They walked now — slowly, side by side.
The forest had thinned out, but the silence hadn't. Between the trees, the light stayed gray and still, the kind of light that couldn't decide if it was morning or dusk.
Ailith led, just a half step ahead, but her eyes kept flicking sideways. Watching Rei. Studying him.
Finally, Rei broke the quiet.
> "So… are there things like fireballs?" "Lightning strikes? Magic?"
Ailith stopped walking.
She turned to him, blinking.
> "…How do you know about that?"
Rei raised an eyebrow. "Guess."
> "No one guesses that," she said, suddenly wary. "You said you grew up in the mountains."
He shrugged, looking off toward the horizon.
> "I did. Doesn't mean I'm blind."
She stared a moment longer… then exhaled.
> "Yeah. There are skills." "But most people don't use them."
Rei's gaze flicked back to her. "Why not?"
> "Because they're rare," she said, more serious now. "Skills are… bestowed."
> "They don't come from training. You don't earn them. You're granted them."
She glanced upward for a second — not at the sky, but as if something invisible sat above the world.
> "By the Eight Gods."
Rei caught the shift in her voice — respectful, but hesitant. Something unsaid behind those words.
He almost asked.
Almost.
But the quiet tension in her face told him not to.
So instead—
> "How do I get one?" he asked plainly.
Ailith blinked again, caught off guard by how direct he was.
> "You just… pray," she said. "At a shrine. Or a statue." "Most people never get anything. A few feel something. Fewer get a skill."
Rei looked thoughtful.
> "So it's luck?"
> "Not exactly," she muttered. "Some say the gods listen to the kind of person you are, not the words you say."
Rei nodded once.
> "Alright then."
> "Guess I'll find a statue."
Ailith stared at him like he'd just said he was going to arm-wrestle the sky.
> "You make it sound simple."
Rei smiled faintly.
> "Everything is. Until it isn't."