We worked out a few more logistics items.

“Thought.” I asked at the end.

“Continue please.” Night gestured for me to get on with it.

“We’re retrieving Commander Julius. We don’t believe he’s in imminent danger, hence Bulwark’s suggestion to build an outpost.”

Bulwark grunted. “More like a Sentinel is harder to replace than a Commander. No offense Artemis.”

Didn’t stop Artemis from trying to throw a number of rocks at Bulwark. Instead of dodging them, he just gave Artemis a withering glare as most of them simply stopped in front of him, and clattered to the floor.

One rock stayed hovering between the two of them, then Artemis threw her hands up in the hair.

“Fine!” She complained as the last rock dropped.

Bulwark smirked.

He wasn’t the second strongest Earth mage in Remus for nothing. Must’ve been some good experience for Artemis.

Ocean coughed.

“We’ve got time to properly outfit me. No need to throw everything we can into the Pegasus and sprint off into the night.”

“What is your proposal?” Night asked.

I shrugged.

“Do it right. Make sure I’ve got the proper gems, a backup supply of four leaf clovers, see if we can make a robust crown of holly, the works. If Julius shows up before we’re done preparing, great. If not? The fae play by entirely different rules.”

Artemis was practically burning a look through my head, and I tossed my hair defiantly. Then fixed a stray lock that wanted to do its own thing. No no, couldn’t have that.

“Everyone here knows proper planning prevents piss poor performance!” Brawling enthusiastically added in.

“Yeah, you’d know all about that wouldn’t you?” Toxic shot back. Brawling had returned from beyond the Dead Zone early, namely due to a lack of properly planning things out. Like making himself a map. He’d spent more time lost than exploring!

“Agreed.” Night said. “I will inform the [Quartermaster] of our needs, and ensure that you are equipped with one of the better sets of gems. Nature, he might need to speak with you if he has difficulty with some of these plants, it is not a common request. Dawn, please spend your time filling as many gems with your panacea skill as you can manage.”

Hunting spoke.

“Please. Those things have made my life significantly easier, and probably saved my life once. Dunno how I ever operated without them.”

I nodded.

“Understood.”

“Are there any other issues at this time?”

We shook our heads. It was practically morning.

“Dismissed. Apologies once again for the hour.” Night’s final words were lost, as we all bailed with full speed out the door.

“Elaine.” Artemis caught up to me, fury in her eyes. I knew what she wanted.

“Artemis. You know properly planning and executing is how we get Julius back and don’t end up dead in a ditch somewhere.”

“Yes, but-”

“But nothing.” I chopped my hand down, amazed that I was back-talking Artemis. Of all the things to happen, this was the most surreal. I had to be in a dream. Me. Backtalking the woman I’d once thought was a goddess. The woman who’d spent two years making me do pushups every time I’d back-talked her during training - after laughing if it had been funny. My idol, my role model, although maybe with less murder. “You heard the conversation. There will be nobody coming after us. Tell me one story - ONE - where someone who went to the fae was viciously harmed.”

“Brrrpt!” Auri didn’t know a lot of stories, but she was firmly in my corner. To her feathery little credit though, she was reading them over my shoulder, trying to get a crash course.

“Stories are rare enough, and that’s true under the weakest definition of harm I know. Popping back out 80 years older, having lost an entire life, is harm plenty. And who knows, maybe the ones the fae decide to eat never make it back. Because they got eaten alive.” Artemis shot back.

“It’s been months. A few extra days to properly execute this is correct. You know this. Come on. Where’s the badass Ranger I know?”

Artemis put both of her hands on my shoulders, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

“You’re right.” She said with an explosive exhalation. “I’m too close to this.”

I grabbed her wrists with my hands.

“Yeah, and I wouldn’t have anyone else at my back.”

“Even with my low level?” She asked with a smirk.

“Low level? Who? Where? I swear, with your experience, you’re just as deadly as I am with a fraction of the power.” I grinned at her, eyes dancing. “I’d take you over any Sentinel, any day of the week. Well, except maybe Night.”

Artemis swatted me for that, but it was good-natured.

