A few months later

Pharos stood on the small deck cropping out from his window, arms crossed over his chest as he shivered at the first winter's touch on the wind. Summer had lasted longer than it sometimes did and Autumn was only a brief interlude this far north, with Winter finally creeping its way back into the world.

The months had moved quickly and he found himself wondering where the summer had gone to. The Rulin envoy had left several weeks ago after a couple tense meetings with Vasha and Kere that seemed to leave both sides unsure what was happening. Still, there had been a promise that they would arrange more concrete terms, even if it were over written correspondence. The Rulin claimed that they had no desire to seek out battle the following summer, though General byzan had offered no explanation as to why.

Shaking himself, Pharos stretched his sore muscles, wincing as he felt the deep pain of his newest bruises and strains. Pharos wasn't beyond his fighting years yet but his most recent student had proven a very quick learner and it was now a sad fact that he was often as hurt as she was by the time he won their fights.

He had begun bringing a couple of the boys with him a few weeks ago, alternating from having them race her in the mornings through the mountain passes and across valleys, to spelling in on fighting, in the guise of giving him a chance to critique her from a perspective of observer.

Chaven had caught on and after two days of waking up stiff and hurting, had found other tasks to do than be trounced by the ever improving Princess. And though Yantha and Ilka were never one to turn him down, it was Anzael who was the one most eager for the challenge.

That man was hard to get to focus on anything for too long and it seemed like the only way to keep him out of trouble was to give him a task, like keeping Verana out of trouble, which he was surprisingly good at.

Not that she hadn't done everything they needed her to.

Verana wasn't a fan of Court and was sparsely there, only enough to be introduced and polite to the people who would have reason to complain if she was not. Otherwise she had been content spending her days training with Pharos and the boys and taking cautious steps to get to know her mother in the evenings.

Pharos had watched Kere stumble spectacularly through most of the summer, though he hadn't been able to explain what was between mother and daughter other than stubbornness and fear on both sides. But still, the two of them were building the understanding and relationship with one another that Pharos knew they both wanted.

Even with all that, Verana was getting restless in ways that an exhilarating flight couldn't completely cure, as she mastered the lessons he had been putting her through. And despite the tests of her powers by the teachers of those arts, including the siphoning them off into crystals for later use, something about the mountains was causing her to literally overflow. Her power sparked so much that even a slight change in her moods led to drastic changes in the weather.

Which led him here, to this argument, with his Queen, about what had been eating at him for a couple weeks now. With a sigh, he turned back into the room and looked at Kerendian imploringly.

"It is a journey she'll be able to make in half a day now. There isn't enough Wild up here, the best bet is to those Human ravaged lands, close to the neutral sites. And from what I've seen, the Earth could use it, she says that the Earth there is starving." Pharos tried his argument again, offering a shrug. "We have no reason to believe that the Rulin will go back on their word regarding an end to hostilities. It's been a month and a half since the man left and nothing but what was agreed upon has happened."

There was also no reason to believe that they wouldn't go back on their word either and Kerendian's look eliminated the need for her to say as much. Pharos had recognized the look in Byzan's eyes when he had met Verana. They had no proof, but something told him that Rulin had somehow caught word about her and had sent the man sniffing around.

After Kere's glaring silence, he offered a shrug and continued. "She's going to head down that way eventually, Kere. The Earth draws her as much as the Sky does and it needs her more than her previous home did. At least if I use it as a lesson, I maintain the smallest bit of control over it all, and can keep her relatively safe, predictable."

"You'll have patrols nearby?" Kerendian asked thoughtfully, though she knew the answer, had heard his plan already, a couple times.

"Yes. And Anzael, Ilka and Yantha with us directly. She's not stupid and her sense of smell is better than a Rulin's is. I'm certain she'll sense them before they ever get down wind of us, and she's a fighter." He breathed out the words again, knowing she needed to hear them, even as surely as he needed to say them.

He had been arguing for it, but he feared it.

She would give her power to the Earth, he knew that much, and that would be a danger in and of itself. The Wilds she needed were still in Vayan territories but close enough to the borders that it was not unheard of to encounter a Rulin foray. But the movement of a larger group than what he proposed would be seen and possibly cause hostilities. At the very least it would cause distrust from the Rulin, thinking that Vayana was moving to break the uneasy truce and attack.

The land closer to Vayana was tended by the powers of the Vayans, and for whatever reason they didn't call her like the forests she dubbed 'Wilds' did. Pharos also remembered the caution from Sencha, about Verana's Path, and how she was still on it no matter how they tried to protect her.

Hunting the darkness. That was a wide reaching ambiguous enemy. There was darkness everywhere.

"Don't overestimate your abilities, Pharos. You are as easy to overwhelm as anyone else." Kerendian murmured, as if on cue but this time, she inclined her head, letting out a slow breath and finally allowed him this win. "But only the Wild, only the edges of our lands. Her tasks with the Humans, whatever she thinks they are, can wait a little while longer."

Pharos nodded and resigned himself to the task ahead.

He was a damned General. Vayana's highest ranking General, in fact. He could handle a simple day trip to the forest.

Verana couldn't get into that much trouble that quickly.