They’d felt plenty of harsh winds and breathed stale air before, but Rani had never felt like still air itself could repel you until now. They’d been in that room only hours ago, and now it felt completely hostile. In the center of it all was Constance, collapsed on the floor.

Rani kept calm. They’d been in this situation before, and panicking wouldn’t make anyone more alive. Crossing the room, their feet feeling heavy as they did, they stopped before Constance. The old woman was still, but seemed to be breathing. What she was breathing out wasn’t as reassuring: wisps of black smoke that quickly faded to nothing in the open air. A second glance showed they weren’t just coming from her mouth, either, but her entire body.

Whatever had happened to her, she needed help from an expert, whether they were a doctor or not. People seemed to know her in town, but the least Rani could do was not leave her like this. The only trouble was the floor around Constance. On it had been drawn a circle filled with markings Rani could only guess at the meaning of.

She was still inside the circle. Was it just a marker, or the kind of boundary you’d regret stepping over? Rani had seen a few different types of punishment for that, but for all they knew those were getting off easy compared to crossing a witch’s border.

There were always some ways of testing consequences, though. Rani reached into their bag, producing another of Lavenia’s gold coins. Aiming carefully, they flicked it forward into the circle. It didn’t explode, melt, or turn into anything else. But it was also made of metal and not flesh.

Kneeling, Rani considered their hand for a moment before making a fist, and then extending their pinky finger. With the care of someone who’d threaded this type of needle countless times, they leaned forward until the barest tip of their finger was over the circle. Nothing happened.

Not completely satisfied, Rani extended their other fingers, one by one, before adding their other hand. Still nothing. Without any other way to test, the soldier stepped forward, carefully picking up Constance. They half-expected whatever they’d been concerned might happen to strike down as soon as they touched the old woman, but it was the work of a few moments to lay her down on the bed.

Being moved hadn’t made her stir. Rani inspected the witch’s breathing. It was still level and normal, but in the time it had taken for her to be moved, the smoke coming off of Constance had stopped. Was that a good thing?

What couldn’t hurt was some fresh air. Rani moved over to the window and slid it open, unlatching it to do so. The effect was like letting a fresh breeze into a cave, and the heavy atmosphere lowered a bit.

Would leaving Constance here be wise? Rani imagined Constance had some ways of protecting this cabin, but they might not be working with her in this state. On the other hand, if this was a magic illness then staying here was next to useless. Carrying her wouldn’t be a problem, but was this something that could spread? Leonhold was full of people, especially now.

All these were questions they didn’t know a clear answer to, so it was a good thing that Constance suddenly stirred. Right as the witch’s eyes fluttered open, she winced. “That was a mistake. I’m really not as young as I used to be.” She looked toward Rani, seated next to the bed. “I suppose you must have seen me in quite a state.”

“If you were going to do something dangerous, you could have asked me to stay,” Rani pointed out. “I might have been able to help.”

Constance shook her head. “If anything had really gone wrong, not that it could have, you’d have needed someone to help you. Better you not have to see it, really.”

“I don’t scare that easily.”

The witch let out a brief laugh. “Ah, you mean you don’t scare easily now. I’m sure things were different the first time you fought those monsters, wasn’t it? Because then they were the most terrifying thing you had ever seen.”

Rani didn’t get annoyed easily, either, but they had their limits. “With respect, one battle isn’t near enough to tell you why those things were a nightmare. Whatever attacked you, it’ll have to do a lot to impress me.”

Constance smiled. “With respect, I’ll try not to say I told you so when you’re wrong about that.”

---

Their host was still a bit woozy after her fall, so Rani took care of the cooking this time. They could cook fine, which was to say, they could turn ingredients into something that would fill your belly and wouldn’t come back back up. Anything else was a bit of a frill.

“So, what exactly were you doing in the first place?” Rani asked over the sound of them chopping carrots. “I assume it didn’t go as planned, considering you were knocked out.”