“Gear.” She said.

“Gear.” I echoed.

“You’re going heavy, yeah?”

I nodded. I had access to the vast armory of the Sentinels, and I was going to make full use of it.

“I’m going light. Not only do I not have my old gear - I handed it back when I retired - but the details earlier resonated with me. Armor isn’t going to do me any good, and I might as well have the option of turning my tunic inside out.”

“Makes sense.”

She ruffled my hair.

“See you soon, healy-bug. Gotta tell Maximus that I might be gone for some time.”

“See ya!”

I slowly walked home, dreading the conversation I needed to have.

There was a stark contrast between the serious “who are we sending on a mission” atmosphere of the Sentinel’s meeting room, and the slow, lazy, “we’re recovering from one hell of a party” feeling of home.

Except Themis. My poor brother still had guard training, no matter how hungover and sleep deprived he was. My sympathy was limited. He did it to himself and needed to figure out his limits.

I was nervous and tense. Didn’t stop me from grabbing a quick cat nap once I got home. I had enough experience to know how valuable sleep was, and I grabbed sleep at any available moment. Who knew when I’d next get a chance?

I was sitting at the kitchen table when mom and dad woke up. I’d never noticed the grains before. The table had two different types of wood. Some were going the long way, some were going the short way. I don’t know why such a tiny and inconsequential detail was striking me now. Auri was still sleeping off the party, not quite having the stamina to go long.

“Afternoon kiddo!” Dad cheerfully greeted me as he entered, looking around for…

Breakfast was both the right and the wrong word.

He must’ve sensed something was wrong.

“Everything ok? Something happen? Your birthday party not up to snuff? That always sucks.” He snagged two cups of water and sat down at the table as mom came in.

“Mom?”

She sat down at the table, and I took a deep, bracing breath.

“I’ve got another mission.” I started with. Dad took a sip of his drink, silently pushing the other one to mom.

“Ok? I take it this one’s different from normal?”

I bit my lower lip as I nodded.

“Yeah. Fae realm with Artemis. Possibly.”

Mom and dad traded looks.

“Well, if you’re with Artemis, I’m sure it’ll all go fine.” Mom grabbed my hand with hers, giving me a reassuring pat.

“But I could be gone for years!”

More traded looks.

“Elaine… we love you, but we have no illusions about your job. It’s dangerous. You could be gone one morning without ever letting us know or saying goodbye. You’re able to talk with us here, and the place you’re going, while weird, isn’t exactly that dangerous now is it?” Mom said.

“We’re proud of you. I wish you’d taken a safer career, but there’s no putting back broken eggs. I’m not going to try and convince you to do something else. Plus, someone has to keep Artemis safe.”

“Brrpt. Brrrpt.”

I shot Auri a Look, the only suitable response to her trying to be a “wise old bird” at less than six months old. I wasn’t able to keep it up though, and cracked a smile at her antics. She always knew how to make me feel better.

“Ok.” We all got up, and came together in a group hug.

“Love you.” I said.

“Love you too.”

We had a wonderful moment together, before Themis interrupted it.

“Bleargh.” He made gagging noises as he entered the kitchen, seeing all of us together.

I did the only thing appropriate, as a Sentinel, as his older sister.

I flipped him off.

“TAKE ME WITH YOU.” Autumn was grabbing onto my tunic in the marketplace. Artemis had finished her work, and was sticking close with me. Did she think I’d leave without her or something?

“No.” I crossed my arms. “It’s too dangerous.”

Artemis started to have a howling laughing fit in the background, and we both looked over, just in time to see her topple off her stool, onto the ground.

“Bwahahahahahahaha! Elaine, you, you, you’re telling Autumn it’s, ha! Too DANGEROUS. Bwahahahahahahaha! Funniest, funniest damn thing I’ve heard, heard today!” Artemis could barely breathe with how hard she was laughing. We couldn’t talk over her peals of laughter, and Neptune was throwing Artemis all sorts of dirty looks as she drove customers away from his booth.

It took her three tries before she finally was able to control herself.

