The atmosphere was tense as Zalia stared at Lady Indis. She had changed a lot since the last time Zalia had seen her. No longer did she have the wild eyed, messy haired appearance of a kingdom noble whose life purpose had been destroyed. That had been even different to the time before, when Indis had still been collected, the ever poised member of Endaria’s council.

Zalia still felt bad for the way she had treated Indis the last time she had seen her. It had been during a tense time of both of their lives and Zalia had ignored the horrid state that Indis was in because she had needed something from her. In her defence, Zalia had been dealing with the possible end of Endaria as a kingdom at the time. Still, she felt bad, which was the only reason she hadn’t kicked Indis out of her Grove already.

“What are you doing here Indis?”

“Call me Leyra.”

Zalia started. Now that was strange. She used all of her powerful senses to probe at the person before her, thinking that she was perhaps one of the demons that disguised as others. Her senses found nothing unusual at all.

“Okay, Leyra, I ask again. What are you doing here?”

Leyra gestured to the man next to her, who Zalia was ignoring for the moment.

“Hedion and I live nearby and we saw the aurora. You can imagine my surprise when we came to check it out and found your Grove. Then I…” Indis took a deep breath, “Then I had the thought that this could be my chance to make things right with you, to apologise for the things that I did.”

Zalia had never been able to read Leyra properly behind the stoic mask she often had up but that mask wasn’t there anymore. Her face was full of emotion and as honest as Zalia had ever seen. The hope, wariness and pain warring across her expression reflected what she saw in the woman’s aura too.

“Is she lying to me?” Zalia asked, the thought sent to Aylie.

Aylie could see more than most, as she had the ability to see into the realm of thought known as the Astral.

“No, she’s telling the truth.”

Ember looked at the similar expressions of the two women in front of her.

“Leyra, Hedion, why don’t you both come sit down and we can talk in a more comfortable place?”

Zalia sent Ember a pulse of grateful emotion down their bond and began to alter the area around them. A space to lounge cut itself out of the ground, lined with beautifully contrasted hardwoods and chairs coated with soft leaves. A small flickering fire lit in a low but wide stone brazier in the centre.

Leyra looked on in wonder before taking a seat. Zalia sat down opposite Leyra, with Ember and Aylie keeping close to Zalia.

“So… How are things in Endaria?” Leyra asked.

“Much better now that we have defeated the Astar Monarch. The kingdom is finally recovering.”

“You were part of that, then?”

Zalia nodded.

“Wow, well… good job. It takes a lot of courage to fight against a being that must have been quite strong.”

“Lerya-”

She cut Zalia off.

“Look, I know I fucked up. Many times. I was in a bad place, mentally, physically, all around, really. My family had recently fallen to nothing, the…” she looked at Hedion before continuing, “The man I loved since I was a child had turned into something else, something horrible. I was lost, I was.. I was broken inside. None of that is an excuse for how I treated any of you, though. Like you were all… things I could use to the ends I deemed were best. I’m sorry, Zalia. Truly.”

Zalia stared at Leyra for a long time, thinking. She did appear truly sorry, the unhidden tears that were trying to escape her eyes evident. There was truth behind them, rather than the usual manipulative lies. It appeared that spending more than a year separated from anyone had done Leyra good, and had given her time to heal.

“I… I don’t know that I’m ready to forgive you, Leyra, but over the course of my time in Endaria, I haven’t been perfect either. I’ve made more than a few mistakes too, so… maybe I can try?”

Forgiveness on Zalia’s part wasn’t going to happen overnight, no matter how long it had been since she last saw Leyra. There was perhaps a chance, however, and this was as good start as they would get.

Zalia bumped her shoulder into Ember, a wordless appreciation of the emotion healing energy that she was sending through her.

“Where have you been all this time? You said that you live in the north now but… why?”

Leyra was taking a few centering breaths and Zalia noticed the supportive hand that Hedion had placed on her lower back. Were they together?

“After I was removed from the council, I felt so lost and confused. I remembered the times that our team spent in the north and decided to come here, separate myself from the kingdom and just work through my own shit. Well… it was perhaps more anger and hurt that drove me away from Endaria but, yeah, I think a part of me knew it was for the best in the end.”

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Leyra paused and Hedion idly rubbed at her back, looking concerned. Who was this strange figure that had captured Leyra’s heart?

“I stumbled around like a tense, reactive nerve made of lightning, lashing out at anything that came near. A powerful storm with some… some kind of creature in it brought me low and that is when Hedion found me. This was shortly after… our last talk.”

Zalia dropped her eyes. She had really screwed up the last time they had talked.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t see past our, well, our past. The way you had treated me less of a person and more of a tool, I think for some reason I thought that it would be okay to do the same back to you, which was shit and hypocritical of me.”

