Wind whistled in Varian's ears as he opened his eyes to a darkened meadow. The sky overhead was black as a shroud, no stars or moon to light his surroundings. He sat up and looked around, trying to find a path. To where, he wasn't sure. He just knew that he had to find the way. He stood and reached to brush himself off and saw that he was wearing his father's clothes. Somehow, they fit perfectly, and he understood why; he had taken his father's form, as if he was seeing things through a memory or a vision. The underbrush around him shifted and shimmered in a bleary haze, crystal lights floating between willowy threads of dewy grass.

Quirin, he heard a voice speak behind him. He whirled to see a woman standing there, her expression both curious and concerned. She was shorter than Varian – though his father was taller than anyone else he knew – with a head of long, grey-streaked red hair tied back from her ageless face. She was thin, almost underweight, and her eyes were mismatched: one was a tawny orange, the other a bright, solid crimson. Varian couldn't recall ever seeing this woman before, but at the same time, he knew who she was.

Lyra, he heard himself speak, but it was his father's voice. The words came without prompting, as if their conversation was scripted. As if they had spoken the same before. Is it true? He killed Cain?

The Crimson Caster's face twitched once, a flash of pain slicing in a terrible wince between her eyes. You understand now why we had to leave, Quirin. She sounded resigned, regretful. If I stay, I will be a danger to you, your son, and everyone else in Old Corona.

And the girl? What about your child? She was the reason why you came to live here in the first place, to give her a normal life.

That future is no longer possible for her, the Crimson Caster spoke. Caius has made sure of that. I've taken her with me, to a place where no one can find us. She took from the folds of her cloak a rolled-up piece of parchment. No one but you. You've done more for me and my family than I could ever repay. Should you ever have need of my power, this will show you the way.

Varian felt himself reach out to take the map, his fingers trembling in the heavy air. He was just about to touch it when the world suddenly went dark, and he was falling again. He awoke with a start, his blue eyes wide and staring at the table grain. He jerked upwards, realizing with horror that he'd fallen asleep. He was supposed to awaken Shay at dusk, after he'd finished packing his things. He'd insisted she get some sleep before they left, and she'd told him to grab everything he needed before she awoke. He'd only sat down to rest for a moment; he must have been more tired than he'd realized. Lurching from his chair, he fled to the window and saw that the light had faded completely from the meadow outside. Rudiger jumped with a start as Varian dashed to the stairs and climbed to he second floor. He rapped his knuckles on the door to Shay's bedroom. "Shay," he called. "It's past time now. We need to hurry."

A few moments later, Shay emerged, her hair bedraggled and her face still flushed with sleep. She wore a short red shift over a dark grey shirt, a pair of well-worn trousers, and black boots – an outfit she must have worn for gardening, but was now going to serve as her travel wear. She was about to say something about the time, then noticed the red table marks on Varian's cheek. "I see," she said under her breath, squeezing past him and down the stairs. "Do you have everything you need?"

"Yeah," Varian answered from behind, watching his feet as Killy darted past him. "I try to travel light." He watched as Shay stepped past the table and retrieved a dark leather cloak from a cabinet drawer. "Caius will come here first," he pointed out as she tied the cloak around her shoulders.

"I know," Shay said; a note of fear was in her voice. "But he won't be able to get in. I'll make sure of that this time." She reached under the table for the witch hunter's sword and strapped it on her back once more. "But we'll have to be outside first."

Varian was the last to leave, double-checking to make sure nothing important of his was left behind. As they stepped out into the brisk night air, he looked to see Shay retrieve a wood stick from the side of the house. She placed the tip into the ground and began to draw a line around the exterior of the cabin, disappearing around the back and reappearing on the other side. "You're going to cast a spell."

Shay nodded, tossing the stick aside. "It's a complicated spell," she said worriedly. "I've never cast it before. I've never had a need to."

"Shay, if it's too dangerous, I can set up a trap."

She shook her head. "No. This is my house. It's my responsibility to protect it." Her anxious expression became determined. "I can't let Caius enter this place. Not again. Never again. You might want to step back."

