[Scalvoris Mountains] Distance

[Vega]

3rd Cylus 718

She really was not enjoying this. It was so damned cold and so damn difficult and Vega was beyond miserable. More than that, she had truly not considered just how debilitating this was. Whenever she held a weapon in her hand, it burst into flaming molten heat. It didn't burn her, but she'd ruined a pair of boots when she forgot and picked up her dagger to put it in one of them. And hunting? Well how did one do that? She could kill things, certainly, but how one skinned creatures with a molten hot blade was beyond her. So she could kill it and cook it but she couldn't skin it. Well, that was fine, because she didn't want to have any more fire around her than she needed.

She'd eaten poorly the last three trials, burned meat and tasteless biscuits. Equally she'd never been so hungry as she was after a time when she tried to find out what was going on. Holding one of her weapons in her hand, she heard the voices. First one, then the other. Then the next. Never the nice and kind sounding young man though, always the mocking, goading, insulting voices preying on her fears, her insecurities. Vega was pretty robust about such things, but it was distracting and a pain in the neck and as much as she'd never admit it, Vega knew that they were getting to her. Not least in the complete lack of sleep she'd had for four nights now. When she did drop off, her dreams fell in on her, restless, fitful and she couldn't even dreamwalk. Not holding a weapon meant that the voices external to her stopped, but her internal ones were growing louder and louder.

Of course, there was the physical hunger and the physical and emotional tiredness, but for the last three trials Vega's over-riding emotion had been miserable. At least that was changing, she thought with a grimace as she sat, nibbling one of the biscuits she'd bought. Because now, fear was beginning to overwhelm her. Because it was getting worse, she was sure. After three trials of climbing, she'd finally reached a place she was happy to camp in, this trial. But each trial, it got worse. The first time she'd tried it, at the base of the mountain, she'd been able to hold on to the blade just about six or seven bits before the fire started to make it's way up her arm. But for all of those minutes, she had tried to communicate with the voices, tried to make it take longer until it started to engulf her; the opposite was happening.

"I know I'm not doin' great at what I should be doin', Xiur, but I'm right afraid. I'm not givin' up, though. I promise you." She'd prayed to Xiur in her own, unique and inimitable fashion a lot over the last three trials. "I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna get it under control, an' beat it. I'm sorry, I guess I'm jus' not concentratin' hard enough or, somethin'. I dunno. I dunno. But it's still glimmerin', that hope. I promise."

That said, she thought, she'd better try again to skin this damn goat. It was that which she was doing when he appeared. Vega was kneeling in a snow covered rocky outcrop. It seemed to be made up to be a camp, but if it was hers then she'd lost all her abilities to set up camp well. It was exposed and was cold. Not surprising since they were two, nearly three trials trek up a mountain. More than that, though, it wasn't placed to keep warm, to try and counter the elements at all. She looked like she hadn't slept or eaten properly for four trials and was just a little wild around the eyes. She was well wrapped up, but there was no fire burning here. Which made it odd, as there was an awful stench of searing flesh which assaulted him as he appeared, the smell was from the goat she was skinning, cooking and more or less melting all in the same moment as she tried to take the skin off. It hadn't been a full two bits and the voices were clamoring, pushing in on her and she just had to do this quickly, but the molten knife, glowing like it should be burning her but wasn't - yet very much was burning the dead goat making her task impossible. She turned with the intention of flinging the knife in fury and frustration and she saw him.

Just for a few trill, what she truly felt when her gaze landed on him showed. Her eyes lit in delighted vivid green and almost sparkling pink and her lips lifted in a smile. But it was short lived and her face fell as she stood up with a frown and what looked like fear on her face. "How did you get 'ere? What are you.. will you shut UP... what are you doin' 'ere?" The bit in the middle sounded angry, despairing and then, as she realised that the flames were moving up her arm, covering her skin and she hadn't noticed because she was looking at him, Vega dropped the dagger. By the time it hit the floor, the blade was normal again, as was her arm, although her bracelet was gone. Her expression, though, was far from usual. "Don't come near me. Arlo, I don't know wot you think yer doin', but jus' leave. Don't come 'ere. Please... " Ever-shifting eyes darkened until they were black. It looked like the tears she was holding back might drip like black ink down her cheeks. But hold them in was what she did.

"I don't want you 'ere," she lied yet told the truth. If he was here, he was in such danger. What made it so much worse was that the danger was from her. "I left you. That's what the bracelet meant. Just go, Arlo please? Jus' go." She was going to have to push, she knew, he was going to ask questions, going to want answers that she wasn't prepared to give, so she was going to have to make him angry. "I'm not gonna tell you again. We're done. Jus' go."

