Something is going on, Liv knows it. Hiroshi and Masahiko left two weeks ago, just after the Rakan incident. The boys have not left the Kare the entire time. Howard has been receiving letters from the council, more than normally, and now… Now a man they had never seen before had arrived this morning and headed straight to Howard’s office.

Liv knows something is going on, that is why she doesn’t leave to the forest that day, why she goes back to the house once she finishes tending to the horses. She is not the only one who has that thought. When she arrives at the training room Meira is always at, she is not the only one there. Meira is sparring with Rakan, who seems to be having the time of his life, laughing and using his powers even though they have their weapons in their hands, and Kylem is sitting at a corner, carefully observing the fight with his chakrams on his lap. She walks to him and sits down.

“She has gotten better” Kylem says, not letting his eyes leave the fight. Liv turns towards them.

“She’s actually making Rakan not restrain himself” she states with a smile.

They continue watching them, it looks like they are even but then Rakan surrounds himself in his fire and Liv can feel the heat from where she’s at. Meira manages to stop it from hurting her with her powers but the next second one of Rakan’s hands is on the floor and he is using it to rotate and, moving through his flames, get straight to Meira. She doesn’t see him through the fire, so he hits her, legs first, and successfully pins her down on the floor with an exclamation of victory.

Liv claps and Rakan turns towards her, lifting his arms with another shout and the biggest smile, happy, until Meira throws him off of her now that he is distracted. She gets up while the boy whines on the floor and starts walking towards the other two. She doesn’t get far before the door opens and she can’t say anything to them. There is a boy there, one of the youngest in the house, his breathing is ragged, he looks like he has been running.

“Howard wants to see you” that’s what he says, and they all look at each other, they had been waiting for this.

It’s not only Howard in the room when they arrive. Charles and Elinor are there too, and the man that arrived that morning.

“Kylem, Lífdagar, Meira, Tirakan, this is Maxime, an envoy of the Council. Maxime, these are the Kyusei” Howard introduces them. The man bows to them and they answer with a smaller one “He came here to give us some instructions from the Council” Howard seems upset, far from the optimistic endeavour he normally has. Elinor has her lips pursed too while Charles is smiling.

“The Council has arranged a meeting with the Queen of Prunetzia, you are expected to attend the meeting with the Queen and the Council to arrange her cooperation in the future campaigns against the Hexians. You will then receive orders from the Council about what to do next.”

“You mean we are not coming back here after?” Lífdagar asks.

“Most likely not.”

“We will send Danai so she can make transporters linked to the Queen’s palace for you to take, it will take a few weeks so you can get ready in the meantime” Howard adds.

“Why don’t we just go?” Meira asks. They all look at her “I mean, we can just ride there right? It will be faster than waiting for Danai to get there and make the transporters”

“You can’t arrive to the palace filthy and looking like you’ve been travelling for weeks” Charles says, there is disgust in his face.

“It could be fun” Rakan intervenes with a smile, optimistic as ever “it can also help us prepare for what’s to come” Liv and Kylem agree with him. Charles and Howard turn to the envoy.

“If they insist, I can communicate it to the council and we’ll arrange everything so they can rest at their arrival”

“You have two days to prepare to depart then” Howard tells them “you can choose who you’ll want to accompany you on the journey.”

.

.

It’s just been a few days since the journey began and Meira is already regretting her idea. They are a party of six people. Liv, Rakan, Kylem and Meira are accompanied by Gabriel and a girl named Victoria, so they have a water creator and a wind changer. Howard wanted them to take more people with them but that would only make finding a place to spend the night in more difficult and they can protect themselves just fine.

Gabriel, as a water creator, is in charge of giving water to the horses and them, he also can make the water to cook when they have to make camp. Victoria has not used her powers much yet, but Rakan says she is one of the best fighters he has seen, and she is amazing with the bow, she has hunt for them a few times and she makes a great use of her power so that the animals don’t smell her.

Everything was going fine but that morning the sky was grey at dawn, the wind was cold and strong. They had thought that it would pass but at mid-morning it started to rain, just a few drops. They didn’t think they were that far from a village so they just continued riding. It was a mistake. The rain just got worse, and soon lighting started striking. Victoria’s powers could no longer stop the wind from hitting them, they couldn’t find a village nearby.

Their makeshift tent under Rakan’s wing is at least warm, and his body heat didn’t take long to dry the land and their clothes. It’s a bit crowded but at least they are safe from the storm, and Liv has turned into a cat so she doesn’t take as much space and is curled on Meira’s lap.

“I’m just saying I told you we should have stayed in the inn!” Kylem has been shouting for a while now, doesn’t make an effort to hide his annoyance.

