NOVEL WEB (Chapter 25) Promises
The rest of the day went by without much to happen. Even the evening had little to nothing of interest happen, the mood between everyone was somber. Helina knew we needed to leave, and was prepared for such, while myself and Tulip both remained mostly silent. Though I was rather curious about the two items Helina had acquired from Crag, though she remained tight lipped about it even after we both were packing what few things we had in Helina's home.
We were preparing to leave that evening, moving through the night while we could avoid any daily patrols entirely and stick to the roads. With a single back worth of items, being mostly spare clothes Helina had offered for us. Standing in the main room we both looked at each other before Helina approached with a somber smile.
"Well, now that you two are ready I guess I should hand these off to you both." Helina opened a small bag she had been given by Crag, two rings being pulled out. "These are Spatial rings. Inside of them both is a number of supplies to keep you both going." Helina offered one of the rings to me, I looked at it curiously, wondering how anything was inside of it while tulip was looking at it with wide eyes.
"You're giving us what? How did he even have a spatial ring- Let alone two! And he's just giving them to us?" Tulip exclaimed, any sense of dread or disappointment was replaced by shock and utter bewilderment from her voice.
"I'm lost here..." I spoke lowly after Tulip's bordering screams settled into an almost murmur whilst she rambled on incoherently about them.
"Spatial rings are spatial storage items- It's like a chest you just carry around with you. You can't feel the weight of anything inside and can grab anything out from inside of it with just a thought at a moments notice. They're incredibly valuable, and rare because of how rare the specific types of magic to make them are. Like, only twenty people in history have been able to make them kind of rare. These aren't something you just find in a jewelry store." Tulip explained as she tentatively took one of the rings, pushing it onto her index finger.
"How does that even work..." I asked, taking the other ring gently. It was a pure silver band with a series of purple colored gemstones embedded into it at evenly spaced intervals. I glanced at tulip and put the ring on the same finger, my right index. I didn't feel anything immediately different, looking to Tulip for guidance but it was Helina who spoke instead.
"Push your mana into the ring, Tulip, you'll only have to push a small amount of it to bind it to yourself. These rings are bound to whomever first activates them, until the owner forcibly takes all of their mana back out to unbind it." Helina spoke calmly, I took in a low breath before doing as she instructed.
My eyes widened as suddenly before my eyes an ethereal panel formed, outlined by a very soft purplish color. It formed a grid pattern of evenly spaced squares inside of it, with each square filled with an item that I could immediately recognize, I could also see several dozen empty squares in it. It was about sixteen tiles wide and five tall, I was astounded by what I was seeing, reaching gently my hand moved through the panel like it wasn't even there. There were rations, some kind of basic blade, what I assumed to be a cooking pot, and spare clothes all inside of it. Alongside the promised medicinal items.
"Only you can see the panel, focus on an item and it will appear in your hands." Helina explained, pausing for a moment as I nodded. "Focus on an item and you can pull it out, and with a thought you should be able to put the item back in." She continued after a moment.
"This is... Amazing." I finally spoke, looking at Tulip I could see the same wide-eyed expression from her. "You're just... He's just giving these to us?" I continued after a few moments of awe. I focused for a moment, in my hands a medium sized silver blade formed. The edges were incredibly sharp, I could tell as much by just looking at it. And while the blade wasn't particularly fancy, it was an actual weapon, and impressively light.
"Crag is, a kind soul. Besides, he has no use for items he acquired from helping a particularly important person. He's always saw it as best to pass things along to someone who can use it far more thoroughly." Helina answer again.
"Thank you... Thank you both so much for this." Tulip spoke with pride and astonishment still edging her voice in every word.
"You're both very welcome. You've given these two old hearts something to talk about and reminisce about for the next decades to come, now lets get you two out of the city." Helina gestured for us to follow, to which we both complied.
