Just before the seemingly ever-present eastern mountains parted for good, there was a city. This was not just a big village. It clung to the side of a cliff and spilled out into a valley until it met a river cutting through, which was within view for several miles. Banners announced the city as Peynol before the envoy even set foot inside of it. The roads were paved with even stones, where a great amount of people walked to and from buildings that Ceallach could not even begin to guess were used for just by looking at them. In little towns it was easy to find a hut and know it was a home, or see that a wooden lodge was a tavern, but these buildings were all tall and uniform and similar. The only way he could figure out what they contained was if he found a sign of some sort, which was not always easy. He kept being distracted by tall, spindly structures that seemed to have birdhouses on the tops of them, but he could not find any birds or trees. It was all very orderly and somewhat lifeless in its organization.

On the other hand, Ark seemed unperturbed by the lack of variety in the scenery and the bustle of the people, waiting until someone noticed his presence and went to inform the local authorities. "As this is a larger settlement than our last stops, I will be a while in organizing my inspection," he said idly, almost as an afterthought. "But this place seems organized. They might even have written records about their wards. That would mean I would have to look at those, as well as personally viewing the wards in place here. I wish to save you some tedium...so it would be best if you occupied yourselves somehow."

"Such surprising thoughtfulness," Rowan said, though he seemed to be absorbed in looking for something amongst the buildings.

"Ah...well, a city like this should have a decent market," Sonja said, a hand on her chin. "It would be nice to spend some money instead of holding onto it..."

"Be sure to keep some in case we need it for later," Claire said gently.

"Yes, for other markets, of course!"

"More importantly, Peynol has a carriage station," Rowan said after clearing his throat. "And if our celestial friend says he will be busy with his business, we can see about changing our way of travel. Come along now, Ceallach. This way," Rowan said, tapping the side of Ceallach's arm. He was searching for signs, and the unexpected touch surprised him, but he hurried into the building the doctor was leading them into wordlessly. Inside, a clerk counted them and told them a carriage large enough for them would be ready for them before the week was out.

"We'll take the carriage for a few days, and we'll end up right in the village my contact lives by. Pricey, but safer," said the doctor. "It will save our feet a little trouble. In the meantime...perhaps we can have a look around while we wait for Ark to meet us?"

With the sun going down, people in neat grey uniforms busied themselves with opening the little birdhouses on the spindling structures and placing a small torch inside each one. Ceallach was surprised and a little disappointed when he realized the intended purpose of the structures - he longed to see a bird tame enough to be around people again.

The market square was empty and cleared, but the shops surrounding it were brightly lit and relatively busy. Most of the people out shopping seemed very well-dressed, with suits almost as decorated as Sonja's.

"This isn't nearly as big as I was expecting," Sonja said. "Isn't this a popular carriage stop and right on a busy river? Where are all the merchants?"

"Did you not grow up near a marketplace? I thought that Grove Keep would have supported at least a small village," Rowan said, looking up from a window displaying various mirrors.

Sonja bunched her shoulders closer to her ears, blinking several times. "That...is certain. But I haven't been to a market before."

"One doesn't need to visit it, exactly. Circulation should have naturally happened," Rowan gestured idly. "Did you never notice?"

"Well! You see, there was a curse," Sonja's ears were coloring. "And people went away after that. I never -- I hadn't --"

Sonja's evident discomfort made Ceallach uncomfortable himself, though he could not figure out why. "My impression of your father," he began, "was on the zealous side of protective...did he keep you inside all the time?"

From behind Sonja, Claire nodded. Sonja blinked at Ceallach and seemed to relax. "As a matter of fact...yes, the only area outside the keep itself I was allowed out into was the garden."

Claire cleared her throat meekly. "Anyway...even a frequented city has merchants come and go. They pass through on their way elsewhere. There are a few more cities like this one further north...so chances are they're further up."

"Oh well...the shops look interesting, regardless," Sonja sighed. Rowan excused himself to do his own shopping, leaving Ceallach with the two young women.

