Julia sat reading Sarah’s letter for the umpteenth time while Yngvarr and Alfarr slept, not sure what to make of Sarah’s news. The tone of it both was, and wasn’t, the Sarah she remembered, but more disturbing was her apparent acceptance.


    ‘J


    Torm filled me in on the details while we were in the Ice’s grasp.


    Don’t be stupid and think you can handle Hell. It’s not a place that you can react your way through. Your outlines of plans and fall-back options will only get you stuck in a deeper mess than you’ve found in the Abyss. If she’s here with me, she’s screwed or adapting, and she always seems to fall on her feet.


    I remember standing in a stone passage before I ‘hatched’. That sounds like where you ran through first. I thought I’d heard Rachel screaming there. Her screams cut off before I was inside Mother’s egg and forcing my way out. I’ve been this way for nearly seven years before I met Torm, so it’s at least that for her. I don’t know why you spawned in the Abyss years after I emerged in Hell.


    If she’s an Erinys, they can shift between Planes, so she might not even be there. They serve as messengers, bounty hunters, and other things. If she was setup to be an Erinys’ target, she’s likely already destroyed, and based on Torm’s tale, I’d say that’s not the case. Once had a strange encounter with a weird Erinys, didn’t learn her name. If it’s her, then I have a place to start. There will be regimental records if nothing else - Hell has paperwork on everything. It’s why you’ll never fake your way in; that guide will be for Mortals dealing with Dis.


    Focus on getting yourself free. I’ve gained some rank and I’ll get more with time.


    Though if you feed me news of the Sisterhood, I could certainly turn a profit on intel regarding someone like Balnérith.


    As for Nicholas, yeah, I want a piece of him. You better fucking survive your Id J, but if you don’t, I’ll turn her into a whipping bitch. If you’re crying when you read this: take a teaspoon of cement and harden the fuck up princess. I’ll see how high I can push things before I do the same combo job, but I’ve got leeches taking experience from me at present.


    S


    PS: he smells like a dog. You always had weird tastes girl, but at least he thinks the princess bride is good. I told you dickhead was bad news when he thought it was dumb. I had so much fun sharing a bunch of memories with Torm via a telepathy gadget I built.


    PPS: I hope the runes work, they should have recorded the essence of the sound. While my name sounds right to me, I’m not a Wizard needing it for a spell. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to send a message, but I hope you can at least tell me if you iced the troublemaker. Just send some Mana into the runes or drip some blood - either will activate it.


    ’


    She so told him that story. He knew what he was saying. Did he pick that approach so I could still choose my own time?


    Glancing to where Torm and Rana were talking to a few Celestials and Petitioners, Julia teleported back to the valley’s ridgeline.


    With the rune engraved copper disc set where Alfarr had perched, Julia pushed a trickle of Mana into it. For a moment, nothing happened, but then light began rippling within the runes like glowing water. As each one lit in sequence, the disc rose as it grew steadily brighter. When it was a metre above the rock, it spun, and as the disc spilt into segmented bands Julia got ready to run, but they’d no sooner started when they stopped. The motions emitted a metallic rasping hiss that whispered a name she recognised, and the disc descended. Those inflections in Infernal made Julia shiver at the malice within the name Sarah considered her own.


    Considering what she needed to tell her for a moment, she cast a stronger version of Mercury’s Whisper and hoped it would reach her.


    “Sarah, I’m so sorry you got dragged into this, but I can’t help worry about you both. Your mission if you choose to accept it is 104, 102, 102, and 100 class-wise. After 100 I got a Prestige class offered that combined 4 classes and provided an evolution. Viper got expelled but not destroyed; we’re separated but no idea how much she remembers. The name on my Profile says Eakc?. Try to stay sane, and cut your BS, I know you’re not any safer than me. Hope you’ve found more on Rach. I can open a Gate anytime you’re somewhere that allows it.”


    The moment she finished the spell, it disappeared with the usual pulse of power. When Julia went to pick the disc up, its copper broke into tiny shards and the pieces bloomed into the air.


    Only wanted it used once? What if someone else had used it?


