Joan idly nudged the food on her plate around. At least this time she could identify some of it. Potatoes, a light pink meat that tasted a lot like ham and small bowl of a black paste that, frankly, she didn’t want to know what was in it. It was at least savory and not poisonous. She couldn’t remember ever having potatoes while in the demon lands, though, and suspected Isla procured them to try and make her feel better.

Not that it was doing much good. It had been a week since the chosen had left and she felt miserable. Her days were simple enough. Wake up, have a meal with the princess, maybe if she was lucky she’d hear a little bit of news from the regents report for Isla, but Frisk almost always had her leave first if there was anything ‘important’ to discuss.

Then she mostly just sat in her room and wrote down anything else she could remember to have the chosen do later. The only thing really breaking it up was when she was called to dine with the princess. She knew she was supposed to be resting and recovering but she didn’t feel that tired. She just felt bored. She’d even begun to train her magic and swordplay in her room, but it didn’t feel nearly as effective as it had as a hero.

Joan just couldn’t train nearly as hard anymore. Worse, she couldn’t feel much progress with the little she could do. She felt another small moment of frustration at her past self. She remembered all those times she’d begin to practice and train and master something in a matter of days. Things that had taken others ‘decades’ to learn. ‘Years’ to hone their bodies. The Hero had always rolled his eyes and either assumed they were exaggerating or lazy.

She didn’t know how normal people dealt with it all the time. She felt like she was going to go mad at this rate. Though, she supposed most people didn’t have the memories of doing it far faster and more effectively than they could now. It likely wasn’t as infuriating to take weeks to master something when you didn’t have memories of honing it in a matter of days or even hours.

“Are you enjoying your meal?” Isla asked.

“Huh? Oh, yes, it’s fine,” Joan said before giving the demon a small smile. Isla had been kind enough to find the potatoes, the least she could do was be grateful. “Sorry.”

“For what?” Isla asked.

“For nothing this time, I guess,” Joan said before sighing again. “Everything? I don’t know. Just… sorry. For sending Andreas off.”

“He’s one of the chosen now,” Isla said. “I have to be willing to accept that he’ll run off and do all kinds of things like this. Same as my sister.”

“Don’t you worry about him? Want to be with him?” Joan asked before she could stop herself.

“Of course I do,” Isla said. “Similar to how you obviously wish you were with them now. But he has his duties, I have mine. I can’t imagine how my little sister managed both. She must have been quite the sight. How did she deal with things when she left?”

Joan sighed and shook her head. “I couldn’t say. I didn’t pay much attention except when…” She trailed off for a moment and frowned. “I guess she had a regent as well? But, to be fair, it was years from now. Things were more stable for them then, I imagine.”

“Oh,” Isla said. “Stable? Do things not seem very stable here?”

Joan paused and quickly focused her attention on the potatoes. “These really are quite good. Did they boil them?”

Isla gave a light chuckle and shook her head. “I’m not insulted, Joan. Even if I was, do you really believe I’d let such a minor comment upset me?”

“Mayyyyyybe,” Joan said nervously. “And I don’t know. You do the political thing. I don’t understand all of that. I just run places and stab things with a sword. And now I can’t even do that.”

Isla gave another soft sigh. “You’re doing plenty, Joan. The chosen can do the ‘stabbing’ part now. I can handle the politics. All you need do is handle the guidance portion of this task. Pushing yourself past the breaking point aids no one.”

Joan rolled her eyes. “Easy for you to say. What you’re doing is actually useful. All I’m doing is telling people what useful things they can do.”

“That is useful,” Isla said.

“Do you believe what I am doing is helping anyone?” Joan asked.

That made Isla pause and a small, concerned smile formed on her face. “Of course I do, Joan.”

“Do you even believe I’m who I say I am?” Joan asked.

Isla gave another soft sigh before nodding. “I do, somewhat.”

“Somewhat?” Joan asked.

“Let us just leave it at that, shall we?” Isla said. “At the very least you have access to information the chosen need and aids them in their duties. As such, you are valuable and must be kept safe. While I may not believe everything you claim, I believe that you are certainly a gift from the gods in many ways.”

Joan gave another sigh before nodding. At least it was better than being called a spy. The door to the dining hall was suddenly slammed open, making her jump. Frisk came running into the hall, his robe pulled up slightly to allow him to run. “Lady Isla! A dragon!”

“What?” Isla asked.

“A dragon, it is flying over the city! Please, you must come at once!”

“WHAT?!” Isla yelled before getting to her feet and racing out the door, Frisk right behind her. Joan was only a few feet behind them, her own heart pounding. Had something gone wrong? Had they messed up? Why would a dragon come here? What if it was unrelated and had nothing to do with Searle? Questions flooded her mind every step of the way until, finally, they made it out to the main courtyard.

