“Another Caledonia.” Azade said with a hint of awe to her voice, “That’s quite extraordinary.”

Elaina had told them where she was from, about how her sister’s double from this world had come through the faen and found her somewhere on the other side. She told them how she rescued her from a family that abused and belittled her for what she was. Though she hadn’t detailed the lengths of the abuse, it seemed as though they had understood enough based on what little she had given them. They had all taken up seats around the office. Rashuk remaining at the desk, looking on in disbelief, having heard the tale for himself as well. She’d tried to keep it primarily to the broad strokes, but there had been certain things along the way that she’d needed to clarify.

“So that’s why you have that hint of a Caledonian accent, but you don’t really act like the Caledonians we know here.” Anisha nodded, “Without the Elvish influence, the realm didn’t develop a more liberated attitude toward things.”

Elaina nodded, “The Rhilan Empire didn’t have the same impact on my world as it did on this one. Anywhere that had received a great deal of that influence didn’t get as much there, except for perhaps Orpeva.”

“I had no idea that the Faen connected to other worlds in such a way.” Anisha mused, “I can’t recall reading of any other occurrence like this anywhere. It must be an incredibly rare phenomenon.”

“Well, if it happened to me, I wouldn’t tell anyone.” Rashuk piped up from his chair behind the desk, causing all eyes to shift and rest on him. He hadn’t said anything for the whole tale, “Think of the trade opportunities. A world where certain goods and cultures don’t exist, but you still know most of how the land is laid out. You could have the whole of it to yourself using a single gateway and corner any given market of your choice. You just have to keep a secret to do it.”

Elaina quirked a brow at how apt of an observation it was. Of course, it wouldn’t be easy to run a business through such a thing and keep all of your employees quiet on the matter, but the general principle was the same. There was a lot to be gained from merely not sharing the information you had with anyone, using it entirely for self-gain. Locating lost relics, plundering tombs, and producing near-flawless cultural artifacts from ‘dead’ societies that were still alive and flourishing on the other side of the gate. Rashuk was shrewd when he wanted to be, it seemed.

“So your family,” Azade inquired, “the Woodlocks. They’re established here in our Caledonia as well?”

Elaina nodded, “Yes, but I don’t have a double here. What should have been my double died in childbirth. So only my sister exists in both worlds. Instead of dying, I survived with a curse.”

“What curse is that?” Rashuk asked curiously, “You haven’t really specified.”

All three women looked at him once again but said nothing, his eyes darted between them, and he sank back into his chair. It was clear that the people who needed to know already did. He wasn’t one of those people who needed to know.

“Have they accepted you into the family?” Azade asked, turning her attention back to Elaina once more.

“Sort of,” Elaina shrugged, “They’ve had the situation explained to them by my sister, and they’ve been generous with me. But they haven’t formally accepted me as a member of the family here. They’ve not been cold toward me in the least, but I don’t think they know what to do, giving such a position and responsibility to someone they don’t really know like one of their own. My sister Kaethe can’t inherit anything now, though, so they’re going to be stuck with me. I’d just rather they feel better about it, is all.”

“What about the other world?” Anisha leaned forward in her chair, “Are you ever going to go back?”

Elaina shook her head, “I don’t think so. There’s nothing for me there with my old family, and besides that, the rest of that world’s history seems to be darker than this one’s. Hard as that may be to believe.”

“How do you mean?” Azade tilted her head to one side inquisitively.

“The Imperium is larger with more provinces than it ever had here. The power structure of it is more corrupt, and they’re at constant war with the Damsarlian Empire.”

“Empire?” Anisha scoffed.

“Damsarlia has expanded well beyond its borders there. Caledonia isn’t a part of it, but it is still essentially a vassal state to it. Winder’Lae was overrun a long time ago. The wars have left a lot of the country ravaged and destroyed, similar to the wild magic zones here from the Faction War but on a considerably larger scale.”

Azade nodded a little in understanding. Elaina spread her hands, “It holds nothing for me there. Even if I could manage to keep my secret and stay out of the slave pens of one realm or another, I’d be pressed into some other form of service I didn’t want to do. Here I have at least a small choice.”

“Your sister is still with the vampire queen?” Anisha asked.

“Yes, they’re rather close. I think the Queen has even made her a proper consort.” Elaina thought back on Kaethe and the Queen. They looked rather good together, just as beautiful as Azade and Anisha did but with an overall tone that was decidedly darker.

“Strange, I’d heard that Obsidian Morrigan was bedding the Queen Kalysta of Winder’Lae.” Azade mused.

