Chương 74: Chapter 73: Into The Wastes.

It was surprisingly calm. Besides the air that burned faintly in my throat, the sun that seemed too close and too hot, and the violet grass -it was almost comfortable. Aelheim had moved away from the background as we'd crested a small hill. It had taken two hours just to travel that far. Crunch. Crunch. That was the reason. Each step I took -each step anyone took- was accompanied by the dull sound of that crunching as we stepped on ash covered mud. It sounded like walking on shattered glass.

Silver dust kicked up with every step, clinging to our boots and cloaks no matter how we shook them. Count Vance said you tuned it out with time. I hoped that time came soon.

"There's no animals." Damian murmured. Our procession of some fifty odd people was remarkably quiet, and so I heard him easily, even if he was a few feet away.

"No beasts that you can see, lad." One of the men said.

"Don't mean there are none. Best remember that."

"Indeed, the Ashen Wastes are inhospitable to us, but that is not the case for the beasts that live here." Estovan chimed in.

"Though, our party is large, and so not every beast will dare draw close. Many might have gone into hiding as soon as they'd sensed us."

"They better hide." Violet grinned.

"Bet they took one good luck at me and decided to scram." She made a fist with one hand, and used it to punch her other palm.

"There are things watching." I murmured. I felt at least a dozen gazes on my back.

"My Lady, if there was something watching us that obviously, I think we'd know." A rugged looking man on my right said.

"Aye, the Young Lady probably has her nerves acting up. Can't say I blame her much. Even after all of these years this damn place still gives me the creeps." Another man added. Both men were already looking away before they'd finished speaking. Not that I had expected any different. With my Gift layered over mana sight, I could see farther than anyone here. Every now and then, I would see glowing shapes on the horizon. Those shapes would watch us, slink away.

Occasionally I would see what looked like birds in the far sky, the distance was hard to make out with even my Gift. Nonetheless, I was sure they weren't actually birds. Whether or not they were Ash Wraiths instead was hard to say. There were probably worse things out here.

"You should take her word for it." Count Vance called out loudly from the front.

"This Little Lady has some good senses." I had disclosed some of the particulars of my Gift with the Count. Given what we were doing, it seemed stupid not to. The Count's words settled into the men far better than mine ever would have.

"Damian," Estovan murmured.

"Channel your Gift. This place will be good training."

"It will?" Damian asked, even as he channeled mana.

"So, what do I do now?"

"Pour it directly into the ground below us." Damian apparently did just that. We were walking down the ruins of what had once been in a great road, now in some state of disrepair. Violet came to move on my right, even as Sere idly walked on my left. Violet proceeded to bump me on the shoulder. Hard, but not hard enough to make me stumble.

"What?"

"I'm bored." Violet yawned.

"Where the hell is this Dragon anyway?"

"It's a three day ride to the village. From there, we actually have to find the thing." I answered.

"Boring." Violet sighed.

"Did you think it would be nonstop fighting from the second we stepped out?"

"Yes?" I smirked.

"You know, almost half of all expeditioners die because they run out of water or food. Or they eat something they very much shouldn't out here." Violet's footsteps paused for a moment, making me stop in place too.

"I swear if I fucking die to something lame like that, I'm going to kill myself!" I looked back at her, deadpan.

"I am sure you will." Violet's comment got a snort from one of the expeditioners, and a few amused glances from others. Apparently, this kind of humor worked well in a place like this. I would keep that in mind. Sere bumped my other shoulder. I turned towards her even as she held her notebook out. It was a sketch. A sketch of our surroundings, or the surroundings we had just passed. It was surprisingly detailed for just being something she had thrown together as we were walking.

"That's lovely, Sere." I patted her shoulder. She flipped to an empty page, started to write. Big. Everything.

"Indeed it is." I said, glancing around.

"I guess you kind of forget in the city, but the world is a very big place." I had never been anywhere this open. Even in my past life, the cities were crowded with skyscrapers as far as the eye could see. There had been no places like this left. It was beautiful, even poisoned as it was. Freeing? Was this what people in the other parts of the Kingdom had to look forward to by simply stepping out of the big cities? It was no wonder then, that Aelheim was considered an unfortunate backwater.