"I would have liked to see a real market as well," Ceallach said as they admired the display of a glassware shop. Along with functional-looking (but questionably balanced) pitchers and vases, it also featured several ornamental flowers and animals.

"Yes, it's a pity," Sonja said softly. "Is there anything you would like to have, Ceallach? I could pay you a little thing...how about one of these creatures?"

"Oh!" Ceallach started. "No, it's fine. They would break in my pack anyway. I was just studying their make..."

"For something so fragile, they look so solid and real," Claire said. "That dragon looks like it could leap!"

"Well, I could think of some ways to make it a little more fearsome," Ceallach mused.

"Oh yes, I remember you mentioned you're a metalcrafter. Have you ever thought of peddling your creations?" Sonja asked.

Ceallach pondered this for a while, then shook his head. "I don't really think I'd want to sell them...or make enough of them to sell. If someone likes them I suppose I could gift them one, but it's nothing, really..."

"It is a very impressive nothing," Claire said. "Some people are very fond of impressive nothings."

"Like these suits, for example!" Sonja pointed out a tailor that had a few wedding outfits on display, some of which seemed to have been made to use up excessive amounts of spare lace and ribbon. She spun in front of one of the dresses theatrically. "Here comes the bride...or so we believe. Once we find her inside this dress, that is!"

"Don't mock the work behind it," Ceallach tutted, and Sonja straightened with a chuckle. "I think they're quite lovely, as standing pieces."

"How so?" Claire asked.

That question caught him off-guard, and he was suddenly conscious of how long he had been staring at the tailor's creations. He looked away quickly. "Well...for instance...the way the ribbon travels down the body of that dress...and the embroidery on the suits was impressive? I think they could be improved by putting them together somehow. Or perhaps not? I'm not sure how it would all balance out. I want to see how it would look, though."

Claire tapped the side of her face wonderingly. After a moment, she offered, "For the sake of seeing the mess?"

"...A little. But that's just idle curiosity...I'm a bit hungry; should we track down Rowan for dinner?"

Claire and Sonja agreed readily enough, but finding Rowan was easier said than done. Out of the three of them, only Claire seemed to be able to properly orient herself in the streets, and none of them could figure out where Rowan had went. After about a half hour, they found him pondering his own reflection by an artificial pond in one of the corners of the market square.

"Food? Oh, yes, Ark sent word that he had secured us a place to stay and that we're to come for dinner whenever we're ready. I was about to get you."

Ceallach glanced at the pond to see if there was anything in particular that had caught Rowan's attention, but it seemed like there were only a couple of discarded coins. He then looked over his shoulder, for he had noticed that several people who passed them by slowed down as if they were looking at the group he was in. At first he thought they were interested in Ark, as people tended to be, but then remembered that the angel was not with them. The people did not seem to be paying attention to Sonja, either, but were rather staring at him. He shrank back a little when he realized this - he had been so busy gawking at shops to notice he was being watched with just as much interest.

"Is there any particular reason I'm standing out here?" Ceallach asked, leaning towards the others.

Claire looked back at him. "Maybe because you're tall?"

Sonja had a finger to her chin as she studied him for an answer. "Well, when you have your hair around your neck like that, you look like a lion!"

Ceallach bared his teeth and roared, sending the two girls away laughing. After Claire recovered, she said, "Actually, this is something I've been wondering myself...could it be because you look like a demi-blood?"

"...Demi-blood?" The term made Ceallach think of something...incomplete, and his stomach sank at the thought. He lowered his head.

Rowan crossed his arms. He was silent a bit, then lifted a finger. "I can see why someone might think that. That red hair, those orange eyes...it's natural that people in this region would believe you're the child of an elemental. A flame-born. They're very common in the far South, but they don't wander very far from home often. Seeing one or someone that looks like one away from the dunes is bound to draw interest."

"So you're saying...one of my parents was a fire elemental?" Ceallach lifted his hands and stared at his palms.

"I'm saying that's what people around here would think. I think your lineage is a bit more complicated than that, seeing as you grew up far away from the pole of fire...but I can't be certain." Rowan turned around. "It might be something you'll want to investigate after we take care of Aisling."

