Sole Dorato: Lui Restaurarà

by Tafkae

Chapter Eight: Northward

It kept raining through the night without stopping; Jenna knew this because each of the many times she woke from her restless sleep, all she heard was the drizzle and the slow rustling of wet leaves. The hours of darkness ran together so that she couldn't be sure whether or not she was getting any sleep at all. All that suggested the passage of time was who stood watch when she opened her eyes again. It was Alex first; then at some point it was Menardi instead, and then it was Alex again. What time was it? Had Menardi been there at all or had she dreamed it?

Dawn came just as greyly as dusk had. The sun remained invisible through the thick curtain of cloud, ash, and water. At first Jenna tried to go back to sleep yet again, but, unable to do so, she pried her eyes open and looked groggily about the campsite. Across from her, past the pile of soaked, useless wood that had once been the fire, Saturos slept apparently unperturbed by the cold and wet; his sword lay sheathed next to him with his hand firmly clasped over its hilt. Menardi was near him, propped against a tree trunk. Closest to Jenna was Felix, who had his blanket like everyone else, but was missing his cloak; a quick glance at herself revealed that he had draped it over her at some point, though she didn't remember when.

Alex was the only one already awake. He sat on a fallen log not three feet from her, staring out of the trees toward Vault, or perhaps at the vague mountain-shaped shadows past the eastern horizon. Or perhaps he wasn't looking at anything at all.

A yawn snuck up on Jenna and she let it out in spite of herself. The sound attracted the watchman's attention, and when her eyes opened again, his were staring into them. "Good morning. Did you sleep well?" he greeted pleasantly.

She glared indignantly in response. Was he trying to be funny? Of course she hadn't slept well!

Alex chuckled apologetically. "Sorry, I keep forgetting. You sit awake in the rain long enough, you almost stop noticing it after a while." He swung his legs over the log and sat facing into the circle.

Again, Jenna made no response. Alex watched her hopefully for a few moments, then sighed. "You know, Felix told me a lot about you while we were living in Prox," he said. "He said you were so cheerful and outgoing, but honestly, I don't think you've uttered a single cheerful word since I've met you."

"You try being cheerful and outgoing when you've been dragged away from your home and don't know if you'll live to ever see it again," Jenna muttered back.

Alex shrugged. "I don't know. I've managed it so far." He glanced at Saturos briefly to see if he was still asleep, then turned back to her. "If it's any comfort, no one but Saturos has any interest whatsoever in harming you. Personally, I'm rather fond of you, and I think Menardi is as well, and obviously Felix…"

Jenna looked at her brother, his long limbs stretched over the muddy ground, head resting on the pack he carried during the day. "He's always been too nice a guy for his own good," she said softly, laying her hand on the green cloak over her knees.

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me," said Alex with a nod. "He always wants to help people out – that's probably why he's along, actually, Saturos' threats aside."

"Helping you unleash destruction on the world?"

"No, we're not unleashing destruction at all. Well – potentially. Or – actually, it's complicated and I'm too tired to explain." As if to demonstrate, he suddenly yawned. "You'll just have to trust me on that one."

"Trust you? I met you a day and a half ago," Jenna pointed out crossly.

Alex sighed. "I know. Well, I've trusted Felix with my life since about two weeks after I met him, so it may not take long. But then again it's been years since I met Saturos, and he's still… Shoot, what am I saying? I shouldn't have taken two watches." He yawned again. "What time is it? Why don't you wake your brother, we should get moving."

After they roused the others, the first thing to do was determine a route. "North," Saturos said almost instantly as he examined the map. "Due north. We'll go through Lunpa and then over the mountains."

"That's practically suicide," Alex replied firmly, shaking his head. "Even if that part of the range weren't completely impassible, we'd be lucky to get through Lunpa and still have the clothes on our backs. The place is swarming with filthy thieves." He poked the map at the marker of a town to the northeast. "We should go by way of Bilibin. It's a little roundabout and takes us through two tunnels, but it's safe – no one who takes that route has any problems along the way."

