Winter 4994, 23-30 Aoimoth

It took them a full week to reach the border between Swailand and Lenare. Over those seven days, they were attacked three times. 

Some of it might've been their small group size and lack of horses. Most travelers outside the cities and towns formed caravans, with at least a third of their number being mercenary guards.

Some of it could've been that none of the party wore armor any better than Yua's leather. Monks were rare outside their Monasteries, and only Mages and fools would travel more than a few hours from the walled settlements without being properly armed or guarded.

But in the end, even without those factors in place, the number of skirmishes weren't really all that out of the ordinary. No matter how safe and civilized the kingdom liked to claim itself to be, the land outside its walls was wild, dangerous, and swarming with monsters.

To combat this, the roads that connected the kingdom settlements were patrolled by the local Temple. The largest and busiest -between major cities- had watchtower waystations permanently manned by such soldiers under the command of Paladin officers. In addition, all official roads had campsites interspersed along their length for the trade caravans and rare travelers to make use of.

On the first night, Shon stopped the party early at one of these roadside camping spots to set up the tents -as Veon-Zih advised- and found that Lily's purchases were, in fact, both sturdy and easy to erect. They were left alone that night, but on the second were attacked by drakwalves—great emaciated wolves with muddy brown scales and ineffectual tattered leather wings. The pack of ten might've pressed an average caravan but were hardly a challenge to the experienced party of adventurers. 

They killed four, and six escaped to attack them again the following day. "Vengeful buggers," Yua muttered after the second fight, wrenching her used arrows from one's flank, "I swear those were the same bastards from last night." 

"They were," Tuth explained. "They may be ever-starving beasts, but studies have shown that they do possess some level of intelligence and a surprising amount of loyalty to one another, even if they can't be tamed. They mate for life and breed like rats-" 

"How old are you, Tuth?" Yua interrupted him.

"-they... What? Nineteen..." Tuth answered nervously, thrown off by the change of topic. 

Lily giggled, drawing a long dagger from her bag and kneeling before one of the drakwalves as she explained some of Tuth's very short history. "He reached Journeyman really early and was pawned off on Master Velona at eighteen to get some life experience." 

Shon arched an eyebrow at the boy, impressed. Apprentices didn't usually reach journeyman rank until at least eighteen -the age of legal adulthood. Yua, however, just rolled her eyes, "Well, that explains why he's such a know-it-all. Well, let me teach you something, my very young man," 

The Ranger was clearly irritable from lack of sleep, and Shon was starting to suspect that she might have a particular vendetta against drakwalves in general. She stalked up to the Mage, who fell back a step, and poked him in the chest, "I've fought more drakwalf packs than years you've been alive. All before reaching nineteen. They are a plage, abominations against nature, and I don't care about their social structure. Everyone I see, I kill, that's all I need to know."

Tuth stuttered wordlessly and Ryuuko fluttered down to land on Shon's shoulder with a hiss. Shon narrowed his eyes at the Ranger, "Yua..." he said sternly, and she turned away from them both. 

Lily snickered again, then grunted as she reached into the fallen monster's split belly up to her elbows and pulled out its intestines. Running her hands along the slippery strands, she said, "On the bright side, they have a hard time digesting anything at all. Which is why you can often find... HA!" She pivoted on her toes and held up two partially digested silver coins in bloody hands.

"Gods, Lily... That's disgusting," Yua said, covering her nose and mouth and retreating away from the grinning woman.

Lily's giggle was evil, and Tuth rolled his eyes, recovering enough to say, "Get used to it." 

Shon picked up his dropped pack and watched as Lily moved to another drakwalf, "We don't need the money..." he started, Ryuuko chirping in agreement. 

"Doesn't matter," Tuth said, "She gets a silver per strand of hair, ten gold for a pint of blood, and one hundred gold for each scale she donates to the Guild, and yet she'll still loot every enemy we face down to their gold teeth."

Yua shook her head, "Lily, I will pay you a gold for each you don't gut like that." 

Lily perked up, then hopped to her feet, "Deal."

Shon insisted that they pile the corpses off the road, and Lily obligingly burned them just as they'd done the night before, and they continued on. Lily lead the way, the rest giving her a wide berth as she burned off the blood and viscera from her skin and wiped her arms clean of char and ash with a wet cloth. Yua and Tuth walked behind her and Shon behind them, watching and listening. 

