Corvayne lay in his tent, re-reading Hari's note. Outside, he could hear people moving, no doubt related to the imperials who had shown up after they had killed The Raven and broken his army. Corvayne was glad Wick... no, Anastasia... he was glad she had not alerted anyone to their return last night. Spears also had skipped coming to see him, which was fine. He didn't feel like company.

Wick and Hari in one night had basically boxed him out his home. Or, perhaps he should say Anastasia did. Wick hadn't surfaced as much and it felt like she had vanished. He was afraid that after sitting quiet for so long, her other personality was going to stifle the woman he loved. It was silly, to spend months methodically destroying a million man army than to be cut down by a problem that could not be stabbed away. Compared to Grunt or Mister I, who always seemed to be on top of themselves, or even Nyx or Brines who just had personalities that didn't let these things get in the way, he felt like a fool.

He stopped himself from ruminating further. He had decisions to make now, not when he felt like it. He might be able to shift his tent out beyond the pond, maybe keep getting breakfast hand delivered to him. But just like how being near Wick tore her and Ana apart, seeing her and knowing she was there was going to harm him as well. That and Hari... she was trapped between them, and even as much as the letter was cowardly, he couldn't fault the logic.

Wick had told him that Hari, her, and Seru were going to go negotiate with the elves. He wasn't sure why Seru was included, but it gave him a few days to decide what exactly he was going to. The more he thought about it, the less he wanted to slink around the outskirts of camp. It felt like he was sliding back to the person he had been at the village, and he wanted to move forward. Even if he couldn't change what was happening... no, what had happened. He had been mulling over Wick and Hari for two months.

Which drew him back to the note. Hari had stated that Wick, the woman he loved, was essentially a sort of gestalt stuck into Anastasia's body. She was still alive. She wanted to see him. And giving in would kill her. If he wanted to save them, ever, they needed time to heal.

It meant it was time to pack up. If not right at this moment, soon. Corvayne flipped back through the pages Hari had written, looking at the people The Tower itself (or what they believed to be The Tower) had cited would go which way.

He wasn't going to go alone, but he didn't want to drag all the resources away from Wick, either. Everything she had said about becoming strong enough to protect herself applied even more.

He heard someone knock on his tent flap. He stood and opened it, and stepped back as Lady Blood Claw came in.

“Corvayne. I want to spar.” She said, arms folded. Sometimes Corvayne wasn't sure if she just sort of shed niceties when she was focused, or she was acting gruff, or perhaps she had trouble with opening conversations.

“Sure. I mean, in a bit, I wanted to talk to you.” He said, and instead of the expected orange of annoyance she went dark yellow for confusion a moment before he saw light gray that implied she was uncomfortable. He held up his hands.

“I got dumped by both Hari and Wick, and between hanging out further from camp and setting off... I can't fix what's wrong here, but I have questions about who I am, and The Magus and curses. I know you have Nyx to worry about, but when I leave, I'd like you to come with me.”

She folded her arms, skin flashing lemony yellow which was a new one, then light purple which was mild embarrassment he thought. Corvayne was still not a hundred percent perfect at reading her moods through her skin. Lady Blood Claw looked up at the tent ceiling for a moment, running a hand through her silver hair, then looking down at him, a hand on her hip as her skin turned brown with sharp black lines, which was totally new to Corvayne. “Who else have you asked?”

Corvayne smiled at her. “So far just you.”

It was so rare to see her mouth draw open, then for her to radiate happiness with bright pink and a big smile that Corvayne was a little surprised. But not too much, of all his friends, Lady Blood Claw was sort of different from the way he thought of Grunt and Nyx and Mister I. She coughed then forced herself to look stern.

“Good. I was worried you'd try to sneak off or something.” He had been thinking about it. “I know you're planning to ask Spears, who else did you have in mind?”

Corvayne felt a little sheepish. “I had just started planning who to ask. I can't ask everyone to go off on a crazy quest with me.”

Lady Blood Claw sighed. “You need to accept you are a leader. Those who you need, will come. Those who you need to stay, will stay.”

