Rory stoked the fire with the same old iron prod that he'd seen used before. The very first expeditioners set up this camp, they carved this hole into the soft orange stone, they made the tunnels to ensure that people would be free to move.
It was a cavern, barely large enough to fit four people. But small enough to ensure that no Demon or Angel could ever get inside.
Udo sat himself opposite to Rory, finding a rounded boulder to be adequate to sit on. He was eying his own pot of food, watching it blacken as it sat on the pile of coals and dancing fire. He looked mindlessly at the flame and spoke.
"Do you ever think about why we are here?"
Rory stopped for a moment, he thought in silence and spoke when a crackle of flame broke the silence.
"I did at first… I tried to rationalise it, I tried to think of some logical reason. But I couldn't wrap my mind around it. I spent a week just thinking about it, about how it could be physically possible. And it just isn't,"
Udo barely blinked, focusing his senses on absorbing what words came out of Rory's mouth. Words that continued.
"Maybe it's a punishment, I thought, maybe God really is real and this our price to pay for not believing in him… But then why this? Why the children too? Why the Angels to swoop down and lift us up to eat us alive? And then I thought again. It isn't a punishment, no, it's a game. Someone, some sick thing is enjoying this. Some evil being we can't even comprehend is responsible for all of this"
Rory halted his frustrations, he went quiet for a minute, had something moved outside?
"I… I'm rambling too much. Why the question?"
Udo still never took his eyes off of that fire.
"My people believed in a prophecy. That one day someone would delve into magic we were not meant to control, that they would bring about our destruction. This is destruction is it not?"
"Yeah, yeah it is."
"And it is not just my people now, it is your people too, many more peoples certainly too. I do not know who is responsible, but I apologise if it is mine that have caused this,"
Rory removed his pot from the fire, he lifted the lid and let the aroma of twice fried meat permeate the air.
"You don't have to apologise, you did plenty of that back at the gate,"
Rory materialised his First Blade. A long and pointed dagger, a weapon for lethal strikes. It served well enough as something to safely fish the floating meat discs out of the liquified fat.
An idea struck him as he took his first bite, Second Blade came into existence a moment later, a very wide dagger, Cinquedea was its model. A model that was great for slashing motions as opposed to stabbing motions. He held it by its transparent blade and passed the weapon to Udo.
"Could you make a light on the tip of that?"
Udo held it by the handle, inspecting it as if it were an illusion.
"Takes trust to give someone a weapon like this,"
"I was dwelling on it back at the City, but given it's just the two of us I reckon giving you something to defend yourself with isn't a bad idea."
Udo looked at the blade once more, then he manoeuvred it so that the handle was snug in his hand. The other hand placed along the tip,
He willed mana into it, energy that was not so alien to him but distinct enough from the magic he had been cut off from once he found himself in this realm. He thought of the sun, of that one thing which signalled the day. Of the one thing that simply gave life in endless amounts,
A little orb began to form itself, just slightly below the tip of the blade and offset to the left side. It was a golden yellow, a hue of warmth. It gave off its own light that was golden, but in all directions.
Udo moved Second Blade, testing his light orb for adhesion.
"It works,"
Rory glanced at it, finding himself soothed by the light. It was like a warm embrace on the parts of his body which were touched by the rays.
"Good, very good. Now if we run into any Demons that should give us an edge,"
"I see, good thinking,"
Udo flashed a smile and dismissed the orb. It is taxing to have it out for prolonged periods of time.
He reached for the sack that was nearby and pulled his book from it. He masterfully flipped through the pages and began to note down in it using a charcoal stick.
"You've been writing in that all day long,"
"It's for my sister, she cannot venture out beyond the walls of our settlement, she is far too young so I document everything I can for her sake, she enjoys reading my travels."
A smile crept up Rory's face for a second, soon hidden by the chewing of another disk of fried meat.
"We'll make it through, I'll guarantee you that,"