Today was the day they finally left for their mission.

  Andromeda and the rest were tasked with a mission to travel north and investigate the strange activity in the region.

  In that time she was introduced more specifically to the rest of the groups specialties and where she fit into that dynamic.

  At the head of the group was Martin. Between his sword and shield he was the most capable of both defending and offending any threats that might come across. If a situation calls for more involved combat then Oren joins as the tank of the group. It wasn’t as apparent before. But now standing in full steel armor it was clear he was a brick wall in human form. Andromeda wasn’t entirely unsure if he could take on a bear alone, bare handed.

  In the back of the formation was Circe and herself. Circe’s job was to pick off flanking targets and provide covering fire should they need to flank themselves. Her dedication to ranged combat meant that she wasn’t great in a straight fight, but to that end she carried a dagger should the need arise.

  Andromeda’s role was full support. If Oren could defend, Circe could attack, and Martin could do both. She could do neither. But her role was just as important to the group. With her they could afford to extend and fight harder than they normally could, comfortable in the fact that injuries and weapon damage wouldn’t become a major hindrance. It might even be fair to say that as both a Medea and Mender she was doing the work of two people. But nobody’s pride, not even her own, would mention that out loud.

  To get more specific with their assignment, it was reported that starting roughly two months ago numerous hunters were reporting extra skittish wildlife. Thile it was unusual for this to happen in the middle of spring, it was abnormal that several animals were found mutilated in various places around the region. Not eaten, just slain.

  When this fact finally reached the capital and was distributed to the various guilds, it was politely refused on the grounds that there wasn’t enough information to commit a larger force.

  Put simply, they were throwing the scouting guilds to the wolves to figure out whether it was worthy of their attention.

  The true intent of their actions wasn’t lost on anybody, even the capital officials, but the scouting guilds would jump at the chance for a payout. Even with the risks involved.

  Thus, Cain was contacted to handle the operation.

  That is why his team was now hiking out into the wilderness to investigate.

  One of the hallmark staples of long hikes like this was musing on the nature of things. Or in this group's case, arguing about inane things that didn’t matter, but still filled the air.

  “I don’t care about what Garret says, pork is better when well done.” Martin said.

  “Idiots like yourself can deal with burnt pork all you want, but I haven’t found a piece of pork I liked that didn’t have a little pink in it.” Circe said.

  “Both of you are fools, beef is better than pork regardless of how its cooked.” Oren said.

  “You would say that, you overgrown ox.” Circe said.

  The three grumbled to and about each other while Andromeda followed up behind them. They turned around occasionally to get her opinion, but eventually gave up when her answers kept being “Anything is good to me.”

  She had to admit, it got pretty hilarious at times, especially when they started arguing about the best kind of white meat, and when Martin said chicken Circe started flapping her arms and clucking like a chicken. They changed topic fairly often, from food, to the weather, back to food, and then their favorite hobbies.

  In between their bouts of argument Andromeda took time to praise the work on her clothes.

  Between the four of them, she was the only one who wasn’t wearing any armor at all. This was for two reasons.

  The first was that her job required her to be agile and dexterous. Metal plates and leather binding would restrict her movements.

  The second was that the boons she needed to function well couldn’t be applied to unfine materials like metal and leather.

  She thought back to what Fila had told her when she collected her clothes.

-----

  “This looks incredible, I’ve never seen something this breathtaking.” Andromeda said.

  “It does my heart good knowing my fingers can still produce work like this. But there is more to this than just the looks.” Fila said. When prompted, Fila explained what she meant.

  “Magic is a feature of the world, nature more to say, metal and leather are products created from nature, but not a part of it. Magic doesn’t like sticking to it, boons especially. This is good because Sorcerers don’t just invalidate the martial types, but it makes it really hard to use magic when wearing it. It more or less smothers magic.”

  This was the reason her clothes were made of such fine fabrics. The closer to nature they were the less of a hindrance they were. Theoretically, if you ignored boons, being naked would be best. And though some people move in that general direction, its better to keep your body covered, for modesty if nothing else.

  Andromeda’s outfit was specially crafted to be as useful as it could be with her skills.

  Usually healers were dedicated to one style, so they could specialize. But she had a more generalized set of boons.

  Her outfit could be best described as being made of three layers. Fila was a master of practicality and even went to the trouble of making the outfit modular. Just so it looked good no matter what she wore.

  The Innermost layer was the one that contained the most potent boons. The one’s that improved her raw healing ability and even extended the distance at which she could heal. It was made up of three pieces. A white blouse with red trim, a pair of white trousers, and thin leather boots. Though she had a second pair of sandals when boots were overkill, with matching boons. In warm weather she could strip to this inner layer and be mostly as effective as she was with everything.