[Arlo Creede]

Being transported from one place to another in the blink of an eye was a strange sensation that Arlo might never become accustomed to. Sure, it had only happened twice. This time, and one before it. But it was enough to make his head spin and scramble his thoughts and memories just a little till they call came, slowly, tumbling back in on him. Last time though, courtesy U'frek or Cassion and he'd never been sure, he'd been dropped right back where his bed had once been. Trouble was, Vega had moved the tent and their bed with it. This time though? Arlo stood on near the rise of a snow capped mountain, the frigid wind whipping away at him, and him blinking against the sunlight reflecting off all that white.

He didn't question how he'd gotten there, or who had done it. It was only that his recollections of the last few trials would take some time catching up with him. Just like before. The only real question was, why here? And then he spotted Vega and knew. A smile of recognition, of understanding hardly had time to begin lifting the corners of his mouth, before he saw the state of her and her surroundings. And he frowned. A dozen questions filled his mind, but when he saw the expression on her face when she noticed him there, Arlo held them in reserve. Something just wasn't right.

She was surprised, then happy to see him when she wasn't thinking. And then, as if she started thinking, she was afraid. Of what he couldn't begin to guess. But Arlo knew it wasn't him. Besides that, when she spoke she seemed to talk at him and then somebody else. And it wasn't her familiar, he didn't think. And the flames, that dagger, the way of her, all of it left him confounded. What had happened to her? He didn't know, but as a result of seeing all he was seeing, he wasn't inclined to believe half of what she was saying. She was more fearful than anything else.

"How do you think I got here?" he said, but didn't get any closer to her no matter how much he wanted to. "Cassion, U'frek, the game's over and they sent me home. We both know where home is. They sent me straight to you." Did they know what was going on? If either of the Immortals had, they hadn't bothered to tell him. "I'm not leaving either," he told her. And she'd left him? If she looked herself, seemed herself, his thoughts and worries might have gone in a different direction. But to say she was a little off was an understatement. "Well you haven't done a very good job of it have you? Here I am."

And he hadn't been back to the Wanderlust. If the bracelet was there he hadn't seen it. What was clear though is that she hadn't wanted him to know where she was going because she didn't want him to follow her. They were done? Arlo stood his ground and shook his head. "I'm not coming any closer than this if you don't want me to. But I'm not leaving," he said. "You expect me to believe that it's over...Just because, without any explanation? You think I'll buy that, just like that?"

She was lots of things, Arlo told her. She was stubborn, argumentative, contrary at times. But what she wasn't was thick or gullible. "And something else you're not is dishonest. But you're lying, and I don't believe you," he maintained. He wasn't going anywhere, so best she tell him what was going on. Why she'd run off and why she'd come up here all alone. Why...the flames, the molten blade, the dagger. But while he was at it?

"You might as well explain because I'm not leaving and I'll only keep following you till you do. Besides, you're a terrible cook under normal circumstances and it appears you've gotten worse," he said with a glance at the goat. "And you couldn't have picked a worse place to set up camp." That was the least of it, of course. But bottom line, she could explain what was going on, and accept that he wasn't leaving. Or they could continue this standoff till they were covered in snow and left to thaw out again come springtime.

[Vega]

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Cassion and U'frek had sent him home? The game? Vega frowned and suddenly realised that he hadn't been there for the time that she'd been gone. When she got back to the Wanderlust to pick up her things, he'd not been there then and probably hadn't been since; her bracelet sat still on the table in the galley kitchen and Bert remained seated on the bed they shared. They sent him to her? Because she was where home was for him? Of course, being Arlo Creede, he would say that, just making it more difficult. Vega felt herself almost take a step towards him, but she did not move. They sent him straight to her? But then? She hadn't done a good job of leaving him? "Oh, yer a funny, funny short boy you are," she fumed and bit back. "They dropped you 'ere? Well good for them. Maybe they can take you back, cos it's a long walk." Shaking her head, Vega realised that she was just on the verge of being pulled in, and she didn't allow herself. She wasn't going to let him do that, she knew what he was up to.

