Today had certainly taken a more interesting turn than Berith initially expected. It wasn’t every day one of his messengers informed him of an esper nearby. Nevertheless, the prospect excited him. Espers were odd creatures that interested him to no end. In recent years, they had become increasingly harder to find though, given their abilities. Being able to alter the world and the people in it was not only powerful, it was irritating. Most of the ones who had survived the initial search kept up constant fields around them that had an odd effect on the masses that made them seem ‘normal’ as his teacher had put it. It didn’t make much sense to him or his sister, but they had both seen ample evidence of its effects. Nowadays it was hard to even come by someone able to resist their influence, let alone know they existed.

Naturally, when the messenger informed him that an esper had been captured on the opposite side of Baile Stioballan, he decided that his sister was more than capable of finishing handing out orders. He made doubly sure that she wouldn’t be told about it either. She always had a habit of ruining his fun.

“Sir, pardon me for speaking out of turn, but wouldn’t going out in public like that attract unwanted attention?” The messenger, a dark elf named Alviss, spoke up as he approached the door. They were fairly short, but acrobatic. They were able to remain undetected wherever Berith sent them.

The much taller dark elf looked down at himself, realizing that he was still shirtless from his mindless training. His dark gray skin was enough to attract plenty of attention, but the pinkish tattoos of dragons and floral designs with thick black outlines would most certainly get everyone looking at him. Frowning, he returned to his desk, throwing a cloak over his shoulders and grabbing his mask. It was a simple, porcelain mask meant to cover the bottom half of his face. As he placed it on, he saw the entire room wobble slightly as the magic changed his appearance to that of a human.

Returning to the door, he looked at his servant, not letting the illusion of a face that wasn’t his betray the excitement he felt. “Well, shall we head out together my dear Alviss? Lilith will handle distributing the rest of the Twilight. I would like to meet this new esper.”

Alviss dipped into a respectful bow. “Of course, my lord. I was informed of a location to give the payment, then we can-”

“Oh no no no, that won’t do,” he chuckled, shaking his head, “I trust you properly tailed them? I want to meet the esper directly before anything.”

“Naturally,” Alviss deadpanned, “They attempted to draw attention to a tavern nearby, but they covertly returned to a warehouse in an old abandoned district of the city. The esper is being held there.”

Berith did let his grin momentarily show on the illusion. “And this is why you’re my favorite, Alviss,” He mused, exiting the room and heading upstairs to the bathhouse that he and his sister had been using as cover. He didn’t look back as he spoke. “You made sure that it wasn’t just a false positive I trust? The first time I ran experiments on a human with his hair dyed white and eyes stained purple was amusing, but Lilith was rather annoyed.”

“Short, about five feet tall. Hair that touched the floor from the chair she was in. She seemed extremely frail,” They listed off. “If I may be so bold as to make a recommendation, my lord, attempt experiments that require minimal physical exertion. Otherwise, I do not believe she will last very long.”

Berith nodded thoughtfully. “Thank you for the recommendation. If she’s as you described, I’m inclined to agree with you. I’d rather not damage her too early. Besides, those ones generally require more space, and Lilith and I aren’t slated to split up again for a few more days.”

Alviss put on their own mask as they were about to exit the building, letting it transform them into a fairly identical version of themselves with their ovular face and pointed nose. The only difference was the cross shaped scar on their right cheek being removed, and their skin tone being changed. After the illusion was put up, they looked more like a half-elf.

“I’m glad I got you one of those,” Berith said absentmindedly. “Lilith thought I was crazy for acquiring something that expensive and hard to find for a messenger, but you’ve been able to do so much with it. She’s such a boring nag. Hell, if she found out about the esper, she’d likely insist on ‘sticking to protocol’ and having them killed immediately,” He rolled his eyes. “So much for twins being like-minded.”

