“Ah,” said Nolan, giving a sore man’s stretch as he followed Nyla out of the mausoleum. “It’s dark out, already?”

She shot him a flush-faced smile as she combed at her long, dark hair with well-trimmed fingernails. “Time passes quickly when you’re—”

“When you’re hanging out with Nolan.” He threw an arm around her hip as they began to walk across the field together, picking through random pathways that weren’t covered in mulch and shredded debris.

“I hope the others won’t be mad. We were supposed to leave today.” Nyla usually had fairly thick skin when it came to awkward situations, but he could tell that she was a bit embarrassed at the prospect of rejoining the others when it was quite obvious what they had been doing all day.

“I’m sure they won’t care. For all they know, we were off cultivating somewhere else.”

She fixed him with a look that described her doubt. “Wouldn’t it look bad, though? Last time at the tower, we would’ve left earlier if we hadn’t…you know. And then all that stuff happened.”

Looking at it that way, Nolan’s mood suddenly dropped a peg. At least it would have if he didn’t feel like the absolute man at the moment. “The spirit of the lake won’t be getting here anytime soon. The only way that could happen would be if it knew the exact location that Uncle Grey sent it to, which I doubt considering the fact that it should have popped up in the middle of the ocean.” When lakes could be the size of small continents on this planet, only God knew how large Venara’s oceans were. The thought had occurred to him after he’d set off for this field with Nyla. As far as the spirit of the lake was concerned, every direction could be the wrong direction, right?

“What if that isn’t the case, though?”

“Anyway, what’s done is done. For now, we should hurry back.”

“You go back first,” she said. “I’ll come after you.”

“Good idea.”

Nolan returned to the dwelling behind the waterfall to find his friends sitting at a newly made table and drunk out of their minds. The moment he emerged from the heavy wall of water, they all let out a unanimous cheer as if their favourite hockey player had just scored a cup-winning goal. All of them except for May, who gave a light harrumph and took a long sip of the amberwood ale that they were enjoying from the wooden tap of an aged barrel.

“What’s with all the noise?”

“He came alone,” laughed Sean, who stood up from his chair and stumbled over to throw an arm around Nolan’s shoulder. “You came alone…” He trailed off into laughter without explaining what it was that he found so funny.

Everyone else began sliding spatial bags over to where Sean had been sitting as they continued to chuckle.

“Okay, settle down now.” Nolan brushed the arm away and raised an eyebrow at Ian, who gave him an innocent look and shrugged his shoulders.

“Don’t look at me like that. I”—Ian gave an outward hiccup, which interrupted his mental transmission—“I didn’t say anything. My sister joked about you two being gone and Sean”—another hiccup—“Sean said he’d bet a thousand spirit stones that you were…you know, thundering her peaks.”

“Where were you?” asked Lyra, who gave him a trolling look. “Don’t suppose you ran into Nyla out there?”

Knowing that there was no use in lying, Nolan shrugged. “I was just reading my bible in the woods.”

That earned a loud laugh from Esteban and Sean, though Lyra rolled her eyes at the unknown reference. “Reading…sure.”

He heard Ian’s voice once more. “I r—really admire you my friend. May and Nyla in one day. You dirty dog, you.”

Nyla walked in at that moment, heading directly to the table and helping herself to some of the ale amidst another chorus of cheers.

Ignoring Ian, Nolan decided to do the same due to the fact they could all sober up within seconds with the Divine Spirit Fountain water. “Where’s Delia?” he asked, noticing that the group was one person short.

“She went off somewhere on the island,” came May’s voice, which was a bit hard to read. “Her aura disappeared after a few minutes, so I think she wanted to train somewhere in privacy.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” he said, feeling a bit uncomfortable. He made to say something, but opted to give his drink a good, long pull. He could tell that May wasn’t happy with him at the moment, but the almost immediate buzz from the high-quality ale quickly calmed his thoughts. I just can’t win here, huh? He decided not to think about it, since doing so would only dampen his mood further.

Delia arrived about half an hour later, though something was off about her behavior. She seemed reluctant to meet his gaze, or more accurately, unable to do so. He caught her stealing odd, guarded glances in his direction over the next hour, after she had plopped herself down in the same corner of the room where she had sat earlier on. Each time he caught her staring, the woman’s youthful face would gain a bit of colour, which threw him for a loop at every instance. This was Delia, after all, the White Rogue that had killed countless people without batting a snow-shaded eyelash. The more inebriated he became, the more he began to wonder just what on Earth had given life to her strange demeanour. Not only that, but every now and then her legs would twitch in an odd way, as if she were trying to scratch an itch that was deep beneath the skin of her thighs.

So weird.

The moment he’d fallen into drunkenness he had lost the previous sense of urgency that had possessed him to want to leave the island as quickly as possible, his mind now filled with self-assurances that one or two more hours of sitting around and shooting the shit wouldn’t hurt their situation in any way. It drained his spirits when May put down her cup and pushed her chair back—one that had been created recently with a construction arrayment—standing up from her seat and giving voice to reason.

“As much as I’d love to stay in this dingy little cave and continue to lower my guard, it’d be better if we left here as soon as possible.”

“You’re right,” sighed Ian. “Although I’m not a fan. I’d rather keep drinking.”

“Me too,” slurred Aine. “You guys are so fun. I can’t believe all the incredible places I’ve drank with you lot, let alone laid my eyes on.”

Alicia took the girl’s cup away and emptied it, though the contents were caught in midair and then drawn into Lyra’s cup.

“Pouring out ale like this is a sin.”

“Well, she’s had enough I should think.”

“Speak for yourself. You can barely hold your own drink.”

Something clicked in Nolan’s mind. “Hey Delia. Can you carry us across the lake with spiritual energy?”

She went to say something, but faltered.

“Are you worried about using up too much energy?” He stood up a bit too quickly and suffered a slight stumble, momentarily forgetting to limit the strength in his legs. “Don’t even worry. I’ve got so many pellets these days that it’s all good. Here.”

He threw her a bag with a hundred medicinal pellets of varying effects and potency, a total of twelve different types. Most had been made by him, the rest purchased or looted. In total, they were worth about twenty thousand spirit stones.

“You’re just giving these to me?”

“Well, yeah.” He sent a barrel of Divine Spirit Fountain water over to her as well. “If you need any more, just ask.”

She didn’t say anything, but gave a slow nod.

“Alright! Delia’s gonna fly us across the lake. That means we can keep on keeping on.”

This news was welcomed warmly by the others, who all agreed to sober up after a few more hours of fun. Delia could fly at a speed of around three hundred kilometres per hour, which meant that it would only take them about ten hours to reach the city of Tallgate. Once there they would do some shopping and selling, since it was a settlement run and owned by the Continental Merchant Association and also the beating heart of the eastern half of the Northern Wilderness. From there it would be a straight shot to Frostport, where they would then charter a ship to take them to North Island.

They could always fly to their ultimate destination, but from what Nolan had heard the CMA was very strict about its borders, since the association dominated and ran the Canada-sized island. Theirs was a nation that was a bit more civilized than the kingdoms that Nolan had encountered thus far on Venara, where anybody—including bandits or the murderous members of the Bloodhand Sect—could walk right into their territory without being detected or dealt with in any manner. If anybody wanted to gain access to North Island, even if it was one of their Merchant Lords, it was necessary to charter one of the many ships that were constantly streaming to and from the nation. That meant spending spirit stones.