“Are you ever afraid?”  Keto had asked.  It was raining outside, had been since the night before.  Quartes had noted the storm coming and they had found a cave.  It wasn’t what one thought of for a cave from a story, not some voluminous sanctuary but instead a cleft of open space beneath a slab stone, a place where they could sit and huddle around a small fire as the rain came down.  Keto’s question came as they both stared out at the storm.

“You know I am,” the landian answered, pale eyes turning from looking up at the sky to look at the bard.

“I don’t mind being worrying what you’ll do once the world ending Dragons returns,” Keto clarified before adding, “not to say that there’s anything wrong with fearing that.”

Quartes raised his right hand, looking down at the scarred palm and digits.  “I’m afraid every time there is a fight.”  Quartes lowered his hand, watching the rain and shifting slightly as let the fire warm another side of him.  When there wasn’t something further he looked over towards Keto.  At first she looked like she was waiting to laugh, anticipating some punchline to a joke, but as Quartes gave nothing more the mirth slowly faded, her form stooping as she leaned forward.

“You’re serious?”

Quartes nodded his head several times, the light of their fire dancing shadows across his face.  The fingers of his scarred hand were gripping his thigh.  “When the blade and I were both whole there was nothing to fear, not until the end.  I’d been told the stories, that no Dragon save the first could stop me and if I was brave and strong enough I would lead an army that defeated that beast once and for all.”

Quartes inhaled deeply, the grim lines of his face smoothing as he exhaled, his hand loosening.  In it’s place the landian looked simply tired.  “I did that, didn’t work and while I somehow lived there’s no reason to believe that the turn of the legend won’t find itself another Heir of Lehn.”

“Wouldn’t that be tough?  You are after all called the Last Landian.”

Quartes shrugged, “I’m not sure the heir needs to be one.”

Keto sat back, her brow furrowing as she tried to work through that particular implication.  After a moment she shook her head and brought herself back to her original question.  “If you’re afraid how do you do it?  How do you face the dragonkin?”

“How do you do it?”

“What?” Keto stuttered in response, Quartes’ gaze turning patiently from the storm to look at her, the firelight fully catching his forms as he raised an eyebrow.  “I don’t really, I’m just there with others watching.  Feels pretty safe being around the Last Landian.”

“A lot of people have died around me,” Quartes offered, his eyes shutting and reopening when his face turned back to the falling rain.  “I’m confident you know that.  So, why stand there only feet from danger?”

Keto leaned forward, burying her face in her hands as she gave an exasperated sigh.  She almost wished for a silent Quartes over what she was getting tonight.  In time her fingers dropped down to rest beneath her her chin, her elbows resting on her knees as her gaze turned back to the storm and watched the raindrops fall.  She found herself focused on the splatter of drops onto a fallen leaf, the water gathering in the bowl the leaf had made.  “We need adventurers to have any hope in this world, and people need to believe that brave things are happening.”  She looked over to Quartes her eyes heavy, but a stubborn smiles hinted on her lips.  “Not going, not singing the songs means people remain scared and it means those brave enough to try are forgotten.”

Quartes placed his hand on the stone ground between them, palm upwards.  Keto placed hers in it.  “Fear’s not a bad thing, we’re fighting dangerous creatures.  We’re right to be afraid.”  Quartes’ free hand rapped his knuckles against the shield resting beside him.  “Keid used to say that every hit on his shield made him want to turn and run but it also reminded him that he was strong enough hold.”

“My mother used to say that are virtues are what we practice, that habits make our character.”

“A wise sentiment,” Quartes said, continuing after a moment.  “After my battle with the First Dragon, I awoke in a tent.”  Keto sat up, intrigued by a story she had been hoping to one day here.  “What survivors there were had dragged me there, and I wonder what they must’ve thought to have seen me so battered, to see so much death around them.”  Quartes’ features grew taught as he spoke, the memories of his past dragging themselves back to the present.  He cleared his throat, Keto closed her fingers around his hand, and the lines eased around his eyes.  “I had awoken because the camp was under attack, mindless dragonkin spilling upon it, too few warriors left alive to stop them.  I only had the Hilt-Shard then and I hadn’t even learned yet what power it still had.”  Quartes paused, throat working as he swallowed, and Keto waited only moving to turn over his hand in hers and to run her thumb along the back of it.  “My friends were gone, and I didn’t have the strength to protect the people that looked to me.  I fear that more than anything else, and I’d rather face dragonkin no matter the numbers than surrender to that again.”

Quartes finished and the pair sat in silence.  Watching the raindrops fall into their small realm of firelight and splatter against the ground.  “Quartes,” Keto broke the silence, her voice thick as she hesitated over the words she felt she had to speak, “you know there are some fights you can’t win alone.”  She added with a hint of a laugh, “There is at least one you can’t win.”

“I know,” he answered, his voice level.

“I have some ideas, some ways we could…” Keto begun.

“I know,” he interrupted, looking over to her.  “We’re almost done with this journey, and then we will turn to those ideas.”  His fingers curled around hers.  “It’s been a long road, and I’ve enjoyed this respite.”

Keto smiled, impressed that he had figured out a metaphor.  “Fair enough.”

Quartes perked up, gaze turning back up to the sky.  “Storm’s passing.”

Keto looked at the sky questioningly, it looked full of clouds to her still.  “How do you know?”

“It’s brighter now today than it was yesterday.”