[crow]

"Well, here we are, dear brother. I hope you're happy. Just the two of us, alone, in the Lightless Wilds--- Oh, excuse me, I forgot about your big dragon boyfriend. And the sword-wielding lunatic who says her parents are a unicorn and the tooth fairy herself." Dami was in a fine mood as they trudged toward the gates. Technically they weren't in the Wilds just yet, but they were going to be before the day was out, and already it was too cold for him. A slight movement overhead caught his attention, and he sighed. "Okay, and Vera. Yes, I'm sorry, dear heart, I didn't forget you."

[crow]

Rey was walking alongside him, not dressed nearly warm enough for the weather. In a way, Dami was the luckier of the two. He was coming straight from the supply rooms of the Shijin Order--- and not even the University, but the proper Order itself, since he had graduated early enough to alarm some of his masters. There were still whispers, of course, that he was nothing but a dog of the slums, but at least now none dared to voice them aloud when he was within earshot.

The result was that Dami was bundled up in every piece of warm clothing he could feasibly wear and still be mobile. Rey, who had only barely and recently moved out of slum dog status himself, wore what he had. It wasn't much, and it wasn't enough.

[crow]

He would feel worse about it if this entire journey wasn't Rey's fault. Of course, he could blame the thrice-damned dragon, but it was Rey who took him in, wasn't it? It was Rey's decision not to cut him off when he found out what he was, and what his condition would require them to do to cure. A dragon... A damned dragon.

The dragon in question was walking slightly ahead. He had lingered behind, closer to Rey, when they had been making their way through the city, but now that it was clear that there was only one way to walk, he had distanced himself from them again. The last stretch out to the Wilds was a wide straight road, because at this point there was only one place you could possibly be headed.

[crow]

On the surface, it was hard to tell what Zethos was. He looked... foreign, but not in a way anyone could place. Tall and lithe, with stern features, he would have been handsome enough to attract attention if not for the remote brusqueness of his manners. Even now there was a dark brooding air around him, warning Dami away. Not that Dami would let something like that get to him.

Now that he thought about it, there was something in his features that he had in common with Saffi. He had probably mimicked the... no, there was no way the Dragonkin were real. They were probably from some remote fringe society in a part of the Sprawl that Dami had never had the chance to visit. It was a big place.

[crow]

The last member of their party was barely worth mentioning. A short stocky girl with a short brush of white-blond hair, she was clearly delusional in addition to being bad-mannered. Frankly he didn't know why she had to come along at all, but she had insisted, and Rey... Rey could never say no to anyone.

As they reached the gates, the frown Dami wore deepened. "Here we are," he said sourly, leveling a glare at Rey, who smiled sheepishly back. "Anyone have any more unpleasant confessions they'd like to make before we throw ourselves headlong into certain death?"

[crow]

No one said anything in directly reply, but Zethos ventured a glance at Rey. "Is he always like this?" he said quietly--- though not so quietly as to imply he hadn't meant for Dami to hear. Dami glared at him out of the corner of his eye, but Zethos met his gaze evenly, without the least sign that it had bothered him. Dami hated that about him too.

For his own part, Rey just shrugged, smiling that same helpless smile. "He's a little apprehensive. I am too, considering where we're going." Hearing this didn't surprise Dami in the least. One would be a fool not to be. The Lightless Wilds were, under most circumstances, a sentence of certain death.

[crow]

Rey said, "Maybe it doesn't seem so bad to you, since you've already been through it once."

There was a pause, as Zethos seemed to consider this, before he shook his head slightly. "No," he said, "it is still terrible." Well. That was that then. This dragon--- and Dami only believed that he was one because he had seen it happen, in Rey's tiny cramped living room where no fantasies had any right to be--- was no less unsettled by the Wilds for having lived through it once. This only confirmed everything Dami had been saying.

As they approached the gates, the mages manning it looked them over. At least, one did. The one that didn't simply stared down at his ledger. "State your business," he said.

[crow]

It was only when his companion, a Genbu, noticed Vera and acknowledged her presence that he looked up, eyes wide. "O-Oh," he said. "Excuse me, er..."

