"What... is that?" Sorin asked the one thing that was on everyone's mind as they all stared at Diligence's back. That white, opaque scale that was embedded into her skin... It stuck out like a sore thumb against the charred skin surrounding it. Amaya stared a moment longer before turning to look through her satchel, taking out a pocket knife.

"The hell were you doing carrying that with you," Sorin asked next, raising a brow at her.

"It doesn't hurt to be prepared," Amaya replied with a small "hmph." "My dad always said it was a good idea to keep a knife with you. Anyway, give me a moment.. I'm going to try to cut this out."

"Alright, then Lilith and I will keep an eye out. We did make a huge scene back there." Putting his hand to Lilith's back, he moved her along while Amaya watched them leave, eyeing them before focusing on her task. Lilith, however, would look up at him with some surprise at his cautiousness. Though, what turned out to be far more surprising was how he moved that same hand from her back to cover his mouth, his body shaking some... with laughter? At first, Lilith was confused and unsure if she was actually hearing him laugh. But the following burst of laughter confirmed it, Lilith staring as if he had a lapse of sanity just now.

"I can't believe it. This whole time... This whole time," he started, quieting down a bit from his outburst. "I was scared and running away from that? She was so weak, it was pathetic! If that's the standard Dragon's Blood has, we really have nothing to worry about."

"I'll admit I was surprised too with how easy it was," Lilith added, glancing back at Diligence's body for a second. "Though, I also have to admit that I was just as surprised when you told me to run instead. I didn't think you'd care-"

"No, don't even think that," he interrupted, shaking his head with an exhale out of his mouth. "I only told you that so that you'd be alive to keep paying me. No way in hell was I planning on dying today."

"Oh." Lilith lowered her gaze to the ground a bit, rubbing her arms at what he said. Well, she was probably getting ahead of herself if she really thought he was watching out for her out of worry and consideration.

"So.. how did you know about what Industria meant?" Hearing this made her look up at him again, meeting his eyes that were focused on her.

"Oh, that... Well, I was taught at home from tutors and teachers that my parents hired. Didn't have much choice but to learn some phrases and words in another language. They thought it 'cultured' that I knew more than one language."

"That makes sense. Heh, fucking rich people."

Before she could retort something back, movement in the distance caught her eye. Men wearing a black uniform were leaving the town entrance they had passed through, a few moments needed to realize who they were.

"Yep, they got the authorities involved," Sorin stated, quickly turning around and jogging over to Amaya, who had finished getting the scale out of the corpse's back. "Amaya, time to go! We can lose them if we go through this forest."

"Eh!? What are you-" She stopped as she noticed Lilith jogging over as well, the black-haired girl pointing behind them to the men searching for them.

"Let's go! We got what we needed," Lilith told her, motioning for her to stand up. Amaya caught on and quickly stood up, putting away the scale and knife into her satchel and then following after Lilith and Sorin into the forest. They did their best to maneuver through the brush of the forest, weaving around the trees and bushes. The two girls doing their best to keep up wih Sorin, who seemingly had far more stamina than either of them. Still, they managed to keep up, though Lilith was hoping to stop soon. Her legs felt like they were burning up from the exertion, her heart beating so loudly in her chest that she felt like it would burst out. To her relief, Soring finally started to slow down, slowing his pace to an eventual stop as the other two joined him. The three panted to catch their breath, looking behind them to see if they had been followed or not. No one seemed to be approaching, so they were safe for now. As they caught their breath, Amaya would straighten up a bit as she looked at the other two, her gaze uncertain.

"So I guess none of us are really innocent," Amaya started in a low voice, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Well, the fact your hands are covered in someone's blood kind of confirmed that to me," Sorin pointed, eyes on the very hand she was using to touch her neck. Amaya's eyes widened as she pulled her hand away, taking a second to look at it, before hiding it behind her back.

"Was it.. your awakenings," asked Lilith, uncertain.

"I don't want to talk about it," Amaya quickly replied, Sorin rolling his eyes at her.

"If you didn't want to talk about it, why even bring it up? Idiot." He crossed his arms over his chest, looking around at where they stood in the forest. "Anyway, that's not even important right now, is it? We gotta keep moving. We don't know how far they're going to search the forest for us."