Only to see Searle and Bauteut climbing off the back of a massive golden wyvern. “That’s not a dragon,” Joan said. “That’s a wyvern. Two back legs and the wings have their claws, that’s how you can tell.”

Searle, meanwhile, was lightly patting the wyvern on the head while Bauteut slowly stretched her legs out a few times before holding up her hands. “It’s okay! It’s friendly! It won’t hurt anybody!”

“You’re back sooner than we expected,” Isla said.

“We got a lift,” Bauteut said before motioning towards the wyvern. “The Emerald Dragon was incredibly generous. It was amazing, really! I can’t wait to tell you all about it! This was the most exciting, exhilarating and terrifying thing I’ve ever done!”

“That sounds delightful,” Isla said, her eyes still locked on the wyvern. “It won’t… eat… anyone, will it? Should we prepare a meal?”

“Oh, no, it ate on the way here,” Bauteut said. “That was also terrifying. I don’t know about Searle, but I’m half starved. We’ve been riding for hours.”

“Then please, err, come with me,” Isla said. “Frisk, could you have the cooks prepare some more lunch for the chosen and his attendant?”

“At once, my lady,” Frisk said with a small bow.

Bauteut glanced down to Joan, a massive smile on her lips. “I can’t wait to tell you everything! It was amazing!”

“Can’t wait,” Joan said sheepishly.

------

“I thought I was dead,” Bauteut said. “All I could see was the fire, but then Searle, well, Searle, you tell them.”

“It wasn’t that impressive,” Searle said, his cheeks burning.

“I disagree, it was amazing,” Bauteut said. “Come on, tell them.”

Searle blushed but, none the less, he had a huge smile on his face. “Well, I knew I couldn’t block all of the fire with my shield. I really thought, well, I thought it was over. I thought I was going to fail. But I couldn’t just let her die. Not after everything. So I just reached deep inside me and it was like… I just knew what to do, you know? Or my shield did, at least. I’d never cast anything like it. But I wrapped us both in this powerful spiked barrier. The fire couldn’t even penetrate it. But that’s where it got really interesting. I was able to reflect the fire right back at them, using it.”

“Interesting?” Bauteut asked before bursting into giggles. “Oh, no. The whole thing with the spiders? That was interesting. The wyvern chase? THAT was interesting. But that? That was INCREDIBLE! I’ve never seen anything like it! I didn’t even know something like that was possible!”

“It wasn’t that big a deal,” Searle said sheepishly.

Joan idly picked at her plate and tried to force the smile to stay on her face. “It sounds like you were pretty impressive, Searle. I’m really happy you two were okay in the end. So the Emerald Dragon agreed?”

“Yes,” Bauteut said. “She won’t join the war directly. But she has agreed to extend her territory across the north pass. That’ll cut off the Demon Lord’s army from going that way and some of his supply lines at the least. Oh, and she gave me this to give you.” She then reached down to her left arm with her right hand and began to unstrap a long, yellow jewel encrusted bracer. She then held it out to Joan. “Here.”

Joan blinked a few times before taking it, then glancing up at Bauteut in confusion. The healer had one on her right arm as well an almost perfect duplicate. “What is it?”

“A shield, kind of,” Bauteut said. “Apparently she was really impressed by how we worked together and she granted me this. How did she put it? ‘As a companion to the shield, one must accept that his protections cannot always be there.’ I mentioned you and she gave me a matching pair, one for each of us. They’re pretty cool, you can activate it to create a magical shield around yourself and, if it breaks, all you need to do is hold it in the light of the sunrise and it will restore its magic.”

“Your adventure sounded absolutely breathtaking,” Isla said. “You two must be exhausted.”

“I mean, I can’t talk for Searle,” Bauteut said. “But I feel pretty great. The Emerald Dragon was amazing. Once we passed her trials she showed us to this magical hot spring and it was amazing. She also taught me this really amazing healing spell to help reduce the strain when someone is healed. I imagine Joan will get a lot of use out of it, knowing her.”

Joan’s cheeks went scarlet and she nudged her potatoes around. “Wow, that sounds absolutely… amazing.”

“Are you okay?” Searle asked, staring at her.

“I’m fine,” Joan said quickly. “Just thinking.”

“About where to send us next?” Bauteut asked.

“Yes,” Joan lied. Honestly the main thought on her mind was that the Emerald Dragon had never let the Hero ride any of her wyverns. Nor had the Hero been granted any special boons. The dragon had merely given the Hero the information they required and that was it. She wondered if the Hero had just been rude and angered her, or if it was some other reason. But she couldn’t help feeling jealous.