Saturos opened his mouth to protest, but Menardi spoke before he got the chance. "Listen to him, Saturos, he lives there."

"But he didn't leave it overland," Saturos snapped, harshly folding up the map.

"At least I know the route better than you do," said Alex, annoyed.

"There's no time to wander around the long way. We're going north!"

"Why the hell are you picking a fight about this, Saturos?" Menardi groaned as her partner got to his feet. "He already said the north route is a dead end."

"It's called climbing! I'm sure you've heard of it."

Menardi clenched her teeth and seized him by the arm before he could storm off. "Now you're just picking a fight for the sake of picking a fight. The road's clearly marked on the map, he's right, and you're wrong. We're going through Bilibin, and if you want to be a stubborn jackass and go north instead, that's fine, but you'll be getting lost on your own."

Saturos fixed a silent, furious glare on her, and she a determined one on him; a moment later he jerked his arm from her grasp and began walking northward without a word. Alex stepped forward, but Menardi held up a hand and he stopped. "Best we give him some space," she said calmly.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, long before he would be out of sight, Saturos turned eastward. Menardi chuckled and started the rest of the group after him.

Thus began their monotonous journey to Bilibin. The road was straight and well-packed from centuries of use, and in better weather, it was an easy and pleasant road. But in rain like this – which, incidentally, showed no sign whatsoever of letting up for the next two days – it was just one long mud puddle with wagon ruts in it. Menardi caught up with Saturos and stayed more or less abreast of him in front, while the other three followed at a short distance from the Proxians and one another.

Not long after their path joined the road, Felix caught up to Alex. Alex acknowledged him with a brief glance, but didn't say anything. "Are you okay?" Felix asked. "You seem less… um… energetic than usual."

Alex shrugged. "I give up. I'm not even going to try to understand Saturos anymore."

"What's not to understand?" said Felix. "He's a—" He glanced at Saturos ahead of them, and stopped just in case.

"I just don't see why he made such a big deal of it," Alex muttered. "I know how to get to Imil and he doesn't. There's not any kind of problem with that, is there?"

Felix thought for a second, then nodded slightly. "You know what… maybe he thinks you're a threat."

"What?" said Alex, making a face. "What do you mean?"

"Well, your ideas are better than his, nine times of ten," Felix pointed out. "And you're a natural leader, too." Alex scoffed at that. "I'm serious. Saturos is probably thinking we'll mutiny if he doesn't 'keep us in line,' that's what I think."

"I'm not the mutinying type," said Alex, shaking his head.

"I didn't say you were," replied Felix, slowing to let Jenna catch up. "But…"

"I'll keep an eye out, anyway," said Alex. "Hadn't thought of that. And we all know how Saturos gets with people he doesn't like."

Neither of them said any more on the subject. What Alex assumed had not been what Felix was going to say, but in retrospect, he was kind of glad he hadn't said it.

He's right, he isn't a mutineer, he thought. But I could see him becoming one.

"Three and a half days over land, in ankle-deep mud," said Menardi as they finally reached the entrance of Bilibin Tunnel. "I'd say we're doing very well. If we're lucky, the rain might have stopped by the time we reach the other end." (It was possible; the deluge had lessened to a light shower over the last day or so, and the clouds had gone from black to medium grey.)

"Well, about bloody time," Saturos grunted, pulling himself effortlessly up the slippery rocks below the cave's mouth. The other three had a much more difficult time of it, but made it up in the end, and the group entered together.

Having bought some unlit torches in Vault, they now lit three of them and entrusted them to Alex, Menardi, and Jenna (the latter with the reasoning that if there was any trouble, the hostage wouldn't be much help in a fight anyway). "Be wary," Menardi cautioned. "Places like this are perfect for springing an ambush."

