"Hey! Wake up, you two. We'll miss out on the best escorts if we don't head out. It's time to go." Vral was standing beside the bed, hands on her hips, fully armed and armored.

"Noooooo..." Tristan murmured from the other side of the bed.

"Five more minutes." I pulled a pillow over my head. After our talk, Tristan and I went back to bed. Unfortunately, Vral had been completely out, so we didn't have a chance to tell her we were taking time off.

"Thirty."

"An hour."

"Let's just sleep until we wake up naturally." Tristan sounded like she was already falling back asleep. "That sounds so nice..."

"Up!" Vral growled. "We have work to do and a stupid gnome to find."

"Vral... Come back to bed." Tristan's voice was heavy with sleep.

"Lazy asses." She started pulling off our sheets. "Who the hell takes time off, anyway? I've never had time off in my entire life!"

"Now's as good a time as any to start." Reaching out, I grabbed her wrist and pulled.

"Wait, what are you—" She kept talking, but I couldn't understand the rest of her words after her face buried into the pillows next to my head.

She tried to pull out of my grip, but I wasn't having it. Holding her tight with one arm, I reached down to her hips, pulled her daggers out of their sheaths, and threw them to the ground. Then, I unclicked her belt and tried to pull that free, too.

"Stop it!" She giggled as she did her best to keep her belt on and head over the pillows. "And buy me dinner first!"

"Tomorrow." I pulled her face back into the pillows. "We're staying in today."

Surfacing again, she yelled, "You're both sacks of shit! We have work to do!"

"No work. Day off." I wrapped her tighter.

Vral pulled back until her face was in my neck. I could feel her heart pounding through the thin leather armor separating her skin from mine. "Don't make me bite you..."

"Try it." I tugged at her belt. "Either way, this belt's coming off."

"He likes that." Tristan had rolled over and was laughing as she watched us wrestle. "And no armor in the bed!" Tristan reached over and started unbuttoning Vral's vest.

"Wait!" The goblin let go of her belt, which slipped out of her belt loops with a satisfying swish, and did her best to keep her shirt on. "I don't have anything on underneath!"

"So scratchy," I said, remembering the time I tried going commando under armor. The chafing...

"Nothing I haven't seen before." Tristan kept unbuttoning. "We bathe together every day."

Vral's face had turned bright red as her two top buttons popped open, revealing the tops of her breasts. "Yeah, but... not in front of him!"

I shook my head at the priestess. "Be good, Tristan." While Vral didn't seem uncomfortable, what with her giggling and the wide smile on her face, I didn't want to push her too far. Goblins didn't have the same lack of modesty that most of the other races of Reial seemed to have. It involved something about the goblin men and women not mingling much. She wasn't very specific. All I knew was that, because of goblin culture, we'd never bathed together, which was a shame. A damn shame. "Vral's a prude."

"I am not a prude!"

"Ugh." Tristan let go. "She wants you to see. She's just too nervous."

"I do not want him to see!" Vral's voice rose an octave. "I'm not in heat like you are, whore!"

"Whore?!" Tristan pretended to be insulted, but her face wasn't selling it. "Who are you calling a whore?!"

"What, do you prefer slut, slut?"

"Yes!"

Vral's eyes went wide, and she sputtered. She wasn't ready for that.

I laughed. "Why?!"

"Whore is a profession. Slut is a personality." Tristan turned her chin up. "Plus, I can't be a whore. I only ride one horse. It just so happens I enjoy riding it once a day. It soothes me."

"Pssh, at least once." Vral pulled herself back, slipped out of my grip, and landed in my lap. When she realized where she was sitting, her face went bright red.

"Hey!" She thrust a finger at Vral. "Half of this heat is because of you! I'm taking one for the team here!"

"That must be so hard for you."

The quarter-elf chuckled. "Terribly. I can hardly walk from all the strain."

"Gross." Vral looked at me. "You two are gross."

Tristan rolled her eyes. "Now that we've got that settled, go get changed and come back to bed."

"No." I held Vral tight. "She'll keep being a pest if she gets up again."

"I am not a pest!" She tried to jump off my lap.

"Are too." I grabbed her before she could escape and pulled her tight again.

