I exploded out of the bushes onto the road.
“Oh praise the road!” I dramatically yelled as I fell to my knees, then raised my arms in the air as if in prayer. “Praise civilization! Oh blessed road, I am never, ever leaving you again.” I bent over to kiss the road.
Or rather, the ‘road’. We must be in some backwater, the road was terrible. A wide stretch of pounded dirt, with a thin ridge of rocks indicating the supposed borders, it was nothing like one of Remus’s glorious multi-layered roads that had transported the legions all over the country.
“Brrrpt?” Auri fluttered down to the road, and tried copying me, pecking the dirt road.
“BRRPT!” She thought it tasted awful, and flew up at me, pecking me.
“Ow! Knock it off! I’m fine!” I gently swatted at her.
“Are you sure about that? Seems like you got knocked on the head a bunch.” Amber limped out of the bushes, Artemis and Julius immediately bringing up the rearguard.
I gave her a dirty look, but decided not to get into an argument with her. She’d drag me down to her level then beat me with experience.
“Which way?” Julius asked.
“Is there a difference?” Amber asked. Artemis and I traded looks, we knew what Julius was thinking.
“They still teach it?” Artemis asked.
“Yeah.” I confirmed.
“It’s been a decade since I last had to check tracks.” Artemis shamelessly admitted, which I knew was just her getting out of work.
“Then you can stand guard.” Julius said, as he knelt down with me on the dirt road.
“The packed nature of the road is going to make this hard. Usually we tracked stuff through the forest.” I admitted to him as I glued my eyes to the road, looking for tracks.
“Never did a live one?” He asked.
“Just goblin tracks, and wagons pulled by trainees.” I admitted. “Then it was straight to being a Sentinel, and I wasn’t exactly the top pick to chase monsters.”
“Good thing I spent a bunch of time as the scout on the teams I was on.” Julius said, shuffling forward a bit. “See that there, there, and there? Tracks heading north. Only one set heading south.”
“Head north then?” I asked him.
“If everyone agrees.” He modestly deferred.
Artemis snorted.
“The tracker and one person with experience doing this thinks we should go north, we’re going north.”
Without further ado, we turned and started heading up the road north at full speed. Which was the speed of a limping Amber.
“If nobody objects, I’m going to drop my level.” I said, mentally dropping it to a respectable 240. Or, well, at least it had been respectable in Remus for a woman my age to be level 240. No telling if that was too high, too low, or what here.
“Brrrrpt?” Auri asked me.
“I’m ridiculously high level right now, and armed to the teeth.” I explained to my little companion. “I look like a potential threat, even if my [Healer] tag suggests I’m not. By dropping my level, I’m less likely to cause trouble just from somebody seeing me.”
Artemis snorted, and I grinned.
“You cause trouble just by existing.” I shot at her, having thought of the perfect retort ahead of time. “Even if you pretended to be level 30 you’d still cause disaster in your wake.”
Artemis mimed being hit by an arrow.
“Julius, she’s all grown up and mocking me.” Artemis faux-whined to Julius as I set myself to level 240.
Julius quickly walked ahead, bailing out of the argument before it could begin.
“Hey, we’re kind of like adventurers!” Amber happily exclaimed, and I paled.
“Noooo. No no NO!” I protested. “No way!” Who’d want to pretend to be a scumbag?
“It’s a sound idea. Propose an alternative.” Julius said. “Roaming around as soldiers from a different country is a terrible look, and you know it.”
Ok, I was impressed by Julius. He’d spent almost his entire life “knowing” there was only Remus, and not having any sort of basis for thinking about international politics and the look of soldiers from foreign countries taking a vacation in all their armor and weapons. Running around announcing that we were from Remus could have terrible repercussions. Maybe the place we were in hated Remus. Maybe they were at war with them. Worth seeing what the lay of the land was like before announcing ourselves.
Like, I still had [Sentinel’s Superiority]. Remus had lasted for thousands of years before I had come along, surely it could’ve lasted a few thousand more. It… could be a home… even if… everyone was dead…
I bit my lip as tears threatened to escape, choking back a sob. I grabbed all the messy emotions, shoved them back into the box they’d escaped from, locked it again, then took a couple of belts to wrap around the emotional chest, cinched them tight, and carried on.
“How about this.” I suggested. “I’m the powerful [Healer] that can fix any problem. You two are my escorts, Amber’s my apprentice, and Auri’s my cute pet.”
“Brrrrpt!” I’d been slightly worried that Auri might be offended, but she seemed to like the subterfuge idea.
“Problem.” Artemis pointed at Amber. “You said you couldn’t lie. Also, Amber’s limping, and who’s going to accept ‘oh the fairies did it’ when it looks like Elaine’s just a second rate healer who can’t even fix a limp. How’s this going to work?”
Amber shrugged.
“First off, I’m the apprentice, so I can just not talk. Second, if we reframe things a bit, it’s entirely true! Elaine’s the healer. I’m her apprentice. You two are her guards. Like. The best lie is the truth!”
“Artemis does have a point with the limp though.” She didn’t exactly have a point with the limp, but I wasn’t going to tell Amber that. Pop quiz time! “How does you having a limp work, with me also being a powerful healer?”
Artemis and Julius both shot me a puzzled look. They recognized the tone of voice I was using, and how I’d phrased it.
Amber frowned at that, thinking hard. She finally brightened up, and answered my question.
“Healers fix and restore back to the body’s baseline. If someone is born with a deformity, healing magic doesn’t fix it. If I was born with a limp, then healing can’t fix the limp.”
I nodded.
“Very good. How would you fix an innate limp?” I asked her.
After a few more minutes of thinking, Amber stomped her foot in frustration.
“I don’t know. Can you tell me?”
I gave her a roguish grin.
“I’ve got no idea either!”
Amber said something unkind about my parents.
“You can truthfully say it’s a problem healing can’t fix then.” Julius confirmed.
I was convinced. The arrangement Amber proposed was workable.
“Artemis, take my armor.” I suggested. “It’ll sell the illusion, and you probably need it more than I do.”
“Sure. Should I attune it?”
Bleh. I hated the idea, but…
“Yes, it might keep you alive in a fight.”
With Julius and Artemis helping, we quickly stripped my armor off, and stuck it on Artemis.
“Nobody has a [Perfect Fit] gem or anything, do they?” Artemis complained at the poorly-fitting armor. Downside of a custom fit that was perfect for me? Horribly uncomfortable on Artemis, who had quite a few inches on me. Not enough to make it not work, but enough that she was getting uncomfortably squished and poked.