For the most part, the tunnel was a natural cave and fairly spacious, with plenty of suspicious shadows and overhangs along the main path. Fortunately, the path was clearly marked with periodic signs and white paint, so while it would be no difficult task to ambush travelers here, at least there wasn't much chance of them getting lost.

Where the others continued warily, Jenna was downright jittery. The not-so-distant echoes of dripping water, somewhere outside the limited reach of the torches, combined with the dancing shadows from the torches themselves, made her jump at almost regular intervals. No one noticed her anxiety until, accompanied by a shriek and a splash, her torch suddenly went out.

"Jenna!" Felix shouted and whirled to find her, afraid something awful had happened; however, as Alex and his torch drew up beside them, it became clear that she had only tripped and fallen into an ankle-deep stream. Alex chuckled and watched as she retrieved her torch and let Felix help her out of the water, but stopped abruptly as she ignited the torch herself before he could offer to relight it. "You're a fire adept?" he asked in surprise.

Jenna and Felix looked at him as if he had just called the sky blue. "Yeah, I am. What about it?" Jenna challenged him.

Alex waved his free hand defensively. "Nothing, I just assumed you were both earth adepts, being brother and sister…"

"Well, sorry to disappoint," said Jenna facetiously. When they continued, Alex brought up the rear instead of her, so she wouldn't worry about being left behind.

For a long time they walked silently on the white-painted path, all eyes and ears peeled for trouble. The darkness deepened, closing in on their torches such that Saturos and Menardi were forced to send conjured flames ahead so they could see where they were going. The atmosphere was far from pleasant, even once they'd gotten used to the musty air typical of caves. It progressively worsened as they walked, until finally, Menardi stopped, wrinkled her nose, and said, "What is that smell?"

Saturos glanced at her – then behind her. "Look out!" he shouted.

Menardi jumped instinctively out of the way as a tremendous, lumbering form trampled out of the shadows with a low, throaty roar, slamming Saturos into the stone wall before he could draw his sword. In a flash, Menardi pulled her long scythe from her back and swung at the enormous creature, but the curved blade glanced off its skin. "What is that thing!" Jenna screamed.

Felix drew his sword uncertainly, not sure whether or not the two Proxians had the situation under control. Alex didn't think so, and unleashed a stream of razor-sharp ice needles on their attacker, but quickly realized he was doing no damage. The creature turned its grey, chinless head dully toward him, but before it got a chance to attack, Menardi distracted it by forcefully jamming her torch into the back of its hand. The monster howled and swatted at the irritant, knocking both the torch and its wielder flat to the ground, and extinguishing the former; but in doing so, for a few scant seconds, it had released its captive's sword hand.

Saturos seized the opportunity and whipped his blade from its sheath. Given that he was still pinned against the wall with his feet a good six inches off the ground, however, there was little he could do with it, so he hacked ineffectually at the stony hide of the hand still holding him. The monster, confused and irritated, plucked him from the wall and made to throw him into the deep darkness surrounding them, but didn't get the chance; as Menardi righted herself, she hurled a spinning orb of fire into its face. The thing howled and dropped Saturos in favor of nursing its injured eyes. Unfazed, Saturos rolled into a crouch, and the blade of his sword started to give off a golden light as he tightened his grip on its hilt, and not half a second later, he thrust it with all his strength into the creature's wide belly.

The air burst from around him with a sound like a boulder falling onto gravel, knocking everyone off balance except himself, and extinguishing the remaining two torches to plunge them all into total darkness.

The monster moaned briefly, and there was the thump of something heavy falling over. "Saturos?" Menardi called, and a second later a fireball flickered to life in one raised hand, providing just enough light to prove that Saturos was indeed the victor. He still stood at the feet of the giant corpse, with his bloodied sword lowered to his side.

Jenna quickly relit her torch, and Alex's when he silently proffered it, and the party warily converged on the beast's remains. They were met with a gruesome sight; the creature's torso had apparently been violently collapsed in upon itself. Jenna gagged and closed her eyes, and Felix grimaced in similar disgust. Alex, not quite as bothered by it, stepped closer at the same time as Menardi and held his torch over the body. "What was that?" he asked.

