Things were bad.

Callania gripped her bow fitfully as they walked on in silence. Elion still had not woken, though they had been walking for almost an hour. She kept glancing over at him, grasped in Torbek’s arms, but there was no change in his pale face, and Torbek steadfastly refused to engage with anyone, preferring to stride onward silently.

Perhaps worse, Nalyn still would not look at her. She had thought they were becoming good friends, but they had not spoken since they had been captured by the frogmen, not even during their long hours of captivity where talking was all they could do. Callania did not understand it, and she had puzzled over what it was she could have done to upset the dwarf.

Maybe, she mused, it was this ranger business. She had confessed her inadequacy as a ranger to Nalyn shortly before the frogmen had taken them, and then had proved herself woefully inept during the ensuing scuffle. Perhaps Nalyn was resentful of her continued presence, given that she was unable to protect them, the way everyone else seemed to be able to. Even Bill… well, he was never going to win any prizes for “most adequate wizard”, but when put in the right circumstances, even his blunders worked in their favor.

“Nouda for them?” she heard, and looked down to see Bill struggling along beside her, breathing hard. She slowed her pace and smiled mildly at him. They had not interacted all that much since setting out, but she did not harbor the resentment toward him that Torbek seemed to after the wolves. After all, if anyone knew what it felt like to be less than perfect at their designated task, it was Callania.

“Hmm?” she responded distractedly, stealing a glance at Nalyn. She could have sworn that the dwarf had been looking at her, but as soon as she looked over, Nalyn looked away, and Callania found herself frowning in frustration.

“Your thoughts,” Bill clarified. “I’ll pay a brass nouda for them. Two, even—only, you’re far too pretty to be frowning this much. I thought maybe sharing what’s bothering you might help.”

Callania hesitated. Could she?

Should she?

“I am… concerned about Elion,” she said finally, though that was less than half of what troubled her. Other, even more discomfiting thoughts swirled in her brain, and she closed her eyes briefly against them. It did not help. She was concerned about Elion, it was true. But she was also concerned about her own place in the party, was confronting once again her own inadequacies—the same inadequacies she had wrestled with her entire life—and fretting more than she cared to admit over Nalyn’s prolonged silence. Had she really upset her so much?

“Yeah, well, I mean, we’re all concerned about him,” Bill said, rather too flippantly for Callania to take him entirely seriously. “But… Torbek’s got him, he’s taking care of him. He’s been pouring little bits of water down his throat as we walk, have you seen? He’s weirdly invested.”

“He cares,” Callania corrected.

“I didn’t think he cared about anyone,” Bill mused. “He’s just so angry all the time.”

“Perhaps, Bill, Torbek is angry much of the time because there is much to anger him,” Callania said. “I cannot speak for the circumstances in which you first encountered him, for I was not there, but certainly he has a right to be angry about the night with the wolves. We all do, though certain of us are choosing to move past it faster than others.”

Bill had the good grace to blush at this.

“He has a right to be angry that we chose the very wrong jungle to walk through. He has a right to be angry at being held captive, at having his sword taken from him. He has a right to be angry that in saving us all, Elion appears to have nearly given his life for us. He has a right, simply put, to be angry that at the moment, very little appears to be going right for us.”

“I know,” Bill said, kicking at a stone. “But I can’t help any of that.”

“You cannot change what has gone before. But you can influence what will come to pass,” Callania said, quoting her mother. Ehrena, did she miss her mother.

“And you?” Bill said, apparently changing the subject, abruptly enough that Callania was taken off guard.

“Me?”

“Why do you look so sad?”

Callania looked over at Nalyn again. “Myriad reasons,” she said finally.

“I’ve got the time.”

“But I, alas, lack the inclination,” she said kindly, but firmly. “Why do you not walk with Sestra? She seems as though she could do with the company.”

She watched as Bill looked over his shoulder at Sestra, battling along at the back as her shorter legs struggled to keep up. He, by this time, was huffing and puffing at trying to match even Callania’s slower pace, so Callania rather thought he might welcome an excuse to drop back.

