The wooden chair made a thump as it appeared on the stony ridge. Therelin stumbled, his grip on Master Nolicrin’s forearm suddenly holding thin air. The Master had vanished—Wait, I vanished, Therelin realized. He was outdoors, on a sunny day, on a rocky hillside. The chair that had come with him tumbled downhill, splintering into pieces. Therelin’s staff almost followed suit, but he quickly grabbed it.
Where am I? he thought, taking in his drastically-changed surroundings. He stood on the side of a mountainous hill, surrounded by others. In the distance in front of him, he could see rolling forests and eventual lowlands, dark and foggy. A swamp, likely. Nothing in view was familiar. Master Nolicrin had teleported him away—into the wilderness.
Therelin turned around and noticed a book lying in the dirt behind him. He straightened the pages before closing it and reading the title: Master Byate’s History of Conflict on the Grey Sea. It was pertinent reading for Master Nolicrin, given recent tidings. He slid the book into the satchel he had brought. One day of food and water, a pouch of coins, my staff… and a history book, he counted. It was an accurate assessment of his meagre supplies.
He resolved to climb the hill and see what lay beyond it, but it proved easier to take a diagonal cut across the slope. Therelin made it to the crest of the ridge in an hour’s time. He was a little relieved to see the sea, stretching to the horizon. The sun was directly overhead now—Therelin was sweating as he peered under a visor-hand toward the sparkling waves.
The descent took another two hours and revealed a shore-side road to Therelin. There were ships passing by, but after he considered building a fire, he realized it unlikely they would stop for him. This land was large enough to be frequented by travellers, especially if there was a road.
When Therelin had mastered the ability to teleport—or Journey—objects, Master Myandin had advised him to practice moving himself very short distances for safety. With Journeying, a person arrived at their destination at a large fraction of the time it would have taken to arrive if they had not teleported—but even a walk across town led a distracted mind to stretch that potential time to a surprising degree. It also afforded him more time to practice. Therelin remembered the first time taking him hours of constant focus. A month later, he had accomplished the feat in minutes. Now, he could teleport himself even quicker than Master Nolicrin had completed his spell. But Therelin had no experience teleporting another person. He had not even considered it.
The road Therelin had found was not paved with cobbles. Though it was only dirt, it showed the signs of heavy use. Deep wagon ruts ran along in some places, while a thousand-score foot or hoofprints tracked through the dirt. He had a choice of east or west.
Most of the ships he had seen were sailing parallel with the coast, east and west, but one ship was sailing towards the coast, generally, and to the east of Therelin’s current location. With a shrug, he began to follow the dirt path in that direction.
Before nightfall, Therelin found a place off the road where he could camp. He hid his fire amongst the trees and spent an hour foraging for berries and digestible herbs. He would not last long on the contents of his rucksack. He had considered trying to Journey his way back to Saanazar or some other destination. It was the fastest—and likely safest—way to escape the wilderness.
After Nolicrin’s aggressive actions and Maia’s apparent terror of the Conclave, returning to Saanazar was a dangerous prospect. Therelin needed to be able to protect himself before living in a place like that. He counted himself lucky to still be alive.
So, for tonight, Therelin was content to sleep in the woods. It was not the first, nor would it be the last, time. He would see where this road led, physically and metaphorically.