Vrakhu felt the energy in the air shift with every step.
The closer they drew to the city, the heavier the energy became.
A cloudless sky slowly turned grey.
The vibrant colors of the forest drained away over time; trees were a little less green, grass a little less thick, fruit neither as large nor as colorful.
Vrakhu felt the city was like an intrusive mass that gradually drained the vitality from the world around it.
The irony was not lost on him; one life stealing creature recognizing another.
The rising sun warmed the twins’ skin, slowly peeling away the blanket of frost that covered them.
Corin had a thick fur coat pulled tight around her body and the hood pulled low over her head; a gift from the master during her first winter in the forest.
The fur was thick, dark, and supposedly hard to penetrate.
Not that either twin ever had reason to test that claim.
Corvin had a similar coat… but it no longer fit properly.
Corin could still wear hers. It was a little tight around the chest and shoulders, but the coat was made large for a reason.
Corvin’s arms were too thick for his coat, his shoulders too broad: to say nothing of his height.
He was forced to tie the sleeves around his neck and wear the coat like a hooded cape or confront the cold without any aid.
Which was another reason they needed to head into the city.
The twins needed clothes that weren’t made of weeds and tree leaves.
Vrakhu was fine as he was.
The clothes he’d taken from those dead miners were durable enough for everyday use.
And he washed them in the river often enough to keep them clean.
Corvin’s entire body trembled, his teeth clattered. “By-By the way, Do y-you have a lot of Ren? An old cul-cultivator like you must have loads hidden away somewhere.”
Corin glanced at her brother with flat, disapproving eyes. “Really?”
“D-Don’t act like you’re not cu-curious too.”
Both twins turned and stared at the old man’s back, openly wondering if he’d answer the question or not.
“Any coin I once had is of no use to us now.” He spoke honestly, and without hesitation.
There was a time when he had more wealth than he knew what to do with; a side effect of endless challengers seeking fame and glory.
The dead ensured he was never light on coin.
However, he doubted anyone in the city would accept currency that was doubtlessly older than whatever country they were in.
He had a few salves and ointments he could sell, though he had no idea what they were worth.
No, better to find another method of purchasing what they need.
Any alchemist or botanist worth the title would be able to track them based on the ingredients he used to make them.
And the last thing he wanted was someone bothering them at camp.
The twins shot confused glances at each other.
Neither could understand what the old man claimed.
Cultivators were all wealthy… Well, their dad wasn’t. Not really. But the Dryden clan was, and all the masters they’d known from their other life were wealthy beyond imagination.
The old man didn’t have anything? Really?
Corin shook her head in disbelief. “But if you don’t have any Ren… How are we going to buy anything? We must have something to barter with.”
Vrakhu glanced over his shoulder at the two of them.
He saw the expectation on their faces and heard the confusion racing through their minds.
His beard twitched.
“We have our bodies.”
The twins stopped walking in unison and their expressions froze.
Corin’s complexion turned slightly green, while Corvin’s turned a bit red.
“I’d rather not sell my organs if it's all the same to you, Master.”
“Yeah! How could you even suggest we sell her organs? Who’d even pay for such small things anyway—” — Smack! — “Ouch!” He rubbed his bicep, which was already turning red.
“I was joking.”
“Jokes are meant to be funny, idiot.”
Vrakhu stopped walking and turned to face them. “We’ll work to earn our keep. No one is selling anything.”
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The twins looked at him, blinked, then spoke in perfect unison.
“Oh…” They jogged to catch up with the old man and fell into step behind him.
“Why didn’t you say so, Master?”
“Yeah. Why do you have to say things in the weirdest possible way?”
Vrakhu ignored their comments and slightly increased his speed.
They were closing the distance, but not fast enough.
It would be after mid-day by the time they saw the city at this rate…
“We’re going to run. Keep up or return to camp on your own.” He pushed off the ground with his back foot; his hair and beard were swept up by the wind as his speed instantly multiplied.
Corin’s stomach and Corvin’s mouth dropped simultaneously.
“Wait, no! I don’t want to go back yet!” Corin pushed off the ground and rushed to catch up.
“Huh? Hey! Wait for me!!” Corvin trailed behind both of them.
Corin’s feet hit the ground three times for every one of Corvin’s, who had the largest gait between the three of them.
Both twins felt their hearts pumping, their legs straining to run as if their lives depended on it.
Vrakhu looked lazy by comparison.
With his arms locked behind his back; Vrakhu’s run looked no different than his usual walking pace, yet it carried him four times as far in a quarter of the time.
