{-Rennyn-}

  One of Seldir’s new friends—the lieutenant, apparently, who sobered up and insisted on keeping an eye on them—was waiting just outside the door for them. Rennyn could hear her mumbling from the other side, and knew that she must’ve been figuring out the best route to take them through. Though he wouldn’t have minded if they just went in a straight line and dealt with whatever they came across along the way—as long as it helped, he didn’t care.

  He just couldn’t sit still and do nothing.

  Seldir casually made sure he had everything before looking up at Rennyn and asking, “So I’m guessing this is still something you haven’t mentioned to Kaylin? I don’t think you ever had that discussion yesterday like you told me you would.”

  “And like I said, she’s busy. I’m not going to interrupt her for something like this. I will if there’s a good time between now and when we leave, alright?”

  In truth, Rennyn knew what she was going to say about it… and he knew, even if he didn’t want to admit it, that she was right. He shouldn’t be doing this. He was probably pushing himself too far. If he thought that this was going to settle anything with Dain, then he’d be wrong. But it was the only thing he could think of doing, and despite everything, he needed to go.

  Seldir sighed. “So long as you pay attention to your limits, I guess there’s nothing else I can say. Speak up if you need something, alright?”

  “Trust me, I don’t plan on causing anyone more trouble. I’m just trying to make things a little better.”

  A pause. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with what you talked to King Dain about, does it?”

  “Yes? No? Kind of. It’s not directly related to what we talked about, but it’s either going to make things better or worse. And I’m hoping for better.”

  “Well, this sounds like it can go both ways, then, huh?” Seldir shook his head and went towards the door. “We’re both done, right? Let’s get going.”

  …

  “Right around here, I think,” the lieutenant remarked. “Dunno exactly what you’re looking for, but there were definitely reports about something similar happening around here. Can’t say I see what they were talking about, but maybe you do? Certainly seem to know more about it than I do, anyway.”

  “Give me a minute and I’ll check,” Rennyn mumbled. “There’s a chance they tried to hide them in order to keep people from finding them.” A more serious thought crossed his mind, and he tried to tell himself that it wasn’t actually any bigger of a danger. “Or they got rid of them or moved them themselves…”

  Seldir glanced around. “What will it mean for us if that happens? If they’d been moved, I mean. If I have to guess, it’s a little bit more than just a mild inconvenience…”

  “It means that they’re aware that we’re here, and things are probably going to get a lot more complicated a lot quicker.” Rennyn went to sit down under one of the trees. He’ll go and have a look for himself in a bit, but… he needed the moment to rest. Instead, he gestured Seldir and the lieutenant over, and drew a couple of symbols in the snow. “Could you two try to find anything that looks like these? Try looking around trees or on the ground—they could be in bark or patterns of stones. Just not in the snow, since it’s too likely to get messed up.”

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  Seldir gave it all one look, then nodded. “I’ll check right in the immediate area. I don’t want to wander too far away from you.” He glanced over at the lieutenant. “Could you look a little further, then? Try to scout out the surrounding area. Given the fact we’re messing around here, we should be on the lookout for anyone trying to stop us.”

  “You kids just get more and more complicated, don’t you..? I don’t get the kinds of things you must be getting yourself into…” The lieutenant shook her head. “But I’ll do that. Don’t want anyone getting too close to you anyway.”

  “Do not try to get anyone to leave on your own,” Rennyn said quickly before she walked off. “They’re a lot more dangerous than you might think they are. I don’t want someone unrelated to this getting hurt.”

  “I’m not the lieutenant of Askoria’s knights for nothing, kid! You seem pretty serious, though, so I guess I’ll humor you. I’ll let you know if someone’s out there.”

  Rennyn hated the amount of nonchalance she had as she walked away, but he knew there wasn’t anything he could do to change it. He just had to tell himself that, for her to have her position, she had to know what she was doing. He should be able to trust her for that, right? There wasn’t anything to worry about.

  Except, his mind was already wandering to the places he swore that he was putting behind him. Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe he should’ve been more insistent that she just tell them where they were going and let them be on their own.

  No, he needed to think more rationally about this. Having someone else would do nothing but help, really. It made sure that they stayed alone, and that they were able to take care of whatever they came across. Nothing was going to happen—or, if it did, no one was going to get hurt. Everything would be fine.

  Then why was it still so hard to breathe?

  “You doing okay over there?” Seldir’s voice sounded more distant than it reasonably shouldn’t have been.

  Somehow, that only made Rennyn feel worse; he was doing it again, letting this happen, not understanding how he’d fallen down so he had no way to claw his way back up. The cold didn’t matter—in fact, it seemed to make it harder to think, harder to breathe, blocking out any kind of warmth. The crunching snow just seemed to echo and multiply, surrounding them and threatening to close in completely. He needed to do something, but he couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t—

  “Rennyn, can you hear me? You need to breathe.” Seldir knelt down in front of him. “Look. In… and out. In… and out. Alright?”

  Somehow, Rennyn was able to force himself to do it—in, and out, in, and out. Slowly he felt himself coming back, grounded again, and acknowledging that there’d been nothing to fear from the beginning.

  He stood up. “It’s fine.”

  “Oh, hell no, you’re not going to get away with just saying that.” Firmly, but gentle too, Seldir placed a hand on Rennyn’s shoulder. “I thought we were working past all of this. I know this isn’t something that’s settled overnight, but just outright lying about how you’re feeling isn’t going to make things any better. You need to talk to us if something’s wrong—we’ve already seen the kinds of stuff that can happen when you get stuck in your own head. I thought you were starting to get that.”

  “All of that would be great if I knew for myself what the hell was wrong with me. But I barely understand this any more than you do.” Rennyn sighed. “I… I don’t know what that was about. I guess I’m just nervous about what King Dain said, or got too distracted thinking about Dhymos’s minions.”

  He’d say I stopped thinking straight, but that would be a partial lie. The more accurate way he could’ve said it was I started thinking too much at once, with so much in focus at once and yet perfectly clear.

  Seldir must’ve realized that was the most he would’ve gotten out of the conversation, so he moved on, too. “I looked around and I didn’t see anything that matched what you showed us, but the lieutenant’s still walking around, so there might be something. Do you want to meet up with her?”

  “Yeah, let’s see if she saw anything…”