By the cliffside that cradled Cotéfaise, the homes became more dense in their proximity to one another. With less openings into the center of town, their escape was a touch easier, because there were far fewer places to be seen. At least so they'd assumed, but it also brought the concern that there’d be little place to hide should the guards come that way.

Something which, of course, happened almost immediately. The ocean made a fantastic destination however, since it could be seen from just about anywhere in the town. They evaded the alert guards by ducking to the side of an apartment building and, rather than returning to the path, they just beelined for the sea itself, and bordered the coastline so they could make it to the docks.

“Why am I beginning to feel like our previous luck was entirely fabricated?” Tya questioned as she cast a displeased glance back, curious to know whether or not they’d been spotted.

“Oh good,” Melody said. “Not just me then.”

At that, The Man’s lips formed a grimace. He said nothing, but as Tya turned forward, she caught it out of the corner of her eye, and realized she was beginning to form a list of things she needed to ask about. Were all of these pieces that of the same puzzle, or did they each have a different one? The only way to tell was to put them all together, and her mother always said to form the edges first. The most basic outline, so she could find it easier to delve into the more difficult aspects.

That thought in mind, she skimmed over what she knew, and concluded that it was very little. Her corner pieces seemed to be The Man, Lillia, and Valya, but she was missing one. She did not play into this puzzle, not enough to find herself in such an important place. She was merely a support for the whole, but even those were important pieces she would need in the future.

Her back straightened as the rest of the support pieces came to mind. “And what of Sarobie and Skye?” She asked. The question slowed Lillia’s steps, but she wasn’t willing to come to a full stop. They didn’t have the time for that.

“I don’t know,” she answered. “The only thing I can think to do is speak to Amina, but Nisaki is right. We don’t know if she’ll arrest us or not.”

Tya hesitated a moment, sucking in her bottom lip as she thought that over. For as much as she disliked Lillia, she had to admit it probably wasn’t the best idea to have her arrested by the governing queen of Cotéfaise. But she was better than all of them, and if Skye and Sarobie were imprisoned, would it be a worthwhile risk? “Perhaps only you and Nisaki could go and ask?”

Lillia’s silence suggested she was considering that as an option, but Nisaki managed to find his voice before she could, hers. “What we are doing is kind of time sensitive.”

“There’s a lot of factors,” Lillia replied. “A lot. Veselin and Skye both being at risk on Evolian soil is very very bad. Mother risks starting an unwinnable war with Vousili if Skye dies.”

“I don’t think even the Sekan can withstand the Aikali.”

“Even if they can, the Aikali are so relentless the kingdom would be ravaged and even destroyed unless the throne is given up. They are already on edge.” She muttered, shaking her head in absence as she did. “I hate to say it because both he and Veselin are good people, but if I had to choose which country to start a war with, I’d choose Amalar.”

Confusion in her eyes, Tya said “Amalar is a country built upon peace.”

“Exactly,” was Lillia’s response. “With their current leadership, they are forming an army, but Veselin works under the Peacekeeper.”

The Peacekeeper, right. Tya had always thought Amalar’s entire government to be a precarious, odd one. She’d admit, she didn’t know much of the functions, and she especially had not known they had an army. But she had read about Peacekeepers.

Peacekeeper: The rank of most responsibility in Amalar, meant to be the level-headed judge and mediator of conflict throughout the country.

To have a single person be the deciding factor in everything seemed so odd, but Amalar stayed true to its tradition of peace and fairness all throughout history, even when the Sekan had first surfaced. They’d tried numerous methods to quell the tension between Banbhan and the citizens whom he blamed for his own folly.

“Peacekeeper Anhalia isn’t seen as the true leader of Amalar,” Lillia continued, drawing Tya from her thoughts. “And even if she had been, it would go against everything to start a war. King Kynev wouldn’t do anything about a dignitary’s death because it's not his dignitary. As much as losing the alliance with Amalar would hurt our metal trade, I’d rather that than a war with the Aikali Queens.”

While Lillia’s eyes had been trained on the docks they were approaching, her attention was skewed as she thought. Her hands had been engulfed by the sleeves of the borrowed cardigan, and she was pressing the soft fabric of it between her fingers from the inside. “I don’t want to sacrifice Veselin for Skye, though. Nor do I, Skye and Sarobie, for Veselin. I want to find them all.”

“But staying here any longer might get us captured,” Nisaki added, and Lillia continued his thought with ease: “and then we’d lose them and more.”

The docks, while worn with time and water, were kept in good condition as well as a busy place to be. Fishing boats bobbed on dark water as their owners carted off hauls or brought in equipment in preparation for whenever they may head out next. The thing was, with the docks, that people seemed to mind much of their own business. There were barrels and crates and muscular young men there to carry them. Ropes, racks, nets, bearded men stretching their backs as they peered out from the edge of the very end. But the guards seemed sparse. They were no doubt present- likely in places where they wouldn’t find themselves in the way of the workers, but the fact that they were so thin spread meant that they were allowed just a little bit of freedom, at least with getting up and onto the main pathway.

