• “Hey, Vincent? Could you at least tell me where we're headed?”
    Vincent looked back at Maria with a pained expression in his eyes. “Fine, if you must know, we're headed to the Hook. It's a region up north, filled with mountains and swampland. We're heading to a town at it's point. Once we're there, I'm going to find some answers.”
    Maria cocked her head to one side, looking confused. “What do you mean answers? I figured you were going to stay somewhere until your crime was forgotten.”
    “I need answers because I didn't kill the Judge. Someone set me up to take the fall for it.” They trudged on the rest of the day in silence, until they finally came to the end of the forest. Out in front of them lay a long swath of grassy plains, interspersed here and there with rocks and flowers. Maria rushed out into the field and took in the beautiful sight after having been stuck within a forest for weeks. As she ran through the plains, always within Vincent's sight, a horn sounded in the distance.
    As Vincent came to the sudden realization of what the call meant, he charged at Maria and tackled her to the ground. Just as he did, arrows flew overhead, thudding into the ground like stones.
    “What was that?” Maria asked, fear poisoning her voice. “Vincent, what's going on? How did they find us?”
    “Damn, they must have patrols all over, searching for us. Maria, see that overhang over there? I want you, on the count of three, to run for it. Once you're there, stay there until I call you out or until I'm dead. Got it?” Maria could only nod her head in agreement. “Okay, ready? One, two... Three!”
    As Maria ran toward the rocky shelter, Vincent ran along the field towards the archers that were barely visible on the horizon, using Flow to increase his already fast pace. Vincent sprinted towards the archers, constantly dodging arrows until he reached the line of men. Once there, he jumped into the glare of the sun, then came down with shuddering force upon one of the soldiers. He ran down the line, slashing with his blade. As he came to the last soldier, the archer quickly raised his bow and shot at Vincent. Vincent shot forward using Flow, and sliced through the arrow and it's owner.
    Vincent ran back to where Maria was hiding, and collapsed, exhausted from the battle.
    “Vincent, Vincent! Are you okay? Did you get rid of all of the soldiers?”Vincent was only able to nod his head, then he collapsed into a deep sleep.

    When Vincent woke up, it was sunrise and the scent of burning ham was in his nostrils. He looked over to unexpectedly see Maria cooking ham over a fire. He sat there for a moment, watching her cook the delicious smelling food, before she noticed him and came over.
    “You're awake! I can't believe you fought all of those soldiers yesterday, and you're still awake this early. By the way... thanks. For saving me yesterday, I mean. I still can't believe you did that. I guess you're not all bad, huh?” She smiled at him, then went back over and took some ham off of the spit over the fire. She handed it to him and he ate ravenously. When he was full he rolled back over and was quiet for awhile. After a few minutes of silence, he managed to utter a low “you're welcome” before slipping back into silence.
    Later in the day, after they had both eaten and rested some more, they set back out on their journey. As they were plodding along the field, Vincent suddenly turned towards Maria. “Hey, where did you learn to cook? You're the only daughter of a noble family, you aren't really expected to know that stuff.”
    “I know,” Maria replied, “but I really like to cook, so I tried to learn as much from the family chef as I could. A lot of the time, he was too busy to teach me, but I still managed to learn a lot from him.”
    As they went back to nothing but quiet, Vincent suddenly stopped and turned around. “I'm sorry for killing your family”, was all he managed to get out before he turned back around and started marching again.
    After a long and awkward silence, Maria quietly replied, “I know. You did what you did because you had to make a living. I understand now; my family taught me that Warasti was a sad place and that it's people committed crimes because they had to. Besides, you saved me. You don't actually seem all that bad.”
    “Well, if you don't think I'm all that bad, then you really are delusional about the world. But this does add another part to the mystery. The Club was established as a sort of organization to get rid of the competition. It was filled with criminals who killed other less respectable criminal to make their own situation better. If your father wasn't actually a bad man, then the Club shouldn't have gone after him.” Vincent reflected on this little detail of information as they continued their trek through the fields. There was always the possibility that Garenst Smith was another criminal, but he had concealed it from his family. But that didn't seem that likely, not if Garenst had his kind of money in Warasti, his family would have wanted to know where it came from.
    Vincent and Maria walked through the fields for a few days, talking to each other and enjoying the reprieve from danger. As the days went by, the terrain started to get more rocky, and swampy as well. Finally they came upon a small gathering of mountains.
    “Maria,” Vincent said “I need to tell you that the city we're going to is a lot worse than even Warasti. It was actually founded by criminals and pirates; everyone there is someone who has committed a lot of crimes. When we get there, you need to stick close, otherwise something terrible could happen to you.”
    “Wow, I'm genuinely surprised” replied Maria. “You are actually worried about me, aren't you? See, I told you you're not that bad.” And with that, she trekked forward towards the forbidding mountains ahead.