On what the humans called Twoday, Varga woke to the sounds of Tom and Diavla next door, going at it again. She had decidedly mixed feelings. In one tree, she was cheering inside that the two of them had finally gotten together. In the other tree...she wanted to be in there with them.

Too soon, she told herself. Reel in the fish. She looked at the silver ring on her left hand, with a tiny emerald that matched her eyes. He gave me this. Maybe it was just because he was giving one to Diavla and didn't want to insult me. Still...I have a ring from him.

She smiled, remembering the badly needed 'kissing lesson' she had given him. At the beginning, he had been a slobbering cuddlekitten. By the end of it, though, he had improved enough that she had been ready to pounce on him right there. Spirits knew, she had made sure that he enjoyed the lesson, too. I know he's at least a little interested in me.

Her smile faded. Problem is...I might be more than just a little interested in him. He saved my life during the wolf attack. He saved me from Grabby Man last night. He stops me without hurting me when I go too far. He's been nothing but kind and patient, and has worked hard to protect all of us. He didn't have to do any of that.

It certainly doesn't hurt that he's huge, bulging with muscles, and very well-equipped, to hear Diavla tell it. I want him...but I'm not sure a midnight ride or two is all I want.

She sighed. Don't overthink things, Varga, that's what you have Diavla for. Start at the start—she definitely wanted that ride. She just needed to wait for the right opportunity.

∘ ⛥ ⛯ ⛥ ∘

Orvan and Kervan were outside, still guarding the wagons from thieves or troublemakers. Apparently this place didn't offer breakfast, which Varga was fine with—leftover soup was not appealing at the moment. She had gotten totally spoiled with all the good food in Rivermarch.

As a result, the main room of the inn was deserted when she stuck her nose downstairs. Finding it safe, she went ahead and started ferrying packs and things out to the supply wagon, so that they would be ready to go as soon as Tom and Diavla finished their morning 'exercise'. She did manage to cadge some tea from the innkeeper to bring out to the men.

“Thank you, Varga, you're a lifesaver,” Kervan said through chattering teeth. Orvan was quieter, but Varga could tell that he hadn't much cared for the cold either. The men were starting to act more elven by the time they finished their mugs.

“I don't know how humans stand to live in this weather,” Kervan grumbled.

“Oh, don't be a big baby. I'm sure lots of elves live in cold lands like this,” Varga chided him.

“You stand a four hour watch in this biting wind, then you can criticize,” Kervan shot back. He looked at the inn. “Are the lovebirds done making noise yet?”

“Let me get the oxen ready, then I'll go see.” A few minutes and some head scritches for the animals later, Varga headed back inside.

Upstairs, she checked on Eubexa first. The sickly elf had her veil off just then, revealing her ruined face. Varga couldn't conceal her visceral reaction, but Eubexa only gave a bitter smile and turned to face the far wall. “Sorry. Just getting some air for a moment,” she explained.

Embarrassed, Varga cast about for a change of subject. “How is your foot doing today?”

“Remarkably well, actually. Thanks for asking. I barely feel any pain at all. I know much of that is the necklace, but still, it's hard to believe that they cut my foot open only three days ago. I guess even human Healers can get things right sometimes.”

“Do you need any help?”

“No, I need to do most things for myself. I have to make sure I don't get anyone else sick.” She sighed. “I would feel better if Diavla knew a cleansing spell.”

Varga thought about that. “Well, Dee has been going through some big changes lately, including with her spirit-stuff. Maybe she can learn one.”

“I was wondering about that. How is Diavla changed, in your eyes?”

“Well...she's finally interested in sex, for one thing. I've wanted her for years, and she finally invited me into her bed last week.”

“I've seen that before. Freedom is a wonderful spice, and some people start desperately doing everything they can to live it up once they get out of slavery or prison.”

“Yeah, I might be a little bit guilty of that myself,” Varga conceded, thinking about her gambling, drinking, Diavla, Lily Rose, and flirting with Miranda and Tom. “I'm not complaining.”

“What else is different about her?”

“Well, like I said, her magic stuff has changed. I don't really get it, but she said she has more Affinities now than she used to. Spirits of Passion now listen to her, apparently. I don't know which one of those things caused the other, though.”

