27: The Northward Bound

“Sit still, Vir! How am I supposed to work with you fidgeting around like that?”

“Maiya, this is awkward. Like, really really awkward,” he replied, sitting on a stool in a storeroom that Maiya and Riyan had converted into a makeup studio. She’d forced him to sit there for hours as she worked, applying foundation, coloring, bronzers, and other nonsense words she clearly just made up.

“And done!” Maiya announced, puffing out her meager chest.

Skeptical, Vir took the mirror from her… And gasped. His ashen complexion was entirely gone, replaced by the healthy tones and fair skin of a merchant’s son. Except…

Vir reached up to his head and promptly removed the wig she’d put on.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Said his indignant makeup artist.

“Maiya, I don’t need a wig. My hair’s already black. What’s even the point?”

Maiya blushed.

Had she not realized it was unnecessary?

“It’s—I mean, I have other colors too?” She squeaked.

“Sorry, Maiya, but I don’t think I need it. I love the rest of the makeup, though. The disguise works just fine, even without a wig, yeah?”

“R-right. Here…” Maiya said, holding up a leather case with a handle.

“What’s that?” Vir asked, but when she opened the box, revealing two thin lenses with black pupils, it became obvious. “This is how you changed your eye color, isn’t it?”

Maiya nodded. “It’s a thin film that goes over your eyes. Riyan said they’re incredibly expensive and rare, so we have to take good care of them. They require daily maintenance, and they’re a little hard to get used to, but they work pretty well.”

Vir worked with Maiya to learn how to apply them. It took him a few tries, but he eventually slipped them in. She was right; they were uncomfortable. He blinked rapidly, since that was his body’s natural response, but doing so only made the irritation worse.

He wished he could do without them, but there was little choice in the matter. Only Ashborn had red eyes like he did. If he had to choose between being ostracized or having watery eyes, he’d go with the latter ten times out of ten.

“Here, your clothes,” Maiya said, handing Vir his merchant’s loose pants and white-collared shirt. They were nicer than anything Vir ever wore, so he took them without complaint.

“We’re supposed to be two sons of a merchant family operating out of Daha, apparently,” Maiya said. “Riyan’s written down all the supplies we’re to buy at Saran along with their quantities, and he’s given us a list of shops he wants us to visit to buy them.”

“That’s surprisingly detailed of him,” Vir remarked. “I feel like his instructions are always vague and frustrating.”

“I think he just doesn’t want to leave anything to chance,” Maiya said with a smirk. “He left this morning. Didn’t say where he was going, or when he’d be back.”

Vir took the parchment with the list of supplies from Maiya. “Saran, huh? That’s the coastal town to the north, isn’t it? Thought it was pretty far.”

“It is,” she said, taking out the rough map they’d drawn together on their cartography trips. “Riyan mentioned it was a little over two hundred miles as the Acira flies. So, maybe two hundred fifty miles, realistically?”

“That’s incredibly far! Is that really the nearest town?” Vir asked. If it was really that far, this wouldn’t be a day trip.

“I mean, Brij is closer,” said Maiya, “but that’s off limits, of course. Anyway, he wants us to stay off of the roads until we get closer to Saran, where it’s safer. Said we should hug the coastline so we don’t get lost. And we’re to avoid anything that looks even remotely dangerous. Especially bandits. Seems they patrol the Saran-Daha highway. Oh, and he wants us to leave Neel behind. Said that Bumpy couldn’t handle the weight of all three of us and the supplies.”

“Hmm. So how long is this gonna take us?” Vir had done some calculations of his own, but he wanted to see if Maiya’s numbers matched up.

“Well, Ash’va can gallop at thirty miles an hour on flat ground, so I think it should take about two days to get there?” Maiya said, tapping her chin in thought, “Riyan said the coastline’s pretty navigable, so Bumpy should be able to gallop at near his full pace.”

Vir winced, already imagining how uncomfortable that ride was gonna be. He could only hope the sandy coastline cushioned their bums.

“Two days is about what I’d figured as well,” he replied. He couldn’t imagine how long it’d have taken if they had to go on foot. He doubted even Riyan would be that cruel. Actually, I can see him doing exactly that, he thought. Vir figured they’d be best served by leaving before the man got back from his outing, in case he changed his mind.

“Riyan says this will be a good opportunity for us to learn about subterfuge, but I dunno. I don’t really feel like I’m ready yet,” Maiya said.

“You don’t feel ready? What about me!? He hasn’t given me any training in this stuff! At least you know how to apply makeup and change your voice.”