“Well, yes and no,” Constance called from the sitting room; the kitchen was just adjacent to it. “I’d say I had made myself unconscious, but that wouldn’t really be accurate. I was perfectly awake, just away from my body.”

Rani raised an eyebrow. “Magic can do that?”

“I can, and some others,” Constance answered. “You just need enough concentration, a circle to tether yourself, and a lot of care. I felt something creeping about the kingdom that had no right to be here, and that was the quickest way for me to check.” She sighed. “It found me first. Struck right as I was about to return to my body.”

The carrots went into the pot, along with some preserved meat Constance had in the cubboards. “You were breathing out something odd when I first found you,” Rani ventured. “Was it trying to do something to you?”

Constance sounded almost embarrassed when she answered. “Ah, you saw that? You really do have sharp eyes.” She paused, one that seemed full of unease to Rani. “It was trying, and I emphasize trying, to possess me.”

That probably would have made a local drop whatever they were holding. The image of Richard spitting out his ale came to mind. Rani, though, kept working, furrowing their brow as they tried to work out the context. “You mean, trying to steal your body?

“Ah,” Constance said, clicking her tongue, “I suppose you wouldn’t be familiar, would you? Yes, that’s more-or-less accurate. The circle was incanted to guard against it, but if it had managed to really get its fangs into me that wouldn’t have been enough.”

“What was it?” Rani asked, stooping to check the flame they’d lit. Still fine. “Whatever you got your vision about?”

“It could be. You don’t see things physically in that state, exactly, but I did get a glimpse of its mind, and it wasn’t thinking anything pleasant.”

Her guest leaned out of the kitchen. “So, what exactly is ‘it’? You’re not making it sound human.”

Constance met their gaze. “I’m not sure, yet,” the witch admitted. “But I’ll say now, there are only a few things in this world that can change from one body to another. None are human, and none are things you’d ever want to meet.”

“I see,” Rani murmured, and went back to cooking.

Some time later they were eating the stew the soldier had cooked up. It was better than they’d expected, but then again, you had proper ingredients here. Constance seemed especially hungry after earlier, and finished her bowl first.

“Rani,” she began, setting her spoon down, “I’ve been thinking a bit.” The witch looked thoughtful, a particular kind of thoughtful Rani had seen before. “When I decided to perform that ritual, my first worry was that who I brought through would panic. This world is completely different from your own, full of things that must have only been in stories there.”

That was probably true. Rani had never read much of the books Ricky had gifted the squad. “But no matter what, you’ve accepted it all without a single complaint or objection,” Constance went on. “Not even hearing about something that can steal bodies seemed to bother you.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Rani set their spoon down. “And that’s not normal, you mean.” They held up a finger before Constance could reply. “It’s alright. I accepted that a long time ago. You’re right, I was terrified of those things at first. It just didn’t take long before I was used to it, and used to other things.”

Their face remained the same as ever as they spoke further. “Others in the squad were like that a bit, but me most of all. If people here saw how things were like back there, I’m sure they’d be properly horrified.”

Constance had been sipping some tea while they’d been saying all this, and set the cup down now. “Alright,” she murmured. “Try me. Really,” the witch added, her features softening. “It’s not fair I know nothing about you when you’re helping my home, is it?”

Drop all of that on an old woman? What would be the point? Rani made to shake their head no.

“He actually wants to hear what’s been happening with us? The hell’s he think’s going on out here, a picnic?”

“May as well tell him. Maybe he’ll finally get the hint and quit, go find a job that actually suits him.”

“Alright,” Rani replied. “But it won’t be anything pleasant.”

Constance raised an eyebrow. “Did you forget that I’m a witch? Pleasant things are what I’m not used to seeing.”

The soldier shrugged. Them being strangers did go both ways. “Well, to start with,” they began, pointing at the table and drawing a vague square. “Say you were wandering around at night in Leonhold. If the watch saw you, they’d probably stop you and ask some questions.”

