Solace walks in and takes up a position next to Leah. “Oh to be young…” she says, teasingly. Leah does not respond.

Jeno pulls away finally, though still holding tightly to Kain’s hands. Kain looks over at Leah with wet eyes. “Thank you,” she whispers hoarsely. “Gods avow, I’d have done it myself if I thought I wouldn’t get killed for trying.”

“Done what?” Leah asks, in a strangled voice.

“Stopped the execution!” Kain says, smiling but still crying.

“Right. Well.” Leah shrugs. “You’re welcome.”

Jeno is avoiding meeting her eyes. Leah figures this is for the best, all things considered.

Before the silence can grow any thicker, Solace claps her hands together. “Well sir! Very well done on the counterspell. Will Miss Djalaa require any recovery time?”

Seffon blinks hard a few times, then clears his throat. He dismisses the guards, who all leave in the sort of tense silence that precedes the sudden mass sharing of gossip and opinions. Leah remains, partly to avoid having to listen to it, and partly for whatever explanation may or may not be forthcoming.

“Miss Djalaa,” he begins, haltingly, looking at her sideways a bit.

Kain sits up straight, eyeing him nervously right back. “Lord Seffon.”

He straightens his shoulders slightly. “You ought to take a few hours to recover, and maybe have something to eat, before we tell you any of what has happened over the past week. Lady Jeno,” Here he stumbles a bit, “If you would be so kind as to accompany Miss Djalaa to the hospital? I will have a guard show you the way.”

“I can go with them, sir,” Solace says.

Seffon nods, then frowns. “You know the way?”

Solace’s eyes dart, and she smiles. “Leah showed me.” Leah nods, weakly, still staring at the table.

“Oh?” Seffon says. “Very well then.” He gives a slight bow to Jeno, still looking a little confused, and the three women leave, supporting Kain in the middle though she seems uninjured.

Leah stands in the tower, across the table from Seffon.

“How are you?” he asks, awkwardly.

“Fine,” Leah says, smacking her lips and nodding. “I’m fine.”

“Really?”

Leah keeps nodding. Can’t quite seem to stop herself.

“Did you…” Seffon shrugs. “Know about this?”

“Nope,” Leah says, still nodding.

Seffon walks over and holds her shoulder, placing his other hand on top of her head to stop the nodding. “Hey,” he says, supportively. When she doesn’t respond, he begins mussing her hair roughly. “Heyyy…”

Her shock broken, Leah laughs and pushes him away. “I’m fine! No, really, I just…” she sighs. “I just…I can’t figure out when it would have happened.”

Seffon sits down on the table and pats the space next to him; Leah sits down, slumping. “I mean, you did run away and leave her alone for almost two weeks. That’s enough time for some people.”

“But she was under Eschen’s watch during that time,” Leah says, “And before that…ugh.”

“Yes?”

Leah groans and buries her face in her hands. “After I was injured in a fight, they took me off guard duty for a couple days. Kain took over for me. I assumed, because Jeno was still so…” She gestures over her face, and Seffon chuckles. “I assumed she was still smitten. There was no change in her behaviour! She never gave away…and apparently the five all knew I was gay, but none of them knew about Jeno, so…”

Seffon rubs her back. “It’s worse when you can’t see it coming.”

“Not even; I didn’t see it coming, I didn’t see it happening, and I didn’t see the aftermath. I was weeks late in realising.”

“And if the five never knew…Kain probably doesn’t realise what you’re feeling now.”

“I’m not feeling anything, I’m…” Leah shrugs, hunching further down. “I was always a little overwhelmed by how strongly Jeno felt, but at the same time it felt good to be needed so much by someone. I wanted to be with her, but I was worried…I didn’t want her to feel abandoned, when I leave this world to go home. I mean, hopefully the real Leah will be back in this body, but it still would have felt like abandoning her. Now…” She leans away, rubbing her cheek. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, this is all very…”

Seffon pulls her back in and tucks her head under his chin. “I’ve been there,” he says, rubbing her back again. “I’ve been young.”

Leah snickers. “Old man.”

“Yes, full of wisdom,” he says, chuckling. Leah can feel the hum through his chest. “So I know what I mean when I say you need to let it out now, so you can move forward with a lighter load.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Leah sniffles a bit. “God, it’s just so…I was starting to hope she’d get over me, that she’d want to break it off…but being left for someone…being left for someone who was already so close to her without my realising…and the fact that I can’t even be mad at her, because I have Kimry…”

“Who’s Kimry?”

“An indentured servant at the keep, from Nent.”

“Ah.” Seffon nods, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

“And now Eschen knows about Kimry, and I don’t know how, and I don’t know if he’ll keep trying to hurt me through the people I care about – ”

Leah can’t manage any words after that for the next couple minutes. Seffon sits with her through it, making reassuring noises and keeping one arm around her shoulders to hold her steady, passing her a handkerchief when she needs it.

“Thank you,” Leah finally manages to say, sitting straight and wiping her cheeks dry. She sniffles one last time and holds the scrunched up handkerchief to her nose.

“Do you want me to…subtly redirect them, over the next little while? Make sure you never bump into them?”

“I think it’ll be fine,” Leah says, shaking her head. “Besides, I need to talk to Kain.”

“Perhaps a little more time…”

“No, not about Jeno. About me.” Leah gestures to her head. “Kain still doesn’t know about fake Leah.”

*

Leah finds them in Jeno’s quarters, later that afternoon; the door is ajar, but she still hesitates to approach. She knocks very gently, and pushes the door open.

“Kain?” she says, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness; the curtains have been drawn.

“Leah!” Kain’s voice reaches her, happy and gentle. There are some shuffling sounds, and then Kain appears at the door – fully dressed, Leah is somewhat relieved to see.