“I think I should at least help Bell get home, and I wanted to have her help me ask the empire for what it knows about The Wanderer. Undine is convinced that it was me. Besides that, I really don't know.”

Lady Blood Claw moved across the rough carpet and sat in a camp chair Corvayne had set up in his tent. “In other words, just a bunch of girls? Mmm Hmm.”

Corvayne felt his face flush. “You know, I picked you first and foremost because you're dependable. I also need someone who keeps me sharp when we spar. I didn't know if you would agree, because... I'm not always sure what you think of me.”

“Tch. Pure Corvayne here! I'd come if I didn't like you just because you are hunting the people who beat The Magus. Really though, you're the only sane person in this camp. I'd also lose my sparring partner. Not to mention... I've felt like I belonged since I started working with you. More than anywhere else I've been. You never treated me like a weird tall alien.”

Corvayne did not comment on how often he tagged LBC as 'the tall alien' in his head. “Well, in our first fight I was thinking it was a novel weapon and opponent.”

She grumbled. “And I thought I was a battle maniac.”

“Well, let me ask again, can you come-”

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She snapped, “Yes, already!”

They were both quiet for a few moments.

Corvayne coughed into his hand. “Before we go, I wanted to have one of the people leaving with us learn Mend. Honestly, I'd ask you, but I don't know how well you put up with Mosh or Mister I.”

Lady Blood Claw sighed. “You trying to turn us all into paladins? It only works because they craft stuff. Nonstop.”

Corvayne paused. “Does fishing count?”

Lady Blood Claw moved her hand back and forth. “Cooking certainly does. I think Fishing is the one thing he does that doesn't come with favor for Lythandies. Healing by other means does, for sure.”

Corvayne sighed. “In other words, I might take a jab at it, because I do enjoy working on machines.”

“Ask who you're going to ask. If Bell is going to work with us, I think you should drag her through at least a tower run.”

Corvayne nodded. “I don't understand how she turned around so fast.”

Lady Blood Claw chewed on her lip. “We were just talking about Mend. An ability that came with a goblin who sort of materialized in your path. In doing so, set off Wick's dual awakening. A powerful tool sort of carelessly thrown into our path, wouldn't you say?”

Corvayne looked down at his boots of running. “One of many, I'd say.”

“Either way. We take anyone coming along for the ride and make sure they have powers, gear, and that Mosh has time to get us equipped for possibly a long haul. I mean, at least getting our bikes tuned to run on whatever we can find. He figured out a way to make the Truck run on your shards.”

This caught his attention. “They have a use?”

“The things are crystallized magic. The shrine to Lythandies is probably going to end up surrounded by a fortress the moment we move our truck.”

“Oh. I feel kinda silly now that I've tossed so many away.” He had dumped a whole bunch into the pond where Mister I was fishing. Would he have to go diving in to recover some?

“I see that look. We have tons and tons. We're going to try trading next time we find a spot in the tower with things we want. Until then, I've got yarn to work on.”

This shocked Corvayne. “You knit?”

“I'm a complete newbie, but I've come to feel... over exposed when I'm just wearing my jumpsuit, and the only thing we can buy is goat byproducts out here so YES, I knit, and now I'm going to make things and hope it makes Lythandies grants me the ability to fix everyone's broken brains. We thought of the same thing.”

She got up, and paused. “We'll spar later but listen...” She looked around at the tent walls, then turned to him. “Are you all right?”

She always got him when she stopped sounding gruff. He looked down. “I knew this was coming, some of what I was doing was... trying to throw myself into a distraction.”

She sighed, and gestured for Corvayne to step closer, then as he did wrapped him in a hug. “Make sure to take people along who are going to help you get better. Your spear being sturdy and sharp is no good if you're broken.”

“You too. If Nyx doesn't go...”

She laughed and pushed Corvayne to arms length. She was smiling but looked a little blueberry around the edges of her enforced grey. “He'll go. Spears will go, so he will too.”

“Do you wanna knit in here? I was going to paint, and usually we feel like talking about as much as one another.”

LBC nodded and adjusted a silver ring, producing what looked like a pink knitted cone.

“Is that a weird sock?”