  The middle layer consisted of a short shawl, as well as a pair of gloves, both white, but trimmed with red. These were the pieces that held the most potent mending boons. While obstructing the hands would make medical healing a bit harder, they protected the hands from things like splinters and shards of glass, common with broken items. This set is worn when it is most mild.

  The outermost later was one of three things. A red robe, a white coat, or a black riding hood. To be worn at her discretion. These items did the most to assist in spiritual healing. But in what ways she was never told. Only if it got unreasonably cold would she really need these.

------

  Beside this set of clothes, she was given several more unenchanted pieces of clothing to wear in more casual settings. But those were left in her room back in Sil.

  Overall the outfit was made to be light and unrestricting, but where ever it could be afforded it would provide slight protection. Andromeda could confidently state that it was the most elaborate and comfortable thing she had ever worn. No contest.

  To go with the outfit, before the team left they went shopping for a “side-arm” for Andromeda. After many arguments about what would be best, a dagger, a shield, a bow, it eventually came down an oak staff.

  If she really needed to hold something off, a baseball swing with a 6 foot long piece of wood would be effective. It even doubled as a catalyst to slightly extend the range of her healing.

  Everything combined she could heal somebody from up to ten feet away. Meaning she could keep herself mobile and still be in range to heal.

  In theory, anyway.

  The group hadn’t encountered anything that really called for her abilities. They ran across a few wild animals, and even a very unhappy badger that Martin had to kick to get it to leave them alone. But beside that they hadn’t really come into conflict with anything.

  However, that would only be mentioned if the narrorator was planning on tempting fate. Which leads to:

  Andromeda was grabbed from behind and a knife put to her throat.

  “Drop your valuables, or your girl here will be breathing from her neck.” The man said.

  The group turned around to see a group of 7 men, one of which had Andromeda in his arms with a massive blade held against her.

  “We’re registered guild members from Sil, if you harm any of us you’ll all be hanged.” Martin said.

  “We’re robbing people on the road mate, do you think we aren’t already up for the noose?” The one who seemed to be in charge said.

  They argued back and forth, threats on both ends. The bandits having Andromeda as a hostage equally balanced by every bandit’s crystal clear awareness that should any harm befall her, none of them would be left alive.

  The man holding her had managed to grab her in a way that both her arms were pinned, and she couldn’t even kick her weight out without risking her neck being sliced.

  She had a clever idea that had a chance to backfire, but at the same time could be her salvation. The man’s bare arm was held against her wrists.

  Something she had learned earlier was that each form of healing had different ranges. Medical healing had the longest range, mending had a short range, an spiritual required skin to skin contact.

  She activated her instinctual ability and for the first time willingly entered someone’s mind.

  Unlike Martin’s mind, this man’s was a swirling storm, memories flashed by like bolts of lightning. Nothing like the misty reflections she saw before.

  She focused her mind and tried to follow the man’s memories. With more force of will she could manage to parse the bolts of memory into understandable form.

  Now knowing more of what she was doing, she could understand more at a glance.

  With just a short time she found something that might help her.

  When she deactivated her ability and came to the situation had escalated, everyone had their swords drawn and Martin looked like he was five seconds from leaping at the bandits.

  “Wait!” Andromeda yelled.

  The whole crowd grew quiet, waiting to see what the interruption was.

  “You.” She said, she shook her hand self to signify that she was talking to her captor.

  “What?” He said, agitated.

  “What would your daughter think if she saw you doing this?” Andromeda said. The man gripped her tighter she felt the blade along her neck press closer.

  “How do you know of her.” The man said, if he could earlier be described as agitated, then he was on a different circle of hell.

  “It doesn’t matter, think, what would she think if you killed me?” Andromeda said.

  “She would never know, now shut-”

  “No!” Andromeda Interrupted. “She can read you like a book, you know that. If she saw you she would know!”

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  “Shut your mouth, you don’t know anything.” He said, she could feel him nearly crushing her now. There was a small drip of blood from the knife.

  “You won’t be able to look her in the eye if you do this. She’s all you have left.” Andromeda said. That was it, the man broke and lost his grip and dropped the knife. Andromeda leaped forward to escape the other’s range while the man holding her fell to the ground in tears.

  That brief moment of confusion was enough time, before anybody could blink two of the bandits fell to the ground with arrows through the forehead. Another lost his head to Martin’s blade, and another still was instantly dismembered by a large axe wielded by Oren and died from shock.

  The last two realized how poorly the situation had gone and ran off before they were killed. Though one did get stuck in the shoulder with an arrow from Circe.

  During the short fight Andromeda brought her hand to her throat and healed the small slice. It wasn’t enough to kill her but any damage to the neck was incredibly painful.

  Once she was done she saw that Oren was standing over the man who was holding her, ready to behead him.

  “Stop.” Andromeda said.

  “What?” Oren questioned.

  “Let him go, he hasn’t done anything yet.” Andromeda said.