This new information occupied Ceallach's thoughts throughout dinner. He had never given much thought to where he came from or what his family was like, but after being given possibilities, it was hard to keep them out of his mind. He could scarcely remember what he ate because of it.

"What does an elemental look like?" he asked Ark later, when they were getting ready for bed.

The angel tipped his head in thought. "I've never met one...but from what I understand, they are shaped like people but formed of their element. So, a fire elemental would have hair of flame and skin of ash or obsidian. It's something that can be identified on sight, certainly."

Ceallach nodded and searched his memory for anyone like that. He came up with nothing. "...Do you think I'm part elemental?"

Ark put a hand on Ceallach's face. After a while he put it back on his lap. "I think you should believe whatever you want to believe."

Ceallach spent the last waking moments before sleep thinking about what his parents were like. He felt that the elemental must have been his mother, somehow...her burning features were not enough to deter his father, who despite the warnings of the other villagers longed to be with her. She would have tried to send him away, but in the end, she must have loved him as well. She would have had to hold her burning nature back long enough for them to be together...but if she loved him, which was certain, it would not have been difficult.

Her womb would have been warm. She would have carried her growing belly with love and care, not wanting to harm the child within in case they would not inherit her fire.

Ceallach had no idea how the child came to end up in a tower far away from such a loving family. He preferred not to think about that and instead dwelled on the peaceful image of a newborn curled in the arms of his mother while his father gently dusted ash from his hair.

----

Peynol was such a huge and dense place that even if Ceallach and his companions knew where they were headed, they would get lost among the streets and people. This was deeply unsettling for Ceallach, who, after getting stranded in the market square several times, silently wished that no one would send him out of his room for any reason. Rowan, however, seemed to have other ideas.

"Claire, you must come with me," he announced the day after they had settled in. "I will need the opinion of another northerner to help me find gear for everyone for when we reach Winter's Mouth."

"Oh!" Claire said, hesitating a moment before standing. "Yes, of course. I'll help."

Ceallach turned the doctor's exclamation over in his head. "Is it really so important?"

"Well, there is a difference between something that looks warm and something that can stand prolonged cold," Rowan said, holding the door open for Claire. "Style over function, you see. A fur coat may look beautiful but does little to keep one warm if it is not made properly. It's been a while since I've been here, so I wanted a second opinion." He seemed about to leave, then came back into the room. "What am I doing! Everyone comes too. You'll need to try things on and see how they fit."

Ceallach, Ark, and Sonja scrambled up to their feet and out the door at the doctor's insistence. They were herded into a few different shops before they came upon one that both Claire and Rowan deemed satisfactory. The shopkeeper seemed intimidated by Ark's presence and stayed behind the counter wordlessly.

"Do you need to protect your wings from the cold?" Claire asked, holding a jacket in front of him to eyeball its size in comparison to him.

"Yes, but what I have now should be enough. Our clothing is meant to be resistant to windchill. Here, like this," Ark said, stretching his wings slowly. He unclasped some fastenings on his outfit, freeing some flaps on his upper body, and tucked his wings under them. He shifted and reclasped the flaps, which took a minute or two, but when he was done, his wings were completely covered.

"I bet keeping your wings close like that keeps you warm," Sonja said with a light smile.

Ceallach walked in a circle around the angel and wondered why he had never seen him do that before. "...Is that actually comfortable?"

Ark did not respond for a moment. "It is a bit difficult to move around afterwards," he said faintly.

"Well, we don't want to have our movement restricted while we're up there," Rowan said, sorting through a selection of vests. "If we're caught in a storm, for instance, getting to shelter quickly can be the difference between life and death."

Freezing to death frightened Ceallach and he swallowed thickly. Claire laughed and held up a woollen undershirt. "You can keep wearing what you're already used to if that makes you more comfortable...but you should put something under it to keep you warm!"

Ark approached to feel the material of the undershirt and nodded. "Making holes for my wings might be a problem though..."

