The group spent a little over an hour searching the tunnels before deciding Roger wasn't hiding in any of them.
The mood was a little disheartening, but the others couldn't hide their excitement as they asked Ojero dozens of questions about his new abilities and aspects worked.
Everyone except Orpham, that was.
Ojero's twin was uncharacteristically silent, constantly glancing at Ojero with a clear question in his eyes.
Why didn't he share his status yet?
The others had noticed this too, but they had justified it in their own ways.
Anastasia saw it as him trying to hide his strengths and weaknesses, whereas Jason assumed nobles were the secretive type. It was prevalent for those from the outskirts to view the aristocracy as great lords of distant lands with their own ways of life.
Back on the surface, the guards were hacking their way through the more dense parts of the forest, leading them back towards the road.
According to Anastasia, after the Magos killed the assassins, he sent summoned ents to Riverlane to bring some of the city watch.
They rapidly mobilized, the consequences of losing the Duke's daughter too great.
When they arrived, the situation had already stabilized, and so they went around searching for the survivors.
So far, around half of the potential students were either dead or missing.
Regardless of how many more they found, there was no doubt this would end up being one of the worst catastrophes in the Academy's history.
The question was who the assassins were, and why they attacked the caravan in the first place.
Ojero already had a few theories about the entire situation.
The masked men seemed to recognize Anastasia and tried to kill her, which meant they either had something against her specifically, or they were trying to destabilize the kingdom further.
Anastasia was the heir to the Eyrial family, after all, as her older brother had died only a few months back.
When it happened, the entire kingdom had a day of mourning, as he was well-liked and viewed as the future of the kingdom.
Some had even wondered if he would one day be king, as the current one had no children, meaning that the Duke of Riverlane was the current crown prince.
Few details were released about his death, only that it was right after he had graduated from the Academy, and his familiar died alongside him.
All these details led Ojero to wonder if whoever killed Anastasia's brother wanted to kill her, too?
There had to be some clues hidden in the masks they wore. The blood red color was too distinguishing and had to reflect something about their group and beliefs.
The Librarians Guild might be even more useful than Ojero had previously assumed.
He looked over at Anastasia, who was walking not too far from him.
She seemed to be perfectly content with the whole situation, which was not what he would have expected. She had to have known that she was their target, but it didn't seem to have any impact on her.
How she was able to ignore almost dying so many times in rapid succession, he did not know.
He was struggling to cope with the situation as it was, the memories of crawling along the tunnel carved into his mind like a chisel on stone.
He shivered as he thought about the stones cutting into his legs. Struggling to breathe with his ribs broken. His head pounding and his vision fading.
All of them had gone through hell today.
Surprisingly, Jason seemed to be doing the best in the situation.
According to him, he had seen worse things in the mines, which he elaborated on when asked.
"Folks would go insane down there sometimes. Saw one of my good friends Pa go mine crazy. Started swinging his pick into the fella next to him till he was paste. Started going at the rest of us right after. Took a couple of strong men to bring him down. He tried to put him in the brig, but he wouldn't stop fighting. Fell into a mine shaft, that one."
Despite his social anxiety when talking to strangers, Jason described the gruesome events with almost worrisome casualness.
Ojero quickly realized it shouldn't have surprised him as much as it did. Not everyone lived the life of a noble, sheltered and away from life's dark reality.
A reality he would soon face.
As they grew closer to the road, the dense forest gave way to scorch marks and ash.
Suddenly, the foliage vanished entirely, leaving only grey and black soot covering the ground.
Large twisting roots appeared from the soil every couple of feet. They were covered in thorns that dripped a green liquid.
'Poison.'
Everyone except Ojero seemed to have expected this, probably having seen it before when the Magos saved them.
Stepping into the field of ash, he felt his shoes sink into it, making him shiver.
'What kind of strength does a Magos like this have?'
It was a sobering thought to know people with this kind of power wandered around society, unassumingly.
Even worse was that he had lived with not one, but two, for his whole life, and had never expected to see anything like this.
The stories Mr. Dan, the museum curator, told him always seemed so distant and fantastical.
A fairy tale, nothing more.
What was in front of him wasn't a fair tale, it was a nightmare.
The smell of burnt wood and smoking flesh filled the air, the acrid stench causing Ojero's stomach to knot and his nose to scrunch into his face.
As they approached more and more fragments of the carriages could be seen, alongside an ever-increasing amount of bones.
They were stained black, some splitting in the heat.
A single thought echoed in his mind.
'This is war… this is what my future will be filled with…'
His excitement for the Academy and the "glorious" campaigns to follow seemed to wane at the sight of all this death.
On the cobbled road, which seemed relatively untouched by the battle around it, currently had multiple armed guards on it, with the Magos currently talking to who Ojero assumed to be the captain of the watch.
Their voices were hushed, but their expressions betrayed the graveness of the subject.
Even the Magos seemed subdued, his usual happy-go-lucky attitude gone in the aftermath of the day's events.
What seemed to draw the group's attention, however, was the short dark-haired youth sitting next to some of the guards, a grin on his dirty face.
"Hey, what took you all so long? I was beginning to feel lonely!"
The energetic voice seemed to reinvigorate them all, even though Anastasia and Jason didn't really know him very well.
Well, Anastasia seemed to, but that was still a new discovery.
Orpham seemed to have a different thought in mind.
"Where have you been!? We looked everywhere for you!"
Roger cocked an eyebrow, revealing exactly how he felt about being questioned about his actions during the event.
"Where else do you think? Hiding so I didn't get cooked alive, thank you very much! After we got separated, I just climbed a tree and hid up there. I was able to see the city watch approach and climbed down soon after. By the time I got here, they all told me you guys went looking."
Orpham seemed to accept that answer, and deflated on the spot, almost collapsing to the ground.
Everyone else seemed surprised by his actions, but Ojero knew him better than that.
He was too much of a hero at heart. He had probably been wound as tight as he could be these past few hours worrying about if everyone else was okay.
Now that he had confirmed they were all okay, his body could finally relax, causing him to collapse. The glow from his eyes seemed to mimic his exhaustion, being more of a dull shade of gold instead of the usual radiant orbs of light.
"So now what?" Jason asked.
Roger lazily waved in the direction of the guards.
"They are going to gather some more carriages and send us to the capital with a full contingent. Something about how the future Lady of Riverlane being attacked is an insult to the entire kingdom. The Duke himself wanted to come out and meet with us but the city watch wouldn't let him for safety concerns."
Anastasia frowned, some strange emotion in her eyes.
"Father is busy, and his safety is paramount. It is wise of the city to have him remain within its walls."
Two guards broke off from the main group, approaching them and saluting Anastasia, Orpham, and Ojero. One was very tall, and the other very short, creating a very comedic pair.
"My lady, my lords, we have been assigned as your protectors. Your transportation shall arrive shortly, and ferry you the rest of the journey to the great capital city of Luminex."