Myra heard, looking back and forth between Belladonna and Mathis as the latter answered to the girl's question. Hopefully the girl wouldn't be angry with what Myra or Mathis said when replying to her. Mathis also seemed to have both understood her question and replied to it much better than Myra did, which it was fortunate. Hopefully he would be able to avoid any misunderstanding. Luckily, it seemed Malachi was satisfied with their answers, as he touched Belle's shoulders, saying that they should go.
With all the complicated questions answered and everyone,
hopefully, on good terms and the introductions having already been made, with the dark elf introducing himself as Valok, the group continued on their way, following Malachi. After some time walking though, he insisted them to take shelter in a cave they found. While Myra wasn't really tired, she assumed that since Malachi asked, the others were starting to get tired and it would be better to go and wait for a bit, even if she was fine with walking more.
Strangely enough, even though it was Malachi who insisted for them to take shelter and rest, he ended up waking up the rest of the group pretty early and seemed to be in a rush to continue moving. Myra definitely thought that was a bit strange, but she didn't think much of it and simply followed the rest of the group.
After some more walking, Malachi turned to the rest of the group, asking where they were from before answering himself. Even though Myra had no idea where the place he said he came from was, she figured out he probably lived with other pointy ears that she sometimes found in the forest. Mathis was the next to reply, saying strange names of places Myra had never listened before. Still, one thing about Mathis' reply Myra did understand very well: the moment he started talking about food. More specifically the deer meat. Looking to him, she listened carefully, licking her lips as he told them more about the dishes his family made.
Belladonna, unlike Malachi or Mathis though, didn't seem to want to talk that much, simply saying that her reply was the same as Malachi. Myra did stop and looked at her a little bit, tilting her head in confusion. She grew with Malachi, with the pointy ears, even though she wasn't one? Being more like Darius himself? Not only her ears were different but her smell was different too. Myra kept looking at her with innocent confusion before she finally turned away. Belladonna didn't show herself to want to be closer to anyone other than Malachi in the group and for some reason, she seemed to not like them that much so Myra simply left her to her own, as she didn't want the girl to get angry with her.
Valok's answer was much more different from the rest. Even if Myra didn't understand much of what he said, he spoke in a way that reminded her a little bit of Skar. Of someone who was proud to be a 'warrior' as Skar said herself way back then. Other than that, the place he mentioned, the forests of Daka, were a place Myra was also rather familiar with. Not only because it was one of the forests she passed through some times, but because it was there that she found herself when she woke up for the first time.
Finally arriving on her time to reply, Myra tilted her head, thinking for a while before answering with a shrug and shaking her head. No matter how much she tried to think about it, the only thing she could remember was simply waking up one day in the forests surrounding Daka. As such, Myra joined her hands, putting them on her cheek and tilting her head a little bit, almost as if she was laying on them, a hand signal Darius had taught to her, signifying 'sleep'. After that, she suddenly, gave a small jump, like someone would if they woke up suddenly, looking around. After doing that, she pointed at Valok before opening her mouth.
"Forests! Dah-ka!" she said, trying to repeat what Valok had said before with a proud expression, satisfied with the "explanation" she just gave the rest of the group.
After Ayita cleared the mist with her wind, they had a clear sight of the way ahead where they all could see only Risa visible, having no clue of where the strange being that was trapping her went. That was when Torvi used her earth powers. She was probably aiming to trap the strange being but unexpectedly, she ended up trapping Risa instead. At first, Ayita was surprised, thinking Torvi had missed, but then Risa began to fight against the constraints, shouting. As she did so, her voice began to change, becoming much raspier, just like the one they heard before, from the creature that was responsible for all that. Not only her voice, but as 'she' continued to struggle, her appearance changed as well, with a blue mist gradually dissipating and revealing the reptilian visage of the caster, the same one they had seen before when the mist cleared for the first time.
"An illusion...!" Ayita said, cursing under her breath for not having realized that sooner.
Unfortunately, despite hers and Torvi's effort, further interrogating the caster proved to be impossible. Even though it initially seemed it would be easy to take some answers out of him, judging on how he was begging for his life, the moment he began to let out some information that could be of some use to them, such as the dubious but not entirely unlikely fact that there was a spy among the rebels and was about to tell his master's name, he suddenly fell dead, killed by a kunai straight to the neck. Green blood flowed through the wound as the weapon used, strangely enough, vanished, leaving only the caster's reptilian body, now dead and lifeless.
The responsible for the execution was naught but a shadow. Exhausted as they all were, not only identifying the shadowy figure proved to be a challenge but following him and risking another confrontation was simply out of question. They should consider themselves lucky that the figure didn't decide to try and finish the caster's job, ending them where they were. Fortunately, it seemed like Ayita didn't need to remind the rest of the group of that, seeing as they all seemed to think the same thing. Still, as Baraian spoke, approaching Kuroi and picking him up, they should leave as soon as possible. Both to tend to their wounds, disinfect them and have some proper rest.
Despite the overwhelming exhaustion, the clean air as they left the fetid sewers was truly invigorating, enough to give Ayita the little bit of energy she needed to get out of there and continue until they could find a safer place to tend to themselves. Fortunately, that didn't seem to take much time. By sheer luck, they met a man, driving a cart. Even though he seemed to be rather wary of the group, he still showed himself friendly and polite. Thanks to that, Torvi offered him a good sum of Amas, asking for him to drive them to the coast. Thankfully, the man accepted the offer and after discussing with Torvi about taking turns resting, just to be safe they wouldn't be betrayed, Ayita was able to have a good rest for the first time in what seemed to be a long time for her. Even though Ayita usually had quite a light sleep and was used to be alert at all times, she simply wasn't able to due to how exhausted she was and simply slept like a log.
It was the afternoon of the second day when the group finally found themselves fully rested. Ayita mostly kept to her own while they traveled. She did overhear a bit of the conversation Torvi had with the driver, a lion demi-human called Koto. By sheer luck, he seemed to be on the same way they were and had his mind set on joining the rebels, just as them. Even though that wouldn't make Ayita be less wary of the man, it did help her to relax a little bit more. When Torvi asked the group about what the caster had said back in the sewers, Ayita turned towards her, thinking for a bit.
"It was indeed a dubious information... but not entirely unlikely. In one hand, that creature seemed to be quite accustomed at lying, tricking and deceiving others, but on the other hand, people tend to be incredibly honest when their lives are on the line..." Ayita said, reflecting on Torvi's question and the words she heard from the reptile creature.
"It might be just me being overcautious, but I wouldn't dismiss the possibility of having a spy as impossible." she concluded, looking to Torvi. Ayita knew very well that her answer was far from a definitive answer for Torvi's question but it was the best she could give with the little information she had about the situation.
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