Sotero strode along at Romeo's side, apparently not noticing the heat of the ground or the ash in the air. Occasionally, he leaped up on rocks, balancing with arms outstretched before he dropped back down to the other boy's side.

"I don't know if I want to come to those," he said, and jumped across a small crack in the stone that oozed a tiny curtain of vapor upwards. "I don't like big crowds. Or Amaterasu, either."