Hestle is a beautiful city, wealthy from trade, but still modest and quaint. Old cobblestone streets, dotted with small stone buildings and lovely flowering gardens. Kaeda would be happy to live in a place like this, but maybe not so close to her enemy's border. 

     Near the harbor, there’s a busy market district, much larger than the one they purchased her daggers from. They’re able to get all the supplies they need there, before Nicolai buys them passage on a small ship sailing directly to Tavedor. Only a single day's journey stands between Kaeda and where this all began. 

     She feels so many things… fear, not only that she might never escape the ambitions of Queen Nola but also that Nicolai may feel differently about her when he learns what she’s capable of, heartache for all that she’s left behind her - including the memories she’ll soon be facing in Tavedor, but also… hope. For once, she feels hopeful that one day she won’t have to run anymore. 

     Their room on the boat isn’t much nicer than the Inn they’d stayed in, but the bed is surprisingly more comfortable. After sating both their appetites for food and each other, fulfilling their promise to get back to what they’d started on that carriage ride, Nicolai and Kaeda lay entwined together on their bed, rocking gently in the waves. His fingers trail a pattern over her bare skin, from her neck, over her shoulder, halfway down her arm, and back up again, as if he can’t help but touch her. She can’t remember the last time she felt so relaxed. 

     “This is nice.” she tells him. “I wish we’d taken the whole trip by sea.”

     He laughs quietly. “Yeah, that would have been quicker and more comfortable, but much more costly. I needed to make sure I’d have enough money to get us there. I took all my savings when I set out to find you, and I’ve worked odd jobs along the way, but I don’t have much coin left now.”

     She nods in acceptance of his reasoning, and smiles at him. “I’m so glad you found me, Nico.”

     A shadow flits across his face, no doubt as he remembers how he found her, but he pulls her close and drops a kiss on her temple. “Me too, love. Me too.”

     She knows she needs to keep telling him her story, because there’s so much he needs to know, but it’s painful to think about what happened after she told Draik about the letter from Queen Nola. She needs to tell him though, before they reach their destination, so he can better understand what he’s getting into with her.

     She chews on her lip for a few moments, trying to find the words and the fortitude to start where she left off, when she notices he’s watching her. Then, as if he can read her mind, he says, “I went to that town, Arbold, on the edge of the mountains. I went to every town south of Jardal, describing you to people in the taverns and markets, hoping someone might remember seeing you. They would have remembered your unusual hair.” he lifts a lock of the purple hair in question, smiling down at it. “But nobody had seen you anywhere, until I got to Arbold - where everyone knew you. You were already gone. The man behind the bar in the tavern said he’d never met you, but he knew you’d left right after his uncle, Tomas, had been killed. He seemed to think you might have had something to do with it, but nobody else shared that opinion. What happened, Kae?”

     The memories flood her mind, and she feels like she’s drowning in them. Her sweet, doting Tomas. He was dead because of her, because she came into his life and he was kind enough to shelter her. He’d died a brutal death because she hadn’t been there to stop it, because she hadn’t done as Queen Nola had bade her. It was her fault, sure as if she'd killed him herself.

     Kaeda knows she needs to tell Nicolai what happened, but will he look at her differently once he knows what she can do?

     Her body shakes against his as she takes a deep, shuddering breath and continues where she left off.

     “Come spend the day with me, and we’ll figure out what to do.” Draik said to her after she’d told him how afraid she was.

     So, they went and sat at a table in the tavern and ate breakfast, speaking in hushed whispers, making a plan together.

     Tomas smiled at them from behind the bar, where he was prepping everything for the day, and she did her best to smile back at him as if nothing were amiss. 

     After they finished breakfast, with the bare-bones of a plan, they walked to Draik’s house, where he left her to pass some time with training on her own. He gathered up some of his weapons collection, and took them to the market to trade for coin. Money that he would need to buy a horse and supplies, to ride alongside Mist and Kaeda, when they left Arbold. 

     She told him it was crazy for him to go with her, but he insisted, saying he’d rather get out and see the world anyway, and he wouldn’t see her off on her own. If she was honest with herself, she really didn’t want to go alone, so she agreed. 

     Once Draik had done everything he needed to do and had his bags packed, it was time for them to return to the tavern so she could pack her own stuff and say her farewells to Tomas. She knew it would be a very difficult goodbye. How could she thank him for all that he’d done for her in the last several months?

     They entered through the back door, going straight to her room so she could pack her things before speaking with Tomas. As she grabbed an old bag and started shoving her few clothes and other necessities inside, she began to notice something. Draik was noticing it too. The unusual silence. 

     At this time of day, the tavern was usually full of boisterous folks and loud music, celebrating the end of another work day. She could always hear the noise, even through the wall separating her room from the front, but right then she couldn’t hear anything aside from Draik and herself breathing. They looked at each other in nervous confusion. 

     Kaeda remembered the warning from the strange man the day before. She remembered her failed race to save Nicolai. She remembered Tomas smiling at her from behind the bar this brightening. Her heart thundered in her chest. She felt sick. She felt strange. Her fingers were tingling.

    She darted from the room, running for the swinging door into the tavern, slamming through it. Her eyes searched the room for Tomas, and there he was, sitting slumped at a table in the corner with a larger male. 

     “You were warned.” the stranger said, with malice rolling off him. 

     Her eyes slid from his smirking face, back to Tomas. Not just slumped over. Covered in blood. Not moving, not breathing. 

     No. No, no, no no, she was screaming inside her head. She was spiraling into despair. She felt so strange. Sinking and floating at the same time. What was wrong with her hands?

     “Kaeda?” She heard the alarm in Draik’s voice. 

     Why was he worried about her, when this man had carved Tomas up like that? This horrible man… he deserved to die.

     She ignored Draik, and met the man’s stare - took in the arrogant smirk still on his face, and she lost herself to the strange feeling overwhelming her.

     Raising her hands that were now glowing with light, she pushed them out towards the evil bastard sitting in front of her and screeched like a raging banshee as fire shot out of her palms, blackening the flesh of the screaming male, as the room filled with smoke and the most nauseating smell, until the burning chair broke apart beneath his weight and his charred body hit the floor.