Kaelen inhaled the familiar scent of pines like the essence of life, filling every corner of his lungs, until the woody aroma warmed his body and soul from deep within. The air was crisp with the faint tang of resin, and a cool breeze was gently stroking his cheeks. The low evening sun spilled its golden light over the treetops, and he could hear birds sing their soothing lullaby high above him, chirping as they took a rest on their way south.

Exhaling slowly, he watched his breath evaporate in the cold, leaving behind a white mist that lingered for only a moment. It felt like a great weight had been lifted from his soul, like his mind was bursting the mental shackles of the nightmare he had just stepped out of.

Already, it felt unreal — Morathen, Malvorn, the quest that had let them there, only to discover a plot against the Fateweavers. But there was clear evidence of all that had happened — evidence in the form of Nyu, who was vigilantly standing next to him, skeptically eyeing her surroundings.

"We should keep moving," she whispered. It was the first thing she'd said after leading them out of the never-ending darkness and into this quiet forest on the flank of a small mountain, just when Kaelen thought he would never see sunlight again.

Elara was standing a few feet away from them, the palm of her hand gently pressed against the bark of a tree, her head low. Wet from the dripping ceiling of the damp caves and tunnels, her hair was glistening in the dim evening light like scattered diamonds, and the pale skin on her forearms shone bright. When she turned to face Kaelen, the swift motion of her head sent sparkles through the air, covering the sorrow in her emerald eyes in a mist of glimmer. Not letting go of the cracked wood underneath her fingertips, she glanced at Kaelen with a faint smile that was as fragile as a flower at first snowfall.

Kaelen wanted to say something, but the words stuck in his throat like a bird in a cage, fluttering but unable to take flight. Elara didn't seem as cheerful as he expected — certainly not as cheerful as him. Having escaped the underworld of Morathen, he was beaming with excitement at the prospect of seeing Cylion again, or really anything above ground. But his sister seemed to be plagued by sadness, even if she tried to keep up appearances. Something told him it was more than just the lingering terror of the last hours.

"We should keep moving," Nyu repeated, this time more firmly. "It will be dark soon, and I don't want to be anywhere near this tunnel then."

Kaelen nodded like in a trance, his gaze drifting through the undergrowth of the small forest they were standing in.

He had never been here, but it still felt like home. Surely, the Great Library was not far from here, or Tavira, or any other place he knew. They were back where they belonged, after they had almost found their demise in an unreal world full of darkness and cruelty. He shivered, but not from the cold.

"You going to give that tree a hug or what?" Nyu sneered at Elara, and their moment of serenity was over.

#

They weaved through the dense thicket of bushes, tree trunks, and moss-covered boulders that lay sprinkled on the dark forest floor like marbles. Reaching a clearing with short grass, they walked past a lonely pair of maple trees, their leaves taking on a colorful glow in the fading evening light. Pink clouds were looming above, past them a dark blue sky dotted with first hints of distant stars, and the crescent moon was watching them. When they reached a mountain creek barely five feet wide, Nyu stopped and turned around.

"I say we walk another hour while there is still enough light to see," she declared, accentuated by the gurgling water next to her. "That should get us far enough away from the tunnel."

"Do you even know the way?" Kaelen asked with genuine concern.

Nyu frowned. "Do I strike you as someone who doesn't know where they are going?"

She looked at him with scrutinizing eyes, then turned around and walked downstream along the tree-lined creek. Kaelen and Elara hesitated.

"If we make good pace, we might reach Cylion by tomorrow afternoon. Best not to linger," Nyu shouted over her shoulder, without slowing down or turning around.

She knew they would follow her, and they did. Her time estimate tracked, Kaelen thought, even though he was used to making the journey on horseback. While he didn't know exactly where they were, he started to get a feeling for the region they were in — the mountains closest to them looked familiar, at least from afar, so he figured they were east of Tavira, southwest of Cylion. He had never travelled through the mountains on his way there, since the route along the coast was faster and better maintained, but a part of him was looking forward to it. After the time they spent in Morathen, he could use some fresh air.

