“That was very stupid of you.”

“Hello to you too,” I said.

Sera didn’t budge from her spot, standing between me and the door to the rest of the tavern.

“You had no way of knowing whether you had your mind altered or not. Confronting him could’ve triggered him to kill you on the spot.”

“Well, I’m alive, aren’t I?”

Sera sighed. “I was worried.”

Assuming she was done with what she wanted to say, I nodded. “Sorry for risking your mission,” I said.

Sera gave me an awkward expression halfway between a grimace and a smile and stepped to the side, inviting me to step back to the tavern.

I didn’t see any reason to stick around, so I took her offer, pushing past her to walk back to the crowded tavern.

“So you’re gay?” Sera asked, following quickly behind me.

“Got a problem with that?” I asked. “If I remember correctly, the character that you’re currently playing likes girls too.”

“Yeah,” Sera said, with an awkward laugh. “My character.”

I waited for her to continue, but when she didn’t, I just shrugged and continued to walk towards the door leading out of the tavern.

“You’re not staying?” Sera asked. “It’s really bad out there.”

“I’m aware,” I said, flapping my still soaked arms up and down to make a point. “But it’s not like it could get any worse. I can only get so wet.”

Sera’s eyes widened “You’re wh-” Sera interrupted herself to scrunch up her face in a pained expression. She released it a few seconds later and seemed content to pretend like she’d never reacted in the first place.

“It’s still terrible out there,” she said instead. “The winds are strong enough to send branches flying. It would probably be safer to stay at least for a little bit.”

I gave her a blank stare and scanned the rest of the tavern floor. With how rainy it still sounded outside, I wasn’t surprised that the clientele hadn’t changed at all. It was just the tavernkeeper, old widower Trent, the group of boys who, with Jamie gone, were now gawking openly at me, and the Mediators.

“I think I’d rather chance the walk,” I said. “Better than staying here, at the very least.”

Sera frowned, but before she had a chance to speak, the door to the tavern burst open.

“Alec! Have you seen Lena around here?!” my parents shouted simultaneously as they clutched at each other, huddling together for warmth in their rain soaked clothes.

I sighed and hung my head as the tavernkeeper gestured uselessly towards me. Looks like I wouldn’t be going home, after all. Judging from the mud splatters and debris stuck onto my parents’ clothes reaching up to the tops of their heads, it seemed like Sera hadn’t been exaggerating how bad the storm had gotten. While I was willing to risk my own life by going outside, I wasn’t willing to risk the lives of my parents.

“I guess I’m staying,” I mumbled, half to Sera, mostly to myself, before my parents came over and swept me up in a soaking wet hug.

“Lena! We were so worried!” my mom said.

“You could’ve at least said bye to us face to face,” my dad added.

“Never do that to us again!”

“Please, Lena. We can’t afford to lose you. Not again.”

I sighed as I pushed the two of them back. They seemed hesitant to let go of me, but I was grateful that they did.

I didn’t want to tell my parents that I’d made the decision to go with Jamie when he left Plainswood, to make sure that his last days were as pleasant as they could be. I doubted I would ever be fully prepared to have that particular emotional confrontation, but especially after having just finished with one just a few minutes ago, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get my words out right now.

“Sorry,” I said. “But I’m tired. Can we just dry off and have breakfast or something? I’m starving.”

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My parents looked at each other, and they both looked like they had more to say, but whether they were afraid of pushing me too hard, or maybe they were just as hungry, tired, and cold as I was, they seemed hesitant to continue scolding me as much as they’d planned.

My dad sighed.

“Alec,” he said. “A warm meal, please. And some towels, if it’s not too much to ask.”

“You guys are completely soaked. A few towels probably won’t do much.”

My parents turned to Sera, who waved politely at them from a few feet away, confusion clear on their faces.

“It would probably be best if you got a fire going,” she continued, seemingly unbothered by their reaction. “Alec. Do you have any firewood?”

The tavernkeeper shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly, as if he was torn between answering the question and trying to disappear. “Most of it’s in the storeroom, and it’s probably soaked. We’ve got just enough to keep the kitchen running for the rest of the day, but not much more.”

Sera nodded. “Kitchen it is,” she said. “Come on, Lena and parents. Let’s get you dried up. You’ll all catch a cold at this rate.”

Even though the tavernkeeper seemed to want to protest, he bit his tongue, clearly awed enough by Sera’s status to let her do whatever she wanted. In contrast, my parents seemed to be unaware of the fact that Sera was a Mediator, and were either too tired or too convinced by her innocent appearance to pick up on the context clues surrounding them.

