Gaining the power of the Earth Empyrean hadn't been anything special. According to Lailah, it'd been the same way back at Igraine. They were tests to make sure the Shepherd was worthy of said power. Unlocking a new Mystic Arte for the Earth armatization, it was time for us to leave. Heading back through the temple, and heading out into the fields, I followed along with them as they talked amongst themselves about Lefay, the next shrine and the next trial. It meant we'd have to go all the way back to Hyland. This meant I could stop by and see how Arvald was doing. I doubt Sorey would mind. They'd gotten along while I was out like a light, so asking if we could wouldn't be too difficult.

"We're heading to Ladylake?" I asked.

"It's near the Water Trial, so it'd be much closer than the Wind Trial." Lailah pointed out. "The map was quite clear on that."

"Yeah- That is true, though..." I paused for a moment before looking to Sorey. "Do you think we can stop by and see Arvald and the others? It's been a while since we've seen them. I want to see how they're doing since... I've gotten better and all."

"Rani is right, you know. She hasn't really seen them since her fainting problem got resolved... Which was about a couple weeks or so ago." Rose took out a leather-bound book before flipping through it. Stopping at a page, she nodded to herself before closing it and putting it away. "Three days from an entire month since. We've been travelling that long?"

It hadn't really felt like it'd been that long. But, now that Rose mentioned it, things had changed a little with the temperature. It wasn't really by much, but it was getting a bit cooler now that it had been pointed out about being travelling for at least a month. Time seemed to just fly by, but I'd spent a good part of it unconscious it seemed.

"It doesn't really seem like it, but yeah. We have." Sorey responded. Rose pat me on the shoulder before falling into step beside me as we walked towards the trail that would take us to the bridge I'd... never crossed. I remembered falling into the raging river with Aevar, and that had been how I'd met Arvald and the bandits he lead. I'd woken up in their hideout, and... they'd been nice to both me and Aevar. So, with the distance, it was probably somewhere around here. The hideout was also potentially very well-hidden, so I doubted anyone could find it easily.

"We can come by when we're headed to the Wind Trial!" Lailah offered. "Would that be preferable? We can't find them right now."

I gave a small nod. "Okay. I'm not in any rush. I just want to let Arvald know that I'm okay now is all. It can wait, don't worry."

Sorey got a very warm welcome from the people of Ladylake when we arrived to the city after a couple more days of travelling. We headed to the inn to get our rooms for a couple nights, as we would rest here after the Water Trial was complete, and decided to look around the city for the day. The plan was to reconvene for dinner tonight and get some sleep early so we could leave at dawn, do the trial, and return mid-afternoon.

Ladylake was unfamiliar to me. It'd been some time since I'd been here, my last time only lasting a few hours before I had left. But it was also very easy to get lost in the winding pathways through the city itself, and that was how I had gotten lost in Ladylake about ten minutes into our stay here. There wasn't much that I could find to help me get back to the inn and wait there instead of wandering about by myself. The knights patrolling the place didn't seem to notice when I tried to catch their attention- or they just outright ignored me. I grew frustrated with the fact I couldn't find my way, so ended up finding a place to sit and curl up, hoping that at least Dezel would be able to track me down.

I didn't expect Rose to find me.

It had started getting dark around the time that she did, and I'd just pulled my jacket tighter around me as I stared at nothing. I was kind of upset that I'd gotten lost so quickly, and the fact no one wanted to help had soured my mood considerably. So I had stayed until I heard footsteps, in which I just looked up to see if it was another knight coming by.

It was Rose.

"You've been here all this time." She said, before going to sit beside me. "Something on your mind?"

"I got lost." I responded honestly. "No one seemed to want to help me, so either I was bad at gaining someone's attention or I was being ignored intentionally."

"Yeah, sometimes the knights can be unreliable unless you're in extreme danger or something." Rose waved a hand before getting up and holding said hand out for me to take. She was going to help me back up, and I gingerly took her hand and accepted her help back up. The two of us sort of stared at each other for a moment before awkwardly laughing and heading back to the inn.

Dinner was a filling stew made for the seven of us, and Rose made it a point that she and I were going to room together for the night while Sorey and the Seraphim take another room. When we went into the room, I glanced around to make sure there were enough beds for the both of us. Unfortunately for us, there wasn't. I kind of make a move towards the wall when Rose put a hand on my shoulder.

"We can share the bed, you know. It's fine!" She said, a smile forming on her face. "Besides, I doubt the ground'll be comfortable to sleep on."

She did have a point. Sharing a bed wasn't too bad, I just didn't want Rose to be uncomfortable because of me. We both pulled off our shoes and set aside anything that wouldn't be comfortable wearing while sleeping and the two of us climbed into bed. I kept my back turned to Rose, curling up a little to take as little room as possible. I felt a tap and looked over my shoulder to see her gesturing at me to turn over. I did.

"What's wrong? You're acting... really off." There was concern in her voice, and I just smiled a bit weakly.

"I was lost, remember? And I don't want to make you uncomfortable while we sleep." I shook my head a little. "I'm fine, though. I jus-"

Rose put a finger to my lips, taking my hand in hers and moving closer. "It's okay. Let's get some sleep, okay?"

I nodded.

Our fingers entwined and we both closed our eyes, falling asleep to the comforting silence of the night.