The Infinite Bk. 04 Ch. 02

I remember one girl, this adorable little blonde cherub, only about waist-high. She'd follow Valon wherever he went, tugging on his clothes like he was leading her through darkness. I taught her how to make flower crowns, and after that, she'd make several each day and insist we'd wear each one. You should have seen how she'd smile. That was a few hundred years ago, but sometimes, when I see wildflowers, I think of her."

"I had a daughter like that once. She loved nature and was obsessed with flowers. The floor of her room was always littered with dry petals, and she learned gardening from a young age. She grew up to become a famous artist and environmental activist. She'd arrange flowers to create these amazing images that could only be seen from the sky, like gargantuan mosaics. She also worked to plant trees in areas destroyed by logging and fire and fight desertification. I think her name was... Mary."

"It's strange hearing you say that with such a young face. How many children have you raised?"

"Raised? Over a hundred. Sired? God only knows. I've also buried my fair share."

"Do you ever miss them?"

"Some more than others, but so much time has passed that all my children are long-dead by now. In a way, that makes it easy because I never wonder about what I might be missing out on. I may not know the endings, but whether they were good or bad, I know all their stories are closed. They lived, they loved, and they died, while their children carried those stories with them, and so on and so forth, until the names faded off the covers."

"Perhaps that's why you have your gift of reincarnation, so that you can remember them. As long as you live, so too shall they live in your memories. You are the only record of their existence that can never be destroyed."

Noah looked up at the sky. "All records inevitably crumble away."

After eating, they get back on their horses and descended into the valley. A road lay between the mountains that would carry them west, but they did not get far before an annoyance presented itself. A stone barrier stood in a narrow chokepoint between two cliffs, capable of halting a cattle stampede. The roadblock was manned by more than a dozen soldiers and knights, inspecting everyone trying to pass through the valley. Noah and Valia hung back around a bend in the road, out of sight of the men standing guard.

"I was expecting the usual roadblock and toll with maybe a few extra troops, but they look ready for war," said Valia.

"So, shall we try to sneak through, fight through, or bypass all together?" Noah asked.

"Even at night, I doubt we can slip our horses through that gate, so stealth is out, and we may be fugitives, but I don't want to harm knights and soldiers either. Besides, doing so would bring even more attention and fury from the kingdom."

"We'd have to backtrack to the village to find another road, and they're surely blocked as well. Over the mountain, then?"

"It seems we'll have to. But, hopefully, our presence will remain unnoticed."

They chose the mountain that seemed most accessible for the horses and abandoned the road. They moved under cover of the trees, and when the ground sloped or became too arduous, Noah and Valia would dismount and lead their horses on the best route they could find. Birds chirped in the branches overhead, and insects clicked beneath their feet, but it was the larger animals they were wary of. Monsters ruled the wilderness and tended to attack anything they outnumbered or outweighed.

Danger soon found them as they were crossing a shallow brook, leading their horses by the reins across the slick rocks. Noah stopped when Valia, her pointed ears twitching, suddenly raised her hand.

"What is it?"

"Goblins, lying in wait. See those thick trees over there?"

"I'll take care of them."

Noah left his horse to Valia and activated his magic. As he walked through the creek, his mana spread across the water, hiding his steps and scent. Even when he stepped in the mud, his footprints didn't appear. He hiked up the opposite bank and meandered his way to the trees Valia pointed out.

He found the goblins watching Valia and waiting for her to enter the range of her bows. These savages had the size and strength of children, but were armed with weapons and could take down large prey with their superior numbers.

He approached the first, holding a wooden club and waiting for the order to charge. It had no idea of Noah's presence, not hearing his footfalls or the unsheathing of his sword. Nor did the other goblins hear his decapitation, only the slumping of his body onto the ground. Realizing one of their own was dead, they closed ranks, scanning for their hidden enemy. Noah dispatched them with several swings, his sword effortlessly slicing through flesh and bone. They didn't even have a chance to block before dying.

