Natalie

“I don’t know,” Andrew mumbled. His eyes were transfixed on the can now. What little amusement she got from his misfortune was dampened by his expression. She should have ordered the thing sooner.

Nothing to be done about that now, if these indeed were the people Zac spoke of then she needed to finger out what their angle was. Right now they seemingly had the advantage, they gave no sign of recognizing her and Andrew. If this was the case then it meant they caught them in as natural a state that they could manage short of spying on them in their private quarters. If they just kept their ear open maybe they could unearth some vital information.

Studying the two again Natalie had to confess that they had a striking presence. It was a little intimidating. A strange feeling since she and Andrew used to often being the youngest hunters in any situation when navigating this world. During that time she quickly learned to not respect one purely on their age but their actions and how they conduct themselves, most times she found people’s actions lacking. The two newcomers were old enough to be their older siblings from she could tell. Some were around their early twenties, but something about them made her more self-aware. Was it her fascination with the people of the western temple that made the difference?

Pushing that thought aside Natalie took note of the open book resting on the table in front of the woman. Her pen hovered over the open pages as she talked to the owner. Words she could not read from her angle were already on top of the one page whilst the other side laid blank. This gave her a plan.

“Listen, Andrew, I got an idea,” she whispered over her side. No response, she frowned. “Andrew?” He was no longer behind her. Shocked, she turned back barely catching him walk on past her and towards the strangers. Cursing to herself she tried to pull him back only to pinch a part of his arm. With mouth agape, she watched as he approached them, picked up the can of grape soda, and offered to pay double for it.

Stupid, stupid fool! What in cycles name is he thinking!? Glass fell and smashed on the floor behind them which only highlighted the dead silents of the room. Natalie felt it went on forever.

"Did I take the last one?" the silver-haired man said, he gently plucked the can out of Andrew’s hand and regarded the drink with an odd frown before shrugging to himself. "Welp, finders keepers I guess."

"You can make a profit from a good find. Like I said, I'll pay you double for it." Andrew insisted. He looked like he was going to reach for the can again. Natalie almost got up off her seat to collect him.

"Going to an awful lot of trouble to procure yourself a drink." The young woman said. "Didn't the other options pique your interest? The strawberry soda is quite refreshing, lemon too if you don't mind its bittersweet taste." She was half swiveled around on the stool now, regarding Andrew like a lazy leopard may regard a fearless (or stupid) pup in her territory. Between the silver-haired man and this woman, Andrew looked like a child. Despite this vibe, Andrew still stood defiantly.

"You have way more options here than I do," he said. "For double the price of this drink I'm sure you can find something more suited for a man like yourself. So what do you say?" The silver-haired man stood there with arms folded and eyes closed as he nodded to every point Andrew made with a profound understanding. In the end, however, he gave a long-suffering groan before shaking his head.

"Even so I'm not selling, sorry kid." He finally said. With a sigh of his own, Andrew scratched the back of his head in frustration. With that, the man laughed. It was a booming thing that made some people in the tavern flinch.

“What?” Andrew said trying to stand straight. Still laughing the man shook his head.

“You truly only came over here for the drink, didn’t you?” he said. Natalie just shook her head. In truth, even she did not know Andrew was this desperate for the drink and she’d grown up with him.

“He is being serious, I read no other motive to him at least. Intriguing.” the woman said.

“He’s got passion that’s what it is!” the man chuckled with an approving nod. “You know Sophie when you set off to find these two I did not think much about it. But now I’m starting to understand your interest.”

“Flynn,” the woman, ‘Sophie’ said warningly. He blinked before mothing ‘oh right’ under his breath only he earns an exasperated sigh from his companion. With the way she looked at him, you’d think Flynn scared off a bird that she was stalking.

“Well, it doesn’t look like saying that is going to make them run off,” Flynn shrugged. Sophie just sighed to herself.

“Who are you guys anyway?” Andrew asked, earning him a look from the both of them.

