Ainreth had been enjoying this trip immensely so far. He had been alone with Fenn for long periods of time since he'd met him and brought him to Kyr-Toryl, but there was something very different about that and being out in the wilderness like this with no one for miles. And sure, they had stopped for the night at a military base or two that were dotting the mountain region above the capital, but that was still the majority of the day spent alone with Fenn.

Ain had been a bit worried about how this all might go, what with Fennrin being too attractive for words. And Ainreth wasn't very happy about Varilik sending Fenn on any mission anywhere so soon after he'd come to the city, either. A week wasn't anywhere near enough time to prepare for anything, but he didn't dare say anything because he didn't want to make Fenn worry. He seemed to have a tendency to overthink.

But so far, everything was fine, and they were very close to the border now. Today, very soon, they would reach the camp that was supposed to be located a mile or so away from it, which meant that they could get this mission over with and go home. In a way, Ain didn't want this to end because he had really enjoyed spending time with Fenn like this, but that was a silly thought. They could spend time together whenever they'd like.

"So, have you settled on a name for your horse?" Ain asked Fenn when he realized he'd been thinking and staring at Fennrin for a while too long.

The other man turned to him with surprise in his eyes, his hair falling into one of them again. Why was that so cute?

"Name? I didn't think that was appropriate given that I am borrowing her." Fenn stroked a hand over his horse's neck as he said this, and though his words were very neutral, Ain could tell he was sad about that possibility.

Well, sunder, Ain had been toying with the idea of just buying the horse for Fennrin, so he had one. Might as well actually do it. If he joined the army, Ainreth could probably get the person managing the horses to assign this one to Fennrin, but Fenn didn't seem that interested in enlisting. Not that Ain could blame him, it wasn't for everyone.

He would just have to be smart about this. Even to Ainreth, it was clear the shadowforger was uncomfortable with Ain constantly buying him things, and no amount of assuring him that Ainreth had more money than he could spend helped.

"Oh, she'll be yours once I fill out some paperwork," Ainreth said, lying easily. Well, it was barely a lie—there would be paperwork. It was just that there would be money accompanying the paperwork. "Might as well."

"She—" Fennrin frowned, looking down at his horse. "Um, you have the authority to do that?" Before Ain could chuckle, Fennrin shook his head, blushing most adorably as a smile tugged on the corners of his mouth. "Right, why am I surprised?"

That time Ain did laugh.

"Thank you," Fennrin said, his gaze suddenly serious and grateful as he looked right into Ain's eyes. "I really appreciate this. And everything you've done for me."

"I know, Fenn, you're welcome."

Ainreth longed to tell Fennrin that just him being around him made him feel happier than he had been in years. More alive than he had been in years. But he was afraid. Not only because wanting to be close to someone like this freaked him out, but also because he was worried he'd mess this up somehow by saying things like that.

So he kept it to himself.

"So, a name?"

Fennrin's cheeks turned pink again as he looked away, his eyes focusing on the trees around them as they trudged along the forest road. "I was thinking Star. Because of the—"

"The spots, yeah," Ain finished for him, grinning. "That's very cute. I agree. She's a star."

As if able to understand him, Sunray snorted unhappily, and Ain chuckled, petting her head. "Yeah, yeah, you're my favorite, don't worry."

The horse snorted again, but this time the noise sounded pleased. Ainreth shook his head, brushing a hand through his hair, pushing it back and off his face. It was nice to take Sunray out like this, as well. He hadn't taken her anywhere since that run-in with the soundsmith woman, which wasn't a day Ain wanted to remind himself of much.

"How far away are we?"

Ain looked around, noting that the woods had grown less thick now. He hadn't really been paying much attention. It was just difficult to do so with Fennrin next to him.

"I think we might soon be crossing the border," Ain said, nodding to himself. There was no clear indication of the border here in the mountains, the only one being the edge of the forest, but the problem there was that the woods didn't end abruptly, instead stretching on and on, thinning out slowly. It made this area dangerous for exactly that reason, though Ain had no doubts that they could easily defend themselves if it came to that. Besides, Orinovo didn't want to risk anything any more than Lys-Akkaria did.

