The whole situation made me calmer than I had been in days, and my magic seemed calmer now as well.
While the others talked and teased amongst themselves, Legacy and I didn't say much. Legacy drove the storage wagon,and I sat next to her, with us taking up the rear of the train of wagons. Other than a question here or there, or a comment about the weather, the tension between us remained thick enough to swim through.
I wasn't sure what to say, so I didn't say anything at all. We merely sat in silence. Plenty of time to think, like about the previous night. Sleeping next to Legacy in the tiny bed on the floor of the wagon had been the first good night’s rest I'd had in a long time, even if that might have been because of sheer exhaustion.
When we stopped for the day, Dora strode toward us, chuckling under her breath as both Legacy and I struggled to climb down from the wagon. I curled my lip but not angrily; I couldn't blame her for laughing at us.
Between all the running and the fighting recently, my body was not exactly happy with me. Riding the horse had been a different sort of bumping and jolting than riding on the bench of the wagon, but that didn't mean either was any smoother than the other. In fact, it was still a throbbing agony with my injured leg, adding to the aches in the rest of my body.
Still, I was more than happy to get the chance to stretch my legs, and Dora had given us the perfect opportunity for that.
She pointed, and I followed her finger, squinting. A building stood in the distance, but I couldn't see much more than that.
“What is that?” I asked.
Dora snorted, and I flushed. Clearly she had been about to tell us, but I was not the most patient person in the world. I doubted that would surprise her.
"Ruins. There are rumors from the locals that a cult goes there to complete strange magical rituals. Glowing lights, disappearances, magical objects going haywire, things like that. No one knows who they are, but they seem to come from all directions. Not all together."
Legacy and I glanced at one another, her eyebrows rising.
"The locals are like us,” Dora said. “They do not choose sides. As long as none of their own are hurt, they do not want to know what goes on."
Fair enough. I couldn’t exactly blame them.
Dora seemed to sense that this was something we needed to know about. Legacy and I would have to explore on our own, but that was probably for the best.
Legacy bowed her head respectfully to Dora. "Thank you for telling us. If we do not return from exploring, good luck on your future travels."
Dora nodded, clasping our forearms before she walked away.
All of us acknowledged that they would leave without us; there was never even a question of it. There was also no doubt in anyone's mind that we might not come back from this little expedition, but I tried not to think too hard about that.
We had been in danger every moment of the past…I didn't even know how long. But it had certainly been long enough that doing one more ill-advised thing shouldn't have given me pause.
It didn't take long for Legacy and me to walk to the ruins, crumbling stones crunching underfoot. As I explored the stone ruins, I couldn't help but marvel at the intricate carvings and structures that still stood despite years of decay.
Sunlight filtered through cracks in the stone, illuminating the overgrown plants and moss that had claimed parts of the ruins as their own. The scent of earth and moss filled my nostrils, the dampness of the stones mixed with a musty, ancient smell.
I had no idea how old these ruins were, but I could feel the innate magic here curling around my skin. My own magic reacted, like a dog sniffing for a plate of food, and I cracked a smile as I placed my hand on the stones, cool and rough undermy fingers. The vines shifted in an unseen breeze as if they were reaching out to me. I wouldn't have been surprised if they were.
Legacy stayed close to me as we explored, the only sound the crunching of leaves under our feet and the occasional chirping of birds in the distance, as clearly they had the good sense to stay away from the ruins. More than we did.
The eerie silence made my heart race with anticipation. I nearly jumped out of my skin when Legacy finally spoke.
"I understand now why the advisors use this place for spells. I can feel the magic here." She lifted her arm a little, showing me the rising thin hairs on her arm.
I could feel it too, the magic in the air, and I nodded in agreement. "At least now we have an idea where they have been, but that isn't going to help us find them now. There's no telling when they'll come back."
With her hand on a stone, Legacy’s gaze went unfocused, not looking at anything important that I could see, just staring off into space. I took a step closer to her, my hand hovering in the air, but I didn't want to touch her.
Something was clearly not right, and if she was in the midst of a vision as she had been before, then I wasn't about to interrupt.
I waited, not so patiently, my gut shifting uncomfortably the longer she was out of it. How long were her visions meant to last? I made a mental note to ask her soon, whenever she came out of her trance.
She finally took a shuddering breath, blinking a few times as her eyes refocused. She reached out, and I shook myself out of my own stupor to help guide her over to a rock that looked somewhat flat enough to sit on.
The fact that she had reached out for support told me that something was wrong. She wouldn't have done that unless she needed to. Still, there was a bit of a flush to my cheeks as I satnext to her, and I tried not to think too hard about the warmth of her hand in mine.