Vir was sure that the man’s cruel ways were bound to cause him no end of suffering.

“You don’t need to alter your voice, though, Vir. You don’t even need to change your personality. Your appearance is enough. I think Riyan realized that, which is why he taught me first. Well, that, and I think he realized the obstacle course was too much for me,” she said, looking away.

Vir couldn’t imagine how much Riyan’s decision had vexed her. Maiya hated to lose.

“I’m sure you’ll manage. I have faith in your acting skills,” Vir said as he looked over the supply list. Vegetables, rice, grains, flour, fruits, nuts, seeds, and some household items. They’d be buying enough supplies to last the household for the next month or two.

“Did Riyan give us money for buying all this stuff, though? And Saran isn’t exactly close. We’ll need enough food and water to get there. Can we raid Riyan’s food stores for our provisions during the trip?”

Maiya held up a small, sturdy looking metal box and pressed her palm against the Magic Lock on it, revealing the treasure trove within. “He sure did. Eight Imperium silvers and two hundred coppers! I counted them myself. Don’t think I’ve ever held this much money before. It feels so good,” she said with a greedy smile.

Vir’s eyes popped. “That’s… wow. That’s incredible.”

He’d never even seen that much wealth in his entire life. An Imperium silver was worth a hundred coppers, and a seric coin was a hundred silvers. Forget serics—he’d only spied a silver on a handful of occasions. A hearty meal cost about five Imperium coppers, so this was enough to buy two hundred meals… Or to buy the supplies to make far more.

Vir’s expression darkened. “Y’know, Riyan’s gone. With this kind of money, we could escape and he’d never find us. We could even go to Saran like he wants and the charter a ship to some other country. I’m stronger now. Much stronger. And so are you.”

Maiya bit her lip and frowned. “That’s… true,” she replied, falling silent, “I… I dunno, Vir. Riyan says that my magic training’s gonna start soon, but then again, we don’t get many opportunities like this,” she said, tapping her chin.

Vir gave her an appraising glance. “Well, we don’t need to decide now. We have until we get to Saran. Think it over.”

He wanted her to come to her own decision without his own thoughts weighing on her… Because he’d already made up his mind. The decision she’d make at Saran would decide whether they stayed together or went their separate ways.

“Alright,” he said, “then I think we’re about ready. Day schedule or night schedule?”

Maiya thought it over for a second. “We’ll be near the coast, which should cool things down, but I still think the night schedule’s better. We’ll be harder to spot if there are any bandits around.”

“I was thinking the same,” Vir said. When traveling through a desert, it was common to sleep during the day, when the scorching sun compounded your physical exertion to make for a truly miserable experience. By resting during the hottest hours—usually under a white tarp to keep the sun at bay—they’d preserve water and burn less energy.

The strategy paid dividends at night, when the opposite was true. Their physical exertion would help to offset the icy chill of the desert night. Though in this case, they’d be riding Bumpy, so really they’d just be making the Ash’va’s life easier by traveling at night.

Vir hoped the animal appreciated everything they did for it.

“Let’s go get some supplies for the trip, and then we can be off. We should set out enough food and water for Neel, too. I don’t trust Riyan to feed him, even if he comes back soon.”

Hearing his name, Neel bounded into the makeup studio, excitedly wagging his tail with his tongue lolling out of his mouth.

Maiya kneeled and ruffled his fur. “Wouldn’t he just gobble up everything we set out for him?”

Neel tilted his head and whimpered.

“Neel’s a good boy. He knows not to eat more than his share. Don’t you, Neel?”

The bandy barked, as if agreeing.

“Y’know, sometimes I wonder if he can actually understand you,” Maiya said, but Vir laughed her off.

“He’s a smart bandy, but not that smart. Though he does perk right up the second anyone mentions food.”

In confirmation, Neel gazed at him with expectation. The bandy had long ago perfected the art of begging-by-being-adorable. Vir wondered whether the bandy would truly be alright with an entire week’s worth of food and water.

Vir followed Maiya into Riyan’s pantry, which was accessed via a door at the corner of the kitchen. The small cellar was a flight of stairs down, putting it even further underground than the rest of the home. As a result, the room remained cool and humid. Riyan augmented the effect with Magic Cold. The room actually had two sections: a cool area, and a separate cold container enclosed by a wooden hatch.

Maiya’s family had a similar setup, but Rudvik could scarcely afford a single Magic Cold orb, so Vir had never experienced the luxury of freezing food before. It would’ve made for far more comfortable winters.

