Chapter 44 Hidden Hotsprings

Chapter 44 Hidden Hotsprings
Mira stared at the corpse for a moment longer than she meant to, her breathing still uneven from the fight. The pressure that had filled the forest was gone now, leaving behind only broken earth, split trees, and Jax standing in the middle of it all with the weapon still in his hands.

He looked different, steadier, like something inside him had finally stopped bracing for the worst and chosen to stand its ground instead. The little turtle remained at his shoulder, glowing faintly, its shell still traced with mossy green and fine lines of gold.

Then the light began to dim.

Jax felt it as soon as it began. The weapon in his hands grew lighter by degrees, its shape losing some of its impossible weight. At the same time, the tiny Wardback’s glow softened, emerald and gold folding inward as though the attack had taken more out of it than its small body could hold.

“Wait,” Jax said, the word leaving him more quietly than he intended. “You need to explain… why me?”

The turtle turned its head toward him. For one brief moment, he felt something brush against him through the mark on his chest. Not words. Something softer than that. Relief. Exhaustion. Trust so simple and complete it made his chest tighten.

Then the hatchling dissolved.

Its body broke apart into drifting strands of green and gold mana that sank straight back into the mark on Jax’s chest. The weapon followed a heartbeat later, the hammer and blade collapsing into light before vanishing from his grip entirely.

Mira crossed the ruined ground quickly, not caring what cracked under her boots along the way. By the time she reached him, Jax was still staring at his empty hand like he expected the weapon to return if he just waited long enough.

“What happened?” she asked, stopping close enough to catch him if he fell. “That was impressive. It’s definitely dead this time.”

Jax looked down at the mark, still faintly warm beneath his shirt. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I think it trusted me.”

Mira’s eyes flicked to his chest, then to the place where the demon’s body had fallen in two. The forest was quiet again, but it was no longer the same kind of quiet. Something had changed here. Something had changed inside him too.

“We should move,” she said after a moment, her voice lower now. “Before anything else decides to come looking.”

Jax nodded, though his thoughts were still somewhere behind them, caught between the dead demon, the shattered egg, and the tiny creature that had chosen him before vanishing back into his mark.

Cindercrest was still waiting ahead of them, so they decided it was best to pack up camp and continue toward the city.

The following days blurred together. They had been traveling for over a month at that point, relying on each other for survival every step of the way. The weight of the journey showed on both of them.

“Jax… I want a bath. Now,” Mira barked, dropping into a cross-legged sit and planting herself firmly in place. “I’m not moving until either that turtle comes back or a magically heated bath appears in front of me.”

“We could look for hot springs. The mana here is layered with fire-aspected energy, so I could see there being some nearby,” he said, setting his pack down and pulling out an unofficial map of the surrounding area. “If I had to guess, based on where we are and what I’m seeing here, there might be one close.”

At that, she shot upright and dropped her pack completely, some life returning to her eyes. “You really think there’s one near?”

She joined Jax as he headed toward a less dense part of the woods.

They walked for several minutes before the air became noticeably thicker and more humid. As they continued, the area slowly became enveloped in mist.

“You’re joking, right? How the fuck did you know?” Mira asked, peeling off her clothes one by one as she headed toward the pool of water in front of them. “How are you always right?”

“I just got lucky. The map showed a few spots marked in blue… really, I just guessed,” he explained, shrugging off his plated armor. He was down to his underwear in moments, ready to dive into the water at a moment’s notice.

Now fully naked, Mira looked directly at Jax. “Hey, look away… I don’t want you peeping while I’m washing up. Move over there.”

She pointed toward the farthest section of the warm pond.

“Stay over there.”

Obeying the order, he moved to the far end and lowered himself into the warm water. It smelled like sulfur, but it was bearable. Bubbles rose in uneven bursts, and vapors drifted above the surface.

A voice whispered into Jax’s mind.

“You are my chosen master… You who protected me within the dungeon… shall be granted my power to use… as long as it benefits mankind.”

Startled by the message, he slipped and fell into the water. The warm liquid rushed over his face and stripped away some of the filth. Regaining his composure, he sat back against the stone edge of the spring.

Whispering into the open air, he asked, “You are the Wardback, then?”

“Yes… though not the one you protected. Rather, a mirror of it. We share one memory… but that version of me… is bound to the dungeon… in Ravelin.”

Looking ahead, Jax could just make out Mira’s silhouette shifting behind the veil of steam. Even at this distance, the outline of her body and the fall of her hair were unmistakable. She looked peaceful for once, so he let his awareness settle back into the voice in his head.

“What kind of powers are you talking about?” he asked, already imagining something far greater than the weapon alone. “More than just the axe, right?”

“Most notable… is the axe… which you called forth the instant our bond was set in stone. For now… keep using the weapon… and as you grow… so will the power.”

“Are you going to disappear for days at a time every time I use it?” he asked, scrubbing the dirt and dried blood from his hair, the water around him darkening into a cloudy red.

“This is… all the information… I can give for now…”

The presence paused, and for a moment the world felt strangely hollow, as though even the spring had stopped breathing.

“Continue on this path… and you will find more answers… in Cindercrest.”

Then the sound of the world rushed back in all at once.

The bubbling water.

The hiss of steam.

The distant stir of leaves beyond the mist.

Jax blinked and looked up.

Mira was gone.