As the sun began to sink beneath the horizon, Midas and Briar came across a small stream. It was a beautiful place—the water was crystal clear, reflecting the blue sky above. The soil looked fertile, and the surrounding trees stood like walls protecting the area. Nearby, there was an open patch of land. It almost seemed prepared for camping, with enough space for a campfire and a tent.
"Water, light, and a place without rocks or trees. What more could we ask for?" Midas whispered.
He had never truly been out in nature, and after ten years, this was the first time he had traveled through a forest full of life. As a child, Midas used to dream of visiting other empires to see the world. In the books his sister used to bring him, he read fantastic stories about many of Runeterra's most iconic places.
Suddenly, Midas heard splashing water and a familiar laugh. His expression turned a bit dull when he saw Briar dunking her head into the stream.
"Briar, can I ask what you're doing?"
Briar lifted her head out of the water and looked at Midas. She had a fish in her mouth, still wriggling in agony, blood dripping from her lips. With a strange flick of her head, she tossed the fish onto the ground so it wouldn't flop back into the water.
"I'm hungry, so I'm hunting dinner. Raw fish is good every now and then. I used to eat a lot of this when I wandered away from the battlefields. I think I told you the story about when I smashed my face falling down a cliff."
"I've heard that story like two thousand times, Briar. I already know it by heart…" Midas said, slightly disappointed in himself for memorizing something so awful.
"That's really nice. I like that you like my story."
"I never said I liked it. Especially not the part where you graphically describe how you broke your face. I had nightmares the first time you told me."
"That makes sense. I think you were like a kid back then, right?"
"I wasn't a kid anymore. I was already 17," Midas replied, frowning and shrugging slightly.
Briar looked surprised after hearing that.
"Then you're like… older than me? Let me try something." As she said that, Briar stepped out of the water and started drawing about eleven straight lines in the dirt with her right big toe. "That's two… and then four… but it wasn't like that back then…" she muttered as she drew.
Midas watched her curiously, having no idea what she was trying to accomplish. She just kept drawing lines, her expression showing deep concentration.
After a few seconds, Briar looked at Midas and asked, "What's seven plus four?"
"Eleven…"
Midas didn't understand anything, but Briar nodded and smiled after hearing the answer.
"Then I didn't forget. I did it right. I was 11 when Midas was 17. Amazing, right?"
"That was ten years ago. You're 21 now, right?"
"Yeah… I think so. And if it was ten years ago, then you…" Briar tried to process the numbers in her head, but it didn't work. "Give me a second." Like before, she started drawing lines again, counting each one carefully. When she finished, she looked at Midas with a proud expression. "You're 27. You're old."
The word "old" lit a spark in Midas's mind. As if the veins in his forehead were about to burst, he raised his voice, his eyes full of indignation.
"I'm not old! I'm only six years older than you! I'm 27! I'm still young!"
And even though Midas wasn't wrong, Briar didn't look convinced. She tilted her head as if trying to understand.
"Anyway," Midas said, changing the subject and turning his back on Briar. "What really surprises me is that you can count."
"And why is that?"
Midas looked Briar up and down, silently judging her. He thought about how she must have grown up. To him, she was just an airhead with an insatiable thirst for blood. It was already surprising she could even form coherent sentences.
"It's nothing. Forget it." Midas looked up at the sky and scanned their surroundings. "It's getting dark. We should start a fire if we don't want to freeze to death. In the Bastion, there were torches that gave off some warmth, but out here in the wild, it's different. Though… I wonder how we're supposed to start a fire…"
If they both set aside the previous topic and looked at their hands, both Briar and Midas were restrained by their own pillories. At that moment, neither of them had the manual dexterity needed to start a fire.
Briar realized this and immediately thought of something. "What if I take that thing off your hands? If your hands are free, things would be easier."
Midas fell silent when Briar asked that. After a brief pause, he started laughing.
"That's a really bad idea. Freezing to death would be much better than freeing my hands."
Of course, everything had a reason. Briar looked over her own shoulders while Midas laughed. She understood that, just like her own restraint, the thing binding Midas's hands was also some kind of limiter. But what kind of power was Midas hiding, and why did he laugh about it like it was something ridiculous?
Now there were many things Briar wanted to know.
"Why would dying be better than having your hands free?" Briar wasn't going to let it go. "Do you also go crazy when you release your restraint? If that's the case, I definitely want to see it."
Midas lowered his gaze as he sat down by the riverbank.
"It'd be easier if that were the case, but no. It's not like that…" He watched the water flow, observing the crimson glow of the sky reflected in its surface, and sighed. "I wish it were…"
Standing beside him, Briar felt the same gloomy aura Midas used to have days ago.
"What power are you hiding, Midas?"