"A troll," said Saturos matter-of-factly. "Guess it was hungry."

"But trolls have been extinct for centuries," Alex protested.

"No, it's just been centuries since anybody's seen one and survived," Menardi corrected him. "But since they're obviously not terribly hard to survive, it's more likely they've just been in hibernation for the last few hundred years."

Alex furrowed his brow, trying to wrap his mind around the idea. "How is that possible?"

"Beats me," said Menardi, shrugging. "Though it might have something to do with the seal…"

"We haven't broken the seal yet," said Saturos.

"No, the other seal. But even then it doesn't make much sense." She bit her thumbnail in thought.

"What other seal?" asked Felix.

Saturos and Menardi looked at him in unison, as if just noticing he was there. "The first one," said Saturos. "The one we broke by removing the Stars. I'm sure you remember the lightshow."

"That was a seal? You never said anything about—"

"We'd better keep moving," Menardi interrupted, replacing her scythe across her back. "We should reach Bilibin by nightfall, barring any further … encounters. Where there's one troll, there's more, and they won't be content to eat one another forever."

She recovered her torch and lit it, then rejoined the trail and started off. Saturos followed her after wiping and sheathing his sword, and Alex hurried to catch him. Felix nudged his sister, who was still staring at the troll's body with a hand over her mouth. "Come on, it's too dangerous to stay," he said.

Jenna nodded a second later and followed him and the receding lights of the other torches at a trot. "That—is—disgusting," she choked out once the stench of death had died down a little.

Felix didn't answer. It's not going to be the last time, he thought.

Ahead of them, Alex walked alongside Saturos, holding the torch high to try and extend its radius, which didn't work. "Saturos, I'm curious," he said tentatively, after a while. "Just what kind of a sword is that?"

"This?" said Saturos, resting his hand on the hilt. "Its name is the Titan Blade. I'm willing to bet it's older than even the lighthouses."

Alex's eyebrows rose. "Really! It's in great shape for a thousand-year-old sword."

Saturos nodded. "Well, alchemical weapons are known for lasting a very long time."

"What do you mean?"

He smirked. "Alex, this sword is a relic of the Golden Age. Back then, there were alchemists all over the world, forging weapons like this. You could do anything with weapons back then—there were swords that could heal, axes that could think, staves that always killed with a single blow. Prox's forges far outstripped all the others, of course." The tinge of pride in his voice was unmistakable. "Our forges… we were gods of war…" Suddenly the pride turned to disgust. "It's too bad all anyone does anymore is sit around and wait to fall off the edge of the world."

"Well, that's simply not true," Alex interjected, but Saturos cut him off.

"You lived there for three years, Alex! You know what's left of my people. They won't say it, but most of them believe we're destined to fail. You can see it in their eyes." He bristled at the very thought of it.

"So think of the looks on their faces when you prove them dead wrong," Alex said quickly, trying to calm him down. "They'll welcome us back as heroes."

"Or as fools." Saturos shook his head. "Funny that they're the people I'm trying so hard to save." He glanced over his shoulder. "Felix and the girl are falling behind again—go tell them to keep up, will you?"

And that was the end of the conversation.

The rain had indeed stopped by the time they emerged from the tunnel, leaving the town of Bilibin easily visible. It was nearer to the exit than anyone had thought, and they had reached the stockade with time to spare before the sun set… but surprisingly, despite the early hour, the gate was already shut.

Saturos stepped forward and knocked insistently on the gate. A few seconds later a small window in it slid open, revealing the face of a man in a leather helmet. "What do you want?"

"To come in, of course," said Saturos impatiently.

"Which road did you come by?"

Jenna, looking about at the scenery, suddenly noticed movement on the road where it continued to the east. Squinting, she recognized it as a man, running toward them at a breakneck pace. "Um…"

"We came from Vault through the tunnel," Saturos replied. "Will you open the gate?"