Rudiger scampered to Varian's side as he watched from a distance, listening to Shay begin a very long incantation. The words were Celtic, her pronunciation clear and practiced. She made small gestures, her voice soft at first as she read from her mother's spellbook. Her tone grew louder, her arms moving wider, as the circle around the cabin began to glow and throb with red light. The circle grew upwards, flowing like a cyclone of water through the air as it encompassed the house like an egg shell, sparks winking and fizzling into the night sky. Varian braced himself, his muscles tensing as he anticipated the same rebound as the last time she'd attempted such a spell. The light cascaded into a dome, and a single, melodious note hummed in his ears. Then Shay brought her hands streaking down, and the light dissipated. She swayed on the spot, and Varian rushed to grab her before she fell.

"You okay?"

Shay nodded, her fingers kneading her temple. "It can be draining to cast larger spells. Normally, you don't cast them alone. I'll be fine, I think."

Varian let her go with a shrug. "If you say so. What exactly did you do, anyway?"

"It's like the ward I cast on the exit door to the crypt," Shay explained, "or the one you broke on the entrance. It's different though, more dangerous. It's not just a lock or a wall. It will hurt you if you touch it. You also can't see it, so it should take Caius by surprise." She glanced nervously down at the circle etched into the ground. "At least, as long as he doesn't notice the line I had to draw."

"We can't worry about it now," Varian placed a hand on her shoulder. "We need to get moving before he gets here. The capitol is about five days away on foot. I hope you like long walks."

"Killy," Shay looked to the hare. "We need to head north. Will you show us the way?"

Varian's staff illuminated the path that Killy took into the dark forest, and he found his footsteps were full of energy as they followed. The night was chilly, the fall breeze settling on his skin in a fine, misty blanket. The uneven ground seemed to level out before him, and moonlight fell in silvery threads between the trees.

He noticed Shay straggling behind, almost ten paces away. "You sure you can carry that?" He pointed out the sword on her back.

"I have to," Shay answered as she caught up. "It's much lighter than it looks. It's made from a special metal, from across the seas."

"Oh yeah?" Varian's interest was piqued. "It wouldn't be Japanese carbon steel, would it?"

"I – yes," Shay blinked in surprise. "How do you –"

"I never asked my dad for very much," Varian smirked. "At least, he didn't think books were a big deal." He continued as they walked on. "Not much is known about the lands across seas, but Corona is always looking for new methods of weapons crafting. I'm not sure how the blade itself would be crafted, but the metal is extraordinary. Since it's steel, there's a great deal of iron in the composition, which means that the secret lies in how the alloy is forged. Now, I'm no blacksmith, but my theory is that the metal is actually folded to arrange the molecular structure in a way no one in Corona's observed. I can understand now why you wouldn't want to leave that sword behind. It's very valuable."

"I'm sure it is," Shay agreed quietly. "But I wouldn't trade this sword for anything."

Varian's eyebrows twitched. "Why?"

"Because it was my father's sword."

"What?" Varian stopped in his tracks. "What did you say?"

"It was my father's," Shay repeated.

Varian frowned. "Then why did Caius…Oh." His eyes widened. "Oh, I see. I-I didn't –"

"It's alright," Shay reassured him. She reached behind her and, with difficulty, managed to unsheathe the sword. She held it carefully with both hands, the moonlight shimmering across the blade. "It's called Spellbane. It was given to my father by the keeper of an ancient spire, somewhere beyond the borders of Corona. It was made to battle magic."

"Makes sense, with the name," Varian said reverently. "I've never seen anything like it. It's beautiful." He glanced up at her. "So then…your dad really was a witch hunter?"

Shay nodded slowly, returning the sword to its scabbard. "He was the captain of the guard, in service to the king. I'm not supposed to know that, though." Her face fell. "I'm sure there are many more things my mother has kept from me, things that she never wrote in her journal."

Varian nodded, and they started walking forward again. It made sense why the Crimson Caster would want to keep her husband's background a secret from her daughter. How could she explain that he was a witch hunter when she was a witch herself? "Can I ask you something? If your dad was a witch hunter, how did he settle down with your mom?" Fragments of his strange, hazy dream came floating back to memory, like pieces of cobwebs drifting in the wind. "I mean, it's pretty obvious she loved him."

