When the light was waning and the sun was getting dangerously low over the treetops, Bordan asked Leodin to stop. If they were to sleep outside, they would need to find some sort of shelter nearby.

“We don’t want to just camp in the middle of the forest. Something to put our backs to would be great. A cliff, a big rock, anything.”

They searched for a while, rejecting several potential spots. The big tree wasn’t quite big enough, the thicket might protect them, but it might just as well hide an attacker, and the ditch was too out in the open. Finally, with the last light of the day, they settled on a hole in the side of a hill. It wasn’t a cave, not even a real cliff. A large tree had grown on the steep hillside until a storm had ripped it out, roots and all, leaving a hollow that couldn’t be seen into from any side. It was barely large enough for two bedrolls and the top was uncovered, but there was no hint of rain, and it would provide a flat ground to sleep on.

“We’ll need to stand watch.” Bordan told the others quietly, the adventurers adjusting their voice to the quieting forest without even noticing. “And it has to be two of us because one person can be snuck up on too easily. We’ll have to do two watches, even though that means little sleep.”

Edwin furrowed his brow. The others had been worn-out after the fight against the direbeaver, especially Salissa. As they had needed to leave at first light, they hadn’t gotten as much sleep as Edwin assumed they needed. Sleeping in a ditch in the forest was already bad enough, but if they only got a few hours each after tromping through the forest the entire day, much of it without so much as a trail, it might become a real problem.

The others had been discussing who should take which watch when Edwin interrupted them.

“I’ll stay awake.”

The other three looked at him with surprise.

“What do you mean?” Bordan asked.

“I’ll stay up all night. We do three watches, one for each of you. This way you get more rest.”

His declaration was met with unbridled perplexity. After a few seconds, Bordan replied:

“Sure, but you won’t get any.”

“I’ll be fine, I don’t need as much sleep. I can easily go a night without, I’ve done it before.”

“Edwin, that’s…” Bordan stopped himself, taking a breath. “Don’t try to be a hero, Edwin. We’ll do two watches, and it’ll be alright.”

“No.” Edwin answered forcefully, surprising the others. “We’ve been going non-stop since the damn beetle, always marching or fighting, only sleeping a few hours at night. If you don’t rest a little, what happens if we get attacked tomorrow? You know me, a little walking doesn’t faze me. I’m telling you that it will be fine. Trust me.”

He stood there, staring down the others with a determined look. Finally, Bordan raised his hands as if to appease the large man.

“Alright, Edwin, if you feel this strongly about it, we’ll do it. But promise me that you’ll wake one of us if you get tired.”

“I won’t, but I promise.” Edwin said. It wasn’t much, but even an hour of sleep more would be helpful to them, especially out here, lying on the uneven forest floor. On top of that, it was an ideal opportunity to test how his body would react to skipping a night of sleep. This was technically something that even a regular person could do, so he didn’t expect any problems. Still, he had to be careful with his experiments and avoid going too far too quickly. Based on the enhancements Walter had done, he hypothesized that one or two nights without rest would have no discernable effect, with symptoms of some sort probably starting around the third or fourth day, maybe the fifth at the latest. He didn’t have time to do all of those experiments out here, but knowing that two days without sleep were no issue would be valuable in itself.

Bordan volunteered to take the middle watch, saying that he was used to standing night watches from his time in the army. Leodin would have the last watch, and Salissa got the first. Bordan and Leodin took out their bedrolls, placed their weapons next to them for quick access, and after the party shared a quick, cold meal of salted meat and hardtack, they lay down and closed their eyes. The sun had fully dropped under the horizon, and darkness and silence had descended upon the forest like a blanket.

“I’ll look uphill, you look downhill?” Edwin asked Salissa in a hushed voice, to which she nodded. Edwin carefully stepped past the still forms of his companions, Bordan already snoring quietly. The edge of the hollow was high enough that he could comfortably place his elbows on top while he stood and surveyed the forest around them. The trees were sparse, giving him good visibility in all directions. While he didn’t have real nightvision, the full moon provided his enhanced eyes with enough light that he didn’t fear being snuck up on. In the stillness of the night, every little sound felt unnaturally loud to his sharp ears. He spent some time watching for movement, scanning shapes and shadows for movement.

After a while, he got bored. Absolutely nothing was happening, and one could only look at the same thing for so long before one’s thoughts started to wander. Usually, Edwin would’ve retreated into his mind, working on the Immortalizer or any other of his ritual projects. This time, he couldn’t do that. Instead, he focused on the sounds around him, trying to filter out each one.

