A Long Road Ahead

Waking up early, Surge and I packed up everything we could into our two backpacks.

It was sad to see this place, this village, go. Yet, we had no choice.

Sooner or later, monsters would come to the village due to the complete lack of defenses. Also, although we could reliably hunt and gather food, surviving was different from living.

After a few more deliberations, we began our journey north.

The village of Taft was in the northern section of the forest, and in about two weeks' worth of travel, we'd make it to something known as the Demon Mountain Range, or Demon Range for short.

The Demon Range was a huge stretch of mountains that cut the entirety of the continent in two. During ancient times, the Demon Range was considered the end of civilized society, with the other side of it containing only the foulest monsters.

That rumor was also strengthened by the monsters and hostile demonoid tribes who lived on and within the mountain range.

Most tribes and clans of demonoids and humanoids seem to have reconciled, but apparently, there were still those who were rude and even outright violent to outsiders.

I wonder if the Tiamat's are considered a clan, a tribe, or a village? It doesn't seem as if they're violent to outsiders either since they easily accepted me and took me in.

Disregarding my strange preconceived notions, we continue to map out our route.

After the Demon Range, we'll be spit directly into something known as the Shredded Glades.

It used to be called something different, but it was changed into being known under the moniker 'Shredded' due to a battle between two very powerful swordsmen.

After traversing through the Shredded Glades, we'll arrive at the pleasant and peaceful region of Shilage, named after the capital city it contained.

Originally, I wanted to make a beeline to Shilage, relying on water magic and hunting to get us there. That would get us to Shilage in around seven months.

However, after mapping and planning it out, many holes came into that plan. First and foremost, it would be absolutely miserable to travel like that. There was also a high probability that Surge would get hurt due to being generally a non-combatant.

The second issue is that the seasons do in fact exist, which is something I conveniently forgot about when I was planning this in my head. If we traveled there straight, we'd be caught in the middle of winter in the middle of nowhere.

So, instead, we decided to town hop once we crossed the Demon Range. Town hopping would take considerably more time, pushing the time frame to a little over a year and a half, but I doubt that whatever Ego has planned is going to be severely affected.

It's not as if this is an order either, just a suggestion.

Once our mapping and preparations were all done, we decided on a few miscellaneous details, and I grabbed Blazes staff to use both as a weapon to enhance my magic as well as a walking stick.

Saying our goodbyes to the perfectly preserved ice statues hurt, as no matter how much sunlight or fire magic they received when I tried to lay them to rest, they never once began to melt.

Heading out of the village, we began our travels northward. If only we were heading down a river first, I could make a timely joke about traversing through the woods.

///

Far east, on the continent known as the Holy Land of Fiora, was a young woman, pouring mana into a stone at the deepest level of an estate.

This woman was Stephaine Razorhog, the lord of the region and owner of said estate.

Life had been hard on the now widow, losing her husband, and with him the protector of her home territory.

She was forced to hire a young woman of unknown origin as a replacement. The woman was strong, being a Legate of Wind, yet it was only a temporary solution.

Of course, that was what we had set it up as on the outside.

In all actuality, life had gotten a lot better within these last three or so years for me.

Aside from the unfortunate disappearance of my youngest son, and the death of my master of course.

That being said, the ladder half was just about to be solved. Today should be the last day of having to pour mana into the Anchor Stone to return my master to this world.

Unbeknownst to most, my master was not the elegant old woman that her appearance would dictate. She was actually my Aunt, a full-blooded Faery.

Fae creatures are naturally tough, but Faery are one of the known immortal races. As long as someone recovers their Anchor Stone and gives enough mana to allow them to reform their bodies, they can easily be revived.

After years of pouring mana into the stone, its faint glow grew to an intense bright blue, as a body began to form from it.

The true form of my Aunt and master, a young woman with translucent bat wings, no taller than a foot off the ground.

"Took you long enough, you lazy ingrate! You barely gave me the bare minimum amount of mana!" She said, putting on an over-exaggerated pouting face, before instantly dropping it and giving me a hug.

"Thanks for the rez Stephy, that old oaf was a lot tougher an opponent than I expected. I never thought that a regular human, even if he was a Chosen, would be able to exert that much pressure on me! Truly, humans are becoming a little remarkable in these last hundred-odd years. I still remember the days when they were pushed to the brink of extinction by the demis!" The old coot continues to prattle off, hyper exaggerating a lot of the story. I do have a point in reviving you ya know?

"Aunty, please remember that my father was a human as well. I consider myself human so everything that you're saying still applies to me." I say, as her large smile fades nearly instantly.

"Awww I'm sorry if that stuff hurt your feelings Steph, but although you're half-human, the other half is Faery at least! I wasn't insulting all of you, just pointing out the weakness of half of you." She said with a seemingly satisfied nod before continuing. "Now as tradition states, you did revive me so I am obligated to grant you something. Although, we are family so I probably wouldn't request much even if I wasn't obligated to do it for free." She says, sighing as she laid on her back mid float.

Right, my request.

"If you wouldn't mind, could you call over Zerath and have him do something for me? I know he as the Eye of Truesight so I'd like to have him use it to find someone." I ask in formal Fae instead of West Tounge. Once the request is made, a small purple chain links my wrist to hers.

"Of course darling, give me a moment." As she says that, Aunt Elandria disappears for a moment, the chain pointing me at the space she disappeared into.

After about a minute of waiting, Aunt Elandria returns, a slightly older-looking faery in tow. Still, in human terms, neither appear a year over twenty.

"Goodness gracious woman! Can I have five minutes of- oh hello there, Stephanie? What brings us together." Zerath says, before noticing the purple chain connecting Eladria and me.

"You old bat! Did you go and force your own niece to revive you after a stupid mistake?" Zerath says, shouting, forcing Aunt Volta to shout back to her husband. Naturally.

"No, you ingrate! I was helping her and I just so happened to die!" She yells before Uncle Zerath dismisses the argument with a 'we'll talk about this later' look.

"Alright now Steph, what can I help you with? I'll take over my wife's debt." He says in formal Fae, as the chain moves from Elandria to him.

"I'd like you to use your eye to look for someone. I can tell that my son has yet to die, so I would ask that you use the power of your blessed eye to locate him." I say as he nods.

"A simple request." He says, removing his right eyepatch.