We were out on the road, and even though it was cold and damp, I couldn’t keep a smile from my face. Silver burnished the sky as the clouds formed a silver wall above us. The everpresent leaves sloshed against our boots on the muddy road.

The memory of last night was close in my thoughts.

“Hey!” Rachel said, “You paying attention?”

“Ah, sorry. What’s up?”

“Cal wants to take a detour to a lake nearby. Says we should camp a little early, and see if we can snag some fish.”

“Good idea,” I said.

Rachel gave me a suspicious look, and I answered it with a smile. We broke off from the road and followed a game trail.

I was starting to think that maybe I had this whole thing figured out. I didn’t think that me and Bernadette would start dating, or that fighting a dragon would be easy, or that the Evil Queen that Caleb has spent 30 years fighting would just topple over in a summer. That would be silly.

But I thought that I was going in the right direction.

Bernadette stayed at the front with Cal. We hadn’t really talked about what happened last night, but she didn’t seem to be treating me cooly or anything, so I assumed it was fine.

Cal was surprisingly funny. He taught us elven curse words, and translated local dirty limericks and jokes into English. When we arrived at the lake, twilight descended in earnest.

The last part of our journey took us out of the forest and along the short grassy hill overlooking the lake. The grass eventually gave way to stones, pebbles, and sand. The lake line arced off into the distance, abutting dark hills and fog.

I found it pretty, if a little gray and stern.

We’d just gotten our tents set up on the beach when she arrived, the sorceress.

I was the first to see her. A spout of water soundlessly sprouted into the air then hung there. After, as if she were casting aside a cloak, the woman revealed herself. She walked toward the shore, her shiny black boots making the barest ripples in the water as passed.

She wore an ankle length red dress that buttoned across her chest like a military jacket, the high collar just at her chin. It was impeccably tailored right to her wrist. She tugged on black gloves as if she’d just put them on. Her silver hair moved as if tossed about by an unseen wind in slow motion.

She was achingly beautiful. Her costume screamed power and authority. The golden buttons on her dress all were engraved with small thrones, to remind you where the authority came from.

When she stepped upon the shore, her hair fell as if subjected to gravity for the first time. Her blue eyes looked at me placidly, but tucked in the corner of her mouth was that same smirk, that ‘fighting not to laugh’ look she’d worn the last time I’d seen her — just a month for me, much longer for her.

“Holy shit,” I said to myself, then, “guys! Come see this!”

“‘Guys come see this,’” she repeated with only a little bit of mocking tone, “is that all I get after sixty years.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Guys!”

“I had to cast a very high level spell to get here,” she said.

The others finally made it to the beach. Cal had his bow out, unsure what was going on. Bernadette was right next to me. Rachel was further up on the beach.

Bernadette ran toward her.

I wasn’t sure what to think at first. Then I heard the shrill scream of joy, and it became a little more clear. She leapt into the air, and threw her arms and legs around Sofia.

Sofia laughed, but groaned too as she tottered under Bernadette’s weight.

“I’m optimized for spellcasting, please,” she said with a chuckle.

Bernie hopped off her, but took her hand and led her up the beach.

“Why didn’t you come sooner?!” she asked.

“I do not have too much time,” she said, gathering her stunning silver hair over her shoulder and running her gloved hands through it, “but I’ll answer what questions I can.”

I looked to Rachel, who gave me a nod. She looked to Cal, who put his arrow back in his quiver.

“I can’t believe you’re really here,” I said.

“Give me a sec,” she said with a mischievous grin.

Sofia smiled, tugged on the thin golden chain that came from the pocket on her dress, and revealed her slate in a golden case. She quickly typed something as she walked.

My slate buzzed. I pulled it out and tapped my messages.

Inara: Believe it

8:33pm

That was the official ‘Saviors of the World I Guess’ chat, the one Caleb had made.

“Caleb is gonna freak,” Rachel said.

“Yeah, well,” Sofia replied, “I can’t concern myself with Caleb too much anymore.”

We hadn’t really explained the slates to Cal yet. So, he must have been confused. His expression was dark and unreadable.

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“How long will you be with us?” Bernadette asked, her eyes shining with admiration.

“I have maybe thirty minutes before my duties take me elsewhere,” Sofia said.

Here she was, as beautiful as she’d always been. Magic, surely.

But then I thought of the last thing Bernadette had said about Sofia, that she had liked her before, but didn’t know who she was now. It was such a careful, cautious thing to say. Where was that Bernadette? Was this an act?

I didn’t want to think it was an act, because she had often turned that enthusiasm towards me, and if any of that hadn’t been genuine…

We’d arranged some driftwood into two benches around a firepit that we’d yet to light. When Sofia approached, she waved her hand and the bundle of sticks lit, a tidy fire springing to life. She smoothed her dress and sat.

“And what duty is that?” asked Rachel. “The thrones’?”

Bernadette gave her a surprised look. Rachel didn’t seem to notice.

“Yes. The throne. By the look on your faces you seem to not think very highly of it.”

“Um,” I spoke up, “we just haven’t seen much good from any authority here. The elves seem negligent, and the Throne. Well,” my eyes cut to Rachel, who refused to give me a signal either way so I barreled through, “well they killed Rachel’s crew and imprisoned her.”

“Indeed? I can’t say that surprises me,” Sofia said coolly. “The queen must see you as a threat. For what little it’s worth, I am sorry.”

Rachel unscrewed the lid on her hooch and took a sip, her eyes hard.

“I don’t know much about Caleb’s people, but they aren’t here,” I said. “Um, speaking of. Why are you here?”

