"Wait, do you mean that monster killed off everything in the Forest"
"Of course, why do you think it was so quiet when you went in there?"
'How did he know I couldn't hear anything? I don't remember mentioning it…' Valen frowned as his inner monologue ranted.
"There's nothing to worry about, Friend. The Forest is still fighting back, and as long as we take the time to screen everyone, there are enough precautions to prevent another outbreak." Rallo attempted to reassure him, unaware of the real reason for Valen's pensive expression.
"That's good." Valen nodded, not wanting to clear the misconception.
"Well Valen, Tauri and I are going to take care of some paperwork to not raise any false flags. Atlan and Errin should have the answers to any of your questions in the meantime. Just make sure to listen to them and don't stray away." Rallo patted Valen's shoulder, "I hate to trouble you with taking care of strangers, but it would seem that you are the only one capable of speaking with the rest of them. Until we find a method of communication, we'll need you to translate. Don't worry, I'll make sure that the papers move fast enough to help you guys settle in."
Valen's paranoia and distrustful nature was having a hard time taking the Captain's words at face value, yet he couldn't perceive any hostility in his behaviour.
'Regardless of his intentions, this is only the beginning of the path. If I coordinate the others properly, we should have the means to handle a Guard Captain. As long as he isn't a pivotal person in the scenario that is… Looks can be deceiving, it would be best to not let my guard down. However, turning down his help would only stunt our progress.'
Valen nodded, as he turned away from Rallo who was flanked by Tauri's tall presence. Atlan and Errin were busy helping the other pathfinders with their bindings and blindfolds, so Valen decided to head back over to Cairo, who was sitting restlessly a few meters away.
"Well Cairo, my name is Valen. Don't freak out, I'm going to help you with your bindings." Valen had no interest in dealing with a startled boy who couldn't tell friend from foe, so he decided to play his cards carefully and cautiously. Not receiving any verbal response, Valen took some time to inspect his fellow pathfinder as he removed his bindings.
'Rough hands, a few healed burns and cuts. Something about him feels off though, like he is brimming with energy. His dark hair seems unnaturally smooth, and his skin looks more pampered than a noble's. Must be about fifteen or sixteen, average physique. I wonder what he received from his first path…'
As Valen finished unbinding his wrists, and moved to unbind his ankles, Cairo didn't hesitate to tear his blindfold off. Without his equipment, Cairo felt naked, and he sure as hell wasn't fond of this Valen character's openly paranoid behavior.
'I didn't ask to be here so why the hell is this guy being such a hard-ass?' Cairo had been thinking to himself after Valen introduced himself.
After recovering from his moment of blindness and sensory overload, Cairo saw a frail looking teenager with cheap linen robes covering his thin sickly looking frame. His sunken brown eyes were empty and his tangled and messy brunette hair looked like mop. His expression was blank, and his presence seemed forgettable. The only interesting thing about his appearance was a simple silver cord rope that hung around his neck. Cairo couldn't explain why, but he felt like he could feel a barely perceptible power hiding within its reflective fibers.
In Cairo's limited knowledge of pathfinding, he knew that most pathfinders would only attempt to begin their paths when they were physically able to deal with the latent dangers, the only exception being people like himself who proceeded without such cautions due to emergencies or criminals on the run. Cairo found Valen's gait unsettling, but not because it was that of a confident criminal, or someone who was rushing to save a loved one. It was the calm coldness in his movements, those of someone who had no cares, those of someone who walked as if they were already dead. The fact that Valen was roughly Cairo's age made him rethink making any comments on the other pathfinder's rude behaviour.
'He looks like he already has two feet in the grave…' Cairo thought to himself, his soft-hearted nature betrayed the intensity of the situation they were in. Cairo knew the dangers of embarking on paths with untrustworthy people. He quickly misinterpreted Valen's hostility as a means of self-defense in a scary and dangerous place, as he was likely in no shape to defend himself from someone like Cairo, even with his lack of combat experience.
"So, Valen. Do you know what's going on here?" Cairo tried to break the awkward silence as he rubbed his wrists while finding his equipment piled just a few meters away. "To be frank with you, I have no clue how or why our paths have merged, I've never read about anything like this before."