"Maybe you should have thought of that before using your fire to blow up that building Diligence was in," Amaya muttered under her breath. "For someone trying not to draw attention to yourself, you sure are terrible at being subtle."

"Hey, I was going for overwhelming power when I used my fire like that," Sorin retorted, hands clenching into fists. "Better to get the first hit in with all I got while I still had the element of surprise on my side. You were the one too scared to take the initiative, so I did it for you. Don't give me shit when you didn't give a better solution."

"Calm down, the both of you," Lilith interrupted, stepping between them with her arms outstretched to keep them from getting close to one another. "What matters now is that we're okay, we're safe, and we took down one of those slayers. No need to be pointing fingers at each other about how it was done. Alright?"

The other two would mutter under their breaths, both turning away slightly from Lilith. The young woman would sigh a bit as she lowered her arms, resting one hand on her hip. Sheesh, at this rate, she'd be exhausted of their constant fighting from this one day. She wasn't sure she had it in her after all to be the mediator all the time for them.

"Lilith, since whiney blondie over there doesn't want to talk about it.. That day I met you in Clovermead," Sorin started, turning to face her as he crossed his arms, expression inquisitive. "The reason you looked like shit that day... Was that after this 'massacre' Diligence spoke about?"

"Yes... My dragon awakened the night before. That's why it was really shocking to hear that Dragon's Blood was already aware of this when it happened not too long ago, unless... The few that escaped reported it as soon as possible."

"It's likely. Big dragon shows up and kills everyone? Best to get the exterminators to take care of it."

"Well, it seems they have tabs on each of us and what we've done," Amaya spoke up, stepping forward to stand beside Lilith. "Don't worry, Lily, I'll watch your back and protect you as best I can from those slayers. You can count on me!"

"Mn, thank you. Anyway, we should get moving," Lilith told them, slipping a strap from her backpack off to look inside. She pulled out the map and looked it over, looking up to see where the sun was. Seemed they had escaped to the west of Ristroff, a large forest expanding outward and to the north that they were now taking refuge in.

"It'd be for the best that we avoid the main road for the time being, especially after that commotion that happened a while ago," she told them, lowering the map a bit so they could take a look as well. "We should stick to the forest and continue heading north. Might be slower but it'll be safer."

"Well, look at that, you really are smarter than you look," Sorin snarked, smirking. "Good to know that you got more going for you than a nice rack."

"Hmph, don't talk about her like that," Amaya huffed, hooking her arm around Lilith's. "C'mon, Lilith, let's get going and leave this pervert behind." She'd start walking, pulling Lilith along, the black-haired girl smiling a bit from the friendly gesture. Sorin clicked his tongue as he watched the two girls walk ahead of him, shrugging and trailing behind.

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As the sun lowered further in the sky, the trio had to settle down to make camp for the night. Currently, they were setting up the fire, Amaya getting tinder and getting firewood to burn, Lilith tasked with finding and bringing some decently sized rocks for the fire pit. In Lilith's case, she had to make several trips as Sorin prepped the fire pit. As she brought the last of the rocks that were needed, Amaya pushed her way past a bush to drop the firewood she had gathered beside Sorin, the girl huffing as she settled her hands on her hips. The crouching young man glanced up at her with indifference, knowing she pretty much did that on purpose.

"Really? You're the guy here and you didn't bother to put in some effort for the physical part of this," she asked, glaring at him.

"Didn't I do the hardest part of taking care of Diligence earlier? I think I deserve a break on that, don't I," Sorin asked back with a smirk, Amaya's eyes narrowing at him. "And doesn't seem kind of sexist for me to assume two women can't handle a physical task and a man should do it?"

"Wha- Are you serious!? This coming from a pervert!? You know what, I'm taking a walk! I can't stand being around you for another minute!" Amaya turned on her heel and walked away into the brush, Lilith sighing again for what was probably the hundredth time today from all their bickering.

