The turquoise moon hung at half-phase above the treeline, its pale light falling through the branches.
Alucent sat against a tree at the edge of the road, his arms wrapped around his cracked ribs. Every breath still hurt. His left eye had swollen shut, and the blood on his chin had dried into a dark crust that pulled at his skin when he moved his jaw.
Joy, Gryan, and Raya moved through the trees ahead of him, searching for a place to make camp.
Gryan's mechanical arm glowed faintly as he pushed aside branches, the rune-lines pulsing with each movement. His steps were unsteady, but he moved with purpose. Raya stayed close to his side, her hand never far from his sleeve. Joy walked ahead of them both, examining the ground and the trees with a practiced eye.
After several minutes, she stopped.
"Here," she said. "This will do."
The space was a small clearing, perhaps twenty feet across, sheltered on three sides by thick undergrowth and ancient trees. The ground was covered in soft moss and fallen leaves.
Gryan and Raya began unpacking supplies from the cart. Joy walked to the center of the clearing and knelt down. She pulled off her right glove and bit the inside of her wrist. A thin line of blood welled up, and she drew it into the air with her fingertip, etching a small glyph.
The glyph was a circle with three intersecting lines.
"Heat," she said quietly.
The glyph flared with amber light. Then her finger moved again, adding curves and angles, reshaping the structure. The amber light shifted and expanded outward in a soft warm glow that illuminated the entire clearing.
She turned a heat glyph into light, Alucent thought. Modified the inscription on the fly.
The warmth reached him a moment later, pushing back the chill of the night air. He let out a slow breath.
The camp took shape quickly. Gryan and Raya set up a large canvas tent from the cart, the fabric worn but sturdy, large enough to shelter all four of them. The driver remained with the horses at the edge of the clearing.
Joy called out to him. "Bring what remains of the provisions. The cloth bundle beside my traveling case."
The driver nodded and walked back to the cart. He returned with a small cloth bundle and handed it to Joy.
Joy unwrapped the bundle and set it on a flat stone near the center of the clearing. Inside were several pieces of dried fruit, the same ones she had shared with them in the cart before Tyranix's attack. Perhaps a dozen pieces in total.
She divided them evenly and passed portions to Gryan, Raya, and Alucent.
Alucent took his share and bit into a piece. It was sweet and slightly chewy, the same taste he remembered from the cart. His stomach clenched with hunger as the food hit his tongue.
I've been starving, didn't realize how empty I was.
He ate slowly, and watched as the others did the same.
Raya sat close to Gryan, her shoulder pressed against his mechanical arm. She ate with small bites, her hazel eyes distant and tired. Gryan chewed methodically, his expression neutral, but his right hand rested on Raya's knee.
Joy ate last, finishing her portion quickly before folding the empty cloth and setting it aside.
The food was not much. A few pieces of dried fruit each. But it filled the hollow ache in Alucent's stomach.
Joy looked at Alucent. Her blue eyes moved across his face, taking in the swollen cheek and the crusted blood and the way he held his ribs. She let out a soft sigh.
There is no glyph for healing at Thread 3, she thought. Well, there are other ways.
She rose to her feet and walked toward the edge of the clearing.
"Where are you going?" Raya asked.
"To gather what we need," Joy said without turning. "I will return shortly."
She disappeared into the undergrowth.
Joy moved through the forest with practiced ease, her gloved hands pushing aside leaves and branches. The turquoise moonlight filtered through the canopy above.
She knelt beside a cluster of low-growing plants and examined the leaves, running her fingers along the edges to feel for the distinctive serrations.
Silverbind. This is good for inflammation.
She plucked a handful of leaves and tucked them into the fold of her skirt. Then she moved deeper into the undergrowth.
She found thornroot growing near a fallen log, its dark stems covered in fine hairs. She harvested several lengths and added them to her collection.
Next came mosswick, a soft grey fungus on the bark of an ancient tree. She scraped it off with her fingernail and wrapped it in a large leaf.
