Barika pulled her into a tight hug. Anna pushed her face into Barika’s shoulder and sobbed. Barika gently stroked the back of Anna’s head.

“It’s alright. It’s going to be alright,” Barika said.

“I thought you didn’t want me anymore!” Anna replied.

“Oh, child, why would you ever say a thing like that?” Barika asked.

She looked up at the older woman’s face.

Why did I think that? I know they all care about me, so why did I think they didn’t for so long? Is there something wrong with me? Is this another mistake The Dreamer made when it created me? Do I feel things the wrong way? Am I broken?

She let go of Barika, stepped back, and took a deep breath.

“I don’t know, I just, it’s not important. So, uh, anyway, I thought that portals could only open between two gateways, so how’d one open up in the middle of an alley?” Anna replied.

The old man who pulled her through the portal and brought her to the room cleared his throat and walked over.

“We used a gate spell. It can open a portal anywhere in the world and a few of the nearby plains that the caster has knowledge of,” he said.

“Okay, but how did you know where to open it?” she asked.

“We were looking for your mana with a scrying mirror, so when you charged up that crystal, we knew exactly where to find you,” he replied.

“So, how’d you know what my mana looked like?” she asked.

“We examined your spell rings,” he replied.

“Oh, right,” Anna said.

The old man looked at her friends.

“Now then, it’s clear that this is the woman you all asked us to find and retrieve, so I suppose our business is finally concluded,” he said.

“Aye, that it is, lad,” Thokri replied.

He shook the old man’s hand.

“It was a pleasure. Just let us know if you need anything else,” the old man said.

“Aye,” Thokri replied.

The old man left the room and closed the door behind him.

“I’ll go back to the inn and get her something to wear,” Lyreen said.

“No need. I got a blanket,” Anna replied.

She took off her pack and fished out her newly purchased hide blanket and wrapped it around herself, tying it off to make a makeshift dress before putting her pack back on.

“Well, that works,” Voekeer said.

“Yeah, now let's get out of here before they find something to charge us for,” Elaine replied.

Her friends all agreed. It was clear they held the mages that had rescued her in low regard, at least when it came to greed, and they left the room she’d been reunited with them in and went back into the hallway where they walked through a door and into a large open room.

The room was filled with blue robed mages who were standing in small groups chatting with each other. They paid no attention to the party as they walked towards a door on the far side of the room. Voekeer pulled the door open, and the bright light of the midday sun streamed through.

What a minute, it was the middle of the night in the trade city. How is it daytime here?

She followed her friends out of the building and into the bright sunlight. She found herself standing on a busy street in what was clearly a large city. The buildings that lined the street were all two or three stories tall and covered in off-white plaster that had murals painted on it. They had roofs that were made from a kind of curved brick that was dark red in color. She noticed a few of the buildings had chips and cracks in their plaster, and that underneath was stonework.

“Where are we?” Anna asked.

“The imperial capital, lass,” Thokri replied.

“Imperial capital? As in the empire?!” Anna asked.

“Aye,” Thokri replied.

“But, why are we here?” Anna asked.

“This was the only place we could find a mage’s association that had a scrying mirror and could cast the gate spell that would take the job,” Elaine replied.

“Oh,” Anna said.

“So, where were you anyway?” Lyreen asked.

I can’t tell them that! They’ll hate me if they find out I’m bad now!

She crossed her arms over her chest and looked down.

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“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said.

“What? After everything we went through to get you back, you won’t even tell us…” Lyreen replied.

Voekeer put his hand on Lyreen’s arm and squeezed. When she looked over at him, he shook his head no.

“I’m sorry,” Anna said.

Barika patted her on the shoulder.

“Just tell us when you’re ready, child,” she said.

Anna just nodded. She didn’t want to say anything else.

They walked away from the mage’s building. She wasn’t sure where her friends were leading her, nor did she particularly care. As they walked down the street, she looked around, curious as to what kind of place the capital of the most powerful human nation she’d ever heard of was.

As expected of a human city, the vast majority of the people surrounding her were human with a few beast people, elves, and dwarves mixed in. The humans had similar features to Rose, with dark brown skin, brown eyes, and black hair. They were dressed in light-colored loose-fitting clothing. As they walked down the street, she could almost feel the eyes of the people around them on her.

I’m going to have to get used to getting stared at wherever I go again.

After a few minutes of walking, they reached an inn. She could tell by the sign with a bed on it that hung above the door. Voekeer opened the door, and they all made their way inside the cozy main room of the inn. It was a pretty typical place consisting of a large open room filled with tables and chairs where guests were seated so that they could eat their meals. The moment the smell of cooking food reached her nose, her mouth started to water.

“Come on, I’ll take you to my room. I have your things there. You can get dressed, and then we’ll eat lunch,” Elaine said.

She took Anna’s hand and led her away from the door towards the stairs. The others went, sat at one of the large tables, and waved a server over.

Elaine led her up the stairs and to one of the rooms that she unlocked with a key she took from one of her belt pouches. Elaine pushed the door to her room open, revealing a small space that was furnished with a bed, a writing table, and a dresser. A small window sat on the wall across from the door. It was closed, though the glass let in a great deal of light.

