The sapphire in Reyn's hand was as much of light as it was of stone. The moon and stars above lent some of themselves to the geocryst's glitter. Most came from within, born of a geomancer's elder magic.

She shivered in the nighttime air of the desert. Her warmer clothes were back in her tent, and she'd come out in just her smallclothes. For what she planned to do, clothing would only get in the way.

The land around Reyn was hard, gray stone, once a lakebed. Before the fall of Shan Alee, there'd been villages on its shores. Reyn had seen the ruins, and the caravan made camp within them even now. The Espallans slept and kept watch while the Aleesh continued their work in learning as much of the Tongue of Jade as they could before the journey reached its end.

Reyn, however, had decided that it was time to take a moment for herself. She'd held off for longer than she thought she'd be able to, but arriving at World's End Gate tomorrow would mean she'd no longer have the opportunity. The dry air had pushed her past endurance, she was tired of being polite to everyone, and if that dratted camel tried smearing its foul spit on her one more time, Reyn was liable to explode.

I used to think camels were handsome, she groused to herself. Amazing what a week of riding on one could do to change her mind.

It hadn't helped when Reyn finally made a connection between camels and that word the Espallan hallah'ha used to refer to her. Ashakhra, the wild breed of camel. It'd taken every ounce of Reyn's self-control to stop herself from marching right into Hagen's tent and carve hexing runes into his backside as he slept. About the only thing that stopped her was that Hagen seemed to be of the delusion it was a compliment.

To take a much-needed break, Reyn had snuck out of the camp using increasingly scarce measures of spellcraft and a natural talent for stealth. No one noticed her stealing away from the caravan, half-naked and carrying just her amulet and Darian's geocryst. She figured most everyone would realize what she'd done once the sun started to rise in an hour, but by then, Reyn would be refreshed enough to continue onward.

The only thing that could have possibly delayed her had then arrived, but Reyn was pleased to put her schemes on hold. Out in the desert, a sending was more precious than water. The conversation had already gone on longer than Reyn thought was decent— and the topics of discussion were less so— but it'd been far too long since she'd spoken with this dratted woman.

"Is everything alright, dear one?" Starra's voice whispered next to her ear. "You've been sounding like you're weary. Is it the distance from the ley lines that's bothering you?"

Reyn wished for a spell to allow her to reach through the sending and take her lover's hand. "It has been difficult," she said. "For the past few days, I have noticed my ether returning more and more slowly, and now it hardly replenishes at all. I only use spellcraft when there is exceptional need anymore, because I doubt I will get back any of the ether I use as we go on."

"Her Majesty provided you with a vial of Kiffa Smith's vex investiture, but that ought be kept for an emergency. Such as if you become ethershocked and have no other way to avoid dying. Have your guides offered any solutions?"

Reyn sighed. "It is strange. The Espallans insist we not bring it up to the executor, though they are hesitant to explain why. It is like they are shielding her from hearing anything of ley lines. I believe the People of Jade must follow a dogma that explains the lack of ether in their lands, and my inquiries would cause offense."

"Sounds like just the sort of nonsense state-sponsored spiritualism does to people," Starra groused. "However, I daresay that doesn't sound like it's the whole of your problems."

"I do not fare well in the wilderness," Reyn said. "I may not have grown up in a manor or palace, but I was still not the sort of girl who enjoyed the outdoors."

"I'd have liked to have known this girl you used to be," Starra said. "Think we'd have gotten on?"

Reyn closed her hand over the sapphire and smiled. "When I was a girl, you would have already come of age."

"The nerve," Starra gasped, feigning offense. "I'm, what, five years older? I'm hardly robbing the cradle."

"Five years," Reyn mused. "A pity you did not spend that time growing."

"A short joke, now? Really, I'm above average height, and you know it. I imagine you get your red hair from it being too close to the sun all the time."

Reyn laughed but felt her spirits dampen when she thought she had no right to laughter, considering what was going on in the east.