As they journeyed onwards, Elara and Kaelen were trotting a few feet behind Nyu — far enough to be out of hearing distance. But even so, Elara was surprisingly quiet. She had not said a word since they'd left the tunnel, and Kaelen was starting to worry.

"You okay?" he asked quietly, as if speaking too loudly could bring back the horrors they went through.

Elara glanced at the stream of water running next to them, then nodded. "I'm alright, yeah."

"You seem … awfully quiet," Kaelen pressed.

"I guess I'm still trying to process … well … all of it."

Kaelen sighed in agreement.

"Yeah, it's a lot," he admitted.

"I never thought a few days could change so much."

Elara's voice was pensive and carried an unfamiliar weight. She had always been fairly serious, not one to be lighthearted, but now she sounded downright distressed.

Kaelen felt the sudden fear that not everything would go back to normal — that something had broken, permanently, and they would not be able to put the pieces back together.

"What do you mean?" he asked awkwardly when he could not come up with a better response.

Elara slowed down her pace, but didn't stop.

"Seeing this dark place and its people, seeing how they live and hearing what they say … it doesn't make any sense."

Kaelen considered the statement for a moment. Their trip to Morathen had been disturbing, terrifying at times, but such was the way of the world. Seeing his sister brood, however, made him realize her thoughts were going in a different direction.

"Look, El, why don't you tell me what is troubling you?"

He hadn't used the short form of her name in a long time. But then again, things hadn't been this serious in a long time.

"It's just," she began, but broke off, then tried again. "I have so many questions. About everything that happened."

"Like what?"

"I don't even know where to start," she muttered, but Kaelen knew she actually did.

A second later, it sprawled out of her like a fountain.

"Do the Fateweavers really not know about an entire underground city? I mean, you saw that thing, it was massive."

Kaelen nodded quietly, but his sister didn't wait for a response.

"And do they not know," she continued hastily, her voice picking up in volume, "that the Fateless are not just some militia, but an entire population? There are families down there, communities — it's an entire civilization. Do we not know any of that? Or did they just not tell us?"

Kaelen thought he understood.

"So you are angry because they kept that from you?"

It made sense. Retention of knowledge had always rubbed Elara the wrong way. To his surprise, though, his sister shook her head.

"That's not it," she muttered, her nimble fingers playing with a strand of hair. "At least not all of it." Then, after a brief pause, she added: "These people were living awful lives, Kaelen. Lives no one could ever want."

"You sure they didn't want them?" he asked facetiously. "They chose them when they chose to be Fateless."

She stopped and looked at him with an unreadable expression.

"Are you telling me those children we saw chose to live in poverty?"

He frowned. "It's not like there is no poverty out here in the normal world. The outskirts of Cylion are not for the faint-hearted, either."

"I know that," she whispered, and started walking again. "But that's different."

"How so?" Kaelen pressed, matching her stride.

"These people don't even get to see the sun. They are jammed together in that awful cave, with no light ever touching their skin. Most of them probably don't even know what a blue sky looks like."

Kaelen had to concede that point, so he fell silent for a moment.

"And what's worse," Elara added after a couple of steps, "is that they blame us for all of their misery."

Kaelen raised an eyebrow.

"You think they are right?"

Elara seemed to be torn, her face portraying the inner battle between her mind and conscience.

"I don't think they are entirely wrong," she finally admitted. "But that's the part I don't understand. Why are we even fighting them? Why are we driving them into exile, if all they did was not have their fate recorded?"

"Careful there — you sound like a Fateless." Kaelen meant it as a joke, but the intention was lost along the way.

"I'm serious, Kaelen," Elara urged. "The Fateweavers are supposed to be just and righteous. So what is all this about? How can they let that happen? Worse yet, how can they be okay with causing it? What is so terrible about not having a fate tome?"

