Quiet moments couldn't last forever. Aureum did try to clean her and Gemmo's faces, but she didn't bother to change. Too much time. They'd slept for four, maybe five hours, and even that short respite might have been too much.
A bit of water, and they slowly began at it again.
It still felt like a dream.
Instead of the carefully curated trees of the manor, the ones beside her were gnarled, ancient things. Those little trees had looked pleasant, but comparing them to a real forest revealed their curated growth.
Even these unasked-for observations felt like a luxury. Very quickly, the newly appreciated luxury of a wild forest still gave way to more immediate concerns.
Are we all right? Don't we need to run?
Aureum felt like a snail. Everything was urgent, but they were going so slowly.
There wasn't much else they could do after yesterday. Aureum couldn't carry Gemmo and run, and Hiems wasn't doing any running anytime soon.
It was good that he was on his feet. Even that might be pushing it.
"We should go for the river and try to get a boat," Aureum said.
They hadn't said much. Aureum didn't want to summon any kind of attention, and Hiems was struggling.
"That sounds good, but do you know where one would be?" He said.
"No, we'll just have to follow the river and look."
He shook his head.
"That's where they'll be expecting us to head towards… ugh!"
He coughed a few times. Ragged and hoarse. Aureum turned Gemmo away from him.
"Because it's the fastest," she said. "Should we not?"
Is he really considering walking all the way to safety? Is he crazy?
"It would be best if we could avoid meeting them at all… ha…," he continued, taking his time between words. "It will take us time to get to the river, so it would be better to avoid it entirely."
His ragged breathing punctuated his words.
Aureum winced.
It would be terribly slow for them to walk, but imagining them stuck on a boat only to be surrounded was worse. It would be difficult for Gemmo or Hiems to jump off a boat right now. Same for Aureum if it happened at night.
She couldn't assure herself that whoever came wouldn't be able to just jump over the river.
"If they'll catch up to us either way, then I agree it's best to avoid the river, but what then?"
"…"
Hiems had no quick reply.
They couldn't go fast, and they were on the run…
Should I just go?
The sunlight was all around her. She still wore her cloak. But it would mean leaving Gemmo and Hiems behind.
That wasn't an option. Gemmo was a kid. A weird kid, maybe, but nothing she'd seen showed he deserved to be abandoned. There was nobody else for him.
Hiems was another matter. She wasn't technically responsible for him in any way, but leaving him alone, away from any help with danger approaching? That would be like asking him to die for her.
Sure, maybe she had saved his life and he had saved hers last time. With all their complicated history, maybe it would even be fair to leave him here.
But there's no reason to make that choice now.
If she couldn't leave Gemmo behind anyway, what was one more person?
As long as he doesn't collapse…
Aureum didn't know what she even could do if he collapsed. She turned to really look at him, instead of the trees.
His back was bent forward like he was under some weight. The sword was clutched tight enough for his knuckles to go white. He hadn't taken the time to wash even his face, and Aureum hadn't wanted to push it on him. He looked awful.
Maybe I should have cleaned him up.
But for now they had to keep going.
Ever so slowly.
Painfully slowly.
Her head still ached, but a few hours of slowly walking had woken her up.
This isn't going to work.
It came in circles. She walked. She worried. She drove herself insane trying to think of some solution.
If they came across guardsmen right now, they would be dead. Or if not dead, grievously injured. And then the fight would leave loud tracks for where to find them, and they were back to the first problem.
Can't signal them astray with mana? Maybe?
The guards were warriors, but they still used mana. Like Aureum, they were reliant on it. They would go to it first and trust it over other signs.
Hopefully.
I can't trick someone with better control than me, like Mors.
But that battle was over her head anyways. All she could hope was that Spesavia would deal with that.
So, she left a little bit of mana across the wind. She didn't even need to work with Hiems for his mana. He was still leaking it. And she'd had practice at handling it now.
All she had to do was pick it up and throw it out in the wind. It was the easiest thing in the world and gave her something to do other than panic.