Starra must have noticed the change. "They're safe, for the most part," Starra assured her. "Jin's already left for the Reach, and the Huntress has begun her mission to rescue Lord Ban. We'll get our friends back. Don't you worry."

"It is hard not to."

"If anyone should be worried for, it's Her Majesty. She's fighting an uphill battle against that Elise creature, and the future of Shan Alee depends on her bringing her people to their new home. A legion by itself isn't enough of a population to sustain an empire."

Reyn bit her lip. She should have been with the empress. That was her place in Shan Alee. And also, she would have her opportunity to avenge Ham and the others. Thus far, Garret was proving a disappointment in that regard.

"If you speak to her," Reyn said, "tell Her Majesty I wish her well."

"I'll make a point of it, dear one," Starra promised. "I did sneak her a good luck charm of sorts before she left, though. Just saying so to ease your mind a little."

"What sort of luck charm?"

"Just an article of clothing that's seen a few of us Aleesh ladies through some difficult junctures."

Reyn furrowed her brow in confusion. Then, like a bolt out of the sky as if she were a hydromancer, she put it together. "That blouse?"

"Dreadful garment, really. Garish. I don't know what possessed Jin to pack that in her luggage. A rare misstep in her otherwise pristine record of fashion. Though, I imagine it would match well with Her Majesty's coloring. Quite striking, the more I think about it."

"You were wearing it when I left. Enfri would have departed not long afterwards."

"Dear one, I'm very good with illusions. Off it came, in it went into her pack, and none the wiser."

Reyn snorted. Gods, but she missed Starra. It put an ache in Reyn's heart to match the one made by her fear for those she left behind. She worried for everyone, but there were two in particular she feared for. One, she didn't feel right asking Starra about, so she settled on the other. "Has there been no word from Krayson?"

"Not as of yet," Starra said. "He's warded, presently. Whether by himself or someone less savory, I couldn't say. I can't..." She sighed. "I can't shake the feeling he's close. It's not a vampire thing. I just adore the boy so much, I can't help but think there's something of him tugging at me. He's alive. I'm certain of it, and I feel he's closer to me than I'd think possible."

Reyn raised an eyebrow. "Where are you, anyway? Not with the legion. And how are you giving a sending if you don't have a witch with you?"

"I nabbed one of Lady Claryss' helpers. Lovely girl."

Reyn started to turn red. "She's... been listening to everything?"

"As if I'd engage in racy banter in front of an audience. Especially not given the state of undress I'm in. Bloody hell, but I'm embarrassed enough that there's a spirit taking in the things we've been saying to each other. No, the witch locked her spell and went on with her morning. My senior is terribly demanding of her shop girls to have them come in at this hour, especially after the happenings here lately."

"Starra, where are you?"

"Lidya and I are doing important work," Starra said, "I'd rather not give specifics— old habits, you see— but since it's you..."

"Tell me, mon trésor," Reyn pleaded. "If I cannot have you with me, let me know where you are, so I can imagine myself beside you."

"Bloody hell, but I love it when you talk like that."

"Only for you."

"We're in the City of Althandor. I've introduced Lidya to some of my associates, Ambrose's other apprentices. It's been something of a trial getting them to slow down and take a moment for us. From what I gather, they're in the midst of... something big, I would say."

"Difficulties getting your seniors to pay the newest of their number the attention she deserves?"

Starra clucked her tongue. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't remind me that my status is somewhat low in the hierarchy here. More of them than I'd like are distrustful of shifters, given who we fight. I wouldn't be surprised if Ambrose heard protests from all sides when it became known what I was."

"You will overcome any difficulty," Reyn said. "That is who you are, mon trésor. You are a demon slayer."

"Right about now, I feel inclined to remind them all I'm foremost a mage slayer," Starra said petulantly. "Bloody elitists. Here I am with Lidya, a proverbial drinking glass pressed against the chamber door of the old masters, and I can't get a one of them to join me in listening in."