"I'm sorry..." Tuth muttered to the Ranger.

Yua sighed and flung her arm around his shoulders, pulling him close, "No, I am. I hate drakwalves, Tuth, and I'm tired. I shouldn't have gotten frustrated with you. Just remember, you can lecture me on anything you want, just not them." 

Lily threw her head back with a loud moan and shouted, "Oh, don't tell him that! He'll never shut up if you give him free rein!" Despite complaining, Lily was smiling when she turned around to walk backward and watch them. Yua laughed, and Tuth scoffed, slipping out from under Yua's arm. Ryuuko whistled and twittered, taking off to circle Tuth's head before landing on it. Shon smiled. 

They reported the attacks to the next tower, had their papers quickly checked by the guards, and continued unaccosted until the fifth day; when a small band of five draken thought to challenge them.

One went for each of them, two for Shon, though the second hadn't counted on Ryuuko, who put it to sleep with a stab of its barbed tail. Shon drew his sword with his left hand and parried the draken's ax with his unarmed right. The massive lizardman tried to overpower him, but Shon's kick broke its knee. Before it could fall, he stabbed through its mouth and out its back.

Yua managed to get off three shots with her bow, the last of which went through her attacker's eye. She dodged out of the way of the stumbling monster and drew her short sword to make sure it was dead with a chop to the back of its hard scaled head.

Tuth also managed three shots, though his were of blue light that wove through the air and all landed unerringly on his attacker's chest. When the draken reached him with murder still in its eyes, it was with three smoking patches maring the green paint on its gray scales. It swung for Tuth, and its club passed right through the Mage, the illusionary image of the young man wavering in the air and the actual young man solidifying five feet away, holding an iron rod. The beast was thrown back a good fifteen feet by the Mage's lightning bolt and lay twitching violently but quite dead. 

Lily danced around her draken, toying with it and laughing as it swung wildly at her. She jumped over and even onto its two-handed war ax and stood on the flat blade, even bending to grin in the brute's snarling face as it stared up at her in disbelief. Then she backflipped, hitting it in the chin with each foot, snapping its head back. Standing on her hands, she spun fast, bringing her feet down and her staff up to jab into the draken's neck, crushing its exposed windpipe.

Shon finished off Ryuuko's sleeping victim and flicked the blood from his sword while Tuth scanned the horizon for more threats and Yua watched Lily, who started fanning the bodies. "If you start to gut these..." Yua started.

Lily waved a dismissive hand at the Ranger -relieving the draken of of their crude jewelry and simple belt pouches- "Draken don't eat their victims whole and don't swallow treasure," she explained, "But they DO like to wear their stolen goods!" She wrenched a gold and bronze armband off of her draken and held it up as she had the sliver days before. 

Ryuuko flew over to help her loot the fallen draken -or more likely to get in the way- while Shon and the others dragged the bodies off the road to pile for disposal as they had before.

Such was typical for travel in the kingdom of Daanlin.

***

Lily spent most of the seven-day journey from the capital of Lenare to the border of Swailand walking with Shon and talking with the others. Though her favorite times were the nights, a close second was when she walked in companionable silence with him. The others seemed to take their cues from her, only including Shon in the conversations when they wanted a direct answer to a question and letting him be otherwise. 

It was a pleasant kind of strange. Usually, it was like she had too much energy compared to her companions, but there was something about being around Shon's cold calm that eased the flickering flame that was her soul. When he started to actually join in some of their talks of his own accord, she was surprised, but happily so, and had to wonder if she had a similar effect on him. Melting some of his ice and bringing him, just a little, out of his shell...

Or maybe it was just the smaller group and open road. Either way, it was even better than she always imagined traveling with him might be.

On the last day before they were set to reach the border, it began to rain. "At least it's not freezing..." Yua said, patting Tuth hard on the back and knocking him forward as he tried to pin his cloak in place. 

"Maybe not literally," Tuth grumbled, curling deeper into the protective fabric. It was early winter, and though they only ever saw dustings of snow in this region, that didn't stop the two non-sorcerers from shivering. 

