Kain received the answer to their troubles at midnight.

It came in the form of a heavy shuffling outside his door. Unable to sleep--nightmares fresh in his mind, and the moon's energy surging through his veins--he'd retreated onto the balcony to watch the night sky. Images flashed through his thoughts, memories of those precious moments before everything fell apart, leaving a peaceful, heavy grief that was shattered as the subtle noise touched his sensitive senses.

His reflexive alarm faded the moment he realized that whomever they were, they were being too loud. If they were an assassin, they were a poor one, and anyone else...well, there were very few people who would bother to seek him out so late. A different sort of worry chilled his veins as he pushed away from the railing. The noise paused, leading him to do the same once inside his quarters.

What next? He wondered.

The shuffling moved away. Then back, then away again before something heavy clattered against the floor outside. A familiar voice swore under their breath and he went stiff.

They knocked before he could recover.

"J-Just a moment," Kain called.

He hurried over to the door, cursing himself as his clumsy path caught his knee against one of the chairs. Heat flooded his face as he reached to undo his locks. As sensitive as merfolk hearing was, there was little doubt in his mind that Callias wouldn't have caught that.

Still, he did his best to look composed as he tugged the door open with a smile. "Sorry, I wasn't..."

Surprise stole his mind. It shouldn't have--as, surely, none of them expected Callias to be his usual, composed self--but, still, the sight was an overwhelming, mixed degree of heartbreak and grief.

The merfolk's hair was loose, tumbling over his shoulders in frizzy, tangled waves and clinging to his face with a damp sheen. When combined with the way Callias' rumbled clothing clung to his frame, Kain would have assumed the man had come running from somewhere--but, the overwhelming smell of alcohol pulled any suspicion of that from his thoughts. As it was, his frame almost seemed to sway in place.

He stepped forward, intending to help, only to move back--hands up--as the blond jerked away. The resulting still silence between them was suffocating. Callias, surprisingly, was the one to break it as he recovered his partial composure and shuffled past Kain into the room, very obviously avoiding any assistance.

"I--" Kain began.

"You're leaving in the morning," Callias interrupted.

Kain bit the inside of his cheek. There was a heaviness to the words--as if each had been weighed and carefully placed, sealing away any slur or fumble that might have otherwise occurred. Acknowledging that, however, would do neither of them good, so he instead focused on the statement itself.

"We are," he confirmed. "...will you be coming?"

Callias didn't answer right away. Instead, as Kain closed the door and placed his back against it, the merman stared at the bathroom. Kain grimaced, his own emotions swirling heavily in his chest--it was far too easy to imagine the path slipping open to another familiar face.

But, it wouldn't.

"Callia--"

"I can feel her."

For a moment, Kain attempted to follow the unsaid train of thought. The her, if he took it at surface value, would be Melitta. But, it couldn't be--the gods had, after all, severed the siblings' bond.

Which, in itself, was an explanation.

"The person they tied you to," he concluded.

Callias fumbled with something in front of him. It wasn't until he titled his head back, a thermos in hand, that Kain realized it must have been alcohol he'd dropped in the hall. Part of him was tempted to try and take it away--he obviously didn't need anymore to drink--but, the rest of him understood. So, he didn't.

Midnight seemed like a poor time to drag a cracking man from his grief.

"Even now," Callias mumbled. If he'd heard Kain, he gave no sign. Instead, he simply lowered the thermos, before swishing it with a frown. No noise echoed inside. "I can feel it tugging. Urging. Stronger than ever. Can't fix that."

"You don't have to come with us. If the bond is pushing you to find them--"

"No, I do. I have to," Callias interrupted.

"If it's about Iliana--"

"I can feel her."

Awareness surged through his mind. Kain's hands clenched around his forearms, digging into the skin to keep the sudden surge of complicated emotion from his face.

"Iliana?"

Callias closed his eyes. "She's calm right now. But, minutes ago, she was frantic. And, before that...it isn't normal."

Kain took wary steps closer as Callias swayed. The merman's words swirled through his mind, painting a story that didn't make any sense. Because--Callias was right--that knowledge wasn't normal.

"Your bond..." he began cautiously. "It's only to know where the other is and if they're alive, isn't it?"

Callias spun to face him. "It was. It is."

Kain could practically hear Aion's voice as the gods discussed cutting Callias and Melitta's binding. The god had warned them--magic did impossible things when twisted in ways it wasn't created to go.

Dwelling on the impossibilities seemed like a poor idea at the moment, however. The way Callias had gone tense, his hand clenched around the thermos as if he were seconds from tossing it, told Kain that much. It was a conversation for tomorrow--when alcohol wasn't burning through the man's veins.

Besides, there was something much more important implied by their being bound.

"Callias. Can you feel where Iliana is?"

He lowered the thermos.

"...I can."

Relief, heavy and unexpected, turned Kain's legs numb. He grabbed the back of a chair, a new timetable flashing through his thoughts as he realized just what that meant. No uncertainty--no searching--they could follow Callias' instructions to Iliana, just as they had once followed Melitta's guidance to Callias.

It cut down the expected projection by a month at least.

"That's why you're coming," he realized aloud. It made sense. Callias had no other reason to stay with them--not after Melitta. "Because you can sense where she is."

Callias locked his jaw, but didn't argue as he ducked his head to look at the thermos again, letting his messy hair fall into his face.

