In the morning we brought the journey up with Savri and Ren.

‘Wait…’ Savri said, mildly amused, after we finished. ‘‘Is your honeymoon idea seriously looking for a haunted island?’

‘Well… You can’t spell necromancer without ROMANCE,’ Lilyth replied deadpan.

That made us all laugh.

‘Normally, I would call you mad but given the Odysseus connection Lilyth brought up… I am more than a little curious,’ Sav continued. ‘I had only fairly minimal connection with ancient human culture in the other world so I probably wouldn't have caught it… but it does seem worth investigating. It also confirms one thing. The universe I was in… appears to be some variant of the universe your Terra is from.’

‘So this time, I was the one quicker on the uptake,’ Lilyth said, proudly. ‘You mentioned Paul and Serge. Those are Terran names.’

‘Oh…’

‘Wait…’ Caei butted in. ‘Why aren’t you… more… I don’t know… excited about that?’

‘Why would I be?’ Lilyth shrugged. ‘It’s not my Earth. It is A variant, but I have no idea whether the only difference in 2024 is the presence of magic OR if me and my family never existed. So it might as well not be there as far as I care. Plus, well… even if it was exactly the same, I have you and Aki now.’

Veenaya let out an impatient arf.

‘And Veenaya, of course,’ she corrected herself.

The lumizu started purring and rubbing itself against Lilyth’s leg. My wife picked her up and hugged her, bringing an expression of pure joy to Veenaya’s face.

How smart is she exactly?

‘At any rate, I’m in,’ Savri said, bringing us back to the topic at hand. ‘Might be some clue there on how to get back home. So… Together till the end.’

We looked at Ren.

‘I owe you guys my life…’ she began and then choked up. ‘But… it’s not easy… t-to…’

‘We know…’ I said.

‘Still…’ she continued. ‘Maybe… t-this… is wh-... What… what I need…’

Ren paused for a moment to steel herself for what she was about to say.

‘Together till the end,’ she pronounced, officially becoming one of us at that moment.

Veenaya let out a happy arf.

‘Wanna go see a spooky island too, eh?’ Lilyth asked her.

The lumizu responded with another arf, nuzzled against her and started purring again.

‘Did you just communicate with her?’ Ren asked, very confused.

‘I have no idea,’ Lilyth said. ‘I used to talk with my cat. Argue too. She would win most of the time. I never quite figured out whether she actually understood me or just reacted to external stimuli. In any case, animals are hella smart in their own way, so I wouldn't put it past a magical one to be sentient to some extent.’

Veenaya arfed in a ponderous way.

‘See?’

From their end, Savri and Ren were able to provide us with some details about our quest. The demoness said that even before she ended up in the other world she did hear about some expeditions to find the island, but a lot of those never returned. Ren confirmed no one had found the island in the meantime, at least to her knowledge. There was a book on mythology in the estate, though, which gave us an extra incentive to go there.

Ren also said she would be able to provide us with some starter capital as she did have some money stashed away there. Most of her funds were in Tyr-Mel, however. Still, between what we had now and what she could get for us, we would end up having over ten thousand Divines, which was a fortune. More if her mom chipped in.

‘Still likely far short of what we’ll need,’ Lilyth sighed. ‘That’s what… ten weeks of food and board?’

‘Yeah… we likely need five times as much… for starters…’ Sav said. ‘What memories I have from my other self that relate to sea travel… hiring a ship ain’t cheap.’

‘I don’t think we are in the market for hiring here…’ Ren sighed. ‘Remember, our little adventure has a reputation of being a one-way trip. No sane ship owner will help us with this.’

‘So… buy a ship and find someone crazy enough to sail it for us?’ I asked.

‘Seems like it.’ Ren answered.

‘The last one might be easy,’ Caei mused. ‘We can probably arrange this through the Seekers?’

‘We’ve got a plan, then,’ Lilyth beamed. ‘Now, let’s go see Ren’s mom!’

It was late evening by the time we got to the shores of Lake Heligst. The sun had almost set and, since it would still take us a few hours to get to the estate, we decided to spend the night in the woods and head there in the morning. Understandably, Ren was less than pleased with this but conceded that force marching there while it was dark was probably a bad idea, as the situation was further complicated by the fact that of us five only Lilyth and Caei could see in the dark. Ren had some vesteejel [Darksight], as Lil described it, thanks to her harpy heritage, but it wouldn't be of much help. As such, we would need to rely on my [Abyssal Spark] to see, which in turn would likely alert any potential enemies we were coming.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

‘I’m just worried sick about my mom,’ Ren sighed sadly.

‘We understand,’ I smiled sadly. ‘If it was my mom, I would also want to get there immediately. We just have to pray nothing happens there until tomorrow.’

Caei found me as I was playing with Veenaya. Lilyth mentioned a game called fetch during our rests today and our Lumizu just loved it. Who could have suspected that throwing a stick could bring something this much joy?