Wooden boards were built a short way off the sand to remain over the tide should it roll in. Sand was strewn along the walkway, but it seemed as if it was neatly kept for the most part. A long string of warehouses and storages kept back the view of the town. A tavern on the far end faced a wooden stairway up to the ground path that weaved through and out the other side of Cotéfaise. And staring at the tavern, was the wide two story dark wood cabin of the Portmaster.

The walkway split off into a few little docks, each of which were home to many fishing boats of various sizes. But only one stuck out far into the middle of the gulf to make room for a ship. That one would be the one they needed to board if they wanted a direct, quick path along the southern coast.

“I am guessing we aren’t going to risk buying our way on?” The Man spoke up. He’d crossed his arms, brow furrowed deeply as he looked over the busy heads of young workers stocking the warehouses. His fingers thrummed absently against his upper arms almost as if he was impatient. Much like Tya, he seemed to have a constant state of mild annoyance that he just lived in, though his was taken out with sarcasm rather than direct aggression like hers was.

“I think there’s the risk of being arrested no matter what we do,” Nisaki answered with a grimace. “If we sneak on and get caught we get arrested and they’ll figure us out. And if we buy our way on and get caught, we’ll get arrested.”

“Well then what’ve we got to lose by doing it the fun way?” The Man questioned. Judging by the looks of her companions, Tya was not the only one that couldn’t tell which one was ‘the fun way’. But with what she knew of The man, she would put her money on the illegal one being the right one.

Nisaki seemed less inclined to do it the illegal way though, because he huffed and searched his person for any coin he had, only to huff as he remembered that everything had been stripped from him upon their arrest. They hadn’t taken the time to grab anything on the way out either, fearing they’d be snatched up again if they did.

Much like now.

They really shouldn’t loiter, and Melody was happy to keep them from doing so. “Huntress fundssss,” she sang, though her voice lacked the true bubbliness Tya had heard in it before. She sounded tired, and this fact made Tya frown. They all had their merits- well except maybe Veselin, she’d yet to see anything in him worth enjoying- but of the whole group, she just actually liked Melody. Sure, part of Skye’s category of ‘enjoyable aspects’ included looking at him, but the biggest part of it was the fact that he seemed overjoyed to talk about his work, and Tya enjoyed listening. Melody however, she was just friendly. The way she carried herself pleased Tya.

Thinly veiled distress was something that had no home in the fox’s lovely, freckled features.

Hm.

Tya puckered her lips.

She hadn’t thought she actually liked people.

Melody counted out the dimes in her little coin purse, using both Nisaki and Lillia’s hands as her surface to divide them up into piles. She had a fair amount- more than enough to buy their passage, but she counted it all out of curiosity, wondering just how much they had to go on for the supplies they’d likely have to buy when they reached the port near Choudae.

“They’ll prolly have meals on there if we pay for the good stuff,” Melody said, a fang pressing at her bottom lip in thought as she looked over her own money. Gathering it all back up, she stored it away in her pouch and looked around to see if anyone had been paying them too much attention.

“Good,” Lillia said with a sigh. “I am starving…”

“As am I,” The Man agreed. She’d almost forgotten that his dinner that night had been interrupted. What was it then, working on the third day of not eating? At least they had water from the spring, but that was concerning. Her entire group risked dropping dead at this point.

“I’ll go to the Portmaster,” Nisaki clasped a few of the dimes in his hand, looking over the group to be sure this was a good course of action. He was met only with Lillia reminding him not to put his name on the manifest in case the guards came looking for such a thing. With that, he waved for them to stay put as he left.

Watching him leave, they stood in silence for a brief time before Lillia closed her eyes. Her back fell to press against a warehouse wall, and she shook her head. “I prefer we didn’t leave Skye and Sarobie.”

“Me too,” Melody said with a frown, stepping to lean beside her. “Maybe me ‘n Nisaki should go out tonight and see if we can find any signs of them. If the ships gonna be here that long, I don’t know how long it sticks around.”

“They cycle out,” Lillia answered absently, then failed to elaborate as she said “I think it would be best if Nisaki and Tya went.”

Tya’s surprise toward that suggestion left her tone entirely tactless as she said “why me?”

Lillia gave her only a brief glance before looking out toward the water again. Whether or not she had been fazed by the rather harsh tone she’d taken, she didn’t show it. Perhaps she’d grown used to the fact that Tya was abrasive and didn’t really like her, or perhaps she was too tired, hungry, and distressed to care. “Because he’s the safest to move about casually, best to avoid the guards. But the Sekan are still the problem. If he gets caught by them, they’ll kill him.”

She couldn’t deny the reason behind it, though really, she would have preferred to make the decision on her own. But The Man wasn’t subtle and Melody’s face was plastered right in the center of town. Admittedly, so was her own, but she had taken care to look quite a bit like everyone else in Evoles. The only difference being the absolutely striking ice blue of her eyes with the ring of orange melting into it, and that wasn’t portrayed in the black and white sketch. Her mother had said uniqueness would draw attention to her, but this was just the smallest touch that she couldn’t help herself with… She liked the way it looked. But so long as she kept her head down, maybe she wouldn’t call attention.

Though it wasn’t her face that would give her away so quickly.

She glanced down at her clothing and grimaced at the fact that she’d have to abandon some layers for an outing such as that.

“Fine,” she muttered. “I suppose that’d make sense.”