Shay's breath caught. "How do you know that?"

Varian took an instant to panic; there was no way he could explain his strange dream without sounding like a lunatic, especially when he could barely remember any of it. He quickly shrugged. "Well, I mean, they had you, didn't they? And then, of course, there's considering the possible reason why she went into a necromancer's crypt."

Shay's lips slowly twisted into a mask of shock.

"Come on, you can't tell me you haven't thought about why she –"

"Varian!" Shay hissed, dropping low. Varian glanced behind him and saw that they had finally reached the edge of the Haderon Forest. The trees had thinned out, and orange light could be seen flickering through the branches. Torch light. Varian ducked into the brush, stifling the light of his staff in the bush Shay had hid behind as he crawled over to her. Rudiger sniffed his way under Varian's elbow, and he saw Killy's eyes blink at him from the depths of the bush. They kept quiet and still, peering carefully to see if the torch light would fade.

"I still don't understand why the captain has us bordering the entire forest," they heard a gruff voice grumble. "The perimeter alone is ridiculous. Why would the alchemist would come to place like this?"

"Don't know," they heard another voice answer. "All I know is that scouts tracked him to somewhere around these parts. We've got men investigating the village down the river now, to see if anyone's seen him there."

Varian cursed under his breath. "I thought I'd lost them after I left Old Corona. Guess the royal guard is more competent than people give them credit for." He noticed Shay's look of alarm. "We need to find a way past these guys. Any ideas?"

"A distraction?" She suggested.

"No," Varian shook his head. "A distraction is too risky. We need to avoid them seeing anything of either of us without raising any kind of suspicion."

Shay's brow furrowed. "I'd use an invisibility spell, but it wouldn't work on the sword."

"Can't have that," Varian ground his knuckles into his forehead. "Think, think."

"Hey," One of the guards spoke up again. "Did you hear something?"

The orange light moved closer to the trees. "Yeah. It's probably just an animal."

The first guard swallowed loudly. "What if it's a bear?"

"Don't be ridiculous," the other guard hissed. "Bears only travel these parts in the fall."

"It is the fall, you nitwit!" Shay inhaled sharply when they heard a sword sing into the night air. "Cover me. I'm going to go check it out."

"Absolutely not," they heard the other guard almost shout. "Captain's orders were clear: no going into the forest, period."

The first guard coughed. "I'm not going to travel through the entire wood! I'm just going to check out the edge."

Varian anxiously racked his brains. "Maybe if we can convince them…" He glanced at Rudiger. "Rudiger wouldn't work. They know I have a racoon with me, but if they think it's just a harmless animal…"

"Killy," Shay looked to the hare. The creature blinked, then shot out from the bush, streaking in a blur out into the open. They heard the guards make feminine shrieks of alarm, then the orange torch light started to move away.

One of the guards chuckled nervously. "Hehe, it was just a rabbit!"

"You idiot," the other guard said. "It's too big to be a rabbit."

"Guh! W-well, what is it, then?"

"A hare, you nimrod."

The first guard sniffed dismissively. "Oh, right. I mean, I knew that."

As they chuckled to themselves and cooed at how cute Killy was, Varian carefully snuck forward, reaching into his bag for a small, green vial. He bit his lip as he pressed against a tree trunk and peeked cautiously around the grey bark. He heard Shay gasp as he tossed the vial out into the open, and a green plume of gas engulfed the orange light past the trees. Just as he'd hoped, the guards were too distracted by Killy to even notice.

"Hey," one of the guards said. "Do you think I can keep it? My daughter's always wanted a…ohhhhh…" There was a thump and a clink of metal as the guard fell over. The other guard pointed out his partner's prone state before he too passed out, falling over with a snore.

"Careful," Varian beckoned to Shay as the cloud faded. "It's harmless, but potent. They'll be out for an hour or two. Thirty minutes if they have high metabolisms." He glanced at one of the guards as he stepped out into the open and snuffed the torch with his foot. "Judging by that one's belt size, I doubt it." He noticed that Killy had been caught in the sleeping smoke's radius; the hare had fallen onto his side, his leg twitching in the air. "Oh. Whoops."