“We didn’t know it would get this bad. We could have lost a whole day of journey for nothing” Meira repeats for the hundredth time, Gabriel and Victoria stay silent, clearly uncomfortable but not daring to step in.

“Storms are dangerous an-“

“Gods we get it, you don’t like storms, can you just shut up now and stop fucking complaining?”

Meira regrets what she said immediately, especially when she sees the look on Kylem’s face. He doesn’t say anything, only squints at her before he moves Rakan’s wing out of his way and goes out. Meira groans, preparing to go after him when Rakan moves. The dragon, lying on his side before, moves so that he is now lying on his stomach. It leaves them with less space, but it also makes it so that he can open his other wing. Enough for Kylem to cover himself.

Meira would have left after Kylem if he didn’t stay with Rakan, maybe Liv would have been the one to chase after him, because while they know that he sometimes needs alone time, they also know how he gets when there are storms. Meira has never asked why is it, but Kylem is never alone when there is a storm. It doesn’t matter if it’s during the day or at night, when the boy normally takes time for himself as the only one awake. When the lightning stars, Kylem always looks for one of them, goes to one of their rooms, and he just looks… sad. That’s what makes Meira regret her words more, knowing that they must have hurt the boy.

It’s a few hours until the storm calms down enough for them to come out from under Rakan’s wings. Liv stays behind enough to turn human again and get into her riding clothes, Rakan turning when she is finished and getting dressed without covering himself, as shameless as ever. It’s still raining, and even when the weather has calmed down it looks like the worst has not come yet. They need to find shelter soon. Liv moves to get the horses with Gabriel. She sees Meira going to Kylem, she’s probably going to apologize for earlier. The horses are thankfully where they left them, Liv hadn’t been sure if she would be able to keep them calm long enough. They start riding right away.

They are about to stop to cover under Rakan again when they see it. It’s hard to see with the rain and darkness the clouds bring but Rakan and Kylem are the first ones to spot it. There is a house in the distance, probably a farm, so far away from any other building, but as they get closer they can see the warm light coming from the inside, inviting, promising hot food and warmth.

Rakan and Gabriel are the ones to approach the door of the house, the others dismounting and holding the horses still. The door opens to reveal a woman, probably in her fifties, dressed in simple clothes. Her eyes open wide when she sees them, the boys don’t have time to say anything before the woman is rushing them inside and is calling someone with a shout.

“We are travelling and we were wondering if we could stay here until the storm passes?” Rakan tries to explain, the woman is not paying much attention to what he is saying though. A man comes into the room then. He looks at them surprised but he also doesn’t have time to ask anything before the woman is rushing him outside.

“Show those poor kids where the stables are so they can leave their horses and then tell them to come inside, they must be freezing with this rain”

Rakan sees the man walking to the others and taking one of the horses from Liv before he starts leading them towards the back of the house. The woman closes the door and leads the boys towards a living room, there is a fire there and Gabriel rushes towards it, extending his hands to get some warmth back on them, Rakan just stands in the middle of the room, heating and drying himself.

“What were you boys doing out with this weather?” the tone of the woman is reprimanding but she is moving to collect towels.

“We were travelling and got caught up by the storm” Gabriel tells her with a smile, showing his dimples, and Rakan sees how the woman melts right before she covers him with one of the towels. She moves towards Rakan with another.

“Oh, don’t worry, I can heat myself up” he refuses the towel with a smile, the woman looks sceptically at him for a second before she sees that the boy really is nearly dry by now.

“That’s a nice power you have there” she says, she’s clearly not surprised by him being a Marked, it’s pretty obvious that he is, with the Mark on his face, but still. She pats him in the head affectionally.

The others come in then, following the man, and rushing to the fireplace, much like Gabriel had done when they arrived, except Kylem, he stands next to Rakan so the boy puts his arm around him so that he can heat him up.

“Thank you so much, Ma’am, Sir, we’ll try to not bother you too much and will just stay until the storm passes” Liv says with a smile.

“Don’t be ridiculous” the woman dismisses her “we are happy to help you with everything we can. We have a bathroom with hot water, you can clean yourselves there and I’ll lend you some clothes while yours dry.”

“Oh, that won’t be necessary-“ Liv starts.

“It will. And I’ll prepare you some hot soup while you get changed. Maybe it will be good to clean your clothes a bit too, they are filthy after all the travelling you must’ve done”

They finally obey the woman and take turns cleaning themselves. They lend clothes to each of them and they are not the best clothes and don’t fit them perfectly, but they are warm and comfortable.