As their butchered carcasses bled out onto the forest floor, Noah did a quick search of their possessions. Goblins were scavengers and loved anything shiny. Noah managed to collect a handful of coins, but found nothing special. After cleaning the goblin blood off his sword, he returned to Valia.

"All set?" she asked.

"Yep, let's go."

Noah and Valia resumed riding through the wilderness, eventually managing to exit the valley. Continuing west, they moved on and off the road whenever needed. Monsters occasionally attacked, but the two had enough strength and skill to handle any threat.

Finally, with the sun setting, they turned their attention to finding a place to make camp. They came across the remains of an ancient settlement, just one of countless others scattered across the land. The wooden beams and floorboards had turned to dust long ago, and the few stone remnants had become thrones for the trees.

"Built by the elves?" Noah asked, brushing some moss off a protruding stone wall to examine the masonry.

"So close to Sylphtoria, there's no question. Normally, elven architecture and stonework can stand the test of time, but this area has likely seen countless battles. If I remember correctly, these lands were once ruled by Thurin Eltoseer, an elf lord from the first age after the fall of the Enochians."

"He was famous for taming a wyvern, I believe."

"You know your history."

"I practically lived in the academy library."

They settled in the ruins of a stone building with one remaining corner still standing. While Valia set up camp, Noah went out to find their dinner, and as the sun began to dip, he returned with a rabbit and a sack full of scavenged ingredients. Valia built them a cozy shelter, one that would keep them warm and safe, as well as conceal their fire.

While the horses nibbled on grass, Noah skinned and butchered the rabbit. Next, he glazed it with a sauce made of edible berries, added some seasoning, and set it on a spit over the fire. He then took several wild mushrooms and sautéed them in a skillet, using a mixture of animal fat, lemon, and wild onions.

"This is ridiculously delicious. You remind me of David Covington III," said Valia between bites, holding a cooked rabbit leg in one hand and a cup of wine in the other.

In preparation for this journey, all kinds of fruits and vegetables were dried using alchemy and rendered into powder for drinks and seasoning. The wine was similarly concentrated and could be added to water to create a potent drink.

"I figure I can afford the effort to step up my cooking in the wild," replied Noah as he chewed on a mushroom.

"I imagine you have a great deal of cooking experience."

"There were a few lifetimes where I was completely devoted to studying food, cultivating my knowledge of recipes and techniques until I was revered as a cooking god."

"You've never come off as someone who cares about being the best in anything."

"I've lived long enough to master just about every hobby, discipline, and field of study. I embraced the challenge of getting to the top to fight off boredom, like playing a game until I had won in every possible way."

"I can understand that. I didn't necessarily become a sword master out of boredom, but from a might-as-well mentality. Valon and I were already a hundred years old when the power of Zodiac manifested within us. From then on, you could say our path was laid out for us by the stars. We had to know where these powers would take us, what heights we could reach with them, what we would become once we mastered them, and why they were given to us."

"You assumed they were given to you?"

"Well, I can't pretend I never wondered if there was a reason for us to have the power of Zodiac, if it had been given to us for some noble purpose. Do you ever wonder why you have your illusion magic?"

"Not why, just how."

"So you've never considered the possibility that your abilities were given to you?"

"It's flawed reasoning to think that something you don't understand is the result of a higher intelligence."

"Do you believe in anything? Any kind of divinity or providence?"

"Let me put it this way: if you ask whether or not there is meaning in the universe, then the answer is either yes or no. It's a 50/50 chance that meaning or divine will is in effect. If such meaning exists, then you have to elaborate on that meaning. You must consider the doctrine of every faith and every conceivable belief regarding the purpose of existence.

The mages, for instance, believe that the world operates as per the will of the elemental deities. But when you consider every other possible meaning, the certainty of that belief just gets smaller and smaller. Every time you add another possible meaning, the likelihood of each different meaning decreases, but the possibility of the absence of meaning doesn't change. There's still a 50% chance that the universe has no meaning, while every other option is less than 1%. Therefore, the safest bet is that there is no meaning."

"You say it's the safest bet. Does that mean you acknowledge you could be wrong?"

