And so the story continues…
Day 50: Anna again slept deeply and upon waking had the feeling that she dreamed, but could not remember the dreams.
Anna again slept deeply and upon waking had the feeling that she dreamed, but could not remember the dreams. They were somewhat disquieting though so Anna decided to leave the layered and locked spells in place for the time being.
‘Perhaps when I am further away from this place I will feel more comfortable lowering them.’ Anna stood and stretched. The weight of the spells were not a burden, they were simply in the way of her scrying to study the movements of Marcus.
‘But I haven’t learned much lately anyway,’ Anna thought as she took out her small ration for breakfast and ate it as she began her days walk. Anna realized that she was not only eager to get away from the silence of the lost city, but to get back to her apartment where she could begin to go through the books and maps and scrolls she took from the archives. She wanted to see if they held the information she was missing. As the few things she flipped through or glanced over as she was packing mentioned the Dursan she thought she was on the right track.
‘There was also more about signatures,’ Anna noted. All was of interest, but she knew walking in the wilds was not a time for research. ‘Especially not now.’
While she was eager to be somewhere to study the research in a secure space, it wasn’t the only reason she was eager to be back to the city. The seasons were turning. As her route took her higher into the mountains before she could descend back down towards the city it was significantly colder. Anna tried telling herself it was just the height of the mountains. After several days of travel, each day getting colder, Anna realized it was not just the rise in elevation.
Looking down the mountains she could see the trees adjusting the color of their leaves, many simply turning brown and dropping leaving bare limbs. Despite the slightly desolate scene spread out before her, Anna found herself shaking off the disquiet she felt in the city. Nature seemed to resume it’s peaceful demeanor rather than maintaining a complete silence. The bird song was a comfort to her ears as she heard the few birds that remained for the season chattering to themselves and calling to their brethren.
There were fewer than before and she could tell that most of the occupants of this wood went somewhere warmer to wait out the winter. She couldn’t blame them. Winds grew colder and more sharp fingered and the rains became more consistent as though the skies wanted to emoty themselves before they were forced to turn the rain to snow.
The temperatures warmed sightly as she began her descent to the other side of the mountain but it wasn’t much of a reprieve. She took what she could get though and continued on her way. As she moved, Anna realized the heavy draggy feeling she carried with her from the city was gone.
‘And I can almost feel the exact moment it lifted,’ she realized as she nibbled on her afternoon ration and continued down the hill. She paused a short while to rest, but the rocky ground was took cold to provide comfort and merely made her stiffen so she took to eating all but her dinner on the move. At the crest of the mountain where she began her downward path away from the Lost City, the heaviness left her.
‘Like magic,’ Anna thought to herself. She looked back but there was nothing to mark the spot, no dividing line across the ridge. ‘But I felt it.’ Anna wondered if the protections covered that great a distance and why she hadn’t felt them before.
Ten til Midnight 