> What were shamans? That is what the Vinleaf called their wise men who could access something they called "a higher plane of existence" to cast magic through the help of spirits.

>

> ― Jens R. Pedersen, “A History of Adventure”

Asteria

The others entered after Magnus left.

“No crowds!” said the doctor, but his protests were in vain.

I hugged everyone and asked for food and drink. Magnus’ staff brought in a large table and chairs and set up a feast for the others. I was only allowed water, porridge, and one tiny piece of candy.

“First things first. Please tell me what happened to the city.”

Sariel brought me up to date while we ate. Seraphiel was tapping his feet rapidly in impatience, so I stabbed a piece of steak with a fork and attempted to shove it into his mouth.

“Eat! You look like you’re wasting away,” I said.

Seraphiel obediently ate the piece from my fork.

According to Sariel and Uriel, the government had restored order and everyone had gone back to their normal, daily routines. The only fly in the ointment was that the countryside for miles around was full of dead monsters, but lots of enterprising people had even made money from extracting monster cores and processing monster parts. Monster meat was incredibly cheap now. The monster cleanup crew had sold the more exotic and expensive meat to restaurants and such, but gave away the less desirable bits, the ones considered too gamy or tough, to the community.

"My temple smells like meat!" complained Sofia. The priestess had opened up the forest and temple grounds for the locals to use. Every day, hundreds of people spent all day braising, stewing, and grill roasting meat for the nightly feasts where all were welcome to partake of the monster hunters' generosity.

"At least no one will go hungry for a while," I said.

One might expect that the sea would also be stinking and polluted from the monster corpses but it was “mysteriously clean.” Oren, Sofia, and Katja’s faces went suspiciously blank when Sariel said this. Obviously, they had figured out that there was something in the sea that caused the monster wave. I was probably the only one who knew that it was the Iah spawn in the sea that had triggered the monster wave when it wanted to absorb more anima and biological material. Perhaps the temple archive contained information about it. Oren and the others must be getting ready for the “Under the Sea” chapter of “Tales of Vesterland.” That bit was fun but also extremely difficult.

I wonder if Magnus would let me borrow a submarine?

Sariel boasted that all three of them had become even more famous than before since the Kraej Corporation had played videos of their exploits on all the TV channels for days. People stopped them in the street to thank them.

Seraphiel kept silent while the other two ELs spoke. He was never much for conversation when strangers were around. He kept his head down and ate. He barely looked at me or anyone else.

“You must congratulate Uriel! He’s getting married,” said Sariel. “It’s Sidse, that actress from Heirs of the Ancestors.”

This must be old news since none of the nurses acted surprised, but I and everyone around the table except for Sariel and Seraphiel congratulated Uriel.

“Oh, wow, to think that there will soon be baby Uriels running around!” I said.

“Do you think they’ll be born with stubble on their chins?” asked Sariel.

“Shut up,” said Uriel.

“And what about you? What happened to you when I was asleep? I can’t believe you found the Crimson Pearl Flower,” I said to Katja.

Katja was dressed in a gray T-shirt and cut-off jean shorts. She hadn’t put on more muscle like Oren, but she was more tanned. Her green eyes were as lively as ever.

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“You have to ask this girl here,” said Katja, patting Sofia on the shoulder. “It was her idea.”

Sofia’s fluffy pink hair had been tied into two pigtails and she’d ditched the triple tiara but she was still wearing her priestess robes. She was thinner and somewhat tanned, too, but the biggest change was that her eyes no longer darted around as though she was looking for an escape. When she spoke, her voice was clear and confident.

I’m glad that the success of the shield artifact and finding the legendary panacea had given her a more commanding aura.

“My ancestor’s records mentioned a flower that could heal any illness,” said Sofia.

“How did you know it was real?” asked Sariel.

“It wasn’t in a book of legends; it was in a travel diary. A priest saw it being guarded by a jotun in Skjoldhojkilen swamp.”

“Poor giant dude,” I said.

Gosh, that’s the hero for you. They killed an ice giant and stole the flower he had been cultivating for hundreds of years?

“I wouldn’t feel sorry for him,” said Oren. “There were dozens of human remains near his lair.”

“Besides, he attacked us first,” said Sofia. “We were only going to ask him for the flower.”

“Oh, I see,” I said.

I could see that Sofia had the artifacts on her staff so I didn’t need to probe them about whether or not they’d found the cache I’d hidden.

I yawned.

“That’s it. Out! Out!” said the doctor. He made everyone except for Seraphiel leave. Then I asked the doctor, nurses, and other staff to give us some privacy.

