“Report, Vagrant Warden,” Captain Tar demanded upon her arrival.

Everyone was standing within the battlefield, the severed leg of the parasite lying beside them like an ottoman in a sitting room. Knight Giant was waving at his summoned creation, the amalgamated flesh creation dissolving from the movement. Knight Grain, meanwhile, was repairing the damage to Sand Castle while trying not to look at Leland.

Everyone had seen it, the parasite punching him with enough force that his hurtling body shattered part of the fort. Surviving the attack was one thing, but standing and returning to the fight moments later was another. Frankly, the triplets were glad they were not the captain at this moment. They dealt with monsters on a daily basis, but dealing with monstrous allies was something completely different.

“A ‘report?’ You want a report?” Leland asked, his arms plastered to his hips. He scoffed, his tone turning cold and loud. He pointed at the leg. “A parasite killed its host and attacked us. That’s your report.”

Captain Tar briskly nodded, her eyes weak and shadowed. “Any of yours hurt?”

Jude, Glenny, and Gelo had given him some space to deal with the captain and her brood, but at her question, they each gave her a shake of the head.

“They would have been,” Leland growled. “If it wasn’t for my Harbinger abilities. Your man as well, even!”

The Captain couldn’t disagree. Space warping punches and kicks? Who’s crazy enough to walk into melee with that? Though, she supposed, she should have acted earlier.

Mentally, she cursed herself glancing at Dis. It was all because of that stupid letter. “Test the boys,” it said, signed and dated by the highest of orders. And under normal circumstances, fine. The boys should be tested… but not against that thing. That thing was…

“I’m sorry,” she forced herself to say. “I should have assisted earlier. You are right. Your man and mine were injured for no reason.”

“T-thank you, Warden,” Dis added from the ground. With the battle over, his legs had given out. He sat on the sand, forearms against his knees watching the sunrise while only half-listening to his captain.

Leland took a second to suck at the back of his lips, allowing the irritation and anger to drain. “We’re lucky I could even heal those wounds. Those were… the kind people don’t come back from.”

His head turned away, Dis nodded. “You’re strong.”

“I’m not—” Leland sighed, conceding the point. He could argue all day that he was weak, but that didn’t change the fact that he was stronger than most. “Yeah, I guess I am. But not strong enough. I should be prepared for enemies like that. My main spells failed against it.”

“A learning battle for all of us,” Captain Tar said after a deep breath. “For all of us. We’ll be ready when it comes back.”

“It won’t. Not for a while at least.”

“How do you know?”

Leland gestured to his friends to come closer. When they did, he said, “Parasites are formerly humans. They, voluntarily or not, have their souls forged into items or weapons and are sent out into the world to find hosts. When a parasite wins against their host, the human body dies. Eventually it will decay, but by then, the parasite will most likely make the body into a proper vessel for their power. I don’t know how it works or why they do it, but it deals with souls and the push for divinity.”

Captain Tar motioned to the leg. “So, what? It will regrow its leg?”

“More like creating a new one. I don’t know how long it will take, but we’ll be long gone by the time it comes looking for me.”

“For you?”

It was the Captain who asked but the others looked just as interested. “It wants my power or something. I don’t know. But it's coming for me.” He looked at his friends. “So, now is the time for you guys to leave if you don’t want to deal with the parasitic space warping assassin after me.”

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Jude laughed. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world! This is exactly what I was talking about! A true adventure with plenty of monsters to kill!”

“What he said,” Glenny added.

Leland’s eyes fell to Gelo. She shrugged, her furry shoulders making the movement awkward. “I don’t mind. You three are my only friends, so.”

All three boys looked at her. Leland spoke first, “Gelo, you don’t have to help fight against the parasite or travel with us just because we are your only friends. We could take you straight to Ivory Reach and plop you down right on Sybil’s bed. I’m sure she’d love having you at the castle. You two would hit it off instantly!”

“I’m not some puppy, Leland.”

