I ran and Karen as well as Matt, who was supporting Thomas, followed behind.

  “Let go already, I can run, myself.”

  “Quiet down. I don’t want any more trouble tonight. You’ll follow me to the medic and stay there so I can be about my business.”

  Brothers or not they wouldn’t let the colonel go without some words first, as was there right being the ones that were accosted. By then I could leave Chester and Thomas with our local doctor and then we could dodge the colonel’s shadow for the rest of the night. From the sound of it, Chester had only stumbled and was probably out more from the drink than the impact, but it was best to make certain. Thomas should be perfectly fine, but he needed to cool his head regardless.

  I doubted any charges would be made on him for tonight. No one was seriously hurt and the dreamless should be making their settlement with the colonel. Still, it was absurd that things had escalated to that degree. Most understand not to bait the dreamless. As obnoxious as their harassment was they would never actually harm anyone and would be the first to lay charges should anyone be provoked.

  “The hell, hey! Put me down!”

  Matt had scooped Thomas into a princess carry having grown tired of their stumbling three legged race. His face was completely placid against Thomas’ tantrum and he didn’t flinch once as the red faced drunk tried to squirm his way out of his grip. It seemed he was the pragmatic type, perhaps even to a fault. Karen looked back at them and giggled.

  “They look like a cute couple.”

  “Hmm, I see. Where will his life head now that this mysterious stranger has appeared to sweep him off his feet.”

  “And how will things change once you get dragged into the triangle”

  “No, clearly I’m paired with Chester in this scenario.”

  “Oi! Will you two shut up.”

  I break into a grin as I quickly navigate through a back alley of Duskhovel. No one is present nearby as even the few urchins our town houses that you might find slinked into the shadows as you pass by would have been recruited to make a bit of pocket coin among the stalls. Our voices echo in the silence and a brisk wind tunnels a flurry of snow through these tight avenues as we proceed. I found the chill invigorating and felt relaxed despite my apparent rush.

  “Now that the situation's settled it’s actually a bit exiting, isn’t it?”

  “To be fair we’re making it more exciting than we need to, but yes I’ll admit I’m having a bit more fun than I should with an unconscious man in my arms.”

  We didn’t actually have to escape colonel Ray to begin with. I’m sure if we demanded privacy, he would at least make himself unnoticed. As annoying as he was, he wasn’t that obtuse, but to me this had turned into a game. It wasn’t like me to act like this at all, I must have completely fallen under the spell of the mysterious night.

  We finally reached the door we had been searching for and Karen with her hands empty knocked on it for us. The door creaked open and an elderly man appeared in its frame. Dr. Huild had long and thin grey hair that was swept behind him exposing a large and almost blading forehead. Dispite his age, he had a sharp angular face with skin that was rough and leathery rather than saggy. He had a short grey beard and piercing blue eyes. He wore a white button up coat that was too bulky for his stooping and looming visage that hung over my own head at what I would estimate to be a height two heads higher than mine even with his posture.

  He took one look at Chester and shook his head.

  “Again? Not that I don’t understand, but I’m tired of looking after your sorry arse”

  “It’s a bit different this time doctor. There was a scuffle and Chester got pushed to the ground.”

  “Is that right? Well lay him down on the cot in the back and I’ll take a look at him. And don’t fret, if years of pickling his liver green hasn’t killed him, a small stumble won’t do the trick either.”

  It wasn’t long before we laid Chester down on the medic’s cot. He walked up to him and began pressing his fingers against different vital points and pressing an instrument to his chest.

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  “He’s going to be fine, just out cold. You young folk can be on your way to go enjoy the rest of tonight’s festivities.”

  “Matt held up Thomas, who had dozed off in a chair in the front of Huild’s office, by the scruff of his collar.

  “Think you could take this one off our hands as well. He’s come down with Jakas syndrome and requires bedrest.”

  Dr. Huild gave a mean grin in response.

  “Jakas syndrome, is it? Well, there is only so much modern medicine can do, but we won’t leave him for dead. Can’t make any promises about his dignity however.”

  Matt smirked and made his way out the door with a bow of his head and we followed after with a quick thanks.

  We walked back out into the night at a much more leisurely pace, having disposed of the premise that we were being pursued. Ray would find us if he found us after all and running around like nit wits would only make that easier.

  “I’ll leave you two to it then, sorry for the trouble”

  Matt shortly left us on our own and we made our way back to the fair careful to keep an eye out. We made a point of visiting booths in densely packed traffic and never stayed anywhere long, but eventually the game became less about avoiding colonel Ray and more about tracking him.