"'Bout time she left," Sorin muttered, grabbing the firewood and setting up the fire pit. "You been watching, right, Lilith? Because you can't assume I'm going to be around the whole time. Better you learn how to make a fire. Though, I suggest you get a lighter or some matches since starting a fire is way more difficult without them."

"Even though you have the fire dragon, you still learned how to make a fire the hard way," asked Lilith, sitting down with her legs to the side some.

"Yeah, learned from my mom actually."

"Um, if it's not prying.. what was your mom like?"

His hands noticeably flinched a bit from that question before continuing with setting up the firewood. Once he finished, he leaned back to sit, legs out in front of him and turned a little in a casual position.

"I kinda expected you to ask, honestly. Especially after that blabbermouth Diligence said all that shit about all of us," he began, voice low. He glanced around a bit, seemingly checking that it was only them. "She was... It was complicated. I thought things were okay with her, since she always took care of me and all. Then she just.. snapped. Tried to kill me in my sleep. Well, she got one good hit on me with that knife."

He reached for the collar of his sleeveless shirt, pulling it down enough to show a good part of the left part of his chest. Lilith's blue-grey eyes squinted a bit as she tried to see what he was trying to show, her eyes widening when she finally spotted it. It was very faded but just below his clavicle was an inch long line of slightly paler skin, a sign of a scar.

"That's basically how my dragon awakened," he continued, letting go of his collar. "Trying to survive against her."

"I see... I can relate to that. My mother tried the same with me," Lilith said softly, settling her hands on her lap. Her gaze was fixated on her hands until she saw Sorin reach forward, a small fireball hovering above his hand to ignite the firewood. As the firewood caught fire, he pulled his hand back, now both of their gazes on the fire.

"Is that why.. you got mad at me when you thought I had a problem with you? Because of what happened with her," Lilith asked next, Sorin chuckling lowly.

"Yeah, you do catch on pretty quick," he commented, quieting down. "But yeah, that's pretty much it. And it's also kind of why I even agreed to help you. I mean, I really could have just walked away, let you fend for yourself and stuff."

So it really wasn't completely about the money? Did he have some empathy, or even pity, that she had gone through the same thing as he had in some way?

"Can I ask why you're telling me now? When I asked earlier, you reacted differently."

"Hm... Not sure. Maybe because one day, we'll part ways and go on our own paths? I did feel nervous in that moment, watching Diligence talking in that little pub with the bartender. Sort of made me realize that, if I did end up dying from her, I didn't really have anyone to really remember me. Other people would just see us as something best left forgotten, one of many more carriers to come. So far, you seemed the best person to trust that with, even if it's just remembering me as a jackass."

Lilith couldn't help laughing, since that wasn't too far from the truth after all that's happened.

"What are you laughing about? I'll have you know that I'm gonna remember you as 'the girl with big boobs who was kinda dumb.' And that's putting it nicely."

Quieting down from her laugh, she met his gaze, his green eyes staring back with challenge.

"I'd prefer you remember me as Lily instead."

"Yeah? I didn't ask about your preference, did I? Anyway, Princess, you gonna be okay sleeping outdoors? I know this is far from the cozy beds you were used to."

"Aristocrat," Lilith corrected, breaking eye contact with him to glance around. "And I can't say it's the first time I've slept outdoors. Would I prefer it? No, but I don't have much of a choice right now."

"Heh, least you're not afraid of doing what you have to."

The sound of approaching footsteps could be heard, the two looking up to see Amaya returning from her walk. By the expression on her face, she seemed to have calmed down from her earlier outburst, the girl sitting beside Lilith next to the fire.

"Finally got over the stupid thing you were mad about," asked Sorin, glancing at Amaya.

"I'm not talking to you for the rest of the night," she responded, turning away some from him.

"Fine by me. If you can keep doing that for a couple of days, that'd be fucking great."

Amaya huffed out of disbelief from his sheer rudeness, the audacity he had to even say such things to her. And yet he spoke with Lilith with rarely any trouble? It almost felt like discrimination to Amaya. Or maybe he was just jealous that she was intruding in on their little bond? It definitely seemed like that to her, and she wouldn't put it past him to not feel that way. He did seem pretty childish, being all petty and selfish.

