Ryoko had regretted her decision to go to Haven. If she’d thought about it for any amount of time, she would certainly have decided to go back to Altok. Her whole life was in Altok, her whole family was in Altok. Had she really decided to go to Haven just because Ora was so pretty?

Did she really need to go and tell Ora that she was leaving? It seemed only polite. So Ryoko stayed in the bunkhouse a little longer than she’d intended. Ora and Tengu had left town almost immediately. And Ryoko had to admit that it was nice, for being in the middle of the wastes.

Ryoko had spent two nights in Haven before, staying at the inn near the western gate. The place had seemed nice enough then, but she hadn’t given it very much thought.

Everyone around her was just so nice, and friendly, and generous. She didn’t have to pay for her bed in the bunkhouse. She didn’t have to pay for meals or water. She didn’t have to pay to use a chisel in the smithy to add two more notches to her basket hilt.

It had made sense, of course. She’d just been freed from slavery, or from prospective slavery as the case may be. She couldn’t be expected to have any money. Still she couldn’t help but think that someone in her same position in Altok would at least be expected to work in return.

When Ora and Tengu returned from what seemed to have been a hunting trip, Ryoko had gone to talk to them. ‘Look,’ she had said. ‘I really appreciate you rescuing me and all, but I think I’m going to head back to Altok. I wouldn’t want my family to worry too much, you know?’

Ora had smiled her pretty smile. ‘Oh, of course,’ she’d said. ‘We can go right now?’ She’d turned to look at Tengu, who had shrugged.

‘Oh?’ Ryoko had said. ‘Are you two going to Altok?’

‘You can’t go by yourself, can you?’ Ora had said. ‘It’s not exactly safe out that way, is it?’

Ryoko had given it some thought. ‘I was just going to wait for a caravan going that way. See if they wanted an extra guard or something.’

‘In that case, I wish you well, and it was nice to meet you,’ Ora had said, and given a little curtsey.

Tengu had nodded. ‘If you change your mind, I’m sure we can find something to do out that way.’

And the two of them had started walking off to their little house. Ora chattering about ruins off to the west between Kzara and Ovek. Ryoko had watched them go, feeling vaguely unsatisfied with the conversation, but not sure why.

Tengu and Ora had left again the next day. Ryoko had considered asking to go with them, but she didn’t want to miss the next caravan home. So instead she’d started joining in with the militia training, mostly helping out with fencing.

She’d just about got the hang of a firing a hunting bow by the time Ora and Tengu got back with two prisoners rescued from Wasolan. There hadn’t been a caravan passing by in a whole week, which seemed quite odd to someone from Altok, but not to anyone in Haven.

‘Oh, you’re still here,’ Ora had smiled. ‘No caravan yet?’

‘Not yet,’ Ryoko had smiled back. ‘Seems like travel’s a bit less frequent here than in Altok.’

Tengu had nodded. ‘Caravans headed that way are usually about once a month.’

Ora had nodded some more. ‘They’ve been getting less frequent again, since you pushed all the raiders out to near Altok.’

‘You’re giving me too much credit,’ Tengu had said.

‘Maybe next time you two go out, I could come with you?’ Ryoko had asked, heart suddenly racing for some reason. ‘It’s getting a bit dull around here. No offence.’

‘A traveller? I see,’ Tengu had said.

Ora had smiled some more. ‘I’m sure that would be fine,’ she said. ‘You look like you can handle yourself. Not like me when I got here.’

‘Oh?’ Ryoko had said, and it had sounded very high pitched.

Tengu had leaned way down to mutter something to Ora, and then turned and left. Ryoko’s heart had sped back up a little. Ora was probably going to go with Tengu. Was that worth getting worked up about?

‘Don’t hurt yourself,’ Ora had singsonged after Tengu. Then she’d turned back to Ryoko. ‘I escaped from the Lord’s House’ – she waved vaguely down at her long dress – ‘we don’t exactly learn how to fight in there.’

‘Oh,’ Ryoko had said, foolishly. ‘But you’ve learned since you got here?’

Ora had nodded, and smiled, and been generally pretty. ‘Tengu taught me, mostly,’ she said. ‘We didn’t have the militia here at the time, until after we destroyed Outer Light, the mine I escaped from.’

‘Oh,’ Ryoko had said, really struggling to come up with another word.

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‘But you look like you know how to fight,’ Ora said. ‘You killed those people when we rescued you, after all.’

Ryoko nodded and took much longer than she would have liked to realise it was her turn to talk about herself. ‘Oh, yes,’ she’d said, and wanted to slap herself. ‘I’m from Altok, like I mentioned. My parents were caravan guards, they’re retired now. So they taught me how to fight, too. Then I guess I followed in their footsteps and now I’m here.’ She’d shrugged.

‘Being a caravan guard must have been interesting,’ Ora had said.

The longer they talked, the more Ryoko had managed to relax. Ora was very good at this whole conversation thing. Ryoko felt very listened to as they gradually told each other more about their lives up to this point.

After a couple of hours, they’d gone to the inn for some early dinner. Ryoko had enjoyed herself immensely. She’d been a little surprised when Ryoko had headed home for bed just as dusk was falling, but she hadn’t been disappointed.