"Yes, just a moment." The small window closed, and a few seconds later the wooden gate creaked open and the guard motioned that they enter. "There's a quarantine of late, y'see—no strangers may enter Bilibin from the east."

"What about that guy?" said Jenna, pointing at the running man, who had almost caught up with them and was now yelling something indistinguishable at the top of his lungs.

The guard looked past her. "Oh, sh—get inside. Quickly!"

A bit confused, the party hurried through the gate, and only as it was closing behind them did the man's shouts become intelligible. "Wait, don't! Please, you have to help us!"

The guard barred the gate just as the pounding on it began, and yelled back without opening the little window. "Get back! There's a quarantine on the east road!"

"No, please! There's a terrible curse! I barely escaped it! Hurry, before—"

Everyone but Saturos winced as the man's voice suddenly twisted into a scream, which faded as another, more grotesque sound grew – that of splintering wood. But within a few seconds, the splintering noise had died as well. The guard waited a moment, then opened the window to look out. "What happened?" said Alex, concerned.

The guard paused, then closed the window and faced them. "It's all right, travelers, just go about your business. You must be tired after walking all the way from Vault."

"But—" Alex tried, but the guard interrupted more forcefully.

"Sirs, there is nothing to see here. Please move along!"

The inn was close by, so there wasn't far to move along. Jenna, though still unnerved by the strange sounds at the gate even hours later, couldn't help but be glad to finally get out of the muck and to wash the filth out of her dress and skin and sleep in a real bed; but she did her best not to show it. For some reason she got the feeling that any lapse in her bitter silence might somehow agitate Menardi, with whom she had to share a room; the men slept in the room next door. But if Menardi was agitated even in the least, Jenna couldn't tell by her behavior. The two women didn't spare each other more than a handful of words all night, except when Menardi, while mending a small tear in her dress where it had caught on a bramble, asked Jenna casually if she could sew. Jenna replied that she could, and that was all the more either one said.

The party left very early the next morning, such that Jenna wondered facetiously if the Proxians had better vision than the rest of them and just didn't realize how dark it was. As they trudged through the deep mud of the north road, which frequently forced them into the grass on either side of it lest they lose their boots, she glanced at her brother or his friend Alex every so often. Felix's expression wavered only between "stoic" and "annoyed," and Alex's between "content" and "positively chipper."

How was the guy so damn happy all the time?

On the afternoon of their third day out of Bilibin, the unmistakable wide mouth of the northern tunnel came into view. It looked more like a tall, simple gate than a cave, actually, and the road led right up to it rather than making them climb.

As they got closer, Alex trotted ahead of the group and stood just outside the entrance, waiting for them to catch up. "Here, watch this," he exclaimed once they could hear him again; he moved aside to reveal a glassy black circle behind him, about the size of his palm.

"Watch what?" said Saturos.

Alex held up one finger, then turned and lay his hand on the circle. Immediately four lines of bright light issued out from it and spread down the length of the tunnel, providing more than enough illumination to walk by. Jenna gasped; Saturos raised an eyebrow. "Interesting…"

"Neat, isn't it? Just a little bit of Psynergy and we don't have to burn through our torches." Alex smiled broadly and motioned inward. "Shall we?"

Saturos held back, waiting for Alex, while the others entered. "I thought you said you hadn't been this way before," he said a little dangerously once only Alex could hear him well.

"I never said that," said Alex. "I've been to Bilibin a few times. Don't act so surprised."

For a second Saturos just stared icily at him, then he proceeded down the path, Alex not far behind.

