Kalender and Minimine spent the rest of the afternoon in the temple, sometimes striking up conversations with idle Clerics. It must have made their day, because most of them walked away holding in imminent squees before they exploded in glee around the next corner.

It had been a while since they’d spent time together like this. They didn’t talk much, not after talking about such a heavy thing as the Cult, but silence didn’t mean awkwardness for Kalender. He was satisfied with watching Minimine point at a bee and say, “bee,” then point at a flower and say, “flower.”

Seeing him watch her with a smile warmed Minimine’s core. As someone who had never used human words more than a few times in her long life as a goddess, this was the first time she’d endured frustration looking for words to describe what this feeling was. Perhaps she was being too hard on this human, after all. Perhaps she shouldn’t have tasked him with such a difficult mission, but he was still just there, smiling through the fear and anxiety, still her Champion.

He believed in what he was doing. He just needed help. She would gladly give it.

As the sun dipped down and the birds started flying home, the two of them started on their own way back to Freedom’s Peak, hand-in-hand. The guard welcomed them through the gate with a smile, though his legs were a little shaky. Kalender wondered just how many people knew, by now, who Minimine really was.

The streets had already started to clear out by the time they arrived at the comparatively busy door to Freedom’s Peak. More people were filing in for dinner by now, and they were no different.

Kalender scanned the place the moment at the first opportunity, looking for any of his companions. He found Jyn leaning on the wall by the staircase. She looked up and met eyes with him—but her own eyes were worried.

He approached her. “Is there something?” he asked.

“Page has a certain...constitution,” she replied. “She is in no danger, but we are worried, nonetheless.”

“What, is she sick? Where is she?”

“In our room.”

“It’s dinnertime, though… We can just bring food up there, right?”

“Speak with her first,” Jyn said. “Neither I nor Lilia understand what’s happening to her.”

Her insistence alarmed Kalender, but she said that Page wasn’t in danger. “Alright,” he said. He ought to just figure things out on his own.

He went up the stairs, Minimine following him, and when they reached their room, they found Page curled up on the bed on the floor. With the door creaking as they came in, she was already looking at them.

The first thing he felt was anxiety, but wow, that was random—and anxiety, of all things? That wasn’t right. He was worried about Page, but certainly not anxious. He greeted her with a smile. “Hey.”

The anxiety he was feeling lightened up, somewhat. “Hey,” Page replied. “Don’t—don’t come in too far.” She tempered her voice before it spiked, but it was enough for Kalender to notice how his own feelings ebbed and flowed with her tone.

“Demonic empathy magic,” Minimine said. Page and Kalender looked at her in surprise, and the anxiety in the room spiked. “It’s not something so bad,” Minimine clarified. “Here, I will assist.” The anxious waves in the room lightened up as she used her own magic to push it away.

“Oh, I felt that,” Kalender said. He approached Page, noting how the anxiety gradually increased up again, but not so much like a moment ago. Page inched backwards, worried about him closing so much distance.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“It’s okay,” he said. “It’s not a problem.”

“If you say so,” she replied. He sat on the edge of the bed close to her, letting some distance between them. The effect still wasn’t so bad, but offering some allowance also meant offering some peace of mind.

“Is it Wisdom of Three?” Kalender asked. Minimine’s ears perked up at that.

“I think,” Page said. “It just happened so suddenly...”

“What happened?”

“I was visiting Jyn and Lilia at the arena, and it just sort of...happened.” The thought of it weighed on her, but she shook her head. “Jyn and I had a little fight, and I got...a little mad.”

They had a fight? This surprised Kalender, but he didn’t let that get in the way. “Then what happened?”

“My feelings literally burst out, I guess?” She bitterly chuckled, looking down at her feet. “I’m happy they took care of me, but...this is just too much. We passed by a lot of people on the way here, you know? They were all so confused. I think some of them started a fist fight because of it.” She looked up to Kalender. “I just want to control it a little. I can’t go to work like this!”

Kalender chuckled, and so did Page, but an uneasy silence draped over both of them—so he removed his shoes and decided to come closer. Page inched away, but Kalender was faster. The anxiety radiating from her turned into panic, which Kalender shut down by throwing his arms around her and holding her so very close. A confused trail mix of feelings welled up from Page. Should she feel warm, afraid, tense, relaxed?

“We’ll take care of it together,” Kalender said, rubbing her shoulders. She let herself sink into the feeling, and a calm aura filled the room. Minimine let off her magic, allowing the calm to fill Kalender, as well, resulting in a feedback loop of calmness that threatened to completely flatline Page’s and Kalender’s heart rates.

The comf tempted Minimine, lulling her into plopping down beside them.

Kalender let go, but he continued to hold Page’s hand. She was glad—uneasy, but glad. “What was that about fighting with Jyn, by the way?” Kalender asked.

Some of that anxiety leaked out again. “Uh—well—I got recruited for something at the Research Guild.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Approved by the branch head, by the way.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So there’s this paper called On the Concepts, Utility, and Implications of a Librarian in Magical Warfare that one of the Researchers is working on.”

“Uh...huh?”

“I ended up joining in to help test it.”

“Huh?”

“So now I’m joining the expedition.” Page smiled. “I’ll be fine, I swear!”

There was a mix of apprehension, excitement, and cautious assurance in those words, and Kalender didn’t need weird magical mechanisms to find all those emotions tucked between Page’s facial expressions. It got him worried, for sure, and he was about to say something about it, but it wasn’t hard to guess that this was exactly what Page and Jyn had fought about. Page didn’t need him to be angry, too, and especially not when she needed help more than admonishments.

Instead, he hugged her again. Confusion radiated from Page. She didn’t know whether he was angry and just venting it through a hug, or if he was just worried … and venting it through a hug.

“Let me bring some food up here for you,” he said, letting go and getting up from the bed, putting on his shoes. “We’ll eat here with you.”

“Oh, you don’t have to. Just leave the food here and you can eat downstairs where there are actual tables”—

Kalender shook his head. “What if I miss you too much, huh? Ever think of that?”

They chuckled … but really, Kalender’s own fears leaked through those words.

“Fine,” Page said with a chuckle. Kalender left with a ‘bye,’ and when the door closed, Minimine scooted over to her side. She was just staring at her. “Yes?” Page asked.

“Demonic empathy magic,” Minimine said.

“Yes?…”

“Believe. Only some people deserve to know what you feel. Believe it.”

Was she trying to tell her how to control the magic? She should’ve said so sooner when Kalender was still here! Right? What’s the use of trying out tips and tricks when you can’t test whether it actually works!

...Though, Page supposed, that was something she needed to think about, at some point. She’d always thought of herself as an open book. Closing herself off never appealed to her as a way to live, but maybe there were reasons why people did that.

If there’s one thing she knew for sure, Kalender deserved to know how she felt. After today, Jyn was her friend, too. Lilia’s a little adorable from how just how timid she normally was, but a friend?… Well, maybe with time.

She didn’t want to close herself off. That wasn’t a way to live. She could believe, though, that only a handful of people were allowed to know everything about what she felt.

Those people came in through the door not soon after. Kalender greeted her with a smile, but Jyn and Lilia wore worried faces, at least until Page greeted them with a smile, and they loosened up.