Chapter 141: Chapter 141

They headed back out of the almost entirely deserted library. It felt strange for the great steps to be so empty, and it was eerily similar to how the campus had felt during the evacuation caused by the monster horde.

There was nothing left for them to do on campus to prepare, so Damien mentally reached out to get Herald’s attention. It took considerably more concentration than speaking to Henry, and it also left him feeling slightly slimy.

You’re up. Which direction do I go?

The runes on Damien’s left palm started to grow warm. As he turned towards Sylph, the temperature grew colder. Damien paused, then slowly spun in a circle. The heat grew to a peak towards their south and grew colder the farther he got from it.

Really? You turned me into a compass?

Herald didn’t respond. Damien sighed and nodded towards their south. “That way.”

“Do you have to spin in a circle each time we figure out where we’re going?” Sylph asked, grinning as they started in the direction that Damien had indicated. “You might want some fancier shoes if you do. You could put on a show.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Damien said, rolling his eyes. Then, in a slightly quieter tone, he added, “and yes, I do.”

Sylph laughed. Damien was just glad that there weren’t other people around to see him occasionally raising his hand and waving it around in the air like a limp noodle. They walked through campus, occasionally running into another straggling student.

Nobody offered them any more resistance than a passing nod. Before long, the campus buildings started to thin out. A thick cobbled road that ran through campus stretched out over the grassy plains and disappeared into the distance.

They followed it, minutes turning to hours as the sun traced through the sky overhead. One or two far reaching campus buildings occasionally popped up, but they eventually faded into the distance as well, leaving them alone on the road.

“You’d think there would be more people traveling in this direction,” Damien observed.

“They probably all already did – or they just used the portals,” Sylph said. “I suppose that doesn’t work too well for us though.”

“I think Herald would have told me if that was faster,” Damien said after a moment of consideration. “It wants me to find the Corruption quickly, and a compass doesn’t lend itself well to teleporting around. I have no clue how close we actually are, just the direction we’re supposed to head in.”

“Well, it’s better than nothing I guess,” Sylph said with a shrug. “We should think about making camp soon, though. We want to start before the sun is completely set.”

Damien nodded. They walked for a short while longer before stepping off the road. The whole area was relatively flat, so it wasn’t too hard to find a spot where they could put up a tent. Sylph fiddled with the bundle, unwrapping the thick beige tarp to reveal several metal poles and stakes. She thrust the stakes into the ground, then assembled a frame with the remaining materials.

Once it was standing, she tossed the tarp over it, slipping it through hooks in the stakes to hold it in place. Damien blinked, his plans of offering her help dying before they reached his lips. She’d set the tent up so quickly that it almost felt like it should have been a spell.

“What?” Sylph asked.

“Nothing,” Damien said. “I was just impressed you set it up so quickly.”

“It’s a tent, not a puzzle,” Sylph said, slipping inside it. Damien pushed the tarp aside and followed her in. He had to crouch to avoid smacking the top of the tent with his head.

It wasn’t the largest amount of space, but the clerk had been true to his word. There was enough room for both of them to sit or lay down, and that’s all they needed it for. Damien pulled a strip of soft jerky from his bag and popped it into his mouth. The rune on his palm tingled as it continued to grow warm and cold depending on the direction it was facing.

Seriously? I’m not looking right now – can’t you turn this thing off?

There was no response. Damien let out a weary sigh.

“What’s wrong?” Sylph asked. “The jerky isn’t that bad.”

“It’s pretty good, actually,” Damien admitted. “That isn’t the problem. Herald isn’t turning off the Corruption detector, and it works by making my hand warm when it’s pointed in their direction. At least, I think that’s how it works.”

“Well, at least your hand won’t get cold at night if you point it in the right direction,” Sylph said with a chuckle. She pulled out a fluffy brown sleeping bag and slipped into it, yawning. “We should set up a watch schedule.”

“No need,” Henry said, slipping into Damien’s shadow and rising up from the ground. His voice was a discordant whisper, but he spoke aloud so that Sylph could hear him. “I’ll keep an eye out. I don’t need to sleep anyways.”

Sylph’s eyebrows rose a small way, but she gave a small nod. “That would be helpful. Thanks, Henry.”

The eldritch creature let out an affirmative hum as Damien took out his own sleeping bag and settled down inside it. The tent fell silent aside from their breathing and Henry’s occasional shuffling.

It wasn’t the most comfortable place that Damien had ever slept, but it wasn’t unbearable either. His thoughts faded away as he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

The following morning, gentle traces of pinkish orange sunlight peeked through the thin flap at the front of the tent. Damien blinked as his conscious thought returned. Sometime during the night, both he and Sylph had shifted so that their backs were pressed against each other.

He yawned, not moving for a minute as his mind churned back to life. Sylph was the first to stir awake. Damien heard her breathing pattern change ever so slightly. She didn’t move immediately, but after a few moments she rolled over and sat up. Damien followed suit, still rubbing the last of the sleep out of his eyes.

“I still don’t know how you can constantly wake up so early and not look the slightest bit tired,” Damien grumbled, trying to comb his messy hair back with his hands.

“Practice,” Sylph replied, a small grin tugging at one side of her lips. “And a small amount of self-loathing.”

They both chuckled and climbed out of their sleeping bags. Henry wordlessly returned Damien’s shadow to him, giving them a small wave before vanishing completely. They had a quick breakfast of jerky and water before packing everything up. Once again, Sylph managed to do just about everything in the time it took Damien to pull up a single tent stake.

