Liam opened his eyes, his neck was burning and he felt that he had scraped his hands and knees. He knelt bent over Cale, who looked at him with large, dark eyes. The man had some dirt on his face and looked like he wanted to say something, but kept it to himself.

A large tree had just fallen on the path directly in front of them, nearly striking Cale, so Liam, with a step spurred by mana, dashed toward Cale and yanked him aside. But Liam had lost his footing and pulled himself and Cale to the ground before they slid forward a good ten feet.

He wasn't entirely sure himself why he had just done that. Pure instinct had just led him to pull Cale to safety.

Cale himself was completely covered in dirt. His black hair was down and he seemed to have pain in his limbs because he contorted his face trying to sit up. Liam was about to say something, when Cale jerked his hand over him and pulled Liam to his chest. Suddenly, he felt a torrent of mana emanate from the man below him, moments before a thick branch whipped into them. A dull thud was heard, causing Liam to flinch in fright and squint his eyes for the moment.

The two were completely still. Cale was lying on his back on the ground, his backpack having taken some damage, but his head had not. He touched the ground with one hand while holding Liam's head down with the other, dirty hand. Liam himself was now resting his full weight on top of Cale, his hands had given in and he could clearly feel Cales heart pounding as well as his own. He opened his eyes again.

The adrenaline was still in full swing as Liam tried to take deep breaths in and out. He was cold, freezing, though not completely soaked, his hands burning like fire and his head spinning. He had completely lost his bearings, the only thing he could perceive at that moment was Cales strong heartbeat.

"Liam."

The soft voice entered his ear, but he couldn't see. His vision grew dim and he felt sick.

"Liam!"

This time Cales voice was stronger and he felt his body straighten.

"Liam!"

Liam turned to the man, startled, before realizing he was sitting in a barrier. There was no wind and the rain was making an arc around them. Surprised, he stared at the glassy shell surrounding them and spotted drops of water running down as if on a window.

"Ah", he merely replied, unable to bring himself to say more. Astonished, Cale looked at Liam, who was half sitting, half lying on his lap and chest, before he began to laugh and moved his hand from Liam's head to his back. In the midst of the storm, the two lay right up against each other as Cale started laughing out loud.

"Don't scare me like that", he muttered in a forced, calm voice, while keeping an eye on the surroundings with his mana. Liam, on the other hand, almost exhaled in relief as he noticed the burning pain in his hands and let go of Cale. He looked at his bloody hand with mixed emotions before realizing that he was just leaning against Cale.

"Thank you", Cale finally complemented. Liam looked up in surprise and gazed into Cale's eyes. He was bleeding from the forehead and his right eye was red underneath. With those huge, black eyes, he looked more like one of the creatures than one of the humans. "Don't ever do that again."

Cales commanding exclamation combined with his serious expression made Liam flinch briefly before he stood up and looked at the barrier in fascination. A tree crashed to the ground a few feet from them, causing Liam to inadvertently take a step back.

"Ben, Aletta, and Phil!"

Liam had stopped thinking for a moment about what happened to the other group members after he saved Cale from the falling tree.

"They're fine. They're much farther ahead, and with Ben's strength and Aletta's healing abilities, they should be alright."

Liam watched as Cale stood up and tried to wipe the dirt off his clothes. To no avail.

"You know about Aletta?"

"More or less, yeah. She's your mission, right?", he answerd, which is why the swordsman looked at him wordlessly. That he was smart was no longer just a guess. He knew it, but why had he never asked more specifically?

"It's none of my business", Cale replied, as if he had read Liam's mind. Sullenly, he tried to brush his wet hair out of his face and only then noticed that he also had dirt on his forehead. He pulled a dry piece of clothing out from under his sleeve and wiped it off his face with one swipe. Liam noticed the cut on the back of his hand, causing him to feel guilty.

"Can you run?"

Liam hesitated and looked down at his legs. His pants were completely torn and you could clearly see his bloody knees. That, however, was half the problem. What concerned him more was the fact that every one of his muscles cried out at the slightest movement. He must have pulled or injured something, that much was certain. But he wasn't about to tell Cale that.

"Yes."

"Don't lie to me, please", Cale shot out loud. His serious look said it all. It was as if he were talking to one of his teachers, who were admonishing him once again for a dangerous action. Somehow, Liam felt he had no other choice. Cale knew about everything anyway, he just didn't show it openly. Out of consideration, that much he had abruptly realized. Even ignoring his external injuries, Liam was cold, water was creeping down his back and his sense of balance was fucked.

"No, I don't think so."