The lines of light stayed unwaveringly bright as they followed the corridor under the mountain, and a corridor it was; the walls and floor were perfectly straight and almost perfectly smooth, with precision too consistent to be the work of any normal tools. Felix ran his hand along one of the walls, sometimes letting it guide him while he closed his eyes. I wonder how long this has been here, he thought. He had no doubt it had been hewn out of the rock by earth adepts, but the effort that would take for a tunnel this long must have been phenomenal…

It was dark outside by the time they reached the other end, so they camped just inside the exit. The first thing Jenna noticed when her brother woke her the next morning was how cold it was; she must have been too tired to realize it when she fell asleep. The thin layer of frost on the grass crunched under their feet as they walked, and Jenna pulled her violet cloak tight around her shoulders to keep out the chill. She was surprised that no one else seemed bothered by it. All the more Felix did was adjust his cloak when it finally started snowing a few hours later, and the other three didn't even notice the drop in temperature as far as she could tell.

As it began to darken again – already? The hours of one foot in front of the other must have been taking their toll – they came upon two small wooden buildings just off the side of the road, almost identical to a pair they had encountered shortly after lunch but paid no mind to. "Where are we going to camp?" Felix asked generally as Alex approached one of the houses. The snow was already four inches deep, and to spend the night in it…

Alex knocked loudly on the door, then, when no response came back, opened it. "In here," he said, pointing indoors.

His companions entered and surveyed the cabin's one room; it boasted two bunk beds and a simple fireplace, and while a bit drafty, it was at least dry. "They're sort of halfway houses," Alex explained, letting the others get settled in. "The idea is, most people who come this way are already ill, so why compound it with exposure?"

Saturos wore an oddly triumphant-looking smirk as he signed his name in the guestbook, but only Jenna noticed it, and she didn't really want to know what he was feeling so smug about.

Over the following day, the only things that changed about their travel were the depth of the snow, and at some point, the gradual appearance of a blue spire on the horizon. Jenna leaned toward her brother a little as soon as she was sure it was really there. "What is that?" she whispered.

Felix paused, as if reluctant to tell her. "The Mercury Lighthouse," he finally said.

Mercury Lighthouse. So that's really where we're going? she thought. They were trudging through a foot of snow for days and days to reach a blue lighthouse which she could only assume they were going to somehow set on fire with a glowing rock… it all seemed so unreal.

Alex predicted at lunchtime that they wouldn't make it to town before dark, and he was right. They spent what seemed like a very long night in another small cabin, and left shortly before dawn the next morning. By then the snow had stopped falling, but it was still overcast enough that Jenna found herself beginning to despair of ever seeing the sun again. The tower continued to grow as they approached the town, and only a few hours into the day, they crested a hill lined with evergreens and suddenly came within sight of the white-capped thatch roofs of Imil.

Alex stopped and stared down at the familiar village, barely noticing when his companions passed him by. Smoke rose from every chimney, and from here he could make out the shapes of people going about their daily errands, and a few children at play in the new-fallen snow. He was sure he knew all of them, but their distance maintained their anonymity, just as it maintained his. It abruptly occurred to him that he didn't want to be recognized yet; he didn't remember telling anyone where he was going or why, three years ago, and they would ask, and…

"Alex!"

He glanced down to the source of Felix's voice. "What's wrong?" his friend asked.

Alex looked back at the town, then shook his head. "It's nothing. I was just thinking." As he started down the hill, though, he pulled back his long turquoise hair and stuffed it into his collar, then raised his hood over it.

Felix's eyes lit with understanding just as the other man caught up. "Oh, right. I keep forgetting."

"Forgetting what?" said Jenna.

"I … used to live there," Alex explained, a hint of dread seeping into his voice. "We'll be delayed if I'm recognized, that's all."

"Do you have family there?" Jenna asked.

For a minute Alex just walked alongside them in silence; then, just as she decided he wasn't going to answer, he did. "You might say that."

Before long, they were down among the white houses. The streets were partly shoveled already, though it was still fairly early in the morning, and the shovel boys stopped their work for a moment to watch the strangers pass by. They weren't the only ones, though—everyone stopped whatever they were doing to stare. Imil saw many visitors, but never anything like this. One man who was sky blue from head to toe, a blonde woman who might have just looked very badly sunburned if not for her scales, two normal-looking folks and someone hiding under a thick hood; it was such a random assortment that no one who saw could make heads or tails of it.

