The sun rose a bloody bright red over the Dhalmekian coast.
Torgal whined pitifully in the ears of his traveling companions and tugged at the edges of their clothing until both rose from their rest and broke camp. When at last Dion and Joshua were up and moving, Torgal paced impatiently while occasionally whining.
"He is very…insistent," Dion observed while Torgal bounced around the edge of camp as though the wolf could force them to move by sheer will.
"He is," Joshua replied while slinging a bag over his shoulder, "I would hope his impatience means that wherever he is leading us is not too far, though I admit I never could afford to be very optimistic."
"Let us not keep him waiting, then," Dion proposed.
The trio began their trek for the day, Torgal dutifully leading the way.
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Gav would've gone over to Jill and told her what he received right away, really he would've, but she was talking with Jote and some of those other Undying folks, and the last time he'd interrupted her she'd broken a goblet with her bare hand and just looked at him. Plus, the Undying folks were a strange bunch.
So, he decided he'd give her some time to finish up there and in the meanwhile he'd pester Blackthorne.
"What's eatin' you?" Was the first thing Blackthorne asked him.
"Whatdya mean?" Gav asked back.
"That you only come to me for two reasons – one, you've broken your sword, or two, you heard somethin' you shouldn'tve. Must be the second one, because I just fixed your sword two moons past," Blackthorne harshly dunked a blade in a bucket and steam rushed violently forth from the coupling, "and if you've broken it again so soon, I'll shove it up your ass."
Gav shuddered a little. "Understandable. Look," he said, "I've just got a stolas from a mate of mine in Dhalmekia and I need to tell Jill about it, but I dunno what she'll do."
"This an important stolas, then? Delivered you news of the heavens splittin' open or some such, did it?" Blackthorne raised a brow at him and went back to hammering.
"Well…" Gav hesitated.
Blackthorne stopped his hammering. "It didn't," said the blacksmith flatly.
"No, no, nothin' like that, just," Gav hurried to say, "me mate, well, he – he's seen Torgal."
Blackthorne put his hammer down on the anvil and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Torgal, the frost wolf," Blackthorne said, "the one that followed Clive everywhere and Jill everywhere else. The one that nobody's seen in over a week." Blackthorne didn't ask any questions, but it felt like he had.
"That's the one, yeah," Gav said.
Blackthorne took a deep breath in through his nose and out through his mouth.
"Lad, I'm of the mind that if you don't go tell that poor woman what she needs to know right now, I'll take your other eye myself," Blackthorne threatened, picking up and brandishing his hammer.
"Yep, on it," Gav said and beat a hasty retreat.
()
Gav was in luck when he returned to the main hall – Jote and the Undying had left and Jill was engaged with Byron Rosfield, instead.
"…usefulness here has expired, I am afraid," Lord Rosfield said. The man appeared remorseful. "I shall continue funding what needs funded, but I believe it would do me much better to return to Port Isolde."
Jill looked upset but did not sound it. "I understand. It must be difficult to be here, after…" Jill trailed off, and settled on again just saying, "after."
Lord Rosfield frowned, "If you've ever need of me or that which I can provide, I am but a stolas away."
"I know, Byron," Jill managed a weak smile, "Thank you. And thank you, as well, for all of your help."
"I would do it all again and more," Lord Rosfield assured. "Well. I shall be leaving tomorrow morning – Rutherford plans to meet me on the way back to Rosaria." The man clapped his hands once and then rubbed them together vigorously. "The two of us will cut down any fiend in our path!"
Jill's smile was a little more genuine when she said, "I'm sure you will."
Gav approached the pair of them.
"Jill…mind if I steal you for a mo'?" Gav asked.
"Of course," said Jill. She turned to Lord Rosfield, "If you'll excuse me?"
"No excusing needed, My Lady! I shall see you at supper!" Lord Rosfield exclaimed and made his way to the Ale Hall.
Jill led Gav to Clive's old chambers, which were in far better condition than they had been a few days prior when Jill had broken that goblet. Gav was glad to see all of Clive's things undamaged and back where they should be.
"What is it, Gav?" Jill asked once the door was closed.
Gav scratched the back of his head. "Well, you see, it's a bit of a tale…"
"I'm listening," Jill asserted.
"So, you see, after Torgal went missing I may have sent out some messages to me scoutin' mates askin' them to look out for him?" It came out like a question.
Jill blinked. "I thought we agreed that if Torgal wanted to be here that he would return on his own."
"Not to force him to come back or aught like that!" Gav rushed out, "Just to – if they saw him, let me know he was okay."
"Gav…" Jill sighed in clear disapproval.
To his own surprise, Gav grew a little irritated. "I was getting a little tired of losing people I love, too, eh?"
Silence fell in the room.
"I'm sorry," Jill said after a time.
"You're not the only one who lost them," Gav said weakly, "And I just wanted to make sure we didn't have to lose Torgal, too."
"No, you're right," Jill took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and when she opened them again she asked, "What news from your scout?"
"Stolas from Dhalmekia – me mate said he saw Torgal in Ran'dellah, headin' to the north gate," Gav said, "and he weren't alone. Said an Imperial dragoon was followin' behind him."
"What interest would a dragoon have with Torgal?" Jill asked incredulously. It was the most emotion Gav had seen her have in a week. "And Ran'dellah – it's a ghost town by now. Did your scout say anything about the dragoon chasing him, or…?"
"Torgal was ploddin' along, happy as you please," Gav said. "So, he must'a known the dragoon was there and was lettin' him follow."
