What, nephew, said the king, is the wind in that door?
--Le Morte d'Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory

The person in the bed finally manages to get to his feet, and blearily rubs at his face. He is several years younger than Crake, and looks a lot smaller than he does, but this may be more because of skewed perspective on Crake's part than anything. Chris yawns and stretches before shuffling towards the bathroom, completely ignoring his older self as he walks past him.

Eva glances down and runs faster, not looking back. Her eyes and mind stay fixed on Raziel.

Tamsin feels the shift, but doesn't glance back either. She grips the nape of Eva's mane tightly, like some jockey would.
"RAZIEL!"

Raziel stops in her tracks and suddenly spins around on the spot. To the others she looks pale as ice, and her lips are the slightest tinge of blue. Her breath can be seen as she breaths and it seems to come sharply. She glances around, her eyes bloodshot around her flowing silver and her hair and clothes drip with the water the fog has put into it.
She flinches as she hears her name being called...it reminds her of things... She holds up a hand, palm facing the oncoming Eva and Tamsin and a small flicker of flame appears, looking like it could grow. And naturally it slowly starts to grow though is still small enough to only fit in Raziel's palm. Her eyes go plain white, no pupil or colour to be seen and she keeps facing the direction of Eva and Tamsin

They don't want me around...Thats why they took that long...Thats why TLP wanted to stay with the King...

"Heeeeyaaaarrr! HEEEEYAAARRR!" Bip cries, poking his head out from Raziel's hair. "OFFFURRR HEEEEYAAARR!"

Crake watches as his younger self walks past him. He mutters under his breath,
"Damn was I ever that useless? Got to find Raziel and get the hell out of here."

With that he opens the door to his bedroom. He knows the layout of his house fairly well, and knows that Chris's/his older sister had her own bedroom. She should have gone off to college by now, but his family didn't bother with the room except for her occasional visits. Crake heads for that room, taking the utmost care to be stealthy. Once he is in there no one should come in, and he can sneak out after everyone leaves for work.

As he is sneaking away he briefly considers talking to his younger self, and telling him of his innate somatic abilities. He wonders how his fairly boring self would react to that news. He also wonders how he got here and if Raziel is here.

Estonja canters up to Raziel, her spare horse already beside her. Still concentrating on reaching Raziel, she reaches into a saddlebag, pulling a large fur cloak from it. When she reaches Raziel, she dismounts and wraps the cloak around the girl.

The two roads merge into one, and the sea of mist shifts around them. The road now trails off indefinitely in either direction as the Grey Paths wait for them to make the first move.

***

The sister's bedroom is dark, and the shutters are drawn. For a fleeting moment Crake thinks he senses something - or someone - there, in the shadows, but the next second it is gone.

He can hear Chris going through his various morning bathroom rituals before leaving for school. The front door can be heard opening and closing several times, with a click from the lock. The house falls silent.

Crake decides to take a look around the house while there is nobody there. He puts away his sword and opens the door. He heads towards the stairs and goes down into the kitchen. He makes himself a bowl of quick cereal. When he tries to eat it he has to spit it out because it is too sweet for his tounge. Enhancing your taste and living off jerky and bread tend to make a person shy away from sugar. He briefly calls out into the house,
"Raziel, you here? Meh, not likely..."

He goes over to a chair and goes over the events this day. His thought process is as follows,
Why the hell am I back home? What happened to the fog? What did that man mean when he said he wanted to see if I was strong within? Aw hell with it, this is probably some stupid spell cast by that man. Damn I hate big magics, they mess around with stuff that should be left alone.

Crake puts away the stuff he used, and goes out a window taking care to shut it behind him. That way if anyone notices, they would just think that the window was accidentally unlocked. He sniffs his street, trying to find a trace of Raziel.

Eva snorts at the tricks of the mist for somehow letting Estonja and her horses catch up and arrive at the same time.

"Raziel, you're alright," assures Tamsin. "Are you hurt?" She is concerned, though the tone of her voice doesn't hint at that.

Shas walks up behind, looking Raziel over. He doesn't know much about medicine, but he can tell she doesn't seem to be in good shape.
Where's that somatic when you need him? Come to think of it, where is here, period?

OOG: Just to make sure everybody knows, italics are Shas's thoughs.

Raziel starts as she is looked after and her flame disappears. She watches everyone and stands slightly dazed for a while. She smiles and hugs Estonja for the coat and pets her other horse gently while answering Tamsin

"...P-perhaps...just a l-little...cold...and s-sore..."

Raziel sighs and flinches as the warmth come back to her and she feels the pain from lack of magic. Her eyes stay complete white still with no pupil though they show signs of silver very faintly if anyone pays attention to it. She continues to shiver and hugs Estonjas horse as she pulls the coat tighter around her

"Th-th-thank you Estonja..."

Estonja dismounts and begins unbuckling her spare horse's load. "I know what it is to be cold." After a few seconds, the horse's back is laid bare and steaming. "Lay on her back with cloak over you. Drink in her heat."

Tamsin appreciates Raziel's civility.. as she hadn't recieved any from her before.
"Wherever he is," Tamsin says to Shas, "we should either find him as a group, or split into two. One stays here while the others go."
She looks to the others. "The sooner we find him the sooner we leave these paths of trickery."

Eva seems to agree with a snort.
Bip can clearly hear: "You would do well to warm yourself, also, Bip."

oog: Tamsin adn Eva both think in Italics... but Eva also speaks in italics. Since the majority of you probably won't be able to understand her anyway, it doesn't matter much, but it's important to watch the regular unquoted text as far as either or any character s concerned. Mmm, context clues!

'Splitting up may not be a good idea. Remember, he went off by himself, and now he's gone. These are thick and not natural mists-he could be anywhere.'