Eight Intertwined

156 - Balogar

The following morning, the travelers awoke bright and early to get out of Noblecourt as soon as possible. Primrose was back on her feet by the sun came up thanks to Alfyn's quick intervention in healing her wound, and while she was far from being in peak condition, she was doing much better now than she had been the day before. Everyone was feeling better after the day of rest, including Tressa who could now freely walk on her previously injured ankle. Between Alfyn's apothecary skills and the healing magic of the gods, all of the travelers were in the condition they needed to be to set out for Wellspring. 

But they weren't going to Wellspring quite yet. First, they were setting their sights on one of the two remaining shrines. It wouldn't technically be necessary for what they had to do in Wellspring; they hadn't been given any reason to believe they would have to fight once they arrived. Olberic just wanted to talk to Erhardt, and if Therion's theft mission went well, he wouldn't need to worry about anyone trying to kill him in the black market too. Even so, it was easy to see the pattern of what was happening with the travelers. They couldn't seem to go to any town without having to worry about ending up dead, and as far as they were all concerned, it was best to be safe rather than sorry before they went to Wellspring. Gaining the power of one of the two gods they had yet to meet would hopefully help them to feel a bit better about the path ahead. 

They had two options left at this point. They were choosing to disregard the location in Hornburg for as long as they possibly could because of the traveling distance. It would take them ages to get all the way out to Hornburg, and it wouldn't be feasible since they didn't have much time before they needed to get to Wellspring. That left the two remaining locations--one near Everhold and the other near Riverford--as their options. 

Primrose had been the one to ask if they could go to the location over by Everhold. She had no plans of going after Simeon quite yet, especially since she was still recovering from her injury, but she was right about needing to go to the city eventually. It would save them some time later if they could just use the Warp Staff to go right there without any other need for ceremony. They could hit the shrine, tag the town for the Warp Staff's sake, and then teleport to Wellspring for their appointment with Olberic and Therion's journeys. It was a good plan, and everyone was happy to go along with it. 

More importantly though, it was a fine distraction. No one wanted to think much about what they had done in Noblecourt. Much like their departure from Saintsbridge, everybody was in desperate search of something else to think about. They needed to think about something else. In theory, they should have been in a better place emotionally now than they had been after leaving Saintsbridge, but in practice, that didn't end up being true. Instead, everyone trailed after Cyrus and H'aanit as they took the lead. Cyrus was holding the map, and H'aanit was guiding them out of the range of any monsters who may have tried to start a fight with them. Together, they were an unstoppable force that kept the group out of danger long enough for them to get to the shrine. 

Cyrus stared down at the map for far longer than he had any right to, almost hoping he would wind up lost among the ink marks that carved out the entirety of Orsterra into the page. He had a lot to think about these days, and for the first time ever, Cyrus found himself wishing his thoughts would be quiet. In his time as a teacher at the Atlasdam Royal Academy, Cyrus had loved thinking through anything and everything he could. It always helped him to feel better about his circumstances when times seemed to be dark. 

Of course, those had been the days before he was dragged into something much bigger than he could have ever imagined. These days, Cyrus was one of eight travelers searching the entire continent for a purpose and a future. He was pursuing Lucia, but it was so much more than that. The gods had wanted the travelers specifically to help them fulfill some grand destiny... But what did any of them know about that? Cyrus felt like they should have been close to a major breakthrough about something terrible regarding that destiny. At the very least, they were long overdue for some important revelation. Instead, they were left trapped in their own suspense for much longer than they had any right to be.