Isabel Albright stood off to the side of the family as they all went through the process of selecting classes and professions, guided by a talking sword and in the presence of a hairy green elephant her little brother had immediately named "Harry."

Because of course he had.

Luc was perched on the elephant's back right now, right where the big head attached to the barrel-shaped body, resting his elbows on the pachyderm's head and kicking his heels in the air behind him like he didn't have a care in the world. The kid was grinning ear to ear, and the grin got bigger as the elephant occasionally reached up and gave him a nudge in the side with its trunk. They had become, apparently, fast and firm friends. And Isabel would be lying if the sight–once she got past the whole 'green hairy elephant' strangeness, anyway–didn't warm her big sister's heart just a little bit.

Not that she'd ever tell him that, of course, She had to adhere to the Big Sister's Code, after all.

She fought down a grin and looked around the clearing at the rest of the family. Mom and Dad were sitting close together on the log they shared, and her sharp eyes didn't miss the fact that they were holding hands. They'd been doing that a lot since she woke up. It was good to see. She was still cautious, of course. They'd spent years fucking each other up, and she didn't believe for a second that a couple days on Fantasy Island and a quick little fight to the death was enough to do more than just paper over all the problems they'd had.

But… It still felt good, seeing them together like that. She let it warm her heart just a bit. Just a tiny bit. Because while she was still suspicious… Maybe they really were on the mend. And if they were, then she was going to sing the praises of this stupid island to the heavens, to hell with whether it had toilets or not.

And speaking of suspicious… Isabel's eyes fell on Toraline, the magical talking sword that just happened to show up right when they needed it. Like everything else on this stupid island, it was spinning a tale of woe and confusion. She'd been a fairy once? And had helped some dude who called himself Caesar and sounded an awful lot like some kind of conquering tyrant from the Bad Old Days. Which made her automatically sus in Isabel's eyes.

The others were going along with what the sword-fairy-thing was saying, and so far its advice seemed pretty helpful–elephant not withstanding. It had just finished showing them how to bring up a list of possible choices, similar to the Hall Of Doors except for classes and professions. And instead of halls and doors, the visualization the sword had them bring up was an orchard filled with fruit trees. The professions were berry bushes, the classes were apple and orange trees and stuff. And when you ate the fruit of a specific tree, you got that class.

It was still weird, but it seemed to be working.

"Your Calling is primarily defense-based," the sword was saying to Dad. "But the bulk of its abilities only function upon land claimed and conquered by the Empire. And while Consul Alejandra has the ability to claim and conquer unclaimed land instantly, any land that has been claimed by other empires or entities will be unable to be claimed in that manner until a battle of conquest has been completed.

"I have been seeking a class that may rectify some of the problem, and I believe I have found one. Concentrate on the name 'standard bearer'. It is intended as a support class, with a minor healing ability, a buffing power you may utilize on allies, but it is the third ability that makes it useful to you."

"I see it," Dad said with his eyes closed. "[Raise The Banner], right? It says while active it lets me designate an area around me equal to my rank times thirty feet as 'claimed territory'."

Isabel tuned them out and let her eyes wander some more. Olivia had her eyes closed and her tongue poking out between her teeth like she always did when she was concentrating on something. Probably trying to find that fireball class she was so hyped about. Pshyeah, right. Like Mom and Dad would really let Liv have a fireball class. That would be like giving an uzi to a kitten and telling it to not pull the magic trigger that makes catnip come out the barrel.

Luc was laying belly-down on Harry, kicking his feet and watching the rest of the family while humming to himself. The kids as kinda cute up there, even she had to admit. And it was good that he had some real backup now if something went pear-shaped and the rest of the family wasn't around. She didn't know anything about elephants, but the way Harry was clearly protective of Lucas gave her a warm feeling that she would deny ever having. Also those tusks. Holy hell they were longer than her arm and looked like they could punch straight through steel if Harry got it in his head to do so.

Mom had her eyes closed too, and was probably doing the same thing that Olivia was, just, y'know, better and quieter and with less wiggling.