Also, it was now Artemis’s turn to have the tight, stinky armor on. Phewf. It was rank, and the thought of being in it was making me mentally itch.
“I didn’t anticipate gaining twenty pounds or growing six inches on this trip, no.” I replied, stripping off my under tunic, annoyed by the fact that I was still bare-footed, having danced my sandals into smithereens, ending up stark naked in the road. My Deception Ring also came off, briefly revealing my true level.
“Auri. Bath time?” I asked my little pyromaniac.
“BRRRRRRRRRRPTT!!!!” She happily squealed, and my world erupted in cleansing flames. The great thing about fire immunity? Easy ‘baths’, thanks to Auri. She could literally burn everything off me, down to the dried sweat, and I wouldn’t feel a thing.
Best of all, I felt clean at the end of it. The only downside was it didn’t help with my clothes, and putting on dirty clothes after getting clean was miserable.
“Thanks!” I grabbed my tunic and put it back on me, along with my ring.
So armed, we started back down the road at Amber’s maximum limp speed. Julius was on scout duty, and since we had an actual road and landmarks to work with, he could afford to range out somewhat. We ate some of what he foraged as we walked, but I was feeling the lack of fresh food. We’d gone through the supplies Artemis and I had brought a while back, and we’d been foraging for some time.
I couldn’t imagine how terrible this would all be if I’d gone through alone. I probably would’ve curled up, cried, and let some monster eat me.
I had Auri.
I had Artemis.
I had Julius.
And I had Amber.
That was enough, and maybe if I was super lucky, one of the Immortals I knew would still be kicking around.
“Incoming, non-hostile.” Julius announced as he stepped back on the road. “Let’s move to the side.”
We moved to the side of the road, and in no time I heard the sound of thundering hoofbeats. In no time at all, three men and a woman riding on horseback turned the bend, heading towards us.
They were human. Blessedly, amazingly human. I hadn’t even noticed my concern that there might be no more humans in the world - ok, to be fair, I hadn’t seen a global notification saying humans were no more, but we existed so that wasn’t necessarily a given - but seeing them alleviated that worry before it could even fully form.
The first thing to do was check their levels.
[Warrior - 301]
[Mage - 345]
[Warrior - 128]
[Mage - 128]
Potentially dangerous, but I had confidence if push came to shove. Interesting that two of them were at their 128 classup. I had to imagine they were stalling for various reasons, most obviously to get more accomplishments for a stronger class.
I drank in their appearance. They were clearly two pairs, but how they were paired was hard to tell. The front two, the woman and one of the men, looked like dressed down knights from out of a story. They had stout steel breastplates on, marked with a vivid symbol of a roaring red lion’s face, but their arms were only protected by chain mail, and their helmets were attached to their saddle, among the rest of their bags, and not on their head. Swords were sheathed, kite shields by their legs guarded their left side, and the horses themselves had no armor on. A saddle wasn’t armor.
The two men in the rear looked distinctly younger, and were wearing simple gambeson with a cap and everything. They were sweating hard, miserable in the full heat of summer.
If I had to bet, a pair of knights - probably something like “The Order of the Roaring Red Lion” or some nonsense like that, given the heraldry on the knight’s breastplate and shields - and their squires. Or whatever equivalent this place had.
They slowed as they approached us and Julius hailed them.
“Hello! We’re travelers that got completely lost. Could you give us a hand?” He said, and I decided to leave the politicking and discussions entirely to him. I still remembered Pastos, and from the look Artemis shot me, she also remembered it.
The two knights argued furiously with each other in a language I didn’t recognize, nor did I even have half a hope of understanding what they were saying. It had a strange lilting cadence to it. It wasn’t like it was Creation with a slant or anything, no. It was something completely new.
Completely new until I heard my name! “Something, something something Elaine something Elaine.” Once in a while one of them jabbed a finger at me.
How did they know my name!? Did they have a skill that let them see it? I strained my ears, listening for any mention of Julius, Artemis, or Amber, but nothing. I stared a hole into the back of Julius’s head, and he turned and gave me a tiny nod of acknowledgement before twisting back to face the knights.
The man barked a few words we didn’t understand at Julius, who shrugged slowly, showing his open hands.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand you.” He said back.
The two knights argued some more while the squires stared at us. Eventually the knights came to some agreement, snapped their reins, and were off in a cloud of dust and thundering hoofbeats.
“Well.” Artemis discreetly dropped a few rocks she’d been holding. “That was different.”
Different indeed.
We started walking again, following the direction the knights had gone. The topic of conversation? The incredibly weird armor and set up the knights had.
At least, to Artemis, Julius, and the rest. When I mentioned they looked like they were out of one of my stories, things got interesting.
The road cut through the forest, and we didn’t see anyone else for two days. The next people we saw were some lightly armed guards, frontrunners for a caravan being pulled by parasaurolophus, two of the duck-billed dinosaurs per wagon.
We waved at them, and the guards tensed at Julius and Artemis, before relaxing slightly at seeing me and Amber. I guess anyone traveling with a healer and a teenager wasn’t exactly the spitting image of a fierce bandit. Regardless of the rest of them being filthy. Fire immunity for the win!
It did mean that I had to smell them though, and whooooooof. We were rank.
“Hello!” Julius called, friendly and welcoming from a distance. What words couldn’t say, body language could do.
Interestingly, a bunch of the guards were all exactly at 256, and none of them were higher than that. One or two might be a coincidence, but six of the ten? Something was up with that. Combined with the [Squires] from earlier, and I was sensing a larger cultural shift. Or maybe people had just plain figured out that waiting for accomplishments was better. We hadn’t been jumped by nearly as many monsters as Remus seemed to have, and we were certainly outside of the Dead Zone. Maybe waiting for a class up was now the thing to do?
The caravan started to slow down at us, and one of the [Drivers] yelled something at us, rapid-fire in that same lilting language as the knights from before. Artemis plunged her hands into my backpack, grabbing a few rabbits that Julius had recently caught, and I’d flash-cooked to keep them nice for longer.
The ones Auri had “cooked” had been promptly partially eaten, and the charred remains discarded. She was trying, and we did have a bit of spare to let her practice.
Artemis thrust the cooked rabbits in the direction of the caravan, making a somewhat well-recognized symbol. ‘Hey, we’ve got food, wanna share?’
I looked around, and Amber looked all too eager.
