Darius had taken Veata's advice and spent the rest of the day sleep for how many hours he could manage. He had definitely been in rough shape when they met, and Rae, for all he knew, could have been in a somewhat similar condition. He led her to the Guard's house, in a back hallway to find a bunk room warm and mostly unoccupied. "Go ahead and take any of them, nothing's assigned." The rider chose one close to the floor and climbed in, face first. "We'll take a few hours here, then go find people... unless you have the energy to do all that now."

He let himself relax and for a brief while forgot about his bruised esteem. When he woke up he could hear some commotion in the front rooms, but wanting no part of it he made his way out the back door once again. From then until darkness arrived, he wandered the snowy village in his hunt for allies. He couldn't ask for the help of the guards, they would suspect dark things of him and, at best, put Darius on trial. Perhaps another rider? Where was it that his friends had told him they were staying? The human marched to a row of taverns. He would find those rowdy blokes there for sure.

(I'm not sure if Rae is following Darius at this point, so I'm leaving that open ended? I was waiting for her to post.)