“Two tigers cannot live on the same mountain. But it’s okay to visit from time to time,”

- Baromah the Wise

It never took Raziel very long to pack. He’d never had much in the way of physical things. After he’d lost his parents and his home things just didn’t matter all that much to him. One of the very few exceptions was in his hands. An old, leather-bound journal. It had been his father’s once.

Raziel used to hide the book, only taking it out when he believed no one would be around or awake to see it or interrupt him. But there was no one here who didn’t know about the book and trying to hide it now seemed silly. He wanted to open it and go through it. His father’s words and drawings always made him feel better. But he was on the deck of a skyship hundreds of feet above the ground. There was some trick of magic keeping most of the wind at bay but some of the book’s pages were loose and he refused to take even the slightest risk of losing any of them.

He still felt terrible and that was worrying. He hadn’t felt right in weeks but this was worse than ever. The waves of pain that came with using magic had never lasted this long. He was beginning to worry it wasn’t ever going to go away.

Had his father ever felt anything like this lingering terror? Raziel had all but memorized every single page of his father’s packed journal but his father hadn’t talked a lot of his personal life. There’d been some small discussion of that sort of thing in the pages of his book but his father seemed to pour his more emotional side into his drawings.

Raziel wished he could do the same, take out a piece of charcoal and sketch away his fears, lock them on a page in dark, thick lines. But he’d never had much talent when it came to drawing.

What he needed was someone to talk to. Someone who would understand him. It would have felt wonderful if Keira had been able to fit that role but he’d had to fight just to keep her from pushing him away. Miles might understand fear but if Miles knew Raziel was scared it would only terrify Miles. Roland was good at listening but Raziel knew he wouldn’t have much to offer.

Normally he’d have gone to Hoeru with something like this but he couldn’t. Raziel knew that something was bothering Hoeru. Someting had been ever since Peritura. With most people Raziel would have just asked what it was but he knew that if Hoeru wanted to tell him, he would. Raziel didn’t want to add his own burden to whatever Hoeru was carrying.

As if summoned by Raziel’s thoughts, Hoeru appeared at his side. The changeling had moved quietly and Raziel jumped, startled by the sudden movement.

“Sorry,” Hoeru said. Sumi came stand next to Hoeru. The slight girl pressed up against the railing, leaning out as far as should could to look at the world laid out before her.

“It’s okay,” Raziel muttered, trying to control his face so he didn’t wince and give away how much the sudden movement had stung. He put as much forced calm into his voice as he could and asked, “You need something?”

Hoeru nodded.

“I don’t think I can do this training. I don’t think I can go.”

If Hoeru had slapped Raziel it wouldn’t have stung or surprised him any more.

“What do you mean?” Raziel blurted out. Something in Raziel’s tone must have registered with the changeling. Hoeru didn’t want to look him in the eye. Hoeru didn’t answer right away and Raziel had to fill the silence between them, trying to reach the changeling with his voice like a man drowning reaching out for a lifeline.

“You can’t think it will be too hard. I know you’re stronger than me. I wouldn’t even be alive if it wasn’t for you.”

That was the wrong thing to say and Raziel knew it the moment he saw Hoeru’s jaw tighten. He just couldn’t understand why.

“It’s not that. I know I can do it. I don’t know if it’s the right thing for me to do.”

“I don’t understand.”

Again Hoeru didn’t answer right away. Instead he turned his head away from Raziel. He was looking at Sumi.

“While you were packing your things I talked to Miyo. She was watching Sumi while we were gone.”

Raziel nodded. The elf woman and her orc husband Juro had been among the few who had come from Peritura with them. They’d brought their children of course. The three adopted kids hurtled about the halls of the ship all day while their parents somehow found the energy to keep up with them. It had been Miyo who had taken over the bulk of caring for Sumi.

“And?” Raziel asked, prompting after a few moments.

“She says that all Sumi did the entire time I was gone was watch for me to come back. She wouldn’t eat. She wouldn’t play with the kids. She just sat at the window and watched the gate for me.”

Raziel bit at his lip. Honestly, he’d been afraid of that. Sumi was all but literally attached to Hoeru. The changeling didn’t seem to mind but ever since the girl had found the strength to get up from her bed she had followed Hoeru almost everywhere. She even sat outside the bathroom waiting for him at times.

“She needs me Raz.”

