Nathan hated how often he thought about George.

Team Laundry had half expected to find three dead bodies on their return to camp, or very possibly just two. Nathan kept his ears open for the sounds of danger, but he wasn't sure what to be listening for: a fight? Perhaps the sounds of their corpses being eaten? Adam looked ghoulish sometimes, and Nathan couldn't begin to guess what he might be able to do. He was pretty sure Adam didn't know himself.

Instead of devils, they broke through the forest to reveal George and Brady crouched over Adam's unconscious body, blood running from his nose and the two of them looking ragged. Matt broke a stick underfoot and the mages jumped so hard Nathan thought they could've shot up into the sky. Brady raised his hands for a fight, but his worry melted away as he recognized them. At the same time, George seemed to wilt more, a tremor in his hands and exhaustion forcing him to slouch. There was a vacant look in his eyes that made Nathan nervous.

They moved slowly for the rest of the morning, until Adam woke up and they resumed their march northward. George took point with the map again, and Nathan took the opportunity to walk with him while Gee was putting her attention on someone else for a change. He felt better having her near, but she had a habit of poking fun at him whenever he tried to socialize. This way, he might actually get to figure out more about the noble who had so deftly tangled him up in this suicide quest.

George unfurled the map the second they touched the packed dirt of the road, even though Nathan knew exactly where they were. As they closed the distance to the river, which put a distinctly sweet smell in the air, he was willing to bet all of Adam's money that he could put his finger right on their spot on the map. He expected George to know that too, but the noble looked around as they walked, like he was studying the landscape. He rolled the map up, but five minutes later, it was unfurled again. Nathan peaked over his shoulder as George glanced between its features and the ones around them on the horizon.

"I'd wager we're right here," he said, tapping a spot on the map just before the river and the road intersected. They could hear the water rushing faintly on the wind. George huffed and rolled up his map.

"Right. Of course." He didn't seem talkative. Nathan glanced down at him and saw the worry lines cut through his face, making deep bags under his eyes. They'd been there since last night and the ambush from the owlbears, but a bad night's rest and Adam's "episode" had made them deeper. Nathan didn't know what had happened while they were gone, but George had spoken quietly about blindness and a curse, which hadn't assuaged any fear about the dark noble in Nathan's mind. In town, he'd felt the shadow of Horace at his back like a suffocating blanket. He was hoping that escaping those walls would put him more at ease, but it seemed there were different dark clouds to worry about. He recognized George's weariness too well from his time in front of Gee's yellowed mirror.

"It'll be good to be in a city again," Nathan said. "I'm not much of a woodsy type, I've discovered." George didn't respond to him for a long minute.

"You seemed to do well enough last night." Nathan's hands instinctually fell to the knives at his belt. He remembered having to jump to the owlbear's side to pull one from its hide, and the nasty scrape he'd gotten in return. He thought he could still feel it burning, but George had healed it last night.

"I wouldn't say killing woodland creatures is the thing I'm best at. You must be tired from keeping all of us alive the last few days."

"Hm? Oh. I guess." But George unrolled the map again absently. He's not checking our location, Nathan realized, he's trying to look busy. He spared a glance over his shoulder to the pair walking some ten feet behind them. Adam looked miserable, his skin still sort of grey with dark circles under his eyes. He leaned heavily on the stick Brady had made him take, but he was smiling. When Nathan turned back to George, he saw the opposite.

"I suspect we'll get there around sundown," George said without sparing him a glance. "That puts us almost twelve hours behind schedule." Nathan tried not to show the way that made his heart jump in his chest. They'd left a lot of people back in Erilea – the Brotherband and the Mothers, obviously, but also the cadet camp which had tried to shank Matt to death, and the nobles' families. Anyone who might bother to come after them would be gaining. Despite his own worries, he tried to reassure George.

"Until we know something more, we should continue like normal. I don't know about you, but if we don't stop for a break in Lochton, I might not make it all the way to the capital." Nathan didn't actually think that. Once, back in Erilea, he'd gone three days without a lick of sleep, and he'd only stopped to rest because Gee had begged him to. Running errands for the Mothers so they kept his membership secret, picking pockets for his debt to the Brotherband, and joining in their stupid dangerous raids so no one got suspicious was like working three jobs. Coupled with his role keeping drunk idiots off Gee when she got off stage, he found sleep wasn't a high priority. How was he supposed to juggle all that with eight hour breaks in between?

He lied so George might not push himself to death. Nathan convinced himself that he only cared because without him, their only healer would be Adam, and he was not excited for that experience. He'd been there with Brady when Matt's side needed healing, and it had not been an encouraging display watching the greenish smoke gather in his hands. George was like an angel in comparison. An exhausted, bitter angel who wouldn't stop unfurling their map.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"We'll see how much of a break we get. We still have five things to collect, a hundred miles to walk, and the end of the world to stop." George interrupted himself to point ahead of them and call back to the boys walking behind him. "We're coming up on the river!"