Leyra shrugged.

“It was a hard time for us all and it was difficult to look past what needed to be done to see the effect it would have on those we asked things from. I don’t blame you for how you acted, in fact it was even a little comforting knowing that it wasn’t just me that was messing up constantly.”

Zalia let out a sigh and looked up through the canopy of the trees to the aurora above. Ember, who had been staring into the crackling fire between them, spoke up.

“You two are so similar.”

Both of them turned to her, mildly offended, but she held her ground and met their eyes in turn.

“I’m serious. Your upbringings might have been different but the two of you can be the same sometimes. I think it’s why you annoy the shit out of each other so much.”

Zalia smiled, not arguing, while Leyra actually laughed. Laughter, from Leyra Indis. The world had certainly changed over the last five years.

“If you’re living this far north, there is something you should be aware of. The reason we came up here was to investigate a threat that exists further north, its some kind of infection or parasite that turns creatures violent and crazed, perhaps even mind controlled. There are these massive worms that live underground that appear to be the source of it, an ability they have maybe? It’s hard to tell.”

Both Leyra and Hedion had gone tense, worry in their expressions.

“What? How close are these things?” Hedion asked.

Zalia held up her hand in a placating gesture.

“You don’t need to worry, there is a guardian who has been defending the north from them for quite some time. Its just a warning, in case you see any animals with abnormal growths on them. Kill them immediately and run.”

“What kind of guardian? How long have these things been near to us?”

Zalia pointed at Leyra.

“The beast in the storm, they defend against the infected. You really don’t need to worry, I’m only warning you in case the worst happens.”

“Do you think we can make an impact on them?” Ember asked.

“No, not really. I believe we can make Roz- the guardian’s job easier by thinning them out, but there isn’t a chance we could solve this by ourselves. That would take a concerted effort by an army. Who knows how many of those beasts are living beneath the earth.”

Leyra nudged Hedion.

“Hedion here used to collect rare ingredients for some people in Endaria who used them for all kinds of experiments. Maybe we could talk to those people and figure out a way of dealing with the creatures easier?”

Hedion looked thoughtful.

“Do you think it’s possible? Who are these people you know and what rank are they… actually, I might know someone who can help with that as well.”

The person Zalia had in mind was Glemp, her little alchemist friend that lived beneath a mountain. They must have reached Silver rank by now, as they had been close the last time she had seen them. Though, it had taken them near fifty years to reach high Bronze, as they didn’t really leave the mountain to fight things, instead spending time meticulously experimenting.

“Perhaps we can get my people and yours together and they can work on the problem?”

A flash of light from the sky heralded the arrival of Lumin, the reincarnation of the Ascendant known to Zalia as the starlight wolf. They appeared in a blinding storm of light and fur, immediately jumping on Aylie who had been deep in thought for the entire conversation.

Hedion and Leyra had both leapt to their feet in alarm, though Zalia was used to their friend appearing whenever they wanted.

“Lumin!” Aylie got out between the licks and excessive fluff delivered by Lumin.

Just as Lumin had jumped Aylie, the six felines that had been running around and busying themselves with play fights about the Grove came running one by one. Soon, Lumin was taken away in the puddle of cats as they frolicked through the Grove.

“Sorry about that,” Zalia said, noticing that Leyra and Hedion were still looking shellshocked.

It took a moment for Hedion to look away from the source of the chaos.

“Who or what is a Lumin?”

“Oh, that’s one of our Ascendant friend. They’ve reached Silver rank in power too, which is new.”

Lumin eventually managed to extricate themself from the cats and trudged over to sit near Aylie, who had just finished fixing up her hair after Lumin had destroyed any semblance of neatness.

“Lumin, what are you doing here?”

Aylie looked at Lumin for a bit, then turned to the rest of them.

“They say that they wish to join us in our return north, that there is… something there that they need to find.”

“What is something?”

Another pause.

“Lumin won’t say.”

Zalia shrugged.

“Alright, won’t hurt to have you along. We’re going to have to get one of those worms back for the others to run some tests on then, I suppose?”

“It… it would be best to have an intact source specimen, yes.”

Ember sighed.

“How dangerous are these things? Should we really be taking a bunch of us to fight them?”

Zalia shook her hand side to side in a so-so gesture.

“Boreal and I had no trouble, really. Nothing even got close to injuring us, let alone injuring us enough to do serious harm. The only thing I’d worry about is whatever this infection they can spread is. I’ve got an idea to test that, though…”

Ember glared at Zalia, and she grinned. Ember was not going to like her idea.