Last night had concluded with Zeais surprised at how skillful Yale was at cooking and the children had planned out general ideas for their travel. With Yale’s approval, they had also gotten approval for Anya to stay for a few days in Brights instead of one. Zeais thought it would be too much to travel back and forth with Anya for two days and there were plenty of places for her to sleep, free from danger.

For the morning, the children planned to visit Nova and his Uncle. It only felt right that the children inform them of their situation with the Chief. If at all possible, Zeais wanted to see if they had anyone who could be free to help them. Eris didn’t seem to be interested in visiting for the talks but instead wanted to visit Nova and check up on him.

----------------------------------------

Another morning is what Zeais would have awakened to if it weren’t for Celcilin transitioning to its new axis. It was still dark outside the window of the room, and the sun wouldn’t come up for another hour more if he had to guess. 

Zeais tiredly turned his head to his right, to see Eris facing away from him on her bed.

[Zeais: Up already?]

She didn’t turn around but simply answered with an agreeing hum.

[Zeais: I see.]

With what they conversed last night, Eris should leave in the next few hours after their visit and breakfast. He couldn’t help but remember his painful walk back to Brights after looking for shops all day. It wouldn’t take any more than two hours to walk to Don’te from Rigas and he couldn’t imagine going on a trip anymore without money for food. It was a lot more stressing than he thought and his stomach had made it worse.

Eris should be more prepared than me, she should be fine. Still though, that's a lot of work just to come along in a week. I’d be fine with just my group too. Maybe there's something else she's after? Hm, whatever, everyone has their reasons.

Zeais let out a long-winded yawn and slowly sat up. He dangled his legs off the bed and let gravity slide him to the floor. The hardwood was cold to the touch and for a brief moment, he wanted to hide underneath the blankets and go back to sleep.

He could hear Eris yawning as she stretched as well.

[Eris: Ready to go soon?]

Her back was still turned as she spoke.

Weird.

[Zeais: Just give me a bit.]

Zeais gave in and embraced the floor. Ridding himself of his sleepiness, he stretched again and yawned until he was awake enough. Alright then, another day it is.” he told himself. Within a couple minutes, he dressed in the same worn wardrobe he had the past two days. When he turned to look at Eris, she had already laid back down onto her bed facing away from him. He couldn’t tell if she was waiting on him or asleep.

[Zeais: Alright, ready.]

Once she heard his response, she rose up slowly like a reanimated corpse. Her head turned to him and he was presented with the face of what looked like an overworked construction worker. Her eyes were shriveled, her skin had the imprint of sheets on it and he could almost barely make out the slightly white signs of dried drool on her face.

A muddled groan escaped her closed mouth.

I want to laugh, but I shouldn’t.

He felt like he was awake now, thanks to the humor which was Eris’s face. If anything, Zeais thought he was an occasional morning person and didn’t look that bad when waking.

[Zeais: Alright first things first. Let's visit the old man and Nova.]

Zeais walked around the beds toward the door, he opened the door to feel the lightly cold air of the Inn brush his face. He beckoned Eris to come along. She sighed and took her time to stand up. She slowly shuffled in front of him out of the door, her head hanging low and tiredly.

[Zeais: Not enough sleep?]

[Eris: mmm, something like that.]

Stolen story; please report.

I’m just going to leave that alone. Not interested in her nighttime worries. Even though she sometimes talks in her sleep...

The steps of the children were loud compared to the quiet of the Inn. As they walked down the hallway, the wooden floor didn’t creak when stepped on but it did give the rough sound as Eris dragged her feet across it.

If there were guests she would have woken them by now.

She was walking too slowly for him, so he decided to just pass her up. He heard her behind him say,

[Eris: I’ll meet with you in a few minutes.]

Zeais turned around as he heard her steps stop behind him.

[Zeais: Okay?]

He saw Eris groggily walk into a room with a whitish sign that had the dark letterings of the word “Ladies”.

Zeais let out a sigh of disappointment.

[Zeais: I see. Alright.]

I guess some people just aren’t made for the morning, he jokingly thought to himself as he crossed his arms in an attempt to hold warmth.

[Zeais: Oh well!]

He happily walked down the hall to the lobby. He could hear the sound of others walking around in the Inn.

Yale and Anya must be awake. Too bad breakfast won’t be served till later though.

He ventured into the lobby, the open space felt cold on his skin even with the warmness of the eternal candles. The looked bright and colorful and could burn for what seemed like forever, but they produced almost no warmth. At least that's why he thought people keep in their homes, as to not burn their houses down with more volatile flames.