"Let go!"

"No!"

With no options left, Vral's mouth opened wide, her slightly pointed teeth glinting in the glowstone light, and she bit my shoulder.

"Ow!"

"Serves you right." She shot out of bed, the tips of her ears red, but with a big grin on her face. "Now, are we starting the day, or—"

A pillow hit her straight between the eyes.

Tristan never missed.

"Ugh, fine." The goblin disappeared behind the room divider we changed behind. A moment later, I heard the rustle of her leathers falling to the ground, and she reappeared in her coarse linen night shirt. "But I'm warning you two: once I fall asleep again, I'll hurt you if you wake me up."

Looking over, I saw that Tristan was already falling asleep again across the bed, but I nodded. "Deal."

A minute later, Vral was in bed facing me, her red eyes taking me in, her little hands curled in mine. I could see her mind turning behind her eyes, could hear her tight breathing as she worked through whatever she was working through.

Taking a page from Tristan's book, I asked, "Want to talk about it?"

She frowned. "No."

Another Tristan line. "That's even more reason to do it."

"Fucking elfie, teaching you all the right words to say..." Her eyes locked on mine. For a long time, she was quiet. Then... "When we were in the Pit... when you beat me... did you know what it meant when you..." Her brows knitted together. "Um..." As the seconds went by, I watched as irritation washed over her. Her teeth bared, and she hissed, "If you're a real man, you'll challenge me again! Then, we can finally settle things between us."

"Are things not settled? I kicked your ass." A little verbal jousting never hurt with her.

"You barely won! And no." She scooched closer. "I mean..." She huffed. "I'm glad everything worked out. And I had so much fun during our fight. It was the best. But..." her eyes wavered, "you were supposed to answer all my questions. You were supposed to make things clear. But now, nothing's clear, and I have twice as many questions." She bit her lip, causing one of her fangs to poke her bottom lip in a way that fired my heart up.

Smiling, I said, "Then ask away. I'm right here." Taking in her striking features, I couldn't help but enjoy her plump lips, her thick, shapely eyebrows, and her little button nose. The curve of her jaw. The sound of her breathing. The feel of her heart through her palms. It was beating so fast.

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She started and stopped a dozen times before saying, "I don't know how." She sighed. "It's so hard."

I squeezed her hands. "I know. I'm not good at it either."

"You're way better than I am."

"Well... yeah."

"Rude." Her eyes dropped. "Alex..."

"Yeah, Vral?"

Her eyes found mine again. "You know what's in my head, right? How I... how I feel?"

"I do."

"Um... do you..." She swallowed. "You feel that way too, don't you?"

"Are my intentions unclear?"

Shaking her head, she said, "No, but... I'd like to hear it." Her eyes got wide. "But, like, not all of it."

I thought that meant she wasn't ready for the "L" word yet. "Yeah, I feel the same way you do."

She exhaled, and the relief on her face was clear. "Dark Father's breath... I'm so glad you said that..."

I extended my arm for her to lie on it.

She shuffled closer and nestled her head on my bicep. "Comfy."

"I'm glad."

Settling on my arm, she eventually said, "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

Her lips turned down. "I'm sorry for being complicated. I'm sure it was way easier when it was just you two."

"It was, but that was then, and this is now. You're here now, so I don't mind complicated."

"But I do." Her jaw clenched. "I'm afraid to let you in. You and Tristan both, but especially you. And I'm afraid of losing myself if I do. But at the same time, I'm afraid that, if I don't start trying, you'll realize I'm nothing special and throw me away."

"I wouldn't do that."

Her eyes found mine. "I don't think you would. Neither would Tris. I think... I know you both care about me. That you lo..." Her heart started pounding so loud that it was audible in the silent room. "I think that we're in this for the long haul, but I'm still afraid. Isn't that the dumbest shit you've ever heard?"

"Not at all. I know exactly what that feels like." I gestured at myself. "That's who I was back on Earth. I held everyone at arm's length all the time."

"It's terrible, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it was really lonely."

Her eyes searched mine. "You're so honest, though. How did you learn to stop being so..." She took a deep breath. "Guarded?"

I glanced at Tristan. "Mostly her."

