Bessen was born in a village on the border between Obelisk and the orc lands. Her birth mother was a young woman who, after a short fling with a visiting adventurer, had become pregnant. In Bessen’s village, biological parentage had mattered little, so, since her biological mother wasn’t yet ready to raise a child, Bessen was raised by an older orc couple.

She was a scrawny child, at least by the standards of the village, but she was famously rough and energetic, always quick to get into wrestling matches with older children and unafraid to get hurt. At her request, her parents kept her hair cut short and she could only ever be convinced to wear a dress on festival days.

As she grew older she began to develop muscle and rapidly began to put on weight until she matched, then overtook the children her own age. Despite her size, she was not known to be a hard worker, and had a habit of wandering off to play in the middle of working on chores. Her parents compensated for this by trying to turn her chores into a game, offering rewards for her work, but they were never able to compete with the appeal of climbing a new tree or finding a new spot to go swimming.

She didn’t understand what was happening the first time the train people visited, but she knew all of the adults were very excited. She would later learn that they were planning to build an alchemic rail through the town, and had offered to purchase part of the land. However, a few weeks later, the train people returned. They explained that it had been determined that the village sat on lands belonging to an Obeliski nobleman. The lands had been purchased by him and the villagers would not be receiving any payment. The villagers were furious, and refused to allow the track to be built. Then soldiers arrived.

Bessen had little memory of what had happened next. But by the time it was over most of her fellow villagers, including her parents, were dead. Since at that age her human features were more prominent than her orc ones, it was decided that she must have been kidnapped from another village. When she protested, insisting that she knew who her mother was, she was told that she would have been too young when she was kidnapped and that she didn’t remember her real parents.

She was placed in the care of a pair of Obeliski nobles who, it was generally agreed, were very generous to do so. Because of her masculine appearance, they briefly considered raising her as a boy, but ultimately decided against it. Bessen took to her new life with an ease that disturbed her. Her new parents may not have been the nobles who had ordered the destruction of her home, but they certainly supported it, and agreed that it had been the right thing to do. She knew that they should be her enemies, but she was still a child. How would she survive without them? How could she fight against them when they only showed her kindness? She found it all too easy not to resist and to simply accept this as her new life.

It wasn’t a bad life, overall. Her new parents were a little stricter. Instead of chores there were long lessons that left her squirming in her chair. She wasn’t permitted to play quite as much, nor as roughly with the other children. She was made to wear uncomfortable clothes, though thankfully Obeliski tradition permitted women to wear trousers.

In an attempt to quell her endless stores of energy, her parents found her a number of physical activities that were appropriate for the child of nobility. Riding quickly turned into one of her favorite hobbies and she developed a bond with all of her new parents’ horses. However, fencing was where she truly shined. It took her some time to learn the rules, since her instincts told her to force her opponent's sword to the side long enough to grapple her, but once she understood how to score she found herself easily defeating students with years of experience.

As she reached adolescence, her orc features began to show more, especially in her pronounced lower canines. People began to ask questions like “How much of you is orc?” However, since no one in her home village had bothered to keep track of such things, she had no answer. Her parents maintained that she was entirely human, and a victim of kidnapping.

There was some concern that her love of fencing might be inappropriate for a young lady; however, she managed to convince her parents to allow her to compete in a few tournaments. When she won one, and came close in a few others, it was suggested that she become an adventurer. This was a convenient solution to a number of problems. Since she was adopted, she was not permitted to inherit her parents’ lands or title, so another occupation would be necessary. And while competing in sports was considered unacceptable for an adult woman, becoming an adventurer was a different matter entirely. Noble families loved to boast about any adventurers in the family.

So she was apprenticed to an experienced adventurer. Actual combat, she soon found, was nothing like the carefully structured fencing matches or casual wrestling games she was used to. Her teacher was harsh and relentless, unafraid to cause Bessen pain. Bessen matched her teacher’s severity with determination, and soon learned to fight with a brutality that matched the roughest criminals.