“I bet if we left quickly, the wyvern would be willing to give us a lift,” Bauteut said. “If that’s okay with you, Searle?”

“Huh? Oh, of course,” Searle said before turning back to her.

“You two can’t mean to leave so soon,” Isla said. “You only just returned. Don’t you desire more time to recover?”

“I mean, we’re making good progress,” Bauteut said. “We have the time and energy, why not? Oh, right! I forgot to tell you about the trolls. So, on our third night out…”

Joan barely listened when Bauteut started on another story of the amazing adventure they had.

Without her.

------

Joan loved Andreas. Truly, she did. Of all the chosen she had fought besides, he was one of the two who had always stayed by her side. Even if he had tricked her and made her almost believe he had betrayed her in this life, it didn’t make him any less a dear and wonderful friend for her.

The only thing she wished she could of fixed was how many times he had looked so saddened and depressed. The number of times he had suffered, unsure of what he was missing. The very joy that had been cut from his life long before she’d even met him in those lives.

So knowing that, she was overjoyed that, in this life, he didn’t have loss. His heart was not broken or empty. He had a spirit, a joy about him, that she had never known him to have. It was almost as if he was another person.

Despite all that, if she had to watch him make kissy face with Isla one more minute she was pretty sure she would throw up. “AHEM,” she said before rolling her eyes. “Can you please continue?”

Andreas gave a light chuckle from his position next to Isla, though the two were so close she wondered why they even needed two chairs. “Well, when I got through the last barrier, there it was. The sword. Just standing there, waiting for me. It was trapped, of course. Honestly, with all the effort it took I really should have just made some of the other chosen come.”

Joan rolled her eyes when he started nuzzling his betrothed again and the demon’s tail wrapped around his arm. “AHEM.”

“Oh Joan,” Isla said with a chuckle. “You’ll understand when you’re older.”

“I am older than both of you,” Joan said bitterly. “So, a trap?”

“Mmm hm. This massive, shadowy monster. With six heads, like a hydra made of shadows. We fought for hours before I managed to gain the upper hand by throwing the spear, piercing both it and the sword in a single movement. With the sword shattered, the trapped souls were released once more and the curse of darkness was lifted.”

“Perfect,” Joan said before getting to her feet. “I’m going to go gag in my room, I mean figure out where you can go next. Please, keep your hands off each other long enough for me to leave. Ugh.”

Isla snickers and Andreas, to her annoyance, didn’t even look slightly embarrassed. “No promises,” he said. “However, Joan, I did find something for you.” He held out his left hand and there was a flicker of darkness before he tossed something small towards her. She caught it and, to her surprise, it was a strange, obsidian ring.

“What’s this?” Joan asked.

“A magic ring I found while there,” Andreas said before giving Isla a small kiss on one of her horns, drawing a gagging noise from Joan. “Oh, relax. You’ve probably seen worse. It’s not much use to me, but apparently it’s got a small shadow weaving spell on it, making them cloak around and hide you.”

Joan rolled her eyes before glancing at the ring. Ah, of course. So she could hide better. Oddly, she remembered finding this ring when they’d done this in her past lives.

It had been entirely useless and they’d ended up selling it to some merchant. Simple shadow spells like that had been so easy for the Hero, Andreas and Korgron to perform that it had been all but useless.

“Awwww, you got her a gift but not me?” Isla said in a light, pouty tone. “I thought I was supposed to be your princess.”

“You’re everyone’s princess,” Andreas said with a light laugh.

Joan groaned. “I really hope that didn’t come out right.”

“It sounded better in my head,” Andreas said. “But I did get something for you, actually. My precious little--”

Joan didn’t hear the rest of that exchange because she walked out from the room and closed the door behind herself.

Even if she did prefer ‘happy’ Andreas to ‘miserable’ Andreas, she really wished he could be less ‘sappy and in love’ Andreas.

Ugh.

------

“It was amazing,” Korgron said. She towered over her ‘audience’ of Isla and Joan. One foot resting on a chair while she leaned into it. “There it is, the Eye of the Night. And well, I don’t know why she called that ‘guardian’ a god, but it didn’t stand a chance. Well, okay, it had a very small chance,” the demon said with a boisterous laugh. “We fought for at least two days. Hell, we even ended up splitting that little tower of hers in half! It was amazing. That spell you taught me was incredible, Joan.”

Joan flushed and couldn’t help but nod, mesmerized by the story. “I just wanted to be sure you could use it if she caused too much trouble. Sorry it only works during the day.”

“Even if just during the day it was incredible. I haven’t felt so alive in ages!” Korgron said with a loud, gleeful laugh. “I felt like I could have taken on the world! Also, the Eye of the Night? Amazing. I’m just going to hold onto it until I see Andreas next,” she said, her tail flickering back and forth in excitement. “He may be the chosen of darkness, but I’m going to put it to a lot of use in the meantime.”

