A new chapter is here!

This time, we visit Torigoth, do some camping, get a taste of Malos and Minoth's cooking skills, before Minoth discovers something unexpected within himself.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Under the Setting Sun

"This place really is just a shitty little middle of nowhere place, huh?" is the first thing that comes out of Malos' mouth when they arrive in Torigoth. "Not that it was much to start with, as far as I remember."

"Are you going to keep insulting it the entire time we're here?" Minoth asks, already feeling an ache building up at the back of his head. The walk there had been tense, filled with awkward silence, the only sounds that of their footsteps on the sandy path.

Even after what had happened, Minoth still had some trouble believing Malos was somehow back from the dead, and kept looking over at him to make absolutely sure he hadn't been hallucinating, only to find Malos staring right back at him. All evidence points to that not being the case, but he can still hope this is all just a bad dream, and when he wakes up in the morning, Malos will be gone.

"But it's true!" Malos protest, his voice loud enough to make some of the locals turn their heads and glare at them in irritation. "Even the smallest shitty villages in Uraya or Mor Ardain look better than this!"

Well, he's not entirely wrong, Minoth has to admit. While the rebuilding is coming along very well, they're focusing more on the practicality, rather than the aesthetics, at least for now. Getting up housing for people, room for businesses, storages and restaurants... There's much to be done still.

"Can't bring you anywhere, can I?" He settles for sarcastically quipping instead, as he grabs Malos by the arm and drags him along, before he says something to really upset someone. The last thing he wants right now is to end up in some brawl with the locals because Malos can't keep his mouth shut.

"Of course not, what do you take me for, one of your little Tornan buddies?" Malos mutters, but doesn't try to pry his arm from Minoth's grasp, and follows along without fighting back.

Amazingly enough, he mostly keeps his mouth shut, or at least keeps the insults under his breath so people don't really hear him. Which is better than nothing, and while Minoth would prefer to be rid of the man, he will take what he can get.

Even though the rebuilding has been going well, and Torigoth is already quite a size compared to how it originally was, it's still not huge, and only a few minutes of walking later, he has found the person who he got the job from. A few moments later he has traded the bag with the Gogol claws for five pouches of G. Five thousand G in total, a thousand per pouch. A thousand per Gogol. Normally he might have asks for a bit more, because Gogols are pretty nasty and tough, but these people are poor and need the help, so he doesn't, just gives the man a neutral smile and tucks the small pouches into his bag.

Before he has a chance to as much as turn around, the man already has another request for him. Apparently, the materials that were supposed to be brought from a small village further up the titan's neck haven't arrived yet, and they haven't heard anything from there in a while, and are worried something might have happened, maybe some monsters are causing trouble there too, and if Minoth could go check it out? And of course he agrees to it, because there's no reason not to. And he'll get paid.

"This what you've been doing the past years?" Malos asks once they're out of earshot of the man. "Just... wandering around, running errands for humans? Running errands, delivering messages, fighting monsters they can't handle?"

"I've been helping them, which shouldn't come as a surprise to you at this point," Minoth says. After all, just a short while ago, Malos was pointing out how they were doing just that back in Torna. This should not be news to him.

"Guess not," Malos replies almost moodily, kicking a rock against a wall. "Say," he continues in a more gleeful tone, "since I helped you kill those Gogols, shouldn't I get part of the payment?"

"Since when do you care about money?" Minoth has to ask, because he can't recall Malos ever showing any interest in riches. No taking money or valuables, no looting, no nothing.

"Since I lost my powers and can't get around or grab food whenever I'm hungry," Malos replies. That... actually makes sense. Before, Malos was able to teleport wherever he wanted to go, or take one of his artifices, and he was also able to easily hunt or even steal whatever food he needed. None of those things are an option anymore, asides from maybe hunting something tiny that he can kill with his bare hands.

"Fine," Minoth relents with a sigh. Since Malos did technically help him defeat one of the Gogols, even if it was by using Minoth's weapon since he couldn't have handled it otherwise, he does deserve a part of the reward money. He digs out the money he got from the job, and tosses one of the five poches to Malos. "Since you killed one of the five Gogols, you get one fifth of the reward. A thousand G."

"That's not a lot, is it?" Malos asks as he tosses the pouch from one hand to the other. "Considering how tough those things can be. You know, for normal people or weak Blades, like you."

