The st full day on the road - as promised - started normally enough, though with a sense of anticipation to it. Breakfast was a little more substantial to make up for the increased pace they'd be taking, and also to lighten their packs ever so slightly.

  "Wouldn't it make more seo just... I don't know, skate on the river or something?" Fern asked as they finished pag up. "I feel like you mentiohat before but we haven't done any of it."

  "No, and I don't pn on it. Making minor adjustments is ohing - keeping your feet clear of the mud, making sure your steps are stable - but walking on water is somethiirely different." Ravenna hoisted her pad slipped it onto her back, settling it just right. "It strains the mind itself to be walking on things you normally 't, regardless of your mastery of the aether. There are ways around it, of course; being who I am, a thin yer of ice tends to do the trie. But that's wheer is retively calm. It's not the sort of teique to casually put to the test."

  The fallen hero's forehead wrinkled a little. "I did think we were training..."

  She smiled gently. "We are, darling, worry not. But especially today, we o try and serve aether. The closer we get to the port, the more eyes are on us, and if we look tired or distracted, or otherwise like easy marks - well, I don't o tell you what our fate will be, do I? And that could happen well before we even make it there."

  "Oh. It's going to be hard to sleep tonight, isn't it?"

  "Mmhmm. Maybe it's not quite the sort of training you wanted; but when opportunities arise, I know you'll make the most of them, no matter what they are."

  Fern started walking ohey were both ready to go, her partner matg her pabsp; "Am I going to have to kill someone?"

  Ravenna thought for a moment. "Maybe some day. But here? Not likely. Even the worst sort of merary bandit still wants to live to spend their gains. Make them fear you and they'll resider their options, sure enough. It's rare for one of them to risk everything just for ."

  "But not impossible," she pressed, a little anxiously.

  "Nothing's impossible when it es to human greed, darling. But w about it now will only do you ill."

  Fern was aware of the existence of Port Finally, of course, but the reality of it was a very different thing. After all, reading of oravel destination, no matter how florid the description provided, ever truly measure up to experieng it in the flesh.

  The terrain began to abruptly rise, the road traveling up a small hill and vanishing beyond sight o a solitary, leafless tree; and the river, which had been gradually l, likewise disappeared into a darkened cavern. She looked over at Ravenna, who wordlessly poi the tree; and with a quiet sigh she began the ast.

  It had been a long day already, with few occasions for words thanks to the increased pabsp; The dark mage had seemed increasingly watchful pared to the rest of their journey, and Fern could feel the aether pulsing from her at intervals when she expanded her seo look even further afield. But she never offered any hint of the results, other than her untroubled expression.

  Her breathing got just a little heavier as she he old gree with its twisting limbs that appeared as if they could break off at any moment. But then the ground evened out a little, and she pushed herself ever so slightly harder; and then she slowed, and came to a stop at the crest of the hill, eyes wide as she saw the world spread out before her.

  From here, Fern could see all the way to the coast; where the now-brownish river meahrough the pin below after emerging from the cavern, then spread out into a mature delta, dotted with farming operations to take advantage of the rich soil and fine sediment. The lower level pins here were a beautiful, verdant green, the trees so dense she could barely dis the road they would take to reach the port, and it took her breath away simply to behold such a thing. The rolling hills around Pinsgate had their own sort of attra, of course, but this - "This is amazing," she murmured softly, feeling almost spellbound, so difficult was it to tear her eyes away from the vision.

  "It is, isn't it?" Ravenurned with a gentle smile. "Travel broadens the mind, of course, but it has ways of getting into your heart as well."

  She just nodded, lost for words as she took a little loo drink in the sery in all its glory.

  The dest to the lower pins was another retively simple affair. Rather than making their way down the long and winding path, Ravenna once again floated down the cliffside wheh first turned, and Fern lightly skipped down it, just enough aether beh her feet to keep them intact.

  "Yettier at that, too," the dark mage plimented her, a thoughtful expression once again on her face as they reunited in the shade of a nearby tree. "Perhaps I should have taught you some water-walking, with how fast you're pig things up. Better to err on the side of caution this time around, but it's certainly something to remember for the future."

  That made her feel better. She too, as the lower pins proved to be much more enting from afar, the forest thick with all sorts of roving wildlife and especially tiny stingis. The former were easily fended off or avoided, but the little bugs required a more delicate touch with a tinuous flow of aether to keep them at bay.