As usual, Alviss didn’t respond. They didn’t often. It was still easy for Berith to tell when they were and weren’t listening though after the time he had spent with them. He likely wouldn’t have found it out had it not been for his sister attempting to give them orders not long after they started working for him. It was quite amusing at the time to see her fuming as Alviss ignored every word out of her mouth. Such loyalty really didn’t come often. Well, not naturally at least. He was happy to leave his servant in their comfortable silence as they marched through the city. His mind was already occupied with thoughts of experiments to run. Perhaps this esper could be used to test if there was any link between the species physical and mental prowess? Most of the ones he came across were strong enough to survive as hermits, so this was most uncommon.

It wasn’t until they entered the deserted section that he was snapped out of his thoughts. He sniffed the air as people shuffled past him, seemingly attempting to get themselves away from something. Smoke. He looked down at Alviss.

“It seems there’s a fire nearby. What are the chances this affects the place the esper is held?” He asked, trying not to let his voice falter.

“The warehouse did have flammable sections. The chances aren’t zero,” They deadpanned.

Berith frowned. “Well, let’s hope my excitement for the day isn’t ruined,” He grumbled as Alviss once again began leading him through the slum to where the building was located.

As they approached, people became more and more unsettled, which evolved into panic once they were close enough to hear the sound of a building collapse. That panic became further replaced by confusion, and then curiosity. It was like stepping through rings of different emotions with their proximity to whatever caused the fire. Berith felt his hopes die a little bit more with each ring. Alviss leading him straight to the location with the esper coinciding with the reactions of people to the fire was not something that inspired confidence. Of course, Alviss showed no emotion about it either way.

Alviss came to a stop, turning back to Berith, “The warehouse is just up ahead, my lord. Shall we take to the rooftops? They would make it easier to sneak in from above,” They were quiet for a moment. “Assuming it is still there.”

Berith’s eye twitched behind the illusion. Alviss’ bluntness was something he appreciated the vast majority of the time. This was one of the few and far between moments where it annoyed him. He sighed, trying not to let his disappointment be audible. “Yes, I think that would be a good idea. It at least sounds like the fire has stopped.”

“That may be a good sign. The warehouses were in close proximity. If one had burned down, they all would have caught fire and been destroyed as well,” Alviss said as they made their way to an uninhabited alleyway.

That was something that did inspire confidence. Berith stood up a little straighter as he followed Alviss, the two of them nimbly making their way up the walls and to the roof. Alviss immediately dashed off, leaping between buildings with otherworldly speed. Berith smirked. It was nice finally meeting someone who could move like he could without having to slow himself down.

He darted off after Alviss, not far behind them. From the rooftops, the plume of smoke from the apparent fire was clear in the sky. He didn’t take his eyes off of it as he ran, more than comfortable picking out footholds and jumps in his peripheral vision. He frowned. Alviss was leading him directly to the pillar.

Looking away from the smoke for a moment, he saw Alviss approaching what seemed to be an end to the chain of buildings they were hopping across. As he got closer, Alviss stopped, waiting for him. He brought himself to a stop and looked out on the row of warehouses, his eyes stopping on the third one.

“It seems that it burned down. It is unlikely that the esper is still there, if alive,” They turned to Berith. “There is something else interesting about it now it seems.”

Berith felt more excitement than he had in a long time as he looked upon the scene before him. Sure enough, the warehouse had burnt to the ground, the smoke still making its way skyward. Although around it, perfectly encapsulating the structure, was a thick, smooth wall of stone. Sure enough, all of the other warehouses were perfectly intact. The fire hadn’t even so much as touched them. Even his illusory face shared his giddy smile as he took in everything he could. It was magical, there wasn’t a single doubt about it with how directly it connected to the stone ground.

“Alviss?” He said, the joy clear in his voice.

“Yes, my lord?”

“I think we’re going to want to speak to a few witnesses.”

Berith’s day had been more than saved. He felt as though life itself had given him a gift. According to reports, not long after the fire started, a trio of women rushed out of the building. In his excitement about the wall, he had almost forgotten about the esper, but when one of the women matched her description, he almost felt like praying again. The wall was erected quickly, swallowing up the building in only a couple of seconds. That meant one thing and one thing only.