So do I, Raziel thought. Raziel liked Miles but he was already going to be mostly separated from Roland and Keira. The other friends he had in Peritura were gone, scattered across the country. Hoeru had been his roommate for years. He was the only one who never seemed to get tired of Raziel, the only one that Raziel knew he could always be completely honest with and not have to fear being misunderstood. And, he had to admit, Hoeru was stronger than he was. Practicing fighting with Hoeru would be a lot more useful than it would be with just Miles. Even Hiro must have thought that Raziel would need more people to train with or he wouldn’t have picked out Hoeru and Miles.

But Hoeru was right. Sumi did need him. Or at the very least, had grown most attached to him. Would being separated from him hurt her? It would have been so much easier if he could have just asked her. But her communication was so limited that it was hard to tell exactly how much she understood. More than an infant to be sure. More than a toddler like Miyo and Juro’s children? As much as an adult?

But even as Raziel considered this, the girl wrapped her arms around one of Hoeru possessively. It seemed clear she understood the conversation. Or at least enough of it to see what it meant for her.

“What else would you do?” Raziel asked. It was Hoeru’s turn to look uncertain.

“I don’t know. Maybe stay on the ship if Basil would let us? Or we could go and find a tribe of changelings to join. I don’t know.”

“Have you talked to Basil or Miyo about it?”

Hoeru shook his head, his mane of silver hair flying about his head.

“They might have plans for her,” Raziel said. “We still don’t really know anything about her.”

“Plans? What kind of plans?”

If Sumi understood any of this she didn’t show it. The girl just continued to lean against Hoeru, looking out over the land.

“I don’t think Basil is the type of person to keep her around out of the goodness of his heart. There’s a reason she’s here and not somewhere else. It’s probably not to keep her near you.”

Raziel saw the hairs on the back of Hoeru’s neck raise at that. They were followed by the hair on the rest of his head. The changeling turned golden eyes on him. What blue was left were tiny dots, disappearing like stars against an early morning sky.

“I won’t let him hurt her.”

Raziel considered his answer to that carefully. That wasn’t normally in his nature but even he knew he needed to tread lightly here. There were answers he considered to try and push Hoeru one way or another but in the end he knew those would ring false. Even if those words succeeded in keeping Hoeru on course for the training, his friend deserved better than that from him. So Raziel settled for the truth.

“Neither will I.”

Hoeru’s eyes searched Raziel’s and dots of blue reemerged in his irises. The changeling shivered and then relaxed some. Raziel took that opening to continue.

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“I don’t think he means to hurt her though. She doesn’t think that either, do you, Sumi?”

The girl didn’t answer of course. But she did give her head a little shake. Raziel was grateful to her for it. She didn’t always answer even simple questions. He supposed that one must be important to her.

“If he did, she wouldn’t be comfortable staying here,” Raziel went on. “But she’s never tried to get away or even get off the ship. She’s been content. And besides Miyo isn’t going to let anything happen to her.”

Hoeru chewed on his lip and Raziel could feel the uncertainty in him. He had to press his chance now.

“Look, maybe some time away from you will be good for her. Give it a week. A little separation might be good for her. We don’t know. We don’t know what Miyo and Basil are thinking.”

“Maybe,” Hoeru said at last. It wasn’t much but it was a step in the right direction. Then Hoeru did the one thing that Raziel had hoped he wouldn’t. He turned to Sumi and said, “Are you okay with that?”

Raziel felt his breath catch in his throat. It was silly. She’d been here the whole time. He was pretty sure that, whether she understood every word of the conversation or not, the strange girl got the gist of what they were saying. But Raziel knew without a shadow of a doubt that if she said no Hoeru wouldn’t leave and nothing in this world would be able to make him. And worse, Raziel knew he’d be a complete monster to try.

So when Sumi turned to him Raziel didn’t know what to say or do.

Raziel hadn’t spent an abundance of time with the girl since she’d woken up. The only exception was that he had gone to her as soon as he’d been able to walk on his own to thank her. The night that Peritura had burned and he’d had to kill Kusa, she’d given him some of her own magic. She’d given it to him so that he could help Hoeru and she’d had precious little to give.

Raziel hadn’t and wouldn’t ever forget that. He wished that he’d been smarter with it, better able to use it. Maybe then he could have saved Hoeru and Kusa instead of only one of them. But she was the reason that his best friend was still alive. And, as she looked at him, Raziel knew that if she needed Hoeru more than he did, she’d already earned that much. It would just hurt like hell.

