I stare at the room as Fora gestures for us to sit as she walks over to the opposite couch, sitting down herself. “So, I’ll start.” I stare at her, still reluctant to sit down, although Dalyva does almost immediately after Fora, clearly tired. I sit down next to her, though on the edge and a cautious hand on my jambiyas. Shankhe however, as much as a hilarious person he is, never truly has processed the whole of everything here, having used humour, his idiotic moves and just general adrenaline to get him through days.

  Well, yes, he does know what’s happening, he does know that everything here is real, he just doesn’t want to admit it, wants to keep denying the truth for as long as he can. However much he’s struggling though, he doesn’t let us see, always masking it so well that at some points I’m convinced he thinks he’s okay himself.

  I know Dalyva doesn’t notice, it's obvious how she treats him, but I did, and that's why I thought a friend might help Shankhe, but with the lies it’ll just be hard. I sigh, and it's not before I notice everyone’s eyes on me that I realise I did it out loud. Shankhe sits behind me, exhausted, and I sit forefront and centre, cautious and alert.

  ————————————————

  I sit behind Taegan, too tired really to do anything, and just listen to Fora’s explanation, hoping it's a good one. “Well, I suppose I should start at the beginning.” Fora takes a deep breath before starting. “Everyone started by being taken here, to these plains. No information was given as we stayed, but everyone gathered under the one faction for an idea, one of freedom, and called it the Escape Faction. But, as days and weeks and slowly months wore on, people started to go insane, the Corruption God came around, demanding followers for release, and some people gave in, becoming what we know today as the Cultists Faction. Well, that was bad enough, but when the other people made the Freedom Faction out of the already sane people, it wasn’t much.

  When more people came in, we discovered that doing training for people not already in a fighting guild was easiest for them to learn instead of just thrusting them out into the plains against the monsters, but it slowly got bad. As much as I would like to say that the training succeeded and everyone loved it as it was only optional lessons, or even just occasional lessons, that was not the case. People would start being forced to do it, others would fear the directors, who were supposed to be just merely instructors, and then the guilds started to have ridiculous trials.

  Now, normally that would be okay, but they were branches of real guilds, and so had to obey their guildlines, yet they didn’t, making trials impossibly hard and ridiculous to ‘prove’ themselves to the guild.

  That’s where we come in, the Secrets Faction. We despised that this had come from freedom, and so we made it that if a Secret’s member entered the main hall, it would take us to an exact copy of the place, except with members of the Secrets Faction and not the Freedom Faction. Don’t ask me how it works with visitors, all I know is that I have to think your names as we enter and it brings you with me. That’s how you could do all your normal things here like sign up without a trial. Now, as for keeping you secret….

  Well, you came out of a portal no one has ever come out of, you didn’t spawn directly in the mainland here as we call it, and it seems that the Corruption God himself has taken a special interest in you, judging by the announcement on the stone he gave me and Khaliff about where you went in the middle of the night. This alone would get the cultists attention, but for you two to be fae, and for Dalyva to have a blood spesh, you’re just worth that tiny bit more. Not to mention that you could possibly know the way out, meaning that even the Freedom Faction will take interest in you.” Fora stops, letting us process what she was saying, and thankfully she did, because between my tiredness and boredom.

  Essentially what I got from that was the Freedom Faction had gotten a bit obsessive with their goals, the cultists had gone insane from the Corruption God-a shiver runs down my spine every time I think or hear it-and the Secrets Faction is helping us from potential sacrifice or capture. What Hero’s.

  I stare at Fora, then at Taegan in front of me. I know how hard this is on him, and don’t want to make it harder by adding my own grievances, though I reckon Taegan is already aware of this. He is perceptive like that, after all. Though it's good, I sometimes think he’s taking on too much, and not letting go into us enough, not relying on us to make our own choices, but that's partly our fault too, we wait for him whenever we’re in a hard spot, and never look to ourselves.

  “Anyways.” Says Fora, snapping me out of my thoughts. “I believe Byrn wanted to train you guys, so come along, if you have no more questions.” We didn’t, and she led us further down the tunnel and the closer we got to somewhere, the more light seemed to find its way into the tunnel, until we were out of it. Now at the training grounds where we had trained before with the net. I look around, before sighing a bit. All I wanted was to sneak away and meet Leo somewhere. I clutch the green sphere from the Fluran, and my face manages to become neutral instead of annoyance. Byrn came up to us. “Come along you three.’ He smirked evilly, and I know what’s coming next.

