The sun was setting over the hillside when Ezo realized it was time to stop. After their last fight, Kammon had stopped his ridiculous behavior and began avoiding villages and towns. As much as Ezo wanted to push ahead tonight, he knew it was too late. They were less than a day’s ride from the flooded valley of Fairhills.

“This is as far as we should go,” Ezo admitted. The trees on either side of the road opened a mile down and fed into the village of Fall Vale.

Kammon pulled the horse to a stop. “Are you sure you don’t want to push on?”

Ezo shook his head. “If we rode on, we’d arrive in the middle of the night, and I wouldn’t be able to look around. Besides, I could use a break from riding.”

It was as close to saying he was tired as he would get. Kammon understood, though, and when he dismounted, he didn’t say anything about it. He helped Ezo down and walked off to find a good spot for their camp.

As Ezo waited, he heard a horse pulling a wagon. It wasn’t far out, and Ezo stood back off the path, waiting for them to pass him by. Ember let out a sharp screech, warning Kammon about the travelers. Ezo kept his eyes down, aware that too many people saw someone on the side of the road as a danger. He noticed the two staring at him and whispering between themselves, but he didn’t look up to see their faces.

He didn’t like the attention they were paying him.

“Ezo?”

His head jerked up as a woman called his name.

“It is you!” she said as the wagon stopped. She scrambled down and hurried over to him.

She stood in front of him before he recognized her. “Hatley?”

“Why, boy, what are you doing out here?”

He laughed. “Looking for a spot to rest for the night. What are you doing here?” Her husband had died in the flooding, trying to shore up the upper banks before the mudslide had washed it all out.

“My daughters and I settled in Fall Vale. Come on, then. I won’t leave you out here. I’ve got a spare room, and you need a good bed. And a good meal, I can see.”

“I wouldn’t want to impose,” he said. “And I’m traveling with a friend.”

“Well, a Fairhills friend is always welcome under my roof.”

“Ezo?”

Kammon didn’t sound worried, which meant he’d been listening long enough to hear who she was.

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“Kammon, this is Hatley. She lived in Fairhills before the flood. She offered us a bed for the night.”

“Most people run when they hear my name. You must be brave to welcome the Calamity to your home.”

Ezo wanted to shut him up, but there was no way around it. Kammon liked to punish himself for his deeds and expected Hatley to make some excuse for why they couldn’t come now. Ezo smiled because Kammon didn’t know Hatley.

“The Calamity! Well, you should have some interesting stories to tell. Come get in the back, Ezo. Looks like I could knock you down with a swat of my fan,” she said as she took his arm and led him to the back of the wagon.

“They used to say awful things about Jacob too,” Hatley told him. “Tried to make us think ill of our own. I knew that boy when he was just a twig of a thing. I don’t need magic to see a liar, and I’m sure there is more to you, Calamity.”

She was back in the wagon’s seat, and Ezo recognized her oldest daughter’s husband driving it. He crawled into the wagon bed and smiled at Kammon as they started moving. Kammon walked the horse behind it, staying close to Ezo.

“How well do you know her?” he asked.

“Fairhills was small. We were all in each other’s business. Her oldest daughter married and moved to Fall Vale before the flood. I should have guessed she’d moved there with her.”

“Is it safe to stay with her for the night?”

Ezo smiled. “I think if the University showed up with a hundred elementalists, they’d be afraid of her frying pan before the fight was out.”

###

“Are you really going to Fairhills?”

Ezo was standing on the back porch of the Hatley farm, watching the stars after dinner. Hatley’s youngest daughter, Delly, walked quietly from the house to stand by him.

“I need to go home,” Ezo said. “I didn’t think I’d ever return, but some things just have to be.”

“Too many people blamed you for not being able to save the village. I’m sorry you left before they realized they were wrong.”

Ezo didn’t like to dwell on it. In fact, he did his best to avoid all thought of it. He was mostly successful, but some nights, he still heard their voices, railing at him for letting the village drown. Saying he blamed them for the deaths of his family so he destroyed it all.

“They were hurting. I understand.”

“You shouldn’t. You should be angry. I would be.”

“Anger wouldn’t do any of us any good. It was best for me to go. I needed to explore the world. I still need to. Jacob taught me to be a force of change in people’s lives. I can do that now.”

“Mom wouldn’t mind having an elementalist around if you wanted to stay,” Delly suggested.

He smiled. “I’m not ready to sit still, yet. Besides, I don’t think anyone would know what to do with Kammon farming.”

“He’s… rather …”

“Yes, he is,” Ezo said with a smile.

“You two are…”

“Yes, we are,” Kammon said from the doorway. Ezo would have smirked at him if it wouldn’t have hurt Delly’s feelings.

“I’ll go see about your bed,” she said, dashing into the house.

“You scared her,” Ezo said.

“Just making sure she didn’t get any ideas.” Kammon stood next to Ezo and looked up at the sky. “Hatley suggested we go to the village past Fairhills. She said a friend of Jacob’s came looking for you about a year ago.”

“Who?”

“Remec.”

“He’d traveled with Jacob after he came back to Fairhills to raise me. He was gone when the floods came. Jacob trusted him. It might be worth finding him after Fairhills.”

“So long as no one tells the Imperium we’re here, we should have time to head to the next village. And then figure out where we’re going from there.”

“Ezo, Mom said your room is ready.”

Delly popped back inside, and Kammon gently knocked into Ezo’s shoulder. “Let’s get some sleep.”

Ezo let Kammon herd him back to the small bedroom they were sharing for the night. Before the moon could grow more prominent in the night sky, he was asleep and fending off nightmares of chaotic escapes from rivers of mud and drowned cities.