The road leading away from Silvermere gradually became quieter as Luciana and Raizen left the city behind.
The tall stone walls disappeared into the distance, replaced by open fields and rolling hills.
Far ahead, the mountains rose beneath the clear sky, their peaks still several hours away.
Luciana walked with a small bag hanging from her shoulder, occasionally checking the map Alex had given them.
“So…
we just follow this road until the old stone bridge.”
Raizen nodded.
“Then take the northern path.”
“And after that, the mountain lake.”
“Yes.”
Luciana looked at the map again.
“Alex made it sound much easier than I expected.”
“It is a straightforward route.”
She looked at him.
“You really are calm.”
Raizen glanced at her.
“Is that a problem?”
“No.”
Luciana thought about it.
“It’s just strange.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re supposed to be a beginner too.”
Raizen’s expression remained unchanged.
“I am.”
Luciana narrowed her eyes.
“Then why don’t you look nervous?”
“Should I?”
“I don’t know.
Maybe?”
She shrugged.
“This is my first time traveling outside my village.
I don’t know what I’m doing half the time.”
“You seem to be doing fine.”
Luciana smiled.
“Thank you.”
She continued walking.
A few moments later, she looked at him again.
“You really don’t talk much, do you?”
“I talk when necessary.”
Luciana laughed.
“So you’re one of those quiet people.”
“Perhaps.”
“I think you’re hiding something.”
Raizen glanced at her.
Luciana immediately pointed at him.
“See?
That expression.”
“What expression?”
“That one.”
Raizen said nothing.
Luciana stared at him for a few seconds before sighing.
“Never mind.”
She turned back toward the road.
There was no reason to be suspicious of him.
He was simply quiet.
Probably.
A little creature suddenly darted across the road.
Luciana stopped.
“Whoa!”
The creature paused in the grass.
It was tiny, covered in soft brown fur, with round ears and a tail almost twice the length of its body.
Luciana crouched slightly.
“What are you?”
The little animal tilted its head.
Raizen stopped beside her.
“Forest hopper.”
“Forest hopper?”
“It eats grass, berries, and small roots.”
Luciana smiled.
“It looks like a furry potato.”
Raizen looked at the creature.
Then at Luciana.
“That is not its official classification.”
“I know.”
The creature suddenly hopped away.
Luciana watched until it disappeared into the grass.
“Goodbye, furry potato.”
Raizen remained silent.
Luciana glanced up.
“You’re judging me.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Exactly.”
He almost smiled.
They continued along the road.
Not long afterward, they passed a small stream where several silver-winged insects hovered above the water.
A pair of long-eared rabbits disappeared into the bushes when they approached, while tiny blue birds hopped between the branches overhead.
Luciana kept slowing down to look at them.
Every few minutes, she discovered something else she had never seen before.
She had grown up in Cresent Roseville, where the lake, forests, and village fields had always felt familiar.
This was different.
The world beyond her home seemed to contain something new around every corner.
“Everything out here is strange,” she said.
“Strange?”
“In a good way.”
She smiled as another small creature scampered across the road.
“I spent so many years wondering what was beyond the village.
I thought I’d see interesting things, but I didn’t realize there would be this many.”
Raizen watched her expression.
She wasn’t afraid.
Curious, perhaps.
Excited.
Sometimes cautious.
But she was taking everything in as though the world had been waiting for her to discover it.
That expression was something he had missed more than he could ever explain.
Luciana suddenly looked at him.
“Raizen.”
“Yes?”
“How old are you?”
He paused.
It was an ordinary question.
Yet coming from her, it carried a strange weight.
“Why do you ask?”
“You look young.”
Luciana studied him openly.
“About twenty?”
Raizen raised an eyebrow.
“Twenty?”
“Maybe twenty-two.”
She tilted her head.
“Definitely somewhere around there.”
Raizen almost laughed.
After everything he had experienced, after centuries that humans could barely comprehend, he had just been assigned an age of twenty by an eighteen-year-old girl.
“I see.”
Luciana frowned.
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Then?”
“I am older than I look.”
She stared at him.
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“It answers part of it.”
Luciana sighed.
“You’re difficult.”
“So I’ve been told.”
She looked at him again.
There was something unusual about him.
He didn’t behave like the other young travelers she had seen in Silvermere.
He wasn’t easily distracted, didn’t seem impressed by anything around them, and walked with the confidence of someone who already knew exactly where he was going.
Still, Luciana couldn’t think of any real reason to distrust him.
Besides, they were sharing a beginner quest.
If he turned out to be secretly troublesome, she could always run away.
Probably.
She smiled at the thought.
Raizen noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re smiling.”
“I just realized something.”
“What?”
“You really do look like you’re around twenty.”
Raizen looked at her.
Luciana grinned.
“And now I’m curious about your real age.”
He calmly looked toward the mountains.
“That is something you’ll have to discover yourself.”
Luciana groaned.
“That’s such a mysterious answer.”
He said nothing.
She shook her head and continued walking.
Neither of them noticed the faint silver-veined flowers growing among the grass beside the road.
Luciana certainly didn’t.
She had no idea that the strange things surrounding her were connected to anything within herself.
As far as she knew, the silver roses of Cresent Roseville had simply been an unusual birthday coincidence.
The world had always been magical.
She simply hadn’t realized how much magic was waiting to awaken around her.
For now, though, Luciana was only an eighteen-year-old beginner traveler walking toward a mountain lake with another beginner traveler who seemed suspiciously experienced.
And she was perfectly happy to leave the mysteries for another day.
Ahead, the road curved toward the old stone bridge.
Their first quest was waiting beyond it.