Haylen was a paladin candidate and the leader of our group. Somehow the natural beauty of her lithe form, green hair, and pointed ears was only enhanced by the shining breastplate she wore and the casual way she treated the hefty arming sword strapped to her hip. She was destined for greatness, but it was a fate of her own making and one she embraced with all her being. Someday, I was sure, she would be listed among the heroes of legend.

Kearse was our rock. Our resilient bastion of common sense. Though human, his dark skin and short curly hair marked him as a descendant of foreigners, but no one who knew him would say he was anything but a native to the lands we traveled. Currently, he was driving our mule-drawn wagon, displaying his skill in… whatever we needed of him. While he wasn’t Haylens equal when it came to martial prowess, he was still a veteran of the expeditions and was not to be taken lightly. Unlike our leader, he chose to go without armor at the moment, but kept his spear close at hand.

Mayra was the other human in our group. Not only an accredited mage of the guild, she was also a member of the nobility. She was much more of the former than the later. Her skin was naturally tanned, her brown hair drawn back in a single tight braid, and her billowing dress was finely cut. Her inquisitive personality and the spark of curiosity in her eyes showed that while she was still a noble’s daughter, she had chosen the path of magic and the arcane. If you took away her title, she would still be noble by nature, but if you took away her magic, she would be nothing.

Finally, myself. I was a homunculus, an artificial being crafted by magics and sorcery beyond the understanding of any living person. I was unique and different from anyone else in the world. My dark blue-black hair was a choice made possible by my shapeshifting nature. My large eyes, slightly pointed ears, short stature, and most noticeably my horns, were all innate and had been part of me since the day of my creation. With my mood flip-flopping between energetic enthusiasm and quiet depression, few people had taken the time to realize just how dangerous I could be.

With a description like that, we almost sounded like a group of adventurers setting out on a quest to slay a dragon, rescue a princess, or save the world from some unspeakable evil. In truth, it was more accurate to say that we were simply on vacation. We were travelers, sojourners, and sightseers. Our destination was nothing more than a place where we might sleep for the night. Our only goal was to see the empire, and none of us wanted anything outside of that.

For Haylen, Kearse, and Mayra, this was the journey of a lifetime. Our trip around the empire would easily take us two years or more, and it was something that was meant to define them as individuals. The pilgrimage would help them understand who they were and what their place in their homeland was.

For me, this was an escape. It was procrastination. A person’s purpose in life is whatever they choose to make of it, but my choices seemed limited to “anything,” and such a broad spectrum of options made it hard to decide one any particular one.. The empire was large and full of opportunity, but that too only made it harder for me to find what fit me best.

I tried to remind myself that my journey had only just begun. I would have years to see the world. There was no rush. For once, I didn’t have to worry about making any life altering decisions today. Knowing that I could now sit back and enjoy the ride helped to calm me down as well.

After an hour or so of small talk, I realized that I was having to force myself less and less to participate in the conversations. I was actually at the most baseline average mood that I had been in in ages. There were no zombies hunting me or asshole wizards trying to abduct me. There were also no bars I was looking to get drunk in or women whose skirts I was trying to get inside of. Aside from Haylen that is, but she didn’t really count at the moment.

I felt normal, and it was nice.

I even started looking forward to the evening and setting up camp, knowing that it would take mere seconds to fall asleep as opposed to the hours that were my usual.

I began to feel a bit bad for secluding myself in the wagon when we had left. I had apparently missed Corlo giving a heartfelt speech to Haylen. I had also missed someone called Madam Alling, who Haylen seemed to think of as a second mother. I had seen Kearse’s family, but I couldn’t even remember what I had said to them.

I had my excuses for hiding away like I had, but I still felt guilty for doing it. This was a big event for the people that I now considered to be my friends, and I shouldn’t have ignored them like that. I hadn’t said goodby to many people, but I should have.

Kearse drove the wagon well, as far as I could tell, and would occasionally shout out to the rest of us in the back if he had anything he felt needed to be added to our little conversations. It was a large and blocky thing we rode in, similar to the covered wagons used by the early settlers in my past life’s homeland. Haylen had mentioned that it was slightly defective, but the minor enchantments that its structure held made our ride much smoother than anyone else’s on the road.

And there were a lot of other people sharing our path.

The crowd of pilgrims outside the churches had been large, and although half of them had gone South, either returning home or choosing to go in a different direction than we had, that still left the other half to go in our direction.

