Anur chuckled at Asher's enthusiastic story about his little sister and a cat, the boy grinning at him. He was a good mindspeaker, apparently the trauma and Aelius speaking to him to calm him down was enough to fully wake his Gift. He looked up and shared a knowing look with his Companion, before he frowned, noticing at last that the sun was nearly at its peak. "Where's Kir?" he asked.

Asher frowned and looked around, saying worriedly, "He's not back? He was just going to look for game, right?"

The boy very quickly started to hyperventilate and gasped, "What if he's been captured? They'll know where we are we have to – "

"Easy, easy lad, take a deep breath, there's a lad," Anur soothed. "He's not captured. We'd know that, wouldn't we? He's just out wandering."

Asher nodded weakly, still looking worried. Anur struggled to find something to distract him, before deciding for them both, "Why don't we go look for him? Maybe he's gotten distracted by a particularly beautiful sunbeam patch or something."

That prompted a giggle from the child and Anur sighed in relief, ignoring Aelius' stern look and slowly walking out of the chapel, Aelius sighing and meeting them around front, going down on his knees so Anur could step on, Asher sitting in front of him.

"Any idea what way he went Aelius?" he asked, his Companion replying, :Yes, I saw him leave. And I'm afraid I realize why too,: the slightly ashamed tone didn't bode well, :Ah – I cannot read him, Chosen. He blocks his mind now, but I can pick up feelings when he's not focused on how scared of me he is. He's, well, he's lonely. A lot more than at the stables in Hardorn, I think.:

:And we just went and had a nice long chat he couldn't even listen to,: Anur winced, Asher blocked from this conversation and looking around for their Sunpriest as they rode.

:Yes, well. I'm afraid I was just so happy to hear you again I rather forgot we were being rude,: Aelius admitted.

:I'm just as guilty old friend. So let's go find him and apologize,: Anur nodded determinedly, :And figure out what happened to make him so morose.:

He spotted him first, with his superior height, and pointed the more visible grazing gelding out to the boy who grinned and jumped down from Aelius' back, running over to the man sitting nearby and shouting, "Father Kir! Father Kir!"

The Sunpriest looked up from what Anur recognized as a knot-work Sun-in-Glory. He had been happy to find the one he'd left in the cell near his head when he awoke, and had immediately hung it around his neck again. Asher had apparently pocketed it to make sure no one would find it even after they were burned.

The smile the Sunpriest offered him barely covered up a bone-deep tiredness, and Anur frowned slightly. Some of that could be accounted for in springing the two of them and caring for them both, but not all or even most of it.

Asher was talking quickly and excitedly, explaining about how cool it was that he could talk to Aelius and he had great stories, did he think that Valdemar really had as many cats as Karse did? Anur winced, impressed by the only slight stiffness that came into Kir's smile at the clear reference to witch-powers: Asher didn't even notice. Aelius interfered then, and asked if Asher wanted to go exploring while the he and Kir caught up. Asher agreed eagerly and Aelius lowered himself to his knees so Anur could get off and Asher could hop on again, gleefully rejoining a mindspeech conversation as they went away at a brisk walk.

Kir was frowning at him, "What are you doing out of bed, Herald?" he demanded and Anur had to shake his head. The word Herald just sounded so odd in a Karsite sentence.

"We noticed you were missing and Asher started panicking. I was worried too," he said simply before grinning, "Besides, I'm not that bad off, nothing broken! Which is a bit of a miracle actually, but I'm almost good as new!" he twirled, arms spread to prove it as he grinned, glee interrupted by a wince as his back's wounds protested the twist. "Ouch."

Kir snorted, getting to his feet and helping him sit down on the ground, "Idiot."

"Am not!" he retorted, "I was undercover for two months, and they only caught me because Asher was a little too trusting of his priests. He heard me, I think."

He rapped his temple to indicate exactly how Asher had heard him. Kir's eyes tightened and he looked away, Anur biting his lip slightly. He had never actually gone against Karsites before this – not seen what exactly a Firestarter's duties were and it – it was worse, than he expected. Knowing that he was friends with someone whose duties boiled down to lighting innocent Gifted on fire.

"The last time I lit a purifying flame, it was to execute a villager who had been selling secrets to bandits in exchange for targeting rights," Kir said lowly, eyes on the medallion he was crafting with practiced hands. "They cheered, there, when he screamed."

Anur nodded, recalling the hangings he'd attended over the course of his duties. There had been quite a few cheers at those, even when the knot was poorly tied and the convicted jerked around as they suffocated. Maybe even especially at those.

"I couldn't sleep for a week without hearing them," Kir shuddered, "I hate the screaming. That's why I became a Firestarter. I was good at it, good enough to send a flame roaring so they died without a chance to truly feel the burn. It was all the mercy I could offer as a witch-hunter, because if I let a witch-child escape by ignoring the signs, the next red-robe would find them and they would not be so merciful."

Anur just listened, it sounded like Kir had waited a long time to get this off his chest, and he clearly had more to say. The brook and clear sunshine pouring down provided an almost tauntingly tranquil background for the ugly talk.

