After arriving, Aurelius and Cade snuck off the ship and found themselves a carriage. Aurelius paid out of Cade's pocket since he didn't have money, and she still didn't have a handle on the language, not that the interaction was smooth for Aurelius either.

On their voyage, they had disagreed on a multitude of things. Method of transportation was one of them. Aurelius suggested horses since he wasn't looking to drain Cade's funds on carriages. Cade saw through him and pointed out that neither of them could ride. Aurelius asked how hard it could be, to which Cade responded by suggesting that she would give him a continent-wide piggyback ride. In the end, they sat in a fairly comfortable wooden carriage.

Then they set off for the north.

The plan was to move along the shore of Zalfari that stretched almost the entire eastern side of the continent. Of course, they'd have to enter Lundkirk territory when they got to the north since the nation made up four-fifths of the continent, but Aurelius wanted to keep away from the western border since that was where most of the warfare took place.

Cade had wondered if they ought to look in Solomonia first, which was located in the middle of the western continent, but Aurelius thought it was unlikely Solomon would have wanted to stay there.

In his research, Aurelius had found three key things. Solomon loved winter, fjords, and mountains. All things that Solomonia had, but the north had plenty more. Cade had relented without much of a fight, but Aurelius felt that she did it more out of worry for him than due to his sound logic. What he hadn't mentioned was that according to some accounts, Solomon hated winter, mountains, and fjords. Some said he just spent time in those conditions and areas to sharpen his mind. Aurelius tried his best to ignore that.

While he was sure Solomon could and would teach him, the fear of not finding him and having to improvise or watch from the sidelines as his father's killer wiped out his bloodline and conquered the last of the continent.

In addition, when they got to the north, they would move into enemy territory, and he still couldn't feel a hint of essence. Anything could happen. Aurelius thought of Cade being killed or worse in front of his eyes, fully aware that he could no longer do anything to stop those visions.

At his lowest, he found himself missing his old self. His mouth went dry. He yearned for enhancers. Maybe they were the key after all.

"What are you thinking about?" Cade asked, sitting opposite him as the carriage shook on a cobblestone road.

Aurelius woke from his thoughts. "N—nothing. I was..." He shook his head. "Nothing."

***

Aurelius purchased a brown notebook on their first day. His old, gray one was filled to the brim, and his black one he didn't intend to touch again. Back when he left home, he jotted down everything he saw. It was much the same this time around as well.

"The people here seem taller on average than in Mircrest," he wrote, a few days into their journey. "Almost all the women wear dresses. Even the little girls. They're so long you can't see their feet. I fit in fairly well, but I've seen some men shoot disapproving looks at Cade. I think she looks good in her trench coat. Very good." Aurelius glanced up at Cade, who sat opposite him, looking out of the window. "Well, other than that, people are polite. Everybody seems to speak very formally. When they speak, that is. It's quiet here, but not like it was in Arkryk. There it seemed that people were filled with fear. Here it's more like they're filled with respect."

"Yesterday, we went through a city to switch carriages. Our coachman could only take us a certain way. There was a bell tower there. It was built of limestone. One of the most beautiful structures I had ever seen. The locals didn't glance at it. I noticed that when the bell rang, a lot of people moved through the city. I guess that's the type of system people like here."

"Cade is exhausted with the long names and the language, but I quite like it. Interacting with locals is becoming easier. Some of them seem scared of me, though. I blame the black hair. It's—"

Cade interrupted Aurelius' writing with a question. "What is Ink-iri Zing?"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Ah." Aurelius raised his head. He looked for an answer. "Where did you hear that?"

Cade deadpanned. "Where do you think?"

"Uh, well, why do you want to know... that, specifically?"

"Well, I just heard it a lot. So, are you going to tell me, language master?"

"Well," Aurelius said, rubbing his forehead, "if I remember correctly, it's one of Kendrick's nicknames."

"If you remember correctly?"

"He has a lot of nicknames. So... yeah. That's one of them."

"Okay?"

Aurelius nodded and opened his notebook again.

"Hello," Cade said. "What does it mean?"

