The ride was shorter than it felt. A full day, technically. Most of it Theodore spent asleep against the window, mouth slightly open, bellus curled in his lap like a second pillow. Cael went down too, somewhere past the second hour, head tipped back against the seat, hands loose in his lap for the first time since Arthur had met him.
First time Arthur had seen him look like that. Unguarded. He tried to remember if Cael had ever shown up in the novel and came up blank, which didn't mean anything anymore. Theodore probably hadn't either. Half the cast he knew now hadn't existed on a page he'd read, and the other half had existed differently enough that knowing their names felt almost useless.
