Bags were packed and placed by the door. They were traveling light as they were going to have to move fast to get to each soul before the divines could find a way to keep them away. Ed's morning had been bittersweet. Part of him wanted to stay, the other part wanted to get this done so that when he went back it would be the last time he did it.
The idea of losing his memories and having to start over again plagued him. He was certain that if he died he wouldn't be allowed to come back. Erust would just continue on and his soul would just die and be forgotten. Failure was final now, and so he needed to succeed, and quickly at that.
For'Ten was already at the house and Loran showed up later. They compared plans one last time and checked packs to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything. Staying on the plan was the difference between life and death at this point.
When they had double and triple checked they nodded at each other. Loran walked over to Ko'Loss first. "Thank you Ko'Loss. Till we meet again."
Ko'Loss nodded and put his hand on her shoulder. "Be brave and fast, and move faster than our enemies."
She smiled and patted his hand. Loran then turned to Priya. She was standing out at the front of the house in a simple blue dress with a blanket around her shoulders for warmth. Loran grabbed her by both shoulders and gave her a hug. "I will get my task done and get you, home friend."
Loran knew what had happened because For'Ten couldn't stop himself from sharing. When she pulled back from the hug she smiled at Priya and put a hand on her hair. "Go brush your hair before you go to work." Loran was older than this young girl. They were physically at the same stage of their life. Loran knew how she must feel though. The blush on Priya's face gave away her feelings.
"I know, I almost don't want to though." She smiled and pulled her hair around so she could enjoy the smell of it. "Be safe so we can travel together again." Her face was smiling but her eyes were telling a different story. Loran knew she wanted everyone to stay together. This was the happiest this girl had probably been in a long time.
Loran nodded and walked back to the other reluctantly. For'Ten's goodbye was far less extravagant. In true knight fashion, he came to each person and gave a deep respectful bow. When he was done he stood before them both and simply said, "It has been a pleasure, until we meet again." He did wink at Priya and leaned over towards her. "I will keep him safe, I promise."
Ko'Loss looked at her Priya and tilted sideways. "I am missing something again, am I not."
For'Ten shook his head, "Don't worry Ko'Loss. People being people, that's all."
Ko'Loss nodded like that explained everything. He was still confused but he had ideas of what had happened. He might not be in a body anymore but he still remembered human desires.
The last up was Ed. His first stop was Ko'Loss. "We will come back once we get the souls here in the south."
Ko'Loss put his hand on Ed's shoulder and squeezed. "Keep my memories safe. You can share new memories when you get back. Travel fast and avoid the divines."
Ed gave him a thumbs up. This was a new thing that Ko'Loss was learning about. Ko'Loss waved him away after squeezing his arm almost too hard. Ed turned to Priya, he noticed that Laviche, his house goblin had appeared from nowhere.
He kneeled down to Laviche, "You will keep my room clean and look after the lady right?"
Laviche smiled and gave a thumbs up also. Ed smiled. "You are a very good person Laviche. Keep at it." The compliment made the goblin puff up his chest with pride. Ed stood before Priya and looked at her face. He wanted to remember it just as it was now.
She spoke first, "You better get going. The sooner you go the sooner you can get back to me."
Ed remembered those exact same words from before, "That didn't work out well last time."
She laughed. "You remembered, that's good. What do you want me to say then?"
Ed shook his head, "How about this time, I tell you something? You be safe and get ready. I will come back and we can go home together? How about that?"
She leaned forward and stared into his face. They were essentially nose to nose. "You think you can keep that promise?"
Ed nodded, "I have no plans of dying again. I'm rather tired of it."
She straightened back out. "Okay then, that's fine. I will accept this promise. Go get this done, get free of the divines and bring me back something pretty?"
Ed smirked. "Of course, the prettiest thing I can find."
She smiled and kissed his cheek. He grabbed her shoulders and gave them a squeeze. He wasn't going to press his luck. Today was a gift, he wasn't going to ruin it by going too far.
He released her shoulders and walked back to For'Ten. He got a little nod from Loran on his way past her, he took his place next to For'Ten.
"Everyone remembers the plan?" For'Ten said with command authority in his voice.
The other two nodded. They both gave simple replies of "Yes."
For'Ten nodded his own approval. Loran had her own small pack strapped under a cloak. Her normal shiny armor replaced by dark green clothes. The loose edges were held tight by straps. Each strap had hidden tools in it. If you didn't know who she was she looked a bit like an assassin from old books and stories.
For'Ten had replaced all of his normal shiny armor for something far simpler. He was wearing dark brown leather armor. It had small plates of dark black armor across the chest, shoulder, and stomach. His normal weapon replaced with a sword that looked much older. It was longer than your standard sword but only half of the blade was sharp.