We changed course after a while, and soon had the road to ourselves. The other pilgrims were headed East, seeking the nearest town and making their way directly towards the next kingdom over. At a fork in the road we left them behind, turning slightly north, in towards the heartlands of Orlis, and the place that Mayra’s family called home.

I took little part in the conversation, being more interested in the changing landscape as we got farther and farther away from the city. At first everything was farmland, the area outside of Orlis’ walls serving no purpose other than to feed its hungry population. The land was sectioned off into plots according to ownership and then further walled off with long palisades, forming tiny villages that clung to each other like soap bubbles.

After a couple miles, the trees began to return and the lush jungle forests of southern Orlis started to reappear. This part of the kingdom was a humid place, and was probably the reason for the airy clothing that the locals favored. I had been told that it was currently the rainy season, but I hadn’t seen much rain so far. Or maybe I just hadn’t been paying attention. Either way, things were damp.

I was in a trance, hypnotized by the beauty of my surroundings. Like Kearse, I spoke occasionally, interjecting if the other’s conversation turned towards something that I felt could use my opinion, but for the most part I just watched the world go by. We stopped occasionally to rest the mules, relieve ourselves, stretch our legs, and have a quick meal, but I was too enthralled by the sights to notice.

This was my second time seeing the lands outside of the city, but I had spent most of the first time too wrapped up in my own little headspace to pay attention, and I had only noticed the most superficial details. Any anxiety or thoughts of depression were shoved aside by a childlike wonder at the new experience.

“What kind of trees are those? I recognize those flowers, but what are they called? How often do people have to come by and maintain this road? Why are those chickens black? Did my old world have black chickens? I think it did, but… shit. I can remember. And are those deer? Are deer farm animals here? That’s awesome! Fuck, I could really go for some venison right now.”

It was slow going compared to driving a car our flying by plane, but this seemed more intimate. Every pothole, hill, or curve in the road was unique, and I had ample time to appreciate them.

If this was what I had to look forward to for the foreseeable future, I could accept and enjoy it.

I was almost disappointed when we finally came to a stop for the evening.

* * * * *

Kearse’s legs were almost numb and his ass was sore when they finally reached the road sanctuary. He knew that Haylen could drive a wagon, but he’d have to make sure that Indigo and Mayra could do it too, because there was no way he was going to spend the next two years as their group’s designated driver. The wagon was smoother than the ones used by the expedition, but it still wasn’t anything that he would call comfortable.

The as of yet unnamed mules had at least been easy to work with. The short period of time he had spent with them before leaving Orlis had convinced him that they were just as stubborn as people said they were, but at least they stuck to the job they were given. They were also bigger than most horses he had seen, and had the four of them had little trouble pulling the modest wagon.

The road sanctuary was his signal to stop for the night. Thirty-five kilometers out from the capital, it was the last refuge they would find unless they wanted to try and convince a farmer to let them camp in one of his fields. They had made good time that day, and it was closer to late afternoon than early evening. They could have pressed on, but none of them really wanted to.

Road sanctuaries were a traveler’s stronghold. They were simple structures, little more than a walled in area with enough space to park a few wagons or carriages, and a building left open for whomever might need to spend the night. But they were sanctuaries none the less. They were defensible, and places where a lone traveler might find refuge from the wandering mists, or more commonly, the rain. They were symbols of safety, where a person could sleep at ease. Even bandits didn’t dare attack them, lest they bring down the wrath of the empire and brand themselves apostates as well as outlaws. The peace of a road sanctuary was as involatile as the peace of any church or temple.

Mostly, Kearse was just happy to be saved from the burden of the driver’s seat. The others might not appreciate how much effort he put into avoiding bumps in the road or keeping the mules on track, but they soon would if he had had anything to say about it. There was no way he was going to be the only one to drive the wagon for the entire pilgrimage.

However, nearly as soon as they arrived, the women went off to take a bath in a nearby stream and left him to start setting up camp for the night. Maybe the real reason the women wanted a man to accompany them was so that they would have someone to do the heavy lifting.

Once the mules had been unhitched, brushed down, and fed, Kearse groaned and lay down in the empty room of the sanctuary. He wasn’t about to do a lick of work, not one more task, until he had had his turn at a bath.

“I guess I forgot how much of this pilgrimage will be spent on the road. If even half of this trip is spent in a town or city, I’ll be a lucky man.”

Kearse was already a lucky man, and he knew it. He was about to go on the grand pilgrimage. No, he was already on the grand pilgrimage. The grand pilgrimage! Him! A commonest of commoners! Going on the grand pilgrimage! It still felt unreal to him, like all of this was only a dream.