"You can buy it or not, it doesn't change the facts. We're done, Arlo. An' yeah, because. Because I say so. Because I choose so. Because I am not lyin', I'm tellin' you that I'm not tellin' you more than this. We are done, end of it," she glared at him and resisted the urge to stamp her foot. "Or are you sayin' I don't get a say in it? Cos I don't want you here, Arlo. I want you to leave." Her voice quivered at the last word, and she cursed herself as a fool. "Please. Please jus' go?" She was all those things yes. Stubborn and argumentative, contrary too. But that didn't mean she didn't mean this, she said and the black of her eyes didn't get lighter when he talked, saying he wasn't going to leave, saying he was staying here even if he came no closer.

"I didn't run anywhere, I bloody well walked," she bit when he asked and she shook her head, stubbornly. "An' I'm doin' fine. I'm where I want to be, need to be. An' you know, jus'... shurrup." But he wasn't going to let it go, she knew. He'd sit there. Which was fine, except he'd freeze his butt off and ...

"I think you'll find, Arlo Creede," she said, voice low and irritated, "that this is exactly where I picked an' it's perfect for my needs. An' I've eaten jus' fine. Alright, that's a lie. Oh damnit, Arlo what do you want? It's nothin' to do with you no more. It's not your problem, it's not your concern jus' ... get out. Go away." Please, she thought. Please go away. Please go and be safe. "An' if you think I'm lyin', you look me in the eyes, Arlo, when I say this." Black though they were, her expression was honest and she spoke the truth. "The further away from me you are, the 'appier I'll be. I'm askin' you please. Please, jus' go." She couldn't tell him. If she told him, he'd never leave, she knew. He'd say stupid things and she'd believe them. If this was happening to him, she thought with a glare at him.

And then she realised what she'd do if it was. Why would she expect anything different from him? Damnit

"I went to the Order of the Adunih, jus' after last time I saw you. To get a plant to put in tea so that I don't get pregnant." She sat on the rocks and pulled her knees up to her chin. "There was a kid gone missin', some boy bein' a knight. He was an orphan an' he was lost an afraid an' so I went to find him." Shrugging, she tried to explain. She'd followed him to the burned out Inn, she said, where there'd been an altercation a few trials before and there was a rose. She described it as looking like glowing metal. "Like this, I suppose," she held out her hand, palm up. The scar was there, visible.

"There was a big molten fire thing an' it tried to get me to bring it the kid. Well, I told it to jog on. Poor scrap, he's lost everyone, I'm not lettin' him get hurt. It was huge, made of flame. An' then it.." It had seemed to speak to her in lots of different voices, it had tried to play on her fears, her insecurities. It was burning, everything it touched it was made of flames and it was trying to get her to go and find the boy. "I couldn't let it force me, Arlo. I could feel it, pushin' on my mind. So I 'it the flower with my sword, I figured it'd 'urt it." That was her, after all, she said with a complete lack of humour. "Brute force an' ignorance."

Looking at the scar on her palm, she shook her head. "I've never felt pain like it. It.. it's under my skin. I can feel it, all the time. Like I'm crawlin' out of myself. I passed out." When she woke up, she said, she'd been alone in the Burned Inn. The fire creature was inside her and she could feel it. All the time. "When I hold a sword, or a knife, any weapon, it turns into lava an' yet stays firm an' I 'ear the voices. Tellin' me.. well, bein' irritatin'." There was no need to tell him what they said. It wasn't important, they could jog on. "But the fire goes up, an' into my hand, crawlin' up inside me an' outside my skin, then my arm. An' it's gettin' quicker an' I need to get it under control before I can be around anyone. Especially you." For the first time, she looked at him. She didn't want to, he'd see how terrified she was, but he already knew. "So I camped where it was cold an' there's no fire. An' I can't bloody well skin anythin' cos I melt it. Please, Arlo, this is difficult enough, an' I need to be not worryin' about you too. Please go."

[Arlo Creede]

Most times he took a great deal of pleasure in getting under Vega's skin. But those were times when the disagreements weren't serious ones, and there was very little at stake. This time was different though. It was a different sort of satisfaction Arlo felt, when he sensed that he was breaking through those defenses. The first indications were usually annoyance and sarcasm. He'd have smiled, like he usually would. But he'd only done it because he could see that something was terribly wrong. He'd known it the trill that he'd seen her there. "They don't offer round trips services, far as I know," he said dryly of the two Immortals, whichever of them had sent him back.

"And I'm not going back either. Unless or until you're by my side...I'm not going back alone," he said bluntly. If he'd truly believed her when she said they were done. That when she'd said she was finished, she'd said it from the heart...Well what would he have done then? Arlo couldn't say. But that wasn't this. "At the least, I deserve to know the reason why." Maybe there were reasons that she didn't want him close to her. Arlo believed that and though he couldn't guess why, he respected that and stayed where he was. But he wasn't leaving. Not like this.