A druid.

He was well aware of the Druidkeeper stationed at Baile Stioballan, and there was no way they would have been caught dead in that slum. This was a new one. Even better was that it matched reports that a detachment of his sister’s troops gave of a skirmish at the town south of the city. Reports of a powerful druid turning the tide of a battle. He had already sent Alviss to search for their whereabouts and inform him of anything that her or her group was up to.

The rest of the day was a blur. He busied himself with stealing a teleportation crystal for himself and Alviss from his sister’s stash, confident that he’d be either wanting or needing it in the near future. He could deal with her lecture about how they weren’t supposed to exist and that letting someone like Alviss know about them was highly dangerous. This was worth so much more than a lecture.

When Alviss returned, they informed him that two members of the Druid’s group had been purchasing mountaineering gear from the market. Oh gods above if this was your way of earning his trust back then it was working.

He wasted no time returning to his room with Alviss and using his stolen crystal to return to his base camp. As he crushed the crystal, he kept a distinct picture of his office in his mind. The shadows around him began to swirl like ink, traveling to the feet of him and Alviss. The murky liquid traveled up his legs and enveloped him in darkness. The feeling was akin to being moved underwater at high speeds. The feeling continued to accelerate, launching him forward before stopping short. He couldn’t help but stumble a little as he felt firm ground beneath him again. He opened his eyes to see his desk, paperwork and small weapons scattered about. He turned to make sure that the crystal had worked for his assistant as well. Alviss was blinking quickly, regaining their barings. Even someone like Alviss seemed slightly surprised by the use of such foreign magic.

“My lord, if I may. What was that?”

“Oh just a little invention of my sister’s,” He mused, already exiting his office and becoming Alviss to follow. “She needs to be in many places at once, so she made a way to. I helped myself to one when she wasn’t looking. After all, aren’t siblings supposed to share?”

“I would not know, my lord.”

“Well, regardless, we’re going to the prison. I need to have a chat with our little angel,” He explained as he marched through the rows and rows of tents and wooden buildings. He didn’t bother acknowledging any of the other dark elves he passed that immediately stopped what they were doing to bow. Anytime someone appeared as though they were about to ask him a question or give a report, a stern gaze from Alviss had them backing off almost immediately. The camp offered Alviss a level of respect second only to Berith himself. Yet another thing Lilith lectured him about, but he rather enjoyed it. It meant Alviss could do their job with more autonomy, and wasn’t required to ask him for an appearance whenever something needed to get done. The less restraints on Alviss, the better.

Finally, they arrived at their destination. It was a simple wooden building, but by far the most heavily guarded within the wooden walls of the encampment. There were four guards waiting at the door that bowed to him as he entered, as well as another four patrolling the building itself, and one actually inside to watch the prisoner. The thought did occur to him that should their single prisoner escape, the guards were more of an alarm system. If there were screams of dark elves being incinerated, the prisoner had escaped. He rolled his eyes. No matter how many times he tried to request more soldiers, or at least better trained ones, it was always the same answer. The encampment was meant to be hidden, a bigger group would attract attention, if something bad really occurred, he and Alviss could stop it. Making him do more work of course.

Couldn’t they see that this was one of the most instrumental parts of their operation? The rest of the little circle didn’t have enough of an appreciation for the more subtle methods something like this allowed for.

He shook away the negative thoughts as the guard inside scrambled to bow to him, instead focusing on the wonderful discoveries from earlier. He didn’t bother admonishing her for nearly falling asleep. It wasn’t worth the effort. He wordlessly marched past her and towards the trio of cells the building housed.

Facing the one occupied cell, it was a strange sight that mixed pathetic and majestic in a delightful juxtaposition that brought a new smile to his face. Past the metal bars was a tall, muscular woman, about six feet, sitting cross legged against the wall. She had russet brown skin, with angry, pure white eyes and features that he could only compare to his sister’s resting bitch face. The anger was understandable, he could only imagine he’d be a little irritated if his hands were locked in metal shackles that prevented any sort of movement from his fingers. Her wavy blonde hair hung messily over her face as she stared daggers at him. By all accounts, she looked human. Well, other than the eyes. Most humans had irises, pupils, and veins. Most humans also didn’t have broad, snow white, angelic wings sprouting from their backs either.

