A figure came striding through the trees, walking fast, with purpose. We watched as the hazy shape of Chora came into view.

I was almost jumping with excitement! Or I would’ve been, if I hadn’t still been reeling from the experience of having mentally communicated with some lower-higher being, i.e. Murder. And if I hadn’t also been drip-feeding Reed and Bayce the requisite descriptions of what important info had just been exchanged.

Yeah, if not for all that, I might’ve felt eager enough to dash forward and meet her mid-march! Instead, at the tail-end of our calmly interrupted breakfast, I rose alongside Reed and Bayce and shared in the general hello.

“Welcome back!”

“Mreaow!”

She gave us a modest smile. “Hey. I’m hoping nothing happened while I was gone.”

Bayce rolled her eyes, though her mouth was beaming. I was keeping my eye on her…well, on both her and Chora, really. I just didn’t want their squabbles to ruin a good day. But maybe this was just playing, pure and simple. “Nothing a few Minor Heals couldn’t fix,” she said lightly. “What about you?”

“Oh, totally fine. Once you’re done eating, we can go inside and I can show you what got delivered…”

“Actually, we just finished,” Reed said. That was wrong—we’d finished about forty minutes ago, but a mixture of business and idle chatter had kept us here. Plus, the sun was just twinkling-bright. We had a ways to go before the afternoon, so there was still a yellow edge to the air. “And we have leftovers. Have some!”

“Have none,” Chora said automatically.

“Have…drink?”

“Have none neither.”

“Have rest in the…I mean, in bedroom.” Reed stifled a laugh, despite this wordplay being really corny. Or perhaps…because it was corny?

“Um, no need. I got more than enough hospitality.”

The humans began to pick up the empty plates, shuttle leftovers into a basket, and bundle up the towels and cushions. I Morphed, more than willing to volunteer as pack mule, and let them heap pillows into my arms.

As two of them hurried off, I felt a tap on the shoulder. Turning past the tower of towels, I saw Chora.

“Hey, can you please meet me on the roof when you can? I have some…life questions I don’t think Reed or Bayce can answer.”

That sure startled me. Not the tapping, but the incredibly open-ended request. What was she planning on asking me? Despite having talked to a couple of holy beings, I didn’t know that many of the mysteries of the known universe.

Then again, maybe she was just curious about what it was like to be me? To Morph and stuff?

Not like I could ask just yet. I nodded with anxious speed. Chora nodded back, reached down to grab the basket, and said, “Thank you…Taipha.”

That couldn’t have been the first time Chora used my name, but it was a weirdly impactful time. Like she’d been tasting my name on her tongue and decided it felt right. As we walked side by side into the cabin, I wondered what kind of existential questions she had for me.

Or if they were going to be some absolute garbage, like why cats found catnip so addicting.

***

“That’s all the more reason why we have to train hard, right?”

Bayce laughed at Chora’s matter-of-factness. She laughed one good, sarcastic time. “We? You’re so certain we have to deal with this? I can’t just derail my life.”

Chora and Reed sat on one side of the den, Bayce and I on the other. In between us was a burlap sack of various goods—collected not by me, but by Chora. It looked like the legendary, timeless toting technology of the bag had been adopted by humans in kind. Inside, as she’d reported, were cantrip and Spell ingredients, as well as a few lumps of metal, which she had yet to explain, at least not to me.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I couldn’t blame her so much for that. I’d just had so much to explain, with the help of recently kidnapped Reed and recently terrified Bayce. And now Chora was taking the news incredibly seriously. Again, I couldn’t blame her.

“I don’t think the gravity of this has dawned on any of you,” Chora said.

Now Reed took offense. As usual, she was firm but restrained. “It has certainly dawned on me,” she said. “I just don’t have all the information yet. I assure you, though, I can see disaster coming. I just don’t think we’ll be alone.”

“Oh, it’s not about being alone. It’s simply about being as prepared as we can be. I mean, why wait? I myself should’ve been training harder these past few days.”

Reed shook her head violently. “Blaming ourselves gets us nowhere. Especially not when so little has happened!”

Chora’s mouth flatlined. “It’s not about blaming myself, either. It’s just acting smart.” She sighed deeply, and everyone took that moment to reflect. “Maybe it’s what I saw in the village that’s making me want to rush into action. There’s a totally different emergency in the Wood, and unlike the time stones and the draining mountains—which are at least going slowly, and not hurting any humans that we know of—this one is killing people.”

I felt a pang of recognition. Was she talking about what Logy did in the park? No, had Logy done more?

