Take care of your mother. I’m going after them.

I’m sorry, Ayax. Please, keep your father safe. I love you.

The words echoed in Ayax’s head. They rang like the tolling of church bells. Images flashed in her head. Her mother—wrapped in a blanket that barely covered her bruised and battered body. Her father: bloody, his chest still, spears punched through it.

Ayax got her fingers curling around Robert’s neck. She saw his eyes widen with horror. She didn’t care.

Suddenly, she was flying backward. She clawed at Robert, trying to hurt the bastard. Her parents were loving, amazing, kind and how dare he insult their memory—

“Ayax! Don’t!” Frances begged.

Ayax screamed, struggling against the magic that held her off the ground. “I’m going to kill him!”

Robert rose to his feet, a snarl twisting his lips. “Fuck you!” He whipped out a wand from his jacket.

Ayax suddenly found herself falling. Her rear hit the ground, and she gasped as her tail smashed into the marble floor.

Frances was beside her, wand pointed, screaming a note. Robert’s arm twisted over his shoulder, his cry of pain making Ayax grin.

Except Jeffrey had drawn his wand. His spell, an ugly red bolt was flying toward her cousin.

“Look out!”

Frances was already leaping to the ground, but the bolt scorched over her shoulder, setting her costume’s fairy wings on fire. She rolled over and over, trying to smother her burning wings.

Scrambling to her feet, Ayax drew her costume sword and threw it at Jeffrey, before racing to Frances. Water was cascading down Frances’s head from her wand, dousing the flame which had ruined the back of the dress.

Ayax extended her hand to help Frances up, only to find her cousin’s wand pointing at her.

“Get my mom now!” Frances whipped her wand aside and Ayax flew sideways. The troll yelped and saw a bolt of blue sailing past her. It was from Robert, who was now helping Jeffrey up. Ophelia was nowhere to be seen.

“Go!” The tightness in Frances’s voice spurred Ayax to her feet, and she ran, trying to find amongst the mass of costumed people, Edana Firehand. Everybody was running away, trying to put as much distance from the unofficial, unsanctioned and very much illegal duel that was occurring in front of them.

A duel that Ayax suddenly realized, with a horrified gasp, she had started.

This was what Frances knew. Her life was in danger. There were enemies in front of her. Her back ached, but she had to push forward.

She hadn’t brought her ring, but Frances forced herself to imagine a wall of interweaving magic bricks between herself and her two opponents. In communion with Ivy’s Sting, her song brought that wall to life, a white barrier of shimmering energy.

Robert and Jeffrey’s magic splashed against it, and she felt spikes of pain strike up her arm and into her head. Backing away, Frances fought to keep her concentration, but defence wasn’t serving her well.

Teeth grinding together, Frances fought to keep her barrier up. She didn’t want to kill these two at the ball, but her back stung and her arm was beginning to shake.

She hoped Ayax was going to find her mother soon, or that Edana had seen what was going on.

“What in the Gods…” Oscar muttered.

The adults had sat down at some couches to discuss business, only to be interrupted by screaming guests running from a side of the ballroom. Oscar’s entourage was closing up beside him.

Eleanor glanced at her daughter. “Edana, please tell me that’s a magic staff.”

“Thankfully—down!”

A lance of blue energy spat over the group’s heads, missing by quite a lot, but it made them all duck, eyes narrowed with alarm at the commotion on the other side.

That was when a girl in a farm girl’s costume ran up to them and nearly fell face-first into Eleanor.

“Oh thank whatever the heck is up there. Gramps, I need a wand now!”

Oscar’s shoulders visibly sagged, and his eyes half-closed into a flat stare. “Ophelia, what did you do this time?”

Ophelia ripped off her mask. “It wasn’t me! We ended up meeting Frances and Ayax Windwhistler. They uh, got into an argument with Robert Windstorm and Jeffrey Seaskimmer. Robert said something really dreadful about Ayax’s parents and well she attacked him, and well spells started flying.”

“It’s my fault!”

The adults turned to find Ayax, tears in her eyes. Alexander immediately grabbed his daughter in a hug, and she sunk into his arms, sobbing.

“I… he… he called my parents’ failures. I’ll face whatever punishment you want, but please, you need to save Frances!”

Edana tore her costumed dragon helmet off and charged toward the commotion.

“Edana wait—” Eleanor cursed and ran after her daughter, followed as quickly as she could. Ophelia and Oscar hot on her heels. “Don’t hurt those idiots too badly!”

Edana barely heard her mother. Already bellowing a song to push those running against her out of the way, she ploughed through the mass of panicked guests until she was through them.

A glowing shield shook as two teenage boys hurled spells at them. The sight made Edana see embers crackle at the edge of her vision as her emotions sparked her magic.

“What do you think you are doing to my daughter!”

The eyes of the two boys widened. They took in Edana in her costume, and immediately threw their wands to the ground.

“Please don’t hurt us!” screamed the half-orc boy.

