As the wagon rolled through the hills to Stormwatch, Aria lay in Axel’s lap, still resting and recovering from her injuries. The poison from the arrows slowed down the blessing's ability to heal. Without Lyra or another blessed healer, it would take weeks for it to be pushed out, according to what Axel was told. Larimar was also suffering from this poison as every one of the enemy’s blades was coated in it, slowing down her healing, though she was using her water abilities to speed up cleaning out the poison.

  The sound of people began to filter in as the wagon moved nearer the main gate. Aria opened her eyes and investigated Axel’s own. She held his eyes for a long time before deciding to talk in a low voice, keeping it only to a near whisper so that Axel needed to lean in as the sound of the traffic outside made it hard for even Axel to hear her.

  “Axel, Aria has something she wishes to bring up, but you did not take it well last time,” Aria said, keeping her voice low. “Aria would like to bring Lyra into our flock as she is all on her own and needs a family much like you and I.”

  Axel began to open his mouth, but Aria placed her finger on his lips before continuing.

  “Aria has been talking to her these last few weeks, and she needs us, Axel,” Aria said as she kept holding Axel’s eyes, looking deep into them. “She lost her family as a child; she lost most of her adopted family when your friend passed, and her first partner betrayed her for their organization. I think being part of our flock would give her something to keep her from blowing away with the strong winds our lives have been.”

  “I know you love her and how she could not return it the way you wanted, and I love you.” Aria’s soft voice sounded soothingly in Axel’s ear as she pleaded her case. “We both love you, and that would make all of us a family. A flock is not all about everyone in a relationship but everyone being part of a family where love is given to members who want it. Aria is still your mate and will be until the Goddess calls us to paradise and even after, but Aria cannot see such a wounded fledgling without trying to help.”

  Axel held his peace as Aria had not released her finger from his mouth as she seemed to be just running off what had been held in for a while. Aria, still staring into Axel’s eyes, took a deep breath and seemed to go for the finish.

  “Aria also likes Lyra and can tell that there is chemistry between us,” Aria blushed a bit with this but did not break her eye contact. “While Aria is young, this feels like the right time to make a flock with me, you, and Lyra, but Aria is not sure if you are ready. If this timing passes, Lyra may drift away from both our lives as while we were talking before, she always brings up how awkward she feels being in the group with you and me.”

  “Aria has the feeling she may try and go on her own soon to relieve that sense of discomfort, which would be bad for all of us.” Aria then released her finger and smiled at Axel with a small smile. “Aria will let this go if you are still not comfortable, but the feeling of running out of time before Lyra leaves is there, and if you want to let this happen, now is the time.”

  Axel said nothing for a long while as the wagon stopped and joined the queue to enter Stormwatch. The silence lasted so long that Aria began to fidget a little from the prolonged impromptu staring match before Axel finally answered her.

  “I will not say that I am the most comfortable, but I will take your word for what you have been noticing as I have not been around her as much as you,” Axel said while keeping his voice low and gave a soft sigh. “You have my permission, if you even needed it, to court Lyra to your flock.”

  Aria shook her head at Axel’s statement, and a serious look came over her face. “This is our flock. While we are the only ones in it, for it to work, everyone involved must be happy for a new member. Without everyone being happy about it, there is only pain, and the flock would break.”

  “I am happy for you, and Lyra will be happier with you in her life like that, Aria,” Axel returned with no anger or sadness in his voice. “I have come to terms with the fact that Lyra could not love me like that, and you two have been like glue for weeks. I am only human, and it will still be awkward for me, but we were made to adapt by the Goddess. I will be used to it after a while. Just don’t forget about me when you are wooing her, okay?”

  “Aria feels like she is missing something, but the situation is at a critical point, and she will take your word that you are fine with her addition for now,” Aria said while keeping her voice low and slowly got up to kiss Axel on the lips. “Aria is also calling in the dual favor and going on a date tonight, then sleeping in Lyra’s room if she lets me.”