    The sunlight glinted off copper as the powered fragments reformed into a tiny doll’s face. Strands of braided chains quickly hung across its features, even as more formed while Julia looked on.


    “J, this won’t last.”


    The copper fragments brushed against each other, emitting the words in the same shrill and metallic rasp as Sarah’s name.


    “Found an Erinys named Isaac, renamed from Rachel on arrival. Date just over 180 cycles before me. Minimal skills, erratic behaviour, denial of any fall, giggling fits, assigned as gofer of an old Erinys named Ilya. Isaac’s duty records show she’s mostly in field operations in Hades, Gehenna, and Carceri. Current assignment: Slaadi extermination duty in Carceri. Still with Ilya be-”


    The head flashed like a lightbulb popping and showered the rock with copper dust.


    “Sidero, your doll’s head went boom - got the location after Slaadi extermination duty. I’ll be able to call her with a Gate since you found her name.”


    To keep her Domain’s location safe, Julia teleported to a glade near the Spire before pouring Mana into a Gate Spell using Isaac’s name as its focus. As it snapped into existence, the Outland’s sunlight washed over a dark, battered landscape with an inky black sky above.


    A blazing white arrow descended on a battlefield awash with fallen Devils and Demons being picked over by Slaadi scavengers. As it fell, it burst into a shower of white shards that pierced through everything beneath. True Sight showed Julia the rolling devastation as shards ended the Slaadi and prisoners alike. Ahead of her in the Gate’s illumination stood a black dragon-hide clad Erinys. The armour’s edges gleamed with Mithril and light-drinking Adamantine runes. Bright blood red hair seemed to glisten in the light, and before the devastation began to settle, the Erinys drew again, and another arrow began rising skywards.


    Black wings spread and braced against the air as the white bow in her hands started glowing with a plasma cutter’s intensity. There was nothing in the archer’s stance, but Julia acted on Precog’s warning and spun away from the Gate. Two arrows raced through it a moment later, scorching a tree to the ground. The first’s Infernal energy set it alight, and the second’s Destruction reduced it, and a line of trees beyond, to ash.


    [Clairsentience [B](10->11)]


    “Ilya, I have information to trade,” Julia shouted in Infernal. Moving further from the Gate, she kept hold of the spell, ready to close it in an instant.


    I should have thought of the Home Plane disadvantage.


    “The Gate’s focused on me Ilya.”


    The simple statement brushed the air with beautiful tones, though the suspicion in the vibrant soprano was clear.


    Seriously Rach, don’t drop me in hot water. I was trying to keep my focus on you concealed.


    “Yes Isaac, I focused the Gate on you, not Ilya. Who’d be easier to focus on?” Julia asked, initially in Infernal, before switching to risk English for a moment. “Rachel it’s Julia.”


    The wave of sound that rolled through the Gate ripped apart both matter and spell alike. The dust and debris held no danger to Julia, but it clearly would take time to settle. In the direction she’d set the Gate, a thick cloud blotted out any view of the woods ahead of her.


    “Fuck!” Julia spat the word in anger as indecision and concern conflicted within her.


    As Julia felt the tears fall, she sent another message.


    “I fucked up Sarah. I opened a Gate to Rach. She, and Ilya I think, tried to flash fry me. A wave of sound blew up the Gate and ripped a chunk of the Outlands apart. There is an Erinys previously named Odyis: please keep an eye out for her. If Torm didn’t warn you, she tried to manipulate her orders to finish me, and then fell. I’m worried she’ll find out about Rach, since her name is in Hell’s documents. I do not know what she knows about the three of us.”


    Another glance at where the Gate had stood showed a perfect line in the grass beyond which it had stripped the topsoil clean in a widening arc. For a hundred metres at least, the thinning dust cloud revealed the shredded remains of trees and thick undergrowth. The further the destruction ranged from the Gate, the less topsoil there was.


    A cone AoE, perfectly in line with the Gate, it would have to be Rachel; she sounded close to it.


    Teleport placed Julia back near the others resting spot where she flopped to the ground. Laying back, Julia stared at the branches overhead as she tried to decide what to do.