He didn’t know why, but visiting the storeroom always gave him great joy. Maybe it was the way everything was organized, and Riyan was nothing if not organized.

Each and every provision was labeled and neatly arranged. Sacks of rice sat stacked on top of each other on the floor, while fruits and vegetables sat meticulously arranged in neat rows on clay racks within alcoves on the walls, though most of those had run out. They still had enough nonperishables to last another few weeks, but Riyan wasn’t one to procrastinate with this stuff.

They helped themselves to a week’s worth of supplies, adding some spices for good measure. Vir knew he’d eat well with Maiya’s cooking, but he liked to help the chef out as much as he could. He packed two vegetable knives, a wooden cutting board, and bowls and sporks for them both.

Once they’d loaded everything into leather panniers and strapped those onto Bumpy, all that remained was to pack their individual rucksacks. Riyan had provided each two pairs of clothes, as befitting the sons of a wealthy merchant. Maiya had all of her makeup equipment, and Vir packed about twenty liters of water, which would be enough to last them several days in the heat.

If there was one item Vir would never skimp, it was water. In the desert, water was life. He didn’t need Riyan’s stern warnings to know that. The one nice thing about Bumpy was that he was a strong Ash’va. With just the two of them, weight would not be an issue, allowing them to pack on extra supplies.

The last piece of kit he packed was a large white fabric that served as a desert tent. Unlike an A-frame or a lean-to, this fabric was rectangular, and was reinforced at the corners, where posts could be lashed to suspend the material horizontally, a couple of paces in the air. Vir and Maiya would then rest under it on the bare sand, using their rucksacks as makeshift pillows. Riyan insisted they take it with them whenever they went out on their own.

They still had a few hours to kill before sunset, and with everything packed and Neel’s sustenance seen to, there was little else to prepare. So Vir did what he always did with his free time these days—cloistered himself in the training dome, sat cross-legged on the sand, closed his eyes, and meditated.

The inky black prana inside him moved in a mesmerizing way, rapidly circulating throughout his body. Unfortunately, the quantity was so tiny that he needed Prana Vision at its strongest to even see it. In fear of smearing his makeup, he left the ability dormant for this session.

If prana was bound to blood as he’d suspected, then what he was seeing was actually his blood pumping through his body. He’d never known how intricate its path was, nor how quickly it flowed. It took less than a minute to make a full circuit around his body.

Vir had been focusing on understanding his Prana Vision lately, since he’d run into a brick wall trying to unlock new abilities with his prana. The biggest issue with Prana Vision was that it was functionally useless unless he exerted himself physically. The harder his heart pumped, the more vivid his eyesight became. Which tended to work out in high-stress situations, but made it an absolute pain to train with.

It’d be a lot more convenient if I could activate it on demand.

With that thought, he focused on the ability. He focused on the vivid colors he saw when Prana Vision was operating at full capacity. He willed those colors to appear.

And of course, nothing happened. If it was that easy, he’d have unlocked its secrets long ago. He didn’t even know if what he was trying to do was possible, which made things even harder.

Vir envied Maiya. At least she would soon have a mejai who could train her. But even if Vir somehow got her instructor to teach him, he doubted she’d be able to help. It was becoming increasingly obvious that Vir’s magic, if it could even be called that, functioned differently from orb-based magic, even if they both leveraged the same underlying concepts.

With a sigh, Vir got up and dusted the sand off of him. The beautiful orange glow filtering through the training dome’s skylights signaled sunset.

As if on cue, Maiya walked in, carrying her rucksack. “You ready?”

Vir cracked his neck. “Let’s do this.”

After having been cooped up for so long, he itched for adventure.

— —

“So, the little birds have flown the nest,” a figure in a white robe said as he lay prone atop a sand dune, his spyglass extended. “How do we want to take advantage of this opportunity?”

His partner—also dressed in white and lying prone beside him—responded. “Her highness is intrigued by the boy and the girl. She wishes for us to test the waters, to see what these children mean to him.”

“Tis odd for a man like General Savar to take anyone under his wing, let alone a couple of runts. How shall we do this, then?”

His partner stood up, retracting his spyglass. “I’ll go. You stay here and continue monitoring the general’s estate. I’ll tail these two and see if I can’t rustle things up a bit.”

“Very well. I needn’t say this, but do not compromise your cover.”

“Just who do you think I am? Messing with two children is, well, it’s child’s play,” he said with a sinister smile.