"Oh. Yes. Good."

Ainreth didn't have to be very perceptive to figure out that Fennrin was nervous, keeping his gaze trained on the road ahead of them, his hands clenched hard around his horse's reins.

"Don't you worry, Fenn, I'll protect us," Ain joked, giving Fenn a bright smile, but the shadowforger didn't seem very reassured. In fact, now he looked almost woeful.

"I should be the one doing that, shouldn't I?"

Oh, was that what Fenn was worried about? Ainreth didn't like the sound of that one bit. Fennrin had barely learned how to use his powers properly. How could he be expected to defend Ain who had had years and years of training?

"Well, if the mysterious soundsmith appears, I'm sure you can defend us both," Ain said, trying to sound reassuring, though he wasn't sure how much he was managing it. Fennrin didn't seem very uplifted by what he was saying. "But you've never seen combat. It will be better for me to handle it if something happens. Which it shouldn't."

Fenn nodded, his mood clearly not improving as he barely looked at Ain, which did bum Ainreth out a little, but it was okay that Fennrin was nervous. Poor guy had never done something like this. Ainreth wanted to yell at Varilik the first chance he got, but he knew he couldn't. The man would find a way to get him back for questioning his authority like that, and Ain didn't need that in his life.

He would just make sure everything went smoothly, and it would all be fine.

Thankfully, in a few more hours they managed to leave the forest without incident, which meant that they were now truly in enemy territory. Now that they had no cover from the trees, it was probably a good time to give them some cover. They didn't need anyone seeing them, even here, where the area wasn't as patrolled given the difficult terrain.

"I'll make us both invisible, all right?"

Fenn turned his surprised eyes at him, though he didn't seem scared, more fascinated. Ain smiled. "You can do that for other people?"

"Yeah, of course," Ainreth replied, grinning. He loved how impressed Fennrin was with his powers. It made him feel all warm and fuzzy. "I can make anything invisible. But we'll have to make sure we don't lose each other."

Reaching into his satchel, he searched it for the rope he knew was in there and pulled it out when he found it. Good on Petre for remembering to pack that. Ain would have forgotten.

He unspooled a few feet of it before handing the length of rope to Fennrin. "Here, hold this."

Fenn took the rope without question, his eyes still full of interest, his previous sulking forgotten. Great, at least Ain could dazzle him out of his self-doubt. Good to know.

Raising his hand, Ainreth grabbed at the rays of sunlight all around them, bending them out of the way, around both of them and their horses so that none of the sun rays hit them. This had been one of the powers that had been the most difficult for him to control, and even now, after more than a decade of training, it still required a lot of concentration to keep it up for long periods of time, especially now that he was hiding both himself and Fenn, but he was good enough at this to manage.

"This is...." Fennrin sounded shocked yet delighted. Ain wished he could see his face, but he had to keep the invisibility going for their safety, so he kept moving his fingers, keeping the light from hitting them. "Amazing."

"Glad you think so, Fenn. They won't see us coming."

To Ainreth's absolute shock, he heard a quiet, amused huff. It made him freeze, his heart flipping at the beautiful sound, wishing he could see Fennrin's face. But as his control began to flip, the air around him and Fenn shivering, Ain quickly caught himself. He wouldn't endanger them just for his selfish desire to see Fenn smiling, even though the few times he'd seen it had been magical.

"Is something wrong?"

Blight, Fenn had noticed. Though it must have been hard not to.

"No, don't worry, happens to most men." He was met with silence, though he could almost see Fennrin's annoyed face anyway, his ponytail swaying while shaking his head at the bad joke. Ain had to snigger to himself. "Sorry."

Fenn huffed, this time in irritation, but Ain knew by now that he wasn't actually annoyed, just pretending he was. If he had a problem with these jokes, he certainly wouldn't have laughed just a moment ago because of Ain's pun.