“That’s just a rumor.” Rashuk waved dismissively, “Queen’s fornicating like that would be bad enough, but for it to be with the Queen of the Vampires who is supposed to keep herself removed from mortal politics and power games would be an absolute scandal.”

Elaina’s brows knitted together, “Doesn’t Queen Kalysta have multiple consorts, though?”

“Yes.” Rashuk answered, “But they’re her husbands and her wives. Everything is done legally and for the purposes of binding realms together and the like. But you cannot bind a mortal realm to that of the vampires. It runs counter to Drak’s law. You should know this.”

Elaina pursed her lips a bit at being corrected by the man, but it was true; she should have known this. In the time she’d spent at the vampire court, it must have been something she had overlooked or turned a blind eye to, “The vampires of my world don’t really care about that sort of thing. They rule over anyone they can get away with, wherever they can.”

“We had one like that here for a little while.” Anisha said, “Sorin the Black. Broke from the main vampire hierarchy to rule the realm of Tenebre Dontae to the south.”

“I’ve read a little about him,” Elaina said vaguely. Only snippets of information about the Vampire had been available to her in the archives. She imagined if he had been a problem for the Queen as a Vampire Lord, a great deal of the information on him had been held in the restricted sections where she could not go. Elaina’s eyes fell on Azade, who seemed to be watching her thoughtfully, though she couldn’t tell at all what it was that was going through the beautiful woman’s mind.

“So that’s the broad strokes of everything as it regards myself,” Elaina started, “But you’ve still to tell me much about you, where we’re going, or who your mistress is.”

Rashuk edged forward a little now that Elaina had put the question to them, evidently as in the dark as Elaina was on the details. Anisha shifted as well, looking over at Azade, letting her handle the question. This subtle deferment only reinforced the concept Elaina had of Azade “outranking” Anisha in whatever hierarchy they were a part of.

“I can’t.” Azade admitted, glancing over at Rashuk severely before letting her eyes soften for Elaina, “If but I could, I would. We are under rather strict orders not to reveal too much about where we’re from or what it is we do. There is plenty of people, as you know now, who would use that information to hurt our Mistress or us.”

Elaina couldn’t help but look a little offended even as Rashuk shrank back once again, as disappointed as she was with Azade’s rebuff. Azade’s brows furrowed as she set a hand gently on the redhead’s arm, “It’s not that I don’t trust you with the information. It’s just that it is not mine to give. If you wish to ask on the matter, you can speak with our mistress when we get to Mossglade. It’s a question of loyalty, you see?”

Anisha’s body language relaxed visibly as Elaina nodded in understanding. The awkward moment passing just as quickly as it had arrived. Elaina knew that if the two were in service to someone else they had sworn an oath to, they could not break it. Considering what little chaos and violence had resulted in the Orbonne Company with the information being as limited as it was, it seemed reasonable.

The alchemist stood and stretched, “Well, now that story time is over, we should set up our watches, beds, and so on so we can settle in until tomorrow morning.”

It was only barely lunchtime, but Anisha was right. The sooner they got things set up, the better. The big hole in the front of the store was a prominent entry place, but they needed to determine all others that could be easily accessed. It was decided between them that the window should be boarded up to look like a mishap and not arouse too much suspicion. Rashuk and Elaina undertook the task of boarding it up and had it done with relative ease. The other two searched the warehouse for different entry points and determined that there wasn’t much choice other than to come through one of the large windows or the front door with the main loading doors down and locked as they were. The windows would alert them quickly if someone came through one of them; as they didn’t open enough for a person to slink through the opening, they’d have to come crashing through the glass. The front door would be the most likely entry point, except that someone would have to be on the side street in the open while picking the lock.

“So let’s not lock it.” Elaina suggested, which seemed to offend Rashuk, “If we leave a single point of entry easy to get through, there’s no reason they should look anywhere else. We use it as a sort of bottleneck so that we don’t have to imagine every other thing that could go wrong in the rest of the warehouse.”

Rashuk’s panic eased a little, realizing what it was she was going for with this plan. Azade pursed her lips and bobbed her head from side to side, “I don’t hate it,” she admitted.

“We keep Mr. Rashuk and whoever is sleeping down in the office, and one or two of us remain here guarding, just behind the counter there.” Elaina pointed as she stepped over to the front door, “From here, you wouldn’t see anyone when you came in, but the person down behind the counter would certainly hear when someone came in and be able to get the drop on when they moved to the back door.”

Azade seemed to like the idea the more Elaina spoke on it, “I think you’re right. It’s a simple and straightforward approach. If they think all they’re dealing with is a merchant, they have no reason to think it’s more complicated than that. Being able to simply open the front door helps them get in and get out quickly.”

