She continued to cry for a long time. In the meantime, I pondered. Sending her back would be the safest choice, but if her grandfather became suspicious and reported this, things could become difficult for her. She had probably come to the same conclusion, considering how she had made the reckless choice of abandoning the safety of the Perimeter and stepping outside of it towards the unknown. Nevertheless not even a month had passed and our adventure had almost ended already.

I reviewed in my head the battle of the previous night. I came to the conclusion that although I may have been able to hold on long enough for my opponent to spend all of his energy and die by himself, had it not been for the mana storm Faye had inadvertently caused, I would have at least suffered serious injuries, maybe even lost one or two limbs, and she would have certainly lost her life.

I was not confident I would be able to protect myself in the future, let alone another person. In the far off future, maybe, but not in the near one and certainly not in the present. I didn’t want her to die, but the events of the previous night had shown me that I had not the leeway to look after others' safety before my own. The image of my impending demise, which had shown itself to me while Sloan had been battering me with my own weapon, presented itself to my mind. From that moment onwards, I had felt something akin to a scream surge from the depths of my flesh and bones, continuously repeating in a wordless but perfectly comprehensible tongue a single imperative: “survive”.

Finally, I reached a resolution.

“I understand. You may continue to follow me, but I must warn you: from this point on, I cannot guarantee your safety. I will still try to protect you, but only up to a reasonable degree, as evidently I can’t yet afford to excessively jeopardise myself. If events akin to the one of the previous night were to repeat themselves, I may find myself forced to prioritise my own safety over yours. Do you understand?”

Faye seemed deeply shaken by my words. I saw in her eyes she was reliving what had happened the night before. Her face became pale and her eyes filled with dread. The possibility of something like that happening again seemed to terrify her. Although I had not witnessed the first part of Sloan’s aggression against her, I had made a probable reconstruction of what had gone down inside my mind and I could understand why the experience had been particularly traumatic. Archumans may have had a reduced libido, but some could be particularly sensitive to the gratification given by power and domination over others and others still were just downright sadistic.

After a long time, she spoke in a small voice.

“I understand. I still wish to come with you”, she confirmed her intention.

I didn’t know whether her decision was due to desperation or if she just hoped that my words had only been an attempt to scare her away, but to me it didn’t make any difference. I acknowledged her decision and got off the protruding platform. I picked up from the ground the three chains and intertwined them. Squeezing the now single metallic strand in my right hand, I started walking, dragging the wagon with me.

Putting it into motion required a great deal of physical exertion, due to the need to break off the improper welds. The wagon shook a lot and the deformed wheels made it more taxing to pull it along, but I found it less troublesome than it could have reasonably been expected to be. Although I had been punched, kicked, pummeled and had my sternum repeatedly hit by a mace, I felt strangely energetic. My body, although tired, had seemingly not simply pulled itself together during the night, but it also had implemented some improvements.

I continued marching with the wagon in tow as I had been doing for the past days, this time while taking some rest every few hours, to recover from fatigue and to avoid accumulating more. At regular intervals, I looked behind me to check on Faye. Although she gave me a small smile every time, she didn’t talk to me, as she seemed to have a lot going through her mind; and understandably so. What I took note of was the look in her eyes, which at times appeared feverish.

Soon enough, we left the area scarred by the mana storm and the view returned to being the monotonous one of smooth hills and gentle slopes. We travelled long distances, the only things accompanying us being the motion of the sun and moon across the sky and the low continuous screeching of the wheels.

After one week of travel, I found myself utterly lost. For some reason I was unable to keep track of the passing days: daytime and nighttime seemed to have blended together and become irregular, with their duration varying wildly from one day to the other, while the inconsistent and erratic motion of the stars across the celestial dome made it impossible to accurately determine our position. Even Faye appeared puzzled by whatever seemed to be going on. She had emerged from her state of withdrawal and she dedicated herself to try and understand what was happening.

One day, over the horizon, the familiar silhouette of gargantuan obsidian pillars had appeared. Joy had filled Faye’s face, but it had rapidly turned to desperation. After a couple of days, in which things had seemingly returned to normal and part of the Perimeter we were approaching had come into view, we had stopped making progress. It didn’t matter for how long we travelled, we were unable to close the remaining distance between us and the destination.

The rations loaded on the wagon would last us for quite a while, as we had ample food stocks, but not knowing for how long this situation could last meant food availability could quickly become a critical matter. To try and respond to this need, I had decided to limit my caloric intake. After my complete recovery, I had discovered I needed to consume less supplies than before and I had also become capable of long periods of fasting without any notable adverse effects arising.

Faye didn’t seem to take my decision very well, but she couldn’t voice her displeasure as I made sure to consume what I needed to keep myself healthy. For now, I prepared myself for a battle against time.