The tower that Ada lived in had seen far better days. It had been part of a larger building, most of which had fallen and crumpled. The tower itself had a large hole in one side that was covered by a large, thick cloth. William approached and knocked on the heavy door.

The woman that answered the door was nothing like what he’d envisioned. She was a Meskongan woman. A white turban wrapped around her hair with only a few black strands escaping. An ‘O’ with a diagonal line through it was branded on her forehead.

Her green eyes scanned over him quickly. “You must be William, then. Come in, come in.” She stepped to the side and he walked in, ducking so as to not hit the top of the door with his head. That would be severely unpleasant and embarrassing. He knew, he’d done it before.

Renault was sitting at a long table, sliding a whetstone over his katana. He glanced up when William entered and set the sword and stone aside. “She’s resting upstairs. Ada says she’ll be okay.”

William nodded and turned towards the woman. “Thank you for your help. How much will your services cost?”

She waved her hand dismissively. “Nonsense. I’m not going to charge you. She needed help, and I had the means. Your company while she recovers is payment enough.”

“Are you sure? I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t pay you,” William said. He reached for his coin purse and the woman pursed her lips.

“What did I just say? No need for money. Don’t want it, don’t need it.” She stepped away from him and the coins that jingled in his bag.

“If you’re sure.” He watched her for a moment and then turned to Renault.

“We need to talk.”

“About what?” Renault picked his hat up off the table and placed it back on his head.

“What happened with the women after I killed the orcs.” William glanced at Miss Ada and frowned. “I’m sorry, I can take the conversation elsewhere if you don’t wish to hear it.”

He didn’t want to insult her hospitality by talking about death and carnage in her home. He didn’t believe in hiding things from citizens of the country. Transparency and honesty was always the best policy.

“No need for that, I’m a big girl. If you don’t mind saying it in front of me, I don’t mind.” Ada shrugged.

William nodded and pulled out a chair after receiving permission from Miss Ada. He took the warhammer from his back and leaned it against the table before he sat down.

“After I killed all the orcs, the women burned to death. They just burst into flames. I don’t know how, I can’t explain it. There wasn’t anyone else there.” William leaned back in his seat, but kept his eyes on Renault.

“They just burst into flames?” Renault arched a brow. “How is that possible?”

“I don’t know.” William shook his head. “I don’t know. I just…I couldn’t save them.”

He hated how his voice cracked with the words. He shouldn’t be affected by death as much as he was. He’d seen so much, yet it never got easier.

Renault inclined his head. “That’s a problem. Are you sure there wasn’t anyone else there? I ain’t doubting you, but maybe you missed something?”

“Jormund checked, there wasn’t anyone else.” William glued his eyes to his weapon. Looking at others right now…he couldn’t do it.

“Perhaps it was something long distance?” Ada asked. She moved over to them and leaned against the table, her arms crossed over themselves. “That village..if I had know…”

“There’s no way you could have, Miss Ada,” William said.

She gave him a tight smile and nodded. “Perhaps I could have tried to help. I could have healed the injured.”

William placed a hand on her arm. “There’s nothing you could have done. The orcs responsible are dead, perhaps the people they murdered can rest in peace in Veneah now.”

He pushed his own thoughts and self-loathing aside to focus on Miss Ada. It wasn’t her fault and there wasn’t anything she could have done. He didn’t want her blaming herself.

She nodded and then tilted her head to the side. “It seems my patient is awake. I’ll return shortly.” She stood and headed upstairs.

“I don’t know anything that could have done that. I’ve never heard of remote combustion before. Though, I suppose, with Spirits, anything is possible.” William ran his hand along the shaft of his warhammer.

“Neither have I, and it’s concerning.” Renault tapped his fingers on the table. “Maybe it was a one-off and it won’t happen again.”

William scoffed. “You don’t believe that.”

“No, no I don’t. We won’t tell the wench about it. She doesn’t need to know.”

“Why not?” William narrowed his eyes. Transparency would be best. The better informed everyone was, the better.

“You think she won’t blame herself for it? You’ve seen the way she acts around orcs. She has a one-track mind. If she finds out that the women died, then I guarantee you that she’ll blame herself. She ain’t exactly stable.”

He had a point. They hadn’t been traveling together for very long, but that much at least was obvious. There was something off about Miss Mina. She was obsessed with the death of orcs to a concerning degree. Something had happened to her in the past, and he could easily imagine what it was, especially considering her overwhelming hatred of them.

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“I didn’t think you cared how she felt,” William muttered.

“I don’t. We’re traveling together, though. I don’t want to deal with her bitching and moaning about it for the next week.” Renault scoffed and picked his whetstone back up.

Wood creaked upstairs and moments later Miss Mina and Miss Ada came down the stairs. The former seemed confused and irritated.

“Ada told me that William took care of the orcs?” Miss Mina asked. She sat at the table and drummed her fingers against the weathered wood.

William just nodded.

“I see. That’s good.” Her finger movements stopped and she stared at the table. “Wish I had been there to help.”

“You’ll be in full fighting condition soon. I took care of the concussion, but that gash in your chest is going to take another day or so to fully heal. The cauterization was a brilliant idea, so I commend you for thinking of it. The recovery would be much longer otherwise.” Miss Ada stood behind Miss Mina, watching her carefully. “I couldn’t heal it all at once, that would have taken too much energy from both of us.”

