Chương 99: Thorny travels

"Okay, can we maybe take it easy for a second and take a break? I need a bite." Vera ran a hand through her tangled hair, trying to coax it into some semblance of order after it had been whipped through who knew how many bursts of screaming wind, thorny stretches of underbrush, and low-hanging branches. Her hand came back with a twig caught between her fingers. She stared at it. Then she grimaced and flicked it away. Why were they even taking this route?

She shot a flat glare toward the woman standing at the edge of a mist-slick cliff, where the land dropped away into a rocky gorge below. Several waterfalls spilled down in bright white tiers, crashing from ledge to ledge before feeding into a river cutting through a valley.

Yria ignored her completely, gaze drifting over the horizon toward a sprawling region where dense forest followed the winding path of the river before thickening into a sprawling mass of thorned brambles, piled and twisted together like a colossal tumbleweed consuming an entire stretch of land. Vera's grimace worsened. She knew the place, of course. The Bramblewold had been in Ashen Legacy. Level-wise, it wasn't anything special, and it wasn't like Vera had any particular grudge against the zone itself.

The problem was that it wasn't north of Caer Virell. At best, it was northwest. But she was about ninety percent sure it wasn't on the route to Darnelle or the Thryne Passes. So why the hell had Yria led her here? Yria kept studying the distant bramble sea, then glanced back at Vera and signed. Ten minutes, runt. Don't tell me you need more than that. She unfastened the sheathed sword at her side, propped it against a nearby rock, and sat down with her back to the stone, arms folded and eyes closed.

Vera nearly swore, but stopped herself. She found her own rock, dropped onto it, and pulled a wrapped flatbread from her Vaultring along with one of her maps, spreading the latter across her lap. It wasn't that she was actually tired. But they'd been moving through a mix of Hollow Reaches and plain running for well over half a day, and she was honestly a little embarrassed by how long it had taken her to notice they weren't going straight north. She'd thought it would be easy to keep track.

There was a giant mountain chain north of Caer Virell, after all. Pretty hard to miss. Except they had cut through so many stretches of highland, forest, nigh-on ravines, and whatever else Yria apparently considered the proper route that Vera's sense of direction had been beaten into mush. Eventually, she'd just given up altogether and relied on the assumption that Yria probably knew the way. Which, in hindsight, had been very generous of her. It wasn't like she hadn't tried to get answers, though.

Yria had just made a sport out of giving her absolutely no openings to ask them. Vera's eyes skimmed the map until she found the Bramblewold on it. Her brow drew together as she confirmed that she was right. This was not the direction they should have been going. Fantastic. She folded the map back enough to keep it from catching the wind, propped her chin on her palm, and nibbled at the flatbread while watching Yria sit there with her eyes closed like she hadn't just dragged them halfway toward nowhere.

Vera was still trying to figure the woman out. She'd already asked Elaria and Caldrin what her relationship with Yria actually was, and from what she'd learned, 'Veralyth' and Yria shared a unique past in this world. Apparently, they came from the same place. Neither Caldrin nor Elaria knew exactly where that was, though. Neither did Vera, funnily enough. All she had was the version of Veralyth's backstory in her own head, where she had lost her parents when she was younger and started wandering as an orphan.

From the sound of things, something similar might have been true for Yria. Maybe she and the original Veralyth had grown up together. It would explain why Yria called her runt, why Vera apparently knew sign language, and why the woman gave off this older, almost sisterly pressure that made Vera want to both trust her and punch her in the ribs.

It would also explain why Vera didn't feel any hesitation about cursing Yria out in her head, but when it came to actually doing it out loud, that courage shriveled up considerably. Some buried part of her seemed very convinced that mouthing off to Yria without a clean escape route nearby had ended badly too many times before. Strangely enough, that hadn't come through when she'd asked Elaria about it. That said, it wasn't as if Vera thought she would lose if she and Yria fought. Probably not, anyway.

It was hard to tell with people like Elaria and Yria, but Vera just felt that confident in herself lately. Imagining an outright loss felt difficult. Maybe that was hubris—it probably was, at least a little—but it was hard not to believe in yourself when your gut kept insisting you had the teeth to back it up. And when you kicked down a Silent Lord while barely breaking a sweat. Even so, she didn't like the idea of fighting Yria seriously. That instinctive caution was still there, crawling at the back of her neck.