Reyn looked around her at the gray stone of the dried up lakebed. If she was going to have time before sunrise, she'd better get started.

Starra made a disgruntled sound. "Drat. I'd recognize that screeching from across the spire. Lady Claryss has returned home, and I daresay she's worked up over something. I'd best get my knickers on and see what's riling her."

"I should go as well. Goodbye, Lady Starra."

"Goodbye, First Minister. I... I love you."

Reyn grinned from ear to ear. She adored how timid Starra grew when she proclaimed her feelings. "I love you, too. Until we speak again, mon trésor."

"Drat. Feels wrong to leave this spirit hanging until I can get that poor girl to unlock the spell."

"Please, be quick about it. I'd rather not have every word I say echoing into an empty room on the other side of the Continent."

"Err... yes. That may be a security issue we can't afford. Off I go."

Reyn heard the echoing sound of footsteps followed by the shutting of a door. She sighed and made a mental note to not say anything incriminating until she felt the loitering spirit disappear.

Sendings are terribly inconvenient spells, Reyn decided, and she didn't care if that was one of the more wrong things she'd ever thought.

Reyn set to work measuring out a span of the lakebed with her paces. Around the time she'd measured out a large parcel, a new voice— a young woman's— arrived through the sending.

"Excuse me, is someone there?"

Reyn blinked. "Yes?"

The voice took on a hard edge. "You're the luckiest blustering woman in the world. I hope you know that."

The sending promptly vanished.

Reyn hummed. She supposed she was.

A simple mental calculation provided Reyn with the center of her little stretch of lakebed. Carefully placing her steps to reach it, she bent down and pressed the geocryst against the stone.

All her studies into spellcraft and arcane theory flew out the window when it came to elder magic. Her understanding of imprints and essences didn't seem to matter so far as this was concerned. The geocryst merged with the rock of the ancient lakebed, and the ground began to tremble. Reyn took several hasty steps back.

She'd seen geomancy before. Darian had demonstrated it to her in Rosewater back when she was still mooning over the handsome, exiled prince. To woo her, Darian took Reyn to a secluded spot out beyond the village and showed her a marvel she'd never dreamed of before.

Now, as it had then, seeing it left her breathless. Geomancy was beautiful.

The ancient lakebed moved as if it were alive. Stone rose and sank like the undulation of waves on the sea, forming itself into new shapes born from Darian's imagination. A layer of sand formed over the stone that then darkened as it became soil. Green shoots rose from the rich earth, becoming grass, peonies, tulips, and a lone poplar tree. Bubbling from the center where Reyn had pressed the geocryst, water fountained up out of the ground and into the forming basin.

It took moments, and Reyn found herself wishing that the magic would work a little slower. She watched the recreation of the land as if she were a timeless god observing the passing of aeons, and it was over before she truly felt as if she'd given it the appreciation it deserved.

Reyn now stood on the shore of a small lake. It was little more than five hundred paces wide, but it was more water than could be found anywhere else in the desert. Her feet were buried in soft, cool grass, and she could smell the purity of the water. She breathed in deeply and tasted the scent of flowers.

Out of the desolate wasteland of the Espalla Dunes, Darian's magic wove a new tapestry. For the first time in six hundred years, this corner of the world knew life.

It was a wondrous elder magic. The geomancers of House Teranor carved Drok Moran out of the stones of their mountain with this gift. Their power transformed a rocky canyon into the fertile Moran Valley. More than any other kingdom, Nadia had been born of elder magic. For the price of a few gemstones, the Teranors sculpted a new world.

Feeling abruptly cynical, Reyn wondered how much of Nadia's material wealth came of past kings having the foresight to work gold and silver into their geocrysts. It was probable that Cathis dooming House Teranor also spelled the end of future production in the Five Kingdoms' wealthiest nation.

Cathis truly is a shortsighted king, Reyn lamented. He'd have been better served by killing the head of house and keeping the heirs as hostages to be raised as loyal vassals. The Courtesans would have lost the figurehead they rallied behind, and Old Fen wouldn't stagnate on the throne if it was always meant to go back to Darian someday.

