Tala—just as expected—did blaze through the next few scenarios of the War Games.

She killed a hundred mice in just under thirty minutes, barely feeling a twinge of empathy, having been on the other side of the equation for so long.

I’m not sure what that says about my mentality.

-That you’re well adjusted and can compartmentalize effectively?-

Yeah, let’s go with that.

During the run as a cat, she did have to bat away one mouse who tried to go for her eye, and Master Grediv was a bit cagey on why that had happened after she succeeded in the task.

She decided not to press the issue.

The next scenario had forced her to embody a squirrel who not only needed to avoid a wolf, but also rescue several other—rather clumsy—squirrels at the same time. Though, since the wolf was mostly confined to the ground, it was only her allies’... difficulties that gave the encounter any real challenge at all.

After that, she was a fish, chased by a pike through what seemed to be an old moat. She and a partner fish had to survive together; the ‘early win’ condition was to lead the pike into tangling itself up and being trapped, but Tala saw that for the misdirect that it was, and simply endured. It was a harder version of the squirrel challenge, but with more competent allies and greater three-dimensional mobility for herself and her pursuer.

It was somewhat irritating, but Tala understood the purposes of the scenarios, and their ordering. After all, as a squirrel up in the trees, she was required to lean on all that she’d learned as a mouse, and advance it even further.

Then, the fish was meant to extend it further still by necessitating truly three-dimensional thinking and action.

Thankfully, that was the end of the animal scenarios for the moment.

She’d caught up to Rane, and he had been mum about what he faced, largely at her insistence.

She wanted to face it just like he was facing it.

The simplicity of the instructions had piqued her interest: ‘Save the toast-leader.’

This was supposedly some teenaged girl who was in trouble. This should be interesting.

Tala opened her eyes and found that she was a bit taller than usual. At her hip hung a slightly backswept sword, and she wore comfortable, loose fitting clothing.

She also had a dawning awareness of her magic in this very human body.

She could teleport around with a couple of seconds of concentration. It felt like the powers touched on other things, but she couldn’t utilize them effectively in this scenario. She would be much slower than Terry’s—or even her own—flickering, but she didn’t actually seem to have a distance limitation.

Interesting.

As the understanding of the fictional world settled into place, she realized that the stakes were even higher than she’d realized.

Well then. Let’s go save the world.

* * *

Rane groaned. “I am so glad we’re in the same scenario again. It is really nice to be able to complain with you. I swear, that girl wants to die.”

Tala had her forearm across her eyes as she laid back on a grassy patch within her sanctum.

They had both quit the War Games for the day after yet another instance of the toast-leader dying despite each of their attempts to protect their version of the teenage girl.

It had been weeks, and Rane had a definitive point. The young woman would do her best to elude them, even after they proved to be her ally. She would continue to put herself in dangerous situations, and she honestly simply acted like she didn’t want to survive.

Rane groaned. “You know. The more I think about it, the more I’m glad that I got to this one first.”

“Really? What do you mean?”

“Well, think about it. If you’d gotten to this one first, I’d think it was designed for you.”

She considered that for a while, then grimaced. “Huh… You know, I think I know exactly what you mean, and I find the notion irritating. But I wasn’t as bad as she is… right?”

He gave a small smile and a little shake of his head. “Not quite, yeah. Though, you do heal so it makes more sense.” He sighed. “It’s so frustrating that the little Bennet girl acts like she’s invincible.”

Tala sat up straight, arms falling to her sides, eyes going wide. “Rane.”

“Yeah.” He glanced her way, frowning at her actions.

“Have you ever been kicked out of the scenario?”

He shook his head. “No, I exit as soon as she dies so I can try again. Why would I wait the extra seconds? I’m either going to try again or I’m not up for such. Regardless, I want out and away from my failure.”

Tala groaned. “Rane. We have magics in the scenario. Why couldn’t she?”