The quarter-elf's ear twitched.

Bitch!

She was pretending to be asleep and eavesdropping. What an instigator.

"She encouraged me to be direct and confront both my problems and my feelings head-on." Tristan's ear twitched again. Yeah, you. "Also, I had the privilege of ending up at Light's Hope when I first got to Reial. Everyone there just embraced me like I was their own. Like I was family. Without them, I'm sure I'd feel just like you do right now."

Her eyes swam. "You got so lucky."

"Incredibly." That, and the Dark Lord kept me alive long enough for Tristan to find me on the side of a road, but, you know.

"Would you take me there one day? To the Temple?"

Nodding, I said, "Absolutely. Once we're done with our quest, I want to go home for a while."

"Home?" She said the word as if it were foreign to her.

"Yeah. Light's Hope is the closest thing I have to one in this world. Hell, it's more of one than my actual home was back home."

Her eyes shifted. "Do you think they'll accept me there?"

"Absolutely. You'll fit right in. Just know that you'll be expected to train hard and help out around the temple."

"I can do that. Especially the training." She smiled. "I can't wait." Her face lightened, and her eyes grew bright. "Also... He's gone, now."

"Who?"

"Him. The Dark Father." Her smile grew. "When I rejected him at the end of our fight, he abandoned me. He said I was no longer worthy of his blessing. For the first time in my life, I'm free of Him. And it's thanks to you." She scooted closer. "You believed in me when I didn't. And now, I'm free."

"I'm so glad." I only wished He'd abandon me. I'd love to know I could go to sleep without Him showing up to promise me things I didn't want.

Her eyes closed, and she was quiet for several minutes. "I know Tris wants me to be more direct with you, but I can't. Not yet. So... will you be patient with me? Give me time?"

I pulled her closer until her chest was pressed to mine. "Of course I will. Take all the time you need." Behind her, Tristan's hand found mine and squeezed. I got the impression she was telling me I did well.

"Thank you." She nuzzled into my neck and was still. For a long time, she said nothing. Then, "When I'm ready... I'll rock your world... Just... you... wait..." With her last word, her voice got soft, and within seconds, she was breathing steadily and deeply.

***

"You seem happy this morning." Elise looked up from the stack of papers sitting in front of her on the dining room table and smiled. "Did something juicy happen?"

Vral was all smiles as she sauntered into the dining room. "Nothing new. I'm just in a good mood today, is all."

Elise's face fell. "That's no fun." She looked at me. "I crave gossip and respectfully request that, next time you stay with us, you bring me some."

"I promise," I said as I wiped the sleep from my eyes.

Tristan yawned beside me. "Sometimes, a little extra sleep is just what a person needs to start the day right." She reached out and took my hand. "It helps us straighten our heads out."

Her yawn made me yawn. "Yeah." Making my way to the table, I saw that Khadrel wasn't anywhere in sight. "Where's the Count?"

"Oh, he went out into town to check on the mine's expansion."

"I didn't know you were expanding the mine."

"We are!" She set her pen down. "The renovators for the new temple found a strong vein of myrshale behind where the cells had been in the Pit. Some earth mages we hired to survey it said it runs deep, too, so we'll have a new source of revenue for our city once we can expand the mine."

"That's great!" Tristan sat down and picked up an apple from the fruit tray in the center of the dining table. Crunching into it, she asked, "How's the temple coming along?"

"Excellent, actually." Elise rifled through her stack of papers until she found the one she was looking for. "Lady Varga will be sending up a few junior priests to join us in the next few weeks, and she was willing to offer up a few Templars, too. The scholar there also said he'd part with a portion of his books to help fill out the Temple's offerings.

"Arden offered up books?" He loved those books more than life itself. I was surprised he'd been willing to part with any.

"He's been having the scribes copy most of his texts these past months," Tristan said through a bite of apple. "Ever since you disappeared and the Crimson Kingdom pushed us back to the temple grounds, he's been concerned about the possibility of something happening to him or the temple. By copying his books, he said he can make sure his knowledge will carry on, even if he didn't."

"That's probably smart. We never know what's going to happen." I really needed to get down there and see him. But not too soon...

