In the aftermath of the Battle of the White Obelisk, as it quickly became known, Ana decided that she had only one real responsibility: to keep Messy safe and happy.

Throughout the whole ordeal with the changelings, marching out, rescuing their friends, and finally defeating Karti and his cult, Messy had been her rock. Her anchor. Ana had friends, people who knew that she was different and accepted her anyway, but whenever the pressure had gotten too much it was Messy she'd turned to. Ever since she'd woken up to soft singing, her head in Messy's lap, the elfin woman had been a source of comfort and stability to her. She couldn't lose that. This world, for all that she was getting used to it, was still too new. Too weird. Despite her strength and her advantages, there were still moments, far too frequent, when the enormity of her situation would strike her. There were dangers and opportunities here on a scale that her mind had never had to comprehend, and she was going to have to face them, one way or another. And though she was sure she'd survive, she didn't know who she'd become.

Being Messy's Angel made that daunting prospect at least somewhat manageable. It also made Ana happier than she could ever remember being, and so it was essential that her girlfriend keep seeing her as a source of joy and safety, so that she'd never regret tying herself to Ana. Fortunately, Ana had at least one thing to offer that just about no one else could.

It took less than a day after their victory before Ana and Messy took their first flight together.

Neither woman had been in any mood for excitement after the battle and Trig's betrayal. They'd helped Touanne, ate when food was offered, then claimed one of the surviving tents for themselves and went to bed early. There, Messy finally fell to pieces entirely as Ana comforted her. The next morning was a different story. As Messy watched Ana dress in the early morning light she murmured, "Gods, you're beautiful. All that's missing is your wings."

Ana gave Messy a slow twirl and a smile. "There's nothing stopping me from bringing them out, you know. I don't need to save them for anything now."

Messy propped herself up on her elbow, her eyes going from drowsily appreciative to intensely serious. "Would you?" she asked. "If I asked you to, would you bring your wings out?"

"Of course I would."

"And could we… I mean, would you take me up?"

Ana returned her look, then grinned. "Come on. Get dressed."

It took Messy about a minute to throw on some trousers and a tunic, which she'd made sure to cinch extra tight around the waist. Outside the tent Ana wrapped her arms around Messy from behind, holding tight and grabbing on to her own forearms. She was excited, perhaps more so than she'd been before the first time she tried the wings, but she wasn't leaving anything to chance.

"Squeeze down on my arms with yours," she told Messy, "then cross your hands under my forearms. Really work your hands in there."

"Like this?" Messy asked breathlessly, doing as she'd been told.

"Just like that. And the moment you feel uncomfortable, you let me know, alright?"

"Alright!" Even with her weak aura, Messy's excitement was like a distant siren to Ana's senses. "Come on. Don't make me wait!"

Ana still asked, "Ready?"

"Yes! Please! Let's go!"

"You asked for it!"

With that Ana brought out her wings. She wasted no time, and Messy squeaked with delight as one strong beat lifted them several feet off the ground — the extra weight of Messy in her arms made a noticeable difference to how much each beat lifted them, but lift they did. The next few took them higher, and higher, and higher until they were far above the tree-tops, visible to anyone who looked up, which was probably everyone not still inside a tent — Messy's constant, excited laughter must have carried across the entire camp.

"We're flying!" Messy whooped as she dangled from Ana's arms. "We're really flying!" There was not a shred of fear in her, not a hint that she ever considered that anything might go wrong; her trust in Ana, to hold on tight and to land them safely, was absolute.

As much as Messy's exuberant joy made Ana grin, her faith was almost better. "We are!" Ana laughed back as she brought them out above the trees. "It's goddamn fantastic, isn't it?"

They had just over two and a half minutes, but that was more than enough to have Messy giggling, bouncing, and refusing to let go of Ana once they were back on the ground. "That was amazing! She's amazing!" she gushed to anyone in earshot. "You're amazing, Angel! Gods, I love you so much! Thank you! Thank you!"

Ana was beyond pleased with how much Messy had enjoyed their flight; and with Ana being the only person likely to ever offer more of the same, it was one more thing to keep them together. "We can do it again in three hours," she said. "Would you like that?"

