"Here you go girl."

Faldrid took an apple he had hidden under his cloak and held it out to Dela.

She eagerly accepted the gift from her companion and when there was nothing left but the remnants of juice on Faldrid's hand, she licked all of that up, too. She then looked up at Faldrid thankfully.

Faldrid started patting her head, "Looks like you really liked it, I'm glad that I didn't eat that before Sadine returned with our food."

At that Dela's expression turned sour

"Oh, don't be like that."

He started scratching under her ear and she slowly started to accept it.

Faldrid sighed, "I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to have some one-on-one time with you earlier, I got caught up in conversation with Sadine and some others afterwards."

It was nightfall and the final sounds of the night came from the two camps next to where all the attoka were held. The soldiers watched the moon and fire with contemplative expressions, or were starting to head into their tents for the night. On the other side, the Hands of Morta whispered of what was to come to themselves, so quietly that Faldrid didn't think that he would be able to hear them if it wasn't for the silent atmosphere.

This silent atmosphere was also what let him pick up on the otherwise silent footsteps near him. When he first heard them, he thought it was just in his head, but as they got closer, they became more noticeable, however slightly. What really gave Faldrid the indication that it wasn't in his head was when Dela's ears perked up and her feline features sharpened as if alert.

Faldrid thought her behavior was out of place in their camp, especially for Dela. He found his hand inching closer to his kukri at his waist.

Eventually the attoka around him stiffened and some gave off whimpers, which masked the footsteps, so that Faldrid didn't know where they were coming from until he was face to face with the source.

A young woman stood in front of him. She carried herself as if she had the weight of the world on her shoulders, and her most noticeable feature of hers was the eyepatch on her right eye, which was almost unnoticeable since the girl seemed like she wanted to hide it under bangs on the right side of her face.

As Faldrid found himself pondering what was under that eyepatch, his train of thought was interrupted by the girl's voice, which was full of chagrin, "They never did like me."

She looked around, searching for something, as the attoka whined and tried to back away from her. Though after a moment or two, one walked up to her. The look in its eyes was not one of care or concern, but of morbid curiosity.

She smiled at the sight of it and walked to it scratching under its chin. The creature seemed uncomfortable but allowed it.

"I've been looking for you."

At the sound of the girl's voice once more Faldrid caught sight of the saddle in her hands, as she started to put it on the attoka.

"---"

Faldrid started to make a comment, but the girl put her finger to her lips and stopped him.

As she finished saddling the creature, she mounted it and began to ride away. Faldrid didn't really know what to do. From the looks of her black cloak, she was a Hand, so she may be going off on an assignment that he didn't know about. Though on the other hand she could be sneaking away.

He shook his head thinking it wasn't his problem anyway. Although he couldn't help but think that the girl looked familiar somehow.

"I thought I would find you here."

A stern but sweet voice called out to Faldrid, breaking his thoughts. As he turned to see the owner of the voice he smiled.

Vale walked towards him nimbly, avoiding all the attoka in her way. The tenebrage didn't make much use of stables so the attoka were all just tied to rods that were close together in the middle of the camp, which made it a little cramped for anyone walking through the herd.

Vale carried herself in the same dignified manner she always did, and she had a braid that hung all the way to the bottom part of her back, her crescent eyes also shown with a sort of determination.

As Vale drew near, Dela started an attempt to lick her face.

She accepted it petting the attoka as if seeing a friend, she hadn't seen in forever

Vale started to laugh to herself, "It has been a while hasn't it girl."

"Looks like she still likes you."

Vale didn't take her attention away from Dela, "and why wouldn't she."

Faldrid gave a shrug and watched the two of them with a smile.

After a minute the two of them separated from each other, and Vale looked towards Faldrid, "So have you gotten comfortable with the others."

Faldrid gave a wry smile, "Why wouldn't I?"

Vale shook her head in annoyance, "Oh, don't be like that, you know exactly why. I doubt many of them even know your name."

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"Well, only if they asked for it directly, or kept calling me master." He said the last part with a sour taste in his mouth.

Vale closed her eyes and nodded, "So you didn't go out of your way to introduce yourself. How did they feel about your name, if you mind me asking."

"Some were eager to shake my hand, others backed away, and some rookies didn't make any connection. Why do you ask?"

Vale’s gaze drifted towards the ground, "Well I heard from Sadine what you said about Mortis punishing you. I was just curious if his original punishment was still being carried out."

Faldrid shook his head, "Hmm...well in a way I’ve been relieved of one aspect of it, but I don’t think my name will ever recover from what Mortis did to it. In that regard I don’t think I’ll ever be released; I can’t even imagine how you feel towards me."

Vale looked directly at him, with a newly lit fire in her eyes, "You know that I have nothing but feelings of thanks towards you. If it wasn't for you, I don't know where I would be right now."

She paused for a moment carefully choosing her words, "and besides the reason for the punishment was not your fault."

Faldrid's gaze darkened, "How is she anyway, Morta I mean."

Confusion spread across Vale's face, "You haven't talked to her even when we all were camping together."

Dela, sensing Faldrid's sudden turn of emotion, tried to comfort him, in which he responded with, "hey girl."

