Dave's pacing makes Karkat dizzy. "What's the big deal?" Karkat says, "Not like we didn't face mortal peril carting me to Xadia. Now you're just returning me to the right side of the border."

Dave stops to, as far as Karkat can tell, glare. "That might've worked with the Dragon King. This is Sol Regem we're talking about."

Karkat quirks a brow. "You say that like it means something to me." He jerks a thumb at his chest. "Dumb human, remember?"

Dave murmurs something that sounds like, "You're not dumb," before clearing his throat. "Sol Regem hates humans." He holds up a mitten to stall Karkat's protests. "'Hates' like 'detests', like 'absolutely despises', like 'will kill on sight and gives a grand total of zero shits about who, what, when, where, how, or why'."

Karkat lets out a deep breath.

"Right." Dave resumes pacing. "And then there's the matter of you and dark magic."

Karkat's stomach drops and turns to ice. "How...how did you find out about it."

"I can feel it." Dave frowns. "Or I can not feel it; 's kind of like black spots blocking parts of your vision—anyway." He looks back over his shoulder. "He's going to take one sniff at you and go bonkers. 'I smell death' and all that."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. You know this...how? Clearly, you smuggle dark mages across the border on the regular."

Dave inhales. "No," he says, "just one other time." He looks down and away before facing Karkat again. "Rose."

Karkat does a double take. "What? Lalonde? You're yanking my chain."

Dave snorts. "I wish." He looks off to the side again. "A dark mage killed her mom, so she chased him across the border and decided to 'give him a taste of his own medicine'. Yeah." Karkat thinks Dave rolls his eyes. "More like cutting off the nose to spite the face. We only made it back because of John's fart bomb."

"...what."

"Distraction." Dave points back over at Sol Regem. "Blind. John fooled him with the loudest, smelliest fart ever loosed in the known world." A corner of his mouth lifts before drooping again. "I can do some things, but not that."

Finally, Karkat says, "I didn't know elves did dark magic."

"Apparently." A chuckle. "Hard to believe anyone who touches the stuff is evil after your own friend does it."

Karkat nods. Then: "Dave..." He reaches out and catches Dave's arm. "Cross without me. I'll find another way and catch up."

Dave shakes his head. "We've already split this party like a GM's worst nightmare." He puts a mitt above Karkat's hand. "I'm not leaving you behind."

"Dave..."

"No." He looks at their shadows, then the sun, high in the sky. "I can sense it, Karkat, but I just want to make sure: it was just once, right? Small spell."

Karkat nods. "It was..." He shakes himself from the memory. "I was desperate and got sick for days after. I've never done any since."

"I can get rid of the smell of death. But it's not like Rose's magic," Dave says, "It's real. It takes a small part of you and probably won't be pleasant. And Sol Regem might torch us anyway."

Karkat grits his teeth, then looks Dave in the eye. "Do it."

"One other thing: I haven't done this in a while. The last time I did it, my brother...did some pretty bad stuff to me." He grips Karkat's shoulders. "I'm not telling you a sob story or whatever; it's that magic is heavily tied to emotional state, so I—"

"Dave." Karkat cups a cheek. "Do your best. I can't ask any more of you. If you decide this is too risky, I won't force you. No matter what, I trust you, and I'm with you."

Dave takes some deep breaths. "Okay. Okay." He drops his sword and hands over the sword belt. "So you don't bite your tongue off." When Karkat nods, he draws a rune and murmurs, "Medella luminis."

The rune envelopes them, and Dave glows.

Karkat forces himself to relax and tells himself to breathe. Dave, with a luminous hand, debrides dark flakes from Karkat's left palm. Karkat hisses at the heat and pain. Dave does the same with his temples and around his eyes.

"Now look at my hand."

It's too bright. Karkat can't help but blink, so he looks at Dave's face instead. It's just as bright, but it reminds Karkat of the way Dave rambles about nothing, the way his lips quirk upward, and the way he makes Karkat's heart soar. Air rakes his throat raw, but he bites down on the belt and keeps his eyes open, and finally, the light fades.

"Holy shit, it worked," Dave says.

Karkat holds out the belt. "Um." His eyes tear up, and he blinks, but the tears sting his eyes. He gives up and shuts them. "Give me a minute."

"Karkat?" He hears Dave re-equip his sword.

"I'm fine. Eyes just need a bit to adjust."

Something slips over the bridge of his nose and behind his ears. He cracks open an eye to tinted glass. Before he can say anything, Dave tugs him forward. "C'mon, let's go."

As they dart across the pass, the wind silently shifts direction, and the only warning Karkat has is a roar and a hard shove that nearly knocks the wind out of him. Hot air scalds his back, making the burning sand pressing against his front feel like cool water. He scrambles for Dave's shades, dread pooling in his gut.

"Human!" the dragon roars, but someone tugs Karkat to his feet and swings him into their arms. The surroundings flash by with each step.

Veins of embers run across Dave's face, his sclera coal black, his irises glowing the red of hot iron.

Karkat gapes. "What—"

"Talk less, run more!" Dave hisses, and the next time, Karkat manages to land in a crouch and scuttles behind a boulder.

"My parents died when I was young, fighting humans," Dave says, "but even before that, my brother was really messed up." His shades reflect dancing flames. "After, he gained full control over me, as my only living relative. He obsessed over vengeance and wanted a warrior. So he was ecstatic about my heat-being powers." His right hand sprouts ember veins. "And he thought my light-being powers were a waste of time." His left hand glows. "But I'm a stubborn bitch, so I practiced in secret because I wasn't stupid enough to provoke him by revealing my healing mojo just to find a teacher. But..." He scratches his neck. "Kind of hard to hide when you shine like the fucking sun." He deactivates his powers. "I hate fighting. I just want to help. But if I couldn't get what I wanted, then I wouldn't give him what he wanted either. He..." Dave laughs, humorlessly. "He locked me in my room without food or water, except to spar. Wasn't the first time, but something about that time made me go, you know what? fuck this. and I ran away." He glances at Karkat. "Now you know."

Karkat can't find the right words, so he leans in, and his lips meet Dave's halfway.

Many thanks to Dreamnorn for being my writing cheerleader and doing the voices. And as always, thank you for reading.