It took three months of nearly constant agony and perseverance for Aurelius to regain his ability to walk. In that time, he had additionally recovered from all his wounds and become fluent in the common tongue of the West, continuing his research through books he requested from Aleyah, Cade as his proxy, of course.

He had risen from the depths of hell, but there was still a long way to go.

He did bask in his victory, though. He'd missed all the autonomy. The ability to dress and bathe oneself was heavily underappreciated. He had to thank whatever forces had enabled him to once again stand in front of the mirror with relative pride, feeling that the hundreds and hundreds of scars that riddled his body were a source of wealth instead of shame.

'Today's the day,' he thought, sweeping his hand through his short golden hair. It had been cut a little more stylishly by Cade after he had butchered it. He smiled sadly before touching his right eye. It had gradually grown less bloodshot, but it was still a grotesque sight. 'Don't worry. You'll heal too eventually. Just wait and see,' he thought, chuckling as he traced the scar running over it with a finger.

Aurelius' smile quickly faded on his way downstairs, and he quieted his steps to listen.

"He still cries out in his sleep like a child." It was Aleyah's voice. Aurelius felt his heart sink at the words, and he pursed his lips.

"And you wouldn't if you'd gone through what he has?" Cade said.

"I would never have gone through what he has. He's reckless and frankly not very intelligent. You don't owe him anything. You shouldn't let him drag you into it."

"I'm not doing anything because I owe him. We're companions."

Aleyah laughed. "Oh, come on. He can barely walk, and his essence is gone. Yesterday, I saw him talking to nobody. Not to mention the panic attacks. He tries to hide it, but he's manic."

Aurelius had never heard the two fight before. Something about Aleyah's tone told him she had purposefully started the argument somewhere he could hear.

He looked back at his room and then at the staircase. Finally, he resolved himself and began walking down with loud steps. The conversation stopped at once. Aleyah looked at him with indifferent eyes while Cade turned to him with a look of concern.

He flashed a smile, pointing at his hair. "Are you ready?"

***

Before they left, there was one more thing to do. After over two years of refusing to have his hair color dyed, Aurelius had given in.

Cade used gloves and a bowl filled with a dark mixture of earthy-smelling natural ingredients. Right before she began, she asked, "You're not doing this because you feel you're unworthy of your father's hair or something stupid like that, are you?"

"No," Aurelius replied, a little surprised by the question. "I just thought it would be good. I can't defend myself, and with all the attention, if I was discovered and—"

"Alright, alright. I understand," Cade said, but there was something weird about her tone.

The application process lasted hours. During it, they didn't say one word. Aurelius had a mirror in his hands that he looked at his hair change be sullied through. It grew darker and darker until it was pitch black. He felt an urge to get it out of his hair and fast. Even just shaving it all off seemed preferable at that moment, and he wondered why he hadn't done that, to begin with. Now, that Cade had used so much time to get the necessary resources, that wasn't possible anymore, though.

"That'll last you for around three weeks, maybe longer during winter," Cade said. "I have enough of the ingredients to dye it for around a year."

Aurelius winced as he hesitated to touch the hair. "Great."

After the dyeing was finalized, it was time to leave. They had a carriage waiting. After dressing in a new brown trench coat and boots that Cade gave him, Aurelius kept running his hand through his now-pitch-black hair. Looking at himself in the mirror made him shiver. With the scars on his face and the dyed hair, he was almost unrecognizable from who he was 4 months ago. Aurelius had never felt such a rift between his mind and body.

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Meanwhile, Cade and Aleyah said farewell, seemingly having put their earlier argument behind them. As they left, Aurelius gave Aleyah a wave as well, which she partially returned. When they walked down the steps from Aleyah's front door, Aurelius wondered when they'd be back.

After entering the carriage, Aurelius set down his bag next to him and relaxed his body. "It feels good to be back on the move again."

Cade didn't share his leisure. "I hope you don't take anything Aleyah said too seriously. You know how much she's helped us even with organizing this whole thing. She's just stressed."

Aurelius flicked a wrist, looking out of a window. "I understand."

"You do?"

