The two of them were still awake when the sun arose. Both huddled around the lantern in their dark jackets pulled around them, sitting in morose silence. Eli, for his part, felt oddly muddled. His head was unusually foggy, as were his eyes. He felt as if sleep was hanging just above him like a wet wool blanket threatening to fall from the sky and smother him.

Across the fire, he could see Peter glancing over at him on occasion as if wanting to say something, but not having the courage to do so.

Eli didn't have the strength or desire to question him directly, so he waited for Peter to speak of his own accord, and simply sat there staring at the flickering flame of the oil lantern.

"Eli?"

He lifted his head slowly, looking across the lantern to where Peter was sitting staring at him. He looked nervous, but resolute and Eli sighed slightly, "Yes, Peter?"

"I.... What happened to your father?"

Inside, Eli's heart sank. A dry lonely breeze reached them from the Desolate tugging playfully at his hair as if inviting him to come and join. To venture out over the vast cracked earth, and dance alone under infinite sky.

He looked down at his hands. He didn't want to talk about this. Peter already knew all he needed to know...

Peter waited, and Eli looked down at his boots.

"When I was young...my parents abandoned me," he began.

"Eli I-"

Eli held up a hand to silence Peter. If he was going to speak, he was going to do it now and have there be no interruptions. He reached down and began packing his bags, eager to have something to occupy his hands with as he ventured into the past with his words.

For his part, Peter fell back into silence listening intently as Eli began his story, "My father was a scholar, like me. As I remember him, he had a love and fascination for history, historical architecture, historical volumes, ancient religions. Anything that could tell him more about where we came from, and how things came to be." Eli Rubbed the back of his head running fingers through his hair as the wind continued to scatter it, "He was an Information Broker like me, and, as a family we traveled extensively to find, barter and sell that information. But all he really wanted, his greatest desire was to learn the key that would free us from the Dreads. He wanted to find a way to defeat them, and he spent countless hours puzzling over the subject attempting to find the answer."

Off to the side Wink was lounging quietly in Eli's satchel. He didn't blink.

"My mother was his assistant in many ways, but she was a woman extensively versed in the arts. She loved to sing, and she loved to dance, and she used to do beautiful sketches. My father once said that were a man robbed of his ability to see color, they wouldn't have been able to tell my mother's drawings apart from the real world." Eli could smell it now, the faint odor of her charcoal dust, and he could hear the sound of her hand scratching charcoal over dry paper.

He stowed the lantern away, adjusting his cuffs as he stood urging Peter to do the same. This story could be told on the way.

"My parents met in the Lost, or a place somewhere between the Lost and the Desolate where the fear of being found by others is common, but for that moment, whatever they had was strong enough to convince them to be together. My father had inherited the tower from his father, and so they lived there for a few years before having me." In his memory he could smell the tang of the sea, and the harsh smoke as his mother stoked the fire. He took a long, deep breath, "One day my parents were there, and the next day they were gone. Delving into my father's records on our family history, I discovered that the men of my family have a proclivity for walking off into the Desolate and vanishing forever. I imagine that generations of my family have served Exclusion, so naturally I assumed that my father and mother both succumbed."
Peter watched him, his large blue eyes wide with sympathy. He reached a hand forward as if to make a comforting gesture, but pulled his hand back as if he wasn't sure what to do.

Eli turned to stare at the distant horizon, "I have been alone ever since, and most of the relationships I have made since then have been fleeting or ended in disaster

He did not dare mention the feelings that he had felt upon losing some of those relationships, colleagues, friends: relief because it pleased him to be alone, loss and hurt because it reminded him of his parent's abandonment so long ago until, convoluted, he found equal measures of pain and relief in loneliness.

He remembered standing in the doorway of his tower hand resting against the old dried wood stained with brackish sea air. He remembered the wide open plain of Desolate beckoning him from a bank of fog, promising to conceal him if he just stepped a little bit closer. He remembered his hand leaving the door, and he also remembered how his feet seemed to make no sound as he passed over the stone and walked out.... Into nothingness.

"Eli?"

He lifted his head watching Peter who still stared at him from across the fire.

"But you don't think your father walked into the desolate? At least, you don't believe that anymore."

Eli looked away and then shook his head slowly, taking a long, deep breath, "So it seems." He went quiet, and for a long moment there was nothing between the two of them but the sound of the wind.

Peter finally said, "You weren't in Veerus looking for a cure, were you? You were in Veerus looking for your father?"

Eli looked away, "Both really. I had hoped that either I would find my father and he could help me save myself, or I could find information that would allow me to save him. Both options are rather naive I suppose but finding my father is one hope I have never able to let go of, foolish as it may be "

Peter stared at him for a long moment. Eli looked down at his boots again, finding himself rather ashamed at the childish nature of his hopes. Now that he said it all out loud it did seem rather absurd.

There was a rustling, and Eli looked up to see Peter shouldering his bag before turning to look at ElI, "Well, you found me."

Eli blinked at him in wide eyed astonishment, "I-"

Peter held up a hand, cutting Eli off mid-sentence, "I don't care what you say." His jaw was set tight, and there was a look in his eyes that Eli had not seen on him before. Eli closed his mouth to the protests, and Peter stood looking down at him with that same look on his face, chin raised, eyes looking on with an intensity he had rarely seen in a human being.

