Lilian led him for a long time, even as D’Argen’s eyes kept searching for his running companions in the sky. They came and went, opposite of him and ignoring him as they laughed and continued their chase without a care. When the dark sky was devoid of a moon but covered in so many stars they shined the path for them on their own, he finally asked, “Where are you taking me?”

“Home.”

He knew the word and the meaning behind it but it still surprised him. The itch inside him, the one that told him to run, was coming back but it lessened every time he saw Lilian from the corner of his eye. He followed Lilian at a sedate pace and continued to watch as the sun and moon chased each other in the sky.

Lilian led them to avoid clusters of buildings when they saw them in the distance, and explained that they were the mortals though D’Argen already knew. Then Lilian said, “Acela wanted us all together before we make first contact. But I have been looking for you for a long time. They probably already have made it.”

“Acela. I know her,” D’Argen said, even as he thought of his own first contact with the mortals. Those few that survived his fall probably did not even notice him as he ran past them and the destruction he had caused. They had, however, definitely felt his fall to the mortal realm.

“Yes. You do know Acela,” Lilian responded.

“Why her?”

“She is the one who called for us.”

D’Argen had no more questions, so he continued to follow Lilian until a storm started inside him. The sound startled him so bad that if not for that something keeping him balanced, he would have tripped and fallen.

“Oh, I apologize, I did not think to offer since you never asked,” Lilian said and took a pack off their shoulder. They reached inside and when their small hand came out, there was a large red fruit in their palm. “Eat this first. I have some water still for after.”

D’Argen took the fruit and bit right into it. The juices filled his mouth and ran down his chin and something inside him—not the urge the run, not his stomach, maybe his head?—made him cringe, but he ate it all the same. It quieted the thunder in his stomach. The water was soothing for his partched throat, even though he had not felt it until the fruit’s juices ran over it.

“How is your mahee?” Lilian asked as they took back the skin of water.

D’Argen did not remember the word but he knew exactly what they were talking about. It was that something inside him that throbbed and pulled and clenched all at once. It was what made him run and what he had that the mortals he had encountered so far did not. It was what helped him keep balanced, but not what made him stare at Lilian’s pack of food warily. He touched his throat where he felt it escaping from and remembered the collar he had abandoned atop the mountain. Then he touched his chest where the feeling seemed most concentrated and thought of the delicate designs engraved on his chest plate.

The single vambrance he kept was still around his forearm.

When he realized Lilian was waiting for an answer, he thought back to try and remember their question. He did not. He only nodded in response and Lilian turned, continuing their walk.

When he saw fires in the distance that Lillian did not avoid, he knew they were there.

“Why are we here?”

“This is where Acela appeared. This is where she called us,” Lilian answered simply.

“Appeared?”

“Not all of us had such a dramatic entrance as you. Some fell, yes, but some dug their way out of the ground, others came up from the waters, some floated down, and some just... appeared.” Lilian always looked at him as they spoke. Their focus was so intense.

“Which one was you?”

“I floated down. Though I did see you fall.”

D’Argen cringed as he remembered what he had done.

“That mountain tip was much taller before you decided to break it apart.”

“I wasn’t exactly aiming for it.”

“None of us were. Not for the mountain, I mean. In general. As far as we know, something happened and we all just... came here.”

D’Argen looked up but all he saw were the sun and moon in their endless chase. If he used to be up there with them before, it was no wonder they first laughed at him when he tried to run with them.

The closer they got to the fires, the more people D’Argen saw and he knew all of them. He felt their mahee and knew each of their names, their scents, and what their mahee could do. There were tables, chairs, stools, benches, and small straw houses, all of them occupied or surrounded by others. A lot of them stared at him as he walked past and he said each of their names in greeting.

“Lilian!” A voice from the crowd had them both stopping. Another one of them appeared, with long red hair loose about wide shoulders and a grin so wide that D’Argen had to touch his own cheeks to check if it was even possible.

“Halen. Good to see you again,” Lilian greeted. “This is D’Argen.”

Halen looked at D’Argen and his grin somehow got even wider. “We have been waiting for you. You are the last to join us. In fact, Lilian, a few of the mortals came by here. Most ran away when they saw us, but others call us gods and bow and stutter. A few came in anger.” Halen was talking as they started walking again and got into a more crowded space where there was always another within arm’s reach. D’Argen felt his skin itching and when he scratched it there was salt under his nails.

“We do not know why they do either, but some have already helped us build shelter and find food,” Halen announced proudly and then leaned in closer to Lilian as if to whisper a secret, though D’Argen still heard the words, “I do not think they know I can build in a moment what they did in a single pass of the sun.”

A small child ran past D'Argen and he gave chase for a few steps, laughing behind them until the child hid behind a stooped figure with white hair. D’Argen felt his mahee reach out to their own and he knew their names and scents and though one looked like a child and the other like an elder, they were not mortal and their ages did not match their appearance.

