The five set off a bit later than they should've. The road was longer than they had anticipated. Not far from a natural stone pillar, they set up camp. Magnus had already disappeared behind the mountains and the sky was a deep, dark purple, the first stars showing.

Soon, night fell. S'varash had watch duty for the first hours and Tsera, Gatorn and Ren had already gone to rest. Drenvoth was awake, however, sitting up on his bedroll and looking at a silver locket he was twirling around in his fingers. It had a small, heart-shaped emerald in the centre.

"What's that?" Ren startled him, sitting up. Her eyes were still blurry.

"It's nothing," the elf hid it away hastily.

"Where'd you get it from?"

"Just a friend," Drenvoth mumbled as he put it away and laid down. At the same time, Ren stood up.

"Where are you going?" the man asked.

"I need to have a word with S'varash," Fiorenza muttered as she left the tent.

S'varash was sitting by the fire, staring into it. He had no need for his eyes if he had his ears. Ren approached him from behind, but he heard her before she said anything.

"Why are you awake?" he asked the woman.

"There's something we need to talk about."

"Is it about why the Ghostblade is still in your possession?"

Ren was somewhat stunned by his observance. She sat down beside him, but the Cathay-Raht still did not look away from the flames.

"I've severed contact with them," she explained quietly, so that no one would hear.

"Then neither S'varash nor his sister have a reason to stay," the Khajiit replied.

"No," Ren answered casually. "But I had reason. They are murderers. One of them mistook me for another customer who had ordered a poison from them."

"What they do is none of our business."

"But it is. If we are helping them, we may be contributing to the death of other good men."

S'varash did not reply. His ears twitched slightly before he finally looked away from the burning wood and straight into Ren's oak coloured eyes.

"S'varash will continue to go with you," he muttered.

Ren showed a rare smile.

"I thank you," she said, "for your sister would not have done the same."

"Tsera is single-minded. She thinks only of pleasure and profit. She dislikes you because she thinks this is all just a waste of time."

"I know that," Ren said, standing up. "And I don't blame her."

She walked into her tent where she got back on her bedroll and went to sleep.