But then? Then she told him. At first, he was confused, not understanding. But as she went on, something seemed more than familiar about the story and how she'd been affected by events on the night that Schubert, or Cassion had come for him. "Immortals Vega," he said. "I shouldn't have gone. If I'd known, if I'd had any idea, I would have told him to go on without me. We could have worked this out together, maybe already. somehow."

Shaking his head then, he tried to explain. "I know that boy. The orphan playing at being a knight. I was out that night too, when you were. It's a long story. But I stumbled across him, where he'd broken into a home to hide. He was terrified and had a sword, was talking about some kind of demon. He was feverish and looked sick, I asked about his mother and he said he'd killed her." Of course he'd assumed the kid meant during childbirth. He seemed to be talking nonsense, Arlo told her, and was clearly in a bad state. And he had a burn on his hand. Very, very much like the one on her own hand now.

"I convinced him to let me take him to the order to see a healer, and he did. When we got there, they knew him, took care of him and he thanked me," Arlo told her. But he'd also noticed, he explained, the way the firelight in the hearth seemed to respond to whatever the kid was feeling. "At least it seemed the case to me." All of it at the time, taken alone, well it was enough that he hadn't thought much of it. But now? "I don't know how Vega. But we'll fix this. We'll fix it together. I'm not leaving," he said more firmly than ever.

[Vega]

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"Pier an' Pre's Pink Parts, Arlo Creede, could you get more irritatin'?" She was getting genuinely mad and that scared her more. What if when she got angry it got worse or something? These were things she'd been considering in the trials since last she'd seen him. She'd been meditating, keeping herself calm as much as she could and then, bang. Arlo Creede. "I wish they did do round trips an' they jus' put you back where they damn well found you!" Yeah, holding on to her temper wasn't working too well and fear mingled with fury. "Stop it. Jus'... stop it." She had to keep calm, she knew, so she concentrated on breathing, in through the nose and out through the mouth. It helped, a little, and she turned away from him as she did. "It comes to somethin' when not lookin' at you 'elps me stay calm, don't it?" Grumbling was the best word to describe how she was speaking, but she was calmer and it gave her time to think.

Which, of course, made her realise that he wasn't going anywhere, any more than she would if it was the situation reversed.

"I left because I know you won't. If you couldn't find me, I can't hurt you," she said, when he'd spoken about how he wouldn't have, shouldn't have gone. "I'm glad you went. I wish you 'adn't come back 'ere." She shook her head, there was nothing for him to regret here. "Of course you should 'ave gone, you dweeb," she smiled and almost meant it when she did. "It's Cassion, Arlo. Nothin' an' no one's more important than him for you, an' that's how it should be. So don't be bein' daft, a'right?" They could have worked it out together? Vega wished she could believe that but, more and more, she was concerned that there was no working it out.

But he knew the child? "Ser Danzcek an' his sword, Lady Snowflake," she said with a slight smile. "I never saw 'im. I followed him, to the Inn. Zanadika, the little girl, she was worried about 'im. They played together. So I got 'er to make him a hankie, ribbon thing for her brave knight when 'e got 'ome." Rubbing her temples, Vega tried to think straight. "At least 'e's safe. He killed his mother? Yeah, like I did mine. Same situation." It was part of why she'd been so determined to help him. "The little girl told me that Ser Denzcek 'ad to slay the fire monster before the two of them could be married."

And as for the fire demon? "When it was in the shape of a man, in front of me. It said it was the Prince of Eternal Mercies, an' that Ser Danzcek 'ad tried to slay it, but he fled." As the fire-man had stood there, she said, she'd heard it speak a number of different voices. Then, it spoke to her in her own voice. She heard it, clear as day. Just as she'd hit the death-forged rose, she said, and then everything went to Immortals knew where.

Vega closed her eyes, trying to remain calm. "I couldn't hit it. My sword jus' stopped, above it, but I couldn't take my 'ands off it. The fire man was an avriel shape, then a bloke with a 'ood, then someone else, someone else. Then it was me." Opening her eyes, she turned to look at him. Her eyes were black and her expression defiant."An' I 'eard myself say 'Burn'. That was all. Jus' that word." Her sword started to glow and then she was wrapped in the molten glow. It was then, she explained, that she'd passed out.