  “You do remember that he nearly sliced your head off right?” Circe said.

  “Yes, I do, but I’m not going to be the reason a little girl will get orphaned.” Oren grumbled at the request, but put his weapon away. He did get away with pushing the crying man over so he fell on his back. In perfect tandem Martin’s sword was aimed at the man’s throat. He waited for the man to collect himself somewhat and spoke.

  “You are only alive because our healer is extraordinarily kind, don’t waste the chance she has given you. You will never find such kindness again.” Martin said.

  The man sputtered something that sounded like an apology, then ran back up the road the group had come down.

  A few minutes passed and once everyone was sure Andromeda was alright, they finally began to speak.

  “Of course, literally our first job and we already almost get you killed.” Martin said.

  “Live and learn, we’ll have her walking in front of us from now on so we can keep an eye on her.” Oren said while wiping the blood off his arms.

  “At least show a little remorse Oren, the poor girl almost died.” Circe said.

  “I’m fine.” Andromeda said. Then Martin gave her a crooked stare.

  “Yeah, about that, how did you know about his daughter?” Marin asked.

  “Same as I knew about your mother.” Andromeda said.

  “I guess. But I’ve never heard of somebody using a Saint’s skills like that.” Martin said.

  “Yeah, but they usually raise Saint’s on a mountain and teach how to not feel emotions. They probably never have to worry about situations like this.” Circe said.

  “Fair point.” Martin said “Regardless, good thinking!”

  Martin raised his hand for a high five which Andromeda returned.

  “I’ve only known a few healers. But I don’t think any would have walked away from that without blubbering like a baby.” Oren said.

  “Oh, is that praise I hear? I guess we might see a unicorn today with how lucky we all are.” Circe said. Oren grumbled and pushed her away.

  “Come on, we need to keep moving.” Oren said.

  “But what about the corpses?” Martin said.

  “I’m not digging any graves for people who threaten my team.” Oren said.

-----

  You know, walking never seems like such a big deal when you do it in short doses. A walk to the store or a walk in the park, that makes perfect sense.

  Then you think about having to march for a week, that gets you.

  Andromeda had thoughts along these lines after day three of walking. She wasn’t out of shape by any means. She couldn’t live the life she used to if she was.

  But there was a stark difference between walking on a treadmill with a belt holding you down and gravity doing the job instead.

  The others were handling the march just fine for the most part. Circe occasionally complained about her knee being sore but beside that it was radio silence apart from the normal conversational arguments.

  Only with a little more trudging then did the sun decide to take its leave over the horizon. Then she heard the glorious words that she came to adore more than her own heartbeat.

  “Sun’s set, we should get started on camp.” Oren said. Circe and Martin mumbled in agreement and the group pulled to the side of the road and walked a fair distance away.

  They were passing through an open valley at this point, so there weren’t many places to set up camp. There was a single tree about a mile out, that was the one that Oren pointed out they should camp under, much to Andromeda and her feet’s displeasure.

  After the mini-hike in the middle of their normal hike they started unrolling the bedmats and looking for kindling to start a fire.

  They didn’t find much, so it eventually came down to having Martin climbing up the tree and breaking off a low hanging branch and using prairie grass as a fire starter.

  They all sat down around the edge of the fire pit while Oren went at it with a flint and steel.

  “Hey Andromeda?” Martin said.

  “Hmm?”

  “I was thinking about this earlier, we don’t know very much about you, do we?” Martin said.

  “Well…” Andromeda said.

  “He’s right you know, the only thing I can confidently say I know is that you can heal things and give Martin a complex.” Circe said, who received a very much anticipated punch from Martin.

  “I didn’t mean to keep secrets.” Andromeda said. “What do you want to know?”

  “A bunch of things. Where do you come from? What do you like to do? Then there are those more specific questions, why were you outside the castle when Cain found you? Why were you wearing the royal families insignia?” Martin belted out.

  “Short of spilling all your most tightly guarded secrets, I’d just like to hear about you. You cut an interesting path wherever you go.” Circe said.

  “I can tell you some things, but I’d like to keep some things to myself as well.” Andromeda said.

  “Totally fair, whatever you’re comfortable with.” Martin said.

  “Right, where I’m from.” Andromeda said. What would be the best way to say this? She didn’t know how they might react if she told them the whole truth. It might be best to just be vague.

  “I’m not exactly sure. I mean, I know what it was like, but I’m so far away that I might never see it again.” She said.

  “Oh, don’t say that, two feet, a boat and time will get you anywhere.” Martin said.

  “Maybe, but I’m so far away.” She said, she did her best to not look up at the sky.

  “Let’s not think about that. What was it called?” Circe asked.

  What would she call it? Perhaps its normal name would be fine.

  “Wukong Station”

  “Yep, never heard of it.” Martin said, he looked disappointed.

