We didn’t get back to camp until evening–later than intended. Returning through the snow-laden trees to sit by a crackling fire and talk about our days felt… right. I’d been on the road for so long some of it had probably gotten in my veins.

I’d heard plenty about how the sea could do that to a sailor. Only made sense that a wanderer on the land could have that same sort of familiarity and comfort in a frigid, wet evening camped on hard, uncomfortable ground with nary a bath in sight.

Of course, I cheated away the first two.

And so, I found myself surrounded by family, who vastly preferred me over some fire. Just below us, the pass’s road was a dark brown ribbon cut neatly not a hundred meters ahead, near a curve in the mountain. A familiar, awful curve.

Already, Kartania had said she’d disposed of the rest of the remains, but around that innocent-looking corner was the site of the fight that had nearly cost me everything. As recent as it was, I couldn’t help but look back and think how naive I’d been.

But, things were better now. I was a landed noble, Seyari and I were married, and more than her hand had been restored. More even than her wings.

Her smile.

“Renna,” Sey poked me. “I know you’re off in your thoughts somewhere, but we’re talking about what comes next.”

“Hmm?” I glanced over at Seyari, sitting to my right. All four of us were seated in a row on a pair of logs before our campfire, though Joisse was asleep.

“Next. When you two get to Linthel. Or did you forget about killing a High Priest.”

“Oh.” I leaned my head back and sighed, staring up at where I could see stars between the clouds. “Right. Sorry—I’d just put it out of my mind lately. Too much other stuff.”

“There’ll be a war, Sister,” Tania said seriously. Or, well, she tried to, but given that she’d stripped to her underpadding and was sitting with a sleeping Joisse between her and me and my tail over the pair of them, the effect was lost.

But her words weren’t, I supposed.

“We can’t avoid it?”

Kartania shook her head. “The Church and the Empire both want it. This’ll just be one more excuse.”

I furrowed my brow. “And… I think King Carvalon wants it too.”

“Glad to see you’re starting to see motives,” Seyari said with a hint of somewhat offensive pity. “Both sides want a war and this is an excuse. But they signed a treaty for peace, right?”

“Did they?”

“Correct,” Kartania answered. “Ten years. And since I know you’ve been away for a while, sister, that gives us half that much time to prepare.”

“They’ll really hold to the treaty?” I asked.

“If I had to guess,” Seyari scooted closer, drawing her wings around all of us conspiratorially, “they’re only going to hold to the treaty because of the cost of the last war. It was quick, but it was bloody.

“So for now, they’ll act from the shadows. Use the discontent we saw festering in Gedon and fight unofficially.”

My gut twisted. “And then there’s Envy’s ‘war.’ They’ll feed on this. On the avarice and envy that are generated.”

“And on the fear of those who aren’t involved,” Kartania finished. “That’s why you need a plan.”

A breeze blew through Seyari’s feathers, and I vividly remembered a night in a small mountain town. Two teenage boys had hidden themselves in the inn to ambush me, thinking I’d taken their friend. Give them another couple of years…

“It’s going to be chaos,” I whispered. “Maybe not at first, but the paranoia—no one’s going to trust anyone. It’ll be knives in everyone’s backs.”

“Yep!” Seyari clapped me on the back and I pitched forward. “And after four or five years, there’s gonna be a real war on top of that.”

“Even worse… I think Envy’s planning something bigger. Why else would they be going south in search of something? Why else would the Black Claw assassins from Raavia who were after Taava be mixed up in all this? And…” I remembered a gray demon and a vile estate. “What of Astrodach? That Envy demon from Navanaea. They clearly had some plan—what if that’s related?”

“Shit,” Seyari swore. “We’ll have to hope Aretan knows what he’s doing. But… Lilly should be able to handle that.”

“But don’t you—”

Seyari jabbed a claw-tipped finger at me. “I don’t trust her as far as she can throw you. But I do trust that she looks out for herself, and she’s invested in the region. In keeping that war from escalating.”

“Black Claw? Navanaea? Lilly?” Kartania asked, holding onto my tail a little tighter. “I remember you mentioned Lilly being Lust to me a few times. Are demons involved in the war in Navanaea?”

“They are,” Seyari answered. 

“Of course they are.” Kartania groaned. “What of those assassins? Is Taava from Raavia?”

“She is…” I trailed off, unsure of how much to tell my sister. Taava wasn’t the type to want her past laid out. “Per Taava’s wishes, I can’t say why, but the assassins were after her and mixed up in the demon business in Lockmoth.”

“This is bad—not to point out the obvious.” Tania looked down at Joisse and turned her voice lower. “So the bad demons are planning something bigger than even the Empire of Ordia?”

