Makoto and Ren continued picking their way among the steep little hillocks, stubbornly refusing the oncoming night. Very quickly, the last vestiges of sun was only a glowing ember on the western horizon, or such as much of that horizon was visible over the undulation of the landscape. Insects and frogs were already about their nightly business, their songs and calls loud with a sort of end-of-season frenzy. Makoto stumbled on an unseen stone, Ren quick to catch her and keep her upright, only for her to immediately trip over something else, perhaps a log or something- she really couldn't see anything anymore. The darkness of the sky was but a slightly lighter shade of black than the land around her.

Ren seemed to take the stumbles as a sign they had come far enough. "We will stop here. It's a good enough hollow for a rest."

Makoto had the sense of Ren kneeling beside her and reaching into one of his pouches. There was a scraping noise and a sudden small flame- one of Ren's ingenious little fire-sticks. Ren's clothing blended into the night, its blackness almost seeming an extension of the darkness around them both, and his pale face emerging from those shadows, but calmly intent on the tiny flame he cradled against the tip of an incense wire- the incense which would burn and mask her scent from the hungry stalkers of the night.

There had been little wind today, and there was even less where they were now. Makoto could not see the details, but it seemed like the heavier blackness of the land rose up slightly on all sides of them- indicating a slight depression in the earth which sheltered them and their smoldering incense of any nighttime breeze. That was to the good for multiple reasons, Makoto realized: their incense would not be blown out by the breeze, and her scent would not blow about too far, perhaps increasing the effectiveness of the incense, too- and the rapidly cooling night air would not blow over them. The temperature had been dropping rapidly with the fall of the sun, the end of summer was still in the daylight, but night, apparently, was already half in autumn's grasp. Makoto shivered, the heat of their movement quickly fading.

She heard a rustle of grass as the shadow that was Ren laid out on the grass with a quiet sigh. Perhaps for a man who only drank blood every other day or so, and who owned a mechanical horse- this was all that a "rest" entailed. Meanwhile, Makoto's stomach rumbled mournfully in the darkness. Ren seemed aware of the sound and he sat back up.

"You're hungry," he said, helpfully. "Now would be a good time to eat."

Makoto thought the statement was marginally more endearing than quiet indifference, but only just. Makoto went to her own mechanical mount and rifled through the saddlebags. It was not to be a long stop, that she knew. So she rummaged for some hardtack, biscuits thrice baked to preserve them. And they were hard as rock, as a result. A fool could break a tooth trying to bite into one. They were not exactly Niijima Residence fare, but Makoto had eaten them before when she had hunted ghouls with Sae.

She covered a biscuit in cloth and, with her armored gauntlets, Makoto punched the wrapped biscuit into a nearby stone, obliterating the thing into crumbs. Almost blind in the now dead of night, she unwrapped the cloth just enough to pour the crumbs into her small bowl and then added some water to soak the crumbs into a more edible state. She had better fare- like some sharp cheese, and took a chunk of that for herself as well. In Makoto's mind, it was logical to use as much of the least appetizing supplies early, when her morale was still high. She had quite a bit of nice smoked meats and pickles, and rice for boiling- but maybe such items would raise her spirits in coming days.

For now, her simmering excitement of the adventure finally underway made the soggy old bread taste wonderful, and her mind's eye told her she was eating a luxurious oatmeal- and not a sloppy mess of soggy crumbs in the blind dark.

"Is that stuff any good?" said Ren, his voice soft, near, and doubtful.

Makoto no longer could see much of anything except the tiny ember of Ren's incense coil.

"Not really," said Makoto, who took a small bite of cheese to flavor up the bland gruel already in her mouth. "But it gets the job done. What of you? Are you eating? Or.. Is it drinking?"

A short silence. "Yes, I have my cup."

A longer silence as Makoto ate, her eyes wandering a blind darkness. She felt Ren's eyes upon her, but without any light at all, she could see nothing of them- not even that unnerving silver glimmer they gained when a light hit them just right. If he moved silently, he could get up and leave and she would never be the wiser- though she did not think he would do such a thing to her- that small worry still crossed her mind.

This venture may well be the most reckless thing she had ever done.

"So," said Makoto, trying to divert that line of thought. "Tell me about your homeland. What is Shikoku like?"

Silence.

Makoto took another bite and grew slightly annoyed.

"Ren. You are taking me there. Right now. You have to tell me."

"I know, Makoto," said Ren, "But- I have to obey Rules. And one of the Rules is to not talk about my home to anyone outside it."

Until recently, Makoto would not have dared break any laws or go against her sister- but even her old self would have balked at Ren's statement. "Ren, we are alone in the wilderness. Just us. I won't tell anyone you told me."

"You misunderstand. I am not talking about our laws. If it were just my people's laws, I would have told you about my home already- everything. These Rules are Mother's. She put them upon me, and I can't break them. Not that I would not, if I could. But I can't."

Makoto chewed her soggy hardtac and thought about that. "So- you mean it's like some kind of magic spell?"

A short silence. "I guess that is as good a description as any."

"Is your mother a witch?"

"A what?"

"A magic-user?"

"No! Magic isn't real. It's kid book stuff. Mother uses persona, but that's not what does it. Its because I'm of her blood. She can place Rules on me. She can't do it to everyone. Like you, for example."

Well now, this wasn't information about Ren's homeland exactly, but it also kind of was. Makoto was becoming very interested. She chewed and wondered.

"So can other vampires do that? Set Rules, I mean?"

"The old ones can, but there are not many of the old ones left."

"How many are there?"

A small silence. "I think I told you this already."

"So? Remind me."

