After the darkness, there's a sudden white bright light. Elyza’s eyes shoot around, looking for her friends. She flinches, It’s too bright to see anything. Much brighter than Naliah’s radiant spell, much brighter than anything she’s ever seen. The panic starts bubbling up inside of her chest. What happened, what did Marron do to them?

 

"Fear not young ones." A soft, soothing voice calls out.

 

Elyza tries to squint against the light but it’s too bright, too powerful. She feels like she’s floating and sinking all at the same time. The soft voice speaks again, closer this time. "These are your beginnings, but not your future." 

 

She feels a strange wave of calm come over her now, her panic and unease from just moments ago wiped away by this soothing voice. As she speaks, her accent rings in Elyza’s mind. It’s Trizzi’s accent, but different, softer. It’s definitely not Trizzi, but it’s familiar, comforting. She’s starting to feel almost safe, that is until she hears that voice again, lower and more serious as they speak up again.

 

"Be warned children. The tomb is empty.”

 

The world around her suddenly changes to a deep, thick darkness obscuring everything from view. Elyza feels her feet touch down on ground, takes a tentative step forward, wondering what that voice was talking about. What tomb, why is it empty? What does it have to do with her?

 

Elyza takes a few steps forward, then stops. She sees her mother standing there, a warm smile on her face as she holds out her arms to her. Elyza just stares, the tears stinging her eyes as she moves her hand to reach out towards her. Suddenly there's a harrowing scream, a scream Elyza has been trying to forget for a long long time. Her mothers face, once kind and caring, distorts with terror and pain. Elyza tries to run forward to help her, but the darkness engulfs her once again. Her consciousness leaves her, then jolts her awake violently the next moment.

 

She’s on her knees, the dark grey floor all too familiar as her eyes focus. Elyza looks up to see her mother opposite to her, her hair pulled back as tears run down her face. Her purple skin is pale, dark bags under her eyes as she sobs. A burly figure holds her, a knife to her throat. Elyza looks to the side, expecting to see a figure she knows should be there watching, but she’s just met with darkness.

 

Suddenly, his voice is in her ear, harsh, disgusting whispers as the rest of the room explodes into sound. Shouts and harsh words, repeating the same thing again and again and again. She can’t concentrate on any of it, any of the words at all. “I can’t!” She shouts out in the voice of her younger self.. Time seems to slow as the knife draws across her mothers throat, the darkness taking her once again as blood flows around her.

 

Elyza’s eyes dart open as she’s awoken from sleep. She sits up, taking in her surroundings in panic. She’s in her room at the tavern, in her bed. Her nightmare comes back in flashes. It’s not the first time she’s dreamed about that day, but it’s never felt so visceral, so real. 

 

The first thing she notices upon looking around the room is that Cornelia is nowhere to be seen, which honestly she’s glad for. She hugs her knees close to her chest, feeling impossibly small and vulnerable as the tears start to fall. She knows she should get over herself, just get up and move on with her day, but she can’t. The sobs shake her body as she tries to quiet herself, to let herself have this one moment of weakness before she has to be strong once again.

 

Elyza is the last one down to breakfast once again. She immediately senses something is wrong as she enters the room. Her party usually are in good spirits, chatting and inviting her over as soon as they see her, but today they all seem to be lost in thought. She comes to join them, taking her usual seat next to Cornelia. As the silence goes on, the air gets thicker and thicker with tension. Elyza can practically see Cheese vibrating with the need for answers as he tries to keep quiet. He lasts all but two minutes before finally speaking up.

 

“Did you guys have a weird dream last night?”

 

The whole group have a very prominent reaction to that, Elyza’s breath hitching in her throat as the image of her mothers terrified face comes to mind. No one answers immediately, but they’ve all stopped eating. Apart from Cornelia who doesn’t seem to have a reaction at all to the question.

 

“I heard a voice.” Cariston starts. “She said that the tomb was empty.”

 

“Did we all have the same dream?” Naliah asks, looking very uncomfortable at the idea.

 

“Yeah, I heard her too! That’s weird, do you think it was something to do with that spell that Marron guy cast on us?” Cheese asks, suddenly the air feeling much lighter as life begins to bleed back into the room. The tension eases slowly as they all speak, but Cornelia still stays quiet through it all.