His eyes widened too, the realization striking him like a god-beast’s paw. “Are you rusting kidding me?”

“If she’s acting like I did…?”

“She might have the ability to heal.” He groaned too. “We assumed a loss when she might have been fine in a short time.”

“I checked her pulse.”

“I have too, some of the time. Rust, she’d had her head blown off in some of the ends, but the scenario never faded to black.”

They shared a look before they both hopped up and returned to the Archon Compound with all due haste.

Their epiphany turned out to have been right.

The rusting girl could essentially come back from the dead. Her healing ability outclassed Tala’s by a considerable margin, even if it wasn’t quite as quick.

They’d radically misunderstood the—now obviously deceptively—simple instructions. They weren’t supposed to save her from damage. They were supposed to save her from capture or exploitation.

They both succeeded on their first attempt with the new paradigm.

Master Grediv was wisely not in the room when they came out of the incredibly easy scenario once they understood what was going on.

On the positive side, he had finally arranged for Master Nadro to be in town in just over a week, and he’d left a note to that effect, likely having saved the good news for when they discovered the twist.

After they’d eaten dinner, they both agreed that it was a useful set up. Tala especially realized that it was so easy to assume that she knew the capabilities of those around her, enemies or not, and the set-up had been a slap in the face of that mode of operation.

She’d even been put in a context that was so unlike Zeme that it should have forced her to be rethinking everything, but neither of them had bothered to consider that the girl could have magic, let alone greater-than-Tala level healing.

In Tala’s final run-through, the toast-leader had actually come back from being cut into chunks, though it had taken the girl time.

Regardless, they would take a break from War Games for a bit to try to incorporate the lessons learned.

Thankfully, Tala had the meeting with Master Nadro to look forward to. The man was seemingly increasingly busy of late, though he did respond to her messages in a rather timely manner regardless.

Alat was in good spirits, partially because Tala had asked the alternate interface to refrain from helping her in the War Games unless asked. Moreover, Rane had put no such restriction on Enar, and Alat found the results entertaining. -Enar is embarrassed that he missed the signs as well-

…You’re giving him a hard time, aren’t you. It wasn’t a question.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

-...Yeah. He was going on and on about how much better he was than me. The new and improved model after me as a rough draft.-

Tala frowned. Really? That doesn’t sound like Rane at all. Has Enar diverged that much from Rane already?

-It was mainly a joking posturing. We play a lot of games, and he’s better than Rane… somehow.-

And I’m better than you.

-Yeah, that still makes no sense.-

And since Rane and I are often closely matched…?

-Yeah, he beats me a lot of the time… most of the time… fine, he’s only lost twice.-

So, you’re teasing him for missing the clues in this scenario?

-Absolutely.-

Very well, carry on.

Rane glanced Tala’s way. “Are you ganging up on Enar, somehow?”

Tala gave a half smile. “No? Mainly, I didn’t tell Alat to lay off teasing him.”

“Ahh. Fair enough. He’s complaining that you are being mean, but I can’t really blame you for not getting involved. He can be… a lot sometimes. ”

“-No, I am Alat.-”

Rane groaned. “That joke is getting so old, Alat. You don’t need to comment on the homonym every time it’s said.” He immediately raised a hand. “I don’t mean literally every time. We all know your name sounds like ‘a lot.’ But you make that joke a lot, Alat.”

“-Fine… I guess I have made it Enarf.-”

Rane chuckled. “That’s a bit of a stretch, and he’s not happy that you’ve brought him into this.”

Tala smiled. “He still doesn’t want to talk directly to me?”

“He’s still a bit self-conscious for some reason.”

-He means that Enar still has a crush on you, and he’s getting over it, realizing that if you and Rane continue on, he and I will be forever intertwined regardless.-

I… had not considered that. I mean it makes sense, but I haven’t thought on it specifically. Are you okay with it?

