Straight Across the Fate Line

"Straight Across the Fate Line" is a [SEASON NUMBER] thread started on [IRL DATE] and finished on [IRL DATE].
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
“Come on in, don’t mind the mess. It’s been a busy week.”
The stag ushered his new acquaintance into the recently neglected home with urgency. With the population influx in recent days, Dario had no time to keep their home looking anything close to presentable.
“So… for my sake, I have to make sure I’m right on this… we’re thinking of the same Blair, right?”
“From what you’ve told me, there is no way we aren’t.” Ellis found himself snagging the closest chair to the door, thankful to finally be resting his feet after an exceptionally long period of travel. He let his legs stretch out in front of him as the remainder of his body slumped slowly down the back of the chair. “Find me another ferret that speaks the way he does with your descriptors and I’ll drop dead on the spot.”
Dario gave a cautious laugh; the fox seemed somewhat relaxed, despite the potential for danger his partner could be in. The deer didn’t want to think of how he would react in a similar situation.
“If that’s the case, then we need to figure something out. I haven’t seen him since he… he came by here, actually. It was a few months ago, but he had talked about going home.” Dario repeatedly tapped a hoof against the floorboard below. “I can’t recall the name off-hand. Vansidar? Valimar?…”
“Vansvindar.”
Ellis sat up quickly, his ears flicking as he spoke the name of the place the pair hailed from. His demeanor shifted from one of near-apathy to concern.
“I didn’t see him. Not at all, before we left. If he did try to go back, he didn’t make it there… or he made every effort to avoid me.” The canid ran a hand through his hair, lowering his posture slightly once again. “Not that I could blame him. I wasn’t exactly great to him when we last spoke.”
Dario could feel the remorse – though he wanted to provide some level of comfort, the deer knew that time wouldn’t allow for it. He thought for a moment on what assistance he could provide; who he knew that could even remotely be of use in a situation like this.
“Well, if not there, then where would you suppose he might be? I might be able to help.”
A long boot stepped lightly into the room right on time as a portal stretched to deposit a humming Bookkeeper, coming straight from assisting in transporting another handful of escapees from the edge of the field of Yun’s seidr. Juro wasn’t there for long, he intended to go back out again to record the newcomers, but he was also quick to recognize the fox from the prior groups of people, and shot both him and the deer a lopsided grin. He tilted his head like a curious bird, brows raised, “Where who might be?”
Dario felt an unexpected sense of relief at the Bookkeeper’s arrival – having another perspective was never a bad thing.
“Oh, Juro! This is Ellis, we were talking about his partner, Bla-”
The stag stopped for a brief moment, visibly recalling a troubling event from earlier in the year. He could picture the scene vividly; his rage, Milae, Juro, and Blair…
“Blair! You remember him, right? The ferret?” The stag flashed a grin at Ellis, hoping to convey reassurance. “We have a… complicated history with Blair. That being said, I was trying to think of any way to find him. Ellis, do you have any clue where he would be if not Vansvindar?”
The fox pondered the question, pressing a paw into the side of his head. Though the pair before him may have seen Blair in recent months, Ellis could not say the same. It had been quite some time since their last interaction.
“Besides home, I don’t know. I can’t think of where he might… oh. Wait, no, I have an idea.” His expression dropped suddenly, signaling a grave thought. “I think I know where he is. Vaguely, at least.”
He sat seemingly still in time for longer than was comfortable. His eyes occasionally flicked back and forth, signaling an uneasy thought process.
“…are you sure you’d want to help? I don’t want to loop you two into anything overwhelming.”
Juro picked up on the shift of energies and immediately matched Dario’s demeanor, the unspoken memories flashing across their minds almost simultaneously, grinning just as wide to move past it as well. He approached the duo with a soft step, leaning down slightly with the same hand tucked behind him and the same friendly smirk as he did with Blair months prior, to reach Ellis’ line of sight better. The previous bookkeeping was already forgotten at the thought of another different story, “I don’t mind tagging along to search for him. I have my ways of obtaining information that might be of help in narrowing his location down as we go as well.” He assured him.
