Since it's evening by the time Jorge and I arrive, there is mostly just the start of the evening watch and not a whole lot of movement–except for the crowd at the Forgetful Fox. We take our respective wiretail and horse to the stables and allow Gallen to take over from there. Before Jorge departs, I hug him across his broad shoulders and thank him again.

Since it's now starting to get on towards evening fully, with the moon-aligned faeries of our village–guards and ordinary villagers alike–starting to roam away from their homes, I know exactly where to find Khalil. With a bit of pep in my step, I make short work of the relatively quick walk to the Forgetful Fox, which has a nice-sized crowd already outside. I move into the gathering place for food and drink after ducking away from a pair of horns and hooves of two glaistig busily–and ahem, bustily–rough-housing after what is probably already a couple of drinks, though I absolutely take a look for longer than is necessary–so sue me.

A couple of chants of my name come from around a couple of tables. I nod greetings and continue towards the main serving counter, looking for Khalil. I don't see him right away seated inside, and I grunt, thinking it's possible I missed him outside. A voice greeting me from behind the counter brings my attention back to the front.

"Orion! Here to wet the whistle again? Thought you wouldn't be back for a little while after the other night!"

My head is still a little swimming from the smoking leaf earlier in the afternoon, but I know for sure I don't need to get myself inebriated right now. My attention rests on the bartender, and I hold up my hands.

"Hey, don't hit me with water, but I'm just looking for Khalil–have you seen him yet?"

"I'm not a directory of maps or a guidebook, Orion!" The bartender grouses at me. "But no, I haven't seen him yet tonight. Haven't seen your lady friend Lani yet either, for that matter."

"Oh?" I pause, then laugh a little. "Ohhh."

"Maybe? Not my business. If you don't want food or drink, stop taking up a spot on my bar."

"Alright, alright, I'm gone."

After our little exchange, I push away from the bar and make my way back outside the cozy little tavern, with its five or six tables inside and the same amount outside. I carefully checked the outside this time, and, not seeing Khalil, I broke away from the place entirely.

I'm not jogging, but I'm walking with purpose, and I take that purpose through the village and towards Khalil's little home. Only a few minutes pass before I stride up to Khalil's house, which is about the same size as mine. We built his place right before mine, so while his is a hair bigger than mine, my home has a little bit better construction since we knew a bit more about what we were doing on the second project.

"Khalil!" I shout at his tiny front gate rather than going up and knocking at his front door.

"Khaaa-liiiii-lllll!" I call out a second time, grinning to myself at the extra loud version I just did.

Sure enough, the front door opens, and a half-dressed Khalil wearing only jeans opens it. His skin is lightly flushed, which could be from excitement or anger.

"The hell, Ori?! What do you want?! I'm busy!"

"How busy?"

"What? Busy enough that it's not your business!"

"Should I wait a few minutes for you to be, ahem, done?"

"Dude. Piss. Off."

"Alright, alright, no need to get mad. I'll be back in an hour or so."

"How about I come over to your place when I'm ready to, instead." It isn't a question from Khalil; it's a full-on statement of intent.

"Alright, man. Alright. I'll see you when I see you." I hold up my hands and move back from his little front gate and fence. The door to Khalil's home slams behind him, and I start laughing. I shake my head as I move away towards my own home.

I don't bother heading inside; I walk over to my workshop and pull out the small stack of arrow shafts I was working on in the morning. Settling down into a chair, I check each of the shafts for their straightness before rolling over to a tiny box and picking out a small pack of duck feathers I'd traded for before now, followed up by a small, half-used tube of glue that I picked up from a trader some time ago. I set them on my workbench, and then I picked up a small box of metal tips.

After getting all my items together, I settle in and carefully start adding the fletching for each arrow-to-be. This time, while I work on them, my mind is clearer, and I can focus on my craftsmanship. Time passes, and my pile of completed arrows grows, tipped by metal and ready to be placed in a quiver for usage.

By the time Khalil arrives, I'm finishing up on the last two arrows, which means it's been at least a couple of hours since I left him alone at his home. I turn my head a little and watch him crunching up the gravel walkway towards me in the workshop.

"Hey, Khalil. Sorry for fucking with you earlier, I couldn't help it."

"Ah, dude, it's alright. I knew you were."

I fasten the metal tip to the arrow I'm working on, ensuring it's firmly rooted, before picking up my last arrow and doing the same while talking.