Isabel let her eyes linger on Mom for a moment. She'd never really gotten what it must have been like for her over in the war. Not really. Oh she'd seen the TV news reports like everyone else, but it never really communicated what it was like.

Now she was kinda getting it. She'd fought. She'd killed. Yeah sure they'd just been bug things, but like… They'd been bug things that had been intent on killing Isabel and all her family, and dear god she'd gotten so pissed at that. And she'd taken some hits, and it had hurt, and then she'd ground the motherfuckers into paste and pissed on their corpses.

She took a deep breath and forced that little simmering ball of rage back down. She hadn't told the others about it. She'd been a little worried when it hadn't gone all the way away after the battle, and she was still a little worried about it, truth be told. It was just a little glowing ball of warmth deep in her belly, like an oven or a stove or something, and it was always there even when she had been drifting off to sleep. She was pretty sure it was something that came with her Berserker class, because it had kinda shown up after she'd exploded like that.

So far it hadn't done anything detrimental that she'd noticed… Aside from the little flashes of anger like that one she'd just pushed down. And even that hadn't done much more than pushed her heart rate up a couple notches. Still, she was keeping an eye on it.

But now she knew a bit more about what Mom must have gone through over there. And maybe understood a bit more why she had been such a bitch when she'd come back. It didn't really excuse her, but… Well, Isabel guessed that it made things a bit more understandable.

Isabel kept her eyes moving until they fell on the last member of their little family. And the newest. Dinah stood off to the side, leaning up against one of Billy's trunks a little ways removed from everyone else. Her eyes were open and staring out at nothing, her arms crossed across her chest, and her posture was…

Oh.

Isabel sighed. Well, it kinda made sense, didn't it? She didn't know much about her sister's friend, but she knew that she'd moved here with her mom from back east. But not East east. She was from the south somewhere back east. Alabama or Kentucky or something like that. And now she was here with them.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Well. Everyone else was busy and not seeing it. Might as well go do her good deed for the day. She moved around the edge of the campfire and made her way over to where the younger girl was leaning against the tree. She must have been really lost in her thoughts, because she didn't even react until Isabel was beside her.

"Hey," Isabel said quietly, and Dinah gave a sudden jerk that reminded her of an animal startled into fight-or-flight mode. "How you holding up?"

Dinah blinked up at her like an owl that just got hit in the face with a flashlight beam.

"Um, I'm fine," she said. "I'm just… Thinking."

"Yeah, I get that," Isabel said, crossing her arms and leaning against the same trunk, not looking directly at Dinah. "Been a crazy few days, huh?"

"Yeah," the girl's word was a bare whisper. Isabel closed her eyes and breathed deep in through her nose. Jeez, why did she have to be the one to notice? Why couldn't it have been Dad? He was good at this mushy stuff.

"You did good back there," she said after a second. "That shot that took that ball thing out? Standing up to the Mantises? It was really impressive."

Dinah didn't say anything, but a corner of her mouth twitched up.

For a second Isabel considered just washing her hands of it and going back to banging on the rock wall in the Hall Of Doors. It would probably have been a more productive use of her time.

"Where'd you learn to shoot like that?" she asked instead.

"My p–My dad taught me," Dinah said after a second, and Isabel caught the little twitch when she caught herself. "Back h–Back where I grew up."

Isabel nodded slowly, eyeing the smaller girl out of the corner of her eye. Hoo boy. Yeah, she recognized that. Mainly because Like Recognizes Like, of course, but still…

Running down a hallway, desperate to not be seen, desperate to just be another face in the crowd, not a freak, not an outcast, just another girl in a school where no one would point and laugh at you.

The little ball of rage in her belly flared, warmth surging up her core as the memories came back. This time though the warmth continued straight up into her brain and wrapped around those memories, and crushed. She blinked as the pain from old memories suddenly faded in the face of that anger, and she took in a deep breath. Well. That was an interesting coping mechanism. She'd have to explore that later. Right now though…

She looked back down at Dinah. The girl was hunching, drawing herself into a little space all of her own and not looking at anyone. Isabel sighed again.

"They won't care, you know," she said quietly.