It was an uncomfortable realization, but if Maya was willing to set aside prejudice in preference for strengthening the Five Kingdoms, she truly would become a better monarch than Cathis could ever hope to be.

None of that, Reyn chastised herself. No more thought of politics. The rest of this night is just for me.

She removed her smallclothes and took in a deep Breath. Unclothed save for her amulet, she dove into the water.

Her natural form came without thinking. Reyn felt her face and body revert to what she'd been born as. Legs gave way to a tail, skin changed from fair to gray, and small expanses of webbing spanned between her fingers.

Reyn reveled in it. She felt as if the water permeated through her skin down to her bones. Every inch of her absorbed the moisture as if it hadn't been wet in years. She swam further in and deeper, surprised by how deep Darian had crafted the geocryst, and continued downward until she could feel the weight of the water above her. Reyn let her hands glide upon the new lakebed, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake, as she swam still deeper.

At last, Reyn reached the center of the lake. At its deepest point, she turned onto her back and lay at the bottom. Stretching her arms out wide, Reyn smiled as she looked up at the surface. Moonlight danced high above her, casting glowing ripples over the length of her.

How wonderful it would've been to have an even larger body of water to swim in. Reyn could have sighed for how much she yearned to feel the near-crushing depths she'd known back home. This magic-born lake was a precious gift, but even it couldn't compare to the waters she'd been raised in.

Gods, but Reyn would even like another swim in the ocean. Far too much salt there, because it did something awful to her skin and caused a rash if she stayed in too long, but at least it was deep. There was also something mysterious about the ocean. Distant songs reached her from far out beyond the horizon. Some were surely the calls of those great, enormous beasts called whales, but others had a deeper— more primal— sensation to them. When Reyn first heard those enigmatic songs, ones she felt almost able to understand, she'd felt them pull at the core of her being.

Perhaps those were the calls of more ancient selkies, those with less human blood in their veins. It was possible that far out and beneath the waves, there were still proteurim empires in the world.

Reyn didn't like those notions, nor how they awakened deep desires she wished would stay dormant. Still, the allure of the abyss was undeniable, and pretending it wasn't there would only lead to complacency. Perhaps the old masters' stirring included an attempt to lure their wayward children back into their service, but Reyn would never let that happen.

She kicked off from the lakebed and swam harder. Her tail hammered against the water, speeding her along faster and faster until the rush through the lake forced her eyes closed. Unable to see, Reyn opened her mouth and crooned a note from deep inside her chest, using the echoes to guide her way.

Darian had outdone himself. She swam through a forest of reedy weeds growing out from the bottom. She passed under stone arches and through long tunnels in the stone. It was like Darian had imagined the sort of aquatic landscape a selkie would most enjoy a frolic in, and he'd placed it into the paradise he'd crafted especially for her.

It became difficult to remember why she'd tried so hard to hate him.

Then she remembered the paperworks. Ham, lying dead on his office floor. Gaspard and Maxime, slaughtered in the dormitories by Elise as they tried to flee. Louis, burned alive by Garret's spellfire on the work floor. Nataan, left alone in Irdruin where he'd likely never learn why his cell stopped returning his letters.

Reyn gasped, and her Breath escaped from her lungs into the water. She kicked hard, climbing upwards. She breached into the open air with a loud splash and pulled in a desperate lungful. Panting, Reyn lay on her back and floated on the surface . She covered her face with her hands and did her best not to cry.

Her best wasn't good enough.

They'd been her friends. They'd been the only family she'd had left. Reyn killed them just as much as Garret and Elise had. Because she told Darian their secret.

Reyn didn't only cry because she missed them. She cried because she was angry. At Garret, at Elise, and at Darian, but mostly at herself. She should've known better. She should've been wiser with who she put her faith in. Unfortunately, she'd been the same then as she still was now.

She was a foolish girl who loved too readily.