I nodded. “And it looks like there’re gonna be two sides.”

“What about the other two Sovereigns?”

I shook my head. “Ov is neutral and Utraxia hates Lilly’s guts—some feud from a thousand years ago.”

“A thousand years…” Kartania massaged her forehead. “So it might be two on three?”

I nodded. “That’s why… if possible, I’d like the Church’s help.”

“What?” Seyari hissed.

Kartania chuckled darkly. “Did you miss that they want to kill you, now more than ever?”

I shook my head. “No. But I have two things other demons don’t.”

“A conscience?” Kartania asked.

I glanced pointedly at Joisse and then back up at my sister.

“...Point taken. So…?”

“One: I am the lesser of two evils.” I held up one finger.

“Okay, obvious, but that’s not going to work.”

I held up a second finger, on a different right hand. “Two: I am not weak to holy magic.” I hadn’t yet told Kartania, and I watched for her reaction almost eagerly. 

She disappointed me, but only barely as her lips drew into a thin, pale line. “What.” It wasn’t a question.

“After my vows with Seyari. Holy magic doesn’t burn me any more than other magic. And if I had to hazard a guess, Seyari can’t be changed by demonic magic.”

At that, Seyari cut in. “Wait. When did you think of that?”

I shrugged. “Just now.”

Seyari furrowed her brow and drew her wings back. She examined one hand carefully. “I’m not sure of a good way to test it, other than Joisse’s magic, but we still don’t know what that does.”

“I mentioned we practiced, right?” Kartania said. “Until she mana exhausted herself even after I told her not to.”

“She’s not used to her limits!” I defended my daughter immediately.

Kartania rolled her eyes. “Didn’t say she should be. Regardless, her magic, to the untrained eye, looks holy. So as long as she’s not near anyone trained and in human form, she could pass for a holy mage.”

“Unaffiliated with the Church of Dhias,” Seyari countered.

“I didn’t say it was great, but it’s something. Seyari, you need to test her magic and train her while Zarenna is away.”

“I know.”

“Good. But we’re getting sidetracked.” Kartania looked at me, then held out one callused hand. “Hand.”

I took it, wary of how small my sister was compared to me.

I shouldn’t have worried. A small lance of magic erupted from her hand through mine. It stung, sure, but only triggered a wince, and we watched together as the flesh knitted shut with freakish speed.

Kartania shook her head. “I am so, so glad you’re on the side of good.”

“Same,” I nodded.

Tania glared at me.

“What? I am!”

“No humor.” She withdrew her hand. “You’ll wake your daughter up.”

Sure enough, Joisse started to stir. We sat in silence for a minute until her breathing calmed again.

“And punching a hole through my hand was less agitating?” I hissed in a whisper. “That hand just grew back you know.”

“It needed a scar to match the others,” Seyari tutted.

“I don’t scar!”

“Too bad.” My wife sighed. “Scars are hot.”

“Please stay on topic,” my sister hissed. “Zarenna isn’t hurt by holy magic, her angel wife is a pariah of the Church but also incorruptible, and your daughter—who I am pretty damn sure is at least partly yours by blood after you took and returned her soul—has impossible magic that is both holy and demonic.

“You three are not just walking blasphemies, but proof against core pillars of Dhiasan magical theory. And Church doctrine. They. Will. Hate. You.”

“Or…” I leaned in toward her, over my daughter, and cupped two hands to keep my whisper quiet as I smiled with all my teeth. “Or we’ll be open proof that their doctrine isn’t a wholly accurate interpretation of Dhias’s will. And they’ll have to acknowledge us because of popular support.”

Kartania balked. “That’s insane.”

Seyari hugged me from behind, gently so as not to disturb Joisse, her voice soft and melodious. “That’s insane, Renna. I love it.”

“Would you support us, Sister?”

“Of course I will, but… but I don’t think you could possibly—”

“But if we do?”

“Then…” Kartania looked down at Joisse and her expression softened, her eyes dampening. “Then I will support you, yes. But you’d better make a damn good case. I don’t intend to leave the Church without a fight, and that may mean making some concessions for now.”

I nodded. “I understand. I trust you.”

Kartania’s jaw dropped open. After a moment, she clacked it shut with a soft laugh. “Of course you do, don’t you? You, a demon, trust me, a paranoid Paladin of Dhias, after years apart. And implicitly.”

“That’s what I said.” I smiled.

Kartania hissed. “If that was an attempt at a joke, your humor really is more terrible than your claws.”

“I know, right?”

“Kartania,” Seyari pleaded. “Stop encouraging her.”

