“We’re not here to get in the way of anything!” Eairmana shouted after the Annoyed looking local. “We’re just looking for a friend!”

  It was no use though, as the human hadn’t been listening and was already gone. I ticked off her name on my mental list, “Alright, Aenn, you get to try the next one!”

  He groaned. “Fora! You actually know some humans, what are we doing wrong?!”

  I smiled at him, “Humans really like being different, I sure as heck have no idea what these ones think is rude. I'm just as lost as you are.” I sighed, “I didn’t know there were so many here though, it kind of makes me feel at home…”

  Aenn and Eairmana exchanged a look. The latter speaking. “With them being isolated from the rest of the world… anyone who has a grudge against Atharian probably comes here.”

  I paused, looking down the road at the rest of the village. “Maybe that’s why then. They don’t like us because we look like Larborak.” I dug into my bag of illusions, checking them over, but there weren’t any human ones.

  “That doesn’t make any sense. The entirety of Filel’fanat can’t just be humans. We probably just haven’t found any Larborak yet.” We nodded to ourselves and continued onward, making our way in the direction of that large city.

  I glanced at Eairmana, “Say, you never did explain how you guys can speak their language. I have some kind of translation ability, but you just started speaking it like it was the first language you ever knew.”

  Ear-mana blinked at me, glancing at Aenn. “We’re Arkorians. It’s not that difficult to see their connection to their language. We can use it for ourselves. As is the nature of Connection.”

  “Sparks, that’s neat! It probably also makes it super helpful if you’re going to go to all sorts of places!”

  Ear-mana nodded, “It does also make it easier to prevent spillage across the Colieneum. I’ve heard stories of times before that, when we allowed open trade between worlds. These days we only ever let select humans through for short amount of times.”

  “Because humans are everywhere, so that’s not really spillage?” Was that how Kenny got here? He hadn’t made it sound like there was anything waiting for him past the next tavern though.

  Aenn nodded, “Humans break all sorts of things, but they can move freely in a way no other race can. No matter where they go, folks seem to know that they aren’t terribly different from themselves.”

  I peered into my bag again, “So we really should have asked that goddess of yours for human illusions instead then, eh?”

  Aenn shrugged, his gaze moving toward someone walking ahead. “It will be fine. She knew that this might have been a problem, it can’t be as big of a thing as we’re thinking if she didn’t provide them.”

  I resisted the urge to scoff.

  It was very difficult.

  The man-who-was-actually-a-dragon glared at me, turning to look at Filfinde, “I’ve met her already. She’s the one who appeared out of nowhere and taunted me.” His expression soured.

  I very much wanted to go find Fora and shake her up really good. Why would she go and annoy a dragon? What kind of sparking death wish did she have? Hadn’t dying by the hands of Xien been enough? I gritted my teeth and bowed to him, “I apologize for my alternate self’s actions. Fora has a hard time being polite.”

  He seemed surprised by this, actually surprised. Fora had been trying to figure out how to surprise a dragon since she’d first figured out they existed… This dragon though didn't seem the same as the one’s I’d met in the past. “I see.” he finally responded.

  I smiled, “I’m Eliax, a friend of Kinthek’s.” I tilted my head at him, examining the shape of his soul. It was right for a dragon soul, but it somehow seemed like only a fraction of the soul itself. Perhaps that was a consequence of whatever he’d sold his soul for? Filfinde didn’t have the same thing from my cursory glance, I’d have to look at it again.

  The dragon regarded me for a moment longer, “You’re strange.”

  “That seems like it’s become one of my defining traits, shall we start naming obvious things? I’m strange, you’re a dragon, the sky is blue.” I shrugged to myself, wondering how he’d react to that statement.

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  Flame—as Filfinde had introduced him—froze, his eyes narrowing back into the slits they’d been a moment ago. Sparks, he did a good glare. I’d have to send Fora to him for glaring lessons next time she started pouting like a child and asking me to teach her. “Not really.”

  I tilted my head at him, “What makes you say that? From what I see, you seem like just as much of a dragon as the ones I’ve met in the past.” I folded my arms, “practically all souls are symmetrical, even with yours cut in half I can see that much.”

  He growled, further proving my point for me. “I didn’t give you permission to look at that.”

  “My mistake.” Next time I just wouldn’t tell him. “It is a very strong soul though. With half of it gone, it probably causes you all sorts of problems with control, and such.” I stared at him, letting the implications leak from me.

  He growled again, and then turned away and left, somehow not rising to my bait. I turned back to Filfinde, who was glaring at me.

  “Squall. That was mean!”