And they stumbled along. By midday, they were starving. Hiems had slowed to a crawl.
"I think we need to take a break," Aureum said.
"I can—
"There's a nice spot over there," Aureum said. "We can, I don't know, drink water, I guess. And figure a few things out!"
"We need to keep going—
Hiems had to break his sentence to cough and hack.
"…Any distance is better than none." He finally said.
"We need to pace ourselves! Sit down!"
Aureum pushed him down, and he mostly fell down into a seat. He no longer argued with her and just took some time to take deep breaths.
Then she pulled out some water, as promised.
They weren't as prepared as they could have been, but Aureum had had ample opportunity to grab empty bottles. Using those to draw water from the creek earlier was easy.
Food is another story, but one problem at a time.
If problems were riches, Aureum was a queen.
After the water was passed out, Aureum scowled. Maybe she could get some food if she lucked across a few edible plants. She knew a few from her mother, but not that many. She'd never had to rely on that information, after all.
"Ahhhh," she let out a sigh.
Looking up at Hiems, he looked like a ghost of his former self. His mottled scales made the skin of his face difficult to see, but they were discolored with a grayish tinge.
Also, he was still covered in dirt and dried blood.
Aureum found the cleanest part of the sleeve of her dress. It had much better chances of staying clean than her cloak. She wet it.
Standing over him, she began wiping his face. He noticed her approach but made very little objection.
"What are you doing?"
Aureum paused, the sleeve raised up to his face.
"Just trying to solve the problems I can…" she murmured, as she continued.
He didn't object further.
"Do you know anything about fishing?" Aureum said.
"Not without mana…" he replied.
Ah… An ice sorcerer wouldn't really learn fishing the same way as others, would they? Do they just freeze the fish they want and let it float to the surface?
"It's the usual problems, yes?" He asked.
"Usual problems?"
"Food, drink, and shelter," he said.
"Yeah… it's the usual problems."
The tent and any food hadn't made it out.
"What do you think about heading to Ariolus City?" She said. "If we're going to avoid using the river anyways, it's closest. And a city would have all we need."
"Not without money."
"Well, if you have a better solution, then I'll welcome it."
"If you had given me more time instead of rushing me…"
Aureum withdrew her sleeve. His face was clean enough.
"Like I had a choice," Aureum said.
"There's always a choice," Hiems said. "Even one more day could have helped us."
"'Always a choice'? Really? The way I see it, if I had stayed there, they would have killed us!"
"Dying is one way to make a choice, but as I see it, you were so crazy near the end, of course they found everything out and wanted to kill us! Ugh!"
His voice was a ragged whisper. Raising caused him to cough. Aureum was too caught up in his words to be sympathetic.
"'One way—?' I'm crazy? You're crazy! Why would we stay there to die if we could get out? Who raised you to think of death with such audacity?! Wait, I know—!
Hiems gathered himself and was ready to go again.
"Audacity? I had a plan!" He had to take a moment to choke here. "Hurgh! …A plan that didn't involve the entire manor of guards coming for us! And haven't I earned the right to have some audacity?"
"Oh, so audacity is something you can earn? How good was your plan that it had carrying a crying baby in secret as one of the main points?!"
Both Hiems and Aureum spared a glance for Gemmo. He wasn't getting into any trouble at the moment.
Hiems coughed again.
"Oh, forget it," Aureum said. "This is pointless."
"I… was still working on what to do with Gemmo," he said. "I might have come up with something. Did you even have a plan?"
And how long would that have taken..?
But he was right. She didn't have a plan then and she didn't have one now.
She let out another sigh.
She wasn't mad at him. She was grateful.
As bad as she was at showing it.
Unfortunately, she was also stressed, tired, dirty, and hungry. With potential death approaching her, but no sign of it.
It was hard for something inside her not to break. And unlike Gemmo, Hiems could talk back.
"We should get back at it."
"Yes."
If they had enough energy to start fighting, they could start walking.
