Joan lightly hummed as she picked at her breakfast. She could almost identify some of it. Fish. There was certainly fish. And egg. A type of egg. She was pretty sure. Past that, she had no idea. Chase made it so it was at least delicious.

Despite the dangers of trying to identify what Chase made the meal out of, she found it was better than the alternative thing she could be focusing on.

Namely, the prince glaring at her from across the table. She’d been doing a really good job of avoiding him, but this morning it seemed she was not so lucky. She wondered if something she’d done was--

She glanced up when she heard someone come running down the hall. A moment later Francis came barging into the room, his face a storm of fury.

“What’s wrong?” Joan asked, instantly on alert.

“What did you do?” Francis yelled, reaching out to grab her by the front of her tunic and lifting her.

Joan reached up, slamming her arm against his hands and forcing him to let her go. She used the momentum to get to her feet, gripping his right arm and twisting it back behind him, making him yelp. She then shoved forward, kicking his legs out from behind him and dropping him to the ground, slamming his head into the table.

“The hell? Joan!” Chase yelled.

Joan stood there for a moment, her eyes wide before she let him go and pulled back. “S-sorry! It was instinct, oh. Oh no. Francis? Are you okay?”

“O-ow…” Francis said, slowly dropping to the ground.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry!” Joan said, staring down at him. “Ummm, I think we need a healer? Please?”

“I’ll go and retrieve the healer,” Prince Garbert said coldly before getting to his feet and storming out of the room.

“I’m so sorry, Francis,” Joan said. “Just, I thought, I mean, you came and grabbed me and I didn’t know and I just…”

Francis merely groaned in response.

------

“What did you do to Ifrit?” Francis asked.

“Gave her protector a minor concussion,” Joan said in a flat tone. “Should you be walking around?”

“The healer said I’m fine so long as I don’t get hit in the head again,” Francis said, his eyes narrowed on her. At least this time he was giving her space. “What did you say to her? Ifrit won’t tell me, but I know you upset her. Why? Did you threaten her?”

“No, I threatened you,” Joan said.

“You… wait, what?” Francis asked.

Joan sighed and glanced around for a moment. She really didn’t want to have this conversation around everyone. Especially considering what Ifrit was doing. WAIT! She had just the right spell for this. “Eeee! I haven’t been able to do this in a while!”

“What? Why? Why are you so excited?” Francis asked, stepping away.

“Oh gods she’s making that face again,” Chase said with a groan, a hand moving up to rub his forehead.

“Oh, relax,” Joan said before rolling her eyes. “Now, let’s see, I think it’s…” She put her hands together and focused her magic for a few moments. Filtering it through the Eye of the Night was an experience she hadn’t done very often even as the Hero, but it certainly helped. It was almost easy to cast the spell.

‘Francis, don’t panic but--’ Joan tried to say over the bond.

“AHHH! How are you doing that?!” Francis asked. “S-she’s in my head!”

‘Never mind,’ Joan said before glancing to Chase. ‘How about you?’

‘Why?’ Chase asked over the bond, narrowing his eyes on her.

‘Because I don’t want this information getting out,’ Joan said. ‘Also, you gave me a fancy, powerful magical relic of a bygone age and I’ve never been able to use it and so I had a chance. Why did you give it to me if you don’t expect me to play with it?’

‘Joan,’ Chase said over the bond. ‘Francis, stop panicking. This isn’t that strange a spell.’

“What are you doing?” Garbert asked.

“Trying to get him to calm down,” Joan said.

“What does he mean, inside his head?” Garbert asked.

‘Francis, I know about Ifrit. She told me that she’s a djinn,’ Joan said over the bond. ‘Now I’m trying to tell you that without letting the whole world know! Will you stop freaking out?’

“You know?” Francis asked, standing up to his full height and looking what she imagined he thought was intimidating. “How dare you threaten me to--”

‘I told her if she made a wish I’d kill you myself. Now, will you stop it?’ Joan asked over the bond.

Francis went entirely still, staring at her. “What? I don’t… what? Why… would you…?”

“Because if she does that, you tend to not take it well and I have to do that ANYWAY,” Joan snapped, ending the spell. She made a mental note to never use it on someone without giving them some more warning first. Then again, he’d yelled and freaked out at her. If he’d just calmed down and talk to her like a reasonable person, maybe she wouldn’t have had to resort to that to begin with.

“You can’t… what?” Francis asked.

“Now, can we talk about this somewhere private?” Joan asked.

“What in the world are you talking about?” Garbert asked.

“The ship will be ready soon,” a voice called out from behind them, making all of them startle and turn to see Breeze. “They told me to come let you know.”

“Can we talk about this later?” Joan asked. “Or try and kill me later, whichever works? I really… I just don’t wanna be here and deal with this.”

