Drake was thankful for the sword when Vela produced it. When he took it, a strange wave of relief washed over him. The weight was familiar, and he felt as though he had been reunited with an old friend. This is mine… As if to hit the point home, he took the end of it to the sheath he had, and it slid in perfectly.

“I’m…pretty sure that this sword was stolen from me. Maybe even by those sky pirates…” Drake winced. Whatever he was trying to remember was too much. Just don’t push it. He let it go, and thanked Vela before departing into the darkness. It was about twenty minutes before he returned with a small boar across his back. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

“There was a small pack sleeping. This one was the only one I could nab. They have a great sense for predators…” He set it down in front of the flames. Vela had done some great work getting the place set up for the night. “You did a good job. How are your wounds?” As he spoke, he pulled out a knife and started to address the boar. He made quick work of it, and soon they had it roasting over the fire.

“It won’t be the best meal, but it’ll at least be filling,” he said as his stomach growled. “What’s our plan for tomorrow, then?” They had at least escaped the heat issue for the night, but come morning they would need to find a way out of the desert.

Vela stared at it and then it’s sheath. “Probably, he has a bad habit of taking from people. I’m glad you could get it back.” She saw his wince but she didn’t comment on it, she felt wrong asking about it.

“They are slippy little bastards that much is for sure,” Vela nodded in appreciation. “They are sore. I might have ripped my stomach a bit bending but it isn’t nearly as bad as it was,” she showed him the bandages she had put around it. It was spotted with blood. “Got into a fight with the tent.”

She twisted the smile on her face to a frown and sighed. “I don’t know but they could be out there waiting for us. He is normally thorough and likes a waiting game.” She poured them both some tea and handed him a cup.

“This is most definitely worse than that time in Baltil,” she let out a groan as she stared at the fire. “I spent three days hiding under a bunch of gold from a dragon thanks to that idiot shooting me into its lair.”

Her hand went for where her lower wing used to be. She made a displeased noise as she moved her hand back to her cup, “What about you though? Are you having problems? I saw you wince earlier. Being stuck in that crystal for god knows how long might have had repercussions.”

Drake hesitated when she asked about his problems. How to explain it? It was definitely complicated. Way more complicated than a lover’s quarrel. At least, he wanted tos ay that, but he figured that would be rude to say in this instance. So he sighed instead, and got himself ready to try and explain it.

“I…can’t remember much,” Drake said after a moment. “My memories are scattered, at best. I can remember key things…easy things like my name and how to speak. But anything else is a struggle. Friends…family…” He paused. “Hell, places I’ve been, favorite foods, even what little magic I’ve used…” He shrugged. “Something is definitely wrong. But I think it’s okay for the time being…” His hand went to the pommel of the blade. “Just having this makes me feel at ease. It’s important…even if I don’t know why.”

He sighed, leaning back against the cool stone, closing his eyes. “The only memory I have right now that I can hold on to is…a warm hearth, and children sitting by the fire. There’s a woman in a chair, reading to them. They’re all happy. But…I can’t see their faces.” Drake smiled. “It’s a nice memory, but…” There was a flash of something large, a towering darkness that seemed ready to devour all. The celestial dragon sat up suddenly, hand gripping the hilt of his blade.

We’re safe here. There’s nothing here.

“Sorry. I guess I’m just jumpy.” Drake let his tension go, and smiled again. “The boar should almost be done.” But there was a sinking feeling in his chest. Those people by the hearth…they were probably long gone. Devoured by that darkness.

Vela watched him with interest and shook her head. “We all have our demons. My ex-partner kept seeing his dead girlfriend. He would wake up screaming and he would argue with her. Apparently, he had killed her. Haven’t seen him in a while though.”

She got their bellies full and set up their bedrolls for the night. They took turns keeping watch since her idiot ex-boyfriend could have still been around. In the morning, she dragged him deeper into the ruins. “Well, your sword was what I had retrieved for my boss but he won’t be angry if I let you have it… It is yours after all.”

She cleared her throat, "It does seem as though I'm in a bind here, though. Drake, you said your name was? You see, I sent Vela on a special trip for that particular artifact. Quite a bit of silver, you see…so how about we make a deal? I'll let you keep that relic here, on the grounds that you help me out a little. You scratch my back, I scratch yours? I'll obviously pay you for your troubles…but a cut of it will of course be helping pay off the silver I put forth into her expedition. Of course…this includes interest…" She mocked her boss.

She gave him a grin, “I’ll get us some relics from here to get you started but Raile is silver-tongued. You might as well go along with it. You don’t have a job and I could use a new partner in crime as it were. Rhenakos was nice when he was around but after we dated… then his girlfriend incident… I had to stop going with him. He turned into a nutcase. He is also an idiot though it’s hard to describe how he is without you witnessing it. We dated for three hours.”