Leodin and Bordan were breathing slowly and regularly. The older man had finally stopped snoring at some point, but Leodin was turning in his sleep. On the other side of the hollow, Salissa was also breathing deeply. For a moment, Edwin worried that she might have fallen asleep and turned around to look. She was seated with crossed legs, a hand outstretched before her, palm up. In her hand rested a pebble. It took him a few moments to recognize the stance, as the nightly forest was a stark difference to a sunlit classroom or the College gardens. He furrowed his brow. On one hand, she really shouldn’t be meditating on watch. She had turned too much of her attention inwards, leaving very little to look out for threats. On the other hand, it was the first time Edwin had seen her practice her magic. It was possible that she did so at night, away from prying eyes, but it was also the first time he’d seen her use anything but a fire conversion.

Curious, he watched. For a few minutes, nothing happened. Edwin was starting to believe that she’d actually fallen asleep when the pebble suddenly sharply rose into the air, hovering motionless half a meter above her palm. The young mage breathed out, opening her eyes to watch the pebble zip around above her head. Edwin frowned. That had been slow. Very slow. And her technique was bad on top of it. Who had trained that girl? Had the College’s standards really plummeted that far since Walter left?

As he watched, the pebble returned to just above her palm, hovered there for a moment, then dropped. Salissa took a deep breath, then resumed her meditation. Edwin looked on with mixed feelings. A few weeks ago, her incompetence would have made him angry. Now he just felt bad for the girl. Maybe the last fights had finally shown her that her fire wasn’t always going to be enough, and she’d even drawn the correct conclusion. As she was, however, using telekinesis in combat was weeks away, maybe months. Would she accept his advice, though? And would giving it reveal too much of his knowledge? He watched, he pondered, and the pebble didn’t move. Finally he sighed, looked around the forest one last time, then quietly walked over to the girl.

She didn’t hear him coming, her eyes snapping open only when he sat down next to her. When she recognized his looming figure, a look of embarrassment flashed across her face, then quickly changed to defiance.

She probably thinks I want to berate her for not paying attention. Edwin thought wryly.

“Trouble with telekinesis?” He whispered. The moon was behind him, helpfully illuminating Salissa’s face as it went through a dozen different shades of surprise, shock, incredulity, offense and haughtiness. She finally settled on cautious contempt.

“What do you want?” she whispered back.

Edwin smiled, although he didn’t know if she could see it.

“A friend once told me a trick to learning telekinesis, and I thought you’d like to hear it. Interested?”

“You’re not a mage.” She said suspiciously.

“True.” He chuckled. “But he was.”

“How would you know a mage?” She asked.

“Maybe I’ll tell you some time. One of us should probably be watching though.”

At least she had the decency to look somewhat ashamed.

“Fine. So, what’s this great trick?”

“Easy.” Edwin grinned. “Drop the pebble.”

Confusion, then anger.

“Are you making fun of me?”

“Just a little.” Edwin chuckled. “But the trick is real. Look, hold out your hand.”

She looked at him, eyes narrowed. Finally, she said “I guess it can’t hurt to try.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Edwin said, pleased. “Balance the pebble on your hand and close your eyes. Now realize that you don’t want the pebble to fall. Once you’re sure in that knowledge, carefully take hold of your mana. Once you have it, very slowly tilt your hand until the palm faces downwards.”

She regarded him suspiciously. “Are you making that up?”

Edwin sighed. “What would be the point? Just try it for a while, and if it doesn’t work, you can go back to what you were doing.”

She held his gaze, searching his face for signs of deceit or ridicule. Edwin did his best not to let his amusement or exasperation show, fearing to lose what little trust she had.

“Fine.” She grumbled, closing her eyes. “But I really don’t see how this is different to what I was doing anyway.” She breathed deeply, then started tilting her hand. Edwin grabbed her wrist, stopping her. Her eyes popped open, immediately narrowing in anger.

“Not like that.” Edwin calmly said, letting go of her arm.

“Like what?” she demanded.

Edwin sighed, trying to formulate his thoughts into words.

“Alright, listen: What you just did was basically exactly what you did before. You concentrated on the pebble, imagined it not falling, reached for your telekinesis and then your mana.”

She looked surprised again, but didn’t let that quell her anger. “Of couse I did. That’s how it works. I don’t expect someone like you to-“

“Except it’s not working, is it?” That shut her up, her mouth audibly closing and opening a few times.

“I watched you.” Edwin continued before she could decide that she wanted to be angry again. “You couldn’t lift the pebble for minutes. It didn’t work, so you took the easy way out.”

She was so dumbfounded at that, she even forgot to glare at him.

“How do you know?”

“I told you.” Edwin said with a smile. “A friend once told me how he learned the skill, and he specifically talked about what you just did.”

Salissa crossed her arms, studying him as if she was seeing him for the first time. “Prove it.”

“As you wish.” Edwin felt at the ground, picking up a second pebble and holding it up to her.

“So this is how telekinesis works…”