Lily's cloak was extra thick and lined in soft fur to better insulate her natural heat without her having to expend her magic -and thus her energy with it- to stay optimally warm. On the other hand, Shon's was thin, the type of cloak they wore in the deserts to keep the sun off their faces. But the water rolled off it rather than soaking in, and when Tuth asked, Shon confirmed that it held a rain-repelling enchantment on the outside as well as a cooling enchantment on the inside -for when they were in the hotter regions. He might not buy much, but apparently when he did, Shon spent big.

"Why bother?" Yua asked after whistling at the expense such enchantments would cost, "It's not like you can catch a cold or overheat anyway." 

Shon pinned the cloak closed and bent to store his backpack in his bag of holding while Ryuuko huddled in his hood. He rolled his eyes, though if at Yua or the little dragon Lily couldn't be sure. "I still rather be dry," he told the Ranger. 

Yua snickered and elbowed him in the arm. Winking at Lily, she said, "I thought you didn't tell lies, big guy..." Lily giggled, and Tuth groaned. Shon turned pink and started walking ahead for once. Yua continued under her breath just for Lily, "I doubt this is ever going to get old."

"You are a bane against civilized conversation," Tuth told her. She laughed. 

Lily ran forward to pass Shon and turned around to grin at him as they continued to walk in the slowly falling rain. "Ryuuko can cuddle in here with me if it wants..." her words trailed off however at the sight of polished silver at Shon's neck, "You still have it?" 

Shon caressed his cloak clasp and arched a disbelieving eyebrow at her. The clasp had been a gift from her, a silver lily with blue diamonds on the stamen -the same color as his eyes. Lily slowed enough that he caught up to her quickly and spoke quietly, "Someone I care for very much gave it to me."

Lily felt her cheeks flush. It had been so long ago and intended as a gift for his Oath taking. Shon had nothing else like it. Even his Hengist pendant was made of steel and not silver or gold. She'd started to presume he didn't have it anymore, or at least that he didn't use it. 

Shon smiled and seemed to read her mind, "There are very few things I own that I treasure, Lily. This is one of them."

Lily pivoted as they walked to continue beside him, "And the others?"

Shon shrugged, and Ryuuko slithered out of his hood and into Lily's, curling in her hair behind her neck, "My sword..." Lily rolled her eyes, "... and my journals. Everything else can be replaced." 

"So can that," Lily said, "I can introduce you to the man who made it. He's actually in Sanoloa."

But Shon shook his head, "You gave this to me. And..." He looked sideways at her, "you promised you wouldn't sell any more body parts for gifts." 

Lily leaned over to press her shoulder against his, "It was only a few scales. But I won't. I'm just glad you treasure it so much." 

"It pales compared to the real thing," he told her.

The border was like any other in the kingdom, with two heavily fortified towns, one on either side of the invisible line that marked the shift from one province to the other. In this case, at least, the invisible line was actually a river. The town on the Lenare side housed a Temple of Hengist and a massive gate built of white stone on its end of the bridge. On the Swailand side, a Temple of Horsa waited beyond the black stone gate on the bridge's far end. 

The nearest town seemed to condense out of the mist as they approached through the rain, the sun setting behind the clouds. Though Lily and the others wanted to stop for the night before crossing over, Shon insisted they go now and get it over with. They hardly had to pause their conversation as they passed through the Hengist side. Each of them presenting their papers and having them signed before moving on across the rain-soaked bridge.  

Shon started to trail behind again as they crossed, and he hung back while Lily and the others presented their papers to the Horsa enlisted guarding the gate on their side of the border. The guard signed off on Yua and Tuth's quickly but took a moment to examine Lily's, looking from the scaled stripes on her cheek to her papers and back again a few times -to make sure they weren't criminal's tattoos- before asking, "Your familiar?" nodding towards Ryuuko, still nuzzled and snoring in her cloak. 

"A familiar," Lily answered, letting him assume if that was what he wanted. He signed off on her papers, and Shon finally stepped forward.

With one hand, he presented his papers, and with the other, he removed his bag of holding and slipped his sword off his back. The guard paid him little mind until he opened the thick book that was Shon's papers. Then he looked up and back down again before waving another guard over. 

The second guard looked over his companion's shoulder then glared at Shon, "What does a man of Hengist want in Swailand?"

