I stood in front of the door to mine and Ann’s room for too long before I finally worked up the courage to knock. My knuckles tapped against the wood exactly once, then the door swung open before I could tap it again.

Ann stood in front of me. She’d swapped out her mage robes for a purple, slightly baggy shirt and black pajama shorts. Her red eyes were as vibrant as ever, and her short hair dark from what seemed like a recent wash.

“Uh, hey,” I said, smiling at her. I felt a slight buzz of butterflies in my stomach again. Not as intense as when we first got together, but the feeling of affection was now familiar, and comfortable.

She blinked at me for a moment, seemingly worried, then blushed slightly, leaning against the doorframe. “Uhm, yeah, hi, Fio!” she said, crossing her arms. “Fancy seeing you here.”

I stared at her, then slowly grinned. “Fancy?”

Her cheeks turned even more red, but she still met my eyes. “Yep. Fancy. For sure.”

With a smirk, I quickly shuffled into the room, closing the door behind me. Ann still leaned against the frame, enough space there for her. We stood close to one another, and I felt those familiar butterflies again.

I was slightly taller than her, and it was pronounced slightly because of her leaning. In a small shuffle, she stopped doing so, getting back to her own feet. I wrapped her in a hug.

Her hands clasped around my back as if she was looking for something to hold onto. I took a deep breath, squeezing her slightly. Not too much, more like a weighted blanket.

For a long, long moment, we just stood there like that.

Eventually, Ann pulled away. I would have held her for as long as it took. She had her hands on my forearms still, rather than my back now, looking into my eyes. It felt like she was trying to say something, wrestling with her words.

I waited.

For a few long minutes Ann stood there, and eventually turned her gaze away. “Sorry,” she said quietly.

Lightly, I shook my head. “It’s okay,” I said, my voice calm. “Take your time.” I moved to hug her again, and she leaned her head against my shoulder.

We stayed like that for another long while. This was a bit of a difference from my usually fierce Ann, but really, who had never been upset before? She needed comfort, and I was happy to be comfortable to her.

Eventually, after a long while, she spoke. Her voice shook slightly, but didn’t break. “Can we… sit down on the bed?”

“Of course, love,” I said, guiding her there. I sat down on it, the mattress a bit harder than what we had on Neamhan. That didn’t matter. Ann took a seat next to me. For a moment, she hesitated, then leaned against me once more.

I wrapped one arm around her, and pat her head with the other. She closed her eyes, but hummed to show me she liked it. After some time, I gave her a kiss on the cheek, which even elicited a small smile.

That made me smile as well in turn.

“Thanks Fio,” she said, eyes still closed.

I kissed the top of her head. “Of course, love. For as long as you need.”

“I-” she paused, struggling with the words. “I think I might not tell you today.”

“That’s okay.”

“Is it?” she opened up her eyes again, looking at me with worry. “Are you sure?”

“More than sure,” I nodded, giving her a smile and ruffling her hair. “C’mon. I might be a lotta things, but have I ever lied to you?”

There was a pause in the conversation, and I saw the faintest hint of a smile cross Ann’s face. First genuine, then mischievous. “Yes, of course. Like when you told me you would make sure to heal up, you know? And then what did you do, Fio?”

She pushed my shoulder a little, making me shake slightly. I gave a nervous laugh. “I, uh. No comment?”

“You,” she said, punctuating the words by poking me again, “went and fought a giant worm!!” As she finished, she pounced on me, knocking me onto my bed. Even with the hole in my chest I was more than sturdy enough to endure it.

The wound had healed enough from the potion to not really ache anymore. I just had to be careful not to reopen it, and it would take more than a bit of play-fighting to do that. Especially with my new levels and enhanced stats… no, I wouldn’t get hurt so easily.

Ann sat down on my tummy, looking down on me, finally wearing a smile again. It made my heart race a little; I was incredibly happy to see her enjoy life. Despite all the troubles, despite the fact that the world was gonna come close to ending soon. She was able to smile, in part because of me.

It meant the world.

“Look, to be fair, the worm really deserved it?” I said, giving her half a shrug.

She frowned in mock-annoyance. “Really now?! What a flimsy excuse! Matt entirely had it covered!”

“I think Emilia actually contributed the most,” I hummed. “Tearing it in half like that…”

Ann grinned. “Oho? And yet you don’t even know, do you…”

“Don’t know what?” I asked. Somehow, I was a little glad she didn’t comment any further.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, Fio?” Ann teased, booping my nose. I scrunched up my face in response, and she giggled, a light, pearly sound. I smiled.

