Weathered ruins

Erinara

Despite the bedroll hidden away within a rocky crevice being much more crude of a sleeping arrangement than my room in the citadel, this was the most comfortable and relaxed rest I had gotten in ages.
A massive wave of relief had washed over me when I realized that Jin was unbothered by my appearance, despite the traits of an omen being more than apparent in my case. Even if warlocks had physical omen traits, many of them were able to simply hide their unusual body parts. It was particularly rare to have such pronounced features.
I hadn’t fully realized it yet, but Jin’s opinion of me had become extremely important to me.
Jin had awoken a bit earlier than me it seemed. He was already busy with maintaining his equipment. He turned to greet me.
“Erinara! Your shadow magic, it’s…”, he began, waving a hand in front of his face and turning away immediately.
“Inactive”, I completed the sentence, “I know. I no longer feel the need to hide my looks from you. Thank you for that.”
I moved to sit next to him.
“I hardly did anything noteworthy.”
“On the contrary. My entire life I’ve almost exclusively been seen as a curse, a calamity waiting to happen. Being seen as ‘just Erinara’ is an extremely rare luxury. And for that, I thank you.”
We spent a brief period just enjoying each other’s company.

After that, we prepared ourselves for the journey and set out.
“Hey Erinara, I was wanting to ask, how was your life before you joined Ebiron? You mentioned that it was a tough time, do you want to talk about it?”
“There’s not that much to mention really. I was alone for as long as I can remember. At the start, I was able to hide being an omen pretty easily when it was just my ears, but once my horns grew in and the lines appeared over my body, it became harder to do so. Despite it all however, I refused to accept that life as my reality. So, while I was pilfering for scraps to keep myself from hunger, I taught myself how to use various spells. I started with reagent-based magic using discarded or lost materials. Then I picked up the concept of runic magic from observing warlocks from the shadows. In a way being an omen had helped me out there, as I got very used to being unseen by the general masses. I got to observe a lot of elves using runes and reverse engineered their effect. As luck would have it, by consistently studying magic further and further, I had a sudden breakthrough and figured out how to access and utilize my innate magic. Then I also added mastering free casting magic to my daily routine. And well, you know the rest. I ran into Ebiron and here we are.”
I conjured the shadow tendrils, showcasing my ability to freely manipulate them in their entirety. The more I flattened their forms, the better their coloration was made visible, showcasing strikes of deep blue hidden beneath the black exterior.
“I see”, Jin’s voice was tinged with sadness, “I am sorry, Erinara. You shouldn’t have had to go through that. For what it’s worth though, I am really happy that you made it through all of it the way you did. I would have hated to have missed out on your company.”
I felt a slight heat radiate in my face.
“No, no, it’s really fine”, I said, speaking quickly, “as I said the other day, it’s all in the past. We are the sum of our experiences, right? Who knows if we would have met if either of us went through life even the slightest bit differently. I am…”, I paused briefly, taking a breath, “I am also incredibly glad to have met you.”
Jin’s eyes widened slightly before he regained his usual composure. It appeared like I wasn’t the only one having an internal discussion over what was going on and how to navigate it.

“Wait a minute, what’s happening with the feather?”, Jin asked suddenly. 
I forced my eyes to move away from him, following his gaze and landing on the runes surrounding the feather. They were glowing in a slowly increasingly brighter green light instead of their usual dim gleam.
“We are getting close to your mentor’s location!”, I exclaimed, “That’s great! We should arrive there by tomorrow.”

The river we were following kept narrowing the further we walked. Every so often some monsters would try to attack us, but they were dispatched of with such speed and efficiency that they hardly even slow us down.

Just as the night began to fall, we spotted what appeared to be ruins on the horizon. The runes’ light had grown more powerful throughout today’s journey, pointing us toward the weathered, decrepit structures.

“Do you have any idea what those ruins might be?”, Jin asked, “I haven’t heard of anything like them before in the kingdom of crests. They are so far away, too. Is this part of the land of warlocks?”
“Sadly I do not. In honesty, I am not very well versed in non-magical affairs, but I do know that this location is very far out of warlock territory. Judging by the state of the walls, this city has been laid to siege and destroyed in the process. I doubt the warlocks would leave this place all alone to decay if they fought here in the past”, I replied.
“Maybe the monsters would prove as too big a challenge?”, Jin thought out loud, while reducing a stone golem to ash with his blades. We had grown so accustomed to combat with monsters that we were able to simply casually talk while fighting.
I couldn’t help but let out a laugh at this situation.
“You’re probably right, but you are not exactly showcasing the ‘danger’ of the monsters, are you now?”
“Hey it’s not like you’re doing their reputation any favors either”, he gestured to the ground in an over-the-top motion. A bunch of beastlike monsters littered the floor around me. My laughter only grew louder in response.
“Guess not, huh.”

With the current location freshly cleared of monsters, we decided to make camp nearby. A parameter around us was quickly drawn using magic. I had started adding a defensive spell using runes ever since we entered the tundra to ensure us some peace and quiet from would-be nightly ambushers.

Jin had already begun cooking up various foods over the campfire.
“The feather leads us directly to the ruins. By the looks of it, we will meet your mentor in the destroyed city tomorrow”, I said, “do you have any idea why he would be there of all places?”
“I have as little an idea as you. Seems like that mystery will solve itself tomorrow”, although Jin said that, his voice sounded tense.

We spent a bit of time making up outrageous theories before getting rest, ranging from Fyor having had his map upside down and getting hopelessly lost, all the way to the ruins being part of an ancient civilization he was the last living member of.

Thankfully Jin’s tension seemed to decrease a bit in concordance to our conversation. Based on the runic magic Fyor had to be alive. That was the most important matter.