Alicia was standing at the window of the room that she and Aeren shared. She was watching Darac trod back in from the woods after the two of them had gone up to their room. She was in an old shirt and breeches that she slept in. This was a habit from her 'other life', as she taken to call it. She would always wear a t-shirt with either a pair of shorts or a pair of sweatpants, depending on weather and the temperature in her room. She just stood there with her hands clasped behind her back, watching him come back into the building. Soon, she heard the door behind her open and close, but knowing it was Aeren returning from the bathing room. She just continued to stand at the window, looking out at the night sky. Aeren pulled on his own night clothes - similiar to what she was wearing - and then walked up behind her, gently putting his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. She moved her hands down to rest on his while she leaned back against him a little bit. "I saw him come back out of the woods. Just like Mara and Corie had said." That was the first thing on her mind. Aeren just nodded and then glanced down to the ground, seeing the tail end of their travelling companion return to the inn.

"So they were correct in seeing him go into the woods and come back." She nodded and then sighed softly. He raised a brow and looked to her a little bit. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know. There's just something pulling at the back of my mind is all. I'm not sure if we should trust him or not." She stopped for a moment to gather her thoughts before continuing. "It just seems weird to me to sneak out into the woods in the middle of the night and then sneak back in after doing who knows what for an hour... I mean a candlemark." This was the one part of Valdemar that she still had to get used to. Correctly talking about time. She had to remember that they spoke in candle marks, rather than hours and minutes like her people did. They still used the terms hours and minutes, but they were a bit off from how she knew them. Aeren smiled and shook his head a little bit before pulling away from her slowly and then wandered over to the soft featherbed, laying down in it, looking to her.

"Don't forget. He's from Velvar... a country we know pretty much nothing about. For all we know, this could be something common that they do before they go to bed." She looked to him and nodded a bit before turning and then heading to the bed, herself, after closing the window. She crawled down into it and snuggled under the blanket.

"I'm sure you're right." But there was still that nagging thought at the back of her head, that she finally dismissed after laying in bed for a while, else she wouldn't get any sleep.

The next morning

Alicia was up first and had gone down to the common room to claim the three of them some breakfast. Soon after the plates were brought to the table, the two men came ambling down the stairs. Aeren sat down next to Alicia, with Darac on the opposite side of them. They ate in silence, but none of them were unenjoying their food. This was a well-to-do-inn, since they host a lot of Heralds, so they got quite a bit back from their taxes each year. And because of that, they were able to do a bit better in the way of food and drink than most other inns. So because of that, for beakfast, they were enjoying fruit and nut porridge, - not grainy or sticky like most that Aeren had had before, considering he was used to eating his own cooking - bacon, biscuits with honey, and they had mugs of fruit juice. When they were just about done, a stableboy came in and told them that their horse and Companions were fed, saddled up, and ready to go again. Aeren thanked him, and gave the innkeeper two chits, one for himself, and one for Alicia, for housing Heralds for the night. Darac made his own contribution by throwing down some coins onto the table for the serving girl. They were Valdemaran, and since he was heading home, he gave her all that he had, which was quite a lot. While they were taking care of that, Alicia had gave the stableboy a small tip - he looked to be about eight, possibly the son of the innkeeper, so she didn't want to spoil him- , and then headed out to where the Companions were waiting. Mara, Aeren's Companion, was holding onto the reins of the palfrey that Darac was riding. Alicia smiled and hugged Corie's muzzle softly and gave him a scratch on the side of his neck. He nuzzled her in returned and whuffed her hair a bit. She giggled and started to repack the few things that she had taken out into the saddle pack that was attached to the back of his saddle. While she was doing that, Aeren and Darac were heading out and Darac took the reins of his horse as Mara dropped them and the two males were now preparing to leave again. Alicia had been up in the saddle already, watching them both with an amused expression on her face.

"Hurry up, slowpokes." She giggled to them. Darac didn't respond, but she figured that he would be the serious one. Aeren just made a grin at her.

"We were conducting business with the innkeeper, you sneak. You just gave the stableboy a couple of coins and then wandered out before we even noticed you were gone." She giggled and they turned their mounts around and started down the road again.

They had a small stop off before leaving the village for Aeren just to say hi to his family. He hadn't seen them in years, as his duties had kept them away for that long. They hadn't stopped for long and they were off again. "Mother gave me some meat pies, so we don't have to stop for lunch unless we get really saddle sore." He passed out packets to the other two of the group and they each gently put them in their saddle bags. They were off again before too long. It would actually take them the rest of the day to get to the border, but they were going to avoid the Holderkin lands a bit by another road that Aeren knew. It actually would cut some time off their travelling for the day. Once they passed into Rethwallen, though, they would have to stick to the major routes, unless Darac knew a better way.

It was about noon when Darac made his move. Alicia was munching on a pie, and seemed to be chatting with her Companion with Mindspeech, since she was chuckling now and then. Aeren was a bit ahead of them, so Darac nudged his own stallion up next to Corie and nodded to her. She finished off her pie and licked her fingers a little bit and then smiled to him. "Sorry. I'm not used to going for this long without food."

He chuckled a bit and nodded slowly. "It's quite alright, m'lady. But surely, you're used to going for hours without eating. For I heard that Heralds usually are too busy to get much to eat in one sitting unless they're not travelling, or like we were, at an inn." She seemed to blush a little bit at that.

"Well.. I've actually only just gotten my whites. They passed me through early so that I could go on this trip as my internship. Apparently, I made the record, as I've only been here for about a month." He tilted his head at that.

"Been here? You mean at the Collegium?" She thought about that for a moment before finally deciding that since he was an ally anyway, then it couldn't do too much damage.

"Well.. kinda, but not really. I'm not exactly from Valdemar."

"You mean you're from outKingdom. What country are you from then? You do have a kind of a strange accent."

She sighed a moment in thought before answering him. "I'm actually from.. another realm, if you will. I don't think of it that way, but that's how it had to be thought of since Corie had to get through a gate to get me and get us back." She had no problems talking about Corie as if he was a person, mostly because he had been convinced that Companions were more than just well-trained horses while he was at the palace.

Darac seemed to be thinking about this information before speaking to her again. "That's interesting. I've never heard of anyone going through a gate to another realm, let alone being able to bring someone back. I'm surprised you both survived the trip."

She smiled a little bit. "We almost didn't, as the Companion that had been holding the gate, lost the control, and we actually ended up almost all the way to Hardorn."

He nodded a little bit, continuing to take in the information. Finally, he would have something to report to his king. He would have all the information he dug up on Herald Aeren already, since he was from Valdemar, but Herald Alicia was his responsibility. And some information was better than none. He stopped asking her questions for now, and as the sun started to set, they made it to the Rethwallen border. Aeren and Darac spent some time getting both sets of papers straight with the Rethwallen guards. Granted King Faramentha had excellent relations with Queen Selenay, since his niece was Princess Elspeth, the guards took no chances, just in case someone tried to fake their way in. They moved in to the country and soon, found their stop for the night in the second village on the trade road. It was one that Darac had stopped in himself on the way into Valdemar, and told them that it was a good place to stop.

Tonight, after the Heralds tended to their Companions, had their dinner, and retired to their room, Darac snuck out of the building and into the woods that were near this building, grinning as he contacted his king. "King Belmear. I have some new information on the female Herald."