“Ow…” Gragya groaned, rubbing her cheek after being slapped. “What was that for?”

Hyi narrowed her eyes as she continued to walk down the cobblestone lane. “I saw you looking at those… women across the street.”

“So?” Gragya asked, hurrying after the currently irate elf.

“That’s not proper behaviour for someone out shopping with her wife,” Hyi said, her nose held high. 

“We’re not actually married,” Gragya countered, though she dropped to a whisper.

“Illyxa told me we have to stay in character. We don’t know where spies might be,” Hyi hissed sharply.

That explained it. Gragya’s face scrunched up in annoyance, aiming most of it at her cousin. They were going to be heading into Draconic League’s territories soon and probably trekking through the wilderness for weeks. Surely she wasn’t asking too much to be allowed one of the pleasures of civilization with a bit of spare coin? Hadn’t saving all of them from dying at the hands of a bone obsessed necromancer earned her a night of fun?

No, apparently that was too much to ask. And Hyi seemed too happy to enforce Illyxa’s rules.

Well, if Gragya couldn’t win, she could be annoying in defeat.

“Maybe my eyes wouldn’t wander if you brought more of this strict energy into the bedroom, dear,” she said, letting a grin spread across her face. “We could get an actual short leash to keep me on.”

Hyi managed to turn nearly incandescent with a blush despite her deep Elven complexion. “W—well I never!”

“Or we can focus on getting ingredients to make a proper goblin of our son. What was next on the list?” Gragya asked in a perfectly innocent tone.

Still flushed, Hyi pulled out the shopping list to hunt over Illyxa’s chicken scratch. It seemed the priestess was making an honest attempt to hide her face behind the scrap piece of parchment.

“Um… slow silver?” she finally mumbled behind the sheet. “We can probably get some over… there.”

They walked together in relative silence, heading into the shop under a somewhat awkward ceasefire. It was only after leaving the shop that Hyi spoke up to give Gragya another piece of her mind.

“I really must wonder why you act like a Human or Halflet teenager, though,” she muttered.

“Well, technically I am a teenager,” Gragya replied in a quiet voice, causing Hyi to stumble to a halt.

“Pardon?” the elven priestess hissed in a whisper.

“I’m 19 years of age,” Gragya said. “So, still in the ‘teens’. Though Orcs and Goblins both reach adulthood at about 15 or 16, so I’m firmly past that myself.”

“An… at 15? One and then five?” Hyi asked in a barely audible voice.

“Yeah?” Gragya replied.

“An Elf is not considered an adult until they are fifty,” Hyi said, blinking slowly.

“I’ve heard,” Gragya replied with a small shrug. “Goblins are lucky if we live to be fifty, so it would be nonsense for us to make that adulthood.”

“Lucky to…” Hyi began, before her eyes seemed to tear up. “I knew your lived short lives, but…how could the gods let a whole people die while still effectively children?”

“They don’t really care about us much,” Gragya said. “Anyway, what’s next on the shopping list?”

---

Pin paled as he stared at the bubbling concoction forming in Illyxa’s small cauldron. She’d been mixing ingredients for almost an hour and it had only seemed to become more and more questionable to ingest.

“You’re sure you’re doing this right?” he asked.

“Pretty sure,” Illyxa replied, tossing a dried lizard in. “Potions aren’t really my specialty, but I am something of a magical prodigy, so it’s probably all good.”

The Halflet’s eye twitched and he turned to his girlfriend for support. She gave a weak shrug.

“It should be safe… right?” N’ratha said, giving Illyxa a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, yeah. Probably. Almost definitely,” Illyxa muttered, stirring the cauldron. “I made one before and it went alright. That was going a different direction, but it’s basically the same.”

She wasn’t really paying attention to the grumblings, though. Potions not being her specialty, she did actually need to focus on what she was doing. Timing was important, and it all took so much longer than evocation magic.

Then there was the fact that she needed to pick a bit of her hair to snip off without making her hairstyle look weird. That was, perhaps, more difficult than the potion itself, but she managed.

Not that anyone else could tell, her hair looking like a messy bit of chaos to them.

Dropping the few small hairs into the burbling viscous fluid, the whole thing changed colours, shifting suddenly from an oily brown rainbow to a green that matched Illyxa’s own skin tone.

“There we go. It’s ready,” she announced with a flourish.

Pin, N’ratha, and Hyi all stared down at the cauldron, looking rather less than thrilled. Fuan continued to pout in a corner, while Gragya seemed to either be meditating or spacing out. Potion making took too long for her patience.

“Well, it stopped moving like it’s alive?” Hyi offered softly, after the trio had watched the potion for a few tense moments.

N’ratha gave a mildly agreable shrug in response to that.

“I have to drink all of that?” Pin asked.

