#trytamer

It had been a couple months since the incident in the region that shattered the peacefulness of the valley. The inquest base that was formerly existing was replaced with a large, smoking crater that over the course of time became a pit of devourer nests and tumbleweeds. The murders that happened during the incident had almost completely faded, and the White Mantle had been driven out of the region, restoring the town to the state it was in before everything occurred.

The only official differences aside from the scenery were occasional explosions coming from the sheriff’s house (though that was to be expected, for T.K was the kind of demolitionist), the alarms set up in the event the town was attacked, and the fact that the asura who used to be a part of the destroyed lab now lived with her brother in the house. Dorty didn’t mind, honestly, but Ryagan was annoyed how there was another person to keep an eye on.

Dyeeaka spent her days there working in T.K’s workshop, mixing multiple concoctions together with some of the many spare parts scattered around to make a few new weapons that T.K was more than happy to test out. Her devices got good attention with the folk of the town, and she began assisting the town with issues involving outside threats. Recently, she had finally found a rather unique but also possibly dangerous job looking after a particular asura, though she seemed to be enjoying it.

Inside the house, Trytamer was sitting on the couch, rubbing Drakus’ belly like he would a dog, and Dorty simply lay on the other side quite lazily, unsure of what to do. It was an entire month now with him having nothing to do that was at least a little entertaining, and as the days grew on, he was getting more and more bored by it. He stretched his arms upward and yawned loudly, unintentionally irritating Ryagan.

Surprisingly, Sajessia was keeping to herself in the household, staying in her room. Dor was unsure why she was acting like that, but he assumed it had to do with some recent events he hadn’t heard of. Every now and then he would barely hear the sound of what he could only describe as a burst of light coming from her room, though he never thought of actually looking.

“Okay screw it I’m gonna see what she’s up to.”

Dorty rolled off the couch, falling on his face out of his tiredness, before pushing himself back up and heading to the stairs, getting a look from Trytamer and Drakus of slight confusion. Up the stairs he went to the bedrooms and bathroom they had. The first door on the right was his own room, which he now shared with his sister ever since she moved him. The second door was Trytamer’s, with an obvious smell of beer and meat, like he had a miniature moot going on in there for twenty-four hours a day. The final door on the right was Sajessia’s, which as Dorty approached seemed to have a soft purple glow emitting out from under the crack on the bottom of the door. The door on the very end of the corridor was T.K’s, positioned over his workshop so he could slide down, though Ryagan put it there to discourage T.K from blowing up the place, as if he blew it up, his room would go with it.

For whatever reason, Dorty hesitated on knocking on Sej’s door, maybe if she was doing something she wanted to keep private, like maybe a diary or something. On the other hand, when he put his ear up to the door, the only thing he heard was the sound of her humming a strange tune he couldn’t exactly recognize anywhere, and just that. He heard no pencils or quick hand movements inside, so with slight relief he knocked on the door a few times.

Sajessia stopped humming after the second knock, and became silent for a few moments.

“Hey uhh, Sej?” Dorty called from the other side of the door. “Are you alright in there?”

He waited for an answer, though for about a minute he got no response, but just as he was about to turn away she replied.

“Can we talk?”

“About what?” He wasn’t quite sure what to make of her comment.

“Just… come on in here… I’ll explain.”

He only just realized something sounded different about her, a slight echo to her voice that wasn’t quite normal. He shrugged to himself, pushing the door open and walking inside…

…only to suddenly begin floating without gravity affecting him, yelping in a little surprise. Sajessia’s room had somehow taken the look of space, and not just the walls, but the other things in her room as well, her bed, her table and floor, even the mirror. After a moment of floating helplessly head over heels he finally made contact with the opposite wall from the door, grabbing onto what he assumed was her bed, turning to look around the room. It was hard to spot here at first, but even though she was in her celestial form, her glowing eyes and outline made her stand out in an enviroment she would normally be nigh invisible in. She was floating over in the other corner of the room, a few tiny stars orbiting around her, and from what Dorty could assume she was being serious about something.

Sajessia reached out with her magic and grabbed Dorty with it, psychically moving him over to the center of the room, which she floated over too shortly after. Her outline flickered, and a few moments later the starry surface of her had faded to reveal the good old girl Dorty was most familiar with.