“I seem to remember you had quite a few lessons for me on symbols to communicate my wares.” I quietly said to her. She grinned back at me, made slightly disturbing by the swirling purple mist that had replaced her eye.
“Julius, have you seen their levels?” I whispered to him. He nodded without taking his eyes off the guards.
“I have. It’s weird.”
I looked at Artemis, who shrugged.
“Easier to handle if they decide to cause a problem.”
I rolled my eyes at her brilliant analysis. The wagons circled up, food was broken out, and we all sat down together.
I hated it, but I knew my role in this. Sit still, be quiet, and let everyone else do the talking. Oh, I’d heal anyone who was hurt, and I’d listen to the more experienced social people, but I was playing the part of the slightly shy healer who needed bodyguards to walk around.
Ok, given the spiders in the forest, the bodyguards seemed entirely reasonable, but I didn’t speak the language. I was a walking social disaster. Letting Julius - and possibly Amber - run the mime show, while stopping Auri from immolating anything important, or Artemis from being too twitchy was more important.
The conversation swirled around me, and the [Merchants], [Guards], [Drivers], and the rest of the people in the caravan were, from my point of view, weird. Amber was in a gap between two of the wagons, discussing in low, heated words with one of the [Merchants], which was blowing my mind. Somehow, the two of them were talking. That was the more normal part.
The weirder part was when someone came up to me, babbled something, said my name three times in all that, then looked at me expectantly. I felt Artemis looming up behind me - the image of the protective bodyguard entirely ruined as she used my head as a plate for her lunch - but the guy seemed harmless enough.
“Brrpt? Brrrrpt?” Auri wanted to act as a translator, but it wasn’t quite working. Poor bird. I hoped more people could understand her in the future.
After some miming and gesturing, I figured it out when he accidentally brushed me, and he got excited. He grabbed my hand - I let him, I was pretending to be a low level healer, not a Sentinel with five digits of speed - and furiously shook it, the words incomprehensible except for “Elaine”, but the tone conveying thanks.
I figured it out as he left.
“He must’ve been after healing, and my [Persistent Casting] will heal anyone that touches me right now.” I softly muttered to Artemis.
“MmmMM.” She agreed around a mouthful of food.
Instead of giving her the stink eye, I tilted my head forward, letting Artemis’s lunch slide into my hands.
“Yoink!”
“Hey!” She protested as I took a huge bite of what was formerly her lunch.
“Brrrpt!” Auri thought this was all great fun.
I just shot Artemis a smug look.
A few more people came up to me, calling my name in the middle of their language, and I quickly worked out that they all wanted healing. Weird that they all knew my name. Maybe the first dude had a skill that could see my name, and shared it with everyone? That would make sense, my name usually came up near the start of whatever they were saying, usually followed by a bunch of pointing at some part of their body or another.
A broken wrist was obvious, stomach pains were not. Sadly, I got no feedback as to what I’d actually fixed. Normally, I’d be hauling Amber over here to practice her burgeoning medical talents, but she was busy. I trusted that what she was doing was more important, and there was always tomorrow to teach her more.
The people were an interestingly even mix of men and women, which was a bit unusual, but I wasn’t going to complain.
Before long, one of the guards started calmly shouting - the type of yelling that had the tone of “get moving you lazy shits” and less “AHHH MONSTERS TRYING TO EAT US ALIVE” - and the caravan packed back up with remarkable efficiency. Soon they were on their way, the dinosaur-pulled heavily-loaded wagons still faster than Amber’s top limping speed.
I was fine seeing them go, wanting to hear what everyone else had to say about the encounter.
“You were able to talk with the [Merchant]?” I asked Amber, the question burning to get out. She was holding a roll of red fabric.
“Kind of?” She hedged.
“Explain.” Artemis demanded.
“Well, it’s a weird skill.” She said. “It’s a merchant skill. For me, it’s [Let’s Make a Deal]. It helps when negotiating with other merchants that have a similar skill. It smoothes understanding between us. Usually it helps us all get on the same page for a big deal, so there isn’t some big fundamental misunderstanding between us, but here it let us talk in a limited way.” She explained. “A lack of anything to actually trade hurt me badly though, since it’s only good when negotiating and trading. No trade? No chit chat.”
I pointedly looked at the fabric she was holding, something we hadn’t had before.
“Any useful information?” Julius asked.
“Yeah. We’re in a country called Lyon, and this road goes to a town called Rolland. I think. Also know way too much about the price of wheat, onions, lettuce, and melons.” She rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t even the bulk of what they were carrying, but the other gal must’ve sensed I was poor or something. Didn’t bother with the fancy stuff, just talked about the food she could sell us. Oh! I did negotiate this fancy cloak for Elaine, thanks to her healing everyone. The details weren’t clear, but…” She shrugged, and handed it over to me.
I opened it up, seeing a nice, simple red cape. With pockets!
“Good. Elaine, did you pick anything out?”
“They really like my name. Might be a cultural thing? Makes me wonder if checking on someone’s name is now a common skill.”
Artemis hummed.
“It’d be unusual, but then again, what do I know? Clearly there are skills to read other people’s levels, and names are displayed in the status by default. However, I haven’t heard anyone say my name.” She reasoned out loud.
“BRRrrrpt! BRRPT!” Auri flew in dizzying circles in front of me, drawing attention to herself.
“Yes?”
“Brrrpt brrrrrrrrrrrpt brrrpt.” She explained.
“Auri’s going to try and get the skill.” I translated as my little friend landed on my shoulder and scrunched her face up in concentration.
We waited a moment, and she relaxed.
“Brrrpt…” She sadly admitted.
I didn’t need to translate the drooping shoulders and dipped beak.
“My haul was less good.” Julius admitted. “Potentially fruitful for the future. Got a few words sorted out. Ok, now listen…” He started to explain the words as we continued down the road.
We were back in something resembling civilization. Forest gave way to fields of wheat, little villages popped up here and there, and smaller paths merged in with the road we were on. We stopped and chatted with people when we could, slowly getting our bearings.
Artemis and Julius kept getting strange looks, and I was thinking my decision to hide my level had been the right one.
We were walking down the road late in the afternoon when a girl of maybe fifteen half-ambushed me.
“Elaine!” She said, tugging on my arm. She rapid-fire shot out a bunch more words at me, continuing to tug at my arm. “Elaine!”
I looked at the rest and shrugged.