"We've been getting raids by Hardornen regulars mixed with bandits," he continued, "As many as two a week, one moon. I helped with the wounded, my duties were off the battlefield," he hesitated, before elaborating, "Most Firestarters need time, elaborate invocations and gestures to get a true flame going. Many times they don't bother, simply using torches and then urging the flames higher. The truly wretched use only torches and tar, letting them burn for a full half-mark," both of them shuddered at that.

"I've seen you though," Anur reminded him, "You need none of that, a word and a look at most. Are you just more powerful?"

"No, I am a very weak mage," Kir snorted, "I simply practiced at firestarting, I wanted to be the best, so I studied flame, in all its forms. Candles, bonfires, holy, condemned, wild, set – I learned all I could in Sunhame and continued into my acolyte years. I was considered a Firestarting prodigy. If I were any more powerful they'd have made me a black-robe in a heartbeat."

Anur decided to let the mage thing lie, for now, instead prompting, "So they thought you were useless for battle."

"And I promoted it," Kir shrugged tiredly, "Not many talk to Firestarters to begin with for fear of heresy accusations. Add in that one sharp look can set them aflame and, well, few would speak to me indeed, beyond bowing and scraping. And I like talking with people."

"I guessed," Anur said wryly, smiling, "I'm the same."

"No, really?" Kir smirked, before returning to his story, "But a crossbow shooter nearly got the corpsman when we were evacuating wounded from the field two weeks ago, and it just made me so angry. All this work I'd done to build trust with them, and they wouldn't even let me watch their backs. All this work I'd done to never hear screams again and I heard them every wretched night between wounded and nightmares. By the Sunlord I just wanted the screams to stop."

"So you set them on fire," Anur supplied. Kir only nodded shortly, continuing, "I stopped the screaming, right enough. But they tried to give me living mortally wounded soldiers for the battle tithe. Living! Still struggling to breathe! I never burned living Faithful! Never! They always had mercy first, but they thought – they dared – never! I just… I just wanted the screaming to stop."

By the end Kir was stumbling over his own words, vacillating between burning rage and desperate grief, Anur reaching out and wrapping an arm around his shoulders, the Sunpriest shuddering sobs, somehow still twisting knots into his sun motif, fingers not slowed.

"So now they're terrified of you," Anur murmured, "Gods – ah, forget I said that. Curses, Kir. I'm sorry."

Kir chuckled wearily at his slip-up, glistening eye looking up at him with amusement, "Sunlord Herald, you're going to get yourself burned one of these days."

"Oh shut up," Anur pouted theatrically.

"Twice now, I've put out fires you get yourself in," Kir continued, smile growing while Anur glowered petulantly.

"I totally could have saved myself the first time! I just needed to run out in the snow, I'd have been fine!" he insisted, perfectly willing to continue the banter to get Kir out of that ball of hurt he'd curled into.

"Oh yes, you, drunk off your ass, would be able to stagger, while on fire, clear of all the flammable material in the stables and make it to snow," Kir snorted, waving his hand dismissively, "Please. You would have burned up on the ground while I laughed myself sick at the irony, and then your witch-horse would have broken down the stall door and trampled me for my insolence."

Anur opened his mouth to object but found he really couldn't. With as drunk as he was at the time, he probably might have made it to the snow, but it was a little suspect. Besides, the point wasn't to win the argument, the point was to get Kir smiling again, and he definitely was, even if the smirk was a bit more smug than a true smile.

He pouted instead, Kir just rolling his eyes, "How mature."

Realizing he'd have to get back to the issue that had dragged them all out here, he smoothed his expression and said, "I wanted to apologize, Kir."

"For getting yourself caught? Forgiven," Kir waved off, "How did you get that letter out by the way?"

"Wait the letter actually made it?" Anur asked incredulously, "I figured you had been called in your office as a Firestarter or something."

"Well, that's what I told my commanding officer, but no, I received your letter," Kir frowned, "Did you not send it?"

"No, I did, but… um… remember the cloaks? It's not just having thing fly to me, I can send thing to places further away without them flying through the air, they just appear. But usually I need to be able to see where I'm sending it, so when I sent that letter I was basically hanging everything on a thin prayer that 'the mail carrier closest to Kir Dinesh' would work. I was surprised the letter actually went anywhere. Blind Fetching… er… sending like that… is basically a series of coincidental miracles when it works even with a strong gift," Anur explained, correcting his automatic insertion of the Valdemaran title for his Gift carefully.

Kir nodded thoughtfully, looking back at his medallion, "I wondered," he replied calmly.

"And anyway, that's not why I wanted to apologize, though I do owe you sincere thanks for actually coming for me," Anur continued, "I wanted to apologize for earlier today, when the three of us sort of ignored you. I was just – I was so happy to hear Aelius' voice again, and he mine, that we sort of… forgot," he shrugged helplessly.

Kir was staring at him in true surprise, before nodding, slight smile playing at his lips as he said, "Apology accepted, Herald."

"I'm glad to see you again," Anur blurted, "And not just because you saved my life," he corrected, "It's nice to see you again, truly."

"Surprisingly, it is nice to see you again too, though when I got that letter I seriously contemplated the merits of letting you live ten months ago," Kir's sardonic smile took the edge off the threat though and Anur just laughed in relief. He was free, breathing easy, enjoying a beautiful day with a friend he'd thought lost and well on his way to healing.

There was very, very little that would be able to bring him down right now.