“So uhh… how’s it going?” Dorty snickered.

“It’s… complicated.”

“Can’t be too complicated, can it?”

“It is, trust me.”

“Magic related?”

Sajessia nodded, turning to the side a little so Dorty was still within sight of her, but she wasn’t making eye contact with him for the moment. “I’ve been meaning to ask for a little while now, though I didn’t exactly want the others knowing at the same time.” Dorty perked an ear, “What’s up?”

“The sky, duh!”

Both of them broke out laughing and only harder, even to the point of Sej crying from her own joke as they kept adding on things like “The birds” or “The ceiling”, or even “The harpy that pooped on Zaxaxx” which made Dorty crack up. After the moment was over, Sej resumed the slightly serious tone she had.

“What I wanted to ask was… I’ve known you all since I was awakened from that dead city. Out of all of us, you’ve been there most of the time to help me, when I was sad, when I needed help with something, when you opted for helping me learn how to actually fight and defend myself with an actual weapon and not just my magic,” She pulled her glaive out and spun it around a little, before letting it float over to the side of the room. “and what I’m saying is, while you’re not the one who’s helped me unlock most of my magic, which lets be honest, it was either me on accident or help from one of my friends in the Reach… you’re still the one, out of everyone I know in this world, that I would trust my life to.”

Dorty couldn’t help but blush a little from what might have been the nicest compliment he had ever received. “Uhm… th-thanks.”

Sajessia giggled from the way he responded.

“So, what’s your point here?” He asked.

“My point is… I’m almost done.” She replied.

“Done? With what?”

Sajessia gently grasped one of the stars circling around her, before flicking it upward to the top of the room, which exploded in a harmless shower of beams of line, or more like strands. The light suddenly began to move around and take the shape of symbols, icons, and a few other things. It only took about a few seconds for Dorty to realize this was a map he couldn’t read that he was looking at.

“My magical potential is almost at its greatest. All I need to do in order to finally uncover my truth is to go out on an adventure and unlock it through multiple tasks. Some easy, some hard, but overall it’s not just a life-changing event in my life,” she held a finger up, “it’s -the- life-changing event in my life.”

The way she said it made Dorty snort a laugh in amusement, before she continued,

“…and… I want to share this adventure…”

Suddenly realizing what she was implying, Dorty vainly tried to swim through the air over to her, though since there was no gravity in her room for the moment it wasn’t quite possible. “So, you want me to join you?”

Sajessia slowly nodded.

“Would it be wrong to say I would be honored?”

“Wh- of course not, Dorty!” She laughed.

“Well, in that case, yeah, why the heck not? This is just what I need to do, something to occupy me for a good while. A trek across… uhh, where exactly are we going?” “All over central Tyria.”

“Even better.”

Sajessia purposefully levitated her close friend over to her, and just as she assumed he would do, hugged her. She returned the hug with her own, wings included as she wrapped the two of them in her warm embrace. “I guess you want to get down from here now?”

“Yes, please.”

She nodded, and after a few moments the space that was the room suddenly began to pull inwards back into Sej, until her room was fully restored, gravity returning to normal, though she made sure to hold them both up with her magic before gently setting themselves down.

“So, any planned date you want to start?”

“After Halloween’s over, I think.”

“So, a few weeks? I can live with that.”

“Let’s wait a few days before we tell the others, alright?”

Dorty snickered, “Guess we don’t need T.K going hyper right now at the wrong time.”

“So, yeah, wait a few days, then tell the others, and start packing stuff we’ll need. Sound like a plan?”

“Gotcha, Sej.”

Suddenly, Dorty leaned over and kissed Sej on the cheek, before reeling back in surprise, turning red on the cheeks and ears. “Uhhhhhhhhhhhh-why did I do that?” Sajessia was equally surprised, but shrugged it off and returned the kiss only making him blush harder than he already was.

After a little more discussion, exchanged hugs, and unexplainable inside jokes, they finally returned to whatever they were doing beforehand, readying themselves for the journey ahead.

- - -

Dorty was right when he said T.K would go hyper when he was told the news, and for the next few weeks they all pitched in with preparing the two asura get their things together for the long trek. Both of them received extra-padded coats from Trytamer that provided more warmth, should they need it, as well as some extra snacks and a lighter. Food and water were both packed as well, with a few traps stuffed inside the packs for hunting. Sej was also bringing along a device that would let them talk to the others at home, or anywhere in that manner.

