“I don’t have all day, mate.” she said. I stared at her hand, still outstretched, and said the only thing that could be said.

“What.”

She sighed.

“Don’t go anywhere, all right? Heh.”

“Bite me.” I said, but she was already walking away, whistling completely out of tune.

By the sound it made when it fell, her coat must have weighed at least twenty kilos. Yet she picked it up and put it on like it was nothing. She reached into the depths of her coat, rummaging for what seemed like ages.

“Just how many pockets do you have in that thing?” I asked, but she just ignored me.

“Ah, there they are.” She pulled out two small, corked vials. The thick bubbling liquid within glowed a sickly red.

Satisfied, she walked back to me.

“I’m damn sure that stunt you pulled earlier cost you a lot of faith. I’d say you burned through at least 100 years worth. Probably more.” she said. My silence was all the confirmation she needed.

“Here, drink this.” Minutes passed as I stared incredulously at her. She sighed deeply. “Look, mate, if I wanted you dead, you’d be dead. Drink the bloody potion.”

I took the offered vial and, with great effort, removed the stopper and gulped it down.

“Ghk!” I doubled over, clutching my stomach. My throat was on fire, my insides felt like molten lava. My hands clawed at the soil, grasping at anything to take my mind away. Tears flowed freely. I begged for the sweet release of death.

And then, it was gone.

“Probably should’ve told you to drink that slowly.” Tabitha said. “My ba-” She was cut off by my hands, going directly for her throat.

“YOU ABSOLUTE BASTARD! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME? WHA-” She coughed, then pointed at my legs. My legs which were no longer bleeding.

“Wha?” She crumpled to the ground as I let her go. I lifted my leg up, expecting pain, yet none came. Though my pants were still torn, my wounds were completely healed. More than that, I was feeling strangely energized. Like I’d just received worship from an entire temple’s worth of fanatics. I felt faith blazing within me, not quite to the level that Vanafreya gave, but close enough as to be alarming.

“You’re welcome, by the way.” she coughed out. She breezily dusted herself off, even as I stared at her in disbelief.

“What. On earth. Was that?” I said.

“A show of good faith?” she offered with a shrug.

“You infuriating- No potion should’ve been able to do what that thing did! You can’t just bottle faith like that!”

“I just did.”

“I KNOW! Just like how you just so happen to casually be hundreds of years old while still being completely human! Just impossibility upon impossibility upon gods damned impossibility! WHAT EVEN ARE YOU?!” I screamed at the top of my lungs at the sheer absurdity of it all.

“You done?” She asked, completely deadpan in the face of my more than justified outrage. She took a deep breath.

“I really don’t think it’s that important,” she spoke in a tone one would reserve for a particularly trying toddler, “But if it makes you feel any better, I’ll tell you… later. After we start working together.”

“And what makes you think I’ll do that?” I said, glaring at her all the while.

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“Simple. The only reason you’re still breathing is because I decided that you’re more useful to me alive than dead.” she said. “I can change my mind, you know. It’d be easy.”

“Besides, I’m pretty sure you can’t go on without me.” she said. She held out a finger, silencing whatever rebuttal I had. “Tell me, Luna Invicta, how were you planning on leaving the Amazon? Just following the river until you reach civilization? Can you really afford to waste that much time? And what about what’s next? How are you planning on travelling while the boss man’s minions are out in full force? I mean, look at you.” she gestured at my torn pants and dirt encrusted purple shirt, “Something tells me you don’t have the funds to hire private boats, much less planes. Your only option is to go commercial. And if you’d be willing to risk even more innocent lives for your petty crusade, well…” She stroked her dagger’s handle, her caresses as warm as her gaze was chilling.

“Here’s the deal; either you work with me, or I gut you like a fish. Your choice, ain’t it?” She held a hand out once again, a friendly smile on her face.

Though the midday sun was high, I felt nothing but smothering cold.

“You are utterly insane.” I said through gritted teeth.

“I’m guessing that’s a no on the whole ‘gutting you’ then?” she said with a smirk.

