Levi spent most of those days inside meditating. He had finally taken grace up on her offer to stay in the cabin. He'd forgotten what it was like to have a hot bath, but Grace had insisted. She had even boiled the water to heat the bath herself.

She'd also made sure he was getting at least two decent meals per day.

Levi could still barely move, with the following day being worse.

When he first meditated, he immediately saw why his body didn't want to work right, though he wasn't sure how he'd made such a mess of things. The networks that were his stamina and mana channels were fucked both looked as if they'd been strained and ruptured in places, in others they looked like they'd had spurts of spontaneous, mutated growth.

Levi understood the parts that looked strained and ruptured. That made complete sense with the way he'd been pushing, but the strange new growths were confusing.

The lacelike patterns of his mana channels had new areas resembling something more like his stamina channels, with sudden bursts of webbing that had some lacelike intricacies along them. The stamina channels likewise had certain areas that burst out into odd shapes and swirls that burst out again into a weblike pattern.

Typically, his stamina and mana channels didn't come into contact, but these new strange growths often brushed up against each other, if not outright mingling.

Levi was worried about that. He was afraid it would cause him problems.

He wondered if his new core was responsible but thought that it was unlikely, at least solely.

His core was some good news, though. It was strong. And, for whatever reason, his 'existence' was producing the higher quality essence at an even faster rate than he had produced the lower quality essence before he'd upgraded his core.

However, on the second day, that production of essence seemed to slow considerably. Levi thought maybe the intensity of events, his experiences, had something to do with his ability to produce that essence. It made sense in a way.

Still, his core was strong. The new ring of essence was far more solid. It also seemed more white, not quite as dark of a grey as the first had been. Both his core and the ring spun like a gyroscope. He had focused on renewing this. But Levi didn't dare push it to the intesity he had when he'd upgraded his core.

Rick had told him he had nearly died. He wasn't ready. Levi knew that. If he hadn't been ready for the first step, he sure as fuck wasn't nearly ready for a second.

Something else that Levi found was new and interesting was that around the first ring of his core, he saw the faint trails of a second, even brighter one forming. But, this one was so faint that he'd almost not noticed it at all. For now, Levi left that alone, feeling like he'd already risked far too much.

By the end of the second day, his mana and stamina channels were already showing signs of recovery. The strained areas, appearing dim and discolored, started returning to normal. The ruptures were closing off, though it seemed he was developing more odd growths where the channels had ruptured.

But still, he could see the recovery happening within the meditation space. And his body was already feeling better, too. He was able to walk without too much difficulty, but any time he tried to exert himself in any way, he felt extreme weakness and pain in his muscles.

It was progress, and he felt confident he would fully recover.

----

Paige spent those two days in Levi's camp. It had nothing to do with her crush on him. It just didn't feel right to leave it unattended while he recovered.

She did use his bedroll, though. That had entirely started out motivated by her crush, right until she'd smelled it. It was gross. She'd had to wash it thoroughly and hang it out to dry. Then, she'd had to wash it again with the strongest soap she could get from Grace, because it had still smelled like the inside of a gym locker.

She also spent time with the crows and treating them. She'd taken a page from Grace's book and raided the bakery for some masa, or corn flour, and salt.

They'd be very basic corn tortillas, but Paige knew the crows would love them.

As she finished her first, she felt weird tossing it to the ground, but the crows somewhat made up for that. They were on the tortilla in a second, tearing it apart and fighting over the crumbs.

One crow snagged a larger piece and took flight.

"Oy, oy, oy... you greedy bastard, leave none for the rest of us then?"

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"Aye, aye," Another crow chimed in. "You're acting like some sorry seagull, gulping it all up for yourself."

Paige smiled as she put the next tortilla in the pan. She had really missed the crows. And they deserved this.

"Calm down. I have plenty to make. Everyone should have enough." Paige was wondering what kind of LSD inspired Disney princess she'd suddenly become... but she was happy.

"Miss, I ain't gonna lie... us boys was wondering if this was going to be a bit of an all work and no reward situation with you. We started worrying that maybe you'd forgotten your promises," One crow began.

"Ay, ay. And I said she better bloody not if she didn't want to be dodging our droppings for the rest of her life, I did," the younger idiot crow chimed in.

Of course, his comment was followed by the ear destroying calls of all the other crows telling him to shut up and that he was stupid.

"But, but, but...," a third crow chimed in. "These flat things are better than regular corn."

"Outright magical, it is. Best thing I ever ate."

"I'm glad you like them." Paige smiled. "Consider this a thank you. You've all been amazing."

