Travelling through the forests towards Narristo was surprisingly comfortable in its own way. The Manticores seemed to have given up on us, at least there hadn’t been any sign of them in the last two days and Jendar proved to be an interesting conversationalist, his own knowledge and experience with magic quite the contrast to mine, allowing both of us to gain valuable insights during our talks. That was furthered by the shared experimentation and the more we worked together, the more I seemed to gain, something that was reflected in gaining two points in Ice-Magic and one in Ice Rune Mastery, bringing the two skills to 85 and 76 respectively. The progress made me, once again, wonder what would happen once I mastered the Ice-Magic skill, though I had a feeling the last fourteen points wouldn’t be easy to get.

Curiously, most of the progress didn’t come from strictly studying and trying to understand Ice-Magic itself, but from hearing about the Metal-Magic used by Jendar, especially when I tried to contrast his understanding of Metal with my understanding of Ice. In some ways, the way he described Metal made it sound similar to the way I would describe Ice, with many properties the same. The biggest difference was that my pursuit was one of permanence, unchanged and eternal, while his paradigm accepted that nothing was truly permanent, that all things had to bend with time or they would break.

Sadly, not all things could be enlightening conversations about the intricacies of magic. While I did welcome the few, suicidally brave, critters that thought a group of ten battle-ready adventurers was anything but lethal, those interruptions were few and far between, not to mention brief. More often than not, I would have had to instantly project a set of runes to meaningfully participate in combat, before Adra or Hafta pinned whatever disturbed us to a tree.

And that apparent rivalry was the source of great annoyance for me, as it wasn’t limited to pinning annoying critters to trees with their arrows but bled over into basic things, like looking for a camp-site, cooking, even the best path to follow, if Adra made a suggestion, Hafta had to reject it. It wasn’t just one-sided, just like Hafta seemed to take glee in rejecting everything Adra proposed, Adra was quite happy to point out each and every flaw, real or imagined, with everything Hafta suggested, creating an atmosphere tense enough to cut.

The tension wasn’t eased by the fact that Phraan was quite interested in Adra, sticking close to her and trying to learn as much as possible about both her as a person and her people in general. That, in turn, meant that Rai was getting his hackles up, as the person he normally interacted with the most was now monopolised by an outsider.

To those of us not involved in their drama, though mainly to Olivia and Jendar, their antics were a constant source of amusement, while Sigmir, Gwan and Gren simply looked on with stoic calm, impersonating mountains in their unmoved nature. That left Lenore and me stewing alone in our annoyance, simply wanting the nonsense to stop. But there was nothing, outside of simply murdering the lot of them, that we could do about it.

Which neither of us was planning, though with each passing day, the idea became more attractive.

“We’ll reach the ancient road today.” Jendar told me, after Hafta and Adra had argued about yet another, minor detail.

“Great.” I replied, pausing for a moment as I tried to compare things on my inner map, “How far from Narristo will we be, when we reach it?” I asked, the distances involved a little nebulous in my mind.

“A day, maybe a day and a half of travel. Unless something unexpected happens, we should be in Narristo tomorrow evening at the latest.” he assured me, grinning when my eyes flickered to the bickering fools for a moment.

“And here I thought we had something wonderful, dear lady, yet you seem all too eager to be rid of us all.” he kidded, causing me to snort in both amusement and annoyance.

“Want to discuss that wonderful something with Sigmir? I’m certain she would have some impactful concerns and arguments that you’d have to adress.” I replied, both joking and serious at the same time. As long as his words were a joke, Sigmir wouldn’t care but if there was even a speck of romantic sincerity in his words, which I doubted, Sigmir would very much object. So would I, but SIgmir’s objections were more likely to be physical, while I would prefer a magical, possibly even non-lethal, approach.

“Ah, I think I’d rather pass.” he grinned, shaking his head while comically looking towards Sigmir, who simply rolled her eyes in response.

“Thought so.” I nodded in response, giving Sigmir a friendly wave. “Mind telling me what is going on with those fools?” I gestured towards the area where Adra was studying some tracks on the ground.

“I can give you my best guess, though you’ll have to take it with a grain of salt.” he prefaced, continuing when I prompted him with a nod.

“Well, I don’t know about your kind of pointy-ear, but Phraan and their kind are quite connected to the forests they call their home, some sort of bond that bestows upon them part of the forest’s longevity. Don’t ask me about the details, I have no idea how exactly it works and frankly, I barely care, just some academic curiosity.”

“Anyway, that connection to the forest somewhat translates into an interest in dryads, though, again, I have no idea about details, not like they’d share their deepest motivations with me. So your buddy is interesting for them, especially as she is unbound and will settle at some point. Phraan would like to see her settle in Arbotoma, at least that’s my understanding of the situation.” he explained, leaving me almost as confused as I had been before.

“Now, if that was all, there’d be no problem but Hafta is quite keen on Phraan, mostly because Phraan saved her life, before we joined up and became a team. Sadly, she never had the confidence to actually make a move, so she’s been trying to get Phraan to make a move on her, yet Phraan is either clueless or not interested, stringing her along for their benefit.” Jendar finished, looking over to them once again.

“And you don’t want to rock the boat, cause the overall group-dynamic works?” I asked in response, already guessing at the answer.

“It’s not perfect but Phraan and Hafta both bring something to the team that makes them worth the trouble. Hafta is an excellent scout, with some druidic ability that lets her commune with the forests, in addition to being a deadly shot with her bow. And you’ve seen what Phraan can do with that massive sword, especially when channelling the power of the storm. My own abilities are geared towards defense and defensive support, while Gwan and Gren are very much the immovable mountains their ancestry suggests.” he explained, a little defensive that apparently neither he, nor one of his teammates had taken the time to talk to Hafta. Or maybe talk to Phraan.

“That sounds like a recipe for disaster, only waiting to blow up in your face.” I told him, shaking my head in disbelief. While our group wasn’t a perfectly harmonious family, I still held some distrust towards Olivia, compared to their dynamic, we were much better. Part of me considered trying to help, to clear the air between Hafta and Phraan but realistically, the only thing I’d achieve would cause that explosion I could foresee. If anything, the best thing my group could achieve was to keep quiet, not stir the pot needlessly and split ways as soon as possible.

“Maybe you are right. Depending how the next few days go, I might try talking to Hafta once we are closer to Narristo. Would you consider talking to Phraan, maybe your shared pointy-earedness will help the two of you connect?” Jendar asked, looking at me with hopeful eyes. My first impulse was to not only say no, but hell, no. However, as much as I wanted to reject Jendar, our talks had been interesting and pleasant, while getting some extra information regarding Arbotoma from Phraan might be incredibly valuable in the long run, as our ultimate destination was on Arbotoma and I knew little about the place, but that it was the home of the elves and mostly covered in forests.

“Let me observe some more, before I make a decision.” I replied, letting out a soft sigh, asking Lenore to keep a closer eye on their dynamic in general and Phraan specifically.

Why did my clenching gut make me think it was a bad idea?