A Hand-Woven Universe

One by one the sound of horse hooves and wagon wheels crunching against stone roads echoed against the wooden wall of the city. The front most cart quickly pa.s.sed through the gate, leading the rest behind it.

Novrada stood off to the side along with the young golden-haired man they had spoken with before, making one last check of each cart as they pa.s.sed. Her eyes scanned the carts while he quickly looked back and forth between his itinerary and the caravan. Double checking and triple checking to make sure everything that should be there – was there.

In the middle of the caravan, Rae, Sally and Feylin all walked beside a cart packed with various simple foods and aid supplies. Rae and Sally talked amongst themselves and Feylin walked alone, looking around at the other carts and taking in the atmosphere of the caravan.

A few carts behind Feylin"s, music could be heard. The strumming of a lyre tw.a.n.ged over the sound of the horses and carts. A man walked with a spring in his step, practically skipping around one of closed carts while singing at the top of his lungs.

Everyone around him smiled wryly but no one said anything – his singing wasn"t bad, and neither was his playing. Many of them had already grown used to this man"s constant accompaniment. Within the cart a voice shouted, seemingly exhausted.

"Will you shut up for one day Reel!" A bottle flew out of the window, narrowly missing the singing man"s head.

"Oh of course!" The man named Reel spoke. "Should ever a day come when you die, I don"t know how I will ever bring myself to lift my instrument again, knowing I can no longer annoy you." His pace increased as he spoke, continuing the jovial strumming.

A scoff could be heard within the cart, but no more words or spoken or bottles thrown.

Tobias, Noone, and Sarah were a dozen carts behind them, taking up the rear of the caravan. Despite this they were still able to observe the comedic scene which had developed.

"So, Tobias my friend, tell me, what brought you down here?" A gnome sat on the wagon next to Tobias. He held out a small flask to Tobias who merely smiled shaking his head, turning the gnome down.

"Just work. We are on our way back to the Capital you see." Tobias"s voice made for a harsh contrast from the lighter nasally voice of the gnome. He motioned back to Sarah and Noone who were walking a little ways behind, observing the caravan silently, accompanied by their own thoughts.

"Mm. Indeed. I saw the six of you when you talked with Nova or whatever her name is." The gnome chuckled, obviously referring to the dwarven foreman. "Quite an interesting group you have collected!" The gnome glanced back at Noone and Sarah who had been silently listening to their banter.

When Noone caught the gnome"s eye he couldn"t help but straighten up some. Something about this man gave Noone and odd feeling. The gnome was no more than three feet tall, only 45 pounds if he was soaking wet.

The gnome chuckled and continued to make small talk with Tobias. Sarah looked at Noone, noticing the subtle hints of a frown on his face.

"What"s wrong?" She whispered, nudging Noone a bit.

"Hmm. Nothing. He just gives me a weird feeling. It"s like looking at him makes me… dizzy." Noone spoke equally quiet, however something gave him the impression that the gnome heard everything they said regardless, even though he didn"t show any reaction to it.

Sarah put her hand to her chin as she walked, thinking about what Noone had said. Since training with Noone she had come to understand how incredible Noone"s senses were. He seemed to have an eye for things that others could only match after years of experience.

"Don"t look at him with your divine sense." Sarah eventually whispered. "Gnomes have a high- an extraordinarily high affinity with magic. If he is a security lead, then chances are he"s strong." She gave Noone a look, making sure he understood.

So far Noone had not had any experience with magic, either fighting with or dealing with the people who could wield it. From the outside it may seem similar to the miracles of clerics and paladins, but in truth they pulled from very different sources.

Noone knew the basis of this, Raelith had taught him the general information to try and bring him up to speed about the common realms. However, until now Noone didn"t have the chance to experience it.

Magic wasn"t something easily gained like fighting skills could be. It required studies, thus causing mages and sorcerers and the like to be much fewer and far between than the common fighter adventurer.