One after another, Paige tossed out warm tortillas. And she didn't stop until a whole tortilla lay completely untouched in the clearing, and the crows couldn't eat another bite.

She'd even let Grace's new familar come and snag his fill, though all the other crows seemed to have words for him over that.

Paige felt better than she had those last two days, if not quite truly happy.

But she also missed her family. And she worried about them after the safezone had been attacked. She knew it was time for her to go find them.

Yet, she wasn't quite ready to say goodbye. She felt she owed at least a few of them another week or so. But she was going to tell everyone her plan to leave soon.

------

Paige found Joe and Levi talking next to Grace's fire.

"That's pretty tasteless, I'm not going to lie," Levi was saying.

"That's what I told them. And they keep trying to create some clever name for those of us who went to fight. Tacky as shit," Joe added.

Paige sat down and jumped into the conversation, "Wait, what's going on? And where's Grace?"

"The council's trying to plan some way of honoring the people who went to get the girls back and fight Eric. But Agnis and Mike are pushing to do it at the memorial for those who died, and it looks like they've got the support," Levi explained. "That's where Grace is at. Apparently, the council has been discussing a lot of stuff."

"Ah. Why is that a big deal, though?"

Joe and Levi exchanged a glance. After a moment, Joe explained. "It really isn't that big of a deal, just in poor taste. First, you don't go praising living people as heroes while standing over the graves of those who gave their lives.

Plus, consider how Craig will feel. Or those who cared about Brent, or that young dual wielder-"

"-Zeke, his name was Zeke," Levi cut in.

"Thank you. But yes, think about those who are there mourning someone they care about to have to watch as those who lived get honors. It just isn't something you should do," Joe finished.

"I didn't think about that," Paige said quietly. "What else are they discussing?"

"I have my suspicions, but Grace has been pretty tight-lipped about it. She said the council has agreed to keep a lot of things to themselves until final decisions are made."

"Must be something pretty big, then."

Levi nodded.

"How's your recovery going?" Paige asked Levi.

"Slow, but I'm pretty sure I should be fine in a couple more days. I won't really know if there will be any permanent consequences until I can fight and use my skills again, but I think I'll be fine. Mostly, at least."

"That's good."

Silence stretched between them for a while after that. It was hard for any of them to fall back into casual conversation or banter after everything that had happened.

The shock of how quickly everything seemed to go to hell and the severe consequences of that still weighed heavily.

It was like there was a shared, unspoken desire to get things back to normal, and the shared burden that weighed them all down and made that hard.

Joe finally stood, "I'm going to go for a walk and think. Grace wants to have dinner here tonight. She told me to let you know. She's inviting Maddy and David, too."

After he'd walked away, Paige finally spoke again. "I hate this feeling. I hate that everything feels so wrong and empty now. A few days ago, everything was great. We were all happy. Things were easy, even the hard things. Now..."

"Yeah. I know what you mean." Levi pulled out his dagger and a piece of wood and began whittling. "It does get easier. You just keep moving forward and plodding along. Then someone cracks a joke and gets a real smile. Or something good happens that lifts the mood. Or you share a good meal together and just compliment the cook. And then, slowly, things get back to normal."

"I'm guessing you've been through something like this before?" Paige asked.

"A few times. I still hate it. It feels the same every time. Like things will never be normal again. Even if you know they will."

"So what are you whittling?" Paige pointed to the small piece of wood in Levi's hands.

"Not quite sure at the moment. I can't do much, injured the way I am, so I'm trying to learn a carving skill or something in the meantime. I'm pretty sure this will either be a bird of some sort... at least, that's the only thing it looks like if I squint just right."

Paige let out a small laugh. "Hey, if you're feeling up to it tomorrow, you want to go on that walk we never got to go on..." She hesitated a moment, considering her words. "I-I know it won't be the same as it would have been. But I feel like it was something that was taken from me that night. I want to take it back. If I can."

Levi stopped whittling and looked up at her. He could tell by the look in her eye that it wasn't going to be some romantic outing. It wasn't going to be some hot and steamy moment next to the gorgeous view of a moon lit pond, either. It was just going to be a walk.

He felt grateful for that, for some reason.

After a moment, he smiled. "Yeah. That'd be great. You said it is a pretty big pond, huh? A swim will be nice. How do you feel about a little fishing, too, while we're there?"

Paige's face lit up at that. "I like fishing. Haven't been since I was younger, with my dad. Do you know where we can get some fishing poles and stuff?"

Levi shrugged. "I'm pretty sure we can figure it out."

"Yeah, we'll figure it out," Paige agreed, feeling the first real happiness she'd felt in a while. She hadn't known how bad she'd needed it until that moment.