Deus Ex Machinarium

When they left Sheridawn, they considered their relationship purely business. For the first two or so weeks Anh busied himself with either reading, sketching, or poking his nose into things, regardless of whether it was a bush, a bird’s hollow, or a cart’s axle. On the other hand, Brandt would steadfastly push forward and keep the tanai more or less focused on the task before them. There was a schedule Nord set for both of them, thus he did his best to follow it.

As days turned into weeks, as they ate at the same time, slept in the same place and, when away from civilization, guarded each other, a thin line of mutual respect, friendship maybe, was slowly emerging between them.

It all deteriorated on that fateful evening.

For three days they barely spoke to each other.

The hoomin insisted on going forward as hard as possible. Thus they pushed the horses as much as the animals could bear. Possibly more, because Brandt claimed they needed them only for a few days at most. During the brief stops the Nord would catch some sleep and after three or so candles, they would set off again.

During the day Brandt was in the saddle at the front and leading their pack horses with him. As he was doing so, he spent his hours sternly gazing into the winding road before them. The tanai became the marauder shambling along at the back. Occasionally, he would peek behind in scout for a chase, although mostly because of paranoia. There was no sign of pursuit.

In the night their roles switched. When the night hit, the tanai would invoke a lumehex in front of them and then would lead the caravan. During this time the Nord would attempt to snooze a little in the saddle, for as little as it was worth.

As such, they trundled forward. In silence.

They burned the remaining maps when they became useless. Anh was close to tears when witnessing the blazing documents, and even considered arguing for their keep, but Brandt’s determined gaze when he was just about to speak made the tanai forget about such nonsense.

As the morning dawned on the first day, it became blatantly obvious they would be traveling on the fringes of the Paladinate. The road could barely be called such. It was barely a cart wide and meandered through dense woods of mostly pine and oak. Every so often they would encounter a mossy milestone, most of them overturned or tilted. Brandt even tried to decipher the markings, but only concluded that the road was chopped through the woods about a century prior. Since then it had to be barely used, as it was comprised solely of almost overgrown cart tracks.

They stumbled upon no fort or village and a bare few shrines. Not even a logging camp. The only real obstacle on their course was a minor river, thirty or so mers in width, which they crossed over shallow waters nearby.

The only encounter in the first three days was with a trio of hoomin hunters in the afternoon of the second day. The men were riding a tarped cart toward Katzburg. In the brief conversation, Brandt was informed about the current price of the bear, wolf, and deer fur. He declined offers of purchasing some. He also was given enough information to conclude that he and his tanai companion are about a third of their way to Caer oth’Graev.

It was the late afternoon of the third day of their escape. It was damp, somewhat chilly but otherwise pleasant day so far. The woods around them widened into a fairly wide, grassy glade. It was a hundred or so mers across, with a small creek meandering through the middle. Brandt threw a quick look across the breadth of the clearing. At this time Anh caught up to him.

-” I think, we gained enough distance, we can rest.” - Nord said with a hint of relief - “that place over there, seems the driest.”

Anh nodded in confirmation.

-” Can you set up the camp? I’ll hunt a deer, rabbit, boar, or whatever else. I’m done chewing beef jerky.”

Once again, the tanai just nodded.

-” Fine then” - the hoomin jumped off his horse and unceremoniously went in a random direction, straight into the thick of the woods.

He returned about a candle later, a touch after dusk. During this time Anh has set up a proper camp, even though Brandt was half expecting the tanai to fail at this task. The fire was nicely burning, the tent was set up close enough to provide heat during the chilly nights. Horses were grazing on the grass with their fetlocks strapped. Anh also prepared some herbs, evidenced by a small kettle beside him. A cup was hanging about half a mer in the air nearby, and the aroma of the brew filled the air.

The tanai was floating with his legs crossed, meditating, or at least that’s what Brandt assumed he did, because otherwise, Anh was doing nothing.

-” I’ve hunted a few squirrels. It’s a little bit of a delicacy, but also a touch laborious to eat and prepare. But at least, it's fresh meat.”

Anh just nodded.

-” Sounds intriguing” - he finally replied after an undue pause - “I never ate squirrel meat. I prepared mint with wort. Treat yourself if you wish.”.

-” In a minute” - Brandt threw five carcasses of squirrels before the fire, then sat beside them, drew a knife, and began to skin his prey. This took him a couple of triskols, maybe even a quanter. Throughout the process, he was peeking at what his companion was doing. The more he looked, the more interesting was what he was seeing.

Anh seemed distraught. Even though he was silent and, at first glance, at peace. Brandt noticed some minor oddities about the tanai though. His float was uneven. The palms of his hands were resting on his knees, holding them, but the fingers were twitchy. The same was true about the corners of his lips and eyelids. Even his ears and nostrils were moving slightly. At one moment, Anh’s head just suddenly tilted violently to the side.

Brandt put off the third squirrel he was skinning when he witnessed this.

-” Mr. Trawins. Is everything in order?”

-” Yes” - slowly replied Anh - “Everything is fine.”- his voice was automatic and almost bereft of tone -” We are just going to follow you and are goi…”

His words were cut short and suddenly, immediately his eyes seemed to rotate upwards, and then he said.

-” Second … site. We … need … to … go!” - the words were a little mumbled and spoken slowly.

Brandt was staring speechless at Anh for a good third of a triskol.

-” Excuse me?” - he finally uttered in confusion.

-” Some … of … us … want … study … the … other … site” - replied the tanai, then added with a hint of irritation, but in his normal voice - “Yes, some of us do.” - he said with a shameful irritation.

There was a brief period of awkward silence, filled just with the crackling of the fire and noises of the forests around them. Nord was staring dumbfounded at the tanai, who seemed to want to be very far away or very, very small.

Brandt decided to forego further investigation, as the tanai didn’t seem communicative, and just returned to skinning the squirrels before him.

-"The second site is somewhere west of Graat Koch.” - he said about a quanter later - ”Half a Maargard away. It would take us two to three weeks to get there from Katzburg, if we kept to the main roads" - he paused and looked at the tanai - "Which we shouldn't do, considering the circumstances."

The tanai didn’t answer right away. Instead, he began to kinetically play with a stick he found nearby. But finally spoke, and in a much more confidently.

-” We found something … there…”- a brief grimace of discomfort flashed through his lips when he recalled events of the last days - “So we know that the location hypothesis is sound. Ordo Pro Cvrsi doesn't know of the other site. Regardless of our predicament, it is an interesting place to research.”

-” We have” - Brandt was busy cutting one of his prey through its underbelly, and thus answered a few moments later, Anh used this time to poke the fire with his stick - ” About two, maybe three days of advantage before the news of the events at the monument spread. We can’t keep the pace we’ve kept so far forever. I probably won’t last, the horses certainly won’t last.”

-” I take” - said tanai, poking the fire even more - “You’ve made a decision.”

-” Yes” - Nord flatly announced, interrupting his work on the squirrel - “ solely because you seem willing to continue. We are already on route, we’ll stock up on essentials and maybe pull some tongues in Caer Oth’Graev.”

Anh didn’t respond, just continued to poke the burning wood with his stick. The Nord took this as a sign of approval and resumed preparing their meal.