With their supplies tied to the horse, Anna and Azure started to fly north while following the river. The didn’t have any obligation to follow the instructions for Lords, but Azure insisted that finding more Lords would be beneficial for them. Lords were the only people capable of fighting demons so sticking close to them would be provide cover for them. Anna was a little apprehensive about that, she knew that Azure could fool ordinary people, but Lords were sure to realise that they were imposters. Worse still, Lords, who’s very job it is to hunt demons, would surely see through Azure and the two of them would be dead. Azure was the strongest person Anna had ever met, but Lord’s were the dependents of Ren, the saint and hero who gave salvation to all people. The Lord they killed was alone and low ranking; the kinds of Lords who lived near Bisha, Layford or within the Temple of Ren itself were like gods in comparison.

When her mother was still around, she had told Anna stories about Sage-Lord Akradej Smithson, one of the first-generation children, who frozen a giant ocean wave that would have drowned the town which would later become the city of Obelbruck. She also heard of the Arch-Lord Ida Sinesdaughter, who wore armour three metres tall and could cut through an ox, from head to tail, with a single swing of her glaive. It was heroes like them that would slay demons, hunt monsters and save the commoners. Remembering tales like them once filled Anna with excitement, made her dream of making an armour like Ida’s Blackwind, but now they just reminded her of the kinds of people that would be hunting her down. Thoughts like that caused her stomach to tighten as she pulled herself closer to Azure.

As they flew, Anna practised using the magics that Azure taught her. The flowing sensation that was apparently mana moving through her was dizzying when she focused on it, like she was being spun around from the inside, but if she didn’t pay attention to it then she could entirely forget it was there. She was only able to use the spells that Azure taught her, and Azure only knew the spells she learnt from Ren Stones, but that was more than she could have hoped for back at the village. To teach the spell, Azure grasped her hand and pushed and pull at the mana in her body, pulling it out of her and pushing it back in with a twisted shape. The sensation was almost painful at first, with the sensation of vomiting coming from her hand confusing her mind with every pull and the feeling of being punched somewhere sensitive with every push. The flow throughout her body seemed antagonised by the twisted mana and seemed to trap it in a bubble that was pulled into her womb. Whenever she wanted to use a spell, she would force mana into one of the bubbles to let the mana get twisted, then pull the newly twisted mana out and eject it from her hands. She could also keep the twisted mana in her body, which caused the normal mana to start to coat it in a bubble of its own. The process reminded her of casting metal. The bubble acted like a mould and her mana was the liquid metal; once the metal was given the right shape it could be removed and used. The more moulds she made for herself, the faster she could produce items and the differently shaped moulds would make different items. However, her storeroom had a limited space. She had to choose whether to fill it with a lot of the same mould and several different ones.

Her practice included target shooting. Every now and then, a section of the solid mist that coated the horse would change colour and become an angry red. When that happened, Anna was expected to hit it with a spell. Since it would change back after ten seconds, her options for attacks were very limited. In the time she had she could form a fingertip sized arrowhead and launch it forward with the strength of a training bow; she could launch a cup’s worth of water with the force of a punch; she could send waves of heat towards it to raise its temperature. The last option was unpleasant as it made the air inside the mist cloud hot and stuffy, so she only really practised the first two. Azure agreed that whenever she succeeded in noticing and hitting the target in time, Anna could ask for a reward. When they landed in a forest clearing by the river to camp for the night, Anna was exhausted and dizzy but also able to launch those two spells accurately in four to six seconds. Magic wasn’t physically draining, but it was mentally; especially when fighting off the dizziness. Another downside was the aching that she felt in her arms. Then felt deadened, like she had spent the day at work at the forge, only the muscles themselves seemed fine. It was as if the fatigue stretched deep into the bone itself.

“That would be your mana pathway expanding,” explained Azure. “From what the stonemonger knew, it seems that pathways are like muscles in that they expand with use. With continued use, you will be able to send larger volumes of mana out with each cast of a spell. Apparently doing this helps relieve the tension.”

As she said that she started kneading Anna’s arms, letting her mana loosely flow into the arms without twisting it first. The soft and warm sensation felt like she was being embraced from within, like Azure was inside of her body and messaging her insides. Without noticing it she fell asleep, the comfort and exhaustion proving too much for her. She had rarely fainted before she met Azure, yet it became a regular occurrence since.

