“I can’t bear it any longer. I’m prepared to begin my last journey, yet unwilling to take that step. Will it really grant me the peace that I yearn for? Will it still be me? Will it matter? For I fear that I already saw all the destinations…”

- Traveller’s Endless Journeys

On the morning Reria saw Ion trying to talk with Sae, yet she seemed to evade him.

“Could you…“ The wizard started saying, yet stopped when she passed him by without even sparing a glance.

As Hant was approaching them with his breakfast, Sae immediately moved towards him.

“Thank you for helping me with the tent yesterday,” she said loudly, hugging him. The bard almost chocked and dropped his food on the ground.

“N-nno problem," Was all he managed to stutter, surprised.

“Quarrel of the young lovers, huh?” Thaleus said silently to Ion, but Reria still heard it.

“What? You must have too big imagination,” Ion immediately denied.

Thaleus smiled seeing Ion’s behaviour.

“Oh boy, I see how you are following her with a gaze,” Ciros joined the conversation.

“And I saw her sneaking into your tent two nights ago!” the dwarf added triumphantly taking a sip of his ale.

“It’s nothing like that,” seeing Ion reddening Reria smirked, “She just came…”

Dwarf interrupted him with loud laughter.

“…and gave me a spell scroll."

"So that's how they call it nowadays?"

"Oh, fuck off you two!"

When Ion angrily left the duo, she couldn’t hold any longer and also burst with a laugh.

****

Travel was uneventful. After a few hours of the journey Ion approached her.

“Are you feeling better today?”

“Yes, thanks for asking. I suppose that I still needed time to get hold of myself after all that happened.”

It was a truth, at least in some sense.

“Sorry for leaving you alone with all those wards…”

“Don’t worry about that, it wasn’t a big deal.”

“Still I feel like I owe you something…” Reria really felt guilty for leaving Ion to ward the whole camp alone.

“Well, there is something I’d like to ask you. I have read somewhere that a wizard knowing a daemon’s name is able to gain some sort of leverage over it…”

“What? Where have you learned something like that?” Reria almost shouted at him, all thoughts about joking from his behaviour during the breakfast forgotten.

“In Windhelm’s library… or maybe it was the Duke’s palace…”

She was almost sure that Ion wasn’t telling her the truth.

‘Is he testing me? Maybe he is also a fellow warlock?’

“In theory, by using a true name of a daemon one could force it to do as ordered," same also applied to many other beings from the Outer Planes, but she wasn’t going to freely share more. Reria already started to wonder if she wasn’t showing off her knowledge too much.

“So summoning them like that is safe then?” Ion asked excitedly.

Reria almost chocked hearing him.

“Hells no! It’s the dumbest idea ever! They hate being ordered that way and will only follow orders to the letter, searching for a way to get rid of the one forcing them to obey! Which could be an easy task on our plane, as the Veil separating it from others is quite thin, that’s why rifts are appearing…”

According to what she knew from Ashara, such thing was happening to some planes, continued for a span of thousands of years to suddenly end, seemingly without a reason.

Seeing Ion’s surprised gaze she mentally cursed herself for her too long tongue.

“The Veil? So you say that rifts…”

Reria decided to cut off Ion, hoping that he will drop that topic.

“Oh c’mon, I bet that finding a large number of followers here is not a big problem for any fiend. The corrupted, demonic elves living on their deserts are just one of the examples. Powerful fiends don’t exist in a vacuum; they have alliances, relationships, minions… trying to keep one as a hostage without having sufficient power oneself is a sure way to end badly.” She decided to give Ion pieces of information that she considered to be only slightly above usual knowledge of a normal young wizard. “And that’s assuming you even really know their true name…”

“What do you mean?” Reria exhaled seeing Ion taking the bait.

“They spread false “true names” in hopes that people learn them. They may be powerful curses on their own, able to influence minds of those summoning them, drain knowledge or spy on mortals whenever they think or speak them. At best, it may be used just to inform a fiend that someone wishes to contact it.”

“So, how to tell a difference?” Ion asked.

“I have no idea,” Reria answered truly. She really hoped that the name Ashara gave her belonged solely to the last category. “It’s not as if you have to care about that, if you only read about that, right?”

