Rowan and Nadia's conversation had ended, so they resorted to sitting in silence, neither one adept at leading a conversation. Nadia, because she was too passive, Rowan, because he simply did not know what to discuss.
They sat facing each other, Nadia opposite him and Aoife, who still had not woken up. Rowan was growing worried, yet he could still hear her breathing, reassuring him that she hadn't slipped into death.
Yet that was not the only thing worrying him. Throughout their wait in the cave, they had heard various cries from various beasts, and their trepidation to step outside had only grown. Various sounds accompanied the cries, some of which Rowan recognised, others he couldn't place, but were far more concerning.
Eventually, just after noon, Aoife woke up with a startle, jumping to her feet, sword in hand. Which, Rowan now realised, was his sword of light he had found in the Hell. He hadn't woken up with it, and had assumed it was lost in the Hell. He hadn't noticed it in Aoife's scabbard, she must have taken it when he had passed out.
She swayed slightly as she seemed to realise where she was, and the sword fell down to her side. Neither Rowan nor Nadia spoke, wishing to give her time to adjust to their surroundings. After a few seconds of standing still in the centre of the cave, her eyes fogged over the same way Nadia's had when she accessed her system.
Rowan couldn't tell whether she liked her fear or not, as she simply half-nodded as she read whatever it did. Deciding now was the time to break the silence, he decided to offer up his ability.
"I got regeneration. It seems pretty potent cause I recovered from all of my injuries inside the Hell. What did you get?"
Rowan didn't share what Nadia had, as after her reaction, it seemed as though she was really nervous or insecure about it in some way.
"My skin's harder to break now. The system describes it as roughly five times stronger."
A small pit opened in Rowan's gut at hearing that. It wasn't weak by any means, but it meant they had no offensive abilities, and wouldn't be able to kill anything without sustaining heavy damage. Yes, Rowan could heal the damage he sustained, but the pain of experiencing it wasn't something he looked forward to.
"Anyways, now that you're awake, we should get going to return to Cork. Judging from the size of the city outside, we should be able to find a main road that leads home."
Nadia stood up and brushed herself off as she was talking, obviously more eager to return than she had initially appeared. Rowan and Aoife nodded in agreement. Rowan had spent more than enough time waiting, and Aoife was no doubt ready to press on as though nothing had happened over the last two weeks.
And so, using the afternoon sun as a guide to where West was, the group started looking for clues that might determine where they could be. From the hillside where the cave mouth emerged, they got a full, wide glimpse of the city they were apparently south-west of.
Neither Aoife nor Nadia recognised any landmarks, and Aoife suggested they take a wide circle of the city, to check for main roads that might connect to Cork. Everyone in agreement, they began following the western edge of the city, intending to investigate the city in a clockwise direction.
Shuffling down the hill proved to be of little challenge, as Aoife described the aether as giving their bodies a boost. But she also warned Rowan and Nadia that as they used their abilities, they would use up the aether in their bodies, and would be weak again until it refilled.
"So I won't be able to regenerate forever? I'll eventually run out of essence to use?"
"Yes. And once my essence runs out, my skin will be as weak as it was pre-Hell. The same goes for Nadia."
The last comment was said with a nonchalant side eye, which told Rowan that she was curious about her ability despite Nadia's obvious secrecy.
'Should I tell her? It's not a new ability or anything, it's the same as ours, after all. But it is strange that Nadia told me and not her.'
Rowan truly was unsure of whether to tell Aoife or not, but decided it was best to just let Nadia's ability remain hidden. He could tell her later in an urgent moment if need be.
"We're going to need more weapons, I don't have one anymore. Do you think we'll be able to find any in the city?"
Aoife turned her head briefly before her gaze rested on his empty hands. Rowan understood what she was thinking about, but decided not to push it too hard. She had earned that sword as much as he did, and it would likely do far more in her hands than his.
"There'll likely be weapons dropped from previous months' candidates. Some of them have abilities that negate the need for weapons, so they simply leave them behind. It's unlikely we'll find them inside the city, we'll probably stumble into them sometime on the way home."
Rowan stared into the city as they continued their wide passage around it. Occasionally, he would see beasts with vibrant colours dashing through the streets, too fast for him to make out any important details.
He also undoubtedly saw human bones amongst the ruins, some broken in pieces, littered among rubble and various signs of destruction. He ignored it, he had long known that what lay outside the walls of Cork was a disaster. Simply seeing a few skeletons didn't haunt him too much.
The group finally stumbled across a roundabout on the edge of the city, with various signs pointing in different directions. They read things such as 'Durrow', 'Clonmel' and 'Dublin'.Aoife looked relieved at the sound of Clonmel, though Rowan was far more interested in the previous capital of Ireland, Dublin.