 

“I had a dream about being back at home, in Dracarus.” Naliah says, looking up from her plate for the first time. “It was a memory, I think? Or something like it anyway.”

 

“Yeah, a memory! I dreamed I was back at the academy.” Cheese says, seeming to return to his eager self as he fills them in on the details of how he was just a normal little mouse until Professor Archibald helped him. Changed him into who he is today.

 

Cariston easily talks about his dream of being at sea with his adoptive father Captain Jack Cariston, the man who found him as a baby and brought him to the house of Ioun so he could be cared for. He points out that the voice said that these were their beginnings, and wonders aloud if they had such strange tailored dreams to show them what made them who they are today. Elyza feels sick to her stomach at the idea, thinks it's some kind of truly horrific joke if that really is the case. 

 

“What about you Cornelia?” Cariston asks eagerly, stopping from his tangent on wondering what spell would have caused the dreams to try address the unusually quiet Cornelia.

 

Cornelia shakes her head in response. “I didn't have a dream, It must have not affected me.”

 

“Really? But we all heard the same voice talking to us. Even you heard it, right Elyza?”

 

Elyza nods, knowing it's easier to twist the truth than completely lie. She won’t tell them her dream, but she'll admit to what they already know has happened. She watches Cornelia carefully, trying to read her expression, but Cornelia just looks pissed off at the questioning. Usually Elyza would just move on with her day and not bother when Cornelia gets like this, but she also wants to know if Cornelia is lying or not.

 

Cheese is determined to find out the truth, asking more and more questions which in turn just makes Cornelia angrier and angrier. Elyza worries that Cornelia may just set Cheese on fire, but Cariston is there as always to diffuse the situation. Luckily tensions settle and no one gets hurt.

 

Everyone seems in better spirits as they finish breakfast, Cariston and Cheese now going through theories on what their shared dream could mean. Elyza really doesn't want to know. She's more just relieved that everyone seems to have had their own sort of dream and they didn’t see hers. She’s very aware that she needs to address what happened last night, the name that Marron called her. She saw it coming, the way he effortlessly knew their names and where they hailed from. She didn’t even register how much of a disastrous effect it could have until it was too late and they’d heard her birth name, a name she hasn’t used in a long long time.

 

She knows she needs to tell them, but the very idea has her feeling short of breath and panicked. She clutches the table, taking a deep breath to ground herself. She doesn’t want to tell them, not because of lack of trust, but because that puts her in a hell of a vulnerable spot. She’ll figure it out later, as she always does with these things.

 

With breakfast done and everyone filled with nervous energy, Cariston suggests having a walk around the city to try to clear the air. Cheese jumps at the chance to get out, making comments about being excited to see if Jeston has discovered what they've done. They all make their way outside, some more slowly and nervously than others. Elyza remembers about Elyssia and her heart rate picks up for a second, before she tells herself to not get her hopes up about anything when it comes to someone like Elyssia.

 

As they arrive at the spot where the caravan sat the night before, they're met with an empty space and no indication that anything had happened here. Cheese starts asking loudly to the group if they think Jeston left because he was upset someone would steal from him. Cariston quickly shushes him, but continues the conversation much quieter. Luckily the early morning towns people don’t seem to take much notice of the five year old boy shouting. Cheese’s idiotic disguise sometimes comes in useful.

 

With Jeston’s disappearance discussed, and with a day to spend the coin they’d stolen the night before, the group go their separate ways with plans to meet up later as they usually do. Elyza doesn’t pay too much attention to where they’re all going, deciding today is a day for her and her alone. Normally, she hates sitting around doing nothing all day. But with how emotionally charged she feels thanks to that asshole making her have terrifying dreams about memories from her past, she decides she better take it easy for the day.

 

The day passes quickly, the sun being replaced by the moon in the sky. Before she knows it, Elyza is sitting with her group drinking for the evening. Cariston suggests they celebrate their victory from last night, obviously trying to help distract everyone. No one seems to object, Cheese of course not drinking any alcohol in his five year old boy disguise and sticking to drinking milk. Naliah drinks her usual strong rum, Cornelia ends up buying a bottle of wine and surprisingly shares it with Elyza. Cariston sticks to mead, getting very jolly and loud very quickly. Elyza knows to play it cautious, and how to not have too much too quickly, but by the state of most of her party members, it seems they’re too young to even have practiced that concept.