  “There he is.”

  He was looking around clearly searching for our traces, but also seemed in no hurry as if he had mostly given up.

  “It’s like he doesn’t even care. What if something were to happen to us?”

  “You say that but…”

  No, nothing would happen in Duskhovel. Not now. I already knew what the scholar was after. Eventually he would do something, but it wouldn’t be here or now in this quit town. But when…

  Karen gripped my hand tightly.

  “His protection right now…it’s useless right?”

  I nodded my head comforted. Ray approached one of the booths and began speaking with the proprietor. It was the same one with the handlebar mustache that quizzed us. We couldn’t hear them but they were having a back and forth I can only assume to be another quiz. The host kept shaking his head at Ray’s replies. After ten shakes, the colonel looked as if he was making his own query and the host replied with a grin turning Ray’s cheeks scarlet before he stormed off.

  “Do you think it was the same one?”

  “What a prude.”

  We followed him to a few more booths but after a bit of idling he gave up and left the venue. Our distraction was at an end, but it had all filled me with a child like glee I hadn’t felt in years. We continued meandering for a time, both caught within the spell we had created for ourselves. Everything was so far from my mind. All the weights that had haunted me for a decade and the nightmares of my present.

  At last, the night wound down, and it was time to leave behind the depopulated streets. In good cheer we made our way back to my home, neither of us questioning the fact that she did not part ways to return to the inn rooms the visiting scrubbers had been provided. Colonel Ray was waiting at my porch with and irritated look, but when he saw it was both of us approaching he rolled his eyes and walked off

  We were alone, truly alone. Underneath a balcony we watched the building snow drift dance with the elfdust in the distance. She giggled a bit as we relaxed.

  “I had fun tonight, I’m glad I was able to be here. Thanks for asking me out. I know you probably didn’t really feel like celebrating”

  “Me as well…I’m glad I asked you.”

  I felt as if I meant it. I wished that this veil that had settle over my mind might stay.

  “And thanks for your little game, I’m afraid my interactions with those dreamless would have dampened my spirits otherwise.”

  “You say that now? You seemed to be plenty fired up at the time.”

  I said so, but I could feel how tense her shoulder was.

  “I was, yes…but”

  “Are…you all right?”

  I regretted the words as soon as I said them, because with a crash everything the spell had hidden from me came back. The snow covered the elfdust, ending the influence of the otherworldly night and sending me back to cold reality. I understood. I had only veiled my mind not erased it and with such words I had laid it bare within me once more.

  “Yes…I’m fine.”

  She said so and her smile said so, but she was closer than before, trembling with her hands on my collar.

  No no no.

  I had wanted to believe it wasn’t a lie. But I knew. Nine years couldn’t be erased in one night. I was the same person I had been yesterday, and I panic knowing I must not push forward over this line, but my actions steal my body, and I gently raised her hand to my lips kissing the wrist that had been held in such a tight grip by the dreamless.

  I had wanted it to be the truth, but I knew better. It was what I always feared. Why I had always kept everyone at I distance. Because even as she looked at me with moistened upturned eyes…

  “I want to be touched…gently.”

  I still felt the discomfort, even as I embraced her warmth. Even as I felt what could have been the beginnings of love, its icy grip stole it through and intoxicated me. My fervor only drove me forward bending its purpose and meaning.

  My other hand cradled the back of her head, and I brought my lips to hers. Inwardly I wept as I moved her inside and laid her down. I wept that that stain had been there at all, that it had remained. Its tendrils would reach into what might have grown, so I wept that I had been unable to bury it, fooled by a dream into planting the seed of our beginning while it still slept inside me.

  She was tense beneath me and her captivated eyes shivered with uncertainty, but my touch was firm and comforting, easing her anxieties, far from the chill I felt in my heart. My eyes bore into her with a passionate gaze that masked the silent tears beneath as I brought my forehead to hers with my fingers entwining her hands that were splayed to each side of the pillow. I kissed her nose, her mouth, her cheek, and her neck, then I whispered in her ear words that flowed easily, but I never heard echoing in my mind.

  I wept because I finally understood what an awful thing I had nurtured within me. Because of the filth that was mine to spill back into the world.

  I wept because I at last understood that I couldn’t love a human being when I was disgusted by humanity.

  As we melted together, I lamented my distance.