On this final day of packing things up for the road, Dyeeaka approached her brother one last time before they set out, hugging her only sibling she had, and asked a simple but slightly important question.

“Who’s taking over here while you’re gone?”

Dorty was a little confused, unsure how to respond exactly. Before he could say the first thing that came to his mind, Dyeeaka added,

“Not me please, I’m not a leader.”

Now he was left with three options, and they were Ryagan, Trytamer, and T.K. Trytamer was no good with being a leader even in small groups, so he was off the table, leaving Ryagan and T.K as choices. Normally he would choose the former, though for whatever reasons going on, Ryagan seemed more and more quirky and unstable. Putting him in charge of the house while they were gone would result in him throwing all of them into a cell, for he was the sheriff after all, and more recently easier to anger.

“Well…” Dorty shrugged and padded over to T.K, who was choking down on some charr dish of sorts, which smelled good. “Ey T.K, question.”

“Yaaah?” He spun around, still chewing and swallowing, preoccupied with the meal enough to not be quite sure what his friend wanted.

Dorty gave him a light punch to the shoulder, in a friendly way, before saying “You’re in charge while we’re gone, alright?”

If there were reasons watching T.K’s reaction of being surprised was hilarious to watch, nobody could name any despite the obvious. He stood all ridged for a moment, staring down at Dorty like he’d seen a wyvern. He slowly leaned over Dorty, close to his face, though neither budged from that point, before asking “Are ye serious?”

“Yup.”

T.K viciously hugged Dorty like he was a plush backpack from the Black Lion Trading Company, without hurting him too bad, all while chanting “Thank yeh!” over and over again, before letting go and running around the house, hands in the air in victory that he was able to take charge. All the while, Ryagan put a hand up to his face in bewilderment, unable to comprehend why Dorty would choose T.K to watch over things rather than him.

After some more running around aimlessly throughout the house some more, T.K swooped down and picked up both Dorty and Sajessia, hugging them both. “Ayeeeeez gonna miss ye both… a lot. Like, a lotta-lot.”

“Awww…” Sajessia tried her best to hug T.K back with her wings, though her being held in this position made it difficult.

T.K dropped them both down onto the floor carefully, before almost saluting Dorty, “Ayez make sure no Moontle n’ ‘quists smash stuff here, promise! Actually, no promises, stuff might get smashed, but not everythin’!”

“Hehe, thanks man.” Dorty tried his best to reach up and pat T.K on the head, then turning to Sajessia, “So, you ready? I know I am.”

“Uhuh! Ready to go!”

“Ayez got the door!” T.K shouted as he sidestepped over to the front door, before activating the boosters on his shoe and kicking the door off its hinges across the barren front yard, splintering a little with every bounce until it fell flat onto the floor.

Dorty shook his head in disapproval, but couldn’t help laughing with everyone else (except Ryagan, who was fuming at this point). “So, why did you kick the door across the yard?”

“Ayez gonna call it new tradition. If we gotta go places, we kick it across da yard before we go where no-go-before-o!”

“Ha, you can’t be serious!”

“AYEZ SERIOUS, MOIT!”

More laughter was exchanged, before Dorty and Sajessia stepped outside, looking away across the valley, then back at their friends.

“Well… this is it guys.” Dorty shrugged at the rest of the gang. “Me and Sej are going now. Any last words or forever hold your peace before we go?”

“Kick this guy out of command.” Ryagan pointed at T.K.

“Nope.” Dorty snickered.

Trytamer gave a fair wave for them both, while Dyeeaka stepped out between the others, reaching her brother to give him a farewell hug.

“Stay safe brother, alright?”

“Sis you do realize I’m kind of nigh impossible to kill, right?”

“Kind of, that doesn’t mean completely.”

“Good point.”

A sound like silverware clattering all over the floor inside the house gained everyone’s attention, and T.K rushed back inside. “OI, BLOOP NO, BAD BLOOPER!”

Dorty sighed, shaking his head. “Alright, guess that’s all. See ya guys in a while!”

“Be sure to wriii-uhhhhh….” Trytamer started saying, but trailed off.