It took them three hours in the underground ruins for Vela to pick it clean. She had three sacks of different types of artifacts from old spoons to actual treasure. “Carry these please,” she had Drake carry two of them since her body was still sore from the damage it suffered. “Alright, let's make our way out of here and to Sularia.”

Surprisingly her ex-boyfriend had left probably because of Sularia’s military forces. They got a mage to open a one-way ticket to Jayou. It was just past noon in Jayou when she opened the shop door. She looked uninterested in everything. “Yo boss man. Been a while since I saw you in person. Your relic? The sword? A bust… belonged to someone already,” she motioned to Drake.

Drake was helping the best he could, but he wasn’t entirely sure what they were looking for. Vela was on a constant look out for things, though, and picked most of the ruins clean of anything of value. With the bag in hand, they made their way to Sularia, and from there it was a straight trip to the town of Jayou.

Drake was impressed at first. The shop they had entered was well stocked, and seemed to be doing great for itself. And then he saw the owner, a man who looked as though he hadn’t slept in a week. Despite this, he had a smile on his face, and welcomed Vela with a warm greeting.

“Vela! You’re alive! I haven’t seen you in ages! Those dead drops have been coming in handy, though. I’m glad you’ve still been supplying them. Have a bit of catching up to do on the silver portion though. We can look over the books later.” He looked to Drake, and frowned. “Well, that’s a shame. But we aren’t thieves.” the merchant held out his hand. “Raile Talon, at your service.”

“Drake,” the draconian replied as he shook Raile’s hand. “It’s a pleasure.”

“What brings you to these parts?” Raile asked, yawning.

“Well,” Drake started. It was hard to really explain. “Let’s just say I’m between jobs at the moment and looking for work.”

Raile perked up at this, and suddenly he seemed more awake. He cleared his throat, and clasped his hands together. There was a sparkle in his eyes, the telltale sign of a deal to be made. "It does seem as though I'm in a bind here, though. Drake, you said your name was? You see, I sent Vela on a special trip for that particular artifact. Quite a bit of silver, you see…so how about we make a deal? I'll let you keep that relic there, on the grounds that you help me out a little. You scratch my back, I scratch yours? I'll obviously pay you for your troubles…but a cut of it will of course be helping pay off the silver I put forth into her expedition. Of course…this includes interest.”

Drake gave Vela a look, and then looked back to Raile. “Sure…I guess. I could…use the work.”

The merchant clapped his hands, “Good deal! Let’s go ahead and work out the contract then.” He pulled out a notebook and started immediately scribbling. “Let’s see…cost and supplies, profits, percentages…carry the dot here, and…”

From the corner of the store, a large, red-haired man came down the steps, yawning and scratching the side of his face. It took him a moment to register the new guest, and he woke up a little. “Oh? Vela!? How’s it been?” He noticed that a chunk of one of her wings was missing, and he frowned. “That doesn’t look good. And if I remember correctly, that was the wing that made you-”

As Raile repeated word for word what Vela said he would do she just smirked up at Drake, “Fucking told you~” She said it in that sassy way but just loud enough that Raile could hear with his new Rosenite hearing.

Vela was standing against one of the support beams with her arms crossed when Rhenakos came down the stairs. “It’s been. You still bat shit insane?” Vela quirked an eye up at him before looking at her wing. “Yeah, I need a healer to look at it. I think it’s gonna have to be amputated all the way. Shame I did like the thing that you did~”

Osiria came down the stairs with Izzy who was behaving for once, “Oh.” She had heard the conversation. “So that’s where you learned how to do that thing.” Vela only took a few seconds to look at Osiria’s hand to Rhenakos’s hand.

“You fucking move fast. What happened to… OSIRIA STOP TALKING. OSIRIA SHUT UP. OSIRIA I KNOW I’M A FUCKING JACKASS.” She mocked Rhenakos’s voice.

Osiria was chuckling, “I’m Osiria. This is our daughter Izzy.”

“My apologies that you are married to this guy… He killed you right?”

“Yeah, but that’s all water under the bridge now. We’re all good now.”

“…” Vela looked at Raile and gave him the ‘They are both fucking insane’ look that she had from time to time. “That’s good. Your little girl looks just like you Rhenakos.”

“So you… did things with Rhen?”

“He always told me not to call him Rhen. Are you going soft Rhen. I was his girlfriend for three hours.” Vela made sure his wife knew she wasn’t a threat of any sort. Osiria did an ‘oh’ face and passed Izzy off to Rhenakos. “You should have Leilah take a look at that?”

“Who the hell is Leilah? And since when the fuck do you stay put in a place?” Vela finally wanted some answers from her boss.

Rhenakos rolled his eyes at Vela, but when she finally called him Rhen, he glared at her. “How about you not call me Rhen, you sassy shit.” There was about to be more talk from Rhenakos, but Osira passed Izori off to him, and he ended up having the girl start to climb all over him. She proceeded to start gnawing at his scalp.

