faint rumble echoed in the distance.
Ariandel tensed.
Shoko felt it too now—a faint ripple in the air, like someone brushing their fingers along the edges of reality. A sense of awareness. A presence.
The hunter.
Far away.
Very far.
But moving.
Ariandel exhaled slowly. "He felt the surge. He's not close yet… but he knows the direction."
Shoko clenched his fist. Threads flickered between his fingers.
"We'll be ready," he said quietly.
Ariandel looked at him, pride and fear in her eyes. "Yes. We will."
They turned away from the cliff as the sun finally dipped below the horizon, painting the sky with the last traces of red.
Together, they walked into the twilight.
The hunter followed the echo of their footsteps.
And the world began to shift.