Everyone went on a pilgrimage at least once. Kearse himself would have made his own in a year or two. He probably would have gone to Thessil or Check. Maybe he would have passed through Check and gone all the way to Capitalis to see the emperor’s city.

Like Father Gregor had said before his blessing, the pilgrimage was sacred because of its practicality. Travel, peaceful relations between neighboring countries, and seeking to understand foreign cultures was practically dogma to the Arlonian faith.

For every social class there were a multitude of reasons why the pilgrimage was important. For the commoners, it expanded their worldview and made them aware of the greater whole they were part of. For the nobility, it helped to cement relations between the imperial lands, and promoted an internal peace. For everyone else… well, he didn’t really know. Kearse had never put too much thought into how the pilgrimage would affect anyone beyond himself and his immediate family.

“Indigo’s going to learn about the empire. And to grow up a bit, I guess. Haylen is going to become a paladin, so she’ll want to learn about the people she’s going to be protecting. Mayra… hmmm. Nobles usually take the grand pilgrimage, but she’s only a baron’s daughter. That’s still something, but it’s not much by noble standards. She’d barely rank above a knight. She isn’t the heir, is she? I suppose I’ll find out in a few days. But she’s also a mage so… Well damn. Why would a mage hope to gain from the pilgrimage?”

Kearse didn’t know it, but he was far from the first pilgrim to sit in this particular road sanctuary and wonder about the lives of others. Such thoughts were common among those making the holy journey.

Besides friendship, what did Mayra hope to gain by taking her pilgrimage now? Nobles usually waited until marriage to do this, right? At the moment, Kearse was both relieved and amused to realize that Mayra was, for once, the biggest mystery he had to deal with.

Besides himself, that was. His own normal pilgrimage, would have been a learning experience. It would have been a learning experience, and one of the greatest parts of his life. But now here he was doing something far greater, and he had no idea what it meant.

He was only a commoner. A street sweeper, son of a street sweeper. What could he gain by going around the entire empire? What would the empire gain by having him see it in its entirety? Whose life could possibly be changed by Kearse passing by? He knew he had been invited to join them so that he could be the “man” in the group,

“I know why they asked me to come, but why did I say yes? Because I wanted to help. I liked feeling needed. But is that all I get out of this? This will be one of the biggest events in my entire life. We all have our own reasons for going, but I need something more than just ‘because I was asked.’ Is it selfish to question how this will benefit me individually? No. I don’t think so.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

His contemplations were interrupted by the return of the women, still damp from their bath. Haylen and Mayra set about placing their bedrolls. Indigo, as usual, chose to be odd and hung a hammock from the rafters. Kearse didn’t know the reasoning for this, but he suspected that, like the bell on her door, it had something to do with her time spent in the necropolis.

The horned girl seemed a bit… down. Which made sense in light of what she had been through in the past few days. Or maybe even weeks. Kearse’s big brother senses began to tingle, and he knew what needed to be done. His own bath could wait.

“Indigo, do you have a moment?” he asked, and tilted his head towards the door.

She was busy talking to the other women, but she wasn’t really talking talking. She was just saying words.

When his little sister Iyesa had had a bad day, he would take her outside to a park, or even just to the well near their house. The location didn’t matter as long as their parents weren’t around. Because they were their parents, it was sometimes hard to talk freely around them. Then, once they were alone, he would talk about his own problems and ask her for advice. In Kearse’s opinion, worrying about another person’s problems was the best way to stop worrying about your own.

That was what Indigo needed right now. Her problems, some of them, were behind her. Unfortunately she was still hung up on them, and needed a little push to help distancing herself from what was in the past.

The homunculus followed him outside, an up to the top of the narrow wall that protected the sanctuary. Kearse leaned on what could generously be called battlements, and stared out at the forest and countryside before talking. Indigo looked like she felt a little out of place, but seemed to appreciate the moment of silence.

“Why am I on the grand pilgrimage?” he asked. “I know why you wanted me to come, but why am I here? What’s my purpose? My goal? I’m just… me. Just Kearse. A commoner. We take the pilgrimage. Everyone does. But we don’t take the grand pilgrimage. What’s my… I don’t know. My purpose? My goal? What’s the big understanding I’m supposed to get when all of this is done?”

Indigo seemed surprised by the choice in topic and sat down, leaning against the parapet. After a moment she spoke, unsure, but he hadn’t expected her to give a real answer anyway.