“We will, don’t worry guys, just hope the bird can actually reach us!” Sajessia giggled. The two turned around to set off, only to find themselves face-to-face with another asura, probably the reason Trytamer had stopped mid-sentence. He didn’t seem like anyone important in particular, but judging by the blue and gold color scheme his clothes bore, he was most likely Consortium.

“Hello.” They said calmly, despite how quickly the faces of the people before him went from excited to downright unamused. “We heard you were going on a sort of adventure to unlock magic. The Consortium is willing to assist you with this, if you would like. We’ll provide you will all sorts of conveniences that wi-”

“SCREW YOU CONSORTY!” T.K yelled, pulling something out from behind the door and throwing it at the uninvited guest.

The asura was struck by a grey, gloopy substance that hit him square in the head, before it began to bounce all across them, while the Consortium asura began to freak out. “What is this thing!? Get it off me!”

“Sic 'em Bloop! Left hook! Left hook!” T.K chanted from the doorway. Clearly he had thrown the pet ooze he had at the poor asura, and they were now at the mercy of the ooze that did nothing more than harmlessly cover them in wet gloop.

While the unexpected (and more certainly questionable) visitor was left distracted, Dorty and Sajessia quietly gave some last waves to their friends before stepping away behind the house, starting their long journey across the continent.

- - -

Neither Sajessia or Dorty had gone beyond Kryta in terms of previous travels, and that wasn’t counting Sajessia’s brief visit to the Shiverpeaks. A good shortcut they took was going through Divinities Reach, using the asura gate to reach Lions Arch, then heading northeast through Gendarren Fields. Sticking to the main road allowed them to avoid the troubles of local pirates, as well as a clear route into the Shiverpeaks.

“It’s already starting to get colder…” Sajessia muttered, as they were passing through the cave route which led into the mountains.

“Well, we’re in a cave, that explain enough?” Dorty replied.

“Yeah, but it’s getting colder the further we go through here.”

“Well, you know, other side of this thing is the Shiverpeaks.”

“Our first stop is somewhere in this region, somewhere, not sure exactly where, but I know the general direction.”

“'Cause of that map thing you’ve got on ya?”

“Yeah, I don’t even have to pull it out, and I know precisely where we are on it.”

“Because it’s all in your head.”

“Yup.”

A sudden gust of cold air blew through the cave from the direction they were going, and she wrapped her wings around herself like a cloak while Dorty only flinched slightly. “Should probably break out the coat Trytamer made ya.” He said, noticing her shiver from the cold despite her natural technique of coping with low temperatures.

Sajessia nodded, dropping her pack down on the cavern floor, before scourging through it before pulling out a heavy coat lined with cloth on the inside, and some kind of animal fur on the outside. Multiple pockets were attached near the bottom of it, which seemed to give off the smell of meat, though nothing was in them at the moment.

“I think Trytamer was using these pockets before he put them on here.” She sniffed the pockets just to make sure.

“I dunno, maybe he was. Why does he even carry steak in those anyways? Aside from giving Drakus a quick snack, I mean.” Dorty couldn’t help but also get a little whiff of the pockets aroma.

“Now that I think about it… maybe he uses it for his name.”

“Wadaya mean? How does keeping meat in your pockets give you a name.”

“I mean what he does with it, his name -is- Trytamer. Maybe if he wants to avoid something he can feed it and it’ll leave him alone. Makes sense if you think about it that way, right?”

“In that case,” he took another whiff of the coat, “might wanna throw some herbs and stuff in there too. Minotaurs don’t eat meat yaknow.”

Sajessia shrugged and pulled the coat over the rest of her clothes, wrapping her wings around herself underneath, for added warmth. Sticking her arms through the sleeves she finally pulled the hood over her head, maximum cover all over herself.

“Fit alright?”

“It’s snug, I guess. My wings are a little cramped under here though.” She poofed the coat up a few times with her wings underneath. “It’s strangely comfortable though.”

“Like, that false sense of security comfortable?” He perked an ear.

“Yeah, that. I guess this is what T.K feels like.”

“Well you’re missing the bandanna, so he’s got a better feeling of it than you do.”

Sajessia swung her pack back around her, pulling her arms through to wear it. “Well, off we go I guess, into the mountains.”

“Yup, better get going before night falls, supposed to be colder at that time.”