“Well, I guess so...”

“Or maybe you contacted some demons earlier?” She asked smiling.

“Haha, of course not!” Ion answered, his expression awkward. “Look, someone’s approaching!”

****Ion****

‘Praise the gods for those riders.’

Ion watched the group of six that was currently intercepted by the frontguard.

‘I should learn to bluff better or my secret might be revealed in some dumb way… but talking with Reria opened my eyes on so many things I have ignored so far… Rifts! For Vision-me they are something strange, unnatural, unheard of before… they suddenly started appearing, connecting his plane with that of those horrendous abominations and none other.’

Ion was deeply immersed in his thoughts, paying little attention to the riders, who were, in fact, three mounted soldiers, each of them with one spare horse, sent from the middle waystation.

‘What was happening was already against his common sense; I bet he would never consider the existence of a plane where rifts are appearing commonly, and even more to many different planes… in his world being able to move even astrally to other dimension was considered a great feat, I can’t imagine his face if he’d learnt that even a commoner with some luck could go somewhere physically from here…’

Still thinking he was moving closer to the group.

‘Yet because of depending on his knowledge too much, I never considered how much influence beings from the other planes could have here… this thin Veil Reria told about… is it limited only to our plane, making it quite important strategically, or maybe other planes are similar, and those with the ‘strong’ one are scarce…’

Ion finally focused on a conversation taking place just before him.

“When we saw fires four nights ago we immediately sent two scouts on griffons to confirm what had happened,” a leader of the arriving group said after their caravan told about its encounter in the forest. “According to survivor’s words, they were swarmed by flying demons and only he managed to return.” the soldier clenched a fist; those riding griffons were held in high esteem among common troops. “Following his report, our commander decided to inform the Duke, fortify our position and wait for reinforcements. Groups like ours are watching for hostiles approaching, as well as for survivors. Only few were found so far, none during the last two days.”

“Damn nobles in their castles!” another soldier said angrily. “The Duke should have sent more soldiers earlier to allow us to get rid of those bandits before they became daring enough to summon demons!”

“Calm down, Asaphen. Ride back to our post and inform them that the huge group we sent them the information about is, in fact, a caravan.”

The man saluted and, after taking two spare horses, galloped back from where they came.

The leader shrugged before continuing.

“Messaging devices our garrison has are one use only, then they have to be recharged."

“I’m a wizard. Maybe I will be able to recharge it for you,” Ion offered, hoping to see that device closely.

“I’m afraid you can’t,“ the soldier looked at him doubtfully. “Everyone equipped with the one is instructed specifically to never hand one to non-military mages. Also, it should gather enough ambient energy in a few hours so there is no need really.”

“As you wish,” Ion tried to hide his disappointment.

****

They continued the journey accompanied by two soldiers. Istniel, as the leader of this small squad was called, told them that it would take one more day of travelling at their peace until they arrive at ‘Fungi Town’, as the middle waystation was commonly called by soldiers.

“It’s because close to it lies a small lake inhabited by Myconids. Also, shrooms cultivated in caves below the fort are main rations for soldiers stationing here,” the man laughed as he explained.

“Those survivors you have found… any of them saw bandits amongst demons that attacked the waystation?” as Milas approached the soldier again, an idle chat stopped.

“Two of the survivors claim to have seen human swordsmen amongst their ranks. A scout on a griffon saw a wizard staying behind their lines, casting spells from afar.”

‘Not many,' Ion thought.

The soldier continued by listing how many demonic troops were spotted by the griffon scout.

“So it seems that the group that attacked the waystation was two or three times larger than the one we fought against. But ours was not supported by a wizard.”

“Some of those daemons could shapeshift and pass for a human for a time,” Reria's thoughts were similar to those of Ion.

“You see, some of our wizards believe that they were not summoned by a rogue wizard supporting bandits, but travelled by a rift instead,” Milas explained.

“It’s ridiculous. Things like that just can’t happen… it would be the worst luck in the Realms,” Istniel was agitated.

“Still, it's more probable than a wizard powerful enough to summon so many fiends, whose ambitions are ending on messing with a single waystation,” Ion mumbled.