Noone pulled in his divine sense. He was used to having it spread to its maximum distance at all times, creating a 360-degree sphere of sight around himself. Over the past months he had grown so used to it that he barely even remembered that it was there. The only time he would become conscious of it in daily life was when his brain failed to keep up with the sheer amount of information surrounding him at any one time. But this occurred less and less as he advanced, and his mind became reinforced with universal energy.

When the divine sense shrunk down to only cover a meter around him, Noone immediately felt better. Now when he looked at the gnome with just his eyes, he didn"t see anything other than a small frail-bodied gnome

Noone was about to mention this to Sarah when a voice appeared in his mind without any warning.

"Good Job, kid." The nasally voice chuckled. "You should be more careful about that magic of yours. If I wasn"t such an easygoing guy, you might have offended me." The voice admonished. Noone immediately recognized this as the voice of the gnome, however when he looked up at him the gnome continued to talk with Tobias as though nothing had happened. "The name"s Alaviv, by the way. Remember it."

Noone"s expression was carefully controlled, but he stared at the gnome who completely ignored him afterwards.

Sarah, seeming to notice the change, also looked at the gnome.

Noone had thought he had a good feel on who the strong one"s were in the caravan after watching from the sides for more than an hour. However, not once did he ever pin this small being as especially powerful. Alaviv exuded no aura or energy, and in fact seemed almost non-existent unless you were looking right at him.

Eventually Noone could only shrug, rolling his shoulders stiffly. He knew that if he was stronger, then chances were even the gnome wouldn"t have been able to notice his divine sense.

Noone pulled out an urchin from his pack he had bought earlier that day and split it in half, handing one half of it to Sarah who looked at him oddly. He just shrugged again and bit into the meaty middle.

Sarah hesitated for a moment but bit into her half as well. There was nothing to do except follow along at the back of the caravan, so they would just have to entertain themselves in the downtime.

Up ahead the strumming of a lyre continued.

…

Feylin walked with a bit of pep put into him artificially by the singing of a bard a few carts behind his own. The bard – Reel as it were – had not stopped for almost 3 hours now. However, the only one who was annoyed by his playing was the poor man in the cart Reel circled endlessly.

Raelith had disappeared at some point to the front of the caravan, leaving Sally and Feylin to themselves. He looked at Sally, who walked calmly in between the carts. It seemed to him that she was exceptionally comfortable alongside such atmosphere.

His thoughts drifted to the future. Soon… they would arrive at Stone-Eye to help remove the Dark-Elves from the mountain, freeing up a teleport station in the process. And after that… The Grand Temple of Cinapul!

He smiled to himself, thinking about what it must be like there. He had heard much of it from Sally and Rae since they began travelling together.

The more he thought about the last couple of years, the more his mood turned sour. Specifically, when he thought about Sarah.

In truth… he wasn"t sure how to feel about the whole situation. No matter what lead her to the decision to follow h.o.a.r, she was still a person he had spent years growing up with. Feylin didn"t hate her for her decision.

But… He glanced at Sally. Feylin wasn"t stupid, he could tell that Sally felt stronger about it than anyone else in the party. And it seemed that because of his indecision, he had inadvertently been lumped in with her.

Since beginning their travels a year ago, Sarah had gotten along better with Raelith and he with Sally. Feylin sighed. "I have till we get to the capital… I have to make sure Sarah knows she can trust me."

The last thing he wanted was to lose Sarah as a friend. He had already made a bad impression by how he reacted before.
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He glanced back towards the rear of the caravan.

"h.e.l.lo!" Suddenly a voice managed to bring him out of his thoughts. Directly beside him a young cleric had appeared.

"Um. h.e.l.lo." Feylin said, slightly shocked, he hadn"t noticed her approach until just now.

"I had been trying to get your attention for a while now!" The girl said. Feylin looked at her with wide eyes. She looked to be the same age as himself, and her robes were a variation of the life-clerics uniforms.