  Axel just kissed her back and gave her a gentle smile before shooing her off to talk with Lyra, who Axel had a feeling was already wrapped around Aria’s pretty little finger, much like himself. What Axel did not mention was he did feel relieved as he did not know what was happening to him with the memory issues, the crimson entity locked away in him, or how his proto core was working.

  Axel noticed at the end of the fight that he had only been in Berserking for about three to four minutes, but his core emptied. He was not surprised it was empty as he was pushing his core that whole fight, but it all of a sudden started filling faster than he drained it. Then there was the corruption gain, a boost to his regeneration for a time, and it activating again with his emotions without him consciously activating it.

  After Axel’s first meeting with and dream attack by his passenger, he had looked through the Vanguard's local library, but there was nothing written on his issue, at least in the documents he had access to. The only documents he had found were ironically through his memories from the Book of Silver Flame. This was the main tome at any church of the Goddess that held teachings of the church and various lessons on how to live in her grace while avoiding the temptation of the crimson. Many people were faithful, but Axel’s village was not hugely so. Axel had gone to the temple during the celebrations and even read their holy books when he was bored.

  These issues were the kinds of things that the church teachings talked about when someone was too greedy about power and the crimson overwhelmed one of the people. Axel had never heard of anything like that outside of books, but it frightened him. The thing that he feared the most was if he eventually gave in to whatever the crimson wanted, and it did something to harm Aria. Axel planned to journal about this tonight to the Goddess, but he wanted to have Aria focused on Lyra just in case the Goddess gave him news that fell in line with the church’s teachings.

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  What the church had written was that his core would need to be removed, and he would need to be quarantined for several years before he would be allowed to start on his journey again. If this did not work, then the person would need to be put out of their misery before their soul was corrupted. Axel knew that the first option would not work as the healers had informed him since he was too intrinsically tied to his core and would die if it was removed.

  Trying to get away from the more morose thoughts, he watched Aria and Lyra talking, which did give him a warm feeling inside as the wagon stopped. He heard Jareth talking to someone, likely a gate guard, which was confirmed a short time later when Jareth handed over the entrance fee and started the wagon up again a short time later. The wagon rumbled through the massive gate and into the tiered city.

  As Axel looked outside, he noticed several Skywhales floating near the skytowers with bits of cloud cutting through them. Axel still found it interesting that this city did not have a platform system like Greenhaven but was built more vertically with its large elevator platform. The city seemed to be built on top of itself back in the early times before the Goddess’s silence. Axel still marveled at how the ancient people before the Silence could build such large buildings that could last through so many years.

  The wagon moved through the city as Axel was lost in his thoughts, passing by merchant stalls looking for wares to sell, a group of cultivators selling what was left of the day's crop, or other professions calling out selling everything else. Axel saw a house of pleasure that had signs that all the staff had specialized powers that would bring someone to a new level of pleasure or allow someone who took a sense-deadening power to feel physical pleasure again for a short time.

  Then there was the mapping guild, a subbranch of the Guardians of the Storm, that was putting up a notice that they were recruiting for a survey expedition beyond the northern mountains into the unsettled lands to the north. Soon the wagon moved out of the busy area around the gate, pulled off the main street, and arrived at an inn called the Coiling Serpent.

  After arriving, Jareth turned to everyone and smiled at them, still holding his pipe.

  “Well, that was a successful hunt completed, and now I will need time to sell everything,” Jareth said between puffs of his pipe. “I suggest, Axel, that your group stick around and see if there is any ability that you want to gain in the trial here in Stormwatch. The people hunting you should need to take time before realizing that you are here and not out in the field.”

  “Uncle, me and Pearl are going to head out then,” Larimar said from the back of the wagon. “We need to book a train back soon so we can gain a power in Greenhaven and get to our new post, or we will lose it.”

  Pearl just nodded at this and added to her sister’s statement, “You can put our share in the merchant bank, and we will receive it later.”

  “Alright, but the deposit fee will come out of your share,” Jareth told them with a serious look but then motioned for them to go. Larimar and Pearl both bid farewell to Axel’s group, then grabbed their gear and left.