“Someone might need a healer.” I said, letting the girl pull me along, Amber trailing in my wake. We didn’t go far, the girl dragging me to a tall, warm, inviting tavern, babbling all the way. We went inside, and I got a brief appreciation of the common room - clean, with few frills - before getting dragged up the stairs to a room.
“I figure I’ll give you first crack at the problem, then I’ll go behind you to make sure it’s all done properly.” I told Amber.
“Standard apprentice pattern.” She agreed with me, hobbling along.
There was a second worker diligently mopping on the second floor, and as the [Barmaid] hustled us past him, I noticed he was mopping up bloody footsteps.
I let the [Barmaid] pull me along faster, leaving the limping Amber behind.
She led me to a room, and pointed at the door, babbling something, along with including my name. The trail of bloody footsteps led to the door as well, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out the issue.
I opened the door, getting hit with a wave of coppery, bloody stench. The patient was immediately obvious - another [Knight] of some sort laying on top of a bed, still in their blood-coated armor. The sheets were still made, but they’d been soaked fresh blood red by their bleeding.
I didn’t have the time to figure out the extent of their injuries under all their armor, but it had to be horrific. No wonder I’d gotten pulled here!
I didn’t wait for Amber, I was too concerned that the knight would drop dead even with my [Cosmic Presence] theoretically providing stabilization. I stepped over, hearing a warning growl from one corner of the room. I glanced over as I kept walking over at full speed, hesitated at the distinctly draconic-looking creature, and threw out a [Long-Range Identify] on the two of them as Auri flew over to the creature.
[Frost Wyvern - 32].
[Warrior - 520].
WHAT. A random knight I’d encountered in a tavern, by themselves, was level 520!? Bloody unfair, that’s what it was.
“BRrrrrrrrrrpt!” Auri scolded the wyvern, making sure I was safe.
Wyvern, not a dragon, and I was helping. I was sworn to, although I kept a leery eye on him. I touched the [Knight], noticing a respectable amount of mana had been used to heal them. Their legs sort of popped up, and a pair of fresh, pale legs appeared under what I now recognized as crude prosthetics. Nice that they moved, and my healing didn’t obliterate them. The same thing happened with her hand, and I shuddered to imagine the sheer depth of injuries she must’ve had. The knight went from having ragged, wheezing breaths to slow, calm breathing, and I saw them settle into a deeper, more peaceful sleep.
I felt the warm glow of accomplishment go through me. This. This right here. This is what I was about. I’d found someone dying, hovering on the chasm with Black Crow circling, and I grabbed them and pulled them back. This was my calling, and I felt the knowledge settle back down into me, reaffirming that I had a purpose to life. That I couldn’t just stop.
There were more people out there that needed help, and I would be there to provide it.
They were still on the blood-soaked bed, but I wasn’t about to try changing it. I knew I would lash out hard when being woken up by strangers, and an injured, isolated, armed and dangerous powerful [Warrior]?
Yeah, I was sworn to heal. I didn’t have [Oath of Comfy Bedtime].
I left the room, finding Amber in deep discussion at the end of the hallway. She waved me over.
“Hey! Didn’t quite get everything, but I think they’re grateful you saved her life, and want to give us a free night sleeping here, along with breakfast, dinner, and a bath. Please?” Amber begged me, and I remembered that she wasn’t exactly cut out for the life on the road. Quite literally.
“We’ll have to talk with everyone else, but I don’t see a reason not to.” I answered.
“Brrrpt!” Auri also wanted to try out the tavern, and with the three of us, we already had a majority vote.
Julius and Artemis had needed no convincing, and we spent the night there.
The home cooked food was a priceless treasure after… what we’d been eating.
I probably spent way too much time preening myself after dinner. Auri was utterly scandalized that I chose to bath of all things, but heated the bath up for me anyways. With the return of civilization, I could afford the time to make myself feel nice. Bless this place.
Sleeping though?
That wasn’t so easy. I got a room to myself - which was to say, with Auri - and when the doors were closed, and I was in bed, everything came back to me.
I let the chest of emotions in the corner loosen a bit, dealing with and processing some of the emotions. A fraction of the loss I’d experienced.
My family was dead and gone. I’d never hear dad’s laugh again. Never see mom with her spoon. Never see Themis grow up.
Every last friend I had. I’d never get my pouch back from Acquisition again. Never hear Bulwark mutter about structural supports. Never see Brawling light up as another one of us came back from a mission, safe and alive. Never fish with Ocean again. Never…
Every last acquaintance.
Every street I knew, house I’d lived in, road I’d traveled was now dust.
I’d lost practically everything.
I shoved my head into my pillow, and let fat, hot tears flow, convulsing as I let full-body sobs loose.
“Brrrrpt…” Auri landed on my head, never mind the rocky support, and was crying as well, little crystal beads rolling down out of her eyes. She’d lost a lot of people as well.
We still had each other, but in this moment, it was small comfort.
I cried myself to sleep.
The five of us were having breakfast the next morning, slowly eating and savoring the food together. Artemis’s head suddenly whipped towards the stairs, and I snapped my head over to see what had startled her so.
There was a giant of a woman standing on the last step of the stairs, the little ice wyvern next to her. How long she’d been there, I couldn’t tell, but at our look, she walked over.
I took a moment to take in how she looked. She had a strange familiarity, like she was the cousin of somebody I knew. Her blonde hair was like straw, a dozen different ragged lengths. A rough-hewn face full of sharp angles with a strong chin framed piercing green eyes like emeralds over a shimmering backdrop of stars, marking her primary element as Celestial. She wouldn’t be remarked as some great beauty, but gods, her arms. It was like a goddess had envisioned the ideal form of a powerful warrior, then carved the woman in front of me out of flesh to look like one. Like a female Adonis. I swear they were thicker than my thighs, and she moved with the liquid grace of a trained, honed warrior. I could go mad trying to articulate all the parts about her; it would take a poet a lifetime to properly describe her. Somehow, in spite of the various mis-matched parts, the unconventional takes, she was one of the most attractive women I’d ever seen.
I compartmentalized the feeling, putting it out of my mind so it wouldn’t distract me or influence me. I’d gotten better at that ever since Serondes.
“Brrrpt!” Auri cheerfully greeted and welcomed her.
She sat down at the table with us.
“Hello. My name’s Iona. Thank you for saving my life.” She told me, and I went pale and unsteady at the words, my brain short-circuiting, needing to grip the chair to keep myself stable and upright.
That.
Those words.
Those words were in English.
