At first Arin had thought that he would reach by midnight if they picked up pace. But he had overestimated their own pace as well as underestimated the area of the Dark Woods.
The forest was way bigger than Arin had imagined.
And Xib'al'kah was located on the southwestern part of the woods, while his castle was literally at the center of the Dark Wood.
Siterion, situated at the western edge of Dark Wood, appeared close because the Dark Wood was not a perfect circle but rather in a rectangular shape;
the north-south distance was much longer than the distance between the eastern and western edges (although technically there was no border between the Dark Wood and Whispering Woods; rather, the Dark Wood was actually an extended part of Whispering Woods only.
However, a river named Black Blood that originated from Black Peaks in the South would flow northwards through the Whispering Woods and create an unofficial border between Dark Wood and Whispering Woods).