“Indeed, I would,” I readily admitted. “I’m impatient you see. Tells me so, right in my disposition.”

“Pfft, disposition, disposchmition,” Ann mocked. “Those divines don’t know what they’re talking about. Back in my day…” she let the joke trail off, wearing a small smile.

I laughed, making her smile widen some more. “Indeed. Those young’uns. They want a world that is livable! How dare they, such entitlement!” I rolled my eyes in faux-annoyment, and Ann laughed.

Really, it was a bit of gallow’s humour. Some old people back on Neamhan really did think that way. Absolutely wild, really. Imagine poisoning a planet, then saying how entitled kids are for wanting to breathe clean air.

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“Fucking Zinnic,” Ann sighed.

Again, I laughed. “Okay, let’s not talk about those for one day. Please. There’s enough bad news to go around, aside from me having put myself in the truly bad graces with a megacorp.”

Ann smiled. “Alright, we can do that.” She cupped my cheek, running her thumb over it. “You’re looking gorgeous right now, you know that?”

A slight blush spread across my face. “So are you, love.”

She smirked. “Don’t you go around stealing my compliments.”

“Not my fault if it’s true!” I protested. When Ann laughed, I quickly moved to sit up, hugging her tightly again and kissing her. It was a long kiss.

Eventually, I leaned my forehead against hers. “I love you,” I said, entirely genuinely.

I could almost hear Ann’s smile. “I love you, too.”

For a while, I let the moment stay, kissing her a few more times. But there was something I knew that I had to share. So eventually, I forced myself to pull away.

“Ann,” I said, now with a bit of distance between us. “I do have to tell you something.”

“Oh?” she asked, teasingly. “And what would that be?”

“Nothing fun, unfortunately,” I said, as much as it pained me to see the smirk fade from Ann’s face. “There’s an eclipse coming.”

Then, Ann paused. She looked at me for a long moment, her face neutral and almost unreadable, except to me. Her brows were creased ever so slightly, telling me she was thinking. I let her.

A minute or two must’ve passed like that until she spoke again. “That’s… troublesome,” she admitted readily, all playfulness gone from her voice.

I nodded quietly.

“Do the others know yet?” she asked.

“No,” I said, shaking my head.

She gave a slow nod. “Right. That makes sense, since they were a bit out of it today.” I nodded in agreement. “Thank you for telling me first.”

“Of course,” I said, though my mouth felt a little dry at her neutral tone.

Ann noticed and gave a small smile. “Love, I really appreciate knowing,” she said. “I don’t want to worry you. I believe we can get through this together. But it will not be easy.”

“Yeah, I know that,” I said, leaning against the wall the bed stood against. “But we’ve been through worse things.”

“I… doubt that,” Ann said, her smile turning crooked, “but I admire your optimism.” She paused again. “We are staying in Eden, right?” The question came out quietly.

“Absolutely,” I affirmed. The words left my mouth before I could think, but I was sure of it. I couldn’t go back anyway, because of the keepers. Would I stay if leaving wasn’t an option? That was a question I couldn’t answer, but seeing Ann like that? It made me lean towards yes. “I’m staying. I’d… hope you are as well, though I want you to be safe, of course.”

She smiled slightly. “I’m staying,” she said. “I wouldn’t leave you alone. Or the people here, for that matter.”

That was so her. Ann always cared, no matter if she thought she was hiding it well. I returned her smile. “Okay. It’ll be at least the two of us then.”

“Knowing the others? I’d wager much more than just us,” Ann said, then leaned forward, kissing me on the forehead. I wrapped my arms around her and gave her a hug.

“Well,” I said, huffing slightly, “maybe right now, I’m okay with it being just us.”

Ann smirked again, seemingly amused at my antics. “I suppose I could stand to be in a room with you for a bit.”

The rest of the night passed rather quickly.

- - -

When the next morning came, I took a shower before putting my backup set of armor on. The other one was riddled with holes from the amount of stabs and bites I had taken, which would have been even worse if it hadn’t been for the armor. I’d given it to the innkeep, who took it to a blacksmith.

Some poor apprentice would be fixing it up over the next couple days, making sure to mend it or replace any parts that needed replacing. Pay was already done; I’d given them some of the novas the divines had given me for the amount of usurpers I killed.

Knowing there was some apprentice working on my armor late into the night would always be a strange thought, but it was also one that I could live with. It did mean that we would remain in this town - Elyrstead - for the foreseeable future.

I was fine with that. It was further away from the frontier than Renvil had been, though with that city destroyed, maybe this would mark the new frontier, instead.

