With his new skeleton guide taped to his spine, Vin moved into the magically illuminated living space, boarded by the homeowner's potted plants and bookshelves. As serene as that Elven home was, perilous gloom continued contaminating the domain, making its nature-colored walls and furniture look drab.

His face scrunched up in annoyance at the three Ravenours who sat silently in different areas of the room away from each other. Meave was precisely where he had expected, laboring her sorrows away. Tristen had been the closest to him, mindlessly spinning the wheels of the skateboard without a shred of his usual cheery charm. Gideon, obviously not in his zenith after being impaled by a wooden stake, was angrily rewrapping his wounds while muttering what sounded like a hex.

Tristen stopped when he saw Vin, strolled up to him, and handed him the skateboard with a contrived smile. "I made sure to keep it safe. But..."

He pinched the Elven shirt he wore, frowned, and said, "I'm Sorry I lost the shirt you enchanted."

Vin looked down at the pink-haired, youthful Ravenour. He pushed the board back to Tristen and told him, "Hang on to it a lil longer."

Vin placed a hand on Tristen's shirt and directed his skeletal attendant to transmit the intricate design of the Center Gravity spell's magic circle directly into his mind. With this image clear behind his eyes, Vin invoked both the Marking and Shape abilities to quickly enchant the young man's clothing.

Tristen still wasn't as shining as usual- well, how could he be after the horrors of the day before? Yet, he managed a smile, gripped his shirt and the skateboard, and stated, "Thanks, but, is this really okay?"

"Consider it an early Christmas," remarked Vin with an allowing nod.

"What's Christmas?" The youthful Ranvenour asked.

"A human tradition; tell you about it later." Something new had been brought to his attention. He pointed at the enchanted shirt and sought the young man's knowledge. He was more or less confused about magic circles and how they behaved.

From what he remembered, a magic circle was more than just a trigger for a memory; the drawing itself, when activated, had the properties of the spell. Sure, but how? It didn't make sense that a simple drawing could trigger an effect since it didn't inherently possess mana like the living. Vin hadn't paid much attention to the specifics before, but he became curious after enchanting an item for the second time. This knowledge could also lead to him inventing some new uses for his abilities.

Tristen resembled a broken fire hydrant in that he burst with ramblings. Talking about his favorite subject definitely recharged his cheery personality. Plainly, he deemed it necessary to give his own lore of magic and the self-taught journey he'd embarked on as a child.

Vin smashed the fast-forward button, sending him past all the lore and to the part he eagerly awaited. Tristen straightened his finger vertically and grinned as if he was about to say something groundbreaking. Vin opened his ears to receive the blessing of wisdom, and the Antsy fellow smiled, opened his mouth, and then proudly proclaimed, "I don't know."

Vin blinked. He stared at him for a while, waiting for the joke's punch line. But after it was unmistakable that Ravenour was simply too uneducated to answer his question, Vin gripped their shirt and started tugging upward with a straight face, "Give it back."

Tristen resisted, most of his belly revealed as his blouse was being lifted off, "I'm sorry! That's all I know!"

"Why did you make me listen to you ramble if you didn't know? Give me the enchantment back."

Tristen had previously mentioned that there were magic academies, places where knowledge even the Journals didn't have was kept. Just about all of them were Elven, but it'd be worth looking into after leaving the Archival Dimension. But, in the meantime, all he had was that immature Ravenour and the skeletal guide whose knowledge was mainly limited to what other humans inputted into its database.

Irked, Vin waited until Tristen pulled rearward, then released his grip and let them fall back. He exhaled while massaging his scalp to ease his aggravation.

Remembering more people were in the room, Vin scrutinized them both and said bluntly, "Not a single word out of you two?"

"Whatever you have going on, figure it out."

Gideon snapped to his feet, buffed up his chest, and marched up to Vin, fuming, "I don't take orders from you, hum-"

Vin glared at the slick Ravenour, who'd lost their voice. At that moment, the young man seemed to have recounted everything that had happened the previous day, regret sown on his face. Vin imagined they were doubting his humanity, perhaps considering treating him like an immortal deity or, at the very least, showing him respect.

He didn't want their dynamic to change, so he showed him all the scars on his arm from the previous battle and stated, "I'm still human."

"Right..." Gideon replied, slapping Vin's shoulder and softening his tone. "Anyways, you saved us yesterday. You didn't have to. So. Thanks."

Vin peered at the tall man and pridefully worded, "Well aren't you civil. Ravenour."

Jazzy poked his chest and growled, "This will be the last time I thank you for anything, human.

Switching to Earthian, Vin warmed a hand in his pocket and complained, "Now that I think about it, you never thanked me for stopping you from being humiliated at the rebel hideout."

Gideon glared with heated red irises, barking in his native language, "What did you say?! Are you too afraid to say it in Vulcan?"

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Vin continued to speak Earthian, insulting the Ravenour for sport. The more the slick-haired man enraged, the more Tristen cackled in amusement. After a while, Gideon's top lip flipped up in annoyance, exposing sharp canines: "I liked you better when you barely talked."

Vin swapped back to Vulcan, flapping his hand mockingly like a mouth and stating, "Well, I was still learning the language before, so there wasn't much I could say."

Clearly pleased his human friend had become more talkative, Tristen stated in a curious tone, "Weird, you don't talk like someone with godlike powers."

Still annoyed at the young man, Vin consciously flattened his tone and coldly replied, "how exactly does someone with godly powers talk?"

The youthful Ravenour peered up in consideration, then answered, "Probably really slow and boring."