"It's been inside me since. Crawlin' under my skin. An' all the voices, Arlo. I couldn't 'ear myself thinkin' there's so many of them. But one, there's always one that's loudest, an' it wants me to kill that kid. Cos he stole somethin' from us. From it. An' there's a bit of me that wanted to, I could feel it pullin me. So I told it no, but.. " and here, in that moment, that was the issue of course. "But I'm not sure 'ow long I can resist Arlo. It told me I 'ave to consume 'im in flames an' when he dies I will... well, it's not 'appening an' I'll end myself before I hurt a child." Vega had never been as afraid as she was, that much was obvious. "Whatever that kid 'as, this thing inside me wants it an' it'll make us whole." She shook her head, frustration building inside her.

"There was one voice. He sounded like a nice bloke an' he said that I 'ave to save the boy. He said I could quiet the voices by concentratin' on what made contact with the death forged rose, but every time I 'old it the voices come back, an' the fire 'appens. Quicker, every time it's quicker." So, she was here with a 'fire demon' inside her, wanting to scratch her skin off and she was trying, she said, really trying to make the voices quiet, but every time they got louder, quicker. She couldn't sleep and she was itching all over, all the time. Oh, and there was the flame demon thing inside her. "Maybe you should go an' make sure Ser Danzceck is a'right." Vega said, genuinely. "He's got somethin' this thing wants an' if I'm not strong enough to stop it," Vega was quite serious, not considering that this might be uncomfortable for him, as a discussion topic, "You'll need to protect that kid. Unless we get whatever it is that he's got away from 'im now."

She sighed, then, and considered carefully. Or, what passed for such in her mind anyhow. "I love you. I know I'm crap at sayin' it, an' I'm not much better at showin' it, but I do. Top of my head to the tips of my toes, all of me, all in. I know you don't wanna hear it, but Arlo, you've got to go." Looking at him, she wished that it wasn't true. "One of two things is gonna 'appen 'ere. We're gonna solve it, or we're not. If we have a 'ope of solvin' it, we need to know what that kid's taken an' where it is. I can't be near 'im." Vega sighed and hoped he didn't need that explaining. Then, of course, there was the other option. "An' if we're not solvin' it Arlo, then I've lost, an' I can't take you with me, I can't. Please don't ask me to. If you were where I am, you'd jus' want to protect me an' you'd want me to leave. I know you would. The kid is a lead an' it might take us somewhere. But please don't stay 'ere an' watch me lose this battle, Arlo, that makes it so much worse." Because if she won it, she promised him, she'd be running to him.

Even as she said it, she knew that they were both aware that she didn't believe winning was possible any more. That kid and whatever he stole were their best hope, as far as she could see, and only he could chase that. Maybe destroy whatever was doing this. But she was exhausted and hungry and terrified and as it got stronger, she seemed to be doing the opposite.

[Arlo Creede]

"You know that I can, should I take a mind to," Arlo responded bluntly when she asked if he could imagine getting under her skin more than he was already. In most cases though the knack came naturally, and tended to give him a great deal of pleasure when he viewed the results. In this instance though the tactic was deliberate, calculating, and it didn't give him much pleasure to see he'd succeeded. It was a way to break through Vega's defenses and so far he'd been successful. In return he could take all the abuse she was heaping on him. It came from fear and in a very real sense a place of love and wanting to protect him.

She could say anything she wanted, but one thing didn't change. "You're right. I'm not leaving. And I'd have found you anyhow, even if the Immortals hadn't given me a hand." So that was the boy he'd seen, he thought when she told him. And come to think of it, the girl too, Princess Snowflake. The kid had never said a thing about the voices, but he'd shown Arlo the wound on his hand, and it was much like the one on Vega's. But Ser Danzceck was at the Order the last time he'd seen him, Arlo told her. And, he maintained yet again, he wasn't going back without her.

"You can beat this Vega," he insisted. "We can solve it together. You're as strong as anyone I've ever known and together we're stronger still." But before either of them went back, they needed a plan. And in order to devise a plan, they needed to put the pieces of the puzzle together, best that they could. "He wanted me to be his squire," Arlo said. "In order to kill the demon...for his princess." What had the kid said, exactly? His memories were still playing tricks on him, so soon after being sent back. But he had to focus, sort out the old from the new. "He said...I wounded the beast, took a piece of it. That's what burned me. I lost it out there. The piece maybe was what the kid meant. He'd lost it out there.