With difficulty, Reyn took control of her weeping. She gave a weak kick of her tail to send her back towards the shore. It no longer felt right to enjoy herself in this lake. The gift was spoiled by who'd given it.

Reyn pulled herself out of the water and onto a broad and flat rock platform. With a scowl, she decided that Darian had put this here for this exact reason. Maybe he liked to imagine Reyn reclining on it as she sunned herself.

Well, the joke was on him. The sun wasn't even out. Furthermore, selkies didn't sun themselves. That was no more than a foolish myth born from the perverse minds of sexually repressed mortals.

On second thought, it could have felt nice after a long time spent in cold water.

Reyn shook her head to clear it. No, she was angry, and she wasn't about to admit to making hasty claims due to being upset. She sat with her tail folded underneath her and started wringing the lake water from her hair.

"Winds and storms, you really got more going on than the legs."

Reyn yelped in fright.

With her blue eyes glowing dimly in the twilight and holding up her palms, Josy wore a contrite look as she approached Reyn's rock. "Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you."

"Duchess," Reyn said, crossing her arms to cover herself. "What are..."

She trailed off when she noted how Josy's eyes were tracing down the length of her tail.

"Weird."

"I beg your pardon, weird?"

"I, err..." Josy blushed. "I mean, unexpected."

"Did you somehow miss the revelation that I'm a selkie?"

Josy shook her head rapidly. "No, no, I heard. I heard. It's just I always thought selkie tails would be like a fish. Not like a..."

"A seal?"

Josy smirked. "I was gonna say a walrus, but sure."

Reyn's jaw dropped in utter, insulted shock.

"Or a manatee. Whatever floats your boat."

Reyn's hands quested about her for a stone to hurl.

Before Reyn could locate a suitable hucking stone, Josy pulled herself up onto the rock and plopped down beside Reyn. She ran her hand through her close-cropped hair as if still not used to it being so short.

"So, what's all this?" Josy asked, gesturing towards the lake. "Your doing?"

It seemed that Darian hadn't included loose rocks in his geocryst. Josy was spared the stoning she richly deserved for her remarks. Reyn turned so her back was to Josy and resumed wringing her hair out. "No sigils I know of could replicate this. I used the geocryst Darian gave me."

Josy whistled in appreciation. "Geomancy. Helluva thing."

"I never brought it up before, but you are not very refined for a royal, are you?"

She shrugged. "Maybe. You're a little too refined for a commoner."

"Attitudes like that are precisely why I try to be."

Josy rolled her neck to look at her and got a wide, irritating grin.

In the sky above, the stars began fading into the coming dawn. Sunrise was not far off.

"What brings you?" Reyn asked, discomforted.

"Felt some really strange spell echoes. Thought it might be trouble. Turns out it was just you."

"I apologize if I disturbed your rest."

Josy waved the sentiment away. "Nah. I'd just finished my turn standing over the scumbag. I was thinking of catching a few minutes in my bedroll before we head out, but this seems more fun."

Reyn quirked an eyebrow. "Thinking of taking a swim?"

"If you wouldn't mind the company."

"I have tried to puzzle out a notion of your intentions, Josenthorne Algara, but for the life of me, you remain a mystery."

Josy winced. "Don't call me that," she whined.

"What?" Reyn asked brightly. "Josenthorne?"

She stuck out her tongue and mimicked a dry heave. "Winds, but have you ever heard of anyone named 'Josenthorne' before?" She'd hit a high and parodic tone when she said her proper name. "No idea what my parents were thinking when they named me. Tarlus got a good and decent Althandi name, but me? No, give the girl something that makes you think she's a kind of shrub."

Reyn chuckled. "It is a good name, my lady. You might be interested to learn that its roots lie in Old Japaxian."

Josy wrinkled her nose.

"It means 'beauteous fury'," Reyn said. "However, the characters of the Japaxian script could also be read as 'she who commands her anger'."

Oddly, Josy's expression fell. "Sounds about right."