“Any physical changes?”

Varga considered that. “She's really bounced back from captivity amazingly well. She's even a bit bustier now than she was before, which is totally unfair, and she just looks...healthy.” Varga shrugged.

“Healthy...” Eubexa murmured, pausing as she put her veil back on. Varga winced, thinking about Eubexa's ailments. The sickly elf turned and noticed, and waved a hand in dismissal. “Sorry, just weaving on an empty loom.” Her head tilted, as if she were listening. “I think...this might be a good time to interrupt the lovers.”

The room next door had gotten quiet. Varga nodded and stepped into the hall and up to Tom and Diavla's door. Feeling mischievous, she first quietly tried to open the door, but it was barred. Then, she knocked. “Guys, can I come in?”

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There was a pause. “Um, we're not dressed yet,” Diavla called back.

Varga grinned. “I repeat my question.”

“Shut up.” Varga could hear the amusement in Diavla's voice.

“Everybody's ready to go,” Varga informed them through the door, then rejoined Eubexa.

∘ ⛥ ⛯ ⛥ ∘

It was cute the way the two of them blushed. It was easy to provoke them, too. Well, easier with Diavla since there wasn't a language barrier, but if she was patient for Tom to get translations, he turned a nice shade of red too.

Tom settled the bill, then carried Eubexa down. The veiled elf spoke to the innkeeper for a few moments. The innkeeper looked alarmed and a bit angry, so Tom passed her another coin and an apology. With that, they got out of there.

Again, Tom took the lead wagon, and Varga steered the salt wagon. It looked as if Tom wanted to stop at a shop for a hot breakfast, but upon peering inside, he scowled and got his wagon back into motion. Varga took a peek as she rode past, and saw the man who had groped her behind the counter. Yeah, let's do without that.

It wasn't long before they had left Copper Road behind, and were getting in amongst the trees of Great Oak Forest. It felt strange to be headed back on the same road they had taken to get to Rivermarch. Life has us going in circles. Better than stuck fast, I suppose.

After a while, Varga was getting bored. “Hey, Kervan?”

“Yes?” he called from the back, where he was sitting amongst the many bags of salt, out of the wind.

“Teach me some human.”

“It's called Western.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Teach me some.”

Kervan groaned. “Varga, you can't just say, 'yeah, yeah, whatever' when you're learning a language. You have to get things exactly right, otherwise you're just speaking gibberish.”

“It doesn't have to be perfect,” Varga protested.

“No? How about this: 'I haunted to glow of a score.'”

Varga gave a little laugh. “What was that supposed to be?”

“That was 'I wanted to go to the store,' spoken almost correctly.”

Varga thought about it, then snorted. “All right, I get what you're saying.”

“Besides, have you heard Tom when he tries to say something complex in Elvish? He butchers it.”

“That's why he sticks to baby talk?”

“Pidgin.”

“Like I said, baby talk,” Varga countered, just to annoy him.

“Do you want to learn Western or not?”

Varga sighed. “Yes, please.”

∘ ⛥ ⛯ ⛥ ∘

Her patience with language learning was not large.

“HEY, DEE! COME BACK HERE AND TALK TO ME!” Varga bellowed.

“Warn your elders before you yell like that,” Orvan requested quietly.

“Sorry.” Varga ducked her head a moment, contritely. If it had been Kervan saying that she would have just laughed at him, but Orvan didn't deserve that. Plus, Orvan was right next to her.

It took a while for a response. Varga frowned. What, are they necking while Tom is driving? Or maybe she's making his soul spin with a—

Tom's voice came back in halting Elvish. “Diavla is...bushy!” Varga snorted a laugh. “Busy! Wait...half an hour! Diavla is busy!” It sounded as if he was getting the translation a bit at a time from Eubexa.

What is she doing? Tom doesn't sound flustered. She's just sitting on a wagon seat...oh. Varga nodded to herself. She's in the middle of doing spirit-stuff. Varga shut up. Spirit-stuff was one thing she didn't joke around very much. The last thing she wanted to do was give Diavla a headache or worse because Varga disturbed her at the wrong moment. She settled herself to wait.

