She is laughing. Snow is falling all around them.

Jian is filled with joy, doubled over with mirth; she has to hold her stomach steady as she charges forward. She's seen a flash of violet in the trees where he's tried to sneak a peek.

He's given himself away. Even though his eyes aren't glowing now, in the moonlight, any flash of colour means he can't hide from her. She's on him in a instant, giving him a friendly shove. "Got you!"

"You're too good." He holds up both hands in surrender. "How did you find me?"

"The new moon." She points up at the huge sphere of it in the cloudless sky. "Even in black clothes, you're still shining with the light."

"Stars," he says, wrapping both arms over his mop of silver hair. "This colour's caused me nothing but trouble."

Jian takes him by the hand, leads him through the forest. "I remember the stories of when Aselun came to the village. Nobody had ever seen hair or eyes that colour before."

"I've gotten the same reaction," he says, and she notes a shadow cross his face. "Not always a good thing."

"Whyever not? It means you've been blessed by Maere."

He stops short, and she keeps going, causing their hands to jerk apart. "There are places in this world where a blessing can become a curse, Jian. Not everyone this far from Homeland is happy with Maere right now, and they'll take it out on anyone who curries Her favour. Including me."

The idea of anyone thinking ill of him is preposterous. Jian stops, and waits, without turning around. "They don't know you like I do."

"And they won't," he promises. "Jian...I'm sorry to say it, but even when you get home, you can't talk about me to anyone. I would hate for harm to come to you, or to your village, because of me."

She wheels around, ready for a fight. "That isn't going to happen. There aren't any threats in Elsinoor! Just like Aselun, you could live among us, and the village would welcome you. The rest of it would be a secret. I wouldn't tell anyone about what you can do."

"I can't come home with you. Not now. There's too much I need to do."

Somehow, she already knows he's planned to refuse her, but that doesn't make it easier. "Then let me come with you, instead."

"I can't." He's clutching his hand to his chest, unable or unwilling to meet her gaze.

The joy has gone out of the moment, sucked dry by the seriousness of the matter. She cannot go. He cannot stay.

They are at an impasse.

Jian let out a slow breath, willing the vision to continue, to show her the next part, but she knew there would be no returning to slumber. The orange glow of sunrise already crept through the little round window.

This dream was unlike any that had come before it. Mercifully clear, each detail stayed fresh in memory, just as she'd been taught to expect a Pathfinding vision would. But of course, this was no normal Pathfinding, this latest in Jian's many unconscious meetings with the silver-haired boy.

When dreaming, Jian felt as if she were observing herself, rather than living the experience as she saw it. Upon awakening, however, she also felt certain her dreaming self must have feelings for this boy, whoever he was. It was clear he would someday be very special to her.

As special to her, perhaps, as a life partner. Despite the fact that her real partner, one who had been sent to her by Maere, lay sleeping elsewhere in this very lodging house.

Knowing Quinn was now part of her Path complicated matters—she had almost begun to think, as she embraced the violet-eyed, silver haired boy in her visions, that the two of them might be drawn together someday by the Creator. Quinn's sudden appearance in her life meant the boy from Jian's dreams was not her future itself, but only a small piece of a larger puzzle.

"That's exactly what I've been talking about."

Madrigal's words, from last night. She knew he meant it as a slight, as another jab at her devotion to Maere's guidance, but also as a warning. The more she thought about the silver-haired Goddess-boy, the more disappointed she felt to have him replaced by Quinn. There wasn't anything wrong with Quinn, not that she could determine from a first meeting, but his presence changed not only her feelings but her quest itself.

At least he had arrived ready to accompany them to Homeland.

When she emerged from her room and found Madrigal waiting outside, Jian knew he felt equally tense at the change in their situation. He knotted string around the food he'd arranged for from the landlady, scowling more than he had since the day their supplies went missing.

Against her better judgment, she decided to ask. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not happy with your boyfriend suddenly showing up," he said, cinching the twine a little too tightly. "He complicates things."

Madrigal had no room to talk, given that Quinn had been presented as her partner, not his, but there was clearly something else on the swordsman's mind. "How so?"

"He's from Brill, a village near Laudonia. I know it very well."

"You do? But you didn't say anything to him."

"That's because I would rather not tell him I'm from Laudonia," Madrigal replied, his voice tight with impatience. "I don't know him, but he might know me. And I'd rather stay out of sight."

Jian couldn't resist the opportunity to fish for a little more information on the topic Madrigal had been so closed-mouth about. "How would he have heard of you, if he's from a different town? Why are you trying to avoid attracting attention?"