Said wings were chained to the wall to prevent all but the smallest of movements. Her time in the cell had left the wings frazzled and dirty, but they were still fascinating to him. The wingspan was roughly twelve feet, a significant amount more than her height. If his first encounter with her was anything to go by as well, they were extremely functional, allowing her to maneuver more than he expected for a woman of her size.

He leaned against the bars, smiling at her. “Natalia! It’s been too long.”

“It’s been less than a week,” She said in a deep, irritated voice.

“Details details. I’ve got something I need you to lend me a hand with…”

Ingrid couldn’t remember the last time she woke up with a headache this bad. Even when waking up from the Twilight poisoning, it was nothing like this. Her entire body felt sore, like she could barely move. Even when she opened her eyes it felt like a solid few seconds before she could actually see. What she did see was a furious looking Alice staring down at her.

“Oh good! You’re awake,” Her voice sounded genuinely relieved. That relief quickly fled from her tone. “What in the hell were you thinking!” She hissed.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

All Ingrid could do was groan and squeeze her eyes shut again. That was too loud. Was it even loud? It didn’t really matter, it hurt her ears. She brought a hand up to rub her forehead. It felt like several bricks had been tied to it.

“Sorry… Can you go a little slow?” She murmured groggily. When she opened her eyes again, concern was plastered all over Alice’s face. “Whole body… Sore…”

Alice bit her lip, “You can’t keep doing this to me, Princess,” she said quietly, “We’ve been to two actual populated places and both of them ended up with you passing out. My heart can only take so much of this.”

A weak smile formed on Ingrid’s face. “In my defense… First one… Not my fault,” She chuckled.

“Okay, that’s fair,” Her friend huffed. There was a moment of silence where the two stared at each other. After a few seconds, they both looked away, blushing lightly. “Do you remember this one? Or is the haziness just a poison response.”

Before she had a proper chance to respond, she heard the slamming of a door being thrown open.

“I-I-Ingrid! You’re awake!” Malori cried excitedly, rushing to her bedside. The girl was practically jumping up and down. Her hands flapped with excitement, a stark contrast to the anxious, on the verge of tears mode she had been in before. “Th-That was incredible! I had r-read so much about druidic magic b-being able to do things like that, but I-I had never seen it in p-person before!”

Ingrid felt another sharp pain in her head, groaning loudly.

“O-Oh! Goodness, I’m s-so sorry. Here, I-I can try to take away some of the s-soreness. If it’s a h-headache, it should help e-ease that as well,” She said quickly, taking her staff out to begin the healing magic. She muttered a few incantations, then looked back at Ingrid. “Th-this may take a few m-minutes. You’re f-fairly beaten up.”

Given how she felt, that made a lot of sense. As the components were finished, she breathed a sigh of relief. Already she could feel some of the tightness and tension easing out of her limbs. There was still certainly pain, but it had noticeably faded. Malori really was a miracle worker. That might have been in the job description for a priestess though. Alice waited patiently at her side until she was ready to speak again.

“I remember… Wanting to stop the fire, and protect the other buildings. I tried to shape the stone, and then…” She trailed off. The memories slowly came back to her. Her eyes widened as she recalled the enormous wall erected as she lost consciousness. “By Nilin, did I really do that?” She breathed in awe.

“I mean, someone had to,” Alice mused, resting her chin on her arms. “You impress me yet again, Princess, and terrify me immediately after. Like I said, you gotta stop doing that.”

Ingrid rubbed her forehead. “How long was I unconscious?”

“A couple hours, and Princess, I mean it. That’s two times now you’ve pulled spells that powerful out of your ass. Your body can only take so much.”

