"You're telling me Wren's still working, and you're not?" Evin asked.

"Oh! I-um. . ." Rasha stammered.

"I'm not saying you should still be working. I'm saying Wren shouldn't be."

Wren looked at the computer screen Evin was talking from.

She never had gone back to Udo. He was right. She liked his dragon spa, but she wasn't sure she wanted to keep working there, at least not compared to his current apprentice, who was really passionate about the whole idea. They wanted to take over when Udo died.

Wren stayed in Rial's old shop instead. She got some earnings when she fought in the arena, and she helped Rasha with the shop. She'd reopened.

At the moment, Fleck was cleaning, and Wren was taking stock. Rasha really had been pretty good at potions, and could keep those stocked. But things like the books? She didn't know where Rial had gotten those from. And things like the enchanted robes or necklaces? They were both still learning how those were made. They'd have to figure some things out if they didn't want this to turn into an exclusive potions store. Which would be fine, technically, but not what they wanted to do.

"We have all night," Wren told him. She could talk to him when she was done.

"Do you? Because I was pretty sure Wesles was coming tonight," Evin reminded her.

Wren's head snapped up, and she slapped her clipboard to her chest.

"There it is."

"Oh. Oh that's right," Rasha said. "Evin, we've got to-"

"Get going." He waved a hand. "If it bothers you that much, you can call me tomorrow instead."

Those two contacted each other through the computer once a week. Not that Wren was complaining. She liked talking to Evin as well. And it gave her a chance to apologize for her last outburst in person.

Rasha and Evin figured out when they could talk instead. Then Rasha turned off her computer, and the three of them headed for Udo's house.

A few people were already there. The new apprentices, both zenny and dragon were already there, of course. They lived there. Cooper and Moon were also in the backyard. As Udo had the largest house, and a "yard" that bled into the open desert, they were having the reunion at his house. Cooper saw them coming waved them over.

He told Wren and Rasha about his inventions. He'd sold his old invisible sheet, and made new one. But it was slow going, needing hair from invisible bears. It wasn't something he could just mass produce.

Rasha told him about how things at the shop were going, and that she was considering bonding with a dragon.

"Or at least, you know, going to a cave and trying."

Fleck nodded. "You should!" he urged.

Wren smiled and translated.

She talked about her work with the volunteer group. Rescue group might be an overly specific title. They helped find people who were missing, or who were caught in natural disasters, or things like that.

But some members of the volunteer group branched out. They'd repair buildings or provide food and water, or investigate buildings to see if they were leaking gas. It sounded like a lot, but it really wasn't. It was a volunteer group that had members from multiple towns. They helped as they could or wanted to, and no one did everything.

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And now Wren could do the same. Her "hours" at the magic shop and the arena were pretty loose, so she had plenty of time to help.

It felt better. Not completely fine. She didn't think she it could ever be completely fine. But it gave her some peace to know she could do positive things for the world. Udo had seemed relieved when she told him about it, and hadn't brought up any potential punishments for her since. Cooper had sounded happy when he first heard as well. Actually, considering he usually sounded happy, ecstatic might be a better description.

She was telling them about the time they were supposed to demolish a building, and for once she was uniquely suited to the task, when a new, familiar, voice interrupted.

"Where was Fleck during all this?"

Everyone turned.

"Wesles!" Cooper exclaimed, flinging his hands up.

"Hey!" Wesles waved his one regular hand.

He ran over into Rasha's hug, which Wren quickly joined in on.

Wesles hadn't been a stranger these months. He'd talk to them over the computer too, or send letters. But it was better to see him in person.

"How long are you going to be here in person?" Rasha asked.

"Did you get permission to stay here?" Cooper added.

"Do you want to stay here?" Wren chimed in.

"And for the record, I was exploring a cave," Fleck answered, even if someone would need to translate for him later.

That wasn't always what he was doing when Wren was volunteering. Sometimes he even joined in. But it was her thing, and helping too much would take away from that.

"Who's the fasttalker here?" Wesles asked, but he sounded amused."Yes Igot permission tostay. Well, maybe not forever forever. I can live fivehundredyears. But I canstay withyou as long asI like. I've got three living siblings youknow? Almost a goodthing if I gooff and be a magician."

The others cheered, and quickly got to work finding out what they missed. Wesles had gone home and explained most of the situation to his parents. (He'd left out the part about Wren being from the cult.) His parents were rather impressed he'd taken on a cult.

He'd also checked in on Edinar school. It had been repaired easily enough. Mirra was still potions teacher. Tolith might be starting to age. It was hard to say for sure, being so recent, but there were signs.

The implications of why were unfortunate, but Suzan and Glimmer arrived then, with food, and their minds were taken off it.

The two of them, Udo, and Aqua had cooked. There was enough variety everyone could eat something, and no one would starve. Wren was currently enjoying what were basically crepes.

The dragons were doing some separate catching up as well. Apparently Quoise was going to be a brother soon, and Glimmer was giving him older sibling advice. Some of it Fleck thought Quoise could live without doing.

"Every younger sibling should get some heckling from their elders," Glimmer told him, lightly hitting him with her wing. "It builds character."

Fleck grumbled.

Wren took a sip of her drink, smile sort of hidden. She was content to keep doing that, just watch everyone eat and laugh, when she noticed she couldn't see Cooper anymore. She looked around.

'He's on the roof.'

'Thanks Fleck.'

With Cooper's rocket boots, he probably had no problem getting up there. That would be harder for Wren, but she'd climbed buildings before, hadn't she. She shimmied up the gutter, along the side of the house where she wouldn't be as noticeable, and joined him on the roof.

Cooper jumped when he heard her thunk up there. "Wren!"

"Hi Cooper."

He smiled.

"What are you doing up here?" she asked.

"Watching the sunset. I never realized how great the view from Udo's roof was."

Wren had seen it out of her window plenty of times, of course, but she turned and watched with him for a moment. The sun sat orange in the sky, turning the nearby sky, and few clouds, pink. The open desert ahead of them gave a completely unimpeded view, and also changed the sands' colors. Red and orange near the sun, but blue and purple a bit further away.

It was beautiful, and Cooper stared at it like he'd never seen anything like it, even though she knew that couldn't be true.

"You really are so happy," she said.

She didn't add the second part of that statement, that she didn't know how he did it, but it seemed he caught on anyway.

"Well, it is true, you have to make your own happiness sometimes. Force goodness to be there where it wasn't before. But, I don't know, maybe it's just easier to appreciate the simpler things like sunsets or food or getting to chose your job after. . .not getting to before. But there's a lot to like in the galaxy."

Wren looked out over the sunset again. She looked down below. The dragons were playing some kind of game of tag, with Moon threatening to freeze Quoise if he didn't slow down, and Quoise saying that was against the rules. It looked like Rasha was telling Wesles how the shop was going. Even Udo and Suzan were outside, eating some of the food they'd made.

"Yeah," Wren agreed. "There is."

She put her hand in his, feeling the rough palm and the smoothness of metal, and they watched the sunset together.

For a moment. Before Wren had to pull her hand away. They were hanging out in the desert on a sunny day. That metal was heating up.