"Let's get going, the camp shouldn't be far from here. Don't let go of the rope."

And so they set off again, riding next to each other, with the only indication of their presence being the sound of their horses' hoofs beating against the ground, the grass bending beneath them as they ran down the slope of a hill.

It was strange being in Orinovo. The last time he'd been here had been on a battlefield. They'd had to retreat to what was now the border, where the wall was, and Ainreth had...done what he'd done, burning hundreds of soldiers to death as a last-ditch attempt at stopping them. He wasn't even entirely certain what he'd done back then, and he'd been afraid to try to explore it since. It had felt as though he'd pulled light from the sun right into himself before releasing it in a scorching blast. And that still terrified him.

As they suddenly reached a cliff, Ain immediately noticed the Orinovan camp at the foot of it, right below them. It was just a few dozen blue tents with a simple wall made of wooden planks around it. Getting in and out shouldn't be a problem, but getting to it might be a little.

Ainreth quickly looked over the surrounding landscape, noticing a cluster of trees a bit away from the camp among the grassy fields. It looked large enough to hide their horses, which would have to be good enough. Ainreth couldn't keep them invisible once they infiltrated the camp. Unless Fenn went alone, but Ain refused to even entertain that thought. He needed to look out for him.

Looking around the cliff, Ainreth also spotted a way down, though it would take them a while to get there. They would have to follow the cliff until it gradually turned into more of a hill that wouldn't end in them breaking their necks if they tried to go down it. This would still take a while, but that was fine. It was around noon, they had time. Though he wished getting to the camp had been easier because keeping them invisible for this long would definitely take a lot out of him.

Relaying his thoughts to Fenn—minus the one about him getting tired—they kept going, following the cliff until they could safely venture down. Ainreth was truly starting to feel the strain by the time they finally reached the trees he'd seen earlier, where he stopped disguising them for a moment, taking a deep breath, which he did his best to hide from Fenn.

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"Are you ready?" he asked Fennrin as they finished tying their horses' reins to the trees to make sure they didn't go wandering off. Sunray had a history of doing that, and while she always found her way back to him, Ainreth didn't want her to get noticed by the Orinovans.

Fenn just nodded, clearly not bothering to hide that he was nervous as he watched the camp in the distance, fidgeting with his fingers. Fenn had a few nervous habits, which while cute, worried Ain. But then, given the state of him when he'd found him, maybe he shouldn't be surprised.

At least Fennrin already looked healthier now that he was eating enough and was wearing something other than rags.

Ainreth found himself staring at Fennrin's chest and quickly averted his gaze when he realized. They were here on reconnaissance, not to ogle each other. Ain did wish Fenn would ogle him more than he did, but that was neither here nor there.

"I'll make you invisible until we reach the camp, and then you do your shadowmelding thing, right?"

Fennrin nodded again. "Yes. Let's go."

Ainreth took a deep breath, giving Sunray a pet on the head before pulling light away from him and Fennrin once again. There was sweat beading on his forehead.

"Remember, don't engage anyone. We're here to watch. And maybe steal some orders or plans."

Ain felt so bossy saying that, but he felt it was necessary. He didn't want Fenn to lose sight of what they were supposed to do here, though he mostly just didn't want him to put himself in danger.

"Yes, you've told me several times," Fennrin said, though he didn't sound snippy about it. More like he was reassuring Ain that he remembered what they were supposed to be doing. Good.

"All right, then. Come on. Want to hold hands?" Ain froze, the invisibility failing as his face flushed. "Uh, so we can keep track of each other, of course."

Fennrin's face was red as he struggled not to make eye contact with Ain, but he nodded, anyway. "That would, um, probably be for the best."

Ain bit back a grin. Yes, maybe he had been daydreaming about holding Fenn's hand for days, but that was completely irrelevant right now. If they didn't do this, they would lose sight of each other, and to maintain invisibility, Ain had to know where Fenn was.

