“Okay, everybody out!”

Ves glanced up as a aureanian flapped into the room, armor clattering as it did so.

“Everybody… wait, since when do we have prisoners?!” He glanced at them in shock, then quickly swiveled his head around. “Wait right there!”

“I—” Ves didn’t even have time to get a word out before he disappeared around the corner again. She cast a worried look at Mara, the same being shown to her in reply.

“What do you think that was about?” Mara asked, straining to look through the bars.

“I don’t know,” she tried to glance through the bars, then darted back and tried the squat, barred window at the back of the cell. Outside, she could see aureanians slithering about frantically, but there didn’t seem to be a clear direction to it. Everyone was milling around, some grabbing arms and armor, some piling into homes and slamming the doors. Everyone just seemed to be in a panic. “This really doesn’t look good.”

“What if it’s the shades?” Mara gasped, her eyes going wide. “I’m not leaving them out there!”

“Mara, what--” Before she could finish, Mara had run over to the lock of her cell and placed her hands upon it. With an audible bang, she flash vaporized the water in the lock, blowing the wooden construction apart with a burst of fire and steam.

This turned out to be a mistake.

“Oh, what the hell?” She struggled to pull her hand away from the ruined lock, but a thick white goo had erupted from the burst mechanism, and instead of opening the door it had splattered between not only her hands but the adjacent bars, keeping the them sealed with an elastic web. “Dammit, it won’t come off!”

“Mara!” She glanced at her own lock, and carefully dug her claws into it, trying to cut through the latch more delicately. “Don’t worry, I’m coming.”

“Dammit, what is this stuff?” Ves could only watch as Mara tried to free herself with magic, but every effort was thwarted by the whiteweep sap. She tried to vaporize it, and the gooey strands just puffed up like marshmellow candy. She tried to freeze it, and it remained rock hard, holding her hands and the door fast. It was impossible to tell if she was trying to liquefy it as well, but as it seemed to be a liquid in the first place, Ves didn’t hold out much hope.

“Hang on,” Ves sawed her finger against the living wood of the latch, cursing as it quickly gunked up the edge. She switched to another finger, briefly trying to suck the sap off her finger before losing several seconds to trying to gag her guts out. Marigold hadn’t been kidding, that stuff was vile.

“Okay I found--” The aureanian stormed back in, and stopped dead at the sight before him. “What did you do?!”

“I tried to blow it open!” Mara said, again yanking furiously at her hands.

“Why would you do that?!” The aureanian raced up, quickly looking over the tangling mess. “Did you seriously think we didn’t make magic-proof locks?”

“I don’t know?!” Mara shouted. “Yes? Most don’t?”

“Why wouldn’t you make magic proof locks?!” The aureanian shouted back. “You’re human, you have magic!”

“I don’t know!” she said, the tugging only growing more frantic. “It’s more expensive?! Maybe?!”

“Queen preserve us!” He glanced over at Ves, and immediately saw what she was doing. “Nonononono, stop! Don’t break that one too!” Before she could do anything more, he hammed the key in the lock and turned it with his tail, throwing open the door. “You get out of here, I’ll help… what’s her face!”

“My name is Mara!” She said.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Cherry!” He turned back to Ves. “You need to go!”

“I’m not leaving her!” Ves said, running over to the opposite side of Mara’s cage, much to Cherry’s exasperation.

“You’re not going to accomplish anything!” He lashed about in frustration. “Look, I have to go get the solvent and that’s kept in another building. I know where it is, you don’t, all you’re going to do staying here is die with her.”

“Then I will,” Ves said, shooting a quick look at Mara.

Cherry paused for a moment. “Daw, that’s actually really sweet.” He glanced between the two of them, then sighed. “I’ll hurry back, just… try to stay alive?”

He was out the door before Ves’ brain caught up. “Wait, what’s--” he was already gone. “--happening out there.”

“Probably should have asked that first,” Mara said flatly.