A spar, though? She'd take that. Right as Vera had that thought, Yria's eyes snapped open and locked onto her. Vera froze with her flatbread halfway to her mouth.

"…What?" Yria's hands moved. Stop glaring.

"I wasn't glaring." You were glaring.

"I wasn't." You were.

"Prove it." Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Yria's eyes narrowed. Her hand drifted toward the grip of her sword, and a sharp little warning ran down Vera's spine. Vera was just about to pull out Stillwake and make a run for it when Yria suddenly stopped. The woman's hand hovered there for a second as she watched Vera, then moved. We're taking the Glassway in the Bramblewold. Vera blinked.

"What?" The Glassway. Yria spelled it out more deliberately with her hands.

"No, I understood you the first time. I'm just trying to figure out whether it's me or you currently blitzing early-onset dementia. There isn't a Glassway in the Bramblewold." A Glassway was one of the few quick-travel mechanics that had existed in Ashen Legacy. The most-used one by players was the Hearthbind Token, obviously, but that only brought you back to your player home, so its usefulness had limits.

Beyond that, there were a few smaller travel systems scattered around the map, and Glassways were the most common of them. Their range wasn't huge, but they could still cut out a decent trek. In this world, with actual distance being a real problem, Vera wouldn't be surprised if one could save her two or three days of travel, even moving at her speed. But she was pretty sure there wasn't one in the Bramblewold. In fact, most of them weren't even in the central dominions.

Their locations could be different here compared to the game, sure, but so far, that hadn't really been true for other major landmarks. Yria considered her for several seconds before signing. You were gone too long. The Glassways changed locations.

"Huh? They can do that?" No, I simply led you here to waste your time. Yria gave her a look like Vera was being the stupid one here, then continued. Most of them are still missing, but I found this one recently. Be grateful I'm here to guide you.

"Wow," Vera said flatly.

"I'm drowning in gratitude. Was the twigwork in my hair on the house, then?" No sass, runt. I'm helping you get back to that bairn of yours sooner. Vera went quiet. She couldn't really argue with that. Neither of them spoke for a while, and when Vera had finished eating, Yria grabbed her sword and stood. Vera didn't rise immediately.

"You're not even going to ask about her?" Yria stopped, her attention sliding back to Vera.

"Everyone else nearly shouted their throats raw when they heard I had a daughter," Vera said.

"Or their eyes almost fell out. Maybe both in Syl's case. But you've barely brought it up." Yria frowned slightly. Is your child that surprising?

"Yeah? I mean, did you expect me to just show up with a kid one day?" Eventually, yes. Vera's eyes widened at how casually Yria answered that.

"You seemed pretty surprised when we first told everyone, though. You can't tell me you don't have questions about how Serel… you know." She spread her hands.

"Happened." I was surprised it was Valecrest. You two don't blend. Yria's mouth flattened slightly. But I'm not particularly interested in what kind of bedplay let you make a kid. Vera choked, sputtering for a moment as her brain tripped over itself trying to decide if she'd actually read that correctly. Why was there a sign for bedplay? And why did she know it? Yria watched her with an unimpressed look on her face. Why are you acting like some blushing votive maiden?

I've heard you and Halstrad trade filth across whole courtyards. You're not a child.

"T-That's different!" Yria's brows rose. How?

"It's…" Vera started, then stopped. Yria's eyes sharpened slightly. Because you like Valecrest?

"I don't," Vera said quickly. You have a daughter with her.

"…It's complicated, alright?" Yria studied her for several seconds, then gave a small shake of her head. It would be best if you gave up on her. Vera paused, then her expression hardened.

"…Why?" Because you two don't blend. With that, Yria turned. Her sword split the air, and a Hollow Reach opened in front of her. She looked back at Vera and signed one final time. Any more questions, or can we get moving? Vera eyed her for a moment before sighing and pushing herself to her feet.

"Are you ever going to tell me why you're joining me on this trip?" Yria held her gaze for several seconds. I've got business up north. She stepped into the tear.

"Wow, thanks. So helpful." Vera stared at the Hollow Reach, her mouth twisting.

"What was that? You're lonely and probably don't have any friends who want to bother learning how to communicate with you? Gee. I wonder why." She kept grumbling under her breath as she followed through, emerging into a dim glade where the sun barely managed to squeeze through the bramble canopy overhead. Dense vines, hooked thorns, and barbed branches twisted above and around her, forming a half-living cage that swallowed most of the light before it reached the forest floor. Mark of Ember Sight.