    When Yngvarr awoke before Alfarr, he was still looking worn but still sat upright as he regarded Julia’s glum expression.


    “I take it the rune plate didn’t work?” enquired Yngvarr gently, his tone far lower than he needed for the soundly sleeping Alfarr.


    “No, it worked,” Julia replied absently, watching the swaying of the leaves.


    “You don’t seem happy about it,” Yngvarr remarked, before rising to come sit beside her.


    “The name let me send a message to her. Sarah sent a quick message in return, she’d found an Erinys named Isaac, renamed from Rachel. Shouldn’t you be resting still?” Julia asked, giving him a stern look.


    “If it worked, why so glum? Or did the results of the expedition cause Sarah problems?” probed Yngvarr, not inclined to let her brood.


    “Sarah didn’t say, but her messenger didn’t last long. I tried to contact Rachel via a Gate using her name, but talking didn’t go so well,“ Julia replied. “The moment I called out her name and mine there was an explosion of sound. It completely trashed the woods nearby, even scrapped topsoil away and ripped the Gate apart.”


    “I’m sorry, Julia,” Yngvarr stated, regarding her with obvious concern. “Are you sure it wasn’t someone else’s attack that did that damage?”


    “Not from the shape of the cone of damage,” said Julia, shaking her head as she scrubbed her face across her hands. “Plus, from what I could see of the area, they’d been blowing away Slaadi, not dealing with resistance they found challenging.”


    The muffled words were still audible to Yngvarr, who considered them for a moment before he spoke again.


    “That could just mean a stronger Slaadi was about and they attacked,” Yngvarr cautioned.


    “Great, so my two options are she freaked and unleashed something when I mention her or my name,” countered Julia. “Or something blasted the area they were in while I was distracting them. But an explosion like that from behind would have tossed her through the Gate.”


    Yngvarr didn’t reply right away, but Julia could sense his concern.


    “There are more than just those two options.”


    “The ones running through my brain right now are far worse than those two,” whispered Julia, her pain clear on her face.


    “Then you need to distract your mind and plan what you can do safely,” Yngvarr advised, his gaze was unyielding but Julia could see through his guise to the concern it masked. “I’m rested, and need information from you for your project. There were some Powers you didn’t tell me anything about, though you sent the Class details that gain them.”


    “Oops,” Julia muttered, not resisting the impulse to tease, as she tried to force her mood away.


    “That’s what you have to say for yourself?” grumbled Yngvarr, giving Julia a look of mock annoyance as he passed a list on parchment. “I can’t put together accurate records for your people with gaps in them this way.”


    Julia looked at the list he’d given her and sighed. Rechecking Analysis, she recorded their details down and passed it back.


    [Spirit Passage: Allows the possessor to walk through, change direction and linger within solid objects if they’re not enchanted or warded. Higher ranks allow the user to transverse a greater distance of material. It needs Ki energy upon entry, exit, or if there are changes in substance within the object.]


    [Ki Flight:


    Allows the possessor to fly by using Ki energy to hold themselves aloft balanced on the line of their Chakra points. Higher ranks and effective levels allow for faster flight speed. The possessor requires the Fly Skill, or better, to be developed to enhance in-flight manoeuvring.]


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    [Immortal Spirit:


    Upon gaining this power, the possessor becomes a true unaging Immortal. Their demise will see them taken to the Eastern Court’s Judges for determination if they have adhered to their personal Tao. Possessing higher rank, and effective levels in this Power, doesn’t help in swaying the Judge’s decision, but makes one aware when they’re moving from their true path. Time in punishment and the severity of such depends upon lapses from one’s Tao. If one has been true to their Tao then the higher effective levels enable a faster return to the Material Plane.]


    [Seed Doubt:


    This power allows the weakening of a Faith Caster’s Channelling skill. If the erosion nullifies the target’s ability, they suffer a Crisis of Faith, and cannot channel Blessings until it’s resolved. Can only be used during an extended peaceful conversation. ]


    [Rebuke:


    Use of this power causes a burst of Planar energy to render those of opposing philosophical viewpoints insensible. If targeted on a group, they resist it in order from the strongest down, till the power challenge fails or the energy is exhausted.