Shay rushed to the hare and scooped him up into her arms, holding him like a baby. "Will he be alright?"

"He'll be fine," Varian reassured her. "Rudiger's been exposed to it before, haven't you?" The racoon sneezed, fixing Varian with a pointed glare. "He'll just be out for longer. He should wake up in the morning."

Shay blew on the hare's downy head, and his ear twitched once. "Well done, little one." She stared worriedly at the sleeping guards. "I didn't realize we would be meeting opposition this soon into the trip."

"Me either," Varian apologized. "This could be even more difficult than I imagined. If the captain of the guard is in charge of all this, that means every lawman in Corona is going to be sniffing around for me." He smirked wickedly. "I wonder how much the bounty on my head is?"

Shay shivered. "I don't think we should dwell on it."

Varian nodded, his smirk fading. "No, you're right. It doesn't matter anyway because we won't get caught." He stooped to pick up the broken shards of the vial he'd thrown; any evidence like that would immediately tip the guards off when they woke up. "There's a little town called Newbarth, about thirt miles north. We might reach it by tomorrow evening if we keep a steady pace. Let's go."

They made their way quietly across the fields, creeping carefully over slopes and around rocky outcroppings. Varian led the way, Rudiger tailing close on his heels. The sound of crickets chirping mingled with the sharp cries of bats as they flew in lazy streaks overhead, catching moths and stray gnats as they fluttered by.

"What's Killy's story?" Varian asked after a while.

Shay shifted the sleeping hare in her arms. "I found him two years ago, just outside of Ghislaine. He was caught in a snare with a broken leg, half-starved and scared witless. I took him home and nursed him back to health. I tried to release him, but he wouldn't leave. I think he took pity on me when he realized I was all alone." Her voice fell to a whisper. "I didn't mind."

"He was probably afraid he'd get caught again," Varian said. "Watch your step. It's still damp here from the storm the other day."

"What about you?" Shay asked.

"What about me?"

"Your racoon. How did you meet him?"

"Oh," Varian glanced sheepishly at Rudiger. "I, uh, I caught him in a trap. Not the kind of trap you think," he stammered. "About two years ago, the villagers were complaining about pests getting into their gardens. They were going to set up snares, like the one you were talking about. I don't know, something about it didn't feel right to me. I thought I could come up with a more humane solution. So, I made this." He paused to pull out one of his sticky bombs for her to see. "It's the same stuff I used on Caius. Of course, I have a dissolvent for it. Most of my compounds are failsafe that way." His mind drifted to the serum that had trapped his father, and a drop of bitterness soured his stomach. "Most of them. Anyway, catching Rudiger proved my experiment was a success. I released him outside the village, but he showed up the next day, in the same trap." He made a bashful wince. "I guess you're not the only one who was taken pity on."

"I don't pity you," Shay told him quietly.

"Oh, no?" Varian stopped on the bank of a trickling stream, staring at her. "Just what do you think of me, then? I mean, besides the fact that I'm extremely intelligent and devastatingly handsome?"

Shay actually laughed, but her cheeks turned red. "Sorry. I…" She chewed her lip as she tried to find the words. "I think that…you're kinder than you realize. And brave."

Varian chuckled, but the sound was weak, and his ears were burning. "I was just joking, you know."

Shay slowly shook her head. "I wasn't."

A lump grew in Varian's throat, and he swallowed it with a loud gulp. "I, uh…I-I just, um…th-there's a spot up ahead where we can take a break. O-or I mean, if you don't want to, but i-it would probably be a…you know, a good idea."

Shay said nothing about Varian's panicked stammering and glanced up at the brightening sky. "Oh my. Is it really morning already? I didn't realize we had been walking for so long."

Varian unstrung his bow as they sat down under a rock ledge blanketed in emerald moss, munching on the loaf of bread Shay had brought. "It's not ham," she apologized, "but it's something."

