There was a very good reason Fox kept his face covered.
A good reason he never spoke of his family, didn't think about where he'd been born.
All of it had made him who he was today, but he hated all of it so much that just thinking about it plunged him into the darkness of rage and despair that he'd worked so hard to climb out of.
By the time Yuze had taken over, Fox had only felt free from it for a year or so and he'd been terrified of backsliding.
Yuze had been an unknown element, they hadn't really worked together during Yuze's time in the field and while Fox didn't doubt, he was the genius people claimed, that didn't mean he was good for Fox.
Over time, Fox had actually come to like the young First Eye. Yuze took his work seriously, was distantly professional with all of them, except Snake, but Fox was pretty sure that was more on Snake's part than Yuze's.
His ill-fated marriage aside, and Fox could have told anyone from day one that that relationship wasn't going to last, Yuze was so focused on work and Akemi was so ambitious, one of them was going to have to sacrifice and neither of them had been willing to do so.
Fox had seen ambitions doom much stronger relationships.
Still, he did feel a pang of remorse for Yuze who'd been so blindsided by its end.
In his more honest moments, Fox could admit he found the First Eye attractive. They weren't that far apart in age or in personality. Fox had a much harder time working with Snake then he did Yuze.
But Fox had sworn himself to his cause and he could not allow anything to get in the way.
Not even a good-hearted, lonely young man.
Someone exactly like Fox himself.
He needs to focus on something else. "Do you think the Princess means to destroy the Camelia?"
Yuze frowned, but then he shook his head. "I don't think she wants to, but I don't know if she really cares what happens to it."
"You said she saved it already?"
"She did. I didn't even know about the poison." Yuze sounded angry at himself and his own failure.
Fox had felt the same when he'd first heard what happened. That's there had been such an immense threat and none of them had known was crushing.
It was still crushing, especially to his pride, but the more he thought about it, the bigger threat was whoever had initiated it.
"Most of what little evidence we've discovered suggests Arnheim, but the last one in the Camelia was two hundred years ago. And the source of the poison was a pendant Yuze inherited from his mother."
"Who was an orphan from Tira-Lian." Fox remembered the brief. "It's a haunted place. The tribes avoid it."
"Which hopefully means we'll be unbothered while we search it."
"They say its cursed."
"Oh, revenge or love?"
"Depends on the tribe."
Yuze threw his head back and laughed.
Snake was going to be furious if she found out she missed it.
***
Under the stars, Eirian dreamt of that place again.
Wild magic and a glittering veil. The dragons filled the sky beyond the veil again. Huge beasts in such numbers that they blocked out the sun she couldn't feel.
There was no light in this world, she realized. Bright spots of magic and its reflection in the jeweled rocks. It made her notice that she didn't need light to see anything though. She had no issue picking out cracks and shadows, in spotting the others in this endless land.
She'd started walking this time. Away from the veil, following the road deeper and deeper.
Was there an end to this place?
The World of the Living was on the other side veil, but how far did the World of the Dead reach and why was Eirian dreaming of this place.
She walked for what felt like days and then kept walking, until she found an obsidian mountain rising so high she couldn't see the top.
There was a large cave, it entrance hidden in shadow.
And really, there was no reason not to go in, was there?
It was a dream. Eirian couldn't die in a dream.
Could she?
She didn't actually know.
But there was nowhere else to go, so in she went.
Inside reminded her of the tales of the glittering caves of the dwarves who occupied the mountains south of the Still Water. Miners who dug everything valuable out of the Earth and sold it to the world above.
Veins of gold and silver ran through the walls. Clusters of precious gems protruded from the floors and ceilings and Eirian followed them deeper and deeper.
She found him in what must have been the heart of the mountain. In a large room empty of everything except a gleaming throne of the same stone as the mountain.
The room was cold.
Or he was.
His power permeated the room and gave it the feel of a chilly winter evening.
His form wasn't entirely human, but it was humanoid, and she assumed he was male due to the flat chest. There were no defining characteristics, just power, fuzzy at the edges but collected and held together enough to have two legs, two arms, and head.
He hadn't moved when she entered, but as she inched forward his eyes opened and stopped Eirian in her tracks.
The were a bright, electric blue.
So similar to Eirian's own just in a different color. Like the other eyes she'd seen in those few she'd spoken to in her dreams.
"You are not supposed to be here." He said, a voice like gravel, deep and dark.
"Why not?"
"Wrong world, Princess."
"I got here, didn't I?" In his more melancholy moments, her father had often complained about Eirian's tendency to pick fights.
"You did." Thankfully, he sounded amused. Whoever he was.
"What's your name?"
"They call me Arrawn, princess."
~ tbc