As we rode through the mountains I felt a mix of worry and fear. Both for crossing the border and for what was happening to Sasha. Yeah, she didn’t talk to me all that much but at least she seemed like she was okay. Now she just seemed like there was something going on that neither she nor I could stop. Even so, I was going to figure this out. My other fear, the border patrol, wasn’t as much of an issue as Hutch didn’t care much about people crossing over the border. It was more of a fear that some random person would consider us a threat and report us to the authorities.

We traveled through the muddy mountain path till sundown. Only stopping to eat, drink, and use the bathroom. Even after traveling for a full day, we were still half a day away from reaching the edge of the mountains. With our rations running low I was now worried about where the first village would be. Assuming that this trail led directly to a village we would be lucky. Though, After everything that has happened, I don’t think we’ll be that lucky.

“Are you okay? You seem a bit tense.” Sasha asked as she set some logs and twigs up for a campfire.

“Sorry. Do I really seem that tense?” I asked before igniting the campfire with a small bit of magic.

“You do. Now, what is it that you’re tense about? Because it’s kind of making me worried.” Sasha replied.

“I’m just worried about what is ahead. That and I feel a bit bad that I’m not a good fit to be your master.” I said, knowing that I couldn’t mention her mental breakdown. For both our sakes.

“I understand. Though, you don’t need to worry about being a good master. It’s not like you chose your situation. Plus, I have this feeling that I used to do stuff similar to this a long time ago. Though I can’t remember where or when.” Sasha said. That was exactly what I was worried about. She was remembering her past but it was so traumatic that she forgot it again as a way of coping.

“Thank you. Now, you get some sleep. I’ll keep watch and wake in a little bit to trade-off.” I said.

“If you insist.” Sasha said before laying against the roots of a tree and trying to sleep.

As she dozed off I pulled out her book and began reading with the light of the fire. There weren’t any new pages or anything. However, there seemed to be some small paragraphs that were spread among several pages with large spaces between them. The gaps between the paragraphs made each of them a mystery as they would only give me a small bit of information. There was one passage though that stuck out among the gibberish.

I watched as the town which I had just visited was struck with a bombardment of mortar shells. The village was burnt to the ground and I was forced to help wipe out the rest of the insurgence. Among the dead were the children which had asked me to play with them that very day. For each one I saw dead in the street, I begged for forgiveness. Though no forgiveness came. It eats at me and my sanity.

This one paragraph stuck out among the rest. Perhaps this is why she freaked out. She had remembered this scene and rejected it. If that was the case then what was I supposed to do? If I tell her that I forgive her then would it actually do anything to help her? It’s not like I can do nothing. However, I can’t do anything until I know it will help her. What the hell do I do?

Scanning through her book I made my way back to the part of the book that told me about her weapon. One of the blank pages had been completely filled in. It contained a detailed analysis of the weapon her Ak-47 turned into. The Dragunov rifle, which was considered an even longer-ranged weapon with a larger projectile. However, the unit of measurement used t describe its size was unknown to me. Just like the projectiles from her Ak-47. Though the numbers were larger so they had to be bigger.

After looking through her book I put it away and began reading up on the books that I had taken from the Empire’s library. I felt kind of bad for taking them but I felt that it would help me a lot. For example, here’s a simple spell to make ones… Libido exponentially higher. Why the hell was this in here? Going to the next page there was a spell to increase one’s manhood. What the hell kind of book did I grab?

Chucking that book back into my bag I pulled out the one I was reading through before. It discussed an interesting idea of using runes in tandem to create new effects. Although this wasn’t uncommon, it was different from how most mages used tandem runes. Mages of Alsenia would overlap runes to create new runes. However, the effects were not dependent upon the runes used. This book discussed the idea of using runes in a three-dimensional field to create spells that would combine the two runes.

This was an unbelievable concept for me as I had never heard anyone using runes on anything other than a two-dimensional plane such as a stone or piece of paper. Even so, I wanted to try it. Using my knowledge of magic I created an invisible cube and drew a mix of runes on each side of it. Then I extended my essence into it. The runes reacted by overlapping inside of the cube and creating an electrical field within the cube. A mix of water, wind, lighting, and teleportation runes were used. Though the teleportation rune was probably not a good idea as it suddenly disappeared.

“I really hope that no one is around when that thing reappears.” I said to myself. Though, I had no clue where it was teleported to.

After a couple of hours looking through this book I woke Sasha up and we switched off. When I awoke the next day we headed north again down the mountain trail with our Norhs. Though it was a good ways away, we saw a small village off in the distance. Heading towards it, we were able to reach it before sundown, thankfully.

