They left the camp two days later, Danya on his own horse this time and the men riding tall in full armour.

The horse had been given to him by Simon, who had looked like he expected Danya to be pleased so Danya had pretended to be. Really, he had no reason to object. Simon was providing him with enough contact that he was no longer neglected. Still, he never stopped craving more, and finding out that they would not travel pressed against one another had been a blow.

Slone didn’t ride at all, though he did have a horse. He joked that he was so big that he pitied any animal that had to carry him, but he told Danya in private as he walked alongside his horse that he simply couldn’t stand to sit for such a long time.

Once they were away from the camp and done putting on a show with their formal exit, the men dismounted and changed from their armour into more suitable riding gear.

Hamish, Roope, and Tris took it as an opportunity to enjoy one another, poking at scars and unnecessarily assisting with buttons and buckles. 

Simon stood away from the others, offering a tantalizing view of the curve of his back and his broad shoulders as he changed. Danya considered for a moment going over and assisting him as Cailan was doing for Liam, but he couldn’t see that being welcomed. There was still the unspoken rule that physical contact between them occurred only out of necessity.

A hand pressed down on Danya’s shoulder and he startled as energy buzzed through him, but it was only Slone using him for balance so he could get his boots off.

Slone grinned. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle ya.”

Danya shook his head. “No, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t let myself get so distracted.”

Slone wrenched off his other boot and let go of Danya’s shoulder. “Ah, well, might as well, right? Can’t spend your whole life on high alert. Gotta take advantage when you get a chance to relax and enjoy yourself.”

“I suppose.”

“Well, maybe havin’ fun might not be so much a part of it for all of us. But you don’t gotta perform any kind of a role out here, y’know?”

“But we’re always performing some sort of role, aren’t we? What that role is and how much it’s to our liking might change, but we’re always something. A specific set piece in other people’s worlds.”

Slone laughed as he pulled the shirt he’d been wearing under his armour off. “I dunno. That’s way too deep for me. All I reckon is we can all be good buddies out here, and I think that’s nice.”

“I suppose so.” Danya’s eyes caught on a savage scar that dug a deep trench through Slone’s right shoulder. From the looks of things he had come very close to losing the arm.

“Bear,” Slone said when he noticed where Danya was looking, then laughed and cast his voice lower. “Nah, guess I might as well tell you the truth on that one. It was a wyvern.”

“They’re real? What happened?”

“Realer than I woulda liked, that day.” Slone twisted his arm so that he could look at the scar. “One of the fae led me to its lair when I was, mm… maybe fourteen, I’d guess. Weren’t so much of a fair fight.”

Danya’s eyes went wide. “The fae lured you into danger?”

“Oh, nah. Well, I mean—” Slone tilted his head from side to side in consideration. “Technically yeah, but nah. Not like you’re thinking. They ain’t meat and blood things that can be hurt like we are. Folks think the fae are tricksters because they have a reputation of luring people into danger, but they ain’t got no… uh… what’s the word?”

“Guile?”

Slone clicked his fingers and pointed at Danya. “Yeah, that. They ain’t sneaky or plotting. They just wanna warn folks about the danger. Sometimes that looks an awful lot like luring them into it, but it ain’t the same. They just ain’t like us.”

“You don’t hate them for it?”

“Nah, nah. Did teach me that you can’t trust ‘em the same way you can trust a person, though. You can trust someone not to mean to hurt you without putting any faith in the idea that they won’t do it anyway, you know?”

Danya couldn’t keep his eyes from jumping back to Simon. “Yes. I suppose I do.”

“Yeah, I reckon you know a bit about all that.”

“...Slone?”

“Mm?” Slone said from within his fresh shirt as he pulled it on over his head.

“I don’t know what you are and I won’t ask again. But… were you and all the different fae touched beings out there made to be subservient to humans like mages were?”

For a long moment, Slone just stared at Danya in bafflement. “...What?”

“Like… submissive and obedient.”

“I know what the word means. That ain’t the point of confusion here.”

“Well, I mean… that was what I was taught. That all fae touched beings were made to serve humans. But then there are vampires and that’s clearly not their purpose, so…”

“The fae don’t go talking to people and telling them their motives. They ain’t people. Anyone claiming to speak for ‘em is a liar.”

“Mmm…” It made sense that it wasn’t true. Danya had always had doubts and questions. But actually accepting that the whole premise was a lie… that made him feel deeply uneasy. If what he’d been taught wasn’t the truth, what was?

“I reckon if your kind was made for any reason in particular it was as a counter to vampires,” Slone continued. “You’re light and you’re fire and you’re healing. Makes sense.”

Danya gave him a little smile. “Well, maybe I’ve been more successful in performing my role in life than I thought.”