Varian blinked at her with his cheeks full. "Your 'something' is pretty good," he said around his mouthful, spewing crumbs. He swallowed and took a swig from a flask of water, staring out across the Coronan landscape. "You know, when I was a kid, I used to pretend I was Demanitus, the legendary inventor." He passed the flask over to her. "I'd go on adventures in my head with Flynn Rider. We'd travel across the countryside, find ancient artifacts, and rescue damsels in distress. Then I met the real Flynn Rider, except that's not his name, apparently." He planted his chin in his hand. "He's the one who saved the princess from some hidden tower."

Shay finished drinking and set the flask down. "What was she like?"

"The princess?" Varian shrugged. "When she wasn't breaking promises, she was…nice. Naïve, but nice. Then again, I was naïve, too."

"Was she pretty?"

Varian thought back. "Sure, I guess. Not as pretty as some other girls I'd seen around the castle, but…" His face turned red when he remembered Cassandra. "None of it matters now, anyway. It's not like I'll ever see them again, at least not on good terms."

Shay fingered Killy's twitching ear. "They?"

"The princess and her…her handmaiden," Varian coughed uncomfortably.

"You liked her handmaiden?" Varian finally glanced over at Shay and saw that she was wearing an almost impish smile.

"It – I mean, I…Well, she was at least ten years older than me." The words tumbled out of Varian in a series of clumsy mumbles. "So it's not like anything could have come of it. But she was gorgeous. She even saved my life once. And then I…" His face fell, and his voice became bitter with resentment. "Then I threatened her, along with everyone else." He fixed his somber gaze on Shay. "Like how I threatened you." He stood and brushed himself off. "I'm not a hero, Shay," he said suddenly. "Don't expect me to be one."

Killy stirred in Shay's arms, his eyes blinking open. He lifted his head, his ears swerving up and to the side as Rudiger approached and started sniffing the hare's sleepy face. Shay's face brightened, and she kissed Killy's head before setting him on the ground. He scampered into the brush, and Rudiger followed, his ringed tail swishing back and forth through the tall grass.

"No one's asking you to be a hero, Varian," Shay murmured as she watched the hare bound away. "But I do believe you can make things right." She looked at him, her red eye catching the sunlight as morning broke over the horizon. "I think you believe it, too. I don't think you would have come this far if you didn't."

Varian let her words sink in, his skin hot as a sudden breeze picked up and buffeted his coat. He strung his bow and turned away from Shay as he slung it over his shoulder. "Why do you believe in me so much?" By some miracle, he was able to keep his voice from cracking.

Shay's answer was soft and simple, and he felt her fingers gently pinch his sleeve as she slowly came up from behind. "Because you're my friend." She let go as Killy returned with his cheeks stuffed full of dandelion leaves. Rudiger's fur was stained with juice as he reappeared, and he sat back on his haunches to stuff a handful of berries into his toothy mouth. "Come on. The sooner we reach Xavier, the better."

"Right." Varian watched her step out of the rock's shadow and head back towards the stream. "Shay!" he called out. She stopped and looked back at him. "How long do we have to be friends before you tell me that secret you're hiding from me?"

Shay opened her mouth, then snapped it shut again. She ducked her head, sighing. "It's not that I don't want to, Varian," she admitted. "It's that it's not my secret to tell."

Varian reached and tugged at his blue lock of hair. "It wouldn't have anything to do with this, would it?"

"I don't know," Shay answered. "And I swear, that's the truth."

Varian gave a sigh of his own and decided to let it go. "Newbarth is still hours away," he said as he made his way to her. "I know we're both tired, but if we can reach it by nightfall, we might be able to sleep in beds instead of the hard ground."

"Do we have money for rooms?" Shay asked as she fell into pace beside him.

"I have some silver on me, courtesy of my dad. It's not like he has any use for it right now." He sucked in a deep breath of crisp, fall air. "I'll have to pay him back once we've freed him." Crickets chirped as they jumped out of his wake, leaping back and forth on tall stalks of weeds. Dew blazed as the sun continued to climb in the sky, and willow trees swayed in lazy shimmers of green and yellow. A dirt highway dipped in and out of sight as they wound up and down rolling hills, its brown trail tracing a thin line in the distance.

After a little while, Shay started to sing very quietly:

Where is your home, vagabond?