Anisha glanced behind the counter, “We’ll lay out a bedroll or something, so we’re not just sitting on the bare floor all night.”

“I’ll take the first watch,” Azade volunteered, “I usually stay up fairly late as it is, so it won’t be a problem for me.”

“I’ll take the last if that’s alright,” Anisha jumped in, “With how early I get up normally, I’ll just end up waking around that time anyway. I’d rather not lose sleep if I can help it.”

“Then that leaves me with second,” Elaina agreed, “So then it’s set. Now all that’s left is to get something to eat and settle in to wait.”

Elaina woke in the night to the sound of the crackling fire in the stove. Her eyes wandered sleepily around the room, temporarily forgetting where she was and taking a moment or two to remember. Anisha was sleeping on the couch while Rashuk was lightly snoring in one of the overstuffed chairs. Elaina had just rolled her own bedroll out on the floor and slept there near the fire. She yawned as she sat up and let the sleep slowly drain out of her. She didn’t know how much longer there was until her watch, but she figured there was no sense in going back to sleep. Rising from her bedroll, she fed another log into the stove to keep the cramped office warm and began to put her armor back on, having elected to not try to sleep in it when they had three watches set up so neatly.

As she was tightening the last of the straps, Anisha rolled over and opened one eye to look at her, “Is it my turn already?”

“No, not yet. Just getting ready for mine,” Elaina whispered back, “Go back to sleep.”

Anisha was sound asleep before Elaina reached the door. She unlocked it and stepped out with a turn of the latch, closing it quietly behind her. She made her way up the stairs to the storefront entrance and found Azade behind the counter sitting quietly, spinning an arrow around in little circles in an attempt to alleviate the boredom. When Azade saw her enter, she motioned for her to join her behind the counter.

“You still have about half an hour, I think,” Azade whispered as the swordswoman scooted in behind the counter beside her.

Elaina waved a hand, dismissively, “It’s alright. A half-hour isn’t going to make a bit of difference.”

Azade put the arrow back in its quiver and smiled, “So have you come to relieve me?”

Elaina regarded Azade quietly for a moment, “Depends on how you mean. If you mean how you relieved Anisha earlier, probably not.”

The archer pushed strands of dark hair from her face with a little bit of a pretend pout, “Aw, what a shame. I thought we could have some time alone.”

Elaina smirked, fighting the urge to laugh. As frivolous as the flirting was, it made her feel good to know that someone wanted to have time alone with her. Even if it was just in the hopes of wrapping their legs around her. It was a warmth she’d not experienced with anyone other than Kaethe, who’d been kind and warm with her from the start despite being a vampire.

“Not this time,” Elaina whispered, “I’d hate for some assassin to come in with me, hilt deep inside of you with no way to defend us.”

Azade grinned widely now, the lustful mischief in her eyes growing as she scooted a little closer to Elaina, “That’s why I’ll be on top. To keep a lookout.”

“No, we’re not doing that.” Elaina warned though it was hard not to sound playful about it when she spoke, “You need to get some sleep, and I need to remain alert.”

Azade’s red eyes gleamed with satisfaction, “You’re right. But it’s still good to get a rise out of you; your face gets pink when you get flustered.”

“I’m not ‘flustered,’” Elaina argued.

Azade’s hand went to the redhead's thigh to give a squeeze and move upward. Elaina clapped a hand down onto her wrist reflexively, and Azade’s grin remained, “Flustered,” she repeated.

“How long have you been with your Mistress?” Elaina asked, “Because this sort of behavior seems to come really naturally to you.”

Azade shrugged a shoulder girlishly, “I guess it sort of does, doesn’t it? But I don’t know if I’d be so open about it with people were it not for Myanna. It’s a different way of looking at things for sure, but I’ve become very accustomed to it.”

“You won’t get in trouble for telling me that?”

“No, not about that anyway.” Azade said approvingly, “That’s very considerate of you.”

“Oaths are important. Loyalty is important. I understand that. It’s something that was in short supply where I was from, so I take it seriously.”

“You’re a good woman, Elaina Woodlock,” Azade said as she leaned over and planted a tender kiss on her cheek, “Don’t fall asleep.”

Azade moved up to a crouch and slinked her way out through the back door as Elaina took a long moment to appreciate the way she moved and the way she was shaped, even after she was gone. The silence grew in her absence, and it even felt colder. Elaina shifted to where Azade sat when she’d entered and drew her sword from its scabbard, setting it beside her. If she had to surprise an assailant, she didn’t want to alert him by drawing her weapon.