 

Cariston is a loud but happy drunk, Naliah seems to be quiet but giggly. Cornelia is sitting back, wine glass poised in hand smiling as she watches over the rest of them, and Cheese seems to be loving how silly everyone suddenly seems, egging Cariston on with every strange drunken decision he’s making. 

 

As Elyza sits and watches them, seeing how completely out of it some of them are, she realises she can take advantage of this situation. She needs to address the whole name thing, but doesn’t want to make a huge deal out of it. What better way to get it out the way than now. If she’s lucky, maybe some of them won’t even remember this and everything can just continue on as it was before.

 

“Hey, guys?” She says as Cariston finishes a rather loud story. “Can we… talk?”

 

Her heart is beating impossibly fast in her chest as she feels that heavy anxiety in her stomach. The scary bit has already been done, they already know who she really is, so why is she so nervous to explain why Marron called her by her birth name. Probably because although she trusts them, if they know, it puts them in danger, and will definitely cause them to have more questions she doesn’t want to answer.

 

“Elyza, my best friend in the whole world.” Cariston starts dramatically, leaning across the table towards her. “What is it?” Elyza sees the hurt look Cheese gives Cariston at the ‘best friend’ comment, before also turning his attention to her. She has all their eyes on her now, even Cornelia, who raises an eyebrow expectantly. Here goes nothing.

 

“You know how Marron called me by another name last night?”

 

“Yeah, yeah It was like Koala! No that wasn’t it, Kelawa, right?” Naliah says, luckily not that loudly, but even so, Elyza looks around the bar, looking for anyone who might have heard them. No one reacts, no one even seems to be looking over at her. Even so, she needs to make sure that name is not repeated loudly again.

 

“Yeah, Kelawa, although that isn’t my name anymore.” She answers softly, taking a deep breath to calm herself. She shouldn’t be getting so anxious about this, no one here wants to hurt her. None of them would betray her, they’re not like Alenas who evidently already has.

 

“Why don’t you use it anymore, are you like some kind of secret hero or something?” Cheese asks, his eyes wide as he obviously makes up some ridiculous fantasy in his head.

 

“No, no. I just...I don’t know if I can say…” She murmurs trailing off as she tries to figure out exactly how much she should tell them. What is she even supposed to say without telling them the truth? She can’t tell the truth, she just can’t.

 

She doesn’t get long to think however as Cariston stands up abruptly, nearly knocking his chair over, making everyone look at him. He sways on his feet for a moment, looking very serious before he raises his hand to the air and a small glow of light appears in his palm. 

 

“It's time for the Zone. Of. Truthhhhhhhhhhhh!” he shouts loudly, drawing out each word for dramatic effect. As he finishes he pushes his hand down on the table where a flash of light extends from it. Elyza feels the magical effect, some sort of charm trying to settle over her. For a moment panic spikes in her chest as she feels herself nearly lose to it. However she’s had this done to her before, and knows how to strengthen her will so it won’t affect her. She shrugs off the effect, looking around the room to see if anyone else was hit by the spell.

 

“Cariston, did you just try to charm me?” Cornelia asks, the drink bringing out a dangerous edge to her voice. If Cariston wasn’t so drunk, and now very obviously under his own spell, he definitely would have answered more carefully. Instead however he just nods and informs her that it's the easiest way to question someone if they’re definitely telling the truth and can’t lie. 

 

“What a good idea bro, if it works she has to answer all questions truthfully. Did it work, who's under the spell?” Cheese asks, obviously having shrugged off the spell's effect as well. Cariston drunkenly nods excitedly towards Naliah before realising that he’s only managed to charm himself and her, and definitely not Elyza.

 

“Why don’t you use your real name?” Cheese asks, ignoring Cariston’s mumbling about he was sure he could get everyone with that spell and he must have done it wrong. Elyza is about to answer, because really she does owe them an explanation, when Naliah speaks up.

 

“Naliah is my real name, I don’t have another one.”

 

Everyone stops and looks at her, Cariston seeming the most confused out of everyone to why she’s just answered. “Cheese wasn’t talking to you Naliah, we’re asking Elyza.”