"Of course. If presented with new information, I'll change my beliefs, but only if it's something irrefutable, not something that is up to interpretation. Even a potential miracle will be chalked up to happenstance if whatever higher power caused it doesn't present itself and clearly state their intentions. What about you? What do you believe in?"

"I believe we are all here for a purpose. We all exist to make some kind of change in the world, no matter how small that change may be. It can be to create, destroy, or simply assist others in fulfilling their purpose."

"But who assigns the purpose?"

"Gods, spirits, what have you. It doesn't matter what the source of purpose is, only that purpose exists. I believe that something out there wills the flow of time. Some inarguable sentience affects our destinies. Even if we can never understand its ultimate goal or intentions, why question the bestowal of meaning from such a high authority? It may be vague, but by your logic, there is also a 50% chance I'm right."

"What if someone is destined to do something terrible? Would you try to stop them? Would you punish them after?"

"If such a thing as necessary evil exists in our world, hopefully the end result is worth the cost, even if we can't imagine how. And if not, then that means evil must be cut down. I trust in my judgment and instincts at the moment. If my conscience tells me to act, I can only believe it is my destiny to do so."

"Destiny, huh?"

"That's right, I believe in destiny."

"I don't believe in destiny or providence, but I do believe in the power of coincidence. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes, everything lines up just right for something amazing to occur. Every world is full of boring people who lead boring lives and leave behind boring stories, but there are special stories out there, and I like to be around to witness those special stories reach their climax."

"Don't all stories have writers?"

"Semantics. Tell me, if you believe the source of destiny is really so indifferent and beyond your comprehension, then how is that different from not believing in destiny at all?"

"Semantics. Truthfully, I have no idea where our purpose comes from, but I believe it's there somewhere. At least I am not claiming with absolute certainty that it comes from one apparent source. The height of wisdom is to accept that you are ignorant, and the height of ignorance is to deny it."

"Did Valon feel the same way as you?"

"I remember he used to say that destiny is the opposite of freedom, that unless the purpose you have been given makes you happy, you are merely a slave. He wasn't angry when he said it. It was more of an observation, a passing thought. Valon wanted to use his magic to find the gods, determine their hold over us, and understand the vastness of the chasm between divinity and mortality. I guess he found out. Whatever he believed, I wonder if he was proven right or wrong."

Her words were mournful, but her mood eased when Noah gave a small chuckle. "This might sound weird, but I've always loved being proven wrong. I love finding evidence contrary to my beliefs."

"You're right; that is weird."

"It means there is more to learn. It means there are still things that can surprise me. It leaves room for hope. Whenever I devoted myself to a skill or passion, the better I got, the more I enjoyed failure, because it meant that I hadn't yet exhausted my potential, that I could still improve and get even better. I could continue to enjoy the journey, rather than suffer the ennui of aimlessness."

Out in the distance, a wolf's howl rang out. "Looks like they're starting to hunt," said Valia.

"They probably caught a whiff of our dinner by now and might come to pay us a visit. I'll take the first watch."

"No, I'll do it. You need your rest more than I do."

"Is a 700-year-old elf trying to explain to a 7000-year-old spirit how to take care of his human body?"

"Between the two of us, who do you think better understands the difference between humans and elves?"

"Ah, good point. Well then, I will take you up on your offer. Let me know when you get tired." Having finished eating, Noah stretched out on his bedroll with his sword ready beside him. "Goodnight," he said before closing his eyes.

"Goodnight," she replied.

Valia watched him and listened to his breathing. Finally, when she was sure he was asleep, she moved over and placed her hand on his cheek. She looked at him with a tender smile on her face, this strange being who was willing to bet everything on her.

"Sweet dreams," she whispered.

Noah and Valia set out early the following day and were making good time, but as the sun passed the highest point and they rode through open pastures, Noah became uneasy.

"Valia, we're being followed."

"I don't sense anyone around us."

"Overhead. Recognize someone?"

Valia looked over her shoulder. "Shit, Ingram."

