Andrea sat on the edge of an empty and rusted chest. The camp was quiet, the hour late. Her left leg started shaking again. It was the third time it'd done so in an hour, and her frustration was bubbling high. Slamming a hand down over her knee, Andrea held it to the ground until it stopped twitching. A heavy sigh slipped past her lip.

"What's taking so long?" The question was posed to no one, and yet the girl twisted her head around in hopes of finding someone to answer it. All she found was a small squirrel that dashed past her spot and up a nearby tree. Huffing, she crossed her arms and leaned back against the wooden support that was behind her.

She'd been sitting in front of the medical tent for the past three hours. Before that, she'd been inside. Then she was kicked out for "loitering." It wasn't her fault they were so slow at moving patients. Her own wounds hadn't even needed to be dealt with. It was a minor gash on her side, but three stitches had fixed it up fine, and she was now resting comfortably. Well, almost comfortably. It did make her left side ache and throb whenever she moved too much. That wasn't too much of a bother. If she was getting bed rest like she was supposed to, it wouldn't have been a bother at all.

There was no way she was leaving her imaginary post, though—not until she saw Casper alive and well. The battle had been brutal, the most brutal one yet, in fact. They'd lost a good number trying to maintain the line that had been drawn in. Moving in deeper was strictly prohibited by orders above, but they weren't supposed to back off either. It left for a brutal tug-of-war over the very land Andrea sat on now.

Already, she had seen Meric. She was being treated for a small gash on her forehead but was certain to make it through. The woman was tough, there was no question about that. Cassius hadn't been hurt. She wasn't surprised anymore. It seemed he had the good fortune of something otherworldly. At some point or another, he'd stopped by with food and offered to recite a song to her he'd been practicing. She'd less than politely declined both. Now Andrea wished she'd listened to his stupid song about toads.

Her stomach was growling audibly. It let out another roar, and she felt the claws of the beast that lived inside her scraping against her stomach lining. When was the last time she ate? Not this morning but maybe the one before that. Too tired to complain, she wrapped both arms around her stomach and felt her fresh scar shout in protest. A small whine slipped her lips, and she bent her head over her legs, resting her forehead on her knees. It seemed stupid now to worry, to complain.

They should have won by now. Wasn't that what everyone said when this had all started? Adrigole was stronger, smarter. They'd fought in so many wars and seized more land than Andrea could think to name. Challenging Gavin was meant to be a fool's errand. Yet, Elusia acted as a colony of ants did. Every time you thought you crushed one down, two more would appear.

It was funny, the fact Andrea could still remember the day on which she finally decided to become a knight. Casper was with her, of course. Casper had always been with her.

He stood looking over the ledge of Laesh. There were many ledges in Laesh, some small, some tall, and most hanging out over the edge of the ocean. This one, however, was the tallest and largest there was. It was her final test, so to speak. She'd climbed the rest already and swung from their edges or stuck her foot over in proof that at any second she would fall. She never had. No one else was going to be as brave as she was.

"Do you really have to do this?" Casper was wide-eyed, his breath uneasy. He watched the waves crash into the cliffside below. They roared up, the wind taking a stiff gust of salty air up to greet them.

Standing beside him, Andrea nodded. A wide smile was etched across her lips. "Come on, this is the last one!" Her voice was overly heavy with enthusiasm, her words trying to drown her own fear. Peering over with him, the girl watched as part of the soil atop the cliff tumbled off. It turned to specks too small to see long before it touched the whitecaps below. If she fell, her body would be smashed to pieces against the rocks below.

"And you already stood at the edge," Casper tried to reason, his sweaty palm latching onto her arm. It wasn't hard to shake the boy off. He was right that she didn't have to, but the need to prove she could inched her forward.

Stepping closer, she placed her first foot on the downed tree. The wood held. A shaky breath left Andrea's lips as she placed the second one on it. The trunk was slippery, most of the bark peeled off by the wind and rain. Testing it again with a small bounce, the entire tree shook. Its roots were strong, though, keeping it in the same vertical position it'd held for several months. Another few baby steps and she was no longer standing above the cliff but the sea. A grin split open her lips.

"Look!" Andrea spread her arms wide. Twisting her feet, she carefully turned around and smiled at Casper. His face was pale, he nervous hands wringing together. Normally, he was even more confident than her, but it was something about climbing out on a tree that hung over the edge of the tallest cliff he couldn't stomach.