If they had been in fit condition, the trip to Ariolus would have taken half a week at most. The rough terrain could have been avoided with Aureum's cloak and Hiems' strength. However, that was not their reality.
———————————————————
Hiems and Aureum were not the only travelers. Though it felt that way for them. It was unlikely that the two would meet anyone who wasn't looking for them. They were avoiding all and any roads as fugitives, after all.
Most people didn't have to concern themselves with thoughts of things like the potential of hunting dogs. They weren't covered in dirt and too scared to take the time to properly clean themselves.
A few men from Nix made their way to the hidden manor.
Surprisingly, the youngest man seemed to be the leader. He was not just a figurehead. Where they went to camp, when they decided to break it, all the other men heeded his decision with respect. This intrigued Mors.
He knew that the age of the man's appearance was true, from the amount of mana that could be sensed from him. A young man who easily held command.
Mors, who himself could have been halfway to Fluentem by now, had decided to stay until some word returned about the traitor and Spesavia's apprentice. He could not delay for the full search, but a day was still within the range of preparing for the journey.
There had been nothing. Less than nothing. Only reports of finding more dead guards.
"This search is worthless," Maledic had said when he heard the report. "I won't waste another life on those who aren't our true enemies. Recall the guards. Send a few scouts. Make certain they stay at a distance and monitor the situation."
Mors had said nothing.
It was not for him to say anything. He left soon after.
This is how he came to meet the delegation of Nix that had come all this way to the Hidden Manor. From their clothes to the formation they carried themselves in, where the leader was in the center, to their fair hair and skin, they could only be from Nix.
It was because they were from Nix that Mors watched them.
He had not planned this.
That didn't mean he had to leave it to waste. He stood before them in the middle of their path.
Now, the young man who had caught the interest of Mors couldn't sense anything magically odd from the nondescript man before him. From the way he stood to the amount of mana he could sense, he seemed like a normal woodsman one might see anywhere in Aeternitus.
But a normal woodsman wouldn't stand so calmly before around a score of armed men. The young man swallowed.
"Hello," he said, coming to the front, as he raised one hand with two fingers. The men around him made a half circle around Mors at a distance.
Only then did the young man continue to talk.
"Who might I have the honor of greeting?"
"Mors," came the reply.
The young man's smile stilled a little with that unwelcome reply.
"Might I hope you be the man, Mors, and not death himself coming for me?" He said. "I'd hate to have to disappoint anyone tonight."
That got a raised eyebrow from Mors. The cheekiness was enough to make him want to reconsider everything, but.
Mors hated the loose ends of it all.
"I am the man. I come from the Hidden Manor," he said. "Who are you?"
Now the young man's smile turned for a second to a grimace before morphing back to a smile. Meeting an ascended sorcerer of your enemy was hardly the bright spot of anyone's day.
"Canes," he said. "Canes Nix."
"Not of the main bloodline, surely."
"No, my father was a talent invited in. I was born to the name."
But not the bloodline. His name spoke volumes of what Nix wanted him for.
"May you live up to the bloodline's expectations for you."
"Thank you for the pleasantries, Lord Mors," Canes said. "Well, we are on our way to the Hidden Manor, lord. May I ask about the purpose in your greeting?"
"Yes, and I'll reply too. A traitor to your city, a man who goes either by Mendax or Hiems, has left the protection of the Hidden Manor."
"And I would guess you don't like this man…?"
Mors leapt over their heads, out of sight before Canes finished his question.
"Of course not."
The answer came back to him with the softness of a whisper. Canes shivered. Soon it was only Canes and his men in the forest lit by a sunken sun. It felt much darker and colder than it had before that meeting.
"What should we do, sir?"
His men looked to Canes for direction. He would not disappoint them.
"It's clear," Canes said. "I was sent here for a purpose, and I will complete it. However, traitors to Nix must die. There is no question in that. So I will send five of you. You will not engage him in any way. This will be a trick, whether the man is a traitor or not. Find him and report back to me. When I am done with Lord Caducus' message…"
The men around him let out some chuckles.
"There may be some extra hunting to do!"