"I'm sure Master Zerath would have a good explanation for that."

"Are you sure? During all our trainings, the Masters didn't even mention the Fateless once. I'm sure they have a good explanation, but they seem to be unwilling to share it with us."

Kaelen started to feel defensive. Normally, his sister was upholding the banner of the Fateweavers, with Zerath as her idol — now, their roles seemed reversed.

"Well, Zerath did tell us about the Fateless."

Elara scoffed. "Yes, about four days ago. And now, all of a sudden, we learn about them as this big evil — only to find them living among filth and darkness, with barely enough to make a living. How can these people be such a threat?"

Kaelen frowned. "They stole a fate tome, remember?"

Elara didn't reply right away, so Kaelen continued.

"They took that fate tome to hide their twisted plans of destroying us. You saw it. They are going to kill people, only to destabilize us and our allies. And you heard Malvorn. The man is a maniac, and I can only imagine the cruelties he would commit if he ever made it out of that dark hole."

"I agree that he must be stopped, but some of what he said —"

"Don't tell me, you, of all people, believe his insidious lies. You are the smartest person I know — you can't be falling for this."

He expected her to cheer up a little over this honest compliment, but the concern would not leave her face. Slightly lowering her head, Elara stared at the bubbles and splashes of the nearby creek, her mind adrift. When she spoke again, her voice was low and somber.

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"I just can't help but wonder if some of what they taught us at the Great Library was … wrong."

Kaelen understood what was weighing on Elara — in her eyes, part of the knowledge she'd worked so hard on acquiring had turned invalid, like the broken key of a lock she couldn't open anymore. But there was more to it — she actually seemed to be deeply concerned by all they had seen, like her moral compass had taken a hit along the way. Kaelen felt the same, at least to an extent. Seeing Morathen and its inhabitants had been profoundly disturbing, and those memories would stay with him for a long time.

"Listen to me," he said gently, "once we're back home, we will figure all of this out. We will talk to Master Zerath — I'm sure, after all we've seen, he will give us the full picture."

Elara nodded pensively.

"For now, though," he continued, "we need to focus on the task ahead. We need to save King Montis, and maybe even capture this assassin. Imagine the look on the other students' faces when we return to the Great Library after putting a stop to Malvorn's schemes."

He gazed at her, his eyes looking to instill excitement. But it didn't catch.

"I wish I shared your optimism," she said quietly.

#

When the last light of day slowly faded, and there was only a faint glow above the mountains in the distance, they stopped to set up camp in a moonlit cove next to the sprawling creek they'd been following. Cold air started rushing down the flanks of the surrounding hills, gently rustling leaves in the treetops above them, and a lone owl hooted stoically under the dark night sky.

When Kaelen's stomach started to growl, he realized that they hadn't brought much in the way of supplies. Their camp was nothing more than a crackling fire, Nyu had managed to get going with some branches and sticks she found, in the middle of some boulders that served as makeshift seats. He realized that they'd have to sleep on the floor, with nothing but their ragged clothes to protect them from the biting chill, but after the last few days, the thought didn't even faze him. They'd endured far worse lately, and it had already changed them. He noticed the same transformation in his sister, who was even more accustomed to a certain level of comfort than him. Unlike Kaelen, Elara had never enjoyed the outdoors much, not even as a child. While he would roam the nearby forests with his friends, young Elara would stay home to read books. She preferred to experience the world through the written word, rather than setting out to see it with her own eyes — she would sit in her room, for hours on end, just to read about a forest, instead of ever spending time in one.

Just a week ago, this nightly endeavor would've been Elara's idea of hell — but now, she didn't even complain. She just sat down by the fire, leaning forward to warm her hands, while the dampness of the moss under her butt seeped through her clothes.

Nyu was rummaging around in a small bag she had picked up before they left, eventually finding what she was looking for. With a satisfied expression on her face, she tossed each of them a small brown object that felt squishy in Kaelen's hand when he caught it.

