Chapter 1

They were most certainly lost.

Hopelessly, uncompromisingly lost in what should have been a beautiful and verdant autumnal forest-scape. But the leaves had grown wildly and free, closing off their view to any surrounding landmarks they could have used to gain their bearings.

“Aha!” She heard her sister gasp as they wearily, sweatily breasted the next grassy hill, “Look! An old ruins! I knew we were headed in the right direction!”

The two of them scrambled their way through the underbrush, the uneven path from Drehmel long since left behind them, and stepped up into the cracked and crumbling stone ruins of an old church tower. Eve frowned, running her hand along the moss that had overgrown.

“Wait a minute...” she mumbled, as her sister eagerly investigated the place for loot that might have been left behind by whatever sorry saps might have lived here when it was destroyed, “ ... this place looks familiar.”

“Oh no.” Her sister groaned, “We’ve been here before!”

“We’ve gone in a complete circle!” Eve wailed, “We’re right back were we started, the Primal Caverns are so close I can still feel the Hearthstone humming from here. Oh, Judith, what the hell!”

“It’s not my fault! None of the stupid roads in Drehmel are sound anymore, they get us halfway there and we have to pick our way through the wilderness after that. Maybe if we still had our horses -”

“- You mean the horses we stole?”

“Borrowed!” The paladin insisted hotly, a betraying red colour rising in her cheeks despite the protest. After all it wouldn’t really do to be a paladin of Virtuo and be gallivanting around, stealing horses from local villages and and then losing them in the middle of a forest.

“Uh-huh.” Eve sighed with a tired grin, plopping into a seat on an old stone block and achily removing her soft leather boots. They’d been wandering since the moment they woke up in the caverns, mining through strangely carved decorative stone blocks - and crafting their own weapons and armour out of everything they could find.

Judith wedged a torch into a deep crack in the wall, flooding the ruins in a low, warm glow. Out here in the wilderness, there were no campfires or lantern-lit streets. There was no light pollution at all, it was pitch black during the night with only the moon and stars for company. And every so often, the frightening glow of a giant spider’s eyes peeking from around a tree.

“Hungry?” Judith asked, overhand-lobbing a round red apple towards her. She caught it easily in a hand, setting her bow and quiver aside. Eve was hungry, she hadn’t realised until they stopped moving just how hungry she was. No wonder she’d been lagging so far behind.

“Well, I suppose we could just go back to the village from here. It’s less than half a day’s walk.” she mused, taking as big a bite from the apple as she could fit into her mouth. Judith was sitting cross-legged on the floor of the ruins, chewing thoughtfully on a half loaf of brown oat bread. She didn’t respond though.

“Otherwise,” Eve went on through her mouthful of apple, “we can try the Heartwood again. Maybe third time’s the charm.” She laughed in spite of herself, immediately regretting it as she choked on her food and had to wash it down with water, swallowing painfully, before she could get another breath. Judith glanced up at her, taking a long drink from her own water flask, before finally saying:

“You deserved that.”

“Well what are we meant to do?” Eve asked, half annoyed and half forlorn, “We haven’t been given a map with any sort of roads or cities marked on it. No one’s told us oh, this is where we need you to go if you want to save the realm, turn right at the giant towering mountains, they just sent us out with a pat on the back! Why are we the ones responsible for the safety of the kingdoms? I don’t even remember how we got to the caverns! I don’t recognise anyones face, in any village we’ve been to, I don’t recognise the land...”

She bit her tongue, hunching her shoulders poutily and staring down at the half-eaten apple in her hands.

“Hopefully Virtuo will guide us.” Judith mumbled, touching her hand to the pendant of her goddess and closing her eyes.

Eve frowned bitterly, turning away and looking out over the dark hills. It must have been nice to believe in something so deeply. She couldn’t relate to the feeling her sister had with her goddess though. Eve had always been a rogue agent, quick on her feet and sharp with both her bow and her tongue. She could snipe a giant spider from a hundred yards away up a tree; but finding something to believe in?

There was nothing. Nothing but herself, and her sister.

“At this rate we’ll never reach Dusps...” She sighed, overcome with a nighttime melancholy. They’d been searching for the city of Dusps, the jewel of the West, for days now. Judith hummed, staring up at the stars.

“I don’t even think it exists.”

Eve blinked.

“What do you mean, of course it exists.” “Oh yeah? Well I haven’t seen it. So it must not exist.”

Eve couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity. Maybe her sister had the belief of a paladin, and the fighting spirit of a warrior - but she had the demeanour of a court jester. She was hard pressed to take anything seriously at all, even in life or death circumstances.

“Should we sleep?” Eve asked, accidentally bringing on a yawn. It was contagious, Judith yawned a few seconds later. She shook her head, though.

“Not here. It’s too dangerous.”

“Yeah.”

Even safely hidden in the glow of torchlight, both of them could still hear the distant hissing of giant spiders wandering in the darkness. They wouldn’t dare to approach the light, but neither of the sisters could let their guard down. If the torch went out the spiders would be on them in seconds.

To pass the time, Eve pulled on of the strange books she’d found in the village library earlier in the week. She flipped it open to her marked page, settled into her seat, and started reading. It would have been, to anyone else, a boring old history of the kingdoms and the wars within them. But to Eve it was information about their surroundings. It was hints as to where the villages and settlements were located, about which peoples could be won over and how, and about where there might be leftover goods from decimated ruined towns.

“You should read it out loud, Evie.” Her sister said, leaning her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands.

“Okay.” She agreed with a warm smile, starting back at the top of the paragraph. She must have been reading for half an hour before she realised Judith had, at some point, nodded off. Fair enough, it was a boring book.

On the horizon, she could see the barest touches of a deep amber, the sunrise would begin any moment, the spiders would be fleeing back to their lairs.

Letting Judith sleep, she ducked out of the ruins and stood against the outside wall to get a better view for the sunrise. It was always a beautiful thing, no matter where they were, and for more than one reason. It painted the sky in violet and gold, and burnt orange with shimmering yellow-white clouds, until eventually pale blue swirled with pink overcame the final stretches of darkness and the sun finally appeared in full.

“Beautiful.”

The word struck her to the bone, sending a jolt of terror through her body. The voice was a deep husky rumble, somewhere it pulled a recognition from her unconsciousness. Not a good one.

She spun on her heel, not even trying to find the source of the voice - just to get back to her sister. To get a weapon in her hand, to get back in the light of the torch. But two heavy hands grabbed her, man-handling her, holding her tight. One of them clamped hard onto her wrist, twisting it hard behind her back - and the other slapped over her lips and nose, muffling the cry for help that had barely formed.