“A couple hunters were spearfishing in the marsh,” she said, “and one came back ragged. The other one didn’t come back at all. These were trained hunters under fortunate stars, so whatever happened…the village is thinking it was unusual. They’re sending out a larger group to investigate. DeGalle too, since she offered and she was really hard to refuse.”

“So let me get this straight,” Reed said. “People were slightly riled up about the things that DeGalle came to investigate…but they’re more riled up about whoever or whatever killed the dead hunter.”

“Correct.”

“Yeah…if I were in the village, I’d be going with them to the northeast too.”

Chora squinted. “You’re not?”

Bayce sputtered out another laugh again. It was clear what she planned on doing—not doing.

“I haven’t decided,” Reed said, unmoved.

“I’m almost dead-set on going,” Chora said. “That is, if I’m not needed for something closer to home.”

This had become way more tense than I’d expected—and it wasn’t even because of that old Chora-Bayce tension. Chora had a fierce sense of justice, and an unshakeable sense of what it had to be, like she’d pledged herself to a cause the way she’d pledged to me.

And while that sense of justice was also her stubbornness, I really felt that she was in the right. Sure, I was staking my answer on the hope that Logy was no longer a clear and present danger, but if you took that for granted, there was no compelling reason why Reed couldn’t help the people of Outlast. She had such a big heart that it seemed inevitable that she’d want to. In fact, I bet the only reason she was “undecided” was because she felt put on the spot.

Bayce…well, Bayce needed to study, but that was never not true. She maybe didn’t have such a big heart. Or was I thinking about it wrong? Can someone be “heartless” if they’re as eager as she was yesterday to save one of her best friends? No, she just didn’t want to get in the affairs of strangers. Including me, to some extent.

Okay, I guessed the friction was coming down to that old tension yet again. At least I could try my best to diffuse it.

“REED U NEED TIME TO THINK,” I said, and while she looked peeved for a moment, she immediately relaxed. Had I been too dogmatic? Just a touch. “CHORA I GET WHY THIS MATTERS. ITS JUST THAT U SPRANG IT ON US. PLZ DONT GET ANGRY”

She bristled. “I have a right to get angry, if you’re implying I don’t.”

“NO NOT WHAT I MEANT!!!!! TALK IS HARD!!!!!” I pivoted, trying to ignore my nerves. “I WANT TO GO HELP VILLAGE. I DONT THINK ITS BAD IF OTHERS DONT. OUTLAST HAS PEOPLE. THAT BIRD. THEYVE DONE THIS BEFORE PROBABLY. THEY MIGHT NOT NEED US, BUT WE NEED US. IF THAT MAKES SENSE”

“Yeah…you think there’s a risk of self-sacrifice.”

“You really jumped to conclusions,” Bayce said to Chora. “I am not fearing my own death! I’m living my own life over here. I mean, it’s not like I want the Outlasters to die in a hole. I wish them the best! It’s just…how to you expect me to juggle all that and what I’m already doing?” She gestured to the open bag. “Just leave me to my cantrips and Spells—preferably in the tranquil silence you so admire—and I’ll be happy.”

“So be it,” Chora said, arms crossed securely.

“Yep! So be it.”

“Well, I can go,” Reed said, “if nothing interferes.”

“I…guess I want it to be your own choice,” Chora said. “Taipha, you’re mostly right. The only trouble is that they don’t know what could’ve done it, but…it’s an old village that’s weathered tons of storms.” She winced. “In hindsight, they were just really, really persuasive. That’s what I get for not staying in a hotel suite.”

Now I felt a little bad for having been so persuasive. “CHORA U WERE STILL KINDA RIGHT,” I told her. “THEY DO NEED HELP.”

She nodded.

Now that the air was so tense, we wanted just about nothing more than to clear it again. Windows were opened, supposedly so that Bayce could “let in the first real cool breeze of the season,” but mainly for the symbolism, I was sure. Reed grabbed the lumpy metals from out of the bag and disappeared them in the Inventory behind her back. Bayce did the same with all the magical ingredients. I marveled at the fact that the wimpy Intelligence cantrip I was still wearing had irritated neither my skin nor my brain…

And then I remembered a thread I’d left hanging. Something that could seriously help everyone out, especially the humans! You see, I had access to lots and lots of go—

“Hey,” Chora murmured to me as we found ourselves alone. “The roof okay?”

…Oh. Right. Sure! The roof might be big enough to hold ten thousand pieces of gold.