Still, while she enjoyed the sweat and pain of training, she found actual jobs rather boring. There was a lot of traveling, a lot of waiting, and very little action. Sure, the opportunity to let loose on a group of murderers with a full battle trance was exhilarating, but sparring with her friends was nearly as fun and much more convenient. As a result, she gained a reputation for being a slacker.

This was fine for her, for the most part. Low expectations meant that any party she worked with asked less of her. Unfortunately, it seemed that that reputation had never expanded far beyond the Guild because now that she was working with Antimony’s rebels she was discovering that they expected a lot from her. Frequent meetings, contacts, passwords, deliveries, and now they even wanted her to recruit someone.

She arrived at the library in the morning and, after a brief stop at the card catalog, headed for the history section. She found a book entitled Seeking Hide: A Brief History of the Efforts to Reestablish the Leather Trade in Starfal in the Years Following the Calamity vol. 4 and opened it to the ninety-seventh page. Using a pencil, she made a small checkmark in the upper-right corner, then returned the book to its shelf.

The next step had to be done quickly. She needed to move to the nature section, find a book entitled An Onomatopoeic Guide to Bird Calls, and turn to page one hundred twenty-six. Unfortunately, when she got to the appropriate shelf she found it was missing. Had someone actually checked it out? She made her way to the front desk and asked the librarian who, after several long minutes of flipping through her ledger, said it wasn’t checked out.

In that case, she realized it must be mishelved. She had been told that her contact would notice the checkmark within a few minutes and wouldn’t wait around long. She needed to find that book. As she headed back to the nature section she noticed an old man sitting at a table with a stack of books on the subject of birds. Glancing surreptitiously, she found that An Onomatopoeic Guide to Bird Calls was among them. He must have picked it up by mistake. Why would anyone, even a bird enthusiast, want a book like that? He probably wouldn’t notice it if it were gone. All she had to do was find a way to slip it from his stack without him noticing. How would a thief do that?

Well, she knew how at least one thief would handle it.

Steeling herself, she marched forward and slipped the book out of the stack. When the man opened his mouth to object, she gave him her best icy glare. He closed his mouth and she walked away, trying to force the feelings of guilt somewhere into her stomach where she could pretend they were just indigestion. How did Andra handle just taking whatever she wanted?

She found a table far from the old man and quickly flipped to page one hundred twenty-six. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw a small illustration of an insect on the page. The insect leaped from the page, becoming a tiny, dapper girl dressed in brown.

“Took you long enough,” she said. “No Antimony today?”

Bessen held up the book, obscuring Bookworm from the rest of the library. “She had to secure some ingredients. My name is Bessen.”

Bookworm nodded. “Bookworm. But I suppose Antimony already told you that. So what are the latest updates?”

“Not much,” Bessen replied. She kept her voice quiet to avoid raising suspicion. “There was a small attack on Temple Station, easily fought off by the Sanguians. The allies took another city. The real news is that we’re nearly ready to take the castle.”

“In that case, this will likely be our last meeting. Can’t stay here if there’s going to be chaos,” Bookworm said, sadly. She began to pace back and forth on the table, hand on her chin. “I could go to Starfal. It’s seen the least fighting. But Lady Osier has too many allies there. Temple Station is stable, but its library ranks low on The Traveling Reader’s Top Fifty. I suppose I could leave the continent altogether. I don’t know any western languages, but maybe it’s time to learn.

“Or,” said Bessen, drawing out the syllable, “you could help us. If we put an end to the war, the continent would stabilize and you could go back to living on Magi-net.”

Bookworm rolled her eyes. “I hope that Antimony bothered to tell you how many times we’ve had this conversation. I only stay in contact with your group so that you can keep me updated on the war. The attack on Constellation Academy took me by surprise, and with Magi-net libraries being under the threat of attack, the only way I can reliably get news is through you. Standard libraries like this one aren’t updateable like Magi-net, and I had to create my own network book-by-book, which makes newspapers an impractical way to stay updated. But just because I rely on your help doesn’t mean I’m willing to put myself at risk to fight for your cause.”