Finally, she found what she was searching for.
Two fruits hung from a low branch, nearly hidden among the leaves. One was pale green with smooth skin. The other was deep purple, almost black, with a rough texture.
Olgy fruit. And Oasis fruit.
She plucked both. On her way back, she stopped to collect a flat stone from the edge of a small stream and a smaller rounded stone that fit in her hand.
Then she returned to the camp.
Alucent opened his eyes when he heard Joy's footsteps approaching.
She emerged from the undergrowth carrying an armful of plants and two fruits, her skirt stained with dirt. She walked to the center of the clearing and knelt down near the glowing heat glyph, setting the flat stone on the ground.
She began to work.
She tore the silverbind leaves into small pieces and placed them on the flat stone, then added the thornroot stems, stripping off the thorns with her fingernails. The mosswick came next, crumbled into a fine powder.
Then she picked up the smaller rounded stone and began to grind.
The motion was rhythmic. She pressed the stone down and rolled it in circles, crushing the plants together, mashing them into a thick paste. The smell rose up from the stone, earthy and sharp and medicinal.
She ground for several minutes, adding small amounts of water to thin the mixture, until the paste was smooth. Then she set the grinding stone aside.
"This will help," she said.
She scooped a portion of the paste onto her fingers and turned to Alucent.
"Remove your coat, and your shirt. I need to see where you are hurt."
Alucent hesitated, then nodded. He shrugged off his grey frock coat, wincing as the motion pulled at his cracked ribs, and unbuttoned his linen shirt. The fabric was stained with sweat and blood, sticking to his skin in places.
He pulled the shirt off and sat bare-chested in the warm glow of the heat glyph.
The bruises were worse than he had realized. His left side was a mottled landscape of purple and black, the skin discolored from his hip to his armpit. His ribs stood out sharply beneath the damaged flesh.
Joy moved closer and began to apply the paste.
Her touch was gentle but firm. She started with his left cheek, spreading the paste across the swollen flesh. The mixture was cool against his feverish skin, and Alucent hissed at the contact.
But then something changed.
The pain in his cheek started to fade. Slowly. Steadily. The sharp throbbing ebbed away. The relief spread outward from where Joy's fingers touched.
Alucent's breath caught.
"What—"
Joy moved her hands to his ribs before he could finish. She applied the paste there as well, spreading it across the bruised skin. The coolness seeped into his flesh, and the grinding sensation that had accompanied every breath faded to a dull ache.
His shoulders relaxed. The tension drained out of his muscles. He let out a long, slow breath.
"What is this?" he asked.
Joy sat back on her heels and wiped her hands on a clean cloth. A faint smile crossed her lips.
"You have not asked where we are," she said.
Alucent blinked. "What?"
"None of you have." Joy glanced at Gryan and Raya. "After the ambush, in all the chaos, none of you thought to ask what this place is. Where we stopped. What grows here."
She did not sound accusatory. Only amused.
"I cannot fault you for it. There were more pressing concerns."
She paused and looked around at the trees surrounding the clearing.
"Have any of you been here before?"
Gryan shook his head. "No."
"Neither have I," Raya said.
Alucent shook his head.
Joy nodded.
"This area is known to those who travel the road to Runepeaks," she said. "It is filled with herbs and fruits. Some are extremely poisonous. One wrong leaf, and your throat closes within minutes. Others are extremely beneficial. Medicinal properties that rival anything the Scribe's Towers can produce."
She gestured at the paste on the flat stone.
"These herbs are among the best. Silverbind reduces inflammation. Thornroot numbs pain. Mosswick promotes the body's natural healing."
She picked up the two fruits and held them up.
"And these fruits have properties that cannot be replicated by any glyph I know."
Alucent looked at the fruits. The pale green one gleamed softly in the light from the heat glyph. The deep purple one looked almost black.
"Is that so?" he said. "That's actually great."
He paused.