I exploded out of the bushes onto the road.
“Oh praise the road!” I dramatically yelled as I fell to my knees, then raised my arms in the air as if in prayer. “Praise civilization! Oh blessed road, I am never, ever leaving you again.” I bent over to kiss the road.
Or rather, the ‘road’. We must be in some backwater, the road was terrible. A wide stretch of pounded dirt, with a thin ridge of rocks indicating the supposed borders, it was nothing like one of Remus’s glorious multi-layered roads that had transported the legions all over the country.
“Brrrpt?” Auri fluttered down to the road, and tried copying me, pecking the dirt road.
“BRRPT!” She thought it tasted awful, and flew up at me, pecking me.
“Ow! Knock it off! I’m fine!” I gently swatted at her.
“Are you sure about that? Seems like you got knocked on the head a bunch.” Amber limped out of the bushes, Artemis and Julius immediately bringing up the rearguard.
I gave her a dirty look, but decided not to get into an argument with her. She’d drag me down to her level then beat me with experience.
“Which way?” Julius asked.
“Is there a difference?” Amber asked. Artemis and I traded looks, we knew what Julius was thinking.
“They still teach it?” Artemis asked.
“Yeah.” I confirmed.
“It’s been a decade since I last had to check tracks.” Artemis shamelessly admitted, which I knew was just her getting out of work.
“Then you can stand guard.” Julius said, as he knelt down with me on the dirt road.
“The packed nature of the road is going to make this hard. Usually we tracked stuff through the forest.” I admitted to him as I glued my eyes to the road, looking for tracks.
“Never did a live one?” He asked.
“Just goblin tracks, and wagons pulled by trainees.” I admitted. “Then it was straight to being a Sentinel, and I wasn’t exactly the top pick to chase monsters.”
“Good thing I spent a bunch of time as the scout on the teams I was on.” Julius said, shuffling forward a bit. “See that there, there, and there? Tracks heading north. Only one set heading south.”
“Head north then?” I asked him.
“If everyone agrees.” He modestly deferred.
Artemis snorted.
“The tracker and one person with experience doing this thinks we should go north, we’re going north.”
Without further ado, we turned and started heading up the road north at full speed. Which was the speed of a limping Amber.
“If nobody objects, I’m going to drop my level.” I said, mentally dropping it to a respectable 240. Or, well, at least it had been respectable in Remus for a woman my age to be level 240. No telling if that was too high, too low, or what here.
“Brrrrpt?” Auri asked me.
“I’m ridiculously high level right now, and armed to the teeth.” I explained to my little companion. “I look like a potential threat, even if my [Healer] tag suggests I’m not. By dropping my level, I’m less likely to cause trouble just from somebody seeing me.”
Artemis snorted, and I grinned.
“You cause trouble just by existing.” I shot at her, having thought of the perfect retort ahead of time. “Even if you pretended to be level 30 you’d still cause disaster in your wake.”
Artemis mimed being hit by an arrow.
“Julius, she’s all grown up and mocking me.” Artemis faux-whined to Julius as I set myself to level 240.
Julius quickly walked ahead, bailing out of the argument before it could begin.
“Hey, we’re kind of like adventurers!” Amber happily exclaimed, and I paled.
“Noooo. No no NO!” I protested. “No way!” Who’d want to pretend to be a scumbag?
“It’s a sound idea. Propose an alternative.” Julius said. “Roaming around as soldiers from a different country is a terrible look, and you know it.”
Ok, I was impressed by Julius. He’d spent almost his entire life “knowing” there was only Remus, and not having any sort of basis for thinking about international politics and the look of soldiers from foreign countries taking a vacation in all their armor and weapons. Running around announcing that we were from Remus could have terrible repercussions. Maybe the place we were in hated Remus. Maybe they were at war with them. Worth seeing what the lay of the land was like before announcing ourselves.
Like, I still had [Sentinel’s Superiority]. Remus had lasted for thousands of years before I had come along, surely it could’ve lasted a few thousand more. It… could be a home… even if… everyone was dead…
I bit my lip as tears threatened to escape, choking back a sob. I grabbed all the messy emotions, shoved them back into the box they’d escaped from, locked it again, then took a couple of belts to wrap around the emotional chest, cinched them tight, and carried on.
“How about this.” I suggested. “I’m the powerful [Healer] that can fix any problem. You two are my escorts, Amber’s my apprentice, and Auri’s my cute pet.”
“Brrrrpt!” I’d been slightly worried that Auri might be offended, but she seemed to like the subterfuge idea.
“Problem.” Artemis pointed at Amber. “You said you couldn’t lie. Also, Amber’s limping, and who’s going to accept ‘oh the fairies did it’ when it looks like Elaine’s just a second rate healer who can’t even fix a limp. How’s this going to work?”
Amber shrugged.
“First off, I’m the apprentice, so I can just not talk. Second, if we reframe things a bit, it’s entirely true! Elaine’s the healer. I’m her apprentice. You two are her guards. Like. The best lie is the truth!”
“Artemis does have a point with the limp though.” She didn’t exactly have a point with the limp, but I wasn’t going to tell Amber that. Pop quiz time! “How does you having a limp work, with me also being a powerful healer?”
Artemis and Julius both shot me a puzzled look. They recognized the tone of voice I was using, and how I’d phrased it.
Amber frowned at that, thinking hard. She finally brightened up, and answered my question.
“Healers fix and restore back to the body’s baseline. If someone is born with a deformity, healing magic doesn’t fix it. If I was born with a limp, then healing can’t fix the limp.”
I nodded.
“Very good. How would you fix an innate limp?” I asked her.
After a few more minutes of thinking, Amber stomped her foot in frustration.
“I don’t know. Can you tell me?”
I gave her a roguish grin.
“I’ve got no idea either!”
Amber said something unkind about my parents.
“You can truthfully say it’s a problem healing can’t fix then.” Julius confirmed.
I was convinced. The arrangement Amber proposed was workable.
“Artemis, take my armor.” I suggested. “It’ll sell the illusion, and you probably need it more than I do.”
“Sure. Should I attune it?”
Bleh. I hated the idea, but…
“Yes, it might keep you alive in a fight.”
With Julius and Artemis helping, we quickly stripped my armor off, and stuck it on Artemis.
“Nobody has a [Perfect Fit] gem or anything, do they?” Artemis complained at the poorly-fitting armor. Downside of a custom fit that was perfect for me? Horribly uncomfortable on Artemis, who had quite a few inches on me. Not enough to make it not work, but enough that she was getting uncomfortably squished and poked.
