He woke with a startle.
The wanderer was confused why was he moving, where was he, how did he end up here and what of Cleaving?
He looked around him. Recognising that he was in a wagon, he looked back and forth finding the driver of this wagon. There was none.
Astonished of this fact, he took notice of his surroundings a little more carefully. Two visible bags, wagon made of sturdy wood and binded with roots together, a hay made bed, a leafy plant on his left, and he himself was perpendicular to the direction the wagon was going.
He looked in the direction and recognized it as the direction a bit left to the evening's horizon.
The wanderer was still puzzled about his surroundings. Several thoughts clinging to his mind, rather one was persistent. 'Who killed those people in Cleaving!'
Wagon kept moving. He was pressed for answers, and his mind was pressed with thoughts he wanted to scream. Yet, he didn't.
He inhaled and exhaled. Looked again more thoroughly this time.
Wagon had four wheels, he could tell because one was in the front, one in the back, and two on each side. It had a roof but roof felt it was weighed down a bit, he could only know of why when he gets out of the wagon.
The two bags took his next notice, they weren't two, but four. And his brown overcoat was hidden in a smaller bag right where his head was as a headrest, under the hay all over the floor of the wagon.
The wagon was simple, it's front and back could be opened. So he did. Opening the back, gave him the reason why was the wagon moving.
The action of water.
It's result could be seen as a trail behind the wagon. The wagon meanwhile was moving quite fast, faster than him. He may have covered more than a 100 leti-leagues or even more. He wasn't sure.
But one thing he was sure of was that the only thing that could produce the action of water other than him, was the plant.
On the continent of Ashtrim, it was a known fact, any and all actions of water, fire, etc., could be done by plants as well as beasts and animals. The wanderer aware of it, checked the plant.
He found the reason, one of the branches of this little leafy plant had an attached wooden stick to it. It tracing the grooved symbols of action of water on the metal pipe hidden under it. A clever design. But one that will eventually kill the plant, wanderer took away the wooden stick.
The wagon started slowing down. He was glad that the plain grasslands were too short for them to do any actions.
He didn't rummage through the bags, nor checked more into the wagon. He curled himself up. He just wanted to cry.
Cry for the fact that he started liking Cleaving. He wanted to help them. And still the city chose the decision he wanted to do later, after he had freed them off their cage.
His right to choice was violated. He felt violated.
He didn't understand why. He recalled his memories. One at a time.
The wanderer was under the tutelage of Master Rhai. He had spent an entire day and night there learning the making of the enhancing mix.
Master Rhai applauded his dedication, but he glanced at the wanderer time to time. The wanderer felt his gaze. It was at the same intensity as the gaze he felt in Ashtrim the city.
Terrifying.
Yet the wanderer mastered the enhancing mix. "Congratulations, child. You have done it, you now know how to make the enhancing mix in ways as many as I could. It's good you figured out on your own how to make it using just water", Master Rhai's words echoed in his mind. The pat on the back still tingling, it was light one.
But it was a pat filled with kindness and pride.
"Now, let's do some trials of all the enhancing mixes you have made. You did remember to say the word 'Risening' while clasping the lids on each container, right?" Master Rhai's query was a simple one.
It's meaning however, was over the wanderer's understanding. But he did respond, "yes, sir. I did."
The trials began. Master Rhai as he conducted the trials he explained, "a simple test to know how good an enhancing mix is, is by pouring it on a lo-scoop, or 1 lo-scoop of a plant's ash. And 1 lo-scoop is?"
The wanderer answered, " 'lo-scoop' means one-370,000th part of a teaspoon of pure water."
"Good. Now pouring an enhancing mix on a lo-scoop of plant ash reacts and gives the part from which that ash came from. How well that structure is tells us the strength of the mix. If the structure can only be seen to be made but shatters on touching, it's moderate."
The wanderer had nodded to Master Rhai's explanantion. But, now in the wagon, he was wondering when did he decide to send the wanderer away, away from Cleaving or was it others.
The tests continued. Some ash reacted and gave a moderate result, some reformed larger chunks of the part they were from than the size of the ash, these were considered as perfected.
A few didn't react and ash drop just became muddy. These were the failed ones.
He remembered more. More of what happened after. The wanderer kept making more of enhancing mix, while Patnos came back a few times. Telling Master Rhai and the wanderer the news on the massacre as well as the main pioneering idea's progress on the Tide Breaker.
The culprit it looked wasn't the Kikren, a horrifying beast according to Master Rhai. He had only heard it's voice once. Since then his hair colour changed. It's coming back slowly to it's original he claimed. But he theorized the Kikren's rule was the rule that affected Cleaving; 'Remembrance is forbidden'. And even hair or living beings could forget inherent things we take for granted.
As for the Tide Breaker, it's progress had been astonishing after the massacre's news reached the outskirts. Talia had bewitched the outskirts into thinking it was Kikren's effect that capitalized and gave the original murderer more power to kill.
But who was the killer? No one knew.
And the wanderer may never know for his last memory was of him making thousands more enhancing mix in the store as Master Rhai kept telling him to leave. "Go, child, do not worry about the why behind the process. You'll know it when you have walked on it. Go."
The last words he remembered, the last memory he knew.
The wagon stopped, he looked out and he did realize even for stopping, the wagon had covered another 100 leti-league. Quite the feat, but he knew where he was now. The capital of the kingdom of Riga should be closer as he knew the mountain range that peeked over in the evening's horizon's direction.