It only took a minute for them to walk the rest of the way, until they made it out on the Shiverpeaks side of the cavern. Like any other range of mountains covered in a blanket of snow and rock, temperatures were cold enough that unless one had the proper clothes and gear, which thankfully the two asura had, one would have greatly increased chances of freezing to death. The side they came out on was less cold than the rest of the mountains, mostly due to the fact this side was right next to Kryta, and thus conflicted with the warmer temperatures.

“So, where do we go from here?” Dorty scanned the peaks for any sort of clue as to which way went where, but everything looked the same to him here. “Sej?”

Her unusual silence grabbed his attention, though she seemed alright. She stood balanced on one leg, eyes closed, and hands clasped together with pointer fingers forward out, flicking this way and they as if trying to find something more clear. A few more moments of this passed before she pointed in a direction, and opened her eyes to see this choice. “This way.” She said, getting back on her two feet and heading in the direction she pointed out.

“I’m not even gonna ask how you figured that out.” He laughed. “Actually, I’m starting to consider adding you to my list of people I don’t question.”

“Oh, come on do you even -have- a list?” Sajessia laughed.

“Nope. It’s all in my head, and T.K’s lonely in it.”

“Aww, give him someone to hang out with, that’ll cheer him up!”

“Hey, hard to pair that kid with anyone in general!”

“Oh come on, he’s… well… now that you mention it he is kinda hard to be friends with at first.”

“Eh, ya just gotta ignore his jokes and stuff when you’re not in the mood.”

“Let’s just keep going, alright?”

“Right, sorry for the hold-up.”

Sajessia kept following her route while Dorty blindly followed her from behind. He just assumed she knew where she was going through the mountains. Continuing through Snowden Drifts was strangely difficult due to the rise in abundance of icebrood. On top of that, the only places where they could catch their breath were at the townstead in one corner and the hunting post in the other. All in-between was free game for anything going on, be it icebrood, centaurs, or even pirates, originally assuming they had left them behind in Kryta.

Wayfarer Foothills was much calmer, and thankfully enough it was one of the places Sajessia had visited before only on a recent trip before this one. What made the place calmer though was most likely the Sons of Svanir who lay dead on the sides of the road, and one could assume someone or a whole group had wiped the roads clean of the dragon-worshippers.

One of the popular landmarks in the area was the quiet hot springs where one could relax, though there was no time for that. Regardless, it made for an easy shortcut in the direction they were going.

“So, you think it’s true?” Dorty asked, trying to start up another conversation from boredom.

“Hmm? What’s true?” Sajessia turned her head.

“Part rabbit, part deer. Come on, how would that even happen?”

“You mean the jackalope?”

“Yeah, does it even exist? I mean, I’m no scientist or whatever, but I doubt a buck would be able to make babies with a rabbit.”

Sajessia burst out laughing, shaking her head a few times. “Well, I guess it’s a mystery nobody will ever find out!”

“Good, because I don’t want to imagine how it would go down.”

More laughter came from the two of them as they began to pass through the hot springs. While Dorty took the high route out of the water, Sajessia trodded through the shallow parts, humming to herself.

“Remember when I told you about all of this?” She suddenly spoke aloud.

“What, the journey and going out across Tyria, or the hot springs?”

“The former, and… well, this was where I figured out I could affect gravity with my magic.”

“Mmkay, uhh hey, question.”

“Yeah?”

“What’s that tune you keep humming? I’ve heard you do it a few times and thought it was different songs at first, but now it all sounds the same. What’s the importance?”

“I’m not quite sure myself, but I know it originated somewhere in Cantha. Read it in a book and now I’ve got the tune stuck in my head.”

“Right, going back to not questioning things now.”

“We’re almost here by the way, just over this hill.”

“Wait what? Already? What are we even doing over here?”

“Didn’t you just say you weren’t going to question me anymore?”

“Uhh… I… forget everything I’ve said in the last minute!”

“Pffheehe!” She giggled. “It’s alright, it’s not complicated for what I can get you to help do. It’s more difficult for me though. I just need you to make sure nothing interrupts.”

“So, no interruptions? Of any kind?”

“Yep.”

“So, no butterflies or jackalopes then going around you and landing on your wings?”

“Wel-” She snorted a laugh and continued across the area.