Without a fight, Liam gave up. It was best for them if Cale tried to catch up with the others and Liam followed later. On the other hand, Liam also knew that Ben wouldn't let that happen and would instantly come looking for him, which was why he couldn't find a reasonable alternative. He couldn't ask the stranger to deliberately put himself in danger for his sake. Only a few moments later, he noticed Cales worried look before he spoke up again.

"How about walking? Are you in pain?"

"You should go on without me, I'm just slowing you down", Liam calmly spoke up. But when that look of concern changed to anger and bewilderment, Liam immediately guessed that Cale wasn't going to let that happen. It was the same look Ben often had.

"I most certainly will not", he replied gruffly.

"Cale, we don't have time to argue", he declared, and for the first time he spoke to Cale not on a formal level, but on a personal one.

"You're right about that."

Without hesitation, he grabbed Liam's arm, who let out a soft cry of pain and was lifted into the air moments later. He tried to free himself from Cales grip, which only tightened it. Liam noticed the serious look on Cales face and paused. With a powerful kick, Cale shot up into the air and leapt gracefully from tree to tree, almost as if he was flying. Automatically, the black-haired swordsman pressed his head closer to Cales body as his body began to tingle due to the rapid difference in height.

"Cut the bullshit", Liam admonished him.

"Do you really think I don't know what you're up to? How could you even think that I would just leave you behind? We barely know each other, but even you should have been aware of that!"

There were no retorts to this comment. It had become clear to Liam why Lukas was frantically trying to tell them what kind of person Cale was. It was, as he said. Cale was a good soul. Willingly putting himself in a more dangerous situation than necessary just to help a stranger he had barely known for two weeks? It was more than clear which of them actually had the upper hand.

"Can you do it?", asked Liam after a few moments of silence, while Cale skillfully flew from tree to tree. He had realized that the new guy was using mana to keep himself from losing his footing. Even more, he noticed that Cale had continued to build the surrounding barrier to protect Liam from the environmental effects. Only now did the swordsman wonder if Aletta had been wrong in her previous assessment.

"With ease, yes, but I don't want to keep this up for more than an hour."

An hour was a lot, more than Liam had expected. Constantly keeping his mana perfectly upright was difficult even for the skilled swordsman, let alone using it so purposefully. He could only explain it by the fact that Cale was a mage.

"Where did you learn to use your mana like that?"

Cale didn't give the man in his arms a glance, but had to smile at the question. The face of the first seat and friend Grisha appeared to him, so he couldn't help but grin.

"I'm from Altona, remember?" replied Cale wryly. Liam remembered how Cale mentioned some time ago that he was born in Sylve but lived in Exarion. There was no one who didn't know what made this city so special.

"So you're really a mage?"

All of a sudden, Cales face went white. He hadn't intended to tell Liam so early that he was a magician, but now he had his abilities handed to him on a silver platter. And that caught Liam's eye, too. Even the swordsman realized that Cale was trying to keep this information a secret.

"Yeah, you could say that."

Incredulous, Liam looked at him. A mage, an Altonian mage at that, was holding him right now while expertly flying through the forest. When he first met him, he judged Cale to be a weak man who was indulging himself in the tavern after a hard day of work. He didn't seem particularly strong, nor did he seem to have much mana. Instead, he seemed like a perfectly normal citizen, but he was an Anuxer who had been on the job significantly longer than he had and a mage from Altona to boot. Chances were Cale worked for the Magistrat, which suddenly put him in a completely different light.

"How strong are you?", asked Liam hesitantly. His estimation of Cale had been way of. How could he have missed that? How could Aletta have missed it? How had none of them noticed that Cale was a mage?

"Strong enough to defend myself", Cale repeated. They were the same words he had said to Liam back during their second conversation. "That's why I meant you guys don't have to take me into consideration. I'm doing pretty good on my own."

The last sentence literally pierced like a knive thought Liam's heart. He had instinctively wanted to save Cale from the falling tree, while the latter probably could have dodged it without any problems. Judging by his barrier and his movements, Cale was clearly superior to him, probably even to the whole group. He had put himself and Cale in a predicament just by not listening to him.

Unobtrusively, he watched Cale. His long, pitch-black hair was pulled back by his movements and his eyes were narrow as they looked permanently to the left and right. His almost emaciated face reflected an unusual kind of coldness that inevitably reminded Liam of death. He watched him bite his lip, as if Cale would have to pull himself together to keep from completely freaking out. Quietly, Cale exhaled and glanced briefly at Liam.

"Please don't look at me like that, I know perfectly well that you're feeling guilty right now. You don't have to, really. Just relax and trust me, will you?"

Cale tried to remain calm and appear relaxed at the statement, yet he was anything but. There was only one thought burning in his mind.