Oh coats! Coats are fun, but they got kinda fraught with meaning cuz of overuse in movies. It's like, every coat's a stereotype, y'know? Big puffy colorful coats shout that you're a nerd who needs to bundle up cuz you don't like the cold, silly and waddling but also cute and funny and lovable. Big wool coats are for rich business people who all look the same walking around in winter with accompanying wide hats and brown briefcases. Nothing but one big sea of people who all have somewhere better to be. Long coats are still somehow The Matrix, even though the Matrix came out before Yuki was born, but her dad used to watch it on TV all the time and tell her about how it marked a watershed moment in the art of cinema that everybody copied to the point that seeing it now doesn't make the effects look special because that's what the entire industry does. But they did do long black coats and that stuck. And then there were, like, Yuki didn't know the word for it, but like, good coats: coats that took a normal person and fit their figure just right and made them look dashing and really hot! Like, y'know, a girl with a coat running down her back that made the curve of her shoulders stand out instead of hiding it, but like it depended on the girl and there wasn't just one cut exactly, but there was a way that a coat made you just extremely hot holy shit, excuse her, she needs a moment. 

With a Kel cloak already though, getting a coat really is about adding warmth, mostly a layer to keep the heat in. So Yuki gets a winter coat that's not too heavy, and that she really hopes makes her look hot, though she's not sure if it quite verges into featureless since they didn't have time to get all of this tailored. It is time to leave. the thing she did suggest was that everybody gets similar coats. It makes them look like a traveling party for the cold weather, and it makes them look a little less vastly wealthy princess party. They're obviously still a well to do group, but all same travel coat hides things a bit more than if they'd all doubled down on their unique costumes and shown off wealthy nobles traveling with elite guards as their thing. Suli gets to pick the color though, it is her house. 

With all that done, they're finally on the road. No, on the Road. Yuki thinks of the Roads and the Outside kind of like Mirkwood. The Roads are Mirkwood if you're a friend of the elves. They wind and roll and you're never quite sure how far you've gone or how far you're going. And everything is dark and black even though the black isn't from thick tree canopy, but it has that mirkwood vibe with everyone traveling with lanterns. It's just that when you're on the road, you know it's safe, you know the turnings are going to lead you to a fire and a good meal and then to where you're going more or less as you planned the trip. So it's like the elves. The Outside, in contract, must be like Mirkwood if the elves don't like you. Everything feels the wrong way, every route elusive, every respite a cruel trick and every corner surrounded by danger. She wasn't sure how the Khatun handled that, but she must have her own power to create safety for her group to shortcut to where they were going. 

Regardless of the outside though, the Road is special. It's part of the magic of Thellamie. The way that it makes places feel different. It doesn't match with a car where you know the route. Or with a plane or a train where you're stuck in a big box that's doing the magic travel. This is your own two feet (or a cart if you're lucky) making your way and yet you make that way in a certain time and it crosses some sort of impossible distance until you reach a new island. She could see how the people who lived here might struggle though. Knowing how dark it was here, how much there was that was outside the light of the sun and the created beauty of people who wanted to make a life for themselves really gave her the sense of urgency that Sulochana was feeling about Crevas. How could families grow if there wasn't space and wondering too far got you lost out here? She really hoped this queen of light thing worked out and that whoever won did their best for all of Thellamie. 

And so, the Fellowship of the Deerboy (no, no they needed to workshop this. Yuki's suggestion is "The Fellowship of the Golden Fawn") marches and slithers forward. For the moment, they go in the silence of their lamps, each lost in their own thoughts and speculations, interrupted only occasionally by the swish of silks and the rattle of Pasenne's tail and jingling bells. 

Who do they meet at the first camp along the road?