He'd gotten the boy to go with him to the Order by promising to be his squire, Arlo told her. And when they'd gotten there, turned out the healers had been looking for him. "His name is Danny," Arlo remembered. "And there was a little girl. His princess. She gave me this," he suddenly recalled as he dug into his domain sack and pulled out a yellow hair ribbon to show Vega. "When that kid was happy, the flames in the hearth danced, and when he was hurt, they whipped around." But according to that boy, he had taken a piece of that demon, but had lost it. Out there, he'd said, as if it had been lost in the snow.

[Vega]

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"You would not," she said, belligerently, of him having found her anyway. Vega looked at him as she said that and she saw the worry on his face. More than anything, she wanted to look after him, protect him but how could she do that if he wouldn't let her? "Without knowin' that I've got this fire demon, or whatever it is, inside me, 'ow would you.. oh, do you know, I don't care." She realised that she was arguing with him as much because it was habit to do so as for any other reason, "you win."

He was so sure that she could beat this and she loved him for it in ways she couldn't describe. "Arlo, I'm doin' everythin' I can an' it's just gettin' worse." She wanted, more than anything to just curl up and sleep, preferably with him. But they could solve it together? Maybe. Maybe there was hope there, she thought. Maybe he was right about that. "I've meditated, an' done practice of that technique Papa showed me. I've even done dancin'," Anything, she said, anything at all to just try and keep it at bay. Nothing had worked and it had been four trials now, since she'd slept or eaten properly. She'd pushed herself, too, as hard as she could physically, so that when she rested she might be so tired that sleep happened. Thus far, nothing had helped.

"I'm not givin' in. I promise you. But so far, I'm losin'. But ok. Lets try an work it out," more than anything she wanted to go to him, but she didn't dare. Thus far, it had always happened when she was holding a weapon, she said. But not just the sword that hit the rose, any weapon. Looking at him she felt tears prickling behind her eyes, but she didn't allow herself to shed them. "I don't know if that'll change an' I daren't risk it. He didn't, doesn't 'ear the voices cos it's inside me, not him." But whatever of the demon he had taken, it wanted it back. So, the child had lost it? Vega was relieved on the part of the boy, but equally not so in that whatever it was would be impossible to actually find, now. Out in the snow, out there. Damnit.

When he showed her the ribbon, though, she gave an utterly mirthless half-laugh. "That's 'er. The girl - while I went lookin' for him, I told her to make him a handkerchief or ribbon to gift as her favour when he got back. I'm glad he's back with her. Poor kid, he's got no one." But what did this mean for her, for them, Vega wondered aloud. "I guess. Well, since it 'appened, I've avoided fire. It's why I came 'ere, or one of the reasons. It's cold, an' I can survive without fire. It's why I camped here." She quirked an eyebrow. "An' also, cos you'd never find me. Maybe I can control fire I dunno." She shrugged. Did they want to find out, did it make a difference?

Vega frowned, remembering. "The little girl, she said he was on a quest for her. The girl's name is Zanadika. Lady Snowflake is the name of 'is sword. But Zanadika sent him on the mission to slay the fire monster, Arlo." That was right, Vega recalled, that was what Zanadika had said - she'd sent him on a mission. Come to that, the fire-man which she assumed was the demon which was now inside her, it had knelt down, cowering and there had been a strong smell of limes. Her frown deepened, and Vega tried to recall it all correctly. "I'm sorry Arlo, it's all jumbled in my 'ead."

She'd seen and spoken with the fire-man, she said. He'd cowered and the smell had been lime and he'd threatened and the smell was morning dew. Each different form had a different personality. Then, when she'd tried to strike the flower, the glow had gone up her sword and into her and she'd passed out. Then, when she'd woken the fire-man was gone, into her and he had become the voices in her head.

However, there was more. Vega tried to concentrate; she was exhausted and fearful and that messed with her cognitive processes, but she tried to focus. It helped, she realised as she spoke the story to him, to be saying it to him not just thinking it in her head. Her gaze remained on him as she spoke. "It was then, I pushed them away an' spoke to the kind young man, an' he told me to concentrate on what made contact. But Arlo, I didn't 'ave a sword in my 'and. Also, the sword never actually touched it. The only bit of me what did is my..." She looked down and opened up her hand, revealing the scar. "My hand."