She quickened her step and caught up with Nalyn. “Can we talk?”

“What is there to talk about?” Nalyn said, still refusing to meet her gaze.

“Plenty,” Callania said. “Like why you have not spoken all day, for a start.”

“I haven’t had anything to say.”

“But why? What have I done?” Callania knew, and hated, that her face was probably betraying the way her stomach was clenching in anxiety and nerves. They still had to quest together, and if she and Nalyn were no longer friends, the quest could prove excruciatingly uncomfortable.

“You didn’t do anything,” Nalyn said finally. To Callania, it looked as if she were wrestling with something, so she simply waited to see if her friend would elaborate. “It’s just…”

“Hey, where are we?”

Elion, with perfect timing.

Although she was so grateful that he was awake, Callania could not help wishing he had remained unconscious just a few minutes longer, so she could have heard what was bothering Nalyn.

“Elion!” Torbek rumbled, stopping in his tracks and setting the elf on the path, seated. “You are awake.”

“What happened?” Elion asked, looking around. “Did we beat them?”

“You beat them,” Bill said happily, stepping up to clap him on the back. Torbek stopped him with a hand in his face.

“Back up. Give him air,” he said firmly.

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” Nalyn said. “What you did was truly impressive… but it looked like it came at a great personal cost. I hope you don’t have to do it again.”

“I beat them,” Elion said. To Callania, he looked exhausted but almost gleeful. “I knew that spell was a long shot, but I had to try… and I beat them.” He looked up at everyone. “So, uh… where are we going now?”

“Big and Beardy says we have to go find a map, so we’re looking for a town,” Sestra put in. “And Axe-Girl said there’s a city that isn’t a city somewhere over yonder, so… it’s as good a direction as any.”

“A city that isn’t a city?” Elion got to his feet and took a tentative couple of wobbly steps. “What does that even mean?”

“She hasn’t said,” Sestra went on, while Torbek frowned.

“Big and Beardy?”

“You cannot say it is not accurate,” Callania giggled. “And as nicknames go, it is fairly inoffensive.”

“Big and Beardy,” Torbek muttered as they moved off again. “Goddesses, what have I got myself into.”

But Callania watched him adjusting his pace to walk with Elion and steady him, even though that meant the pair were considerably slowed. And with Bill and Sestra once again bringing up the rear, that left her and Nalyn at the front, setting the course.

“You were saying?” she said quietly as they walked.

“Hmm?”

“You were going to tell me why you have not spoken all day.”

Nalyn looked almost pained. “He said I was ugly,” she said finally.

“Who said you were ugly?”

“Gekak. He called me “ugly one”.

Callania literally stopped in her tracks. “Gekak.”

“Yes, Gekak!”

“Nalyn. Gekak is possibly the single ugliest creature I have ever had the misfortune to lay eyes upon in my life. Why on earth would you take anything he said about your appearance to heart? Even by frogman standards, he was hideously misshapen.” Callania tried, and failed, not to laugh.

“Because he’s the ugliest creature in Nimrien! And he thinks I’m ugly,” Nalyn said, but as she spoke, she started to laugh a little too. “Goddesses, he really was horrendous, wasn’t he?”

“Utterly vile,” Callania agreed. “So… you have been stewing all day because that nasty little thing called you ugly?”

She supposed she could see why Nalyn was upset… but her day-long silence seemed rather a disproportionate response to what really was a very small slight.

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“It’s because he said it in front of you,” Nalyn said softly. She wasn’t laughing now, looking up at Callania with pain in her eyes.

“Why should that matter?”

“Well, because you’re so beautiful, and I look like… like potato next to you.”

“Potato?”

“Potato,” Nalyn nodded, and wrinkled her nose wryly. “Yes, I hear it. I hear how stupid I’m sounding. I just… I didn’t want you to hear him calling me ugly, because then it’s in your head, and maybe now you’ll look at me differently.”

Callania did not understand any of what was happening here, but Nalyn was talking again, and Elion was awake, and the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach was easing.