"Your orders, authorization, and bag, Soldier." The first ordered before Shon could answer, ignoring his rank despite it being considerably higher than his own. Shon handed over his sword and bag without comment, and the guard upended it right there in the middle of the bridge. 

Lily hissed as Shon's belongings tumbled out and splashed onto the wet stone. Ryuuko continued to snore. One of their tents, Shon's pack, his sacks of clean and dirty clothes, as well as a multitude of other bags and boxes he used to organize everything he owned, all spilled out. Shon bent and retrieved an envelope holding his orders and presented it to the first guard, who was looking through each page of his papers carefully. 

They ignored Lily's reaction, and she growled, stepping forward to stop the second guard as he started to dig through Shon's things. Yua grabbed her by the shoulder, shaking her head. Ryuuko shifted and stuck its sleepy face out beside Lily's cheek. Lily snarled, but the Ranger just nodded toward Shon. When Lily turned to him, it was to see him standing stone-faced before the Horsa men. He gave her the barest shake of his head, and she clenched her fists in fury and frustration. Those were Shon's things!

"Magic items?" The second guard asked, slipping a monocle on one eye and squinting at the mess he'd made as he pulled open each bag or box and riffled inside. 

"The sword, cloak, and shave kit. " Shon answered shortly, his sword pommel holding steady at dark blue at the guard's feet. 

"Sword checks out..." the first guard mumbled, "It's his sealing item..." 

"He's a damn Sorcerer too?" the second asked his companion incredulously. The first nodded, and the second groaned, "Just what we fuckin' need." He picked up Shon's journal and the sword pommel began to swirl and turn translucent. The guard thumbed through the pages without really looking at them until he reached the most recent. Then he slowed down, turning each one at a time even more carefully than the first was looking through Shon's papers. The pommel turned sky blue. Ryuuko hissed. 

Lily finally understood what people meant when they said 'if looks could kill.' Shon's eyes locked on the man, and he must have felt it because he looked up. The monocle fell from his wide eyes, and he would've dropped the journal too if he could move at all. The guard looked like he was about to die of heart failure right there under Shon's glare. Lily smirked. If she couldn't punish them for their rudeness, this was something at least. The fools thought he couldn't fight them without his sword...

The first guard wasn't paying any attention to the battle of wills his companion was losing and said, "His orders are from the Hengist lot, but requested by the Church of Soliel and authorized by the Temple of Horsa... I can sign it if you don't want your name..." He finally looked up to see the staring contest going on and stopped. The second guard started to tremble, and Shon looked away, back to the first, holding his hand out for his papers in silence while the second guard quickly shoved everything pell-mell back in Shon's bag.

Lily huffed, crossing her arms and turning her back on them as the first guard finally signed off on Shon's papers and the second threw the bag back without looking at him. She'd wanted Shon to at least punch him, if not break his neck. Instead, Shon caught the bag deftly, swung his sword back over his shoulder, and gave them a shallow Monk bow.

She managed to hold her tongue until they reached the inn but then wrenched off the hood of her cloak -making Ryuuko hiss again- and snarled, "What the hells was that about! I've never had my bags searched before. How dare-" 

"And a good thing too," Tuth quipped, taking off his cloak and shaking it out before folding it over the back of his chair, "I doubt any guard would survive if they did. As possessive as you are." 

Lily growled, but Shon just pulled out his chair, turning it away from the table so he could dig through his bag and -presumably- reorganize everything. Ryuuko hopped from Lily's shoulder down to Shon's head, then crawled over his arms and right into the bag before Shon lifted it out by the neck and dropped it on the table. All without comment or looking at her. 

Lily's hand snapped out to grab his chin, lifting his face to look her in the eyes, "Why didn't you stop them? They had no right-" 

"They had every right, Lily." Yua said, "The Hengist soldiers do the same thing to Horsa men who try and cross over." 

Shon nodded in agreement with the Ranger, but as Lily continued to glare, he said, "Paladins and Clerics can't cross at all without orders from the Temple of Saint Giorgos. That's why they send me whenever they need someone in Horsa land." 