“Yeah, I know that!” She huffed, and examined the bars again. They were grown from a stout wood similar to the lock, a bark pattern she was beginning to recognize as whiteweep. Causing more destruction would probably only worsen the situation. She glanced at the walls, realizing the same wood made up the entire building. It was actually a pretty fantastic prison.

“Look,” Mara said, giving her hands another halfhearted yank. “It really was sweet deciding to stay with me, and… thank you, but… you actually should go.”

“No, Mara,” She shook her head and sat down there in front of the bars. “I didn’t have a choice when I… left you before. This time I do.” She almost reached her hand out to take Mara’s, but quickly realized the last thing she needed was to add herself to the trap. Then, her hand half out, it hit her. If she was serious, really serious, then it didn’t matter, did it? She reached into the sap and grasped Mara’s hand even as the sap seized hold of her. “I choose to stay.”

Mara stared in shock for a moment, then blinked rapidly, her eyes watering. “Ves… you damn idiot,” She sniffled, blinking harder as the tears started to run. “Dammit, I can’t even wipe my face.” She choked out a laugh. “Look what you’ve done.”

“Yeah,” Ves said, quickly finding herself in the same situation as she sniffled. “I really screwed up, huh?”

“No, no you didn’t.” Mara’s crying only grew worse. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I left you! I couldn’t see you and-- and I told myself you-- and--” She slumped against the bars, bawling. “I let you die! I let you die because I’m a coward!”

“No, Mara. There’s nothing you could ha--” Ves began, but Mara shook her head violently.

“No! It doesn’t matter!” She gazed at her with watery, red rimmed eyes. “There was nothing you could do, and--” She glanced down at their joined hands, and choked a sob, squeezing her eyes shut. “--and here you are.”

“Mara,” Ves said, pressing as close as she could to the bars. “When I was out there, when I was… dying.” She swallowed. “I was alone, I was scared.” She closed her eyes as she saw Mara flinch at the words. “But I never, never for a second, thought you had abandoned me.”

“Ves…” Mara hiccuped softly, her voice tight.

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“I promise,” Ves said. “When we get out of this, we’ll do it right. We’ll stick by each other.”

“You weren’t the one who didn’t,” Mara whispered.

“Hey, hey.” She clicked her tongue until Mara glanced up. “That doesn’t matter. We shouldn’t have this moment, but we do. We have another chance, both of us, to do it right.”

Mara was silent a moment, then drew a deep, shuddering breath. “Alright. Together forever, this time.”

“Together forever,” Ves said, smiling.

Silence fell.

Silence stretched.

“You know,” Ves said. “It would be really great if Cherry came back right now.”

“I was thinking that too,” Mara said, giving her hands one last tug. She sighed. “Hey, Ves?”

“Yeah, Mara?” Ves said.

“Are they hard to wash?” Mara said. “Your tails?”

It took Ves a moment to process the question, then she laughed. “Oh, awful. Remember when you grew out your hair?”

“Oh, goddess, don’t remind me.” She pulled a pained face. “That bad?”

“Hours,” Ves said, shuddering. “And they weigh a ton. Never mind they try and drag in the dirt if you don’t dry them first.”

“Why did you get nine of them then?” Mara giggled. “Did someone else have eight?”

“No!” Ves flushed, only causing Mara to giggle harder. “They just sort of… came with the change.”

“What was it like?” Mara asked, suddenly quiet.

“The change?” Ves asked.

“Everything,” Mara said, glancing away. “We were so busy being mad at each other after…” She let the statement hang. “I never actually asked what happened.”

“Oh, well…” She thought about that for a moment. “It… didn’t hurt. When I was dying, all I had left was my mangetomancy. I could tell there was a reaper out there, and that it came towards me, but I can’t remember anything else. The next thing I knew I was on a cave on the moon.”

“You were on the moon?” Mara swallowed, glancing around as if she were sharing in some forbidden secret. Which, actually, she was. “What was it like?”

“Dry,” Ves grinned, earning a glare from Mara when she didn’t immediately elaborate. “No, really, it was all desert. These giant, rolling dunes as far as the eye could see. And there was home up in the sky, though it was daytime and I couldn’t see much of it, just like the moon during the day.”

