"These stones feel familiar," Tem reported as his staff tapped back and forth across the cobbles of the street. "I've been here before."

He could only imagine the look Gershwin was giving him. "Well, you're here again."

"There's a ton of people!" Kodavix reported brightly, yapping merrily about.

"You're going to give me a headache," Lenarvix complained.

"Shush, both of you," Murar snapped.

Tem couldn't help but smile at the three of them. They were slightly disfunctional, greatly confused, and easily preoccupied on the whole, but they made him feel needed. They were just puppies, after all.

And he could care for puppies well enough, even if he didn't exactly know where they were going or why Gershwin needed him anywhere. The man had saved his life. He felt indebted in him enough to humor him for a few days. After all, it wasn't as if he was needed anywhere. His schedule was largely free.

"They're staring at us..." Kodavix whispered.

"They're staring at me," Gershwin explained. "I doubt they've noticed anything weird about you yet. Like the fact that you're talking."

"Well, what else would we do?" Murar asked, the confused tone in her voice too sweet for Tem to contain. He felt the grin burst onto his face again.

"What you're so happy about, old man, I can't imagine," Gershwin sighed.

"Is it wrong to be happy?" Kodavix asked cheerfully.

"I'm enjoying myself," Tem admitted. "It's very different than anything I'd imagined previously for how I'd spend my final days. I never imagined wandering the continent with a pack of dogs, let along Runners..."

"Yeah. It's fantastically sympathetic and all that, I'm sure," Gershwin sighed.

"What's the matter with you? You're not your usual cheerful self," Lenarvix probed.

It was true. The last several days in the open, Gershwin had been bright, cheerful, effervescent even. Now, as they closed in on the city, he was nervous, jumpy, irritable. Tem wasn't certain which was the baseline, but he certainly hoped the norms fell on the cheerful version, and not the miserable one.

"I'm looking for someone," he snapped. "I don't think he's here yet."

"How do you mean?" Tem asked.

"Well, she's telling me that he's here soon, but how soon is soon, and how long we have to wait and where, I don't know. I can't let you alone. She's telling me that's the wrong answer and I don't trust you or your pack of hounds to riding without breaking necks or legs, though which species that would be, I don't know."

"I used to ride quite well, if that's any consolation for you."

"When you could see."

"Of course."

Gershwin was glaring at him. He could feel it. Tem sighed and shook his head, flipping his hair out of his face long enough to feel the sun start baking before the curls returned to their usual posts.

"In your defense, you get around pretty well for a blind guy. But I don't think you'd be too well on riding."

"If we were bigger, we could help," Kodavix suggested.

"If you were bigger, I wouldn't even say the word 'horse' around you, let alone consider finding one," Gershwin snapped.

"This man you're looking for..." Tem prompted.

"Yes?"

"What about him?"

Gershwin stopped walking suddenly. Tem turned over his shoulder to better listen. "What about him?" Gershwin parroted.

"Well, what's his name? Who's sent you for him? Was it this... Lady, you spoke of? The blind-deaf-mute? How can she send you after him, and why are you speaking of her in the present tense?"

Gershwin was glaring again. "You ask a lot of questions, old man," he muttered. "Now's not the time. But yes, she's who sent me. And I'm not at liberty to discuss any more of it."

"That's a little cold."

"How about we find an inn to shack up in for a while, and I go find us some keep to be earned."

"I'm perfectly capable of working," Tem sighed.

"Us, too!" Kodavix yipped cheerfully.

"I don't like the look on your face," Lenarvix snarled.

"I don't like where I'm sure I see this going," Murar sighed.

She could feel the wind tickling her hair across her twin's face. She could feel Kendra on the edge of her mind. She could feel the river's tide swell towards her knees where she knelt beside it.

Janice couldn't remember the vision, but the captivated way in which Kendra was staring at her seemed to guarentee that she had just slid out of one.

The little dragon, the little saa, blinked huge green eyes at her for a long moment. ~You okay, Janice?~ she asked.

"I'm alright."

~Who's Liam? Why were you shouting for him?~

"Was I?" she asked, dipping feet into the water.

She felt fish and plants from further upstream, but the water muddled it too much for her to worry about drowning. She felt stones beneath her bare feet as she slid in beneath the current. The river was shallow near the banks, but it deepened greatly towards the middle, where the current was stronger, but still nothing to threaten her.

She'd known how to swim since as long as she remembered. She didn't fear water, not like Water Oracles did. She feared earthquakes and mudslides and burial, but she didn't fear drowning. She knew she wouldn't feel it coming.

~I think he must have drowned,~ Kendra interrupted.

"I'm sorry?" Janice asked, blinking up as she swam, the water rinsing ages of grit and the grit of ages off her dark skin. It would be nice to be clean again, she knew, as she treaded water and simultaneously scrubbed at every fold of skin she had to free the desert sands, the city grit, the road dust. It washed free of her, and her head was clear for the first time since she could remember. She was empty and free and herself, all of her own self.

Except that little corner where she let Kendra stay.

~You're not going to wash me down the river, too, are you?~ Kendra asked, playing in the sand of the riverbank, letting it dance around in strange patterns probably out of sheer boredom. She moved the sand without hardly touching it, and Jance stared at her, delighted.

"What's that you're doing?" she asked.

~Practicing,~ Kendra said shyly.

"Practicing what?"

~I'm gonna learn sometime, so I've gotta practice,~ Kendra answered cryptically.

Janice boggled at her, until she was aware that there were little shining answers tucked away in the corner of her head where she let Kendra stay. They were brilliant and demanded attention, and just as Janice reached out towards them, Kendra turned towards her and smiled, brilliant green eyes disappearing for a moment in the grin.

Janice laughed, then felt something dart against her leg. She was certain it must be a fish, but it didn't feel quite right to be a fish. It was something that lived in the river, sure enough, but it swam weirdly, and she wasn't ...

There it was again. Smaller than her wrist but just as smooth, no fins or scales to swim with. It darted between her legs, twisted round her ankles.

She turned towards the shore, uneasy from this visitation. She kicked her legs, and it bit deeply into her calf.

She lost herself in a scream.

Fire tore through her calf.

And she heard her voice sobbing for Liam, whomever that was.