“I’m telling you. Korrivenna has to be making her do it! Yessina would never steal by herself! She wouldn’t steal a leaf!”

There was a hint of desperation in Kari’s voice, as if clearing her sister’s name was something of great importance to the girl.

Cas hardly understood it.

For her, food was perhaps one of the only things it was ok to steal. The villagers had a different relationship to the substance, however. They saw and treated food as something almost sacred. It was the one thing in the village that was shared communally, and – unlike everything luxury rug and prized wooden object – it was the one thing who’s theft could never be forgiven.

Kari was on the verge of tears as she tried to convince Cas, and to convince herself, that Yessina would never stoop to such acts.

So Cas played along. “Of course, Korivenna would make her do her dirty work,” she replied easily.

Kari didn’t fully believe, but seemed comforted by the agreement.

Naturally, Cas and Kari hadn’t been eager to turn Yessina in.

Sin, perhaps because of his soft-spot for children, had barely swayed over to their side on the matter, though he did have a long and thorough talk with the girl about the wrongness of stealing before promising to let this slide and letting her go with a ‘don’t do it again’ attitude. Nodding slowly, the girl had turned away and slowly plodded in the direction of Korivenna’s hut, not caring for the morsels of food she’d been clutching so tightly seconds ago, apparently having lost her appetite.

Kari, despite her relative safety in this situation, as well as Cas’s apparent agreement that Yessina had to be innocent, was in full panic throughout the entire day

It was night time, now, and Cas was making her usual preparations to go to the cavern when Kari broke the silence.

“Wait…”

Cas looked up from where she was tying a small bundle of cloth full of sample collectors, packing it lightly enough for [Killer of Omens] to carry.

“I don’t want you to go to the mountain tonight.”

Cas tilted a quizzical head.

“I don’t know why!” Kari preempted her question. “But… can you please stay here? Don’t go, please.”

Cas looked out the window towards the dark spire. Being so busy, she’d missed the opportunity to visit the cavern for several nights in a row, now, and she was itching to see how some experiments she’d started there were progressing. And they were important experiments, too, time sensitive and necessary to figuring out how to create more slimes. Cas wasn’t sentimental enough to abandon something so important just because of the vague unease of a little girl.

—---

Kari, as it turned out, had excellent puppy-dog eyes. Having fox ears was an advantage in that regard.

So, Cas had spent the night practicing her Alchemy.

After all, it wasn’t often one had the opportunity to show off in front of a crowd.

Today, the third day of Nadia’s birthday celebration, was also the first day of the wrestling tournament that had been set up in honor of the young girl’s coming of age.

The sport, it seemed, was quite the attraction, as all the disparate cliques and brunch tables set up throughout the village converged into a massive crowd in the village square, where a clean, dust circle had been drawn next to the well and the wrestlers stood off to the side, shirtless and rubbing dust all over themselves.

It was here that Cas noticed something strange.

The people here… were really beautiful.

It was like a town of beauty models. Everyone was fit, had clear skin and perfect teeth. Heck, the wrestlers didn’t even look that different from the average man!

Stranger yet was Cas’ reaction to all of them.

Back on earth, she might have taken an interest, but now… Cas could tell they were beautiful, she could even appreciate their good looks, but it felt more like she was appreciating a field of flowers rather than taking any personal interest in them.

“Oh! I’m so glad you came early! The athletes have been making a row about starting before the sun comes up.” Tami came into view, her words obscured lightly by her pretty face. Now that Cass was in the mood to notice it, she realized that Tami, despite her overbearing personality, was astoundingly beautiful, and it wasn’t just the makeup talking.

For a moment, Cas was entranced by her attempts to understand the face before she was suddenly knocked by into reality by the latest, audacious statement from the woman.

“...so, for that reason, I’ll have to ask that you take all the blame for taking Nadia in.”

If Cas could’ve blinked, Tami’s radiant features would’ve looked like strobelights as she stared up at the woman.

She didn’t even have the decency to look embarrassed, straight face all the way through as she said that sentence.

“What?” Cas said, poison in her throat. She flashed a glance over at Nadia who – while nervous – seemed otherwise unaffected by the prospect of being abandoned by her mother like this. “Why would we do that?”

“Because one of us needs to stay in the village’s good graces,” Tami answered simply. “I don’t suspect my neighbors are going to be happy to hear you’re keeping another Unari here.

“And I promised to help you from within the village, didn’t I? It’ll be harder to do that if I’m shut out of the politics here.”

