Three weeks, that’s how long they have been back with Lífdagar’s family. Also how much time they’ve been without Rakan. The day they left the plains to come back, Rakan had announced that he wanted some “dragon time”. Meira had wanted to stay with him, always reluctant to be far from Rakan, but even she had understood. Rakan is a dragon, not a person that can turn into a dragon, and sometimes he needs to spends some time in his original form. Kylem can’t imagine how hard it must be to keep a different body all the time, even if he is used to it.

The travel back without him was more difficult. Sometimes they couldn’t find wood dry enough for normal fire to burn. It started to snow halfway through the mountains and it was cold, very cold. Without Rakan’s warm, easy-going personality there was a hole in the group, with Meira continuously playing with her necklace, the one Rakan had carried for years and she now wore. She had wanted him to keep it, but he can’t keep it when he turns into a dragon, so they just switch it between them.

Kylem moves through the streets. He’s been visiting the Seidr a lot lately. He had never talked to her before, but she owns a lot of books, very old ones written by hand, and he has been reading them with her help. He knows there’s more to the stones and the Gods, but the explanations he has thought of are impossible. He only wishes he could contact Hiroshi, he must know the answers.

Kylem sees Meira and Lífdagar sitting next to each other. By the looks of it, they have been sparring. Gabriel must be inside, like most sensible people are with this cold, probably spinning wool or knitting. He has taken a like to it, Lífdagar is good at it too, they both say it is relaxing, but Meira had barely stood it for a day before she started looking for something else to do, and Lífdagar keeps her company most of the time. Meira is talking excitedly, flailing her hands around like she does when she is relaxed, and Lífdagar laughing, always comfortable with her.

Lífdagar makes Meira stop, and the other girl does before she reaches up and moves her hair away from her ear, Kylem sees it is dripping blood and immediately understands what is happening. It has happened at least once before, the last time she got a bit too caught up while wrestling with one of Lífdagar’s brothers and got one of her earrings ripped off. She had barely reacted to it and just told Lífdagar to hold the earring in place while she healed around it. It looked exactly like what they are doing now, Lífdagar holding the earring in place while Meira holds her hand on top, a faint light coming from it. One would think she would have stopped wearing earrings while training, but Kylem has lost count of how many she has on each ear.

He is about to walk over and join them when Lífdagar suddenly looks up and smiles. It takes him a few seconds to feel what prompted the movement and look up too. Lífdagar is the best of them at sensing the presence of other beings, and what she felt is probably very different to what he is feeling. That is. The presence of Rakan’s mind close enough to make a connection to him again.

The sky is completely covered with clouds, as it has been normal these days, with snow falling and accumulating almost every day. Between that and the sun lowering more and more every day, Kylem doesn’t remember when was the last time they felt direct sunlight. Probably when they were still north in the plains. It takes a few minutes then, for them to finally see him. First a shadow on the clouds, then Rakan coming down from them, finally making himself visible, letting out a roar of joy. He does a circle around the town until he sees them. The moment he does is pretty noticeable, as he starts heading down towards them. Head first. At full speed.

Kylem starts gathering the shadows around him, knowing well what Rakan expects him to do even without words. When he is at a height at which he could start hitting buildings, he turns, now a human freefalling at a great speed almost on top of them and Kylem sends the shadows up to slow his fall and turn him feet down. The moment his feet touch the ground Meira is on him. Rakan hugs and spins her around, both laughing, happy. After what is probably a bit too long they finally separate and Rakan turns to hug Liv too. Kylem uses the opportunity to take off his long cloak and put it around Rakan’s shoulders. The boy turns when he feels the fabric on him and with a smile he grabs the back of Kylem’s head with a hand, the other boy imitating his gesture, and they both put their foreheads together.

“Took you a while, I almost thought you had gotten lost.” Kylem says teasingly, when they come apart.

“Maybe I got a bit lost.” Rakan answers. Kylem lets out a huff of amusement. He can’t say he is surprised. “What is that?” Rakan asks, his voice amused. He reaches out with his right hand and touches Kylem below his nose. The other boy moves his face away from the hand.

“You will find this is called a moustache. Don’t touch it.” He says. Rakan looks at him blankly.

“I know what it is, but why? Did you lose your razor and can’t grow a real beard?”

Kylem rolls his eyes, “I just wanted a change of look.”

“I like it. Makes you look regal.”

“Makes him look old.” Meira says.

“He is old,” Lífdagar adds, “twenty-five next week, right?”

“I’m only four years older than you” Kylem says.

“As I said, an old man.”

They walk towards the house they are occupying while waving to the people that have come out to greet them. Rakan’s arrivals are never too discrete. The house is not far, so it doesn’t take them long to reach it while Rakan tells them about what he has done these weeks. Lífdagar is saying that she will go look for Gabriel while Rakan dresses properly when a shout makes them all turn towards the street again. Gabriel is dashing towards them. He slows when he is getting close, but most of his momentum is stopped by Rakan’s body when they boy slams against him and they hug.

“Hey” Gabriel says with a smile when they separate. “I was actually looking for you guys when I heard Rakan was back, I’m kinda hurt you didn’t come see me.” He says with a pout.

“They wouldn’t let me until I got dressed.” Rakan says. Gabriel looks down and then up again.

“You really need to learn Liv’s trick to get dressed when you change, although it will probably break a few hearts.”

Rakan frowns, and he is about to ask something before Kylem interrupts him. “You said you were looking for us?” he asks Gabriel.