"All the jokes aside, I needed to talk to you about something important."

"Sure, I figured it was important since you don't normally track me down over nothing, Ori."

Khalil walks the rest of the way into my tiny workshop and leans against my workbench, watching me as I put the finishing touches on my last arrow.

"So, it's about Silas."

"Uh huh, go on." Instantly, Khalil sounds moody and suspicious.

"I was talking with Jorge, and he mentioned that he had a little concern about Silas' story that he told us, and how it was kind of truthful, but not all the way truthful–like, he omitted some stuff he could have told us."

"Silas has been nothing but cool since we brought him back here; what are you saying?"

"I know you're all about him, so that's why I'm trying to be chill about this. It's why I'm talking to you first, to get your thoughts, you know? You're my brother. I'm not going to do anything that concerns you so heavily without talking to you first."

"Dude, you're making me nervous with all this trying to soften the blow shit you're doing right now. You're not talking about killing Silas, are you?"

"What?! No way, no. Nothing like that. I want to get to the actual truth of how and where he showed up. Hannah said that seams are like a doorway, kinda. Like, they open from one place to another, not from anywhere else."

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"Well, yeah, sure. Everyone knows that?"

"No, they don't, well at least I didn't–and you didn't either, so stop pretending. Otherwise, we'd have known he wasn't telling the whole truth about not knowing where he came from."

"So you think he knows where he came from?"

"I think he knows the area, at the very least, he was in. Maybe a nearby town or city. Him being out in the middle of nowhere, though, with no knowledge of anything nearby? I very much doubt that."

"Hmm."

"I mean, Aria did tell us to be super specific when we ask him questions, but let's be honest, we weren't that specific."

I carefully fasten the metal tip onto the last arrow uncompleted on the workbench in front of me. When it's finished, I slowly spin the arrow between my two hands in front of me.

"Well, yeah, you're honestly probably right about that. That whole situation was pretty fucked up; I could have better worded my question to him."

"So I basically just want your permission to control Silas and make him answer what he knows."

"Damn, dude, he's going to be so mad if we do that. He might take off afterwards."

"Yeah, he might," I admit, a little softer than usual. "That's why I wanted your thoughts on this. I didn't want to just upend your friendship with that cat."

"What's so important that makes you want to do this?"

"Don't you think–" I sigh, starting over, "–I mean, let's say that happened to our village? Wouldn't you want someone to give a damn? I just can't stop thinking that maybe a whole village of our people are messed up and somewhere that they have no idea where they are or have no way to get back."

"So it's not really about Silas, it's about all the Wilder in that village?"

"It's more about the fey than him, yeah, but the end result's the same: I gotta know what Silas actually knows."

Khalil looks over my face for a few very long moments, searching for something, though I don't know what. The corner of his lips purse slightly, and he exhales loudly before looking away and out into the village proper. He folds his arms over his chest.

"Dude, I don't like this, but you're not wrong. I would want someone to care if the same happened to our village. I hate that there always gotta be some nonsense attached to almost everything."

"I hate it too, Khalil. I think it's the right thing to do, though."

"Yeah, it is. Do you want to do it tonight?"

"Sooner the better, I think. Maybe he won't be totally furious at you and save it for me."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I hope so. I don't want him to leave; I really enjoy having him around."

"I know you do, man, I know."

I push up from my workshop table. I carefully pick up the pile of completed arrows and then move them to rest in a large basket I have for collecting freshly made arrows, happy that my supply is once again up to around fifty. Khalil doesn't move initially, but when I pass by him, he shuffles and follows afterward. As we walk back toward his home, we do so in silence, the only sounds being our footfalls on the gravel walkway, the distant noises of wildlife outside of our village's walls, and the occasional bellowing laugh coming from the direction of the Forgetful Fox. Finally, we make our way up to the front gate of Khalil's home, and I look over at him.

"We should probably do it out in the yard out back, just in case he gets real mouthy or people come walking this way, you think?"

"Sure, dude."

Khalil's voice is a little sullen, as if he already expects Silas to ditch him. He opens the front gate and leads me around to the back of the small home and into the quaint little backyard. He tells me to wait there and then departs to head into his house, presumably to wrangle Silas. For my part, I walk over to the folding chairs that Khalil has set up around a simple fire pit that takes up about a quarter of his tiny backyard's space. I sit in one of the chairs, ignoring the creaking and groaning, and try to focus on the task ahead of me.