****

Campfires were lit, most of the people having finished their tasks were resting after another day of travel, cheering for Dorian and Nanoc as they fought. The barbarian was impressed with skills the half-elf showed during their night encounter, and after he has lost their first duel yesterday, they decided to have a rematch this evening.

Aren convinced many mercenaries to take their chances by placing bets on the fighters.

“Look at those blows infused with holy light! Will our barbarian emerge victorious this time? Bet on him, now 4:1 ratio, last call!”

“Shut up!” Nanoc gained some space and angrily tossed a stone towards the bard, which he narrowingly dodged.

“2:1 ratio then, he’s in better shape than I thought!” Aren continued moving around spectators.

The fight continued for a while, Nanoc seemingly more vigorous than the exhausted paladin in his heavy armour. Yet, as Dorian closed his eyes for a moment, Ion felt mana moving, and in the next moment the half-elf suddenly charged with new strength, his exhaustion immediately gone and even some of his wounds closed. Under an assault with this newfound strength, the barbarian struggled for a while but ultimately lost.

Amongst the sounds of cheers of those who bet correctly, the two fighters helped each other and left to eat and refresh themselves.

Ion finished his notes about the spells he saw in use today, then took some time to analyse the scroll he received from Sae one last time. When he was sure that he got everything correctly he went to the side wishing not to be disturbed and meditated for a while.

Deciding he is ready, Ion infused markings on the scroll with mana, imprinting them onto his mind. As symbols on the parchment were fading under the stream of magical energy, so an everchanging spellpattern was being buried in his memory. Minutes passed and the scroll turned into dust. Then Ion took out his spellbook and used his best ink to finish a rough draft of the spell he copied while studying it for the past two days.

The whole process took quite a long time. As he closed the spellbook it was already late, and those not having a guard duty were preparing to go to sleep.

Ion went to the area where his squad camped and started to cover it with runes and glyphs that were required to cast his new spell. After a while, ignoring squad's curious gazes he entered into the middle of a spellcircle he drew and chanted a few words. During the incantation he directed energy, connecting sigils in his mind with the symbols he drew around. With his words earth raised along the lines of the circle, creating a dome around him. He focused on the remaining symbols, creating holes in the dome, making an entrance and windows covered by force instead of glass.

“You may enter now!” Ion called his team, looking proudly around. Inside the dome, up to eight people could sleep just fine having enough place for themselves. “What do you think? This spell is called Create Shelter.”

“Won’t it fall down on our heads?” Lyssa asked entering, ready to retreat at any moment.

“Don’t worry, it’s quite sturdy, it would require a lot of effort to destroy it.”

‘At least as long as I am inside.’ Ion added in his thoughts. He decided to lit the insides with Light cantrip.

“A little bit claustrophobic,” Ciros said, to which Dorian nodded.

‘To be honest I expected a more positive reaction.’

“Underground…feels almost like my home,” Thaleus said contently.

‘At least someone seems to be glad…’

“Huh? Just this? Isn’t the one Maval creates fancier?” Sae asked visibly discontent.

“Well I could experiment with different elements to create it, but I decided that earth, being in abundance around is the best thing to start with.”

“I don’t care about a material! I hoped to have a room created. Or a comfortable bed at least.”

“Adding those things could be possible but it would make it a higher circle spell…”

She lowered her head disappointed.

“That way it’s still sleeping on the naked floor…”

“Malcontents! Wait until it starts to be rainy or windy outside again, then you would be glad for this!”

“Okay, maybe you are right Ion. Well, Lyssa, let’s make this part the girls' half!”

“They are only two of you Sae, you can’t take a half of the dome and leave the other for the four of us.” Dorian opposed.

“It’s only fair to split it in a half,” Lyssa agreed with Sae’s idea.

“Too bad that I’m not leaving the middle,” Ion said calmly, gaining hostile gazes from the girls. “ If I go somewhere else the dome might get unstable.” He made some steps to the side, and soon small scratches appeared on the dome, followed by the sound of wind blowing. A tiny rock fell on the ground near Ion.

“Okay, we’ll be satisfied with a lesser part of the dome then.”

The girls immediately agreed.

Ion returned to the middle and started unpacking his sack.

‘Prestidigitation is a really useful cantrip,’ He smiled.