  “Can’t say I’ve heard about it either.” Circe said. “What’s it like?”

  “Its hard to describe.” Andromeda said.

  “Take your time, we’re in no rush.” Martin said. She thought long and hard about how this could possible be put in words that  would make sense.

  “Imagine a castle, but it was so tall you could reach the stars by walking up the stairs.” Andromeda said.

  The whole group, Oren included, looked at her surprised.

  “That sounds…”

  Here it comes.

  “...Amazing!” Circe yelled.

  oh

  “What are the stars like?” Martin asked.

  “Oh.” Andromeda said.

  “Tell us!” Circe said.

  She gave up and let herself look up at the sky, the stars above were just starting to show as the sun’s light stopped bleaching everything blue.

  “Look up at the star there.” She said, they all looked up and found the start she pointed out.

  “That star, that single point of light in the sky is larger than the entire world. Thousands of times larger, if you could walk across its surface it would take millions of years to walk around it.” Andromeda said.

  “I feel… small.” Martin said.

  “It is so far away that you couldn’t even reach before died , even if you moved faster than light.” She continued.

  “Are all the stars like that?” Circe asked.

  “Every single one, its even possible that some of those stars have planets with people looking up at us too.”

  “How do you know that?” Oren asked.

  “I can’t be 100% sure, but think about it like this. There are billions of stars, maybe trillions, each star could have just as many planets as our sun. Maybe more. Even if it was a one in a billion chance that life came to be here, that are so many planets that one in a billion might as well be 1.”

  They all stared silently at the sky.

  She got a little carried away, all this might be too much for them to consider. They might think she was making-

  “That really puts things in perspective.” Martin said.

  “Hmm?” Andromeda said.

  “We’re just one thing, one of many, maybe of millions. Not a people, or a country, just one planet. Everything I had ever thought was important could just be a tiny spec in it all.” Martin said.

  “I expected you to be a bit more resistant to that honestly.” Andromeda said.

  “Its hard to think about, something inside me wants to say you couldn’t possibly be right. But you are impossible yourself, and we’re talking right now. So how much of a leap is it to say that I wasn’t wrong about this too?” Martin said.

  Andromeda felt emotions welling up inside her, something between happiness and sadness.

  “You have no idea how good it is to hear that Martin. It took me a long time to believe it myself.” Andromeda said.

  “I’m glad to hear that, and while everyone would like to hear more, I wanted to get back to you.” He said.

  “Oh, joy.” She said.

  “Really, you told us about where you came from but nothing about you. It’s almost like your trying to avoid talking about yourself.” Martin said overly dramatic.

  “There isn’t much to say, I lived with my parents until recently, then I met Cain.” She said.

  “No hobbies? Friends? Stories? Anything at all?” Martin asked.

  “Is your hobby prying into people’s personal lives?” She said in a fit.

  She realized what she just said. It took her a moment, and Martin’s “are you serious” stare.

  “I’m going to sleep.” She said, then laying down.

  Another silent punch from Circe to Martin put everyone on the same page, then they went to sleep. With Oren on guard for the next few hours.

-----

   The morning came quickly enough and everyone rose with the sun. Oren and Circe waking like dead bricks buried in mud, while Andromeda and Martin woke without much issue. Though Andromeda was quiet throughout the morning, while Martin was not. Initially Circe got grilled because she was supposed to be awake through the morning on watch, but it wasn’t held harshly against her seeing as how everyone was fine. Once Oren was awake enough to function he kicked dirt into the campfire and poured some water on the ashes.

  When everybody backed their things and got back to their feet they walked the mile back to the road and continued on their journey.

  “Alright, according to this map we got with the request we should be reaching a small town by midafternoon. Once were there we should split into two groups to cover more ground.” Oren said.

  “Riiiiight. We have a forth person now.” Circe said.

  “Exactly, You two will go together and I’ll take Andromeda.” Oren said.

  “I have no preference, but why you and her?” Marin asked.

  “She is the least able to protect herself, and I’m the most able. You two could do an okay job of both in a pinch.” Oren said.

  “Okay, that ma-”

  “Also I haven’t gotten chance to speak with her once without something going wrong, or without you two, so call me selfish.” Oren said.

  “I’d be happy to talk with you Oren.” Andromeda said. Without warning Oren suddenly started choking on air, while Martin and Circe burst into laughter.

  They both suspected she was being innocent, but when she turned back to them with a faint smirk they knew it was calculated.

  “Good…” Oren said once his breath reached his lungs again.

  The group continued for the next few hours. There wasn’t much talking between them because everything they had to talk about was exhausted the day before. Now anytime somebody spoke up was because of an observation or concern. None of which called for continued conversation.

  To fill the time everyone went to their own small activities. Oren pulled a book from his bag and began to read it. Martin and Circe played first to a thousand Roshambo, while Andromeda took in the world around her.

-----