Silver stared into the air in front of his desk, waiting for his brother to appear. “Mahale!” he called again when nothing happened.

He took a deep breath in and thought about getting out of his desk to see if he could annoy his brother by dragging the chains of his manacles against the bars that comprised his door. Was a literal prison cell necessary? No. Was his brother full of dramatic rage for the break the One Being had suffered? Yes.

However, he wanted his best chance to look imperious, so he kept to his seat. “BANE!” he called, folding his arms.

The shapeless, faintly human appeared just inside, the swirl of colors on his skin muted by his overall darkened red tone from his rage. “What do you want, Rayale?”

Silver was gratified to see the obvious irritation. “Are you proud of yourself? You got in a contest with her and now there’s a new kind of Lost.”

The red spread to swallow up some of the other colors and swirling essences within his brother. “Tell me why you are useful again?”

Silver just drew himself up straighter, not at all afraid of the implied threat. “I have never thought myself the more patient of the two of us, so what were you doing? ‘Feel our strength.’ What were you trying to accomplish?”

“Why is it that we cannot reach Fen?”

Silver breathed out slowly. He did not know for sure. “I am certain it cannot be what you are paranoid about. We left all that behind.”

The faceless form was unmoving. Silver felt stared at even though it had no eyes.

***

Rosalea crested the mountaintop and below was a vast city. She could smell the smoke that hung around the top of the city even up here. “That should be Dyna, if I remember my maps right.”

Dyna was the capital city of Myraduil. It was surprisingly close to Dryan’s border, and a lot further south and east than she had been with Kaylar. The pine trees had been traded out for almost all deciduous trees, and there was a lot of moisture in the air she was not used to. From here, she could see that it was just off the river, and around the city were vast fields of hay, corn, and other grains. She grimaced inwardly. “Fen, I have been to a dozen or more towns and cities. I have looked for anything, and I have found nothing. There are a whole lot of people there compared to everywhere else we have been.”

The extent of the city’s sprawl made her anxious. She could see watch towers, some sections of the city had walls. She had been to towns with no protection other than the hints of being a dragon town, and she had been to towns with organized law enforcement - who had not taken kindly to a yellow-eyed beast woman trying to infiltrate the temples to the Gods. On the far north end of Dyna, she saw a very tall castle, even from this distance, so she guessed it was likely to belong to a dragon or be a place they stayed when in the capital. Human nobles and dragons were meant to rule Myraduil together, so she suspected it was a place for visiting more than a dragon living here and trying to make any part of a city as extensive as Dyna into anything like a dragon-town.

Leaves rustled around them, falling and drifting in reds and golds in the autumn wind, and she felt Hazel dance and snort beneath her as a large maple leaf landed on his flank. He was getting thin, they were traveling too much and not letting him graze enough. Rosalea slid off of him. She undid his saddle and banished it to earth storage. Then she pulled his bridle carefully off and did the same thing. She summoned a brush, and he was quietly appreciative as she brushed the hair that had been beneath the saddle smooth again.

“We will go slow down the mountain, so you can graze for a while, how does that sound?”

“It would be nice,” he agreed, turning and rubbing his head against her. She remembered Annie doing things like this, and it made her miss her old horse. “Are you going to go on like this all winter long?”

Rosalea breathed out slowly, and she thought about Lio. These months without her little one with her had been hard, and Rosalea did not care to recount how many times she had cried about it. She did not know where she was going, or why, and Fen was not hearing from Gods. So Rosalea tried to pray more often, and she visited temples. When she could manage to find a priest to talk to her, none of them knew how to help her. She was basically a foreigner with a prophecy that didn’t involve them, so…

“I want to try and do what I have to so I can go home to my little one,” Rosalea admitted as she rubbed Hazel’s nose. “So I will want to keep going all winter, yes.”

Hazel heaved a giant sigh that came out as a loud snort. Rosalea kept brushing him, feeling frustration. She empathized with the idea that it was a lot of pointless work. They made their message really clear. Get out of here. Go do prophecy things you do not even remember you were supposed to be doing because Ieshans played in your brain, or else. Now I am out here. What do you all want?

Fen pushed her head against Rosalea’s leg, and Rosalea could feel the wolf’s anxiety about it all. Rosalea sighed a little and rubbed the top of Fen’s head a little with her fingers. She probably should not try to antagonize Gods, even in her heart.

“Perhaps we could sell Hazel to some humans here,” Fen suggested. “Then we could cover more ground as wolves, and we can situate him somewhere he will be more comfortable.”

Rosalea made a musing noise as she put the brush away and patted the gelding. “What do you think, Hazel?” Rosalea asked. “What kind of person shall I sell you to?”

“Not a wanderer,” he replied tartly.