She directed her curse to the owl flying behind them, which, despite its avian form, was a mercenary employed by the kingdom, one of its few airborne assets. Uther was currently fighting over territory with the beastman tribes and city-states of Handent, so most beastmen would refuse to work for the kingdom, but Ingram was one of the rare cases.

Though not a member of the knighthood or military, he was acknowledged as a creditable component of their forces, often used for scouting and surveillance. He had been assigned initially to tail Valia when she was teaching at the knight academy, but it seemed the venue change had failed to cancel his mission.

"He's keeping his distance, but he definitely sees us."

"But is he following us on a hunch or a certainty? He'll either move on to another area or turn around and fly back to whoever he's with."

Noah took out a map and looked it over. "There is a road ahead that gives me an idea. We just have to pass through those woods in the distance."

They continued riding straight ahead, giving no indication that they were aware of their pursuer. They left the open pastures and returned to the cover of the forest, and Ingram circled overhead to find them. Time passed, and after failing to see through the foliage, he moved on to check if they were further ahead.

He soared high over the landscape, spotting the road on the other side of the forest. There was some light traffic; an adventuring party walking on foot, a rider and his dog, and a merchant in a cart. He doubled back to give the forest another sweep, unable to hear the sigh of relief from Valia and Noah below.

They had changed their appearance using some unique means. Valia put away her cloak and changed her outfit while keeping her silver hair concealed with a scarf. With her on the saddle was Noah, in his invisible state. He repurposed his steed to serve as their packhorse and darkened its white coat with mud. It snorted and flicked its ears in annoyance, but it would have to bear with it. Trotting alongside them was an illusory wolf that Noah controlled.

"That was a stroke of genius," said Valia.

"Thanks," replied Noah with his arms wrapped around her.

"I just hope this wasn't an excuse to grope my breasts while we ride."

"Please, what kind of selfish pervert do you take me for? I know it's much more pleasurable for you when I do this..." He gently nibbled on the tip of one of her ears, sending a bolt of electricity up her spine that straightened her posture and nearly made her yelp.

"That's not fair..." she whimpered.

"Are you telling me to stop?" Noah asked as he reached up and rubbed the tip of her other ear between his fingers. Valia's breathing became a rapid pant, and her composure was melting. Though her dark complexion concealed it, her cheeks were flushed.

"You're a bastard," she gasped.

"I'm still waiting for you to answer." Noah slid his other hand into her pants, finding her moistening womanhood and erect clit. "All you have to do is tell me to stop, and I will."

Valia didn't respond, and Noah continued teasing her while they traveled. He kept his spells going as long as he could, but eventually, his mana ran out. Ingram was nowhere to be seen, so they forsook the road and returned to the wilderness, stopping at a rocky creek after midday passed.

"I need to bathe," said Valia as she dismounted from her horse. "My skin and clothes are already soaked in sweat from the heat, and your company isn't making things better."

"I'm still wearing your sinful scent from the other night like perfume, but you don't hear me complaining, nor were you complaining about my magic fingers," Noah playfully jabbed.

Valia stripped down, exposing her gorgeous body, then shoved her clothes into his hands. "You and your magic fingers are in charge of the laundry."

She retrieved some soap Noah made from one of her bags and went to work scrubbing herself down in the creek. Not even a seasoned hedonist like Noah could resist the sight of the suds running down her ebony breasts and thighs. A true warrior, she kept her sword in reach at all times, occasionally having to kill some slimes moving among the rocks. Even though her heightened senses and raised guard were superior to his, Noah kept watch.

After Valia, Noah took his turn to wash off the veneer of human and elf sweat that clung to him. He then worked on their clothes, cleaning them and setting them out to dry. In the summer sun, that wouldn't take long. While he waited, he gave his horse a bath to wash off the dried mud and return it to its original pearly luster. Once finished, they resumed their journey. Not an hour later did Noah utter a curse. The owl was once again following them.

"Fucking Ingram."

"How many times do we have to lose him?" Valia muttered. "Should we use the same trick as before?"

"I doubt he'll fall for it a second time. We might be able to outrace him. If not, I'll stun his ass and knock him out of the sky."