Where do you go when you don't belong?

Head held high, but your soul is down

Where is your home, vagabond?

You pass people and faces you don't recognize

Like past feelings and places you once felt alive

Where is your home, vagabond?

Where is your home when it all is done?

Can't put down roots because you won't last long

Everything here will all be gone*

As they approached a nearby patch of woods, she petered off and cleared her throat. "It's not a very cheerful song, I suppose," she whispered, "but it's one of the few I know. My mother used to sing it, when she was working in the garden." Tears welled in her eyes. "I miss her."

Considering what he'd been through, Varian understood what she was feeling. "What can you tell me about her?" he tried. "What's she like?"

Shay blinked the tears away. "She's very beautiful. She works hard, and she loves nature. She would teach me all sorts of things, like how to write and how to grow plants. She taught me how to sew and how to cast spells without setting things on fire."

Varian chuckled. "Sounds like you have a knack for that sort of thing."

"For magic?"

"Well, yeah, but I mean for fire." Varian jumped down off a steep slope. Rudiger leapt down onto his shoulder as he turned to help Shay. "So, what makes a person able to do magic? Is it something anyone can learn?"

"I believe there's a little magic in everyone," Shay answered as she handed Killy down to him. "Silly as it sounds."

Varian reached to catch her as she jumped down. "I don't think so."

Shay smiled weakly. "It's idealistic and…frightening."

"How so?" Varian asked as they entered a grove of oak trees. The answer came to him before she could give it. "Oh, I see. You mean that if everyone has the potential for magic, that includes bad people."

She nodded, fiddling with the hem of her apron. "Caius wasn't completely wrong when he told you magic can be hurtful. But it only hurts if it's used improperly."

Varian raised an eyebrow. "Like necromancy?"

Shay stopped in her tracks, her breath catching in her throat.

"There's no other reason why your mother would go down into Haderon's crypt, Shay. Everything that we found down there points to only one answer." Varian narrowed his eyes at her. "The question is why. I have a pretty good idea, but do you?"

"She…" The wind had died; Shay's quiet voice seemed to fill the entire grove. "She missed my father so much. She loved him more than anything. He was all she had, all she ever wanted. The day he was killed…I don't think she completely blamed Caius for his death. I think she blamed herself. She wasn't there to save him."

Varian didn't realize he was shaking his head. "So, she looked for a way to bring him back from the dead?"

"I thought she was researching healers." Shay wrapped her arms around her stomach, as if she was going to be sick. "At least, that's what she told me. I thought she was going to create a new elixir to cure diseases, to help increase our profits in Ghislaine. I didn't think she was trying to find a way to raise Papa from the dead!" They stood there, waiting for the breeze to return. Rudiger and Killy had frozen in the grass, staring up at their masters with curious eyes. When Shay spoke again, her voice was crisp and defiant. "My mother is not a bad person, Varian."

"I'm not saying she is, Shay." Varian countered. He sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm the last person who should be judging your family. All I'm saying is…let's hope sharing a coffin with a necromancer for seven years has made her see things differently, that's all."

But even as they exited the grove and continued on, Varian felt something cold seep into the pit of his stomach, like the draught Shay had given him the night he'd been injured. The fact still remained that the Crimson Caster was his best chance at finding a way to free his father. But what else would he have to deal with once he had the chance to ask her for her help? He'd already dealt with the undead once now, and once was more than enough for him. He didn't want to relive that experience.

But he couldn't resolve the issue now. First, they had to find Xavier. Before Varian could face the possibility of fighting the undead once more, he had to deal with the living first. And the living were more than bones and magic.

I just wish I knew what this meant, he thought to himself as strands of blue drifted past his eyes. Shay said she believed there was magic in everyone. If that was true, what sort of magic could Varian have? And if he had any, how would he use it?

To free my father, he answered himself. To make things right, the way only I can. As the hours blended together and the day slipped into dusk, he led Shay over one last hill to view the town of Newbarth. Royal guards, witch hunters, necromancers…with whatever power I have, I'll take them all on if I have to.

*"Vagabond" - Original song by Tommee Profitt, Feat. Fjora