“What is going ON?” Garbert yelled, slamming his fist down on the table. “Enough of this. Joan, what are you talking about? Why-- get back here!”

Joan didn’t, instead just darting out the door… only to make it about five feet before she was stopped by an arm on her shoulder. She looked back and saw Chase, who just shook his head. “Come ooooon,” Joan said. “It’ll cause more trouble if I tell him.”

“Joan,” Chase said. “It’ll cause trouble if you don’t, now.”

“But… fine. FINE!” Joan said. “But this is Ifrit’s secret, not mine. I didn’t want to tell anyone. But you are all making me. Actually, fair, since you’re all making me do it. Why don’t we call Ifrit down here and have her tell everyone?”

“What?” Francis asked.

“You decided to drag this out,” Joan snapped at him. “What did you think was going to happen? I’ve been trying to protect her. But fine. Since apparently that means nothing. The truth is--”

“STOP!” Francis yelled.

Joan glared at him. Chase just looked confused. Garbert looked furious. The few others in the room looked like they wished they could leave.

“I… may have overreacted,” Francis said softly. “Ifrit was upset and so I… I thought Joan was the reason she was so upset.”

“I mean, I was,” Joan said. “But only because I told her not to do something stupid.” And now everyone was glaring at her. Admittedly, she probably deserved it. “What?”

“Joan,” Chase said softly. “Please, a little tact. What’s going on?”

Joan gave a soft sigh and struggled for a moment as she tried to figure out how to say it without releasing too much information. “We figured out why they want Ifrit. It’s dangerous information that, frankly, she shouldn’t have even told me. But now I do know. Then she was considering the whole stupid ‘sacrifice myself to save people from danger’ thing and I told her that would just make things worse and when she didn’t take it seriously, I warned her what would happen. She didn’t like it.”

“You’d kill Francis?” Garbert asked.

“If I had to,” Joan said.

“Why would you have to?” Garbert asked.

Joan just glared at Francis.

Francis sighed before looking to Garbert. “I… need to tell you something. Privately.”

Garbert glanced between the two of them before sighing. “Very well. Joan, don’t--”

“Oh, I am so not going to be here when you get back,” Joan said quickly.

Garbert looked like he’d have given an arm to tan her hide right then, but fortunately with Chase there that wasn’t an option. Instead he turned and left with a huff.

“Joan,” Chase said. “What was that about?”

“I’ll tell you on the boat,” Joan said. “It’ll be fun.”

“I see,” Chase said, though he looked almost as annoyed at Garbert had. “And how long are we going to be out at sea together?”

“Eh, two, three days. A week, tops,” Joan said with a shrug. “You can drown me if you mind.”

Chase just gave a sigh and shook his head. “If only it were that easy…”

------

“So a djinn?” Chase asked.

“Yuuuuup,” Joan said from besides him. Leaning against the railing of the ship, she looked out over the sea beyond. The Silver Beetle flew lazily through the air, held aloft more by magic than its fake wings. “Crazy, right?”

“Was it wise to leave them behind?” Chase asked.

“Maybe not,” Joan said. “But leaving me behind would have made things worse, we needed you to do this and the longer we wait, the more forces they can build up to attack. Hopefully we’re in and out before they notice.”

“Uh huh,” Chase said, his eyes still locked on the lazily drifting waves. “You want to ask her to make a wish though, don’t you?”

“No,” Joan said.

“Really? Why not?”

“Costs her life,” Joan said. “Not really fair. Besides, whatever wish she made? If she did? It destroyed Francis. You… never saw him in those times. What he was like. What he became. If this is what he was like before and her… wish changed him to this? I don’t want that. No matter what it is. Besides, if she wished to keep him safe in some way? She failed. Utterly. The wish didn’t work.”

“So you think she died for nothing?” Chase asked.

“I don’t think a magic wish that requires us to sacrifice someone else to get is going to work. She’s not some monster causing problems we’re stopping. She’s just another person caught in things she shouldn’t be,” Joan said. “I don’t think there’s some magic solution to make things better. I don’t know about djinns, I don’t know what the rules are. But if they could do anything, then the gods would have likely made them fix the whole mess that I had to deal with. So while I think I’d have been tempted, to save the world? I don’t think it ever would have worked. I’d have likely messed it up either way, though. So tempting as it is? I’m gonna stick with the initial plan. Stop the cult, save the idiots, everybody lives. If I have to survive my stupid repeated near death experiences, so do they.”

Chase gave a light chuckle before reaching out to put an arm over her shoulders. “Truly a challenging prospect.”

“The hardest,” Joan muttered. “It took me soooo many tries to finally get it right. But they’ll figure it out. Even if I have to beat it into them. They only get one try at it, after all.”

MelodyAvant

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