Dinah's blue eyes snapped open and shot up to lock with Isabel's gaze. For all the practice the girl had at hiding, she was shit at covering it when someone called her on it. Naked fear and pain shone on her face like a spotlight on a stormy day.

Okay, maybe I could have phrased that better.

"W-what?" the girl stammered. "I d-don't know what you're–"

Isabel cut her off gently with a raised hand.

"They won't care if you show them what you're hiding, I mean," she clarified. "It's who they are. Who we are. We're fucked up in a lot of ways, don't get me wrong, but one of the things every single one of us grew up with, we were always free to be who we were around each other. That goes for me, Liv, Luc… Heck, even Mom and Dad. We really do practice what our faith preaches. No judgement, no fear of rejection…" she trailed off as more memories came back. She'd just wanted to fit in. That had been all. Just to be normal. But…

She shoved the memories away.

"Listen," she said, bending down so she and the other girl were on eye level. "I dunno what's going on in your head right now, but take it from someone who's really good at hiding stuff, I know there's something you're keeping hid. And I can tell it's something you don't want to keep hid. And it's probably because you're afraid of what they're gonna think of you if you ever let it out, right?"

Mute, eyes wide, pupils dilated, breath coming fast, Dinah managed a single nod.

"Then you're worrying for nothing." Isabel smiled and put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "My family has issues. What family doesn't? But I'm being honest right now when I say I have never met a more accepting group of idiots in my entire life. Heck, Dad will probably pee himself in excitement that he gets to mother-hen another kid." she paused for a second, then wrinkled her nose. "Pee himself again, even," she added with a smirk.

That did the trick. Dinah let out a gasping little laugh that shook her smaller frame, then sucked in a great lungful of air and let it out in a whoosh.

"Do you really think so?" the question was so quiet Isabel could have missed it in a light breeze.

"I do," she said, giving the girl an encouraging squeeze on the shoulder. "I'm not saying you have to just vomit it all out at once… I get it. It's tough. There's a lot that goes on up here sometimes," she said, tapping her own thick skull. "But like, when you're ready? Yeah, the one thing you don't have to worry about is them thinking you're weird or wrong or evil or whatever.

"Well," she added, wrinkling her nose again. "You don't have to worry about them thinking you're wrong or evil. Weird is still on the table."

She glanced over to where her brother was now hanging from one of Harry's tusks like it was a jungle gym.

"Weird is very much still on the table."

She looked away and down at Dinah, who had moved from raw fear to guarded consideration in the facial expressions department. "Take your time, think it over, come out when you decide to. They'll be cool with it, I promise."

Dinah nodded distractedly, then glanced up at Isabel and offered a shy smile.

"Thank you," she said in that same quiet voice.

"Hey, sisters gotta stick together, right?" Isabel grinned and offered her fist to bump. Dinah stared at it for a long second, then smiled again and reached out to bump it finally.

It was a good, solid bump. The kid was gonna be okay.

She moved away and waited a few seconds, turning back to the rest of the family to re-orient herself as to what she might have missed. Then she grinned and clapped her hands. Dinah was gonna be okay. It was time to shift gears.

"Okay, time for me to get in on this. Hey Swordy, help a girl choose a profession, will ya? I'm thinking something crafty, maybe like a stone mason or something? I've always wanted to give sculpting a try!"

"Sculpting?" Lucas asked from atop his new elephant. "Why Sculpting, Bel?"

An image flashed through her mind. A stone wall, impeding her progress, taunting her with its existence. Locking her away from belonging.

A stone wall that her Berserker arts could affect.

"Just a whim, squirt," she said with a grin. "Just a whim."

===============

The Record of Isabel Tabitha Albright Thou hast yet to Unlock Thy Calling. Thou art a Berserker of the 1st Rank Thou art a Stonecutter of the 1st Rank Thy Condition is: Healthy Thy overall rank is: Peasant

The Arts available to thee are: - BREAK (Berserker) - ENDURE (Berserker) - GRAAAAAAAAGH! (Berserker) - Carve Stone (Stonecutter)

The Skills available to thee are: - Fast Recovery (Berserker) - Reinforce Structure (Stonecutter)

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