Ceallach noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and looked over his shoulder. The shopkeeper had started to tap her fingers on the counter after Ark mentioned having to modify the clothing. He turned back and took a fleece shirt as it was handed to him.

"You should try on some of these, Ceallach," Rowan said, tossing him some furred boots.

"I don't like shoes," Ceallach said faintly as he caught them in a free hand.

"I can tell. But it would be a shame if you lost toes due to frostbite."

"Frostbite...?"

"Basically, if any part of your body gets really, really cold, it'll stop working and turn a funny color. And then you have to chop it off," Sonja said while examining a pair of mittens.

"That can't be," Ceallach stared at the boots.

"That's about right," Rowan said casually. "I'm sure you would like to keep your body intact as we go into colder regions, so you'd best break your habit of going barefoot now."

Ceallach swallowed, sat, and tried to figure out how to put on his shoes. There was a bit of chuckling from the others, but then there was quiet. He spoke up to break the silence. "How long has it been since you were in the North, Claire? Or Winter's Mouth?"

The maid paused, idly folding a coat that didn't fit anyone to put it back on its shelf. "I was seven when I was taken to the Koljin castle...so it's been nearly ten years."

Sonja lowered her head and cleared her throat softly. It was silent once more in the shop, other than the sounds of clothing shifting. Ceallach frowned a bit at the fact that everything had gone quiet again. "What do you miss most about home?"

Claire closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them they were bright. "This might sound a bit odd but...I miss the meals!"

"Meals, really?" Ceallach tipped his head in disbelief. He had had some dinners that he thought were good or worth having again, but he couldn't imagine how food alone would be the something that someone looked forward to the most.

Claire adjusted an overcoat Sonja was wearing and stepped back to see how it looked. "I mean it! Meals got everyone in the family together. Especially at dinner...after the sun went down and it was really dark outside, but we're all warm and safe and eating. Even having to wait for the hunters to come back with the catch, which might take hours, and then having to wait until the food was ready...all the delight and anticipation was something I wanted to take with me. The whole thing." She arced her hands wide and held them out for a moment, as if gathering it all up, and then let them fall back to her sides.

"Did the hunters bring in all the food?" Ceallach asked, putting a forgotten shirt aside. Ark, Sonja, and Rowan continued to sort though clothing, but it was clear they were listening.

"Not all of it! Certainly a great deal, with the meat and the wild greens they sometimes brought back when they found them, but the women and children at home would be busy preparing the bread we'd eat along with the catch. It took the whole day, and the whole house," Claire gestured again. "It sometimes got so hot it hurt to stay inside! Which really meant something up there. I didn't mind it so much though. I liked to sit as close as I could next to the big oven..."

"Wouldn't that much bread need a whole lot of grain?" Ceallach leaned forward. "I thought Winter's Mouth was too cold and the soil wasn't right for it..."

"We got our grain from the monthly market! It was brought over from someplace east, like here perhaps. We'd take the wagon and some things to barter...cured meat mostly, though one of my aunts worked iron...then we would get these huge sacks of grain that we could barely lift, even with all my cousins working together. Every time we got back to the house I'd want to push the sacks down the hill..."

"Don't people do that with cheeses?" Sonja asked over her shoulder.

Ceallach suddenly imagined a giant wheel of cheese barreling down an incline with a person struggling to keep up with it nearby, or even on top of it. It was so absurd he laughed.

"No, really! My father used to do it in the spring with all the servants in the castle. He'd throw a cheese down a hill towards the river and had them run after it, and whoever caught it got to keep the cheese."

Claire nodded and giggled behind her hands. "That was kind of silly..."

"And what if the cheese went into the river?" Ceallach tried to cover any more laughter with a cough.

"What about if it went into the river? It's still a cheese!"

"I hope it was a hard cheese," Rowan said idly while he tightened a jacket strap around Ark's waist. The angel looked less than pleased.

"Of course it was! If it was a soft cheese it would just -" Sonja clapped her hands together. "It wouldn't be much of a run if that happened."

"So did you ever do that with your sacks of grain?" Ark stretched a wing towards Claire, as his arms were busy being shifted around in the jacket by Rowan.