“So, you’re just going to pretend to disown your daughter when I take her in?” Cas asked.

Tami looked casually down at her fingertips. “Actually, I’m thinking of disinviting her from the rest of the celebration right now. That’ll be sure to cause rumors, and It’ll make my act later more believable if they think I knew about it beforehand.”

Cas had to admit, that was pretty smart.

Granted, she didn’t think any of it would be necessary after her show today, but it wouldn’t hurt to go along with it.

“Ok,” Cas nodded. “I guess we can do that after my presentation.”

“Oh, excellent!” Tami brought the heels of her fists together under her chin with a cheery figure. Quickly kneeling down she snatched her little girl up in a deep hug before spooling her back by the shoulders, pinching her cheeks and taking in every little feature of the girl. “Oh… I’m going to miss you so much!” the woman smiled, seeming, to Cas, oddly happy at the prospect of never seeing her child again. “But you’ll be alive! Promise me you’ll take care of yourself without mommy to watch over you, ok?”

“I promise,” Nadia nodded serenely, for the first time showing a plain expression that wasn’t covered by a smile.

Cas thought she saw Tami’s lips quiver a little before she pushed away from the girl, standing up and turning away from all of them.

“Well… whatever your show is, do it soon. The competition is starting soon… I have to see to that.”

Tami walked away quickly, and Cas was left dizzy in how quickly the woman managed to say her goodbyes. It had the air of someone ripping off a bandage, and, off in the distance, Cas could see that Tami was already engaged in lively conversation with some of the referees, matching her daughter in how much she overcompensated with her smile.

—-------------

It was amazing what one could take for granted.

For example, Cas’s ability to turn Korren stalks into food. By now she’d done that old trick so many times it was positively mundane.

Silence was another thing she took for granted. Ever since the party had begun, the airwaves were always dancing in a background hum of conversation that never fully settled.

Right now, however, as Cas stood on stage next to fifty pounds of clean Korren fibers and ten pounds of food.

The crowd of hundreds had been dead silent for the past two minutes, now, staring in disbelief as they crowded at the edge of the squat building atop which Cas had elected to make her demonstration.

Cas, still talking in that boisterous, Vaudeville accent, felt suddenly out of place in front of the congregation of silent people who looked past her at the large bowl behind as if it were a reliquary.

“Ok!” Cas said, self conscious over how much her voice echoed in the serene quiet that now hung over the crowd. “We will be serving this food after the first round of matches… so, enjoy yourselves!”

And, quickly, she crawled down the side of the building.

—----

Back at the building, several men had leapt onto the ten foot tall roof, and had created an assembly line to carry away the loose tufts of fiber and large bowls of food.

The crowd, like a large, stunned creature just getting its bearings, started slowly talking again, conversating amidst themselves about the amazing thing they’d seen and of what it would mean for their village.

The reactions were varied, but, to a man, they all were happy.

“I’m not happy with what you’ve done,” Nemaris said, confronting her outside the edge of the crowd.

Well, almost all of them were happy.

“Why?” Cas teased, more focused on squeezing her body into her shawl than she was entertaining the man. “Are you disappointed that I’m not going to fail as spectacularly as you’d hoped?”

“You’re trying to use the food you’re going to make to support the Unari,” Nemaris accused.

“What’s the problem? You said I could save the Unari as long as I had the means – ” Cas’s slime shawl slipped onto her with a snug flap “ – and now I have the means.”

“This isn’t what I meant. If the villagers see–”

“I think this conversation is over Nemaris,” Cas parroted the man’s words back at him, already walking away. “I’m sorry if I’m not failing as you expected, but, well, I’m not that sorry, actually.”

…

Nemaris didn’t call after her, and Cas had barely made it ten paces when she turned a corner and ran into another familiar face.

It was the Fari elder, looking spry despite his old age as he caught her in that all-knowing smirk he always seemed to wear, though this time it was painted with regretful undertones.

Kari struggled not to express her frustration. How many of these people would she have to deal with.

“I… take it you’ve finally found a way to support more than one Unari,” he suggested, gesturing to the bowl of manufactured food the men were taking away.

“It doesn’t taste that good,” Cas answered, drawing a laugh from the elder.

“Nemaris has already expressed his displeasure, I take it?”

“He has. I’m surprised you haven’t complained sooner. I was told he let you know about my plans quite a while ago.”

