"Are you ready?"

Vito woke up, confused as always. In his dreams he was never blind, so waking up to a strange new world still made him slightly frightened until he remembered. He felt a hand touch his, and he relaxed. Necia was still there, it was her voice that had brought him out of the memory of a colorful world into this. He took a deep breath, forcing down unwanted feelings.

"Human, we have a long way to travel today and we need to get provisions. Are you ready to enter a village? I think it would be wise to do so during daytime. You will arouse less suspicion then, am I right?"

A smile tugged at him, her innocent question made him feel useful. She needed him just as he needed her.

"Well Miss, I believe you will be less conspicuous too."

"Me? I'm not... I'm very calm and nice," she answered, and he could sense that she really believed it.

He laughed, "...well, Sigyns in general aren't calm and nice in the eyes of Humans, I think you'll be judged by prejudices and rumor rather than by your pleasant red eyes."

"You're mocking me Human, I like that."

He was surprised to hear her sentiment, and couldn't help but laugh again.

After a rather scant breakfast consisting of stale bread and their last bits of dried meat they rode into the village. Vito's limited vision prevented him from assessing the state of the village, but somehow he sensed that it was a rather peaceful place. The sounds that reached him were those of an ordinary middle sized village with clangs from the smithy, squeaks from wagon wheels, and raised voices. The only thing lacking was children's laughter. The thought reached him before he had time to stop it and it left a very sour taste in his mouth. He hated to think about the lack of children, it gave such finality to it all.

He looked around, trying to understand what he was seeing, and after a while he thought that he could see corners and doorposts, something about the angles made it possible to distinguish them from the background.

"It looks like you've never been in a village before: staring in awe at everything," Necia said and chuckled.

He realized that she was right and smiled with her. "I'll try to be less obvious with my strange wonderment of this new world I'm in, but I can't promise anything."

"If you're the reason we get unnecessary attention I'll blindfold you for the rest of our journey. That would solve the issue of your white eyes as well..."

He only huffed in response, knowing that he wouldn't get the last word in this, nor was he likely to ever have it in a conversation with this particular redhead. Nonetheless, he did try to keep his eyes a bit steadier after her comment.

They stopped in front of one of the many doorways he could distinguish and Necia dismounted. "Perhaps you should come with me, I don't know how to bargain in this country," she said as he got off his horse. 

"Well, I'm not known for being a good haggler, but I guess I could give it a try."

They entered and he felt the peaceful atmosphere dissipate instantly. He didn't like the feel of this place. It was like something crept upon his skin, sending small warnings that he shouldn't relax. It smelled wrong too, almost as if they had entered a cellar or gone underground.

"Close your eyes!" Necia said in a hurried but quiet voice.

"Huh?"

"Just do it already!" she growled towards him, and that's when he picked up the seriousness of their situation. He heard fear in her voice, and his uneasiness increased. Necia took hold of his arm and steered him forwards, leading him like a blind man for the first time. He realized that he hated it. Hated how it made him feel like a burden.

-----

Necia fought to keep her composure intact. The poster hanging on the wall next to them showed a young man with white eyes, a wanted man. The same man she had her hand clasped around. The shock of seeing the picture was noted by the thin woman behind the counter and Necia could feel those cold icy eyes prying into their secrets. Worse, the woman shot them a smile that seemed to tell them that she knew everything. Necia bubbled with anger and tried desperately to keep it reined in. Aggressiveness would do nothing to improve their situation at this point.

"Welcome, what can I do for you?" the woman asked, her slithery voice somehow making the situation more disturbing. The only amending fact about this whole situation was the relative darkness within the store. Perhaps the woman would miss the color of her eyes. Hopefully they looked dark rather than red. Feeling apprehensive, she met the woman's impatient stare and she realized that it was time to respond.

"We are looking for provisions."

"For how many weeks of travel?"

The question put her on guard. She didn't want to reveal the extent of their journey.