Kervan and Orvan were arguing about something. Orvan was winning. Varga had little interest in the angle of the sun and so forth, just their eventual conclusion: going south from here as planned would take them to warmer places. Varga was cheered by the news.

Eventually, Diavla climbed down from the front wagon and came back to join them. Varga scooted a bit closer to Orvan, while Diavla mounted the seat and sat on her other side. “Hi.”

“Hi yourself, sexy. What have you been up to?” Varga asked.

“I was refilling an amulet.”

“What do those things do again?”

Diavla gave her one of those exasperated looks. “It protects you from getting possessed by a demon. Kind of important, Varga.”

“Right. I knew that.” Actually, she'd forgotten, trusting the others to remember things like that.

“Tom wants to stop at Carver's house. I think he's going to give them the amulet I just filled.”

“Oh.” That made sense. “Why doesn't he give all three of them amulets?”

“Because we only have eight total. We don't even have enough for ourselves once we find the others.” Diavla shrugged. “They can share it around, I suppose.”

“What's it do if you already are possessed by a demon?” Varga asked, curious.

“I'm not sure. Eubexa is reading the book Tom bought. Hopefully there will be answers in there.”

“Yeah, it would kind of help to know what we're doing before we run into a demon.”

“It's possible that we already have,” Diavla mused.

“What?” Varga stared at her friend.

“Remember the woof attack?”

“It's a wolf, not a woof,” Varga corrected her.

Diavla blinked. “Since when do you know Western better than I do?”

“It's the name of an animal,” Kervan piped up. “She wanted to learn all of those that I knew, first thing.”

“Saa. That makes sense.”

“What about the wolf attack?”

“Well, remember how I thought it might be rabid, based on its behavior?”

Varga frowned. “You think it might have been possessed instead?”

“I'm not sure.”

“But if we killed it, wouldn't it have just jumped into one of us?”

Diavla shrugged. “I don't know. They tested all of us at the City Temple, so we know we aren't possessed.” Diavla paused for a yawn. “Sorry. Refilling the amulet took a lot out of me. It's been a long time since Temple lessons.”

“Yeah, I'm sure that's the only reason you're tired,” Varga teased.

“Shut up.”

“Congratulations again, by the way. I guess you two virgins figured it out.”

“Having a former sex slave to ask for advice has been very helpful,” Diavla confided. “Tom has no idea what Eubexa and I are talking about most of the time.”

“You'll be able to tell when he figures it out because he'll turn red as a rose.”

“Well, that won't be for a while yet. Learning a language is hard,” Diavla vented.

“Better you than me.”

“Aren't you going to learn Western? We're going to be among the humans for months, or even longer.”

“I'm learning a little bit.”

“I would have thought you at least would be interested in learning to flirt in Western.”

“That's the little bit.”

Diavla laughed. “You're incorrigible.”

“I certainly hope so. And you didn't seem to mind the last time we—”

“I see the scene, Varga. And remember it well.” Diavla leaned over to kiss her on the cheek, and she turned into it, getting a nice kiss on the lips out of her kanashim. Diavla hummed in pleasure, then leaned back. “See what I mean? Incorrigible.”

“Exactly.” Varga beamed at her.

Diavla sighed. “I guess I'll go back to the front wagon.”

“You've got it bad.”

“I do,” Diavla conceded, a sappy grin showing on her face. “I really do.”

Varga patted her on the knee. “Go on, then. Oh, and make sure Eubexa isn't going through my stuff!”

“Why, what have you got in there?”

Varga smirked. “You'll never guess. One of the things is a gift for you, so no peeking.”

“Now, I'm intrigued. Should I be worried?”

Varga just gave her an evil smile. Diavla shook her head in mock horror, then hopped down and hurried back up to the front wagon. Varga watched her go, then thought about her little stash. There was the gift for Diavla, and she couldn't wait to see her reaction to it. There was the small cask of wine, to help people loosen up on the road. And there was the package Mrs. Whistler the tailor had entrusted to her, to deliver in Oak Mill. Following the woman's instructions, she had told no one at all about the item.

It was fun to have a few secrets.