    ]


    “I still don’t understand how you do that to yourself so easily,” remarked Yngvarr, looking at the paper with a shudder.


    “It’s not like it''s actually alive. It’s just energy shaped into a substance,” Julia said dismissively. As she handed him the last note, she couldn’t resist teasing him. “Okay, Elfie, anything else I can help you with?”


    “If you’d show me what you’d look like now,” Yngvarr requested, ignoring Julia’s teasing. He pulled out a book, and as he flipped to a blank page, Julia saw pages of colour sketches showing various species and places.


    “I’ve never had someone draw me before,” Julia stated, her embarrassment obvious as she tried to catch a better look at some drawings.


    “Oh, is it alright?” asked Yngvarr, his expression showing his concern. “I’ve several drawings of the forms I’ve seen you in.”


    “I never saw you draw me,” complained Julia, giving Yngvarr a stern look.


    “They’re created with a spell to ensure the likeness is accurate,” Yngvarr said blandly, and Julia could see the faintest hint of teasing in his gaze.


    “As long as you’re not selling them off or something weird,” Julia stated, her frown unrelenting.


    “I’d never thought of that,” Yngvarr admitted, his tone making Julia wonder if he was considering it now or merely pushing for a reaction. “Though I have given one showing your Elven face to a Priestess of yours.”


    Julia considered refusing for a moment, then flexed out of the form she’d imagined, gaining over a metre in height as the shadow vines grew with her. With Yngvarr close by, her new height was immediately apparent. Fortunately, the branches directly overhead had sufficient space to accommodate her form’s height at over three metres. While Julia had found fighting the Slaadi easy at a height matching their own, she hadn’t expected it to be her form’s natural stature.


    A quick glance showed her wings had feathers the colour of old dried blood, the macabre colour highlighted by the golden shaft set in each. Her skin tone still appeared the same golden bronze she’d gained after the confrontation with Viper. Though when she looked at the tattooed tendrils across her palm, flecks of vibrant green showed where previously they’d only been solid black ink.


    “Your eyes are a dark amber gold with no pupils or iris showing,” Yngvarr offered, and Julia shrugged, noting no difference in her eyesight. “You appear to have grown proportionally to your previous height.”


    “More changes, lovely,” Julia remarked, holding back the snark lacing her words. “Just what I wanted, another round of getting used to myself.”


    Reaching back, she brought a strand of hair around and confirmed it was still the same electric-blue.


    “At least my hair didn’t change, I like this colour.”


    “It’s a vivid hue,” Yngvarr confirmed. “Is it only the changes in your appearance that have you worried?”


    The energy of his spell rippled over the blank parchment and Julia saw herself with the trees’ branches framing her in the background. Dark wings blended in with the mottled shade of the branches, and their golden cores gleamed like miniature lightning bolts in a cloud of death. The Elven features she’d seen previously were unchanged, only larger, except for the eclipsed eyes replaced as they were by amber’s gold. Mentally drawing back the shadow vines from her arm, she saw the same flecks of vibrant green scattered throughout the tendrils. A rose bud on a creeper showed the faintest hint of pink across a single petal, while a scattering of bloody droplets stood out clearly from her skin, with their fresh arterial red. Julia frowned for a moment before she shrugged and resumed the Wood Elf form she’d used in Eyrarháls, and set concealments in place.


    “I tell myself and tell myself I’m Eakc? now, but still I rebel against it,” Julia said, her frustration clearly showing when she admitted the issue at last.


    “You can’t force change without consequence,” urged Yngvarr, gesturing her to calm. “Find yourself. Might I point out again you didn’t actually pick Eakc?. It’s from a name that was picked for you, that you’ve now rejected. If you continue to resist the name, perhaps there is a reason, and I can think of a few.”


    “If my name changes again, what does that do to my Faithful?” enquired Julia, her expression twisting in concern.


    “You accepted Eakc? because it was easier for others? Why are you buying trouble?” Yngvarr asked, frowning as he stood.


    “How is Julia buying trouble now?” Torm asked as he and Rana approached.