“Doesn’t our clothing answer enough?” Sophie asked. “I imagine it’s why most of the room had gone quiet when we arrived.” she looked around to the still wide-eyed faces looking at them. Being caught watching they had reluctantly turned away and gone back to what they were doing. The serving man finally unfroze and scurried off to grab a brush for the broken glass. Andrew just folded his arms and looked at them with suspect eyes.

“Yeah well that’s not going to satisfy me,” he said.

“Whatever reason we came here for hardly matters right about now, you came to me with a far more interesting goal,” Flynn said, placing a hand over the grape soda. Gritting his teeth Andrew forced himself to look away from it.

“What does it matter anymore?” He shrugged. “We can’t reach an agreement so-”

“-So fight me for it,” Flynn interjected.

"Are you for real?"

"I'll stake my will as a knight on it."

"Over a can of soda?"

"Common, where's that passion you were showing earlier? I want to see how far you are willing to go for something you want. And yes even as small as a can of soda. Well, what say you to that?" Flynn said. Andrew fell silent considering. Natalie sighed to herself in annoyance. Of all the things to endanger himself for. She would have thought him better to fight over a can of drink but given the shocking way, he’d been acting right now since she dared not hold faith. Gritting her teeth, she approached the westerns. If they knew who they were already then she might get something out of this mess.

"Can I borrow your pen?" She said. Sophie regarded her with a raised eyebrow. Seemed like she caught her unexpectedly as well.

“But what about your friend?” she asked pointing a thumb at Andrew whilst keeping an eye on her. Watching Andrew stand in front of the hulking man she sniffed as she cut her eye from him.

“‘Friend’? He’s no friend of mine.” she folded her arm. Andrew gaped, Flynn, burst into laughter once again. Natalie’s face felt like it was going to burn to ash. Well, it served him right. He was not listening, and now she has to endure this awkward situation and be thrust into walking toward strangers. Whatever stupidness he’d roped himself into, she wanted no part of it. Better to forget him. “I only need the pen for a minute.” That made Sophie’s eyes frown even further but then she nodded handing the pen over.

"Fine, since you put it that way. Let's do this thing," Andrew said. Although she was sure that it was directed at Flynn, Natalie could not help but feel a part of it was pointed at her.

"That’s the spirit! Then let us head out and set the stage!" He replied with vigor before leading Andrew towards the tavern exit. From the corner of her eye, she notices Andrew slowing down by her as if he was about to say something, shaking his head to himself however he walked onwards.

"Just don't back out on your deal when you lose," he said towards Flynn before reaching the exit, Flynn chuckled at that. A brief moment later half of the people inside the tavern eagerly stepped out to witness the bout.

Natalie had rolled her eyes at the whole thing before going back to the map. A duel of honor was not unheard of. And with knight’s armor, one could battle at a reasonably hard pace without a big risk of death so long as they padded their weapons, but even so the risk of changing such a duel, with a stranger no less... What if they decide not to play by the agreed rules?

Well if he hurts himself then that serves him right! She’s not going to step out and watch over him, she’s way too busy to care. Getting a scrap of paper from the tavern owner she began to scribble down the words she’d been trying to piece together in her mind. Sophie’s long sigh gave Natalie pause, however. Watching the westerner wearily her penmanship slowed. Sophie realized that she was distracting her and flashed her an apologetic smile and shrug.

“Boy’s will be boys,” she said. She really was beautiful, Natalie thought. Grimacing to herself Natalie pushed that thought aside.

“I won’t break it,” she said carefully. “The pen I mean, I’ll be careful.”

“Not going to watch your friends fight?” Sophie asked.

“What friend?” Natalie bit off stubbornly. She got back to writing. Sophie went on as if Natalie had not spoken.

“Flynn can be a bit impulsive but he’s a good guy underneath it all. What you see is what you get with him so there is no need to worry,”

Saying nothing Natalie simply continued writing.

“I didn’t get your name,” Sophie picked up.

"There's no need to give it," Natalie shot back.

"And why is that?"

"Because, Emer, you already know our names." she looked up to Sophie for a reaction. Her eyes silently regarded her for a while before nodding to herself in acceptance.

