Before I had been able to make heads or tails of what I had done, what it meant and how I could use it in the future, Sigmir’s voice called me back into reality.

“Love, come down,” she called out, obviously standing at the trunk of the tree I was on, “We’re about to leave.”

Shaking off the considerations, I remembered to take a glance at the log, as the discovery of solid darkness and its weird, light-absorbing properties almost had to give me additional skill points and, lo and behold, there was a notification in the log.

Skill increased

You increased your skill: Darkness Magic [72/100]

Two skill ranks, an incredible gain at my current level and yet, I had a feeling that it was only the beginning. Understanding the solid shadows was key and had to be my next course of study. If I managed to make them more efficient, they might just be the strongest shield out there, capable of blocking mundane and magical attacks alike.

“Love?” Sigmir called up, stopping me from getting lost in my mind again. Instead of responding, I simply let myself slip off the branches, my Avatar’s body agile enough to easily turn the uncontrolled tumble into a graceful descent, gliding from branch to branch, until finally landing next to Sigmir. At least that was my plan, but instead of landing next to her, I was caught and given a quick kiss and a grin after she set me down.

“Let’s leave,” I returned her smile, taking her hand, “What do you think of the humans with us?” I asked, for once using a language only the two of us shared, Jötun, the language of frost-giants. Eavesdropping on the humans last night had reminded me that in a world of skills and levels, simply using distance and common sense to keep your communication private wasn’t enough. I had no illusion that using a different language was a perfect measure, there were abilities like the Universal Understanding I had gained from my bond with Lenore. If one such ability existed, I was almost certain there’d be more of them.

Sigmir blinked in surprise, shaking her head in incomprehension.

“What?” she asked, speaking the same language, but haltingly making it obvious that she hadn’t done so in a while.

“I asked what you think of the humans with us,” I repeated and now that she knew to listen for the different languages, she could easily understand.

“They seem a little weird,” Sigmir admitted, “Their whole existence is weird,” she let out a weary sigh, “All humans seem to work hard, in order to accumulate coin, only to hoard it for all eternity. Especially the nobles, they aren’t any more capable, they aren’t any smarter, they might have different classes or even a higher level than most, but really, they are just humans,” she shook her head, reminding me that she came from a small, personal place, where the leader of the whole tribe had been someone you could see every day. Here, the leader of the whole ‘tribe’, the emperor, was an existence only an incredible minority of people could see in their lifetimes and yet, the decisions that existence made impacted them all, through countless layers of agents, nobles and bureaucracy.

“Society, just like your people banded together for strength, the humans banded together on a larger scale, for that very reason. A single powerful figure can be a threat, but if you have that much land, and that many humans, how many talented figures could emerge to become powerful? If they all work together, united under a single banner, it is an incredible force. Remember the Centaurs, individually or in small groups, we had the ability to kill them in droves, as did the Winter Wolves. And yet, when they brought the might of their horde against the wolves, just a small part of the horde was enough to force them into desperate straights.” I reminded, getting a thoughtful nod in return. Looking at it like that, the empire suddenly felt threatening to her.

“But wouldn’t there be just as many foes, as there would be talents on the side of the empire?” Sigmir asked, her head nodding in the direction we were going, back towards the others, “These few don’t seem too incompetent, even if they need to train and experience more. If they exist, wouldn’t there be countless more?”

“Not necessarily countless, but yes, the bigger the society, the more foes it gets. I wonder how the different growth rates relate to each other,” I mused, trying to form a coherent mental model between the number of loyal individuals, rebels and the size of society. It immediately became apparent that such a model was impossible, as there were far too many not-correlating variables but it was a fun idea.

“Either way, I wasn’t asking about humans in general, if a thing like the average human even exists, just about those few with us,” I brought us back to my original question.

“As I said, they seem competent and I wouldn’t mind working with them. A little weak, but when they were trapped, they worked together well to survive, covering for their companions,” she paused for a moment, “None of them tried to escape alone,” she concluded, her voice sombre, making it apparent that she felt that was the most important part. The willingness to fight to the death at the side of your companions, to remain strong and not give in to fear.

“Who knows if that was due to their conviction or due to a lack of opportunity,” I mused, not convinced that the humans were all that noble. But they might surprise me in the future.

“We’ll see what they would like us to do,” I concluded, before mentally switching back to common, as we were almost at the camp.

The others had already packed up everything and were ready to leave. When Sigmir and I walked up, they simply nodded and Adra looked at Daniel.

“Now, we are ready to go. Do you want to lead the way, or give me directions?” she asked, a bit of disdain in her voice when she asked if he wanted to lead.

“We need to head further west, towards the mountains. Once we’re there, I’ll give you more guidance.” he simply replied, not taking the bait.

Adra also didn’t continue to quibble, instead, she simply turned, striding forward with her spear in hand. Rai gave the humans a brief glance, before following after her, remaining a couple of metres behind her, in a position from which he could immediately support her, if necessary. Olivia gave them a gesture, motioning for the humans to move with her and followed after our scouts, keeping some distance. Planning to bring up the rear, Sigmir and I waited for a moment, only to realise that neither Nick nor Jenn were following the main group.

When I looked at them, an eyebrow raised and a frown on my face, Nick spoke.

“Would you mind telling me more about your teacher as we walk, maybe even teach me some of your magic?” he asked, looking hopeful. Jenn had a similar expression, as if curious as well.

Frowning, I considered the question for a moment. Normally, my time was spent almost lost in my mind, pondering and experimenting with magic, but to talk about it? It was somewhat similar to talking to the Firebringer, something that had given me quite a few novel ideas but at the same time, was it worth disclosing some of my secrets in the hopes of gaining inspiration?

“I can share some stories,” I decided, still not planning to give him any actual information, maybe some lessons along the lines of those I had shared with Rai in the past. Nothing complex, certainly not without knowing what he could do.

“And you?” I asked, looking at Jenn, “What do you want?”

Jenn didn’t seem to mind my somewhat rude tone, weirdly, she even seemed a little delighted. “I just want to listen to your stories,” she assured me.

Shrugging, I decided that telling one person or telling two made no difference. If she wanted to simply listen, i didn’t mind and if she annoyed me, I could simply stop talking.

“So be it.” I agreed, setting off after the others.

“Now, let me tell you about an Elder Dryad we met,” I began, speaking quietly, just loud enough for them to hear me, “For reasons unknown, that Dryad decided to build her grove in the frozen north of Aretia.”

As I recounted the story of Tegi, with a few minor alterations to conceal my own abilities, turning it into a cautionary tale regarding the use of Blood Magic and that even the cleverest spellcaster couldn’t avoid some laws of Nature and Magic, the two of the listened with great interest.

And just like that, we started our journey west.