Rem and Faye searched everywhere. From the Frozen Peak to the banks of the river, then back to the peak again.
By nightfall there was still no sign of Vyvian.
"Where do you think he went?" Faye asked. "I'm so worried about him."
Rem kept his eyes on the ground. "Why does he have to be this stubborn about something like this?"
Faye didn't answer.
"We should go back to Sereneth," Rem said. His voice was serious. "We can't put our lives at stake every moment."
I wish Vyvian were as understanding as Rem, Faye thought.
She nodded. "Okay."
But her eyes still searched the dark treeline.
Rem began setting up camp. His hands moved on their own while his mind stayed somewhere else.
Faye isn't the only one who is worried. I am worried too, when she said we should stop, I agreed. She was right. But that wasn't why. I just dont want them to get hurt again...i don't want to see faye sad especially...not after everything that happened to her.
Vyvian should have understood that too, afterall he went through all that as well.He isn't in his right mind, Rem thought.
"Rem? You okay?" Faye asked.
"Yes. I am."
The night passed quietly.
In the morning, Vyvian still had not come back.
"Let's move," Rem said.
"But Vyvian..."
"We can't keep holding onto him. If we do, we only get into more trouble."
Faye looked at the forest one last time.
Then she nodded and followed him.
Deep in a hidden cave, Vyvian sat alone with the locket in his hands.
The jewel pulsed faintly red.
Beside him lay the gauntlet Dan had given them. He turned it over and frowned.
"I need to figure out what this jewel does. And how this thing even works. I forgot to ask Dan."
He leaned back against the stone.
"Rem and Faye don't understand. Rem has his town and his grandfather. Faye and I have nothing. Our village is gone. Our parents are gone."
His fist tightened around the locket.
"And she still wants to go back?"
"I won't."
His voice echoed once through the cave. "I won't go back. Back to what? There's no Rivera. There's no house. There's no one waiting at the door." His grip tightened on the locket. "I stood in that village and I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even scream. I told myself I would never feel that helpless again."
He looked at the red glow between his fingers.
"So I'll get stronger. I'll find whatever sits above all this and I'll tear it down. Whatever controls this world, whatever made those monsters, I'll free everyone from it."
His voice dropped.
"Even if it costs me everything. Even if I have to sacrifice myself....even if I have to sacrifice someone else."
Vyvian stood and tucked the locket inside his cloak.
Further down the river, the water dropped into a waterfall. Below it, a pale mist hung in the air and led somewhere unclear.
"Maybe I'll find something if I follow this," Vyvian muttered.
He transformed and jumped.
The fall rushed past him. When he landed and let the form fade, he saw a faint trail running through the mist.
He followed it.
There was pain in his face.
Not the kind that bleeds or bruises. Not the kind anyone could treat.
It was the kind that settles deep and leaves a scar no one else will ever see.
He carried it quietly.
"Hey, you. Wait up!"
Vyvian stopped. A man's voice, faint, from somewhere in the mist.
"Who's there?"
A figure stepped out of the white.
Silver hair. A gray scarf. Long earrings.
"It's me. Chris. You were at the Luxen tournament, right? Do you remember me?"
Vyvian stared at him.
He remembered the unease he used to feel around this man. The strange weight in his chest is no more.
"Yeah. I remember."
"What was your name again?"
"Vyvian."
"Where are you headed, Vyvian?
"I don't know. I was just following this trail." He shrugged. "What about you?"
"Following a trail with no destination," Chris said, smiling. "That's unusual. I'm going home to Willow. Come with me, if you aren't in a hurry."
Vyvian thought about it. He had nowhere to go.
"Sure. Why not."
They walked together along the misty trail.
"You are from Willow then right?" Vyvian said.
"I'm not, really." Chris laughed. "I grew up in another small village. I moved to Willow for work."
"What kind of work?"
"I'm a merchant, Stones and jewelry."
"What about you?" Chris asked. "Where is home?"
"Far from here. I'm traveling alone."
Chris only nodded.
"Do you like Willow?", Vyvian asked.
"It's quiet," Chris said. "Big trees and slow days. Quiet is a gift if you ask me."
They kept walking. The mist thinned.
Willow appeared between the trees.
It was a small village built among giant trunks so wide that houses were carved into them. Wooden walkways wound between the roots. Lanterns hung from low branches. People moved slowly and quietly.
"This is it," Chris said.
He showed Vyvian his workplace first. A small shop of polished stones, raw gems and silver pieces, all arranged in neat rows.
Then he took him to his home, a wooden house at the foot of an old tree.
"Stay a day or two," Chris said. "I'll show you around."
Vyvian hesitated. Then he nodded.
"I have nothing going on anyway."
That evening, sitting on the porch, Vyvian pulled the gauntlet from his pack.
"A friend gave me this. I don't know how it works."
Chris looked at it. He turned it in his hands and ran a thumb along the metal.
"An artifact. I know how to use it."
Vyvian looked up.
"I can teach you," Chris said. "If you want."
Vyvian looked at the gauntlet. Then at Chris.
"Okay."
Chris smiled and handed it back.
"Then you're staying."
Vyvian stayed in Willow for two days.
Chris showed him how the gauntlet drew on his Qi and how to guide it. Vyvian failed at first. By the second evening, the artifact answered him.
Far from Willow, Rem and Faye were almost at Sereneth.
They had not stopped looking. They checked every bend in the road and every clearing where a red cloak might stand.
But the road gave them nothing.
Vyvian had never walked this far from home. He had never walked it alone.
Maybe revenge had blinded him. Maybe he had simply decided there was nothing left to lose.
Either way, a new journey had begun.
And this time, no one walked beside him.