When it came to traveling on foot, a person truly felt every single step.
There was the easy beginning, when it was just you, the road, and the weight of your gear. Then there was the halfway point, when it became you, the road, your gear, and the weight of fatigue slowly trying to drag your soul out through your boots.
So the fact that a vehicle could cover so much distance without Aiden feeling like his legs were filing a formal complaint was amazing.
He could see the well-trodden path below them as they went. Occasionally, an airship passed overhead, drifting through the sky like a lazy cloud with a budget. Other times, stray flying monsters circled in the distance before vanishing beyond the treetops.
Thalia sat in the passenger seat beside him and claimed he was still a nervous driver.
Her evidence was Aiden's constant and rhythmic checking of the speedometer, angle, fuel reserves, temperature, windshield, and then back to the speedometer again every ten seconds.
Aiden would argue that it was not nervousness.
It was procedure.
His entire job was making potions, a process where one was given instructions that, if followed incorrectly, could cause the potion to fail, the ingredients to be wasted, or the mixture to blow up in your face. Sometimes all three, if the day was feeling especially spiteful.
For that reason alone, Aiden felt it was less nervousness and more general attentiveness to procedure.
The vehicle rolled on, the hilly, rocky terrain they had been traveling through all morning slowly giving way to the sight of a massive forest ahead. The contrast was welcome. Rocks and slopes had their charm, but after hours of staring at them, Aiden was ready to see something that did not look like the world had been left unfinished by a lazy sculptor.
As they approached the tree line, there was a knock against the back window.
Thalia twisted around and slid open the small glass panel as Kaelen poked his head in.
"The sun's starting to set, and we have been on the road since just before lunch. How about we set up camp right outside the tree line?"
Aiden turned to Thalia.
She looked down at the map she had been tracing, then nodded. She had marked a spot as Camp One, just past the mountain range next to Hopestone.
Aiden took a moment to look over her work. As they pulled to a stop, he noticed she had missed one of the landmarks.
"We're closer to around here," Aiden said, pointing. "There was that part of the mountain about a mile back."
Thalia wordlessly looked over the map, nodded, and made the correction.
As she and the others hopped out, Aiden put the vehicle in park and sat there for a moment.
Thalia was hard to read.
During the entire ride, she had been almost robotic. She did not speak much. Her expressions barely changed. Even when she was clearly excited, it only showed through a faint blush on her cheeks and the fact that she moved around a little faster.
Aiden had met shy people before.
He had met serious people before.
Thalia was something else entirely. It was like someone had taken a person and then forgotten to install most of the little social noises people made to reassure others they were not secretly planning something.
Aiden stepped out to join the others.
Jax was already running in and out of the tree line, grabbing sticks and tossing them into a pile. Thalia seemed to be helping, but while she gathered four or five sticks each run, Jax made seven or eight trips for each of hers.
Kaelen and Selene were unloading supplies from the cart. Kaelen moved at about half of Selene's speed, carrying one bag at a time while Selene casually carried two or three like she had some personal grudge against making multiple trips.
That left Liora and Aiden to check the edge of the woods and make sure nothing nearby wanted to eat them, rob them, curse them, or start a fight over territory.
"Shall we get going?" Aiden asked.
Liora gave a nod, though she seemed to be somewhere else. Her thoughts had drifted, and judging by her expression, they had not drifted anywhere pleasant.
They made their way into the tree line. The woods were thick, and the smell of pine mixed with the setting sun, tinting everything in shades of orange and red. It would have been peaceful if Aiden had not learned that beautiful forests were often where horrible things happened to people who said things like, "It's probably fine."
After a short stretch of silence, Liora asked, "Any thoughts on Thalia?"
"Well, she isn't much of a talker. The entire ride was almost silent aside from the occasional question through the back window."
"Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels like that could be a bad sign."
"It's not a good sign," Aiden admitted, stepping over a raised root. "But I don't think it's necessarily bad. Maybe she is like Selene and has trouble expressing herself."
"Selene is shy. Not speaking a word for hours while sitting in the same room as someone feels calculating."
Aiden opened his mouth, then closed it.
That was not an easy argument to dismiss.
They walked in silence for a minute, simply looking around the area. The forest was still, but not unnaturally so. Birds chirped here and there. Bugs hummed in the grass. The wind moved through the pine needles with a soft whispering sound.
"I've been meaning to ask," Aiden said. "I noticed you were quick to say no to Thalia joining us right from the start. Was that a weird-vibe thing, or…?"
Liora stopped for a moment. She seemed to actually think about the answer before scratching the back of her head.
"Honestly, I have no clue why. Maybe it's a weird vibe. Maybe I feel like she's trying to catch us in a scam."
Part of Aiden wanted to say that was dumb.
Nobody else seemed to get that bad of a feeling from Thalia. She was strange, yes, but being strange was not a crime. If it was, Aiden was reasonably sure their entire group would already be in jail.
Then he remembered the Blood Trent from two days ago.
When he had a bad feeling about that tree, everyone had said gut feelings often saved adventuring groups.
"In that case, I'll try to keep an eye on her," Aiden said. "As you all said before, gut feelings save adventuring groups."
