While everyone was sleeping Bea was keeping watch... alone.
She stared out at the brightening horizon, the absence of Sera hurt her the most. It's not like this was the first time she had left, but something felt different now.
The grassy plain was moved by the gentle wind and Bea felt on edge. In the background there was something bigger going on, she just couldn't figure out what it was. She listened to Vicky's concerns about Sera, and it would be a lie to say she hadn't notice the changes in her personality.
Even though she was trying to remain in the blissful ignorance, there was still a feeling at the back of her mind screaming at her to do something.
Speaking of screaming, while she stared out at the smooth plains, behind her a girl screamed. Since there was only one girl in the group Bea knew who to run to and within a second she was holding a trembling Vicky.
She was crying and between sobs she whispered, "Don't hurt my mummy... *sob* Leave her alone..."
With her hand Bea made small strokes on her back and hair, which seemed to calm her down a bit.
"Shh... It's okay, you just had a nightmare... Nothing is going to get you and Sera can protect herself..."
Suddenly Vicky burst away from her arms and with a face full of tear marks shouted, "NO!... SHE CAN'T!..."
Slowly Bea tried to reach for Vicky's hand, but she quickly evaded it. With a sigh she let her hand fall, and asked in a soothing tone, "Why do you say that?"
Vicky turned her head a bit trying to focus on some memory but having hard time doing so. Eventually she seemed to remember and said loudly, but also less angrily.
"It's that man in the lab coat! I don't quite remember him, but he is doing something to Sera! That's why she has been acting strangely in this past week or so!"
At first Bea thought that this was just part of her nightmare, but she soon realized that wasn't the case. Steadily she walked towards Vicky and went down on eyelevel, her face was deathly serious as she said, "Okay Vicky, tell me everything you remember!"
She didn't speak like a mother would to her child, but more like a commander to her subordinate. It wasn't the time to be careful with emotions, they needed to learn more about this potential threat.
Unlike how she expected, Vicky wasn't even remotely disturbed and seemed to have a better grasp on the situation, than most in her place would. Without skipping a beat she started from the very beginning.
"I remember, back when I got captured by Nightmare there was a person – an old man, in a lab coat. He was a scientist of sorts, at first I thought he was one of Nightmare's lieutenants, but that wasn't the case at all... *sigh* He was his boss!"
There was a thoughtful expression on Bea's face, then her eyes widened from surprise. She remembered that when they won the fight in Havel, there was only a single person who escaped... the scientist.
They even tried to figure out what he researched, but literally all of his papers were burned. There wasn't a single trace left from him, every person who knew how he looked was dead.
Not being able to read didn't have any hidden meaning, you just simply can't read in dreams.
But Harold and him touching Sera's head, was clearly indication that it was his doing, this also brought other questions up.
'Just how strong is that scientist?! If he can just simply lock or erase memories, he has to be at least transcended!... Which means we can't fight him, not even if all of us would be ascended, the gap is just simply too big...'
The others seemed to understand this as well, but Bea didn't let the depressed mood linger.
"Everyone! Yes this is bad news, and we don't even know where Sera is, but we won't give in to hopelessness! First we find that corrupted north from here and kill him! Then we find and save Sera before it's too late!... Any objections?"
The group stayed silent, but the sadness had been replaced by determination.
"Good, then let's mount and find this Notus!"
She didn't have to order twice, soon all the hippogryphs were mounted and in the air. The goal has been set, and they will achieve it at any cost!
...
They flew for about an hour before they reached the foggy marshlands Zephyr talked about. At the edge of it they got off of their mounts and went inside the humid wetlands.
The area was quite precarious for multiple reasons, the ground was covered in a small layer of water which made it easy to trip, while the fog took most of their vision away. The only people who could really sense approaching creatures were Faith and Vicky.
Vicky using her soul vision, and Faith with her shadow sense. They were their main scouts, but there were no need for them. It was quite obvious where they needed to go...
In the middle of the swamp a weird storm was raging. It was strange since the clouds that made up the storm weren't moving in any direction. They just went around in a circle.
The whole group watched the clouds move for a few moments, it was kind of mesmerizing, and ironically serene. The sound of thunder reached them every now and then, but there was mostly just a warm breeze blowing around them.
They continued to move towards it. Non were really shocked to find this weird phenomenon, since Zephyr was kind enough to provide exact descriptions of what to look for.
She also said there will be a large building in the eye of the storm, and inside they would find Notus.
The group cautiously approached the edge of the storm wall, then Bea stopped and turned towards them.
"Is everyone ready?" She asked, but already knew the answer. Everyone looked at each other and collectively nodded.
With a large sigh Bea turned around and stepped inside the downpour.