“Sister,” Isla said in a firm, mildly annoyed tone. “Do you mind NOT breaking the table? Also, you’ve scattered your meal all over. What would the cook think?”

“That I was amazing, obviously,” Korgron said before dropping into her seat and scooping some of the dried fruits back onto her plate. “Other than that? She wasn’t much of a problem. A bit sarcastic, but after what I did to that little ‘god’ of hers, she was quite eager to do as I asked.”

“So a total success, then?” Joan asked.

“Entirely. She’s even agreed to stop allowing anyone through her lands. It should at least make it a bit more difficult for the war effort. Maybe buy some time, get them to pull back,” Korgron said before popping another fruit into her mouth. “Where to next?”

“Actually, about that,” Joan said.

“Wait, hold that thought. I got you something,” Korgron said before snapping her fingers. Her satchel appeared over the table for a moment before dropping down onto it. She rifled through it and pulled out a small bronze amulet shaped like a skull. “Here. I already examined it, it’s good.” She tossed it to her.

Joan caught it and looked at it for a few moments. It did look familiar, she was sure she had seen it before. Wait, no. In her past lives. It--

“It will protect you from poisons and things like that. As a demon and, well, as a chosen, I’m pretty much immune already. But I figured it’ll help you not accidentally die to something like that,” Korgron said. “You won’t have to worry about your food anymore, either.”

Joan stared at the small skull and struggled, as hard as she could, to keep the smile on her face. “Why thank you, Korgron. It is such a sweet gift. I’ll wear it proudly,” she said before sliding it over her head. A shield, a way to hide and protection from poisons. Could the chosen find just one thing that didn’t help keep her safe like some kind of child? Even more humiliating, they were items that, were she still the Hero, she would have tossed aside as her own innate abilities were far superior. Still, she supposed she had best be grateful that they were thinking of her at all. “So I’ve been thinking about where we’d go next.”

“Next?” Korgron asked.

“Well, I mean, there are still plenty of things to take care of while we’re here. You and I could--”

“Wait, wait wait,” Korgron said with a light laugh. “First of all, I’ve got things I need to take care of while I am here, so it’ll be a few days. Second, I’m not sure you’re ready to go anywhere yet.”

“What? It’s been almost a month!” Joan yelled before getting to her feet. “I’ve been good and patient! You can’t just leave me here forever! I’m not a child, I can do this too!”

“Joan,” Korgron said. “You are a child.”

“No, I’m not,” Joan said. “I’ve fought, killed, died, have more experience than all of the chosen combined. Even if I didn’t, I have training and experience outside of that. I’m competent and--”

“We’re fighting things that I wouldn’t want the greatest warriors in our kingdom facing,” Korgron said. “Certainly not you. We need you, Joan. We’ve had this talk before.”

Joan stared at her, her entire body quivering. Finally she just sat down and sighed. “It’s because I got swaddled, isn’t it?”

“What?” Korgron asked.

“The first time you saw me, I was all bundled up and looked helpless. I knew that was such a stupid idea,” Joan said bitterly. “Of all the--”

“That’s not why,” Korgron said. “Joan, please. Try and understand, this is for your own good and protection. We care about you. We just want you to stay where it’s safe.”

Joan tried to keep her frustration under control, if she threw a tantrum she knew Korgron would never trust her to come. “Fine,” she said before sitting back down. “You’re right. What if I choose a much safer thing for us to do?”

Korgron sighed before nodding. “Yes, but not this time. After Bucket returns and is sure you’re fully good to go, okay.”

“Her name is Bauteut,” Joan said. “Why can’t you check me? You’re just as good at healing people as she is. No, you’re better. And you said last time that you’d let me come if I was better.”

“I’m as good at healing magic, yes,” Korgron said. “But she’s better at identifying damage. If she gives you the okay once she returns, then--”

“There are other healers,” Joan said.

“Not human ones,” Korgron said.

Joan struggled to avoid screaming. A human or demon healer, it didn’t make that much of a difference. She bet Korgron just didn’t want her to come at all, so she was delaying her. There was absolutely no reason for her to be this protective of her.

Okay, she knew there were plenty of reasons to be this protective but she still hated it. She struggled, desperately, to contain the growing tantrum. “Fine. You win,” Joan said. “I’ll be patient. I’m not very hungry so I’m going to go get some sleep.” She got to her feet and walked towards the door. Korgron called out to her, but she ignored her and just kept walking. She wasn’t useless. She wasn’t helpless. They couldn’t keep treating her like this, she knew what she was doing.

MelodyAvant

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