It was quite late, the sun already vanishing behind the horizon, when we decided to make camp. We had marched as fast as possible for the entire day, just slowing down long enough to get some food into us, putting a lot of distance between the orcish valley and us. We had managed to completely leave it, and the immediate vicinity, but there was simply little gain in hurrying even further, driving us into exhaustion.

A little earlier, maybe an hour before we stopped, Lenore had gone up again, making sure that nobody was following us and had yet to return. The spot we had chosen to camp was relatively secluded, without bringing us too far from our path.

“How do our supplies look?” I asked Adra, knowing that we had been planning to get some fresh supplies from the orcs, a plan that hadn’t quite worked out.

“We’ll have to forage a little more than planned but it shouldn’t be a problem, even as we travel through the mountains.” she replied, after checking with Sigmir and Rai, to see what they had in their magical bags.

“Good to know.” I nodded, sinking to the ground, the exhaustion of the day finally catching up with me. It was annoying, even now, after crossing the second Divide, I was the physically weakest member of the party. Adding to the exhaustion of travelling, the Death-Magic I had used just before leaving the orc-settlement had taken a lot out of me, something I would have to keep track of in the future. Previously, my use of Death-Magic had never caused such a backlash but then, I had never used it on a similar scope to the spell Lenore and I had woven together or in combination with the Overflow-Ability, both things that could have caused it.

Sigmir, who hadn’t left my side for the entire day, quickly picked me up, cradling me in her arms.

“Adra, Rai, can the two of you take care of the camp?” she asked, sounding quite assertive.

Instead of worrying why she was acting now, I simply let her, resting my head against her chest, enjoying the comfort her presence gave me.

The two of them agreed and Sigmir carried me, just for a few steps, before settling down leaning against a tree and gently caressing me, her strong hands applying just enough pressure to be pleasant and relaxing.

“Thank you.” Sigmir whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear. In my relaxed state, I could feel her, not just physically but also through our bond, the close contact helping me along.

“A woman with her power, one who can talk about the magic you love, and you didn’t even notice her, didn’t even recognise that she was interested in you. And when she finally told you, you never considered her as a partner. I could feel you, within my heart, within my soul. There was no hesitation, no consideration.” she continued, her voice filled with emotion.

Looking up, I could see a loving smile on her face and reached out, gently touching her cheek, while looking into her eyes.

“Before meeting you, I never even knew that I could feel that way. You are the first, who gave me these feelings, nobody ever did that before. Neither in this, nor the other world.” I admitted, my thumb softly stroking along her cheekbones. For a minute or five, we simply sat there, gazing into each other's eyes, basking in the love shared between us. There was no need for words, no need for actions, no lust or urgency, just a content feeling of peace.

Sadly, all good things end at some point and in this case, the end came on black wings. I felt Lenore’s approach before she was in sight, in this case, mostly due to the emotions of vigilance and anger.

“There are orcs behind us.” she told me, using our connection. The mental message shattered the peace I was feeling, driving away the wonderful mood building between Sigmir and me. Instead, I was filled with a disappointed anger, disappointment that the orcs would be so foolish, to start hunting us out of arrogant pride, for hurting Dura Firebringer’s feelings. Anger, at their hypocrisy, trying to hunt us down and hurt us after we had been promised that we were to be honoured guests, in order to invite us into their settlement.

“Show me.” I sent back to Lenore, my body stiffening, causing Sigmir to pause her gentle ministrations.

Lenore took a moment to come closer, before sharing her memories with me, the now familiar sensations filling my mind as I focused on them. It was, obviously, from Lenore’s aerial point of view, with an added steam of information that gave context to what she had seen. That stream informed me that the images were from the furthest she had gone back, allowing her to see the entrance of the valley that housed the Bright Hollow. From a high altitude, she had been able to see a small group, right on the edge of her vision, leaving the valley. That gave me a bit of hope that those orcs might be simply leaving the valley on some sort of errant but sadly, what came next didn’t make that likely.

Lenore had approached a little more, using Air-Magic to boost her speed and I agreed with her, the small group of six orcs looked like trouble. They were certainly not loaded for bear, they looked very much like the orcs that had been travelling with Dura Firebringer, geared up for war, not for a hunt. What looked like heavy weapons, armour and a distinct lack of bows and spears made me agree with her initial impression. That was no party hunting to fill a pantry, that was a party travelling to kill other sapients. Given that a similar, though much bigger party, had just returned from hunting centaurs, I somewhat doubted that they would be trying to catch up to the few stragglers we had left alive.

“Do you feel good enough to scry later tonight?” I asked, before checking my own condition. I could feel that my stores were getting low, major magical workings followed by a day of forced marching were not a good combination if you wanted to create complex magic later during the night, especially something as delicate and involved as scrying. I might be able to cast the spell but as tired as I was, I was more likely to fall asleep before I managed to find any useful information. Scrying only allowed me to shift my view-point, not guide me to the information I was looking for, which was problematic in this case.

“No, I don’t think so.” she admitted, landing on the arm I stretched out from her.

“What’s wrong?” Sigmir asked, having obviously noted the sudden drop in my mood.

“There’s a group of orcs behind us, looks like they set out a few hours after us.” I replied, forcing down a yawn.

“So they won’t reach us tonight?” she asked, after her face flickered into a frown for a moment.

“No, not unless they were aware of Lenore noticing them and started to prepare camp while she was watching, to throw us off.” I replied, shaking my head at the idea. Just from the memory I had seen, Lenore had been high in the sky, a barely visible dot in the distance, making it nigh impossible to notice what was going on. At least I couldn’t imagine how one would spot such an observer, not without some sort of specialised magic or ability. Something like that was likely possible but given what I knew about magic, nothing seemed to be impossible, given the right abilities, understanding and affinities. But at the same time, worrying about every potential way magic might be used against us would be foolish, simply due to those far-ranging possibilities. Guarding against the probable, against understood and plausible threats would have to do.

“That means you shouldn’t worry about it, not tonight. Neither of you,” Sigmir nodded, gently smoothing the feathers on Lenore’s head.

“Tomorrow, after you had a good night’s rest, we can think about what to do with those orcs. Setting up an ambush would work or, if we really focus on it, I’m sure we would be able to simply out-run them. Hurrying would leave us open to an ambush further down the road, if they have some way to communicate with one of their travelling groups in the right direction, so we should stay vigilant.” Sigmir reasoned, before stopping and looking down at me again. “But not tonight.” she continued, her tone allowing no disagreement.

“Dinner is ready.” Adra called over. Standing up from Sigmir’s lap, I gave Sigmir a hand to get up, not that she needed it. In the meantime, Lenore vanished into her Hallow, settling in to sleep as soon as she was inside.

“We’ll have to post a watch tonight…” Sigmir told the others, as we stepped up, before explaining what Lenore had found out. Neither of them looked pleased at the revelation, their responses indicating that they agreed with me, that going after guests, merely for an insult, was deeply dishonourable. But they also agreed that thinking about our followers in the morning was the best course of action.