"Or like you," Minoth replies. "Or did you already forget I'm the one who had to save your sorry ass from those things?" he reminds the man. Judging by the way he huffs and looks away, arms crossed, he'd rather forget that little factoid. But Malos isn't wrong saying a thousand G per Gogol is not much. Or much in general. A thousand G is enough for a few nights at an inn, along with a few meals a day for those days, but not much more.

Having nothing more to say to Malos, Minoth turns his back to the Aegis and carries on. He has another job to do, after all.

If Minoth had been hoping that Malos would decide to just go off somewhere else and leave him be, especially after he got his part of the money, he's wrong, as the man just keeps trailing after him like some kind of lost puppy. It kind of makes him wonder if Malos is just lonely, if he really like annoying Minoth that much, or if he has some other reason for deciding to stay with him.

Hopefully, he'll find out sooner or later.

Trying to ignore Malos' strange and still somewhat unnerving presence, Minoth decides his next move is to take a trip to the marketplace, because he's running low on supplies, so most of the money is going to be spent replacing those. He also needs to save money for when it's time to leave the Titan, as travelling isn't cheap. Which means he won't have enough money left over to comfortably stay at the inn, so he'll have to do some camping for the next couple of nights, at least.

He's going to need some healing and first aid supplies since he doesn't have a healer to rely on, he's running low on ink and papers, so he'll have to fill up on those, and while he hunts and forages as much as possible for food, there are some things he needs to spend money on, because they can't just be found out in the wilderness. He'll need to pick up some rations, just in case, because while their taste leaves much to be desired, they are most useful in dire situations, and they keep for a long time.

He'll also need to get some new clothing, because he's had his current cloak for so long, it's practically ready to fall apart, with all the times he's had to mend it. Too bad normal, human clothing isn't as durable as his Blade armour.

The marketplace is small but has a certain small-town charm to it. The stalls have only their best items displayed, and vendors are happily chatting with customers and each other. There's someone playing a happy tune on a local instrument at the music instrument store. There's an upbeat, positive air to the place.

As he buys supplies, Malos follows him silently around the marketplace like a shadow, curiously watching the exchanges. He tilts his head like a confused dog, and his sharp eyes keep track of every coin spent, and what they're spent on. Minoth doesn't understand his weird fascination. It's like he's never seen someone shopping before.

He later realizes this might very well be the case.

Luckily, marketplace in Torigoth has more or less all he needs, except the cloak. He even got a nice Armu steak for a good price. After that's done, it doesn't take much asking around to find out there's a small clothing store close by, where he should be able to find what he needs.

"Is there a single establishment on this titan that doesn't look like it's about to fall apart, if you as much as look at it the wrong way?"

The clothing store they have been directed to is honestly barely more than a sad little hole in the wall. Minoth can't even disagree with Malos when the Aegis points this out. Even if he could stand to keep his voice down.

But nonetheless, hole in the wall or not, Minoth needs to get new clothing to keep up his human disguises. Malos decides to get an extra cloak for himself, since his current one is in pretty sorry shape, along with a blanket, claiming he's tired of sleeping on the ground as the nights get colder.

Overall, the shopping has taken a good chunk of Minoth's money, and nearly everything Malos had. But at least he's got the supplies he needs, which is the important thing. Deciding not to waste any time, Minoth starts heading out of town, and towards the more mountainous regions of the Gormotti Titan's neck.

The walk is mostly quiet and peaceful. There's still some daylight left, and the sun is shining from a clear sky, making the grassy plains of Gormott look spectacular and inviting. Minoth tries to not take too long to take in the sights or deviate from the path, as it's a fairly long way, and a pretty steep climb, so saving energy by not taking any unnecessary detours is a good idea.

At least to Minoth, as Malos doesn't quite seem to share this way of thinking, and somehow manages to pick a fight with some local wildlife or other. At least he only goes after things he can handle himself, like Bunnits or small Krabbles. Though sometimes the monsters will mistake Minoth for also being a threat, since Malos is travelling with him, and ends up roped into the fight as well.

Minoth suspects Malos either doesn't like feeling weak, being without his powers, and tries to do some training, or he's trying to somehow prove he's not as weak as Minoth's called him out for being. Or he just can't go more than a few hours without getting into a fight. Any of those seem possible.

Either way, constantly having to stop to fight monsters is taking up time and energy unnecessarily.

Eventually, after a couple more hours of wandering, it's starting to turn evening, with the sun starting to set, and everything getting darker. And with less progress made that day than Minoth had hoped he would. While he has no trouble seeing in the darkness, being a dark Blade himself, he will need to eat and get some rest. Finding a safe place to camp, away from any predators, would be ideal, so he doesn't need to keep watch, nor have to rely on Malos to do so.