Valen slowly rose to his feet after he finished removing the ankle bindings, taking a moment to consider how much information to feed the young artisan.
'He has skills that are worth cultivating, and he doesn't seem as stuck up as all those damn pathfinder family heirs. It would probably be best to ally myself with Cairo and that Akkod fellow first.'
"First, we are not alone. There are six of us total after the pathway's merged." Valen spoke slowly as he was still formulating his plan.
"Six? Really?"
"Yes. All of them roughly explained that they were pulled through warps to this current path after they resolved their first conflict." Valen's tone became steady and flat, as if he was slowly becoming void of any emotions. "There are three individuals from Pathfinder families. Including us, there are also three first generation pathfinders."
Cairo's brow furrowed at the new information. He knew that he shouldn't carry any ill feelings for the pathfinder families, but he still had a hard time not blaming Wrest for his sister's abandonment. "Well, if they have more information about the paths and possibly this world we are in, it shouldn't be a problem. The more we know about this world's conflicts the easier it should be to resolve, right?"
"Under normal circumstances you would be correct." Valen nodded in response.
"Normal circumstances?" Cairo was initially confused, but began to assume that Valen was referring to the merging phenomena. "I mean sure, path crossing is a very rare occurrence, and there has never been a public record of one occurring so early in the path, but the Founding and Great Families should have more knowledge than the public records that you or I could get their hands on."
"Again, that would be correct under normal circumstances." Valen sighed, realizing that he would only get better cooperation if he provided more information, forcing him to play more cards than he preferred. "The problem for us is that this is a completely unrecorded world."
Cairo was growing even more confused, but finally decided to stop making assumptions, unsure of what Valen was getting to. "How so? Why are you so confident that that is the case?"
"Because this is my path." Valen didn't mince his words, unwilling to repeat himself or he would be forced to have this conversation in front of the rest of the pathfinders, who were quickly being released from their bindings outside the holding cell. "I specifically chose the entry point for my path because I believed it would have the highest chance of triggering the appearance of a brand new fallen world."
Cairo was baffled by the frail young man's words, looking at him like he was a mad man. "Why the hell would you do that? Did you not read anything about the immense dangers that the First Generation faced just to pave the way for the Founding Families to finally establish their paths? Only a fool would walk into a path blind! And, how the hell do you explain that you already know the language?!"
"Of course it's dangerous, but why should that matter to me?" Valen's expressionless eyes stared directly at Cairo. "If the paths never merged, no one except myself would have been exposed to the danger. As for the language, as soon as I backwards engineered the root words, the path helped me accelerate the learning as I listened to the guards' conversations."
"Huh? What do you mean the path helped you learn?"
Valen was about to reply as the words were caught in his mouth. He closed his mouth and his brows furrowed as he considered Cairo's question.
'I had always read that the Paths helped assimilate latent otherworld vocabularies from pathfinders' memories to help them understand the otherworld languages during their pathways. But that doesn't explain the phenomena I experienced. The path doesn't give enlightenment, it simply translates the words within the individual themselves so they hear and speak the language naturally. But that isn't even the case with myself, I still have to mentally choose which language to converse in.'
"Hmm. I'm not sure. All I know is that I had moments of enlightenment that caused me to recognize common word roots. Then by identifying patterns in speech to conceptualize the grammar rules, I was able to slowly rebuild their vocabulary and assimilate it with my own knowledge of otherworld languages." Valen took a deep breath as his mind tried to comprehend the situation. "I can tell by your reaction that your experience with your path is by no means similar, otherwise you would have already begun to understand fragments of their language."
Cairo's eye twitched as he glared at the mad pathfinder, unsure of what to make of Valen's explanation. In one way, it made Cairo feel as if he was talking to a prodigal genius who was capable of learning foreign languages in a matter of hours, on the other it sounded like he was calling Cairo an idiot for not being capable of doing the same.
As Cairo got to his feet, awkwardly walking towards his pile of gear with his legs who were slowly awakening from their slumber, he sighed before deciding their conversation was getting them nowhere. "Well, I don't care what your reasons are, nor do I care about your strange language capabilities as long as you are willing to focus on the matter at hand. We have to keep moving forward on this path until we can find another solution."
