Frances didn’t remember falling asleep after Timur had left, but when she opened her eyes, she was lying on a bed, and something warm was touching her forehead.

Her eyes fluttering open, she saw a white sleeve quickly pulling back. Blinking, Frances relaxed and smiled.

“Hi, Master Edana.”

“Frances…” Edana, eyes wet, smiled too. She reached out, and after Frances gave a quick nod, she grabbed her in a tight embrace.

It’d been a long time since she’d seen her mentor, but the warm touch of her arms, the smell of her hair, all came flooding back to Frances’s memories as she also hugged her teacher.

“I’m sorry I scared you.” Frances swallowed. She knew how close she’d come to dying, to returning home. “I… did Martin and Elizabeth tell you what happened?”

“Yes. You were very brave. But please, don’t do that again.” Edana’s voice croaked, and her grip on Frances tightened. “I nearly lost you.”

Frances closed her eyes, relieved that she was still here, in Durannon and not back on Earth. “I’m sorry. I… I didn’t know what else to do.”

“I know. Just… your life is no less valuable than anybody else’s. Please remember that.”

“Oh. I know, Edana.”

The archmage frowned and pulled back slightly out of the embrace, her green eyes wide. “Oh. So you do. When did you realize this, Frances?”

Frances pursed her lips and thought back to her time in the storage room, tied up, alone, and with only her dark thoughts for company. “There… there was a moment when I was kidnapped that it just… came to me. All that you’ve told and done for me, all I’ve done, everything that my friends have tried to tell me. I knew you were all right, but yesterday it sunk in. I know sometimes I’ll feel like I don’t deserve to be happy, that I’m broken. Maybe I’m not completely normal, but… thanks to you—everyone, I know that I deserve help, I deserve to be happy. And if I deserve to be happy like everybody else, then I can be happy.”

Edana stared at her student, wondering where the broken-hearted, fractured girl she’d met two years ago had gone. She did see a certain sad resignation in her student, but there was a new strength, and a new hope.

“That’s…” She sniffled and wiped her eyes with the corner of her sleeve. “That’s amazing. I’m so proud of you.”

Frances beamed with pride and leaned into her mentor, resting her head against her teacher’s cheek. They held each other for a good long time, comforting each other with their presence.

It was Edana who took a deep breath and gently extricated herself from Frances’s embrace. She walked over to the bag she’d been carrying and reached into it.

“There’s… something I want to ask you about, Frances,” Edana said in a quiet, fragile voice, not turning around.

Frances nodded, but didn’t say anything. Whatever it was, it sounded like something important. She felt she should let Edana finish.

When Edana did turn around, she was holding onto a scroll of paper, which she passed to her student. Frances unrolled the paper slowly, but didn’t start reading as Edana spoke.

“I’ve been wanting to ask you this for a while, but I was afraid.” Edana sat down on the bed beside Frances and sighed. “Yesterday’s events made me realize that if I don’t ask you now, I might regret this forever. These are… well, take a look.”

Frances nodded. As her eyes ran down the page, the world seemed to slow, and finally come to a halt.

She couldn’t believe it, but she knew the paper in her hand was real. These…

“Are these… adoption papers? But these would make me your daughter,” Frances whispered.

Edana nodded. “Yes, and before you say yes or no. I would like you to take a day to think about this and ask me any questions you may have.”

Frances looked up at her mentor, about to tell her teacher that yes. This was what she wanted. It would make her beyond happy to have Edana, the teacher she loved, who loved her, like her mother.

But her mentor pressed a finger to her lips. “I know you want to tell me, my dear student, but this is not a decision that should be made lightly. You’re tired, and I haven’t told you everything about my past.” Edana suddenly looked extremely reluctant to speak, but she said, “And you… you may not want another mother. I understand that. I want you to know that if you do say no, I still will love you just as dearly.”

Frances nodded. She may not see why Edana wanted to give her a day, but she appreciated it nonetheless. Putting the paper down, she embraced her teacher again.

“Thank you. For everything. And… if I say no. It won’t be because I don’t love you.”

