Arya was washing his clothes in the washroom with soup and water. He chose to do it naked as he would wet his other clothes if he tried wearing them.
"The smell of blood is powerful. Why does it smell so sweet and look so terrible on clothing." The blood stains on his white shirt and brown trousers didn't look presentable at the very best.
His hands moved on the clothes with the soap, but his mind was elsewhere.
"What were those silver eyes? Mercy was talking about them. Reva knows a lot about Mercy, it goes both ways. They hide their relationship, they must've met before the Forest of the forsaken incident." The more Arya thought the less he realised that his hands were scrubbing slowly.
"What about that ravine earlier, what was that? There was only one ravine on this road 7 years ago. Where did the second come from?" The blood in the ravine was a harrowing experience, but Arya didn't remember anyone ever talking about two ravines on the road, there should be one.
Arya sighed at the mysterious game he was playing, and it had more questions than answers.
Knock..
The sight of clothes and soap reappeared in Arya's eyes when the door's noise interrupted him.
"Arya, are you there? Can I come in?" It was Ana standing at the door,
"I'll be there, give me a minute," Arya shouted back and got up from his position while wiping the water with his towel.
We wore the brown leather trousers and the yellow leather coat over his body, as fast as he could. Ana was standing outside, and she knocked again.
"Yes, What do you need?" Arya opened the door, the towel on his head.
"I bit of your time, River just finished me showing what Mercy did this night. Suppose, I should do what he says and show you our room."
Arya rubbed the towel over his hair and adjusted it with his hand. "I think it is best to do it now. Mercy said it was going to be a busy afternoon. Have Mercy and Reva returned yet?"
"Arya, telling someone a goal and strategy does not take an hour. They are back, and Mercy has wiped the blood off the floor as he said before leaving if that's what you want to ask." Ana answered with a smile.
Arya nodded shyly and threw away his towel on his bed," I think we should go to your room."
"Hang that towel on the wire, come to my room and make sure to empty your bowels. I will be waiting." Ana turned and moved back into her room.
"She seems more and more motherly and actual mothers. How doesn't she have a kid right now?" Arya turned back and hung the towel on the wire, in the sunlight.
Arya moved out of his room and closed the room. His destination was pretty close, he opened the door next to him and entered it right away.
The wooden room is filled with minimal bits of research things for two researchers. It was quite an amazing site. Ana was sitting on her bed looking at her hands, with a bit of a tired look.
"Already feeling burdened from hearing the workload. Didn't expect that." Arya's words made Ana look up at him and smile almost a smirk.
"You would have looked at your face when Mercy was giving you orders. Looking like you were going to shit bricks, I'll ask tomorrow when you finished drinking your two bottles."
"Do you feel energetic?"~~~~~
Ana got up from her bed and stood beside Arya, her head was near Arya's eyes.
"We ought to look around the room. Anything you want to see for yourself. River told me that you already had a look around the room in the morning, although it was not complete."
"Well, I did look around at your room and noticed that there was a lack of books and things and artifacts. I believe you people are concealing something using an illusion magic. Am I right?"
"Well, yes and no. We are hiding something using illusion magic, but it is not inside this room. We have a different way of dealing with these things. Suppose you know about what is behind that next door?" Ana pointed at the door, ahead of her.
"I have already entered that, it was identical to the first room, though there were some changes. Is this an illusion, a series of infinite rooms which never end to fool your enemies?"
"Wrong this time. Follow me, I'll show you what can be done." Ana moved forward and opened the door for Arya and welcomed him in.
Arya moved forward into a similar room, it was the same as before but with the difference of those pictures.
"How long have you and River been married? River doesn't look a bit shorter in this picture."
"It's Been three years, and our anniversary has passed these rainy days. Celebrating it in a royal capital and giving a feast at a tavern is a dangerous but fun experience," Ana answered while moving into the room and closing the door.
"Why did you guys marry? How did two different born and living so far away come together and now live married?" Arya was a bit surprised it was a reality that rich men used to marry younger women, but the inverse was rarer.
"I understand how you are feeling. Older women either tend to enjoy the company of young boys in secrecy or live single for the rest of their lives. Both the kingdoms have the same story, but I just wanted to do what I thought was right, and our history is something we can talk about sometime later." Ana didn't want to talk about it.
"I haven't gotten that close to someone, that they tell me about themselves, but I sell my story like I am some saint giving away food to the poor." Arya thought to himself.
"Well, the good part hides behind the next door. MIght open it yourself."
"Sure. I would love to surprise myself."
Arya moved ahead to open a door handle, expecting another room to be the same as now.
" What is this?" Arya's expectation vanished into something else, there was no room ahead but trees left instead.
Arya walked forward and looked around, he was surrounded by trees all around, thin tropical trees bearing green apples on top, and sunlight barely penetrated the canopy. No animals nearby were to be seen, but Arya was feeling the pressure on his chest.
"You are feeling it, right? The pressure of all these wild rabbits, snakes, serpents, vampires, bears… Everything that can kill is here, everything that you can kill is here too." Ana was leaning against the wall, smiling at Arya's surprise. He turned his sweating face towards Ana, giving a false smile
"I didn't expect this to happen. What spell can bring you from the Forest of Blood to the Forest of the Forsaken thousands of
"Not now, follow me. There is more you need to see before asking any questions. Make sure to breathe properly, and a mana imbalance can cause more problems than normal people might face." Ana stopped leaning and began walking to the left.
Arya followed behind. He crossed his arms together to calm down the pressure on his skin. "More men die from the fear of the forest than the forsaken of the forest." It was written in a book of adventurers. Arya understood the meaning of the words walking in the woods himself.
The path Ana followed opened up to be a trail, covered with the smell of tree resin, trees covered in symbols of witches, and candles burning violet flame in the nightly atmosphere of the trees. Ana and Arya trod carefully; beasts need a hint of aura to come wild in this forest.
"You sure this path is facing? The pressure in my chest increases every second. Things aren't looking good." Arya took a deep breath and calmed himself down.
"You should have emptied your bowels. In my early days, I wondered why most kids had stomach problems while going into forests. It's the mana; it mixes in your body, and the stomach doesn't handle it well initially, and neither does the excretory system." Ana explained Arya's problem.
Ana's experience showed she already knew Arya did not excrete before coming. They kept walking through the forest and right into a large mountain that met the trail ending it with a large blockade.
"Welcome to the playground, Arya," Ana said in a tone more playful than ever as she vanished right walking through the trail,
Arya stood shaking in his position, witnessing Ana disappearing so casually.
"Make sure to say the word, "Mathias" before entering." Ana's voice called him out on the other side of the mountain.
Arya took another deep breath and walked right into the mountain with the word 'Mithias' in his mouth.
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