    “With the name Eakc?,” Yngvarr blandly stated, before Julia could say a thing.


    “Who’s sending out the crier to tell everyone to come here to party,” Alfarr grumbled as he sat up from his bedding.


    “Sorry, I thought you were sleeping through a thunderstorm,” said Yngvarr as he glanced at Alfarr. For a moment Julia hoped he’d let the matter drop. “Or was that your snoring?”


    “I’m not the one making noise at present,” Alfarr retorted, stifling a yawn.


    Julia counted to ten while the pair talked, but bit the bullet and asked.


    “Why are you upset about the name, Yngvarr?”


    “Finish up so I can go back to sleep,” Alfarr demanded, glancing around the group. “I’ve already heard about your worries for Julia. Might as well hash it out since everyone is already here. Just, once you’ve said your piece, let it drop; she needs to find her own path.”


    “The origins of Eakc? has an ill-nature for something representing a faith of Hope. It was a name given to Julia by Lêdhins, mispronounced by Moke, then used by Eivor to represent her. Even that was because she’d heard others using it when Julia had intended it only as a temporary guise,” Yngvarr said, glancing at Torm and Rana.


    “Effectively, it comes from a name that originates in misunderstanding and confusion. But that name we all know originated from Abyssal for Viper. Julia, it’s your choice but I have a feeling that you absolutely need to move away from it. Please do not accept it as representing who you are. Better some disruption among your Faithful now than a reversal of the schism you achieved.”


    “Derek deserves to be remembered as well,” grumbled Julia, giving Yngvarr a frustrated glare.


    “By his jab at you when he didn’t even know you? Didn’t he try to give you multiple names, simply because he objected to J? Do you believe he’s also a Sun Elf?” Yngvarr asked. He fired questions in rapid succession, his expression etched with concern. “If he was a Sun or Night Elf, then there is hope, but Mortal Souls don’t resist transformation by the Abyss.”


    “No, he couldn’t stand to be near the Grotto and couldn’t hear the Song,” admitted Julia, relenting in her glare.


    “Then, as unfortunate as it is, when you’re ready, find Lêdhins, kill the Demon, and put Derek to rest. Mourn his life if you feel it warranted, but by all the Courts, please don’t use that name,” Yngvarr pleaded.


    “There are some among the Norse pantheon that have changed their names. Even Tyr: once, the Norse and others called him Tīwa?,” offered Torm. “I can verify the transition didn’t cause issues for his Faithful. I was already a Vargr Drangijaz when it occurred, so I remember when the change of his name spread. It was literally overnight, perhaps the same way that the vision of your Domain occurred. While his Celestials remember the name, it is exceedingly rare that a Mortal invokes it.”


    His expression had grown thoughtful during Yngvarr’s recount and his words eased Julia’s primary concern.


    “I’ll think about it, but Yngvarr, I don’t feel comfortable using the name you found,” declared Julia, fixing him with a serious look.


    “Of course, even if it was your name, which we have no solid proof of, it’s related to a past life,” Yngvarr agreed, relief lessening the strain from his features.


    “What tricks did you pick up from the Githzérai?” asked Yngvarr, abruptly and eagerly changing the subject.


    “Only a foundation exercise for each of the Skills. Though I’m assured once I get used to applying them, I’ll find my way to more. Though Master Duurth suggested I come back regularly for help in studying the Skills’ applications, beyond what my reading has shown me.”


    “Such as?” Yngvarr prompted, motioning for Julia to continue.


    “Learnt an application from each branch: breaking an enemy’s focus, slowing a target’s motions, coating a surface with ectoplasm, danger precognition, telekinetic attacks, and disrupting a target’s muscles,” Julia said.


    “Why an interest in their abilities? How do they help in combat given how strong you are?” Yngvarr asked, clearly unsure of the benefits she was gaining.


    “If I was looking at it that way, why learn anything beyond punching someone really hard?” challenged Julia. “Foundation exercises need mastery before I can build the tower. The High Anarch’s weave Mana and Psi energy together to cut through an enemy’s defences, or expand an effect.”