The scenery gradually started to shift. The trees grew denser as we walked. It was our first real landmark that I recognized. The Fingered Forest. Once, it had a more normal name. Now, it was a large patch of land where those sickly, blackened fingers stretched toward the sky, casting long shadows over our passing column. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Be careful here." Estovan said, loud enough for all of us to hear.

"If you see any of these move, call it out."

"The trees move?" Violet grinned, resting a hand on the haft of her hammer.

"Now doesn't that sound like fun?"

"Aye, lass." It was one of Count Vance's lieutenant's this time. Simone, I knew his name now." Haunting Willows we call them. Blend in with the rest of 'em, but they grab you before you can even scream. Kill you almost just as fast." I had read about them in the one bestiary we had back home. All in all, Haunting Willows were one of the more pleasant kinds of beasts one could run into out here in the Ashen Wastes.

"Why don't I just smash all of these trees to bits then? Won't need to worry after that." Violet demanded. That got a row of laughter from the men. Violet huffed, folded her arms.

"Lass, we could do that, aye." Count Vance said.

"And make enough damn noise that something much more dangerous comes wondering to see what's going on." So exactly what I had read then.

"My Lady!" I paused and looked behind me. It was Dorothy Carter. She and the adventurer assigned to her had walked farther up the column. The device hummed though I didn't feel any of its prickling yet.

"May…may we take a few pictures of all of this, if you don't mind?" The forest of black and glass fingers was striking enough for it.

"You're not just saying this because you're tired of walking, right?" The sun hadn't quite yet started to set, but it surely wouldn't be long now.

"N-no My Lady, I swear!" Dorothy gave me a bow that looked even more out of place here of all places. A few of the men were watching. I sighed, stepped forward until I got closer to Count Vance.

"My Lord, when will we stop?" Count Vance regarded me for a moment, glanced at his surroundings from atop his horse.

"Soon. There is a clearing some small distance away. We will stop there for the night."

"This early?"

"My Lady, the Ashen Wastes are dangerous during the day. They are more so during the night. Best we not move, and keep our lights dim. It's a true wonder we haven't been attacked by now. It makes me uneasy." I nodded, moved back and relayed the same thing to Dorothy. She seemed very relieved, which made me think this was mostly about her needing a break. I didn't think the woman had much in the way of mana, and compressing it for so long must have nearly drained her.

We didn't have to walk long after that before we came to a clearing. A small circular patch within the forest without trees. The sickly violet grass remained, but that was simply a feature of the land. Two men stepped forward towards the center of the clearing, carrying between them a large, black rod, almost as big as any of the trees next to us. One of the horses had been dedicated specifically to carrying the Magical Implement, and that had made me curious.

The men channeled mana, planted the rod into the ground several feet deep, until there was no risk of it swaying and falling over.

"Elric, Stevan, Seren. You know what to do." Count Vance's other lieutenant -Marsh- barked out. The three men in question stepped forward towards the large pole. None of them looked particularly enthusiastic about whatever they were about to do.

"What are they doing?" It was Damian who asked.

"Putting up the Purifying Rod." Marsh answered gruffly, but not unkindly.

"Need that to get some decent sleep. Unless you want to be condensing mana through the entire damn night too." That made sense.

"They don't look very happy about such an important task." I pointed out.

"Aye…takes a massive toll on a man's reserves. Leaves him dead on his feet. It's their duty this night, but we rotate every night."

"Let me try powering the device." My voice carried. I wasn't projecting my voice, sound just had a way of echoing in this dead place. The three men looked at each other, then back at me. They took in my pristine riding coat and delicate frame, then looked past me for help from someone who could put an end to my request. There was laughter at that. A few gruff chuckles that quickly started to spread. It seemed that this, of all things, was where the expeditioners drew the line at humoring a Noble child.

Even one they were all sworn to. Count Vance stepped forward into the center of the clearing. He looked at me soothingly, like a grandfather about to tell his granddaughter she couldn't have all of the sweets she wanted in one day.

"My Lady, it does require a lot of mana." He said.

"I am afraid that even if you do power it, it would leave you far too exhausted to continue the journey in the morning. That's why we split the burden amongst three people." Violet stepped forward at that, pointed at me.

