I try to ignore the sad song that the moon trees are singing, how the dark blue grass is glittering like it's part of a dream. I haven't been here since Sun spoke of the Raven and his "betrayal". I have tried to ignore the thoughts surrounding them, but it's hard to shut it out in my bedroom with the eternal rain behind the glass. I still haven't been able to open the window, and by now it's likely I'll never will.

Sun and Rampion are both settled around the white table as usual. Rampion is leaning against the chair and Sun's hands are clasped together, resting on the surface of the table.

"You come here often, Orchid," she says when she notices me. "Compared to anyone else that is."

The wrath I had seen the last time is no longer there.

Rampion moves the gigantic head towards me. "What do you want? Have we not explained everything to you already?"

Sun rolls her eyes. "Ignore him. You know what he's like. What do you want help with?"

She knows I'm here for a reason, I guess no one – except them – would come here by their own choices. It's too close to the well.

"Arkaros," I begin with uncertainty, "I'd need a guide that shows me around, mostly so I can get to the Hall of Memories and the library Rampion mentioned."

"Ask Clover," Rampion says and leans back against the chair, so it stands on the two back legs. "We have nothing to do with this."

He's wrong. Blomst literally asked him to show me how this worked, which included Arkaros and its buildings that was important to shapeshifting.

"I don't want to ask Clover," I say and hope they won't ask further.

"Rampion only goes there when he has to."

She sounds bored, and by her lazy expression I'd guess she is.

"And I don't want to bring anyone," he adds.

Sun continues, "I can bring you with me, but I'm quite busy. The best would be if you simply asked Clover or someone else."

"I can't do that."

Sun sighs. "Then you'll just have to wait until I'm available."

I'm not sure I can do that either. Allie doesn't have much longer until I have to reap her soul. If Sun isn't available then I'd either have to go myself or ask Blomst for help, something I cannot even imagine.

"When are you available?" I ask, and not as patiently as I'd like to sound.

Sun gives me another sly smile. "Well, aren't you impatient? You'd think with that little time you'd ask Clover. You know him better, no?"

I cannot answer, I have no desire telling her that he avoids me because I cannot stop forcing myself into other people's affairs.

Sun sighs. "I have an errand in Arkaros in three days. I can bring you then. Not earlier."

Rampion has his large paw leaning against the bear head as he continues to rock his chair. The coal-black, artificial eyes tell me nothing of what he's thinking – if he even cares for our conversation.

"Would you like to accompany us, Rampion?" Sun asks.

Rampion stops rocking and lets the chair's front legs down with a thud. "What do you think?"

"That's a no from our bear friend," she says, and he groans. "Seems like it will be only us. Which reminds me, this time I have a question for you."

"Do you now?" I ask and keep my eyes focused on her.

"Mm-hm, I've noticed that Clover hasn't been around you – I haven't even seen him in a few days actually. He tends to be hard to miss, with all his brooding and unfortunate dirty appearance. Even if you have completed your apprenticeship, you usually don't end your relations completely, even if one of the said soul wanderers happens to be Clover. Has something happened?"

She smiles. It almost looks innocent for a while. But she soon reminds me of a grinning fox. She knows exactly what to do, where to probe and prod to reach the hidden, uncomfortable truth. In a way she reminds me of Clover that seems to see through me no matter what I do, yet she's slyer and more ruthless.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Nothing has happened."

I take a step forward and try to fake a security that was more real when I was alive – she can see through that one too.

Rampion scoffs and Sun smiles once again when my lie was so easy to see through that even Rampion noticed it.

"Let me guess, you said something he got annoyed at," Rampion says.

"Something about the well?" Sun adds.

I bite down hard.

Sun smile grows bigger. "That's what I thought. You came too close to what he's hiding, so he threw you aside and pretends you don't exist. Am I right?"

Clover hadn't even tried to solve it. He had asked me to leave the Oak and since then he had avoided me. The only time he showed up at the Eleven was when he needed to bring Eclipse on one of his contracts, but I had never been in time to meet him. At this point I had given up, to chase after him was a waste of time. He didn't want to fix anything, so finding him wouldn't really help. He would just shut me out again.

"Okay, you're right," I admit. "I said something that made him avoid me. That's why I'm asking you for help and not Clover. Will you help me or not?"

"I've already said you can accompany me in three days, have I not? We can talk more about it in the morning. You're welcome to partake in breakfast with us, obviously you'll have to settle for food I ate when I was alive. Unless you bring your own, of course."

