I have learned much these last hundred years. The creation of this new world is beyond even my expectations. If not for the telltale signs of my own designs present in this abomination, I would have feared my sister's creativity and ingenuity to have surpassed mine. What role was it that had I played in this?

  The afternoon sun shone through small gaps in the thinly overcast sky. A warm breeze danced through the forest, swaying branches and rustling leaves. Evran’s party passed beneath the canopy, enjoying a surprisingly peaceful stroll through a woodland that ought to have been teeming with monsters.

  They followed a trail blazed by another party, one that had departed earlier. Indon and Kaila were constantly updating their notes with the various plants and animals they passed on their journey. Those species most commonly found in the seventh band were documented via a checklist, but they had to occasionally stop for some bug or weed absent from the list.

  Indon was filling out a form for a bird of prey he’d mistaken for a monster, but it ended up being a rare but mundane hawk. The form had a small area for ambitious students to sketch what they’d seen, and the young beastkin turned out to be quite the artist. He’d even helped Kaila sketch a delicate yellow flower they’d come across in a small clearing.

  Evran had little to do on the journey to their survey site, though he’d be the busiest once they arrived. Instead, he served as a lookout, allowing the others to fill out their survey forms in peace. He eventually got impatient at the frequent stops, insisting that whatever team preceding them had certainly found and documented those berry bushes.

  “Look, they even cut off a cluster of the berries!” he complained. “Just take them with you and fill out your form as we walk.”

  Kaila pouted, but picked up the severed branch with the berries. She swung the berries over to Indon, stopping just under his nose. He sniffed, then shook his head. Poisonous. Disappointed, the party continued along the trail until they heard the sound of running water. They finally found their creek.

  The party followed along the western bank of the shallow creek. Indon suspected that they’d have to cross fewer feeder streams, most of which would flow down from the eastern mountain. Eventually, the trail they’d been following made an abrupt turn to the west, indicating the end of the northward leg of its creators’ journey.

  Undaunted, their party continued on, now with Evran taking point. He carved his way through the underbrush with blades of wind magic, though there wasn’t too much to clear. Eventually, they stumbled across a strange area almost entirely devoid of life, save for a single species of towering pine. There were no branches within ten meters of the forest floor, which was littered with a thick layer of exceedingly long pine needles. Though there was plenty of space in the hollow below, the thick branches in the canopy above allowed precious little sunlight to penetrate. This region of the forest was dark and empty, but what most concerned Evran was the eerie absence of animal sounds.

  “This place looks dangerous,” said Evran. “Let’s take a break from surveying and keep on high alert.”

  “Agreed,” said Indon, drawing his longsword. He quickened his pace and returned to the lead position.

  Drifting to the back of the formation, Evran saw the raised hair on the back of Indon’s neck. Even the usually fearless Kaila seemed to be on edge, her eyes darting about the forest, silver wand at the ready. The anxious elf cast a lamplight spell. A sphere of luminescent ether formed over her head, following her as she moved through the shadowy forest.

  Evran was glad for the additional light, as the thick mat of pine needles obscured a treacherous tangle of roots beneath. He picked up one of the meter-long needles and pricked his finger on the tip. A single drop of blood formed where the needle stuck him, causing Evran to reconsider his plan to gather some to use as bedding on his return trip. He also reconsidered coming back to this place on said trip.

  They saw sunlight shining through a gap in the canopy ahead. Upon reaching the clearing, they were surprised to find a modest lake surrounded by forest-covered hills. Evran wondered how the scouts managed to miss such a significant feature. Then again, the whole thing was obscured from the coast. You’d have to climb the mountain to see it from anywhere other than its own shores.

  The forest on the opposite side appeared to be normal again, unlike the pines of the dark hollow. A fragile sense of hope excited the party when they saw that they’d soon exit this cursed area of the woods.

  “Stay away from the water’s edge,” Indon ordered.

  They walked the narrow path between the light of the lake and the darkness of the trees, not wanting to get too close to either. The crisp, dry needles gave way to mud that squelched beneath their feet as they walked. If not for Indon’s insane reflexes, the swift jaws of an inconspicuous log would have snapped shut around his leg instead of the air.

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  “Damn!” he shouted, falling down into a thick soup of mud.

  What they’d all thought was a downed tree turned out to be a frighteningly large monster with a thick scaly hide and the mouth of a crocodile. Before the beast could follow up its attack on Indon, Kaila quickly responded with a perfectly shaped frost nova. The skin of the crocodilian monster was already caked in wet mud, its skin saturated with water. When the frost nova hit, that water instantly froze solid, binding the creature to the frozen mud.

  Unlike the Terra Stag, this was an aquatic creature proficient at enduring the harsh winters of the seventh band. It was more than capable of taking a frost nova. Evran followed up by sending a stone shard into the monster’s exposed face. It quickly closed its eyes in response, and the sharp length of rock bounced harmlessly off of the thick scales on its eyelid.