"Damien Fiore," Dami said sharply. He saw the man go pale with a sense of grim satisfaction. Evidently his reputation had preceded him, even here. "I've been cleared, so let us pass."  He wanted to add that he wasn't any happier to go than they would be to let them out, but that wasn't the kind of mood he wanted to set. He had to look like he knew what he was doing. As someone who had come into their mastery so young, he had always had to look like he knew what he was doing.

[crow]

It worked, especially when the man's partner nudged him. Her companion was a Senzaku, perched on her shoulder. The Genbu still looked a bit fuzzy around the edges, so Dami's guess was that its companion was newly ascended. "What's the Order doing, putting someone so green on gate duty?" he muttered beneath his breath.

"Very well," the Genbu mage said, his voice stuttering slightly. "We'll--- Oh. Yes. Please have a safe journey." The other mage was already in the process of opening the gates. Dami had to resist the urge to scrunch up his face against the blast of chill air that flooded in. He had thought it was cold within the gates, this far from the heart of the Sprawl, but evidently it was to be preferred over the unmitigated Wilds air.

[crow]

He was still within the presence of other members of the Order, however, and even now he found he did not want to risk unpleasant rumors circulating of his having lost his poise. Thus, his face remained calm and impassive as he walked into the brutal chill of the cleared space beyond the gate. Only when its doors slammed shut behind their party did he finally allow himself to shiver, and huddle further into his furs.

Vera dropped from where she had been hovering to curl more tightly about his neck, not unlike an overly voluminous scarf. She was no Senzaku, so the heat she gave off was insignificant, but at least the wind did not blow so harshly where she covered his face. "Thanks," he said.

[crow]

He would have reached a hand up to stroke her, but he didn't feel up to the idea of sparing a hand from within his pockets. Already his fingers were growing numb despite his best efforts. She understood, as Shijin companions always did, and merely settled herself securely around him.

"Let's get this over with," he declared. Turning to Zethos, he said, "Very well, you've gotten yourself here. Where's this settlement of yours, out in this blasted mess?"

"I am afraid I do not recall," said Zethos. Dami opened his mouth to say something sharp, but he went on. "I was in a... daze, if you will. I believe I was very near death when I found this place."

[crow]

He said it so matter-of-factly, it sounded offhand. As if he wasn't talking about his own death. According to Saffi, he was still dying. Whatever help he had or hadn't received from Rey had only sufficed to slow the process, apparently.

And of course nothing would do but for him to find a dragon healer. Which wasn't really something they could find in the Sprawl. Dami never thought he would have to say something like that. When he was a child he had been certain that everything in the world could be found in the Sprawl, if one had enough money or power or patience to find it.

[crow]

But when he was a child there had also been no such thing as dragons, beyond those wielded by the Shijin Order. Zethos was, very clearly, not one of those dragons. As the companion to a Seiryuu, Dami knew this all too well.

It was Saffi who spoke up. "First we head further west," she said. She had insisted that they leave by the western gate too, and Zethos had not contested her then. He did not contest her now. Dami wondered whether he knew where he was going, or if he even wanted to go. For someone who was dying, he didn't seem terribly interested in saving his own life.

[crow]

"How far, exactly, do we have to head west?" They were already walking, since no one had any objections. Saffi led the way, since she was the only one who had any idea where they were going, apparently. He almost didn't want to hear the answer to his own question. If this settlement of theirs had been there all this time, without anyone from the Sprawl catching wind of it, it had to be a pretty long ways off.

"The journey will be some time. I wager two weeks, if we are fast," she said.

Dami sputtered inelegantly. Two weeks. Two weeks, she had said. He might have exclaimed something aloud, for he felt Rey's hand settle on his shoulder.

[crow]

"Two weeks," he said. "Two weeks! Two weeks out in the Lightless Wilds, and that's if we're 'fast'!" He threw his hands up in the air. "We may as well lie down and get it over with. We're clearly not going to make it."

"You can do that," said Saffi, "if you wish to be eaten. Nothing with flesh stays on the ground very long here." Dami managed to keep himself from sputtering again, but only barely. He couldn't quite repress a shudder. Vera coiled herself more tightly about him, and the fierce protectiveness he felt radiating from her brought him out of whatever he was feeling, a little. He had been going on and on about the idea that they were going to die, but up until then it had just been griping. Death had just been an idea.