"Like Maeve then," commented Vin, looking over the princess bound to her work. Tristen quickly turtlenecked to hide his humored countenance. On the other hand, Gideon didn't find this comment funny and told the human, "Watch it. I won't stand for any slander on our future queen."

Vin asked if his defending her meant they'd resolved their issues, and Jazzy told him they hadn't spoken. There was no need. He admitted he overreacted and blamed himself, believing Maeve wouldn't have to keep secrets if they were stronger and more reliable. It was a barbaric way of thinking, but it kept them going.

Gideon left first to find something to punch. Since they were isolated there, Tristen asked the human to finally teach him some skateboarding tricks, but the matter was deflected. It was more critical for Vin to join Maeve and figure out their plan to escape. The youthful Ravenour understood but frowned, then moved the furniture from the center of the common area and continued his self-lesson.

The work desk where Maeve sat was cluttered with even more papers. Vin sat next to the royal, picked up the first one he saw, and exhaled, "Where are we."

The one-winged woman still had deep bags under her eyes and moved sluggishly. She shuffled through several documents, organized her thoughts, picked up a sheet, and handed it to Vin. He grabbed the other end, but she didn't release her side, which threatened to tear the page. He titled his head and called, "Maeve?"

Her sights idled on the paper for some time, then she finally released and swept her long black hair behind her pointed ears. "Sorry about last night."

"It was unbecoming of me."

'I was hoping she wouldn't bring it up. I'm no better for staring at her while she slept.' He kept that admission to himself. Just remembering it made him nervous that she'd pull that secret from his eyes. He concealed his watches in the paper she handed him, trying to avoid her gaze.

'I wonder if she'd figure me out if I looked at her right now.'

He slouched, exhaling with a slight weightlessness toward his core, 'Figure out what? We're just working together.'

Vin zoned out, detached from the moment. Maeve seemed to await a response after her apology, so she inched closer, stating, "Something has stolen your focus."

Vin lifted his shoulders nonchalantly, flatly replying, "Just thinking about human stuff. Anyways, forget what happened last night, theres more important matters to worry about."

"You're telling me to forget..." She repeated quietly. The ruby-eyed slumped into a terrible unbefitting slouch on her chair and stared idly at the surface of the disorganized table.

"How many times have you offended my status by giving me demands..."

"You know, It's strange," she said mildly, seemingly spurred by an important thought.

"Just an hour before we discovered you in the forest, there was a large fight in town between warriors who wanted to prove themselves as suitable partners."

"Of course, they all knew I wasn't allowed to bear an heir because my cross blood would taint Ravenour's heritage. Yet, they all fought desperately, hoping to make me their wife."

"Eventually, there was a sole survivor. A young, powerful, and handsome man with a bright future in our army. It was rare, but he was as intelligent as he was fierce, and for the first time, I was hopeful."

Vin's eyelids lowered in disregard as he listened to this unsolicited telling of her morning before she met him roughly a week ago. He appeared uninterested, though; subtle pangs of aversion whirled in his heart as he envisioned a prince charmingly sweeping the royal off her feet.

Maeve lurched her hand inward to gesture a stabbing, continuing, "It did not bother me that he had just killed three of his own. I was moved by his resolve."

"I was never fond of relations, but I remember thinking I would be willing to try if it was with this person."

Her tone became drearily sober, disappointment seeping in her words, "The man approached me to ask for my hand. He appeared proud at first... But then he dropped to not one but both of his knees and pleaded for my favor."

Her voice shifted from frustration to disgust as she continued, holding the memory of that man in her hand and crushing it, "His eyes did not look at me, but at the filthy, muddy ground that he kneeled in while awaiting my answer."

Vin couldn't help but always have vivid images in his mind and had pictured precisely what she had described. The mere thought of a man so desperate for love he'd kill his allies and then nearly beg for love in the dirt made him quake with revulsion. He tilted his head at the ceiling, then unwittingly murmured, "Gross."

Maeve turned her gaze to Vin, watching as he eyed the home's roof. Her tone didn't decline, but she heatedly continued, "I agree. The sight of him troubled me so much that I took work in the forest to be as far away from them as possible and compose myself."

"Ever since I became recognized as our town's princess, I was hailed as such. Men, women, and even children bowed to me wherever I went, and I was presented with gifts, praises, and anything else I wanted."

The one-winged woman hovered her palm above her head, pinching an invisible object and telling him. "But what I truly wanted, was someone who considered me an equal. Someone who saw me without the crown and all of its influences..."

'Guess I understand in some weird way. Since I was unmatched at racing, I only made enemies in the scene. I always said I didn't care, but when I nearly drowed in that disgusting swamp, I regretted not making any friends in my time alive.'

'I had thought- 'I don't want to die like this.''

Vin dropped his sights from the ceiling, scanned the paper in his hand, remembered the contents, and crumbled it. The next moment, he glanced at Maeve and said flatly, "Well, you don't have to worry about me treating you like a noble."

He threw the paper ball at the young royal, whose reaction was quick enough to dodge. Yet, she let it thump against her head without catching it. Maeve peered daggers at him and emitted a low growl before turning back to the desk.

"Don't get too comfortable," she snarled. Unbeknownst to her, Vin could see vestiges of fulfillment oppose some of the darkness that infected her usually beautiful and fierce amber-colored soul.

Vin shrugged off her warning, recollecting that one of his plans for life on a new planet was to make friends. Maybe those three brutes wouldn't be a poor start.