"It's been a while, hasn't it, Lena."

I raised an eyebrow at the woman that waved at me from a short distance away. My first thought was she was a child, given how short she was, but at a second glance I decided that she was probably closer to my age.

"Sera?" I asked.

"Surprised to see me?" Sera asked back with a laugh.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," I said. "Don't you live in the Capital?"

"I do, but I was heading to Timur for work, and thought I might make a detour. I dropped by Plainswood and asked your parents where you lived."

"And they told you?"

"No. They told me you didn't want to be disturbed. I gave up."

"That doesn't match up with the fact that you're here right now."

Sera shrugged. "I've been on the road for two weeks straight. My staff has been complaining about it, so we're staying in Redstone for a few days. I was just browsing the market out of boredom and I just happened to see you."

I knew how good of a liar Sera was, but I didn't feel like it was worth the energy to distrust her.

"I guess it's my fault for not travelling far," I said.

"I'm honestly surprised," Sera said. "I would've expected you to want to distance yourself from the area."

"Why's that?"

Sera cocked an eyebrow up and inspected my face for a few seconds before she shrugged.

"Nevermind," she said. "Would you want to grab a meal or a drink?"

I raised my own eyebrow. "Still holding onto that old flame?" I asked.

Sera laughed and shook her head, before raising up her hand.

"Sorry to disappoint you," she said. "I'm happily married."

It was at that point that I realized that she was showing off the pale ring that she was wearing on her finger.

"Congratulations," I said.

"Thanks," she replied. "Unfortunately, my wife would probably kill me if I had an affair with her while I was on duty, not that I would even have time to think about something like that. Turns out, creating a new government essentially from scratch is pretty stressful. What a shame."

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"What a shame," I repeated.

"So... late lunch? Early dinner?" she asked.

I shook my head. "Sorry, I'm a little busy."

"Busier than me, it seems," Sera said. "You planning to feed an army with that amount of food?"

I shrugged. "Something like that," I said.

"I can help you carry some of that if you want," she said.

I considered the offer for a moment before shrugging again.

"Sure," I said, before giving her every single bag that I was carrying. Sera accepted it all without complaint, though her eyebrows did rise up in surprise.

"Damn, this is heavier than it looks," she said. "Were you using strengthening magic?"

"I wasn't," I said, rolling my shoulders and stretching my arms with my newfound freedom. "I'm just used to the weight, I guess."

"Huh," she said.

I could tell that she was curious, but was being polite enough to stay silent on it.

"I usually get my food supplies delivered to me, but I occasionally shop for myself."

I started to walk down the street, Sera quickly followed.

"You run a diner?" she guessed.

"An orphanage."

"Really?"

"You seem surprised."

"I am, though now that I think about it, I really shouldn't be. I guess I assumed that you'd be doing something bigger."

"I consider my job to be very important."

"I don't doubt that, but you're a Follower. Tenna's making a lot of money off his book, so I guess I assumed you would be doing something similar."

"It's been twenty six years. If I planned to be a writer, I would've published something by now, don't you think?"

"I don't know what the process is like."

"Tenna wrote his book in less than a year."

"But his book sucks. I can only assume it doesn't take much effort to pump out slop like that."

"Is it really that bad?"

"You haven't read it?"

"I don't see why I would."

"Fair enough. About ninety percent of the book talks about himself, and the rest of it is just fiction. Not like the guy ever talked to Jamie more than once. He basically wrote whatever he wanted, hoping that none of us would call us on his random bullshit."

I bit back the urge to chastise Sera for her language, reminding myself that she wasn't one of my wards.

"Random bullshit, huh?" I said, recalling a fond memory. "Maybe I should write a book."

"Have I inspired you?" Sera asked.

"A little bit," I admitted. "I do often tell my wards bedtime stories. I could just write them down."

"You tell your wards bedtime stories about Jamie?"

"Yup."

"Wouldn't that be traumatizing?"

"What would possibly be traumatizing about the daring adventures of Jamie the adventurer, pirate, blacksmith, mayor, prince, baseball player?"

"... What?"

"Yeah, I still don't know what a baseball player is either, but I'm sure I'll figure it out while I'm writing the book."

"What?"

"I refuse to call it the Journal of Jamie, though."

"What?"