As Kore and Octavia got closer to Dainn, Octavia had the very reasonable reaction of trying to stab him.

It was to no avail. In an infuriatingly fluid movement, he pushed her arm to the side and shoved her to the ground. He didn't seem surprised to see her or the siren.

When had he and Kore met? Was Kore the one who had told the Revolutionaries she was here?

"Husband," she spat in a mock greeting. Dainn sneered back at her.

He looked exhausted, hair mussed and dark shadows under his eyes. There was a nasty gash over his cheek that would probably scar, and the crutch he had been using was gone, replaced with what looked to be a fake leg that was strapped to his thigh.

"What's this?" she asked Kore as she raised her katars again. Kore sighed and pushed her wrists down. Octavia turned back to Dainn. "Look at this. You and your damn Revolutionaries caused this bloodshed," she said, voice rising as she gestured to the battlefield further behind them. Staël's lifeless body flashed in front of her eyes. "Innocent people were killed!"

Dainn's brows raised, an indignant look crossing his face. "If you wanted innocent people to survive, then maybe you shouldn't have hidden with innocent people," he said calmly. Octavia stared at him, aghast by the callousness, before screaming with frustration, trying to stab him once more.

"Enough with that," Kore muttered, slapping her hands down. "You don't know how to even use those-"

"Then let me practice!" Octavia growled, pathetically trying to throw her fist forward so that the point of her blade would pierce any part of Dainn. Kore snapped her fingers, and the weapons vanished. Octavia screamed again. "What do you want?" she shouted, now directing her anger at the siren. "You brought me to him? You-"

"And they claimed you were the smart one," Kore cut in, grimacing. She snapped her fingers again, and Octavia's katars returned. "I am here to help you."

Help her. A likely story.

"Why?"

"Because Htraehean prophecies are foolish, and I am a child of necromagic."

A pause followed. Octavia turned to Dainn, hoping he might have an answer to whatever the hell that meant, but his expression was just as disgruntled and bewildered as Octavia's.

"...are we getting no other explanation?" Octavia finally asked. Kore tilted her head. "What does that mean?!" she shouted. Dainn snorted. "Oh, shut up. Why are you here?"

Dainn scowled. "I am a worshiper of Death. Sirens have necromagic, meaning they are creatures of Death. I don't have a choice when a creature of Death tells me-"

"That's a stupid reason to be here."

"I'm not thrilled with the situation either!"

"I hate you," Octavia decided, shaking a finger in his face. The katar on her wrist almost cut him as she did so. Ironically, it would have been the first damage she managed to inflict on him with those blades. "You're a no-good, slimy, pathetic-"

"Your hair looks ridiculous."

Octavia spluttered, hand flying to her hair. Did he think she cared about her hair at this moment? Did he think she was that shallow?

"It isn't very manageable when you're on the run for your life," she spat back, touching the frizzy curls. "What's your excuse? Why do you look like you've been run over by a horse?"

Dainn gaped at her, turning to Kore as if to check if she was also hearing this. "I was fighting in a war?" he asked, voice rising incredulously.

Octavia crossed her arms over her chest. "On that leg?"

"You-"

"By the gods, you two sound like a real married couple," Kore interrupted dryly. "If I may, the Revolutionaries will be back to burn the bodies and spread the ashes soon. I suggest we move before they return."

Octavia's heart sank. So the Revolutionaries had won. Her shoulders slumped, mourning the supporters who had just died in a lost battle. Maybe Octavia should have fought alongside them...

Kore whistled, gesturing them both to follow like you might call a dog. Octavia made a face.

"Do you know what's going on?" Dainn muttered to her as he began to limp forward.

"I have established many times throughout this conversation that I do not."

"I thought you might have been playing dumb."

"I didn't know you could think."

"Funny."

"Hilarious," Octavia agreed. "Where are we even going?" she asked, but Dainn ignored her.

The inane part of this was that Octavia could leave. Perhaps Dainn was tied to creatures of necromagic, but she wasn't. Maybe she would leave if she had any idea where to go. As it stood, Octavia had no idea where her family was nor the first step to finding them. The only place she could think to go was Jacques's farm to apologize for Staël's death.