“That makes sense,” Mara said. “You know, I never really thought about having moonshadow on the moon. Worldshadow? I never really thought of it as a place. Just, this, thing always hanging over our heads.”

“I guess I did too,” Ves sighed. “There are actually cities on the far side. Well, a city anyway.”

“Really?” Mara asked. “What’s it like?”

“It’s actually kind of small,” Ves said. “Everything is made of rock, but they polish it like marble. It’s… kind of normal, actually? There are shops and houses, and people, but the people are pretty weird.”

“A whole town of moon-touched,” Mara’s eyes were wide. “What is it like?”

“Bizzare.” Ves shook her head. “Most of them don’t look like anything I can describe. Even the ones that had human shapes were always… different. Like, some had animal faces and fur, but two legs and hands. Or they had human torsos but scuttling legs or a serpent’s body. And the colors! The colors were madness.”

“Is that makeup?” Mara cut in, glancing at her eyes.

“What?” She tried to touch the blue markings, before remembering her hands were stuck. “No, no they’re just there.”

“Ah,” Mara said. “They’re pretty.”

“Thank you,” Ves said, swaying her tails gently.

The silence held for a moment.

“Goddess,” Mara said. “I hope Cherry didn’t die out there.”

“Yeah,” Ves said, “Not going to lie, my nose is starting to itch.” She tried reaching it with a tail, but the effect was more like shoving a feather-duster in her face. “And that made it worse.”

“Idiot,” Mara snorted, smiling. “What else did you see on the moon?”

“Well, I met the Moon God, obviously,” Ves shrugged, taking a little joy in playing it off.

“Wait, you met the Moon God? Like you actually saw him?” Her eyes were wide.

“Yes, spoke to him too. He was…” She thought for a minute, then amended her statement. “He seemed nice. Conniving, sure, but… not like the scriptures make him out to be. More like someone rubbing their hands together at a good prank, than a depraved devoured of souls.”

“Well of course he seemed nice.” She rolled her eyes. “But do you think he actually was?”

“I… don’t know.” She glanced off at the ground, thinking. “It was barely more than a day, and I didn’t see much of him besides his time interacting with me. It wasn’t like I got to watch him go through his entire day.” She nodded gently. “But he did seem to care if that makes any sense?”

“Hm,” Mara said, her own eyes lost in thought.

“Do you ever wish you could meet her?” Ves asked. “Mirai, the Goddess?”

“What?” Mara’s eyes shot open. “No, goddess, no! I wouldn’t have any idea what to do!”

“Really?” Ves blinked. “I mean… why? Wouldn’t you just talk to her?”

“Of course not!” She shook her head violently. “She’s the goddess. All of mankind owes her a debt back to the first founders! Even before Uthed was founded, she freed us from the dragons of Kinpatria, gifted us magic, all we have we have from her!”

“I mean,” Ves muttered, avoiding Mara’s gaze. “I’ve been to Kinpatria. The people seem pretty… normal?”

“Well of course they do.” Mara rolled her eyes. “The dragons aren’t going to parade their slaves out where our traders can see! Can you imagine the outrage?”

Ves had never seen any slaves in Kinpatria, but she had a feeling she was straying close to a fight. Fortunately, at that moment, Cherry finally returned.

“Okay, everyone is still alive, fabulous.” Bringing over his tail, a stoppered jug strapped to it, he pulled the cork with his teeth and emptied the contents over the whiteweep. Instantly, the fibers melted away, and both girls breathed sighs of relief as fingers were flexed and noses were scratched. “Okay, now let’s all get out of here!”

“Oh! Cherry!” Ves chased along after him, Mara hot on her heels. “What is happening out there?”

They stepped out into the semi-darkness of moonshadow, but something felt off. The sky around them was too bright, and no stars peeked out through the blue. Looking up, she found it wasn’t the moon that was blocking the sun.

“Oh.”