"What are you doing now?" Malos asks, speaking up for the first time in a while. He's stopped fighting monsters a bit ago, at least. Maybe he just burnt out all his extra energy for the day. Minoth can only hope he won't start it up again tomorrow.

"Looking for a place to set up camp for the night," Minoth replies absentmindedly as he keeps looking around, seeing if there's any place that looks good, and protected.

"Already?" Malos questions him. "It's not even late or anything, and I'm not tired yet."

"Well I am," Minoth says, snapping his head to the side to glare a bit at Malos. "If you don't like the way I do things, you can leave. I'm certainly not forcing you to stay." To that, he gets no answer, as Malos mutters something unintelligible and swings around a stick he picked up somewhere, but he doesn't go anywhere. Lovely.

After looking around some, Minoth finds a good place to camp, protected by some rocks and cliffs. There's also a small cave, in case it starts raining. He drops the Armu steak he bought from the marketplace in Torigoth on a rock, intending for it to be dinner tonight, before telling Malos to make himself useful and start a fire so he can cook it, and goes to a nearby spring to fill up on water, and maybe he can manage to grab some fish from a nearby pond while at it. There are some crabs at the shore of the pond, so he spends a bit of time collecting some of those. One never knows when some cooked crab might be nice.

He isn't gone for too long, but when he gets back, Malos has not only started a fire and spread out his blanket to comfortably lounge on, but also started to prepare the meat. Or, attempted to, should be the phrase. With the powers the Aegis' have, the ability to prepare food is apparently just not one of them. With great power comes terrible cooking skills?

When it was Mythra cooking, he used to try to be supportive for her. He would eat her cooking and let her know he's definitely had worse. He'd sit with her as she prepared whatever she was doing, trying to talk with her and maybe sometimes making little suggestions, or clarifying something she didn't quite get. Because she was young, and obviously enthusiastic about cooking, and she wanted to make something people would enjoy, she wanted to improve. It may or might not have been his place, but he had wanted to support the kind of dedication and creativity she had, not tear her down and make her never want to touch a stove again.

With Malos, though, he has no such reservations. He puts down the water container and the crabs he found, before taking a closer look at what Malos has accomplished.

"How can anyone be this bad at such a simple task!" Minoth exclaims upon seeing what Malos has done.

"The hell are you talking about? It's fine!" Malos defends himself, gesturing to the mangled and completely messed up food. Or what was supposed to be food, anyway. How Malos would think what he's made is fine is anyone's guess.

"No, it's not! It's rock-hard charcoal on the outside, with the insides raw enough to still be bloody! How did you even manage this!?" Minoth gestures to the same bit of meat as Malos. At least it was just the meat, and he hasn't touched anything else. Still, that's nearly 300G worth of food wasted.

"Oh, and I suppose you're some kind of cooking expert?" Malos huffs, crossing his arms and glares at Minoth, as if daring him to do any better. Well, challenge accepted.

"I'm no Jin when it comes to cooking, but I can definitely do better than this!" Because while he definitely is no expert, he has had opportunities to learn from others, and improve his own knowledge and skills.

Spending time with Brighid has taught him where the different fruits and vegetables grow, and how to identify the best ones of the bunch. Spending time with Aegaeon has taught him the best fishing methods, as well as the best times of the day to find even the most elusive little fishes. And spending time with Jin has taught him how to best turn these things into a simple, yet tasty, meal.

"Jin... Jin..." Malos takes a few moments to think, hand on his chin, eyes closed in concentration. "Oh, the ice-Blade with the precious Driver! Didn't know he was some kind of master chef."

"I'm not surprised," Minoth remarks, not bothering to hide an amused smirk. "I guess Malos the all-knowing isn't so all-knowing after all."

"Not like I was really paying attention to those kinds of things," Malos huffs, shrugging off his cloak. "Why would I need to know which of your buddies is good at cooking, or sewing, or whatever it is you people did when lazing around some bonfire being boring."

"Well, it's my lazing around some bonfire that's taught me how to cook food properly, so maybe you should try it sometime," Minoth says, before turning to the fire to get started on preparing something actually edible, trying to not stare at Malos' now exposed Core Crystal. Even though he knows it's there, seeing the large crack in it still doesn't fail to make him feel uneasy.

