As Liora and Jax sat in the field, a small bowl Aiden had prepared resting between them, Liora felt an unbridled urge to kill the mutt.
They had been given a simple task.
Aiden and Selene had received the remaining quest rewards from the escort job after bringing the two Hallowcreek kids to the games.
Liora had assumed it was because Aiden's parents had finally recognized their son.
But the crushed expression Aiden wore when he handed them this bowl spoke to something else happening.
She had expected Jax to insist on going with Beatris.
Instead, he had asked for Liora.
That struck her as odd.
As such, the two of them had been sitting around this bowl for almost two hours.
It was a simple cast-iron bowl filled with shimmering liquid and thin wood shavings.
"It needs to sit in open moonlight for at least eight hours to be ready," Aiden had said before giving everyone else their own shopping lists.
They were the only duo sent out, probably because they had to go outside the city walls to find a spot with open moonlight.
Jax had spent his time sitting silently, his eyes closed.
Had it not been for the occasional shivers running up Liora's spine, she would have assumed he was asleep.
It was not helping her concentration.
Liora had spent a good chunk of her money on a book about artificing. That, combined with some small details about magical circles and arrays in her notebook, had given her a few steps to start with.
Though connecting them together was not easy.
In many ways, it was like trying to get a spot of sunlight to circle a room and end at a specific point using a bunch of small mirrors.
Even a tiny twitch or wrong movement could mess up the design and cause the whole thing to fail.
So when she was trying to carve in the runes to direct mana just right around the array, it was frustrating to suddenly jolt because of whatever Jax was doing and make a mark that forced her to start all over again.
The first time, Liora figured she was just being jumpy after seeing the replay of what he had done to the bear guy.
By the twelfth time, she was considering a new wolf-pelt coat.
"Fuck!" Liora snapped as that same shiver made her hand twitch and scratch through part of the array, ruining it. "Can you not do that while I am trying to do detail work?"
Jax startled.
He jumped up and looked around before giving her an apologetic look.
"Sorry," Jax said. "Been practicing something, and I didn't realize it was gonna cause problems."
Liora walked over, crossed her arms, and sat down in front of him with a huff.
"Okay, spill, Fido. You've had something going on that you're not telling us."
Jax looked away in a guilty sort of way.
"Uh," he asked, "and what makes you say that?"
Liora scowled at him.
"In case you forgot, I am a Wind Mage. Emphasis on mage. I can feel whatever that weird energy inside you is, and it keeps flaring and making me twitch."
Her eyes narrowed.
"It's not the insanity you had before, but it's clear there is still a reason to worry."
Jax winced.
For a moment, he seemed lost in thought.
Then he sighed.
"It's not fixed," Jax said. "I'm working on it, and it's getting better. Mostly because Beatris is helping."
His voice lowered.
"But it's still a problem."
Liora wanted to argue.
Then she suddenly found herself pressed down.
A wave of extreme mana rushed past her as if it was…
Dancing?
Liora grabbed Jax and pulled him behind her as she stared across the field toward the treeline.
The mana there swirled like it was in the middle of a festival.
However, inside that spiraling mana was a heated core, almost like a furnace.
The amount of mana belonged to someone at least level sixty or more.
And yet, as Liora watched, she saw a familiar face dragging an unfamiliar one with their arm slung over his shoulder.
For a moment, it was difficult to see them. The ambient mana around them caused trailing light to spill from their eyes and mouths as they breathed heavily, its color tinting deep orange and red around his body.
But beneath it was Alaster.
One of the judges for the games.
The person with an arm slung around his shoulders, on the other hand, was new.
She was rather thin, wearing white robes. Her ashen-black skin was covered in bone-like designs.
She stumbled along, mostly held up by Alaster as a loud gurgling roar escaped from her stomach.
The kind of noise that could only belong to a very hungry stomach moments away from rioting against the body that refused to feed it.
Alaster shifted the girl's weight and tiredly said, "Hn. I did not exercise enough for this."
He looked up at them.
"Hey, you! Can you just—ugh—stop staring for a moment and come help me?"
There was a stark contrast that, for a moment, made Liora wonder if this was really the same Alaster who had judged the games and given Aiden that strange stone before.
That Alaster had been mysterious and aloof.
This guy seemed like a kid struggling to carry someone and annoyed that he had to carry them in the first place.
"Yep," Jax said, trotting over. "I'm coming."
Alaster let the girl drop onto Jax.
Jax shifted her weight and began walking back over, her legs dragging behind him as she grumbled something.
"Fooooood…"
Her voice was faint.
"Water… must keep going… must find more…"
Then she blacked out from exhaustion.
The smell of decay seemed to dissipate slightly as she fell unconscious, her body tense as Jax carried her over and set her down.
Liora looked up at Alaster.
He watched the girl as if confirming she was really unconscious.
"Uh," Liora asked, "what exactly is going on here?"
Alaster seemed to recognize them.
The air around him shifted.
He dusted off his clothes and put on a dignified expression, though the scene was slightly ruined by his poorly hidden panting.
He spoke in a deeper voice than before, apparently unaware that they had just overheard him complaining like an irritated teenager.
"I found the girl blacked out by the road," Alaster said. "So, like the good souls you are, the two of you will help me get her somewhere safer."
Then he turned toward Liora.
As he walked closer, his eyes locked onto the small glyph in her hands, the one with a nick messing up the final effect.
He leaned in as he spoke.
"Oh," Alaster said, "nice glyph you have there. It seems someone has done quite a bit of work on it."
His smile returned.
"Let's do this. You help me get her to the city, and I'll fix that glyph for you."
Liora turned to Jax.
Jax looked just as stunned as she was.
"Uh," Liora stammered, "sure. I guess we can do that."
She made her way over to Jax, who had crammed a handful of mixed nuts from one of the day rations they had brought as a snack into the woman's mouth.
The woman began faintly chewing.
Then she rose with renewed vigor.
She looked at the glyph Liora had been working on as well.
Purple runes glowed along her arms as she reached out and made small marks over part of the finished glyph.
"Those parts," she said hoarsely. "Mess with effect."
Then she passed out again.
"Uh," Alaster said, scratching the back of his head. "Well, that was weird."
He glanced at Jax and Liora.
"You don't mind finishing carrying her to the city, do you? It would only be fair since she did just help you out."
Jax and Liora exchanged a look.
Then Jax said, "Dude, either be stoic and aloof or casual. This whiplash is gonna snap someone's neck at this rate."