"I am not your father but I know I can help. Besides, I can't leave. I have nowhere to go. I am not going to let you just walk out into the Desolate!" Peter pounded one first into the palm of his other hand, "I said I would help you, and so I shall. When I signed up for this, it was with the belief that you were going to be here too. I'm not going to let you walk away that easily because if you leave then we will both be alone."

Eli gaped, just a little unsure how to respond.

Sequestered inside Eli's shoulder bag, Wink watched from the opening of his satchel, and, strangely enough, Eli thought he saw the minor Dread nodding at Peter's words. Eli must have imagined it as all Dreads needed humans to be miserable, and WInd was a Dread. Peter kept his eyes fixed on Eli for a very long moment, boring a hole into Eli's very soul before finally squaring his shoulders and starting off. Eli was forced into a jog to keep up with him.

"I guess Genua was less than productive, but that lady said something about a guy named Ivan"

"Let's put the discussion of Ivan to the side for a moment. I wouldn't call Genua unproductive." Eli began falling into stride next to Peter smiling slightly upon the realization that the younger man had begun walking in the wrong direction. An error which he quickly corrected.

Peter flushed faintly, but Eli didn't say anything. He didn't want to ruin Peter's dramatic exit, leaving in such a heroic fashion. Let the man have his moment.

Peter frowned while off in the distance a white mist was building up in the Desolate. "What do you mean?"

"What do we know about the Exposed?"

"It's absolutely abominable in every way?"

Eli raised an eyebrow, "And Affliction isn't?"

Peter frowned and crossed his arms, "At least we were allowed to cover how gross we were."

A small smile turned up the corner of Eli's mouth, "Alright, aside from it 'being absolutely abominable in every way' as you put it."

Peter stopped for a moment, tapping his chin thoughtfully as he did. Wink crept out from inside his bag and sighed exaggeratedly. "Since this one is being so slow, I think I might offer up an observation."

Eli tilted his head towards Wink with an expression of slight surprise on his face, "Oh, really? Do tell oh wise and all knowing minor fear ."

"I don't HAVE to help. Watching you two bumble around like idiots is quite amusing. It really does beg for a snack and a comfy seat."

Eli shook his head and sighed, "Go on."

" These non-physical Dreads, as you have so creatively named them, do not behave with the same rules as the physical Dreads."

"Go on."

"For instance, they do not follow physical laws. If you got next to one of those maggot sacks back in Veerus, they could spread disease to you through the contact of air or bodily fluids. Genua on the other hand does not follow physical laws as we understand them. Projecting a moving mental image on the skin breaks more than one physical law as we understand them, which is more akin to witchcraft or magic."

Eli nodded slowly, flexed his fingers around the straps of his bag. While he walked, he couldn't help but sketch an impression of the two women he had seen singing in Genua, and the words that had woven like ribbons across their skin.

Peter nodded slowly, "That seems right. Physical Dreads have to interact with you through physical laws, but the non physical dreads do not.

Eli nodded, before them the sun had broken completely over the horizon, and their shadows left hazy trails across the ground. It was only after observation that Eli noted his own shadow was markedly faded when compared to Peter's, "Exposed seems to be a very personal fear. Not like the Sheer, but more to do with the self. Those who worship the Exposed have a deep fear of others watching and judging, while the fear of isolation is similar but opposite. One worries about the consequences of what is social and one worries about the absence of anything social to hold onto."

Their footsteps made no sound over the earth. "The city is made of glass, anything that is metal can be crafted so it is reflective, there is no escape from what you are or what others think about you, you do not own your own body or your own thoughts while in the Exposed."

Peter Turned his head to look up at the low bank of fog rolling towards them with unwearying slowness "That's interesting, you know, because I don't think there can be an opposite to a physical fear of disease. I feel like you cannot fear the absence of sickness, but with fears like the Exposed, there can be opposites. Some people fear being watched, while others fear being alone."
"Make yourself useful, Wink," Eli directed, "take some notes down. Let's not make Genua a complete waste. We can still continue with my father's original work after all."

Wink grumbled loudly, but his grumbling was accompanied with the crackle of a spine and the light scratching of a pen.

The ink of Wink's pen was stark and wet against the paper, glistening from the glow of the sun above.

The scratching of the pen continued for a few moments as they walked, until Wink finally looked up from inside the bag, waiting for them to continue

Eli adjusted his glasses, "Have you ever considered the nature and hierarchy of the sorts of people who live under a Dread."

Peter cocked his head.

Eli wasn't entirely sure where this thread of thought was going, but he felt that there might be something important dangling at the end, and so continued to tug at the loose thread in his mind, hoping, if he pulled at it long enough, that it might unravel.

