Chương 98: New directions

"Mommy—" Serel's muffled voice pressed into Vera's stomach as she hugged her daughter close, absently running a hand down the girl's back.

"Hey, now," Vera murmured.

"It's alright."

"Do you have to leave?" Serel asked, tipping her head back as a pair of bright, watery eyes looked straight at Vera. The sight tugged at Vera's insides, even as it filled her with a strange kind of warmth. She brushed a thumb over the corner of Serel's eye, smiling.

"I'm sorry, kiddo. I promise I'll be back in a jiffy. Besides, while I'm gone, you'll still have Mama around to pester and bother enough to make up for not being able to bug me, won't you?" She glanced at Elaria, who was watching them with her usual neutral expression.

They were standing at Last Earth's front entrance, with several of the guild's current members—including Syl, Mona, Falko, and a few of the NPCs and people Syl had brought into the guild—lingering nearby, maybe pretending not to pay too much attention to the goodbye.

"Yes, I will still be here, Serel," Elaria said, lowering her head in a nod.

"See?" Vera looked back at Serel.

"You'll basically have her all to yourself. There'll be nothing stopping you from doing whatever you want to her."

"Mournval—" Elaria started.

"Nothing at all," Vera repeated, winking conspiratorially at Serel. The girl sniffled, glancing at Elaria before turning back to Vera. Then she squeezed her tighter, burying her face in Vera's stomach again.

"I'm going to miss you," she whispered, so quietly that Vera almost didn't catch it. Vera's smile softened, and she rested a hand on Serel's head, gently combing her fingers through the girl's hair. It had already grown out quite a bit. They stayed like that for a while, holding onto each other. Serel was the one asking Vera not to leave, but she wasn't the only one clinging. Vera honestly didn't want to leave Serel behind, either.

She'd prepared herself for this moment, and she'd made sure to spend lots of time with the girl over the last couple of days, figuring she could stock up on 'Serel energy.' Turned out that was bullshit. If anything, it had only made her more aware of everything she'd be missing while she was gone. Was this why her father had always dragged out their goodbyes anytime they were parting ways?

If so, she owed her old man an apology for thinking he could be a little much whenever he leaned in for what was supposedly just a quick visit while he was in the neighborhood. She wasn't sure she would've been any better. Especially not after seeing Serel nearly tear up over her leaving. Vera had seen the girl be so mature about this kind of thing enough times before that she'd assumed it would be the same now, but apparently not. Was that a good thing or not?

Had Vera staying so close and basically half-spoiling her lately made Serel too dependent on her? Or was this a healthy amount of separation anxiety? She hoped it was the latter, because she really didn't want to change how she handled things. Finally, after Serel had gotten plenty of time to cling to Vera and hopefully come to terms with the whole thing, the girl stepped back, her eyes slightly red. Vera ruffled her hair on instinct, but Serel didn't show even the faintest sign of minding.

That made Vera's chest tighten even more. She let out a quiet breath, held out her hand, and her Vaultring flashed. A moment later, Serel's necklace—the one carrying the Wick of the Quiet Wake—rested in Vera's palm. She leaned in to slip it back around Serel's neck, then straightened the chain where it had twisted.

"While I'm gone, I left a few surprises for you in there. You asked me once if I could teach you to sing, didn't you? When I get back, I'm hoping you'll be able to carry a tune with me." Borrowing the Wick from Serel had been one of the first things Vera did after deciding she was leaving Caer Virell.

Ever since, she'd spent basically every spare second she had on it—every bit of time that wasn't already claimed by Serel herself or by all the running around she'd been doing across the central dominions helping at the fronts. She'd wanted to leave the girl with something more than a promise that she would be back soon. Some of it was simple enough: short messages, little check-ins, scraps of conversation Serel could play whenever she missed her.

But most of it had turned into Vera digging up more of an old part of herself that she had only recently started touching. She'd recorded proper songs. Singing exercises. A few embarrassingly earnest practice lessons meant to help Serel learn some of the easier ones, if the girl wanted to. Vera had even bought a couple of different string instruments in the city so she could add actual accompaniment to some of it, though the results had been… mixed.

She used to play around with a handful of instruments, sure, but guitar had always been the main one, and there wasn't anything that quite translated here. The nearest match had been some lute-like instruments, but it'd take more than a few days for her to master that. The most she could do was some basic chords and picking patterns.