"Let's just try to get some rest while we can," Lilith said to them, hoping they would try to save some energy by not feeding into this bickering any more than they had to. "We need to get going right away at dawn."

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The dead of night. The fire burned and crackled as Lilith and Sorin slept, Lilith facing the fire while Sorin had his back facing it instead. Amaya, however, had woken up to check on it, wiping the sleep from her eyes with the back of her hand. Good thing she had washed her hands of the blood earlier when she did her walk, otherwise this would have been a bit gross. Yawning as she stood up, she groggily walked over to the pile of firewood the three had gathered, Lilith thankfully urging Sorin to help a bit with that before the sun had set. Amaya did have the suspicion that they must have talked about something together, Sorin clearly waiting for her to leave. The nerve of him.

She picked up some pieces of wood and sticks, setting them into the fire pit carefully so she wouldn't suffocate the flames nor cause some smoke. Watching the fire, she yawned again with a hand over her mouth, suddenly gasping as she felt.. something. She quickly stood up and looked around, feeling that something somewhere out there, hiding in the darkness of the forest. Closing her eyes, she tried to focus and see what this was exactly. Another carrier or someone from Dragon's Blood? Her brow furrowed as she tried to hone in on it, her eyes snapping open as she quickly rushed over to Lilith. Kneeling beside her, she gently shook her to wake her, Lilith groaning and stirring as she pushed herself up a bit.

"Amaya? What's going on," she asked sleepily, moving to sit up.

"Keep your voice down," Amaya whispered, glancing around. "Lilith, I felt... I can sense another one. It's Dragon's Blood again. There's someone out there!"

All the sleepiness Lilith had immidiately faded as she quickly got up and crawled to Sorin, shaking him urgently.

"What? What!? Why are you-"

"Shhh! Sorin, lower your voice," Lilith said in a hushed tone, glancing around. "Amaya sensed another Dragon's Blood member."

Sorin sat up as soon as he heard those words, pushing himself to stand up. Lilith followed and then turned to Amaya, the blonde looking on with worry.

"Where do you sense them, Amaya," asked Lilith, Amaya raising her hand to point to the south. They'd take some slow steps backward, eyes focused on the darkness ahead. Then, out of that darkness, a dagger flew through the air, hitting a tree behind them, just narrowly missing the three.

"So now they're throwing knives while they're hiding," Sorin asked rhetorically, scoffing. "Alright, I'll just burn this fucking forest down to get them to come out!"

"Sorin, that's a bit-" Lilith was cut off as she suddenly felt like there was an immense weight pushing down on her, her knees buckling as she hit the ground hard, not even having the time to react to bring her hands out to stop her fall. Amaya let out a little cry, Lilith managing to turn her head just enough to see that the same had happened to Amaya. Hell, even the simple act of trying to turn her head was strenuous enough, this overwhelming weight almost pinning her down. But there was nothing above them, so what was...?

"Hmph, neat little trick, but you won't get me with that," Sorin said aloud, the only one not affected by this power. He breathed in deeply before opening his mouth and exhaling a torrent of flames from his mouth. The stream of fire lighting up the darkness around them, the trees catching this fire and burning. When he stopped, he saw them... He saw her. A taller woman compared to Diligence, one with short black hair, brown eyes, and very tan skin. Her expression was bored as she gazed at him, dressed in the same black cloak as Diligence. She took slow steps forward, throwing another dagger directly at Sorin. He simply moved to the left, but caught the dagger by the handle, smirking at her.

"This the best you got? We already took out your weak little friend earlier. You're not anything special!"

His green eyes widened as extreme force pushed down onto him from above, Sorin's body crashing down and hitting the ground face first. The impact made blood gush from his nose, Sorin just barely managing to turn his head to look up at the approaching woman.

"Yes, go on and boast about how you killed the rabbit amongst the lions," she spoke monotonously. "It must help your pride that you killed the weakest of us. But make no mistake... I shall avenge her death and the many your kind has inflicted on us humans. I will give you the courtesy of knowing my name." She stopped walking, gazing at the fires glazing in the trees around her, the smoke starting to spread. "The one to slay you this night is Temperance."