The rest of the night continued largely uneventfully. Sabine needed some more rest, so I crawled into bed with Kazumi, holding her tight partly because, well, how could I not, but it also kept her upper body from slipping out of the bed onto her curled up tail. I looked over to Sabine as we dozed off. She slept restlessly, probably still in pain. I wondered how much of it she felt, compared to when she’d just died, and I made a note to ask her about it in the morning.

When it finally came, it was foggy and a little colder than we would have liked. It looked like autumn was finally making itself felt, and we all got dressed quickly and warmly. I worried momentarily that Sabine’s spell on the river might be causing the cold, but she reassured me that, while it had been a powerful spell, it hadn’t been that powerful. Apparently autumn just hit hard up north.

We all got into our roles and made our way out of town. We saw the Wydonian army officers sitting in the inn’s main room, having breakfast. Some of them looked like they hadn’t had any sleep at all. I wanted to feel triumphant, but I knew how miserable a cold night out of bed could be. My sympathy for them ran out when one of them shot me an angry glare and I resisted the urge to stick out my tongue at them. The knight from the night before seemed to be in good-but-tired spirits, however, and he nodded courteously towards our group.

We only felt comfortable enough to breathe properly once we were on the road again. After a few hours of daylight, things started to clear up a bit, and the promise of winter drifted away under the mid-morning sun. As we walked, we found our little party drifting forwards and backwards for people to talk. We tried to make good time, but it was clear none of us were particularly solitary. Erza walked up next to me with a smile. It was hard not to feel like this excursion was something she enjoyed -- the open air, the constant sound of gravel under her boots -- despite the nature of our journey.

“I have to say, Liz, I’m impressed,” she said, looking down at me. It was very strange to have the perspective changed and I wondered if she felt the same way looking up at me as I did when I looked up at her, but I doubted it. Talking to Erza before I’d never gotten the feeling she looked up. It had always been like talking to someone of my own height, despite being two feet taller than her. Now, looking up at her, it was hard not to feel a little intimidated.

“How so?” I asked, and shifted my backpack a little.

“The way you handled those men last night,” she said, keeping her eye on the road. “I would have been happy stonewalling them, but you… certainly outdid yourself.”

I just smiled sheepishly in response. I wasn’t great with praise. But Erza, curse her, kept going.

“I’ll be honest, it is a pleasure to see you stand up for yourself. I’ve been worried about you, you know.”

That was unexpected. “Oh?”

She looked like she was measuring her words carefully. I worried for a moment she was doing so to keep from hurting my feelings, because that implied that what she had to say was going to be less than flattering.

“You have a tendency to… freeze. Or had, I should say,” she smiled again, “in the face of aggressive opposition. I was worried you might slowly lose yourself when surrounded by…” Another pause. “Strong personalities.” She looked at me sideways. I couldn’t help but feel that, among others, she was talking about herself as well. She wasn’t wrong; confrontation was hard for me.

“I like to think I’ve been getting a little better at it,” I said softly.

Erza smiled, and I couldn’t help but feel somewhat reassured. “You certainly have.” Her smile grew wider. “I would have hated to overthrow you.” I was horrified for a second until she winked. I still couldn’t shake the feeling she was only half kidding. It was hard not to take her seriously; she was certainly one of the most capable people I knew. “But it seems there was no reason to worry, Liz. You’re going to do great.” Her smile softened again. “You’re great.”

“Thank you,” I squeaked. I was, once again, very glad she was on my side. The idea of standing up to her was a lot more daunting than a few men in armor.

“Any time,” she said, and looked behind her. At the back, Tilly was starting to lag behind a little bit, and Erza paused to allow her to catch up. Keeping my pace, I watched her match pace with Tilly, which wasn’t hard. I heard the little cat-Kobold say something about “legs” and “big steps.” When I looked back again, I saw Erza, a little self satisfied, with Tilly sitting on her shoulders, looking distinctly pleased with herself while trying to appear grumpy. It was a fun sight, certainly, and I saw Mellie turn around, nudge Lillian. They both grinned at the image of the tall armored orc with a cat in her neck.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

I caught up to the two women, and walked next to them. Mellie was happy to open up conversation, with Lillian in between us.

“So we heard what you did,” she said, grinning. “Nicely done, chasing those self-important men away, Eliza.”

Lillian nodded in agreement, with a smile.

“Thank you,” I said, but didn’t want to have another conversation like that, so I quickly changed the subject. “How much do you know about Amethseryne?” I asked.

Mellie snickered. “I love it when new people say the name of the place,” she grinned. I wondered how I’d said it wrong. “It’s pronounced ‘Am-rin’. Humans just get it wrong, usually.” She gave me a jovial laugh. “Don’t worry about it,” she said, and looked ahead. The laugh in her eyes slowly died.

“I spent some time in Amethseryne growing up. It… didn’t go well. I don’t always gel well with other Elf. Even halfbreeds like myself.”