"So you met with Zac a second time," they said. Natalie recalled the name 'Sophie' gave the information broker. He'd speculated that she'd given him a fake name so having that confirmed only strengthened her distrust of the woman. Sophie must have sensed this because she turned towards Natalie as she leaned in to explain but Natalie cut in quickly.

"I want to understand what you want from us, but not before I have something else out of my mind and on paper first." She said, If this location was where she feared it was, then Andrew...

"’ Us’? Thought you said you don't have a friend," Sophie smiled, chin on palm looking amused. Natalie just cut her eye from her, face heated. "So that means you're willing to hear me out, despite having reason to distrust me?"

"Pens are rare to come by, this one is well kept, and yet you entrust me with such a thing. The least I can do is hear you out for your troubles." Sophie’s smile deepened to this as she nodded. Leaning back to her seat she went on to flick through the pages of her book.

Meanwhile, Natalie put together the words in her mind from memory. As she got them out of her mind and onto paper her worry for what she will find it say grew. For Andrew's sake, she prayed that she was wrong, that she overlooked something.

~#~

Andrew

He stepped out into the cloudless sky, with his eyes adjusted to the sunlight he caught sight of the young silver-haired man standing relaxed with his sword hoisted over one shoulder. Natalie should be alright, with the two of them separated she could integrate the woman and get some answers whilst he can work out what he can find out by facing this fellow. It may not be much but some cross-comparisons could unearth something. Thinking about Natalie right now puts him in a bit of a mood. She did not have to be so dismissive when she said that she didn't know him, however.

"The names Flynn by the way." He said, a dry breeze pushed both their cloak and cape gently by their tails. A small crowd was gathering from out of the tavern with a few more slowing up by the end of the road as they saw the two of them facing off.

"I'm Andrew. Though I get the feeling you knew that already." Andrew said carefully. Flynn hearing this nodded his head in approval to himself.

"Sophie speaks of subtlety and all that stuff but that’s not my way." He confessed. “Besides, she found you now. And you know of us, for that at least I’m grateful.”

“You come from the west right? What made you come this far to find us anyways?” Andrew asked. Flynn shrugged.

“You're better off asking Sophie that stuff, I’m just here for the ride. What little I think I understand I'll likely blunder trying to explain. All I know for sure is that she’s confident that you and your friend are mixed up in some kind of Dragon empire conspiracy, she worries about war reaching our borders over a secret or something,” he said. Andrew frowned. He’d forgotten the last time Natalie actively suspected The golden Dragons for her misfortune. Flynn gave a dismissive wave of the hand. He was not like he did not expect it to be true but rather he did not care much either way. “Now then, about this duel.” Spinning his sword around in a flashy twirl he fixed Andrew with a sly grin. A gleam-like silver hue exuded itself around Flynn making his already imposing body seem larger. It was knight's armor Andrew knew but something about his seemed different.“Are there any rules I need to be wary of? I know most places train their knights differently from another and I hear dueling terms can change depending on where you are.” Andrew frowned.

"I thought you’d use this time to integrate me," Andrew said slowly.

“Do you want me to?”

“Cycles no! It’s just given all this I assumed you’d-”

“-Actions speak louder than words. In the heat of battle, as the glow of your knight’s armor clashes with another, one can truly understand another. Or could this be a thing only believed in my homeland?”

Andrew smiling to himself shook his head. “Have the same belief back in Null as well,” Pulling out his sword a dark hue-like mist coiled around his body like a second layer of skin. Flynn narrowed his eyes in ponder before frowning, intrigued. “And I have to agree with you on the whole actions speak louder thing.” Andrew never fancied himself a big talker, or rather he never considered his words to carry much weight. Often joking or keeping his true thoughts to himself. Andrew much rather talked with his actions, though with his sword and knight’s armor he felt that he could vent to express himself best.

"So besides disarming, yielding, or weakening one’s knight’s armor to win what other rules should there be?" Flynn asked.

"Any of us move past the length of this tavern then we lose," which gave them about ten or so meters to mess with. It was a fair amount but given his opponent size in comparison to him maybe he would need a bit more. Well, it was too late now. Flynn had already nodded to himself before getting into stance.