There was clearly something on my wife’s mind so, to Veenaya’s immense displeasure, I paused the game. I indicated to the ground and we sat against a tree close to each other, with our lumizu rolling into a ball next to Caeileera.

Calling me a traitor, eh?

‘I wanted to thank you, you know,’ Caei began, her voice breaking slightly. ‘F-for everything. For including me in your life. For choosing to stay with me despite… Ren.’

I hugged her.

‘There is nothing to thank me for, Caei. I care for you. Lilyth does too.’

‘I know… it’s just…’

I kissed her.

‘There is no just,’ I stressed. ‘We want you in our lives. Never doubt that.’

‘Thank you,’ she whimpered. ‘Did you know that before you two I… “me” I… was never in a relationship? All I had connecting me with other people was sex. I enjoyed it. I still do… but… it feels shallow now.’

‘It’s how your people are, isn't it?’

‘Yes. I think The Blood wants us to be… like that. It is easier to control people when they can’t form bonds.’

‘You are out of there now.’

‘Yes. Thanks to the two of you.’

‘Thanks to Lilyth, more like,’ I laughed. ‘I distinctly remember us coming to blows… skank.’

‘That we did… pipsqueak,’ she joked back.

I took her hand in my artificial one. I never could quite get used to the slight differences in touch between that one and my flesh and blood one. Still… being able to feel the warmth of Caeileera's body with it… was enough.

‘We’ve come a long way since then,’ I smiled. ‘I think I can now freely say… the day I got to meet you and Lilyth… that was the best day of my life.’

‘Mine too.’

Caei took a deep breath.

‘What I want to say… is that I love you, Aki. I love Lilyth too.’

‘And I love you too, Caei,’ I confessed. ‘No matter what.’

We embraced.

‘But not like, Lilyth,’ she said without a hint of bitterness in her voice.

‘No,’ I admitted. ‘I…’

This time Caeileera was the one to interrupt me with a kiss.

‘It’s okay. I just wanted to clear the air about that. You can't help the way you feel.’

‘I hope one day I will share as strong a bond with you, as I do with her.’

‘And we will. In our own way.’

We kissed again and after we parted Veenaya chose to remind us that she was there with a happy arf.

We looked at her suspiciously with Caei.

The lumizu with a happy expression on its face began to nuzzle against us and purr.

‘Yeah… she definitely knows what is happening,’ Caei said.

Veenaya arfed doing her best to look completely innocent.

Since we were near a “potentially hostile area”, as Savri aptly described it, we decided to set up watches again, rather than just relying on the [Ward] spell. So it fell to Caei to wake us up at around three in the morning.

‘Guys!’ she half-whispered, half-shouted. ‘Wake up!’

The sky was cloudless and the moon was out so I could see the expression of worry on her face.

‘What’s happening?’ I heard Sav say, while sleep was still trying to reclaim me.

‘Lights on the lake,’ my wife explained.

That was enough for Lilyth who disentangled herself from my arms and sat up.

‘Pretty unusual time for a boat ride,’ she muttered groggily.

‘Thanks, Captain Obvious,’ Savri grumbled, as she was gathering her things.

‘That’s Paladin Obvious, Master Sergeant,’ Lilyth laughed.

Savri muttered something I couldn't quite hear, though my wife clearly could as she responded.

‘Even with me being a shapeshifter I don’t think that one is quite possible, Sav.’

‘Bite me…’

‘Sorry, happily married.’

Savri huffed in exasperation and started heading towards the lake. I slowly began to gather myself too.

The last to rouse was Ren, likely due to her being unused to this kind of life.

Then again, she did travel. Maybe they just didn't set up watches. It’s not like either version of me didn't sleep on the road alone before meeting Lilyth.

When our new friend realised what was happening she jumped up as if she was on fire.

‘I gather from this reaction that late-night water traffic is, indeed, unusual here,’ Lilyth said while stretching.

‘Yeah,’ Ren answered grimly. ‘Few are brave enough to sail on the river at night, lights or not.’

‘Let’s grab our things then,’ I ordered my friends. ‘I think we need to get moving.’

After a few moments, we joined Caei and Savri observing the lake. There were eight lights visible in the distance. From our perspective, four of them formed a cross that was flanked by two lines of two lights each.

‘Three boats, I think?’ Savri observed. ‘The four lights are a large one and the remainder are probably smaller escort vessels.’

‘I think you are right,’ Lilyth said. ‘Not very stealthy buggers, now are they?’

‘Assuming it is them,’ Caei pondered. ‘Maybe we are jumping to conclusions here.’

She looked at Ren who shook her head.

‘Like I said, we don't move cargo on the river on our own.’

‘I can’t think of a different reason why you would be sailing in formation at this time of night, then,’ Sav sighed.

‘River patrol?’ I weakly suggested.

‘No,’ Ren shook her head. ‘It’s them.’

There was a dreadful finality to that statement.

Our brief vacation was over. The time to fight had come again.