A cold breeze moved through the woods outside Valenor.
Barnett woke after a full day of sleep. The first thing he saw was the bandages on his shoulder and ankles.
Then he remembered.
He turned onto his side and started to sob, saying "Mother" again and again into the dirt.
Faye and Rem stayed beside him. Rem tightened the wraps around his ankles and shoulder.
When the worst of it passed, Barnett wiped his face.
"Where did you bury her?"
Rem pointed to a large tree not far from the camp. "There. I'm sorry we couldn't let you see her face one last time."
Barnett looked at the tree for a long moment.
"It's alright," he said quietly. "I couldn't have borne it."
Faye walked back from town carrying medicine and a bundle of food.
"Sit," she told Barnett. She went through each bottle one by one. Which to apply, which to drink, how often. Barnett nodded at all of it, though he was barely listening.
Vyvian questioned Barnett "Barnett. Do you remember anything about the fight with Charles?"
"No." Barnett stared at his hands. "I only remember him going for my mother. Then I lost control."
"Has anything like that ever happened before? You turned into a giant bird."
"Never. I don't remember any of it."
Vyvian studied him, then he reached into his cloak and pulled out the locket. He looked at it for a second too long.
"Here. It's the last thing she left you. Keep it safe."
Barnett took it with both hands. "Thank you."
He closed his fingers around it and said nothing more.
Later, the three of them sat apart from the camp.
"That form," Faye said. "So large and he couldn't even control it."
"It pulled the whole town off the ground," Rem said. "If something like that is out there, we are not ready."
Faye pulled her knees up. "Maybe we should stop. Go back to Sereneth."
Rem hesitated at first then he nodded slowly. "I don't like it either."
Vyvian stood up.
"So we back off? After everything?"
"Vyvian," Faye said.
"Barnett's power is the kind of power we need. We should be chasing that level, not running from it." His voice was rising. "Rivera is gone. Our parents are gone.....and you want to go back?"
"That's not what I meant," Faye said.
"Then what did you mean?"
Rem tried to cut in. "Calm down."
"I am calm." Vyvian grabbed his pack and slung it over his shoulder. "You two can back off if you want. I'm still going."
"Vyvian, wait," Faye called.
He didn't turn around. He walked into the trees until the red of his cloak disappeared.
Faye stared after him.
"He's always like this," Rem said, though he didn't sound sure. "He'll cool off. He'll come back."
Faye nodded. She wanted to believe it.
Night fell. Vyvian did not return.
They called his name through the woods. They checked the road, the edge of town. Nothing.
"We'll look again at morning," Rem said.
Faye didn't argue. They went back to camp and lay down, but neither of them slept well.
At around three in the morning, something small moved through the grass.
A snake, Vyvian had transformed.
He slid beneath the flap of Barnett's tent.
Barnett was in deep sleep. The locket lay beside his pillow.
Vyvian lifted his head and looked at it.
Then he closed his jaws gently around the locket.
He paused near the camp and glanced at them one last time.
Something in his eyes was reluctant, but he slipped out anyway.
Vyvian had never gone far. He had spent the whole evening in the same form, coiled inside a hole nearby.
He had seen something earlier.
When Barnett held the locket in that small house, before he transformed, the jewel had glowed a deep blood red. Vyvian had seen it pulse. No one else had noticed.
He needed to know why.
Rem and Faye packed their things. Barnett walked them to the edge of the camp.
"We'll find Vyvian," Rem said. "Maybe we'll go home after. Maybe he'll listen to us this time."
"Thank you for everything," Barnett said. "I mean it."
Faye smiled. "Take care of yourself."
They said their goodbyes. Rem and Faye turned to leave.
Behind them, Barnett reached out to check his pockets, his tent. his bedding, every corner, but there was nothing.
"No."
Barnett ran after them. "Rem! Faye!"
They turned.
"The family jewel," he gasped. "It's gone."
Faye frowned. "Gone how?"
"I put it beside me last night. It isn't there."
Rem went quiet.
"Vyvian was staring at it since the first day," he said slowly. "At his mother's neck. When Barnett held it. In the woods."
Faye's eyes widened. "Did he steal it?"
"But why would he do that?" Barnett's voice cracked. "Why?"
"I don't know," Rem said. "I really don't."
Barnett took a shaky breath.
"When you find him, please tell him to return it. It's the last thing I have of my mother."
"We will," Faye said. "I promise."
She said it firmly, but there was anger beneath it and hurt.
Rem looked at the road ahead.
"The river," he said. "If Vyvian went anywhere, it should be toward the river before Valenor, lets follow it."
Far from them, Vyvian followed the river's current deeper into the forest.
The trees grew thick and old along its banks.
There he found cave opening in a cliffside, half hidden by roots and moss.
He stepped inside.
The air was cool and still. Water dripped somewhere in the dark.
He sat down and took the locket out of his cloak.
Vyvian turned it over in his palm.
"What are you?" he whispered.
The jewel pulsed faint red....
-----
"People lose people the way a night loses its lights.
Some go out all at once, like a candle under a closing hand. The room is dark, and the smoke is all that remains.
Some burn on but turn to ice, like a lantern behind frost. You can see the glow but you can never touch the warmth again.
And some are carried off by their own hands, like a boat that cuts its own rope. The shore grows smaller. The boat does not turn around, because turning around might mean staying.
But the loss that hurts most is the quietest one.
It is the river that forgets its own source. It keeps flowing, and it keeps its name, but it no longer remembers where it began."