“We have no method of recourse,” the elder replied dejectedly. “Despite the ruckus you’re causing, you haven’t broken our laws, and so they still protect you.”

“Ruckus?” Cas was truly offended now. “I just found a way to give everyone more food for free! How is that anything but a good thing.”

“Oh, it’s a great thing!” the elders' eyes opened wide in surprise. Putting his hands together, he bowed lightly in Cas’ direction. “Don’t take us as your enemies, please. We elders… we’re old and level headed for the most part. We’ve seen our villages through much, and I more than most. However, the people are often blind to the larger picture, and I worry that – once they realize what you’re planning…” he paused, trying to find the right words.

Cas elected to find those words for him.

“Once they realize what I’ve done, they’re going to be too busy enjoying their free food to care! Why do you all have to make such a big deal out of nothing! Didn’t Nemaris tell you? This – ” she gestured to the bowl of food “ – is only the beginning! Soon enough, we’ll grow the Oasis and have more food than we know what to do with!”

The elder considered her words heavily, looking as if he were searching for the right path in a minefield. “Perhaps,” he aquieced. “However, while an abundance of riches is a fine thing, I don’t think it will bring the happiness you’re imagining.”

“Well, poverty is giving me enough headaches all on its own. Will that be all?” Cas was growing short.

“Just one last thing,” the elder said with a forgetful voice. “You see, I’m always one of the first people to catch a new rumor, and I’ve just heard that Nadia is going to be spending time away from the celebrations. It appears there’s been a falling out between her and her mother.”

“Yes,” Cas said, playing her natural pokerface.

The elder tsked with a sad and dissapointed look. “Well… I should expect you to know this, but don’t expect that young Nadia will be happy to survive in your household under the circumstances.”

“What are you saying?”

“The village has a way of affecting people, and children are more sensitive to such things. Even if Tami is faking her displeasure, I doubt Nadia will be happy to separate from her family and live as a pariah with you.”

“Who said Tami was lying?” Cas grew a little panicked

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Well, whichever may be the case,” the elder threw a knowing smile, “I think you’d do better to include Nadia in your household. I doubt she’ll be happy eating all alone in that hut of yours. Food for thought,” he finished, turning to get back to the awaiting crowd, which was roaring now as the referee yelled, and the first match started.

—---------

Nadia was quietly fired from her job as the centerpiece of the proceedings.

In the hullabaloo of the wrestling tournament, which had taken center stage, this change went mostly unnoticed, though some couldn’t help whispering about the now empty grass throne which had previously held the girl of honor.

Tami played her part well, growing distant and spending most of her time locked away in her hut.

This also meant that, for the first time, Nadia had the free time to spend her day with The Great Sage, toiling under her guidance as they trawled through the desert.

Nadia felt a bead of sweat running down her nose, hanging annoying at the tip and wobbling like a pendulum as she trudged up the final arc of the hill. Ahead of her, she pushed a boulder that was half her height and ten times her weight, carving a dark trench up the incline.

“Hahh, hahh!” she felt her breath go whoozy as she stopped the boulder, her entire body tinted brown with dust as she dragged herself out of the desert sands onto the rocky shore, where she leant against her prize. “Is this… is this what you guys do everyday?” she asked, looking back out to the empty desert as if wondering if it wasn’t the better alternative.

“Basically,” Kari deadpanned, leaning back on her hands as she lay down on the grass.

Nadia held a terrified look, and Cas yelled with a disappointed glare over the distance. “Kari! Stop scaring the girl!”

Despite her annoyance, she hardly looked away from the six foot hole which was rapidly being fillled back in with sand.

There, striated patterns of glowing slimes were layered in patterns too complicated for her to make heads or tails of. Maybe it was because they were breaching in this region?

“What are we doing?” Kari asked, strolling to the edge of the hole, hands in her pockets.

Nadia, not having developed the courage to address Cas directly yet, shadowed Kari with a curious expression on her face.

“I’m trying to find out how the slimes move underground,” Cas answered, magnifying stalk patrolling the edges of the hole, cursing as another gust of wind collapsed more soft sand into it. “Did you guys move those boulders out of the way?”

“Uh huh.” That was Kari.

“Y-yeah!” Nadia attempted to overcome her sudden shyness with bravado, sounding more pitiful because of it.

“Well, you guys can have the day off,” Cas was glued to her study.

“Ok,” Karri said, immediately leaving.

“But… are you sure,” Nadia began, before a stray hand caught her shawl and dragged her along behind the departing Kari.

