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Outside Korsa, Isantad
The next day, late sun
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Reide had two brothers: one three years older than him and one seven years younger. The older one, Sauva, would likely not be at home, and the younger one, Tariben, would apparently "love her to bits."

Reide's eyes sparkled as he went on about it, his hands moving along with him as he told her how short his brother was even though he was almost eighteen, how his father had lots of scars on his hands and a grisly one right down his forearm, how him and Tariben would go out in the rain as children just for the sake of getting wet.

When Andreya asked about his home, he described smiling neighbors and close-knit communities, a vast network of traders and artisans and families like his all living close to one another.

And then, after a full day of travel, they arrived. Andreya jumped off the back of the wagon, Reide still chattering about his childhood adventures, and she stared at the town as they approached it, mouth pressing into a line.

On either side, houses were stacked atop one another with old, grayed wood walls and windows open to the evening sun. The crowds here were not as dense as the towns, but there was no lack of people, either—many children from toddlers to academy age, darting through the streets while adults chatted and bartered and strolled along—no doubt the inhabitants of the numberless homes around them. It was not like anything she had ever seen. It was...

It was a right slum.

Andreya wouldn't dare say it. It was where Reide was raised, and she would treat it as such even if she had to steer around puddles of deep mud in the narrow dirt street or endure the startle of dogs barking from behind a nearby building. It was claustrophobic and loud and reeking of compost, yet Andreya had never seen Reide so happy to see random passersby.

"Reide!" a woman called from a third-story window, waving a handkerchief. "Back from the Borderland already?"

"Never better, Missus Degreadie!" Reide waved back.

Another older man turned from his conversation and planted a sturdy hand on Reide's shoulder. "Hav'n' seen ya since last spring, lad! Glad to know the animals din' get ye!"

Some children halted their chases to point or shout across the street at him, others asking if he had brought anything back for them or clinging to his pant leg or trying to snatch the tie out of his hair (though most little ones could hardly reach above his torso). Above them, laundry lines hung more brightly-colored garments that would never be found in Nasavte, streaking the sky from one building to another like festival decorations. Andreya said nothing as she gazed at it all, holding tight to the edge of Reide's sleeve and attempting to avoid the eyes of every person he spoke to, which was near everyone.

Due to the interruptions, it was well into dusk and all the houses flickered candlelight through the gaps in their walls by the time Reide stopped and pointed her to a building on their right, the bottom half of two homes with a poor but cheery disposition similar to every other they had passed.

"Probably doesn't seem like much to a noble," he said, "but this is where my family lives."

No, it did not seem like much at all. Even still, Andreya stood perfectly stiff as Reide knocked on the door. Something uncomfortable and anxious had entered her insides and clung now to the base of her throat. When a call answered from beyond the door and it opened a moment later with a scrape in its frame, Andreya dipped into a curtsy out of pure nervous habit.

But the boy there, thankfully, didn't even notice her. Instead, he stared blankly at the man beside her.

"Tari!" Reide said, and the boy gasped, lighting up immediately.

"Reide!"

Reide opened his arms, the two collided in a bear hug, and Andreya stood to the side in shock. For some reason, they were now laughing and exchanging punches to the shoulder, Reide scruffing the boy's hair and the boy shoving him off in turn.

"I thought you'd abandoned us!" the younger one said.

"Never!" Reide countered. "Things got busy at the Guild. I wanted to come visit sooner."

Then the boy seemed to notice Andreya for the first time. His eyes narrowed and she gave a tight smile. "You got a new girl, too."

Andreya could swear Reide's laugh was almost sheepish. He stepped back from both her and the boy and motioned between them formally. "Miss Dreya, please meet my brother, Tariben. Tari, this is Miss Dreya Lenestrie, whom I have recently had the privilege of traveling with."

Tariben snorted. "Do you always talk like that with her around?"

There was no denying Reide's sheepishness this time—his face was so red she could see it through the dark. Before he could formulate a response, though, a gravelly voice inside the house called, "Who is it, Tari?"

"Oh, you should see what Da did to his arm this time." Tariben's little snicker was much like his brother's. "He took some ash paint to it and said it looks like a big bug, but I can't tell if he's messing with me."

Tariben pulled Reide through the narrow door and Reide pulled Andreya with him so they all stood in a well-lit main room—a foyer and a sitting room and a parlor and a dining room all at once, though Andreya supposed most houses did not have the variety of rooms her manor did.

In the middle of the room, leaning against the small, four-person table in the lantern light, was a burly man with a grisly scar on his forearm and gray streaks in his hair, exactly as Reide had described him earlier that day.