“Oh, yeah. I got a letter for you guys and one for Meira.” He says, reaching into his jacket, under his cloak. He takes two letters and gives one to Kylem and the other one to Meira. “A messenger has just brought them, they are from two weeks ago but he got caught in a snow storm.”

They move inside the house. The fire in the centre is still going, weak, with not much wood left. Lífdagar moves to add some more while the others go sit around it, Rakan going to a wardrove to rummage for some clothes.

Kylem turns the letter on his hands and opens it. “It’s from the Apatya.” He says. He looks up at Meira. She is sitting at the other side of the fire, one of her knees up and her chin resting on it, her letter opened on her hand. She senses his gaze and looks up too, locking eyes with him.

“Mine too.” She just says, before looking down at her letter again.

Kylem wants to ask why she got a letter addressed to her, why a private one. He doesn’t. Lífdagar sits next to him and rests her head on his shoulder, looking down at the letter.

“What does it say?” Rakan asks while getting dressed.

“They say there were a few attacks on the Gulf after we left. Normal attacks by boat with no signs of Seoham, nothing that they couldn’t contain. The Hexian troops have mostly retreated for the winter- it hits specially hard on their side. The Council thinks they are moving south, to finally reach the ocean at the south.” He resumes.

“I thought they already had those territories?” Gabriel asks with a frown.

Kylem shakes his head. “They have some parts occupied and there is definitely a lot of Hexian presence but there is too much resistance for the territories to be considered part of the Empire. I guess they have gotten tired of the situation.”

“Why attack the Gulf then? Why not go directly south?” Rakan asks. He has finished dressing and sits down next to Meira. He starts lying down and she moves so he can rest his head on her lap, one hand moving to play with his hair, the other still holding her letter. Her eyes have not strayed from it for one second.

Kylem doesn’t have an answer, at least not until he turns his letter over and reads what is written on the other side, but he doesn’t answer, he just inhales sharply and reads. Lífdagar looks up at him, as much as she can while her head is still on his shoulder. She had stopped reading and was just staring ahead at the fire, but she looks down at the letter again when she senses Kylem going rigid.

“The soldiers saw what he did at the Gulf.” She tells the others after she reads it. They look at her. Meira looking up from her letter and Rakan opening his eyes that had strayed closed, Gabriel looking up from the small wooden figure on his hands that he is playing with. They are looking, but with more confusion in their eyes than anything else because, of course the soldiers saw. “Remember what we said that it wouldn’t be a good idea if people knew about Seoham? Apparently, the thing at the Gulf has finally made it click on peoples’ minds that one of the Kyusei is with the Hexians. The soldiers sent letters to their families and the word has spread.”

“Oh.” Rakan says.

“Well, now we know why they did it then.” Meira says. “Let me guess, people are having second thoughts about fighting the Hexians now they know a Kyusei is with them?”

“Yes.” Lífdagar answers. “The Council wants us to be prepared to move south as soon as we get word, they want us on the occupied territories to erase peoples doubts.”

“Well” Meira says, “it’s not like we expected to stay here more than necessary, right? Only we now know our next move.” She adds with a shrug before she looks down at Rakan with a smile “hey, Liv taught us how to ice skate, do you want to go do that? It’s fun.”

Rakan looks between her and Kylem and Lífdagar a few times before he breaks out into a smile and agrees, jumping up from her lap.

“Wait” Kylem says. When they look at him he points towards Meira’s letter. “What does your letter say?”

Meira looks down at it for a few seconds before she throws it in the fire with a shrug. “It was basically the same, maybe they were worried one of them would become unreadable with the storm.”

She moves to pull Gabriel up from his place, “come on, your are coming with us too. And you both! Liv, we need you as the expert.”

“I’ll go in a second, you three go ahead.” Liv answers. Her head is no longer resting on Kylem, but they are still sitting next to each other. When the other three finally exit the house, between giggles, they spend a few seconds in silence. Kylem is looking at the crumbling remains of Meira’s letter. How can a person be wary of someone while at the same time trusting them with your life? Meira would do anything to protect them, he knows that. But he also knows there are things she doesn’t share, whatever doesn’t go with what she wants to believe.

It seems like Lífdagar can read his mind, he sometimes thinks that he is like an open book to her even when others have said he is stoic and unreadable, because she says “I trust her.”

“I know,” he answers, “I trust her too.”

“What he did at the Gulf…” she trails off. They haven’t really talked about what happened, at least not in a non-professional way, like they didn’t know him. He notices, how the others sometimes are careful not to say his name in front of him when they think it will upset him. It’s ridiculous, like earlier. It doesn’t change the fact that he is the one they are talking about, that he is the one that did all those things.

“He shouldn’t have been able to do that.” Kylem says. He’s been thinking about it, it was just too much power. A single Marked shouldn’t have been able to do that, even if he trained, even if he is a Kyusei, it was too much.

“You think they have done something to him?”

“Or we have more potential that we think.” Even if he says it he doesn’t believe it. He can believe they have the potential power to do something as powerful as that but he doesn’t want to think of the consequences, the strain of doing it. Maybe the Hexians have found a way of enhancing power, some new rune and a particularly good Rune Maker.

“I should go with the others before they come back to drag us out with them.” Liv says, standing up. She walks a few steps towards the door and turns to Kylem. “I can tell then that you wanted to rest if you want.”

He looks up at her, at her careful expression and the tenderness of her eyes. “No, I’m coming too, I can’t miss Rakan trying to ice skate for the first time.”