  “I was trying to get him to attack me.” I admitted, but I finally felt a stab of guilt over it, “I wasn’t lying though, that’s a strong soul, even for a dragon.”

  Filfinde sighed, “Don’t call him a dragon.”

  I gave her a confused look, “Why?”

  “He says… none of his relatives took him seriously. He says that no one took him seriously. He was too different from everyone. He sold his soul to get away from that and to cut all ties, to become a Larborak. Dragons have a hard time switching to a different god.” She shook her head, “But that’s beside the point, He didn’t attack you because he has standards. You’re a woman, to him that matters more than any perceived threat.”

  I digested that for a moment, “Oh.” It sounded lame, even to my ears. I felt my eyes widen suddenly, remembering Yumorath, “Sparks! I should have asked him if he knew anything about a friend of mine before I scared him off.”

  “He’ll be fine.”

  I sighed, following her as she continued through the camp. I wondered if there were any big differences between Virna dragons and Arithren ones… Flame was the first Arithren dragon I’d met—which was annoying since he’d stayed out of his actual dragon form, it was almost like I was destined to never actually meet a dragon dragon. The time Fora got mauled by Xien didn’t count.

  -

  We stopped in front of Ashevian, who had his arms folded and his expression stern and unmoving. Beside him was the woman I assumed to be Taenseva, because Filfinde had mentioned her a lot and she was the only one I had yet to meet. Sure enough, the red-head jumped to make formal introductions. I wasn’t really sure why she liked formality so much.

  “Eliax, this is Taenseva, and you’ve met Ashevian.”

  We all nodded to each other and made short greetings before Filfinde excused herself. The sun was getting rather high in the sky. Everything had finished packing up while Filfinde introduced me to people, they seemed to just be sitting around at this point. I wasn’t sure why.

  Ashevian stood up straight, looking down at me—though it was hard to not do that considering my height. “We will bring you and the crystal to whichever area you desire, within two weeks from where we are now. Kinthek explained that you seemed confident in your ability to mask the crystal’s aura?”

  I blinked at him, and then nodded in confirmation, “It wouldn’t be terribly difficult to mask. But as I said to Kinthek, you really don’t have to do that. What I got from studying the crystal is more than payment enough. Are you not merchants?” I’d hardly met a single trader in my experience who wouldn’t gleefully let me rip myself off.

  Taenseva folded her arms, annoyed about something, “Why does everyone assume that? Just because we trade for a living doesn’t make us honorless. Squall, I’d say that most city folk are worse than we are. You should see what they charge us for shelter during Light day.”

  Ashevian glanced at her, but didn’t refute her words. “You’re willing to do quite a lot for us, it’s in our best interest to make this go smoothly.”

  I sighed, remembering my earlier breakdown. I didn’t understand what motivated people, and I certainly wouldn’t be able to figure it out by guessing like this. “Alright. I assume that’s why the crystal was packed up and Filfinde distracted me long enough for the wagons to be ready?” I realized it as I spoke the words, feeling stupid. That was the rate Fora might figure something out… I was supposed to be better at this.

  “Yes.” Ashevian admitted smoothly, he didn’t even look guilty. “Kinthek said you might… argue rather vocally if we weren’t ready by the time we explained it. We’ll be leaving later than usual, but we’ll still make good time.”

  I sighed, stepping away from them, “Alright, let’s head in the direction of Eternal River for now. I’ll look for favorable spots tonight. You can start the caravan up, which wagon is the crystal in? I need to put a block on its aura.”

  -

  I felt my face heat up as I noticed Kinthek standing beside the wagon I was aiming for. I hadn’t seen him during Filfinde’s introductions, but we hadn’t moved particularly fast so he could have easily stayed away if he wanted to.

  But that just made me anxious that he wanted to stay away. That perhaps that was the real reason he hadn’t contacted me until he needed something.

  I shook my head, stopping beside him and putting my hand on the beam beside the doors. I paused though as he spoke. “Eliax?” I noticed that his hand was on his cheek, probably where I’d kissed him before. “Why did you leave earlier?”

  I stared ahead, at the wagon door, feeling as if I was watching my body from the outside. Not like when Fora was in control, it was just as if I wasn’t the one experiencing emotion, or even acting. “Not every… teleport is intentional.” I lifted my gaze to look him in the eyes, “When I’m surprised, or when I’m afraid, sometimes when I’m really happy it gets harder to control.” I looked back down.

  “So… which one was it?”

  I felt my face heat up again, right after I’d just gotten it under control. “I don’t know.” I replied honestly.