"Why would I? I'm just an escort," Aiden muttered, despite being covered by a metallic mask, Tara could feel his questioning gaze.
Then his mask retracted, showing the half-shriveled face. Now standing closer, Tara had a clear view of his face.
A blonde with green eyes. Attractive, if not for the wrinkled, almost rotten left cheek. He closed in on her, so now she had to look up.
"Don't tell me...," Aiden stopped, seeing genuine doubt in her eyes, "...you think I am kidnapping you all?"
"Isn't it?"
"Pft..." Bratel laughed. "Boss, I can't..."
She had to glare at him to suppress his laughter, "you don't know anything about the Ironborne?" his question fell into her blank, innocent face.
"Why would i?"
Tara, now or Tara before, had no idea.
Now, thinking, it's painfully obvious that the previous Tara had no idea about most of the common things in this world.
Like the name of the continent she was in, the culture here, or the Primal region they were going to.
She only knew about Arthropod or Primal because the city of Endrax was in between the borders of these places.
Hell, she hadn't even a recollection of any places other than Endrax.
Tara tried harder to check if there were any memories about her family, but there were none. It was like her memory only started from entering into this carriage.
There was something wrong with her memory. It was like someone sealed them, allowing bits they wanted her to remember.
Tara began to think. The previous Tara had only one goal—to augment with a star and start her cultivation.
That was almost an instinctual feeling of hers. But she couldn't complete that as she died on her way...wait.
'How did she die?'
Tara thought about the word from that skeleton. It had said that she died from a snakebite.
There was no memory of that, though there was a possibility that she had not known about it.
Anyway, Tara had many mysteries to unravel. For that, she had to follow her instincts. Not of the current her, but of the previous Tara.
The rest of the journey through the Shades was calm. Bratel or Aiden hadn't bothered to explain to her about that 'escort' thingy, and she was too occupied with her thoughts to pry into it.
Finally, the surroundings of them shifted, sounds of bird chirping and wind breezing sounded ahead.
"Okay, Shades is over. Now let's rest here for an hour, we have a day's travel left," Bratel clapped, sitting on the ground with his legs crossed. Within seconds, his breaths became even as if he were sleeping.
Tara spun around looking for a clean place to sit. Because she was bound with the rest of the teenagers, her action made them also repeat it.
She decided to turn a deaf ear to the groans of anger from the bound teenagers.
Finding a tree trunk near one end, she sat on it and locked eyes with the grudge-filled eyes of them.
"What?" No one said anything, but she followed their gaze to the surroundings.
Except for the trunk she sat on, there was no clean place, and because of the rain, the soil was drenched in water. She shrugged her shoulders and closed her eyes.
"Blame that husk."
"Cough." Bratel almost choked on his saliva during meditation. The teenagers were so scared at her words, they peeked at Bratel, hoping he would never take action on them because of her.
That made the atmosphere pin-drop silent.
Tara was happy for that. She closed her eyes, avoiding the piercing gaze Adrian bore into her.
The journey was so physically demanding for her, so within minutes she slept.
* *
"Hey, you..." A shake awakened her. A thin boy with dark hair held her gaze with uncertainty. He was the same guy who called her 'father.'
"What do you want, son?"
"You...," he turned to glance at the closed eyes of Bratel, then towards the tree where Adrian stood like a statue, "...you don't know about the Ironborne?"
That got her attention. She straightened her spine, waiting for him to speak. Her attention involuntarily put a smile on him, although it was fleeting.
"My name is Asher..." he extended his hand.
"Tara," she replied returning the curt greeting.
"Ironborne isn't from the Northern region," Asher started speaking, "they are from the east, beyond the Sea of Possibilities."
"They?" Tara cut his sentence, "What did you mean by that?"
"Ironborne is the name of a faction. They were descendants of a true god, uncontrolled by the Star Network." He glanced at Aiden with reverence, "Every Ironborne had only one goal—'escort.'"
"By kidnapping?" Asher hurriedly covered her mouth, turning to look at Aiden. Seeing him not showing any other emotions, he took a deep breath.
"That's a bit complex. Ironborne are messengers from the east. Their appearance meant famous Spell Academies there were planning to recruit."
She saw almost materialised excitement in Asher at the mention of Spell Academies.
"That didn't explain anything." Tara shoved his hands away from her mouth, "How does the recruitment of Spell Academies connect with him being an escort?"
"The purpose of every Ironborne is to escort... escort unawakened cultivators to temples for augmentation and select talented augmenters from them to escort them to the East."
Purpose? A memory appeared in her head. Every cultivator augmented with stars would receive an Aspect. Aspect was a set of formulas containing three equations.
First: Ability or property. (Unique ability of their star.)
Second: Purpose. (The direction to use this ability. Following purpose was one of three ways to increase radial capacity.)
Third: End. (How to end a Spell. How to end a master of that spell. It's the flaw of the star. If someone knows your End, even if he is a lot weaker than you, he can kill you.)
Another critical question appeared in her mind, "East?," she asked aloud.
Asher rubbed his head, seemingly trying to wipe off a headache. "You don't know about east?"
"Yes, I know..."
"Then why that question?" he asked.
"That didn't explain anything?"
"What?"
"East being opposite of West," Tara said as a matter of fact.
"You... sigh," Asher appeared both mentally and physically drained of all his energy. Tara snickered.
Deserved it. Arrogant prick almost killed me.
"East is a dreamland," Asher had that same expression of hers when she was doing operations, "there were no domain masters running around claiming lands, we don't need to become minions to..." he stopped.
"...survive.
There, even a commoner can learn spells... too powerful and free to learn. A place where people only wants to move forward."
Tara allowed herself to fall into his awe as she leaned against the trunk, glancing at Aiden.
It still gnawed at her why he had to kidnap teenagers to escort, while if he had said his purpose, they would voluntarily follow him without a second word.
'Perhaps it's a kink?'
"You can say so," Bratel abruptly appeared behind her, scaring her to jump from the trunk with a yelp.
"Are you perhaps reading my mind?" Tara fumed at him in anger.
She felt a slight pull on her chains, glancing ahead, she saw Asher making faces that made her feel funny.
"You can say so," Bratel had a face she remembered from the pug she had.
It barked, scratched, and growled, but wasn't annoying like him. She didn't notice that Bratel's face was changing with each of her thoughts.
'Pug?' His gaze on her changed. 'Did she keep man-toys?' He covered his exposed skin.