The ride was shorter than it felt. A full day, technically. Most of it Theodore spent asleep against the window, mouth slightly open, bellus curled in his lap like a second pillow. Cael went down too, somewhere past the second hour, head tipped back against the seat, hands loose in his lap for the first time since Arthur had met him.

First time Arthur had seen him look like that. Unguarded. He tried to remember if Cael had ever shown up in the novel and came up blank, which didn’t mean anything anymore. Theodore probably hadn’t either. Half the cast he knew now hadn’t existed on a page he’d read, and the other half had existed differently enough that knowing their names felt almost useless.

He’d noticed the memory thinning over the past month. Not forgetting exactly. The big beats were still there, Vak, the banquet, the tournament. But he’d stopped reaching for them the way he used to, stopped treating half-remembered Chapters as a map he could trust with his life. Plan two steps ahead. Stay flexible. Trust what he could actually see in front of him.

That was the plan, anyway. He watched Cael sleep and Theodore drool slightly on the window glass and thought that whatever this was turning into, it didn’t look much like a novel anymore. It looked like two people he’d grown to actually like, asleep on a long carriage ride, on their way somewhere cold.

The sun was down when they hit the border. Cold dropped on him like the carriage had driven through a wall. He felt it in his teeth before he felt it anywhere else, a deep ache that started at his gums and worked outward. Cael woke up first, then Theodore, all three of them pulling coats on while their breath fogged the windows from the inside, each exhale a small cloud that lingered too long before fading.

Outside: pale ground under lantern light, trees the color of something gone slightly blue at the edges, like they’d stopped being sure of their own green and settled on a compromise. Settlements scattered along the road, fires going at each one, men in coats with swords strapped across their backs standing close to the flames, not talking much, just warming their hands and watching the road.

"Vaskers," Vexis said, looking out the same window.

Arthur filed it. Monster hunters, basically. Creslan ran on hunting the way Ishkral ran on smithing, a different economy built around whatever the land actually gave you to work with.

"We’re here," Cael said, rubbing his eyes, already drinking from something that steamed.

"Yeah."

Theodore had his face nearly against the glass, breath fogging a small circle that kept reappearing as fast as he wiped it clear. Above the trees, tiny dots scattered across the sky, more of them than Arthur had ever seen at once, close enough together that for a second he wondered if they were moving.

The carriage stopped. A guard in dark blue armor leaned toward the window, lantern raised.

"Visitors or resident? No merchant crest on this carriage. Identify yourselves."

Cael handed over a folded letter without comment. The guard read it, closed his eyes for a second like he was filing something away mentally, then passed it back without a word and stepped aside.

"Let them in."

The carriage rolled forward into a different city entirely. Fire pits at every corner, big enough to actually warm a street rather than just decorate it. People walking with cups that smoked, the same way Cael’s had earlier. Buildings leaning closer together than they did back home, like the cold had taught everyone here to stand shoulder to shoulder out of habit.

Vexis drifted to the window again, looking between Arthur and the people outside with the particular satisfaction of someone who’d been right about something for days.

’See? Now do you get what I meant?’

Arthur rolled his eyes. Yeah, yeah. I get it.

"Where are we staying tonight?" he asked Cael.

"Already rented something. Up ahead."

"Sure."

Theodore was still glued to the window. "You know what’s weird? No snow anywhere. No ice on the roofs. But it’s this cold. Feels like your brain’s lying to you."

"Now that you say it." Arthur looked out too. "Yeah. That’s actually kind of trippy."

"Trippy?"

"Confusing. I meant confusing."

"Oh." Theodore nodded slowly, accepting it, and went back to the window.

The carriage stopped in front of a building, dark wood over a stone foundation, second floor visible through a row of small windows, a thin trail of chimney smoke already going. Cael climbed out first. Arthur and Theodore followed, boots crunching on ground that wasn’t quite frozen but wanted to be.

Cael dug into his bag and pulled out a bellus, smaller than Theodore’s, smaller than Roz, dark blue fur and black eyes, gnawing on a small black key like it was the only thing keeping it occupied. It glanced at Arthur once and immediately ducked half its body back inside the bag.

"That’s yours?"

"Yeah."

"Never seen you with one before. Thought you’d never called."

"He’s shy. Stays under my jacket most of the time." A pause, Cael watching his own bellus retreat further. "He won’t come out around you specifically. I assumed at first he found your bellus’s color intimidating."

Arthur looked at the tiny blue bellus, now fully hidden, then up at Roz sitting unbothered on his shoulder like he hadn’t even registered the comparison.

I feel you, little guy.

Inside, the building was warmer than the outside had any right to suggest from the chimney alone. A fireplace dominated the main room, already lit, a dark wood table near it scarred with old cup rings, chairs that had clearly seen years of actual use rather than display.

"Beds are upstairs." Cael was already on the first step, his bellus’s head poking back out now that the cold air was gone. "I’m sleeping. We start tomorrow."

He went up without waiting for a response. Theodore dropped his bag by the fire and started unpacking without much urgency, pulling out a blanket and immediately wrapping it around his shoulders despite the room already being warm.

Arthur exhaled, watching the fire instead of doing anything productive with the next ten minutes.

Welcome to Creslan, I guess.

---

Morning came grey through the windows, the fire down to embers. Cael was already at the table, a dark liquid steaming in a pot, three cups set out beside it in a neat row.

Theodore came down rubbing one eye, hair sticking out at angles his bellus’s own fur seemed to be competing with for height. "Morning."

"Morning." Arthur dropped into the nearest chair, still half asleep. "So what’s the plan? We just go looking?"

"No." Cael poured the liquid into the first cup, steam curling off the surface. "You made a fair point yesterday. Walking around asking questions draws attention to exactly the people we’re trying to find." He set the second cup down, then the third, lining them up like he was setting a table for a meal that mattered. "So I have a plan."

"Which is."

"We register with the Vasker Guild today. Pose as adventurers from Ishkral, here to hunt." He pushed a cup toward Arthur.

"So we’re actually hunting monsters now?" Theodore asked.

"No. And yes. It’s cover. I have a lead from the Archmagus, a place that presents itself as a monster parts trader. No trade sigil, but it has a registry plate. Their excuse is that the business is new." Cael sat. "We look into it from inside the guild structure."

Arthur yawned. "When do we head out?"

"After you two finish drinking."

Theodore was already halfway through his cup. Arthur looked at his own. Steam curling off the surface, dark brown, smelled faintly sweet.

Hot chocolate, probably.

He took a sip.

"Whoa." He blinked. "This tastes like nuts. Peanut butter, kind of. Thinner, though. Drinkable."

Cael looked at him. "Peanut butter? That’s mhor."

"Mhor?"

"Dried feces from mhor birds."

Arthur’s whole mouth rejected the information half a second after his brain processed it. He spat the entire mouthful sideways, directly into Theodore, who hadn’t seen it coming and took it across the face mid-sip.

’What is wrong with you?’) Vexis stared at him.

Arthur looked at the cup. At Cael, completely unbothered. At Theodore, dripping, frozen mid-blink with his own cup still raised halfway to his mouth.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"