She cringed inwardly just a little as she recalled last night, when she had been messing with the Wick after putting Serel to bed, and Elaria had shown up at her door, asking what she was doing. The woman had heard bits of her singing through the Wick before, but not with any instrument. Unfortunately for Vera, she'd happened to catch her in the middle of fumbling through a song that sounded nowhere near finished.

Vera had felt too awkward to explain it properly, so she'd just brushed it off with some half-assed excuse. She had always hated when people heard her practicing. Performing was one thing. That she could live with most of the time. At least if it was decent. But practice was different. Practice came with far too many mistakes, restarts, and repeating the same line five times because your fingers were acting out. No one was supposed to see that part.

People could have the polished version or nothing at all, in her opinion. Serel cupped the pendant in both hands, her fingertips running over it as if she could somehow feel all the work Vera had stuffed inside. Then she threw herself at Vera again. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Vera laughed under her breath and let herself get squeezed.

When the girl finally loosened her grip, Vera gently passed her over to Elaria, then reached into her Vaultring for one more thing. This time, what came out was a slim journal bound in dark blue leather that she'd bought the other day. She held it out to Elaria. The woman took it with a faint crease in her brow.

"What is this?" she asked, already opening it.

"Well, it's those clauses I promised. They got delayed a bit because I had a hard time coming up with additions when yours already covered things pretty well, but better late than never, right?" Elaria's eyes moved across the first page, slowing.

"I'd prefer if you read the whole thing later, actually," Vera said, scratching her cheek.

"For now, you can just turn to page six, I think?" Elaria glanced up at her, suspicion flickering into her gaze, but she flipped ahead anyway. A second later, her eyes widened just slightly. Then her expression eased slightly.

"... Thank you, Vera." Vera smiled.

"Don't mention it. Just make sure not to blame me if none of it helps. Part of the fine print is that I'm not accepting any responsibility whatsoever for anything at all, and you proceed entirely at your own risk." Elaria's gaze sharpened on her, and Vera braced herself for whatever sharp comment might come her way. Instead, though, the woman just let out a quiet breath, lowered her head again, and gave a soft, restrained laugh. Vera blinked.

"I will keep that in mind," Elaria said, placing the journal into her own Vaultring.

"Now I believe it would be best if you stopped stalling and took your leave. I can't stay much longer, and you are keeping everyone else from returning to their own matters." Vera grimaced. Of course the woman had to ruin the mood.

"Fine. If you want me gone that badly." She shook her head and turned to Syl.

"I'll make sure to give Mira your regards. Thanks for your help."

"You're welcome, and I'm sure she doesn't need them," Syl said dryly.

"Mona." Vera turned to the teen next.

"I'll tell her you said hi too, and if I can, I'll drag her back here so you can annoy her or something. I'd appreciate it if you kept being nice to Serel while I'm gone." Mona shrugged.

"Sure." Vera threw out a few quicker goodbyes to the rest of the gathered group, then summoned Stillwake and let her Resonance flare through her body.

"Then I'm heading out. Never been one for dragged-out goodbyes—""We can tell," Syl cut in. Vera ignored her.

"—and I'm sure we'll all see each other again soon enough, so there's no point making a whole thing out of it." Mark of Hollow Reach. The air in front of her split open. Vera let her gaze pass over Elaria and Serel one last time, then flashed them a grin.

"See you." She stepped through the Hollow Reach. The tear dropped her onto a grassy rise just beyond Caer Virell's walls, high enough to overlook the land stretching north. From here, it was all highland country—rolling slopes, scattered tree lines, and far-off mountains rising against the horizon. The sun hung bright overhead, and a warm breeze tugged at her hair and the hem of her clothes. As much as leaving Serel hurt, Vera couldn't deny the spark that lit up in her chest at the sight.

This would be her first proper journey in this world on her own. That part thrilled her. She was worried too, obviously. Especially about what might be waiting at the end of it. But that was still far enough off that it felt distant. For now, all that lay ahead was open land and that faint, hard-to-name pull of something that felt a lot like adventure. It would be a waste not to enjoy at least some of it. Maybe she'd even run into something along the way that could give her a proper fight. That would be neat.

Vera let Stillwake disappear as she rolled her shoulders and stretched on the spot, mentally preparing herself. Her final destination was the Thryne Passes near Darnelle, where Mira had last been confirmed to be. Apparently, that was well over a month of travel north for most caravans and other overland traffic, but Vera was pretty confident she could cut that down to a week or less even without squeezing herself dry on Hollow Reaches. Assuming she didn't get lost. Which was a very real possibility.