I climbed back into the bed. “I don’t know why I’m sleepy since it’s noontime, isn’t it?”

Seraphiel still didn’t speak. He just stared at me with those golden eyes. He rarely blinked, and his face was expressionless. I’d expected hugs and maybe tears instead of silence.

“I forgot to tell the priestess that I’d like a thanksgiving ceremony tomorrow before I leave,” I said.

I put my finger on the button by the side of the bed to summon a nurse, but Seraphiel gently moved my hand away before I could press it.

“Ely, if you’re not going to say anything, I’d rather sleep,” I said.

Seraphiel moved close to the bed, but he still didn’t speak.

I gave up. “Sariel, Uriel!”

The other two ELs went back inside.

“What happened to Ely?” I asked.

“He gets like that sometimes. He’s just overwhelmed. Give him a bit more time to recover,” said Sariel.

“Recover? Why is he so thin? You’ve lost a lot of weight, too,” I said.

“ELs have a fast metabolism. We tend to lose weight if we work non-stop like we’ve been doing with the monster wave. Seraph will be fine,” said Sariel.

“How come Uriel hasn’t lost weight then?” I asked.

Sariel grinned and elbowed Uriel. “Mister Loverboy here lost a little weight earlier, too, but dozens of ladies have been sending him their home-cooked food. He’s actually gained weight, the lucky bas-”

“Watch your mouth,” said Uriel.

“She’s not underaged! I can cuss in front of her now,” said Sariel.

“Dozens of ladies? But Uriel’s engaged,” I said.

“I’m friends with all my exes,” said Uriel.

My mouth gaped open. I looked to Sariel for an explanation. He leaned over the bed and whispered in my ear, “They have an open relationship.”

Seraphiel pushed Sariel away from me.

“Just let Seraph stay with you. He’ll talk when he’s ready,” said Uriel.

“He’s not going to explode or collapse or anything like that, is he?” I asked.

“We’ll stay here to watch over both of you,” said Uriel.

“Okay, so Ely’s a little…” I looked at Seraphiel’s blank expression and sighed. “Upset. I get that. What’s wrong with Sariel?”

“There’s nothing wrong with Sariel,” said Sariel. He crossed his arms over his chest.

“He was almost as upset as Seraph,” said Uriel. “He fainted when he saw you at the artifact chamber.”

“Fainted? Don’t be ridiculous,” said Sariel. “What am I, a maiden in a historical romance?”

“Sariel fainted, but he got over it when you woke up and we saw you were going to be alright,” said Uriel.

“I woke up? I don’t remember that,” I said. “And why would Sariel faint? You must have seen I was in a healing trance.”

“They were unable to clean your blood off the floor and walls,” said Uriel.

That got a reaction. Seraphiel swayed on his feet. He grabbed a wall lamp for support but he must have used too much pressure because it broke and cut his palm. Blood poured down his hand.

“Ely!” I said. I sat up too fast, making my head swim.

“He’s fine,” said Sariel. “It’s just a shallow cut.”

“Ely, show me your palm,” I said.

The wound had closed within seconds. Uriel went to a medicine cabinet and took a clean bandage which he used to wipe the blood from Seraphiel’s palm.

I tried to take Seraphiel’s hand in mine, but I had to let it go at once. I was still feeling weak and couldn’t bear the nauseous feeling of skin-to-skin contact.

“Ely.” I patted him on the head.

Seraphiel finally made a sound. I think he said my name, but it was too soft for me to hear.

Uriel and Sariel moved to the other side of the room.

“I’ll rest for today. The doctor wants to keep me here overnight for observation. I’ll go back to my apartment tomorrow morning,” I said.

“My apartment,” said Seraphiel.

“What?” I’d heard him, but his voice was hardly above a whisper.

“My apartment,” said Seraphiel, louder his time. His brows had drawn together in a trace of a frown. “You’re staying with me until you’ve fully recovered.”

“I was dreaming of sleeping in my own bed,” I said. “You can stay in my spare bedroom, okay?”

“Okay.” Seraphiel’s frown disappeared.

I closed the hospital bed curtains because I didn’t want to sleep with Seraphiel staring at me. I said, “I’m going to sleep. Go and wash your hair.”

As I drifted off into sleep, I heard Seraphiel asking the others “What’s wrong with my hair?”

I was afraid that Seraphiel was going to have a mental breakdown, but he was stronger than I thought. We were all shaken but we'd all survived.

Looks like we’re going to be okay.

For now.