#wojian

Ashveil cracked an eye open from the nap he and Elio had been taking, the smaller man sprawled atop him like a weighted blanket (that sure as hell was outrageously expensive), a soft sound uttered as he shifted beneath the seer and fully opened his eyes. A hand soothed along Elio's back, humming a thoughtful sound. He was a pleasant weight, that much could be sure... "Mm, the Starseer himself wondering this must be quite momentous," Ashveil teased with a lopsided smile, gaze full of affection. Those big, pretty eyes staring up at him caused a warm throb in his chest.

Six thousand years in Amphoreus, however dilated it was compared to the world outside, had been ample time to resolve his feelings about the Stellaron Hunters. For the longest time, they'd looked more like people bonded by this means to an end, a motley crew out to fulfill their own goals and the prophecy that Elio had divined of them. But, as time had worn on--especially in the Memoria Tide--the more he realized that they were a family, too. Caelus had been part of that family, and one of the most important people Dan Heng had ever met. Caelus was his best friend, a close comrade, like a brother to him--and that bond was immutable and worth dying for. A thousand years had been nothing; he would've taken as long as Phainon had, endured as many cycles as the Deliverer, if it meant bringing his family home.

He would ruin himself if it meant his fellow Trailblazers would see another day.

"I've seen plenty since I arrived on this planet. I should feel like nothing surprises me by now..."

The lone, desolate howl of a wolf descended from the white-capped mountains and spilled into the ramshackle village below, the fire crackling within the stone-hewn hearth while mounds of human shapes bundled in raggedy blankets on threadbare cots scattered throughout the single-room home. Alonso regarded the hooded man and his teenage companion with a bit of wariness, but they'd accepted these otherworldly visitors not long after they'd arrived in their unusual and exotic spacecraft.

With a rusty poker, the Hunter prodded the charred logs burning to embers, a faint spit of sparks elicited as the logs crumbled and resettled, soon to be extinguished. And gods knew it was too late to go out and chop more wood when it was too dangerous.