"Are you insane?" Messy asked, her face glowing with absolute joy. "You must be out of your mind to even ask that! Yes! I'm not letting you out of my sight until we've been up again!"

"I'll let you know the moment it's available," Ana said smugly. She ignored the many, many stares from the multitude of gawkers that had gathered around them since they landed. They were soon herded along to the white obelisk, anyway.

In the aftermath of the battle, Ana had been immensely satisfied to learn that the mage had been successful, and that they were all going to live. A combination of the Barlos' clever little magical device and some kind of ritual worked to entirely drain the obelisk of mana. The next morning, after Ana and Messy's first flight together, everyone was invited to watch as the ritual that had been powering the obelisk was dismantled. With that done the obelisk was nothing but a spire of white stone, and as the surviving Earth-mages worked together to reduce it to fist-sized chunks of rubble Ana stood and cheered — not with the officers but with Messy and the rest of the rank-and-file.

The thunder, sudden bursts of weather, and temperature flashes didn't go away immediately. That would have been too much to hope for. But their frequency stopped increasing, and that was taken as a hopeful sign.

True to her word, Ana brought Messy up for another two-and-a-half minute flight as soon as she could. Then again three hours after that, and again, until the light failed.

The morning after the obelisk was razed, a large contingent consisting of most of the civilians and about two thirds of the combat Classers began their return to the outpost. With them went the traitors, the captured cultists, and those changelings who'd been cured so far. People had lives to get back to, and the small crew who'd stayed to tend the Waystone were nowhere near enough to keep the outpost from falling into disrepair. The sooner people returned, the better.

Pirta went with them. Her stated reason was that she wanted to get back to her outpost, but Ana suspected that she didn't want to be parted from Karti; if Ana hadn't seen the anger and sense of betrayal in Pirta, she would have been suspicious.

They left several dozen volunteers, including a large contingent of mages, to deal with the remaining changelings. Captain Falk and Marra stayed. So did Touanne, who remained for the sake of the remaining changelings, and after talking it over with Messy, so did Ana.

To Ana's pleasant surprise, many of her friends chose to stay as well. Dilmek had to go back. Sendra went with her, and Petra had to get back to her inn. But Rayni had no reason to go as long as there was a camp that needed feeding, and while Deni's parents returned, she herself was happy to stay as long as Kaira did. As for Kaira, her position, spoken with a laugh when Ana asked, was that, "I'm not letting you out of my sight! If you think I'll give Simt or Wandak or anyone else even a few days to work on poaching you, you're crazy!" So she stayed, and Tor and Omda stayed with her.

The evening before the contingent left, Ana offered to do one more thing for the sake of the Splinter and the outpost.

Not all of the cultists were mages, but there were still some Summoners and Binders and even an Evoker among them. Transporting so many mages was difficult and dangerous. They could keep them in mana suppression circles as long as they were encamped, but while moving they'd need to keep the prisoners hooded and bound. To guard them they had to set aside a large number of their own mages to sense any suspicious movement of mana. And these mages had to be ready and willing to kill any prisoner who attempted to Shape.

The last part was what had Ana concerned — she was not entirely confident that the contingent would reach the outpost without multiple incidents, not that the mages on duty would be able to do what they had to, quickly enough. She wished it were as simple as forcing the cult mages to Reset their Classes, but that would only deprive them of their Abilities. They'd still have their Connection, their Crafts and Skills, and their know-how, and they remained a potentially lethal threat to anyone around them. So, the evening before they left, Ana met with Pirta and quietly offered to make the mages a non-issue. Permanently.

She didn't make that offer lightly. The idea of killing so many defenseless people didn't appeal to Ana at all, no matter what they'd done. But she had friends who'd be going with them, and she didn't want to see those friends hurt because someone on guard duty had more conscience than survival instinct.

Pirta thanked her for the offer, but declined. She didn't change her mind when Ana offered to spare Karti, either. The decision that the prisoners should be held for trial had been made with an overwhelming majority, and Pirta would not go against that. She understood, though, and promised to take personal responsibility for the safety of the guards. Ana had to be satisfied with that.