He reached out, Fenn hesitantly doing the same after a second. Ain's breath stilled as their fingers touched, his heart doing somersaults. He could feel his face heating up and his palms sweating, which was great now that he was holding Fenn's hand in his. Though the shadowforger's hand was sweaty as well. Adorable.

Ain cleared his throat. "All right. Let's go."

"Wait, we will split up. How do we find each other again?" asked Fennrin, making Ainreth pause. Oh, that was right, he'd completely forgotten Fenn couldn't just walk out of there like Ain could, not unless there was a consistent shadow.

Ainreth took a quick glance over the camp again, quickly looking for a convenient shadow.

"There!" he said, pointing at the tall flagpole sticking out of the wooden palisade. "Under the flag, that shadow cast by the wall—will that be enough for you?"

Fenn squinted into the distance, putting a hand up above his eyes to block out the sun. Ain once more became very aware they were still holding hands, neither of them apparently willing to let go. Ainreth sure knew he wasn't.

"Yes, that should be enough."

"Okay, so just go there after you survey your half of the camp and wait for me to show up. I'll make some noise when I show up. Or periodically while I wait for you in case I somehow manage to finish before you."

Fenn hummed, looking a little relieved, his shoulders a little less tense. "Okay. Then we can go."

Ainreth once again made both of them invisible, twitching his fingers. Even that seemed to drain him at this point, but taking the short break between them arriving and securing their horses had helped.

They made their way right to the camp entrance, a large gap in the wall that was guarded by two Orinovan soldiers with spears. Ainreth paid them no attention, though, walking right past them, pulling Fenn along. All he did to ensure they wouldn't be noticed was to slow down enough for their boots not to make too much noise against the dirt. There was very little grass here, unsurprisingly, with paths leading all around the camp.

Ainreth led Fenn behind one of the nearby tents, stepping into shadow. The tents around them were numerous enough and in close enough proximity that Fennrin should hopefully not have much trouble moving around in the shadows they cast. But then he could just hitch a ride in some of the soldiers' shadows. Ain could hear them moving around just a little off to his right, talking in that ridiculous language of theirs.

Fenn could probably kill this whole camp so easily without ever being discovered. Ain knew Fennrin hadn't actually tried killing people while in shadow form, but he should be able to do it. And the thought made Ain probably more enthusiastic than he should be. Because yes, it was murder, but it was incredibly impressive just how powerful Fenn was.

"Do we separate now?" whispered Fennrin so quietly that Ain could barely hear him. The shadowforger must have been nervous, still.

"Yeah, let's do this."

Very begrudgingly, Ain let go of Fennrin's hand. "I go right, you go left."

"Okay."

Ainreth waited a moment before gingerly letting go of the light he'd been keeping away from Fenn. And indeed, nothing was there, even after he stopped pulling at all of it.

He should be happy that Fenn was now a shadow, and therefore invulnerable and undetectable, but it made Ainreth anxious to not know where he was. But that was the point of this, so they'd better get it over with quickly.

Walking between the tents slowly and carefully, staying as silent as possible, Ain first took a close look at the soldiers because he had noticed something different about them. And indeed, their uniforms were a little changed. The Orinovan flag colors of blue, white, and purple were prominently shown on their tabards, but there was also a crown on them now. The queen apparently had an ego.

This wasn't very important though. He should find the commander's tent. That was where the orders and important information usually were. Ain wished he understood a few more words of Orinovan so that he could maybe overhear something important from the soldiers walking around, but honestly, soldiers rarely had anything interesting to say. That was why he barely listened to his own. Aside from Petre, of course.

At least Petre could speak Orinovan, so they could translate whatever Ain and Fenn ended up finding. And yes, there were many other people in Lys-Akkaria who could speak it—like that misborn Varilik—but of those people, Ain only trusted Petre.