“Uh… To find yourself, I guess? I mean, I don’t really know much about you guys to begin with. Half the reason I’m going on this pilgrimage is to understand how everyone else in the empire thinks. If you’re looking for some deep insight, I don’t know what to tell you. If anything, I’d just say that this is just a regular pilgrimage, but more, ya know?”

In spite of its bad wording, that was a better answer than Kearse had expected. But only a little. The same, but more? What did that even mean? Something, apparently. The weird part was that it made sense.

His own pilgrimage would have helped him to understand the kingdoms near Orlis, so why not try to understand the kingdoms near the kingdoms near Orlis? They were all interconnected, right?

“Maybe?” he said with a shrug. “Maybe I’m just rushing things. It’ll be a long trip, so I suppose it’s still a bit early to expect myself to have it all figured out.

Well damn. What was he supposed to talk about now that his main topic of distraction had gone up in smoke? A slight rustling in the bushes outside of the walls saved him from having to come up with any extra small talk, and he latched onto it immediately.

“Hey, do you see that?” he asked.

Indigo raised herself up to look over the edge of the walls, but didn’t seem interested enough to put forth any unnecessary effort.

“See what?”

“There,” he said, pointing at the animal that had emerged from a clump of brush. “That has to be the biggest rat I’ve seen in my entire life. I bet you never got to see something like that in the necropolis.”

Indigo blinked in confusion before looking at him like he was an idiot.

“What?”

Her voice was flat, and displayed clear lack of interest.

“I’m just trying to help, alright?”

“What?” she asked again.

Kearse sighed. He really wasn’t good at this sort of thing.

“Alright, fine. Look. I know you’re feeling a bit down right now. I was just trying to take your mind of things. I figured that bringing you out here and talking about my own little problems would help you relax a bit.”

Indigo blinked again and looked back and forth between the giant rat and himself. Somehow, she made him feel like he was missing the point more than she was.

“Uh… Thanks. I think. No, I… appreciate it. It’s nice that you’re taking some time to try and help me. But, uh…”

“But what?” he asked.

The homunculus needed a distraction. That much was obvious. Kearse understood that he wasn’t exactly being smooth with his dialogue, but what was the problem? It didn’t matter what he talked about, right? She just needed a change of pace, right? So what if he jumped from his own concerns to talking about an unusually sized rodent?

“That’s uh… That’s not a rat.”

“Wait, what?”

Kearse’s face went blank. That’s what she was focusing on? Of all his little mistakes in handling the conversation, she was concerned with the rat?

“What? No. Wait. Hold on. No, that’s definitely a rat.”

How was this what they had ended up talking about?

“That is definitely a rat,” he said again with emphasis, no longer caring how pointless the debate was.

The animal outside of the walls had to be rat. What else could it be? Ratty head. Ratty tail. Ratty everything. It certainly wasn’t a mouse. The animal slowly skittering between the bushes couldn’t be anything other than a rat.

As a child, Kearse had once been scared by tales of the giant rats than lived in the sewers. His mother had, on multiple occasions, warned him that rats like the one he was looking at would steal away naughty children and chew on their feet. He was eighteen now and old enough to recognize the make-believe stories for what they were, but the sight of the giant rat moseying about outside was making him rethink things.

“Kearse, that’s an opossum.”

“A what? Is that the Ancestor’s word for giant rat or something? Nevermind. I’m going out to kill the thing. We wouldn’t want it digging its way in here and biting one of the mules.”

Indigo snorted. Then she laughed and grabbed hold of his sleeve before he could get rid of the pest.

“”Hmpfg. No. Heh. Ha ha ha! I’m sorry. I’m sorry. A rat is a rat, and an opossum is an opossum. They’re two completely different animals. Just leave it alone. It’s not about to bother anybody. Trust me. I’m a country girl, and I’ve seen plenty of opossums before. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that a city boy like you doesn’t know about the animals out here… but I am! We’re not even a full day away from Orlis yet. How do you not know what animals live out here?”

Kearse shrugged to shield himself from her criticism.

“How should I know? I’ve spent my entire life in Orlis. Aside from the expedition, this is the farthest from home I’ve ever been. And how do you know what the rat-thing is? You? A country girl? You’ve spent your entire life in the necropolis!”

Indigo raised a finger, probably about to remind him that the opossum wasn’t a rat, but froze. Her eyes widened, and the smug grin that had slowly been forming fell from her face.

“Did I say something wrong?”

Kearse hoped he hadn’t. For a moment there, he had felt like he was making actual progress.

Indigo’s shoulders slumped, and she swore under her breath.