Malos almost surprises him by actually staying quiet, just looking at him thoughtfully as he starts with grabbing those crabs he just caught. Letting them slowly cook over the fire, while making something with some of the vegetable's he's managed to forage, as well as some of the herbs and spices he got back in Torigoth. This should be good. Pretty simple, and nothing fancy, but definitely better than Malos' miserable attempt. Speaking of Malos...

Like at the marketplace, Malos doesn't say anything, but his grey eyes follow his every move, head cocked to the side, barely even blinking. It's somewhat unnerving, as he can't remembering having any kind of audience while cooking before, but soon enough manages to tone out Malos, pretending he doesn't exist.

While the food is cooking, he also takes the opportunity to slip off his own cloak and put down his blanket on the other side of the fire, as far from Malos as he can get.

He briefly considers not making any food for Malos, to teach him a lesson about wasting resources, but that would no doubt just cause him to complain about it, so it doesn't feel like it's worth it. Besides, it's not like he's low on food supplies, and has managed to do with less before.

"There," he finally announces when he's confident everything is cooked. "Done."

Malos wastes no time grabbing himself some crab and a couple of vegetables, barely even chewing as he starts gobbling it up as fast as possible. Half the food is gone before Minoth has had a chance to do more than blink. He must have been hungry.

"Enjoying the food?" Minoth asks as he starts eating. The crab is a bit chewy, and the vegetables could have used a bit more spice, but overall not bad.

"I guess it's not horrible," Malos admits begrudgingly between bites. "I've had better," he adds right after, "and I still don't think my cooking was that bad."

"Whatever makes you happy," Minoth says, focusing on his own food and tuning Malos out. Sitting on the opposite sides of the fire, he can almost pretend he's by himself. Almost.

Having gotten some food in him, he feels warm and content, leaning back against a rock, closes his eyes, and lets himself relax.

"Don't you ever take your hair down?" Malos asks, and when Minoth cracks one eye open he sees Malos watching him again. "That looks pretty uncomfortable." He gestures to Minoth's ponytail that he's tucked down behind his head to make it more comfortable.

"Sometimes," he replies without clarifying, closing his eyes again, not bothering to look at Malos or commenting on the second part of what he said. Of course, Malos being Malos, he just can't leave it alone.

"Are you afraid someone's going to mistake you for a girl, or something, with that long-ass hair you have?" And he's back to trying to get a reaction from Minoth.

"Are you afraid I'm going to mistake you for a nice person if you don't say something jerkish every other sentence?" he retaliates, hoping to just get Malos to shut up.

Malos does grumble something, but doesn't really say anything, so Minoth doesn't care. Instead of focusing on his unwanted company, Minoth tilts his face up, to look at the sky. The stars always shine brightly in Gormott, and the warmth from the fire makes him sleepy as he soon starts dozing off. Time to get some sleep for the night, then.

Before going to sleep Minoth mentally reaches for his bond to Addam, as he has a habit of doing, when he notices something else in the back of his mind, something new, something that shouldn't really be there.

A new bond, one he hasn't noticed before. The kind of bond that forms between Blades and Drivers, but also different in an unexplainable way. It, of course, leads right to Malos. He just knew that ether link was going to come back to bite him, but he still hadn't expected this. Curiosity getting the better of him, he decides to explore the bond a little, following it back towards Malos.

Malos' side of the bond feel cold, and dark. And not the kind of dark that comes with dark-element blades, but another kind of darkness. The kind he recognizes in himself as well, only far greater, and much darker. And if he feels really carefully, as he gets closer to Malos, he also notices a sliver of the bond being tainted with what he recognizes as Amalthus. He knows Malos hasn't cut of his bond to the man, but he's fairly certain it has never been very strong, and almost certainly likely weakened considerably after what happened in Torna five years ago.

He still doesn't like it. He doesn't like having Malos, and certainly not Amalthus, this close to his mind.

Part of him also wonders what Malos might feel from his side of the bond. Does he feel the similarities between them? How big are the differences? And what's it like compared to the bond with Amalthus? Questions he won't know the answers to unless he asks Malos, which he has no intention of doing.

Further exploring the bond tentatively, he quickly notices it's very weak and brittle, even more so than the ether link during the battle with the Gogols. But if he leaves it as is, it will eventually deepen, becoming more solid, and by extent, harder to remove. Especially if Malos keeps putting up an ether link between them in battles, and if he keeps letting the Aegis borrow his weapons. His own bond with Amalthus was very weak, but removing it is still by far the most painful thing he has ever experienced. If he wants to get rid of this unexpected development, he has to do it as soon as possible, before it's too late.