Also, it was now Artemis’s turn to have the tight, stinky armor on. Phewf. It was rank, and the thought of being in it was making me mentally itch.
“I didn’t anticipate gaining twenty pounds or growing six inches on this trip, no.” I replied, stripping off my under tunic, annoyed by the fact that I was still bare-footed, having danced my sandals into smithereens, ending up stark naked in the road. My Deception Ring also came off, briefly revealing my true level.
“Auri. Bath time?” I asked my little pyromaniac.
“BRRRRRRRRRRPTT!!!!” She happily squealed, and my world erupted in cleansing flames. The great thing about fire immunity? Easy ‘baths’, thanks to Auri. She could literally burn everything off me, down to the dried sweat, and I wouldn’t feel a thing.
Best of all, I felt clean at the end of it. The only downside was it didn’t help with my clothes, and putting on dirty clothes after getting clean was miserable.
“Thanks!” I grabbed my tunic and put it back on me, along with my ring.
So armed, we started back down the road at Amber’s maximum limp speed. Julius was on scout duty, and since we had an actual road and landmarks to work with, he could afford to range out somewhat. We ate some of what he foraged as we walked, but I was feeling the lack of fresh food. We’d gone through the supplies Artemis and I had brought a while back, and we’d been foraging for some time.
I couldn’t imagine how terrible this would all be if I’d gone through alone. I probably would’ve curled up, cried, and let some monster eat me.
I had Auri.
I had Artemis.
I had Julius.
And I had Amber.
That was enough, and maybe if I was super lucky, one of the Immortals I knew would still be kicking around.
“Incoming, non-hostile.” Julius announced as he stepped back on the road. “Let’s move to the side.”
We moved to the side of the road, and in no time I heard the sound of thundering hoofbeats. In no time at all, three men and a woman riding on horseback turned the bend, heading towards us.
They were human. Blessedly, amazingly human. I hadn’t even noticed my concern that there might be no more humans in the world - ok, to be fair, I hadn’t seen a global notification saying humans were no more, but we existed so that wasn’t necessarily a given - but seeing them alleviated that worry before it could even fully form.
The first thing to do was check their levels.
[Warrior - 301]
[Mage - 345]
[Warrior - 128]
[Mage - 128]
Potentially dangerous, but I had confidence if push came to shove. Interesting that two of them were at their 128 classup. I had to imagine they were stalling for various reasons, most obviously to get more accomplishments for a stronger class.
I drank in their appearance. They were clearly two pairs, but how they were paired was hard to tell. The front two, the woman and one of the men, looked like dressed down knights from out of a story. They had stout steel breastplates on, marked with a vivid symbol of a roaring red lion’s face, but their arms were only protected by chain mail, and their helmets were attached to their saddle, among the rest of their bags, and not on their head. Swords were sheathed, kite shields by their legs guarded their left side, and the horses themselves had no armor on. A saddle wasn’t armor.
The two men in the rear looked distinctly younger, and were wearing simple gambeson with a cap and everything. They were sweating hard, miserable in the full heat of summer.
If I had to bet, a pair of knights - probably something like “The Order of the Roaring Red Lion” or some nonsense like that, given the heraldry on the knight’s breastplate and shields - and their squires. Or whatever equivalent this place had.
They slowed as they approached us and Julius hailed them.
“Hello! We’re travelers that got completely lost. Could you give us a hand?” He said, and I decided to leave the politicking and discussions entirely to him. I still remembered Pastos, and from the look Artemis shot me, she also remembered it.
The two knights argued furiously with each other in a language I didn’t recognize, nor did I even have half a hope of understanding what they were saying. It had a strange lilting cadence to it. It wasn’t like it was Creation with a slant or anything, no. It was something completely new.
Completely new until I heard my name! “Something, something something Elaine something Elaine.” Once in a while one of them jabbed a finger at me.
How did they know my name!? Did they have a skill that let them see it? I strained my ears, listening for any mention of Julius, Artemis, or Amber, but nothing. I stared a hole into the back of Julius’s head, and he turned and gave me a tiny nod of acknowledgement before twisting back to face the knights.
The man barked a few words we didn’t understand at Julius, who shrugged slowly, showing his open hands.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand you.” He said back.
The two knights argued some more while the squires stared at us. Eventually the knights came to some agreement, snapped their reins, and were off in a cloud of dust and thundering hoofbeats.
“Well.” Artemis discreetly dropped a few rocks she’d been holding. “That was different.”
Different indeed.
We started walking again, following the direction the knights had gone. The topic of conversation? The incredibly weird armor and set up the knights had.
At least, to Artemis, Julius, and the rest. When I mentioned they looked like they were out of one of my stories, things got interesting.
The road cut through the forest, and we didn’t see anyone else for two days. The next people we saw were some lightly armed guards, frontrunners for a caravan being pulled by parasaurolophus, two of the duck-billed dinosaurs per wagon.
We waved at them, and the guards tensed at Julius and Artemis, before relaxing slightly at seeing me and Amber. I guess anyone traveling with a healer and a teenager wasn’t exactly the spitting image of a fierce bandit. Regardless of the rest of them being filthy. Fire immunity for the win!
It did mean that I had to smell them though, and whooooooof. We were rank.
“Hello!” Julius called, friendly and welcoming from a distance. What words couldn’t say, body language could do.
Interestingly, a bunch of the guards were all exactly at 256, and none of them were higher than that. One or two might be a coincidence, but six of the ten? Something was up with that. Combined with the [Squires] from earlier, and I was sensing a larger cultural shift. Or maybe people had just plain figured out that waiting for accomplishments was better. We hadn’t been jumped by nearly as many monsters as Remus seemed to have, and we were certainly outside of the Dead Zone. Maybe waiting for a class up was now the thing to do?
The caravan started to slow down at us, and one of the [Drivers] yelled something at us, rapid-fire in that same lilting language as the knights from before. Artemis plunged her hands into my backpack, grabbing a few rabbits that Julius had recently caught, and I’d flash-cooked to keep them nice for longer.
The ones Auri had “cooked” had been promptly partially eaten, and the charred remains discarded. She was trying, and we did have a bit of spare to let her practice.
Artemis thrust the cooked rabbits in the direction of the caravan, making a somewhat well-recognized symbol. ‘Hey, we’ve got food, wanna share?’
I looked around, and Amber looked all too eager.