Madrigal's jaw set in that way Jian was becoming so familiar with.

"If you want me to help you," she said, "it would be better if I knew what was going on."

"I'll tell you, but only because I trust you, not him," Madrigal said. "And now that he's waltzed up and inserted himself into the picture as someone you'll be partnered with someday, he's a danger. You'll probably tell him anything he asks, unless I explain why it's important I stay hidden for now."

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"I'm waiting." Jian dropped her pack to the ground and leaned against the rough wooden beam that supported the doorframe. She wouldn't be going anywhere with these two if she would be kept in the dark about their history together.

He took a deep breath, scratched behind his ear. He didn't seem to want to look at her. "So, I left Kesmet in a hurry. I'm not well-liked there, or in Laudonia either, these days. There was an argument. There was a girl."

Now Jian was intrigued. Madrigal had implied he'd had many girls, but none worth remembering in a tale. "Tell me more."

"She was from Kesmet. Our two towns are very close to each other; so close they used to meet for festivals, trading, and good times. Before Maere left us, that is. After that, Laudonia's relationship with Kesmet got...complicated."

"Oh." Jian immediately understood. Kesmet's high standing as a Holy Village, a place with a special connection to the Creator, a place where nearly as many priestesses were born as regular citizens, changed it in the eyes of other settlements. She'd been there a few times, with Mother, and seen for herself how devoted the people were. "Because they thought the people of your village had done something wrong? To make Maere withdraw her favour."

"Exactly. And stupid me, in my stupid youth, fell for this girl."

"Oh," Jian said again. "So I guess the people there weren't too happy with you."

"Not just them. My own people weren't exactly thrilled." Madrigal gripped the doorframe so tightly his knuckles turned white. "Maybe you can't understand, coming from a place where your Goddess arranges everything, but to choose an outsider over a Laudonian-born woman, that's a betrayal of the worst kind. We don't have enough men to go around that we can afford for them to fall for girls from other villages. Especially not girls who have promised themselves to the Creator."

"She was a priestess?!"

"Let's just say that I left Kesmet not necessarily of my own will, and after what happened, I'm not too welcome at home right now either. That's why I was heading to the End of Lands."

Suddenly everything Jian had been puzzling over became clearer. Madrigal's wariness, his distrustful nature, his torn clothing and empty pack. His distaste for the priestesshood and open criticism of Maere. It all made sense now. "Is she still back in Kesmet? The girl?"

"Let's not talk about her, " he said, the frown deepening. "I've told you what you need to know already."

Jian considered how to reply. Madrigal wasn't the most agreeable person, but in the days since they'd left Elsinoor together, she'd grown fond of him. Protecting him went without saying, even if she itched to know more. "I understand, " she said. "I won't tell him anything about you."

Traveling as a group of three changed the dynamic for the worse. Jian expected the conversation at least to be livelier, but Quinn didn't seem to know what to say to either of them. Madrigal was even more tight-lipped than usual, and the knowledge of his past weighed a little bit on Jian, even as she utilized the silence to grapple with all the thoughts that had kept her awake into the night.

A partner. For her! Wouldn't Gilelle be envious? And he was even the type of man her best friend would have pined for—tall, and with broad shoulders, Quinn carried himself with a confident posture, in stark contrast to the swordsman shuffling by his side. Madrigal's hunch and narrowed gaze, always lowered, made him appear smaller in stature than he truly was, especially next to Quinn. Jian could easily imagine Quinn on a ritual of his own, living in the forest, meditating under a waterfall. He had long arms and a slight tan to his skin, lighter than the other man; even lighter than Jian herself. He wore his straight chestnut brown hair in a ponytail that bobbed a fraction below his shoulders, and he would reach up to smooth away flyaway hairs, as if nervous to be walking in her company.

Conventionally attractive, Jian knew. Exactly Gilelle's type.

Not hers.

Jian would never have dared say so out loud, though. Her own tastes, undefined not so long before, now skewed toward short, slight, gentle voiced and violet-eyed.

Quinn wasn't bad to look at, Jian knew. Mother would have fallen to her knees and cried, had she known what her daughter was doing at that moment, walking behind two handsome men with nary a thought to spare for either of them. Who would, when their dreams were visited night after night by an alluring, mysterious fae with shimmering silver hair and an infectious laugh? Nobody could blame Jian for being more interested in her forest boy than the two glowering hulks who led her away from Aspen, shooting daggers at each other with their eyes.