Minoth contemplates it for a moment, before lightly tugging at the bond to test it out, only to flinch from the pain said action causes. He'd already forgotten how painful messing with those things can be.

On the other side of the campfire, Malos yelps in pain and jumps up, as if stung by a bee, before seemingly coming to a realization about what just happened and stares at Minoth with a startled, almost panicked look.

Right. Since they are both Blades, they both will feel if anything happens to the bond. He'd completely forgotten that. It wasn't something he had to think about when he broke his bond to Amalthus, since humans can't feel them, but it might need to be taken into consideration here.

If he does go ahead and break it, then Malos will feel the exact same level of pain as him, but be unable to do anything about it. While some might say Malos would most certainly deserve to feel such pain, Minoth still hesitates.

Not necessarily because of Malos, but because of himself. Tugging on the bond made him remember exactly how indescribably painful breaking such a thing is, makes him recall the feeling like he was tearing himself apart from the inside... The very thought makes his insides clench, and a strong shiver wrecks his body.

He could break the bond. In fact, he should do it now, before it has a chance to grow stronger and more difficult, if not impossible, to break. But still, he hesitates. Just remembering the past pain is too much, and soon he drops his hold on the bond, defeated.

He doesn't think he could handle going through such pain again.

Which means he's stuck with Malos, until one of them dies.

"What the hell was that!?" Malos exclaims, glaring at Minoth from where he's still standing. Minoth blinks up at him a few times, almost having completely forgotten the man was there, as he was so caught up in contemplating the bond.

"That was me testing how strong that bond is, and thinking about if I want to be breaking it, too," Minoth answers honestly, and rather bluntly. He knows Malos must have noticed the bond is there, maybe even before he did. He has no intention of telling Malos he can't bring himself to actually break it, at least for now.

Minoth watches him cycle through several different emotions, most of them gone before he has a chance to analyse them. The ones he manages to glimpse are, as far as he can tell, shock and confusion. Eventually his face settles on a strangely serious look, something he doesn't think he's ever seen on the Aegis before.

"Breaking it, too," Malos repeats in a blank voice, staring at Minoth unblinkingly. For the first time, he actually feels like he's actually looking at something more than a regular Blade, or anything of this world. For a moment, it's like he's actually looking at not just Malos, but the Aegis.

With the man towering over Minoth where he sits on the ground, Malos looks foreboding, serious and dark. The flittering light from the fire is casting deep shadows over his face. There's a sort of undercurrent in the air that makes him feel almost paralyzed under the scrutinizing gaze.

The moment is over before he's had time to blink.

"Don't do it again," Malos grumbles as settles back down, back to being his usual asshole self. Nothing special there, anymore. But Minoth has a feeling the memory won't be leaving his head anytime soon.

"Why?" Minoth questions with a smug grin, trying to shake of the feeling. "The great Aegis can't handle a little pain?" Never mind that he himself can't handle it, Malos doesn't need to know that.

"I will gut you in your sleep," Malos growls at him threateningly, glaring at him across the campfire. The light now reflects almost menacingly in his eyes, making them appear intense and almost feral.

"No, you won't," Minoth replies, crossing his arms behind his head, completely ignoring it. "You'd get eaten by the first Gogol that comes along."

They both know Malos is practically helpless against most monsters without Minoth. Something he's far too stubborn, and proud, to ever admit.

"One day," Malos grumbles in what Minoth assumes is supposed to be a threatening tone of voice. "One day, you will actually piss me off enough to actually do it, consequences be damned." He gives Minoth one last menacing glare before he lays down and goes to sleep, just like that. With no apparent concern that he could be the one who gets gutted in his sleep. Out of the two of them, Minoth is the one with the sharp weapons, after all.

Not that he'd do it, anyway, so Malos isn't exactly wrong to not be worried.

Minoth can only shake his head at Malos' stubbornness, giving the man's broad back one last look before also laying his head down. Before going to sleep, he once again reaches for his bond with Addam, mentally curling around the warmth like a content cat in a beam of sunlight.

Tomorrow is a new day, after all, and he has a feeling he's going to need all his energy to get through it.

Chapter 3 completed!

This took longer to write than I expected, and it also turned out longer than I thought it would.

I do not feel like I know how to write characters that dislike each other. The dialogue seems more like casual banter than actual insults

Next chapter: Dreams and flashbacks!