“Fuck. Fine,” she began. “I was hoping to put this off for a few more days, but I guess now is as good as ever.”

She rose, and waved for him to follow.

“Come on. This is something that I need to say in front of everyone.”

* * * * *

Mayra lay splayed out on a bedroll while her small golem redid the braid in her hair. It wasn’t the most ladylike position to be in, but she doubted anyone around her would care. Kearse was the only one who seemed to pay any attention to her status, but felt that she had done a good job of helping him to forget that fact.

It was something they would be heavily reminded of in a few days, and she hoped the meeting with her family would go well. It probably would. Her parents paid almost as little attention to their titles as she did, and her brothers… they probably cared even less, if that was possible.

Either way, Mayra was feeling apprehensively optimistic. Her friends would like her family, and her family would like her friends. Of this she was sure, but they all had their own stubborn peculiarities that meant she would have to be constantly on guard to root out any misunderstandings before they could take hold. Mayra would enjoy seeing her home again, but she also knew that she would be very very tired by the time she left.

Haylen would probably get along well with her parents. She was dutiful, and that was something bother her mother and father respected. If anything, Mayra was silently hoping that Haylens infertility would keep her parents from mentioning their daughter’s own lack of children.

“Probably shouldn’t mention that to Haylen, though. She probably wouldn’t mind, but there’s no reason to risk giving offense.”

Her brothers had a wild streak that ensured they would love meeting Indigo. They never abused their authority, but they had a wanton nature that made them rather unpredictable at times. If she feared anything, it was that Indigo might sleep with one of her siblings. That… wasn’t something she wanted to imagine. Her younger sibling already had a little bastard running around the estates, and while Indigo was unlikely to ever conceive…

“Nope. Nope. No. I’m not thinking about it. I won’t think about it!”

Kearse was actually her biggest cause for concern. She wasn’t afraid her family would dislike him. Far from it. She was afraid that they would like him too much! He was a nice guy. Respectful and respectable, as any man should be. If Mayra had one worry about Kearse, it was that someone would try to match her up with him.

“He’s not bad as far as potential spouses go. And he’s certainly not bad looking…”

Mayra stopped herself before she could go any further. Kearse was nice. He was very nice. Social status aside, he was about as good as any woman could hope for. If he had been one of her previous suitors, she may not have remained single for as long as she had. He was easy on the eyes and practically radiated common sense. But that was also his biggest flaw. He was just too normal! Kearse was the antithesis of drama! How would someone like that make her life more interesting?

Her thoughts were interrupted when the homunculus entered the sanctuary followed by the selfsame Kearse she had definitely not been spending too much time thinking about.

Indigo looked around the single large room of the small building before sitting down by the hearth at its center.

“So, uh… I’ve got some stuff that I need to say.

Haylen looked up from whatever she had been doing, Kearse just seemed awkward as he sat around the fireplace, and Mayra was curios while she scooted closer to the group.

“Y’all know I have a lot of secrets,” Indigo began, staring into the embers. “A lot of those are things I can’t share, but this is something that I should. I’m… I’m a reincarnation. I had a life before this one.”

If the homunculus was waiting for an indrawn breath or a gasp of surprise, she wasn’t about to get one. Haylen, the most religious of the group, stepped in to say what everyone else was thinking.

“And?”

Indigo looked like she had just had a brick to the face. This clearly wasn’t the response she had expected.

“And what?” Haylen went on. Everyone’s been reincarnated. That’s how it works. We’ve all had lives before this one. We live. We die. If we’re good, we go to our god’s heaven to rest, and if we’re bad we go to a hell to be purged of our sins. Either way, our souls get brought back to be born again afterwards. I can see how you might not know that, but that’s just… how it is for everyone. You didn’t know that?”

Indigo paused, and Mayra could tell that that wasn’t quite what the girl had been trying to say.

“No. I mean, uh… no. I didn’t know that, but that’s not what I was getting at. What I mean is, I can remember my previous life. And my soul isn’t from this world. I was created artificially, but I was reincarnated artificially too.”

“Everything that I was is still in here,” she said, poking at her head. “Most of it anyways. Some of it’s nothing but a blank, but a lot of it is still there.”

If Indigo was hoping to leave everyone speechless, she succeeded.

“My soul was... forgotten, for lack of a better word. Whatever cycle of reincarnation you say exists, I got left out. I’m the one that got left behind. The crazy witch that made me was also the one that found me. She noticed me when nobody else did, and gave me the life I have now.”