A few minutes pass, and then Khalil walks outside carrying the bulldog-sized black cat with his long hair and vivid amethyst-colored eyes. I lean back in the chair and look at them on the approach, and then I nod to Khalil as he slowly stops next to me. He puts Silas down but keeps his hand on the cat's back like he is just going to pet or calm the cat, but I know it's to hold him there until I can take control.

"Hi, Silas. I hope this only takes a minute. I need to ask you something that's kind of important."

The cat immediately starts growling at me as if he's already going to be difficult.

"He's saying you haven't paid him for any answers."

"Yeah, I know."

The cat hissed at my response, as if he didn't like the sounds of that or where this whole situation was headed.

"Sorry, little guy, I have to do this for maybe the sake of a lot of faeries. You can hate me if you want, but it will happen anyway."

Sure enough, as soon as I get the words out, Silas starts spitting and hissing, trying to break Khalil's grip. Khalil uses his other hand on the side of the cat, pressing him down and forcing him to the ground against his will. The cat's tail whips wildly, his yowling loud and to the extent that you'd think he was being injured.

I close my eyes, trying to maintain my focus, and push all of the other noise and scuffling aside. I mentally move away from my body, fighting against the weakness inflicted on me by the moon's pull overhead. I open my pale eyes and rest them on Silas' fiery purple ones. He hisses, showing his fangs and all levels of his teeth, and I continue to stare at him. I focus my energies on the purple slits of his eyes, trying to press my abilities while he resists.

"Ori, come on, dude, it's getting harder to hold him." Khalil murmurs, lowering down to a knee to get better leverage while trying to control the cat.

I exhale slowly, and the world disappears around me, save for Silas, my pale eyes and his inflamed purple eyes. I reach out and grab his mind as if I saw it in a passing wisp of energy. Suddenly, the world returns, and Silas' body stills completely. I maintain my silence for another ten seconds to ensure I have control.

"Okay, Khalil. I have him now." I whisper.

"Sorry, little buddy, I hated doing that." Khalil slowly loosens his grip on Silas, then pets his hands on the back spine of the cat.

"I'm gonna make him talk and answer now, and I will need you to translate again."

"You got it."

Exhaling once through my nose, fully concentrated, I go through my mind and make sure it's steeled before I carefully begin to talk.

"Silas, where were you originally, right before you got dumped by the seam into that village?"

Obviously, the cat won't respond, so I press the issue with my mind, making him obey me and answer me how I want him to. Khalil speaks after a few moments, acting as our translator.

"He says he told us where he came from–he didn't know. He was out hunting in a forest and enjoying his time on that side of the divide between the Wilds and the humans."

"Not a good enough answer. We need specifics. Where were you about? What city or town did you pass through or come from directly before then?"

"He says it's a fairly big city by a valley between mist-covered mountains."

"Be more specific; tell me a sign you saw."

"Land of the sky."

"What?"

"That's what he said, a sign that said 'land of the sky.'"

"Well, okay. What does that mean, Silas?"

There's no response, and I can feel the resistance growing in my mind. Silas is fighting again against my control, not wanting to answer whatsoever and still trying his hardest not to share any information that might actually help me. I can feel his shift from benevolence to malevolence in my mind. I ignore it and focus my mind on his, forcing him to answer my will.

"Ashville? Okay, A-S-H-E-V-I-L-L-E." Khalil carefully spells it out letter by letter.

"The last town you were in before you were out in the middle of nowhere was a place called Asheville?"

"He confirmed it, yeah."

"Which way from the city did you go, and what time of the day was it?"

"He says he followed the sunrise."

"So, east of the city."

"That's what it sounds like." Khalil nods to me in agreement.

"I'm going to release you now, Silas. This isn't Khalil's fault; I made him help me. Sorry we had to do this to you, but I needed to know more so I could try to help those faeries."

I stand up from the chair, taking a few steps back from Silas before I close my eyes and release my mental grip on the cait sidhe. Sure enough, as soon as he's released from being forced into compliance and made to lay stock still, Silas leaps up, hissing and snarling. He immediately takes off like a shot, dashing into the open door of Khalil's home. There's smashing from inside and the sounds of metal pans hitting the ground.

"Shit, I think he's tearing up your place."

"Yeah, let me see if I can calm him down."

"I better go. Maybe it'll help you calm him down if he can't see me."