It was never meant to be used at all.

  The words echoed in Fern's head, stunning her for a brief moment.

  "That-" Her mouth felt painfully dry. "That 't be true. It's not- possible."

  "Regardless of whatever events may have led to this point, Miss Skysh," Sapphire replied, calm and cool as ever, "I assure you it is not only possible, but in fact the truth. The bea you were provided does not, and ot, fun in its present state."

  You're lying! she wao scream. She wae, to deny it. To believe in her heart that she hadn't e all this way, suffered through the entire miserable journey, just to find out that the goal was not merely unreachable but a plete lie sold to her from the start. A...

  A horrible ess, uo the weather or her still-damp clothing, began curling around inside her chest.

  They had to have known. The guild didn't make mistakes - the guild supplier least of all.

  Everything had turned out the way it was meant to be, in the end...

  "This one looks like your st ce, Fern, you gonna take it or not? You know the guild doesn't deal with ats in the ive."

  She looked at the tavernkeep, who also served as the guild representative; a thhly average and fettable man by any measure, who barely had a name beyond 'barkeep'. Brown hair, browan skin, muscur build, a little bit of a belly; a mess of scars on his arms, a few on his fad nebsp; More under his clothing, no doubt. Some of them my fault, she thought bitterly.

  "Doesn't seem like I have much of a choice, does it?" she returned, as flippantly as possible, extending an open palm. "At least the money's good this time, for a ge."

  "Sure looks that way." He pressed a scroll onto her hand, using his sig ring to break the guild seal so she could read all the missioails at her leisure. "Here's hoping your luck is better when you're w on your own."

  Fern's brow wrinkled. "How'd you know I was running solo?"

  He shrugged nontly. ", I hear everything that goes on in here. I hear you asking around aied, I hear the crap that gets said behind your bad, frankly, to your face too. That whole 'Luckless' thing is really weighing you down, huh?" The tavernkeep sighed and shook his head. "Some people just don't know when to shut their damn mouths. Things spread too quickly, especially bad things."

  Her shoulders sagged a little. "Yeah... yeah, they do. But all I do is move forward, I guess. If I do a good job this time, people will have something different to talk about."

  "That's the spirit! Don't fet to stop by supply before you head out; there's some piece of gear you need for this one, apparently. Bea or whatever. Just show 'em the mission scroll and they'll get you hooked up with the right one."

  "Yeah, yeah, I know. Same as always," she returned with a quiet sigh, giving a wave over one shoulder as she turned and headed for the stairs into the basement.

  Except it hadn't been the same as always, had it?

  She'd received the sealed package from supply and been explicitly told to keep it sealed until it was ready to use, and that the guild would take care of the rest on their end - which she assumed meant the survey team and teical mage for the other side of the e.

  The mission scroll detailed the route she o take, and explicitly instructed her to avoid leaving any trace of her passing. Eventually she figured out hugging the river as closely as directed exposed her to additional motention, and made her own diversions for safety's sake.

  her of those occurrences were normal. As long as you pleted the task, the specifics of it didn't particurly matter - so instrus like that were absent in all but the most extremely teical cases. She just hadn't been in a state to even realize it at the time, let alone question it. But now, in hindsight... gods. She was meant to end up like this, alone and at the end of the line. She probably wasn't even supposed to make it to the tower at all...

  Ferire body sagged as the weight of realizatioled on her like a deluge of river mud, dense and inescapable. Shoulders slumped, head bowed, she stared at the floor, barely seeing it as her mind a grappled with the truth, and started to lose.

  "Dear me, where did all that fire from befo?" she heard Ravenna murmur - though the words barely registered, as if they'd e from a great distance away and refused to ge from o meaningful sounds. "The poor thing looks even more dreadfully despo and downtrodden than when she first got all tangled up in our business, don't you think, Sapphire darling?"

  "I believe she may need some time to process the matter, Mistress."

  "Well! We certainly help things along with a little... hospitality, no?" The glowing s around Fern's gloves vibrated faintly, shaking her out of her lifeless stare, then dissolved; the bindings around her boots followed shortly after, and she slouched a little further like an abandoned marioe as the pink light beh her dimmed and finally disappeared pletely. "Vacations are meant to be enjoyed, after all!"

  She was free - in some se least. But what use was freedom when she had o go, no pce to return?

  Once agaihoughts were sideswiped by a sharp cck, this time apanied by the feeling of a point under her - the fog wand once more, Ravenna using it to delicately but insistently force her up until their gazes locked once more. This time, the abyssal chill was blessedly absent.

  "e now, darling, don't be so glum," the dark mage purred sweetly. "You 't let your tale end here, like this, you? Why, even if you , I simply won't allow it." Those emerald eyes of hers sparkled with life - and mischief - and Fern couldn't help but be drawn in by them, just a little, even as much as she hated this woman. She did hate this woman.

  Probably.