"Eat up," she said and dug in, the shapeless substance squelching between her teeth.

Sitting down next to Elara, Kaelen frowned at the soft food he was holding.

"What is that?" he asked warily.

"Mushroom," Nyu smacked. "About the only thing that grows in the darkness of Morathen."

Pleasantly surprised, he started eating, savoring the rich, earthy flavor. He was halfway through his meal when he saw that Elara hadn't even touched hers. Nyu had noticed, too.

"What's gotten you all down?" she asked in between bites.

Elara glanced at the mushroom in her hands, then at Nyu. Her eyes reflected the flickering flames, mirroring their blazing dance.

"How can you stand it?" she asked reverently, staring at the orange-haired woman.

Surprise took hold of Nyu's features and made her freeze right before taking another bite of her mushroom. Slowly, she lowered her hands, swallowing the brown fibers still in her mouth.

"You'd do good to show some gratitude," she grunted. "Besides, it's not even that bad."

She looked down at her half-eaten mushroom, ever so slightly covering it with her fingers, as if to protect it from its critics.

"That's not what I meant," Elara said glumly.

Nyu studied her for a moment, slowly grinding her jaw.

"What did you mean then?"

Kaelen had an inkling where this was going.

"How can you stand this kind of life? Living in this awful place, surrounded by so much sorrow?"

Nyu narrowed her eyes. "What?" she asked, even though she'd understood the question just fine.

"Everything we saw, everything we heard — it was all so hopeless, so depressing. How can you keep up your spirit in the face of such sorrow? How does it not just crush you?"

The graveness of her words sent shivers down Kaelen's spine. Her sprawling emotions were new to him, and deeply unsettling — where his sister was usually led by calm calculation, she was now entering the realm of emotional contemplation, showing a window into her soul that was usually closed and barred.

Nyu stared at Elara for a long moment. Her blue eyes were cold as ice, her facial expression hard as the cave walls of Morathen. Kaelen was half expecting her to snap, but when she spoke again, her voice was surprisingly calm. At first, he figured she didn't think it would be fun to jab at Elara in her current state, but when Nyu finally spoke, he knew Elara had struck a nerve.

"When you can't take life anymore," Nyu whispered, as the orange light of the fire melted with the color of her hair, "you start denying what is plain for everyone to see. You keep telling yourself it's not that bad, that it will get better — but it never does." She paused briefly, choosing her next words carefully.

"Eventually, you stop feeling anything at all, and you just survive, going from day to day, ready to lose what little there is left to lose. You can go on like that for years, existing but not really being there. If you try hard enough, you can start to construct walls around the sorry remains of your soul, in a desperate attempt to allow yourself to feel again. If these walls get tall enough, people actually start thinking you are okay — but they just can't see over them, and most of them don't even try. They would rather see the facade you built, and choose to ignore the barren wasteland behind it."

The soft crackling of the campfire was the only thing to disturb the heavy silence that followed. Studying Nyu, Kaelen wondered how much of what she said actually applied to herself, and where this sudden revelation had come from. It was like Nyu had dropped her mask of casual indifference and snide remarks, only to reveal a part of her he didn't know existed.

"I'm sorry," Elara said after a while, her voice sincere.

Nyu nodded stiffly, without meeting her gaze. Seemingly uncomfortable with the direction this discussion had taken, she started chewing on her mushroom again.

"I appreciate your honesty," Elara added, despite Nyu's visual cues.

The normally so tough woman looked up and studied her for a moment.

"I can't say I miss the sassy brat in you," she said slowly, "but I'm not sure if I like the emotional version much better."

There was no harshness to her words, and to Kaelen's surprise, she even gave Elara a faint smile — it only lasted for an instant, but it was enough to change the mood of the conversation. Kaelen felt relieved, seeing how his sister, too, started to light up. With the gloom lifted, he even felt like joining the formerly so serious discussion.