“Fuck you.” I said, even as I grasped her hand. And though she shook my hand with vigour, I felt nothing but stiffness in my own.

“Knew you’d come around.” she turned her gaze to Junogloris, who was still lying, face down, where he collapsed. “How about you, love?” Junogloris raised his head, defiance clear in his eyes, his honour forbidding him from surrendering, even if it meant his death.

“Suit yourself.” she said. “Although, I guess all that nonsense about Lulu here-” That name felt so wrong coming from her, “-being under your protection was just that, nonsense.”

I saw his expression falter, and so did Tabitha. She moved in for the kill.

“Can you trust me to not stab her in the back when she least expects it?” she said, walking towards Junogloris’s prone body with the vial in hand. “Could you honestly expect her to survive whatever the hell I have planned? After all…” she smirks at me, and spoke in an earsplitting falsetto, “I am utterly insane~”

“That sounds nothing like me and you know it.”

“Enough words, you silver tongued witch.” said Junogloris. “I swore to protect her while she is still my guest, that has not changed. Give me your potion.”

“You honour types are so easy, honestly.” Tabitha said, giving him the vial. “Drink that slowly, all right? We’re strapped for time as is, we really can’t afford another ten minutes of thrashing, like Lulu here.”

“I was out for ten minutes?”

“Eh, give or take.” By the seven hills, what was in that thing?

Junogloris drank it all in one gulp. He kept his eyes on Tabitha, even as his muscles began to convulse, even as sweat flowed freely. Even as his breathing became ragged, even as he grit his teeth so hard that the cracked, he never lost control, until, after what seemed like an eternity, the potion finished its work. He stood to his full height, and defiantly spat blood in front of Tabitha.

“Woooow. You put yourself through a totally avoidable hell just to prove a point. I’m sooo impressed.” she said, completely deadpan. She began the most sarcastic clap one could ever hear.

“Mistress Luna,” Junogloris said, turning his back to Tabitha, “I have never doubted your judgment before, I will not doubt you now. So long as you remain here, I am your shield.”

“Junogloris, I’m sorry.” I said, unable to meet his gaze. “You should never have been involved in this.”

“If I were to ignore the call of glory when it is right in front of me, then I have truly abandoned my honour.” he said.

“Says the guy who’s been in hiding for at least several centuries.” said Tabitha. Junogloris turned to her, his fury would have caused even demons to cower, Tabitha simply returned his gaze with a dispassionate glance. A glance that said she was merely stating facts, whether Junogloris takes it as judgment is on him.

“Yeah, I was listening in on your heart to heart last night.” she said, with a shrug. “You’d have thought that would’ve been enough self-pity for multiple goddamn lifetimes, but, eh.”

“Listen here you-” I began, but she cut me off instantly.

“You’ll have all the time for Shakespeare in the Park, or whatever the hell this is, later.” she said, “Right now, we’ve got other, more important things to worry about, all right?”

I wanted to make her eat her words, right then and there, but I held back. It took almost everything I had, but I bit my tongue.

“Very well.” I said, focusing my attention on my profoundly irritating ally, “What is it, exactly, that you have planned?”

In response, Tabitha reached into her coat and pulled out a crystal, the same brilliant crystal that she threatened me with earlier.

“You were right, you know. This isn’t a bomb. It’s a beacon.” she said. The crystal began to shine even brighter as she poured her magic into it.

“Boss man gave me three days to hunt you down. If I didn’t contact him after that, he was planning on burning this entire forest to the ground.” she said as the crystal began to emit a high pitched whine. “He also didn’t want a repeat of the plane thing, and told me to only use the beacon between twelve and three in the afternoon. Which ends in about…” With her free hand, she reached inside her coat and pulled out pocket watch. “…three minutes.”

The air was filled with static, there was so much energy that it felt like I was being crushed by immense pressure.

The crystal shattered, sending a massive pillar of light into the sky, parting the clouds like the divine hand of the gods.

“My advice? Hide, and wait for my signal.”