Walking up the road, Ainreth had to keep track of everything around him. Being invisible was great until someone ran into him due to not seeing him. It was a constant problem that Ainreth had had to train himself to remember because it didn't come naturally at all. But thankfully not that many soldiers were walking around, most sitting around, playing cards, or drinking.

Ugh, Orinovo.

His mom Vanya would lecture him for thinking like that, but he actually really liked the Orinovo she had described to him living in before having to emigrate because of that insane new queen had taken over. Honestly, that probably just made Ain more resentful of these soldiers. He knew it wasn't their fault, they were conscripted against their will, but they represented everything wrong with their country and this pointless, drawn-out war. Orinovo should just give up. Now that Lys-Akkaria had a shadowforger, Ainreth didn't think they could be defeated, even with that soundsmith menace.

Shaking his head, he kept walking through the sea of tents, far too many for the relatively small area the camp was on. When he finally reached a main road of sorts, getting enough of a view to spot the main tent, he realized that it was in Fenn's half of the camp.

Ainreth grimaced. He didn't like the thought of leaving this to Fenn, but if he went there as well, that might lead to more problems, so he just decided to search the rest of the camp.

He walked along the road for a little bit, trying to spot something interesting in the mass of identical tents, but nothing really caught his eye, so he chose an empty tent at random, searching through it quickly. The only interesting thing was a couple of books, but given the fact that Ain couldn't read this language, he wouldn't be able to figure out if any of them would be of any interest, and so he walked outside again, making his way deeper so he could check more tents.

At least that had been his plan before his boot caught on something. Falling forward, Ain barely managed to catch himself with his hands before faceplanting in the dirt, his invisibility fading. But that was the least of his worries when immediately a loud bell rang just above him.

Oh, sunder. He must have tripped on some kind of alarm. But what had he even tripped on? Jumping to his feet, all he had time to do was notice an incredibly thin metal wire that he'd had no hope of noticing unless he had known it was there prior. And then soldiers were on him, yelling for reinforcements.

At least Ain assumed that's what they were doing. Throwing his hand toward the soldier closest to him, Ainreth seared him with light, making the woman cry out, trying to shield herself with her arms uselessly.

Ainreth threw more light the other way, burning the two soldiers blocking his exit. He was trapped between two tents with soldiers on either side. And more were coming, their yelling and footsteps loud.

Pushing past the woman who was still recovering from her burns, Ainreth zipped past tents, about to make himself invisible again when more soldiers pounced at him, one almost cutting him with her blade, which Ain barely managed to dodge.

Clenching his fist, he sent more light to burn them, but there were constantly more coming. How was he supposed to get away? He was getting very tired after keeping himself and Fenn invisible the whole way here. He didn't think he could burn any of these soldiers to death, even if he was given the chance.

He needed to get away. And quick.

Pulling his arms to his chest, he released a ring of scorching hot light as he threw them out again, hitting all of the soldiers around him. And no matter how out of breath that left him, he bolted, running past them. He tried to turn himself invisible, but he could see his body flicker back into existence every once in a while as his fatigue built up.

But he didn't stop running, not until he reached the exit where he skidded to a halt when he saw the ten soldiers waiting for him.

And then something even worse happened.

"Ain!" came Fenn's voice from behind him. No, no, why was Fenn here and not a shadow? He could get killed. But Ain couldn't even risk a look at Fenn as his form flickered again, and the soldiers let out a collective cry, immediately advancing on him.

Ainreth swallowed, his heart hammering in his ears. This was all too familiar, but he couldn't give in to his panic.

"Just stay behind me, Fenn!" Even to him, his voice sounded shaky, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered as long as he didn't hurt Fennrin. "Don't move! I'll get us out of this."

Raising his hands, he sent light at the soldiers, but it wasn't as intense as it should be, the light more blinding than searing. Gritting his teeth, he tried to make it more intense, but even the light he could summon was waning. He just didn't have the strength for a fight like this. He hadn't had it when he'd come here.

Eventually, the light grew weak enough that it was barely stopping the soldiers from advancing on them. And he could hear more of them coming from behind them.