Had she been meditating and focusing on the wrong bit of herself, she wondered. As her eyes maintained a focus on him, tiny pinpricks of pink started to break through the blackness of her eyes. Tiny, but there. "So, do we want to try an' find out if meditatin' an' focusin' on this scar does anythin' different?" If so, she said, she wanted him out of the way, in case what it did was make her burst into flames. Or did they try and find out about the girl or the piece that Danny had broken off the demon? Which would need to be him, because she couldn't risk being around people, she just couldn't.

Black eyes looked at him and her expression was earnest as she spoke. "I'm so sorry, Arlo. I was jus' tryin' to help an orphaned boy. The voices keep tellin' me how much I hurt you, an' how bad for you I am." She was starting to believe them, too. "I'm sorry, is all." But they needed to make a decision she knew. What did he think? Whichever they did, they'd have to take precautions.

Just in case she burst into flames or something equally inconvenient.

[Arlo Creede]

"I'd have found you," Arlo insisted again when Vega claimed that he wouldn't. "Do you know?" he added and smiled a little. "Cassion gave me a compass that sometimes points north but mostly not. Instead it shows me the way to places I've been before. Places I want to return to. It would have brought me home." Now Arlo was fairly sure that the compass didn't work in the same way for people as it would for locations, no matter that so far as he was concerned, Vega was home. "But I don't think I would've needed that either. My heart would have known where to find you."

But of course she wouldn't give up. He already knew that. The only question for her was whether he'd be there or not while she tried. Arlo hadn't questioned it at all. He wouldn't be anywhere else, the same for her had it been him instead. So they'd try and work it out together no matter how long it took. When Vega talked more about what had happened that night, Arlo thought back and a detail came back to him and caught him by surprise.

"It wasn't like yours. The scar on his hand," he said. "He said it burned him and he dropped it. That must be how he lost whatever it was he'd taken. but at the time I thought it looked like he'd grabbed a hot iron poker out of the fire. Shaped like a rectangle, but the corners were rounded off." It seemed that night was jumbled in his head too, but for different reasons than Vega's. Still, focusing, meditating, it was as good a place to start as any. "Don't be sorry," he said, smiling a little. "And know that the voices are wrong. Dead wrong. No matter what they say."

After fixing something to eat, he'd set up a proper camp for them both. But even then he wasn't done. Part of Cassion's gift, his blessing, Arlo explained, was the ability to set up a safe camp that would keep anything dangerous, anything with dangerous intentions out. Be it man, beast, magic or even the weather. Inside the boundaries that he'd mark with his own blood he'd mark an entrance so there'd appear a door. And when they opened it up? A room for them indoors with a proper bed, a fire in the hearth, all of the comforts they could possibly want for. For anyone on the outside looking in? Just a camp.

"It'll last a trial before I'll have to set up another." But it was possible maybe that even those voices wouldn't plague her, so long as she was inside that shelter. The nice young man? Maybe, so long as his intentions weren't malicious ones. But if the safe camp stopped the others and allowed her to focus and rest, then all the better so far as Arlo was concerned. At the very least, it would keep them both out of the weather and safe for the night.

[Vega]

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He was so bloody minded, stubborn and determined to be right, he was. Completely sure that he'd have found her. No, she shook her head, she didn't know that was what the compass did. He'd shown her it, when he'd first got marked, but Vega didn't know what it actually did. When he told her, though, she felt relief, love, a hundred emotions threatening her and then he said that his heart would know where to find her and Vega wished she'd made some snowballs or.. something. Anything to throw at him for saying stuff like that, because she felt the tears which had threatened spill over and she shook her head, stubbornly and gave a gulp, trying to keep herself in control. "I'm so scared, Arlo, an' I've missed you so much." It wasn't like her to admit weakness, but it was just the truth. She took a step towards him and had to force herself to stop; an action which took all of her self-control. "Even if you are a soppy romantic fool."

When he described the scar, though, Vega frowned. "Like a petal?" Could he had stolen a petal, she wondered. She wasn't sure that it could be that, but still. While he cooked, Vega sat on a rock off in the far edge of the camp. She insisted on that, in case trying this made her explode in lava or something, she said and she wouldn't be budged. So, she went and sat and she focused on the scar on her hand. It took her longer than it should, because she was so tired, emotional and lacking focus. But after concentrating on it, on remaining calm and cool, not allowing the fire to move, Vega looked down at the knife which she'd brought with her. Then, she lifted it up, breathing in as she did.