Despite her desire to be contrarian, Ana did in fact follow the goddess' command to spend most of the next several days resting. She'd been pretty sure she'd forgotten how to just take it easy if she wasn't laid up in bed, sick or injured, but she did pretty well, by her own standards. Of course, a big part of what she considered relaxing was to simply step back from the responsibilities she'd accepted. She didn't make any decisions for anyone who wasn't herself, and she refused to answer anyone who addressed her as "Marshal" — though she did, begrudgingly, accept "Mistress Cole" from those who absolutely had to tack on an honorific.

She'd done her part, and the fact that so many of Ana's friends remained, along with the relative calm that followed so many people leaving, made for some fun, relaxing days and pleasant evenings.

Instead of being anything resembling a leader, Ana spent long mornings in her bedroll with Messy — mornings made much more pleasant by Ana living up to a certain promise she'd made. A group of mages had set up a makeshift hot spring near the camp, shaping the earth and setting up a ritual circle that somehow circulated hot water — apparently Sendra had the idea while cleaning up Ana and Messy after the battle. Now anyone who wanted to could keep squeaky clean, and Messy took advantage of that cleanliness as much as Ana would allow.

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Whenever Ana managed to escape Messy's clutches she did her morning exercise, letting anyone who wanted to join her; it didn't do much for her anymore, physically, but the routine was nice and she'd found herself liking the role of instructor far more than that of leader. And with the prisoners gone, the combat Classers suddenly had most of their days free. In response, Ana set up regularly scheduled classes in unarmed combat. It was something she'd half promised Deni a month earlier, and if not now, when? And with her reputation, the classes became popular from the moment she announced them.

It came as no surprise to Ana when Messy volunteered — more like demanded — to be her partner for every demonstration. At least Ana knew that she couldn't hurt Messy by accident. It was time well spent: several people, Deni, Messy, and Jisha among them, picked up Skill Levels in Unarmed Combat. More importantly in Ana's eyes, they learned the basics of several self-defense techniques. And Ana herself got another Level in the Teaching Skill, which she felt much better about than she would have thought. Though perhaps it shouldn't have come as any surprise; the appreciation that her students showed now that she wasn't explicitly teaching them to kill warmed her in a way that few things could.

She also spent more time practicing her magic. She managed to pick up Level 2 in Channeling, but while her finesse with Shaping improved, her Skill Level didn't. It was like the System knew that she was on break. There was no urgency anymore, no pressure; whether she got better or not made no difference for the moment. It annoyed her — not much, but enough. She'd have to get back to serious training soon.

Ana and many others had been wondering how the hell they'd keep the changelings alive, but that turned out not to be a concern. Observation and questioning the cultists revealed that the answer to how to feed and water the changelings was simple: you didn't need to. Like so often it came down to magic. Goddamn magic. Once turned, the void plague removed the changelings' need to eat and drink. They'd slowly waste away over the next few months, but until then they'd survive on the ambient mana of the Splinter, which was absorbed by the crystals and kept the body from actually dying.

Touanne was all in a tizzy about the implications and possible applications of that, if it could be separated from the blood-thirsty zombie aspect, but Ana didn't really listen to her lecture. She didn't have the background or the interest — as long as they knew how to cure the damn infection, she was satisfied.

Touanne had managed to improve the healing aspect of the curing ritual, but hadn't so far figured out how to expand it to work on several subjects at once. That meant that while they didn't need a team of Life-mages standing by for every use of the ritual, they still had to cure the changelings one by one. By their best estimates it would take them six days to cure everyone, with over a dozen mages working in shifts from sunrise to after sunset.

This was one of the reasons Ana had chosen to stay — or rather, why Messy and Touanne had teamed up on her to convince her. But while Ana could and frequently did help power the rituals, there was another important reason for her to stay and help. Between her speed, her strength, and her protective Shaping, she was particularly suited to pulling changelings out of the pens. Once the gate to a pen was opened it took a moment for the changelings within to go from docile to feral; in that time Ana could dart in, grab one, and bring them back outside before things got ugly. Then it was just a matter of gagging them, trussing them up, and dragging the next one out.