Blight, what was he supposed to do?

But just as he was about to reach a new level of panic suddenly one of the soldiers' heads snapped to the side, the man falling to the ground, much to the horror of the others. And then another. And another.

As panic set in, the soldiers dropping their swords and running away screaming, Ain finally realized what had happened. He threw a look over his shoulder to find a wide-eyed Fenn, his hand still raised. But the shadowforger recovered from his shock faster than Ain, grabbing his hand again.

"Come on, we have to go!"

Running with Fenn, feeling like his legs were moving on their own, Ain forced together the remainders of his powers to make them both invisible until they reached the trees among which they'd left their horses.

Ainreth couldn't manage to say anything the whole way, and neither could Fennrin if his silence was any indication. Ain wasn't even able to properly think until they got to the safety of the trees where he let go, making them visible again, before collapsing to his knees, breathing hard.

This had not gone how he'd assumed it would. Since when did Orinovo start putting damned alarms in their camps? He'd done this stuff many times, being the only one who could go around undetected, and that had never been something he'd come across.

If only he hadn't been so tired, he would have been fine. And Fenn wouldn't have had to do anything.

"Are you okay?" Fennrin asked, sitting down next to him. Their horses were staring down at them. Ainreth wanted to go pet Sunray, but he was too exhausted at the moment.

"I will be. In a moment."

Fenn took a few deep breaths as Ain finally managed to straighten up a bit, sitting up and leaning against the tree behind him. He studied Fennrin, noting that the man looked a little disturbed as he stared down at his raised hand, but that wasn't at all surprising, unfortunately.

"I've...never killed anyone before."

Ain grimaced. Yeah, that was what he'd thought. Where would have Fenn gotten the opportunity to do that? Then again, Ain didn't know much about his past—Fenn had just not come across as someone who would kill people, even if it had been for food.

"I'm sorry, Fenn, I messed this up," Ain said, hanging his head. This was all his fault, and he would own up to it.

Fenn stared at him, confused, one eyebrow raised. "Because you alerted them? You didn't do that on purpose."

Ain shrugged. "Well, yeah, no. But—"

"I am glad I could use my power to protect you." Then his expression soured. "Even if you seem to think I'm not capable of it."

Now it was Ainreth's turn to frown, having no idea what Fenn was saying. Was he assuming that Ain's protectiveness implied that he thought Fenn was useless in a fight? Because that wasn't it at all. But before he could say as much, Fennrin raised his other hand, showing him a few pieces of parchment, all with Orinovo's royal wax seal on them.

"I found this in the main tent," Fennrin said, squinting down at it. He still looked a little pale, but his previous discomfort caused by killing a few soldiers was now overshadowed by a somewhat annoyed frown. "I can't read it. But it looked important."

Ain nodded encouragingly, pride and relief unwinding some of the tension in his muscles. At least they'd gotten something out of this mess. They would have to move soon because, even though the soldiers had no idea which way Ain and Fenn had gone, they would be searching the area.

"Great job, Fenn." Ain sighed when the man didn't even look at him. "And hey, I think you're plenty capable."

"Is that why you told me to stay behind you?"

Oh, so that was the problem. Right, Ain kept forgetting Fenn didn't have any context for that. But even though he did want to tell him, he couldn't manage it. He was afraid of what Fenn would think of him afterward.

"I did that because...." He sighed again, brushing his hair back. "I panicked. I was worried you'd get killed."

Fenn's unimpressed hum didn't really inspire confidence in Ain that the shadowforger believed him, but what else could he do? Though his wording just now hadn't been the best, he was now belatedly realizing.

But they would have to have this talk later. First, they needed to get back to Lys-Akkaria. The trip was long, which would give them plenty of time to unpack everything, especially if Fennrin was okay after what had happened just now.

And so a moment later they were mounting their horses, Ain pulling together all his remaining strength to shield them from view again. He hoped he'd manage for long enough to get to a safe distance from the camp at least.