Ingrid nodded, embarrassed she wasn’t even sure what to say.

“Take a break from magic for the next few days, please? Give your body a chance to recover. You were fine the past two times because of Malori, but a third time it might be a whole lot worse than just passing out. Alright?”

She sighed. “Okay, I understand. Break from magic. Even the little things,” she said, disappointed.

Alice smiled. “That’s what I like to hear. Now, there’s good news and bad news. Which you want first?”

She thought about it. “I could use some good news, I think.”

“Well, you managed to stop that fire from spreading. That and we managed to get back to the inn without much issue. Speaking of which, we’re in different rooms now,” she explained, “I don’t think many people will be fucking with us. Word traveled pretty fast. I also made sure we have better locks! It’s amazing what you can accomplish by threatening someone at knifepoint,” She said with a wide grin.

Ingrid nodded along, chuckling a bit at the morbid joke. It was hard not to when Alice gave her that smile. “Well, that’s a lot of good news. So, what’s the bad news?”

The grin faltered a little bit. “The bad news is that word traveled pretty fast. It’s no secret the wall thing was made by a druid. Sooner or later, the actual Druidkeeper stationed here is gonna find you. If we leave first thing in the morning, we’re probably fine though,” She explained, “Malori and Kallen went out to grab anything we needed, so we can take the night to relax. You guys did get everything on the list, right?”

“R-Right! Um, Kallen handled t-talking to people. I still h-have trouble with th-that,” She admitted meekly.

As if on cue, Kallen entered the room, waving to Ingrid. “Ah, you’re awake! Great! I was getting a little worried,” she said, as cheerful as ever. She turned to Malori. “Great job on the healing by the way. Ingrid mentioned you were good at it, but that was amazing!”

Malori turned bright red at the praise, floundering to try and give some sort of basic response and only succeeding at making a mess of syllables and stuttering. Kallen gave a hearty laugh, then a thumbs up directed at Ingrid.

“Glad to see you’re doing okay too. I got worried when you passed out like that. You should’ve seen Alice though. She was screaming and shaking you, I think she almost started cr-”

“Okay! That’s enough of that!” Alice interjected, clapping her hands together. She looked around at the three others and smiled. “Well, tonight’s gonna be our last night here, and we did just fight a buncha humanoid traffickers, let’s ease up a bit. I asked our gracious host to get us a bottle of somethin nice from Evelynn to celebrate. Anyone up for a drink?”

“Sounds like fun, I’m in,” Kallen chimed.

“I-I-I’ve never had alcohol before, o-other than maybe a sip or two of c-ceremonial wine,” Malori muttered, shifting awkwardly. She glanced over at Kallen’s excited face, then looked back at the ground, blushing. “I s-suppose I could t-try it though…”

All eyes turned to Ingrid expectantly. Alice gave her elven friend the best charming smile she could muster, the one that always made Ingrid go weak in the knees. She was fairly certain if she wasn’t in bed, she would have fallen over upon seeing it in this state.

“Whadya say, Princess. Up for a little celebratory drinking?”

Ingrid knew Alice was aware of her low alcohol tolerance. They had shared a few drinks together, and it didn’t take much for Ingrid to turn into a mess. According to Alice however, she was a very clingy drunk that Alice found endlessly endearing. Those had been some fun nights, even if they were a little fuzzy in terms of her recollection of them.

Rolling her eyes, she smiled. “Oh what’s the harm? As long as it’s not enough to give us a hangover then we should still be fine to leave in the morning.”

“It’s just one bottle, you’ll be fine, Princess,” Alice teased, “Even if this is the good stuff, it takes more than this to really mess me up. Can’t even tell you how many times I drank Keaton and Zavi under the table. Keaton was pretty pissed when he found me and his sister in bed together afterwards though… Not the point, let’s get some cups shall we?”

“So lemme get this straight,” Alice pointed at Kallen, a wide smile on her face. “You bet multiple people’s livelihoods on an arm wrestling match. With an ogre?”