Lily threw her hands up in frustration, then wrenched out her chair. She sat down across from him, crossing her legs so her foot got in his way as he started to go back to his bag, "Those others aren't mine. They aren't you. I ought to burn his bones through his flesh for-" 

"Lily." Shon spoke her name sternly enough that she stopped, "It will be their names on my papers if anything happens, and the Horsa Temple questions why I was let through. They were doing their job and protecting themselves. It wasn't anything to do with me specifically. Let it go." 

Yua waved down the serving wench and called, "Two rooms and drinks for the table, please." Tuth groaned, but the Ranger turned back to Shon and Lily, who were still staring at each other, "He's right, Lily. Though I did half expect him to puncture the man's eyes when he found that journal. What's in there anyway?"

Lily looked away first, and though she kept her arms crossed, she straightened her chair to get out of Shon's way and answered, "Drawings mostly..." 

"Oh?" Yua asked, the familiar evil glint returning to her eye as she scanned Shon, who refused to look up.

Tuth interrupted with a loud sigh, "Do I really have to share a room with you here too? The tent is bad enough."

"As if you have room to complain," Yua scoffed, "You snore." 

Tuth spluttered, "I do not! Lily, tell her!" Ryuuko twittered at the Mage and jumped up to drape itself over his head. He tried to brush it off, but it just wrapped its tail around his neck and chirped little dragon laughs. 

"Sometimes," Lily said, a tiny grin twitching at the side of her mouth despite her best efforts to stay angry on Shon's behalf, "When you fall asleep with your book on your face."

Shon finished at least some of the repacking and shifted forward to sit on the edge of his seat. Reaching up, he cupped Lily's cheek and pulled her face back to his, then kept pulling until she rested her forehead on his. The cold of his skin helped to further cool her temper, and she sighed,

"I appreciate the intention, Lily. Thank you." he whispered to her, "But there's no point in getting angry over material things..."

"They're your things, though..." Lily tried to argue. Why couldn't he understand? To disrespect his belongings like that was to disrespect him. And he was hers. Her most precious treasure. 

He shook his head, sliding his forehead against hers, "They are still only things, and I don't care about them." She opened her mouth to argue again, but he interrupted her, "I'll tell you what... If they ever damage or steal anything that matters, I'll give you first dibs on punishing them for it." 

Lily grinned, "And risk losing my clearance? Thank you, but I would rather you do it. I just don't like seeing people treat you that way." or seeing him do nothing about it. As if he were used to being walked all over. 

"You should get used to it." a new voice joined them and Shon pulled away from her to eye the newcomer. He was an older man in long dark robes, with gray streaking his otherwise brown hair at the temples and center of his bearded chin. He shrugged, "A soldier follows orders without question regardless of the Temple he is enlisted under. And here, those sworn to Hengist are less than the lowliest beggar." He smirked down at Shon, "Just as in Lenare -and every other Hengist province- those sworn to Horsa are treated as criminals before they even commit a crime." 

Shon glared, but the Mage just chuckled, "What? Innocent until proven guilty? Or so the Temple of Hengist teaches. It matters not. Prejudices exists everywhere. The only thing that changes are the victims."

"Can we help you with something?" Lily asked, getting to her feet and cocking her hip, her hand purposefully close to her bag, and thus her staff. 

Behind her, Yua and Tuth both stood quickly, though if to protect her, or the Mage from her, Lily didn't know and didn't care. Ryuuko whistled and hopped from Tuth's head to Shon's with a little hiss as Shon too stood and held out a hand to block Lily from the stranger. 

The Mage wasn't the least bit intimidated and rolled his eyes. "You're late. I was sent here to bring you to Sanoloa by gate." To prove his point, he waved away the serving woman bringing the tray of drinks and keys, "Time is of the essence."

Lily laughed, though not in amusement, "It was you lot who didn't authorize a gate in the first place." 

"I am aware of that," the Mage said, pulling a black wand studded with diamonds from his robes. "But while you took your dear sweet time, Sir Ragther has gathered more data, and another has gone missing." 

That was all Shon needed to hear. He nodded towards the door to the inn. The Mage grinned, "A man of few words and strong convictions. Let us away then."He muttered the command word for his wand, and a single diamond shot from its tip to hover in the doorway. As the diamond expanded, the door no longer led to the rain-soaked road outside and instead showed the interior of the Mages Guild in Sanoloa.

Shon stepped through, with Lily and the others close behind.