-Eh. He’s fine. It’s not like we’re actually going to be married in any sort of way. He is nice to talk with, though.-

Tala arched a metaphorical eyebrow, sending the emotional impression to Alat rather than adopting the physical expression. You do remember that you are me and Enar is Rane… right? So if we marry you will be married too in a very real sense.

Alat was silent for a moment, and Tala sensed what might have been the mental equivalent of a blush. Finally, Alat continued as if Tala hadn’t said anything, -It is good to have someone besides Retson to dialogue with.-

Tala decided not to call her alternate interface on her avoidance. Retson is almost as busy as Master Nadro, yeah.

-Exactly. There really aren’t very many alternate interfaces, and most are constantly working.-

So, you’re saying that I don’t work you hard enough?

Alat sent back the sense of a flat stare.

Oh! Does that mean that you’re going to be able to speak directly with Rane, like you can with Terry?

Alat sent Tala the impression of a wide grin. -Oh, it’s inevitable now, is it?-

Tala flushed deeply and stood up to quite literally run from her embarrassment. “Well. I’m done with the day. I’m going to bed.”

-Really? More than forty percent toward Paragon and still running from your own feelings. That would be funny if it weren’t so sad.-

You know, I’d accuse you of doing the same, but you don’t really have the right equipment to run. Tala poked at Alat in return.

-Oh, that’s a low blow, Mistress Tala.-

Women in glass houses and all that.

-Fine…-

Rane looked toward the still bright sky. “Really?”

“Yeah… I’ll be up at midnight or so, but I think I need to be done with today. I’m going to bed.” Tala decided to ignore Alat.

-Wait… what—?-

Hush.

He nodded. “I’ll see you for breakfast tomorrow, then?”

She gave him a long look, then she shook her head, smiling. “Yeah. I’ll open a portal just before sunrise?”

“That sounds good.” He stood, gave her a quick kiss and left through the door that she opened for his departure.

Alat sighed within her head. -All teasing aside, are you ready?-

Tala didn’t have to consider for very long. No. She was sure that she wasn’t… but she was getting closer. We’ve only been courting for a couple of years. We have time.

-Sure you do. It’s not like defenders ever die in the line of duty.-

Tala grunted, then willed herself into her bedroom for a much needed rest.

* * *

Time seemed to flow differently for Tala of late. Where days used to drag, now weeks—and even months—flew by.

In no time at all, snow was on the ground, Rane and Tala passed the third anniversary of their courtship, and the two—along with Terry—were heading toward Marliweather for a reunion with her siblings and to see Fedir off to the Academy. The boy had already made his decision to go and was simply excited to get to it.

The next Zuccat child was coming home too. Master Simon and Mistress Petra had yet again arranged for their returning child to arrive within the Sanctum so that Tala wouldn’t have to change her plans to allow the family to reunite.

That also meant that Anna was coming along for the trip, taking a break from her apprenticeship for the journey. From what Tala heard, she would be uplifted to full Mage within the year now, and so Tala’s time around the woman was limited.

Tala felt mixed about that. She’d enjoyed her interactions with Anna, but they really hadn’t been that frequent.

Terry seemed to be getting along with her more easily… for some reason, so she didn’t really have a reason to avoid Anna. Because of that, Tala felt rather conflicted.

Should she have reached out more? Spent more time?

On a more business side of things, Lisa had agreed to move into Irondale. Negotiations with the arcane fox had concluded, and Tala was quite happy with the terms that Alat had secured between them.

When they stopped through Bandfast—on the way back from Marliweather—to pick him up, they would also be celebrating with Kannis and Lyn. Kannis was being granted full Magehood at the end of the year, and Lyn couldn’t be more proud. That was one reason why Tala, Rane, and Terry weren’t making a stop on the way north. They didn’t want to be away from Alefast, Waning, for overlong.

That felt a bit ironic after Tala’s recent sojourn to the ruins of previous cities, but both Rane and Tala had found that they liked their current role as Defenders, and they didn’t want to be away from the position for too long without good reason.