  Enraged, the monster thrashed and struggled against its icy prison. Loud cracks echoed across the lake as it wiggled its way free. Evran reacted by dousing it with a water ball, then Kaila followed up the effort with another frost nova. The monster was again frozen to the ground. Even though it wasn’t hurting the beast, they all knew the importance of keeping this monster immobilized.

  By then, Indon had regained his footing and was preparing an attack of his own. Searing hot flames swirled about his longsword as he charged in to strike the monster. When his blade struck the creature on its terrible maw, a powerful gust of wind washed over the flames, sending a torrent of fire along the path of the blade. Indon’s sword bit into the monster’s long snout, but did not cut deeply.

  “Huh?” said Indon, confused. He sidestepped the monster, unwilling to linger too close to its deadly jaws. The monster broke free again and spun around, whipping Indon with its powerful tail. The attack tore through his armor, but left only shallow cuts across his chest. It had done its job.

  Evran thought he understood what Indon had hoped to accomplish with his attack. It was definitely the correct move, though he’d have to explain to the spellblade later why his strike had failed. Evran pointed his staff at the massive crocodile and gathered an incredible quantity of his mana. Sparks rained from the tip right before a bolt of blue lightning flashed out and struck the monster on its exposed tongue.

  Electricity tore through the monster’s flesh and organs, stopping the creature’s heart and cooking its brain. After a few seconds, Evran stopped channeling the lightning before the attack drained his mana completely. The monster had stopped moving entirely. Undeterred, Kaila aimed several ice shards down the lifeless monster’s open mouth. As the dead monster’s mana control faded, her attacks became more and more effective until eventually the top of the monster’s head came off from the impact of a well-aimed ice shard.

  She smiled proudly, then looked back at Indon, who was back on his feet and being healed by Evran. “Nice fight!”

  “Does she always do that?” asked Indon, having become certain of the monster’s death long before Kaila’s final attack.

  “Yeah, you get used to it,” Evran answered.

  “What was with that flame attack?” Kaila yelled in response, changing the subject. “Were you trying to set the whole place on fire?”

  “You’re one to talk, Kai,” said Evran, chuckling to himself.

  “Oh, you remembered that… Still, why try a fire attack against an aquatic monster?”

  “You were trying to summon lightning, weren’t you?” Evran finished healing Indon and began scraping the mud off his armor with a towel he pulled from his pack and soaked with water magic.

  “Yeah,” he said sheepishly. “I’ve never been able to, but I thought maybe I’d pull it off in the heat of battle. That was really stupid now that I think about it.”

  “Oh, I see,” said Kaila, still wary of her surroundings. “That’s an understandable mistake, especially since you didn’t attend the academy before becoming a spellblade. Here’s a quick lesson in magic theory for you! Each pair of elements has something we call a gestalt effect. Water and light become healing magic, fire and air become lightning. That much you seem to know, but it’s not as simple as combining two elements.”

  Kaila paused for a moment, wand raised to the darkness, though nothing was there. Evran took over her lecture, wanting Kaila’s complete focus to be on keeping an eye out for additional threats.

  “Gestalt magic is more than just the sum of its parts. It’s a new thing entirely. Don’t just add wind to a fire strike, though that was an impressive attack. Channel fire and air element, but think hard about producing lightning instead of a windy flame.”

  “Ah, I guess that makes sense. Thanks!”

  “It takes a lot of practice to get right, so don’t feel too bad,” Evran added. “I still struggle with transmutation and sound magic.”

  After doing the best he could, Evran finished drying Indon’s gambeson with a continuous stream of hot air. Technically, he was using a different version of Indon’s wind-enhanced fire strike, but a substantially less harmful one. Evran still didn’t know what to do with Indon’s muddy tail. Nia never seemed to like it when he touched hers, so he handed the damp towel to Indon so he could take care of it himself. While he did so, Evran wandered over to the slain monster and extracted a single tooth from its gaping jaw.

  “Are you going to make a necklace out of that, like the one adventurer was wearing?” Indon asked.

  “That dragoon? No, it’s just for the survey. Besides, hers is a dragon’s fang. People don’t take kindly to your wearing one of those unless it was from a dragon you killed. They’d think I’m some pathetic fraud if I wore this.”

  “Come on, guys, let’s move out of this mud,” said Kaila. “I don’t want to fight another one of these things.”

  “She’s right, I’m pretty low on mana from that. Let’s get further away from the lake.”

  “Agreed,” said Indon.

  They moved deeper into the dark hollow, still keeping the light from the shore in view. Eventually, they found the edge of the regular forest, and eagerly left the darkness behind them. They continued along the lake until they found the outflowing stream, then followed it all the way to coast, stopping along the way to document the occasional item or two. Thankfully, they hadn’t run into any more dangerous monsters.

  “We’ve arrived!” said Kaila excitedly. “That means lunch!”