“Sumi? What do you think I should do?” Hoeru asked again. The girl never took her eyes off Raziel. But she drew back a little and pushed Hoeru towards Raziel. Something caught in Raziel’s chest, a confusing mix of gratitude and guilt.

“Are you sure?” Hoeru asked, clearly as surprised as Raziel. The wind gusted in that moment, whipping Sumi’s cloud of pale hair about her and she looked painfully thin with it pulled back from her face but she nodded. And she smiled.

Raziel decided then and there that anything Sumi ever needed or wanted, if he could give it to her, she would have it. He didn’t know why he was so sure that she completely understood exactly what she’d just done, maybe even more so than he did, but it didn’t matter. If Hoeru was his brother, then Sumi was his sister.

“Alright. I’ll give it a week. One week,” Hoeru said. That loosened something in Raziel’s chest, just a little. But at the same time a voice in the back of his head whispered, So what’s going to happen at the end of the week?

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It was almost evening when Hiro finally arrived at Basil’s ship. Students from Mori’s school had long since come for Keira and Roland. Raziel had said goodbye to them and hated every second of it. He’d watched them as best as he could as they descended to the bottom of the Skyport tree but he lost track of them somewhere amongst the elevators. Raziel stayed there at ship’s railing, watching the lifts for any sign of Hiro’s bright blue robes.

So when Hiro walked through the gate without Raziel ever having seen a hint of him on the lifts, Raziel wondered if he’d dozed off. He glanced back at the lifts several times, wondering if there was some way he could have missed the master coming up but as far as he knew those were the only ways up or down.

“Are you going to invite me up or just sit there and stare at me?” Hiro asked from the bottom of the gangplank.

“I don’t know if I can invite you up. The captain is… grumpy about that sort of thing.”

“Grumpy?”

“Well, actually he’s grumpy about pretty much everything.”

Hiro’s eyes narrowed.

“Grumpy?” he asked again, slightly more emphatically.

“I’ve been called worse things,” Basil said from just beyond Raziel’s shoulder. The captain’s cool gaze directed the rest of his statement to Hiro. “By you.”

Silence reigned between the two men. For a moment the air itself seemed to swell, choking out all motion from the world. Even the ever-present wind died. Raziel had the sense that standing so close to these two men was a very bad idea.

“Well, you being here certainly explains a few things. Raises a few questions as well,” Hiro said.

“I’m not here for you,” Basil answered. There wasn’t an ounce of animosity in either of their tones. And yet, the hair on Raziel’s arms and on the back of his neck stood on end.

“I’m aware, seeing as my back hasn’t spontaneously sprouted a blade.”

The corner of Basil’s mouth twitched at that.

“I wouldn’t use a sword. Close quarters would be a bad move with you. I give you my word.”

It was Hiro’s turn to hint at a smile. Only in his case, it grew into something both wolfish and with genuine humor in it.

“And I can trust your word?” the master asked.

Basil’s watched the master and did not blink.

Hiro’s smile grew wider, baring more teeth. Raziel couldn’t help but notice that, behind the ships railing, where Hiro couldn’t see, Basil’s hand rested on the handle of an unusual weapon, something that Miles had told Raziel was called a pistol.

The tension in the air swelled. Raziel felt like he should’ve thrown himself back away from them but his body would not move. The still air felt charged, full, too packed to breath, let alone flee.

“It’s as good as yours,” Basil said, his tone ever so slightly wry.

And Hiro let out a bark of a laugh. A blast of wind came with it as though the whole world had been holding its breath and suddenly let it go. Basil didn’t laugh loudly like Hiro, but a soft chuckle left him like a released hostage. Raziel glanced at the captain’s hand. It was no longer resting on the handle of his pistol.

“Do we need to talk?” Hiro asked. Basil leaned against the railing, somehow managing to look less like someone relaxing and more like a coiling spring.

“Over this one?” Basil said, gesturing to Raziel. “No. He’s got a year. If he’s not ready then, you can keep him or cut him loose.”

“This one, huh? So you’d have a different answer for the ones Mori took?” Hiro asked but seemed to know Basil wouldn’t directly answer. “No, not both of them. The girl? Ah.”

“Do you think I should have a talk with her master?”

“I might not be the best person to ask. I don’t know him as well as I once did.”

“I know. I know about what happened.”

“That’s less than surprising.”

Raziel’s neck was getting sore from looking back and forth between them. He could tell that there was a conversation happening beneath the words they were saying. It was irritating.