It wasn't as if they hadn't received odd looks in Bilibin, too, but there Alex had had less trouble ignoring them. Here, every pair of curious eyes had a name, and even disguised as he was, every time he made fleeting eye contact with someone he was struck with the fear that maybe he had already betrayed his identity. His mind had already jumped far ahead of himself. Where were you all these years, Alex? Why did you leave us? What about your patients? What about poor Mia?

"Where are we going?" Felix asked generally.

Menardi turned and pointed ahead, where the sign over the inn door swung back and forth in the cold breeze. "There. We may as well get a room before we head back out, so it's still there when we get back." Her eyes moved from Felix to his sister. "And I'm sure you're all eager to get out of the cold for a few minutes."

Jenna swallowed nervously.

Saturos advanced briskly to the service counter, though there was no one behind it. He picked up and rang the small bell resting on the edge. "Hello?" he called impatiently.

The tone of the bell finally pulled Alex from his self-conscious worry, even as he vaguely noticed the voice of the innkeeper's wife shouting that she'd be with them in a moment. He shook his head to clear it and quickly caught up. "Saturos, wait, we don't h… can we speak a moment?"

Saturos glared, but allowed Alex to take him aside, with Menardi. "What is it?"

"We don't need to check in so soon," Alex whispered. "The inn's almost never crowded, so there's sure to be space when we get back from There."

"How far is it?" Menardi asked.

"Only about three hours east. If we just leave now, we'll be back with time to spare before sundown."

"Sounds good," said Menardi. "Let's go."

"Wish you'd have said that before we waltzed into town," Saturos grunted.

"Felix! Jenna! Come on," Menardi called across the main room. Jenna glared viciously – she had literally just sat down by the crackling fireplace – but Felix helped her lightly to her feet, with or without her consent, and she grudgingly dragged her feet after him as they walked toward the door.

Alex reached it first and was just about to open it when it suddenly opened of its own accord and knocked him stumbling back into the room. He yelped in surprise.

"Oh my gosh! I'm sorry!" the blue-headed girl exclaimed, just as surprised as he was. Felix realized with one look that this had to be his friend's sister; Alex realized it without even looking, and immediately covered his (uninjured) face with one hand. "Ow! Ow!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't see you there," said Mia, coming closer. "Are you all right?"

"No, no, I'm fine," Alex insisted anxiously, backing away. "Sorry I got in your way, miss, go ahead..."

"Are you sure?" Mia prodded.

"Yes, I'm fine!" said Alex, even less firmly than before. It began to dawn on him that, knowing his sister's stubbornness, he couldn't convince her he wasn't bleeding out the nose except by showing her, but if he did that…

Saturos recognized the dilemma and stepped forward, more or less between Alex and his sister. "Excuse me, miss," he interjected commandingly.

Mia jumped, incredulous at the fact that she'd failed to notice someone looking like that when she came in. "Yes?" she asked hesitantly.

"We're here to see the mayor," Saturos lied. "Where can we find him?"

"What do you want to see him f—"she began, but the Proxian's piercing red glare stopped her cold. She swallowed and started again. "His house is four buildings north," she answered with a very forced calmness, and pointed vaguely behind her without letting her eyes leave him even momentarily.

"Thank you," said Saturos tersely, and motioned his companions quickly out the door. The moment they were out of sight, Mia let out the reflexive shudder she'd withheld.

"What do you think they're here for?" said the innkeeper's wife, who had come in sometime during the commotion.

Mia's brow furrowed. "I don't know, but I doubt they're here on vacation."

Hiffaffiburi da na, Hojo!

Um… I mean, thanks for keeping reading and reviewing, even when I take forever to update!
It's wonderful knowing people continue to like this deranged little project of mine.