 

“I know, I just suddenly want to answer every question asked for some reason.”

 

“Bro, I think you broke Naliah.” Cheese whispers to Cariston, not quite quiet enough for the rest of the table not to hear. 

 

“What made you pick Elyza for a name?” Cornelia suddenly asks, her cheeks flushed slightly, possibly from the wine or the attention as she looks away before continuing. “Not that I care or anything.”

 

Naliah goes to answer the question again, but Cornelia gives her a look. She closes her mouth again, almost pouting like a child not getting her own way.

 

“I...I changed it once I started my life In Pyke. I tried many names, Elyza just stuck, it had a nice ring to it.” Elyza answers, surprising herself with how honest she’s being. 

 

“What about a surname, you didn’t think to pick one?”

 

She shrugs, taking a sip from her drink as she looks at them. “I never needed one. If anyone asked, I told them it was just Elyza. People tend to leave it at that, especially once they see the weapons.”

 

“But...you’re not in Pyke anymore, you don’t do that job anymore. Why don’t you use your old name now?” Naliah asks, not seeming to grasp exactly what Elyza is saying. She’s kind of glad about that, but also frustrated they won’t drop the subject. She doesn’t want to explain it all, doesn’t know if she’s ready to tell them the full story because...well she hasn’t told anyone, she doesn’t even like to think about it.

 

“It’s not my name anymore. I stopped using it so long ago now that I-I don’t use it, Elyza is my name now.”

 

“That’s okay, we’ll still call you Elyza, won’t we guys?” Cariston asks, seeming to have sobered up incredibly quickly as he senses how tense the situation is. He looks around the table, coaxing nods out of the rest of them, but Elyza can tell they still have questions. Of course they do.

 

“Do you want a surname?” Cheese asks excitedly, a strange look on his face that Elyza can’t read. Clearly the mouse has some idiotic idea.

 

“I don’t need one, I don't really want to pick one now anyway-” She starts, but Cheese interrupts her.

 

“-No, not pick one, be given one!” Elyza just looks at him, confused about what he's going on about. He looks at Cariston and smiles. “I didn’t have a surname either, professor Archibald never gave me one. I was just Cheese, but now I use Cariston’s.”

 

Cariston grins, seeing exactly where Cheese is going with this. “That’s right! Vael! It means foundling, as in a found family! Cariston Vael, Cheese Vael, Elyza Vael. you can join our family if you like.”

 

She just stares at them. She thinks they’re joking, pulling some sort of strange prank, but they're both smiling at her and nodding, as if trying to encourage her to say yes. She doesn’t think she’s ever wanted anything less in her life.

 

“No.”

 

“No?” Cheese asks, his smile faltering.

 

“No, no thank you. I’m good” She replies, watching both Cariston and Cheese look at each other and frown. Cheese eventually just shrugs and starts talking to Cornelia about something, but Cariston looks at her again, a troubled look on his face still.

 

“You’re okay, aren’t you Elyza?”

 

Elyza goes to answer immediately, but stops. She looks over the rest of their group who have moved onto another topic already. She feels much more at ease now she isn’t the centre of attention. For once, she doesn’t feel anxious, trapped, scared that they’re only doing this to make her feel at ease and safe, then to hurt her later. She feels content, hell maybe even the safest she’s felt in a long long time. 

 

“I’m okay…Thanks, Cariston.”

 

She doesn't have to say everything she’s thinking out loud for him to know what she means. She sees the recognition in his eyes, the smile and nod he gives her before having to rush off to diffuse another argument between Cornelia and Cheese. She finds herself smiling too, taking a long drink of wine while she looks over them all. They’re all such idiots, but gods, she never wants them to stop being her idiots.

 

__________________________________________________________________________

 

Their last fews days in Kier are uneventful. Time seems to pass quickly, until their last day in the city. With spending two weeks in the capital, they’ve explored everywhere they possibly can. Even Cheese and Cariston have grown bored of the library and have joined the group for a wander around the city to kill time. As they’re walking through a densely populated street, a town crier starts up on delivering the news of the day.

 

“Order restored to the trade district. The city guard are currently searching for any person with information regarding demon worshipers. Any information that leads to an arrest will be handsomely rewarded.