Ahhh… peace.

And in that peace, she looked at the depths and the random densities of slimes she found layered beneath the surface and… still couldn’t make heads or tails of what she saw. What made it all the more difficult was the sun. Freshly exposed to the light, the glimmering slimes underground quickly withered under its glare, winking out like exploding stars before Cas had any chance to get a proper count.

Strangely enough, the slimes underground seemed more sensitive to sunlight than the ones which occasionally peeked above the surface.

Perhaps they were unprepared for it?

Stretching out a magnifying stalk, Cas peeked at a region of wel lit sand, zooming in on a glimmering little sakkari that, for a brief second, reflected the sunlight before the entire scene was engulfed in shadow.

Confused, Cas drew back her stalk. The fresh perspective revealed the shadow to have a human figure, haggard triangles hinting at fox ears above its head.

Looking up, Cas was once again surprised by a familiar face.

“Elder Korivenna,” Cas replied with a crisp formality.

“Sage,” the old woman nodded.

Was she here to tell her off about Nadia? Cas thought and dismissed the idea. It was unlikely Nemaris would go out of his way to tell the old woman that, they never seemed to have the best relationship.

A brief moment of silence followed, and Cas – bubbling with annoyance from her data collection – let it show. “Is there some reason you’re here to see me? It was an unspoken agreement, I confess, but I’d assumed we were both content to let the other alone.”

Korivenna pulled out a surprisingly pleasant smile. “I hope you’re not one to take my earlier treatment of you personally. After all, you were a monster with an unlikely story.”

“And I’m supposed to believe you like me all of a sudden?”

Korivenna’s smile thinned into a more honest flat. “I don’t like anybody, dear. However, I am honestly grateful at that miracle you concocted with the Oasis. No matter my personal feelings, I am a fan of not dying.”

Huh… maybe she’d been too harsh on the old bag. Still, Cas was eager to get back to her data collection, and Korivenna seemed just as eager to get to the end of this conversation, suddenly breaking from her more sociable tone to ask: “My fool apprentice Yessina tells me you caught her in the act. Is that true?”

“I did,” Cas answered plainly.

“Well?”

“What?” Cas looked confused.

“Why didn’t you turn her in?” the woman asked, “even you must understand by now that was a crime.”

“Because I don’t believe in –” Cas paused… she definitely wasn’t against the death penalty. She swiftly course corrected.“Because I don’t believe in letting children die because of someone else’s crimes.” At this, she looked knowingly at Korivenna.

“Are you accusing me of something?” Korivenna asked.

“I’m saying I’ve seen Yessina. That girl isn’t capable of making a decision like that by herself.”

Korivenna didn’t look half as offended as Cas would have liked. “So what if I told her to steal it? It was still her decision to follow my orders. Besides, get that disgusted tone out of your tongue! If you’d truly cared, you could have turned that idiot girl in and it would’ve been my head next to hers. Do you have any idea how much I risk being that Unari’s guardian?”

Korivenna spat the word Unari.

Cas spat her name. “Korivenna. Leave.”

“I’ll leave when I please,” Korivenna answered as if she were talking to a toddler. “I simply want to ask why you didn’t turn her in? You could still do so now. You have the witnesses, and that’d take care of me.”

Normally, Cas’s eye was a subtle thing, able to flicker all about. But, inside her magnifying stalk, Cas’ leftward gesture was evident.

“Oh?” Korivenna guessed, “looking over to where Kari was – in the distance – still dragging along Nadia. “Do I sense favoritism.”

“You don’t,” Cas answered, goaded from her previous posture of silence. “I simply have a rule against harming children. Unlike you, most people don’t enjoy tormenting others.”

“Curious,” the woman had an appraising look in her Cas didn’t like, “I never expected you to be so sentimentally stupid. You do understand we don’t live in a world where every child survives, that’s precisely why the law-”

“The law is idiotic,” Cas spat, speaking roughly enough that even Korivenna was forced into silence. “Trust me, Korivenna, your small mind may not be able to grasp this, but I’m creating a world where that won’t be necessary, and, right now, you’re interrupting the creation of that world, so, kindly, please leave.”

Korivenna, sensing there was no more information or entertainment to be had, merely nodded.

“I have your guarantee you won’t be reporting what you saw, then?”

“You had it before you came,” Cas answered, and – not acknowledging the woman any longer, turned her attention back to the pit, where the great shadow disappeared, and the sunlight returned, and the sakkari were cooked to death in the intense sunbeams.