Anna spotted her trusty old pack sitting next to Elaine’s off in a corner. She walked over to her pack and picked it up. It was shockingly light. She opened it up and noticed that the only things it contained were a few dresses and her adventuring belt, along with her favorite knife. She looked up at Elaine who just sighed.

“I’m sorry. We had to sell most of your things to afford the mage’s fee and the journey here,” she said.

“Why didn’t you just use the gold I had in the guild vault?” Anna asked.

“We did, and all our gold as well, and it still wasn’t enough. We ended up having to sell your house and all your furniture too, and it just barely covered the cost,” Elaine replied.

“But you all needed that gold. Why would you spend it all to get me back? I’m not worth it!” Anna said.

Elaine crossed her arms and gave Anna a stern look.

“You’re worth it to me, and I’m not the only one. The others didn’t even hesitate when we found out how much it would cost to try and get you back,” she replied.

Anna looked down at the floor and sighed before she placed her pack on the ground. She shrugged off the pack she’d bought at the night market and took off the hide blanket as well as her lizard skin belt, placing them off to the side before taking a dress from her old pack and putting it on. She put on her adventuring belt as well. She took the gem purse from her lizard skin belt and stuffed it into one of her many belt pouches before standing up and looking back at Elaine. The necromancer smiled at her.

“Ready to eat now?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Anna replied.

They left Elaine’s room and returned to the main room of the inn where they joined the others at a large table. One of the servers came over and placed a large mug filled with frothy ale in front of her as soon as she sat down.

“We have stew, roast meat, bread and cheese, or salad. What would you like?” the server asked.

“I’ll take the salad,” Anna replied.

The server nodded and placed a mug in front of Elaine.

“And you, miss,” she asked.

“Roast meat for me,” Elaine replied.

“I’ll be right out,” the server said.

She turned and walked away from the table.

“I’ve never seen you order a salad before,” Voekeer said.

“The place I was at was filled with people that don’t cook their food, so I ate nothing but raw or dried meat, and I just wanted something different,” Anna replied.

“Why would you eat raw meat? I know you don’t like it, and you don’t need to eat,” Lyreen asked.

“I was trying to fit in, but it turned out to be impossible. They were just too different,” Anna replied.

She picked up her mug and took a drink, the familiar taste of ale filling her mouth. She swallowed it down and set the mug back on the table before sighing.

I really missed this.

“Elaine told me what you all did for me, and all I can say is thank you, and I promise you all I’ll make it up to you,” she said.

“Bah! You don’t owe us a thing, lass,” Thokri replied.

The rest of her friends agreed.

“I know, but I’m still going to, and I’ll start with this,” she said.

She took the gem purse from her belt pouch and handed it to Thokri.

“Can you tell if they’re worth anything?” she asked.

Thokri took the pouch and opened it up. He eyed the gems for a moment before taking one out and licking it. He shook his head no.

“Just quartz. They are nicely colored though, so we might be able to get a few silver for them,” he said.

“There’s another crystal in there. It’s bigger and supposably rare,” Anna added.

Thokri fished out the spirit stone she’d won from the first festival game and licked it.

“Just glass,” he said.

Anna scoffed.

“Of course it is,” she said.

Everything about that trade city was bullshit!

Thokri put the fake gem back into the gem purse and handed it back to her. She stuffed it back into her belt pouch.

“I also have a fist-sized crystal that’s something like a focus. It glowed when I pushed mana into it, so it’s probably worth something,” Anna said.

“We can worry about that later,” Voekeer replied.

She nodded and took another drink.

“I know this might sound kind of weird, but how long was I gone? I sort of lost track of time,” Anna asked.

“Fourteen months,” Elaine replied.

Okay, so I’m six still, at least for a few more months.

“Thanks,” Anna said.

“How did you manage to lose track of time?” Lyreen asked.

“I fell asleep,” Anna replied.

“That must have been some nap,” Lyreen said.

“Yeah,” Anna replied.

The server brought their food out and placed their meals in front of them before heading back out. Anna took a fork and stabbed a bright red cherry tomato before bringing it up to her mouth and popping it inside. While this wasn’t the first tomato she’d ever eaten, it seemed to taste better than any of the ones she’d had in the past.

“So, what happened to all of you after I was washed overboard?” she asked.

“We spent the rest of the storm in the hold where you left us. After that, it took everyone onboard to keep the ship from sinking while it limped to the nearest port. We waited there for a few weeks, hoping you’d show up before we took another ship to Fishport, hoping that’s where you were. We ended up spending the winter there and then took another ship back to Eagle’s Bay before heading back to Oldforge. When we got back and you weren’t there and there were no letters from you, we realized something bad must have happened, and we decided to find a way to get you back,” Voekeer replied.

She nodded.

“Thanks again for this by the way,” she said.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say it’s good to have you back,” Voekeer replied.

The rest of her friends all agreed, and she smiled.

I never should have doubted them.