Tam cradled Luca against his chest, and continued to feed him a spoonful of vegetable broth. His face tense and pale as he stared down at his son’s bleary eyes.

Eli picked at her thumbnail from outside the tent as she watched Tam huddle near the lantern they had risked lighting to try and warm Luca up…

“It’s been two days, and he is getting weaker,” Jeong’s grave voice sounded beside Eli.

“We need to stop traveling and let him rest somewhere warm… Maybe even find a physician,” she responded without moving her gaze from Tam and Luca.

“Do you think Eusa is a big enough town to have a physician?” Jeong wondered worriedly.

“Absolutely… The problem is, unlike in Daxaria and Troivack, physicians here in Zinfera can sell what they know about another person. And with the imperial soldiers looking for us…”

Jeong nodded with a grimace.

It wasn’t all physicians that acted so greedily of course, but there were enough instances of noble or wealthy families being torn apart by the discovery of a diseased partner, or a pregnancy that could not have come from the husband.

“I know a few teas that could help him, but we’d need to buy the ingredients, and like I said… we need a place to rest,” Eli added, her fidgeting becoming more frantic before dropping her hands to her side.

“Perhaps we should try imploring help from some farmers. They rarely leave their land and may not have heard all of the rumors, and any earth working man and woman I know at the very least let poor travelers use a barn,” Jeong said before turning to look at Eli with gentle eyes and a sympathetic smile.

Eli gnawed on her tongue, then let out a long breath as she watched Tam put down the bowl of soup, and start to rock Luca while murmuring something she couldn’t hear. He then picked up his son, wrapped a blanket around him, and set him down near the lantern before stepping outside, his countenance grim.

“This is bad. He needs a proper bed and a fire at the very least. Gods… if he has an infection of some kind…? There is no option but to find a physician,” Tam lamented before reaching up and rubbing his face. He then allowed his hands to rest over his mouth as he stared blindly into nothing as his anxiety and fear visibly tortured him.

“Let’s give it another day. We can reach the outskirts of Eusa tomorrow morning and I was just suggesting to Eli that we perhaps ask some more remote farmers for assistance,” Jeong explained softly before moving closer to Tam and patting him on his back reassuringly. “It’s risky, but I can’t think of any other way. And if we get reported, you may just have to take Luca and myself into your void, and Eli will have to run away.”

“I don’t know that I can take more than one person into the void,” Tam said with a rasp.

“You took an entire wall and a desk once, according to you. I’d like to think I’m a bit smaller than that,” Jeong reminded with only a hint of humor.

“People are different though. I care a lot more if I can’t hold onto you in the void. With Lord Kim we weren’t in there for very long, and when I did it with Luca, I couldn’t hold him there,” Tam argued, his voice rising slightly.

“Tam,” Eli’s voice was hushed, and Tam’s eyes snapped to her as she drew closer. “We don’t have a choice. If he needs a physician because of an infection we’ll deal with it then, but he needs a proper day of rest. I think Jeong’s idea is a good one.”

“What if they’ve seen your poster? The one with the reward?” Tam pointed out next, a sheen in his eyes only faintly visible thanks to the last vestiges of daylight.

“We’ll run. We should be close enough to the harbor that maybe we steal a boat and leave that way. We’re far enough from the coven that it’d take them a few days to catch up to us and find us,” Eli countered as her index finger tapped the back of her hand quickly.

Moving his hand back up to his eyes, Tam lowered his chin. “This is all my fault. I should have sent him straight back to Daxaria with you when I got here. Now you both are in danger as well, and I don’t know… I don’t know what I can do…” Tam trailed off. Shaking his head as he licked his lips.

Eli and Jeong could see he was trembling.

“I’m going for a walk. I just… I need some time. We’ll find a farm and ask for help tomorrow morning.”

Jeong didn’t say anything in response, and while Eli opened her mouth to try, Tam turned and strode stiffly off into the trees.

Eli watched his back until he disappeared in the darkness and foliage, then looked toward the tent. “I’ll get ready for bed and stay with Luca.”

Jeong nodded and gestured her past himself as he darted his eyes back and forth between where Tam had disappeared, and Luca’s sickly complexion.

Once Eli had crawled up beside Luca with her own blanket, she threw half of it over him and, very carefully, moved closer.

If I can give him some body heat it’ll be better than nothing.

Sensing her presence, Luca shifted in his sleep, turned over onto his side facing Eli, and slowly opened his eyes.

“Eli…?” he asked dazedly.

“Go back to sleep. You’re still sick,” she ordered awkwardly.

“Am I… dying?”

The tears that came instantaneously at the question surprised Eli, and she tried to blink them back as a result.

“No. No, you are not dying.”

“Dad’s scared though.”

Eli found herself falling into a familiar debate she had argued before regarding how much of the truth she should share with the boy.

“Of course he is scared. He’s never had a sick child before. All parents are scared when their children are sick.”

Luca’s eyes fluttered closed at this, and for a moment, Eli thought that he had simply fallen back to sleep with remarkable speed… But then he opened his eyes again.

“Were your parents scared when you got sick?”

If Eli had thought she had any chance of controlling her tears before, she found that there was no such reality where that was possible after his question.

“No… No, they never got scared. But that’s because they weren’t good parents. Not like your father.”

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Luca stared blearily at Eli as tears fell from her eyes, and her right hand gripped the blanket over them tightly.

“My mother never got scared when I’d get sick. She always said it wouldn’t matter if I died,” Luca confessed sadly.

Eli drew herself up onto her elbow in alarm. “That is just not true, Luca. It does matter!”