“Potato,” she repeated, and began to laugh at the sheer ludicrousness of the sentiment.

“Yes, all right, all right,” Nalyn said, poking Callania in the side and scowling playfully. “You’re a goddess, and I look like potato.”

“Potato!” Callania exclaimed, bending double and laughing harder. “You said you… you look like…” She gasped for breath. “Potato!”

Nalyn broke into laughter too, and Callania grinned over at her. “You do not, though,” she said softly. “Look like potato. Or, if you do, you look like very cute potato. You would make all the other potatoes jealous.” She was pleased to see the little smile on Nalyn’s face. “So… are we okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, we were never not,” Nalyn replied. She nudged Callania with her shoulder lightly, and Callania nudged back as they kept walking.

~*~

“Where is this city that is not a city?” Torbek asked, taking the words right out of Callania’s mouth.

“Well, I…” Nalyn looked cagey. “It’s supposed to be ahead.”

“And… how is it not a city?” Bill put in.

“It’s probably a village, like Kachi was. A main street and two stores,” Sestra quipped.

“No, it’s… well, it’s a ghost city,” Nalyn admitted.

Stunned silence.

“A… ghost city,” Elion repeated.

“Yeah. But still a city,” Nalyn said.

“And how in Ophina’s name are we supposed to get a map from a ghost city?” Torbek snapped. “To travel to a ghost city, you have to be a ghost! What did you envision happening, that one of us would die and act as emissary? Did you wish it on Elion? Did you hope his misfortune would somehow serve us further?” He reached out and tugged the elf to his side protectively.

“It was an idea!” Callania defended. “I have not heard any ideas from you as yet, Torbek of Pacot. Do not be so quick to judge!”

But the fact remained, there was no way to enter a ghost city without one of them becoming a ghost.

“So instead of taking us back to Kachi, where there are actual people that could have sold us a map, you’ve brought us out here to the middle of nowhere on a wild goose chase?”

Callania could see that Torbek was working himself up into a fine temper, and Nalyn, usually the diplomat, seemed unable to defend herself.

“Well, there’s obviously no town up ahead—that we can access, that is—so let’s just agree to disagree,” Elion said. “I’m fine, but I’m tired, and I’m not in the mood to listen to arguing.”

To his credit, Torbek visibly backed down from attacking Nalyn, which let Callania back down from defending her.

“There’s a building over there,” Bill piped up.

“It’s a hundred miles away!” Sestra complained.

“Oh it is not. Will you stop picking at everything I say?”

“Enough!” Elion shouted, then clutched at his head. “What did I just say?”

“There seems no other option within walking distance,” Callania ventured. “My vote is to make for the building. Even if there is no one living there, we could shelter there for the night.”

~*~

It was a silent party that trudged toward the building. Not even Bill and Sestra said anything. Elion’s steps faltered more and more often until Torbek wordlessly scooped him up and carried him once more. Callania, mindful of the way she had seen Nalyn internalize small slights, caught her eye and took her hand, squeezing it lightly. Nalyn smiled.

They made it as far as the shore before coming upon a fence, taller than Sestra and even Nalyn and Torbek, but not quite as tall as Callania. The gate, when they tried it, was locked, but Callania heard off-key humming from the other side.

“Is anyone there?” she called politely.

A head popped up on the other side of the fence and they all jumped. Torbek reached for his sword.

“Hello! Can I help you?” the woman on the other side of the fence greeted them cheerfully. “I don’t get many visitors, so this is a nice treat. I’m Gusela.”

“Gusela the hermit?” Bill squeaked, backing away from the gate, his face stricken.

Gusela’s face fell. “I’m not a hermit. I like my own space, and I’m happy out here, but I do see people from time to time. I’m not… I’m not a monster.”

She opened the gate, and Callania stood her ground, even if Bill and Sestra took a hasty step back. Gusela had wild, unruly curls, but her face was open and friendly, her smile wide. Her face was reassuring…

But the sparks of green, blue, and purple emanating from her hands were less so.

“Do your hands always do that?” Nalyn asked.

