True to his word, Jinwoo woke her in the pre-dawn light the next morning. With bleary eyes and a grumpy disposition, Amber followed him from the caravan ring and settled down to watch as he began his morning ritual - and ritual it was. He sat crosslegged on the sandy ground and drew his finger in small patterns in front of him, as if tracing something in the air there that only he could see. And as the sun began to peek over the horizon, she realized that he was mumbling, very quietly yet consistent, in a foreign tongue. Chills ran down her spine but she did her best to push them aside, reminding herself that this was her idea. 

She didn't question him when he was finished, either, mostly to show that she was still irritated with that man. Jinwoo took her silence in smooth fashion, though his brow did crinkle and he looked as if he wanted to speak. And so it was that they spent the day in silence, broken only when they absolutely must speak.

That night Jinwoo sat alone, close to the main fire and with a large book in his lap. Most of the caravaners gave him odd looks, accompanied by some disparaging jokes and laughter, but Amber's sharp eyes noticed the way Jinyoung looked at him. He had the same look in his eyes that he had when he was watching a race that he had money riding on, and she suddenly wondered what stakes he had in this young man. She stood and made her way to her employer, who noticd her coming and shuttered his expression expertly.

It was too late, though, and they both knew it. "Who is he, then?" she asked quietly as she came to a stop beside the caravan master. 

It took a long moment for him to asnwer, his eyes trained on Jinwoo where he sat at the fire. Then Jinyoung finally his lips and gave a tiny laugh as he shook his head. "I... You don't want to know, Amber. You're going home, and you'll be far from the dangerous threads we're pulling at. It's safer for you to not know."

Safer? Her brow crinkled and she turned to him, mouth open to demand it was her right to know, but he stilled her with one look. His eyes were shadowed, regret and fear both shining within them as he firmly repeated, "You don't want to know."

Amber's mouth slowly closed as she stared into Jinyoung's eyes, her curiousity warring with sudden trepidation. what could frighten this man, the one who braved even the most dangerous of trade routes without the blink of an eye? Jinyoung placed a hand on her shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze, his eyes still on Jinwoo, before he turned and entered the wagon that he slept in.

She fell asleep that night long before Jinwoo finished with his reading, and it was to dreams of her city burning and her mother's face as she sent her only daughter away.

Once again she was woken in the morning, and though she was nt used to the pre-dawn hour, she rose without complaint to follow the young man. It was a relief to be awake and away from her dreams, she thought as she watched him repeat his ritual. "Is it the same one every morning?" she asked of a sudden, curiousity breaking through her determination to stay angry.

Jinwoo didn't look at her as he replied, his voice monotonous as he spoke. "It changes daily, though only through the smallest of things. The one I do in six months will be utterly unrecognizable as the same as this, because of the changes that happen each day."

"Oh. Why do you do it?" she asked, not expecting an answer to that one.

And she was right. Jinwoo only gave an inarticulate grunt and continued his ritual, leaving her to sit and watch in silence. When he finished, though, brushing off his ropal and rising, she rose as well and moved to fall into step beside him. He was barely taller than her and she would bet that she was stronger, but there was something about him that spoke of an assured confidence. She had thought before that he was a nobleman, but he had answered so genuinely about his family that she believed him. But... who were his sponsors? And why was he looking for ruins? She reflected on all the questions she wanted to ask as they saddled their horses, and only once they were in the saddle and headed out did she strike.

"You're from Arisan?" she asked, holding her reins loosely in one hand as she watched him from the corner of her eye. He had just opened a book to begin jotting down notes, and he looked up in surprise when she spoke. "You said you were," she added stubbornly.

Jinwoo's brow crinkled, and he slowly shook his head as his frown deepened. "i didn't say that," he replied slowly, shaking his head ever so slightly. "I sailed from there to here. I was born to the East of there."

His avoidance of a true answer only led her suspicions down a deeper path, and she pressed her next question. "Who are your sponsors? Who would send you to find a city in a far off country?"

"An'Farli cal'Carnin," he said softly, his large eyes staring straight ahead. "The An'Cali named the city The Depths of Reason because it was where they gathered to hold their council. All nine of the creators of our world, gathered in one place, invulnerable to everything except one another.. it must have been amazing. I cannot even imagine the feeling that it would give to stand in the very halls where they walked."

Even Amber, who didn't care anything about the creators or architechture, couldn't help but to feel a slight sense of what he was talking about. She shook her head slightly to dispel that and pressed once more. "Yes, I understand that. But why do you want to find it? Why did your sponsors sendd you here?"

He didn't answer for so long that she t