“So- um, you’ve been doing this for a while?” Reven asked, wincing as he heard the words come out f his mouth. He didn’t like silence, really, and Liana had spent the past few minutes making no more sound than the rustle of feathers and leaves as she led the way through shrub and bramble.

Reven was lost. He’d thought there’d been a path when they’d first started out, but it had only taken a minute or so for his guide to leave it, forging into the forest proper. Reven hoped it was because she knew where she was going, and not because she wanted to knife him and take what he had. He was carrying a very valuable cargo, after all.

“Long enough.” Liana responded. “Years, at this point. And I’ve helped my fair share escape someone coming after them.”

“Ah, yes, of course. Liana was it?” Reven had always been bad with names, but he was almost certain that was it. “I assume you’d be happy to, er, stick it to the empire. Considering your… you know,” he waved in the general direction of her wings.

He’d have to examine them more in the night. They were far larger than he’d anticipated, and the coloring was off. He’d never heard of a Winged with black and purple feathers, though he assumed there was a fair amount of dye involved.

“What? Just because I’m Winged?” Liana turned to him, “no, I can’t say I really care. They never crossed me. And it’s Kiz. Liana is my sisters name.”

Reven frowned. He couldn’t really blame her, but… it still miffed him to have been duped so thoroughly. And he was supposed to be a spy, for the god’s sake.

“But- the Battles of Yarlgrove and Haskan,” Reven asked, trying to recover “don’t you feel some desire for vengeance? Many hundreds-“

“No one I knew,” Kiz said with a shrug, her wings mirroring the movement. “I don’t have the time or the energy to spare, and I certainly don’t care enough to join up with your lot. Hylan Free Stater, aren’t you?”

“I- well, yes.” Reven said, and then affirmed it with a bit more pride, “Sort of. I’m not- not really cut out for the kind of work they had me doing.”

Kiz glanced back to him and shrugged. “Could have been worse.” She said. “I’ve brought a lot of your kind across. Your kind aren’t very good at recovering their spies once they’ve gotten what they needed.”

With that happy note, the two lapsed into silence once more. Kiz, focused on leading the way, stopping them occasionally when she thought she head a Dreadmane, or something larger still, and Reven, stewing in his own thoughts, wondering what exactly his true extraction plan would have been, or even if it had existed in the first place.

Reven’s passenger was getting steadily more and more uncomfortable. The mage could feel the heat through layers and layers of cloth, and his constant shifting was starting to attract the attention of his guide. The Winged didn’t say anything, but she kept a careful eye on him.

Though, that might have just been her policy. Most who needed to cross the Weyland weren’t the best of folk, and nearly all of them crossed the other way. The empire might have been bad to most of its people, but it kept brigands and raiders away from its people. Beyond the Weyland was a lawless waste for the most part, and those who chose the wastes over the empire were a dangerous sort.

Reven was… not one of them. He’d come from the other side originally. The elvish had a strong presence beyond the Weyland, and the empire rarely crossed over to check their rise. They didn’t need to, really. The empire had a nigh on uncontested stranglehold on magical knowledge and artifacts, along with massive tracts of arable land, something the elvish did not have and desperately needed.

Reven had been sent over with a very specific task. Infiltrate the Royal Institute of Magic and pass on anything he knew to elvish agents in Verona.

Reven was a lot of things. A spy was not one of them. It had taken him all of three weeks to be put under constant surveillance, or so said his elvish associate, and only another few days for him to flee the city, and the empire as a whole.

Though, there had been a good reason for that. An egg, nearly the size of his head, golden red and fiery hot to the touch. He’d had to pad his traveler’s pack with his old research notes, not for fear of the egg breaking, but to stop his back from burning under the heat.

A few days of hard riding later, and the egg had hatched. Reven had welcomed the new traveler (he hadn’t had any choice really) but… there had been some difficulties. 

Reven had hoped his companion would be content for at least an hour more, long enough for them to put more distance between the Red Sail and themselves.

His hopes were dashed, though, by a tiny “pip?” For a second, Reven thought it had been to quiet for his guide to notice. It hadn’t been.

Kiz froze, turning back to Reven with one eyebrow raised. “What,” she asked, “was that?”

“A- um, well,” whatever excuse he could have come up with was rendered moot by another “pip” and some very obvious shifting in his pack.

