I saw a glow around us, and we were teleported into the living room. There was not a single bit of glow at the edges of the curtains so it must have been nighttime.

“You should’ve left one of the giants for me” Dodger whined as Brick picked Mezu up off of me.

“Well, there was a whole bunch of trolls for you to fight.”

She held her hand out and I took it.

“Still, a giant would’ve been fun. You’re covered in blood though,” she said as she pulled me up from the ground.

“Yes, please go wash up.”

Paeris held out a basket with soap, some bottles, and a towel.

I looked at it for a second, they were right he really is like a mom.

I reached out to grab it but froze.

Wait, why did I say that so sure? I thought I didn’t remember my mom? I should’ve thought like Dodger and Brick, that he seemed like what a mom would be. Not that he was like a mom.

“Quartz?”

I looked at Paeris whose brows had moved up and towards each other slightly.

“Oh, thanks. Uh, do you know where the bath is?”

“Brick can show you. You should take the chance to wash Fluffy up a bit too.”

He glanced to the side, and I followed his gaze to see Brick walking off with Mezu in his arms.

I went off after them and we went up the flight of stairs. I looked back and saw that it was only Paeris and Dodger in the living room. Where were the rest of them?

“The young master seems to like Brick quite a bit. I have a feeling that I know which monarch will like him.”

I looked over at him, why was he mentioning this now?

“Remember, as we go up in floors the more, I will be able to say. Mentioning this much isn’t breaking any rules. Now get washed up. You should feed the young master some more before you go to bed.”

Brick opened the third door from the landing of the stairs and inside was a room with two curtains set in the opposite side of the wall. On the curtains, that were split down the middle, had a symbol I didn’t recognize.

Brick paused a moment before stepping into the one on the right.

“Auldethi characters, the language of the elemental-kin.”

Alcoroth commented.

I followed him through and saw that there were cubbies set in the wall and another set of curtains. Brick started undressing.

“It’s a communal bath, get going.”

I fumbled through taking my very dirty blood-soaked clothes off with one hand. By the time I had finished, Brick was already helping Mezu take off his clothes too. Paeris had entered as well.

“Just put yours on the floor in the corner, we’ll get rid of them.”

He put some clothes in a basket before he started to undress.

“I was able to open your reward chest. You seem to have gotten some more clothes and some new armor. I brought them up for you. The clothes at least.”

I heard Mezu giggle slightly and I looked over at him as he walked with Brick through the other curtains. I pushed my clothes into the corner, put the towel I was given in the basket with my new clothes, and took the soap basket into the bath.

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The floor, in the room we had changed in, was wooden, and the walkway continued into the next room, but it stopped a couple steps inside. It was set higher than the bath floor, so I stepped down onto the tiled surface.

The room was a decent size. In the back half of the room, there was a large bath filled with water. Lefty was already inside it floating around a bit on his back.

I looked to my left and saw four magic faucets set in the wall each with a wooded bucket and stool. Brick was at one of them and had set Mezu down on the stool.

“You should wash the young master though.”

“Uhh Brick, I can do that.”

He signed ‘understood’ and went to the one next to it and sat down turning the water on. I went over to Mezu and turned the water on checking the temperature. It seemed fine so I started washing him.

It was a bit of a hassle since I only had one hand to work with. But my nub wasn’t an open wound any more so that helped. The main problem was his hair. While it was long and nice, it was also tangled at this point.

I didn’t really know what to do with it.

“It’d take a bit, but I can deal with his hair,” Paeris offered.

I looked over at him a little confused, helping out just like mom would…. Right? Moms… help out.

“What’re you confused about?”

“What?”

I didn’t realize that Alcoroth had asked that.

“I have long hair myself; I’ll help out with his.”

Luckily my answer worked for both Paeris’s statement and Alcoroth’s. Ugh, I wish I could talk to him without sounding weird.

“Let him do it, and let’s talk later,” Alcoroth said and then he floated through the wall.

“Uh, thanks. And about my hair. Could you help me tie it up later? It ended up getting in the way when I was fighting earlier.”

“Sure, and I’ll help with Mezu once I’m done.”

“Thanks.”

I left him there and he sat still on his own, so I went to the faucet Brick had finished using and washed myself. My own hair was a bit hard to go through as well.

“In the basket there’s a thin bottle and a fat one. Use the thin bottle first to wash the blood and stuff out of your hair and then use the fat one with the brush to make it neat.”

I looked over at Paeris who was now sitting with Mezu slowly combing through his hair.

“Uh, thanks.”

“You’ll get used to the nagging,” Lefty said from the bath, “Even if it’s helpful, most of the time. It’s still hard to get used to, ‘specially if you’ve never had it before.”

“I’m not nagging, I’m just helping since he seemed to be having some issues.”

“You’re acting like a mom to an orphan, it’s going to feel weird.”

“I told you not to call me that!”

I looked at Paeris and saw his face turn completely red.

Lefty laughed, “hey it’s not a bad thing, I’m just pointin’ it out is all.”

I took the skinny bottle and started to scrub my hair.

Yeah, he’s not wrong. Paeris did seem like mom- a mom. I didn’t remember my mom. It should just be that he acts like I’d think a mom would. But then again, how would I know what a mom should’ve been like? All I remembered was my uncle.

I did spend a lot of time with him, but I don’t think he ever acted like that to me. Yeah, he cared about me and looked out for me, but I don’t think it’d ever make me compare him to the word mom.

If anything, he reminded me more of Lukon. It wasn’t just the healing; it was other things. Maybe that’s what Lukon was like to me? A mom?

Even if I had some sort of understanding of what the word meant, why could I easily label Paeris as that but if I thought of Lukon in that way it just felt wrong?

No… stop it…I shouldn’t be thinking of him right now.

I doused my head with water as if trying to stop myself from going down that rabbit hole. I took the fat bottle, put the contents in my hair, and brushed through it. My nub made things difficult but overall it was a lot easier than I thought. When I finished, I rinsed it all out and my hair just felt nicer and sat differently than I was used to.

Paeris had moved to the big bath with Mezu still working on his hair, just in a more comfortable place.

I sat next to them. Lefty got up and I saw some scars scattered across his body but not many.

“Alright, I’m going to head off to bed.”

He left the bath and I looked at Brick and Paeris. Brick was covered in scars, more than lefty, and if it wasn’t for my healing, I’d probably look like him. Paeris only had a few but those must’ve been from before he learned how to heal.

I didn’t have scars. how did I not notice before how well I healed? I wasn’t a strong fighter, I got injured a lot and yet it never crossed my mind to consider why my body was basically unmarked. This memory thing was more and more frustrating the more I became aware of it.

“There you go Mezu, all done.”

I looked over and saw his hair neatly braided back and tied up slightly. Mezu then jumped into the bath fully and swam around.

“You’ll have to take then out to dry but that’ll keep them out of the way for now. I’ll do yours tomorrow.”

“Thanks.”

We sat in silence for the rest of the time. I got tired so I left before them and dried us both off. When I went to grab Mezu’s clothes they were cleaned and neatly folded. The pile of blood-soaked equipment I put in the corner was mostly gone. Now all that sat there, was my bag now clean, my sword and sheath, and the sacrificial blade and sheath.

I got Mezu dressed in his tight-fitting sleeveless shirt and his loose flowy pants. When did he get these clothes though?