Rosalea smiled. Fen was right, it would be better to sell the poor boy to someone who could treat him better and not push as hard as she was pushing them all. “Well, I will be careful to make sure that does not happen. To my eye, you seem like you are a flashy, good quality horse. Hopefully, I shall be able to find someone good for you in Dyna.” Rosalea still did not know much about horses, so she was not certain. On the other hand, he had been picked by Kaylar, so she was sure that a dragon like him would only keep the best.

Because they were within eyesight of the town, she walked with Hazel roaming alongside her. Fen began to keep to the brush. When they got to the edge of the first fields, Rosalea summoned Hazel’s saddle and bridle and put them back on him. She emptied all the saddlebags though, except for her veil.

She had remembered, after a nasty encounter with someone in a town, Rhainnon had covered her eyes with one to hide the yellow color, which was the primary way that everyone recognized changers. It was true that most changers had darker skin and hair, but people like Rhainnon who had distant Uryan or Ieshan ancestry could blend in with others well except for their eyes… usually. Rhainnon, after all, still had blue eyes.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Wearing the veil made people assume a few things about her, she knew. First, it could mean that she was a foreigner, especially if she was wearing a tunic and trousers when she walked into town. Second, it could mean she had an eye disorder, which if she was dressed as a normal woman was sometimes the assumption. In a town she had been to a few days ago, one man had taken it to mean she was a woman who sold her body. Rosalea had not liked that at all, and she hoped that was not the case here. She had no choice but to cover her eyes.

She hated cities: they were crowded, chaotic, and busy. Still, things needed to be done, and some feelings ignored. She put on a skirt she had bought a while back to hopefully lean into the eye-condition idea.

Her plan was to head to an inn that had stables, hopefully someone there would be the perfect person for Hazel. She did not have to go that far, even. She was still in the market street when she overheard a snippet of conversation that was relevant to her.

“Daddy, at this rate, we are never going to find me a horse. I did not think it would be quite this hard.”

“I know, darling, but none of those matched being both pretty and well behaved.”

They were coming toward Rosalea, and far up the street, she could see a large building that she could sense a lot of animals, mostly horses, being kept within. This may be very lucky.

“Not just well behaved, Daddy, I want a horse that is nice.” The girl who spoke was perhaps eight or nine. She turned back, staring glumly at the building that they had just left, before looking up at her father with imploring eyes.

“Excuse me, my lord, my lady, but I could not help but overhear your conversation. You were seeking to purchase a horse?” 'Daddy' looked her up and down, measuring her, and then did the same to Hazel.

“Yes,” he answered, he had the lilt of nobility in his voice. “Is this the beast which you seek to sell?”

“Yes. His name is Hazel. He is ten years old, and well broke. He is not suited for the life I lead, and so I hoped to give him a happier home.”

“I see. Pray tell, what lifestyle does a young woman who speaks like one of us lead that she goes around veiled and then sells her horse?”

That caught Rosalea off guard. Then she mentally kicked herself for not at least trying to sound common. I was used to sounding noble with Kaylar. “I am a rebel,” she answered, hoping she could pull this off. “I go veiled because it is necessary to hide my identity. My lifestyle, if you must know, is that of a wanderer.”

The little girl had wandered up and put out her hands to Hazel. He was checking them for treats. So, to Hazel she asked, “Do you like the girl?”

“Yes.”

“Then you better work to sell yourself, because I have already made her father suspicious of me.”

The man smiled, he had a kindly face, “A rebel, indeed. Did he show any lameness problems on your journeys? How is his temperament?”

“I have ridden him over mountains and fields, and he has never shown any lameness,” Rosalea replied. After Hazel nuzzled and inspected the girl’s hands for treats, she had walked up and was rubbing over his neck, and he was doing his part to lean into the attention. “He has a sweet disposition,” she finished. “Would my lady care to ride?”

She nodded enthusiastically. Rosalea waited for visual confirmation from the father that he was content to let her try Hazel. Then, she smiled, though she doubted it could be seen clearly through the veil and helped the girl up. Hazel stood solidly until she booted him lightly to go forward. Then she proceeded to take him through fancy steps Rosalea didn't know existed or that Hazel would know them. He must have been well trained by someone at Kaylar’s castle.

“I like this one, Daddy. What do you think?”

“We shall see, Kate,” he answered and turned to her. “You have an excellent gelding there, my lady, how much do you intend to charge for him?”

“Three hundred gold for him and his tack, if it pleases you,” she answered, hoping her price was not too high.

“You undercharge, my lady, I shall pay you five hundred for a beast as fine as he.”

Rosalea curtsied, “I thank you most graciously, my lord.”

