“I am so fucking hung over right now,” I mumbled, my head leaning limply on my chest as the carriage bounded along the rutted “road”, trees creeping close to both sides of the glorified deer path. “I’m pretty sure I heard the sun come up this morning.”

“I did warn you to hold back on the Drashel,” Carrisyn tried once more in vain to stop Sayuri from bouncing excitedly on the seat beside her.

“What the hell is even in that crap?” I murmured miserably.

“Trust me,” Carrisyn glanced at me meaningfully. “You don’t want to know.”

“It tasted so good, but hurts so bad,” I whined miserably, my temples throbbing and my stomach gathering the troops for full revolt. “Shouldn’t I heal through this or something?”

“You regenerated from bits and pieces,” Carrisyn pointed out, grabbing onto Sayuri’s leg and scowling at her. “That’s amazing in and of itself. Not to mention your ability to heal is quickly losing its potency.”

“Same can’t be said of whatever the hell is in Drashel, that shit is way potent,” I groaned, bouncing off the seat as the coach hit a particularly egregious bump. “Ugh.”

“You drank enough to get the entire royal guard drunk and you weigh less than their armor. I’d say you did fine.” Carrisyn sighed. “Will you fucking stop? You’re making me seasick.” This last was addressed to the cat girl beside her.

“Sayuri cannot! Her butt must move! The coach is moving, and she is helping it!” Sayuri replied, her sharp canines glinting in a grin.

“Sure,” I murmured in support, “makes total sense to me.”

“Could you not help her?” Carrisyn gave up and slumped to the other side of the seat.

“So we go home today,” I breathed, trying to keep my rampaging stomach at bay by keeping my focus on anything else.

“If everything works the way it’s supposed to,” Carrisyn nodded.

“Guess I have to find a new place to live and start my figurine collection all over,” I shook my head sadly. “If they went through my stuff, I can’t ever go to my parents’ house again. That’s a given.”

“Huh?” Carrisyn glanced over at me.

“How do you explain to your parents how you have over a million won in sex toys?” I glanced over at her.

“I… “Carrisyn began before shaking her head. “I don’t even want to know.”

“What are you going to do, Carrisyn?” I felt marginally better as my stomach finally seemed corralled.

“Akira,” Carrisyn countered.

“Huh?” I glanced over at her.

“That’s my name,” Carrisyn answered. “Akira Suzaki.”

“Akira...” I whispered, turning the name over in my head. “It sounds weird.”

“And Minji isn’t?” she scowled at me.

“What’s wrong with Minji?” I demanded. “It means clever and perceptive.” Carrisyn cocked an eyebrow at me curiously. “What?”

“You are a walking hormone. Your libido is out of control, you say the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard come out of anyone’s mouth. You lack agency, discipline, self-control, and, honestly, I’ve wondered many times whether you have a fully functioning frontal lobe,” Carrisyn pointed out dispassionately. “Your parents’ high hopes when they named you may have been misplaced.”

“And, yet you still love me,” I grinned back at her in a way I knew she would find infuriating.

“I don’t know about that,” Carrisyn scowled.

“Do you know what I think?” I sat back, my eyes feeling dry and itchy. My head still pounded achingly, but I did feel a bit better, I supposed.

“Is that a trick question?” Carrisyn smirked at me. “The real question is do you know what you think?”

“I think you fell in love with me when I led the elves to victory,” I plowed ahead, ignoring her. “I think you thought ‘Oh! She’s so incredible and powerful and she had such a cool take down comment when she killed that demon! I love her so much!’”

“Cool take down comment?” Carrisyn tapped her chin in thought. “Did you?”

“I totally did,” I nodded. “Something about a fuckwit, I don’t remember exactly because I was dying at the time. But it was kinda awesome.”

“You do realize without your ability to heal you would have been dead like 10 times over, right?”

“Yeah, well, at least two of them were because of you so you don’t get to use the soapbox, thank you very much,” I snapped.