"I couldn't bring myself to see her again after all these years, after what happened."

Vale looked at Faldrid with sympathy, "It wasn't your fault. You had nothing to do with what happened. If anything, my sister and I are partly to blame."

Faldrid started to laugh uncomfortably, "'Nothing to do with?' I AM THE SOLE REASON SHE WENT TO THAT WRETCHED PLACE! You and Sadine don't even know what happened, so how could you be responsible?"

Faldrid started breathing frantically, and Vale backed away, surprised at his sudden outburst. It was a Faldrid that was alien to her.

He calmed down his breathing while Dela still tried to comfort him, "Let's drop it. I'm sorry for bringing it up."

They stood silently watching each other. Both waited for the other one to speak. It was a type of unbreakable silence.

"Hey, I have a question,” The silence was broken by Faldrid, "Do you know of a hand that wears an eye patch? One that seems too young for one."

Vale was caught off guard with the question, but she answered it nonetheless, "You must be talking about Thestra. Why..."

Understanding appeared in her eyes, "I guess it makes sense why you would want to know her, especially after what happened, but why didn't you just talk to her a few days ago."

Faldrid tilted his head in confusion, "What do you mean? I'm just asking because I saw her walking around. Is there a reason why I would want to know her."

Vale's eyes widened in surprise and then she put her hand to her head and chuckled to herself, "Well at least you haven't changed that much."

Faldrid didn't say anything, but just stared at her perplexed.

Her hand fell away as she continued, "It makes sense based on what Sadine told me about you harassing that boy earlier."

"You really don't have to leave me in suspense you know."

"Oh, you haven't realized it either? Faldrid, that girl, Thestra, was one of the survivors."

Faldrid simply blinked a few times, processing what Vale said, "Mmm, now I get why you were confused. Pity I didn't get to talk to her, but I doubt that she would have told me anything different than what Loutrin told me. Though there is a chance. But, how does that relate to me changing?"

"You never actually cared about the soldiers you sent into battle."

Faldrid's face turned stone cold.

Vale continued ignoring his change, "Well, not all of them, you did care about the ones you knew personally. Faldrid, when you talked to that boy did you truly try to console him, or see if he was alright. Well at least not in a way whereas it would be a tool to get more information out of him."

Faldrid looked towards the ground, "I can't afford to care about those who I send to the death. If that were the case, I wouldn't send them at all, and that means no victory."

Vale furrowed her eyebrows, "I understand that, but why do you keep digging? You already asked that boy what happened when we were at the camp, remember? If you really wanted to learn from your mistakes, I'm sure that Mortis would have lectured you about the mistakes you made."

"He did, and it was one of the worst lectures I have ever gotten. One filled with holes."

He picked up dirt with his hand and let it fly away with the wind. He then took steps towards Vale. with the same hard look on his face.

"Tell me Vale, how do three tenebrage survive that massacre, and with no wounds at that. That one, Umbren may be exempt from that due to luck, but the other two...they were found in those tents. I know you saw them too. I think surviving that requires more than just grace of Tenebrage."

Vale backed away and went rigid, "That is a dangerous train of thought."

Faldrid went on as if not hearing her, "Whatever happened that day, I will find that out soon enough."

***

Thestra rode out of the camp on the beast's back who had carried her for so long, and to which she owed great thanks.

She thought her plans might be ruin when she was spotted by Faldrid, but thankfully he hadn't asked her any questions or tried to pursue her

She was almost away from the border of the camp.

Once she realized this, she relaxed a little, "Looks like we're home free."

"Oh, is that so?"

Thestra was caught off guard and looked to where the source of the voice was, but had to squint to make out who it was.

Sadine looked at Thestra with curiosity, "so you really do have bad vision."

Sadine laid against a rock that jutted out from the ground, sharpening an arrow head in her hand.

"Mistress Sadine, why are you so far from the Hand's camp?"

Sadine gave a yawn, "I wanted to be alone for a while, but I could ask you the same thing. Riding an attoka at that."

Thestra turned away from the figure against the rock, "I'm leaving. I...I… need some time to think."

Sadine burst into a grin, "Deserting are you now? How fun, but I can't say that I would recommend that."

Thestra was starting to get annoyed, "Forgive me mistress, but I don't care what you recommend, especially when you use such a weapon."

Thestra spoke in a dry tone, and pointed at the short bow across Sadine's lap.

Sadine started to brush her bow with her hand, and gave a wry smile, "oh, don't be like that you'll hurt her feelings."

"I'm going mistress and you’re not gonn...."

Sadine cut her off as she put her finger to her chin, "You know you're lucky that Vale didn't see you, if you did, she would have shot you on sight."

"Even so..."

Again, she was cut off by her senior, "I do agree with you that we need to scout our surroundings more thoroughly, wouldn't want a repeat of what happened the other day."

Thestra looked down on Sadine with a hopeful glance, but she already had her eyes closed again. Thestra nodded and rode off in a hurry.

Sadine opened her eyes, which were filled with concern, "I wanted to be a nice senior, but how am I supposed to explain this to Vale. I could use the excuse I gave. That could work…. maybe?"