"I will say," he said casually, gesturing with the food in his hands, "this mushroom is not half bad."

"Oh yeah?" Nyu smirked. "That is so kind of you to say."

They chuckled, and for a moment, their situation seemed not so bad, like they were just some old friends sitting around the campfire, telling stories of past adventures.

Kaelen could feel his tense muscles relax, his mind slowly assuming a state of ease that he had all but forgotten about. But then, there was this one thought that kept tugging at his consciousness, like a fly buzzing around your ear on a hot summer night. It was a thought he'd been trying to push to the farthest outskirts of his mind, but it kept coming back, like the tides of the sea.

His hands started reaching into the deep inner pockets of his robe, where his fingertips soon found the sharp edges of the fate tome they had recovered. He could feel the embossing on the cover, the fluted rims of the stacked pages — and once more, he wondered what else was contained in its leather cladding, what dark secrets besides the one they already knew about.

Lost in thought, he didn't even notice Elara's eyes on him.

"What is it?" she asked quietly.

Apparently, his expression showed his concern.

"Oh, it's —," Kaelen stammered hastily, "It's nothing."

Elara turned to fully face him, a stack of wrinkles adorning her forehead.

"Are you sure? I know I've not exactly been a wellspring of joy myself, but so far, you at least seemed to be doing fine."

He pursed his lips, unsure if he should open up about his thoughts. Realizing he wouldn't be able to hide his emotions from his sister, he gave in.

"My thoughts dwell on the content of that fate tome," he admitted.

Elara nodded — she'd probably figured.

"I'm still not sure if it was wise to read as much as we did," she said carefully.

"Why?" Kaelen protested.

"Something is strange about that tome," Elara whispered conspiratorially. "I mean, what is up with most of it being blank? As if someone erased it."

Kaelen thought about the abundance of empty pages he had skimmed through. He was sure they'd contained content once upon a time — but it was gone, like a scent in the wind.

"Do you think a Fateweaver could've done that?"

"That shouldn't be possible," it shot out of Elara, then she paused and snorted. "But I guess it's just one more thing they didn't bother telling us about."

"I wonder what erasing those pages meant for the owner of that tome. Do you think they … felt … that?"

"I honestly don't know," Elara murmured and shook her head. Her knowledge was vast and deep, but in this matter, it seemed to fail her.

Kaelen sighed exaggeratedly. "All we know is that this person is trying to kill King Montis. But I wonder what their long-term motive is. Is it really just about destabilizing Cylion and their military? I mean, if they succeed with their plan and actually get away with this murder — what then?"

Elara narrowed her eyes, and he knew he'd been too blunt.

"We are not reading more of that wretched tome," she stated assertively.

"Why not? Because you want to wait for the Masters to masticate it for us? To cut it into bite-sized pieces that silly little students like us can understand?"

He knew he'd struck a nerve, and part of him was feeling bad for exploiting an angle she'd just exposed moments ago.

"I know what you're doing here," she said with a grim voice. "And you're right that I have a bone to pick with our Masters. I have many uncomfortable questions that call for uncomfortable answers, but that doesn't mean we should blow all caution to the wind. Before we have a chance to get on top of this mess, I don't want to get tangled up in it any further." Her angry eyes glared at the dancing flames, as if they could offer her the answers she was looking for.

"But what if," Kaelen pressed, "the survival of the Fateweavers depends on it."

"Don't be dramatic," Elara scoffed, but he could tell the thought had crossed her mind. "Besides, we already sent word to the Great Library to warn them. And if all goes well, we will be on our way back there soon enough. I doubt a day or two will make a difference."

She tossed her untouched mushroom to Nyu, who eagerly caught and devoured it.

"I hope you're right," Kaelen grumbled.

"You guys talk too much," Nyu said in between bites. "And you think too much about the future."

"Easy for you to say," Kaelen rasped.