“You would have been a great help,” William said. Miss Mina would have been. Renault would have as well. He’d been able to take care of the orcs by himself just fine, but if they’d been there, perhaps they would have been able to save the women. He could have missed someone. Jormund could have missed someone.

“I most certainly could not have. I may not have the ability to sense life force like Kenshin can, however, even taking a small breath causes tremors in the ground. If there had been someone nearby, I would have know.” Jormund was definitely offended by the mere thought he’d missed something.

“Right, of course. Sorry.” William responded mentally to his Spirit.

“We should stay until Miss Mina is fully healed,” he said, placing his warhammer back against the table.

“Aye, don’t need the wench passing out again,” Renault agreed.

“I’ll be fine. The sooner we leave, the better,” Mina protested.

“No, no. You need to stay until you’re healed. As it is, there’s a blizzard coming. I think it’s going to hit tonight. You don’t want to be traveling around in that, I promise you.” Miss Ada shook her head.

“Indeed. I think we should wait for the bad weather to blow over and then head out.” William nodded.

He blinked when Mina pouted at their words. It was actually kind of cute. He shook his head. No, not cute. He couldn’t think someone was cute. Especially not Miss Mina. There’s no way she’d except who he was.

“Fine, I guess we can do that,” she muttered.

That night found them all sitting around the table once more. There wasn’t a lot of food, but what was there smelled delicious and made William’s stomach growl. There was stew and a huge loaf of bread. He eyed the stew hungrily, but waited for others to grab what they wanted first.

He was well aware of how much he ate, and it was polite to let those who didn’t need to eat as much grab their food first.

William glanced at the others. Miss Mina being fussed over by Miss Ada, Renault had a slight sheen of sweat across his brow and the strange tunic he wore was tied around his waist.

The swordsman had sat next to him and smirked at Miss Mina. “Careful wench, don’t want you falling in love.”

Mina sputtered and turned a pale shade of red—which was also adorable. “Who could fall in love with you? Fucking prick.”

“Oh, quite a many lass. I got me a trail of broken hearts.” Renault chuckled and wiped his face with a towel form the table.

Miss Mina just rolled her eyes. “Oh, I’m sure.”

Miss Ada chuckled and glanced at the swordsman. “If I was thirty years younger, I’d let him break my heart.”

Renault arched a brow and grinned. “Why younger? I could do it now.”

William shook his head. The man was a character. He didn’t have a full grasp on how he felt about the sellsword yet. There was something behind his eyes that never quite matched his words or demeanor. A sadness that prevented his smiles from every actually reaching his eyes. It didn’t matter right now. Unless it was something that would put them all in danger, it wasn’t any of his business. He reached for the stew, not willing to wait any longer for them to grab their own. It was their own fault for taking so long.

“Good, then you can stay here with Ada and WIlliam and I will continue on,” Miss Mina said. She reached and grabbed a piece of the bread and spooned some of the stew into her bowl.

“Aye, and then who would make sure you didn’t get yourself killed?”

“I’m quite capable of taking care of myself,” Mina retorted.

William frowned. He’d be there too. He was capable of protecting her if he needed to. He opened his mouth to say just that.

“That so? This coming from the wench that would have died if the two of us hadn’t been there?” Renault gestured between himself and William.

“I wouldn’t have died. I would have dealt with it,” she snapped.

“Oh, sure you would have. Before or after the bastards took you back to their camp?”

Miss Mina glared at him. “That wouldn’t have happened. I would have killed myself first before I let that happen again.”

All three of them turned their gazes to the red-head. He was right. He hadn’t wanted to be right, but he was. She was still a bit extreme in her hatred, but it was explainable.

“Again?” Renault asked.

“Forget it.” Miss Mina’s mouth shut with an audible clack of her teeth. Renault stared at her for a long moment and then nodded.

He didn’t push it. He didn’t make a wise crack about her. Good. At least he knew as well not to try to push that kind of information out of someone. If she wanted to tell them about it eventually, then she would.

“Right.” Miss Ada clapped her hands together. “Is everyone enjoying their food?”

“Yes, it is very good.” William reached for a slice of the bread.

“Good, I’m glad you’re enjoying it. It’s been quite some time since I’ve been able to feed others.” Ada adjusted her turban and then placed her hands in her lap; an empty bowl sat in front of her.

The rest of the dinner continued in a tense, uncomfortable silence. Miss Mina finished her food and then got up and walked outside. She came back in shortly after, her entire body trembling.

“So, I have a question for you, wench.”

William really wished Renault would stop calling her that and used Miss Mina’s name.

“When we do leave, you got a plan for where we’re going? Got any leads on this vendetta of yours?” Renault leaned back in his chair and watched her from beneath his hat.

“I…No. No I don’t.” She paused and rubbed her arms.

“Alright, then I guess your plan was to just wander around until you found something? Is that what you’ve done up to this point? Talk about inefficient.” Renault scoffed.

“It’s worked before. In fact, it just worked if you remember correctly,” she said.

“No, it didn’t. That wasn’t random. We were going to that village because William had heard rumors of orc activity there.” Renault leaned forward, his arms resting on the table.

“I could possibly help with that,” Ada said, interrupting them. “I know of someone that lives relatively close by. He made something that let’s you view things from a long distance. I can go speak to him before the blizzard arrives, or after.”

“Do you mean a looking glass?” William asked.

“No, I thought that’s what it was at first too, but…he can do things with it. Put in things and find things with it. I’m not really sure how to explain it. He says its science.” Miss Ada shrugged.

“That…could be useful,” Mina said with a blink.