"What do you mean?"

Josy blew out her lips. "I wasn't trained to fight by Aunt Maebh like the others," she said. "Never learned much swordplay. Father trained Tarlus himself. Me..." After her words trailed off, she scooted to the edge of the rock and hung her legs over the side to dangle her feet in the water. "It's not important. It's just I learned to fight different from Jin and Maya. I learned how to get angry and use that anger to focus."

Reyn furrowed her brow. "I do not understand."

"Southrons," Josy said with sudden heat. "My father dumped me in the frozen lands for three years. He told the rest of the house I was sickly and I'd been sent to stay with some foreign surgeons, but I was getting my head beat in every day until I... Until I snapped!"

Reyn felt a chill run down her spine.

"Sometime after I turned thirteen, my trainer beat me harder than he ever did before. He said I was now a woman and needed to do a woman's duty. I wouldn't spread my legs for him, and it pissed him off, so he beat me. Then I snapped. I grabbed the fire poker, and I hit him with it. He didn't die right away, so I kept hitting him with it until someone came and took it from me and said I was ready to start the real training. They said that snapping was how a real warrior fights. No pain, no fear, no remorse. Just you and the fury. Father came back six months later and said I was now the 'fierce berserker' he needed."

"No one questioned it?" Reyn asked quietly. "No one in your house wondered where you learned to fight?"

There was a wry twist at the corner of Josy's mouth. "Not after I pummeled Uncle Gain to earn my spot in his coterie. Father just told them all I was a natural talent."

"Have you told your cousins this?" Reyn whispered.

"Who? Jin and Maya?" She shook her head ruefully. "They wouldn't understand. Jin would probably coddle me, and Maya wouldn't let me near a coterie again. But, where else could someone like me go?"

"You could get help," Reyn suggested gently.

"Help," Josy scoffed. "No one can help me. I don't want help. Just give me something to be angry at. Something that deserves it. That's all the blustering help I need." She looked down into the water. "Father had my fate all picked out from the start. He wanted his berserker, so he named me as one."

Reyn didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Josy muttered. "Tarlus got worse than I ever did."

"There is not a contest for who suffers more," Reyn said. "If we are only able to mourn our pain if no one else has it worse, than there would only ever be one person in the world allowed to acknowledge the wrongs done to them."

Josy snorted. "Sucks to be that guy."

"Indeed. Just as it..." Reyn cleared her throat. "As it... sucks... to be you."

"Maybe you, too. Don't try to hide it. You also got something nasty in your backstory."

"Many nasty things," Reyn said. "Everyone does. Anyone who says otherwise is either lying or just hasn't had it happen to them yet. Nonetheless, just because pain is common does not mean it is inconsequential."

Josy grimaced. "Winds, but you're not very cheery for a mermaid."

"Call me a mermaid again, and you can forget about me letting you swim in my lake."

"Not really feeling up for a swim anymore," Josy said. She swung her feet out of the water and hopped down from the rock. "Another time, Legs. When I'm better company."

"Another time, then." She shifted back to her human appearance and put on her smallclothes when she noticed Josy's hesitant manner. "What is it?"

"I was listening in on some of the Espallans," Josy said. "Practicing my Espallese and everything. The thing is, I heard them talking about you."

"What about me?"

"They're worried. I guess the Espallans don't care if you're a shifter, but they were saying things are different in the Jade Empire."

Reyn looked up at her and felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. "Different how?"

Josy wouldn't look her in the eye. "When the People of Jade find a shifter— there's these scary secret police types called the Gray Lotus Society or something— they burn them."

It became difficult to breathe. Had she already become so used to not having to hide what she was? Reyn recalled the mob that had gathered outside her tent after she was revealed. In the Five Kingdoms, that'd been a mild response. She'd had others who stood for her against those who meant her harm.

That same protection was now a hundred leagues behind her.

"The executor already knows," Reyn said quietly. "She would not have missed the talk about me in the legion."

