“We’re back.” After a few long hours of waiting with nothing to show for it, Theo, Nadia, and Lothar come striding back to the farm.

“Adeleya,” Theo calls out to her. “You have quite a bit of work ahead of you.”

“When?”

“We’ll get to it after lunch. We’ve found a few nests, and quite a few swarms, it’ll be dangerous to leave them as they are. Do you have anything here?”

“A few leads, maybe. Nothing worth talking about just yet. I have Syr working that angle.”

“Sounds like you have it in hand.” He smiles, turning to me, “What do you think of being a merc so far?”

“There’s more waiting and thinking than hitting things.”

“That there is.”

“I like it. I’ll be the best at it,” I tell him while checking that Sandy is doing her job properly.

The spiders, for the most part, are still running around their large cage, though I do notice a small struggle going on inside. One spider is struggling to escape, while another is hunting down the first.

“I think the spiders are attacking each other,” I tell them.

“Really?” Adeleya bounces happily, running back over to the pen.

The others follow after us, curious to what has Adeleya so excited.

“What is it?” The farmer asks, joining us.

The two spiders are still at it, but for some reason, Theo is chuckling.

“Do you know what they’re doing?” He asks me.

“Fighting?”

“They’re having a special sort of fun.” Lothar chuckles as well.

“They’re mating,” Nadia says simply with a nod from the farmer.

“Yeah, and I’m glad for it. I was starting to think these were a bad batch.”

“Watch them,” Adeleya says her voice lacking the same amusement.

“That’s some weird kink…” Nadia says, giving her a strange look.

“It’s not… shut up and watch them.”

“Mating…?” I ask.

“Spreading the custard,” Lothar says.

“Raiding the castle,” Theo says.

“Aggressive cuddling,” Nadia says.

“Aggressive cuddling?” I ask Adeleya, looking up at her with wide eyes and giving her hand a light squeeze. She always seems to give me what I ask for when I ask like this.

“Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!” Adeleya interrupts, shaking her head before kneeling beside me. “Mating is uh, well mating is when two animals want to… uh, make some more animals.”

“So, people mate too?” I ask.

“I… uh.” The others are chuckling at us for some reason. “Yeah, yeah they do. When two people love each other very much they… uh, they mate, and make a baby.”

“So, we could make a baby?” I ask her, pulling at her sleeve.

“No, no, no, no,” she repeats, “Uh, only males and females can make babies.”

“Only males and females can mate?”

“Not… I mean, that’s…”

“Hey!” Lothar interrupts, “Is that what you got us to look at?”

We turn around to watch as one of the mating spiders starts to wrap up the other, biting at it until it stops struggling, yet still, it keeps biting, reducing its head bite by bite.

“Adeleya,” I whisper, pulling close to her ear, “I don’t think I want to mate with you anymore…”

She tries hard not to laugh, “That’s not… how it normally goes.”

“Huh, but if that’s how they die…” The farmer watches in confusion.

“You don’t seem surprised,” Theo says, watching the farmer.

“Well it does happen sometimes, the females get worked up and, well, they kill their partner.”

“Rather unfortunate…” Lothar mumbles.

“With the new species that I’ve brought in, I’ve been expecting something of this but…”

As we watch the rest of the spiders gather about the body of the dead one, all of them biting through and crunching up flesh, skin, and hard exoskeleton.

“That’s more than I bargained for…”

“You know…” Adeleya interrupts, “I thought it was possible, but this is a little much, don’t you think?”

“Definitely don’t want to deal with these guys in the wild,” Lothar says.

“Well you found the problem for me,” The farmer says watching passively as he loses another spider, “Thanks for that. Oh, and I’ll still be glad if you’d be rid of those swarms for me. I’ll be paying through the guild of course.”

“Not a problem,” Theo says. “We have eyes on a few nests, and we plan on torching them after a short break. And… ah, is your business going to be okay like this?”

The spiders have, in a terrifyingly short time, managed to completely disassemble their partner.

“Oh, it is what it is,” the farmer replies. “A necessary loss really, the babies will make up for it.”

“If you say so,” Nadia says. “So long as you’re happy.”

“More than happy,” he says smiling wide. “I’m going to have spider babies!”

“Well. We’ll finish off the clean-up and be back with good news,” Theo tells him with a confident smile.

“Oh, that is good to hear,” he replies. “The swarms have been worrying me for the last few months.”

“Not for much longer,” Lothar says, giving the man a wave as we turn toward the forest.

“I hope to see some more of that new silk in the store!” Adeleya shouts back at him.

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“I hope so, too,” the farmer calls back.