“But there would hardly be any risk,” Bessen protested. “All you would have to do is use Magi-net to transport a group of us inside the castle.”

Bookworm suddenly burst out laughing. “You think I’m capable of something like that? Believe me, if I had that kind of power, I’d have a castle full of books and a thousand servants to organize them for me.

Bessen hesitated. This was why she hadn’t wanted this job. She had no idea what Bookworm was capable of. Unfortunately, with everyone else occupied with making preparations, it had fallen on her. She didn’t even feel confident that Bookworm really could help, but if she gave up now it would just turn into more work later. She would probably get stuck trying again next week.

“Well, maybe there’s another way you can help us.”

Bookworm put her hands on her hips and looked up at Bessen. “Like what?”

“I don’t know,” Bessen admitted. “But you can do things that none of the rest of us can. Maybe if you come to one of our meetings, we can figure something out together.”

Bookworm thought about this for a moment. “Alright, I suppose that’s fair enough. Antimony has helped me a lot, the least I can do is come to one meeting. Tell her to take her Magi-net book to the next one and I’ll join you. But understand that this isn’t a promise to help.”

“Of course.”

“Good, then I’d better go, people are starting to stare at you,” Bookworm said, adjusting her clothes.

Bessen glanced over the edge of the book. Several people were, indeed, giving her odd looks. “How did you even see—?”

But when she looked down, Bookworm was already back to being a drawing on the page. She quickly crawled away, making her way to the edge of the page and vanishing.

Her task for the rebels was done and she wasn’t needed at the inn for several hours, so she left the library and made her way to a nondescript stable not far from the Guild.

It was here that a group of nervous stable hands were caring for Atworth’s tiger, Melissa. Bessen had visited her several times since returning to Rampart City. She wasn’t sure what arrangements had been made for the rest of Atworth’s animals. Maybe Atworth simply let them run wild. Animals Atworth interacted with seemed to become more intelligent, and always found their way home. The only reason Melissa had to stay here was because she frightened people. Thankfully, she was being well-fed and frequently let out for exercise.

As she entered the stable, Bessen heard a familiar voice coming from Melissa’s stall. She nearly ran to meet Atworth, who was in the midst of hugging the tiger.

“You’re back,” Bessen said. Atworth looked up, and a moment later they were hugging her.

After several seconds, Atworth broke the hug. “I missed you. And Maxine and Nightingale too. Our whole team.”

Bessen joined Atworth in giving Melissa some well deserved strokes. “Where have you been? I tried to check up on you when I got back, but no one would tell me where you’d gone.”

Atworth paused as though carefully considering what to say. “The Fae Realms. Andra sent me there to try to convince the fairies to join the war.”

Bessen had heard rumors of Andra trying to recruit the fairies. Those were true? “Did you succeed?”

There was another brief pause. It was short, but enough to create a sense of artificiality when Atworth shook their head and said “No. And I’m glad I didn’t. Bringing another army into this war is wrong. Riven showed me that.”

Melissa began to purr as Bessen scratched behind her ears. “Riven was with you? I thought she was missing.”

“I found her. She—” There was another pause. “—helped me see things from another perspective.”

Bessen began to wonder if Atworth had become enchanted by a fairy. She recalled that they had mentioned that their unique ability came with a natural resistance to glamours, but would that resistance protect them when they were submerged in the Fae Realm?

“You must have just returned?” Bessen asked. Atworth nodded. “I hope you get some time to rest before Andra sends you out on some other task.”

There was another pause. Maybe it was just exhaustion. “I’m not going to work for Andra any more. Riven and I want to find a better way to end the war.”

Riven was a mage. True, she was infamously unreliable and she didn’t have Darren’s ability to raise an army, but at the tournament she had proven that she was a force to be reckoned with. If Bookworm couldn’t find a way to get the rebels into the castle, maybe Riven could.

“Would the two of you be interested in meeting a group who shares that goal?”