A single amber eye peered at both of them, lingering somewhat longer on the deer, who had already gone through this before. The Bookkeeper’s process remained the same, “I merely require a story in return.” Yet it was softer this time.
There was a brief second of a lightened expression in Ellis’ face – there was a part of him that so strongly wished to see Blair again, alive and well. There was brevity in the foxes’ hope, however, devolving as it came, as there had been an even bigger part of him that believed the ferret would not want to see him again.
“I mean, Hel, where do I begin?” The pads of his paws tapped against one another in a flowing motion as Ellis glared at the floor. “Do you want to hear about the fights we had about his job? I could tell you about staying out late to drink so I wouldn’t have to go home. Oh, wait, a good one – there was the time I told Blair that he needed to grow up and start thinking of our future together and stop bothering with… what did I call it?… oh, "child-like dreams”. That went over well.“
Dario didn’t find it appropriate to interject; there was an obvious pain that went along with these recollections. He could hear the strain in the foxes’ voice as he rambled on.
"I- I haven’t seen him since then. Left in the middle of the night, and I will never blame him for it.” Ellis had lowered his voice considerably. The melancholy that laced his memories left a tension thick in the air. “I apologize. It’s… it’s something I don’t like to talk about too often, and I get carried away when I do.”
He stood from the chair, noticeably smaller than the man and half-breed before him, yet still a considerable ways taller than the ferret. Ellis gently lowered his head before returning his focus to the pair.
“He’s passionate. He wanted to see the world, and use what he learned to help people. I’m certain that’s what he would be doing right now.”
There was no break in the way Juro engaged with the fox’ telling, his eyes seemingly, hazily visible beneath the blindfold with how steady he stared at him. He was quiet, even in the way he regarded him as he let words flow uninterrupted, and spoke only a moment after Ellis finished.
“That is sufficient,” he said evenly, with neither judgement nor encouragement supplied, straightening in a manner that was practically businesslike. Then almost like a skip between frames, split into a grim smile, “Although I wouldn’t be opposed to more details, should you find yourself ‘getting carried away’ once more. It would pay for your return ticket,” he said, but the humour was crystal.
“Vansvindar? I’m familiar. Likely this other place you have in mind as well,” the fabric of their garments billowed slightly as he spoke, the clear presence of magic and wind and portal appearing around their feet, while a journal dropped in hand. The Bookkeeper immediately began flipping through its pages. Blair Birns. Last whereabouts. We’ll start with offshoot timelines. 
“We can set off whenever you wish.”
Ellis looked to Dario, who showed no objection to departing right away. The fox met Juro’s amber eyes with a light nod.
“Sure thing. I don’t think I’ll be able to rest until I know, so I think sooner would be better if the two of you feel up to it.”
The stag stepped forward, placing a hand on Juro’s shoulder with a friendly squeeze.
“Absolutely. You’re in good hands with this one.”
Through a stranger’s eye Juro remained completely unfazed, but the several months of him staying over allowed Dario to recognize the small intricacies to his expressions, including the corner of his mouth that temporarily twitched up into a genuine, delighted smile at the half breed’s casual compliment.
“No time like the present,” he swept a slender hand in a spiral above them. The wind picked up in one smooth movement, beginning to blur their surroundings and giving them a lightness to their feet, a small sensation of floating, “Vansvindar? Or somewhere else?”
dario-the-deer
Ellis tried to focus on the question at hand, but the foreign sensation that encompassed him was overwhelming. Dario seemed relatively unbothered, so the fox took a deep breath and looked back to Juro.
“Vansvindar… I don’t think we should go that far north, at least not yet. Things… things were bad when we left there. That would be a last resort I’d imagine. Maybe start a bit south of there? I apologize, I should have listened to Blair more when he talked about traveling.”
akkeyagentofhelheim
“As long as we have a starting point,” he chuckled, twirling his hand once more before dropping his arm fully. The wall of air that surrounded them dissolved with the motion, transporting them to where Ellis instructed, the floating feeling disappearing as they found themselves with firm footing again. Juro distractedly thumbed through a few more pages in the Library, intent on narrowing down their paths the more they discovered and encountered.