Together we tread into the sparse forest, discussing this and that as we walk. Adeleya and I walk at the rear, while Lothar stands in front of us with sharp eyes watching our surroundings.

“Adeleya,” I call out, holding onto her hand. “Mating seems bad, but Syr heard of this thing called kissing…”

“Oh,” Adeleya seems a little surprised as she looks down at me. “Well, a little sisterly affection doesn’t hurt. When we’re out of danger maybe?”

Lothar looks back at us, his sharp eyes looking at me rather strangely before returning to the trees around us.

It isn’t much longer before a deep stench of death fills the air. Blood and iron. It’s a familiar taste.

I ready my weapon.

The 3-metre-long dead lizard lay motionless in a small clearing. A few birds scatter as we appear, Sandy wants to chase after them, but I keep her on my shoulder.

“Now as for our plan,” Theo starts. “We cannot take down all the nests at once, so it’s better to draw them all out of their nests back to here.

“Lothar, I want you to take Syr along and draw all the swarms back to this area. The rest of us will prepare the trap here and make sure nothing goes wrong.”

“As you say, boss,” Lothar replies. “Syr. Follow carefully.”

He walks ahead and I follow, with a short furtive glance back at Adeleya who is focusing on her staff as she puts a large bag around her neck.

“Here,” Lothar says as he passes me a bag that looks much the same. “It’ll keep them from attacking you, they hate the smell.”

I quickly put the bag around my neck, eyes watching cautiously for these strange swarms. It’s not long before we’re far enough away from the rest of the team that we can’t see them anymore.

“Why don’t you give up on the corpse magic already?” He asks me without turning back to look at me. “It’s not like you need it.”

“It’s a part of Syr,” I say. “It makes Syr strong.”

Lothar is the one who most hates my necromancy and it’s hard not to feel anxious when alone with him.

“You’re strong enough already without it. Rather than playing with corpses you should go out there and try making real friends.”

“Syr has Adeleya,” I’m still not sure about Nadia but she’s nice too. Anna seems like she could be a friend, but I haven’t asked her about it yet.

“You need more friends than that.”

“Adeleya is enough.”

“You’re such a kid,” he laughs back at me, continuing to trudge forwards. I follow him. “What do you see in her anyway?”

“Adeleya is pretty, nice, and cool. Her hugs are the best, and she’s warm and happy, and she smells really nice.”

“She… smells nice?” He asks me, with a lifted eyebrow.

“She smells nice,” I say again, nodding. “I want to be with her forever.”

“Well… it’s not that I don’t get it.” He replies with a sigh, “When you first fall in love, everything about the person just sort of glows, it’s like they could do no wrong. Is that how you feel with Adeleya?”

Adeleya definitely glows. I nod.

“You want to hug her and be closer to her than anyone else?” He asks.

I nod.

“Hard to be sure…” He grimaces, “Still sounds to me like you’re having your first crush. Gods, I still remember my first crush, hair like the finest silk and eyes that glowed like an angry fire,” He sighs staring up to the canopy.

“What’s a crush?” I ask.

As he turns to look back at me, it’s like he’s a completely different person. He’s softer, and he’s not angry with me anymore.

“It means you really love someone,” he laughs a little. “Be prepared for some painful times ahead, kiddo. A few fun times too, if you're lucky.”

“You have a crush, too?” I ask, I never really thought about it, but others must feel this way too. Others would have to see how wonderful Adeleya is.

Well, they can’t have her. She’s mine.

“Spending your time out there alone you missed half your childhood,” he says, shaking his head. “This is still your first time, but it gets a bit different as you get older.”

“How?” Does that mean Adeleya feels differently to me?

How does Adeleya look at me? How is it different from how I see her?

“It’s a little less like a fairytale,” he replies, walking ahead with his sharp eyes focused ahead of him. But, for some reason, he looks terribly sad.

A small black cloud about the size of a person hovers in the air before us.

A mite swarm.

“I’m going to use these baits to draw it in towards the nest and the corpse back there. I need you to watch my back in case any more show up,” he tells me.

“Got it,” I nod quickly.

He drops a small chunk of bloody meat and the swarm quickly comes straight for it. It seems dangerous at first, but as we lead this thing nearer to the corpse it feels more and more like some silly game. I almost feel bad that we’re about to kill it.

In short time, we lead it back and head out again for another swarm. Apparently, when scouting they found three nests in the area, and thankfully the swarms tend to stay close to each other so it’s unlikely that Theo and the others missed any.

I bring Sandy down for a quick pat, earning me a sneer from Lothar who’s back to his normal attitude.

I send her away before she can bother him anymore. Maybe she can help us find the other two, but I have to be careful that she doesn’t get eaten like the baits.

