Breaker moved from one deep stretch to another as the sun set and the stars peeked through growing darkness. His body remained loose and limber and his mind at ease. His charmed Fealotë patch kept his heart warmer than the heat of a good fire, even though his skin felt the night's chill.

Creatures coughed and roared from the fronds of nearby vegetation but none dared approach. A spiny vine descended from a nearby canopy of razor leaves and swayed - despite the lack of wind - towards him.

Without abandoning his seated saddle stretch Josh froze it with flicker of magic, leaving a long arcing icicle decorating the clearing. He sat up and looked to the sky.

She appeared in a pale blush as the sky turned from azure to black. Suravani shone down on Raiaeara just as strongly as she did in Fallien.

You do well, lover. She said in a code of dancing moonbeams.

"You do good, goddess." Breaker murmured. "I have found the place you spoke of."

So they've bared their souls? The moon laughed in her light.

"They bared all for the Breaker," Josh chuckled in response. He could feel the moon's radiance caress the Y-shaped scars on his cheeks, "as you did, so you knew they would."

I suspected, Suravani said, but do not make light of my tests, champion. Now hist... clouds swept over the moon suddenly, but Breaker saw one word before her light vanished completely.

Drys.

Knowing the Raiearan goddess' agent must be near, Breaker stood and became one with the forest. As a master of the Dajas Pagoda he'd invited contestants to challenge him on a jungle-covered island, and he'd moved this way then. In Corone's civil war he'd flitted through Concordia like a shadow in search of the Empire's assassins. And in Dheathain's deep, dark forest he'd battled a small army of Drakari and emerged unscathed. Breaker had a way with the woods which not even Lindequalmë could disrupt. Without so much as stepping on a dead leaf he sneaked through the foliage in a quick-march grid search. Eventually the sounds of a large beast of burden reached his ears.

Josh paused. The animal did not sound native to this place... nor did it sound alone. He crept nearer and heard a female voice, and then abandoned all stealth and stepped out from cover in front of the faun and her companions.

“Hello, daughter of Drys.” He said in a warm, even tone. “My name is Joshua Cronen... but you may call me Breaker.”