He motioned for her to get down, but his words were drowned by a sudden gust of wind. The tree bucked, swaying beneath her feet and the added weight. Andrea's knees bent, her foot moved to get a better balance. It slipped out from under her, hands scraping the bark as her as her heart lurched from her chest. She steadied, barely daring to breathe. Both hands lay clutching the tree with everything she had, her form bent over.

A hand reached out, grabbing her arm. Her throat was too tight to protest. Casper pulled her back onto the cliff and onto the firm ground. "See? I did it," Andrea breathed, smiling once her lung began to work again. It was forced past the shaking that tried to take place all over her body. The wind still whipped by, stirring her hair and shielding her eyes.

Casper helped to fix it. A laugh bubbled from his lips, more of relief than anything else. He tucked dirty blonde strands behind her ears and shook his head at her. "Sure. You did it." The way he held back his sarcasm was too obvious, his lips twitching in the corner where he couldn't steady his smile. "You're braver than me, too. Happy?" He asked the question like he was afraid she would say no and risk climbing back out there again, with his voice high pitched and his fingers digging into her skin.

Humming softly, she nodded. "Satisfied." But not completely.

"So you won't do it?" It was almost cruel the hopefulness that spiked his voice. His hands relaxed and slid to her shoulders like putty.

With her lips pressed tight and her hands on her hips, Andrea laid out the news as evenly as she could. "I'm still signing up." His face fell, and she pressed to continue. "I'm going to watch out for you." It wasn't like she needed to be a knight, or wanted to be one, but there was no way she was being left alone in Laesh. The only other person she had to talk to besides Casper was her father, and he was gone months at a time out on the open seas. Besides, it'd felt small without the redhead by her side, unimportant.

Now the camp felt unimportant. Her hands squeezed tightly as they knitted into a fist. Andrea groaned into her knees. A hand fell on her shoulder. It was more calloused and worn than she remembered it being, but her eyes turned up to find a blue gaze staring down at her. "You okay there, sailor?"

She smiled. It felt fresh. A sudden wave of relief swept through her body as she scooted over, just enough to let the boy plop down beside her. "I was getting bored," she lied, waving away the thought with a flick of her wrist. She turned to elbow Casper in the ribs but stopped short when she noticed the thick bandage wrapped around his midsection. Her arm fell silently back to her side.

"Me too." The boy ran a hand over his stomach and picked lightly at the edge of the gauze for a minute. His voice was quiet, but fit the way the wind softly skirted through the camp. The lanterns hung around the camp gave off a faint light Andrea hadn't noticed before as the sky around them began to darken. Casper attempted a smile to pick up her own. "Why don't you tell me a story, then?"

"A story?" Andrea asked incredulously, her brow lifting up before she could help it. "You already know all my stories." The words helped settle her worry as she leaned against his shoulder, his orange hair tickling the side of her face. His laugh jostled his shoulder and her head.

"Something recent then, while I was gone." The suggestion was meant to be easy, but it made Andrea's stomach twist. Everything, since he'd been gone, had seemed to be one mess after another. Some of them were harmless, like a one night fling or the fact Vere puked all over Garner's shoes; some were less so, like how she'd tried to assassinate the prince or when they'd all been tortured and Shahin had lost his tongue. Her silence brought him to nudge her side, which thankfully wasn't the one that was continuing to throb. "How about the banquet?"

The banquet. It seemed like that was much longer ago than it really was, years and years instead of months and weeks and days. Back then she'd felt on top of the world, or as close to it as she could. A soft smile warmed up her lips as the frosty air began to bite. The tension leaked from her body and flooded out of her feet as she relaxed her legs. "Okay," Andrea agreed. Her head rested comfortably against Casper's shoulder as her breath slowly turned to puffs of smoke and the lantern lights grew brighter. "Now, imagine the sweetest thing you've ever tasted, and—"

"Food, really?" She felt his body shake again as a harder laugh rumbled through it. "Is that where you want to start with this?"

Andrea was too tired to roll her eyes. "Yes," she insisted, batting him lightly on the arm. Repositioning again, she found the warm spot in between the crook of his neck and his chest. It was soft there, quiet and warm. The camp had settled into the beginnings of sleep aside from the sounds of shuffling in the medical tent behind them. With her eyelids on the verge of closing, Andrea started again. She told Casper about what opening the doors felt like for the first time, the warmth in the hall that radiated off of every guest, what King Gavin had looked like seated at the head of the room, how she'd met Vere and Shahin and Meric, and the first song she'd heard Cassius perform when the novelty hadn't worn thin. It was a break from the war. A little hollow piece of time carved out that she chose to spend with him before it all came crashing down again.