  ————————————————

  It’s around the middle of the day, though after lunch, and everything aches. I look out to the wide horizon as I almost cry. I miss home, I miss the sea, I miss not being scared all the time. I just want to go home. I push it all down, envisioning a mask being put upon my face, separating me and the world, a fake smile stretching across my lips that just makes me want to cry even more as i go down to where Taegan is helping Fora with dinner.

  I grab my sword, and then go over to our bag. “Tae.” I call, and he looks over. “Yeah, what’s up Sha?” I rummage around before finding the money bag. “How much of this is mine?” I showed him the money bag. He looks at me surprised for a second that I’d ask that, but he knows what it's like, so isn't surprised necessarily by the implication of the question, before saying. “Use whatever you want, we can always get more.” Then, more gently he adds. “Treat yourself Shankhe.” I nod, grab the bag, and then start to leave. “I’m going to get stuff, Tae. Can you tell Dal?” A voice from down the hall yelled. “I heard that Sha, none of that is my name. You will say my name properly.” I grin. “If you want me to say your name properly, then say mine right.” A scoff is heard from the halls. “If you wanted that, then you wouldn’t have the nickname Sha.”

  She had just realised what she was saying as I smirked. “Same to you Dal.” Before slipping out the door to escape the yells and words of frustration. “Make sure to be back for dinner, it's going to be good.” Cautioned Taegan, and I salute him mockingly in acknowledgement and close the door. I am sure as hell not going to be late now if Taegans cooking is at stake, then hell will I be late and miss it.

  I walk through the town, constantly reminded of home, and the more I walk the closer I get to a store. It looks like it has books, and I enter. “Hello, welcome to my store. Anything you need in particular?” A person came up to me. “A notebook.” I ask, and they look a little curious, before nodding. “A pencil too?” They ask, and I nod. They get them out, a black notebook with-according to them-150 pages and a normal brown pencil. They put them on the desk, before calculating the final price as I get the money bag off my hip.

  “One silver please.” I blink. That’s expensive. They see my surprised face and chuckle. “Money here is a bit different from the homeland. It’s more expensive since we get more money and things like paper and pencils are rare here.” I nod, dig around in the money bag for a silver and hand it over. I then take the book and pencil, before exiting with a wave of thanks. I put the money back onto my hip, and then put the pencil in the money bag so I don't lose it, but hold the notebook in my hands as it doesn’t fit in the money bag, well, not without lots of squishing and losing a couple coins. I notice all the people going past, and then see in the main plaza where I had met Leo was a person playing music, with people dancing. It’s a fun and jolly tune, and even if it's old everyone is singing and dancing.

  I’m getting pressed by all sides as I glance around. I see a flash of colour, and instantly start to push my way through the crowd, sure yet uncertain I saw Leo in the crowd. My hands clutch around my notebook on my chest as I manage to slip out of the crowds. Now in some of the back streets, I walk aimlessly before hearing a soft cry. But not human like.

  I look down to where the sound is coming from, a cat sitting on some boxes looking agitated and worried, if you could see emotions on their face, it pacing around, and as soon as it sees me, jumps off the box to in front of me. It walks a little away, before looking back at me and meowing. “Do you want me to follow you?” I ask, perking up at the sight of the cute cat. The cat meows again, picking up the pace as it walks with determination. I follow briskly, looking at the adorable black cat with interest. Back at Shitaki, cats were a sailors pride and joy at sea, as they keep rats from the food storage and are best at alerting to danger if you train them right. I look at the sleek black fur and desperately want to pet it, but resist sadly as its too fast going somewhere urgently.

  I follow for a few more minutes through the streets. As we leave town, I start to worry, since if it's out of town I will be late for dinner, but it's all worth it when I help this cat. Once we’re out of town the cat leads me to where I can hear monsters, and I smile at the cat as I hear a tiny meow ring out. Is that a kitten I hear? I walk up to the sound, only to see a monster and duck behind a tree. The cat follows me, and I see the problem as I peer out from the tree. A kitten is surrounded by monster cats, and as the cat meows sadly, the kitten looks up a little. Ahhhh, it's her kitten.

  I look over to the monsters, and then see an explosion, before a familiar face. Leo?! I stare as he struggles against one of the cats, and as two more approaches him, I pop my cork. I run into battle, unsheathing my sword, leaping into the air as water covers my blade mere seconds before it hits one of the cats, water attacking the others in tendrils as I slay them, ignoring the wounds and scratches I get, although they’re not that bad. They’re common rank, so they can’t hurt me too badly, and it's rather easy to defeat them.