“Do you hate me?” I ask Lothar.

“After our conversation just now…?” he shakes his head. “What would you do if I said yes?”

I stop, looking at him carefully. Is he a threat? Will he try to kill me, too?

He lets out a long sigh, “I don’t hate you. So, stop looking at me like that.

“Your necromancy is disgusting. I hate it. But, I don't hate you.” He says looking at me seriously, “If we're going to be a team we might as well let it all out. The others want to treat you all gentle-like. They don't see your strength like I do.”

He stands tall, his own weapons hanging loosely by his side. “I hate your necromancy, but it is your strength, so I won't tell you not to use it at all, just don't involve me.

“What's more, you should be in town learning how to live with others not joining us on quests. Everyone thinks the same, they're just afraid to hurt your feelings by saying it.

“Now, what do you think of me? Do you hate me?”

“You're honest,” I tell him. “Like you said, everyone else is afraid to say these things. It makes things difficult for Syr who doesn't understand people very well.”

I bring Sandy close and have her land on my shoulder, “It hurts that you hate necromancy so much, but it's good to hear it. I'd never want to hurt you by using it badly, but if no one tells Syr that it hurts them, Syr won't ever know.”

I bite my tongue. I’m falling into bad habits because I’m nervous, I have to be better than this. I have to be stronger than this.

“You say I should stay in town. That I shouldn't fight, but you also say that if people find out about the magic, they'll hate me. Want to hurt me. If I can't fight, then...”

“Good, so we understand each other,” Lothar asks.

“I want to be friends,” I tell him.

“Friends?” he asks, taking a step back. “Even though I hate your necromancy?”

“You don't want to be friends?” I ask.

He chews on his lips a while, “...I guess it's okay.”

“Thank you.”

He sighs again. He's doing that a lot today.

“First lesson. Don't thank people for being friends.”

“Okay.”

“Next lesson,” he continues. “...Adeleya. Just to be sure, you do like her in the kissing sort of way, right?”

“Kissing? Adeleya is going to give me a kiss after the quest.” What is he going on about? He was listening in?

“Ah, so that’s it...” He cracks his knuckles, “Okay, I can do this, just like back home in the old days. Another little sister is all…

“Okay, you get that there are all sorts of kisses, right? They all mean different things, so where do you want to kiss Adeleya? Cheek, lips, or…?”

“Adeleya’s lips...” her lips do seem really soft, and Nadia said that kissing on the lips means you’re really important to each other. “I want to kiss Adeleya on the lips.”

“I guess that’s fairly clear then,” he replies, “Look, I don't think Adeleya feels the same way you do. She said you’re her sister, right? That’s different to what you want.”

“She doesn't...” my mind stops a moment.

“So, are you going to give up?”

Give up? On this feeling? I can't imagine just not feeling this way any longer. I shake my head firmly.

“If she doesn't like me like that, then I just need to show her how strong and awesome I can be.” Surely, she'll love me back, if not...

“Be prepared for the worst,” he says, smiling though it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Things rarely turn out how you want them to.”

“But I’m strong now. I can make things turn out better.”

“Being strong isn't always enough,” he replies and we fall into silence, getting to work and drawing in the remaining swarms.

I try to think through everything that he said, and all the difficult feelings stirring in my guts and inside my heart, but I just can’t quite figure it all out.

When the last of the swarms are chewing on the massive lizard’s corpse, it’s time for us to finish them.

“Do your thing,” Theo waves Adeleya in.

“That I will. Hey, Syr, want to see something really neat?” She asks standing ahead and turning her head to the side to look back at me.

“Sure.”

“This magic is powerful.” She says, turning to face the corpse covered in tiny black dots, “It’s difficult to get right, but it is like nothing else in this kingdom.”

She lifts her staff forwards, straight at the swarming black masses. As she does so, she chants, closing her eyes and letting her words whisper on shifting winds.

Flames race along the staff, very quickly enveloping the body and the swarms, though this is only the beginning. The flames rise high into the air, scorching the branches above us.

A summoned wind whips through and circles the flames, trapping the swarms inside as the blaze grows taller and taller.

The inferno is strong and growing stronger. They grow hotter and hotter inside the terrible winds, changing colours from red to yellow.

With a quick snap of her fingers, the spell dissipates and the flames fade, revealing ash that settles on the ground.

Adeleya turns to me and whispers, “Your sister’s pretty cool, huh? But you did pretty well yourself. I’m proud of you.”

She presses her lips to my forehead.

The flickering flames above die, but the confusing emotions inside are still a mess of colourful flames. Adeleya clicks her fingers again, but these flames don’t die out quite as easily.