{-Seldir-}

  “So, you’re coming with us?”

  He was practically seconds away from joining Lyrei and Noa outside, when he caught Kaylin in the corner of his eye. He hadn’t been expecting her to leave—it seemed she’d spent the majority of the night either worrying about what Dhymos was planning or trying to figure out the amount of debt they were accumulating.

  But here she was, wrapped up in her jacket, nodding to him. “Rennyn wanted me to. There’s a lot of things that Dhymos can try to do. Only the two of us will really be able to realize some of them before it’s too late to do anything about it, so he asked me to come. We don’t want you to run into anything dangerous.”

  “It’ll be good to have you, then. We could use an extra hand.”

  “What did you say that you wanted to do, again..?”

  “Another merchant needed some help delivering things across and a little bit outside of the city. Figured it was as good of a time as any to try to listen for other information while we’re at it. Doesn’t pay much, but hopefully whatever else we find along the way would be worth the time.” He opened the door and gestured her through. “The others are just out there. I’m sure they’ll be glad to see you with us, too.”

  He wondered if he was just imagining it—the way she let out a sheepish chuckle and something that sounded like “I wouldn’t expect them to, with everything we’ve been keeping.”

  Lyrei waved, once she saw them approaching. “Are you ready to do some fetch quests?”

  “I don’t think it’s really a fetch quest,” Noa mumbled. “I don’t think this is going to turn into a ‘for want of a nail’ kind of thing. Pretty sure the only thing we’re planning on doing is delivering things, not picking stuff up…”

  Seldir nodded. “Besides, I thought I told you to stop trying to compare these to whatever’s in fairytales. This is real life. Things are a little bit more complicated than whatever a story is going to say that they are.”

  She crossed her arms and muttered, “Or maybe you’re just boring.”

  “We should all take this seriously,” Kaylin said carefully. “There’s a good chance we’re going to run into Dhymos’s minions or some other kind of trouble. We need to be prepared for that.” She shuffled. “Not that keeping things completely serious is going to help matters too much, either…”

  “You know, it… doesn’t matter that much, right?” Noa prompted. “We get where you’re coming from and we’re willing to listen to what you have to say. You don’t have to act like you’re worried we might disagree with you.”

  Kaylin didn’t sound surprised to hear it, but… she also didn’t sound relieved. Maybe she’d expected it, but either way, it didn’t change anything. Still, she nodded. “Right. I suppose it’s just the situation.’’

  “Can’t blame you, really,” Seldir remarked. “You’ve both probably had to deal with a lot of stuff from people in other lives. It’s a lot different to have someone who actually believes what you’re saying, isn’t it?”

  The lack of an answer was certainly enough of one.

  Lyrei gave her a kind smile. “Well, remember? We’re all in this together. You and Rennyn don’t have to do everything on your own anymore.”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “We’ll do everything we can to help,” Noa said with a nod, “as long as you’re willing to let us.”

  Finally, Kaylin managed a small smile of her own. “Thank you. Let’s get going—we can talk more while we’re working.”

  …

  It was a wonder what a little bit of honesty—trust—could do to overall morale. Seldir would say that they tried their best to not think too deeply about the situation they found themselves in before; it was difficult, but it kept them from dwelling too deeply on the bulk of it. Now, though? Maybe it was by chance, maybe it had something to do with what they all talked about last night. But it truly did feel more casual, less like a necessity and more of a fun trip. No one really had to fight in order to keep things positive.

  He’d just gotten back from bringing out one of the bigger boxes they were supposed to be delivering when he saw Lyrei and Noa both putting boxes into the wagon.

  “Wait, are you carrying three?” Noa was still struggling to lift a smaller one—for their size, most of them were pretty heavy. “These might as well have bricks in them..!”

  Lyrei shrugged as she placed her boxes inside the wagon. “I don’t think you realize how heavy ten different additions of Compilation of Classical Myths is.”

  “Wait, what do you need ten different additions for?”

  “For cross reference, obviously! You know, a lot can change about stories over even short—relatively speaking—periods of time. One thing happens in one of the nations and, bam, something changes in the story to carefully dance around something similar! Then maybe they’ll add it back in when no one thinks about what happened anymore, but they’ll probably change something else, too. It’s fascinating, but also a little sad.”

  Noa, with a fair bit of struggle, put a box in the wagon, too. “But I guess that all explains why you can carry so much…”

  “What’s the biggest book you’ve seen?”

  “Uhm… Probably that book of ‘young lady etiquette’ my mom used as a way to prop open the door in summer.”

  She glanced over at Kaylin. “What about you? You’ve probably seen a lot of books in your other lives, right?”

  Kaylin seemed a little surprised, actually, to be a part of the conversation. She’d just been marking down the places they needed to deliver all of the boxes to up until that point. It was almost a wonder she’d been paying enough attention to acknowledge that they were talking to her. “Oh, maybe one about the size of these longer boxes? It was wide, though I don’t know if it was really ‘big’ if you’re just considering the amount of pages.”

  Something in Lyrei’s eyes sparkled. “What was it about? Was it for something special?”

  “It held all the information about what a priest would need to do, and how to become one. A guidebook of sorts for all of the ones in training. I think I’ve only seen it once, though. I can’t remember anything that was in it, if I’d read it at all.”

  “That’s still cool, though! Some of your lives let everyone have magic, right, and not just spirits? That would have been amazing to see…”

  “It… had its drawbacks, honestly. In a way, you’ve already seen what that could do and the impact it could have. Dhymos’s minions are the closest thing this world will have—for better or worse—to human magic users. And I’m actually willing to guess that we’re far better off for it.”

  Slowly, Noa nodded. “In some places, there’s enough conflict as there is. If everyone had magic, then it would be more likely to fall into the wrong hands, right..? And then situations that were already bad would just be worse…”

  Lyrei considered it for a moment. “I guess you have a point. But I’m sure there’s a lot of good that could come from it, too.”

  “We’ll never really know what it could’ve done. It’s just as much out of our control as everything else.” Seldir shrugged. “But even though that’s impossible doesn’t mean everything else is. We might not have magic to solve all of our problems, but we’ve got other ways.”

  He put the last box up in the wagon. “I think that’s all of it. Are you all ready to do some deliveries?”