“I’m not encouraging her!”

“Hmm?” Joisse mumbled, waking up.

Kartania swore under her breath. “Promise?” She held out a hand.

I took it in two of my own. “I promise.”

“I promise.” Kartania repeated, clasping her other hand over one of mine.

Before I could add a third hand or crack a joke, Joisse rubbed her eyes and yawned, sitting up. Her human form shifted, growing larger, and she hugged me with all four arms. “Warm… What’d I miss?”

“A talk about the fate of the world,” Sey answered..

“Oh.” Joisse yawned again, stretching all four arms before latching onto me again. “If that’s all.” I could hear her eyes roll. “Hey moms, can we spar sometime?”

I blinked down at my daughter, surprised.

“Oh good,” Seyari laughed. “And here I was thinking how oddly accepting she was being for a teenager. Kartania told us about your training earlier. When we get home to Astrye, I’ll really teach you. And I’ll have your mom Renna toss you into a mountain a few times when she gets home. That okay kiddo?”

“Don’t call me kiddo. But… that’s okay.” She abandoned the hug to lean back on the log and look up at the stars, now more visible through the clouds. “When do you think you’ll be back, Mom?”

“I’m not sure,” I answered honestly. “If I had to guess, I’d say probably one week? But things are never that easy. First thing I have to do is report to King Carvalon and do any other formal things I need to regarding my title as Marchioness. I imagine I’ll have to declare Seyari and you as well.”

“Wait… I hadn't really thought about it, but does that make me like a duke’s daughter?”

“More like a count’s daughter,” Seyari answered. “And even then… not quite. Marchioness isn’t typically an inherited title, and its de facto power is often a lot less than its de jure power. Especially if one controls a former crown holding with barely two thousand souls, little economy, and mountains separating it from the rest of the kingdom.”

“She’s right,” Kartania added. “Even if that’s a more Ordian look at things.”

Seyari huffed.

Joisse tilted her head to one side. “Will I get fancy dresses? We’re living in a castle right? Will there be tea parties, too?”

“I…” I thought about my answer for a second. Of course I wasn’t going to hide my daughter away. I just had to make sure that no one hurt her or her feelings or insulted her or implied anything bad about… maybe I was getting overprotective. “Yes. Yes you will and yes there will be. The fanciest I can make them! And for me and Seyari too!”

Joisse’s red eyes glittered, and I could almost see the daydreams starting behind them.

Seyari coughed. “Me? A dress?”

I smirked. “Don’t you want something backless?”

“I… well… I should be able to fight in it.”

“You’re getting a dress.”

“Okay, then I’m getting you a suit.”

“Sure!” I grinned. “What? Think I also couldn’t make a suit look fabulous?”

Seyari slammed a fist into her palm. “Oh, you’re on!”

Yesss.

Kartania coughed. “What else will you be doing in Linthel, sister?”

“Isn’t that… wait. I need to tell the Gelles Company about my title. I… I hope I don’t have to resign. Maybe I can get some sort of honorary rank or something?”

Kartania shrugged. “Mercenary companies are one area I don’t know. But most nobles have worse conflicts of interest. I don’t think the Gelles Company is anywhere in County Astrye anyway.

I shook my head. “They’re not. So two things in Linthel: King and Company.”

Kartania groaned. “Did you really have to say it like—”

“Oh! And I should also visit Bourick. Let him know I’m interested in getting a forge set up in Castle Astrye. I won’t have time to apprentice under him, but I could also borrow some books.”

“Speaking of books,” Seyari said, “could you pick up a book called ‘Sylvan Towers of Aloria’ from the library there? It shares a co-author with ‘The Voyage of the Crimson Petrel’ and now that we’ve a little time to live again, I’d love to read it.”

“Absolutely!” There’s that genuine smile again. I feel like I’m falling for her all over again.

“I didn’t say to make this a leisure trip!” Kartania hissed.

We glared at each other for a moment, then my sister’s features softened.

“Oh, to hell with it!” Tania started giggling. “If I’m going to be clearing snow with you for the next two days, I’d rather you were happy.”

“Me too!” I chirped.

“Then stop with the bad wordplay!”

“Maybe I will!”

“Don’t make it sound like a threat!”

My sister and I pretended to bicker a while longer before the conversation turned to mundane matters: tea parties and dresses and renovating a castle and probably-fantasy novels and forges and even a little magical theory.

It made me realize that my sister needed a hobby. Well, I had two days with just me and her before she left for who-knew-how-long, so hopefully I could find something. More than anything, I felt oddly hopeful.

Probably because none of us were alone anymore.