As we approached the village a few people came out to see who we were. They looked a bit suspicious of us but after seeing how tired and worn out we looked they didn’t bother and went back to their homes. One of them, an older woman told us where we could board our Norhs and also where the inn was. Although it wasn’t a large village, they had a pretty wide variety of shops due to their location.

Once we had found the stables and paid for them using one of the Imperial coins to be boarded up for the night we went to the inn. It was a rather large inn made of large logs, thatch, and mud. Despite that, it held a large number of people who were drinking happily around a large fire with an animal roasting on a spit overtop of it. Walking up to the desk at the back of the inn we saw a single woman in her mid-thirties reading a slim book.

She was dressed in a simple long brown dress which almost matched her light brown hair. Although we were in a farming country her skin was fairly pale. As if she rarely went outside. Though she was incredibly muscular and was covered in small scratches that could be from farm work… or bar fights. It didn’t matter though. She seemed to be in charge of the inn.

“Excuse us, do you know where-” I started to say.

“If you’re not buying ale or a room you can move on. I don’t waste my time with those not paying.” the woman interrupted rather rudely.

“Actually, we do want a room. Though we need to sell some stuff before we can pay you for it. Do you know where we can sell some Impirial relics?” I asked, ignoring her rude interruption. She let out a sigh and set her book down.

“Take a left out of the inn and there’s a relic shop in the second building on the right.” the woman answered in a way that sounded like we were a pain.

“Thank you.” I replied before the two of us left to go to this relic shop.

Entering the old weathered building we had been instructed to go to, we saw piles upon piles of old books, strange art, and crystals used for alchemy. There was no structure whatsoever to where everything was placed and it made both Sasha and I a little disturbed. Not because it was scary but because it was like a hoarder’s hobble.

Looking around we found an old man sleeping in a chair made of book stacks and covered with fluffed bedding materials. He was probably around sixty years old with short white hair that only went around the rim of his otherwise bald head. His wrinkly skiing furrowed on his brow each time he took a breath and he was dressed in a simple white tunic and brown pants. Sasha gave the man a quick nudge which caused him to immediately shoot awake with a loud snort.

“The hell do you want! I paid my taxes, dammit!” the old man exclaimed before looking around and seeing us standing before him.

“Hello.” I said.

“Are you here to rob me?” he asked with absolute sincerity.

“What? No. we were hoping you would buy some Imperial relics off of us?” I asked.

“I see. My apologies. Let me get my glasses and I’ll take a look at them.” The old man said as he got up and meandered his way over to an empty desk in the corner of the room. Grabbing his glasses from one of the drawers he sat down and waited for us to bring our bags over to him. Knowing that he would probably try and buy them way cheaper than they actually were I only pulled out one of the items.

“A drinking ewer? Haven’t seen many of those.” the old man said as he took it and began examining it. “Gold plated too, and it has the Emperor’s seal… Where the hell did you find this?” the old man asked with a bewildered look.

“In the mountains north of the old Imperial capital.” I lied.

“I see. Well, the government is willing to pay high prices for relics like these no matter what they are. I can give you two hundred silver Hutchies or if you would like, I can give you a hundred and fifty Silver base Imperials. Which would you prefer?” the old man asked.

“The Imperials, please.” I replied.

“Smart kid. The Imperials have only gone up in value over the past sixty years since the war. I expect that Hutch will even decrease the silver purity in the Hutchies again over the next few years. Are there any more relics you want to sell?” the old man asked.

“Yeah, how about these as well?” I asked before pulling out a large handful of jewelry. He looked shocked but he took a look anyway.

“There’s no denying that these are Imperial craftsmanship. However, I want to know how you found these in such pristine condition?” the old man continued.

“We were just lucky. Would you be willing to buy them?” I asked.

“I understand. I used to be a treasure hunter myself so I won’t push you to tell me where you actually got them. Buying them won’t be an issue. Though I can’t pay you more than three hundred base Imperials for the jewelry and ewer.” the old man replied with an apologetic tone.

“I get it. Though, I won’t be able to sell you everything then.” I said.

“I figured. Which is why I want to pay you the rest in unpaid exchange bills.” the old man continued.

“What are those?” Sasha asked. I also had no clue what those were so I’m glad she asked.

“Basically, for merchants, it’s a way for us to remain accountable when we can’t pay a full amount at the moment. Imperial relics, as I said before are always sought after by the Hutch government so I’ll have no problem selling them. As such, we’ll make a written agreement that states that I owe you a specific amount and you will be able to take the agreement to any merchant’s society north of the mountains after a specified date and receive payment. Sound fair?” the old man explained.

“That sounds fair.” I replied before shaking his hand.