And with that, beheading with a bladed guillotine has been outlawed. This is a great time for me to mention that I’ve been working on a new form of execution that beheads victims with a special acid I invented. I like it because it leaves the spine intact for when I put you in the skeleton legions.

- Dronn the Everlasting, Tyrant of Secv Serith

“...it’s co… ...wheth… ...t.”

The twisting form shifted around me, and I barely kept my eyes on it. I spoke, but my own words were lost to me.

A shape was made out from within the form as it split itself apart in response to what I said. It explained. “......”

I didn’t like that. It didn’t really care.

\V/

I opened my eyes and sat up with a confused frown on my face. Never before had I woken up feeling like I’d just been promised a meal worthy of a king, then given a single piece of beef, already half chewed, and not even well cooked. I still felt like death, which played into the feeling, but this wasn’t just the fatigue giving me a feeling. This was a heldover feeling from the dream.

It was a feeling I did my best to brush aside. Torment had told me it would come back in time. No doubt there was a revelation in there, but it wouldn’t be rearing its head anytime soon. It wouldn’t do me any good to waste precious time. This whole thing with the geas had taken a day of training away from me and would ruin the next four. It happened because I died, but it might earn me a more permanent death down the line.

No one was in the room with me, so no one stopped me as I pushed the covers off of me and stood, testing my body to see how much hold the fatigue still had on me. I promptly fell over the moment I rested my weight on my feet and swore on the way down. With some difficulty, I pulled myself back to my feet and realised there wasn’t a wardrobe in the room with me. Since I hadn’t changed in a day, and had traveled into the forest yesterday, I stunk. A heavy sigh left me when I realised I didn’t have anything to wear that I wasn’t wearing already.

After taking a few slow steps to get used to putting weight on my feet again, I made it to the door and into Taranath’s mansion proper.

The entrance hall went up to the very roof on the building, so I could see the ground floor, and the stairs leading to the second floor. There weren’t any visible stairs leading to the floor I was on, but I knew where they were. My dad wasn’t around as far as I could see, and neither was my mother or the two elves.

I really hoped my mom wasn’t a statue any more. But there wasn’t anything I could do about it so I just started making my way into the kitchen and hoping I’d be able to feed myself with stuff from there without being interrupted.

Maiathah walked out of a room in front of me the moment I thought that, because of course she did. “Good morning Amber.” She started walking beside me and trailed her fingers along the wall.

“Hm.” I responded. My throat felt better now, but I didn’t want to talk too much in case I started coughing again.

“The forecast is for sun today.” Maiathah continued. “It will make walking around town comfortable to those that aren’t me. And me as well. Much preferable to rainy days, anyway. I might’ve come from the water, but humidity treats me just as well as it treats you.”

“Pretty sure the Heavens stepped in for my hair.” I grunted. “I’ve heard other girls complaining about needing to comb their hair, but I’ve never felt the need.”

“Is that why it’s a messy nest?”

I shrugged as best I could. “Probably. I know for a fact that it hates hair shorter than this.” I twirled a finger around some strands and pulled them straight. It reached past my bust like that, and when I released it the hair jumped back up to rest on my shoulders and dropped down a little from there. “It keeps regrowing.”

“All hair does that.”

I grunted. Maiathah laughed.

“I’m an elf of the sea, so my hair will always be long and straight.” Maiathah stroked a hand down the side of her head, pressing a portion of her long and unnaturally straight hair down as she did. It momentarily made her look like an actual person. “Still, humidity makes it split. Like how you humans get when you start drying out.”

I frowned as we made it to the stairs. “Your hair wrinkles?”

Maiathah let out another beautiful laugh. “No, my hair looks wet when humid. But different again when I’m actually wet.” She pointed a hand above her head and with a pulse of heat some water appeared there. It splashed down on her and made her drenched.

Some of it got on my pant legs, and I frowned as I found the next step. Then I looked up at Maiathah and my breath caught as I took in the beautiful creature before me. I only got a glimpse because the water rushed past me and I lost my footing on the steps, and subsequently fell all the way down to the bottom of the staircase.

I groaned as I slowly picked myself up. If there was a silver lining in any of this, it was that the aches from falling down the stairs were barely noticeable thanks to the fatigue. “Don’t make water appear wherever, please.” I bit out. “That fucking hurt.”

“Hmm. I was quite brash.” Maiathah admitted.

I glanced over. The water she had made was visibly evaporating into steam that weaved itself away into the air above. Her hair, which was normally perfectly shaped no matter how she was posed, looked as if she had just taken a shower in a waterfall and had dried it halfway. It was doing that quickly thanks to Maiathah’s insane body temperature, but it showed me what she intended it to.

All that. For that. I didn’t think it looked as bad as she said.

“I’m getting food, then taking a bath.” I declared as I set out for the kitchen.

“I would like one too.” Maiathah announced, and a thought occurred to me.