  Ravenna fshed that brilliant, toothy grin. " you walk on your own, darling? Or shall I have Sapphire carry you to the baths?"

  She definitely hated this woman. But somehow, she made it to her feet.

  The baths, as it turned out, were blessedly close. Walking took far too much effort in Fern's present state; it wasn't just the result of fatigue and being ed dowher. The knowledge that had beeed to her, the absolutely murderous betrayal perpetrated by the guild, g to her like the remnants of a nightmare upon waking, or like those trainis all the monks adored. But it her dissipated like the former nor offered a simple removal option like the tter. She was stuck with it for now.

  They walked - well, she did more of a shamble - up the stairs, Ravenna in front and Sapphire behind her. She found the floor above the entryway housed some sort of alchemical boratory, with rows of potion fsks and faintly glowing isters with bels too far away to read. She wasn't sure she particurly wao know what went on in there, to be perfectly ho. They didn't stop there, which was fine by her.

  The floor was all mosaic tiles and a rge open bath, and it was there that Fern learned something very important about the self-styled Mistress of the Tower: she had no de whatsoever.

  "Darling, whatever are you hiding your eyes for?" Ravenna inquired with perfenoce, already well into the process of undressing. She'd tossed her longcoat onto a hook and a glittering pile of jewelry onto the bench below, kicked off her noisy heels, and had peeled off about half of what looked like a bck bodysuit that she wore as a base yer. "I don't have any rules about averting yaze, so you're free to look all you like. I have such a lovely colle of scars I've acquired over the years; see, there's this ht below my-"

  "What is wrong with you?!" Fern sputtered, half-turned away. At least the warmth in her cheeks was wele, even if this shameless dispy was anything but. "Is this what all servants of the Dark are like?!"

  The dark mage paused, tilting her head aing her cheek on a fiip. "Why, no, not really. None of them are 'all' like anything; though if I had to give a specifiswer, mostly I find them quite insufferable."

  ing from you, I'm not sure quite how to take those words, Fern thought to herself.

  "Whereas you, oher hand, are a delight, even if you're - mmm, a little rough around the edges, I suppose? But that's not a problem at all; or rather, it won't be, soon enough." Ravenna's speech paused briefly as she peeled off the rest of her suit and tossed it aside. "If my eyes don't deceive me, and I assure you they never do, all you really need is... a break. A vacation, darling! That's what I keep telling you! And if you'll just rex for a bit, maybe you'll realize it too."

  Getting called a 'delight' didn't register as anything but fusing, at least for the moment. "I'm not, uh. Used to this sort of rexing. Or any of it." Her forehead wrinkled a little. "Frankly, I still don't uand what you're trying to do here."

  A quiet spsh sounded, followed by the dark mage half-sighing, half-moaning in deep satisfa.

  "Mistress's primary aim for the moment is getting you to take a bath," the still fully-clothed Sapphire expined from her positiohe stairs, as unfppable as ever. "Rexing the body rexes the mind. You ot be expected to make rational decisions when covered i clothing and suffering from stress and fatigue." Her stare bored into the hero's bedraggled form. "All of which you still are. Do you have the capacity to undress yourself, or do you require assistance?"

  Fern winced a little. "I'm not getting away from this one, huh..."

  "No, Miss Skysh, you are not."

  She didn't indulge in fantasies as a general rule, and so the thought of letting the maid tend to her never crossed her mind, even for a moment. She was no spoiled noble brat or helpless damsel who needed someone's help for something this simple.

  Fern undressed as quickly as she could manage; not particurly fast, given her protesting joints and muscles, but she got there eventually. After stag her clothing on the opposite end of the bench from Ravenna's pile, she sank into the other end of the bubbling pool, almost slipping on her way in.

  Gods, it was incredible. Hot baths were an indulgence of the aristocracy, and the occasional mage with a surfeit of aether. Given that she was her of those, and also often low on resources, she wasn't oo indulge in general. But this might be worth doing again; the envelopi of the water, the way it tingled on her skin - almost burning, but not too hot - and immediately started sinking deep into her body. If she had a touch less discipline - and self-respect - she'd probably make the same sound this damnable dark mage had, it was just so detly soothing.

  "Sapphire, darling, let's break out one of the prismatics for our dear guest. It's been far too long since we had pany of the pleasant sort, and I feel like indulging today." A pair of quiet spshes as Ravenna lifted her arms out of the bath aed them on the lip of the pool with the expression of someone who hadn't the slightest care in the world. "Fern, darling, what would you like to drink? Water, juice, wine? There's nothing quite so stunningly satisfying as enjoying an ice-cold beverage in a bubbling hot bath." Her eyes sparkled with mischief yet again. "And since you're clearly the type traditionally too teo taste such tempting trifles, I simply must insist."

  Fern sighed deeply as all the thoughts aions swirled together in a cocktail of fusion. What is my life even being?