—------

The following days passed by simply.

The tournament continued unabated and, as it reached its climax, the town was crowded more than ever with wrestling fans and prospective gamblers alike.

Cas, Kari, and Nadia, for their own reasons, avoided the town during this period.

Cas, for her part, had reached a new peak of popularity after creating food. Walking through town before had been hazardous to her social battery, but – considering two of her last three visits had included catching people praying in her direction – she was firmly settled on avoiding all conversations until the winds of her apotheosis had died down.

Kari, though she’d never admit it, was afraid of running into her sister.

And Nadia, in order to sell the illusion that Tami had disowned her, was effectively banished from the village proper until the final day of her coronation, where she would undergo her walk into the desert.

As a result of all these circumstances, all three of them spent the next three days quarantined in Cas’s house.

Despite her best nature, Cas had been dreading taking Nadia in, and not for the most noble reasons at that.

You see, Cas was dreading the inclusion of a second child into her small hut because… well, it was two freakin' children! Decades of propaganda from child hating college students, and years of real world experience from bratty elementary schoolers had taught her to fear the prospect of children in a small space.

This was made all the worse by the fact that they were all stuck together in a single room, which was packed full of wooden furniture and a dozen slime clones and delicate experiments which needed a gentle hand.

These fears turned out to be unfounded, however, as Kari kept up her streak of good natured helpfulness, and Nadia was… incredibly quiet.

Cas had spent the majority of those three days entranced by a new method to train slimes, and so was in no position to notice the outside world, much less quiet children, but – on the third day – Cas realized something:

Nadia had spent the past four days with them, and not once had she spoken directly to Cas herself. She was hardly a shy child. She talked with Kari well enough, especially when she thought Cas wasn’t near, but – as far as the Sakkari went – the girl wouldn’t utter a word unless spoken to directly first, and even then she generally drew upon one and two word answers to get her by.

Cas was sympathetic to the girl. She was moving to an unfamiliar environment and going through alot of stress. To top that all off – being perfectly honest with herself – Cas was not that great of a caretaker.

For the most part, she’d spent the last few months treating Kari like a lab assistant and ignoring her for hours at a time while digging through the desert. She’d kind of failed spectacularly to console the girl at the first real trouble they faced, and – despite her promises to do better – she was quickly reverting back to her old habits of getting lost in her work.

Kari had to ask her to stay the night with her last tuesday… the same night her sister had barely escaped a death sentence, and Cas had been too focused on her experiments to consider the girl’s feelings that night!

Cas cringed internally at that memory, at how she actually had to be convinced to stay the night with the girl.

“Oh what difference will that make when she’s sleeping - stupid!” Cas repeated her words to herself with the benefit of hindsight and a judgemental attitude.

So… yeah, Cas was particularly sensitive to her recent failings, and had promised to do better.

She didn’t try and smother attention onto the girls or anything like that.

However, when on that last night, Nadia finally gathered the courage to address her directly in that quiet voice of hers.

“Uhmm… Ms.. Ms Sage?”

Cas immediately set down her mini slime clone, letting the frothing creature tick around her desktop like a wind-up alarm clock, finding herself with the sudden ability to completely ignore the experiment as she focused her attention onto the girl.

Nadia, apparently sensing the sincerity in the Sakkari’s attention, broke more easily into her main point, her smile warbling at the edges with nervousness.

“Do… do I really have to go to the party tomorrow?”

Cas immediately understood the girl’s meaning. Tomorrow was the last day of her coronation. It would be the culmination of all the fanfare of the five villages that had been organized. It would be the day where she was supposed to walk out into the desert, carrying all the blessings of the village.

It would also be the day where she would refuse to do that, and where she would come to live with Cas instead.

Cas had been short with the elders and their constant portents about how this was against the law. However, Nadia was a child, and the one who would be taking center stage, at that. Cas, of course, knew that – in the grand scheme of things – with the recent discoveries she’d made on that table behind her – this would all come to nothing once the Oasis grew.

However, looking into the girl’s eyes. Cas understood immediately that this wasn’t the time to debate with the girl about future possibilities. She was a young girl who had to endure the judgement of everyone she knew tomorrow, she was a child who had to do the brave thing and escape death; and, she’d spent the entire day looking queasy over the prospect.

Cas reached out a stalk and took the girl’s hand.

The girl, wearing a more comfortable smile, now, took that as permission to go forward.