"We are a band of many, Madam," Vito said, coming to her rescue. He then proceeded to list what they needed and she could see the woman scribbling down notes on a piece of paper. She only looked up when Vito mentioned medical supplies.

"We don't stock medical supplies, you have to visit the store down the street, the one with the green sign outside. Ask for Henry."

Then she looked down again, continuing to take their order.

As Vito ran out of ideas the woman looked up and stared directly at her. "You need to dye your hair and get bangs to shade your eyes. I have color in the back, I'll add that for free."

She startled at the woman's words, and didn't know how to respond.

"Why would you want to help?" she asked as she regained her ability to speak.

"A Sigyn in my store can only mean one thing, and that thing means that I might survive a few years longer than I expected. You could interpret it as me buying time."

Necia could only stare, dumbstruck.

"One hour," the woman said, and after that the she dismissed them completely, indicating that they should leave her alone while she tended to their order.

They left the store, and Necia couldn't help but feel a bit disoriented in the bright light outside.

"What was that?" she asked, not really expecting an answer.

"You tell me." Vito replied.

"Well, you're obviously a wanted man in this country. I wouldn't have expected you to be this famous, you're not much to look at you know. "

She watched as he gave her a little smirk in return. She liked that he was so easy to taunt, yet totally impossible to anger. She wasn't used to that. Her friends from home were a very touchy set of people.

"Well, you know, I'm a fortune teller so I'm a pretty hot commodity," he replied, winking at her. She just laughed at his confession. She had never heard of anyone being a real fortune teller, just opportunists who deceived their customers by silly tricks.

This was actually quite funny so she decided that she would indulge in his little story until he gave himself away. "You'll have to be more convincing than that. Or perhaps you have fooled the wrong people in this country. Have you told someone something that they didn't want to hear?"

"I think I'll convince you when the time comes, however, I'm not wanted for my skills, I'm wanted because I managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Fair enough," she answered, now convinced that she had been right. He was just messing with her. "...though it would have been nice to know beforehand that someone is after you as you're not the easiest man to hide with those eyes of yours."

"Ah, well, to be honest I didn't know of it. We left this country for yours just when things were getting heated. You are right however, I should have told you that this most likely won't be a pleasant journey," he replied, deadly serious. She was pretty surprised to hear the shift in his voice from humorous to serious in such a short amount of time. He had shown so little of that side so far that she had been unsure if he even had one. Sure, she knew of his sad side, but that wasn't the same thing.

"Don't worry, Vito, I knew from the start that this journey might turn out to be my last."

He stopped beside her and seemed to assess her with those eerie eyes. "You've never called me by my name before..." he said, and then the silence between them stretched. She saw worry and sadness in his expression. Apparently he hadn't expected that, hadn't expected that she was ready to die. His unsaid words made her self-conscious, she hadn't expected him to care.

She wondered if he could sense how uncomfortable she became, because he continued. "So, are you going to dye your hair?" Silly question...

"Well, obviously I need to, although perhaps my unusual color might take the attention from your eyes. I'll hate it," she said sourly, and this time it was his time to chuckle at her expense.

"I won't see it, so I won't be able to tell you if you're prettier or not."

"Silly Human, you don't know how I look anyway. I might be ugly as far as you know."

"I'm sure you are."

At that she only huffed in response, not very pleased at all.

"Did you just stick your tongue out?" he asked, and she answered with a glare.

"Nope, you are cute, at least on the inside," he said with a smile, and she couldn't really stay annoyed after that. She had started to like this unlikely Human. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, his whole expression shifted and he turned as white as a sheet. 

"What is it?" she asked. 

"She's hurting again..."

"Who?"

"Annie, she's scared."

"Vito, who is she?" she insisted.

"...the one we're getting out of a nightmare."

Necia didn't know what to answer. She hadn't known about this girl. He hadn't told her, but considering his expression she didn't know if she wanted to know more. She smelled danger, and she didn't particularly like that sort of thing despite being a Sigyn.