Welcome to Stories from Among the Stars.

You're listening to Fate of the Fallen by Kelkade.

Chapter 19

Peck's boots scuffed the dirt road as he glanced back at Morrie again.

The boy was different since he awoke from death.

He had the same genuine humor, the same eagerness to please, but somehow he seemed less innocent.

There was knowledge in his youthful gaze, knowledge that had not been there before.

Whenever Peck stared too long, he was overcome with a sense of depth, of otherworldliness.

Morrie never spoke of it, though, and Peck consoled himself with the prospect that it was

he who was cracked.

When he had thought Mori dead, he had broken inside.

He had felt pain that he had never thought anyone could bear, and if Mori hadn't returned,

he didn't think he could have.

It was in the moment of Mori's demise that Peck had learned how much he truly needed Mori.

"'How are we going to find him?' said Mori for the hundredth time since they had left Tily.

"'I told you. We'll go to that Marquess. He's paying Aslo's way, right?

Aslo's got to end up there eventually.

Right, but where's the Marquess?

In Ruritin.

Where's that? said Morrie.

Pretty much due south, said Peck, pointing down the road.

Should I draw you a map?

...