“It seemed like a smart thing to do! The ogre was confused, and just needed a show of strength! I did that, and everyone got to walk away happy,” She explained happily. “The ogre even got a sheep out of it! The townsfolk thought it was a pretty good deal!”

“Th-That’s incredible, Kallen!” Malori said in awe. Ingrid couldn’t help but find the esper’s boldness amusing. She had only had a few swigs from the bottle, but she was a lightweight to put Ingrid to shame. Not that anyone was surprised. It was hard to say what was more surprising, the way that she giggled along with everything Kallen said while clinging to her arm like they were lovers, or the fact that Kallen seemed to not read even the slightest bit further into the situation.

Ingrid certainly felt a bit tipsy, but cut herself off at that point. Hangovers tended to get in the way of her magic in a bad way, and that was the last thing she wanted after everything this trip had thrown at her. The bottle at this point was getting close to empty, and despite how strong it was, neither Alice nor Kallen seemed to be affected by it in the slightest aside from a slight redness to both of their cheeks. It was more purple for Alice due to her skin tone, but Ingrid knew enough to equate the two.

The bottle had proved to be a very effective way of getting to know Kallen better, as it was an excuse to ask her all kinds of questions. The first thing on Ingrid’s mind was about Kallen’s absurd strength.

“I’m not quite sure, if I’m being honest,” She shrugged after being asked. “I never really thought about it. I could just lift things really well and run for a long time. Some people are kind of just born like that, right?”

“They are, but you had mentioned not eating very well when you grew up. Malnourishment tends to lead to less muscle, and being shorter in most species,” Ingrid explained. “I was curious why that wasn’t the case with you.”

“Hey, maybe if she had eaten right growin up then she’d be even taller! You sure you aren’t a half-giant?” Alice joked.

“Even t-taller?” Malori’s grin faded as she appeared to be picturing some sort of fantasy. That was good, as finding someone shorter than her would have probably been a fairly difficult task.

“Huh, I never really thought about that,” Kallen mused, paying no mind to the way Malori clutched her arm. “So I could have been even stronger and taller if I had the right food? That seems a little weird. You said you had a lot of money, so shouldn’t you be able to eat well? If that’s the case, you aren’t that much taller than Malori.”

Ingrid felt a blow to her pride as Alice clutched her stomach with laughter. She was a solid half a head taller than Malori! In fact, she was around the average height for an elf of her age. Though she doubted Kallen had much of a grasp on that. Compared to a human, she was what could be equated to her early twenties by elf standards. The way different races aged and comparing them always felt weird. It was hard to choose which race of humanoid to use as a benchmark. Usually it was human, due to their species being the namesake of humanoid, but that was only really because most modern languages descended from their native language. She frowned, wondering how many other useless trivia facts she was wasting brain space on.

“Yoohoo, you there Princess?” Alice teased, waving a hand in front of her face.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry. I spaced out a little bit,” She admitted.

“You seem to do that a fair amount,” Kallen added. “Is it something you do on purpose?”

Ingrid shook her head. “It kind of just happens, unfortunately. I’ll get on these weird trains of thought that make it hard to focus. They happen more during down time like this, but it can really happen whenever,” she explained. Kallen nodded along, not really seeming to understand but listening nonetheless.

“I-I think I’ve read about s-something like that before!” Malori chimed in. “I-It was a book on psychological s-studies. There were s-several disorders, and one of them s-sounded like that.”

Alice raised an eyebrow. “You read a psychological study book in your free time?”

“Y-Yes… I-Is that strange?”

“For you? I’m gonna say not really.”

“I-I feel like I’m being m-made fun of…” She whimpered.

“What? Me? Tease you? Never,” Alice grinned, taking a swig of the bottl., “Speaking of which though, given how last night went, I’m personally gonna toss out the suggestion of us having a buddy system at inns like this. Kallen, you have any place you’re staying right now?”

“I usually sleep outside,” she said, “I don’t really have any money.”

“Well, how how’dya feel about staying with us for the night? I threate- Sorry, rented two rooms for two people each. Might be nice to have a bed for once.”