  It only takes a few minutes or less before they are all dead, except one. The cat growls, and leaps at me. I rush in quickly, my sword at my side. Its claws try to swipe at me, but I jump over them, coming closer to its body before going to the left around it. Readying my sword, I hold it with confident hands before stabbing it into the side of its neck. It drops down as my water retreats into its bottle.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Leo is staring, and as I hop down, shaking my sword and sheathing it he opens his mouth. “Hey Leo.” I say, grinning. He stands shocked. “What rank are you?” He looks to be shaken and in disbelief. “Wood, but I’m a third of the way to bronze, but it’ll take ages before I’m there.” He opens his mouth again, and finally words come out. “I thought when I first met you you were common.” I smirk, watching as the cat goes over to its kitten, bringing it over to me and placing the kitten in my hands as I crouch down. The kitten has brown fur with blond stripes symmetrical on both sides. I look at it, then back at Leo as I get up. “You-you’re covered in scratches!” Leo points out in concern, and I look down. “Yeah, I sort of ignored their injuries as I fought.” I grinned, the book that I collected from where I planted under the tree was now clutched in one arm, and with a kitten in the other, I started to head back to town.

  “Wait!” Cried Leo, and I looked back curiously. “I want to show you something.” Curiosity got the best of me and I followed him. The kitten, adventurously, climbs onto my shoulder, and balances there as I walk more cautiously so as to not let it fall. It seems comfortable on my shoulder however, and its mother follows beside me.

  We sit on a nearby rock, one not covered in blood, and Leo looks a bit nervous, but talks anyway. “Where are you from?” He asks, and I look over. “Oh, me? I’m from Shitaki, Shafka.” His brow furrowed in confusion, and he asks. “But what about your twin, he’s from the desert, isn't he?” He sounds confused, and I smile. “Yeah, he is. You see, we’re orphans, found by different people in a carriage crash on the Tingari border.”

  He nods, and I grin as the kitten climbs down from my shoulder into my lap. We sat in silence for a couple of moments.

  “Aren’t you tired?” Asks Leo, starting a conversation as he leans back, resting in his hands. “Y’know, fight all the time? Having the fear that the sheep will destroy our city, and that we’ll never escape?” I look over at him. “Yeah, it just….” I trail off with a sigh. “I want to live. I just want to escape, go home, have fun with my twin, and not have this constant fear that I’m going to die, or I’ll be all alone and Tae and Dalyva will die..” I stare off into the trees, patting the kitten as I look off subconsciously. Leo senses he’s stepped into dangerous and sensitive territory, for him and me, and quickly starts to change the topic.

  “What's the kitten's name?” Leo stares at the kitten, and I tilt my head. “Haven’t decided.” He frowns, thinking. “What about Kireva? Kir for snow and Eva for blossom.” I look at him, not wanting to admit his name was better than the one i was thinking of-which was Bartholomew-and says. “What about Kavvea? Ice from Kav and Vea meaning petal. Ice petal.” He rolls his eyes. “At that point you’re stealing my idea without giving me credit because you’re changing the words. Fine, how about Kireva Kavvea.” My eyes light up. Despite the name not being intentional, it was a great one. Snow blossom ‘of the’ Ice petal. (Of the is implied, not directly translated from ARL, and yes they’re using ASL, just in the common form and not in runic form.) A grin spreads across my face. “That’s even cooler!” Although I had only suggested Kavvea because I didn’t want to admit Leo’s was better, it turned out to add up well, and as I looked down at the kitten, both it and its mum meowed in approval. I smile.

  Leo stares at me as this is decided. “So, what’s the book for?” I look at him with a grin. “Well, it's because I signed up for the design guild.” He looks mildly surprised. “Why?” I guess it's surprising and I get it. I’m a great fighter now, well, at least up to middle wood rank.

  “I want to design ships, well, because of an old man.” He looks confused, and I continue my story. “You see, back in my village there was an old man who drew designs of ships. They were always amazing, and the old fish man put them up for a high price, but no one bought them, thinking it was too expensive. He displayed them on the streets, and I used to sit with him as he told tales of his days on sea with his crew, sea stories, and why the ship drawings were so expensive. Turns out, every design was so expensive because each one had a story behind it. Some were old myth ships, others ghost ships, some were of fearsome pirates and others are made up from sea tales, the patterns on the ship made up by the old man.