“Can I talk to you about something?”

“Sure, of course,” Kain says, brushing a hand over Leah’s arm. “What is it?”

Leah takes a deep breath, then gives the short version: the rescue; not having the old Leah’s memories; having a different set of memories; realising with Seffon’s help that her mind swapped into this body; searching for a way back. Kain’s face falls as the story progresses.

“But – ” Kain shakes her head. “But you remembered. You remembered Bair, and the rebels in Algi…”

“I’m not sure how I remembered those things,” Leah says, “But they aren’t my life. We’ve had to put our research aside, to focus on the war, but as soon as it’s solved we’re going to try to figure out how to send me back to my world, and if possible to bring your Leah back here.”

“We? You and Lord Seffon?” Kain doesn’t give any visible sign of discomfort, but her tone is a little taut. “What’s that about, anyway? Why is he helping us?”

“Because…oh man, it’s a long story. Cheden and Devad have been framing him for some stuff, and he’s not really as much of a belligerent neighbour as Valerin claims, and he wants peace just as much as we do.”

Kain chews her lip. Jeno comes to stand by the door, and takes her hand. Leah avoids looking at her.

“He’s been nothing but polite,” Jeno says. “Even if he is a little distant at times.”

“Kain, Seffonshold is a school, and an estate. Families live here, and kids, and they’re not our enemy.” Leah puts a hand on Kain’s shoulder, a little stiffly. “I trust him because he trusted me, when I first arrived here, and he hasn’t broken that trust since.”

Kain frowns, then shrugs and pats Leah’s hand. “And yet you still came back for us,” she says, with a small grin. “When we were strangers, who had arrested you and hurt you. You could have run away and gone back to your world, but you tried to help.” Her smile fades. “Why did you lie, though? If we’d known earlier, we could have done something, tried to get our Leah back. Gods, is she even still alive?”

“She is,” Leah says quickly, firmly. “She is, and I think she might be in my world. I don’t know how well she’s faring, but she’s alive.” We think. We’re really just guessing here, but she doesn’t need to hear that. Not right now.

Kain takes a deep breath, and nods once. “Alright. I can accept that. I want her back, though,” she says, pointing a threatening finger at Leah with a smile. “She’s a good friend, and I want her safe.”

“I’ll do my best,” Leah says, pointing a finger and meeting Kain’s, pushing it back and away. Kain laughs. “That’s all I really had to say. I’ll leave you to your recovery.”

Kain gives a small nod and goes to close the door. Jeno looks up finally, and says a soft “Leah?”

Leah gives her a half-bow. “Lady Jeno,” she says, then turns to leave, trying very hard to keep her breathing even. She hears the door close behind her.

She walks onward, finally reaching the garden. The setting sun makes the wall of the Hold glow yellow, and the garden below seems to have purple shadows in contrast. The pheasants are roosting, hidden under shrubs and in hutches under the wooden staircases.

Leah’s steps eventually direct her to the stables. On a barrel, she finds the book of runes, forgotten during Solace’s arrival. She picks it up and thumbs through. Beeswax snorts and leans her head over the stall door, lips wiggling, asking for food.

“Hey, sweetie,” Leah says, petting the soft nose. The horse tries to nibble at the book, and Leah holds it low out of reach. “They treat you well? You all cleaned up? I promise I’ll learn how to do that myself soon, okay?”

The stable doors open, and Leah turns around, embarrassed to have been caught. The militiaman rides in, and Areiu rides in behind him, on Marble. Areiu smiles to see her, and calls out a chipper, “Hello Shield!”

“You can call me Leah, you know,” she says with a grin.

The militiaman dismounts and helps Areiu down, then leads both horses to their respective stalls. A stable-boy scrambles down a ladder from the loft to help him.

“Where did you spend the afternoon?” Leah asks Areiu.

The girl tears her eyes away from her horse to answer. “I was at school. I can count up to sixty.”

“That’s high!” Leah says with a smile. “It must take forever to count that far.”

“It takes one minute,” Areiu says, very seriously.

“Ah, I see.”

The militiaman says something to Areiu, and she shakes her head, babbling back in Olues. He looks up to Leah. “Can yu take hẽ back inside? She knows the uay, but…”

“Of course,” Leah says with a nod. The militiaman gives a formal nod back, and returns to caring for his horse. Leah goes to stand by the girl, who has gone back to looking at the horse. “Suppertime, Areiu.”

“Not yet.”

“Do you want to say goodnight to your horse first?”

“Uh-huh.”

Leah kneels down and picks Areiu up. She carries her over to the edge of the stall door, and the horse leans his head forward to snuffle at them. Areiu reaches out a tiny hand and pets the horse’s nose.

“Say ‘bye-bye Marble.’”

“Bye-bye Marble,” Areiu repeats. The horse snorts and goes back to eating hay.

Leah carries her inside and up to the dining area, for lack of a better idea where to put her. Sewheil meets her at the door; recovering quickly from her surprise at seeing Leah, she takes the child with thanks. She brushes the hair from Areiu’s eyes, murmuring to her in Olues. Areiu seems already half-asleep, but perks up at the mention of food.

“Es Leah yeng ue us again, teunie?” she asks.

Sewheil looks over at Leah and raises an eyebrow. “Uou yu cã teu zoin us?”

Leah hesitates on the threshold of the room, then nods. She takes a seat on a cushion, and Areiu sits next to her, a hand on Leah’s knee and the other using her spoon to draw numbers on the table cloth, reading them out as she writes them.

Seffon watches the two of them with humour, and gives Sewheil a fond kiss on the cheek when she sits down.

The food is served, and Leah feels a little surreally at peace as she eats it.