"Ah, so the iri means 'of'. But here they have a masculine and feminine form for the word, iri being masculine and ir being feminine. That's one of the differences between the common tongue and Zalfarian," Aurelius rambled before taking a pause. Cade was still waiting. He knew where the conversation was going, and he didn't like it. "Ink is 'autumn', iri is 'of', and Zing is 'man'. The word order is different than the actual meaning, so it's 'Man of Autumn'."

Cade put a forearm on her knee and tilted her head. "Why do people call him that?"

"It's a fanatic thing."

"Which comes from?"

"They say he strikes in Autumn. They try to make him some kind of mythical being in the Book of the Conqueror. It's insanity," Aurelius snarled. "It's blatantly false too. Kendrick broke the truce this summer."

Cade looked puzzled for a minute. Then she asked, "Why autumn?"

Aurelius didn't want to lie, so he didn't shrug but just tried to make the question fade away.

"Is it something to do with the leaves turning orange and dying? A symbolic thing." Cade waited. "Well?"

Aurelius sighed. "It's just a ploy. Lies from the Book of the Conqueror."

"Stop fucking around already. What is it?"

"They—" Aurelius grit his teeth, squeezing his hand. "They say his family was wiped out in Autumn." Then he made an impression. "That's when he 'gathers his rage and strikes'. Tch."

"He had children?" Cade furrowed her brows. "How can you be so heartless?"

"No, he didn't! It's a lie. It's bullshit used to play at people's heartstrings." Aurelius shook his head. "This is why I didn't want to tell you. I knew you'd believe it."

"And why's that?"

"Because I almost believed it too."

"Until?"

"Until I realized it's lies. The Book of the Conqueror is glorified propaganda."

"You don't think people would sniff out a lie like that?"

"Not if they also believed the 'no casualties' thing about Solomonia."

"Wasn't that real? Isn't your theory about Solomon being alive relying on it?"

"No, because there were some casualties in the overtaking. It's just that if Solomon had fought, that lie would be inconceivable."

"And lying about your entire family wouldn't?"

"Why would it? It's not like Kendrick would parade his family around, so he makes things up." Aurelius looked down, his face twitching, the scar in the middle itching.

"You're making a lot of assumptions. Wh—"

"Shut up." Aurelius clawed at his face. "He's just a monster. Just like Gadreel. They're the same. They're all the same."

Finally, Cade fell quiet, and Aurelius turned to look at the barren hills outside, biting his nails.

***

They didn't speak after the argument until Aurelius got some sleep. Cade was used to that. It was good that he was sleeping in the carriage. He didn't have nightmares there, probably because the constant noise it made kept his sleep from becoming too deep.

Cade liked watching him while he slept sitting upright. His mouth hung open, and he drooled like a child. It always reminded her of what Balgair said.

'I thought looking dumb as hell was just his natural state of being.'

Her eyes stung when she thought about him. She wondered if Aurelius reminisced about those times in the same way she did. They hadn't talked about it. The memories were so sweet but so painful.

'Would you have thought that you'd be so missed, Balgair?' Cade mused.

***

A week passed, and things were the same. Aureliu and Cade hopped from carriage to carriage, nearing the north. Her funds were starting to dwindle. She'd never been one to save up.

Aurelius seemed unworried, though. Whenever in town, he looked around in wonder, making conversation with strangers. At most times, he seemed to have changed so much that Cade found herself smiling. He just seemed happy even while the stakes were higher than ever before.

But then at times, he reverted to the paralyzed man, lying in bed like it was his grave. He became so tense and sharp even though he seemed to be suppressing something deep, deep down that he was afraid of. Something he thought she couldn't glimpse.

But it was obvious to her. She'd seen that darkness in his eyes before when he showed up at the orphanage. When he squeezed her wrist so hard, she felt herself powerless before him.

It was at those times that she remembered what a man of massacre he'd been. That the hair she dyed had once been soaked and dried in a blood sea of his making. He probably didn't realize it, but she had already accepted that.

He just wouldn't share it. She didn't blame him, but she didn't have any reservations like that. She had never been anything but honest and open with him. Whether it was about her father or her past, she'd answered all his questions, but he still couldn't tell her what that darkness that he suppressed really was.

It wasn't just Gadreel. That darkness was there before the Royal Castle bloodbath. It had followed him from Arkryk.

What had he seen there? Who had he met? What had he learned that he could not unlearn?

Until Cade knew that, she might as well not have known Aurelius at all.