”With a sigh, Andrew got into stance also. He channeled his power along the blade in a way that padded instead of enhancing the cutting potency it prevented it from being able to cut anything whilst still keeping it enhanced against strong blows. As it is now it was no more deadly than the metal bat which was of no real threat to any competent pentagon knight using their power. This made it safe for sparring though it was very easy to change that harmless blade into a deadly one. All it took was a split second thought. That stood true for both of them. To Andrew however, it did not matter. Whether he had ill intentions or not meant little to him too. All that was swimming through his mind was until he fought another star; until he met Epimetheus once again he had no intention of losing. For that reason, he took this opportunity to prove that he was still of use to Natalie, that he will not hold her back another time.

Flynn charged in. Seeing the eager change Andrew rose from his stance a little shocked but disappointed that he would run in so ceaselessly. It reminded him of his own desperate run towards Epimetheus before he got stabbed, His lack of cool was why he’d lost the way he did. How that moment haunts him with regret.

Turning his sword flat side he concentrates his gale energy into his blade and like a great big fan swung it right in front of him. That caused a great gust of wind to slam the spectators forcing them to cover their eyes from the sudden sand storm. Flynn being the closest was blown away onto the hot sands that rained from the sky after being blown towards him.

Andrew tried to cover the distance between them and land a 'killing blow' to end the fight but Flynn parried it and rolled free just in the nick of time allowing himself to get back into his feet. Although he recovered it was as good as over, with him on the back foot, Andrew was not fool enough to allow him a chance to recover. Sending down blow after blow Andrew advanced on Flynn pushing him closer to the tavern’s edge. Given his relative size to his opponent, it meant that he moved faster. Seeing Epimetheus standing there in his place struggling to keep up only made him fight harder.

Andrew was close to pushing him off the edge of the agreed-on space until his knight’s armor around him began to glow an intense crystalline light. Weary, Andrew slowed down his assault to better observe.

What kind of affinity is that? Andrew was knowledgeable about all the other elemental affinities that were in the pentagon knight system. He was aware of each affinity's common style, the weapon of choice, and preferred method of combat. He’d even had a fair amount of experience battling with each of them. Out of all of the affinities, his one of darkness was rare to the point of him only knowing his father to share its likeness until recently. This came with its advantages. The biggest one was that no matter who he faced he had the slight upper hand with the element of surprise. Often in a duel, he was the one who they were trying to work out. But watching Flynn’s knight’s armor glow off of him Andrew could not help but feel unsure of what he's capable of.

Gritting his teeth he pushed on with his advance. A bit like the shackled warriors in the Nuzi village he'd just had to accept that this was a unique skill developed in Flynn’s homeland. But what did it matter? Epimetheus had powers he'd not seen anywhere else despite having the same type of affinity he got. Compared to him this battle hardly mattered. And with his opponent cornered it was time to end it.

Clenching onto his sword Andrew threw an overhead slash. Even if Flynn blocked it would hardly matter because he was not aiming to win by doing damage, Flynn’s feet were already at the very edge of the agreed-upon arena. If it slipped past the edge then the battle would be over. Instead of blocking or parrying, Flynn met Andrew’s strike with one of his own. As their blades met however Andrew was baffled by how unyielding the counterstrike was. Not only that but even though his blade was no longer in the way of his own Andrew’s strike was stopped dead by... something. Something long and thin withstood his attack preventing Flynn from being staggering from having to block it himself. Worst yet it freed him up for a counterattack. He'd trusted a stab at his center before Andrew could back away forcing him to block it with the face of his blade. The sheer power behind the blow was immense as Flynn threw all his weight into it and sent Andrew flying backward in the air. Crashing onto the hard sand-like ground Andrew toppled around and onto his feet. By the time he could look up it was too late. Flynn’s blade was pointing at his face. A look of disappointment colored his features. The match was over, Andrew had lost.