    “You’re looking for advantage over Balnérith and Lêdhins,” stated Yngvarr, no longer confused by her intentions.


    “Two for two. Plus, Psi effects don’t show in True Sight, which is a potential advantage over Devils and Demons as well,” Julia said, the smile making her view on that clear.


    “And Celestials, not having your best interest at heart?” Torm proposed, his flat expression showing his pain from that memory hadn’t faded.


    “Those too,” grumbled Julia, still rocked by the last few hours.


    “I have some important questions for you?” Torm asked tentatively, and Julia glanced his way, aware he was trying to ease her shifting mood.


    “What?” asked Julia, her voice still emotionally flattened.


    “How many days of bath time does Verdandi owe you now?”


    Torm’s question made Julia snort as he sat beside her.


    “Lots. Sometimes I just wish things wouldn’t be so hard. Daydreams; they can really fuck with your brain,” Julia said, blowing out a breath as her expression came alive again, and scrubbed the tears away. “If at first you don’t succeed, fry, fry a hen.”


    “What''s a hen got to do with it?” asked a puzzled Torm, but his lips twitched as Julia’s resilience reappeared.


    “I guess nothing, but a pity party won’t help either. I’ll need to figure out a plan that doesn’t lead to a repeat of the mess I made contacting Rachel.” Julia stated firmly. Glancing between the two of them, she gave them both a smile of appreciation for their support.


    “Where was she?” Torm enquired, as he watched calmness reassert itself where before he would have seen racing thoughts. True Sight wasn’t helping either, as now he only saw a Wood Elf, whose appearance seemed a simple traveller. The Sisterhood Sigil fully concealed from his sight; even the shadow vines appeared to be mundane Elven clothes.


    “Carceri raining shards of Destruction Mana down on Slaadi,” Jula replied, shuddering at the waves of indiscriminate destruction she’d seen. “They were killing Slaadi gathering injured from a battlefield. The PTB assigned Rachel and Ilya extermination duty according to contact I had from Sarah.”


    “PTB?” asked Alfarr, looking almost incoherent in his confusion and fatigue.


    “Powers That Be,” stated Torm. “Something in common with her then: we have thousands of Slaadi we need to kill.”


    “If the Celestials won’t get involved, maybe I should tell Hell about the Spawning Stone’s situation,” Julia murmured, drawing a frown from Torm.


    “You don’t know if they’d manipulate the situation to disadvantage the upper Planes, or just restore the balance,” cautioned Torm. The face he pulled made his thoughts on that subject clear.


    “Yeah, I know, but I also know they don’t like the Slaadi having power,” stated Julia, giving Torm a shrug. “Even when they work with Hell’s agents, those same agents slaughter them when the plan’s complete. There were many incidents and examples of it in the Githzérai records I’ve read.”


    “The enemy of your enemy,” Yngvarr started, his expression showing he was leaving the rest hanging.


    “Could stab you in the back,” grumbled Julia, giving him an eye-roll that just earned a smile from the others.


    “Do we give Alfarr and Yngvarr a chance to recover from the last few months, and then head to Limbo?” Torm asked, looking between them.


    “Yeah, if we look for rivers of Chaos energy, they’ll lead us toward the Spawning Stone. We can thin the numbers on the way, to gain levels and practice working together,” agreed Julia, before gesturing towards the work taking place in the Domain. “I’ll have to find Tyr a nice thank you gift; they said it was towards paying weregild, but still.”


    “Could bring him the head of the Stone’s Guardian,” Yngvarr offered with a shrug, and moved to pack up his bedroll.


    “Not sure I want to know how strong it is,” declared Julia, not suppressing the shudder as she remembered the feeling of seeing its original guardian. “I saw Yaro Yiyan from a distance; did not want to get close enough to say Hi. We get there then work on thinning out mobs along the edge and retreat as needed. Once we kill enough, we strike hard for the Altar of Set and if we destroy it get out immediately; reassess as needed.”


    “We’ll still have to find it,” Torm said. “Even with the rivers you can see guiding our passage, Limbo is still vast.”


    “True, though I’ve seen the Spawning Stone via scrying; I could teleport us close,” offered Julia.