Slone laughed. “Ain’t your role in life no matter what they had in their heads when they made your type. They’re more like parents than gods. You don’t gotta follow whatever ideas they might have had for you.”

“What sort of ideas do you think they had for your kind?”

Slone gave him a secretive little smile. “I reckon something similar, but from a bit of a different angle. But of course the whole thing got kinda messy there because it turns out the blood of anyone fae touched makes vampires more powerful. Whoops.”

The others were already leaving, so Slone helped Danya back onto his horse. Well, lifted him up and placed him on her like he was a child. Slone was seriously strong.

“Well then, at least part of what I know is true,” Danya said once he was settled in on his horse. “And then… the war.”

Slone followed at Danya’s side as his horse started lazily following the others ahead of it. “I’m guessing you’ve been fed all kinds of bullshit about that.”

“I suppose I must have been. The whole motive was rather based on the fae touched rebelling against their natural role.”

“Well, just imagine something sort of like that only everyone’s been living not bein’ subservient to humans and suddenly humans decide they wanna change the rules. Maybe the humans were scared or jealous, or… I dunno. I reckon it doesn’t matter why. But that’s why things started.”

Danya was silent for a long moment. “How did they end?”

“Well… humans woulda won from the start, but the fae defended their children. When they couldn’t use humans to make their army, they breathed their magic into animals and trees and rocks, and then finally, the dead.”

“The fae did that?”

“Mm? Yeah.”

“I was taught mages did that. The thing with the, uh… army of the dead.”

“Well, can you do that?”

“No, but there are lots of things I can’t do that some mages can.”

Slone gave him an incredulous look. “You know that none of that shit is anything like raising the dead.”

Danya hesitated. “Okay. No. You’re right. That doesn’t make sense.”

“‘Course it doesn’t. Fae did it. Weren’t much left by the time all that was done with.”

“The fae are a lot more terrifying than I realised.”

“Naw. Well… yeah. They do got too much power and not enough idea what they’re doing with it all. Can’t say it’s not a problem sometimes. But, I dunno. There’s no malice to ‘em, no real goal. They just wanna be helpful and sometimes they ain’t so much.”

“So what happened after that? After the fae rose their army of the dead?”

Slone scratched at his head. “Ah, well, it was pretty much over after that. Fighting stopped, territory was divided up, and the dead were allowed to rest again. Humans lived segregated from everyone else, and that was all fine for a while. But your kind, well… You got an affinity for humans, dontcha?”

“I suppose,” Danya said. “That was why it made sense that the fae had made us for them. We’re drawn to them.”

“I reckon that was just their way of avoiding another vampire situation. Fae don’t want war, so they made sure you’d bond to humans. But then you lot couldn’t just walk away like the rest of us. You went back.”

“We chose this?”

Slone laughed. “Oh, fuck no. Your kind wanted peace. There weren’t no choice in what you got instead. Shoulda sparked another war, but I guess everyone was too afraid there’d be nothing left at the end if that got going again. Including the fae.”

“I suppose—”

Slone held a hand up. He sniffed the air. “Hold on. I smell something.” 

And then he took off running into the bushes.

Ahead of Danya, horses slowed and turned as a confused message was passed up the line.

“Danya, did Slone just run off?” Simon called out.

“Yes. He said he—” Wait, his sense of smell was quite possibly beyond human range. Danya certainly couldn’t smell anything but horse. “He said he heard something.”

Simon was silent for a moment. “And then he ran off the road after it?”

“Yes,” Danya confirmed. He was sure Slone knew what he was doing and was fine, but he could understand why Simon might see that as cause for concern. There were all kinds of dangers that roamed the wilderness.

Simon dismounted and drew his sword from his saddle. “Right, I’m going to need everyone to armour back up and pair off. Hamish—”

And then Slone came running back out of the woods, his eyes bright and a dead pheasant in his hands.

Simon marched over to Slone, sword still in hand. “What the hell are you doing?”

Slone held up the dead pheasant. “Dinner.”

Simon slapped the bird aside and shoved Slone in the chest. Slone stumbled back a step, but Danya got the feeling he could have held his ground if he’d chosen to.

“You do not break formation without my permission,” Simon said. “You do not leave the road without my permission. I may be permissive with you in some matters, but this is not one of them. Do you understand?”

Slone’s expression was apologetic, but he didn’t seem intimidated in the least by Simon. “Got it, boss. Sorry I spooked ya. I got excited and forgot what I was ‘sposed to be doing.”

Simon let out a long sigh and shook his head. “We need to get moving. Hamish? I want this impulsiveness trained out of him.”

“I’ll make sure he’s battle ready by the time we need to fight,” Hamish promised.

“Good,” Simon said. “Move out!”