The next day they arrived, and they set off at their usual leisurely pace. From what Azure said, the horse can cross the entire continent in a single day, though she also said doing so would be dangerous for the passengers. They were never in much of a rush and travelled at a comfortable speed. By midmorning, the ocean was visible in the distance and Azure drove the horse higher to give a better view. The light glistened on the blue water, seemingly as far as they eye could see, and Anna was awestruck by her first time seeing such a beautiful sight. She could see ships on the water that seemed like specks. She could see the trade highway that appeared no more than a dirt track. Even the great trade port of Kawa seemed as insubstantial as any village. After Azure and forges, flight was fast becoming the third great love of her life.

They pulled up the horse in the forest outside of town and walked a short distance. They were dressed in ordinary clothes with the Sacrams hidden underneath. The Lord’s armour was hidden by a long sleaves and pants, and gave the impression that Anna was bulkier than she was. With tools at her waist and traveller’s bags, she seemed like a working man with a feminine face. Azure was dressed in a light blue summer dress and carried a much smaller, though more heavily filled, bag. They seemed to be an ordinary couple and unless someone had seen their decent, they wouldn’t be confused as Lords. As ordinary travellers, they needed to pay a poll tax to enter, and Azure made a convincing show of arguing with the man at the gate about how outrageous the price was before paying. Anna hadn’t expected it but doing that seemed to clear away any of the guard’s suspicions. She couldn’t help but wonder where, or who, she had learnt that.

Kawa was a picturesque city built along a gently sloping cliff with a glorious white sand beach. The mouth of the bay curved for several kilometres and the piers which the city’s trade depended on were stone structures that traversed into deep water. Small fishing boats stayed tied up close to land, but the great black-iron boats of the northern continent were moored on the furthest landings. They were mysterious structures and predated Salvation; one story they heard from onlookers said that an entire month’s dragons blood production in Herifell would be required to feed the ship a single trade journey. If that truly were the case, then it seemed impossible for the traders to make a profit, though a ship that large would hold a lot of cargo. The black ships contrasted against the white sand and the white buildings, which turned the beach sand into a mortar that coated the walls. The white of the buildings was taken as canvas by the more artistically inclined residence, and several buildings were painted in lively colours or decorated with elaborate murals. It gave the trade city a welcoming feel that drew travellers in and loosened the strings of coin purses.

The city was important enough that the Lord’s had a church there, and a barracks to match. As they walked past, Lord Magus could be heard singing prayers to Ren as more martial Lords practiced combat in the field grounds. It was apparently a local delicacy, as many young women gathered to watch the men and women exert themselves. It seemed that the Lords left there were few, and most had already started their journey to Najask. Those that remained were likely there to protect the city if the northerners took the opportunity to start something. That path would take a full month of walking to travel, though a group of Lords were unlikely to be walking and passed through dozens of towns too small to name. When Anna heard how far away the city was, she was shocked at just how large the world was. Najask was at the centre of the northern coast and it was still so far away. Even if the distance was doubled again, that would only bring you to the west coast. Beyond that was a stretch of ocean and an entire other continent. Her village was once her entire word and the trading post by the river seemed as far away as anything could get. Just how small she truly was dawned on her more on hearing that then when she saw the land from the sky.

They got a room above a pub by the docks, with a simple wooden bed with a mattress make of stitched together pelts filled with soft straw. The room was cheap enough that it wouldn’t attract attention, though it didn’t have a water stone bath or shower. That wasn’t a problem as they could just use their magic to fill a bowl and heat it. As such, they took turns wiping each other, ensuring not a single spot was dirty. Feeling Azure’s soft hands caressing her body was more than Anna could take, and she pushed her down onto the uncomfortable bed. With her passion in full swing, she once again found out that Azures energy was boundless.