The armies of the empire are recruiting any able bodied person willing to serve. positions in the city and town guard as well as military service are available. Pay ranging from one to five gold a day.” 

 

“Imagine getting paid five gold a day” Cheese pipes up, Cariston making a small noise of agreement.

 

“That’s a lot of money, but we’ve also made a lot more than that in the last two weeks.”

 

“Robbing people blind will do that for you.” Cornelia says, smirk on her lips as she watches Cariston frown at the idea that anything they’ve done in the last week hasn’t been particularly good or noble. Elyza isn’t an idiot, she knows that they’ve done a few questionable things this week, but she also spent many years in Pyke doing worse things, so she definitely can’t claim to have been better before. Turns out trying to be a good person really doesn’t pay well.

 

“You were a guard, right Elyza?” Naliah suddenly asks. “Did you make five gold a day?”

 

Elyza doesn't mean to laugh, she honestly doesn’t, but the look on Naliah’s face doesn’t help at all. She’s looking at her curiously, a sincere look in her eyes. Almost as if she thinks it's normal for people to be paid that much. Elyza goes to tell her to stop joking, but then realises that maybe Naliah really doesn’t know. 

 

“It’s, well, it was a bit different for me.” She says, making Naliah only frown in response to not getting a straight answer from her.

 

“Different how? Did they not pay you even a gold for a day at the academy?” Cheese asks, moving between their legs to walk beside Elyza from his previous spot next to Cariston.

 

“No, they paid me well in the academy, it was one of the best paid places we’d been honestly.” Elyza admits, thinking back on her old captain and how well he’d done for them. She finds herself surprisingly missing him a bit, in the weird way you can miss someone who's permanently pissed off and stressed out of his mind. She realises she’s stopped mid sentence when she sees them all looking at her expectantly.

 

“I joined the Arcturus company under, well, interesting circumstances. I didn’t choose to become a mercenary because of the pay, that’s for sure.”

 

“Wait, so you didn’t willingly join them?” Cheese asks, his eyes wide as she can already see him making up more ridiculous stories in his head about her. 

 

“Or she means that she joined, but just not for the pay.” Cariston says quickly, trying to stop Cheese where he is in his train of thought. Elyza sees the look Cariston is giving her and smiles softly at him. She understands he’s concerned and trying to protect her from having to talk about something possibly painful to relive, but surprisingly this memory is one she can actually look back and laugh at.

 

“It’s not the most exciting story, I did something stupid and ended up sort of in debt to them.” She admits, a small blush covering her cheeks as it is a little embarrassing. 

 

“You can’t just say that and not tell the story.” Cornelia says, speaking up for the first time in a while. 

 

“Yeah, did you like kill a guy they were supposed to so you had to go assassinate someone?” Cheese asks excitedly with way too much enthusiasm.

 

“Or maybe she killed one of them and then had to take their place and join the gang?” Naliah joins in with another ridiculous guess.

 

“I think that was a book you read, Naliah.” Cariston says very sensibly, but then pauses and looks at Elyza. “That sort of thing doesn’t happen in real life...right?”

 

Elyza just grins, sort of enjoying how ridiculous they’re all being about this. The truth is definitely going to be a let down. “It definitely does, Cariston. I’ve been forced to join many gangs.” She answers, having to hold back a laugh as he pales slightly. 

 

“But, no. It wasn’t anything as exciting as that. I...I’d had a bad day, and uh well...I hit their carriage with an arrow.”

 

“Like they were bad guys you were chasing down and you missed killing them because you’re so heroic?” Cheese asks, bewonderment in his eyes. Elyza snorts in response.

 

“No, Cheese. The weapons were mostly for show in Pyke, I didn’t use them unless I needed to for a job, or I was pissed off and wanted to hit some trees with arrows. I missed the tree.”

 

“So you ended up joining a mercenary company because you missed your target and they thought they were under attack from said arrow?” Cornelia asks, the unamusement at the whole idea evident on her face. Elyza opens her mouth to correct her but...she is right.

 

“That’s not...okay that is how it was. But, I'll never forget how freaked out they all were when they all jumped out of their carriage thinking some army was attacking them, and I was just standing there with my bow.” Elyza laughs a little to herself, thinking of how royally pissed off Captain Varin looked. “They offered me a deal, a chance to get away from, well, everything in Pyke. I ended up in the academy not long after that.”