“Excuse me,” my mom said. “This is all very kind of you to do, but who are you exactly?”

“I’m…” Sera paused, glancing over to me.

I didn’t know what she was expecting of me, but I didn’t care. I shook my head.

“Please don’t drag my parents into this,” I said.

Sera gave me a sad smile. “I wasn’t planning too,” she replied. “Believe me or not, I really am just concerned. I won’t say another word if you don’t want me to, but you need to dry off or you’ll all catch a terrible cold.”

I frowned, but as I tried to search Sera face for any hint of insincerity, I quickly reminded myself that it was a futile battle. Regardless, it was hard to deny the truth in her words when I could barely keep myself from shivering long enough to glare at her properly.

“Fine,” I said, before I started walking to the kitchens.

I’d been back here a few times as a kid, when we were at the right age that we were still disarmingly cute and old enough that we could be trusted not to stick our fingers onto sizzling skillets of food. Alec, the unimaginative tavernkeeper’s son, would invite us into the back whenever there weren’t enough customers around for his dad to be bothered by it. It hadn’t changed much, if at all, aside from the fact that everything looked a lot smaller than I remembered.

The smell of the histories of past meals floating around the air, alongside the pleasant heat of the burning fires, was enough to lull me into a sense of calm almost immediately.

Sera squeezed past me, brushing my arm as she moved forward to pull out a stool and two crates for me and my parents to sit on, situated right in front of a cooking hearth with a couple of pots hanging over the fire that raged inside. Though I was starting to feel my nose congesting and running from the cold, the strong smell of the different stews still flooded my senses, making my mouth start to water.

“Thank you, Sera,” my mom said politely, though she was obviously still confused by her presence.

I had the urge to tell my mom to stop thanking her, but I resisted. Sera wasn’t technically doing anything wrong, even honouring her promise not to say anything, and I had to admit that it was nice of her to do this for us.

“Thanks,” I muttered.

I saw Sera’s eyebrows shoot up for a brief second before they returned to a more neutral position almost instantly.

As the tavernkeeper entered the kitchens, towing a large armful of towels with him, Sera took them and handed them out to the three of us. My dad still seemed pensive and confused by the apparent stranger who was taking care of us, but my mom had apparently decided to just accept her presence with a genuine smile.

“Thank you, Sera,” she said again, but with a bit more confidence this time. She gave me a questioning glance that I decided to ignore, turning my eyes away from both my mom and Sera, and staring at the flickering flames dancing inside the hearth.

“Yeah, thank you,” I said. “You’re a good friend.”

I don’t know why I said that. Maybe it was because I just wanted to give my mom a vague answer to her unasked question, so she wouldn’t pry. Maybe it was because I just wanted to be polite. Maybe it was because I was starting to actually feel that way.

Who could say?

The clatter of metal knocked me out of my thoughts, making me flinch violently and whip my head around to identify the source of the cacophonous noise. I was surprised to see Sera wincing as she struggled to decide between picking up the pans she just knocked to the ground, or running away.

In the end, she decided to pick up the pans, though she made sure to turn away from me first.

“I’m sorry,” she said, breaking her vow of silence. “The new Mediator members will be teleporting into the Mayor’s basement tonight at midnight. You’re welcome to join or sit out as you wish.”

As Sera exited the kitchens, I could only catch a glimpse of her face, but what I saw confused me.

Guilt.

I wasn’t sure why she would put on such a face, but before I could think more about it, my mom gasped.

“That girl was a Mediator?” she said, almost reverent in the way that she talked. “Was she one of the ones that brought you back to us?”

“Yeah,” I said, still too confused by Sera’s reaction to give my mom a proper answer.

“She seemed sad,” my dad said.

I frowned. I wasn’t sure if it was a question or not, but I couldn’t help but agree with what he said.

“Yeah,” I said. “She did.”

I knew what Sera was. She was a manipulator who killed Otherworlders for a living. I wasn’t so naive to think that I was somehow special, that I would be able to see through her manipulative ways if she used them on me. I was very much aware that my intense desire to go talk to her might have been an idea that she planted in my mind.

But even if she’d somehow influenced me into thinking this way, they were still my thoughts.

I sighed.

“Fuck it,” I said. “I’m already this deep in this shithole. Might as well dig a little bit deeper just to see where it goes.”

“Language, young lady,” my parents said, chastising me simultaneously.

“Sorry.”