While all of this was going on in the background with Rhenakos, Raile smirked. “It’s been quite awhile. We have a lot to talk about…but since you seem to know what I’m about to say, maybe we should skip it?” he joked. Despite the look on Vela’s face, he offered for them to come to the back room and sit for awhile.

By the time Rhenakos and Raile had gone over the past two years, Leilah and Kalka had joined in, and tea had been made. As Raile sipped on his tea, he smirked. “So you and Rhenakos, then, Vela? He does seem to have a type. Not surprising, though. I had a feeling.” Not much was missed by the sly merchant.

Drake was confused at most of it. It seemed they had a lot to say, but none of it was overly relevant to him. Still, it was a nice change of pace to being stuck in a giant crystal, so it was better than nothing. “It seems like you all have quite a bit of…history.” That was, of course, an understatement.

Rhenakos rolled his eyes, “You have no fucking clue. And we haven't even mentioned the Terrowins. Knowing them, they’ll show up here with another four kids in the next week.”

“Hey, you liked this sassy shit so much you porked it a few dozen times in two days and we fucked that job up for Raile… Or doesn’t he know that’s why I botched it?” They had kept it a secret for long enough and now she had ammo against him. “It was before you found Rhenakos.” It had been a big job and Vela owed Raile a lot of money because of it but she had mostly paid it off now.

The angel sucked in her lips when she realized Raile heard her. “When the fuck did you get super hearing.” Vela kicked herself up in a seat next to Drake with Drake being between her and Rhenakos. She was watching Izzy practically eat him alive. “That’s a little hellion you got. She acts just like you.”

Finally, they discussed the past two years and Vela found herself out of the loop. “Man, look at everyone finding love and having babies. I’m jealous. But at least I’m not Mrs. Rhenakos, no offense Osiria.”

“None taken.” Os was just glad someone else was giving Rhenakos some shit instead of her.

Kalina was looking Vela over and Leilah had the medical kit out tending to her wing. “That was before I knew how he was. We met on an off chance when I needed a partner for that big ass job you handed me. I knew I would need back up and he was looking for a job so I hired him. We fucked around quite a bit and tried to make things work but… Rhenakos is Rhenakos.”

Leilah waved her hand, “I’m happy for Lewis and Simone. They have a big family after everything they went through. They are a lot more stable than most families considering Lewis’s occupation.” The twins were in Raile and Kalina’s laps asleep. Their bright red hair was an unusual sight for Vela to see but she noted that it matched their mother’s hair. Leilah got out a few tools, “I’m going to have to cut it off… Completely.”

“I figured… I got hit with cannon fire and impaled to Drake. If it wasn’t for him, I would be dead right now. That crazy-ass air pirate ex-boyfriend of mine was the one who gave the order to kill me.” She explained to Rhenakos who had the unfortunate meeting with the guy as well. “I blew up his airship though. Gonna be a hot minute before he can get it back into the skies~ So Raile… Twin wives huh… Never took you for a guy who could multitask tits that well.”

“I don’t know exactly how much credit I deserve in that rescue,” Drake replied modestly. It was true that, had he not been there, Vela would probably have met a gruesome end. Still, he didn’t quite feel like it was best for him to take all of the credit. Vela had helped him, a total stranger with little memory, and even found some work. It wasn’t exactly the fairest of exchanges, but Drake was more than accepting of it.

“So Drake,” Raile started as he took a sip of tea. “What about you? You’ve been fairly quiet. Vela says you saved her, but other than that we don’t know much about you.”

The draconian glanced to Vela, and then to the group. It was hard to really tell them the truth of the matter, about how he barely had any memories that were worth anything. He thought for a moment, and came up with a middle ground answer. “I’m more of just a wanderer. I’ll admit I’m not sure how I ended up in the crystal, but before that I just traveled a lot. Nothing too fancy.” It wasn’t the perfect answer, but he wasn’t sure exactly what would be.

“Oooh, a mysterious boy toy,” Rhenakos cooed. “Sounds like you have a type, Vela.” Between him, the pirate captain, and now Drake, it definitely seemed she had a strong and mysterious type. Though, in Rhenakos’ case, the mystery vanished pretty quick.

Drake merely sighed at the comment, “You…really have a way with words, don’t you.”

Vela glared towards Rhenakos, “Yeah, I do. Though Drake ain’t half as mouthy as you are. At least I’m making progress.”

Leilah made a face as she looked the wound over more, “It’s no good I thought I could be the one to remove the stump but I’ll have to call my mother.” Her eyes went to Raile, “Gods know what she’ll charge for this since she doesn’t know Vela.”

Vela stood up making a face and looked at Raile, “I’m going to go get cleaned up.” Excusing herself she made her way upstairs and found the washroom. Carefully she pulled her clothes off and sealed her wings so she could get the water going.

It was hot and the steam felt good on her skin as she put some herbal soak in the water. It would sting back at least it would feel good on her after a hot minute.