“You have got to be the worst heroine I’ve ever seen,” Carrisyn chuckled, shaking her head.

“Who cares?” I shrugged. “The kingdom is saved, the elves are saved, and now we’re going home. I’d call that a win!”

“I suppose you’re not wrong,” Carrisyn admitted, staring out the window at the gnarled trunks of trees as we bounced past.

“What are you going to do when we get back home?” I flicked the flap covering my window up, decided it was still far too bright and let it fall quickly.

“Finish what I came here to do,” Carrisyn shrugged.

“Ah, right, you mentioned something about your sister and a talisman or something before, right?” Carrisyn produced a small empty vial of what looked to be blue glass set in a silver pendant from the pouch at her waist.

“Is that it?” I asked needlessly.

“Well, it’s worthless at the moment, but soon it will be priceless,” Carrisyn whispered almost to herself.

“I hope it does what it’s supposed to,” I shrugged, no clue what it was or what it was supposed to do.

“Me, too,” Carrisyn nodded before lapsing into a thoughtful silence.

The Rose Chamber sat below the mostly ruined Willow March. The treacherous stairs down to the chamber itself were rotted and crumbling and it took us some time to negotiate. We passed through a short hallway and stopped at a tall set of double doors. Carrisyn concentrated for a moment before speaking a single word which I had no hope of understanding. The door stayed closed for an instant before grinding open alarmingly, dust and dirt cascading from the walls.

“Wow!” I breathed as the three of us strode inside. I stared around at the room, nodding appreciatively. “This is certainly a…place, I suppose. Sayuri! What’s the word I’m looking for?”

“Shithole?” Sayuri supplied helpfully, tail wagging happily.

“That’s the word! Well done!” I enthused.

“Why are you teaching her words like that?” Carrisyn snapped irritably.

“That’s one of the milder words,” I murmured, kicking at the dirt on the floor daintily. The roof had partially collapsed in the far corner, spewing rock and dirt onto the floor. Not that I could really tell the difference with the floor being covered with dirt and dust and spider webs as it was. The only light came from Carrisyn’s magic and even that seemed reluctant to dive into the darker corners where who knew what creatures lurked. “Don’t ask her about bait anime unless you want to hear the good ones.”

In the center of the room, looking rather like it had been outlined in chalk stood a large circle, runes etched in what I mused was most likely silver crayon around the edges. Dust had collected rather heavily so the markings were barely visible. In the very center of the circle a rose had been carved into the cracked stone, four rays, one in each direction, spreading out around it. While I imagined at one point in time it had been impressive, the entire room stunk of damp dirt, rot, and decaying wood. It was, in a word, a shithole.

“It may not look like much,” Carrisyn muttered defensively, pulling candles out of her satchel, as she hurried through the room setting them up.

“Anything,” I corrected her.

“What?” She glanced at me as she used magic to light the first candle.

“It may not look like anything,” I clarified. “There isn’t a housing authority on earth which wouldn’t condemn this place.”

“It will do what I need,” Carrisyn ignored me and continued lighting the candles.

“Bury us alive when the roof collapses?” I mused, glancing up at the sagging roof worriedly.

“You’re wrong, you know,” Carrisyn lit the final candle and straightened up with a sigh.

“I hope so,” I stepped away from a vine which had ripped through the stone over our heads and was stretching earthward desperately.

“No, about when I fell in love with you,” Carrisyn answered quietly. “It wasn’t in the warrens. It was on the plateau when you told me you weren’t going back.”

“Hmmm,” it took a long moment to jog my memory. “Oh, yeah! That was before you married me off!”

“Up until then you were annoying and childish and mostly useless,” Carrisyn stepped toward me, the light from the candles dancing and weaving in the chill darkness. “But you took responsibility for those you had no responsibility for. You showed compassion and asked nothing in return. You displayed heart, even if you still weren’t using your head.”

“I’m…not sure if I should be flattered or insulted,” I admitted finally.