It went like that a lot. Edians and Reflectors would push back the usurpers, reclaim Eden’s territories, establish cities and outposts. Then, eventually, when an eclipse came, the usurpers would gather more territories, as powerful beasts came from the rifts.

Those could often only be defeated by archmages, like Orvan, and even then, they were often just fought to a standstill. Then, they’d hide until the next eclipse, like that giant monster that shot black flames. It had been here before this eclipse began, so it must’ve been in this world for a while.

And even then, we were still only in the beginning phases. Now, formations and arrays would become less reliable - larger ones breaking first, hence why the protections around cities worked more poorly than personal ones - then, the sun would get darker, and eventually, rifts would tear open.

But that was all something for me to worry about when discussing it with my team. For now, I took solace in the fact that I was wearing armor again, though its protection mattered significantly less with my increased levels of resilience and [Golden Body]. Still, every bit would matter.

When Ann was also ready, wearing her mage’s robes, we made our way downstairs together. Marie was already up, talking to some locals, probably gathering information. Liam and Eric were seated, too, mostly browsing through their gifts. I could tell Liam was cycling his Qi, and Eric seemed to be doing some stuff with his divinity, though I was unsure quite what he was doing.

I took a seat at the table with them, receiving two nods in greeting. “Reya, Emilia and Matt still nursing headaches?” I asked.

“My sister is, unfortunately, hungover,” Eric said with a sigh. “She’ll probably cure it once she wakes up. The fact that she uses her divine healing for it is something I won’t understand.”

Ann shrugged. “What’s it for if you don’t use it?”

I glanced sideways at her. That was… unexpected. Ann rarely commented on what clerics did.

Eric shrugged in response. “It just seems disrespectful to Lurelia, I suppose,” he said.

“So?” Ann asked. “If Lurelia minded, she can tell your sister herself. That’s what [Divine Communion] is for, isn’t it?”

The cleric gave her a long look, then smiled slightly. “I suppose. Seems strange to provoke a goddess to respond to pointless use of her powers, though.”

“If it lets her fight more, Lurelia would approve, I’m sure,” Ann said.

“You seem to know a lot about my goddess,” Eric commented, somewhat snarkily.

At that, Ann gave him a long look with an expressionless face. “I’ve dealt with clerics before, some who used her powers a lot more loosely than you two.”

“Oh?” This time, Eric seemed more genuinely curious than annoyed.

Ann decided to answer, though she ordered a glass of water beforehand. After taking a small sip, she looked at the cleric again. “Yes. The worst abuse I’ve ever seen was a hitman. He would attack targets while they slept, taking away their pain using a special skill, then heal all their wounds to the point where the healing fatigue killed them. It made for murders that were astonishingly hard to trace, you see, and bodies that could not ever be brought back properly.”

At that, Eric’s face fell visibly. “Oh,” he said, this time more as if sick.

“This, of course, was something that Lurelia did disapprove of,” Ann continued with a straight face. “So, she cut him off from gaining additional levels. Divines cannot withdraw levels already given, you see. Having a sponsor divine helps to advance as a cleric, but isn’t strictly required, and any gift once given cannot be demanded to be returned.”

“Did… he ever get caught?”

“Of course,” Ann nodded. “Paladins. A whole dozen of them surrounded him after knowing about a hit. They crashed into the room right as he was about to deliver yet another killing blow. Instead, the assassin died that day.”

“... Right,” Eric said. “In comparison, Reya’s actions do seem less… antithetical to the goddess.” It felt like he was trying to lighten the mood.

“Quite,” Ann agreed happily. “She is taking away pain, after all, that is why Lurelia bestows healing onto mortals like us, isn’t it?”

Eric just nodded in reply.

The silence hung in the air until Marie sat down with us. The locals, sadly, didn’t seem to know much about what was going on. “I do,” I said when she was done reporting. “I know what is happening. But I’d be a lot more comfortable if everyone was here when I said it.”

Marie gave me a long look, and I returned a small nod. “Okay,” she said, without hesitation. “Let me go drag the others out of bed then.”

“Do you need my help?” Eric asked.

“No need,” the older woman shook her head. “I have a minor boon from Argus. For my nature magic. It lets me deliver tiny amounts of healing, just enough to cure a headache.” She said with a wink, and her teasing seemed to dispel a bit more of the lingering strangeness around Eric.

He gave a half amused nod as Emilia set off, coming back with three zombie-looking creatures a minute later. Soon, they were all seated at the table, and a minute later, they all looked awake. It was time to bring them the news.