They spent the next day taking in the sites and enjoying the local seafood. Anna had tried river fish before, but the varieties and flavours that filled the local colourful cuisine was wonderous. It wasn’t just ingredients that she had never tasted, but spices, garnishes and entirely unheard-of methods of preparing. The farmland that fed the city and their trade along the ocean, roads and rivers lead to a surplus of food that bred unmatched creativity. For such great things to exist in a reginal city like Kawa, Anna couldn’t imagine what it was like in the continent’s capital, Bisha. Salvation started there, and it was the city that supplied both the temple and the crater, so the wonders that could be found in a place like that were beyond what she could imagine. The same went for the cities of the northern continent, which apparently survived without every undergoing Salvation and apparently even had a city entirely inside a Quarry. They enjoyed their time in the city leisurely, even taking in some shopping and looked at the local metal-works.

The second day there were in town, a series of grisly murders had taken place one night. An apprentice alchemist who was charged with supplying the Lord’s with canisters to feed their Sacrams was robbed and killed, as was a jewellery maker. Both bodies were found without heads, though no witnesses to the crimes could be found. The Lord-Magus’ inquires and spells didn’t reveal much, though they admitted they were more focused on combat and messages, and had little experience with investigations. During that day’s shopping, Azure showed far greater skills at haggling, and it seemed that her pocket held more Wattles then it had even before their shopping.

Later that night, Anna learned some new types of magic; light, cold, wind and gold. Gold functioned very much like the iron spell she already knew, though it was obviously more pretty to look at. Wind created a gust that, at its most basic form, had the strength of a light push. Cold was the shortest ranged of all the spells and simply made her hand cool to the touch. Light was the most practical, as it could be used to brighten a room in any colour she chose or even point it in a single direction like a bullseye lantern. As Anna practiced with the new spells, Azure used a new tool to assemble the cylinders that they fed to their Sacrams. If the Lord’s entered their room and found the tool, it was likely they would believe Azure to be the perpetrator of the heinous crimes. With the rumours she heard during the day, the common consensus was that the gruff and vicious looking new captain of the northern fleet, whose black hair and piercing eyes spoke volumes about his evil deeds, had arrived in port just two days before the incidents started, and without Salvation, the northerners were bound to start tearing into honest citizens when given half a chance. Even if the captain himself didn’t do it, it was bound to be one of his crew. That’s just how the northerners are.

On the third day, the northerners took things a bit too far. During the night, one of them snuck into the church and killed a Lord-Magus while he slept. It was clearly the work of a northerner, as the head was once again missing. Outrage filled the streets and the residence were arming themselves to head down the docks. The Lords were with the residence, and the northerners were rushing to board their ship to leave. Before they could do anything, the remaining Lord-Magus touched his hands to the water, and the ocean between the end of the pier and the back of the ship froze over, shaped like hand grasping to hold both ends in place. Dock workers used hooks on ropes to pull the gangways, which had been raised, back down.

The crew of the ship were equipped with Blesarms and Sacrams, in both long and short barrel forms, and they started to open fire on the approaching mob. The residence of Kawa responded with their Orarms as the martial Lord’s ran up the gangways, letting their armour and shields take the hits. As blood sprayed across both the docks and the deck, things started to escalate further. The sailors threw tubes into the crowd, tubes which erupted in fire and thunder worse than even a Sacram. Bodies were torn to shreds and injured people were pushed into the waters where they were in no shape to swim. In response, the Lord-Magus’s hands stretched out to the sky, forming a dark black cloud which truck a bolt of lightning into the deck, melting them metal as the thunderclap stunned the sailors. The hole went deep into the ship and water stated to poor through, if it wasn’t patched quickly then it never would be. Similar exchanges continued as more tubes were thrown and more bolts rained down. The Lords were each caught in blasts, bloodied beyond complete recovery but alive by virtue of armour, while they crew was slaughtered by weight of numbers.

From their room in the pub, Anna watch on in horror, guilt filling her as she knew Azure was likely to blame for it. Beside her, Azure didn’t seem happy about what she had caused. Several times she said, “what a waste,” and clearly meant it. The destruction wasn’t contained to just the docks and there was little reason to stay in a broken city. They joined in with the people fleeing the city and made their way out to the forest. Whenever Anna closed her eyes, she could see the bodies being ripped to pieces. That night, camping under the stars, Azure rested Anna’s head in her lap and gently stroked her head. Although she was shaking with the memory of the violence, she eventually found the comfort of sleep.