Sometimes, after they'd recovered from the ritual, she'd speak to the poor bastards who had to come to terms with what had happened to them. Mostly, though, Jisha had shouldered that burden. Ana appreciated that. While Ana didn't feel much of a connection with most of the healed Earthlings, Jisha did an admirable job empathizing and explaining things, despite some of the former changelings taking exception to one or more of her age, gender, or ethnicity. Ana admired her patience. Jisha gave everyone two chances: one before they opened their mouth, and another if they felt like they wanted to apologize. A surprising number did, after a moment to think. Though having Kaira along as a translator probably helped with that.

By slowly recovering from the battle at the outpost and the nighttime attack on their camp, Jisha had shown a general resilience that made Ana hopeful. Unfortunately, the most common reaction among the healed changelings was despair, religiously motivated and otherwise. She wondered how many would survive the year, but that wasn't her problem. She'd helped give them a second chance; as far as she was concerned, that was where her responsibility ended.

They remained at Karti's camp until the last of the changelings had been cured, and through the night after. The next morning they struck as much of the camp as they could carry and started back.

The going was far slower than on the way out; they had something like eighty random modern Earthlings with them, and while some were tough as nails, most had never walked ten miles in one go in their lives. It didn't help that many of them lacked proper shoes or boots; there had only been so many spares looted from the cultists to go around. Most had to make do with simpler moccasins made from tent cloth and hastily tanned deer hide.

It had taken them a week to get from the outpost to Karti's camp, including delays caused by attacks and the Delve; even without any delays it took them longer to get back. It was a week and change of days spent mostly resting, Touanne doing what she could to help the poor low-Level and out-of-shape Earthlings recover. Her Level 25 Ability had shone as she tended the wounded after the battle; now it did so again as it helped sore muscles and bruised and blistered feet heal. Ana was convinced that, if not for their Healer, it would have taken days longer to get back.

Not that she minded the slow pace. She was surrounded by people who enjoyed her company. Rayni took her hunting every day, and didn't mind Messy coming along at all; they'd already gotten along well enough before Ana was introduced to Kaira's casuals group. Rayni continued her lessons in how to identify and gather useful plants, track animals, move stealthily, and harvest right where they'd left off; Ana picked up 2 Skill Levels in each of Harvesting and Tracking, and 1 in each of Stealth, Herbalism, and Crossbows. Messy also picked up Levels in several Skills, and Rayni got yet another Level in Teaching; she barely stopped grinning the whole hunt after that.

All these Skill Levels got her enough Crystals to leave her 200 Experience Points away from Class Level 17. It was… slightly frustrating. At the same time, she told herself, they might actually be heading for a time where they'd need money again, so perhaps she shouldn't just Level up the first opportunity she got?

Hah! Bloody likely, she deadpanned to herself. She knew that she might hold onto the Crystals for a few days, but soon enough she'd find a reason to eat them, or a reason would find her. That was just how things worked.

Less frustrating was the fact that she got two Perks, for Crossbows and Stealth. For the former she got Quick Shot, and for the latter, Forest Step:

Quick Shot: Quantity has a quality all of its own, and you don't need to be the best shot when you can take the most shots. While cocking and aiming a crossbow, your Strength and Dexterity Multipliers are treated as though they were 1 Step higher. Values increase with Crossbows Skill Level.

Forest Step: You have become skilled at making no sound, and leaving no trace. While moving through any heavily wooded area, your Agility Multiplier is treated as though it were 1 Step higher for the purpose of remaining undetected. Value increases with Stealth Skill Level.

Neither was exactly game changing, and Quick Shot was even slightly insulting; her aim wasn't that bad. So what if she sometimes needed a second shot to hit something? But being able to cock a crossbow with three fingers while holding a new bolt between the remaining two was a neat trick — one which sent Kaira into a spluttering paroxysm of envy — and Forest Step would be useful for as long as she stayed in this Splinter; it wasn't like she'd be staying in the outpost until she could leave the Splinter entirely..

