Ash. The Legends of the Nameless World. Progression Gamelit Story by Kirill Klevanski (ink book reader .txt) 📕

arm, perched itself on her shoulder, and began to rub against her cheek. “I was born in the outskirts of Kolem, in a small village. All I knew about the world was what I heard from the ballads… Did you ever think that you’d become a Ternite?”

“I had my suspicions,” Ash replied and shrugged.

“I could only dream of it…” She lifted the light from her shoulder and set it on the grass, playing with it by tossing it a stick. “My parents were always either in the field or at home. They even chose me a husband, it was going to be an arranged marriage… Someone who doesn’t drink too much and isn’t too stingy. So I went with the caravan to the city to meet him… We almost…” She bit her lip. “I ran away and got into a school. I remained there.”

Ash was silent. Ternites, Ernites… He didn’t see any difference between them.

“Sometimes I go west in the evening.” Alice sniffed. “I wonder where my parents are and how they’re doing, whether they have enough crops to feed themselves and my brother… He ought to be seven winters old by now.”

She played with the light for a while longer, then hugged her knees and looked up at the sky.

“I wanted to earn coin and leave with the first caravan. The funny thing is, I already have enough, just… Just…”

“You’re afraid.”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “What if it’s not nice there at all? What if they get scared of me? What if they hate me?”

“And what if it’s the opposite?” Ash said, putting down the pipe and rolling over on his back. “What if they are waiting for you? What if every evening they look to the east, waiting for their daughter to arrive with the merchants? What if they tell your brother just how strong his sister is? About how she helps people, fulfilling the will of the kings themselves!”

Alice looked at him and the faint but dreamy smile dancing on his lips.

“You never went back, did you?” She realized.

Ash nodded slowly.

“Is your home very far away?”

“You could say that,” he replied after a short pause.

Alice turned away and looked at the sleeping Stumps again.

“You’re probably right,” she said. “Maybe I’m just being paranoid… Is that why you applied for this job? To earn coin?”

“Nah.” Ash raised his hand as if to reach for the stars. “Not because of that. I, like you, would very much like to go back home, but, alas, I can’t. For me, that’ll always remain a dream.”

Alice looked back at him but said nothing. She didn’t want to pry or stick her nose where it didn’t belong. In her melancholy, she didn’t think about the fact that the others maybe weren’t as lucky as her.

“But you know,” Ash smiled and jumped to his feet, “no one in your homeland can do what you can.”

He raised his hands high, whispered something, and struck the ground with his staff. From under the roots, hidden deep under the ground and grass, emerged butterflies made of fire, similar to those that he had been chasing earlier that day.

They fluttered about, flapping their beautiful wings and chasing away the gloom with their mesmerizing shimmer. There were so many of them that the whole clearing was soon shining like Irmail had enveloped it with its warm, gentle light.

Alice got to her feet and laughed as she whirled around the dancing lights. Ash stared at her, feeling joyful for some reason. Perhaps because magic could not only erase entire cities from the face of the earth, but also because it could just as efficiently heal both the body and soul.

Whatever the reason was, the main thing was that Helmer seemed to have been wrong.

Or so Ash thought.

Chapter 39

“W hat kind of beast could have left such marks?”

Mary studied the long lines embedded deep into the thick trunk of the trees. Such marks couldn’t have been left by any monster known to her. And no one could accuse Mary of being unprepared for this journey and not knowing what she could encounter on the way to the Fire Mountains. She had carefully studied each of the Shadow Forest’s creatures, its features and marks.

“If you think that’s weird, come look at this.”

Mary looked around and noticed Tul standing frozen in front of a bush. He beckoned her over with a wave of his hand.

“What―” she asked, coming closer, and then stopped too, “―is it?”

Beyond the rotten, purple bushes, was the green vastness of the forest, bathed by the rays of Irmaril. Birds sang amongst the rustling leaves, hares ran through the grass, and the trees no longer seemed like demons frozen in agony.

“Are we out of the Forest then?”

“We still have two days to go, if not more.”

A few seconds later, Blackbeard pulled himself together. He, like the others, blinked in disbelief and tugged at his beard, trying to make sure that he wasn’t dreaming. Alice, helping the slightly limping Lari, almost swore, but was silenced in time with a bread bun and asked to keep quiet. Lari seemed indifferent to the sudden change of landscape.

“Where… are we?” Mary asked at last.

“Hell if I know.” Tul shrugged, looking at the map. “I don’t see it here, so we could be anywhere within a seventeen-mile radius of our previous campsite…”

“Oh, that’s just great!” Mary sighed in annoyance.

“It seems to me that―”

“Ash,” she held up her hand, indicating that she wasn’t going to listen to any of his nonsense. “Please, be quiet for a moment.”

“But there―”

“I said, shut up!”

“I just―”

“Zip it!” she snapped.

The mage pouted and pointed west. Mary looked in the indicated direction and immediately drew her sword. The rest of the squad, noticing her reaction, also took up their fighting