“I’m not a guest right now, am I?” I glanced back and saw an expression of utter grief on Maiathah’s face. The rule where I cooked in the estate only applied when I was a guest. Right now I was a resident. She’d been trying to get a free meal out of me and was absolutely heartbroken that she’d failed.

It perfectly elicited some pity of my own, and I was feeling a little fey. “But if you want a bath, then sure. You can be a heater.”

Maiathah brightened considerably.

“But you have to get your own food.” I cut in, dimming the expression but not completely.

It turned out that the Waterlilys had a lot of frozen ingredients that I hadn’t encountered before. I decided to go all out on some vegetables and make a stew of it since I was in the mood to cut things up. It didn’t tick all the boxes I wanted it to though, and I didn’t manage to finish everything thanks to how I was feeling. Eventually Maiathah and I were in the bathroom of the estate, which was a stupidly large room with a frozen reservoir of water that Maiathah had to melt with a fireball before we could get in.

I watched as she got the temperature right. When she decided she was done I had to tell her to make it colder because the water was still scalding to me. Maiathah laughed good naturedly, then coughed into her fist. “Wimp.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

That I pretended not to hear. One chilling evocation spell later I was lowering myself into water that was colder than I maybe wanted. But I wasn’t complaining, since stripping down and sinking into the water was much more comfortable than lying in bed.

I closed my eyes and listened to the movements of water. The lightness of the water let me twitch my fingers at will, which was the first time my agitated energy had found an out since poking the fire at Torment’s. Maiathah’s body temperature made the water get warmer the closer it was to her, and there was a great deal more steam on her side of the bath.

It meant that my legs, which were drifting towards the centre of the absurdly sized bath, were in warmer water than the rest of me. I wasn’t uncomfortable because of it, so I let myself drift, twitched my fingers as I pleased, and listened to the subtle sounds that prevented silence. Every so often I’d make a bigger move with a leg or an arm just to have things be louder for a moment.

“Let it have a drink.” Maiathah broke the silence between us.

Annoyed that my time drifting had come to an end, I sat up and stated a question. “Let what drink?”

“The gift you’re holding on to.” Maiathah explained. “It lives. Make sure it gets watered regularly, and don’t spend too much time out of the sun. It can survive for a few weeks, but if it dies, you’ll owe us quite the amount.”

“Huh.” They had neglected to mention that when they gave it to me. I wouldn’t be surprised if fey had a rule along the lines of ‘always forget one important detail.’ Regardless, I reached over to the bracelet and laid it on the surface of the bath. It slowly uncoiled into one long strip of ivy that floated next to me.

“If I asked you for some help, what would you ask for in return?” I asked somewhat abruptly before my mind could settle into a restful state again.

“What do you want me to ask for?” Maiathah smoothly responded.

“I don’t know. I just realised I only have these clothes today.” I picked up my shirt with one hand and lifted it enough for Maiathah to see. “I need more than that, honestly.”

“If it’s just a simple wardrobe request, then it shouldn’t be too much.” Maiathah hummed, and the sounds of the bath doubled. “Some time should do.”

“You want some of my time?” I checked with a frown, and the elf across from me nodded. “Sounds like a good deal to me.”

Maiathah smiled. “Then shall we? It’s been too long since I went on a shopping spree.”

“Sure.” I said.

I stumbled back onto Taranath’s estate with bags that were heavy for my fatigued self held in both hands. I blinked and looked around. It was still morning, but a few hours later than I thought it should be. Looking around made me look down, and I realised I was fully clothed, wearing something I had never worn before or had even seen the style of before.

My pants were dark and well fitted, and the fabric was woven tightly enough that it could be considered shiny. I had a long sleeved silver coloured shirt of a similarly woven material, but one that was much thinner and tighter than the pants were. Over that was another dark blue shirt lacking sleeves which had one large metal button over my left breast. I touched it curiously after dropping a bag, and didn’t realise anything from the touch. I was also wearing new socks and leather boots that were much more snug than anything my dad had bought from the town market.

Which was saying something, because there was a Chosen cobbler in Veliki. His name was Shoe, he was a nizkaling, and he forced his services on you if your shoes were in a bad enough state.

Somewhat belatedly, I realised I was alone outside Taranath’s estate. Maiathah wasn’t with me, which was good for her, but probably better for me since I hadn’t realised how serious she had been when we were making the deal. I wanted to yell at her and maybe swing a sword her way. She hadn’t told me that she would literally take my time.

That rule about fey needing to forget important details was seeming much more likely now.

After taking a moment to better think things through, ignoring the buzzing, I realised the trade had been upheld on both ends. I had new clothes now, and the two bags I had come back to myself with seemed to be filled with even more clothes. After sternly telling myself to be more careful with Maiathah and Taranath in the future, I dropped my new clothes off in the room that seemed to be mine and went into Veliki.

