Chapter Text
Her departure had been planned, a simple job taking her out of the Mojave for while. Vulpes had scoffed when she had informed him of it, unsure of why she had deemed it a necessary information. The job was nothing to worry over, neither was her departure. Its location, though, proved to be a trickier subject. The canyon had been under the eyes of the frumentarii for a time, searching for an answer Caesar demanded unanswered. His shadow had evaded each of their gaze yet it lingered in Zion. But those matter did not concern a profligate courier, no matter her importance. And so, the Courier departed without a warning of the man that lurked under the canyon. Her name appeared on reports for a moments, her travels going accordingly, until she vanished along the curves of the canyon – the remaining of her group caught in a snare and slaughtered.
Vulpes merely waited, mind anchored on his duties, as the days passed. But even as he worked, her shadow lingered beside him. A worry hovering just out of his reach. He merely swatted the thought away for a time, uncaring to reach for the thought. But it reached for him, day after day, as he laid down to rest. Her shadow pooling around the few items of her left at the Fort. During those times, worry silently crawled on him, a cold fire sliding up his spine. Vulpes thought of the man that laid in the canyon and those he had killed in warning. No report had ever been made of his survival. None had the luck to survive this encounter. Yet she carried luck unlike others, one that had shielded her from death once. One that might just lure this undying fire from hiding. And the thought worried Vulpes.
A few reports began to arrive, nearly a month after her departure. None had managed to catch her sight until she neared the tunnel again, a thin letter settled in her hand. Vulpes found no relief while reading those rapports, noting the abnormal lack of details he usually demanded of his subordinates. He merely pushed the thought to the side, confident that the Courier would return to the Fort shortly. Vulpes thought, in hindsight, that this detail should have weighed more on his mind. The younger legionnaires treated her with their usual veiled contempt as her boots returned to the east shore. But the older ones found their gazes lowered as they caught a glimpse of her, spines straightening out of old habits. Vulpes still remembered him too, the burned legate. A story to tell, a scar to remember. A burning shadow that now clung to his Courier. The symbols he bore now adorned her shoulders. His gun rested alongside hers. She spoke none of the travel to him nor to Caesar, yet something lingering behind her gaze. A knowledge that would remain hers alone, as Caesar demanded. Vulpes hoped that the man lay dead in that canyon of his.