Chapter 656: Cryptic writing

He reached into his storage space and retrieved the worn piece of paper they had found among the coins.

He unfolded it carefully, keeping it well away from the open entrance before looking over the single line again.

What you most want is what you most can’t have, and what you most can’t have is what you already had and lost.

His brows drew together.

The words hadn’t become any clearer since the first time he read them. If anything, having more time to think about them only gave him more possible answers, none of which seemed any better than the others.

Something a person once had and lost could be almost anything. Time, youth, a home, someone they cared about, or even something as simple as a possession they could never replace.

But that hardly explained why the note had been left inside a chest full of gold.

’Maybe whoever wrote it was simply feeling miserable,’ he thought, turning the paper over to examine its blank reverse.

It wouldn’t have been the strangest explanation, though he still felt there ought to be more to it.

A shadow moved beyond the entrance, drawing his attention away from the page. Elion looked up just as Maya appeared through the rain, holding her outer robe over her head while she hurried toward his tent.

"Mind if I come in?" she asked, stopping beneath the small overhang.

’I must say, she looks rather beautiful in the rain... Just a stray thought, of course.’

Droplets clung to her long lashes, and as she brushed a wet strand of hair away from her cheek while waiting for his answer, he couldn’t help but nod quietly to himself, agreeing with his sentiment

His gaze half wandered toward her poorly covered small breasts before he flicked it back up with a pale smile, hoping she hadn’t noticed.

"Go ahead," Elion replied, moving his belongings aside to give her room. "I thought you’d be resting."

"I was going to. I wanted to check on everyone first," she said, crouching through the entrance before carefully setting her muddy boots near the opening. "Nora’s already asleep, and Cole looked like he was about to join her. The others seem fine."

She settled opposite him with a quiet sigh.

Elion noticed the damp patches spreading along her sleeves and drew the water out with a small movement of his hand, gathering it into a floating sphere before sending it outside.

"Thanks," Maya said, looking down at the now-dry fabric. Her gaze then settled on the paper in his other hand, and a faint smile appeared on her lips. "You’re still thinking about that?"

"I have nothing better to do," he replied, holding it out so she could see the writing. "And finding a strange note in a chest guarded by a disaster-class undead seems like something worth thinking about."

Maya accepted it and read the line again, tilting the paper toward the light coming through the entrance.

"Perhaps it’s talking about youth," she suggested after a moment. "We did find it with an artefact that gives the wearer a youthful appearance."

Elion considered that, his gaze shifting briefly toward the rain. "Maybe. Though looking young isn’t quite the same as getting those years back."

"No, it isn’t," she agreed, turning the paper over as he had done. "But if someone wanted that badly enough, I suppose the hairpiece would still seem rather tempting."

He nodded, finding that a little more reasonable than the thoughts he had been going through. Still, it left plenty unexplained, and he wasn’t entirely convinced that the note had anything to do with the artefact.

"Or it’s just a piece of someone’s writing that ended up in the chest," Maya added, handing it back. "We might be trying to find meaning where there isn’t any."

"That’s a rather disappointing possibility."

"We found a legendary artefact and enough gold to make the trip worthwhile on our first full day here," she replied, giving him an amused look. "You can afford to be disappointed by a piece of paper."

Elion chuckled and folded it away, deciding that he had probably spent enough time staring at it for now.

Maya leaned back slightly, listening as the rain struck the canvas more heavily for a few moments before settling into its steady rhythm again.

With the tent shielding them from the wind and the rain drowning out most of the sounds outside, the space felt surprisingly peaceful.

Maya stretched her slender legs a little, and Elion found it rather suspicious how defenceless and unguarded she was acting around him, even more so, the fact that she had changed out of her dress and robe into a not-so-modest nightdress.

Wasn’t she aware of how attractive she was? And then she had the gall to be so exposed while sitting alone with him, on a rainy, gloomy afternoon.

’What’s her angle here?’

She hadn’t given him any clues that she might be romantically interested in him up to now, which made the current situation even more confusing, but he decided to be patient while waiting for her to make her move, if she planned to make one that is.

However, it would have been awkward to sit without saying anything, so he thought of what they could talk about in the meantime.

’Oh right...’

He remembered how he had intended to ask her about her many affinities.

He had kept putting the question aside whenever something more urgent happened, but now that it was just the two of them, he finally had the chance to ask.

He looked toward her, to find that she was keeping her gaze down at her legs, though it was obvious that she had been looking at him, trying to act like she was not.

With the others around, she was quite easily more outspoken and much more confident, but now she was suddenly very subdued.

"Actually, there’s something else I’ve been wondering about," he said, looking toward her. "How many affinities do you have?"

"Hmm..." Maya looked up, then gave him a sheepish smile. "Oh, right. I guess anyone would be curious about that, huh? Well, it’s a long story, and the others don’t really bother asking, since we all have our secrets. But look at you, so shamelessly asking a lady about hers."

Elion scoffed, giving her an expectant look. "Are you going to tell me or not?"

"If I do, will you tell me about yourself as well? Your strength and your own unnatural talent?" she asked. "If I’m going to share my secrets with you, it’s only natural that you do the same, no?"

"Fair enough." Elion nodded. "What do you want to know? I won’t tell you everything, of course, only something of equal value to what you tell me." He gave her a cold smirk before adding, "I have a lot of secrets, after all..."