 

“Well, that was a boring story.” Cheese announces, moving back to walk next to Cariston.

 

“I think it was kinda cool.” Naliah says with a way too serious look on her face as she nods at Elyza. Elyza wants to roll her eyes at both of them, but she knows Naliah is trying to be nice.

 

“It’s good to know that if you all die, I can still get paid decenty for throwing fire at things.” Cornelia says with a growing smirk, as she watches Cariston frown at her comment.

 

“I mean, we could all just become guards.” Naliah says, obviously missing the joke completely. “After we’re done with the work with the academy we’re free to do what we like.”

 

“You’d want to join the guard, really?” Cornelia asks, raising an eyebrow at Naliah. Naliah in turn just shrugs at her. “It could be fun, a good way to live as obviously I'd get paid at least five gold a day if not more.”

 

“I don’t know...sounds very orderly.” Cariston says, a look flashing across his face that Elyza can’t read. Whatever it is, it isn’t good as a look of unease settles there as he thinks on it.

 

“I’d hate to be in the guard, you’d never get to do what you want. Sounds utterly boring.” Cornelia says, waving her hand dismissively as Naliah tries to interject and say that she just said she would join.

 

They spend the rest of the day window shopping, night coming quickly as it always seems to. As they sit down to dinner however, Trizzi joins them for the first time in days. She’s her usual bubbly chatty self, she spends the first hour or so chatting with Cariston and Cheese about some magic bullshit. Elyza just watches, keeping polite conversation with Naliah and Cornelia when she’s addressed, but she keeps most of her focus on Trizzi.

 

Trizzi looks tired, but from what Elyza’s seen of her in the last two weeks, she just hasn’t stopped. She watches her, noticing all those little details about her all over again. Her soft smile, the way her eyes sparkle when she’s excited, The beautiful shade of red her skin is. Her horns, Elyza could stare at them for hours, wanting desperately to reach out and trace the intricate details on them.

 

Elyza isn’t stupid, she knows she has a crush and nothing will probably ever happen between them, but gods she loves just looking at Trizzi. She doesn’t understand it honestly, she’s been with many women over the years, yet there's just something different with Trizzi.

 

Eventually Cheese and Cariston end up in their own conversation, which leaves Trizzi now sitting beside Elyza unoccupied. She has a soft smile on her lips as she watches over the room before she turns to Elyza. As their eyes meet, her smile widens, and Elyza feels her heart skip a beat.

 

“I’m sorry I've been so busy these last two weeks.” she says, her smile faltering as she looks to the rest of the group before looking back to Elyza. “Cariston has been keeping me up to date on all your adventures though. They sound very exciting!”

 

“Well, they sure do know how to stir up trouble.”

 

Trizzi laughs, her smile widening. “I was the same at their age, weren’t you?”

 

“You, like them? I can’t imagine that.” Elyza says, only exaggerating her surprise slightly, because honestly she can’t imagine Trizzi being like her chaotic friends at all. Trizzi who is kind, and sweet, and honestly a huge nerd who can’t get enough of books and magic. Although now she thinks about it, Cheese and Cariston are sort of like that.

 

“Oh I had my own adventures when I left the academy, nothing too crazy but I had a very eccentric group, so they always made things interesting.”

 

“I can’t imagine anyone showing you up.” Elyza says, a smile now on her lips as she gazes into Trizzi’s eyes. Trizzi just grins in response, shuffling slightly closer as the table next to them erupts into cheers.

 

“There was this girl, Cece, she spoke even more than me, would you believe, just not about anything in particular. I don’t think I ever heard her not speaking. I still wonder about what she’s doing these days.”

 

“She sounds sort of exhausting, do you not still write?” Elyza asks, slightly louder than she would like to as the table next to them has still not quieted down and now are chanting something.

 

“I meant to, but I have so many things to keep on top of that I don’t manage to do a lot of things...I was hoping I wouldn’t be so busy in the time away from the academy, but it looks like things are as hectic as always.”