  “Let’s get rooms and clean up before making plans tomorrow,” Axel said while stretching in the back of the wagon.

  “Aria and Lyra are going to shop quickly before it gets dark,” Aria said while getting out and then leaned in to whisper to Axel. “I am staying with Lyra tonight.”

  Axel just nodded to this and waved her off before Roran and Sky climbed out and looked to be leaving.

  ‘I want to meet some family and connect with the hive to see if there is any information about your bounty or anything else we need. I should be back in a day or so,’ Sky sent through her mental link, but Axel could feel that there was more to it as she was also sending thought murmurs that Axel could feel but not quite hear.

  ‘Everything okay, Sky?’ Axel sent back, worried.

  ‘I want to solve an issue, but it’s not something you can help with for now. If I get the answer I need or one that you can help with, I will tell you about it when I get back,’ Sky said in an unusually serious mental tone still laced with worry.

  “I wish to make a vigil at the church tonight as I still have rituals to complete as I left quickly from home,” Roran said when he noticed that he had Axel’s attention. “This will be a night fast, so don’t book a room for me tonight, please.”

  Axel could only nod to this and watch his group scatter in three directions. Axel knew that the pressure his situation had placed on Sky, Aria, and Lyra with being trapped for weeks could not be good for them. Axel then walked in and rented a pair of rooms that were adjacent while Jareth moved the wagon elsewhere in town, a warehouse to safely store the hunt from thieves, and returned while Axel was eating a stew with fresh bread.

  Jareth then joined him with a bowl of stew, but neither man said anything and just enjoyed their meals in silence until Aria and Lyra returned to the inn. Both women held bags and retrieved a room key from Axel before dropping off their items and joining everyone at the table.

  After Aria got to the table, she started narrating her shopping trip and all the interesting things that she saw while Lyra reined in the exaggerations with quiet corrections but still seemed excited by the things she also saw that she had never seen before. The inn filled up and then, as time went on, cleared out as the story happened with Jareth telling tales of his travels over his nearly half-century of life as a merchant.

  When everyone decided to call it a night, Lyra and Aria headed to their room, and Jareth only gave Axel a raised eyebrow, but Axel just shook his head and headed to his room, much to a wry smile from Jareth, who went down the hall and entered his room. Axel, not feeling tired even though it was late, sat in a chair in a meditation pose and began to go over the day to make a journal entry for the Goddess.

  Axel removed his armor and boots to get comfortable for the first time since the hunting trip started. Axel also changed into some nightwear that breathed more and went through stretching exercises to loosen up as he had been tense for so long that it was beginning to affect him with jumping at shadows and making true awareness worse.

  Time passed as Axel wrote in his journal when his gravity anchor sensed a new point entering his room. Axel finished his entry quickly and opened his eyes but saw nothing in the dark room until a shadow darker than the rest moved like a puddle of ink to his bed. The shadow then consolidated into the form of a man wearing loose clothing that seemed to be wrapped with shadows deeper than the dark of the room but seemed to be surprised that Axel’s bed was empty.

  Axel then moved as he thought about what may be happening to Aria and Lyra if someone was attacking his room in an inn. Axel moved silently on his bare feet to attack the man from behind and then threw him at, then through the wall connecting his and Aria’s room but did not hear any sounds of distress as he followed, grabbing his halberd on the way only to arrive in the larger room to see a tall human standing wrapped in shadows, Aria seeming to be frozen while pulling out a dagger and Lyra moving in slow robotic movements to the man wrapped in shadows.

  There were also three others wrapped in clothing that hugged with shadows, including the person Axel forced to enter. As Axel moved into the room prepared to attack, his body froze as if his mind just told it to stop, but he could still feel the bits of broken wall digging into his foot.

  “Well, well, well,” a slightly raspy voice said as Axel froze. “You are, like always an unexpected variable, Axel. Well, Lyra, you will have a choice then now.”