THE ASHES OF LIGHT ✔

Chapter Seventeen: Maythus

Maythus lay in his sleeping bag, unable to sleep. He kept replaying the same moment over and over again in his head—of course they would be interrupted. He had almost kissed Valencia... there was no way he could have imagined that, right?

After continuously replaying the moment in his mind, by some miracle, Maythus was able to drift off to sleep.

Before he knew it, the sun was rising once again and it was time to get hiking. Maythus was in a daze the whole morning, simply going through the motions of packing his belongings back into his backpack instead of consciously thinking about it.

Not only was he still half-asleep, but he was also nervous about what would end up happening later that day. They were going into the headquarters of Gaiwei—pretty much the most dangerous expedition one could ask for. It was likely that someone would get hurt, but who would it be? Would one of them end up dead? Even worse, what if they got to the headquarters only to find that they had already killed Ashton? Not to mention, Maythus was still wondering whether or not things between him and Valencia would change after their almost-kiss.

All of those questions clouded his brain as he changed into another set of his Academy uniform. His wound from the previous night was completely healed, with virtually no scarring. The only sign that it had ever happened was the dried blood all over his uniform from the day before.

"Is everyone ready to head out?" Kane questioned, his fingers working on strapping his heavy bag to his torso.

Maythus nodded and noticed Maddi and Valencia nodding out of the corner of his eye as well.

With that, the four of them began to set back out on the trail. Kane quickly took note of their surroundings and was able to re-orient them back in the direction of Gaiwei.

The sun was quickly rising, bit of light dancing through the leaves. The rays felt warm on Maythus's face—a refreshing feeling of peacefulness overcoming him as they walked through nature.

"What's our plan for when we get there?" he asked Kane, picking up his pace so that they were walking side-by-side. The trail was just big enough to fit two people.

"We should split into groups to make it quicker. I suggest that you be in one and Maddi in the other, as you can communicate with her telepathically more easily than you can with anyone else," Kane began, looking over at the group, "then, after we make it in, we search for Ashton. We don't have any maps of the cave, so there's no knowing how much time this will take."

"Isn't that kind of dangerous though?" Maddi asked looking to Kane. "If we're found, we're as good as dead."

"That's the risk we have to take with every expedition," Kane responded, his expression hardening. "Ashton is the best healer we've got and we need him right now. We also need to figure out why Crypt needed him in the first place and what he's planning."

The name sent a shudder down Maythus's spine as goosebumps appeared on his arms.

"Crypt?" Valencia questioned, looking around them in confusion. A strand of hair had fallen into her face, and Maythus resisted the urge to tuck it behind her ear.

"He's the leader of Gaiwei," Maythus answered instead, thinking back to what he learned at the Academy. They were all taught about the current and past influential people of Gaiwei during their training, as a way to prepare them better for when they embarked on expeditions. Crypt was the worst of them.

He wasn't the worst because he was a bad leader, in fact, he was very good at uniting his people and keeping everything in Gallor running smoothly. However, Crypt was also so power-hungry and ruthless that he wouldn't let anything stop him from achieving his ambitions—even if it meant resorting to murder.