"We're almost at the border to the southlands," Quinn said with false brightness. "Aspen is the last settlement on the northern frontier. I hope you're ready for the weather to get colder."

"Are you a wayfinder? Or did you look that up in some book while you were waiting for us?" Madrigal's tone implied he wouldn't be happy with either answer.

"A little of both," Quinn replied. "I've done my share of traveling, and I've been through Aspen many times. Back home, I curate knowledge."

"You're surprisingly well travelled for one so young."

"I'm older than I look, thanks." Quinn ducked his head in apparent embarrassment. "I saw my Path years ago, but I didn't know who the girl in my vision was or how to find her. I suppose Maere must have intended that we not meet until Jian's pilgrimage to Homeland began."

His words made Jian feel uneasy, though she didn't know why. She had no objection to an older partner, despite what she'd said to Madrigal, or one who had found a vocation and travelled before meeting her. If anything, Quinn's experience would be an asset to the group. Something about him, though, instilled a wariness in Jian she couldn't explain.

"If you'd come a little earlier," Madrigal said, "she might not have needed to hire someone to take her to the southlands in the first place. A shame her mother parted with that ring as my payment."

"You can return the ring, then, and go back to Kesmet," Quinn suggested.

"No," came Madrigal's breezy reply. "I'll do exactly as I promised, and we've been on the road nearly a week, so I think I'd best keep the ring, don't you?"

"Suit yourself." Quinn's face settled into an unreadable expression, his lips pressed tightly together.

Anxious to lighten the mood, Jian swept forward in front of the two men, turning around so she could see them as she walked backward. "Why don't we keep playing the game we played on the way to Aspen yesterday? The plant identifying one. Since Quinn has spent time on the road, too, maybe he can stump us. It's easy, Quinn; find a plant you know, and quiz us on what it's good for. Madrigal, why don't you ask me first, so he can see how it works?"

"Fine." Madrigal pointed at a vibrantly green shrub set a few meters back from the wide dirt path. "That one."

"Kantoumille," she replied confidently. "Perfect for an upset stomach. Steep five minutes, and chew the leaves if you're feeling nauseous."

"That's correct."

Jian opened her palm as she passed a tree whose branches hung into the road, heavy with blue blossoms. "And this one?"

"Whistelm," Madrigal said. "Not good to eat, but if you distill its flowers, they smell strongly and make for a powerful stain. And I've reason to think it's your favorite flower."

A smile spread across her face. It was Jian's favorite, because boiled whistelm flowers created a vibrant blue dye. The smell of whistelm in the air reminded her of her childhood, when Mother would boil the fragrant blossoms to create mixes of blues, indigos and purples in preparation for Elsinoor's spring festivals. "How did you know?"

"The scent of whistelm is all over everything you own." He grinned. "Your leggings, your shift, your pack, and at least half the blankets that were hanging in your home had to have been dyed with that flower. It's not a stretch to guess you like it."

Jian couldn't hold back a laugh. The scent of whistelm in the air stirred up more positive feelings than expected. "You're right, of course; it's my favorite. Great deduction, Madrigal."

"I guess you two have gotten to know each other pretty well, haven't you?"

Jian looked back and was surprised to see Quinn scowling, despite the merry mood. "What's the matter?"

"Only that I didn't expect you and him to be so friendly. After all, he's just a hired guide, right?"

Jian could hardly imagine being on the road with someone for an entire moon cycle and not being friendly. They were spending every waking moment together, after all, and trusting the other to watch out for them in the night. It was only natural for travellers to warm up to one another, even if they'd been strangers before. Even a man as prickly as Madrigal. "He may have started out that way, but I think we're friends now, don't you?"

To her great pleasure, Madrigal looked pleased. She'd expected him to close off again; put up the wall that kept out anyone he couldn't trust. The fact that Jian agreed to keep his secret must have raised her status in his eyes. "You could say that."

She hoped it wouldn't be too much to ask for them to be friendly with each other, too, but Jian knew it would take time.

Quinn looked from Madrigal to Jian and back, eyes narrowed. "As long as you remember that Jian is part of my Path, not yours."

His words rocked Jian to the point of speechlessness.

Madrigal, hysterical with laughter, doubled over until he could no longer walk. "Your Goddess isn't messing around with you anymore, Jian, that's for sure."

Anger surged hot in her chest. Whatever plan Maere had in store for Jian's, She must have sent these two as a test of patience. Jian didn't intend to let either of them get the best of her.