When it came to the majesty one imagined from adventuring, Liora would call her party less than ideal.
Though the severity depended on who she was looking at.
On the side of majesty, there was herself.
Elegant.
Wondrous.
A wind mage who wove spells from mana and could practically fly through the air.
Unfortunately, she seemed to be the only one standing firmly on that side.
Closest to the line were Kaelen and Selene.
Selene had noble bearing and a cause. She just needed to figure out the whole random mutation thing.
Kaelen was a bit of a klutz and had low physical stamina, but have you seen those dimples?
They earned him a considerable amount of extra credit.
Aiden was close behind them, but he was weird.
At first, he had seemed resistant to the idea of becoming an adventurer. Now he practiced with a spear so much that it was almost hard to imagine him as an alchemist, like he was resisting the very idea of his own class.
He was saved somewhat by the fact that he had kept Kaelen and Liora from dying in a bullshit trap that had been stupidly placed.
Then, on the deep end of crude, were Jax and Thalia.
Jax was their alcoholic mutt of a leader, running on three or fewer brain cells at any given time. Combined with his horrible spending habits, this had required the party to assign someone to monitor him whenever he entered a store.
Thalia, on the other hand, did not have as many problems as Jax.
She was just creepy.
She rarely showed emotions, and combined with her size and paleness, she looked like an old doll brought to life.
Nevertheless, they had all been blessed with the privilege of traveling with Liora despite their flaws.
And yet, Liora was reaching a bottleneck.
They had been traveling for two days and were getting ready to depart for the third. Just yesterday, Aiden had learned Accel Thought. Kaelen had learned a skill called Earnesty of Prayer, and even Thalia had upgraded Marionetting Fingers to D-rank.
Liora had managed to upgrade Soaring Rhythm to D-rank.
After all, she would be aghast if she fell behind Jax and Thalia in terms of power.
Even among the group, she was growing faster than the others.
This may have come from her high Intelligence and natural sense for magic.
She would be lying if she said much of that probably did not come from her father.
Liora shoved that thought to the back of her mind.
It was her turn to cook this morning, since Kaelen had been in charge of it yesterday. So she sat on a small stone, using the wind that responded to her fingertips to stoke the fire while she cooked what remained of their rations.
She glanced back at their supplies.
Three jugs of water sat on the trailer, but all except one were empty. Beyond that, they were running low on food. They would need to restock before going much farther, unless everyone wanted to go hungry until the next town.
As Liora flipped the eggs, Aiden was sparring with Jax.
Sir Braedon watched from the sidelines, apparently observing Aiden's form and helping him improve it. Thalia was packing up for the trip and figuring out their route, while Kaelen stayed with Liora, helping gather plates and utensils.
"How goes breakfast?" Kaelen asked as he placed everyone's bowls and forks at their spots.
"Almost done," Liora said. "But Kaelen, I do have a question for you."
Kaelen looked up, a small look of surprise on his face.
"Uh, sure. What's up?"
"Why do you think Jax is so on edge around Sir Braedon?"
Kaelen stopped for a moment.
He seemed to think it over before turning back toward where Jax and Aiden sparred under Sir Braedon's watch.
"Not really sure," Kaelen said. "Maybe he just gets a bad feeling from him or something. He is a bit… strange, to say the least."
Liora raised an eyebrow.
"In what way?"
Kaelen took another moment to think, scratching the back of his head.
Liora's eyes briefly flicked toward the pendant around his neck. The one that made his face less beautiful.
Despite that, he was still beautiful.
Even now.
"Well," Kaelen said, "I think it might be because of his strange habits. Like how he refuses to remove his armor for any reason."
"Really?" Liora asked. "I just thought it was because his armor never rattled."
Kaelen turned to her with surprise.
"Really? I never noticed."
"Yeah," Liora said. "Despite the big plates and the chainmail you can see in places like his gloves, he makes about as much noise as if he were wearing a tunic."
They both took a moment to think.
"I wonder what skill lets him do that," Kaelen said. "Or maybe the armor itself is enchanted."
Liora shrugged and began putting food onto everyone's plates.
"By the way," Kaelen asked suddenly as he started helping her, "how has your training been going?"
"So far, so good," Liora said. "I upgraded my skill, and now it's like I can sense the air around me for a small distance. I bet I could even tell where you are if I closed my eyes."
"Want to test it?"
Kaelen walked behind her.
Liora grinned, finished setting out the food, and closed her eyes.
Behind her, she heard a sound to her left.
But as she focused on the air around her, she could feel the rhythmic inhale and exhale of Kaelen's breathing.
He had not moved.
He had probably thrown something to mislead her.
"You haven't moved," Liora said confidently.
She spun around.
Kaelen's eyebrows raised in surprise before he nodded with a grin.
"That is a cool skill you picked up."
Pride rose in Liora's chest.
She thought about how the others would react.
Then, without turning around, she felt everyone approaching.
A shiver went down her spine.
One of the plates in her hand slipped.
It fell and shattered on the ground.
"Dang it, my bowl!" Aiden cried.
He lunged for the food and grabbed what had not touched the ground.
Liora barely noticed.
Cold sweat ran down her spine.
She turned toward where the others had gathered.
Toward where Sir Braedon stood.
Did his spear just breathe?
Liora shook her head, forcing the impossible thought away.
It had to be because she had not practiced enough with her detection yet.
So as everyone ate, Liora kept her eyes closed and focused on the breaths around her.
A breath from Kaelen.
A breath from Thalia.
A breath from Aiden.
A breath from Jax.
A breath from Selene.
Even around twenty feet away, where the vehicle sat, Sir Oinks-a-Lot happily munched away on a small bowl of burned eggs she had not been paying attention to earlier.
He had a breath too.
The only one missing was Sir Braedon.
There was no breath in his lungs.
And yet his spear breathed in and out.
Rhythmic.
Steady.
As natural as anyone else's.
Liora focused on it, and her own breathing began to speed up.
If Sir Braedon himself was not breathing, what did it mean that his spear was?
Was it alive?
Her thoughts shattered when Kaelen grabbed her shoulder.
Liora's eyes shot open.
Everyone was staring at her.
She realized she had started breathing faster and faster without noticing.
"Liora," Kaelen said carefully, "are you okay? You seem panicked."
The others looked at her with concern.
Across from them, Sir Braedon stared at her.
And as Liora looked back, she realized something else.
She had never seen the man's eyes behind the visor.
Her panic grew.
Then a familiar feeling of calculation settled over her, just as it had in that magic circle, when death had been ticking down.
"D-don't worry about me," Liora said. "I'm testing a new skill and just got overwhelmed."
It was flimsy.
She heard it.
The others heard it.
Sir Braedon definitely heard it.
But it was all she had.
Aiden gave an awkward nod and turned back to his food, though he kept glancing at her every now and then.
The others did the same.
And while it might have been paranoia, Liora's eyes locked onto Sir Braedon's hand.
His fingers rested inches from the shaft of his spear.
As if he had been ready in case she said too much.