“If they weren’t sleeping, otherwise disposed, and didn’t think you looked like too much trouble,” Constance agreed.

“But if you did that in the city I defended, you’d be dragged off the street and interrogated for hours.” Rani’s tone was dispassionate and matter-of-fact. “If the police were in the mood for hearing you out, at least. You might get away with it if you were well off and they were in a good mood, but no guarantees.”

Constance didn’t look like she had questions yet, so Rani went on. “That’s how it was in the city itself, anyway. Some of us had never even seen it firsthand.” They paused. “The branch of the military we were part of was made up of undesirables, you see.”

“Ah,” the witch murmured, that small exclamation saying quite a bit.

“We weren’t the only ones fighting period, but with them as our enemy someone had to be expendable,” Rani raised their fingers one by one. “People with no families, with debts they couldn’t pay off, even a few the government just wanted gone. We had someone in the squad for a little while who always said he used to be a journalist.”

They waited to see if Constance might ask the obvious question, but it didn’t come. “The people in charge had ways of keeping us there, and there was nowhere to go but the wastes in any case. None of us wanted to fight, but we wanted to die to those things even less.”

Constance took another sip, raising her eyebrow. “You seemed quite far from any town or city when I first saw you.”

Rani nodded. “It was a large-scale operation, and not one the city ordered: we were expendable, but that many Vanguards weren’t.” They paused briefly. Actually explaining all this had never been a job they expected to have.

“It wasn’t exactly our operation, either, at least in my eyes,” the soldier went on. “The mind behind it was someone named Ricky.” Explaining him in just a few minutes seemed impossible, but they’d try. “He was our main line with the city itself, someone who took our reports and gave us orders back.”

“Not quite a tactician, then?”

That almost got a laugh out of Rani. “Definitely not. Some of them hardly even knew what was going on out there.” They gave a half-smile. “The position rotated often enough that you didn’t seem to need real qualifications. A few were as polite as they could be, a few treated us like scum, but most were just indifferent.”

“The easiest thing to be, I can tell you from experience,” Constance murmured. “Did you ever learn why they seemed to come and go?”

Rani shrugged. “It might have just been a job that got shoved on anyone they didn’t trust with important things, or a way for well-connected people to say they’d technically served.” Spending some time working in the military was a prerequisite in the city, but not all jobs were equally difficult. “For a while we thought Ricky was the second one: he spoke well and he was smart, but he didn’t know a thing about war. He always seemed like someone who’d be better off writing books behind some safe walls.”

Rani smiled, this time a full one. “We were all wrong. Ricky didn’t know much about what was going on with us at first, but he learned quickly, and he didn’t like it. He started going well and beyond what our other contacts had, sending us extra information. Last known locations of roaming swarms, terrain landmarks, weather patterns, things like that.”

Constance poured herself another cup of tea. “He sounds like a fine fellow. And, given what you’ve told me, probably a mistake on their part that he had this duty.”

“No ‘probably’ about it,” Rani agreed. “We weren’t sure ourselves for a while, of course. But it was when we began getting bigger supply drops that we all knew he had to be breaking some rules. Sending us extra ammunition was one thing, but there was no way you could justify things like books or self-care products.” They could still remember what he’d told them about it. “’Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal’, he’d say to us. ‘You deserve some nice things’. Well, the city disagreed on both counts. Not too long after, a replacement was found, and in place of his shipments Ricky was sent to us instead.”

Constance’s eyes widened a fraction in genuine surprise. “Your first ever ally and they simply gave him to you? It’s a fine thing they didn’t have a mind like mine among them.”

Rani nodded. “Arrogance can let you think you’ll get away with anything. What was one amateur comms officer going to do? I can’t exactly blame them when we all thought the same thing.” They shook their head. “Both of us couldn’t have been more wrong.”

