The weather was obnoxiously beautiful. Birds chirping, sun shining, breeze blowing – the whole shebang.

Aurum was stewing in anger and fear as they walked. Her head was a mess; she had hardly slept, she was nauseous with worry for her family, and she felt more inadequate than she ever had. Calling Alice useless had been cruel and unfair; she knew that, and somewhere beneath her distress, she felt shame for her outburst and regret for the look of pain she’d seen on Alice’s face before she’d walked away. Really, it was Aurum who was useless. So much training, so much guidance, so much wealth had been poured into making her a good ruler, a competent leader, and here she was, incapable of coming up with even the beginning of a viable plan to help her kingdom or herself.

In the end, Aurum knew she had to give in to Alice, but she refused to admit it outright. She was frustrated by her own lack of power and she was scared to trust a stranger, but she had no other option at the moment. If this man Pollan was somehow an ally, that was something she needed to accept – the fate of the kingdom was in question, and she couldn’t exactly refuse help. As ridiculous as chasing after a mythical crystal was, Aurum was desperate. And there was that voice in her head, the one that reminded her of what she thought the cottage would sound like, which kept whispering to her that maybe, just maybe, Alice was telling the truth. That she wasn’t delusional, but actually somehow from another world. There was too much oddness about her to explain it away as just a fantasy. But whenever that voice got too loud, Aurum quashed it; just because she wanted to believe Alice didn’t mean she should in the absence of evidence. Too much was at stake.

Nevertheless, the more she considered it, the more she was certain she needed to go along with Alice’s proposal. She didn’t really believe it would work, though, just as she didn’t really trust Pollan. Her real agenda was a bit different from what Alice wanted; she was still convinced that Pollan was probably a minion of the witch, and she intended to prove it. Once she did, she would get as much information from him as possible and use it as a lead to find and destroy the witch. In the meantime, hunting for a nonexistent crystal was a small price to pay.

They kept on following Pollan for the rest of the day. As the hours passed, Aurum found herself avoiding the unsavory task of proposing an adventure to this overly loquacious man. It wasn’t hard to avoid given how much he kept talking; it seemed as though he decided to accept her silence at a certain point and simply monologue. Eventually, though, the sun moved low in the sky, and Aurum knew they were running out of time. Alice kept trailing despondently behind them, in a dark sort of daze that worried Aurum more and more the longer it continued.

“Look, Pollan,” she said, cutting off a story he was telling about childhood misadventures involving climbing trees, “Alice and I need to go. We weren’t sure if we could trust you before, but we are traveling to try to find that crystal you were talking about.” She paused there, hoping he’d offer so she didn’t have to invite him herself. They all stopped walking, Alice coming to stand beside Aurum. She could practically feel her vibrating with excitement beside her.

“Oh! Is that why you are here? To learn more about the disaster before you search?” Aurum was a bit put off by his all-too-accurate guess but kept on. They were committing here.

“Yes, that’s why,” she agreed. “It might just be a myth, but like you said, the fire crystal is the only way to fight it. If we find it and… and a fire mage to use it, then we can try and save everyone.”

“How admirable! Would you care for another on your quest?” Pollan sounded a tad pompous, but he was clearly very enthusiastic. “I’m actually a fire mage. Not that I’m very good; I don’t have any training, just the affinity. But I can help you search!”

Wincing a bit, Aurum nodded. “Of course. We need all the help we can get. But are you sure you can make the trip?” She glanced doubtfully at the almost empty case of potatoes. “You seem very… busy and important to the community here.”

He smiled widely, clearly quite flattered. “Of course I can. This is far too important to ignore, and I must say, I’m quite taken with you.”

Well, that was very direct. Aurum couldn’t help but glance at Alice only to see her barely restraining a grin of delight. Something that felt a bit like disappointment fluttered in her chest. She turned back to Pollan, missing the conflicted look that crossed Alice’s face in the next moment.

Taking a bit too long to respond, Aurum finally replied, “Well. It is important.” She cleared her throat. “So. We were going to leave soon, after trying to learn a bit more about what’s happening at the disaster site. But it was hard to get people to talk to us. You’re from this town, and you seem to be on good terms with everyone. Maybe you’ve heard some things?”

Goodness, she was awful at this. But the slight hollowness to her flattery and the stiltedness of her request didn’t seem to matter to Pollan. Either he didn’t notice or he didn’t care. It seemed to be the latter. If I had to bet on why he doesn’t care, it would be that he’s trying to manipulate and ingratiate himself to us.

In the end, Pollan did not know much more than Aurum and Alice – well, really, Alice – had managed to learn outside the inn. The only new information he could provide was about the mythical crystal, and how much people were speculating about it. According to Pollan, one in ten of the people in town weren’t refugees or waylaid merchants but instead were aspiring (or, as Aurum would prefer to call it, wannabe) adventurers, all of them eager to somehow find either the mythical crystal or some other powerful relic.

“Really, though, none of the other targets make any sense.” Pollan was explaining his thoughts eagerly as they made their way back towards the town together. “What good is an earth magic infused staff or a sword that grants its user extra strength against someone like the ice witch?”

Aurum nodded, becoming engrossed in the theorizing despite herself. “So you think the natural opponent to ice is fire?”

“Yes of course! That’s what we are taught, yes? That there are opposing elements? Ice and fire, earth and air.”

Aurum opened her mouth to respond, but was surprised when Alice did instead.

“No, that’s not right. It’s not ice, either. It’s cold. Cold stands in opposition to all the others.”

A shocked pause followed her pronouncement. Everyone stopped walking, Aurum and Pollan staring at Alice. It was the first time Alice had spoken in over an hour, and she had sounded so resolute and assertive on top of that. Even more shocking was the content of her statement. Most people called the witch the ice witch, and many people thought as Pollan did, that fire was a natural opposite to her power. Aurum had learned about the common misconceptions as well as the deeper magical theory as part of her royal education, but few others knew that the most learned mages considered cold to be the antithesis to life itself rather than a fifth magic. These scholars claimed that cold was more than just cold, it was stillness: the absence of energy itself. There weren’t many scholars who thought so, though. It was a fairly radical statement, a stance that was debated by scholars and opposed by most people in the mainstream. Aurum had never thought too hard about it; she was a water mage, and so she had learned how to practice water magic. She knew the different theories as a student because she had to be knowledgeable about everything to a certain degree. Never had she been a particularly eager student; she had thought the debate about cold versus ice magic was pointless esotericism. Hearing Alice now, though, she thought maybe the theory was more practically relevant than she had realized.

Pollan did not seem to agree. After his moment of stunned silence, he swiftly switched his expression to one of indulgence. “Now, that doesn’t make much sense, does it? There are five magics, one can’t oppose the other four,” he said, sounding like he was explaining as much to a precocious child. Aurum half expected Alice to shrink back as she had been all day from interactions with strangers, but instead, her eyes flashed, much as they had when she’d been annoyed with Aurum back at the cottage.

“There are other minor magics, and even if there weren’t, it doesn’t make sense for water to be the only magic with no opposition.” She sounded stubborn and resolute. Aurum held back a smile.

Pollan looked surprised but was still unoffended. “I’ve never heard of any other magics, but I’m happy to hear more about what you think.” Now Aurum rolled her eyes surreptitiously. He sounded like a goody-two-shoes parroting conflict resolution. The most annoying thing about it was that he seemed sincere.

Alice, on the other hand, did not look the least bit irritated – something which only served to annoy Aurum more. She was left to stew in silence, though, because magical theory proved to be the perfect topic for Alice and Pollan to bond over. By the time they made it back to the main road in town, Aurum was the one trailing behind while the other two chatted amiably.