My mom was still nowhere to be found, but I passed my dad on the way out. I waved at him, but didn’t stay to talk since Taranath was right there and they seemed to be in a heated discussion, probably about mom. That wasn’t something I wanted to get caught in the middle of, not now. All I wanted involved two blades, a thing called Rezan, and more than a thousand cuts.

I made it to the edge of Taranath’s estate and started thinking about how much I wanted my weapons. The mist started coalescing next to me, but an undesirable made himself known before the frozen rose bush formed.

“Amber!” Avien shouted, running towards the estate from the main road. “I wanted to talk to you but-” He stopped and looked at me up and down, taking in my new look. “You look really good.”

I stared at him flatly. The coalescing mist dissipated as my desire for my weapons vanished. “What is it?”

“I want to apo-”

“I don’t want to hear it.” I cut him off. “You’re not the one that did this to me. Mary was. Get her to apologise if you want to talk to me.”

“Amber, I’ve been feeling terrible ever since that happened. I just stood by and let her-”

“No, you actually tried to stand up for me. That was the first time you really did, and I noticed that. It doesn’t change the fact that it happened, and it doesn’t change my mood.” A thought occurred to me. “And what you did with the roof? That was creepy. Don’t do that again.”

Avien looked helpless. Something in me wanted to take pity on him, but after the whole thing with the time I wasn’t feeling fey anymore.

“I just want to say one word, Amber.” He admitted weakly. “Just one word. Only I couldn’t get into the estate to deliver it after last night, and you clearly don’t want to hear it anymore. I don’t know if I should say it anyway, but I’m scared that if I do it now then it won’t have the right meaning.”

Look at you, thinking about my feelings for the first time. I crossed my arms. “I died. Forget everything Mary told you about what that means. Think about what Garl told you about resurrection. Go talk to Wrenn about post death experiences, then ask him for someone you can cross reference your findings with. That’s what I’m dealing with right now. Whatever you have to say, I won’t hear it until you’ve done at least that much.”

That would keep him off my back for a few days. Hopefully until I had adjusted to dealing with the resurrection fatigue. From the somber way Avien nodded, I could see he was taking my words as a divine mandate. A quest for him to accomplish.

“I’ll-” He awkwardly floundered for words.

“Just go.” I scolded.

“Yes’m.” Avien nodded, nearly saluted, and was gone. Running sidelong the estate until he turned a corner.

When he left, I noticed a thin sheet of mist dropping from the air between me and where he was standing. It didn’t dissipate like mist normally did, but cracked and fell in chunks that smashed onto the ground and exploded into vanishing vapour. An even more thin sheet of mist sprung up where Avien ran near the garden. That must have been part of Taranath taking pity on me, forming a barrier that the Shepards could not cross.

It was only after I made the rose bush reform and was reaching for my weapons that I realised that had been the first conversation I had with Avien where the Heavens hadn’t stepped in. Was that because I told Taranath I didn’t want any romance? Whatever it was, it left me off balance. Had dying severed whatever hold the Heavens had over me?

I really hoped so, but I was wary of getting my hopes up. If the memory I half dreamed waking up had left me feeling happy, I’d be inclined to celebrate. But… I didn’t know. I just had the feeling that this wasn’t over. Getting out of a Heavenly decree by dying felt too easy.

No point in thinking about it. If I was free, great, I could still benefit from training. If not, I needed to train because I still intended to leave as soon as I was able. With that, I strapped my weapons to my belt and went to the town hall to find Brynn.

“Congratulations on your life, Duskchild.” A passerby told me on the way over. Frowning, I looked back and recognised the suit of armour Gamil wore as he strode away towards another destination.

He wasn’t the only one to greet me like that. A whole slew of former adventurers I normally had difficulty finding all suddenly walked past me as I made the short walk to the town hall. It culminated with a brunette woman I didn’t recognise landing on the building I was travelling to and glaring at me from above.

She was dressed in a loosely fitted pure white garment that slung over one shoulder, but still covered the essentials. ‘Pure’ in that it was absolutely white, and in that everything about her screamed ‘Heavens’. The pupiless white orbs she had for eyes, unnaturally well kempt hair that was styled without any visible hair ties or pins, the fact that she was absolutely ripped, and the white wings folded against her back really sealed the deal. In her hand, she held a slim longsword with a pale blue metal and familiar make.

“You have broken the oath.” She declared in an imperial tone and leveled her sword down in my direction. “I knew you would come here eventually. By the power invested in me, I will now deliver judgement to you, Amber Jewel.”

It was with something between a sigh and a growl that I pulled my dagger out of its scabbard and started pushing the magic into it. I was cranky. The resurrection fatigue had lessened since yesterday, but that was the difference between me hating everything, and me still hating everything. I had never met this woman before, but I recognised the design of the sword.

I just knew. All this was Mary’s fault.

\V/