“Care to explain?” I asked her, getting another spray of barely-contained laughter.

“Ok, ok. Autumn. Are you ready for the funniest story of the year?” Artemis asked my protege, completely cutting me out from the conversation. She was wiping tears from her eyes. I wasn’t sure how much of it was real and how much of it was her putting on a show.

“Yeah!” Autumn had no chill. I sensed I was about to be the butt of Artemis’s joke.

“Ok, so way back when, when Elaine was younger than you are now, she wanted to be a Ranger. I said no, it was too dangerous. She completely and totally ignored me, ran away from home, and look at her now. Now you’re asking her to come on a mission, and she’s doing the exact same thing I did, all without a shred of self-awareness! The circle repeats! Vindication!” Artemis threw her arms up in the air, then started laughing again.

I pouted at her. That wasn’t how I remembered things going down. I had no choice! Plus, this was totally different. I’d say how as soon as I could figure it out.

“Ended up finding Elaine being held prisoner by a bunch of runaway slaves-turned-bandits. Wanna hear?”

“Sure!!” Autumn leaned in.

I groaned and held my head in my hands.

Traitors. I was surrounded by traitors everywhere.

“Neptune?” I asked, hoping for some support from Autumn’s father.

“She’s growing up. Making her own choices.” He said. “Can’t say I approve, but I took some big risks starting out. Risks that I’d tell my teenage self not to take. She’s got this well-reasoned. Bring a variety of small goods. Trade for some fantastical piece of fairy magic. Potentially trade it for hundreds times profit, and if it’s a bust? She’ll get a fantastic class out of it. She’s with you, one of the safest places in the Empire to be. Can’t say I like it, but it is a reasoned decision.”

It really felt like people weren’t taking the fae seriously enough, stories about changelings in cradles and curdled cow’s milk not giving them the proper teeth. I guess not everyone got personalized, one on one warnings from Night on the issue, nor would they quite understand the seriousness of such a warning. I gave Neptune a look, realizing a problem with his argument. A dumb problem, but it sidetracked me somewhat.

“I just told you about it now!”

“And we were there at your birthday party when the guildmaster showed up. Autumn started planning before you even left. She’d hoped you would go, but she’d be going on her own anyways. Leaving the nest and all that.”

“Don’t worry healy-bug! I’m totally fine with her coming along. You coming along saved my bacon last time. The more the merrier I say!” Artemis obliterated a number of walls that I could throw up.

I’m pretty sure I was the only time she’d ever said “it’s too dangerous” in her life. She did have a long cheerful murder streak in her past.

“Brrrpt!” Auri approved of leaving the nest.

Traitors all around me!

I had to admit - only to myself, Autumn would never let me hear the end of it if I said it out loud - that using the fair folk to get a better class wasn’t a terrible idea, and it was worth getting the experience, achievement, and accomplishment for my third class. I had no idea if I’d DO anything with it, but it would be a feather in my cap.

This mission was weird. The strangest part was I was waiting for all my gear to be ready. That never happened. It was always ‘make sure we have as much gear as reasonably possible, and use whatever’s on hand.’ Waiting for the proper equipment was the strangest thing.

It took a week and change to get everything together, mainly because it seemed like all four leaf clovers had fled the country. Happily, that had given me enough time for [The Stars Never Fade] to get off of cooldown again, and I was able to charge a Moonstone for Plato. Early payment on services rendered, just in case. I wanted him around and alive when we came back to keep teaching Auri after all! The [Quartermaster] tried his usual contacts, and when that came up short, we asked the local herbalists and alchemists for a hand. Professional herb harvesters and the like. Figured we might as well get the experts to do the job. The four leaf clovers seemingly vanishing had us all the more determined to get our hands on a few, suspecting fae shenanigans.

We’d set a deadline on the Summer Solstice to go regardless if we’d gotten any or not. Adventurers, of all people, managed to find three the night before the solstice. They’d had to go obscenely far - much further than the [Herbalists] went, and fields of grass and ferns weren’t famous for their valuable plants - and when I mentally worked out the cost-to-time ratio, I realized we’d basically scammed them. Ah well, no great loss, and they’d signed up for it anyways.

