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Aaron stood once Varis was in place, adjusting his weight as sublty as he could manage until he was something resembling comfortable. Luckily for him, Varis was surprisingly light; he probably wouldn’t feel so light two or four or six hours from now, and his fingertips still dug into Aaron’s shoulders like little tent spikes, but at least for the moment, carrying him was easy. 

[color=f0d705]“In front of us, Master, set into a tree,”[/color] he replied, closing his eyes for a moment. He refrained from his usual deep breath—Varis was fond of telling him he did an awful lot of breathing and he didn’t need another sharp comment right now—and took just a second or two to centre himself, banish his lingering frustration and focus. [color=f0d705][i]“Tiltoure.”[/i][/color]

Though the rest of their surroundings remained unchanged, the writing on the sign showed itself, glowing blue just as it had in their practice classes. He briefly wondered if he could conserve energy by de-activating his spell and re-activating it anytime he came across something that looked like it didn’t belong, but quickly brushed the idea aside. For all he knew, instructions might be written on trees or rocks or something now and then, and he didn’t want to risk missing them for the sake of a shortcut. 

[color=f0d705]“The sign reads: [i]Dancing lights in the sky illuminate the way. Follow them closely and you'll find your way.[/i] There’s also a drawing above it indicating the cardinal directions,”[/color] Aaron reported thoughtfully, reading the sign over a few times. Riddles? Already? He’d never been a great fan of riddles, but now apparently they insisted on appearing everywhere; his dreams were riddles, Varis’ little [i]tests[/i] were riddles, half of what the Princess told him were riddles—why this, too? He thought it was the [i]extra credit[/i] instructions that were meant to be puzzles, not the directions themselves. What would happen to a student who was proficient in Dark Eyes but hopeless with riddles?

He suppressed a sigh. They were only a few minutes into this—once more Aaron cursed the absence of his watch—and he shouldn’t get himself worked up so soon. Even if he [i]did[/i] find himself siding just a little more with Varis’ criticisms of this exercise. 

[color=f0d705]“Dancing lights…”[/color] He looked around the area curiously just in case there was some glaringly obvious indicator of his direction, but of course, none appeared. Dancing lights… the only light aside from the glowing sign were the thin shafts of moonlight filtering down through the trees, but they couldn’t be his guide; they were everywhere. Part of him thought it might be a nod to the bright lights at the staging area, but they must have been too far away, because there was no sign of those, either. Not that they needed to be miles away to be hidden, with how thick the surrounding forest was. 

Aaron rolled his eyes. He was overthinking this, surely. That certainly would be fitting for him. Either that, or the proctor severely overestimated his riddle-solving skills, which he supposed couldn’t be ruled out either. Dancing lights in the sky… the stars? No, that wouldn’t be fair; the stars were obscured by the canopy, and he doubted their instructions would be [i]that[/i] demanding. The moon, then? He wouldn’t exactly call that a ‘light’, and it was just as obscured as the stars were. Obviously it wouldn’t be the sun, but what else was there?

[color=f0d705]“Oh,”[/color] his eyebrows shot up when it came to him, and he had to inwardly tease himself a bit for struggling. [color=f0d705]“I think it’s referring to the Northern Lights, Master,”[/color] he updated. Surely that had to be it. At certain times of year, if you were lucky, they could be seen from Noila Castle, and it was the only heavenly body Aaron could think of that could be described as ‘dancing’, let alone associated with a cardinal direction. Plus, there was no way they’d provide a compass if it wasn’t meant to be used to solve their riddle. 

[color=f0d705]“North it is, then,”[/color] he concluded, smart enough not to phrase it as a question but also smart enough not to set off until he got the OK from Varis. 
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