Every ounce of the man's sternness vanished at the sight of his son and the two exchanged boisterous greetings similar to the exchange outside. The same as then, when the initial excitement died down, the reunited family noticed Andreya's existence and Reide doled out introductions like party favors. This man, unsurprisingly, was Reide and Tariben's father, Aram Hafiless. And she was Dreya Lenestrie, a living lie.

"Never seen such a refined young lass." Aram folded his arms and stepped up to Andreya. She resisted the urge to shrink away, hands still clasped in front of her. "Are you from the Mixed District, Miss Lenestrie?"

She caught sight of Reide's encouraging look and gave a small nod, gaze returning to the floor. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintances, Tariben, Mister Hafiless. Reide has been... he's been very kind to me. I am in your debt."

She flinched at the sudden sound when both Aram and Tariben burst out laughing.

"Very kind, eh?" Aram slapped Reide's back. "Have you been brainwashing her, boy?"

"I have done no such thing!"

"Really? Has our Reide been trying to seduce you, Miss Lenestrie?"

Andreya had gone pale, a tiny curve to her lips the closest thing to friendliness she could force to her face. "Not—not at all, no."

Aram laughed again at her interpreted hesitance and she cast Reide a desperate look. Seeming to get the gist, he cut short the long-winded response his father had started. "It's late, Da, and I'm sure Miss Dreya is tired from our trip. Is there space for us to stay here a night or two?"

Aram raised a brow at the interruption before scoffing. He pointed toward one of three doors along the back and side walls of the room. "Stupid question. You know where me and Tari sleep, anywhere other than that is dandy. Suppose you'll have to tell us about your big adventures with Miss Lenestrie tomorrow, then."

"My room still has an extra bed, Reide," Tariben said to their backs as they turned to go. "Give the miss Sauva's old room."

Reide briefly opened the three doors for Andreya—all containing small, windowless bedrooms and lots of messy little trinkets along the walls—before gesturing her inside the third. There, one bed sat along the left wall and stacks of objects were scattered about the room, supposedly in storage but obviously not arranged with much aforethought.

"This is my older brother's room whenever he visits," Reide explained as he lit a sconce next to the doorframe. Once she stood in the middle of the room, he bid her goodnight, then turned to go only to swivel back again. "And... I'm sorry if you don't like it here. We don't have to stay longer than tomorrow if you don't want."

Then he closed the door, leaving Andreya with nothing but her indecision as company. A certain guilt tugged at her that she had failed to hide her discontent with his family, but she found she had much more important issues to worry about. Her eyes flitted over several books to the sacks of flower and rice in the corner, upward to the many doodads decorating the single shelf and the picture frames so dusty she could not make out the portraits beneath.

Issue number one, it seemed, was this offensive storage situation.

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Reide stared up at the ceiling of Tari's bedroom long after his little brother had exhausted his supply of questions and fallen asleep. Reide used to be able to do the same, just sleep when he wanted, but now whenever things got too still his mind wandered, and it always wandered to the same place.

The muse of his memory had dark hair and a porcelain face, cheekbones delicate enough to break and eyes deep as the night, although he had no clue from where such romantic notions had come. At first she was a curiosity with her polite posture and Nasavtean mannerisms, but now she was something else entirely—a something with the mind to argue over everything yet doubt herself, with the stubbornness of a mule but an equally singleminded devotion. He wanted to lift her eyes to the world around her, to give her the answer to her unsolvable mystery and elicit her rare smiles, to even once touch her and have her not pull away.

And he had no idea how.

His mind was ruthless.

He pressed his palms to his eyes. What was he thinking? Her name was Andreya Marivatan and he had agreed to help her kill herself. She was immortal wanting to die, he was human wanting to live. She was determined, and he was a fool. Her goal was his dread and he was helping her achieve it.

Reide sucked in a breath, a sharp ache in his chest. He was a fool. He was a godawful fool.

In this state, he lay awake at night, troubled by his own decisions and the decisions he couldn't prevent Andreya from making. She had chosen to die. He had chosen to help her. She had chosen to accept. He had fallen in love with her despite every part of himself that told him not to.

And now he had to choose between his feelings and hers.

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Hey, y'all! It got kinda dramatic there for a second, sorry for the cliffhanger (lol no I'm not). What do you think so far? Any thoughts on Reide's family? Don't forget to vote if you enjoyed, comment if you didn't (all critiques welcome!), and have a fantabulous day! <3