I woke up bright and early on the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. I was prepared, and ready to go.

Auri had already done her prepwork - she’d insisted on classing up. Instead of fighting a losing battle and resisting her attempts to class up, I recognized that we were bonded companions - equals - and I gave her my blessing and spent about five minutes guarding her while she classed up.

She’d just gone straight for the biggest, baddest, boomiest Inferno class. No debate, no fuss. Her only complaint was she hadn’t been allowed to burn ALL the flowers, which I interpreted to mean the world of her soul included burning things.

I was not even a little surprised.

I’d spent enough time double and triple-checking my stuff last night that I didn’t feel the need to do it again. I did fully gear up under the gaze of two full moons, just over the horizon, and even when that was all done the sun was barely showing its face. I took some extra time to make sure I looked extra-nice, because who knew? Maybe the fairies judged on appearance. I should put my best foot forward anyways, and at this point, I knew [Companion Bond Between Elaine and Auri] was subtly messing with my thinking.

But like. It wasn’t wrong, which was the worst part.

My hair was short again, but I did weave two of the angel feathers Acquisition gave me into it. My helmet would protect me from most things, but eh. I never knew if they’d help, and they felt nice. My Deception Ring was invisible on my finger again, although for now I wasn’t adjusting my level. Felt too much like a lie.

However, I needed to awkwardly say goodbye to my parents again. After the first tearful goodbye, it had entirely lost its sting.

“Goodbye.”

“Bye!”

“Cheers! Love you! Have a fun trip!”

“Love you too!” I called back.

It was a short walk to the spot where Julius had vanished. Far too short, for the potential size and implications. We were there in a heartbeat, the bright summer mid-morning sun shining down on us. A lovely day, entirely incongruous with the size of what we were doing.

“That’s it.” I pointed to a ring of brightly-colored mushrooms.

“That?” Autumn asked skeptically. “Doesn’t look like much.”

“Neither does Elaine, and she could kill almost anyone in Remus. Plus, mushrooms are poisonous. Shouldn’t you have a rule for that or something? Don’t poison your customers?” Artemis teased Autumn.

“There’s like a dozen rules that apply to mushrooms. Bad business, those. Don’t deal with them at all.” Autumn grumbled back, in the grouchy way she could only manage when not making a ton of money.

I had to agree with her somewhat. It was just another small clearing in the forest, with sunlight filtering in through the trees. A colorful patch of forest, entirely unworthy of the myths and legends that surrounded the fae.

We were also short one four-leaf clover for our party, and Auri was the designated unlucky sod.

“Brrrrpt…”

“You’d just burn it.”

“Brrrpt!”

“No, that doesn’t give it extra powers.”

“Brrrpt?”

“How do I know? It’s obvious!”

“Brrrpt…”

I pinched the bridge of my nose as Autumn laughed. Artemis put a hand on my shoulder.

“If only Auri gave you half the trouble you gave me.” She sighed wistfully.

Why was I going on a mission with these people?

“Last check. Does anyone have any iron on them?” I asked.

“Brrpt.” Auri shook her head furiously, sparks going off every which way.

“No. Did one last check of my gear last night. I got worried about a few things, and I replaced them with conjured stone. Terrible in the long run, but it should last for now.” Artemis said.

“Autumn?”

“All set! I think.”

I remembered how terribly unprepared I was when I first ran away from home, and reminded myself that Autumn was roughly as green as I had been. Possibly more. I had an entire second life of knowledge to give me a hand, while Autumn just knew buying and selling.

“You’ve got no coins with you, right?”

“Right!”

Artemis and I traded looks.

“Not even an emergency coin pouch?” I asked.

“Nothing sewn into the lining of your clothes in case of bandits?” Artemis asked.

I looked at her.

“What? I’ve done it.” Artemis defended herself.

A half-dozen coins later, and we’d shaken out every last bit of iron from Autumn.

I went over myself one last time, from head to toe. All my armor was made out of Noric steel, none of which qualified as Cold Iron.

Helmet. On and secure.