"Oh no! We could never afford to do that," Claire clasped her hands together. "If a sack went down the hill, it might spill and scatter all the grain. It was just a silly thought that I had anyway..." She put her hands to her mouth in a meek kind of guilt. "We had so many mouths to feed, we'd have used up all the grain we bought in one big meal! It was a special festival food because we could only get it around market time. It was such fun putting things inside of it..."

Ceallach, who had bread at every meal in the tower, felt his happiness dampened when he heard that something as simple as that was considered a festival food. He reached for an undershirt that seemed to be his size to try it on. The shopkeeper had stopped drumming her fingers on the counter.

Within the hour, they had found enough clothing to satisfy both Rowan and Claire's expectations, so they made preparations to pay. There was a slight problem: the amount of clothing they had to buy was bound to cost a fair bit, and even Sonja hesitated at the eventual cost.

Ark seemed like he was on the brink of cursing. "I would hate to make demands," he said softly, so the shopkeeper couldn't hear.

"An envoy has the right to invoke their title instead of paying," Rowan raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that it's wise," the angel said between clenched teeth. "Most especially if there's a large sum that's dismissed like this."

Claire wrung her hands. Ceallach looked around. "We'll be staying here a few days anyway, right? I can ask if there's a way I can help out here, or find some work somewhere else."

The shopkeeper seemed to liven up at that. "Actually, we were thinking of rebuilding our attic...it's quite run-down, and we've just never had the time. If you could patch it up for us, I could arrange a deal."

Ceallach was pleased to be able to do some more construction, so he agreed and spent the next couple of days strengthening the boarding in the attic. It was dusty and a bit lonely, but at least he was occupied, and the shopkeepers were friendly enough to give him fruit often. There were plenty of nails that were too feeble to be reused, so Ceallach amused himself by molding them into dragon heads that he drove into the wood.

----

The carriage arrived late in the morning, but the envoy was ready and waiting at the little station since sunup at Rowan's insistence. It was a welcome relief, to be riding instead of walking, for the first hour or so, but it wasn't long before Ceallach began to ache for actual motion. He could barely shift, as packed as the carriage was. A few other people were with them, as well as everyone's luggage, so getting up and crossing from wall to wall to stretch was not an option. All he could do was sit and stew in discomfort. It didn't help that his head kept bumping against the roof of the carriage, either. He did not want to speak up and disturb anyone, but a low, displeased sound started to come out of his throat anyway.

Rowan leaned in and spoke quietly. "Just a little longer."

"I wish I had brought something to read," Ceallach said under his breath.

"Try to rest, if nothing else."

The other three had no problems falling asleep during the trip, and would do so quickly and often, no matter how many stops they made. The shaking and rattling of the carriage and the crunching of snow made it impossible for Ceallach to even pretend to sleep, so he gazed out the window and watched trees and hills roll by.

"Rowan?"

"Yes? What is it?"

Ceallach looked at the other out of the corner of his eye. "...Why is it that you're going out of your way to help me out so much?"

The doctor blinked a few times before answering. "You are part of a celestial envoy. It is the duty of the citizens to help celestials and whomever they travel with."

Ceallach didn't respond.

"To be honest, there are times I wonder about you being an envoy," Rowan sat back and crossed his arms. "But I want to help you anyway. You are a good young man, and you want to cure Aisling, no matter where it will take you. I've seen quite a few things in my lifetime, but nothing like you."

Ceallach turned this over in his head, then said, "You could have just...told me and Ark where to go. Why make the journey along with us, spend your money, put yourself in danger even?"

Rowan looked out the window for a moment. "Your friend Aisling," he said, "is going to do me a great favor when she wakes. I can spare a few expenses to make sure you find what you need in order for her to get better."

Ceallach shifted so he faced the doctor. "What do you mean? What favor?"

Rowan turned and smiled, but it was not a threatening or untrustworthy one. "She will end my wandering. That is all."

Ceallach opened his mouth to protest, but sat back quietly after searching the other's expression. "Alright then."