Time flies, and everyone is moving forward in their lives.

She was excited for all the changes coming down the line for her friends and family even if it did leave her feeling a bit of whiplash, so many changes lining up so closely.

-Yeah, all happening within a year is rather close together.-

It is, even on the scale of mortal lives.

-Fair enough, yeah. I hope that there aren’t any more surprises.-

Setting up Irondale in Marliweather for the second time was—blessedly—anticlimactic. They had a couple of residents cash out their citizen’s deposit and move out into Marliweather, but there was a much larger influx from Marliweather itself, along with those who had come to Marliweather in order to meet up with Irondale and join the others within.

Tala was very glad that she didn’t have to deal with all the details either of the selection process or the move-ins.

-I still say that we could really use a full time administrative head over Irondale. It’s becoming irritating to run things myself.-

Well, I don’t want to do it.

-Of course you don’t. I am you and I don’t either, but I have a greater tolerance for it. Even so, please consider hiring someone. We might even want to pull in a gated, as there tends to be more gated with such experience. We’ve been incredibly lucky with the spread of skills and aptitudes among gateless so far, but I think that finding someone we trust to truly run things might be a bit of stretch.-

That was fair.

-Additionally, I believe that Master Simon, Adrill, Brandon, and Kedva are close to selecting the first others to be reborn.-

Tala was aware of that, but not only were they still vetting the candidates, once they had them selected, they wanted to try giving a bit of training beforehand, to see if it improved the process overall.

But that was neither here nor there. So, after opening the gateway into Irondale once more, she, Terry, and Rane moved to the teleportation tower where five of Tala’s siblings were coming in from the Academy.

There had been some talk of them coming into the Sanctum, but with all five wanting to come at once, it was just easier to have them aim to arrive at a standard receiving hub. It was similar to why she had her siblings arrive at—and depart from—the Alefast tower when they visited every few months.

Regardless, Tala, Rane, and Terry arrived to find the Marliweather siblings already there and awaiting the arrivals from the Academy.

Greetings were exchanged, including the introduction of a new young woman, whom Caln brought over to Tala and Rane. “This is Verla. She has just recently agreed to become my wife.”

There was a moment of silence before Rane smiled brightly, giving an over-generous bow. “It is my pleasure to meet you, Verla, betrothed of Caln. I am Rane.”

Tala followed Rane’s lead, grateful for the lifeline in the unexpected situation. “I am glad to meet you as well. I am Tala.”

Verla gave a bow toward Rane, then hesitantly stepped toward Tala. Caln gave Tala a pleading look that took her a moment to interpret.

Thankfully, she did so before things became awkward, and she gave Verla a friendly hug of greeting. “Welcome to the family.”

Verla brightened at that, smiling prettily. “Thank you, Mistress. Your brother speaks quite highly of you.”

Tala shook her head, giving a small smile. “First, if you’re going to be family, call me Tala.”

“As you wish… Tala.”

“There you go.” Her smile grew wide, a mischievous glint entering her eyes. “Secondly, I wouldn’t have expected my little brother to have lied to his betrothed.”

Verla and Caln both looked confused, but Rane just let out a long sigh. He then leaned in, speaking in a stage whisper, “She’s trying to tease that if he spoke highly of her, he must have been lying.” He then looked to Tala, meeting her gaze and sending a message through the Archive—facilitated by Enar and Alat—so no one else would hear, “But you forget that in situations of such immense power difference, they will not hear the intended humor. They will only hear the reprimand.”

Tala scratched the side of her neck, feeling awkward for a moment. She appreciated Rane catching the issue in the situation immediately. She also appreciated that he addressed it so smoothly with them and privately with her. “My apologies, Verla. I did just mean to tease my brother, not cause confusion.”

The young woman looked grateful, giving a small bow. “Of course. Of course, Mist—... of course, Tala.”