Edana felt relief flood her chest and she squeezed her student. She knew in her heart her student would still love her, even if she said no, but it set her mind at ease that Frances would tell her that.

“Thank you, Frances.” Letting go of her student, Edana made herself comfortable. “So, is there anything you would like to know about my family?”

Frances gave a moment’s thought. “You mentioned that you were from Erlenberg, and that your family name is Windwhistler. I know you don’t get along with your mother, but I was wondering if you can talk about your other family?”

Edana whistled and leaned back against the headboard. “Oh boy, starting with the hard questions, Frances?”

“If I want to be adopted, I want to know whose family I’m joining, right?” Frances replied cheerfully.

Edana laughed. “A very good idea. Well…”

Edana left after more than an hour of non-stop conversation. They’d talked about nothing, and everything. Edana wanted to know about her student’s adventures and Frances was learning more about her teacher’s family than she ever dreamed of.

But after an hour, Edana told her student that she needed to leave to oversee the investigation into how Selena had come into contact with the Fae-kin agents. She hadn’t left Frances alone, however.

As soon as the mage had left, Martin barrelled into the room and grabbed Frances in a hug that made her arms hurt. “Don’t you fucking do that again! Just… Amura and Rathon what were you thinking?”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t want you to die!” Frances spluttered.

“I know, but dammit Frances.” Martin fell silent, but it was a good while before he let and silently took a seat on the chair by her bed.

It was only after he sat down that Elizabeth approached and sat down as well, but on the bed.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“I feel good.” Frances touched the spot on her neck where the cut had been and winced. The spot still tingled, an aftereffect of the healing and the trauma of the wound. “I’m sorry for worrying you.”

“Yeah, though. That’s not exactly why I’m worried.” Elizabeth steepled her fingers. “Frances, you can’t value your life less than ours. Your life is important too.”

She didn’t quite understand what her friend was saying, and frowned. “What do you—Oh! No, that… that wasn’t why I tried to break out of the hold. I just knew that well, if I didn’t, Martin would die. I might be sent home, but I’d still be alive.”

Elizabeth stared at Frances and stammered, “Wait, you weren’t trying to do some crazy self-sacrifice because you thought you were worth less than us?”

“No. I mean, I know why you think that way, but I… I think I’m getting better in that area, Elizabeth. Thanks to you and Martin.” Frances reached out and took her friends' hands. “I’m a really lucky girl to have friends who care so much about me.”

Elizabeth sniffled and had to wipe her eyes, whilst Martin squeezed Frances’s hand tightly.

“Which reminds me. I need to tell you both something amazing!” Frances almost squealed her words out and she needed to take a breath to calm her excitement. “Edana said she wants to adopt me!”

“Amura and Rathon, that’s fantastic!” Martin crowed.

“Congratulations!” Elizabeth exclaimed.

“I know! She’s going to be my mom. My real mom. I mean, I can barely believe it!” Yet, for some reason, Frances suddenly found it slightly harder to smile.

“I bet. You’re going to have a family in Durannon. Have a parent that cares about you,” Martin mused. “I mean, I suppose it won’t be that different. Edana does care about you and does her best to raise you.”

“But it is that different, Martin. She’ll be family to you, right, Frances?” As Elizabeth turned, she realized the smaller girl was sitting still, eyes wide.

The weight of Edana’s offer of adoption was finally beginning to sink in. Yes, like Martin said, much would stay the same. However, like Elizabeth pointed out, the very nature of their relationship would be forever altered.

Did Frances want what Edana offered? Yes. But now she wasn’t exactly sure what Edana was offering, and she suspected that her teacher also wasn’t sure. It had apparently taken some time before Edana had voiced her offer. Now that Frances thought about it, the… weight of this offer also explained why her mentor had asked her to think about it.

A hand shaking her shoulder—Elizabeth’s—woke Frances from her thoughts. “Sorry, Elizabeth. I… I was just realizing you’re right. Well, you’re both right. I just realized that I really do have to think about this.”

“I am sure Edana will give you all the time you need if you ask her for it,” Martin said.

Frances nodded, but she did want to give an answer to her master as soon as she could. If only she actually knew what being a daughter, and having a mother was like. She knew Edana loved her like a daughter, she’d told her as much, and she did see her teacher as a mother figure. Yet, they weren’t mother and daughter, that much was true.