"Power… More than a power or a gift, it's a horrible curse." He raised both hands to look at the inhibitor. Inside it was a stone lodged between his palms. That stone, like Briar's hemolith, suppressed Midas's magic. "Everything these hands touch dies… And it's just meaningless death, not even something like yours. There's no purpose behind it other than killing… that's all…"
"And what kind of death is that?"
Midas had no idea what expression Briar was making, since he was still staring at the river, but there was something different in her voice. Thanks to that soft, strange tone, Midas found the confidence to answer.
"Everything I touch turns into gold. Everything my hands touch becomes a stupid golden stone."
When Midas was a child, he used to think gold was the most valuable thing in the world, and that he needed as many coins of it as possible. Now, he could only look at gold with disgust.
Sitting beside him, Briar dipped her feet into the water. She tried to pet the fish with her toes, but couldn't reach them, and simply replied, "Hmm… I don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything. I don't want to hear it…"
"Well… I don't really understand those human emotional things. I try, but it's hard. Still, it's fun." She said it with her usual smile. "You know? I was told that before I was born, I was just a puddle of blood, strange herbs, and piles of bones and torn flesh. Hemomancy stitched my body together, and that's how I was born—from Vlad's blood. At first, everything was blurry, stained red. I felt hunger, anger, and the urge to tear apart everything in front of me. No matter how much blood I ate, the hunger never stopped… and it hurt a lot. I don't remember much from that time besides that. Everything was so… boring. Then they made my restraint, and I could calm down a little. Though… hehe. I did a lot of crazy things, and they locked me up. Years passed until you showed up."
"And why are you telling me this?" Midas asked, skeptical. But when he looked at Briar, he raised an eyebrow at the confidence in her smile.
"Because I thought there was something we have in common."
Midas turned his gaze back to the river. He noticed how the darkness of night was staining the water, how the cold was creeping in. It reminded him of the night he left Zaun and everything behind, only to suffer for the rest of his life.
"Huh… So we're both a mess."
"And is that a bad thing?"
Life was simple for Briar. That's why she could say something like that so naturally. You could say that the ignorant are often the happiest.
"Friends…" Midas found himself thinking about it again. What is a friend? He never had any. In Zaun, people are always waiting to stab you in the back. Life and time change people, and unfortunately, that happens to many in Zaun, making it nearly impossible to build or maintain friendships.
"Midas, my friend, you think about too many things, and that's extremely boring, so shut your mind off and dive in." When Briar said that, she meant it literally.
She jumped into the water, which was only about a meter deep, then floated on her back, looking up at the sky. Midas watched her, confused, but then Briar knelt in the river and gestured for him to join her.
Following her lead, Midas stepped into the water and felt the cold against his legs. He watched the fish scatter from his presence and, for some reason, felt even more depressed.
"Well… I needed a bath anyway, so…" He let himself fall backward into the water.
From beneath the surface, everything looked distorted. Moonlight, breaking through the clouds and leaves, illuminated the stream, giving these two oddballs a faint glow.
'This feels good…'
The cold water touched his skin. It was different from the rain that had battered them the night before. This time, Midas felt like he could fall asleep in the water and never wake up.
Too bad that, as a living being, he still needed to breathe. The lack of oxygen forced him back to the surface. A strong breeze hit him as he emerged, water dripping from his long hair, running down his battered skin before returning to the stream.
"Do you feel better?" Briar asked. Water streamed down her white hair and gray skin.
Seeing her like that, Midas felt like an idiot for some reason. He froze, staring at her, then smiled, realizing he had been slipping back into his gloomy thoughts again—and now he was calming himself just by looking at the face of a cute homunculus girl.
"Yeah. I'm fine."
"I see. Then—" She dipped her head into the water and immediately came back up, holding a fish between her teeth. "—it's time for dinner."
She looked like a bear catching fish. Midas couldn't help but see her differently. Considering how emotional he had been earlier, he suddenly felt embarrassed. In a childish attempt to hide it, he nudged her with his foot, making her lose balance and fall into the water.
After acting like a ten-year-old, he stepped out of the stream.
"Hehe. I've still got you, fish," Briar muttered as she got out of the water, the fish still in her mouth.
"Handle the fishing, Briar. I'll try to start a fire. At least my feet are free…"
"Aye aye, captain!"
Starting a fire seemed difficult, but Midas already had a few ideas in mind. Dinner would be ready soon, and after a full night's rest, these two friends could continue their journey.
Even though they had grown closer that night, Midas was still trapped in his own depressive thoughts. But now he wasn't alone—and that was better than nothing. This girl was… special, in a strange way.
Even if he hadn't realized it yet, it was Briar who had saved him from going insane in that cell…