---
"In any case," Galk had concluded, "he said he was going to back-track the route you two had traveled with you, and his Claymore companions intend to accompany him wherever he goes. It's… complicated," he had said upon seeing Clare's face flash alert and surprised at the first concrete hint of Raki's location she had received in seven years.
"We didn't ask where they were headed, but they took off north and west of here, if that means anything to you." Raki's home town was a week and a half that way.
"Both of you are alive, and have allies to help and keep you alive."
"You will definitely meet again."
That had been yesterday. Clare stands at the North Western Gate, sun rising behind her.
"You'll want to move fast to catch up to them, right Clare?" asks Uma from her right. "We can keep up."
"But will you be ready for what you'll find?" asks Cynthia, trailing from her right and voicing Clare's own darkest fears. "We don't know how those two Claymores will react, or how he will if we have to engage them. And the matter of the young girl…" she trails off.
Priscilla. Not even Miria knows about her yet, though Galatea will surely tell her once she realizes that Clare had not passed on their conversation. Cynthia voices Clare's fears, but Clare has lived through terrors come true before. What is more important is what is ahead of her, who is ahead of her.
She says nothing. Neither companion expected her to.
They run.
---