She flared blueberry with embarrassment, her voice soaked with ire as she said, “It's for Mister Squigglesworth!”

“Will he be okay riding with us?”

“What's one more favor I owe Mosh?” She shrugged, then sat before pausing. “What do we pay him with?”

Corvayne stopped pulling his paints out to respond with the answer he had gotten. “Muscle, materials to craft with, and enough adventure to meet babes.”

Lady Blood Claw laughed once, then they settled into making things, and for the first time in a while Corvayne found himself at peace as globed paint onto the canvas... then he felt little corrections and let himself go.

His warmup was to paint the first Tower floor he had seen on in a heavy sketch book. It was brand new and he spent a moment running his hands over the texture of it, then produced a pallet to mix colors and started moving the globs around. Blue cubes connected by vines in a yellow sky. It was finished quick, and he had used a little too much paint, leaving ridges in places, but if he squinted it looked right.

He did a few more of those, painting the weird tilted blue plates that made the second floor, and then the stone building he and Wick had taken shelter in... he stopped halfway through, deciding to switch to something slightly more removed. He picked colors and started with a dusty sky, eventually painting one of the places he had seen the starry eyed girl in a dream, The shore of a river next to a huge rock, and a black obsidian circle on the ground before a gate way in it's side. Letting his hand go, more and more details started to emerge, and it felt like he was picking up a weapon he had long forgotten as he became more and more focused on the details of making something rather than worrying what it would end up as.

Lady Blood Claw startled him as she put a hand on his shoulder. She took a step back, hands up. “My bad. You rarely lose yourself, I assumed you knew where I was. Do you want me to get us dinner?”

He nodded. “Thanks Lady. Is the squid cap done?”

She shrugged. “It remains to be seen if he'll let me put it on.”

It begged a question. “Where is he anyway?”

She nodded her head towards the wall in the direction of the pond. “He likes Reaper-of-Fish and Mister I because he gets the small fry they'd throw back otherwise.”

“Okay. Maybe we'll pack a cooler with fish....”

Lady Blood Claw looked alarmed and Corvayne held up a hand. “Not The Raven's cooler.”

That cleared up, Lady Blood Claw went out to get food, and Corvayne went back to painting, eventually blinking and switching on a light to make sure he wasn't messing up the colors. After a while Lady Blood Claw came back, bringing in the smell of whatever strong soap she used to shower mixed in with the steaming stew-pot she was carrying with her bare hands.

As she came in, Bell called out. “I wish to enter.”

Corvayne looked over at Lady Blood Claw, who nodded. He called out, “Come in.”

Bell looked tired. “The army is on it's way, late and with messengers demanding to speak with me... I had hoped you'd come out to help me deal with...” She stopped herself from going on and instead took a deep breath. “I mean, I should ask how you are doing. I take it something happened that's kept you in this tent all day.”

Corvayne caught the red-headed princess shooting a glance over at Lady Blood Claw, who was setting the pot down and producing bowls made of the red metal that most of the magical items from The Source was crafted from. The princess looked back at him, and Corvayne gave her a pointedly sour look.

Bell tilted her chin up. “Why not?”

Corvayne decided not to bluntly say that Lady Blood Claw just didn't like him that way, and it meant there was still one woman he felt comfortable around. “We were enjoying our hobbies while trying to get power from a possibly extra-dimensional god nobody had heard of three months ago.”

She sneered. “I wish you would engage yourself as zealously as you hunted bandits. Very well, I will not intrude, but I wished to speak with you about what the story was with...”

She trailed off as she glanced down at the painting he was working on. “Why did you paint it without the palace?”

Corvayne looked between her and the painting. “Palace? I painted something I saw in a dream.” He recalled seeing the girl with stars in her eyes speaking to him as they looked at something being built there.

“Tch, a dream? Anyone could tell you... This is the Royal Gate, but open for some reason. Shadow Binders plaza with no buildings. You're painting the cliff the palace should be on.”

Corvayne looked at Bell, then back at the painting. “How long has the palace been there?”

“Ages. At least five thousand years, possibly fifty thousand.”

He looked back down at his painting. “Well, that settles which way I'm going.”