“How are you so good at this? Do you practice setting up a tent daily or something?” Damien demanded.

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“Not recently, but I used to do it every day,” Sylph said, stuffing her belongings back into her pack. “And this is the same issue of tent that I was able to get my hands on several years ago. I didn’t have a choice but to learn, as it wasn’t always safe to stay outside in the forest without any sort of protection from the elements.”

“You know, I probably should have guessed that,” Damien muttered. “My bad.”

“It’s fine,” Sylph replied with a shrug.

The two of them made their way back onto the cobbled road and Damien held his hand up, feeling a bit foolish as turned in a circle to find where the hottest direction was. It still pointed them straight down the road, so they set off once again.

A slight chill hung low in the early morning air. It wasn’t enough to be uncomfortable, and it helped push the last of the sleepiness away. The road started to slope and curve as they walked, the flat plains turning hilly. The grass around the road got taller as well, although it never encroached on the stones pathway.

They walked for several hours and the sun tracked up through the cloudless sky, chasing the chill away far too quickly for Damien’s liking. As it reached its peak, Damien’s palm started to tingle.

He stopped, glancing around as he realized that his hand was no longer as warm as it had been. Sylph glanced back at him. “What’s going on?”

Damien moved his hand around. The runes were now directing them off to his right, away from the path. “I think we’re meant to get off the path now. I guess the Corruption isn’t in the next city.”

“I suppose that does make a certain degree of sense,” Sylph said. “But how close is it? Is there really so much of it on the continent that we can find more of those monsters this quickly?”

“No clue, and Herald doesn’t seem to be in a talkative mood,” Damien said as they stepped off the pathway and into the tall grass. “I suppose we’ll find out, though.”

They pushed through the grass with Damien at the lead, walking towards whatever version of the Corruption that Hearld was leading them towards. The dirt was considerably less fun to walk on than the cobblestone, and Damien didn’t want to think about what small creatures might have been hiding within it.

Henry? I don’t suppose you’ve got any idea what we’re heading towards or how far away we are from it? If it’s like ten days away, this is going to be really annoying. I’d love if I actually had an idea of where we were heading rather than just a general direction.

“I can check,” Henry said. “But if the Corruption isn’t basically on top of us, I doubt I’ll find it.”

What about the Void? I know you said they weren’t free, but how tightly are they bound? If it’s something similar to what happened between us, they could be directing their hosts towards the Corruption as well.

“I’ll keep an eye out,” Henry said, slipping into Damien’s shadow and separating from his body. “Just keep walking for now. None of the Void are so close that they’ll be a problem before I get back, and I don’t think we’re right on the Corruption either.”

Henry shot off. Damien followed the trail of rustled tall grass before Henry vanished into the distance.

“Checking for the Corruption?” Sylph guessed.

“And the Void,” Damien said, following after Henry. “We probably aren’t too close, though. I don’t know how close we are, but something tells me that the answer is ‘not very’. I’d ask Herald, but I’d rather avoid speaking with it as much as possible. We’ve got enough rations for a week, right?”

“And some,” Sylph said. “Not enough water for that long, but there should be a stream somewhere along the way. There are a lot of them near Blackmist – I saw on a map in the library early after getting to the college. We can wander for a little while before we have to consider stopping by a town to restock.”

“Are there any on the way? Now that you mention it, a map might have been wise.”

Sylph smirked. “I memorized most of it – the important stuff, anyways. There’s a town in about five days that isn’t completely out of our current direction. That should be fine.”

Damien nodded and they fell silent, following the guidance of the mildly annoying runes on his hand. They continued for nearly an hour before spotting a dark flash blurring through the grass.

Henry sprung up before them, faint tendrils of energy curling up from him and evaporating into the air. “No Void. Nothing within fifty miles. But I think I found what Herald’s leading us towards.”

“Oh?” Damien asked, cocking his head. “It’s a something? Not the Corruption?”

“A cave,” Henry reported. “About two hours of travel down the road. There’s a deactivated portal inside it. It was pretty well hidden, and I wouldn’t have given it much thought normally, but it’s the only thing in this direction aside from a tiny village that I don’t think is of any relevance.”

“A portal?” Sylph’s brow tightened. “Can we trust Herald? If it’s old and out of the way, I’m going to assume it isn’t active.”

“You’d be correct,” Henry said. “It’s dead. I could fix it, and that means Herald can as well.”

“I don’t think we’ve got much of a choice,” Damien said with a sigh. “Unless we want to turn around, that is.”

“We can see what Herald does once we get there,” Sylph said. “If we don’t like it, we can just leave. He can’t force you to do anything, right?”

“No. Well, probably not,” Damien amended. “I’m pretty sure he can’t. If he can, he’s been keeping it secret for a very long time and I can’t imagine what the purpose of that would be.”

“That’s a bit more doubt than I would have liked,” Sylph said, eyeing Damien with a wary frown.

“Henry can do a lot more than Herald can,” Damien said. “He’s a bit of a third party. I wouldn’t worry about Herald for now. I’m almost certain he can’t do anything outside of our contract.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Sylph said. “Just try to give me some warning if you go crazy. It’s only fair.”

“I’ll do my best.”

They both chuckled, although there was little mirth in their tone. Henry returned Damien’s shadow to him and the small party continued onwards through the hills.

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