We travel for what feels like many days with Sevius and his friends. They have three horse-drawn wagons full of leaves, which they call “dream leaves.”

If I count the “days” by how many times I sleep, then by the third of these “days,” the warm sun has chilled, and it’s fallen noticeably in the sky. Titus tells me that we are travelling “toward the cold night,” which sounds more poetic to me than he probably intends it to.

The huge road we started on has thinned out, and most of the wagons turn away toward a city called Therassus. We go around the city, and soon we are one of few groups of travelers on the road. It seems travelling into the cold night is not a popular choice. Go figure.

Sevius has been trying to make friends with Titus, but Titus has not been having it. He keeps trying to talk shop with Titus, but Titus isn’t interested. When I talk to him instead, feeling bad for Titus being so rude, Titus gets mad at me for it. Bond or no, I should still be able to have friendly chats with other men.

Sevius says that he got an order from his boss to turn around and not sell their dream leaves in the capital. He was pretty angry about that, as they’d just spent a very long time travelling all the way from the cold night to the capital, specifically to sell the leaves there. Then he gets into the capital, and there’s a message for him to turn around and bring all the leaves back.

I remember him describing it as: “Leaves are worth the most here, where the rich people live! One sack of these leaves is worth ten good horses in the capital, but in the cold night it ain’t worth a pigskunk.”

When I asked Titus what a pigskunk was, and if it was valuable, he simply told me he’d kill one for me once we reached the ice, so that I could try it myself.

There’s a tap on the wooden frame of the wagon we sleep in, and Titus just grunts. It must be Sevius again, trying to talk to either Titus or me. Agia–the female–has seemed angry with Sevius since we joined them, and I get the feeling he wants to make friends with us largely to avoid her.

Titus and I have fucked each other countless times already in this wagon, and I’m almost certain the others have heard us. Sometimes I worry Sevius will come knocking while we are in the act, but he always knocks and makes sure not to accidentally see just what is going on between us.

Sevius knocks again.

“The grunt I made means you can come in!” Titus shouts. “How hard is that to understand?”

It’s a grunt, I think to myself. By definition it’s hard to understand.

I elbow him and roll my eyes at him. “Be nice.”

“I paid him, I don’t have to be nice.”

It’s not Sevius who comes in, but Agia.

I’m fully clothed–in new, thicker clothes we bought from a merchant we passed by–and sitting up against the back wall of the wagon.

Titus is standing in front of me, putting himself between me and the opening, as he always does when he hears someone coming.

“What is it?” he barks.

“I think it’s time for us to part ways,” Agia says.

“I paid you to take me to the night,” Titus says. “I thought maybe you’d try to lose us at twilight, but it’s not even cold yet. I demand what I paid for, and nothing less!”

Agia sighs. “We’ve taken you halfway, so I’ll give you half what you paid back.”

“It costs you little,” I say, “To carry us! The horses are strong, and we weigh little compared to the dream leaves.”

“It’s not that,” Agia says. “We just ran into someone from Therassus.”

“And?” I ask. I don’t like sitting back silently while Titus handles everything for me. If I’m going to survive on this world, I need to be able to speak for myself.

“We don’t like taking big risks,” she says. “A strong, angry guy suspiciously bumming around in the Imperial forest with a strange white barbarian woman was why I charged you so much in the first place. You two had ‘risk’ written all over you. But it was still–all things considered–a small enough risk for us to take. That’s changed.”

“Out with it,” Titus says, “You impossible woman.”

I roll my eyes at him, but he’s not looking at me to see it.

“We got a lot of conflicting reports,” Agia says. “One says the Emperor has been killed.”

I grab hold of Titus’ arm and whisper into his arm. “It must mean the Magistros is dead.”

Titus nods, but says nothing.

“Another rumor,” Agia says, “Is that the Emperor lives, and that he’s looking for white-skinned female barbarians that smell more potent than any drug or flower.”

She looks at me when she says that. “You don’t smell special, but Titus sure acts like you do. The reward they are offering for these white barbarians is huge.”

Without warning, Titus grabs her by the neck. He shoves her against one of the wooden inner ribs of the wagon, and he squeezes her neck until her face starts to turn purple.

“Titus,” I hiss, pulling on him.

“She’s going to turn us over to the Emperor,” he growls.

I hear Agia gasp for breath as he lets off her neck ever so slightly. “I won’t,” she croaks.

“Why not?” Titus asks. “If the roles were reversed, I’d turn you in.”

“Sevius wanted to,” she says. “Turn you in that is. He said we should just go back to the capital again, turn you in, sell the leaves, and burn all our bridges with our boss. He says we’d be rich enough to not have to work again.”

Titus tilts his horns down toward Agia’s face. “Sounds like he’s smart.”

Agia shakes her head. “We make good, steady money like this. It’s a good life. I don’t trust the Emperor, and for all I know Elsie isn’t even the kind of barbarian they want. If we go all the way there to turn her in, and we’re wrong, our boss will fire us for disobeying orders, then we’ve got nothing. It’s a bad risk-reward, and I’ve going to have a kid to take care of soon. I’m not risking it.”

She puts a hand on her belly.

Titus finally backs away. “And Sevius?” he asks.

“Sevius says you are a total jerk,” she says. “And that you deserve it.”

Titus growls.

“But,” she says, “He likes Elsie, and I got him to see my side of the argument. We agreed on a compromise, which is you two have to make your own way. If the Emperor really does want Elsie that bad, then I’m not risking that Sevius and I get caught hiding you.”

“I can pay more,” Titus says.

Agia shakes her head. “If it were just about money, I’d turn you in myself.”