“Is she safe at his school?”

“From him? I can’t imagine Mori hurting a student. At least as long as he’s still the man I knew,” Hiro put a gentle emphasis on that last sentence. He meant more than the words. “I would suggest against it. Especially if you want to avoid drawing undue attention to her.”

“It’s hard to avoid attention in a place as… perceptive as this. But I’ve watered some seeds. And it will be a cold day in hell before the Daishinrin gives up one of its students without a considerable fight.”

“True. She’s safe here. Or as safe as she likely can be.”

“I’m not leaving her here so she can be safe. I’m leaving her here to make her dangerous.”

“And these boys? You’re speaking awfully openly in front of this one. Openly for you anyway.”

Basil turned a considering eye towards Raziel. Raziel thought of asking Basil what exactly they were talking about but there was no point. If Basil had wanted him to know he would have told him. Except… Raziel thought, Basil had told him. He’d said everything he had in front of him. Basil was silent more often than not. If he hadn’t wanted Raziel to know anything he could have insisted on having the conversation elsewhere.

“What do you want with me? With my friends?” Raziel asked. It has hard to tell, but Raziel thought he saw something pleased in Basil’s eyes.

“Watering more seeds,” Basil said, his tone thoughtful. “I want you to be useful.”

“Useful for what?”

“That depends on what you grow into.”

“And if… some of us don’t grow into something useful?”

“What do you do with weeds?”

Raziel held Basil’s gaze for a long moment.

“I,” he said, putting careful emphasis on every word, “am not a weed.”

For the first time ever, Raziel saw a real smile slide across Basil’s face. It was not a kind or a happy expression. With exacting emphasis on each word Basil replied.

“Prove it.”

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Raziel had hoped to say goodbye to his grandfather before leaving but Duriel hadn’t been back to the ship in the last few days. Raziel knew his grandfather was safe. He’d spent his youth as a soldier in a time when Arcas was a much more dangerous place. All the same, it felt wrong leaving to go to Hiro’s school without having one more conversation with him.

Duriel had been the biggest constant in Raziel’s life since his parents disappearance. Raziel knew that there had been some tension between Duriel and Raziel’s father. He’d rarely seen his grandfather before he came to get him in the hospital after they disappeared. But since then he had raised Raziel, taken care of him when he was sick, sat up with him when he had nightmares. Raziel had to tell himself that he’d see Duriel before the old man left with Basil. He didn’t want to cry in front of his friends.

He, Miles, and Hoeru had already had plenty of time to pack up their things. All they had to do was bring their meager bags up from below. Sumi looked unhappy to be letting Hoeru go but she made an effort to hide it any time she thought Raziel was looking. Which made him hurt more.

Once they had their things there wasn’t much to do besides leave. And yet it felt strange to Raziel, like the moment before pulling a sticky bandage off. There wasn’t anything left to do but to do it and yet it was going to sting.

So Raziel steeled himself and walked down the gangplank and refused to look back. Miles was much the same but Hoeru looked back, presumably at Sumi, from the worry in his eyes. Hiro waited at the bottom, sipping from a cup of something steaming he must have brought with him, though Raziel couldn’t remember noticing it before.

They walked out of the gate, Basil watched them go, and that was that.

Outside the gate, Hiro turned right. Which was strange because the way to the lifts was to the left.

“Uh, Master?” Raziel asked.

“Yes?”

“Shouldn’t we be going that way?”

“This will be quicker. I know a short cut.”

Dubiously, Raziel followed. He wasn’t sure how a tree limb, even a fantastically large one, could have a shortcut to the ground. A glance towards Hoeru and Miles confirmed that they thought the same.

Still Hiro kept walking away from the lifts and seemed confident in doing so and since Raziel didn’t know where they were going besides out of the skyport, he was forced to follow.

Hiro led them a short way up, past another skyport gate to a spot that Raziel had actually already been to. It was an open spot on the branch between Basil’s gate and the next platform on that side of the branch. It gave an excellent view of the world below and Raziel had come here just to sit and look the first night they’d arrived.

Hiro walked to the edge and stood there, looking out at the forest below. Raziel and the others came to stand beside him.

“So, where’s the shortcut? Is there another lift that comes here or something?”

Hiro smiled and clapped Raziel on the shoulder.

“Or something,” he said, jovially.

And then his hand clamped down hard on Raziel’s shoulder and Hiro flung Raziel up, over the railing and into the empty air.