Sofia smiled and my heart skipped a god-damned beat. I thought I’d put my crush behind me, but here she was. And it was back like it’d never left.

“I wish I could say it was because I missed you. After all these years I hardly remember you. You all look… well you all look very much like heroes now. I dare say it suits you.”

“You look good too,” I said. What an idiot.

She laughed.

“Of course I do,” she said, flipping her silver hair over her shoulder dramatically. “The rituals are hardly cheap.”

Bernadette laughed, and so did I. Sofia smiled sheepishly at her own joke.

“At any rate,” she continued, leaning forward, her hair falling back down her shoulder like a silver shimmering waterfall in the firelight, “I need you to turn back.”

“Why?” Bernadette asked.

“Because Flaymskerge is far too powerful. You cannot hope to defeat him without an ally of Caleb’s caliber or better.”

“So he’s as strong as they say he is?” Cal asked.

Sofia’s smile was glittering and sweet.

“How about we have some wine,” Sofia said.

She held her hands out and three glimmering goblets appeared. She handed them out, and summoned two more plus a bottle of wine. I volunteered to open it — it had a large enough cork that I could just pull it out — and poured some in each glass. Rachel and Bernadette seemed appreciative but didn’t drink.

I wasn’t gonna turn down free fucking wine, so I drank darn near half of my cup in one go. Sofia took a sip, and only then did the girls follow. Cal held his goblet firmly, but I didn’t see him drink.

Sofia spent some time telling us stories she knew about Caleb, peppering in some stories about her own time as an adventurer. Caleb's stories sounded too good to be true. He had slain his own dragon, and fought the Goblin King in single combat — unarmored. When she talked about her adventures as Inara, it was easy to imagine them happening together. But of course they hadn’t.

Inara’s stories sounded scary. She’d convinced a whole camp of trolls to eat poisoned cakes. She’d seduced an elven knight who’d hurt her friend, and stabbed him in his sleep. Bernadette had gotten a kick out of that.

“So,” Sofia said, “Caleb. He’s among the greatest knights this realm has ever seen. Peerless in combat. Brave in battle, and clever in tactics. Most of the stories do him justice, even the ones that seem too good to be true.”

“Really?” Rachel asked.

“Really,” Sofia said. “I just wish he’d shown up,” and here she held her gloved thumb and index finger up to show a small distance between them, “this much sooner. Maybe he could have…” she trailed off and her eyes turned dark. She took a sip of wine. “Well it’s too late now. He thinks he’s saving the world, but the only truly safe world is one united under one kingdom. Only the Queen can do that.”

“So,” Bernadette said, “this isn’t really about how dangerous the dragon is at all.”

“It's not just about the danger, no.”

“Your speech has ensured that I have to kill the dragon,” Rachel said. She stood, and I could see her stumble a bit.

“Rachel,” I said, trying but failing to find the words to calm her. I gave her a pitying look despite myself.

“I know you have reason to hate the throne,” Sofia said. “But surely you see how a strong Elven Kingdom is a thorn in Caleb’s side as much as the Throne’s. What do you gain from helping the elves? Why should you fight this Elven King’s battles for him?”

“What about the loot?” I said, trying to look diplomatic, and advocate for our needs. I wasn’t sure I wanted to take whatever deal she was angling for, but I also wanted to make sure she didn’t forget what we’d be giving up.

“What use do you have for a dragon horde, when you can befriend a sorceress instead?”

At this she plucked a hair from her scalp and flourished it. Purple flame traveled along a dark shape and coalesced into a sword.

The sword was forged from black iron that shone with a purple iridescence in the firelight, and set with rubies in the hilt. She presented it to Bernadette. Which was interesting. Bernie’s eyes widened in interest. She pulled out her slate.

“We don’t need your cursed sword,” Rachel said, then walked off.

It was silent for some time. Puking sounded from behind the tents.

Bernie handed me the weapon next. I took the sword. A thrill of power surged through my arm, and into my body. I felt it settle in my chest, and I knew that I could do dangerous, and strange things with this gift.

“Check it,” Sofia said. “Promise to leave the dragon alone, and the sword is yours. Come to the castle, and you would be given wealth worthy of your stature as heroes.”

I swung the sword experimentally. It trailed purplish energy like an afterimage in the air. I checked the sword’s stats.

‘Edge of Nothing, +5. Improved spellcasting focus. This sword is forged from hammered voidstuff, and its edge knows no peer. Has the properties vorpal and sharp. Those attuned to this weapon may see through magical darkness and cast the following spells at will — globe of darkness, bloodfeast, and travel through shadows. Additionally, once per day they may cast the spell starshatter.

The tooltip described ‘vorpal’ as ignoring natural armor and ‘sharp’ as dealing 50% extra damage to armor and triple damage to objects. So, there was that too. No idea what the spells did, but some of them seemed pretty self explanatory. I was curious what the hell starshatter did, but handed the sword back to Bernadette without investigating further.

“It’s a good sword,” I said. Given it’s +5 bonus, it likely was one of the best swords we’d ever get.

I could see this for the bait it was, but what glorious bait indeed.

My thoughts turned a little sour. This was a lot of effort, when all it would have taken for me, was for her to ask.

Bernadette recognized something in my expression, and furrowed her brow.

“Holding something so valuable makes me nervous,” she said, handing the sword back to Sofia. “Can you keep this for a moment while I collect Rachel and hear her concerns?”

“Of course,” Sofia said, her eyes shining with mirth from a joke only she knew.