Layne looked at the buildings from a distance. He knew they weren't welcome there – Adan had made it clear the last time. He wasn't sure he even wanted to return and leant more towards the 'no.' Not that they had anywhere else to go.

"We shouldn't be stopping now," said Alana. "We're almost there."

He nodded and picked up the pace. There wasn't a good reason to try to delay the inevitable. He was going to face Adan again. He wouldn't throw them out again. Not after they'd tell him about Victor's plans. Or, so he hoped.

When they got closer, Malia looked around and gasped in awe. "How come they live in actual houses? All we had were... Barely standing cabins."

Layne shrugged. He didn't feel like discussing any of that. He was too busy preparing himself mentally.

"Stop!" He heard the voice before he even saw the people. There were three of them, each armed with a knife. He was relieved to see one of them being Diana. Her face was stone cold but she was just a kid. A kid who met him once.

She looked directly at him, ignoring the rest of the group. "What are you doing back here? What are they doing here?"

Malia clutched on Layne's upper arm. He couldn't blame her – he didn't exactly tell them how those people treated those who aren't their own.

"We need to talk to Adan," he replied.

Diana frowned. "About what?"

"We'd like to talk to him in private."

She squeezed her lips and exchanged looks with her 'friends'. They hesitated but eventually, one of them gestured them to follow. A short, middle-aged man. The least menacing looking person of the three of them, so, Layne was glad when the other two stayed behind.

"Thanks," he said to the man. He only shook his head and continued moving forward.

They stopped by one of the houses, no different than all the rest, and he knocked at the door. A couple of minutes later, it opened up and revealed Adan's figure. For a short while, he just looked at the man, until his eyes moved onto Layne and his group and widened.

"What's going on?" he asked in a stern voice.

The man just nodded at him and left. Layne stood forward and offered Adan his hand. He didn't move and only frowned, looking Layne in the eyes.

"What is it?" Adan's voice deepened.

"You were friendlier before," Layne commented. Adan didn't reply, so he continued. "We wanted to warn you, but if that's how it is, we can leave."

"Layne!" Alana protested and spoke to Adan. "Good day. My name's Alana, this is Malia and Iker. We ran away so that we could tell you that Victor's planning an attack on you."

Hostility disappeared from the man's face. "An attack? What?"

"I'm afraid we don't know many details, but Victor has started turning the people against you, telling about you keeping Coden hostage and how people died before because of you. He says they need to make an end to you all because you're a threat to their safety. Most seem to believe that."

"We tried to tell the truth to at least some of them," Malia added. "But it didn't... It didn't turn out good and we lost Iker's brother."

Adan thought for a bit. "You're not trying to fool me, are you?"

"Dude," Layne spat out. "We're not the ones selling people out to freaking Victor."

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Ok," he said after a while. "Alright. Thank you. I need to discuss it with the leaders so we can decide on what actions to take."

"So, are you gonna be throwing us out or offering us as a gift to Victor?"

"No," Adan assured just a tad bit too quickly. "No, of course not. Look, I would try explaining myself to you and all but if you're telling the truth, and I believe that you are, I don't have the time for that now. I'm sure you can find Coden around."

He rushed past them and disappeared down the street. Only then, Layne saw Iker standing further away, still shaking and looking even worse when he did before. He still didn't know what to tell him.

"Iker, come on. He's not even dead or anything. Right?" He turned to the women.

They both shrugged. "I didn't see much," said Malia. "But no, at least when we ran he wasn't- he wasn't dead."

Iker's head shot up and he took a large step towards them. "And you just left him and ran away?" he yelled.

"We couldn't have helped him! What do you think we are, some world-saving superheroes who can save anyone anytime because their own life is either invincible or meaningless?"

Everyone looked at her, even a person passing down the street stopped for a second. Layne could have imagined himself saying something like that, but Malia... Malia was a nice person, in his eyes. It's always hard to imagine a nice person saying or doing anything like that.

"He's my brother," Iker whispered.

"Yeah, and I'd like to think my life isn't worth less because I don't have a dick and hence don't qualify as being anyone's brother. Alana's too. Do you know how much Alana cares about everyone, Iker? Do you know that she would have done everything if she could have?" By the end, her voice was turning into a whimper. She clenched her fists until large veins protruded from underneath her skin and although Layne didn't see her face, standing behind her, he could almost imagine her tearing up.