"Are you bringing that woman with you?"

Kain grimaced. "Only if you are not against it."

Please say you are.

"I..." Callias trailed off, hand reaching up to card in his hair. He tugged at the strands, as if the action could somehow help structure his thoughts. "Isidor said she's her sister."

"She is."

Not that she's done much to deserve the title.

The thought startled him. Gods. Since when had his mind turned bitter? Irritation, reluctance, annoyance, those all made sense. But actual anger towards the woman--she hadn't been the one to throw the blade.

"She can come. But, if she talks to me, I make no guarantees on what I will say," Callias murmured, then paused, before dropping his fingers from his hair. "Or do."

"I let her know to stay away from you," Kain promised.

Or, he'd ask someone else to. They'd understand, surely, why he couldn't handle Mara at the moment.

Seemingly satisfied, Callias nodded, before pushing away from the chair he'd been leaning against. Without another word, he strolled towards the door, letting the thermos hang at his side. Kain eyed it uneasily.

"Callias." At the call, the man paused and glanced back. Kain hesitated. "We're leaving early, tomorrow. You should sleep."

Something between a scowl and disbelief twisted Callias' expression. Apparently, the unspoken request in Kain's words hadn't gone unnoticed despite his state.

Callias dipped into a mocking bow. "I wouldn't dare upset your schedule."

Then, before Kain could apologize, the merman was gone. He groaned, before moving to throw himself face down on his bed, the entire exchange both wiring and exhausting him in equal measure.

For now, he would just have to be satisfied they were finally setting out once again. Everything else--Callias mood, the alcohol, Mara, Isidor's erratic magic, the bond...it could all be figured out on the road.

Reotak was two months away, after all.

┈♔◦𓇣◦☽◦❤◦☾◦𓇣◦♔┈

For all their troubles up to that point, the trip to the mountains was long and grueling--but, uneventful.

The occasional nightmares showed their faces, of course. But, with Natia amongst their number, they had plenty of warning. The beasts were either dealt with or avoided in turn, leaving the party exhausted, but unharmed.

The frequency of the attacks left Kain with little doubt that the momentary reprieve from his curse while in Sol hadn't been because the nightmares weren't concerned with them, but because they'd been behind two large, stone walls and a few hundred royal knights. The nightmares were simply unable to reach them.

Amongst the party itself, Mara--shockingly--wasn't the issue. She stayed to herself, mostly, quietly conversing with Dalphie or Rhode when needed. Gone were the heavy skirts of a noble lady, and in their place a simple one-tone dress without the endless layers of Aeolian fashion. She kept her hair tied up high, and found work in readying their meals and, much to his surprise, helping with trapping or the like.

The skills struck him as odd until he remembered her origins. Before she was a regicidal duchess, Mara had been a simple village girl struggling not to starve. Of course she knew how to hunt.

Rhode, too, became less of a concern as time passed by. Whatever had made her withdraw into herself about the situation in Sol seemed to resolve with Dalphie's presence. She started voicing her opinion, again, offering help where needed. There was no smile, a new heaviness to her shoulders, but--it was better than nothing.

In the end, it was Callias that was the problem.

Despite having been the one to approach Kain with the intention of coming along, he refused to actually talk to any of them. Instead, he hung to the back of the group when they were traveling, and set his bedroll a few dozen feet away from the fire when resting.

Not that Kain ever saw him rest. Heavy, dark circles formed beneath the merfolk's eyes with time, but he wasn't honestly certain what to do about it. Or if it was even his place.

Melitta's death was partially his fault, after all.

Isidor--however--didn't have such reservations. Which became clear a week out from the mountains. As the group settled their horses in the barn of a small village inn, the witch disappeared into his quarters the moment they were inside. Then, while the others settled in, he apparently ordered their dinner.

Kain should have questioned it, but he didn't--up until the point that Callias toppled backwards from the table. Only Kain's reflexes kept the man from hitting his head on the inn floor. At the incredulous look Kain gave him, Isidor merely shrugged.

"What? Should I have let him collapse in the pass, then?" he questioned. "Best put him to bed, he won't wake until late morning at least."

"Did he just..." Mara began, her expression seeming to mirror Kain's disbelief.

"Feel free to join him on the floor if you have a problem with it, Duchess," Isidor offered as he stood. "I'm sure there's still some poison in your system you should be sleeping off."

Mara hesitated, before returning her attention to her food.

Dalphie stepped away from the table to help Kain as he struggled to pull Callias from the floor. "I was a day from doing the same. Good job, kid."

"We probably shouldn't encourage him drugging people," Kain muttered, then grunted as Dalphie heaved Callias onto his back.

"I don't think my chiding him would make much difference," Dalphie retorted lightly. "And, besides, he's not wrong. It was deal with this now, or later. And if he has a problem with it when he wakes, perhaps that's for the best. If he stays behind, we don't have to worry about him in the long run."

Dalphie continued to unsettle him.

Rhode trailed behind them, then offered to stay with Callias after Kain dropped him into the bed. Seeing no reason to argue--it wasn't as if Callias would prefer any of them more than the other, rather it was a degree of dislike to be weighed--Kain left them alone, and returned to the lower floor.

The next morning, Callias said nothing, but notably insisted on making his own food when it came time to eat.

Kain couldn't blame him.