Dazed Andrew glanced over to the spot where the flow of battle got flipped on its head, what did he do to stop his decisive blow? He saw it better now that he was looking at it from a different angle, its edge was too thin and the surface too glasslike to spot the glass lime crescent shape that stood suspended in the air from a head-on angle. It was the trailing aftermath of a cutting slash Flynn made in the decisive moment but unlike his other strikes, this one stood there suspended as if frozen in time. Andrew thought it would remain there forever until it faded away the very next moment. He was careless. A part of him wanted to call foul-that he was not concentrating but he bit that thought down.

Overall the match was a letdown. Many of the people watching simply huffed to themselves and began getting back about their business. Panting lightly and swallowing back his thirst Andrew pushed out a weak chuckle and shrugged.

"Guess I lost," he said. "That was a pretty cool move you did at the end… what was it?" He did not care much in truth, he was just going through the motions at this point. He tried to keep his eyes on Flynn but something about his reading gaze prevented him. Flynn looked at him a little longer however and shook his head.

"Not like this," he mumbled, dropping his sword away from his face. Unsure he heard it right Andrew asked him to speak again.

"We go again," he said simply as he walked back to the spot they began. "Get ready." Baffled Andrew stumbled across his words before catching up.

"What do you mean 'again'? I faced you and lost,"

"Were you facing me?" Flynn asked. That left Andrew lost for words. "I offered up my drink in hopes to see what makes you tick, and I won't accept anything less than that. For that reason, you need to see the opponent in front of you first. So what say you, Andrew? Have I done enough?"

Andrew blinked. He knew what he was talking about. This whole time he’d been distracted with thoughts of Epimetheus, been filling up his mind about him and how powerful he neglected the strength of the man before him. Flynn must have felt it in his swordsmanship. It was an amateur mistake. One that could get him killed if he'd done it in a real battle. But this was not a real battle… no, that did not excuse his actions.

Gritting his teeth Andrew took up the same spot that he had in the first round. Some of the people who turned away from the fight came back when they realized that it was not over but Andrew ignored them. Right now he needed to get out of his head. But being aware of it only seemed to make it worse. He knew what to do but trying to do it felt counterproductive. It felt like his body was working against him, it was something that was simmering around in his heart back when he was sparing with the shackled in the Nuzi village but back then at least he was distracted by other thoughts like Natalie going off to bring the kids back without him. He wondered for a moment what he would do if he found out that she’d abandoned him there without a word of goodbye. It was stupid but there it was. With that issue out of the way, he felt better but with the daily nightmares. He thought he had it under control but now even a man who hardly knew him noticed. Andrew needed to at least find a way to be at peace with it and fast otherwise...

~#~

Natalie

With pen in hand, she wrote down what she had been mulling around in her head this past week. She only wrote down the first sentence she recalled picking up as a test run to see how well her guesses held up on paper.

You're go--g to kill me either w-y -o I mig-t as well go wi-- s--e d---ity.

After about three attempts she filled it in until it felt right for both initiation and the relative situation she found herself with the man at the time.

You're going to kill me either way so I might as well go with some dignity.

Given his predicament when she got there what she wrote down seemed the most logical. Given that it had been sitting in her head for a while now she admittedly was scared that she muddled it up with her own accounts. Even seeing the words in ink did not completely relieve her of that but none the less Natalie continued.

After bein- ba-k st--bed by Da-n le- me a- le--- take this sec-et w--h me!

With a little more confidence Natalie filled in the blanks.

After being back stabbed by Dawn let me at least take this secret with me!

The recollection of what Dawn said about sacrificing the remaining units that stayed behind before she found the man is what made her the most certain that she got this one right. It was her biggest proof that what she picked out of his mind was not her own wishful input. Though she was not sure how to feel about Dawn's inclusion being the saving grace.

She glances over the next sentence since it was his response to the test she did to confirm her new mind-reading powers at the time.

And tho-e tunn--- d-n'- le-- to T---n's C--ek. It leads to b-se in A-u- f----.

She fills in the blanks up until the last two words.

And those tunnels don't lead to Titan's Creek. It leads to base in A-u- f----.