"Oh yeah?" Nyu sneered. "Why is that? 'Cause where I come from, people don't have a future anyway?"

Kaelen bit his lip. "That's not what I meant."

"See, you speak without thinking. Might as well save yourself the hassle and get some rest instead."

She brushed her messy fingers against her jacket, then eased into a deep stretch, forming a diamond above her head with her muscular arms.

"I can take the first shift," she gaped.

"First shift of what?" Elara asked innocently.

Nyu chuckled. "You really don't get out enough, little bird."

#

Kaelen didn't sleep as well as he thought he would. It wasn't the chirping of the crickets, nor the seeping cold, nor the pebbles digging into his spine, but the uneasy thoughts that kept plaguing his mind, puncturing his temporary mantle of content. When he got up to take over the second shift of night watch, he found Nyu sitting a few meters away from their camp. The fire had burned down to a pool of dimly glowing ash, making the shimmering stars above them all the more prominent.

Staring up in awe, he sat down next to Nyu.

"Quite something, isn't it?" he whispered, almost inaudibly, so as not to disturb the serene quiet of the night.

Nyu nodded, not taking her eyes off the brilliant firmament. The gleaming moonlight softened her usually so tough features, and drew gentle shadows around the orange strands of hair that were loosely sitting on her forehead. The scar on her right cheek glistened like silver thread, carefully woven into expensive fabric, and a gentle smile was playing on her bruised lips. In this light, with her hard shell cracked, she looked quite pretty.

Kaelen followed her gaze and studied the stars like he had done so many times before. As a child, it used to be his favorite pastime, where he'd imagine the grand things that lay just outside the reach of humankind. He would come up with tales and stories, birthed from his juvenile imagination, only for his parents to shut them down with cold rationalism.

They sat motionless for a long moment, each of them lost in thought, until Kaelen finally broke the silence.

"When you were talking to Senya," he said, keeping his voice down as much as possible, "it almost sounded like you enjoy life up here, on the surface."

Nyu didn't respond, but he could sense a shift in her facial expression.

"It's okay," Kaelen added, "it's none of my business, I get it."

They fell silent again, listening to the crickets that were filling the air with their never-ceasing lullaby. Now that it was fall, they were even more vocal than usual, and their chirping song could even be heard in the topmost chambers of the Great Library. Kaelen always enjoyed this time of year, when the air got crisp and smelled of burned wood. He swore to cherish every moment of it, once he was back home.

"It's true," Nyu whispered and glanced at Kaelen. "Morathen is where I grew up, but it's not where I want to grow old."

He returned her gaze and was immediately caught by the shimmer of her crystal-blue eyes.

"You are still far from growing old, don't you think?" he said without thinking. Feeling his cheeks blush, he quickly looked up into the night sky.

Nyu chuckled. "Man, that fresh air is really making you guys go soft, hm?"

"I guess we're just relieved," Kaelen muttered, trying to forget about this awkward interaction. He didn't even know why he'd said that — it was not like he'd developed feelings for Nyu. If anything, it was a reaction to the fact that they'd spent too much time together over the last few days. After all, she was still their captor — he was under no illusion that this fleeting acquaintance would end in an indefinite farewell once Nyu received her promised reward. Their fellowship was a partnership of convenience. It was not going to turn into a friendship, let alone anything more than that.

"I'm going to get some shut-eye," Nyu said after a moment.

Kaelen nodded stiffly before wishing her a good night. He felt silly for even allowing these intrusive thoughts to enter his mind, and he was determined to focus on more relevant matters for the remainder of his watch.

And yet, he caught himself eyeing Nyu as she made her way over to the extinguished campfire, where she lay down on the hard ground and quickly fell asleep.

Stop it, he thought, and shook his head like a wet dog. Exhaling deeply, he tried to calm his restless mind and focus on their camp's surroundings instead. Only the moon and the crickets were left to keep him company, but he didn't mind the prospect of quiet contemplation — after all, there was a lot to think about.

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