Gabriel and Liv move to the kitchen with the woman after insisting that they will clean their own clothes and that they are already doing enough for them. Rakan is the last one to bathe as he is the one less in need to warm himself. They clean his clothes and then move to the living room while he is in the bathroom. Everyone is sitting on the floor near the fire, blankets covering their shoulders and bowls with hot soup on their hands. Liv and Gabriel join them. Liv sits down next to Meira, she has the house cat on her lap and smiles up at her when she reaches out to pet it too, moving so they can share the blanket.

“What are you doing all the way here? And in this weather” the man asks. He is sitting on an armchair at the other side of the room.

“We are going to the Capital of Prunezia” Liv answers, she doesn’t elaborate more, the man doesn’t ask.

“You still have a long way ahead. You should rest here today, the storm doesn’t seem like it’ll stop soon” the woman offers. They accept, as she is right, the lighting is now striking every few minutes and the wind and rain hits the windows with force. “You can stay in our kids rooms, they are not much but maybe you can all fit in”

“Your kids are not here?” Gabriel asks, the woman looks at him with a warm smile.

“Our girl is studying medicine in the capital” the man says, he is clearly proud of it.

“And our boy was born Marked like you” the woman says, still looking at Gabriel “we took him to a Kare when he was young, so he could learn how to use his powers. We got really worried when the Hexian thing started happening, but he is okay, he still sends us letters whenever he cans. He actually looks like you, so adorable with his dimples and curls” Gabriel covers his face embarrassed, but he is clearly smiling too.

“Where is my shirt? I can’t fit in yours” They all look at the source of the voice at the same time. Rakan is standing on the doorway shirtless, a pout on his face and a shirt on his hands. They turn towards the old couple, their shocked faces almost comical. The woman looks like she is trying to find the words to say something while the man looks about to pass out. Rakan looks between them and the others with confusion on his face “what?”

“Kyusei” the woman manages to let out.

“Oh” Rakan brightly says, he touches the mark on his chest “yes”

The woman moves her gaze towards the others then, her eyes huge. Liv reaches up to her collar and stretches it down so that her mark is visible, Kylem does the same. Gabriel turns towards Meira, and she finally shows her own Mark. The woman gasps, the shock on her face only growing.

“You- Kyusei-“ she manages to get out “you are sitting on the floor” They all look surprised at her, Meira doesn’t hold her laugh.

It takes a lot of convincing for the couple to calm down. They try to give them their best seats and clothes, Liv has to tell them that no, they don’t need to sacrifice kill their best pig for dinner. They are good people and it shows not only in how they treat them when they know who they are but in how they treated them before.

Once the night arrives another problem arises. They insist that they should have all the beds in the house and that they can sleep in armchairs, it takes a while until they convince them to just sleep in their bed and leave them the kids’ rooms. There is one bed in each room but they are not that small. Their sleeping arrangement changes each day, in some places they all have to sleep in the same room, in others they can have two or three, sometimes they just sleep outside. There is a storm outside so they all silently agree to leave Gabriel and Victoria to one room and the other four take the other.

Sleeping arrangements with Rakan are always difficult, he mostly sleeps with Liv or Gabriel as they are the smallest of the group and Rakan’s shoulders take up most of the bed, Meira joins him in a lot of occasions too, she is used to sleeping with him. With the four of them in a room it’s difficult, but Kylem sits down on an armchair next to the window the moment they arrive, claiming that he doesn’t want to sleep yet and to just take the bed. Liv turns into a cat then and curls up on his lap while Meira and Rakan take the bed, trusting Liv with calming Kylem down.

It’s nearly a sleepless night, the wind and rain strong against the windows and the lighting so loud it feels like they are hitting right next to them. It eventually calms down, at least enough to fall asleep, but with the storm still the fifth companion in the room.

.

.

When Kylem wakes up he is alone in the room. The sun is coming from the window as if last day’s storm didn’t exist. Someone has moved him from the armchair to the bed, probably Rakan when they left. It looks like it’s late in the morning, he doesn’t understand why they haven’t woken him up to leave, doesn’t understand how he has slept so long. He sees Liv outside through the window, there are some crops outside, they look damaged by the storm but come to life as Liv walks around them, the owner of the house is walking around her, clearly flustered. When he goes down, Gabriel is with the woman on the kitchen, she looks absolutely smitten with him, he has that power on people. They don’t notice him at the door until the woman turns towards him. She gasps, surprised to see him there, but she quickly changes her expression, smiling at him softly and offering him breakfast.

She is nice, too nice. Kylem doesn’t really know how to interact with her, he leaves Gabriel to that while he eats in silence. It’s easy, being there, resting, but they can’t waste a lot of time so they prepare to leave, getting their own clothes and preparing the horses. They leave the house with a warm heart and enough food to last them a few days.