  "It's a very light touch; you don't o expend much at all," Ravenna expined, ing herself itle shell of darkness so Fern could see it at work. "The slightest movement will turn them babsp; The smaller the creature, the more sensitive it is to movements of aether - that's just by y, of course. Larger things don't care what you're doing unless you present a force threatening enough to draw their attention."

  She squinted. "Larger things... so, if you use subtlety to y a trap, for instance, you get a lot further that way than if you had to rely on the direct force of light?"

  The dark mage nodded. "Large beasts, strong or prideful men... rge anizations, even."

  "Mmm. I think I see what yetting at."

  "I knew you would, darling."

  They moved off the road some distance before setting up camp for the night, in ahick with trees rather than any sort of clearing.

  "You really think someone's going to e tonight?" Fern wondered, biting into one of the pressed meal bars they'd saved for the occasion of going without a campfire and the attention it would attrabsp; It still wasn't particurly pleasant, but the maids had mao make it more patable than the bars she'd suffered through previously.

  "I'd be a little surprised if they didn't, to be ho." A muffled snap sounded as Ravenioned off her own bar and started in on it. "No one wants to get on the bad side of the puards - they're ruthless, and they have excellent aim - but anything outside the limits of town is sidered simply business. That's why there's a very clear line demarg the border, and also why the closer you are without entering, the more danger lurks nearby. Low-hanging fruit is the first to be plucked, you see."

  She mulled over this for a moment. "So the bandits ing after us won't be the zy ones. They'll be... what, desperate? Because the easy marks have all been cimed already?"

  The dark mage nodded. "That, and likely a little more skilled than your average merary. They have to be, thanks to the... robust petition. Of course that means you'll have to try a little harder as well; but I'm sure you handle yourself if matters start to escate."

  "This is how you're training me?"

  Ravenna grinned lightly. "I wouldn't pit you against anyone who wouldn't actually challenge you, darling. And you worry about your own safety, I promise; or mine, for that matter. It will, after all, be dark."

  Fern quirked a brow. "What's that got to do with-"

  Two emerald eyes gazed back at her, glowing ihering darkness.

  "... Ah. Right."

  Something made a sound that shouldn't have been made; and Fern was instantly awake. She looked over to see Ravenna's eyes blinking open, all aglow.

  The nerves must have shown through to her face, because the dark mage reached out and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. 'You'll be fine,' she mouthed silently, then fshed a grin.

  Easy for you to say, Fern sighed internally. I've never fought another person in ear before.

  It was due to her own choices, of course; stig to monster extermination, avoiding the traditional 'guard' jobs where she'd be most likely to face off with someone else. The whole idea of using magic against another person had just never sat well with her somehow, even if she knew one day she might be forced into it by some twist of fate.

  And so despite putting it off for as long as she could, fate had finally dropped the unavoidable fli her p tonight - or so it appeared to her senses. Delicately, she expahose outward, beyond the tent, through the trees, as gently as the fog creeping in...

  Two? No, three, the third farther out and very still. A marksman, perhaps? With all these trees in the way it seemed unlikely; they were in the dire of the road at least, so maybe some sort of lookout. Were there others on the way? Did they expepetition?

  There was so much to know, so much she couldn't know. There was simply no time. Fern's hands were trembling and her breaths were quid shallow. Even with everything Crimson had taught her, she still felt woefully unprepared; but every moment she deyed robably giving the bandits a moment of additional preparation. So she ed herself in a cloak of darkness and crept out of the tent, with no more sound than a gust of wind.

  Everything she wore that might have made noise was already tied down or tucked in or otherwise secured. The only bright metal still showing was a sliver of the bde at her waist; as she moved behind a tree, she lifted the hilt from the sheath with ohumb, thely slid a weave of darkness into the gap so she could draw it without any scraping sounds - just as her mentor had instructed. Ohing to worry about. Except for her breathing, she made no sound at all.

  Another infusion of aether into her senses lightehe shadows - or rather, it heightened her perception of movement. But that was the limit of the preparations she could make; she could feel her heart pounding so hard it seemed a miracle the bandits hadn't turoward it already. For now, they seemed to be focused oent, steadily creeping closer.

  Fern really, really didn't want to kill anyone. She'd mulled it over in her head earlier in the day - she could try to wound her enemies, or knock them out, or find some other way to incapacitate them; but if they weren't really after her life, then it just seemed wrong to go after theirs.

  A...

  Here, in the darkness of the forest, in the looming shadow of the port; with the adrenaline already surging through her body, her muscles all tense like coiled springs as she readied for the battle...

  She really had no idea how the night would turn out - or whether she could hold back.