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By the halfway point, his beak had parted so he could frantically huff around agonising breaths. His muscles burned from the exertion as he sprinted, yet the returning foreboding white mist cooled his skull.

Having to dodge tree after tree only slowed him down. He wished he could borrow his kindred’s wings for just a moment so he could fly over the Veil.

He worried any second that delayed him would mean he was too late. He couldn’t be too late. He refused.

She will be there.She had to be there.

Ingram could not lose another person he cared for.

His heart could not be filled with two people who had left him.

He first passed a green glow that came from a distance within the Veil. Then a yellow glow glittered between the trees before him, and his legs and arms found a way to double their speed. Less than an hour had passed, the distance long, and each second of it had been... terrifying.

The unknown of this terrified him.

As soon as he broke into the narrow clearing that separated Faunus and Mayumi’s home from the tent they’d placed down for him and Emerie, he skidded to a halt. His claws tore up the earth, leaving behind gouging marks.

Faunus and his female were waiting for him, as if they’d known all along he would come. The fact there was no orange hair brightly glowing in the sunshine alongside them sent another chill of dread down his spine.

His spikes lifted threateningly.“Where is she?”he snarled, but it was so mangled with a whine that it came out twisted and even hurt to produce.

Mayumi clung to their younglings tighter. Faunus stepped in front of her with his arm out protectively, his orbs white with worry in Ingram’s direction.

“She’s gone,” Mayumi stated softly, like she didn’t want to utter those two words.

A wheeze echoed out of him, and he stepped to the side.“Where did she go?”

Her features, which had been saddened, instead twisted into a guilty cringe. “Emerie, Reia, Delora, and the Witch Owl left to face the Demon King.”

Ingram lifted his skull towards the middle of the Veil. He didn’t think it was possible, but his heart hollowed out even more.

“Then I will go to his castle.”

Why did she go there without me?He’d meant to go with them. He was meant to be the one to fight the Demon King, to get revenge for Aleron and make the world safer.

It washisfight, not hers.

He’d been hoping to figure out how to make her stay behind so she would be safe from harm. Convincing her had been a battle his lack of humanity hadn’t been successful in winning. She was too... smart for him, easily redirecting his thoughts.

Usually, it was to soothe him when he was feeling despondent or angered.

It didn’t help that he didn’t always understand.

“It’s too late,” Faunus stated, voice low. “We all saw and felt the explosion.”

Ingram wasn’t listening, at least not properly. He was too busy skulking away from them to go in the direction of Jabez’s castle, backing up to put space between them.

“Stop, Ingram,” Mayumi exclaimed. “She won’t be there.”

“Then I will go find her!”

“She’s notgonefrom here – she’sdead,” Faunus beseeched, his voice cracking in sorrow on the end.

“No,”Ingram choked out, his sight shifting to blue. He reared back on his hind legs so he could cover his skull with his hands, his claws and fingertips pressing down hard. His body quaked at the loss and grief that bled into his veins like venom.“You were supposed to protect her. She was supposed to be safe here.”The gaps between his fingers turned red as his sight changed into one filled with fury.“I left because you all promised she would be here when I returned!”

Sothisis what happened when a promise was broken. This was how damaging and betraying it could feel.

Faunus’ orbs shifted to bright orange in guilt.