“Maybe a little of both?” Carrisyn shrugged. “You’ve never let me down. You saved the world. You saved me. You will save my sister. I love you for all of that.” She held her hands out to me and I grinned, stepping forward to meet her above the rose in the center of the circle.

“Careful,” I grinned as she drew nearer to me. “I might get a swollen ego.”

“All things considered, I think you’ve earned a bit of an ego boost,” Carrisyn stepped closer still until she was directly in front of me. She smiled, a sad smile it seemed almost.

“So what happens now?”

“Now I finally finish what I started,” Carrisyn replied cryptically, a look of sadness passing over her face.

“Uh…” I said nervously. “That sounds ominous…”

“Don’t worry,” Carrisyn said, the look on her face telling me that being worried is precisely what I should be. “It’ll be over soon.” She turned toward Sayuri. “This is delicate magic and once I start, I can’t stop so do not enter the circle under any circumstances. Do you understand?”

“But what if I- “Sayuri began with a pout.

“Unless you want to get blasted through the wall into next month, do not enter the circle,” Carrisyn repeated forcefully.

“It will all be ok,” I nodded toward Sayuri. I’d extracted a promise from Carrisyn before getting too drunk the night before she would try to bring the cat girl with us. Sayuri stared at us intently a moment longer before squatting down on the floor and gazing at us suspiciously. “It will be ok, right?” I asked Carrisyn quietly. She didn’t respond, merely closed her eyes.

Her lips began to move but the sound was so low I couldn’t make any words out. The effect around the room, however, was quite dramatic. A shimmering silver wall erupted around the edge of the circle, with most of the smaller circles and runes within bursting into cold silver fire. The talisman in Carrisyn’s hand rose into the air and hovered.

My body stiffened and I became rather concerned when I felt myself raise into the air along with the talisman, arms back as if held from behind, head still free to look around but the rest of me firmly gripped by Carrisyn’s magic. I stared uneasily as the talisman lifted itself over my chest before pressing against me, feeling hot on my skin.

“This place was not easy to find, little rabbit,” A voice called from the doorway. I looked over frantically to find Jaxxin entering the room. I shot a panicked glance at Carrisyn. Her eyebrow twitched but her concentration seemed to be holding. “And what is this? Someone trying to take what’s rightfully mine? Hardly acceptable. Especially after I saved you so many times during the battle with the king! We have unfinished business and here I find you rushing off into the arms of another woman? Honestly… I’m hurt.”

“You can’t interrupt,” Sayuri growled. “Sayuri will not allow you to. Sir and friend Ashvallen are going to another world and are taking Sayuri with them to her forever home.”

“Another world? Sounds intriguing,” Jaxxin stepped closer to the circle as Sayuri moved in front of her, arms spread wide. “Tell me more, kitty cat.”

Suddenly my body straightened in agony as the talisman began to glow a deep crimson. I could feel my muscles strain and my heart began to pound, feeling like it was going to burst. The pain increased as the talisman began to dig into my chest, the crimson glow growing brighter, mixing with the silver of the circles and runes until the room was awash in a lurid light as bright as day.

I tried to scream in pain, but no sound would come from my throat as something stirred in response to the talisman in my heart. Something which felt like it was tearing my heart to ribbons. The talisman began to spin in a tight circle and the thing in my heart reacted in kind.

“I’m so sorry,” Carrisyn whispered, tears in her eyes as her spell built, tearing my heart apart with it. “It’s the only way to save my sister.”

“Sayuri is not a kitty kat! Sayuri is a neko and she will not let you interrupt!” Sayuri replied fiercely.

“Oh, my apologies noble neko,” Jaxxin bowed slightly. “It’s just that our friend there seems to be about to die.”

“What?” Sayuri turned and in that moment Jaxxin lunged forward. Sayuri was quick to react and followed right after. The spell built to a terrifying crescendo just as the pair broke the plane of the circle.

She fucking killed me again; I thought venomously as the world exploded in brilliant white light.