 

Elyza looks at her, really looks at her. She doesn’t think she’s ever heard Trizzi sound sad. Even after the murder of one of her students she was more flustered than sad, but now…

 

“You have to live for yourself as well, not just for the academy'' She says softly, her hand covering Trizzi’s on the table. Trizzi seems surprised at her words, or maybe at the touch. Whatever it is, it brings the most beautiful smile Elyza has ever seen onto Trizzi’s face.

 

“You’re right, I mean, of course you are. And I do, I have my own life, just recently it's been very work focused and even now- Now I’m- I’m just looking forward to getting home honestly.”

 

“Back to the academy?” Elyza asks in confusion, mentally kicking herself when Trizzi shakes her head, because of course the academy isn’t her home.

 

“Strasa, to see my father, it's where we’re heading next.” She says matter of factly, then pauses. “I did tell you that, didn't I? And well technically it isn’t our next stop as it's quite a distance and we’ll be stopping at a town not that far from here, Craydon, have you heard of it?”

 

Elyza just shakes her head, enjoying Trizzis usual ramblings, saying a million things a minute and then suddenly remembering someone else is supposed to be replying to her. It’s unbelievably cute. Elyza normally hates being talked over, but with Trizzi she definitely doesn’t mind.

 

“Well, we’ll be leaving here in the morning, traveling to Craydon, then we’ll be heading to Strasa where we’ll have some work for you guys to do. Or so I’ve been told, the details are still a little up in the air but that’s okay we’ll figure it all out.”

 

“I’m just here to look after them, wherever you tell me we're going, I’m with you.” Elyza says, glancing over to the group to check they’re not setting anything on fire or something. She does notice Naliah has a sinister grin on her face, and Cornelia is waving her hands around dramatically as she tells some dramatic, bougie story. Elyza looks away for so long in fact that she jumps a little when she feels something touch her hand. She looks back, about to rip her hand away before she realises Trizzi has both her hands over Elyza’s, looking at her with such a sincere expression.

 

“Elyza, you’re part of their group too. Just because you weren’t a student doesn’t mean you’re any less special than they are.”

 

Elyza doesn’t react at first, barely hears the next words that come out of Trizzi’s mouth because she’s holding her hand and she’s just called her special. Logically she knows that Trizzi is just being nice, that this doesn’t mean anything, but it feels so special for some reason. With Trizzi it’s always special, she isn’t like other women. For the first time ever, Elyza wants to take her time, make this something special and meaningful, not just a quick fling like all her relationships end up being.

 

“Thanks, Trizzi.” She says with a smile, moving her other hand to Trizzi’s and giving them a squeeze. Trizzi in response grins, opening her mouth to say something- when a blood curdling scream fills the air. 

 

Elyza is on her feet, reaching for her bow before she can even survey her surroundings. She scans the room quickly, noticing Trizzi has done the same, a look of concern painted on her face once again. It becomes very apparent who the scream belonged to as Cornelia shoots an orb of dark energy into the table which cracks easily under the force of the spell.

 

Elyza goes to ask what the hell happened, when Naliah bursts out laughing, a now very obvious dark tentacle-like spell withdrawing from under the table as she grins at Cornelia. Cornelia does not see the funny side of this and looks like she’s about to burn Naliah alive.

 

“Oi, what the bloody hell did you just do to my table!?” The bartender's voice booms out from across the room as he starts making his way over to them. Cornelia just continues scowling, while Naliah sinks back into her seat, seeming to notice the large crack in their table as the Half-Elven man comes to stop at their table.

 

Elyza just watches them, not even wanting to look over to Trizzi to see her reaction. She’s so embarrassed, embarrassed she has to be with these absolute idiots. Cornelia just stares the man down, telling him pointedly that it isn’t her fault Naliah is a dick, who in turn tells her he doesn’t care and that someone has to pay for the damages. Cornelia seems even more annoyed with this and luckily slams a coin into his outheld hand before storming upstairs to her room. 

 

The man seems happy enough with this, but keeps his eye on them as he makes his way back to the bar. The evening continues on, Trizzi being the first to excuse herself as she heads to bed, Naliah following not long after looking a little bit sheepish from being told off earlier.

 

Elyza watches them go, one after one until she’s the last one left downstairs. She swishes her drink around in her cup, watching the crimson liquid before sighing to herself and finishing it off. To great adventures, and whatever the hell tomorrow and a new town brings with this lot.