The portal led into the woods. Tall trees covered the land, engulfing it in shadows. Maxxine could see the moon through the trees, its rings beginning to glow more brightly around it. Thankfully, it was almost morning. The group lingered near the portal, scanning the surroundings.

“This doesn’t seem to be their camp; it has to be somewhere nearby.” Xenos declared.

“Or maybe they moved the camp.” Mari shot a glare at Xenos.

Maxxine couldn’t find it believable what Mari claimed. “Even if they moved their camp, there’d be traces that it was ever here.”

“We should look around for it!” Vania exclaimed, starting to walk forward. Maxxine followed with no hesitation, and the others in the group then followed. They wandered into the woods, and the trees became more and more sparse. Then it led out to a small area with dozens of cottage-like structures. All the structures here were in ruins, the lands were destroyed, and the paths that connected everything together weren’t defined anymore. The thing that stuck out the most were freshly hung banners with the detailed symbols of the Singing Woods Colony, as well as another symbol that was fused with the Singing Woods one. The symbol looked identical to the one in his visions. The one engraved in the trees.

“It looks like this is the camp. Whatever is left of it at least.” Maxxine spoke softly, walking forward into the camp area. The more he investigated, the more disturbing it all seemed. Bones littered the floor. Bones belonging to beings like himself. He shuddered at the realization that something horrible must have happened here, and no one remained in this camp from what he could tell. It seemed completely inhabitable. He turned back to the group, taking a breath to compose himself. “Alright, we should search this place for anything that may be useful. We’ll cover more ground if we split into two groups. And be careful; Singing Woods seems to have control of this territory.”

“I’ll be sticking with Vania.” Mari stated, grabbing her hand. “You guys can handle yourselves, right?”

“You questioning that statement of fact is insulting!” Xenos teased and nodded. "Yes, we can; we’ll meet back up soon!”

“Stay safe.” Maxxine reminded them.

“You too!” Vania waved, and the two headed off in the opposite direction. Maxxine watched for a moment, only to break his attention when Xenos placed a hand on his shoulder.

“They’ll be okay. Come on, we should start looking around.”

“Right.” Maxxine glanced around and began to walk down the ruined paths. He avoided stepping on the bones, and he examined the fragile structures. Maxxine quickly looked back at Xenos, who was evidently sorrowful at the losses of all these people here. He slowed down slightly, then hesitantly reached over to hold Xenos’ hand.

“Oh- thanks-“ Xenos looked down at their hands for a moment, then back at Maxxine with a slight smile. Maxxine smiled back and continued to walk. He stayed alert and didn’t want to risk running into anyone from Singing Woods. He didn’t trust any of them anymore. He suddenly grew very aware of the silence between the two. He felt nervous but pushed through and managed to speak.

“So, um, what do you do outside of being a guardian? Any hobbies or something?” 

Xenos suddenly snapped his attention back, presumably lost in his thoughts. “Oh, I make things! I’ve been working on different defense systems back at the Oasis and helping with maintaining our water extraction resources.”

“Wait, why have I never known this? That’s been you?” Maxxine looked up at him with near-awe. “That’s fascinating.”

“Why, thank you! Of course I’ve had help, and I’m going off of what others have done in the past, but I’d consider myself quite the inventor.” He boasted. “It’s actually kind of why I was interested in your notebook before. I was seeing what else you may know that I could make mental notes on for how to improve or what others needed.” 

Maxxine nodded. “Mmm, if you are looking for what the people need and more projects, between Vania and me, we could compile a list.”

Xenos’ eyes lit up. “Yes, YES! I’d love to help! Just name it, and I’ll do what I can. You may be dragged in to help though.”

“Fine by me.”

“Anyways! What do you do?” Xenos redirected the conversation away from himself. “Vania makes you out to be quite the artist.”

Maxxine rolled his eyes. “That’s a strong term. I guess I like to draw what I see. I also like to research.”

“Well, you need to show me at some point.”

“We’ll see.” He concluded, continuing to walk forward while holding Xenos’ hand. “I hope this place isn’t a waste of time.”

“Us finding this place isn’t a waste of time. We found out that it’s under control of the Singing Woods Colony, and that shows that this place isn’t entirely abandoned.”

“I suppose.” Maxxine mumbled. He let the silence fall back over the group again. Though within it, he felt this overwhelming feeling that they weren’t alone. Someone new was near. He quickly pulled Xenos into a cottage, shutting the rickety door to the best of his ability. “I don’t think our group is the only one here.”

"Well, then we better stay quiet.” 

“Yeah.” Maxxine looked around. This place seemed less abandoned than the others. Notes lay scattered across a desk, yet the inside of this structure remained tidy enough in comparison to how it should appear with the state of everything else. Maxxine began to look around. Notebooks were filled with writing in a different language that he couldn’t comprehend. Xenos helped sort out the mess of notes and journals. It looked like someone had left in a hurry at the state of things.

“Strange, it looks similar to the writing in the temple.”

“You’re right.” Maxxine flipped through some of the journals before coming across one with translations of different words and letters in that strange language, all written in a different handwriting. He showed the page to Xenos. “This could be useful.”

“Interesting. Well, we should take it with us.”

Maxxine nodded and handed the journal to Xenos while he continued searching. He found strange sketches of the same symbol, the one from his visions. It was drawn repetitively; some were scratched out as well, or the ink was smeared to make it harder to recognize. He continued to search the desk, opening drawers and cabinets, finding similar things as what was on top of the desk, along with a couple daggers that he set out on the desk. He found a scroll and unraveled it. It was a signed official document from Singing Woods for an allyship between them and Light Seekers. From the looks of it, it must have been a magic-bound contract. And the signature underneath read out to be Zayn’s name. “Zayn is involved with Light Seekers.”

“This may be all of their stuff then too, if it’s with that contract.” Xenos analyzed the contract. “The date—that’s nearly 26 years ago. Did you notice that both Zayn and Esmeray look to be only in their early twenties at most?” 

“Yes, my parents have also mentioned that. People suspect that both have some sort of immortality. The way they obtained that is still unknown, I guess.” Maxxine explained. He put back the contract. 

“Freaky, if you ask me.” Xenos commented.

Maxxine nodded and backed away from the desk, only to catch a glimpse of something underneath. He reached down and picked up a small box. He set it down on the desk, opening it to see a photo. He picked up the delicate photo. The image was faded, but two people stuck out. He couldn’t identify either of them. He found a note in the box. 

‘I found this when I was going through some things. I believe you may want it. 

-Everly’

“I think my mom knew someone by that name.” Maxxine recalled, then looked back at the image with confusion. He looked through the box more, seeing random items. Pens, some papers, even a couple crystals, and preserved potion ingredients. One thing stuck out: the head of a spear. The tip of it was damaged. “Who’s the other person?”

“No clue.” Xenos shrugged, leaving Maxxine still wanting answers. He heard the door creak, immediately moving into a defensive stance, and Xenos jumped barely in front of him with one of the daggers. Once he recognized the person in front of him as the one in the photo, he seemed surprised and confused, allowing himself to loosen up.

“If you kill me, you won’t get any answers!” They raised her hands to show that he wasn’t a threat, watching Maxxine and Xenos. Maxxine nodded to Xenos to lower the weapon, and he complied. 

“What are you doing here? Why are you associated with this place?” Maxxine asked, still not trusting the stranger.

“It’s a long story. I’m here to help you.”