Padded vest? Check.

Laminar chestpiece? On, secure, all straps tightened. It held most of my Arcanite, cleverly melded into the armor on the inside. Nobody could easily see that I had it, but it was there, an easy secondary supply of mana in case I needed it.

My mana pool was large enough now where the Arcanite felt like more of an afterthought, but there wasn’t a reason to NOT bring it. Especially since it was hidden for now, but I could bring it out later to “blind” if needed. I had three emergency Moonstones strategically located in it, all with [Dance with the Heavens]. If I somehow found myself entirely out of mana with my arms chopped off, they were emergency heals.

Leather skort? Snugly on, metal disks tight.

Greaves? Over a pair of thick boots.

Bracers? Filled with gems.

My right bracer was almost all Moonstones, mostly filled with [Mantle of the Stars], with a few more [Dance with the Heavens]. I’d gone almost pure defensive for this trip, reasoning that the stories had the fae almost impossible to fight. I’d aim for defense and healing, trusting that I wouldn’t get into a shooting match.

Plus, like. I had Artemis with me. I was strong, but Artemis was pure lethality shaped as a tough, wiry woman.

My left bracer held my utility gems, courtesy of the [Quartermaster]. [Create Water]. [Gust]. The last [Invisibility with Eyeholes]. [Mana Void]. [Leaf on the Wind]. [Null Presence]. [Rebound]. [Safe Shelter]. [Camouflage]. [Tracks-Be-Gone]. [Tripwire Alarm]. [Muffle] [Wall Buster]. [Curse Breaker]. Around a dozen skills that might save my life.

A shortsword was at my hip. It was nothing special, just a standard-issue legion sword. Dad’s knife was on my other hip, and the prayer mom and dad had made for me was tucked into my chestpiece, right over my heart.

It felt a little jinxy to put it there, given how often I’d been cored like an apple, but it was theoretically the safest place on my body.

I had a heavy backpack on, stuffed full of standard wilderness survival gear, along with a few extra goodies. I’d elected for a tower shield to cover the entire thing, its weight barely noticeable with my strength. A few waterskins - and a couple of juiceskins for Auri! - hung on the sides of my bag, completing the look.

“How did the smallest person here end up being the pack mule?” I complained.

“Brrrrpt!!!”

“You don’t count, you don’t carry anything anyways.”

“BrrrrrrPPTTT!” Auri flitted over to my bag, and tried to carry my waterskin.

“BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPT!” She shrieked, rapidly losing height as the waterskin pulled her down. To her credit, she was trying hard to be helpful, finally being allowed on a mission.

If only effort, grit, and determination was enough.

We didn’t want to risk anything happening to the two of us if things went wrong.

I snatched Auri out of the air before she could cross over into the ring.

“Enough goofing off.” I ordered. “Everyone, hold hands.”

“Brrrpt?”

“Auri, grab onto me, as hard as you can.”

“Brrrpt!”

Auri flew around me a few times as the rest of us grabbed each other’s hands.

“Brrpt?”

“There are no holes in my armor.” I stated matter-of-factly, feeling proud of the fact that I knew it for sure. Hours spent with it.

Auri grabbed onto my shoulder.

“Brrpt brrrrrrrrrrrpt brpt BRPT!” She signaled the charge forward.

Together, we all stepped into the ring.

Nothing happened. Autumn’s shoulders slumped.

“Hmmmm.” Artemis mused out loud. “I don’t think we’ve annoyed them enough to pull us in. Or maybe we don’t have their attention.”

I paled, knowing where Artemis was going with this.

My eyes widened and I opened my mouth to protest, to stop Artemis for insulting the fae in their own territory.

“HEY! You tiny, worthless, magicless GITS! I’ve got more magic in my pinky than you’ve got in your entire body! You’re ugly! Nobody likes you! I’m going to take an iron horseshoe and shove it where the sun don’t shine! I’ve seen beggars in more stylish clothes! Your pranks are uninspired and boring. Yeah, you cowards, come and get me!”

Instead,

I

Got

Speared

And

Jerked

Away

With

Everyone.