She had maps, but it wasn't like she was any kind of expert navigator. This place didn't come with a convenient mini-map or a world map obligingly marking her location. Worst-case scenario, she'd find herself in the lair of some old cave monster before she reached her goal, but she figured that she'd figure things out as she went.

Once she was done stretching—which she frankly wasn't sure why she liked doing when it probably did next to nothing for this body—she pulled out the first map and held it open between both hands as the wind pulled at the parchment. North of Caer Virell, the region was mostly a blend of highlands and forest, all of it trailing alongside a vast mountain chain known as the Ashen Spine. That chain was part of what might make navigation a little more annoying.

Vera had briefly stopped by Sablewatch Hollow the day before, and while there, she had asked Caldrin what route he thought made the most sense. He'd recommended sticking to the western edge of the range until she hit one of the larger rivers running down from the peaks, so that was where she'd start. After that… honestly, she was half considering just finding the highest point she could reach and using Hollow Reach from there based on pure line of sight.

As she stood there going over the route in her head, her gaze drifted across another marked region on the map, farther east of Darnelle. In bold block letters, it read 'Brackenwash,' marking a city beside what looked to be a marsh or floodplain. A little way off from it, in much smaller cursive script, were the words 'Rellmark Tracts.' That was the place that Nigel fellow had told her about. Her eyes lingered on it. If things went well with Mira, Vera planned to head there next before returning to Caer Virell.

She had no idea why the original Veralyth had gone so far as to bribe a Conclave official to keep whatever was happening there buried, but she wanted to know. At this point, not looking into it would almost feel wrong. Especially after spending what had apparently been her last Godgrave tear to pay for the information. Those things hadn't had much value in the game after the second expansion, but in this world, Vera could think of more than a few good use cases.

It helped a little that Nigel needed it for his wife, but still. The hoarding, MMO-poisoned part of her brain had physically pained her to hand over a rare material like that. She would've preferred throwing an absurd amount of money at him instead. She already had more of that than she knew what to do with. But it was what it was. Feeling settled enough on her route for now, she rolled up the map and tucked it back into her Vaultring. Then she summoned Stillwake again, ready to open another Hollow Reach.

Just as she was about to invoke the Mark, though, she felt a pulse of Resonance that wasn't hers. But it definitely belonged to House Hollow. A few steps ahead, space warped and split open, lined with flickering gray runes that writhed along the edges like grasping hands. Vera glanced between Stillwake and the tear. … She hadn't accidentally done that, had she? A woman stepped through.

She had ash-blonde hair that hung from a loose tie, with a few stray strands falling across her face and half-obscuring the scar that cut over her left eye and tracked down along her cheek before vanishing into the collar of her clothes. The rest of her was all muted, washed-out gray in a way that almost made Vera want to look away, but her gaze was instead drawn to the sword at her hip. It was a plain, single-edged thing, with a simple chain running from it to a cuff at her wrist.

A pair of nearly colorless eyes focused on Vera. Yria raised her hands and signed. What are you staring at, runt? Then, without waiting for an answer, she glanced toward the northern horizon before signing again. I'm joining you, by the way. Vera froze.

"What?" Yria repeated the signs, slower this time. I'm joining you.

"... Right." Was Vera missing something? Why was Yria Wakeshade suddenly here? The woman had been missing since that meeting in the Conclave Spire, and Vera had just assumed she'd headed back to the front or something like that. When Vera had asked Elaria about it, the woman had only given her a slightly tired look and said that Yria was a lot like Vera in the sense that nobody ever really knew where she went. The difference, apparently, was that Yria usually still managed to handle her responsibilities.

After a slightly longer pause, Vera signed back. Do you even know where I'm going? Syl said you're heading for the Thryne Passes. Her lips pressed into a thin line. Alright. So apparently Syl was handing out her info without bothering to tell her. Vera would have to remember that. She studied Yria for a few seconds.

"Why do you want to join me?" Yria just watched her in return, then turned. The chain on her sword rattled as her Resonance moved. The earlier Hollow Reach disappeared, and she cut another tear through the air before signing back at Vera. Let's get moving. I'll cover the first stretch. Then she stepped through, leaving Vera standing there with half a dozen questions tumbling around in her head. In the end, though, Vera didn't have much choice but to sigh and follow.

"Just you wait, Syl…"