From the hilt, you had a flat blade with a reinforcing brace. It ended in semi-circles before becoming a blade. It looked like the bottom half was used for bashing and guarding and the top half was reserved for slashing. It was strapped across his back and hung next to his backpack.
Even Ed was carrying a weapon. It wasn't as fancy or obviously meant for war. It was a black hammer. The handle was long and made of the same black wood that had stood in the forest and was used as trim around the houses. Ko'Loss had made the weapon based on watching them train. The head of the hammer only weighed in at two pounds. It had been enchanted to cause a small burst of heat whenever it hit something. Ed could control the heat by channeling mana into it.
Ko'Loss had admired his own sense of humor at a former blacksmith wielding a weapon that shot fire on impact. Ed was impressed and just thanked him when he got it. When he made it out of this he planned to use it on the farm with repairs. A hammer that never cooled the metal would be worth its weight in fine crafted metal.
They had been offered the use of the carriage to the city gates. They had all politely refused. Instead, they walked to the front of the human district together. They talked about plans and where they were heading. When they got to the gate they didn't even notice the guards. They had long since quit caring what the guards thought or said.
The guards no longer noticed them either. For them, the bright shiny armor told them it was safe to let them through. However this time they wore clothes that made them look like bandits or plain road travelers.
A new guard had come to the gate to train. The standard old guard was taking a nap against a wall, this was his dream retirement post. The younger new guard saw these three coming, and immediately jumped up to stop them. He heard a noise behind him.
"Don't, just let them through..." The gravely old voice said.
"But, look at them. The riff-raff plan on walking through the gate now!" he said, he was furious with his intent to uphold the law.
The old man smiled with his eyes still closed. "And what are you going to do against three armed opponents brazen enough to walk through the gates? We have divine damned golems walking the streets and the carriage of the dead around here. As long as the place isn't running out to kill us you just ignore whatever happens in the in-human district."
The young man just sighed. "As you say." he walked back to his post with resignation.
For'Ten nodded as he walked past. The young guard didn't even look at him to recognize who it was.
When they made it to the capital they shook hands before Loran quietly turned around and headed for the western gate. Ed and For'Ten quietly turned in the opposite direction and headed to the eastern gate. Sending Loran out by herself had never been the plan. For'Ten and Ed had both argued with her to find someone they could trust to go with her. She had argued against this. She swore she could move faster alone.
She didn't want to tell them that she had help lined up already. A trusty old friend of both of theirs was waiting in the woods yards away from the gate.
Ed and For'Ten got to the edge of town before they stopped and looked at each other.
"You have been practicing with weights correct?" For'Ten said as he stood stretching his muscles. His minotaur lower half was built for power and short bursts of speed. He was still going to be able to gallop faster than Ed. This was the first time he had ever wished he had a centaur lower half instead.
Ed nodded at him and kneeled down a few times to get his legs stretched out. "Yes, forty pounds just like you said. However, this bag doesn't way anywhere near that amount." Ed shook his bag against his bag. All together his cargo weighed in at less than twenty pounds.
"You are prepared just in case we have to carry anything extra with us. I studied the map ahead last night. There is a clearing about 60 miles from the gate. It is headed towards the coast along the first bend in the river. Do you think we can hit that in an hour?"
Ed went back through his memories. He knew that the average person walks about 5 miles every hour. Humans parcel carriers can run 30 miles in an hour normally. This meant that he wanted them to run faster than this. He stretched and poured a small amount of mana into lowering his weight. "We can try," Ed said with enthusiasm. Using mana to bolster his muscles was hard. He had used an old technique from Ko'Loss to lower the weight of an object. This meant he could go twice as fast on the same muscles.
For'Ten smiled and stretched his own legs. "Last one there has to dig the latrine." He was enjoying the trip and having someone else to compete against.
"Deal!" said Ed. For'Ten had very low natural mana but Ko'Loss had added magic to his gear to lighten him also. He knew that he had the advantage in stamina. His race had a larger heart and therefore faced less stress from hard work like this.
They both lined up and checked their packs and clothes. Ed tied his cloak around his bag and checked the straps that held everything in place. For'Ten moved his bag around to the front and adjusted his straps also.
They looked over at each other nodded when they were ready. "One, Two, Go!" For'Ten yelled and laughed as his powerful muscles dug into the dirt. He pulled away while Ed was getting up to speed.
Ed tucked his body down and took long jumps. He was really making long jumps from one leg to the other. It was hard to control your run when you don't weigh the same as you did before. It upsets your balance of gravity. Instead, he had learned to use each leg to start your momentum before pushing off again to build speed.
And that was how the race to the souls started. With a bet and friends headed in different directions.