Titan’s Creek was easy since she voiced it as a question to him back then. It wasn’t hard to find a location that could fill in the missing words she was looking for. It was the implications of what she thought that made her gut do cartwheels. Looking at the map again she tried to find a place, anyplace that can fill that blank. Any place that was not the first one that came to mind. Anywhere but there.

"Are you done?" The young woman asked beside her. Startled by her sudden presence Natalie looked up at her with widened eyes.

“The pen I mean, you’ve stopped writing for a while now, and I kind of need it back,” Sophie said sheepishly.

"Not yet, sorry," Natalie said, she smiled and hoped that it did not look as hollow as she felt.

Something about her made Natalie feel like her thoughts were laid bare before her eyes and she did not know how to feel about that. Maybe it was those searching eyes or the way she regarded her in silence. She caught Sophie’s blue eyes glancing briefly at both her blank and filled-in words with interest. It was as if the woman forgot that she came to ask for her pen back.

Natalie cleared her throat which pulled her eye away from her work.

"Intriguing." She whispered to herself in wonder as she gave Natalie some space. "Some kind of writing puzzle?"

"Something like that." She replied slowly.

Before she could continue however the young woman was already at it again, gazing at both the map and missing words.

"I'm sorry Emer-" Natalie said before being cut short.

"Call me Sophie." She said in greetings. Natalie just narrowed her eyes at her.

“You confess to lying to the information broker, I’ll admit that he’s a slime bag and has it coming. But how am I meant to believe you when you’ve proven to lie when needed?”

“I never lied to Zac, I gave him a half-truth.”

‘Half-truth’? Sophie read what was on Natalie’s mind because she continued to explain without prompt.

“Emer is part of my last name ‘Emerson’. It’s what I often use when in a formal circumstance, I would have extended him the same courtesy too, but...” Sophie sighed before taking a sip of her drink. After not saying a word for a moment Natalie prodded her.

“‘But’ what?” she said, Sophie turned back at Natalie as if seeing her there for the first time. With a blink, she frowned soon after before she continued.

“Zac sees people as puzzles to be solved. To him, the conversation is just a collection of data, pieces to hold onto for winning the game. He doesn’t just collect for his own game, he sees all pieces as means to building his own. And so he will collect information that is seemingly unrelated to his goals, you could say he’s a hoarder of pieces. Anything you say is logged for future investment. He’ll trade pieces he thinks will help you solve your own puzzles as long as it teases something of equal value for himself. He’s fair, but only in a biased sense. He’s willing to toe the line between truths and lies if he feels it will shake a better piece out of you. And he believes that all who approach him have pieces they value enough to keep from him and with his vast web of information he prides himself in exposing those so-called hidden gems.”

“Because of all that, however, it ironically makes talking to him without an ulterior motive counterproductive. After all, if your pride and occupation were to puzzle out people and fill in the lies they could feed you to get at a much greater truth, and you met with one who seemingly gives you the whole picture without any catch then what hidden motive would you think they had up their sleeve? What lies would you feel they told you, what bigger plot might you think your overlooking?”

Natalie nodded to herself in understanding.

“So you gave him the whole puzzle with a single piece missing to give him something to chew on,” she said. Sophie shrugged.

“More like with one piece ever so slightly skewed if we’re sticking with the metaphor. I was not want to play his game just to appease his nature but I did not have time to waste on making him trust my words outright, so...”

“You got what you wanted out of him whilst feeding his natural suspicion of others.“ Natalie said. Sophie nodded.

“It also worked as insurance on whether you’d met Zac again after I parted with him,” Sophie said with a proud raise of a finger.

“How so?” Natalie asked, curious.

“He’s the only person I have given half my surname to, everyone else I’ve been formally acquainted with knows me as Miss Emerson, he’s probably worked it out by now and is laughing to himself.” She said with all smiles. Natalie’s eyes widened as she worked out how she knew they met Zac again so quickly. She practically told her as much when she said half her fake name. Seeing that she understood Sophie chuckled as she raised her drink close to her lips.