“I seem to remember you had quite a few lessons for me on symbols to communicate my wares.” I quietly said to her. She grinned back at me, made slightly disturbing by the swirling purple mist that had replaced her eye.
“Julius, have you seen their levels?” I whispered to him. He nodded without taking his eyes off the guards.
“I have. It’s weird.”
I looked at Artemis, who shrugged.
“Easier to handle if they decide to cause a problem.”
I rolled my eyes at her brilliant analysis. The wagons circled up, food was broken out, and we all sat down together.
I hated it, but I knew my role in this. Sit still, be quiet, and let everyone else do the talking. Oh, I’d heal anyone who was hurt, and I’d listen to the more experienced social people, but I was playing the part of the slightly shy healer who needed bodyguards to walk around.
Ok, given the spiders in the forest, the bodyguards seemed entirely reasonable, but I didn’t speak the language. I was a walking social disaster. Letting Julius - and possibly Amber - run the mime show, while stopping Auri from immolating anything important, or Artemis from being too twitchy was more important.
The conversation swirled around me, and the [Merchants], [Guards], [Drivers], and the rest of the people in the caravan were, from my point of view, weird. Amber was in a gap between two of the wagons, discussing in low, heated words with one of the [Merchants], which was blowing my mind. Somehow, the two of them were talking. That was the more normal part.
The weirder part was when someone came up to me, babbled something, said my name three times in all that, then looked at me expectantly. I felt Artemis looming up behind me - the image of the protective bodyguard entirely ruined as she used my head as a plate for her lunch - but the guy seemed harmless enough.
“Brrpt? Brrrrpt?” Auri wanted to act as a translator, but it wasn’t quite working. Poor bird. I hoped more people could understand her in the future.
After some miming and gesturing, I figured it out when he accidentally brushed me, and he got excited. He grabbed my hand - I let him, I was pretending to be a low level healer, not a Sentinel with five digits of speed - and furiously shook it, the words incomprehensible except for “Elaine”, but the tone conveying thanks.
I figured it out as he left.
“He must’ve been after healing, and my [Persistent Casting] will heal anyone that touches me right now.” I softly muttered to Artemis.
“MmmMM.” She agreed around a mouthful of food.
Instead of giving her the stink eye, I tilted my head forward, letting Artemis’s lunch slide into my hands.
“Yoink!”
“Hey!” She protested as I took a huge bite of what was formerly her lunch.
“Brrrpt!” Auri thought this was all great fun.
I just shot Artemis a smug look.
A few more people came up to me, calling my name in the middle of their language, and I quickly worked out that they all wanted healing. Weird that they all knew my name. Maybe the first dude had a skill that could see my name, and shared it with everyone? That would make sense, my name usually came up near the start of whatever they were saying, usually followed by a bunch of pointing at some part of their body or another.
A broken wrist was obvious, stomach pains were not. Sadly, I got no feedback as to what I’d actually fixed. Normally, I’d be hauling Amber over here to practice her burgeoning medical talents, but she was busy. I trusted that what she was doing was more important, and there was always tomorrow to teach her more.
The people were an interestingly even mix of men and women, which was a bit unusual, but I wasn’t going to complain.
Before long, one of the guards started calmly shouting - the type of yelling that had the tone of “get moving you lazy shits” and less “AHHH MONSTERS TRYING TO EAT US ALIVE” - and the caravan packed back up with remarkable efficiency. Soon they were on their way, the dinosaur-pulled heavily-loaded wagons still faster than Amber’s top limping speed.
I was fine seeing them go, wanting to hear what everyone else had to say about the encounter.
“You were able to talk with the [Merchant]?” I asked Amber, the question burning to get out. She was holding a roll of red fabric.
“Kind of?” She hedged.
“Explain.” Artemis demanded.
“Well, it’s a weird skill.” She said. “It’s a merchant skill. For me, it’s [Let’s Make a Deal]. It helps when negotiating with other merchants that have a similar skill. It smoothes understanding between us. Usually it helps us all get on the same page for a big deal, so there isn’t some big fundamental misunderstanding between us, but here it let us talk in a limited way.” She explained. “A lack of anything to actually trade hurt me badly though, since it’s only good when negotiating and trading. No trade? No chit chat.”
I pointedly looked at the fabric she was holding, something we hadn’t had before.
“Any useful information?” Julius asked.
“Yeah. We’re in a country called Lyon, and this road goes to a town called Rolland. I think. Also know way too much about the price of wheat, onions, lettuce, and melons.” She rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t even the bulk of what they were carrying, but the other gal must’ve sensed I was poor or something. Didn’t bother with the fancy stuff, just talked about the food she could sell us. Oh! I did negotiate this fancy cloak for Elaine, thanks to her healing everyone. The details weren’t clear, but…” She shrugged, and handed it over to me.
I opened it up, seeing a nice, simple red cape. With pockets!
“Good. Elaine, did you pick anything out?”
“They really like my name. Might be a cultural thing? Makes me wonder if checking on someone’s name is now a common skill.”
Artemis hummed.
“It’d be unusual, but then again, what do I know? Clearly there are skills to read other people’s levels, and names are displayed in the status by default. However, I haven’t heard anyone say my name.” She reasoned out loud.
“BRRrrrpt! BRRPT!” Auri flew in dizzying circles in front of me, drawing attention to herself.
“Yes?”
“Brrrpt brrrrrrrrrrrpt brrrpt.” She explained.
“Auri’s going to try and get the skill.” I translated as my little friend landed on my shoulder and scrunched her face up in concentration.
We waited a moment, and she relaxed.
“Brrrpt…” She sadly admitted.
I didn’t need to translate the drooping shoulders and dipped beak.
“My haul was less good.” Julius admitted. “Potentially fruitful for the future. Got a few words sorted out. Ok, now listen…” He started to explain the words as we continued down the road.
We were back in something resembling civilization. Forest gave way to fields of wheat, little villages popped up here and there, and smaller paths merged in with the road we were on. We stopped and chatted with people when we could, slowly getting our bearings.
Artemis and Julius kept getting strange looks, and I was thinking my decision to hide my level had been the right one.
We were walking down the road late in the afternoon when a girl of maybe fifteen half-ambushed me.
“Elaine!” She said, tugging on my arm. She rapid-fire shot out a bunch more words at me, continuing to tug at my arm. “Elaine!”
I looked at the rest and shrugged.