Their destination was an abandoned Jotun settlement, from first glance. Nothing more than a few huts, some crops, and of course a few massive runestones lying around. Sajessia went over to the hut that had a strange glow inside it, and once she pulled off the straw hiding the source of it, both of them beheld multiple runestones, still flowing with some kind of magic.

“Okay so, just keep your eyes peeled for trouble. I’ll do the rest.” Sajessia started to pick up the stones one after the other.

“Easy enough, let me know if you need any help though, alright Sej?”

She nodded back to him, then began to set up two sets of three using the stones, made in two straight lines next to each other that would connect if she added one more in the middle, but instead she sat there once she had finished positioning them. Pulling off her coat she set it aside, fanning out her cramped wings in the frigid air, then held them back behind herself before covering up the runestones under them, holding them close to her as she drew her wings around herself as best as she could while also keeping the stones on the ground. She already started to feel the magic seeping out from them, though that was not what she was after; she came to commune here by using their almost unnoticeable vibrations and matching it with her own humming, while meditating. Hopefully it would yield the results she was half-expecting.

“You good?” Dorty asked.

“…yeah…” She softly replied. “…remember, no interruptions…”

She closed her eyes and started humming to herself again, this time in sync with the runestones. In her mind, she felt the world around herself begin to change, the cold going away as she was whisked away from reality into her mix of reality and her dreamscape. She felt herself change as well, though that was normal at this point to fall into her celestial form while she was meditating. Usually she found herself in a part of space when she was doing this, and this was no exception, finding herself in a sort of nebula amongst the millions of stars.

This nebula, while she recognized it as being a birthplace for new stars, was sort of like a maze to her, requiring not just horizontal but also vertical movement to escape. Thin walls of stardust composed the maze, making it all translucent and looking the same throughout.

Overall, she was expecting more of a challenge, but then again this was her first task, a maze shouldn’t be too hard. She flew forward, then a left turn, then down, then up upon seeing down was a dead end, then turning around and going backwards. Strangely, she felt she had to do something else here, there was no way getting through a maze alone would suffice.

She was suddenly aware of the concentrations of stardust that seemed scattered around the maze, put in dead ends of course. Did she have to do something with them? She maneuvered through the maze to one of the concentrations, sanding out by a shimmer that made self quite obvious.

She passes her hand through the bundle of stardust a few times. There was so much magic in it, but unable to do anything unless it was refined. A thought flickered in her mind, and she scooted up close to it before trying to clasp it all between her hands. Despite her efforts, there was just too much, there was no way she could hold it all in such a small space.

“Come on… think…” She thought to herself.

A good idea finally popped into her head. She reached around the bundle again, but this time using her wings to help hold it close to her. Once she had it all held close to her chest, she felt it pulsate ever so slightly. All she had to do now was channel her magic into it, and she would have a new little star made, bigger than ones she made before due to the extra amount of stardust she was using. The pulses grew more and more powerful as she concentrated her magic around her, until she felt it pop like a fireball, feeling the heat radiating from it. She let the newborn star go, positioning it back in the spot it was in before.

“You can figure out the rest.”

Sajessia didn’t bother asking who the calm, echoed voice belonged to, she knew perfectly well who it was. Now that she thought of it though, she should have known who it was since she was born, but then there was the stasis incident, and her magic being taken from her, but that was all in the past now. The Celestial that granted her these powers helped see her through every trouble she endured. She was more than thankful for all of it.

At this point, she was flying through the maze, both metaphorically and literally. Feeling herself drawn to the concentrations of stardust basically allowed herself to be directed for her. It soon became much less of a maze and more of her darting through a series of sparkling archways as she brought new stars into existence from the residue of old ones. She lost count of how many stars she formed, ten? Twenty? Only after the last concentration was transformed did she realize just how much work she had done.

After this realization, the maze around her quickly dissipated, leaving her in the center of the large group of stars she had made. She took a breath, half-expecting herself to suddenly be whisked back to reality, assuming she was done, but she kept floating in the abyss around her. She was left with herself, and the stars she made to work with. “What was the reason you decided to take this journey?”

“Well… to unlock the rest of my magic.” She replied. “Oh! Wait!”