Kallen seemed to think about it, then beamed at Alice. “I’d love to! You guys are pretty fun to be around. As long as you don’t mind spending the money, it sounds great!”

Alice chuckled, “Oh you think I spent money. That’s adorable.”

“I-I still don’t really see how you s-segued to this from the topic of m-making fun of me.”

“Anyway you’re gonna be rooming with Malori!”

“And there it is,” Ingrid sighed as she saw Malori go bright red. Kallen on the other hand just seemed slightly confused, but didn’t comment on it. “Alright, it’s getting fairly late, and I’m still quite tired. I think now is as good a time as any to call it a night. What do you all think?”

“I think Malori isn’t breathing,” Kallen muttered, nudging the smaller girl. “I’ll get her to bed. Thanks for the room!”

Malori let out a small whimper as Kallen scooped her up once again into a princess carry, then left the room. Ingrid heard Alice laugh a bit as they shut the door.

“I swear, she’s just an endless source of entertainment when you push the right buttons,” she mused, finishing off the bottle with a satisfied burp.

Ingrid rolled her eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that night. “Don’t bully her too hard? She still needs to be able to stay calm enough to function. I think you almost broke her with that one.”

“Oh it’s harmless. You heard her taste in romance novels, she eats that stuff up! I probably made her night.”

“I’m sure she’s had more than a few fantasies fulfilled. I think she’s earned it though. I can only imagine how terrifying that whole ordeal must have been.”

“You got a point. Hostage situations are ever so slightly stressful. Some might even say a bit more so for the actual hostage,” she joked. “That aside, I was hoping to get you alone. What’s your take on Kallen after all that?”

Ingrid blinked, a little stunned by the sudden shift of the topic. “Well, I think she’s a nice person. She definitely has a good heart, and a desire to do good in the world. It’s something I respect.”

Alice nodded. “I can barely believe she’s real.”

“She is a little strange, but not that much stranger than Malori or myself, right?”

“No, I mean like- That was bad phrasing. Being that strong, it’s absurd. I’ve seen a lot for my age, but never anything like that. And she’s just so… earnest. It’s weird, and uncomfortable. She’s gotta have some sort of motive, everyone does, right?”

It was rare to see Alice like this. Usually she kept these kinds of thoughts to herself until Ingrid forced them out of her, and even those occasions were rare. She adjusted how she was sitting on the bed to turn more directly towards her friend.

“I think she already told us her motive. She wants to help people wherever she can. All we’ve seen is confirmation of that, haven’t we? I don’t think it’s all that hard to believe.”

Alice grumbled something unintelligible. “Still, I don’t like it. Someone like that is someone I wanna spend as little time around as possible.”

Ingrid cocked her head. “You spend time with Malori and I, don’t you?”

“Alright, there is a world of difference between you and Malori, and someone who can body check a metal door off its hinges and dent it,” she groaned, “Look, haven’t I done enough on the ‘talking about my feelings’ thing today?”

“You’re the one who started this conversation,” Ingrid joked, earning an exasperated sigh and a smile from the dark elf.

“I did do that, didn't I?”

“You did, and I don’t plan on letting you forget it.”

“You’re a piece of work sometimes you know that Princess?” She huffed, getting up and sitting next to Ingrid.

A grin spread across Ingrid’s face. “Well, are you going to do anything about it?”

Alice raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Well, our friends are off in the other room, and it’s been a while since you and I had some alone time,” She mused, leaning into Alice. “And the walls have proven to be quite soundproof in our time here.”

It was Alice’s turn to grin as she ran a finger up to Ingrid’s chin, tilting her head up, “Is that so? Well, Malori’s good at her healing thing, but I think I should have a look of my own. After all, you should always have a professional check to make sure everything is in order,” she said quietly, gently pushing Ingrid down against the bed.

“Just make sure I can walk in the morning, alright?” She chuckled.

“I’ll see what I can do. Don’t blame me if I get a little carried away~”