“You need it,” he said quietly. “I know about you yellow- eyed people, but I did not know you had nobility among you.” Rosalea froze. “No fear,” he continued. “I only knew because I have a servant, also a rebel, who goes veiled in public to hide his eyes. I hold no grudges against a people who have done nothing against me.”

Rosalea curtsied again, deeply. “I thank you from the very depths of my heart, my lord.” Now that I have sounded noble, there is no reason to go back. I wonder if I would have made such a mistake to begin with, if not for years of lost memories? I got to where I rarely slipped up with Rhainnon, I think. He tossed her a sack of gold, and she caught it, though it was very heavy. She immediately put it into earth storage, curtsied again. She walked up to Hazel, patting him on the shoulder. “Well, you are Kate’s now. I hope that you have a better life, and I hope that you know I have appreciated you.”

Hazel pushed his nose against her shoulder, “I have done my best. I am grateful you are giving me a new opportunity. I hope you get to see Lio again soon.”

She smiled up at Kate. “Be good to him! He works very hard. Give him plenty of treats.”

“I will! I am so happy! The Gods must have heard my prayer about how badly I wanted a good horse!”

Rosalea curtsied one more time and then left them. She felt a little weird without Hazel, but they were nice, so she also felt very confident she had made a good decision. She hoped she could find a temple with a library; maybe it would have useful information.

Absently she walked on the edge of the street, near the buildings where she was out of the way. She possessed almost one thousand gold now, but she didn't need anything so she took a left turn when she hit the merchant's square. Really, I think I need to stop wondering about how different I would be if I had not lost my memories for so long. It also probably does me no good to wonder about what I still do not remember. Archery was a skill she had been told she had, but when she had tried it on the bow Kaylar had given her, the arrow had gone off into nowhere where she could not find it, and she knew it had not come back.

My dreams at night are about Lio, Kaylar, and that damned madness cursed bear. So, no new memories to try and bring up anyway. Rosalea was used to being accompanied by Hazel in towns, and his presence had helped shield her from people coming too much into her space. The way he flattened his ears and showed teeth communicated his intent well. She had not realized this until a man strode right up to her from an alley and grabbed the hand closest to him by the wrist.

“Hullo, me pretty, I can show ya a good time?”

Not this, she thought. “How dare you touch me. Let go!”

“But you be wearin' the veil, darlin'. Come, let’s go, I got money!” he was strong. He twisted her arm behind her and pressed her against the building before Rosalea could move to stop him. She wrinkled her nose as she could smell the liquor on his breath, and he could hardly stand up, he was so drunk.

“I said no!” Rosalea growled, pushing against him with all her might. She did not want to attempt to use magic on him if she could help it. He slammed her back so hard that her vision spun as she felt her head hit the wall behind her. That is it. Magic it is.

“Now, now pretty,” he slurred. “Don't ya go makin' me mad, or it'll be worse for you. Just you behave yourself, wench.” She was aware that a crowd watched, but none was attempting to do anything. “Now, sugar, let's jus' see yer beautiful face.” She shied away from the hand; she could only imagine how he would react without her veil. “I said behave!” he yelled thickly. This time when he struck her, her vision sparkled. She swayed, vaguely aware of the veil sliding down her nose from the slap.

She put her free hand against his chest, summoned a hardened wall of air, and then shoved him back from her, sending him tumbling head over heels out into the street. He was unphased by it, perhaps too drunk. He did scream “She’s a stinkin’ beast woman! Changer!”

Great. She turned on her heel and started running down the alley, but armed people in the crowd took shots at her. Arrows clattered on the cobblestones by her feet. She heard the whistles of alarm already going up, and it had summoned some armed guards to the end of the alley she was running down. She turned and fled down a different one as soon as she got the opportunity to change directions, but people were shouting and trying to head her off.

Beggars scurried away from her as she startled them. She made another turn and made herself slow down. She had to be calmer. Calm, she was not. Her heart raced and she felt as if she would be sick any minute. This was more hostility than usual, and they seemed more prepared than usual somehow. Another beggar watched her suspiciously from his shadowy position near a pile of empty crates.

If I keep running, it makes me stand out. I need to look normal so I can lose them. She trotted into a darker alley and started walking. It was all she could do not to break into a dead run as people ran past the head of the alley, shouting about the “foul animal.” They didn't notice her and she kept going. Maybe she could pull this off without resorting to magic that would definitely get people hurt. Not to mention that she did not particularly like the idea of being struck by a stray arrow if she made a miscalculation or did not see everyone.

She entered the dark alley and crouched down, waiting several minutes. She knew she should probably stay put, but she was afraid every moment they would search this area for her. So, she slowly went from hiding place to hiding place, trying to get out of the city. When she could just see the edge, when she was only three or four streets away from farm land, a young man saw her.