With a quick pulse of Resonance, Vera's vision sharpened under a warm tint as the world brightened. Stillwake appeared in her hand almost in the same breath. Something shrieked. Her halberd flashed out in a single arc, and a large ape-like creature covered in mossy green fur hit the ground in two pieces. A thin, piercing cry rang out ahead of her as another ape, this one nearly twice Vera's size, was split from shoulder to hip by Yria's blade.

A wet spill of innards and dark blood splattered across the root-choked ground. Vera wrinkled her nose. Not at the dismembered apes, but at the smell here. Why did it smell like an overturned latrine? More movement rushed toward them through the brambles. Branches bent, rattled, and moved aside as if by their own will as a whole pack of apes came charging through, long arms knuckling against the ground and mouths open around jagged teeth. Vera exhaled. Crescent Wake.

Stillwake cut in a horizontal arc, trailing ghostlight. A second passed, then every single ape split apart in clean, effortless sections. After confirming with Mark of the Stillbound Veil that nothing else was immediately heading their way, Vera let Stillwake vanish and walked over to Yria, casting an annoyed look toward the heap of bones, rot, and half-eaten remains piled against a nearby cluster of rocks. She assumed that was the source of the smell.

"You couldn't have brought us somewhere with a nicer atmosphere?" she asked. Yria didn't bother replying, simply pointing her sword toward the wall of brambles ahead. White Resonance coalesced around the blade before snapping outward in a perfect, widening arc. It carved through the growth in one sweep, opening a several-meter-wide corridor that carried on deep into the tangle. Vera resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the showy display. She could do that too.

Despite that, she followed as Yria cut them a path through the undergrowth. Now and then, another ape too stupid to recognize the walking disasters before it lunged out at them, mixed in with a few thorn-wolves with bark for skin or sentient coils of briar that tried to wrap around Vera's ankle before finding themselves cut off at the root. Overall, though, they made quick progress. Eventually, they reached a stretch of open-air ruins that stood out sharply from the rest of the overgrown gloom.

Beyond a curtain of pale creepers and thorned vines, which Yria cut away with a few precise strokes, broken stone columns rose from the earth in a loose circle around a sunken courtyard. Vera slowed, studying the ambient Resonance here. It wasn't the first time she'd encountered House Veilborn Resonance in this world, but it was the first time she'd felt it gathered this thickly in one place. There was a hush to it, different from the silence of House Hollow. Like the suspended breath before a curtain dropped.

Its pressure didn't smother her Resonance exactly, but it did press against it at the edges. It was like two waves that didn't belong in the same rhythm. Almost without thinking, Vera drew her Resonance tighter around herself as her gaze moved over the sigils and veiled-eye motifs carved into the old stone pillars. Yria headed straight for a broad basin set at the center of the courtyard. It was waist-high, circular, and carved from dark gray stone threaded with pale seams that pulsed faintly beneath the surface.

Inside it floated a sheet of silver-black glass, perfectly flat and horizontal until they approached, when its surface gave a gentle ripple. This was the Glassway. Yria glanced at Vera, one hand still holding her sheathed sword while she signed. This will take us to the Kestrel Gorge. I'll set the path and go first. Don't mess anything up after me. Even with the sword in the way, Vera understood just fine. She signed back. What if you mess it up? Yria stared at her. Then I will owe you one favor.

Vera's interest sharpened immediately.

"Deal." Yria turned back to the basin. Vera watched as the woman's Resonance flowed into the silver-black glass, almost like a shadow being invited through a crack. The surface split down the middle with a loud shatter, widening to reveal a vast nothingness beyond. Yria looked back at her, holding up her fingers. Wait three breaths. Then follow.

"I know how this works," Vera said. She didn't, but she wasn't admitting that. Yria's expression didn't change. Three breaths. Then she stepped up onto the basin's edge, paused only briefly, before stepping into the Glassway and vanishing. Vera waited. One breath. Two. She climbed up onto the edge. On the third breath, the surface started shivering. Vera frowned, but then she stepped through. Just as she did, the entire mirror shattered. For one impossible second, the world folded wrong.

Vera blinked, and then she was surrounded by silence.