It was only a few bits before she spoke, and she didn't look but she knew that he was watching her, she could feel him checking on her and trying to make it seem like he wasn't. "It's working. I mean.. it's going to take practice, but it's slowin' it Arlo. Immortals, I can't believe I didn't think of that." She shook her head and kept looking at the palm of her hand as she lowered the knife. If this was slower, it must have been moving quite quickly, but Vega seemed pleased. "That means I can control it, don't it? " Her gaze moved quickly side to side, unfocused as she considered what that meant. Did it mean what she thought and hoped?

It had to.

So, she scrambled to her feet and ran to him, flinging herself into his arms, wrapping herself around him and kissing him. She was crying as she did, but they were tears of relief, wet on her cheek as she clung on to him. "I'm so sorry, Arlo," she whispered and held on to him, quite content to stay there for a good while. Eventually, though, she'd go back to her rock and keep trying to focus, to push it back. To beat it.

Inside the room he created from his blessing, Vega looked around in amazement. "Ow did this get here, though? Like, am I on the ground of the mountain? Or is it like, somethin' else?" It was astonishing and she was amazed and delighted, though all of it paled into comparison to just being able to hold on to his hand. To be with him. The room was warm and as they ate, Vega felt her eyelids growing heavier than they had in the four nights since last they'd slept together in their bed on the Wanderlust. Yet, there were things she needed to know. "What if somethin' 'appens when I sleep, Arlo? Like, I dunno, if I start to go molten an' I just don't know or somethin'?" There seemed to be a lot of very flammable things in here, foremost among them being him. In there, in the warm, she was battling with tiredness, and she was thinking that the thing to do was for her to sleep outside and him in here but she knew there was no way he was going for that. "Like, will it chuck me out or somethin'?"

She was conflicted, there was no doubt. There was what she wanted and what she thought she should do, yet she knew he wouldn't accept. Then there was what might happen in between. "I want to go to bed an' curl up with you an' sleep, Arlo. I do." The thought of falling asleep with his arms around her was enough to make her want to cry. "I want that more than I can tell you. But what if somethin' 'appens when I'm sleepin'? I don't know if it does, but it might." Thus far, she told him, she'd managed to sleep in snatches but she couldn't even dreamwalk at the moment. As she slumbered, the voices fell in on her and her dreams were sudden and vivid. "I jus'.. I know that you bein' there will 'elp me sleep, but what if I 'urt you an' we're both asleep an' so don't see it comin'? I can't live with that." And the worry that it might happen would stop her sleeping, they both knew that. She wasn't going to rest while she was concerned that he wouldn't be safe, she couldn't do it. "I don't know what to do," she admitted.

[Arlo Creede]

A soppy romantic fool? Never, he'd told her. But Arlo had said it with a slight grin that said he'd take it, if only it brought Vega out of that moment of feeling desperate, hopeless and alone. He didn't want her to feel any of those things. None of them were true and so long as they were together, he'd do or say whatever he could to help her see it for herself.

But maybe like a petal, after all, he'd conceded. There'd been no reason to think so that night when he'd first seen the scar on the boy's hand. The the context was missing. He hadn't known where Vega was, what she was seeing and hearing or what she was going through. If he had then all of this might have been avoided. It was made even worse because once she'd return to the Wanderlust, Schubert had already come to collect him and he'd gone, none the wiser then.

Still, while he made sure they had a good warm meal, while he set up a proper camp, Arlo allowed Vega to keep her distance. Or rather, he kept his distance just as she wished him to. It was less worry for her and he knew that. It seemed to be working, based on what she was showing him. And then when she finally came closer and fell into his arms, he didn't want to let her go again in case she decided once again to retreat. "Don't be sorry. Never be sorry," he'd said, after a lingering kiss that said more than either of them could with words.

As for their safe camp once it was done, he found it difficult to explain just what she was seeing. "It's here," Arlo said, "and it's real. But its more like another dimension I guess. Sort of like Emea, but in the waking world. Once the effect has gone, it'll be just an ordinary camp. After a trial I'll need to do it again." He guessed that if what was plaguing her caused her to turn on him, then the nature of the place would have it ejecting her to the outside. But it was worrying too much, Arlo thought.

"Lyova never sleeps and she'll keep watch," he suggested. And so might her familiar? But she'd still worry about that and Arlo knew it. "We're going to lay together in one another's arms, and you're going to rest, warm and safe," he told her. "I'll watch over you and make sure of it." After all, Cassion's gifts had been generous ones. What sleep he lacked that night, he could make up for next trial while she was out and about, doing what she needed to do. And still, Lyova would watch. "Sleep then," he told Vega. Sleep, and she'd have him, Lyova and her familiar too, all watching over her.