"Malia," Alana stopped her. "Iker understands, right?"

After a short pause, he nodded. "Yeah."

"If I learned anything about Victor, it's that public image is one of his priorities," said Layne. "He kept me around just to let everyone see I'm all alive. Just so that no one would get suspicious. I'm sure we still have time to save Zander."

"And everyone else in that village," added Alana.

Iker looked around as if scared about anyone hearing them. "But how?"

"I guess we'll have to talk with that guy... Adan? Maybe he'll have suggestions."

"No." Layne closed his eyes and thought for a second. "Adan's not gonna help us if that'd endanger anyone here and, well, it would. We could try explaining the situation to the people directly. Maybe, then he wouldn't have another choice."

"Who knows, really, they might not want to endanger themselves."

"Well, we won't reach anything just the four of us," said Malia. "I don't see what else we could do."

"Five of us," Layne corrected her. "We should go find Coden, by the way."

* * *

Finding Coden was an easy task. He was sitting on a bench right in front of the house they've stayed in together, carving something out of a piece of wood. His eyes were blank and his hands moved somewhat monotonically as if he wasn't fully in this world. Even when four people stopped right in front of him, he didn't look up.

"What you're carving?" Layne asked. It looked like a spatula, just very thick. Of course, it was a work in progress – just didn't seem like he would have managed to finish it, from the way he was working.

Coden looked up, his mouth formed into an 'o' shape. He dropped both the knife and his carving and jumped right from his seat.

"You're back!" he exclaimed, his eyes wandered between him and his companions. "You're here."

"As it turns out, Adan doesn't have the power to get rid of me. Or prevent them from joining us. Maybe we should be on Victor's team, after all?"

Coden chuckled. Both Malia and Alana gave him a hug, while Iker hesitantly shook his hand. When they let go of each other, Coden's face turned more serious.

"Is Zander not with you? And Remy?"

"There were... Complications, regarding Zander." Alana lowered her eyes. "We'll just have to go get him or something."

No one dared to say anything else. Layne knew for sure that he wasn't going to be the one to bring the news about Remy, no matter what it came to. Unfortunately, the rest of him groupmates seemed to be of a similar opinion.

Coden's brows furrowed, his eyes wandered around each of their faces. "And Remy?"

Again, they didn't say anything. For the longest time, they just stood there like idiots and stared beneath their feet. As it turned out, that was as good of an answer as any. Coden let out a long, silent sob and his shoulders sagged down.

"Coden, I'm so sorry." Malia was the first to break the silence.

"What happened?" he whispered.

Layne took a few steps backwards. He wasn't getting into that. Besides, he was the least qualified to tell the story, as the only one who wasn't in the village at the time that happened.

Alana told him the same thing Malia had told Layne that once. It was clear she was struggling to talk and eventually, she teared up and so did Malia. Iker started blinking rapidly and turned around, kicking the ground beneath him as if everything was its fault. The whole time, Coden stood there white as a corpse and just kept gulping, his lips were shivering.

Layne felt like an asshole.

He was the only one standing there as if unfazed by everything. He still couldn't get himself to feel too upset about anything and he hated himself for it but he knew there wasn't anything he could do about it. He wasn't even sure if there was anything wrong to feel that way. As far as he knew, there wasn't anyone qualified to tell him that in the Land.

After a long, unnerving silence, Coden turned around on his heels and marched into the house. Alana swiftly followed him, while Malia, Iker and Layne were left standing there.

Malia and Iker both looked at Layne as if looking for his guidance. He sighed. "Alright, we should go find Rose, I guess."

"Who's Rose?" asked Iker.

"Rose is who's gonna help everyone settle in," Layne replied with a smile. "She's the 'stranger by the well' we've been hunting down all that time and she's one of the nicest people around."

Malia nodded and wiped off her eyes. Walking together, they didn't talk about Coden, Remy or Zander. Thus, they didn't talk about anything. Which was okay, in a way. Layne has really started to enjoy not having to talk to anyone.