“Oh. No,” Illyxa replied. “Only a few mouthfuls. Fair warning that it tastes awful, though. Like all transformation potions.”

“Why did you make so much then?” Fuan asked, sitting quietly in a chair across the room, acting aloof to everything.

“It’s easier to balance the ratios of ingredients when it’s a larger batch… also, you and Hyi can have some if you’d like,” Illyxa replied, before sticking her tongue out at him with a bratty ‘nyeh’.

“I am fine,” Fuan muttered.

“M—me too,” Hyi mumbled.

Pin, still staring at the potion, gave a small nod. “Um, could I drink it in private?”

“Hm?” Illyxa asked.

“Well, in case I react poorly to becoming a goblin. I might say things about the new form that could be unpleasant to goblin ears,” Pin replied. “Turning into another people must be rather awkward.”

“Ah, yeah. It’s weird,” Illyxa muttered, remembering her limited experience with it. “I probably said some stuff no E—that shouldn’t be repeated. Go ahead and try it in the other room. Might need to change your clothes, to. Hard to guess if you’ll change height much or not going from Halflet to Goblin.”

Pin nodded and carefully picked up the cauldron. It was clearly heavier than he expected, but once he knew what to expect he was able to handle it. He then awkwardly hurried across the hallway into his room in the inn, being careful not to spill any of the potion.

With nothing better to do while they waited, Illyxa gathered up the ingredients to jam into her magical bag. There was no sense in letting any of the leftovers go to waste, after all.

When a couple more minutes passed without Pin returning, N’rath got up to go check on him. Gragya had been ready to also go, but N’ratha waved her off. It was then a few more minutes before N’ratha and Pin returned. Neither of them explained the delay, which annoyed Illyxa.

Transforming into a Goblin had been good to him. In Illyxa’s opinion he’d become even more adorable, now with pointy ears and the improvement of green skin. His hair was still pink, though, which was rare for a Goblin. Not unheard of, though. 

What she was left muttering to herself was how unfair it was. A guy getting to be born that cute when she, the magnificent and thoroughly full of feminine charm sorceress that she was, had—well, that was in the past. Magic had fixed that issue. But still… girls mistaken for boys at birth deserved to be that cute more than some guy.

“Not having a tail feels so wrong,” Pin said, his voice sounding rougher but still about as cute as ever. “And my teeth are so sharp now…”

“Mhm. Good for biting,” Illyxa replied, hopping up to her feet. “With that done, Fuan, I believe you wanted to go meet our potential captain, didn’t you?”

“Reluctantly, yes,” he said, rising to his feet with not quite the impossible grace of an elf, but still something close to it.

She gave Pin one last reminder that he just looked like a Goblin right now, so shouldn’t do anything foolish. Then she, Fuan, and Gragya set off. 

Gragya was coming along because Illyxa wasn’t ready to take Fuan into a rough part of town with just herself as support. Sure, she could defend him on her own, but only by turning to spells with the level of destruction that town militias rarely liked. So, it made sense to bring Gragya along and let her punch people. City authorities didn’t really care about brawling nearly as much as they cared about having half a district burn down. So Gragya came along, even if it risked their cover a little. 

Plus, there was no reason they couldn’t claim to have made friends with one of the other guests at the largely empty inn, so it really wasn’t that big a risk.

Once more, the walk was fairly short, the town being cramped and overcrowded. And, really, a tinderbox ready to burn down even if Illyxa didn’t help make it happen. She supposed that wet soil and sitting in a river delta had filled the locals with undue hubris as to their invincibility to fire. It made her fingers itch, as if the fire god Arazo were whispering to her, asking her to remind them of their place.

The idea that a god was trying to get her to burn anything was, as usual, the best way to contain her pyromaniacal urges. She refused to cooperate with any god. At least other than Glorz, who seemed decent.

The argument against her urges worked long enough to get back to the tavern, and to sit down at one of the empty tables. Gragya waved down a waitress to order some mead… and flirt. Because of course she flirted. Fuan ordered a glass of wine for himself. Only to complain about it when it arrived.

“I don’t know why you expected good wine at a tavern like this,” Illyxa muttered, though she couldn’t help but smile at the look of disgust on Fuan’s face.

He really had grown to be someone she enjoyed watching suffer mild inconveniences.

Before it turned into an argument, though, the Draconic Captain arrived, strolling over to take the empty seat at the table.

“Brought the muscle and the purse, did we?” she said, wearing a smug smile.

“The money wanted to meet you, and the muscle is here to keep him safe,” Illyxa replied, doing her best to give off confidence to equal the Dragon’s.

Which was not easy, since Dragons did have centuries to cultivate their egos. Still, Illyxa was a prodigy on many fronts and felt she was doing a decent job of it.

“I just want to make sure I can trust our new captain before I get on the boat,” Fuan replied, glaring at the captain.