He stuttered. “I know that— I’m just trying to make sure you don’t feel pressured to come with us. The danger of this trip just increased several times over and beast or human, there’s a limit to danger everyone should be subjected to.” He softly smiled. “And I’d hate to get killed by some rogue dungeon monster if your mom decides to kill me because we brought you along.”

“I’m a friend of yours just as much as them,” Gelo showed her teeth, the gesture mocking. “I guess you’ll just have to heal me if I ever get injured.”

“Worked for me,” Glenny interjected, showing off his freshly regenerated fingers. “Those spells even grew my fingernails to the perfect length. What’s up with that?”

With a sigh and accepting that his friends were truly his friends, Leland said, “The prevailing theory of how healing magic works postulates that the healing is based on how the individual being healed sees themselves in a healthy form. Which makes it easy for healers to cast spells, but causes difficulty when someone has been injured for so long that their ‘healthy form’ contains their injury. Leg missing at birth but otherwise perfectly healthy sort of thing.”

Jude whistled. “Leals, you’re sometimes smart.”

“Well, yeah. I’ve studied for a life of magic since I could read— Wait. Did you say sometimes?”

“Nope!”

“No, I’m pretty sure—”

“Can we stop getting off track?” Captain Tar interrupted. “Jokes after we finish up here.”

Glenny said, “I thought we were done? It seems obvious what to do next.”

“And what that might be?”

“Send a message to the inquisitors that a parasite has been spotted. Have them sweep that general direction,” he pointed in the direction the parasite came from, “and double your watch for the next week. Past that, I don’t think there is much for you to do.”

“Exactly. Ask for the Huntress, when you report to the Inquisitors,” Leland added. “If she’s back, she’ll be our best bet at finding information on the parasite. Who knows, maybe she’ll find its lair and kill it herself.”

“Isobel doing more work than necessary?” Jude asked. “No way. She’ll find its lair and somehow make us show up to kill it.”

“That’s true.”

“Come on guys,” Gelo pleaded. “Isobel wasn’t that bad when I met her! I liked her a lot actually!”

The boys ignored the comment.

“Anyway,” Leland said to the Captain. “Save the leg for the Inquisitor who shows up. Otherwise, I think Sand Castle has this Tear on lock down until reinforcements arrive to build a proper fortress.”

Tar raised her chin, staring at the Harbinger. “And what about you four?”

“Well, something is supposed to happen when we walk into the Tear. Once we deal with that, we’ll probably just move on. Without knowing when the parasite will attack, there’s no point staying here or hunkering down and waiting. If it attacks, we’ll deal with it.”

Internally, Leland said, I’ll deal with it, while thinking about an attack script spell. Something to sunder soulless monsters before they can harm anything.

“And what, again, is it you think will happen inside the Tear?”

“Don’t know. That’s the magic of the situation.”

Dis, still sitting watching the sun rise, laughed. “You’re crazy. All of you.”

Leland quirked an eyebrow at the statement. “You know,” he whispered to Tar, “I can heal wounds, but not minds.”

She pursed her lips, staring at the back of her second’s head.

When she didn’t reply, Leland turned to his friends. “Shall we enter a tear to another world and find out what’s so special?” He got various levels of enthusiastic grunts. “But first—”

Magic flooded his body pooling around his lips. He whistled, summoning forth a being from beyond reality. Zeke appeared mid flight, the crow’s massive wingspan blotting the sky. He tilted downward, diving straight at Leland before flourishing his wings to cease most of his movement to land on his summoner’s shoulder.

“Welcome back, Zeke.”

“Hi there birdy!”

“Glad you’re back.”

The crow cawed, taking off to circle around the group.

Before moving out, Leland removed a new shirt from his inventory ring. The one he was wearing was mostly shreds, the parasite’s punch more than strong enough to rip thread. “Ready to go?” he asked.

At once, the group, minus the members of Sand Castle, headed toward the Tear.