"I agree." Valen nodded his head, pleased with Cairo's decision. He watched as the young artisan double and triple checked his bags and gear, hoping to not find a trace of any stolen items.
The two young men stood only a meter apart, facing the rest of the pathfinder group that was getting their bearings together under the cautious gaze of Atlan and Errin. Valen and Cairo observed the rest of their potential collaborators with a careful and cautious gaze. Cairo was silently judging their equipment, while Valen was observing their features and movements.
While Cairo was still relatively ignorant to common experiences that paths had, both young men knew that those who had already undergone their first conflict should have acquired some sort of mystical asset. Valen had already identified Cairo's unnatural vitality, and Cairo had mistakenly assumed that Valen's cord was related to his first conflict. Naturally, his assumption was incorrect, Valen still believed that he hadn't undergone his first conflict yet. With his path assimilating the others' paths into his, he assumed that his first conflict was going to be unnaturally difficult, which only made him more sure of his decision.
'The harder the challenge, the better the reward.'
While the Founding Family heir, Larion, and his vassal, Fleur, spoke to each other under hushed voices, Illua the trailblazer and Akkod the pathfinder didn't speak and simply stretched as they followed the guards who they couldn't understand. They saw two other young men who were likely in their late teens sizing them all up.
Akkod was a tall and lean young man in his early twenties, his blonde hair had reddish undertones with piercing blue eyes. His pursed lips and slouching eye brows made him appear as if he was unhappy to be woken up from his peaceful sleep. His healthy frame was covered in well tailored leather hunting gear, he had a spool of thin wire looped onto one side of his belt, and a smaller falchion hanging from the other. His stride was steady, but his eyes scanned the environment like a well-trained sentry man.
Illua was a relatively average sized woman, roughly 5'6", with a lean but soft frame. Her raven-black hair didn't betray her gray eyes that shined like cold steel. Her body was covered in a gray shroud that hid her body, giving her the appearance of lost wraith that wandered the surface world.
'Wait… the Wraith?'
When Valen's eyes met Illua's, a silent recognition flashed between the two parties, unbeknownst to the other two by their sides. They nodded to each other, as Illua and Akkod turned to form a half-circle to await the final two pathfinders, taking the time to size the others up as well.
Larion Darege was roughly 6', dirty blonde hair with soft brown eyes. His angular and sharp features gave the impression that he was always angry. His stern expression and his permanently furrowed brows, were interrupted by his poorly shaven face and the worried expression that riddled his appearance. His frown and shaky hands were causes for concern, and his earlier impression had only raised more red flags in Valen's mind.
Fleur Arstice's appearance was arguably the most concerning of the group. Her 5'8" frame was painted by pale white skin that looked like it had been drained of all color, with her long silver hair braided carefully behind her head. Her ruby red eyes had brown streaks plaguing them, and her lips were oddly pink and full. Her muscles and veins popped out from under every visible inch of skin, as if her flesh was waiting for the right moment to escape from underneath her skin. However, her slate gray family cotton uniform hid as much of her skin as possible.
"Illua, what do you make of this situation?" Larion ignored the other three pathfinders, as he tried to relax himself as his eyes darted between the two other great family members.
'Ugh' The other four pathfinders collectively thought.
"Valen, mind introducing me to our other 'friends' here?" Cairo's voice seeped with venom, his disdain growing by the minute.
"Respectively: Akkod, Son of Priece, Illua Trevheart, Larion Darege, and Fleur Arstice." Valen stated flatly as his hand gestured to each individual, with his hand finally landing to Cairo on his right. "This is Cairo, Son of Alder and Bram."
"Alder of the Builder's Guild?" Akkod recognized the name and extended his hand outward. "It's a pleasure to have a skilled artisan amongst us."
Cairo's frown dissolved and reformed into a slight smirk as he shook Akkod's extended hand firmly. "The pleasure is all mine, I hope we can work together well."
The two young men nodded at each other, as the others all silently observed each other for their initial reactions. Little to say, none of them were very pleased with the conclusions.