He spoke slowly, feeling no need to butcher his own thoughts by outpacing himself, "There are similarities throughout the cities and locations, for one there is always a Dread. That is the one thing that remains constant." He absently began listing off their names as he looked through his notebook making sure that his thoughts matched up with the facts written on the pages. "In Veerus there is the Affliction, and in Genua there is the Exposed, while in the Desolate there is Exclusion. For the physical Dreads we already know that they have a physical location, but with the Exposed there is a physical location as well though it does not have a physical form. The Exclusion is associated with the Desolate as a location but does not need the location, while it seems that both Affliction and the Exposed rely more heavily on their location than the Exclusion does."

Peter was beginning to wander off course again forcing Eli to correct his direction. The discussion was distracting Peter to the point of negligence, though Eli was pleased to see the other man was as engaged with the problem as he was.

Peter raised a hand gesticulating excitedly with his hands as we spoke, "And we know that at least two of the Dreads have some sort of acolyte that works for them, people who believe in their cause, or serve them. These acolytes serve their Dread by trying to convert others to worshiping their fear, or at least expose others to the fear, possibly as a means of 'feeding' their Dread." He frowned slightly just then and shook his head. He turned to look at Eli, "What about the Exclusion, does it have acolytes?"

That was a question that Eli had considered on several occasions, and a frown crossed his face as he tried to give voice to his earlier thoughts. In all his travels through the Desolate, there had not been one time that he had even seen another person let alone met someone who claimed to work for the Exclusion itself, this was of course, not counting the people he knew from the In-Between.

He chose his words carefully.

"Well, Exclusion may have acolytes, it just may be that no one has ever seen one." When Peter gave him a strange look of confusion, he held up his hand, "Hear me out. The Acolytes are the embodiment of the Dread that they worship, correct, The Outbreak are the embodiment of sickness, they have open sores, open wounds, they spread disease wherever they go, and they are the most obvious and most jarring example of things that are sick in this world." He waved a hand, back towards the glass city still glittering in the distance like a strange jewel on the awakening horizon, "And then you have the Exposed, and its acolytes, the Revealed. Those men and women are the embodiment of having no secrets and no hidden things. They don't want secrets. They don't want hidden things, and they force others not to have them either, just like the Outbreak forces sickness upon others."

Peter was nodding along with Eli's assessment as they went, and as he spoke the two of them grew more and more animated in their excitement.

Peter waved his hands, "Oh, I get it. If the Exclusion has an acolyte, they would be the greatest embodiment of the lonely and isolated, and to do that properly they would have to be hidden most of the time." He inched off course slightly, and, again, Eli nudged him back on track with a bump of the shoulder, "But since it isn't a physical Dread, its effects on susceptible people won't necessarily follow physical laws. We can assume that the acolytes of non physical Dreads would exhibit 'powers'"that defy physical laws. Every acolyte is trying to serve its Dread and to do so it has to at some point interact with non-believers. Somehow the acolytes of the Exclusion interact with other people in a way that makes them feel as if they are alone."

Eli nodded vigorously, just as excited as Peter. He hadn't realized that he had been missing this, someone to bounce ideas off of. For a moment he couldn't feel the pull of Exclusion, simply enjoying throwing words back and forth with someone who understood.

"Right.... right, but you can feel isolated when you are surrounded by people so what makes you feel isolated when you are with people?"

He rested his hands before him and clasped them together gently. The thread was unraveling before him. Both he and Peter continued to pull on it, and slowly it began to show itself to him, though the big answer, the knot at the end, was still a mystery. Of course, Eli still wasn't sure there was a big answer tied out of view and not another dead end. He tried to be optimistic and hopeful, so he pressed his doubts to the back of his mind.

Peter shrugged, "I felt pretty alone in Veerus, despite being surrounded by people, walking with them and interacting with them on a daily basis. I felt...well I felt...invisible."
Peter and Eli jumped up at the same time, hands raised in triumph, "That's it!"

"Invisible."

"Do you really think that is possible?" Peter said

Eli shrugged his shoulders, "I am not really sure to be honest. There is no evidence to prove this theory up. It's more conjecture than anything else, but at the same time it fits. Being invisible would give someone the feeling of pure isolation while giving them the ability to move undetected, spreading hopelessness, loneliness, and despair. The acolytes could draw others into the Desolate, they could move things and manipulate things to make people feel as if they were isolated. They could instill those fears and feelings in others. Imagine if someone was intentionally trying to make it so you were or felt ignored. Maybe they remove objects, notes or pictures that remind other people of you, simple stuff like that."

He looked down to where his boots were kicking up fine gray clouds of mist and thinking to himself, "Again this is all conjecture, but.... I do think we are getting somewhere. I think, if what we are saying is true, then we really have found a pattern, and patterns are something that we can study and exploit." His coat billowed around him in the breeze, the rising sun was turning the sky overhead pink. It was a strange color to see over the Desolate, though they were close enough to the Exposed for things to be a little more visually pleasant.

Wink was scrambling furiously to keep up with them as he penned a cascade of words into a cohesive and legible set of bullet points. Eli didn't really have any hope for the neatness of the writing as Wink had never been known for his great penmanship.

But at least they would have something written down.

Eli took a deep breath of Desolation air. Every day he was learning more than he expected to learn, and Peter was a great part of that.

For once he felt like he was getting somewhere.

For once he felt like there was some measure of hope for him.

Maybe for everyone.