Floating over to the very center of the system, she outstretched her arms over her head, slowly waving them around to find the best place to grab the light coming from all around her. Once she found it, she gently grasped at the area, and the light she touched quickly lit up with visibility. She crossed her arms across her torso, and started drawing in the light from around her. This was how she usually recovered spent magic, but never this close to the source. Before long she quickly reached her current limit of magic she could handle, but she knew she couldn’t let up yet.

“…just gotta… hold it in…”

She kept herself focused on keeping all of the excess magic in her, despite how much it started to hurt. She was even starting to light up herself from all of the light she was holding within.

“…all…in…my…head…” She reassured herself, almost close to bursting.

A few moments later she suddenly stopped receiving light from the other stars, despite them being there still. This was quickly followed up by her form lighting up completely for a moment, even though she still held all of the light in. Now, her eyes still glowed like stars, but the rest of herself was no longer the same space around herself, rather it was glowing like the many stars around herself too, a bright pink beacon. Now, she found it easy to hold all the light inside, only overwhelmed by the immense warmth it gave her. It was almost enough for her to just keep it all in, basking in an eternal glow, but what was done was done, and it was time to bring herself back to reality.

“…thanks Hai…”

She released all of the light she had taken in at once, lighting up everything, at least in her vision, feeling the warmth leave her, but also changing her at the same time. It was nothing major, though she wouldn’t tell the difference until she was back. The chilling air began to flow around herself again, the smell of the hay, here perception of reality taking back control as she finally found herself back under the hut she was sitting under, the runestones she had no longer vibrating with magic, though it was still there. Dorty sat a few yards away, ears perked up as he was trying to keep himself occupied by trying to talk to a rabbit that had hopped over to them. At the moment it was nibbling away at a small carrot that was planted in the garden.

“So you’re telling me, that your feet -don’t- bring good luck?” He laughed. “Yeah, sorry, but I already knew that. Good luck telling others though, not sure they’ll say the same thing.”

Sajessia carefully lifted herself up from her spot, then picking up the runestones to set them back down where they were before. Strangely, the cold wasn’t as intense as it was earlier, despite the winds not dying down at all. Perhaps she had just got warm just by bundling up under her wings as she was meditating, but in reality it was most likely an influence from her recent experience. She snuck over to where Dorty was, and feeling just a little mischief that needed to get out, quickly gave the most gentle of pushes while shouting “Boo!”

The reaction was priceless. Dorty yelped in surprise, shooting upwards before crashing down into a snow bank. Normally he would be pissed off, but once he realized who it was, only laughed as he got his head unstuck from the snow.

“Wow, okay you got me there, was expecting more of a warning when you woke up but, I guess not.” He flicked some of Sajessia’s hair a little, which made her laugh some herself. “Did you take a trip to LA while I wasn’t looking? Because I don’t remember your hair glowing that way.”

“Hmm?” Slightly confused at first, she fished into her sack to pull out a handheld mirror she found thrown away somewhere, flipping it open to look at herself. Sure enough, some of the colored streaks in her hair had turn from purple to golden, and as Dorty had said, glowed a little as well. “Hmm… hope no skritt try and shave my hair off.” She laughed, closing the mirror and putting it away.

“So, that was it? For here at least?” He looked back at the runestones left in the hut.

“Yup. That was it for here. First task is done, three to go.” She clapped her hands together and walked over to the slope, admiring the view.

“Alright then, where to now?”

“South, I can say that much.”

“Shortcut through Hoelbrak?”

“How about we rest there for a bit, then keep going?”

“Well, we gotta get there first of all.”

“Wanna race?”

“No race, no race please. Might not look like it but I’m tired from all the walking.”

“So, just walk to Hoelbrak then?”

“Yup. Let’s go I guess.”

Dorty spun around, heading towards a rope bridge that had been set up by the norn, motioning for Sajessia to follow. As they walked across, they got the nicest view of the region around them.

“Hey Sej, one more thing.” Dorty said.

“Yeah?” She looked back at him.

“Dibs on the first Son of Svanir that isn’t in Hoelbrak that we run into.”

“Mmkay, you do that.” She giggled.

Walking the rest of the way to the norn city, a good dinner with hearing in on some storytellers was just what they needed for some downtime. Resting up for the rest of the journey would be simple enough, but from here on out, both knew things were only going to get harder.

Neither knew just how much harder it would get though.