“Do what? Oh.” Gusela waved her hands and the sparks dissipated. The second they were gone, a little creature Callania could not name leaped from the shadows onto Gusela’s shoulder. It was small, and vaguely simian in shape, with a long striped tail and an oddly knowing sort of face, and Callania thought it rather sweet.

Of course, Callania had also seen will-o-wisps in her time. Her father had brought some home in a box once when she was smaller. She had thought them sweet, too. She still had the scars from that incident.

“This is Maki,” Gusela said fondly, reaching up to stroke the little creature behind its ears.

“What is it?” Bill asked, staring at the animal. It preened, its tail held high. There was something almost human about the way it took them in, gazing solemnly at each of them in turn.

“It’s a lemur,” Gusela replied.

“What is it?” Sestra asked.

Gusela considered the question. “I don’t know, really. It’s sort of a bit of this, a bit of that… lots of little things that I liked from various creatures and brought them together. He’s my friend.”

“Ziona,” Torbek breathed. “This thing is not natural. We will all be destroyed for consorting with it.”

“Actually, it was Ophina who helped to create Maki,” Gusela said, stopping Torbek in his tracks as Maki chittered animatedly as if in defense of his own existence. “Do you really think I could bring forth a creature out of nothing? Ziona doesn’t govern creation. I invoked Ophina, and I asked her permission.”

Callania risked a look at Torbek’s face. It was thunderous, like Gusela’s explanation of Maki had somehow blasphemed his beloved Ophina.

Nalyn cut in, effectively saving the encounter. “Perhaps you could help us,” she said. “We’re a little lost, and we’re looking for something. Would you happen to have a map that you could spare us?”

“I don’t think so,” Gusela said, shaking her head. “But why don’t you come in and have some dinner? Maki and I were just starting to think about eating.”

~*~

As a hostess, Gusela was beyond reproach. She ushered them inside, sat them down, and offered them drinks. Torbek declined, still looking at her with a suspicious expression which Gusela seemed to be carefully ignoring.

Dinner was a simple affair, but tasty. The interesting thing was that there was no meat served. Gusela served them each a bowl of balls made of potato, deep fried, with a choice of sauces. Callania tried both, finding one to be gorgeously creamy, and the other to be just as creamy but with a decided kick to it! She was torn as to which she preferred, and ended up alternating between the two, unable to choose.

After a rather fraught moment where Bill apparently discovered that the spicy sauce was too spicy for his palate (and capered about the room clutching at his throat and declaring that he was sure he was on the verge of breathing fire), the party settled into a contented hum of dining and conversation. All except Torbek.

Gusela had explained that she loved animals too much to serve them as food, and only Torbek had declined to eat. Callania was getting rather vexed with his continued rudeness, but to confront him now would only end up embarrassing their host.

She need not have worried.

“Oi, Torbek,” Sestra hissed when Gusela’s back was turned. “Could you possibly look more like you’ve sat in a turd?”

“Impertinence!” Torbek snapped, but Sestra barely even blinked.

“No, Sestra,” she sassed back. “Have you learned any of our names?”

The look Torbek gave her could have killed the entirety of Gekak’s army if pointed in the right direction.

“The food is wonderful, the company is… okay, and the little monkey squirrel thing is sweet,” Elion pronounced.

“The food is little more than I would feed to a grazing animal, the company consists of a blaspheming reprobate and the five of you, and the ‘little monkey squirrel thing’ is an abomination,” Torbek snapped back.

“Torbek,” Elion said. Callania watched the exchange with interest. “Will you just try the food? It’s good, I promise. And unless you ate while I was asleep, you haven’t had anything since before the frogmen. Please?”

And to Callania’s intense amusement, Torbek gave Elion the worst scowl he had produced yet, while grudgingly dumping one of the potato balls in the sauce, and shoving it in his mouth. He chewed in what seemed to be resentment for a moment, then huffed.

“It is palatable,” he said gruffly, and reached for another.

“So what brings you out here?” Gusela said. “I don’t get many visitors.”