They continued their circle around the camp. Aiden was just starting to think they would make it back without finding anything when Liora's arm suddenly shot up.
Aiden froze beside her.
Liora quickly moved behind a tree, and Aiden followed, trying his best to avoid stepping on every loud stick the forest had personally placed in his path.
About one hundred feet away, he saw the now-familiar silver sheen of Thalia's hair.
She stood with her back to them, arms held out at either side. The thin mana strings she had used before extended from her fingertips, slithering across the ground like glowing worms.
Thalia stood motionless.
The only movement was the slight breeze tugging at her dress and the strings crawling over the dirt.
For a moment, she looked like she was in a trance.
Then she twitched.
Slowly, she began to walk, her strings still searching the ground.
Aiden turned to Liora.
Liora nodded.
The two followed, taking care to tread quietly.
They went around fifty feet before Thalia suddenly broke into a run. She made her way toward a tree that lay on its side. Its roots pointed toward the sky, bits of dirt clinging to them in dry, caked patches.
Thalia slid down into the small divot beneath the fallen tree.
Aiden and Liora could have moved closer to look, but her strings were still searching around the area. Neither of them knew whether touching or disturbing one would alert her.
So they waited.
After a moment, Thalia emerged.
She retracted her strings, grabbed a few sticks from the ground that her mana had apparently pulled toward her, and started back in the direction of camp.
Aiden and Liora waited until she was gone before making their way over to the small divot.
Aiden was not sure what he expected to find.
A skeleton, maybe.
A cursed sword.
A hole full of angry squirrels.
Instead, both of them looked down and said, almost at the same time,
"A trapdoor?"
There, sitting in the middle of the small hollow beneath the fallen tree, was a simple wooden trapdoor.
The wood was oddly clean. Not new exactly, but far too well-kept for something sitting under a fallen tree in the middle of the woods. It was not large, but Aiden was reasonably sure even Larz could squeeze through it if he was willing to lose a little dignity.
"So," Aiden said, crossing his arms, "do you think she just found this?"
"Maybe," Liora said. "I would say it was something she planned, like an ambush, except she wasn't the one who asked us to stop. Kaelen did."
They both stared at the trapdoor.
The trapdoor did not offer any helpful explanations.
After a moment, Liora shook her head.
"We clearly have no idea what this is, and there is no way I'm opening a potential trap without the others here."
"Agreed," Aiden said. "Let's head back to camp and ask the others."
Liora started walking, then glanced at him.
"Let's not mention it first. I want to see if Thalia brings it up or if she tries to hide it."
Aiden was a bit surprised, but nodded.
It was a small test.
A very suspicious test, but still a test.
They made their way back in relative silence. To their surprise, they did not even reach camp before Thalia, Jax, Selene, and Kaelen met them on the path.
Thalia was leading.
Liora noticed that, but her usual casual smirk slid into place as she looked at the group as a whole.
"If you were worried about us returning, we were almost back."
"Actually, Thalia said she found an item dungeon this way," Jax said, tail wagging. "Figured we'd check it out before dinner while we still have light."
Liora's expression flickered.
She was clearly surprised by how quickly Thalia had told everyone.
Aiden, however, was confused for a completely different reason.
"What's an item dungeon?"
The others turned to him with matching looks of surprise.
Then they all seemed to remember that until three days ago, Aiden had been a regular shop owner whose biggest danger was probably Peridot falling asleep on the job and letting someone buy the wrong stomach medicine.
Thalia crossed her arms.
"Are you aware of how a river will passively grow as it flows because the dirt around it is slowly swept away over time?"
Aiden nodded.
"Water likes to fill a space. Aether likes to take specific shapes. Both can erode surfaces in their own ways," Thalia explained. "Oftentimes, when an item gets damaged or marked, that small imperfection can become the starting path for natural runes. Over time, those runes may turn the item into a magical item, transforming it into something different."
Aiden blinked.
Thalia continued without changing expression.
"When this happens to a finished item, the item can form a dungeon around itself by changing the environment. Nobody knows exactly why this happens, but it is called the Aether Transmutation Phenomenon."
Aiden stood there for a moment, processing the explanation.
Then he turned to the others.
"So there is a magical item down there?"
Jax nodded and started toward the trapdoor they had found.
It only took them a minute or so to backtrack to the fallen tree. When they arrived, Kaelen began to reach for the door, but Thalia held out a hand and stopped him.
"Once a dungeon is opened, the monsters inside will be able to leave as well. Our camp is close enough that they may come this way." She looked toward the lowering sun. "We should camp for the night before attempting the dungeon in the morning."
Everyone nodded.
That was sensible enough.
No one wanted to wake up in the middle of the night to find a dungeon monster chewing on their supplies. Or their face. Aiden had preferences, and both of those were high on the list of things he preferred not to happen.
They all started back toward camp.
Kaelen and Selene both held their stomachs with the shared misery of people who had remembered dinner existed and were now angry it had not happened yet. Jax and Thalia walked a little ahead, making small bits of conversation as they went.
Aiden caught Liora's eye.
No words passed between them, but they did not need any.
They would have to keep an eye on Thalia.
Because if she tried to sneak into that dungeon while everyone slept and steal the item, Aiden had a bad feeling they were all going to have a very long morning.