Helena gazed at him, dumbfounded. She watched as Northern began to scurry around, searching his body for the black scroll.
He was joking, he had to be joking.
Helena found her mouth and eyes wide open, unable to close them no matter how much she tried.
And yet, words failed her in that moment.
What was she to say exactly?
‘This guy…’
Northern lowered his head in shame, frowning underneath.
“I don’t know, it must have been during the fight, maybe I was careless…” he wanted to say more but stopped and ground his teeth.
He didn’t even know how it worked.
Koll’s body overwrote his own, could it have been possible that the map was expelled from his body during the process?
Or had it simply fallen during his fight with the Kirithon, and he didn’t even notice it happen?
He was utterly confused, annoyed, and disgusted with himself for making such a stupid mistake happen.
He definitely knew for sure that the map was a crucial material for their travel.
It was the reason why they were going in the first place.
And yet…
Northern felt a harrowing pain as he thought about it.
Meanwhile, Raven and Terence just stared at him in silence. Raven had her usual indifferent expression, while Terence seemed slightly dumbfounded.
After a while, Raven averted her gaze from him, turning to Helena, then she asked:
“Does this mean we won’t be able to go anymore?”
Helena stood with arms akimbo, lingering while staring keenly at Raven. She exhaled, then responded:
“You see… what do you think I am?” Not waiting for Raven’s response, she continued, “I am a chronic explorer… with or without the map, I can take you to the Sleeping Mountains… although with the map, it will be much safer.”
Her eyes went down for barely a second, then she looked at Raven.
“But first, arrogant girl…” she lingered for half a second, “you have to tell me what it is exactly you are looking for. Enough tricks, we are your cohort… what is it exactly you are trying to achieve by going to the Sleeping Mountains?”
All of them turned their heads to Raven, at this point she became the center of attention.
She closed her eyes calmly and opened them, exhaling at the same moment.
“Do you want us to speak here, or isn’t it at least safe to go as far away from here as we can?”
Helena looked around; the entire place was clouded by the morning fog, so it was particularly hard to see through.
But they were close to the rocky areas where Raven had knocked out and hidden some guards.
The fact was… they were still knocked out.
Probably had a blissful night to boot.
Helena brought her eyes to Raven.
“No, I want you to speak here and now. Besides, this much is safe enough. If that damned flower boy could sense us, he would be here already.”
She inhaled and exhaled, then continued,
“If we will be going without the map, you all will need to trust me. We need to get our goals in sync and understand that we have a common goal, that is the only way to establish trust, at least temporarily.” She glared at Raven towards the end of her statement.
Raven then nodded slightly and retorted:
“Alright then. If you insist, I will speak about it.” She paused and stretched out her hand a little.
Then white lights sparkled to life on her palm, weaving out a square shape of light.
When the light finally dimmed, a book was revealed… no, it wasn’t just a book.
It was a leather-bound book with a cracked cover and silver- reinforced spine. It was definitely a tome.
Northern had no idea what it was, but Helena could tell at a glance. Immediately, her voice rang out.
“Hey, hey, hey, what the hell are you doing with that?”
Northern looked at Helena, figuring at the slight confusion he was having. Terence leaned towards him and whispered.
“That is a tome… you know, tomes, but there are two types of tomes: Knowledge Tomes and Art Tomes…”
She was silent for a little, inspecting intently the cover of the book.
“Judging by the words on it… I think it’s a Knowledge Tome.”
With slightly widened eyes, Northern looked at Terence and inquired.
“You can read whatever is on it? I thought tomes are from rifts, do they have the same language as we do?”
Terence turned her eyes to him with a soft, sweet smile gracing her lips, then she said:
“I am a vessel of an inconsiderable amount of soul essence, far closer to Ul than anyone on this continent is. Of course, I am multilingual.”
Northern squinted his eyes for a second and looked away with a disgusted face, muttering:
“Yeah, sure.”
Raven’s voice came out:
“This is the Tome of Alv Erveedi…”
Helena raised a brow.
“Alv Erveedi, as in the Epoch of Tyranny.”
Raven nodded her head with a little smile.
“As expected, I am not surprised you know that much.”
Northern exchanged glances between Raven and Helena. Both of them looked like they were on the same page, and he wasn’t quite there.
In fact, he was far from there. He understood not a damn thing they were talking about.
What did she mean by Epoch of Tyranny?
What the hell was Alv Erveedi? What language is that? Riftian or common language?
Terence looked at his face and shook her head.
“You really have a long way to go in your pursuit of knowledge,” she said.
Raven looked at Northern sternly as she continued, just as Terence concluded.
“For Northern’s sake, I think we should talk about certain things, such as the rift and its history with the epochs, tomes, and tyrants too.”
Helena looked at the outcast among them and shook her head.
“You really do not know about all these things, at least epochs.”
Northern shamefully shook his head. He was slowly growing tired of being asked this question and even beginning to resent his parents and question why they hid all this knowledge from him.
‘We are going to have that conversation should I return home safe and sound,’ he gritted inwardly.
Raven looked at Helena and said:
“Since you are so vast in the history of rifts, I think you should explain this to him…”
Helena scratched her head a little and sighed.
“Fine.”
She looked at Northern, “Pay attention, flower boy, this is going to be a long explanation.”