Goliath didn't respond.
"Wyatt isn't going to wake up for a really long time Goliath," I said what I'd been dreading this entire time, "He's gone into some sort of deep sleep. He can't wake up."
"What do you mean?" Goliath's tone was deadly calm.
"I mean he can't wake up," I swallowed, "Not for a long time, and if he doesn't wake up he'll die. Gaia knows more about it, but not much more. It's some dragon secret called the world blessing."
"We'll be there in three days," he hung up without a goodbye.
I rested the phone on my forehead quietly. Ethan barely moved most of the day. He had been sitting near Wyatt ever since Gaia showed up. He didn't trust her. Neither did I, but we were forced to rely on her.
Her illusions, and connections to the spirit ruling this region were the only reasons we were alive right now. I didn't know what the plan was, or if there was even a plan at all. I didn't like all this uncertainty. Jax looked even more uncertain then I felt. Ethan had been the second in command since the beginning.
He wasn't commanding right now. He just sat by Wyatt. All the time. All day. Everyday.
We'd been here for a week already. I was able to trap the beasts that came near our little camp, and Gaia was able to tell me if they were safe for human consumption. I was finally getting an idea of how to use the darkness element properly. There were a lot of shadows in the dense forest that surrounded us. It was easier to manipulate shadows when there were other shadows to protect them.
I figured that Wyatt had already figured this out. He had a lot more mana to work with then I did so he could skim right over the problem if he needed to. I sat down cross legged in the grass, and breathed in the mana. As much as I hated it I needed to expand my reserve. If Ethan wasn't going to take charge I needed to step up.
Wyatt wasn't going to be smacking his head back on straight for a good long while. Months. Maybe even years. Jax was just standing around looking lost.
"Come over here, and sit with me Jax," I snapped to get him to stop pacing nervously already, "I may not be able to help you with strengthening your element specifically, but I do know that exercise that helped Wyatt strengthen his elements, and so do you. Start working on it."
Jax looked at me funny, but came over, and sat next to me anyway. He knew the stakes as well. I breathed in slowly. Drawing mana in with each breath. Trying to hold as much of it as I could with each breath.
My body burned as I forced more mana to flow through my veins. I didn't know what was going to happen. We had no plan, and limited defenses. If push came to shove then we were going to be in for quite the battle. I tried to ignore my looming sense of doom.
There wasn't anything I could do about it right now. For now my plan was to remain unnoticed. As long as we remained unnoticed by the military we would survive.
*****
The military was on the move. I'd never seen them move so fast. They were planning a major expedition to the forbidden zone. I still didn't know why just yet. Earl had refused to say anything on the matter.
He'd pulled away from his students. He wasn't a talkative man, but he would talk if there was an enemy to face. Now he was silent. Refusing to speak about anything at all. He rarely even spoke of our studies now.
He was a strict man. It was unusual that he didn't even rage at any of us when we were late anymore. I looked around at the others that were practicing what we'd already been taught. The inefficiency of the exercises they'd been taught was laughable. I found myself rubbing the upper curve of my ear again.
I hated them when they were pointed like my father. Now I missed that reminder of why I hated him so much. I didn't know which one of the rapists he was. There were dozens of them. Dozens of elves had taken out their dark fantasies on my mother.
She was pretty for a human. That was what they'd said. I didn't know how she'd found a spot in her heart to love me after all that torture. They'd chosen me for this mission because my mother was still alive, and I was able to use mana the same way humans did. Taking it in with very little risk to myself.
I didn't know what was going on in Earl's head besides the fact that he was incredibly angry. I tapped my foot impatiently. If I didn't bring my master something soon he'd order my mother to be beaten again. I found myself rubbing the curve of my ear again. I'd rubbed the upper curve of my right ear raw after a week of tense unsupervised training.
I didn't really care. The only time I bothered to pretend to feel pain or fear was around my master. If I had the chance I would kill him without a second thought. I guess that was why he kept my mother so far away. If I could get her away from him long enough I would have killed him.
He probably knew that. He'd always had an easy time reading me. I hated him for that. At least these humans treated each other equally shitty most of the time. They seemed to fall into little groups, and treat everyone outside of those groups like garbage.
"Is Master Earl going to take any time to teach us today?" One of the stronger students complained.
"He either will or won't," I tapped my foot again, "There's no point in complaining about it."