  The thing was, every piece was beautiful, but as I sat with the old man, it turned out he bore the curse of Acheron. Meaning, soon after he passes a certain age, he passed away. He also had several diseases and other things from his time at sea, which was why he needed the money.” I sigh, tipping my head back and looking up at the darkening sky. “He always said he would return to the sea as a lone sailor searching out and drawing all the ships of tales for all the ages to come. Return to the sea of his birth. Well, that's my story.”

  Leo stares at me, before bringing out a device, and I recognise it as a weaver. It has a square at the top with a hole in it opposite to the rectangle of wood attached on its other side, before five nods on the other side of the rectangle to the square. How it worked was that you inserted one mana string into the hole on the big squares then as it was divided in between the nodes, it came out in five mana strings, and as Leo repeated what I just thought, he started weaving.

  For less complex weaving, or once Leo is more used to weaving whatever he is trying to do, he can do it without the device just like how he did the bubble dogs without the machine, but it really depends on his spesh.

  “By the way, what’s your spesh?” Leo looks at me and smiles. “It's hard to explain, but I’m a pure mana specialist with a focus on explosions. But I can weave all sorts of things.” I notice that Leo is weaving even now, and see how his eyes glow green. “Why are your eyes glowing green and not red for explosions?” He shrugs. “It’s probably because the colour of mana for every person is different, even if it doesn’t make sense, and mine is green.”

  I accept the explanation, and pat Kireva a bit more at the kitten’s insistence. “I think we should start heading into town. It’s getting dark, and dinner, at least for me, is coming up.” Leo reluctantly looks at me as I start to get up, but he quickly finishes his weaving, and passes it to me. “Throw it.” He smirks, and I do it, trusting him for it not to be a bomb. It bursts not a bubble of a ship, with outlines of every plank. I gasp. Of course, most of it is…. Wrong, but I won’t crush Leo’s spirit. “That’s cool Leo, what about it?” I say as the ship dissolves. He nods. “I need some help in making it accurate so that it's even better.” I grin. “Meet me here tomorrow?” I ask, and he nods. “Yeah, let's go!”

  I start to get up fully, Kireva climbing onto my shoulder from my lap, whereas her mother just follows by my side, although i get the feeling that once we get back to town she will stay on her own as the kitten is old enough to be on its own, the cat just needed someone to save the kitten from the monsters. Leo wanders off, and I go to Fora’s house, where I see Taegan is looking out the window. I smirk as I walk up, seeing him jump up, I can't tell if out of excitement or worry. I go to the door as he rushes out. “What happened?” He asks, and i can hear genuine worry in his tone and see it in his eyes that is quickly masked by his usual neutral tone.

  I look down, kind of feeling bad for making him worry, but just having to take a jab at him. “Awww, you really do love me, being all worried like that. And here I thought I was just like a companion to you….” He rolls his eyes and punches me on the shoulder lightly as he drags me inside. “Ass.” He comments on my words, as I go inside, Dalyva spots me, and I wave to her.

  She comes running to me, and my thoughts swirl and rush at millions a second as I see her approach. Is she going to hug me, no she looks like-why would she want to kiss me? Oh, she’s going in…. And making number one in scaring me for today, Dalyva grabs the kitten off my shoulders, kissing it and looking at it adoringly as she coos over it like a little baby. Kireva, like the traitorous kitten she is, melts into Dalyva’s hold as Tae grabs bandages to patch me up, especially some of the gashes on my forearm. Of course, they’re fine to heal on their own, it's just probably better for my injuries if I don't get anything in them. I wince as Taegan applies some healing paste, and it stings as it enters the injuries.

  “Dalyvaaaaa.” I whine, and she barely looks up at me as her whole focus is on the baby kitty. “Why don’t you heal meeeee..?” She rolls her eyes, just like Taegan had before when I joked. She’s clearly becoming more like Tae. This is bad, because Dalyva was good before, but now it's like she doesn’t like me anymore, consider me her companion. My heart feels like it's been shattered!

  “I will, I just don't want my dinner to go cold when I get too tired to eat from healing you, or pass out. Remember, I’m still new to the whole healing thing, so it takes a lot more energy.” I huff, and we all sit down on the floor. Fish is on my plate with chopsticks, and I start to eat eagerly, hungry from fighting and my talk with Leo. “So Sha, how come you took ages and returned with a kitten?” Tae starts as Kireva comes back to me, sitting in my lap. Fora and Khaliff stay silent.

