"They killed themselves?" Kopius asked as thevgcfbgbhfv0edrxc two men continued their journey through the forest.

"Sacrificed, yes," Cici replied. "And took the Val-jin forces with them."

"Just the army fighting in the forest, right?"

"History is told that the Val-jin regarded Moonwood as a finality, the last bastion of resistance. They pushed through with the full might of their forces, leaving only enough behind to occupy that which had been conquered. A fortunate miscalculation."

"So they attacked Russia in the winter?" Kopuis remarked, trying to lighten his own thoughts.

"Eh?" Cici replied.

"It's nothing… nevermind," Kopius answered, shaking his head at the reference. "But who was left to fight?"

"The people rallied," Cici said with a smirk. "They traded their fear for bravery; changed their retreat into an advance. It's written that the fire was witnessed from every edge of the land. Past the shores of the Torrent, beyond the Sea of Saidnah and the great cliffs of Stoneclaw. The Collective had spread the word, a simple phrase: 'When the flames kiss the sky, fear nothing."

The phrase passed through Kopius as if head just stepped into a freezer. As if the short passage had been pulled from an action movie. He tried to visualize a flame so tall that it reached the sky but fell woefully short in his imagination. He thought of New York skyscrapers, the Burj Khalifa and then Mt. Everest itself, though he had never seen the last two first hand.

"That's hard to imagine," Kopius admitted. "Why did they trail with poison if they were just going to blow the place up?"

"To avoid future conflict," Cici remarked as they trekked through the wilderness. "At least in these parts. You'll have to ask a knowledgeable witch for a reasonable answer. They made this place safe for them and theirs is the best I can offer."

"How are we going to light a fire if it's all poisoned?"

"There's enough twigs about to warm our dinner," Cici said as he pointed around the forest. "The moonlight will provide the rest. You've got your Night Vision if you hear any bumps in the night."

Kopius didn't like the idea of no fire even if it was the safest course of action. It provided a sense of comfort that was part warmth, part visibility, part hot food and drink. Before he complained aloud he reasoned that at least he would be getting one of the three. His cloaks stealth abilities gave him further relief and exhaled a bit of his growing anxiety.

After stopping for lunch around midday, Cici adjusted their direction and they started to tread northwest. Given that they could see the far off peaks of StoneClaw, Kopius was able to understand their position better than he normally could. He would pull up his map every now and then to see the path he was carving through the Blur and was thankful that the parts that were clear started all the way back to when he had first arrived in Metem rather then when his intelligence had become active.

Due to the path he had taken, an oval had been created on his map encompassing the Valley of Shadows, Escher Pass and the Spires of Joatsu. Feral Crossing appeared as a basic shack while Kickshaw and Cawbachu looked like old churches with tall roofs adorned with even taller pointy towers. A small yellow symbol, a pair of eye goggles, could be seen with the Valley of Shadows and Kickshaw indicating entrances to reach Oh-jin.

The two walked for hours stopping only to sip on their water or to observe a creature in the wild. Kopius would remark every now and then that forests filled with monsters and menacing beasts were grossly overstated from his videogame experience. Cici would reply with some variation that the animals were just as skittish of them as they were of the animals. Still, the lack of maneating monsters did little to settle Kopius's nervous system.

Eventually the two settled between a trove of rocks that rested at the base of a particularly tall hill. The slope allowed for only those with sure footing the scale and the rocks provided a modicum of protection from being flanked by any would-be attackers, sentient or otherwise. The bits of sun that broke through the canopy drew long shadows which were in line with the grumbling of their stomachs. Dinner was prepared and devoured with enough flame left over to heat two cups of hot tea leafs.

Not much was said as the last bit of sunlight escaped from the world. Cici shined Celeste and seemed to have a conversation with his weapon while Kopius pulled out Manabolism intent to finish the few chapters left. Occasionally, there would be a crack or sizzle shouted from the embers of their dying fire and once that had subsided the sound of night took over. It was only a matter of hours before Cici was comfortably sleeping and Kopius finished his book.

{NX: You can read! That's hot. +.25 CHA}

"Charisma," Kopius mumbled to himself, more of a question than a comment. He didn't doubt that it was, in fact, Charisma; just that why Charisma was the leveled Attribute. He would have guessed Deduction or Persuasion had someone asked but settled for, "Maybe being able to read is just sexy."

He chuckled at the idea, closed Manabolism and rubbed his tired eyes. His limbs felt the weight of the day-long walk, so he produced the full ensemble of cloaked Noir gear, put it on and laid down in his own comfortable silence. His extremities rejoiced and he was asleep before the nightly noises could feed on his paranoia.

***

CAW!!

Kopius jerked awake to the sound of a bird practically screaming in his ear. He threw his hands up and about in an attempt to violently shoo away the fowl but was only met with open air. He silently cussed out the universe for continually waking him in such a manner until he heard Cici laugh in the background. It was playful in tone and immediately followed by another loud CAWCAW.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Throwing back his hood to get a better sense of his surroundings, Kopius spied the Bard a ways off in the distance, Celeste turned upside down with a large black bird resting on it like a perch. It resembled a raven or a crow, though Kopius always forgot the difference between the two. He only remembered that a raven was larger; this one larger than either. By the hand motions and head bobbing, the two looked to be conversing. The bird flapped its wings and strutted on the astralsilicate as if it were peacocking for the big man.

After a minute or two of gawking, the bird took its sleek black exterior and flew out of sight, mostly camouflaged against the dark tree line above. Cici watched it go, waving at the creature until it was no longer in sight. The big man returned with a wide smile on his face and some pep in his step.