Based on how the circus turned out, it might be safer for him if she stayed away.

At least, for now, she'd stay with them until she had a better plan to get somewhere safe. If they reached a town or a village, there might be people there that could help her -- or another horse to escape on.

So she walked. Silence followed them for miles, nobody acknowledging one another until Octavia finally broke down to ask the one question that had been haunting her for the past day.

"Did that battle really happen because of me?" she asked, stopping by the bank of a lake.

They had traveled far enough that Dualis's mountains loomed above them, towering into the clouds. Octavia had heard stories of those mountains–whispers that climbing to the top would allow you to touch the stars. A few brave souls had tried, but those who survived the attempt claimed there were spirits who stole your breath before you could make it to the peak.

Sun streamed between the gaps of the mountains, sending sparkling beams of light into the lake in front of them. They were surrounded by various trees, some with green leaves while others had pink or blue. The wind blew them into a mix of colors, creating an ombre effect as they drifted further away.

Octavia knelt, splashing water over her face near the large rock they had settled by.

Dainn rubbed his thigh, grimacing as he kneaded the area around his knee. At Octavia's question, he looked up, shrugging. "Probably. Kore spoke to me in my mind," he said, seemingly unbothered by the siren's telepathic power. Perhaps he had met one before. "So I got some soldiers to fetch you. I'm not sure how the Royalists found out you were there."

Right. Kore definitely wasn't a friend then. Octavia wrinkled her nose as she laid back against the rock, soaking up the sun with her eyes closed.

The hearts of Romanov felt like they were decaying in her chest.

"What happened after we escaped Lord Savoy's castle?" she asked. Dainn grunted. She cracked open an eye to see him untying the straps around his leg, rubbing those areas too. His hands were blue, she noticed. Water rose when he lifted his palm, whirling around his leg to clean what looked like a rash where the straps had been rubbing.

"Healers came to keep me from bleeding out," he said, touching his stomach. Octavia sat up, realizing there was no way he could heal that quickly from the stab wound she had left him with. Octavia had been at Staël and Jacques's farm for a little over a week. There was no way he recovered enough to fight.

Sure enough, when he lifted his shirt, tentative stitches showed. Blood was oozing from the wound, alongside some questionable white pus. "I wanted to fight," he added when he caught Octavia's horrified gaze. "I needed to fight-"

"You're foolish," she interrupted. Dainn raised his hand, letting the water rise to clean out his wound next. "I don't know how you can even stand." She leaned against the rock again, studying the sky as water lapped at her feet. "Why didn't you kill me?"

"What?" Dainn grunted, winching as he reached into a leather bag he had been carrying over his shoulder and pulled out fresh bandages.

"The circus. You had a blade to my throat." There had been no escape. His grip on her had been tight. His blade was steady. And yet... when the first of the fighting broke out, his hold was suddenly gone from her.

"Kore stopped me," Dainn sighed. "I remember seeing him in the crowd, and then you were gone."

Octavia sat up again. "Him?" she repeated. Dainn raised a brow. "Kore is a girl."

"Kore is a man," Dainn said slowly. Both their eyes moved to where Kore herself was in the water, swimming around as an eerie song echoed around them. "At least, he looks like one right now. His form flickers. He looks like my father, mostly."

Octavia bit her lip. To her, Kore mainly took the form of Antonia. Sometimes her mother. Occasionally she saw glimpses of Trajan, too, but it was mainly Antonia. She got up, unable to have this conversation. She didn't want to think what it might mean.

Just as she was about to yell for Kore and demand an explanation for where they were going, Dainn grabbed her wrist. She glared at him, but the heat in her chest withered when she saw the hardened caution in his face. Slowly, he raised a finger to his lips.

At his seriousness, she tensed. Had someone followed them? Were they in danger? Where-?

"Stay quiet," Dainn whispered softly. Octavia held her breath. "There's a fairy."