Corvin trudged back away from the downhearted elders, who were reluctant to force their rebellious Accepted back to her position.
'They should be worrying about themselves anyway,' he thought, eyeing a staggering elder in the back of their group.
Ahead, quite an unusual situation was about to unfold. Corvin thought up many different scenarios for how his First Nightmare would go: fighting raging creatures, escaping a dangerous place...
Helping a charming girl out of captivity on the way to kill her was not one of them. Honestly, it would make more sense if he was the one trapped, not a bystander who could just walk the road and do nothing else.
'Huh... great. Now I just have to pick information out of the smartest person here; while acting like I already knew everything all along.'
Obviously, he didn't free Lyra for... well, free. But why did she have to be so sharp?
Lyra was walking a bit ahead, a bubble of pilgrims around her with a mix of admiration and confusion painted across their face. Maybe, a sprinkle of guilt as well. If Corvin had to guess, walking itself must have been a part of their culture because most of them were still alright. For now.
He sighed and finally approached the high-spirited girl.
"Hey... so they're not going to go after you?"
Lyra swiftly turned her head to meet him, more pale gold hair poking out of her braid.
"No, technically I'm the highest status person here."
The grin on her face turned mischievous, she added:
"But you already knew that."
Corvin rubbed his eye and spoke while annoyed:
"Well, yeah. None of that would have worked if so."
She sighed.
"Then why are you asking questions you already know the answer to?"
Corvin grinned and shook his head.
"How else am I supposed to act ignorant?"
Lyra giggled, unexpectedly finding that response amusing. Talking to her was very weird for Corvin — most conversations he had with people were because he needed something, or they needed something.
Actually, he did need something, but it was still different...
'If only Mira had others she could talk fun with.'
Wait. Corvin just realized that if they did make it out of the outskirts, there was a good chance his sheltered little sister would be terrible at making friends.
Moments passed, scarce bleached trees starting to become more common along the road, and the fractured ground seemed to be getting better for some reason.
Finding the silence aggravating, Lyra broke it.
"So, why did you help me?"
Corvin decided to keep feigning ignorance, finding it entertaining.
"What do you mean?"
The girl pursed her lips and looked up, a smile betraying her attitude.
"You know exactly what I mean. You wouldn't help me for free."
They may have been acting fine, but the exhaustion was really catching up on Corvin. Especially the lack of sleep.
"I wanted to know about you."
'Ah, shit. That came out wrong.'
That earned an interesting look from Lyra, but she grasped what he actually meant.
"About the Accepted, you mean."
Corvin could tell Lyra harbored negative feelings towards being the Accepted, and what he wanted to know would pierce into them. That was why he thought of the best way he could on how to approach the subject.
He glanced at her over his shoulder while straining his legs to keep going.
"About both, really."
"What do you mean?" Lyra asked, no longer smiling.
Corvin considered this, or rather acted like he was. The pause typically signaled that he was thinking of how not to hurt her feelings, but obviously that wouldn't work on Lyra. Instead, it showed her that he was purposefully trying to pull information out of her... and for the clever girl, that was the better result anyway.
"I was curious about when you got Accepted. So really, it's about you and the Accepted, right?"
The name "Accepted" implied there was some sort of process, after all.
The distant sun began to fall over Mother's Cradle, slowly throwing the blanket of darkness over the corrupted land. The pilgrims in the back began to gather and light the lanterns to fight it off, while the intelligent presence stalking in the background hid within.
After taking her time figuring out how to answer, some sort of decision must have been made because the corner of her mouth curled upwards.
"I guess."
She placed a hand on her chin as if reminiscing of such a nostalgic past.
"It wasn't that long ago, which is weird in itself, but my family is pretty well off so I was one of the first in line to get tested."
Corvin noted how she downplayed her wealth but kept on listening.
"It was my turn, and I touched the artifact. Of course, it lit up and suddenly I was the Accepted... it was said that I carry divinity, or something like that."
'Artifact? And again, with the divinity...'
She continued in a smug tone:
"Oh, and this brought upon a huge celebration. Because I'm the youngest Accepted in history."
Corvin played along with a sharp smile of his own.
"Wow, such an achievement. And how old are you?"
"Just seventeen, around a decade younger than the typical age. And you?" she asked, sarcastically.
Corvin was sort of surprised.
"Oh, I'm seventeen too, actually. I think."
"You think?"
"Uh, yeah... it's hard to keep the date correctly in the outskirts."
Normally it was, but that was not an issue for Corvin. Although, he didn't know the age of his current body, so that slip up had been dangerous.
He noticed how Lyra's emerald eyes squinted at him, but luckily, she didn't follow further.
"Oh, makes sense. You don't keep a calendar of some kind?"
Corvin almost genuinely laughed.
"Keep a calendar? Hard to remember to mark one when you are worrying about getting food on the table."
He must have been right earlier, because the secretly prim and proper girl was obviously having trouble fathoming the thought.
"You can act all rebellious you want, but I can tell you're a spoiled young lady," Corvin said, turning the smugness towards her.
His right leg almost gave out, but he kept the pain hidden. The healthy girl next to him, however, was staring at him with pure indignance.
"I can't be both?! I can be spoiled when I want, and act how I want. As simple as that."
'It's definitely not as simple as you're making it out to be.'
Corvin sighed after glancing at the veil of the night forming around them, then back forwards.
"Sure... and about that artifact. Did you not bring it with you?"
Lyra glared at him for the apparent pivot but shifted her gaze backwards.
"Yeah, I'm obligated to take it with me when I walk the 'inner path'. It's concealed safely in the cart."
"The cart, huh. That's why the guard was so angry..."
He would remember that.