    “But we’d be teleporting in essentially blind,” Yngvarr interjected, looking up from his gear. “Let’s take the time. Plus, it’s not like we won’t be reducing their numbers as we go.”


    “I’m surprised I slept so soundly,” Alfarr mumbled, as he swallowed a yawn.


    “It feels safe here, like being home. He doesn’t normally sleep this soundly when travelling, even at an inn,” Yngvarr explained in response to Julia’s clear curiosity.


    “A few days of rest and then we go?” suggested Julia, enjoying the look Yngvarr directed at his husband.


    “Indeed,” Yngvarr agreed. “Sorry, we mere Mortals will slow the three of you down.”


    Julia gave him an indignant look and almost didn’t bother to reply.


    “No, no, it’s the other way around. We’re speeding things up for you,” Julia said, affecting a snobbish air. “Since it’s the mess you made.”


    Looking at Torm, when he offered a nod of acknowledgement, she gave him a high-five before they left Alfarr to get some rest.


    <hr>


    Torm found Julia later as the end of the rope trailed across the water. The arc of its swing lifted her well clear before dipping again on its return towards the bank. Her pensive smile was clear from a distance as she flexed with its swing to steer the knotted rope higher over the river bank. The double loop around the top end of it slipping easily across the brace she’d fixed on a sturdy branch.


    “Why a rope swing?” asked Torm, once he stood closer but safely away from her course.


    “Why not?” Julia retorted, but after a moment, answered properly. “My brother was a lot older than I was, so there were only a couple of years before work and adult stuff meant he didn’t come along on the family’s camping trips. He could have ditched his annoying little sister easily when he did. Instead, he spent time with me, even if we both got in trouble for stuff I talked him into. One of my favourites was seeing how high I could get the rope swing to take me.”


    “Why did he go along with your ideas?” Torm asked before giving her a smile. “Sibling blackmail, I’ve been told, is a thing.”


    “The way he saw it, he’d gotten himself into enough trouble when he was my age, he could at least be there to back me up,” Julia said, working with the momentum of the swing, Flight offering no temptation at all. “Sarah shared some memories with you?”


    “I mentioned you used terms no one understood,” Torm said. “So she shared some cultural references, though not personal things.”


    “What sort of culture references?” asked Julia, worrying exactly what Sarah had shared with Torm.


    “Memories of movies and things,” Torm said with a shrug before smiling and uttering a cruel sound. “Ni.”


    Huffing in amusement, Julia’s laughter made the swing move erratically for a while before giving him a stern look.


    “Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say Ni at will to old ladies,” Julia said, then raised an eyebrow as she considered him. “I thought you had heated words with her?”


    “We did, but as much as I dislike her insistence that she would not break her contract with Gaius,” Torm said haltingly as he considered his words. “I could also see she was angry with him for signing it at all. She took offence that he’d sold his Soul because of his family being outwitted of their material wealth. Things happened which she seized on for her own advantage, but she stepped back from making it far worse for the rest of the expedition. Though I still wonder how close she came to not sparing them.”


    “Sarah can be ruthless in making people pay the price for their choices,” agreed Julia, wondering how to explain her friendship with Sarah. “But if you needed someone to back your choices, she’d be there. Even if she thought you could do better, it was always your choice. For her it didn’t matter if friends were doing something right or wrong; they were friends so you stood by them.”


    “She said I wasn’t too bad for someone so lawful stupid,” Torm stated wryly, as he finished removing his boots and stretched his feet into the water.


    “Oh, that’s cruel,” Julia exclaimed. “I’m going to scold her; She should not have told you so directly.”


    “At least you defend me against such accusations,” said Torm, with a playful tone of relief.


    “No, that’s not it,” refuted Julia, shaking her head vigorously. “She just shouldn’t have told you directly.”


    The look of mock outrage Torm wore set Julia off in a fit of laughter. He just remained on the grassy riverbank waiting, and after she calmed down, his next question set her off again.


    “Do you think you could make a lightsaber out of Celestial Mana?”


    Torm watched as the laughter eased some of the strain he’d seen in her sad smile.