He walked straight toward the main entrance and wrapped his hand around the doorknob. The instant he touched it, he could instantly feel he wouldn’t be comfortable going outside again with what he was wearing. Yeah, this isn’t going to work. He thought. Yale probably wouldn’t have anything that might fit me either. I should have just checked the meteor sheet before I left. He let out a sorrowful sigh and opened the door.

The dark sky that seemed to haunt Celcilin was still just as dark as before. The darkness didn’t bother him, but not being able to tell what the time was, did. Zeais pulled out a small thin crystal that looked like a flattened rock. He held it at waist level with the shiniest side facing as straight as he could toward the sky. He moved it in several directions an brought it up to his eyes to look at.

The thin crystal revealed the night skies he pointed it to and revealed the sky on its surface as if it were an exact replica made by an artist. According to the what stars he could see on the crystal, it was only ten hours ago that he slept. Is it ten hours or nine? The big dipper is much farther than usual so maybe… He contemplated his thought for a bit and became uninterested. Whatever, I may as well get used to this cold, I should probably draw out my routes later today too. He shoved the crystal back into his pocket and carried on.

Zeais followed the stone carved path that led to the arched gate entrance of the yard. He reached the smoothly cut stone arch and leaned against it. As much as he wished he could peer around at the surroundings, it would be too much work to make out what he was looking at. He rested instead, holding his arms together, trying to clear his mind to pass the time. It wasn’t as windy as he thought it would be, but it was still cold enough to where he could just barely see his breath.

[Zeais: This was a mistake.]

He could feel his nose anxiously want to let out its slippery secretion which he quickly sniffed back up.

[Zeais: What's taking her so long…]

What had been five minutes, felt like an eternity to him and he still didn’t feel like the cold was going to wear off anytime soon. He knew he had to be tired still to think that it was a good idea to wait outside.

Suddenly the sound of the door opening promptly brought up his spirits. He swiftly stood up to take a gander at the door and just as he wanted, a pair of bright orange lights were popped into existence as the door closed.

He tried speaking to her via will of word but her eyes quickly turned elsewhere, back at in his direction and elsewhere again. Is she looking for me? He coated his lips till they were wet from his tongue and he gave a short loud whistle. This time instead of disappearing again her gaze became fixated on his.

[*Eris*: Oh, there you are.]

[*Zeais: I’m dying out here, let's hurry up.]

[*Eris*: Hmph, that's your own fault for going ahead of me.]

[*Zeais*: But you said-]

[*Eris*: Now now, I’m just kidding. Shall we go?]

Zeais didn’t retort back at her playful words, instead, he turned around and started to walk toward their destination, the doctor's office.

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Gray building after gray building appeared before Zeais, each one slowly fading into view and soon disappearing behind him, swallowed by a blurry gray mist. He could at most tell that some of the homes and shops had lights on, but no one in front of them. Neither pedestrians nor shopkeepers were there. Even if it was dark, it was still around the time people had awoken to start the day.

They had been walking for at least 15 minutes now and still, only a few people had shown themselves.

[Zeais: What do you think?]

Eris’s face didn’t suggest any confusion to his vague question.

[Eris: It doesn’t feel like people are hiding. It’s more like... they just don’t bother to come out.]

[Zeais: I’m sure you have the same idea as me but, this place is definitely strange.]

Eris gave a nod of the head and turned away to look out into the distance.

[Eris: It might be...cult related.]

[Zeais: I wouldn’t go that far, but, it’s not impossible.]

He could hear the annoyance in the sigh she gave.

[Eris: It's not impossible... after what they’ve done to “us”, and countless families across cecilin, I wouldn’t put it past them.]

She cleared her throat.

[Eris: I haven’t heard much and it might not be true, but I heard The Healers left Leone and went southwest.]

[Zeais: They could have gone anywhere.]

[Eris: That's true, but I will never rule them out. They are an evil that shouldn’t be allowed to roam this world.]

Zeais could her a flame beginning to envelop in her voice when he turned to her, he felt as if he would be set ablaze with the fierceness of her pupils and the expression of anger across her face.

[Zeais: I see. I get it now. You want to go after The Hea-]

[Eris: No.]

[Zeais: No?]

[Eris: No.]

Zeais found himself scratching his head in confusion.

[Zeais: Then about this murderer you were talking about?]

She narrowed her eyes in front of her.

[Eris: He’s apart of The Healers I believe, and he sort of looks like that guy in front of us.]

Ahead of them, in front of the only place with the clear markings and signs of a medical insignia, was a tall man in a lab coat.