“Someone might need a healer.” I said, letting the girl pull me along, Amber trailing in my wake. We didn’t go far, the girl dragging me to a tall, warm, inviting tavern, babbling all the way. We went inside, and I got a brief appreciation of the common room - clean, with few frills - before getting dragged up the stairs to a room.
“I figure I’ll give you first crack at the problem, then I’ll go behind you to make sure it’s all done properly.” I told Amber.
“Standard apprentice pattern.” She agreed with me, hobbling along.
There was a second worker diligently mopping on the second floor, and as the [Barmaid] hustled us past him, I noticed he was mopping up bloody footsteps.
I let the [Barmaid] pull me along faster, leaving the limping Amber behind.
She led me to a room, and pointed at the door, babbling something, along with including my name. The trail of bloody footsteps led to the door as well, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out the issue.
I opened the door, getting hit with a wave of coppery, bloody stench. The patient was immediately obvious - another [Knight] of some sort laying on top of a bed, still in their blood-coated armor. The sheets were still made, but they’d been soaked fresh blood red by their bleeding.
I didn’t have the time to figure out the extent of their injuries under all their armor, but it had to be horrific. No wonder I’d gotten pulled here!
I didn’t wait for Amber, I was too concerned that the knight would drop dead even with my [Cosmic Presence] theoretically providing stabilization. I stepped over, hearing a warning growl from one corner of the room. I glanced over as I kept walking over at full speed, hesitated at the distinctly draconic-looking creature, and threw out a [Long-Range Identify] on the two of them as Auri flew over to the creature.
[Frost Wyvern - 32].
[Warrior - 520].
WHAT. A random knight I’d encountered in a tavern, by themselves, was level 520!? Bloody unfair, that’s what it was.
“BRrrrrrrrrrpt!” Auri scolded the wyvern, making sure I was safe.
Wyvern, not a dragon, and I was helping. I was sworn to, although I kept a leery eye on him. I touched the [Knight], noticing a respectable amount of mana had been used to heal them. Their legs sort of popped up, and a pair of fresh, pale legs appeared under what I now recognized as crude prosthetics. Nice that they moved, and my healing didn’t obliterate them. The same thing happened with her hand, and I shuddered to imagine the sheer depth of injuries she must’ve had. The knight went from having ragged, wheezing breaths to slow, calm breathing, and I saw them settle into a deeper, more peaceful sleep.
I felt the warm glow of accomplishment go through me. This. This right here. This is what I was about. I’d found someone dying, hovering on the chasm with Black Crow circling, and I grabbed them and pulled them back. This was my calling, and I felt the knowledge settle back down into me, reaffirming that I had a purpose to life. That I couldn’t just stop.
There were more people out there that needed help, and I would be there to provide it.
They were still on the blood-soaked bed, but I wasn’t about to try changing it. I knew I would lash out hard when being woken up by strangers, and an injured, isolated, armed and dangerous powerful [Warrior]?
Yeah, I was sworn to heal. I didn’t have [Oath of Comfy Bedtime].
I left the room, finding Amber in deep discussion at the end of the hallway. She waved me over.
“Hey! Didn’t quite get everything, but I think they’re grateful you saved her life, and want to give us a free night sleeping here, along with breakfast, dinner, and a bath. Please?” Amber begged me, and I remembered that she wasn’t exactly cut out for the life on the road. Quite literally.
“We’ll have to talk with everyone else, but I don’t see a reason not to.” I answered.
“Brrrpt!” Auri also wanted to try out the tavern, and with the three of us, we already had a majority vote.
Julius and Artemis had needed no convincing, and we spent the night there.
The home cooked food was a priceless treasure after… what we’d been eating.
I probably spent way too much time preening myself after dinner. Auri was utterly scandalized that I chose to bath of all things, but heated the bath up for me anyways. With the return of civilization, I could afford the time to make myself feel nice. Bless this place.
Sleeping though?
That wasn’t so easy. I got a room to myself - which was to say, with Auri - and when the doors were closed, and I was in bed, everything came back to me.
I let the chest of emotions in the corner loosen a bit, dealing with and processing some of the emotions. A fraction of the loss I’d experienced.
My family was dead and gone. I’d never hear dad’s laugh again. Never see mom with her spoon. Never see Themis grow up.
Every last friend I had. I’d never get my pouch back from Acquisition again. Never hear Bulwark mutter about structural supports. Never see Brawling light up as another one of us came back from a mission, safe and alive. Never fish with Ocean again. Never…
Every last acquaintance.
Every street I knew, house I’d lived in, road I’d traveled was now dust.
I’d lost practically everything.
I shoved my head into my pillow, and let fat, hot tears flow, convulsing as I let full-body sobs loose.
“Brrrrpt…” Auri landed on my head, never mind the rocky support, and was crying as well, little crystal beads rolling down out of her eyes. She’d lost a lot of people as well.
We still had each other, but in this moment, it was small comfort.
I cried myself to sleep.
The five of us were having breakfast the next morning, slowly eating and savoring the food together. Artemis’s head suddenly whipped towards the stairs, and I snapped my head over to see what had startled her so.
There was a giant of a woman standing on the last step of the stairs, the little ice wyvern next to her. How long she’d been there, I couldn’t tell, but at our look, she walked over.
I took a moment to take in how she looked. She had a strange familiarity, like she was the cousin of somebody I knew. Her blonde hair was like straw, a dozen different ragged lengths. A rough-hewn face full of sharp angles with a strong chin framed piercing green eyes like emeralds over a shimmering backdrop of stars, marking her primary element as Celestial. She wouldn’t be remarked as some great beauty, but gods, her arms. It was like a goddess had envisioned the ideal form of a powerful warrior, then carved the woman in front of me out of flesh to look like one. Like a female Adonis. I swear they were thicker than my thighs, and she moved with the liquid grace of a trained, honed warrior. I could go mad trying to articulate all the parts about her; it would take a poet a lifetime to properly describe her. Somehow, in spite of the various mis-matched parts, the unconventional takes, she was one of the most attractive women I’d ever seen.
I compartmentalized the feeling, putting it out of my mind so it wouldn’t distract me or influence me. I’d gotten better at that ever since Serondes.
“Brrrpt!” Auri cheerfully greeted and welcomed her.
She sat down at the table with us.
“Hello. My name’s Iona. Thank you for saving my life.” She told me, and I went pale and unsteady at the words, my brain short-circuiting, needing to grip the chair to keep myself stable and upright.
That.
Those words.
Those words were in English.