Luca smiled a little. “Thanks, Eli. If you get sick, I’ll tell you… the same thing.” Pausing, Luca appeared to struggle to stay conscious. “Eli?”

“Yes?” She tried to remove all the tears on her face with the back of her wrist.

“I’m glad you’re here with me. Don’t tell my mother, but… I wish you were my mom. Even if you… do… make me study a lot…”

Eli broke. Her sobs overtook her as she lowered her face to her hand.

“Luca, it’s my fault we can’t get you a doctor,” she managed through the tears. “I’m barely a decent person, let alone–”

Luca shifted closer, then wrapped an arm over Eli’s middle, and pressed his burning cheek into her collarbone. “We have to stay together… For as long as possible,” Luca insisted. While he had clearly tried to deliver the words with great, forceful meaning, they were still weakened, and desperate. “And… It isn’t your fault. I can tell.”

With shaking arms, Eli carefully returned Luca’s embrace, and continued holding him as she wept until eventually sleep claimed both of them.

*

Despite Tam joining them in the tent after his walk, the two didn’t stir, and so when he came in, he saw Eli and Luca clinging to each other, and somehow, the scene offered Tam’s troublesome heart some solace.

***

It was a cloudless day when the rows of raspberry bushes came into view. By this time, Luca was already slumped on Tam’s back, and Eli walked alongside them in her human form; they hadn’t wanted to risk her being seen.

“How are you this morning, Luca?” Tam called over his shoulder as he felt his son start to stir.

Thus far on the trip Luca had been mostly half awake, but Tam’s heart soared when he felt Luca fully lift his sweaty head off of his back.

“Where are we?”

“We’re going to go talk to some people and see if we can get you a proper bed to sleep in.”

“And maybe some tea leaves that will help bring your fever down,” Eli added while reaching up to gently brush Luca’s damp hair off of his forehead.

“I think I feel a bit better,” Luca informed them with a yawn.

Tam, Eli, and Jeong exchanged tentative hopeful looks, prompting Tam to heft Luca with a little more muscle, making Luca laugh, only for it to be followed by a cough and a stream of snot from his nose.

Eli hurriedly produced a handkerchief and wiped his face before they set off once more down the rows of raspberry bushes.

It took a little longer than they had anticipated to find the house on the farm, but when they did, they were greeted with the sight of a wide expanse of pristine blue water stretched before them, as on the south shores of Zinfera, lay the Tinoo Ocean.

It was a peaceful day, and so the water almost looked still under the bright, early sunshine.

The house in comparison to the grandiose view, was humble. With a brown tile roof, and it’s length perhaps only four carriages long with three small windows dotting its white washed sides.

As they approached, they could see an old woman wearing a faded green wool sweater and a long flimsy white dress that most likely was her night shift. She tossed feed on the ground with fingers bent from arthritis to a cluster of chickens and roosters. Her hair was braided with a loose tendril floating about her downturned face as she worked.

Seated under the shade of the house, fanning himself with a large ginkgo leaf in one hand and holding a cup of tea in his other, was an older man. Both of them had hair that was more white than black. The man’s hair, what little he had of it, stuck up on the left side of his head, and his white shirt was loose, his feet bare, and he also appeared to be wearing his sleepwear.

They looked meek enough that they wouldn’t pose an imminent threat, but Tam knew that there was the chance for nosey neighbors or grown children to be nearby.

“Should I go and introduce us?” Jeong offered kindly.

Tam shook his head and moved forward. “They need to see that Luca isn’t well so they don’t think we’re trying to con them.”

“Most people wouldn’t think–” Jeong started to object, but Tam was already setting off toward the couple.

The moment he set foot onto the dirt patch of the yard and off the thick grasses of the raspberry field, Tam spoke out, hoping that his respectful distance would help him seem more trustworthy.

“Excuse me?”

The old lady turned with shuffling feet to look in surprise at Tam’s appearance, while the old man under the eaves of the house leaned forward in his seat.

“Hi there, I’m… I’m sorry I… Um…” His voice was a rasp as tears suddenly warmed Tam’s eyes.

In his life he had felt powerless and pointless many times before, but never… Never had it ever been like this.

“My son is sick, and… the imperial soldiers keep wanting to arrest anyone who isn’t Zinferan, and we… He can’t keep going. He has a fever.” Tam knew he wasn’t making a ton of sense, but at the mention of his son the woman’s eyes moved to the top of Luca’s head that was once again resting against his shoulder.

She stared into Tam’s eyes as her husband stood and made his way over to observe beside his wife. He was shorter than she was, and Tam towered over her.

The woman reached out a hand, and gestured him toward her.

He obeyed on legs that felt like they had rusted.

The old man shot a frown at his wife, but she merely pressed the basket of chicken feed into his hands, and reached up with her thin arms to touch Luca’s forehead.

The old woman’s attention briefly turned to Eli and Jeong, then back to the boy.

Her mouth pursed.

Luca coughed, then coughed some more.

The distrustful expression changed to sincere worry.

“Please, all we ask is a place where he can rest. We can pay you. We… We can pay for food, or tea leaves, but can you…” Tam’s remaining composure crumbled. “Please help my son.”

He was crying.

He hadn’t cried in years, but the frustration, desperation, and fear that had been gouging his heart wrangled it from him.

Tam had handled everything that had happened on his journey since leaving Daxaria the best he could. The most logically he could. He had questioned himself, and grown stronger. He’d made friends, and opened himself up in ways he hadn’t ever thought possible…

But Luca was too sick, even if he said he was feeling better.

And there was no one to save them.

No one they could count on for help.

The old woman gently touched Tam’s cheek, her wide brown eyes warm, and kind.

“My name is Sua. Come inside. I’ll make some tea.”