"Heck, I bet that Morok doesn't even know what a Fringe is." Quylla replied.
"I don't know and I don't care." Morok said with an indignant look. "What I know is that one Lith is enough. I'm not letting this pervert alone with Quylla for that long. Everyone knows how this kind of thing goes.
"One man goes on a mission with multiple girls, shit that leads to several life and death situations happens, and before you know it a harem is born."
"How dare you calling me a pervert? We've never met before. Besides, the stuff you're rambling about only happens in cheap bard tales!" Nalrond said.
"Can you look me in the eyes and tell me you never developed feelings for Lith after everything you got through together at the academy?" Morok asked Quylla, ignoring his alleged rival.
"I sort of had a crush on him, but it had nothing to do with danger." Quylla blushed up to her ears.
"Maybe Lith was too much of a gentleman or too young to take advantage of them, but I don't know nor I trust you. Hence I'm coming along." Morok said.
"Wait, why did you ask Quylla about her feelings while taking for granted that I had a crush on Lith?" Friya managed to not blush yet she almost failed to keep her right foot from hitting Morok's head.
Almost.
"You two are so edgy that either you've been separated at birth or you 'rubbed off' your attitude on each other. Since you look nothing alike, I'll go for option number two." Morok said, making Friya wish murder wasn't against the law.
Tired of hearing such nonsense, Nalrond shapeshifted into his Rezar form.
"Answer my questions. Are you really not aware of Fringes and are you coming just to protect Quylla from me?" Like all Werepeople, Nalrond's senses were so sharp that they allowed him to perceive even the aura of things like arrays and crystals even while he was in his human form.
Once he turned into his other half, his perceptions could literally smell fear.
"Respectively no and yes." Morok said while looking Nalrond in the eyes and shapeshifting as well, matching his height.
"Leave me here and I'll ask my master to warp me to your same destination and then I'll use all the powers of my species to track you down."
'His heartbeat is steady, no drops in the tone of his voice nor hesitation. He's telling the truth.' Nalrond thought.
"From a man who's got nothing left to another, I respect your dedication, but I don't know nor trust you as well. I'm not bringing with me my own master, why should I let a complete stranger follow me?" He said.
"Because there's two of them and one of you. If the Undead Courts attack again, a single true mage can't ward off many undead whereas two got a chance. Or maybe you were planning of running away on your own in the case something bad happens?" Morok said.
Those words made Nalrond join the blushing, but his scales kept it from being noticed. He had actually planned on looking out for number one. The girls, instead, felt powerless, remembering Lith's words about them being a liability in battle.
Fake mages needed to chant their spells, which meant they couldn't talk nor use weapons because they also needed to use hand signs, whereas a true mage could do everything with their mind.
On top of that, none of them could use a mind link without their Royal Forgemaster wand, making any kind of silent communication impossible as well.
"Fine. You can come with us and make camp, but I'm not bringing you inside the Fringe. I don't know if it's still there, but if that's the case, I'm not taking any chances.
"You could achieve enlightenment inside a Fringe and I don't trust you with more power than you already have." Nalrond said.
"Fine by me, but I have one condition." Morok said to Quylla. "If this Fringe thingy is not there anymore, it would be a waste of time to go there and back in a single day. During my stay in the Desert, I met these nice merchants that gave me this."
He handed her a small booklet titled "Guide to the most romantic oases".
"Did you really put up this farce just to ask her out?" Nalrond couldn't believe his own ears.
"Of course! Thanks for helping me look cool, brother." Morok winked with two of his four eyes.
"First, I'm not your brother. Second, Quylla is right here, hearing everything you say!"
"Can you please forget that last part? You weren't supposed to know that." Morok asked Quylla while Friya laughed her ass off.
"Let me know if you need a ride back." Faluel had enough of Morok for a week already, so she Warped them to the lair of Asphodus the Roc.
The lesser Phoenix recognized Morok from his last travel and warped them to the closest landmark without even letting the group say a word.
'I don't give a damn about the warm hospitality between beasts in the Desert. After that Tyrant almost emptied my beer cellar, if he touches another keg, I'll kill him!' He thought.
Nalrond had no idea what had happened nor did he care. The landmark gave him a starting point from which he could understand his position on the map. It took him just a few minutes before he could open the first of many Warp Steps that led them to their destination.
After closing each dimensional corridor, the Rezar used a dimensional spell that his tribe had invented to restore space and clear any trace of their passage. Even though he used no chant nor hand sign, Friya recognized it.
"Quylla, that's Restoration. The spell you used to save our lives when Nalear sabotaged the training room for dimensional magic. I thought its only use was to fix dimensional rifts. Nalrond, what are you doing?" She said.
"Dimensional mages can trace your Steps and follow you. This spell that we call Cover makes such eventuality impossible." Nalrond said, amazed by Friya's dimensional awareness.
"Really? That's amazing." She started to think about the possibilities that Nalrond's revelation implied and how to turn it into a weapon.
"More like terrifying when you're trying to run away." He said while opening the next dimensional corridor.
Nalrond refused to take turns and did everything on his own so that no one else knew their path or destination. By the time they arrived, he had exhausted his mana. His body felt like he had run a marathon and his head pounded.
"That's it?" The other asked in unison, giving him a splitting headache.
All around them there was nothing but dunes. The dry wind of the desert carried a fine sand that made them cough until they used their Skinwalker armor to cover their mouths and noses.
"I expected some big oasis overflowing with world energy or a choir of nymphs. This is underwhelming." Friya said.
Morok was about to agree on everything, especially about the nymphs when he remembered that Quylla was right beside him and shut up instead.
"If that was the case, Fringes would be easy to find." Nalrond clenched his head trying to make the pain stop.