I looked at her. She seemed not so much upset as she did… tired. “Can I ask why that is?”

“Of course. It is just that a lot of them -- a lot of us,” she corrected, “tend to be very mired in the past. Obsessed with the ark-cities of old. I’ve never found myself in that, I prefer the feeling of solid ground beneath my feet.” I nodded. This was her story, obviously, and I wasn’t going to interrupt her. I was curious nevertheless, of course. I didn’t remember any mention of “ark-cities” in the game, so I wondered if this was another divergence.

“What’s it like? The city?”

She sighed. “It was grown to look like the legendary city Amethsire.” She pronounced it ‘Am-ser’ but was kind enough to spell it out for me. “The first time you see it it’s an amazing sight.” She gave a melancholy sigh. “Its trees are almost a mile high, the city spirals and twists through it. The Mangrove Palace sits at the crook of the highest branches and it’s said to be visible for miles around. It doesn’t float, of course.”

“Of course?” I asked. “What do you mean, it doesn’t float?”

“The first Elf, according to legend, sailed to this continent thousands of years ago on their floating ark-cities. Many full-blood elves travel west at least once in their lifetime to walk along the coast, looking for the berthing place of the last ark-city. I never did. I don’t believe they stayed, and if they did, their city must have long fallen and rotted away. The only living memory of the sailing cities now is Amethseryne, and it’s landlocked.” The way she talked about it, she sounded conflicted. On the one hand, she seemed to not have the same reverence for the old Elf that many of her kind appeared to. On the other, there was a certain… frustration with how things were now. I couldn’t imagine her living on a boat her entire life. Even that kind of freedom seemed a bit too restrictive for her.

“Are you going to be okay going back there?” I asked.

She nodded. “There’s nothing left for me there. Nobody. Just some old bad memories. I’ll be fine.” She sighed again, and then she seemed to get her sunny disposition back. “And from there on we’ll be heading southeast, round the edges of the Redwood!”

She seemed excited about that, at least. I decided to let things lie there for a moment, and just at that moment Sally walked up next to us too.

“How much further is it?” she asked in a sing-song voice. It looked like our interruption from the night before hadn’t hurt her sunny disposition.

“A week, more or less,” Lillian said. “We’ll have to camp for a few nights, but soon we should see the trees of Amestheryne. It’s going to depend on our tempo when exactly we’ll get there, though.”

“Cool!” Sally said, and looked ahead happily.

“Should be warm enough to sleep,” Lillian said, a little confused.

Sally laughed, and I saw her run her hand through her hair from time to time.

“You okay?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yeah. It’s just weird to not have horns again. I kinda dug that whole thing. But I’ll be fine if I can grab a hold of them tonight.” She raised her eyebrows suggestively. “Or have someone else do it for me.” She winked at nobody in particular. Mellie mumbled something.

“Keep it in your pants, Mels,” Lillian said with exasperation, and deliberately slowed her pace. Mellie looked back at her, then at us.

“We used to date,” Mellie said apologetically, and then drifted off to talk to Lillian. Another thing that wasn’t a part of the original storyline. I wondered how close they’d been, but this was most definitely not my business.

“Whew,” Sally said with a soft laugh. “That was awkward.” She nudged me in the ribs playfully. “How’ve you been, Lizzie?”

I looked ahead. “I’m alright. I’m trying to stay optimistic, you know?”

She nodded. “It’ll be alright. Hey,” she grinned. “If this is a fantasy story, it has to be, right? The hero always wins.”

“Sally, I’m the villain, remember?” I said. She giggled.

“Shit, yeah, I forgot,” Sally laughed. “Fuck. I didn’t consider that. The villain invading the ‘Good Kingdom’ to save the Princess is definitely a take.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, too. It was a little different now than it had been before, now that we were both, well, human girls instead of imposing Demons. “You alright?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yeah, finding my way around. Feel a little bit... It’s hard to figure out what I’m supposed to do, you know? Still figuring out my purpose.” She glanced at me. “But helping you out seems like a good investment of my time.”

I smiled gratefully at her. “Thanks for coming along. It really helps to have someone from back… from back then around, you know?”

“Are you kidding me? Of course I’m coming along, you don’t get the chance to go on an adventure often, you know? Anyway, yeah,” she agreed. “I know what you mean. I’m in a pretty good place right now, all things considered, but it helps to have someone around to just… reminisce, you know? There’s a lot of stuff I miss about home, even if I don’t think I’d go back. Despite the absolute lack of takeaway Chinese or boxed mac and cheese.”

“Despite the lack of what?” Sabine asked as she joined us. She’d been doing a lot better. After we’d left town, she’d spent some time healing herself again.

“Uhhh, mac and cheese,” I said. “It’s a dish from where we’re from originally. It doesn’t exist here.”

She frowned for a moment. “Why didn’t you just ask the Room of Relaxation? It should’ve been able to replicate it based on your needs and desires, Liz.”

I nearly choked.