"Valerian!"
Aurelion used a broken piece of wood as a crutch to haul himself up to the upper deck.
"I'm no seafarer but I'm fairly certain this isn't White Lotus Spring."
Kael released the wheel and walked past him.
"Strange. I could have sworn I followed the coordinates accurately." He said half-heartedly.
He passed two masts and vaulted a wooden crate before reaching the bow. The anchor was his height, the arms half that. He grabbed the shank and cast it overboard, pulling the ship to a violent stop.
Aurelion took a sharp step to steady himself, then looked around.
"Unusually thick fog. Steam, warm air, a low hiss." He narrowed his eyes. "Valerian. This looks an awful lot like ember moth territory."
"I must have read the compass wrong."
"Like hell you did." Aurelion scoffed and crossed his arms. "I'm coming with you."
Kael had already stepped off the side of the ship into the air when he paused.
"No. There's no need for that. I can manage alone."
"You're our best chance of steering this thing back and I'm not about to be stranded in this godforsaken place." Aurelion somehow produced a stalk of reed from somewhere and placed it between his lips. "God it's cold."
"Suit yourself."
Aurelion drifted beside him and glanced back over his shoulder.
"Valerian! Where are you going? Are we there?"
Yvette and Keiran appeared at the bow.
"Not quite. We seem to be off by a few dozen kilometres unfortunately."
"Piss fog." Yvette muttered. "I'm coming with you. I don't care. I hate this boat."
Kael considered it for a moment. "Can you fly?"
"No?"
"Then how exactly were you planning to get to land?"
Yvette placed her hands on her hips and thought about it.
"You could." She began. "Always carry me?" She finished, with an awkward smile.
Kael looked at Keiran.
"I don't know how to fly either."
Kael sighed and walked back over to them. "Grab my arm. Both of you."
There was probably some embarrassment in it but neither of them showed it as they took hold.
"Let's go!" Yvette pointed forward like she was directing a charge.
The ship disappeared into the mist less than a minute later, leaving the four of them alone in the fog, and the hissing that had been distant became considerably clearer.
Then random streaks of red and yellow began falling around them like a slow sunset coming apart. Wherever one touched the water a plume of mist rose instantly.
A dozen minutes later Kael was weaving sideways through the embers until land appeared beneath them. He set the two down and went over what he knew.
From what he had gathered, Rosalie lived somewhere further north, close to a small lake. He had a direction but little else. No matter how thoroughly he had looked, information on her was extraordinarily difficult to come by, almost as scarce as information on himself. He suspected the Royal Noble family had arranged it deliberately to protect her. Like Sir Corieve, the mortal who had crafted his military cape, Rosalie occupied a strange position in the Luminaire world. Her talent was in physical craft rather than Luminaire prowess, and she had cultivated it to a point where it had become something close to a status symbol. At this stage she could put her name on a fork and the price would climb simply because of whose hands had made it.
It was the particular kind of value people assigned to art. Baseless in a literal sense. Wouldn't a wooden fork scoop food just as well as one she had made?
"Where are we?" Keiran looked to Kael for answers.
"Not sure. We should split up and take a look around."
Aurelion gave him a sideways glance.
"Not a bad idea." Yvette nodded. "As pairs or alone?"
"Alone—"
"Absolutely not." Aurelion cut him off. "You and Yvette go north. Keiran and I will follow the shoreline south."
Kael's eyes narrowed.
He couldn't tell whether Aurelion was genuinely concerned for his wellbeing or whether something else was at work. At least he'd had the sense not to pair himself with Kael directly. That was both a relief and a concern. It suggested Aurelion knew Kael was wary of him and had decided not to push it, and someone who understood where the line was and chose to stay just behind it wasn't being cautious. They were being intentional. And the most likely reason someone in his profession chose to stay deliberately in your favour was that they wanted something from you.
"Fine by me."
The moment they were far enough that Aurelion and Keiran could no longer see them clearly, Kael took a sharp turn away from the shoreline.
"Where are you going?"
Yvette stumbled from the sudden change of direction.
"Come, Lady Yvette." Kael said casually.
Yvette stopped and gave him a look of mild horror.
"Ew. Just Yvette. Please."
She squeezed between two pines and followed him anyway.
"High ground? Not a bad idea actually. There's a tall tree not far from here."
As she said it Kael simply walked upward into the air using the Datum mote.
"Hey!" She made a sound of protest, rushed to the nearest tree and started climbing until she pulled herself level with him at the canopy. The mist was far below them now. She tried to shake the resin from her hands without success.
"Not that way." Kael murmured, scanning the horizon. "Not that one either."
"What are we looking for?"
Yvette hissed through her teeth.
"Someone."
"Okay but we shouldn't stray too far from Aurelion and Keiran."
Kael gave her an unimpressed look.
"You can always go back."
Yvette massaged her temples.
"No. Anywhere is better than that boat."
Kael nodded and started to walk down again.
"Arrgghh." Yvette groaned and climbed down.
As expected, the further north they went the colder it became. But with the cold came clarity. The water disappeared and the mist thinned with it, until the trees stood sharp and clean against a pale sky.
"It's quite beautiful isn't it?" Yvette said, her breath making a small cloud. "The north, I mean."
"Snow dampens sound considerably. The beasts here have evolved superior hearing to compensate. It's quite a lot more dangerous in that regard."
Yvette slowed half a step and gave him an unimpressed look before breaking into a smile.
"I asked if it was beautiful. Not if it was dangerous."
Kael pushed a branch aside and glanced at her.
"It has its charm. But I prefer lusher environments. Everything becomes monotone eventually in winter."
"So you're from the north then?"
Kael neither argued nor responded.
It wasn't late, but the sun was moments away from dipping below the horizon.
"We shouldn't go any further." Kael said quietly.
"Wait, we're not going back?"
"I'm not. But you can, if you want to."
Yvette sighed and shook her head.
"No, it's fine. Just tell me these things beforehand."
Kael walked past her to a rock with three trees spaced evenly around it.
"This should do."
He kicked snow aside until the moss beneath appeared, then crouched and stacked a small pile of sticks with dried moss underneath. He snapped his fingers and a small flame flickered to life between them. A rank one mote with no offensive power whatsoever, but it was enough to start a fire.
Yvette watched in silence for a moment, then looked around.
"We're sleeping on the ground?"
"Of course not." Kael summoned a miniature hammock and tossed it over. "My own recipe. You can have that one."
She caught it, slightly surprised. "What is it?"
"Try it."
She claimed the mote and summoned it. The hammock appeared and ropes flung outward from each end, fastening themselves to the surrounding trees at exactly the right height.
"A hammock?" She stared at it.
"Mhm. Probably the best one you'll ever sleep in." Kael said, summoning his own.
"You made this? Your own creation?"
"My one and only."
One might have expected Yvette to laugh. A noble's magnum opus was a rank one hammock mote? Laughable by any measure. But anyone with even a surface understanding of refinement understood how insane it was. Refinement Luminaires at far higher ranks than Kael had often never created an original recipe in their lives, yet it sat on almost everyone's list of things to one day achieve. So while it looked humble, creating one independently was enough to make you a subject of conversation, particularly at his age.
"Thank you." She finally managed, sitting down on it carefully.
When the fire had caught properly Kael walked over to a tree with a trunk as thick as himself and gave it a firm kick. A thunderclap followed and a mountain of snow came down as it tipped. He caught it, dragged it back to camp, and laid it across the fire.
Then he settled into his hammock and the only sounds left were the crackling fire and a distant owl somewhere deep in the trees.