“Okay, so now’s when you tell me what’s in the bag.” Kiz said, “and, why, exactly you’re running from the empire.”

Reven glanced between the shadows and the trees, though he might as well have tried seeing through steel. “Are we safe, here?” He asked Kiz, “it’s- it’s rather fragile.”

Kiz paused for a second, either considering him or listening to the forest around them. “It’s safe enough,” she said, “nothing’s going to pounce on us.”

“Right. Just, um, don’t move much.” Reven said, sliding the pack off of his shoulders. “He spooks pretty easily.”

“He?” Kiz asked, “You have a- a-“ Whatever she’d been about to say trailed off into shock. Reven had flipped open the top of the pack to reveal a hawk like bird, with gold and read feathers. Kiz had heard of the, of course, had even seen one in flight as a child, before her own flight feathers had come in. But she’d never expected to be this close to a phoenix.

“it’s- it’s tiny.” Kiz said after a pause. “Why is it so small?”

“He hatched a few days ago.” Reven explained. “They mature rather quickly, but their growth doesn’t match.” The phoenix, for its part, had zeroed in on Kiz’s wings, tilting its head as they shifted. “He- um, seems to be interested in your wings.”

“I can- I can tell.” Kiz said. Her eyes narrowed after a pause, and when she spoke again, the wonder that had temporarily taken the edge off of her voice was gone. “Why’d you steal him, then? And don’t try to tell me you didn’t.”

“I- well, I was supposed to disrupt the Royal Institute’s operations.” Reven said, “and- I mean, it wasn’t really my job- the egg was right there when I was leaving. And it was the empire, so they were probably trying to turn it into a weapon or something.”

Kiz rolled her eyes. “And your kind wont?” She asked. “Actually- doesn’t matter, we should-“

They both froze as the crack of a branch echoed out from behind them. “We should go.” Kiz said, her voice losing any emotion. “Now. Stay behind me.”

“Let me just-“

“Carry the damn bird.” Kiz snapped, pulling Reven upright, “you’re my ticket to a thousand damned crowns. You are not dying for some stupid bird.”

“I- hold on,” Reven told the phoenix as Kiz dragged them forwards. He yelped as a branch cut him across the cheek, “can we slow-“

“Unless you want to find out if it’s a Dreadmane or your friend from the Royal Institute, we can’t do anything but run.” Kiz cut him off, “duck.”

Reven barely got his head down in time, feeling a woosh of displaced air as a branch snapped back into place above him. “we should be able too-“ Kiz trailed off as they entered a clearing. It wasn’t truly a clearing, more of a rocky outcropping, with a cliff face to one side, and a river to the other. 

Standing before them was a great hulk of a man. He was scarred, and wore fine leathers in place of normal clothes. Reven recognized the axe before the man. The runes carved into it were unmistakable, if his form wasn’t. Havar had caught up to them, one way or another.

“Step aside.” Havar said, swinging his axe in a wide, lazy arc. “I’m only here for one person. No point in throwing yourself to the gods.”

“You think you can get through me?” Kiz asked. She drew her knife and dropped into a fighting stance, but Reven could see her shaking through the quivering in the blade.

“I’ve killed things much tougher than you, wings.” Havar responded, his eyes locking onto Reven. “Whatever you did to piss off the emperor, kid,” he said, like there wasn’t a phoenix on his shoulder, “it was a mistake.”

“Yes, well-“ Reven started to say.

Kiz didn’t give him the chance. With one beat of her wings, she was in the air, circling Havar, who ignored her for the most part.

“Makes my job easier,” he said, taking a step towards Reven, who mirrored it backwards. Either he had thought Kiz was running, or assumed someone of her size couldn’t impact him very much. He was wrong either way.

Kiz came diving out of the sky a ball of fury and feathers, delivering a near bone shattering kick to Havar’s shoulder, unbalancing him.

Unfortunately, Havar had the reflexes of a cat. As he stumbled, he reached out, grabbing onto Kiz’s leg before she could get away, and slamming her forwards as he fell, using her as a sort of shield as he went over the edge.

The fall was short, at least, but Reven could hear the bones snapping from where he was, feet above them. 

“Kiz?” He asked, looking down on the pair. Neither moved for a moment. The rocks underneath Reven though? They’d been weakened by rain and ice, and were all too happy to give way, sending the mage plummeting down to join the other two.