"Of course," he replied unenthusiastically. "I can imagine that it'd be hard to swim back if you decided in the middle of the Great Ocean that this wasn't a very good idea after all."

"Mmm."

"I'm sorry. That wasn't one of my best."

"Yup," she said, looking out of the window as well. "I still don't get why we can't just go by foot." Aurelius frowned at her. She crossed her arms. "Fine. If you want to die so bad..."

She was exaggerating. It was hard to face a situation where essence was of no use. If their ship happened to sink somehow, there wasn't much they could do. Eventually, she'd run out of essence, and they'd die.

Supposedly there was a way to cross over to the other continent without taking that risk. That way required them to go north, though, and with Aurelius unable to even run normally, that'd take an eternity. They had to rely on horses and carriages for their traveling, and no roads went up north.

Sometimes life required one to trust oneself to the hands of fate and accept the outcome. Aurelius had come to realize that in his helpless state.

***

The sailing ship was a thing of beauty, its wooden exterior and white masts painted golden in the morning sun. It left from Acelot's main canal that connected with the Great Ocean.

Cade gave the bearded captain a bag of coins as they got on board. Aurelius followed behind with his head held down. The captain was a large man, almost as tall as Aurelius with his posture hunched.

Every time Aurelius was reminded of how Cade was financing their every move, he thought about who it was that ended up getting his hands on the 10,000 gold that Gadreel had offered him.

"Stop moping. I told you not to worry about money," Cade said as they entered their quarters on the ship. It was a room with two beds and a table. The very height of luxury.

"Huh, no, I wasn't—"

"Yeah, alright," Cade said, sitting down on what became her bed. He hit the mattress. "20 gold for this shit? Pricks."

"It could've been worse."

"Yeah, they could've shoved coal and pubic hair under the bed sheets."

Aurelius snorted. "Maybe they forgot. We'll see tomorrow."

***

Overall, Aurelius didn't think the mattress mattered much. He wasn't sleeping very well to begin with, if at all. He often lay in bed for a few hours before coming out onto the deck to watch the sunrise.

He remembered Damian's place and how he'd done roughly the same thing there. He got chills thinking about the routine he had back then. He was glad he burned those clothes at Aleyah's place before he left. Otherwise, they would've probably come to haunt him.

'I wonder how Damian's doing with that ambition of his,' he thought.

Then he breathed in the freezing salty air. It was almost winter. He looked down at the water the ship was leaving behind. He could see himself. His 18-year-old self would soon be gone. So much had happened; he hadn't been able to process it.

He shook a little as he saw a figure touch his shoulder until he realized he had felt nothing. There was nobody there, but in the water's reflection the ghost caressed his black hair, whispering in his ear, "Do you think you've changed?"

Aurelius didn't respond. A hand fell on his shoulder. He felt it and turned abruptly only to curse inwardly as Cade stood there. The last thing he needed was for her to see him like this.

"Be careful not to fall over the edge," Cade said. There seemed to be a double meaning in those words. She then switched topics, pointing at the horizon they were distancing themselves from. "The shore is disappearing."

Aurelius looked, and only then did it strike him that they'd made it through the canal and entered the vast ocean.

The next time they'd see land would be on the other side. The western continent felt like it could be anything. It reminded him of how the world felt like when he had decided to leave his home. He wasn't going in blind like that time, though.

Gabriel was over there along with his father's home and people. Furthermore, Aurelius had researched the continent's legendary heroes. Even his royal bloodline waited for him there.

He knew all that, but at the same time, he knew nothing. His ideas could've been unrealistic, the research could've been fallacious, and he couldn't know how he'd be received and treated by his own blood.

It was the harsh reality he wouldn't say out loud, but there was a real chance he wouldn't find Solomon, wouldn't regain his essence, and would be met with prosecution instead of familial warmth.

New duties he wasn't sure he could begin to handle, enormous challenges that men far greater than him had crumbled under, and a land separate from everything he'd ever known.

After Aurelius lost sight of the shore, he turned and looked far into the yellowish-green horizon where they were headed and wondered what in actuality waited for him there.