Jill traced a finger up the map of Valisthea she had on the writing table. "North from Ran'dellah…Dzemekys? Boklad? Anything further north is uncertain because of…Origin…" Jill's voice quieted to a murmur and then dropped off entirely.
Far be it from Gav to speculate on what could possibly be going on in Torgal's head.
"In any case, it sounds like he's alive and well!" Gav concluded happily. He noticed that Jill did not seem happy in the slightest. "What's wrong?"
"The Undying were here earlier to speak with Jote about a mission to try and recover Joshua's and Clive's remains," Jill said gravely. "They'll be departing for the coast soon."
"But that place was over deep ocean – excuse me for being blunt, but there'd be nothing to recover," Gav replied.
"I said the same," Jill insisted, "but Cyril said the currents there are unpredictable around Dzemekys and the Strait of Autha. Unpredictable currents and unusually strong surf…" She drew a circle around the east coast of storm with her finger and traced a path up to it from Ran'dellah.
Gav felt horror growing in his chest.
Torgal's path was heading northward along the coast. It wasn't a sure thing, but if the wolf truly was following the coast north, and if what Cyril said about the ocean was true…
Torgal may be putting himself in a direct line to discover Clive's corpse.
"Greagor's tits," Gav swore, "What can we do?"
Jill shook her head. "Even if we were to leave now with mounts, we would be at least three days behind. Torgal can move quite fast when he wants to, dragoon accompaniment or not. I hate to say it, but I think Torgal will be on his own."
"Poor sod," Gav lamented.
Jill stared down at the map.
The shrill cry of a stolas met Gav's ears and he turned to see white wings cutting through the air. He raised his wrist and the stolas came to rest upon it.
When the message had finished and the stolas had moved over to the small perch next to the writing table, Gav jumped from his seat, startling Jill.
"What? What is it?" Jill asked.
"We need to get goin'. Torgal's found himself another friend and it en't a dragoon this time!" Gav took off out of Clive's old chambers with Jill hot on his heels.
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Joshua had seen Dzemekys before during his travels throughout Storm with Jote, but the falls never lost their breathtaking quality. Despite what he now knew of their formation, the effect was the same. They had precious little time to admire them, though, so the trio pressed on northward around the massive, circular falls.
By Joshua's estimation, the three of them were perhaps an hour south of Boklad when Torgal suddenly broke off from their traveling formation and sprinted towards the beach, kicking up clouds of dust and barking frantically as he went.
"That's what he did when he found you!" Dion exclaimed and made to follow after the wolf.
Did Joshua dare hope?
The former Dominant of the Phoenix very nearly ran into Dion, who had stopped suddenly upon catching sight of the wolf on the sands. Joshua cast his own gaze out to Torgal in confusion.
On the empty beach, the hound had his head bowed with his nose nearly touching the sand, prowling around in a small circle near the farthest reach of the waves. Torgal paced back and forth for a few moments. He barked at the sand.
Torgal then focused on a spot on the ground and started digging.
"Oh, no," came out of Joshua's mouth without him saying it.
The wolf alternated between barking, whining, and digging for the next several moments, seemingly not finding what he was looking for but knowing that it should have been at that spot. Joshua sank to his knees in the sand at some point, and Dion laid a hand on his shoulder.
Torgal whined, then howled, then curled up as small as he could make himself on the sand.
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Midadol Telamon was incandescent with rage when Jill and Gav descended the stairs to her workshop.
"Son of a bleedin' bastard whore!" Mid shouted while lobbing a wrench at a bookcase. "Useless…fucking….agh!" Another wrench went sailing across the room.
Gav looked at Jill. "Maybe we should come back later?"
"I don't think 'later' is an option, this time," Jill said, and stepped forward into the line of fire. "Mid?"
"What!?" Mid whirled around to face Jill, "Oh! Sorry. Not got me head on right, today. Whatdya need?"
Jill cut right to the quick. "The Enterprise – she's still at the Ironworks in Kanver, right?"
"Waitin' on a new mission!" Mid confirmed. She grimaced a little as she looked over to the model flying ship she'd just put a screwdriver through the hull of, "Or waitin' on me to figure how to scale that up for her."
"How long would it take for her to be ready to sail?"
Mid put her hands on her hips. "How long would it take to get a stolas to Kanver? That's your answer."
"We'll send a stolas ahead, then," Jill said to Gav, "and leave as soon as we arrive. Make ready – as soon as the message is on its way, we need to move."
"What's all this about, then? We havin' another end of the world?" Mid asked in a half-joking tone. She glanced warily between Gav and Jill.
"Not as such," Gav said.
"We have reason to believe that Joshua and Dion are alive," Jill interjected, "and we mean to go see for ourselves as soon as we can."
Mid's expression morphed into shock and then she shook her head as though trying to cast off the remnants of a dream.
"Alright – you said we leave as soon as a stolas goes out, yeah? I've got me bag all ready to go!" Mid said. With her braid whipping behind her, she took the stairs to the upper level two at a time and yelled, "I'll meet youse at the dock!"
"I suppose Mid is coming along, now," Gav shrugged. "Glad that we'll have a captain for the Enterprise."
"You go send the stolas," Jill said. "I need to go speak with Jote."
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Joshua spoke very softly to Torgal. Joshua tried to pet him, and the other man tried to entice him with dried meat, but Torgal curled himself more tightly into a ball on the sand in the hole he made.
The home smell ended here. Clive's smell ended here. Clive must be here.
Where else could he be?