If his hair and beard hadn’t betrayed his speed. The twins would’ve thought their eyes were deceiving them.
They ran as the sun continued to rise through the sky behind them.
The constant running beneath the sun had the twins soon flushed with excess heat.
Corin unfastened her coat and let it flap in the wind behind her.
Corvin eventually ditched his coat entirely and ran with it tied around his waist and looped through his belt for security.
They ran through low valleys and over high hills until the tall trees of the forest were replaced by squat evergreens.
The number of bushes and low laying plants faded until they eventually disappeared entirely.
And yet, strangely, they saw more animals than they’d ever seen in the forest.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of tree dwellers, rabbits, and deer passed by as they ran.
The twins marveled at the change.
Plump rabbits in every direction.
Healthy deer; some with huge antlers and some without any at all.
And more tree dwellers than they could count.
They saw more meat in a single glance than they had in the last few years combined.
Maybe this was what their father meant when he’d claimed there was plenty to eat nearby?
Vrakhu found the absence of one thing more curious than anything.
He couldn’t sense a single predator in these woods.
But he could sense something else.
He slowed to a walk at a spot noticeably thin of trees and growth.
The twins also slowed, though less smoothly and barely able to stay on their feet.
“Distance running will be added into your training when we return.”
“Yes—” Corin doubled over; her hands on her knees and her lungs begging for salvation. “Yes—” She had more to say, but her tongue wouldn’t cooperate.
Corvin didn’t even try.
He raised a single thumb at Vrakhu’s back and focused all his attention on not falling down.
He was so tired even the prickly pine needles looked like a good place to sleep.
“Rest for now.” Vrakhu spoke while looking at a specific spot in the air above them.
Neither twin knew what he was staring at… But then again, they didn’t exactly care either.
The moment he’d told them to rest, they’d fallen to the ground and shut their eyes.
Vrakhu walked a few paces away and looked at the ground in front of him, then slowly slid his eyes towards the sky.
A solid black line ran through the dirt and disappeared behind the trees to the left and right.
A constant stream of spiritual energy flowed through the line and seeped into the air.
The seepage rose to a height of fifty feet and formed a curtain of energy that blocked their way forward.
Vrakhu glanced back at the twins.
They both had their eyes closed and were focused solely on recovering as much energy as possible.
Vrakhu exhaled once, bent his knees, and — whoosh — launched himself into the air.
He climbed higher than the curtain, higher than even the nearby mountain.
With a clear, unobstructed view of the city and its surroundings; the truth was revealed.
At some point in the last five years the denizens of the city had constructed a barrier around the entire mountain upon which the city rests.
Vrakhu could sense every cultivator in the city.
He knew there wasn’t anyone capable of directly sustaining such a barrier.
Which left them with one option.
Vrakhu twisted in the air and observed the horizon in all directions.
What he saw loaned more truth to his theory.
Every tree inside the barrier, and for a short distance beyond it, had the same dull, atrophied look.
Some short-sighted cultivators tied the barrier into the mountain’s leyline, and were using the Yang energy of the surrounding forests to fuel it.
But the forest was still alive, so it couldn’t be a defensive ward.
An alarm veil then.
It wouldn’t stop them from entering the city, only alert someone inside to their presence.
Vrakhu didn’t like being monitored.
Of course, he could always tear down the curtain...
He blinked.
No, that might kill the one responsible, but it’d also wound the leyline. It needed to be dismantled properly or the entire eco-system could die.
Gravity tugged on his shoes to let him know it was time to come down.
He didn’t resist.
The wind rushed through his hair and beard as he fell.
It whipped at his clothes, his shoes, the pouches on his belt.
Vrakhu ignored it all and landed with complete silence.
Neither twin ever realized he’d moved.
“Rest is over.”
“Yes…” The twins spoke in unison but crawled to their feet at different rates.
Corin straightened her back first, while Corvin followed ten seconds later.
Vrakhu pushed through the curtain without hesitation, then turned to see if either child noticed.
Corin stepped through without issue. “Something wrong?”
Corvin stepped through — and his expression immediately soured, shifting towards disgust.
“Why do I feel like I just stepped in poop?”
Vrakhu blinked.
Corin gave him a blank look. “Maybe you did? There’s plenty of animals around, which usually means plenty of poop.”
Corvin lifted his feet to check the bottom of his sandals… “Nope, nothing... Oh well.” He sighed and scraped his shoes on the grass just to be sure.
Vrakhu locked his arms behind his back and turned away from them.
Maybe the boy’s sensitivity to Yang was better than he’d thought?