“Understood. Understood,” the dragon said, wearing a casual expression, unshaken by Fuan’s icy stare. 

Which increased Illyxa’s suspicion she was a white dragon, rather than silver. Not substantially, but just a slight nudge in that direction.

“What do you want to hear to feel you can trust me?” she asked.

“I would like to know what connections you might have to officials within the Draconic League,” Fuan replied.

The captain shrugged. “None… I was barely able to get the commission for my ship, after having my licence to sail suspended for a few decades back due to some minor smuggling. I have friends with money who helped me get back among the waves, but those friends aren’t in politics. Still, with a war on it’s hard to find sailors for cargo shipments, so the politicians gave in.”

Fuan made a face, but seemed at least vaguely convinced. Probably the best Illyxa could hope for from an Elf where Dragons were concerned.

“I am curious what guarantees I have that you lot aren’t spies, though,” the dragon said.

“She’s Illyxa the Inferno,” Gragya said, pointing to her small cousin. “You’ve heard of her, right?”

“Vaguely heard the name. Blew up a few Elven towns from what I’ve heard…”

“More burned down than blew up… not that I couldn’t blow them up, but I usually wasn’t looking to start a fight. Just to get out of a pickle with some slightly overly determined librarians,” Illyxa said. “I can promise you that if the Elves try any funny business I’ll lob a fireball at them myself.”

Fuan’s eyes whipped around to glare at her now. “You wouldn’t get the rest of your pay then.”

“If you’re trying funny business I’d have reason to expect I wasn’t going to get the rest of my pay anyway,” Illyxa countered.

“You two really don’t get along, do you?” the captain asked, raising an eyebrow.

“She’s a bodyguard. Hired for her abilities. Not her personality,” Fuan grumbled.

“And I’m working for him for a paycheque, not out of sharing a common goal,” Illyxa added.

“Well, in that case, when you finish up with your babysitting, you might want to stay on the Draconic side of the front. We do pay our mercenaries very well,” the captain said.

“I’ll think about it,” Illyxa replied, gaining a new horrified look from Fuan.

“Now, before we move on to working out specific details of the voyage, were there any more questions you all might have about which side I might be swinging for?” the captain asked.

Gragya began raising her hand, only to be glared at by Illyxa. The Gorc then slowly lowered her hand, a wave of disappointment on her face.

Her hope was rekindled slightly by the wink the captain gave her, however. Though the conversation then moved on to logistical specifics which she clearly began to tune out. 

The captain, who’s name turned out to be H’jan, was sailing in two days. After some haggling over prices (and willingness to help fend off sea monsters), she agreed to let them have a small cabin on her ship, and would carry them past her first two ports of call, getting them at least half way to the Moon Goddess’ palace. Unless their pockets got a great deal deeper during the voyage that was as far as she would take them.

Everything sorted out, the two parties split up to head their separate ways. It was another walk back through the narrow streets of the port town, the crowds now thinner but drunker. Someone tried to grab Gragya’s coin purse and got a broken hand for their trouble when she stopped them, but that was visiting civilization for you. 

All in all, though, the night had gone better than expected. Their plan seemed like it was finally going to hit smooth sailing and they’d be making progress towards the Moon Palace once again.

Reaching the block with their inn, however, the hairs on the back of Illyxa’s neck stood up. Gragyla likewise froze, both looking around.

The crowd had thinned out at some point.

Illyxa had just had to feel a moment of optimism in a world that hated goblins, hadn’t she? What was the universe throwing in their path now?

A glint of metal caught Illyxa’s eye, and she turned to see a crossbow poking out of a window across the lane. She started to raise her hand to summon a fireball. And, with that, every window on the street burst open, dozens of crossbowmen in militia uniforms appearing.

Similar numbers of spearmen poured out of the alleyways around them, shields raised and spears pointed at the trio.

“Can we take them?” Fuan whispered.

“That depends on if they have Hyi as a hostage or not,” Illyxa hissed back.

The door to the Inn then opened, a man in full plate armour and a full lined coat strolling out. “There you are: the stragglers.”

“Oh. Great,” Illyxa muttered.

The armoured man, clearly half golden dragon and likely half elf, flashed them a large and sharp toothed smile. “You were smart to try to hide who you were travelling with, but I have ears everywhere. The innkeepers noticed how chummy your two groups were, and let the authorities know someone resembling the most wanted duo had arrived. Now it is time for you to face justice for trying to sneak what is mine right under my nose.”

Illyxa was weighing her options when the Prince stepped aside and Hyi was shoved out by another armoured half dragon. Two more half dragons followed, pulling the still Goblinified Pin as well as N’ratha with them.

Illyxa let out a quiet sigh and held her wrists out to be chained. Now was not the time to fight.

Not yet.