"You're all idiots then. She has more mana then all of you combined!" That…was an exaggeration, surely. Still, I didn't mind the small reassurance. Damian stepped in next, his hand on the pommel of his sword even as small spikes of stone erupted from the ground in front of him. It seemed like he had been spending entirely too much time with Violet. I didn't see Sere. I did spot Estovan, glancing at me thoughtfully from amidst the soldiers.

"I would endeavor to try anyway." I said. Count Vance looked from me to his men. A man torn between the men under him, and the very unreasonable Noble Lady above him. I did not envy him.

"Very well." Count Vance said at last, resigned.

"Men, please step aside." The three men reluctantly did just that, letting me through towards the large rod. It was unnaturally dark, a perfectly monotone color. I put my hands on the metal. The cold bit into my skin immediately. I channeled mana, poured it forward. The device drank. It pulled harder than I'd expected, a sudden draw that made my fingers lock against the metal.

"If you're hungry, you should have just said so." I whispered, and reached deeper into my Core than I usually did. Something hummed beneath my palms -beneath my feet. Runes lit up from where my hands gripped the rod, climbing the metal in a wave of blue light. Ten seconds, and the whole thing pulsed with a steady glow. I let go, flexed my fingers. That had taken quite a bit of mana. Ten percent, maybe. The Magical Implement worked. A shimmering blue dome expanded outward from the rod, washing over the clearing.

The smell of sulfur vanished, replaced by air that wasn't quite fresh, but was still damned better than what had been there before. I let out a breath and stopped compressing my mana. It felt like dropping a boulder I'd been carrying for hours. Within the blue dome, it was oddly quiet. Even more than it should have been, in this dead forest. I turned. Half the camp was staring. Violet, Damian, and Estovan were the exceptions. Sere was off to the side, busy doodling.

"See? What the hell did I tell ya, bastards?" Violet yelled. That broke the silence. Broke it in favor of hushed whispers, not too dissimilar from the crowd insides the city earlier in the day. I shrugged and walked past Count Vance.

"I see why they attacked the walls." He murmured.

"Roderick did say it, but…." I left him standing there. The men were fast at setting up our tents. There seemed to be an entire system to the organization. Men with long range weapons and presumably Gifts were all stationed near the center of the clearing, everyone else made a perimeter around them. My tent was near the center. Small, shabby. It would do. My last life had given me plenty of practice sleeping on worse. Damian's, Sere's and Violet's tents were right next to mine.

Estovan's was farther away, at the very edge of camp. That was a subtle acknowledgement that he was one of the strongest fighters here. Violet seemed much more enthused when she saw the tents.

"Alright, this is fucking awesome." She grinned.

"Now this is just like the damn stories." Damian sighed.

"This part of the story I definitely could have done without." The sun had long since set now. The moon was a poor replacement. Luckily, there were plenty of Magical Implements here that had no purpose other than to give off light. They were a rather effective replacement for a fire, since the light was contained to just this clearing.

"You're a damn wimp. Where the hell is your sense of adventure? Your excitement? Don't tell me you don't have a heart." Violet said.

"Don't tell me you don't have a brain!" Damian said. I left the two to their bickering, moving towards Count Vance. The man was sitting cross legged, staring up at the starfilled night sky. That was how just about everyone trained their Edicts, for some reason. He turned towards me long before I reached him.

"My Lady? Is something the matter?"

"I wish to join the watch." I said. He stared at me.

"Why?"

"I have good eyes. Seems a waste not to use them." Count Vance chewed on it for a moment, finally nodded.

"Then you'd best get four hours of sleep. I will have someone come rouse you when it's time." He had accepted rather easily. Good. That was a good sign. I began to turn, heading back towards my tent. The camp had already started to settle. Soldiers murmured in hushed voices as they checked their gear, the soft clinking of armor mixing with the faint, comforting hum of the Purifying Rod. Damian and Violet were still arguing.

Apparently, somehow the conversation had turned to them arguing over whose tent should be closer to mine. I didn't exactly see the need. I left them to it. Where was Sere? I paused at the flap of my tent and looked back out past our perimeter. Beyond the shimmering blue dome, the Fingered Forest was pitch black. No wind in the glassy branches. No insects. Nothing. I let out a long breath, and reached for the tent flap. A scream split the clearing.