“You said that already,” Bill put in, and then flinched, presumably in response to a kick from Sestra under the table.

“We are on a quest,” Callania told her. “We are searching for a certain grimoire that exists somewhere in Nimrien.”

“Hmm…” Gusela looked thoughtful for a moment, then stood and began rummaging in a drawer. From it, she pulled a roll of parchment.

“This grimoire, was it written by the four sisters?”

“Yeah!” Bill put in.

“Well, it isn’t here, but I think I can help you find it,” Gusela said, beginning to gesticulate more animatedly. She unrolled the parchment on a clear part of the table and leaned over it, concentrating. Lifting her right hand, she began to trace a shape. Green sparks rose from somewhere under her skin, flowing down through her hand and out of her fingertips onto the parchment in the shape, Callania realized, of Nimrien itself. Gusela was drawing a map.

The green sparks filled in the outline, then suddenly changed to blue as Gusela sketched in the various seas, lakes, and rivers of Nimrien.

“What do you know, about where it is?” Gusela asked, voice echoing gently.

Callania shivered. “We were initially told it was in a tower… but then another source declared that not to be true, and told us that it was in ‘the center’. Of what, this source was unclear.”

The echoes deepened. “I learned this location spell a long time ago. If I concentrate, if I trust in the magic, Maki will show us where you must go.”

Gusela’s sparks turned purple, and she dabbed here and there at the parchment. “These are the various towers that exist in Nimrien,” she informed them. A black spot was the last thing to appear, right in the location of Gusela’s home.

Then Maki began to chitter excitedly, leaping from Gusela’s side to her shoulder, to the table, and finally on the parchment. His warm brown eyes glittered gold, and Callania realized that Gusela’s eyes were glittering in the same way. As Gusela crooned gently to her little friend, Maki stood on the parchment, turning this way and that. Finally, he pointed to a purple dab, and became very still.

“Is that it, sweet friend?” Gusela asked. Maki, incredibly, nodded, then jumped back to Gusela’s shoulder, nuzzling into her neck. The spot he had pointed to slowly turned gold.

“There,” Gusela said. The echo had drained from her voice, and her eyes returned to a much more normal brown. “That’s where you’ll find this grimoire: right where the map turned gold. Maki always knows.”

Elion gingerly picked up the parchment, rolling it gently.

“How do we know this is a faithful representation of Nimrien?” Torbek grumbled, his mouth full of food. “How do we know that this crazed old woman isn’t sending us to uncertain doom?”

“How do you know you haven’t got a belly full of poison right now?” Sestra shot back, and Callania was forced to hide a smirk, given the sheer amount of food that Torbek had put away after his initial expressions of distaste. “Because we all saw the magic with our own eyes, that’s how. Because we don’t exactly have a lot of options, and we definitely don’t have any other map. But mostly, it’s because we’re not all suspicious beardy grumps who think the worst of everyone like you do.”

“You will get your comeuppance one day, halfling,” Torbek declared, pointing at Sestra. “You think there are no repercussions for the things you say. One day you will run your mouth in front of the wrong person, and things will not end well for you.”

“Nyah,” Sestra dismissed him with a wave of her hand. “Do I look bothered?”

“Ahem,” Gusela interrupted them. “If there’s nothing else… Maki and I do like to have an early night.”

“You have been very hospitable,” Callania told Gusela. The parchment had “dried”, for lack of a better word, the sparkles fading until the resulting map had taken on the appearance of soft chalk. Callania rolled it up and carefully stowed it in her pack.

“Then onward,” Elion said brightly.

“Yes, onward,” Torbek said gruffly. He glared briefly at Maki before nodding to Gusela and stalking out. Callania, on the other hand, gave the tiny squirrel-monkey looking creature a soft scratch on the head before parting. He really was a sweet little thing, she thought. Maki’s eyes glowed gold briefly again, and he looked Callania right in the eye, pointing at Sestra’s parting form and chittering quietly.

Callania shivered. Did he know something? What was he trying to tell her?

It haunted her thoughts for much of the walk to the shore.