“Mom… mom, she told me that she won’t be able to be with me when I do it tomorrow. She’s going to stay away.”

“Yes,” Cas confirmed, gripping the girl’s hand tighter. “She’s going to help us from inside the village, so she has to pretend not to agree with our actions.”

“I know,” Nadia nodded bashfully, looking down. “That means I won’t be able to talk to her again.”

Cas resisted the urge to start expounding about her Oasis growth project. “At least for a little while,” she said.

Nadia blinked away a fearful smile and looked up at Cas with a hopeful cant to her ears. “Do I still have to go tomorrow? Can’t we just tell them I won’t be doing it here?”

Cas shook her head. “I won’t make you go, but your mother said it’d be best if we tell everyone at the same time. If we hide away, it’ll make it seem like we’re doing something wrong.”

Nadia looked confused at that. “Aren’t we?” she asked.

Cas tried valiantly to keep the anger, and sadness from her voice as she processed the question. “We’re not doing anything wrong,” she answered. “Your mom is doing a really brave thing, and you are, too.”

Nadia, with the wide-eyed moral flexibility of a child, seemed willing to accept that answer with little pushback. Still, she looked down again, hiding her face.

She had a habit of pointing her face away whenever it wasn’t a smile, and even her voice seemed devoid of all joy as she admitted: “I… I still wish my mom could be there.”

The voice saddened Cas, and – reacting again as if flinching from pain – she reached forward to address the girl. This time, however, her words were far more measured.

“Your mom won’t be there,” she answered, “but I’ll be there, and so will Kari, and we’re going to stand by you, and we’re going to take you in, and you're going to be our new sister.”

Nadia sniffled, half laughter and half tears. “I’m not your sister, though.”

Cas answered swiftly, taking her hand tighter. “We’re going to treat you like one, though. We’re going to let you live with us, and feed you, and make sure all your days are happy as can be!” Cas forced a cheerful tone in her voice. “I have a plan to make the Oasis bigger, and give the village more food, so we’ll be able to be happy together, soon, too!”

Nadia only sniffed, able to lift her face back up, which was freshly decorated with a more genuine smile.

“Really?”

“Really,” Cas nodded. “From today onward, you’re our family, ok? That means we protect eachother, and laugh together, and sing songs, and we’ll even cry when the other is sad.”

Nadia giggled.

The girl was truly happy, Cas realized, but her hackles were raised, and her ears were stiff.

Talk was cheap, after all, even children realized the emptiness of promises, even when they came from people they trusted.

So, Cas, taking a deep breath, took the final leap.

“Also, Nadia?”

“Yes?”

“Being family also means we share eachother’s secrets, and I have one secret to show you, that only Kari and I know about.”

Cas had mastered the transformation by this point, and that allowed the changes to take place with an elegant smoothness, as she grew taller and the stalk changed into a smooth, human hand which quickly stretched to cover Nadia’s hand in its warm embrace.

Nadia looked wide eyed.

Cas only giggled, her shawl feeling ticklish on her sensitive human skin, and otherwise unable to fight away the giddyness which accompanied this form. “Surprising, isn’t it?”

Nadia, still wide eyed, could only manage a nod of amazement.

But her eyes quickly cooled, and her ears relaxed, and a smile took her face as understanding cooled her features.

“You understand why I’m telling you this?” Cas guessed.

“Yeah,” Nadia said, quickly feeling more confident, either in the trust Cas was willing to show, or perhaps simply because the surprise of the revelation had blown away all other emotions.

“Good!” Cas clapped her hands cheerily. “So… we’re family now, ok? And that means we’re going to stand by you. You have to keep this a secret for now, though, ok?”

Nadia nodded.

Cas noticed that she looked a lot more confident than she had all day.

Cas also noticed that she had an honestly sad expression.

Cas was happy to see that. Tomorrow was going to be a sad day, after all, especially with Tami’s absence. And, Cas was also happy to see that Nadia – for the first time in their presence – was able to wear a truly sad face, without a smile to cover it.

Cas laughed… “you’re not smiling this time.”

Nadia smiled, this time honestly, as she touched her face and giggled. “I only did that in front of mom.”

And, suddenly, a bashful look to her face, one which Cas was keen to notice.

“Yes?” Cas asked.

Nadia, despite the intense taboo against the act, however, quickly acquiesced to her curiosity.

“Uhm… if you don’t mind,” she said, “can I ask you a personal question?”