For a moment, silence filled the room, but then it exploded as everyone tried to talk over each other.

“What do you mean, ‘another world’?”

“The gods wouldn’t forget someone!”

“Why did you wait till now to tell us?”

Indigo raised her hands, calling for quiet.

“Yah,” she said, “it’s weird. I know. I used to be an atheist. I didn’t even believe in things like gods or souls until I woke up in the witch’s house. There’s a lot that I still don’t understand. How my soul got misplaced, I have no idea. Like I said, I didn’t even think I had a soul. I dunno howit ended up in the void.”

“Look,” she continued while rubbing at her temples. “I know this is weird. I know you’ve got a lot of questions, and I’ll try to answer them. But I don’t know how to tell this if it’s not from beginning to end.”

Indigo told her story. Haylen had heard it, or some of it, back at the expeditionary camp. Kearse had overheard bits and pieces, but to Mayra, it was almost all new.

From the moment she woke up to how she found herself in Peninsula, Indigo told everything. And there was a lot to take in.

Another world? Demon bones? Memories of a previous life? Where would you even begin to try and understand something so broad?

“Alright!” Mayra interjected. “Let’s start at the beginning again. Tell us about this other world you were part of.”

Question Indigo? Accuse her of lying? The girl couldn’t lie! It was impossible for her. The best thing to do was to take all of this at face value and assume she was telling the truth as much as was possible.

The homunculus went back to starring at the fire, and from the subtle changes in her expression, Mayra could tell that the girl was trying to sort things out internally before she gave any half answers.

“It… it wasn’t that different from this world. It was, but there were more things that were the same than there were differences. It’s actually easier to list the differences.”

She paused again to reorganize her thoughts.

“We were… like the Ancestors. That’s why I was able to adapt to the necropolis so quickly. That’s why I could understand so much about them. It may have been dead, but it was still similar enough that most of it seemed normal.”

She paused, and took another dep breath.

“We didn’t have magic though. Nobody in my old world could use magic. It was just a… an idea. A fantasy. It wasn’t just that we couldn’t use it or touch our mana. It. Didn’t. Exist. No magic. We had everything that your ancestors had. In some ways we had more.”

Indigo cradled her head and went on.

"We could cross the world in a single day. We didn’t have any zombies or miasma to stop us. We had flew to the moon. It wasn’t going to be long before we set foot on planets beyond our own.”

She looked around again, searching for anything that might resemble normality.

“We were so close. We felt like we could do anything, and nobody doubted that our world, our reality, had a bright future in front of it. And yet, now, here I am. I’ve been reborn as a fake person, I survived a hell on earth, and I’m headed off to try and figure out an entire world that is so different than what I’ve expected.”

Indigo, again, looked for any hints of how to proceed from the people around her, but found none.

“I don’t regret not telling this to all of you earlier. I wanted to, but I couldn’t. I think the main rason I’m saying all of this now is because I know I wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret much longer. I think of all of you as friends. And this is the proof that I mean it.”

Haylen, Kearse, and Mayra all looked at each other before anyone said anything.

“So why did you take so long to tell us?” Kearse finally asked.

“Because… it’s a secret. They’re not the ancestor’s secrets. They’re my secrets, and you’re the only ones I could feel comfortable talking about them with. I don’t feel comfortable talking about it, but even this is better than telling everyone. I’m trusting you with my secrets, because I trust you as people. I trust you because you’re my friends.”

Indigo blushed a bit, and looked away as she said that last sentence.

Mayra was still a little awestruck. If Indigo was a prize before, she was even more-so now. But how far could the mage go before she risked compromising the friendship that the homunculus had finally acknowledged? She could either see the homunculus as a resource or as a person, but was there a way to think of her as both? The two concepts weren’t mutually exclusive, were they?

Haylen and Kearse bombarded Indigo with questions. Some she answered easily, and others she took her time with. As much as she said their worlds were similar, there were many differences. Or maybe it was easier to explain what they had in common as opposed to what set them apart. Mayra noted that Indigo never quite said how her people had accomplished what they had. Even now, she was warry and guarded.

Mayra felt guilty and sick to her stomach. Would she be able to treat Indigo as a friend, or would she end up like Verdis and think of her only as a source of information. If the divide really was that black and white, she, as a mage, as a noble, and as a person, knew where she wanted to fall. But it wasn’t that easy, was it?

The afternoon turned to evening, and the evening stretched into night as they all listened to what the homunculus had to say. They all had questions, and all wanted answers.

It was going to be a long night,