"But that also might make it a dangerous area."
Joy inclined her head. "It does. People come here seeking the benefits, but many do not know which plants are safe and which are deadly. The forest does not forgive ignorance."
She held out the pale green fruit to Alucent.
"This is Olgy fruit. It is good for internal healing. It also numbs pain from within."
Alucent took the fruit. It was cool in his palm, slightly heavier than it looked. He raised it to his lips and took a bite.
The flesh was crisp and sweet. Juice flooded his mouth and ran down his chin, mixing with the dried blood there. The taste was familiar.
This fruit, he thought. It tastes like apple. Or the closest thing this world has to one.
He chewed slowly.
Strange how some things stay the same across worlds.
He swallowed and took another bite.
"What fruit is this?" he asked.
"Olgy fruit," Joy repeated. "Native to this region. The juice works with the body's own healing processes. And the compounds within numb pain for several hours."
Alucent continued eating. Within a few minutes, he began to feel the effects. The ache in his ribs faded further. The throbbing in his cheek subsided entirely. A calm warmth spread through his limbs.
"I can feel it," he said. "The pain is almost gone."
Raya leaned forward. "Truly?"
"Truly." Alucent held up what remained of the fruit, juice glistening on his fingers. "This is remarkable."
Raya looked at Joy. "Are there more of these? Can anyone eat them?"
Joy shook her head. "Olgy fruit is rare, and its effects are strongest when the body is already injured. For someone healthy, it would do little more than taste pleasant."
She paused and looked at Gryan.
"But this one is different."
She held out the deep purple fruit to him.
Gryan looked at it. His mechanical arm clicked softly at his side.
"Oasis fruit," Joy said. "It calms the mind. Settles turbulent thoughts. After what Tyranix did to you, after the emotional inversion..." She let the words hang. "This may help."
Gryan reached out with his right hand and took the fruit. He held it for a moment, looking at the rough purple skin. Then he nodded once.
"Thank you," he said quietly.
His left hand, the mechanical one, moved toward Raya. His metal fingers brushed against her hand where it rested on her knee. He let them linger there. Raya did not pull away. Her fingers curled around his, flesh against brass, and she held on.
Gryan bit into the Oasis fruit.
The camp fell quiet.
Alucent finished the last of his Olgy fruit and wiped the juice from his chin with the back of his hand. The pain in his body had faded to almost nothing.
Gryan ate his Oasis fruit slowly. With each bite, his expression eased. The tension in his shoulders relaxed. The tightness around his eyes softened. By the time he finished, he looked calmer than he had since before the attack.
Raya stayed close to him, her hand still resting in his.
Joy sat back and surveyed the group.
"Perhaps it is time to sleep," she said quietly. "We have a long journey ahead of us tomorrow. We should rest while we can."
No one argued.
Alucent nodded slowly, his eyelids already growing heavy. "Agreed."
Raya helped Gryan to his feet, and together they moved toward the tent. Gryan's steps were steadier now. The Oasis fruit had done its work.
Joy rose and began banking the heat glyph, reducing its glow to a soft ember. The amber light dimmed, but the warmth remained.
Alucent pulled his shirt back on, wincing only slightly. The herbs Joy had applied still covered his skin, drying slowly. He could feel them working.
He looked at Joy as she worked.
"Thank you," he said. "For all of this."
Joy paused and glanced at him over her shoulder.
"You are welcome," she said.
Then she turned and walked toward the tent.
Alucent followed.
The canvas walls blocked out the turquoise moonlight, but the soft glow of the banked heat glyph filtered through the entrance. Gryan and Raya had already settled onto one side of the tent, their bodies close together.
Joy lay down on the opposite side, her gloved hands folded beneath her head.
Alucent found a space near the entrance and lowered himself carefully to the ground. The moss beneath the canvas was soft.
He lay there in the darkness, listening to his companions breathing. Listening to the faint rustle of wind through the trees.
The pain was gone and his eyes closed.