Wait a moment.

“Martin, Elizabeth, what is it like having a mom and well, being part of a family?” Frances asked.

The knight smiled and looked beside himself with glee. “Well, being in a family is like being part of something bigger. You aren’t all exactly working to the same goal, but you all want to help each other be happy and help your family to succeed. Like, I want to help my family while my sister, Maria, is fighting in Roranoak.”

“I see. Is she doing alright by the way?” Frances asked.

Martin didn’t reply to her immediately. His smile had suddenly faded.

“Martin? What’s wrong?” Frances asked.

“It’s nothing. Just… Look, having a family is amazing, Frances. You always feel supported and have someone to talk to and that kind of support is amazing—”

“Except when you don’t.” The tone of Elizabeth’s voice was melancholic and yet, nostalgic at the same time. “Martin, have you at least talked to your parents about… what we found out from Selena?”

“We debriefed and well, I think I’ll be fine. Well…” Martin sighed. “Okay I haven’t talked to them about it. I don’t feel like I should bad mouth my sister when she’s doing her best.”

“But… wouldn’t your mothers listen to you?” Frances asked.

The awkward splutter Martin made would be quite funny if the topic wasn’t so serious.

“They will. I just don’t know how to tell them.” The knight sighed. “The funny thing about families is that it can be really easy to tell them things but also really hard. They miss Maria a lot. I don’t know if they want to talk about how she might have failed those under her command.”

Confusing and rather contradictory, was Frances’s initial thoughts on what Martin was saying. Yet, she felt like she did understand what her friend meant. She was comfortable telling Edana many things, but there had been a time when she wasn’t so open with her teacher, and scared of how she would respond. It was why she had wanted to protect Timur that night. She knew Edana would never hurt Timur without good cause, but she also knew her teacher was very protective.

“Families are complicated, Frances. And even in a loving family we can hurt each other.” Elizabeth looked away. “My parents are Catholic, but although they love me, for a long time they were on really bad terms with each other. We still all live together, but they’ve said some really mean things to each other and to me.”

Something of their suspicions must have shown on Frances’s and Martin’s face because Elizabeth immediately raised her hands. “No nothing like that. They were really trying to hurt each other and as their only child, I got caught in the crossfire. My grandmothers and grandfathers put a stop to that and we all get along much better now. I just wanted to let you know Frances that being part of a family even when we all love each other, we can still hurt each other.”

“And because you still love them, you still miss them?” Frances asked.

“Yes.” The forlorn smile Elizabeth wore spoke volumes on how she felt. “I’m just glad that I’m going to return to the moment we left.”

The aching sadness that had started yesterday’s chain of events returned with a vengeance. Frances swallowed, and forced herself to nod.

“I’ll be happy for you when you do go back, Elizabeth.” Frances was being honest, at least mostly so. She didn’t want her friend to be apart from those that she loved.

That didn’t stop the truth from hurting.

Elizabeth frowned and slowly, the realization spread across her features like a drop of ink blackening the water in a bowl. “We… we’ll still have time to spend together. It’ll be some time before we win the war.”

Martin nodded, though, he looked close to crying himself.

“I… I suppose all we can do is enjoy the days as they come,” Martin said. He took a deep breath and forced a smile to his face. “Amura and Rathon, this conversation took a dark path.”

“It did!” Frances sniffled-giggled, she couldn’t quite tell. “By the way, did you bring me any food? I’m starving.”

Her two friends, glad to step away from the topic both agreed to fetch her something to eat.

When they returned Frances’s eyelids shot up almost into her bangs.

“Martin, I can see a lovely ham on bone and some nice vegetables, but what are those?” she demanded, pointing at an utter abomination. It was a pile of blackened dark brown sticks shrivelled by fire into toothpicks, mixed with blocks of orange Dale-brick soaked with so much oil you could set fire to them.

The stocky boy coughed. “The cook’s attempt at fries.”

Frances wasn’t normally one to think badly of someone’s honest attempt, but she couldn’t help wonder what kind of alcoholic beverage the cooks were obviously drenched in to produce this.