During the march it really bothered her that her Shaping refused to get to Level 5, though. She was getting better, measurably so, but the Skill stubbornly stayed at 4. Kaira and a few others that Ana asked suggested that she needed to learn something new; she'd have to talk to Tellak about it back at the Outpost. There wasn't any rush.

Though, again, maybe that was the problem. All the Skills she'd actually improved in helped her train, protect, and feed the people around her; with Shaping she was just practicing because she wanted to get better, not because she had any real need to. Not knowing for certain was frustrating, though. She'd gone so far as to ask the goddess who constantly peeped on her thoughts, but all the Wayfarer had told her was, "Yeah, that sounds about right!"

No certain answer, even from a goddess. Ana didn't like the idea of an omniscient god, but there were times — like this — when having a hotline to one would have been dead useful.

It wasn't like the Wayfarer had been much use ever since the obelisk fell, anyway. During the two weeks following the battle she rarely spoke, and when she did it was almost exclusively to answer a direct question. Once or twice she had asked Ana to relay a message to Mamtass, who'd remained even while most of his congregation returned to the outpost. He and many of the Wayfarer's worshipers were struggling with the fact that some of their friends and neighbors had gone so far as to attempt to murder their goddess' chosen in the name of the Sentinel. That just wasn't something that happened — religious strife, from what Ana understood, was much rarer in this world, with functionally unlimited land and resources. Most of them had never faced or even considered the possibility of religiously motivated violence, and now they were at a loss as to what to do.

The followers of the Wayfarer were a plurality of the population, but there were still dozens of Sentinel-worshipers walking free in the Splinter, Captain Pirta among them. Many of those had been among the ones who'd expressed some level of anger or even hatred towards Ana, but who hadn't joined Trig in her ill-fated attempt on Ana's life. What, Mamtass had asked his goddess, time and time again, were they supposed to do about them? How were they supposed to see them? How were they supposed to treat them?

Finally the goddess took pity on the man — or she got fed up. Five days into the march back to the outpost, she asked Ana to relay a message: "Treat them as you always have. They could have acted, but they didn't. Until they do, they're the same people you've always known. Treat them accordingly."

"Thank you," Mamtass had answered Ana, though he was still troubled. "But what if they do act? What then?"

Well? Ana asked.

The man has a good head, the goddess said. She sounded distracted. As long as he doesn't betray my faithful, he can use his own judgement.

"Sounds like what you do then is up to you," Ana said. "What else would you expect of a goddess who's all about wandering freely and personal choice? But if you want my advice—"

She pulled out one of her daggers, still in its sheath, and offered it to him, hilt first. The priest took it gingerly.

"Keep that on you, somewhere you can draw it easily. And if you join my sessions I'll teach you to use it, so you're not just giving someone a weapon when you do. That, or start carrying a sword and have someone teach you to use that."

Mamtass drew the blade, looking at it sadly then said, "I'd be honored, Chosen."

And so Ana ended up teaching a weapon she disliked to a priest, a group of people she'd never thought she could possibly like. She even made it part of her regular classes, adding a whole period where she mixed offensive knife skills with knife defence. It was, against all odds, good fun.

During the days spent marching back to the outpost, they crossed paths with a demon or two. Those were quickly dealt with and scared the crap out of the Earthlings — though they should really have been getting used to them. It wasn't like there hadn't been any attacks while they remained at the camp. But they didn't see a single changeling, which was almost more worrying. Ana couldn't imagine that they'd killed them all, so where were they? On the bright side, the thunderclaps and the microbouts of freak weather slowly grew less and less frequent, until they stopped entirely on the eighth day of the march, to everyone's great relief. It was a hopeful sign.

In the afternoon of the tenth day since they left the remains of Karti's camp, Ana stood at the edge of the forest, in the same place she had eight weeks earlier. Looking down on the outpost then, she'd been badly hurt, and had no idea what to expect. This time she had Messy by her side, and Ray and Kaira and her other friends, and she was looking forward to this chapter being over. She wanted to just live for a while.

She still planned to leave the Splinter at the first opportunity. But damn, if it didn't feel like coming home.

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