"You're joking." A dissatisfied grunt comes from the large bear head. "She'll eat with us?"

"Does it look like I'm joking?"

He crosses his arms.

"I'll have an extra chair for you tomorrow, and you're welcome to eat with us," she says with half a smile.

"Alright then, I'll be here tomorrow morning."

I expect Rampion to refuse to eat with me, that he'll complain endlessly to sun, but instead he simply starts rocking his chair again.

***

When I arrive early morning Sun has already put out another chair, it's the same white garden chair made of iron. On the table sits three wooden plates and three filled mugs with ale. On the plates there's a half loaf of bread, sliced into multiple pieces. Underneath lays a white cloth and it the middle stands a wooden jug.

Rampion sits on his chair, still in the ridiculous bear costume. Sun is placing an apple on each plate, next to the sliced loaf of bread. She points at the new chair with her whole hand.

Sun has tied golden, but also red and gleaming black threads around the moon trees that circulates us.

"What is this?" I ask and sit down, staring at the strange decorations.

"It's not often we get a guest," she says and sounds more amused by my question than she should be.

"It looks goddamn awful," Rampion says.

One of his large paws are placed between his plate and my mug. A bit too close than I'm comfortable with, a slight movement and he might very well spill everything out.

"Rampion has no taste... If that wasn't obvious."

She takes a long, haughty glance at his costume. Rampion makes a low, disgusted sound.

Sun places a hand against her chin. "I hadn't expected you to come."

"I said I would, didn't I?"

I pick up a slice of the bread.

"Sometimes humans say they'll do things, but actually won't." she shrugs slightly. "I've learned that I often get disappointed in humans and their promises."

She speaks like she wasn't a human herself. Had the last six hundred years after her death made her no longer see herself as a human?

"She didn't give you a promise though," Rampion mutters and pulls the large paw away from the table, it makes my mug shake; I quickly grab it.

"If you say you'll do something, then you do it. Or you'll find a substitution to whatever you said you'd do."

"Still not a promise," he continues and pulls up the bear head, he keeps it steady against his forehead.

I let go of the mug and take a bite of the bread; I feel the taste right away.

"Why don't you remove the costume when you eat?" I ask once the mood between them gets worse.

Sun fixates her eyes on me. Rampion stops moving in a pointless attempt at getting a good grip on the slice. He stares intensely at the bread, and with a heavy sigh the hand inside of the paw makes a fist.

"Don't you think I've tried that?" he snarls and watches me with dark eyes.

"There are no solid rules when it comes to the costume returning to place again, it could be one to thirty minutes. The simplest solution we've found is to push the bear head against his forehead, then it's still touching his skin and won't suddenly return. I've told him I can hold the bear head, so he at least has two hands to work with. But he has refused it each time I've brought it up."

Sun takes a steady grip around the mug and lifts it up, she looks at Rampion that still has not begun his next try.

"So then, he'll get to struggle until he succeeds," she says and takes a sip from the ale.

Rampion pushes the bear head harder against his forehead, the free hand moves in another try to get a grip on the slice of bread. Sun places the mug on the table.

"So Arkaros, is it only the Hall of Memories and the library you wish to see?"

"Yes, that's the plan."

Sun picks up the bread slice again. "I have multiple errands in Arkaros. I was thinking we should head to the market first. I shall be meeting someone in the library, so we can head there afterwards."

"And the Hall of Memories?" I ask.

Rampion has finally gotten a steady grip on the slice of bread; he quickly devours it.

"Afterwards. I have quite a lot of things to do, and you might as well tag along until it's finished."

I take another bite of the bread. I chew it slowly, taking in the taste. It's not as strong as the dango-looking food Sun tricked me to eat a week ago, when I could feel everything. This taste a hundred times better and isn't causing me to cough to the point of choking.

"Orchid asks you to find two places in Arkaros, and you decide to bring her with you on your errands through the city?" Rampion asks with a laugh; he has two visible laughing lines close together when he smiles.

"Shall you show her around then?" She asks.

He grunts. "No, definitely not."

"I thought as much." She turns to me again. "If you have any issues with it, then you'll have to wait until I'm free or find someone else to do it."

I shake my head. "No, it's fine."

I take a sip from the ale; it covers each millimeter of my tongue. The taste settles like a thin layer of snow on my tongue, until it slowly melts away and I feel no trace of its existence. It disappears quicker than what it did when I was alive, yet it feels intoxicating – and I don't believe it has anything to do with the ale.