Two days later, wearing a new hat that looked very like Ora’s, the three of them had headed out of Haven together. Given what Ora had told her of how she’d gotten to Haven, Ryoko was not surprised by how well Ora and Tengu got along. It had felt a little awkward, at first, like she was intruding. But they’d done their best to include her.

Ryoko had quite enjoyed the six-day round trip into the northwest of the wastes, through a quite pretty woodland and along a winding riverbed. She’d been a little out of her element, ambushing slave catchers, but she’d done well enough. And they’d caught some gazelle on their way back to give to Haven’s butcher.

It was during the next trip, to near where Wasolan bordered the wastes, that Ryoko had missed the caravan going through Haven to Altok. Though she’d been enjoying herself, she was still feeling homesick and it was quite disappointing to know that she’d probably have to wait another month.

‘The offer to go with you still stands,’ Ora had said. ‘In fact we were thinking of heading that way fairly soon. Weir wants to go and look for more books.’

Ryoko hadn’t met Weir, but she’d had the windmill pointed out to her a couple of times.

‘Books?’ she’d said.

‘There’s some old world ruins out near Kzara, I think they call it the blacklands, between Kzara and Ovek,’ Ora had said. ‘We’ve found a few good books on electricity out that way. Closest set of ruins that aren’t completely cleaned out.’

Ryoko had frowned. ‘That’s because the ground is poisonous, right? Whatever kind of soot got spread through there is really bad for you?’

Ora held up a finger. ‘The soot is poisonous. It’s only bad for you if you breathe it in. It can’t get through your skin… oh, that rhymed.’ Her smile was deeply charming and Ryoko reconsidered if she actually wanted to leave Haven.

‘You don’t want it on your eyes, either,’ Tengu said.

‘No, that’s true,’ Ora picked back up. ‘We found a book oh, a while back now, that said if you heat up charcoal really hot, but without burning it, and then crush it up really fine and breathe through that, then dangerous particles in the air won’t actually get through your mouth.’

There followed a slightly too lengthy demonstration of the activated charcoal, tightly-woven cloth, and paper filter masks produced in Haven. Ryoko would have been more than happy to take Ora’s word for it, though Ora was quite enthused by the whole thing, which was very cute.

‘Don’t worry, though, you won’t need one if we drop you off in Altok on the way,’ Ora had said.

Tengu had leaned all the way down to mutter something to Ora.

‘Oh, very good point,’ Ora had said. ‘We’ll have to stop by the Sand Crawlers on the way. Beetle wanted to come with us next time we went into the blacklands.’

‘That’s fine,’ Ryoko had said. ‘It’s only an extra day or two.’

They’d set off the next day with Weir. Ryoko had been a little disappointed to have an extra person along, but it was quite pleasant. Weir was quite friendly and, despite being easily a two decades older that Ryoko, was quite good at not sounding condescending.

Beetle wasn’t as much older than Ryoko, and was also quite friendly. Both Weir and Beetle had been in similar situations to Ryoko, rescued by the Sand Crawlers on the way between Wasolan and Ovek. Weir had grown up in a farming village in southern Kzara, which had been raided only a couple of years ago. Beetle had been born a slave in Wasolan and was pretty sure she’d been on her way to be sold to the Lord’s Church to be someone’s eleventh wife or something at fifteen years old.

Ora informed them that the most wives anyone was allowed in the Lord’s Kingdom was seven.

It had only occurred to Ryoko what a bad idea this was as the five of them headed south out of Journey. This whole area was infested with slavers, ready and excited to grab the five of them up and sell them in Wasolan or Ovek.

When she suggested they find a caravan headed to Altok, everyone assured her that it would be fine.

It was, debatably, fine.

Ora and Beetle had killed five of the slavers by the time they got close enough for Ryoko to draw her sword. Ryoko was pretty sure she’d just seen Tengu block an arrow with her own sword.

Despite being distinctly outnumbered, the worst wound any of the five of them had before the gang of twenty-six slavers changed their mind about the fight was a light nick on Weir’s side that would certainly turn into a lovely bruise.

‘You just bruise so much better when you’re my age,’ Weir had chuckled.

Another fight had been averted by Ora shooting a large man through the neck a day later, and the five of them made it to Altok without much worse than Ryoko’s severe worry.

The reunion with Ryoko’s parents was full of equal parts tears and grinning. Lots of ‘we thought you were dead’ and a bit of ‘we were sure you’d been sold to the Lord’s House’ and a lot of ‘we’re so happy you’re alive’ were sprinkled through the big hugs and happy tears.

There wasn’t really enough space, but Ryoko’s parents insisted that the rest of the group was more than welcome to stay in their house. They stayed for two nights, Tengu and Beetle had some sort of business in the city that Ryoko didn’t bother to ask about.

Ryoko’s parents asked slightly too many questions about Ora for Ryoko’s comfort. But she supposed that was what parents were for.

It seemed to be a surprise only to Ryoko, when she decided she’d go to the blacklands with Ora and Tengu, and the others. Tengu had brought an extra filter mask for her and everything.

That was not the expedition where they found the book on telegraphy, but Ryoko was on that expedition too. She supposed it wasn’t very different, really. She went back to Altok every month or two to visit her parents, and spent most of her time with Ora and Tengu and whoever else was tagging along, exploring the wastes or the blacklands or the empty border zone between Narmen and Wasolan.