Tapping one side of the table, they drew a line to the other. “Ricky seemed to know this was going to happen sooner or later, and he’d made preparations. He also turned out to be more connected than he’d let on.” Quickly, the soldier tapped several spots on that side. “A lot more.”

“And I’m sure those in charge had a less sure hold than they thought, yes?” Constance said, a mirthless smile on her face. “People don’t need to have morals to not like their toes being stepped on.”

She would have been dangerous back home, wouldn’t she? Keeping that thought to themself, Rani nodded. “That’s more-or-less right, but I’ll spare you the exact details. The battle you saw was just one part of the operation, and preparing it took more than a year.”

“Some might call you a hero, you know.”

Rani could tell from Constance’s face that they had made one of their own. “I wouldn’t. Ricky will probably be called that, and deserve it. All I did was what I always had.”

“Is that enough for people to follow you into battle against monsters like that?” Constance asked, a smile crossing her lips again.

For once, Rani found they had no response. “It doesn’t matter now,” they said after a moment, shaking their head. “Richard’s going to be the hero here, not me.”

“Very well, leave the compliment if you must,” Constance said with a not-quite roll of her eyes. “Is that about it, then?”

“More-or-less,” Rani replied. “Not impressed, then?” Not that they’d really expected the witch to collapse in tears, of course.

The old woman raised an eyebrow. “An odd way to put it, don’t you think? It is very unfortunate, certainly.” She gave another not-smile. “I’m sure plenty of locals would have been horrified, in a ‘thank goodness something like that would never happen here’ sort of way. But I’m afraid my reserve of excess sympathy dried up a long while ago.”

Constance leaned back in her chair. “I do think I understand you a bit more now, though.”

“Do you?” Rani tilted their head.

“There it is again,” the witch said with a chuckle. “You’re genuinely curious, but it’s like you’re asking from one step back.” She held up a finger. “You didn’t need to help this Ricky with his plans, and it could have gotten you all killed. But you did anyway. Why?”

They’d asked themselves that question quite a bit. None of the answers someone else might give had ever really seemed appropriate. But they had come up with one of their own. “Ricky always used to say to us that things could always get better, as long as people really wanted them to. He said it well enough that you wanted to believe it, whether you actually did or not.”

Rani shrugged, feeling a bit pitiful at the action. “By the time he showed up I was considered leader by everyone. If I’d refused him, they all would have agreed.” They looked down slightly at the table. “But I was still just a nobody. The only real talent I had was killing things. What right did I have to tell him anything was impossible?”

In the silence that followed, Constance poured herself more tea. “What right indeed? Idealism, real, true idealism, is like spying a unicorn at dawn. You can’t believe your luck, but if you make a single wrong movement it will vanish without a trace.”

She caught Rani’s eye. “I don’t know how much you value my opinion, but I will say this: I’ve been alive for a good deal longer than you, and in my years I’ve never seen a clearer sign of someone being a decent person than insisting they’re not.” The witch smiled. “And you, Rani, seem to love doing that.”

That should have been a much more back-handed compliment than it actually felt.

A short while later, Rani was washing the dishes. They turned their head briefly. Constance was still lounging in the sitting room, now flipping through a book.

“If you have something to ask, feel free,” she suddenly said, without looking up. “The worst you’ll get is no answer.”

“Well, you listened to all that about me,” Rani began, carefully wiping the tea-pot, “but I still know almost nothing about you. Want to tell me anything back?”

Constance tilted her head. “Hm. About what, exactly?” She turned a page, the noise somehow sounding quite loud.

Rani put the teapot away. “Maybe about how you came to own a gem only Runic Knight pilots seem to have a use for?” For someone who could generate magic of their own, only one reason to keep a thing like that came to mind.

The witch turned to look at them, and the look on her face almost made Rani regret asking. It was like no expression Constance had made before.

“Perhaps I’ll tell you someday, if you manage to impress me as much as its previous owner. You haven't made a half-bad start so far."