“You are D’Argen,” the child said.

He nodded and smiled.

“I am Asa. This is Sa’ab.”

“It is a pleasure.”

“Here.” Lilian interrupted them by shoving something into his hands.

It took D’Argen a few moment to realize that it was meat and though the thought made his throat close up and his head light, his stomach rumbled loudly. He took a bite and forced himself to swallow with as little chewing as possible.

“Some of us feel this ache inside us, too close to our mahee for comfort. Eating helps dull the pain,” Lilian explained.

“Some?” D’Argen asked.

Lilian nodded and finished chewing their bite before they said again, “Vah’mor.”

“Vah’mor. I know them.”

“Yes. You do. They are one of the first five.”

“The first five?”

“I know there was another reason for calling them that but for now we call them that because they were the first to gather here. Come, come,” Lilian started leading him around again. “Vah’mor does not need to consume any food or drink. The other four and them, they know more than we do, maybe that is why they were first? They know more. They can do more. Acela is one of them too, she is the one who pulled is all together. There.” Lilian pointed to five figures that sat around a small fire.

One was a little girl with skin so dark it made him think of the night sky, hair so bright it was like a cloud, a spattering of silver stars on her cheeks and nose and the distant depths of the night sky in her eyes. Darania. The Creator. There was something else tugging at him about her, urging him to remember, but he could not.

Beside her was a stooped man with the forest in his eyes and the fire of the sun reflecting on the water in his hair. He had deep crevices on the skin of his cheeks and around his eyes, which squinted completely closed when he smiled, as rare as that smile was. Upates. The Scholar. D’Argen turned his eyes away when Upates looked him, avoiding his gaze for some reason.

 Two others were a couple, their bodies so entwined he was not sure whose hand was the one waving in the air, but they spoke to one another when they were not breathing each other’s air. One was a woman with skin like the bark of a tree and hair so light it was like the sun’s rays, and her eyes were the soil itself, a plateau for things to grow. The man’s hair matched her eyes and his own eyes held the ocean inside them, though D’Argen felt they were too light and more like a river than the depths in his own. Acela and Zetha. The Leader and the Provider.

The last was neither a man nor a woman, with features so sharp and delicate at the same time, a figure so strong yet slim, and a shadow so long it seemed to surround all of them. Their hair was the moonless night and their eyes were the missing pieces. D’Argen immediately understood why he had felt safe to rest under the moon at night. Vah’mor. The Protector.

Out of the corner of his eye, D’Argen saw a white shade flittering by, drawing his attention. He turned to focus on it but it was not there. It hid behind Vah’mor for barely a moment before melting away into the black shade Vah’mor’s body formed away from the fire’s light.

“You are the runner,” Vah’mor announced with sharp silver eyes narrowed in on him.

D’Argen felt his mahee wanting to submit and drop him to his knees, raise his chin to the sky, and offer itself to the other. He barely resisted it and only nodded instead.

“You are late,” Vah’mor announced again and then dismissed him by looking away.

“That is strange,” Lilian muttered under their breath but did not explain further when D’Argen asked.

“You ran away fast,” Acela smiled when she spoke, finally separating her lips from her companion’s but still wrapped up in his embrace.

“I had to… I just… woke up and felt…”

“Ahh… your mahee called you to run. Where did it take you?” Acela shifted until one of her hands was free and motioned to a spot that was large enough for both D’Argen and Lilian to sit down.

“The ocean. Then another one. And another one. And there was—”

“Oceans?” Lilian interrupted with wide eyes. “Only a few of us came here from that far and they each only saw one… it took them months to reach the rest of us.”

“Yes… I ran in each direction and in each direction, I saw water.”

“An island. A big one. I feel like I know its name,” Acela said those words to the other four and got varying responses.

“Trace,” the Scholar mumbled with his eyes focused on the fire in front of him.

Darania nodded beside him.

Zetha finally spoke, “That is what the mortals call these lands. That is what we call them.”

“So…” D’Argen hesitated with his words again in a way that he never felt he had to hesitate with his feet. “Why are we here? What… how are we here?”

“We fell,” Acela responded with a shrug. “None of us can recall from where or why, but we know that... we used to be more. And once we know more, so will you, because we are one. For now, your mahee calls you to run.”

“In fact,” Acela continued and her smile was so beautiful that he fell a little in love with her there and then. “I want you to run, but I want you to come back to me. Tell me of what you see and what you find. We want to know these lands and the mortals.”

“That is all?”

“Well, not all,” Acela then turned to Lilian. “Lilian is the one who controls the winds.” Lilian nodded as if they were asked a question and Acela smiled wide. “I want you both to run.”

D’Argen turned to look at Lilian in question, but received no reply. When he turned back to Acela, she was looking at Lilian too. “Make sure to bring him home.”

Lilian smiled and D’Argen felt his heart break for some reason.