A wave of guilt washed over me.

When we'd defeated Aerell, she'd still been wearing his [Ring of Detect Lies]. Unfortunately, her body was buried next to me and didn't really survive the collapse. When they dug me out, they found Arden's ring completely crushed by the fallen stones. Part of the reason I'd been working so hard was to make enough money to replace it, but the problem was, no one knew anything about rings like that. The only guy who did was a mage who said that kind of magic was ancient and basically unknown in the fifth era. So, I'd been planning on giving him a big bag of crystals and an even bigger apology.

"What happened to those fuckers? The Crimson Kingdom?" Vral's eyes had gotten hard.

"Oh, they're still around, but we took most of their leadership out when we raided the Pit. Now, they're an irritating pebble in our boot, but a pebble nonetheless."

"And Baelgrim? Any word about him?" I knew that was the man who'd been sitting next to Aerell. The guy was an absolute mountain. I really didn't want to run into him out there.

Elise nodded. "Some of our people in the Duchy of Velmire said they may have seen him in the capital. Unfortunately, Duchess Alora has fallen ill and is unwilling to spend resources to look into it."

"Why not? Aren't Calvareth and Velmire both part of Istaera?"

Sighing, the Countess said, "Yes, but without a king to unite us, the duchies are largely independent. While we get on fine with Theroven, Calvareth and Velmire have never been exactly friends, at least not since before the end of the fourth era."

"Why is that?" I took a handful of grapes from the platter and threw a couple into my mouth.

"As one of the earliest acts of aggression against Istaera during the Scion's War, one of the Dark Lord's children left his keep, which still stands today and isn't far from here, to conquer Istaera after the then Duke of Calvareth insulted him. And, since it was the weakest of the three duchies of Istaera, he marched on Velmire first. After winning a decisive victory against her armies, he forced the then-duchess to submit to him or die. She submitted without resistance, but also asked him to take her as his concubine, likely to preserve her own life. Dedicating her people and resources to her new master, she singlehandedly turned the war against the high king and the remaining duchies. Tharoven fell next, but the duchess threw herself from the ramparts rather than be claimed. After the fall of Theroven, he turned on Calvareth and sieged Llyn for three years."

"Did he win?"

She shook her head. "No. His siblings eventually gathered, but he grew bored and tried to infiltrate the court. After seducing the queen of Istaera and nearly killing the king, and with the Hero's help, he was put down, and the siege was broken shortly after."

"Why was the king in Llyn?"

"When the siege began, he and the queen had been visiting with the duke of Calvareth to prepare to go to war. When the armies arrived, they couldn't leave."

"Huh. So, Velmire still has a bad relationship with you because of that? Seems like a long time to hold a grudge."

"After the war, many of Velmire's people were punished for their treasonous actions, and the duchy has never quite recovered. As a consequence, its people largely hate Calvareth and Theroven. The Crimson Kingdom and gangs like it are thought to be connected to the leadership of Velmire."

That made sense. "So, what? Why not elect a new king?"

Elise laughed. "It's not that simple."

"Why?"

Shaking her head, she said, "Because the ones who wish to become the High King of Istaera must face a series of challenges that test their might, their heart, and their willingness to sacrifice. If any quality is lacking, the candidate fails."

"Let me guess: no one's passed the test in a long time." Typical.

"Your guess is correct. The last to try was Sophia's brother. Unlike many, he survived, but he refused to speak about his experience for the rest of his too-short life."

That sounded like something I'd never be caught dead trying. I didn't want to rule or anything like that. I just wanted to train, travel with my friends, meet people, and help wherever I could. Who the hell wanted to be a king? "Well, good luck with all that. Ruling isn't something that's in my cards." Standing, I stretched and said, "As long as you've got things under control and we don't have any chance of running into scary, fucked up shit, I'm happy to leave it to you. All I want to do is take some time off."

Clapping, Elise said, "I'm so happy to hear that! You three have been working far too hard. You've earned a rest."

Vral stood. "This'll be my first vacation ever! What do we do?"

Tristan followed. "I can't wait. Can we do a spa day?"

"We'll figure it all out as we do it. Girls, our time off starts now!"

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