“Why fries?” she asked in a weak voice.

Elizabeth looked rather sheepish, as if the cooks’ embarrassment had leaked onto her. “They wanted to get your opinion on it. The story of you turning Dale-bricks into fries has been spreading around Erisdale and the castle cooks did their best to try to get it right, but they didn’t have your recipe. The Salpheron cooks apparently have been incredibly secretive.”

Taking a deep breath, Frances carefully cut a slice from one of the oily bricks, took a bite, and had to resist the temptation to spit it out.

She didn’t want to waste food. She’d eaten far worse. But…it was oily, mushy, and tasted raw. Frances slowly dropped the chewed remnants of the “fry” from her mouth onto the plate. She felt incredibly guilty about it. She’d always eaten everything on her plate, no matter what. Food was valuable… but this was her limit.

“Sorry, this is disgusting.” Frances washed the foul taste down her mouth with a glass of water, her jaw set. “I need to talk to your cooks about this. Don’t worry about Salpheron’s cooks. Fries should not be monopolised.”

“Amen to that,” Elizabeth muttered, eyes wide at the intensity in her friend’s voice.

Martin swallowed. Woe be to his castle’s cooks. On the other hand, at least he was going to have good fries in the future.

One day later…

Edana was incredibly nervous about what might happen today, so she did her best to distract herself with work.

After her morning magic practice (for even she needed to keep her skills sharp) she entered the suite Countess Esther had prepared for her to find Frances sitting quietly by the couch by the coffee table in the room.

Frances smiled. “Hi, Master. I’ve made my choice.”

Edana found herself incredibly conscious of how she smelt very ashy from the target practice she’d been doing. Brushing some soot off of her clothing, she nodded. “Oh, um. That’s good. Do you mind giving me a moment to change, Frances?”

“Oh of course. I’ll prepare some tea then.”

“Thank you,” Edana managed, before she scurried away into her bedroom and shut the door behind her.

As she rummaged through the travelling chest she’d brought with her, the mage did her best to try to wrestle with her nervousness. It wasn’t overwhelming, but she felt very uneasy. Her student’s answer today could mean the best thing in her life.

It also hopefully would start a new chapter in her life. She believed she was prepared for it, but there was that hint of doubt.

Most of all, though, Edana wanted this.

As she put on a loose blue dress, she thought back to the moment she realized she wanted to adopt Frances.

It was around the time that Frances turned fifteen and had her birthday party. Edana knew she’d harbored maternal feelings for her student for longer than that, but it was seeing her student so joyful during the birthday celebrations that had made her realize she wanted to be her mother. Even now, she wasn’t sure exactly what taking care of her student actually gave her. For all her other proteges and apprentices, she’d felt like she was assuaging some of the guilt that she carried from the Lapanterian war, doing some good in spreading her knowledge of magic to those that could help others.

With Frances, she did feel like that, but even more so. With Frances, Edana felt like she could tell her everything and teach her all she knew. Pass down her knowledge and lessons to someone who would do the same for someone else in the future. Someone whose story would become part of her legacy.

That… that was a big part of it. Edana knew that she was possibly—no, probably biased when it came to Frances, but she suspected that as the war would continue, her student would become an increasingly important part of it. Would she be a leader? War mage? Or perhaps a symbol? Edana could only speculate at this point, but she felt that by adopting Frances, she could best prepare and help her for what came next.

There was another significant factor motivating Edana to adopt Frances. She felt it now as she stepped out of her room to find steam rising from a teapot on the table, and her student, sitting down on the couch.

Frances had the adoption paper in her hand and she’d signed on the line. She held out the paper to Edana, who stood there, eyes wide.

“I thought about it, how big this is and how this changes things, but I want you to be my mother, Edana. Regardless of what might happen. Because… because I love you and I know you love me.”

Her eyes blurring with tears, Edana sat down beside her daughter and embraced her.

“Thank you, Frances.” She was crying, Frances was crying. They were getting tears all over each other. But that didn’t matter. Despite the war, despite her own mistakes and regrets, everything just felt perfect, like it always should have been.