  “Well, I went to the shop to buy this book and a pencil that is in the money bag right now. Then, as the main square was singing and dancing I saw a cat.” I didn’t mention my maybe seeing Leo, they didn’t need to know that. “It seemed to be distressed, and so I followed it. It led me to a clearing with some monster cats, and this little buddy in the middle.” I point to Kireva. “By the way, her name is Kireva Kavvea. Meaning Snow blossom of the Ice petal. Leo made that up.” All of them looked puzzled, and so I continued my story. “When I got to the clearing, I saw Leo trying to fight off the monsters, but he couldn’t, and so I jumped in, saving him and the kitten. The mother of Kireva gave this baby to me.” I pet Kireva as she purrs in contentment on my lap.

  “And, when it was over I chatted with Leo a bit, and then headed home, now having Kireva.” I sneakily put my hand on the remaining tiny bits of fish, getting a little before giving it to Kireva and she loved it, eating the piece of fish and licking my fingers for more, which I begrudgingly gave.

  Although I think anyone watching would say I obeyed Kireva’s orders, the playful kitten was too cute to not be followed. Dalyva is currently looking puppy eyed at my baby, but I glare back at her, and as I do so forget about Taegan. Clearly adventurous, Kireva got up from my lap, and walked over to Tae confidentially, her little tail going side to side as if she owned the world.

  I was yet to inform her that she didn’t, and unfortunately the world doesnt revolve around her, but I’ll let her keep that fantasy for now. I really wanted to keep her in my lap, but as I see Taegan’s eyes soften and he seems really gentle with her, I let her stay there. After all, I hadn’t seen Tae being this un-on-edge as today with Kireva in his lap. He even sneaks her pieces of fish from his plate that is still half filled with food, but she stops him-i know, that's weird to describe, but it’s true-as she puts her paw on his wrist, as if saying ‘no, I’m fine. You can eat now.’ And all I can think is that Kireva is going to be good for us all. We finish our meal, and Kireva comes back to me after a while. Fora then stands up.

  “Well, with some help from Taegan, we have dessert.” Fora says, as she walks out to go to the kitchen to get it. Taegan stands up to help. A meow from my lap demands attention, and I run the nail side down from the top of her head to her tail and I can tell from the way she relaxes that she certainly likes it.

  A sweet, delicious and certainly tempting smell wafts from the kitchen as Fora starts to come out with the desert. Tae quietly walks over when he notices Fora struggling to carry all the plates herself. Taking some, he stopped what was inevitably going to happen and saved our deserts. A true hero. When the desert is placed in front of me, my eyes light up with absolute delight.

  It’s pavlova. Topped with cream and strawberries, the delicious meringue looks to be about really edible. Edible as in, I want to eat this right now, screw everyone else getting their food. Like back in the orphanage, since if you wait there are too many kids and it’ll get cold. Or, like the orcs, if I remember Culture Class right orcs eat as soon as it's placed in front of them, as back in the day it meant they wouldn’t have to have a period of delay before that enabled monsters to attack. Especially warriors had to eat fast to get back into the fight when their monsters constantly in a years long monster surge. Although now it's dealt with, those habits still stay as a show of respect and remembrance for their ancestors. Finally, everyone had their food and I could dig in.

  Eagerly I started by scraping off the cream with my fork, savouring the extremely sweet cream and slightly sour strawberries before starting on the pavlova. The outer edge was crunchy, yet it dissolved in your mouth in a mix of dryness but at the same time absolute sugary goodness. Then I got to the fluffy inside, which tasted really good like eating what you would imagine a cloud to taste-at least to me-with sugary fluffiness in your mouth making everything in the world worth whatever you do. I get it, some people don't like pavlova, but whoever does not clearly hasn’t tried it and is lying, because it is purely amazing, and you have no right to not like it.

  Anyways, aside from my rant, it was soon bedtime, since dinner was late. After dinner Dalyva heals me up, and then she goes over to get ready for bed.

  Kireva, on my shoulders, goes with me to my room upstairs. She is happy right now, as she was given some cream by Fora from the mixing bowl because she’s cute. I’ll admit it, I’d do it too if I was in her position, so I can't really judge. Once I'm in my room, I place Kireva down as I get changed into my pyjamas, and then pick Kireva back up, cradling her in my arms like a baby except her belly is facing down, and get into bed. But, instead of sleeping just yet, I used my book and pencil, sketching a rough outline of a boat carefully, drawing from memory.

  Tae’s head pops around the door before he walks in. “I’m going to bed Sha.” He says as he yawns. “Night.” I reply, and he walks off sleepily. Really, sleepy Tae is nothing but a big softie. I chuckle affectionately.