"Morning lad!" Cici shouted, unable to control his morning person volume.

Kopius gave him a scowled nod.

"No time for your pleasantries," Cici said, ignoring his friend's cringe. "We'll want to eat light and hustle."

"Were you talking to that bird?" Kopius asked as he slowly removed his sleeping arrangement.

"You saw that? I suppose I was. Getting directions more or less."

"Fair enough," Kopius replied, his brain unwilling to have anything explained this early in the morning. "What do you mean by hustle?"

"Move quickly with purpose."

"I know what hustle means," Kopius grumbled, stuffing the cloaked noir pieces into his backpack. "Why do we need to do it?"

"The entrance to Ashes & Embers closes at dusk. We'd miss our chance to enter until the next cycle of moons."

"How are we going to leave if the place closes?"

"Getting in is the trick lad," Cici responded with a wink, "they'd kick us out if we overstayed."

The two ate a dry breakfast and rinsed it down with some water before taking to the forest on a jog. They moved across the terrain as if they were hunting prey. Cici would adjust their direction at times but kept them heading in the same northwestern direction they had been on the day before. Kopius did his best to ignore the growing cramp in his side, internally grumbling about appropriate waiting times for activities after eating.

Cici must have noticed because at some point he slowed the pace to a speedwalk. Occasionally the big man would scan the tree tops, point at something and adjust his path. It wasn't until Kopius heard the same sound the bird from the morning had made that he saw its black body against the dark canopy. It cawed in three quick bursts and took off deeper into the forest.

This method was repeated for the better part of two hours before the men paused for a quick rest. Kopius leaned against a large boulder, unwilling to touch the bark of any tree. He removed the sweat from his brow and relished in a stiff breeze that passed through the woods.

"Is the bird leading us?" Kopius asked after taking in some water.

"That she is lad," Cici replied, dabbing away his own perspiration.

"Is it a witch?"

"Nah."

"A familiar?"

"Not in the traditional sense," Cici said with a scratch of his beard. "The Collective have a relationship with nature that also extends to some of its creatures. I gave her some of my snickerleaf and in return she is showing us the way."

"Does the way change or something?"

"You catch on my friend," Cici answered with a laugh. "Either you know the way or are shown the way; security purposes."

Kopius shrugged his understanding and nodded. An entrance that rotated would make it difficult for people with ill-intentions to locate it and he guessed the creatures also provided some kind of warning system. How everything got communicated between all entities was beyond his comprehension and he didn't bother to ask. Sometimes things were best left to the knowledge that they worked rather than how they worked.

***

It was several hours after lunch when they reached a small clearing in the forest. A circle of trees left an open space of twenty feet in diameter. The area reminded Kopius of the redwood fairy rings that were abundant in the forests of California. He absently wondered if those too doubled as entrances to magical shopping districts before brushing the idea away.

Here the circle was much bigger than he had experienced on Earth. The wide space here felt manufactured given the dense forest they had been running through. The open canopy above allowed sunlight to beam through, placing a visible spotlight inside the space as if the universe was telling anyone who travelled through, 'right here.'

"That wasn't too bad," Cici admitted, leaning against a vapor oak.

"Is this the spot," Kopius asked looking around.

Cici looked up to find their guide before replying, "She seems comfortable."

"What's the protocol here?" Kopius inquired. "Do I pull out my sword and have it guide me to one of these trees or something?"

"Can your weapon do that?" Cici asked in wonder.

"What–no," Kopius replied, shaking his head. "It's from a movie. Fuck, pop culture references are like half my shit," he said more to himself than to Cici.

"Pop culture," Cici repeated. "What is this?"

"Nevermind that, man," Kopius said, swiping at the air to remove his last statement. "I was asking how are we going to get into the shop: Ashes & Embers." "Oh, yes, I see. It is more than just a shop lad," Cici stated as he made himself comfortable. "It's more like a small village; except it is not."

"That's not exactly a clear description."

"I believe the ambiguity is purposeful, you'll just have to wait and see for yourself."

With that Cici leaned against a vapor oak and closed his eyes as if to nap. Kopius, having the choice between getting comfortable against a tree or on the ground, opted to use his backpack as a pillow. The sunlight was well on its way to setting, given the shadows above but still bright enough to indicate that dusk was at least two hours away.

Finding his place on the soil, with his head resting on his pack, Kopius took a deep breath before summoning his spell book from his ring. He regarded the text book, turning it over and around as if figuring out how it opened. The book was thick and wide, giving the impression of a dictionary or encyclopedia. The title Shock Treatment that was written in bold lettering was superimposed over an elongated triangle that featured two horizontal lines breaching both sides at its top.

Kopius pushed back the overwhelming feeling he would often get when starting a daunting task and cracked the book open. Though he had skimmed through its pages before when he looked upon the text now, it practically called to him, pulled at his senses, beckoned him to enter. The first page flipped on its own accord and Kopius absorbed the words without reading. It flipped again and the written word poured into his brain.

This phenomenon went on for several pages as Kopius sat in a state of amazement. His mind tingled as the information entered, his eyes stuck in a trance like state. As if waking from a nap, Kopius blinked in quick succession and shook his head to free any dreariness. When his focus returned, roughly twenty pages had turned themselves over, the wisdom embedded in his brain.

He closed the book and gathered his senses; checked the sky to see if he had, in fact, fell asleep. By his reckoning, little to no difference could be seen in either the sunlight or the shadows. He shook off the sensation of a time lapse, sipped on his water and then opened the book again. To his astonishment, he was able to find the place he had left off at as all the previous pages were now blank.

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