While following behind her I looked at the blade in my hand, having to focus only for a moment for it to return into the ring. I was still amazed by it and honestly wanted to just play with the ring to figure it out more, but when Tulip swatted the back of my head as if she was reading my mind I knew to wait for later. With that pushed to the back of my head for now my eyes traveled the scenerry of Nime for one last time before we were outside of the city border.
Outside of the city while it was darker out was rather unsettling, the forest was unnervingly dark, with not even the slightest hints of moonlight daring to show themselves. But the forest was clearly alive, insects and birds alike chattering and chirping so loud that it was almost like a deafening wave of water slamming against the ground.
"Now, there is one thing I should tell you both about. Or, more than one, just listen for a few moments." Helina spoke again, breaking the silence we had been walking in.
My gaze snapped towards Helina, and Tulip did much the same, by now we both trusted her, and knew whatever she had to say was well worth listening to.
"You won't find any major settlements while continuing directly south other than the primary road connecting Ellidon to the far reaching city of 'Dust'. Whatever you do, do not interact with the Elvish military forces on this road. If they see the two of you wandering on your own, I doubt you would have time to hide or escape. I recommend moving exclusively at night while going through the desert. And more than anything do not drink the water found in the rivers. It's all salt water flowing in from the West to the East, until you find the mountain fed rivers flowing north you'll be relying on the water supplied in the rations or the lucky Oasis you can find." Helina stopped after a moment, her exhibition seemingly finished.
"How long will these rations last us?" Tulip asked, looking at her hand, and seemingly to her ring.
"You should both be capable of eating only one of those split between the two of you a day. They are, extremely dense rations. In theory, just under a month. Which should be enough time for you to comfortably have made it to the rivers where you can find a numerous supply of fish and greenery along the river beds." Helina answered.
"How long will we be walking- How far even is it from here to Berinia?" I found myself asking as my curiosity grew over just how large the world was.
"A mage capable of flight can cross the distance from here to Berinia in just over a week. On foot... It could take months, it really depends on the weather and how easily you can avoid the dangers of the desert." Helina sighed when she couldn't give an entire answer for it. "Just promise me you two, that you'll survive, alright? I would hate for this old heart of mine to have to go through something like that."
"I don't plan on giving up." I answered immediately, looking at Tulip, she seemed nervous still, to which I just smiled. "And I won't let her give up either. If you guys couldn't figure out a way to get her out of the cuffs, then I'm sure someone in Berinia can."
"I... Yea, thank you Helina, for the help. For saving us." Tulip finally broke her own silence again.
"Yea, thank you. I definitely wouldn't be here without that. And I know I already said that, but I can't get it across. Thank you." I answered, furthering my own statement as much as I could.
"Alright, that's enough for these goodbyes. Go on you two, best start moving while it's too dark for the guards to see you on patrol." Helina sighed out, looking down, she forced a smile to her face to wave us off.
"I'll do you one better Helina- I promise you some day we'll both come back here and see you and Crag again. So that we can really repay you for this." I spoke out to just receive a laugh from Helina and Tulip both. "What? I mean it!"
"I know you do Kirin, that's why its funny. How can you still be so positive?" Tulip asked while the two of us turned to start walking South once more.
"Well, I'm alive, and I'm not in a prison cell. I can be pretty positive when I'm not having to think about one of those two things." I spoke out with a gentle laugh, though my eyes shifted to the side as I heard some bushes shifting around. For a moment I thought I heard panicked breathing but I pushed it to the side.
"Fair enough... But lets go, we have a lot of distance to cover. We can start practicing with the swords once we're out of the jungle, Helina put two wooden practice blades in my ring, since something tells me that you've never actually touched a sword." Tulip poked out at me, her accusatory tone extremely apparent.
"Thank you very much but I have, just a few minutes ago." I spoke with a matter of fact tone that left Tulip sighing. With that we both fell to silence, the smiles on our faces didn't last long once we began moving. Returning back to the dreadful thought of how much we had left to try and go through.