They'd only been walking for fifteen minutes or so, but after crossing the big stone bridge spanning the water, they took a pit stop. Matt had Nathan refill waterskins with him in the river while everyone else sat down. The thief watched George crouch in front of Adam and begin to cast a spell, roving a confident hand over his back as the noble cringed in pain. Although he wasn't making as much of a fuss, Nathan could see the dark look in George's eyes that announced his own hurt.

"We should be more liberal with our healing," Nathan mumbled when he and Matt were alone. The cadet was quiet as he washed out stale water from a canteen.

"You're talking about George?"

"He looks as dead as Adam does. He's been using a lot of magic to keep us walking, and we're not going to make it far without him."

"I'm inclined to agree." Matt looked over their shoulders back the way they'd come, like he expected someone to have followed them. "Once we get to Lochton, we can resupply and reorganize. People like him aren't supposed to be out of cities for a long time." Matt smiled and Nathan almost laughed. He didn't expect to feel the exact same way as a noble.

For the rest of their walk, Nathan let George obsessively check the map to his heart's content. To their right, he could see a dense forest which crept closer at a snail's pace. Lochton was built just on the edge of the wood, gleaming mountains in the background and lush land to keep the city fed. At least, that's what George told him while they walked, since Nathan had never left Erilea's walls until three days ago. He'd simply never had enough money to make it to the next town, and as bad as his situation had gotten in the meantime, he always preferred it to starving to death.

"You've been there before?" Nathan asked some hours into their walk. They'd rested several times, but Matt had convinced George to save his strength in case they ran into trouble before reaching Lochton. The cleric had grumbled acceptance, and while he certainly hadn't gained any energy, he wasn't losing so much anymore. Maybe it was Nathan's imagination, but it also seemed like he was glad to keep space between him and Adam.

"No," George admitted, and Nathan turned to him in surprise. "You didn't expect that?"

"You just know so much about it, I assumed. Your family goes on vacations, don't they?" George smiled thinly.

"They do. I haven't been, but I've read about it. There's supposedly a lake beside the town which the Wild Mother herself drinks from, and the water can grant you wishes – total nonsense."

"Are you sure? It'd be nice to wish the world not to end right about now." George cast him a serious glare.

"I'm quite sure, it's my job to know the difference between myths and magic. You don't agree to trek halfway across the country if you have options as simple as 'magic lake water' at hand."

"No, I suppose not." Nathan considered how he'd been driven by similar desperation. When you watched your options dwindle down to "impossible quest with little hope for survival", you had to have serious enough consequences ahead of you to merit going insane and saying yes. The image of Samuel's blue face reared in his mind.

He wondered suddenly what George's consequences had been. A slap on the wrist from Daddy? Reduced allowance for books? He ignored his bitter thoughts in favor of taking in the fresh, sap scented air. George wasn't his enemy – he was the one giving him this impossible chance at survival.

Nathan subconsciously glanced over his shoulder to the people behind him, seeking out Gee's face in the back. She was talking to Adam and Brady, face split by a smile in the way that made his heart settle down in his chest. That smile had been keeping him going for his whole life, since two small children had encountered each other on the street and found their first refuge together. At the same time his nerves settled, a new feeling sprung up to take its place: guilt.

"She's your world, right?" Nathan tried not to jump at the question. When he turned back to George, the noble was looking at him for the first time in several miles, the circles under his eyes making him look more annoyed than he usually was.

"What?"

"In my bedroom, when we first met, you said you had your own world to save. You meant Gee."

"Ah, yes, in your bedroom, when you tied me up and forced me to spill all my trade secrets." George's smile finally reached his eyes as he bit back a laugh.

"When you broke into my house and attacked me, you mean. And I dropped the spell before I heard everything."

"You were surprisingly resilient," Nathan commended, hoping George would forget his original question. "I've taken down bigger men with that kidney hit."

"So you made a habit of getting into trouble?"

"I prefer to call it my job. It's a lucrative business if you can stay in control of it."

"I'm afraid I wouldn't know." George looked down his nose at Nathan, but his dry tone clued Nathan into the joke. "I'm a simple nurse."

"One who can take a hit to the gut and still catch a thief." Nathan tried to hide the admiration in his voice. Admittedly, the longer he spent on the road with their group, the less impressive magic seemed to him. Watching Brady clap lightning into existence was exhilarating, but slightly dampened by the fact that it was Brady doing the casting, with his stupid sideways smirk and cheap taunts. Nathan had taken down the mother owlbear without a lick of magic in his blood, but he'd seen George spear the smaller one while out of breath and battered. Between his golden whip, the spell that compelled him to talk, and his skillful healing, it was hard for Nathan to see him as anything less than impressive. He didn't get why every third word out of George's mouth was about Adam when his own abilities had been so much more vital to their survival.

"I more used to it than you think," George admitted. Before Nathan could understand what he meant, he pointed to the horizon. The sun was touching the hills, and in the distance, tall stone walls made a dark silhouette against the sky, yellow dots of light coloring the city in warm light. They'd made it to Lochton.