Chapter 25 The Journey Ahead (1/2)
”Can it do anything useful at all?”
Jiang Fei looked at Arran with a look of frustration She had spentout her new Shadow Real out a large blast of Shadow that eted
”Nothing I've been able to accomplish,” Arran answered honestly ”But Master Fireheart could use it to make himself disappear”
He still called Master Zhao 'Fireheart' when speaking to Jiang Fei, although by noas starting to doubt whether either identity was actually real
”Disappear?” Jiang Fei knitted her brows ”So it's not completely useless, then…”
They practiced as they walked, occasionally sending blasts of Shadow at the roadside, or trying toWhatever they tried, however, none of it was useful in the least, and Arran found it growing increasingly hard to stay focused on his practice
Before Master Zhao had left, he had paid little attention to their surroundings, instead practicing Fire and Wind while occasionally trying to wrangle knowledge from his master
Now, for the first time since they had left theat the landscape around theue outlines of the mountains, which by now looked like shadows on the horizon
The terrain that surrounded theed, he saw Where the hills at the foot of the rass, with barely a tree to be seen, the road nowcopses and thickets
While the more varied landscape did little to ease their journey, at least it provided Arran with some small distractions from the boredom of travel
”Do you knohere it is?” Arran asked not long after midday ”The Shadowfla Fei said ”Don't you know that?”
Arran shook his head ”But where is that?” Turning slightly red, he added, ”I know it's to the west, of course — but how far is it?”
The truth was that he knew little of the E up in Riverbend, all he had knoas the region around it, which was mostly filled oods and hills and fares scattered in between
Traveling merchants had told stories of cities further out, like Fulai City, but even those places had been far fro with Master Zhao had not given hihts, either They had avoided most cities and towns, and all Arran had learned about the Eer than he had ever i Fei looked , as if Arran had just told her he had never drunk water before in his life
”I grew up in a s
So Fei did not , sat down, then produced a large scroll
As she unrolled the scroll, Arran could see that it was a map
”Sit down and come have a look,” she said ”This is a map of the Empire Have you ever seen one?”
Arran shook his head as he sat down next to her He had seen ions around Riverbend and Fulai City, but he had never seen a map of the entire Empire
”Where is Riverbend?” he asked
”I'm not sure,” she answered ”I've never heard of it, and the map only shows major cities”
”What about Fulai City?” If Riverbend wasn't on the ht, surely Fulai City would be
”I've heard of it, although it's still too ser hovered above the map for a moment, then touched a spot about halfway between the center of the map and the eastern border ”Here”
”And where are ?” Arran asked, trying to figure out the path he had traveled with Master Zhao
Jiang Fei found their current location in an instant, pointing toward a spot southwest of the les that Arran took to be mountains
”This is where we are now,” she said
Arran's eyes ith surprise as he saw that in thewith Master Zhao, they had only covered less than a third of the way to the western border
”Just how long will it take us to reach the Shadowflame Society?” As he asked the question, he realized the ansould be an unwelcome one
”It should take us about a year,” she said ”assu the way”