"Maybe they'll give you a pass," Josy offered. "You're the one the emperor's talking to about getting himself an empress to marry, aren't you? He's not about to stick you in a bonfire and ruin his chances of getting Enfri into bed."

"Those chances are precisely zero already," Reyn said.

"He doesn't have to know that."

"I believe you misunderstand the goal of our mission here."

Josy rolled her eyes. When they came back on Reyn, she nodded in the direction of the ruined Aleesh village the caravan made camp in. "More are going to be getting up with the dawn. If you don't want half the hallah getting an eyeful, we should get back."

Reyn recognized wisdom when she heard it. She let Josy lead the way. If they did come across anyone, Reyn was confident she could hide behind the duchess' broad shoulders long enough to cause a distraction with her amulet and run the rest of the way to her tent.

"Starra tell you about the battle?" Josy asked.

"I beg your pardon. How did you know about it?"

"Got a sending from her a couple hours ago. I don't think she realizes the sun rises later here than it does wherever she is."

"Two hours later." Reyn muttered, but that still didn't explain to her satisfaction why Starra would give a sending to Josy before her.

"Don't read anything into it," Josy said sufferingly. "Obvious what her aim was. She saved the best for last. Winds, don't give me that look. I got no plans to swipe your vampire out from under you."

"Is that so?"

"I said it's so, so it's so." She clucked her tongue. "I might've been... y'know... curious, but one time getting my neck bit was enough for me. From the way Maya was moaning, I thought it'd be more fun, but you just go all woozy and wake up feeling tired."

Reyn frowned. If Josy was being honest about not having a romantic interest in Starra, Reyn's measure of her had been off the mark yet again. "If that is true, why do you behave so strangely where Starra and I are concerned? If not jealousy, then what?"

Josy grimaced.

"Prejudice?" Reyn asked pointedly.

"No," Josy said, defensive. "I don't think those things anymore."

Reyn waited.

"Can we drop it?" Josy said tiredly. "I... don't have the words."

Reyn raised her chin as she searched Josy's face. The duchess appeared pensive, as if she herself was unsure of the reasoning behind her behavior. Reyn supposed, given the terrible things in her past, Josy deserved to be afforded whatever time she needed to sort out her own feelings. As it stood, Reyn wondered how Josy had the strength to continue on at all.

An odd girl, yet remarkable in her own way.

"You owe me nothing, my lady," Reyn said. "Neither an answer or your time. However, should you wish it, I will be here to listen."

Josy chewed her lip. "Nice of you to say, but you've got your own problems around the bend."

"True enough," Reyn said. "Nonetheless, my offer stands."

They came to the Aleesh village, a collection of half-collapsed stone structures that had fared poorly beneath six centuries of sandstorms. The tents had been raised in the shelter between the crumbling homes, and Josy escorted Reyn to hers.

"Thanks, Legs. It's appreciated, but I'd rather leave my issues in the past."

Reyn ducked inside and went to her bags to find something to wear. "If that is your choice, I will say nothing further."

"Yeah," Josy said softly. "Lita says we'll reach World's End Gate at midday. After we get settled on the other side, what say I hide my eyes, you hide your whale tail, we leave the scumbag with the guards, and we find out what they eat in the west?"

Reyn grunted. "There had best be meat on the menu. I am beyond tired of pickled cabbage and barley."

Josy raised an eyebrow. "That a yes?"

"It is," Reyn said with a nod. She'd selected a serviceable outfit. Leggings, sleeveless shirt, and vest. She could wear the duster over it until they entered the Jade Empire, where the sun would hopefully be milder.

"Alright then," Josy said with a measure of satisfaction. "I'll see you after the end of the world."

Reyn wrinkled her nose. There surely was a less ominous way that could've been phrased. She turned and was about to say as much, but Josy had already left. Only then did Reyn comprehend that she'd just been invited to an outing. Many people would consider such an activity as a prelude to courting.

Gods, but I can't figure that girl out, Reyn thought in a huff.