A sigh. "So other than Mother, there is her sister, my Aunt Camilla- but she is mostly dead. She haunts some castle in the midlands like a ghost and can't manage much else, so I suppose Auntie doesn't really count. Remember Kamoshida? Your first kill?"

As if Makoto could forget.

"Well- I told you he was my cousin. Aunt Camillia was his mother."

Makoto did remember Ren saying that the name 'Kamoshida' had just been a cover. What had his real name been? Suguru, or something?

"Anyway, it doesn't matter. Camilla's bloodline was mostly destroyed a long time ago. Long before I was born."

"How?"

"I don't know the details. But from what I understand, my Mother and my Aunt Camilla had a- a falling out. And a lot of Aunt Camilla's children died. A LOT."

"From what?"

There was a sort of quiet wet pause, and Makoto imagined that Ren was drinking his reconstituted blood from his trusty goblet.

"Politics," said Ren. "You know how it is."

No, thought Makoto, she did not know how it was! That's why she was asking. But this sort of round-a-about inquiry with Ren was an old pattern between them. And Makoto now realized that his reticence was not from a lack of trust in her, but from a sort of involuntary behavior control placed upon him by another vampire. So perhaps these sorts of meandering, indirect conversations were some sort of loophole to Mother's Rules.

"And the other old ones?"

"Two others," said Ren, "On Shukoku, anyway."

"Are there others, elsewhere?

Some people think there are surely others off across the sea, in other lands. Our history says the Empire was so large, you could walk east, and if you never turned left or right, you would eventually arrive at the point where you started, without ever having stepped outside the Empire. So people think there must be other places like Shikoku out there. Other remnants of the Empire."

That was an unsettling thought to Makoto. More vampires? On the other side of the ocean. "I- is that true?"

"No," said Ren, "Not according to my Mother, anyway. She said that's just the hope of fools. She says it was all destroyed. The only things across the sea are dust and charcoal."

"How does she know?"

"She was there. She saw it happen. Or at least, that's what she always told us."

Makoto wasn't sure if the idea of a utterly destroyed world was a good one or not. It was a surprising relief to immediately quash the fear of foreign vampires showing up from across the sea- but if there really was nothing beyond the ocean but ruin, then Makoto's world was perhaps not much larger than Tock-Yo's walls after all, in a relative sense.

"Did- did the other two old ones? Did they see the destruction, too?"

"Not Lord Sayuri. He's the sire of Madarame, by the way. But Mother said that this land- not just Shikoku, but all these islands, this place your people call Ke-Pon- was Lord Sayuri's province. For whatever reason, the destruction didn't happen here. So I guess Lord Sayuri only heard about the Destruction, even though he was alive at the time."

"You call him Lord Sayuri. Where are his lands in relation to your Mothers?"

Silence.

Makoto realized she must have violated the Rules with that question. She reverted back to her original tack:

"And the third old one?"

"Lord Yaldabaoth," said Ren. "Mother hates him. She says they have been rivals since they were born."

"Why does she hate him?"

"Originally? I don't know. But I think the only thing keeping Mother and Lord Yaldabaoth from open-warfare is-" Ren suddenly made a gasping, swallowing sound. "Ugh, I- I can't-"

So, Ren could not break the Rules inadvertently either. Interesting. That was some powerful.. Magic, for lack of a better term. Makoto wondered how much Ren know about this controlling force over him. It seemed like he just accepted it as a matter of course.

"Is there no way to break Rules," asked Makoto, "Can it be dispelled, or something?"

Ren sighed. "I don't think so. I asked my siblings a few times and they just laughed at the idea. Well, except for Fuuka. One of my sisters. She's the only one who seemed to really think about it."

Fuuka? That name was new to Makoto's ear. "Is that the same sister who trained you in the sword?"

Ren laughed in surprise. "Ha, no. Hifumi trained me. No. Fuuka doesn't fight at all, I don't think. She just reads books. Lots of books."

His voice turned slightly whistful. "Probably reading one right this moment, I bet."

Makoto was very interested in Fuuka now. Ren didn't seem to grasp that a person who spent a lot of time reading probably knew a heck of a lot of things- and Makoto would guess that Fuuka had been at her book binging for- what? Maybe hundreds of years? Maybe thousands? The woman might very well be a walking, talking encyclopedia of vampiric lore and knowledge.

"What did she say about it?"

"About what?"

"About breaking Rules! What did Fuuka say?," said Makoto, slightly exasperated. Ren must have drifted off into some sort of nostalgia over there in the darkness.

"Oh," said Ren. "I don't know. I think she said there might be? But she seemed really doubtful- and I left not too long after thing, I think."

Makoto thought it was still a promising lead for her. Many of Makoto's questions about the world might well be contained in the books this Fuuka had read. But far more importantly… the revelation of Rules meant that Ren might not always be able to be Ren. If his Mother were to put new Rules upon him, she might lose her greatest ally and partner. Or worse, have him and his entire family as enemies- and Makoto calculated that she had a zero-per-cent chance of survival on Shikoku without Ren. Zero. So being able to break Lady Kurusu's matronly influence might become a matter of life or death for Makoto.

There was a long silence as Makoto's mind speculated uselessly on the nature of Rules and their mechanism over Ren. She had just started considering the possibility that the position of stars in the sky might have something to do with it- after all, could all those astrologers in Tock-Yo be total shams? Honestly: Yes, yes they could- but Makoto was drawing at straws.

Well," said Ren, after a long silence. "Let's get moving. I'll show you a good way to ride a mechanical horse while asleep. Almost as good as sleeping in a bed. Almost."

Makoto, who had slept in feather beds her entire life, sincerely doubted that claim.