“Flynn almost ruined it when he blurted out my name as he did but, well…” she took a sip of her drink leaving Natalie dumbfounded by what she explained. She thought that far ahead and worked out when they met with Zac all through the use of a single name. If this was not proof of the people of Hallow Peaks’ sharp and wise minds then she did not know what was.

“Speaking of puzzles.” Sophie picked up as she nodded her head at the sheet of paper Natalie had written on. Feeling her face heating Natalie forced her eyes off of Sophie and back to them hoping that her embarrassment of how well she outsmarted them did not show.

"I will be done in a moment, Miss Emerson. Just give me a little more time." Natalie said.

“Only on one condition,” Sophie said. Not trusting herself to speak, Natalie nodded for her to name her request. Leaning in, Sophie studied her a moment before giving her a genuine smile. “Just call me Sophie.” and with that, she excused herself before moving back to her stool. Natalie just blinked in awe, for one she felt like the stories of people met her expectations. She wondered if she could perhaps have that sharp mind of hers to look at what she’d written and see what she would say. A second pair of eyes won’t kill but would she dear, could she? She looked back down at the remaining infilled words on the page.

A--- f----.

She wanted to be proven wrong so bad but she could not see a second opinion to fall to. She knew all the reasons why she could be wrong. Although she knew how to read and write she was still a novice at it. It's only compared to average people who stand out in that aspect.

She was hoping that this factor was the reason why she had drawn her conclusion. An opinion forms one who was likely more versed in Kemish than she was. Her eyes wandered back to Sophie without her consent.

No, I’ll cross that bridge later right after I complete-

"Though I must say that is a rather stark word game you are playing, that last sentence especially paints a grim picture," Sophie said as she turned a page of her book.

Natalie in shock checks the last line that she had yet to fill in the blanks to with an open mouth.

My bo-y is c--shed and -or so-e reason I'm n--d-ad. It hur-s, I just wa-t the p--n to sto-. At l-ast g-ve m- that. L-t itend, let me die with dignity.

Did she really puzzle it out after only a side glance?

“And what does it say?” her mouth moved before she could stop it.

“‘My body is crushed and for some reason, I'm not dead. It hurts, I just want the pain to stop. At least give me that. Let it end, let me die with dignity.’ though personally between ‘reason’ and ‘I’m’ I think it would flow better if you threw in something. A comma perhaps? Did the blank likes also cover full stops? I could be missing something.”

In disbelief of her deduction, she pulled up the paper and pointed at the slightly tapered town name.

"And what about this part? Did you already deduct what it says?" she perked up.

Sophie, a little surprised, glanced at her before giving her a soft smile. She looked at the words that she was pointing to.

A--- f----.

She nodded carefully. "I’m guessing it’s. 'Aqua falls'. A lovely place with a great network of running rivers. At least that’s what I hear.” Sophie paused and looked at Natalie puzzled. ”The look on your face tells me that you'd already reached this conclusion." Her eyes narrow over to a scribbled over 'Aqua falls' sentence.

"But I can point out at least five other places on the map that could fit there just fine! It’s got to be another place!" Natalie said, she had to play devil’s advocate. She had to be overlooking something.

Realizing that she was shouting at the wrong person she simmered down bowing her head at the table. She felt drained, like something immense was pulled out of her and she was left with nothing but an open void. Andrew's not going to like the sound of this.

Sophie watches her with a worried glance off into the distance before looking back with a piqued sense of interest. Closing her book she leans her chin on her palm to observe.

"People say that you don’t bother to open up to anyone, that you only seem like yourself with the kids you’d saved so I thought talking to you would be harder," she said.

"And did you get that intel from Zac also?" she said plainly. Natalie should have kept her wits about but she was too far gone thinking about how to break this to Andrew to worry about Sophie.

"I likely knew of that before Zac knew of you," she said. Natalie studied her reaction carefully.

"What are you doing so far north anyway?" she asked. If she was going to get groundbreaking answers from her then she might as well get this out of the way now. Compared to what she will have to tell Andrew talking to this woman felt easy.