Edana was momentarily tempted to sate the rage she felt, but her stomach curdled at the idea of having to hurt two teenagers.

That and her daughter was sinking to her knees, her eyes screwed shut. The back of her dress blackened ash, exposing reddened skin.

Immediately running to Frances’s side, Edana cast a healing spell that began to take effect as Eleanor and Oscar arrived.

“What the hell happened?” Oscar demanded.

All of the teenagers began to speak at once, but a stronger voice cut over them.

“Clearly the Windwhistlers provoked a fight and my son and his friend defended himself.” A troll woman, middle-aged, costumed as a witch, stalked into view and took Robert Windstorm’s side. She put a protective hand on Robert’s shoulder.

Only, the woman flinched as Eleanor Windwhistler limped into view, practically spitting as she screeched, “Rachel Windstorm I’ve had just enough of your fishshit! Your son insulted Ayax’s parents and threw fire spells at my newest Granddaughter! Or are you selectively blind to Frances’s back?”

“Ayax attacked Robert first,” stammered Jeffrey.

Frances narrowed her eyes. “Robert provoked us several times. She only hit back because he called her father a failure and said her parents “failed to stay alive long enough.””

All eyes snapped back to Robert. He pointed at Frances and retorted, “She threw the first spell.”

“You drew your wand first!” Frances exclaimed.

“Right I’ve heard enough!” Oscar bellowed, quite loudly for someone so diminutive. The half-goblin pointed at Robert with his cane, making the youth stiffen. “You, what the heck were you thinking pulling your wand on a war mage. She could have killed you and then you both decided to escalate the situation?”

A willowy looking orc woman stormed through the crowd to take her side by Jeffrey’s place.

“Oscar what are you doing? Siding with the Windwhistlers—”

“Well, who threw the first insult, hmm? Granddaughter, who threw the first insult?” Oscar demanded.

Ophelia squirmed, pigtails swaying slightly. “Robert did.”

Robert shot Ophelia a dirty look. His mother, Rachel, gave him a reproving frown but continued to stand tall. “I’m sure that he has a good reason to call your newly adopted champions for what they are. A transparent attempt to get an advantage at the Winter Tournament.”

Eleanor bellowed, “Oh fuck you, Rachel! I’m going to—”

“Eleanor! Rachel!” Oscar rapped his cane on the ground. “We’ll discuss reparations in private later, but for the moment, I think it is best we depart the premises.”

“Agreed.” Edana glanced at Eleanor. “Frances needs medical attention. I did my best, but I want to make sure the wound doesn’t scar.”

Frances latched onto her mom’s arm and helped herself up. “Mom I’m fine. I’ve had worse.”

Edana winced but guided her daughter away. Eleanor momentarily looked as if she was going to add another insult, but straightened and turned on her heel. Robert and Jeffrey looked as if they wanted to add another word, but a glare from Oscar made them turn away.

With the groups separated, Ophelia finally approached the half-goblin. “Hey um… Grandad, so uhhh…”

“You best stay away from Robert and Jeffrey for a bit.” Oscar rubbed his forehead. “What a shit parade. I’m glad you came to me, though.”

Ophelia smiled, but her grandfather’s frown wasn’t lessening. If anything he now seemed to be scowling.

“Grandad, what’s wrong?”

Oscar sighed. “I’m just hoping this doesn’t escalate. There’s enough bad blood between the Windwhistlers, Windstorms and Seaskimmers.”

“Frances, does it hurt?” Eleanor asked as the carriage sped them back towards the Windwhistler compound.

Frances shook her head but winced as the carriage ran over a bump and Edana’s legs bounced into her stomach. As to why this was happening, well Frances was lying stomach-first on Edana’s thighs.

Ayax wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and whimpered, “I’m sorry. This is all my fault.”

“It isn’t—ah!” Frances hissed as Edana poured a slimy white cream over her back. Gasping, she screwed her eyes shut.

“Dear, I’m so sorry. But this will prevent it from scarring,” Edana said.

“I know, mom. Thanks—MGGRHGHHH!” Edana, wincing, spread the cream with her fingers and as she put pressure, Frances bit down on the sleeve of her dress to try to stifle her whimpering, but she could see Eleanor, Alexander and Ayax’s eyes widen.

“The Windstorms and Seaskimmers are going to pay for this,” Eleanor muttered, her fingers wrapped white around the end of her cane.

“With all due respect, matriarch, we can’t,” Alexander said glancing at Eleanor. “We have a deal with Oscar, remember?”

Eleanor’s eyes widened and she was silent.

Then she grabbed a pillow, turned into her corner of the carriage and screamed into the cushions a rant of words that made Alexander cover Ayax’s ears and Frances and Edana blush.

“Grandma, it’s not that baaaaaaaaaaaaad—” Frances flinched and grabbed on the hand that Edana offered her, squeezing it hard enough to make Edana wince. “I swear it isn’t. It just hurts.”

Edana squeezed her daughter’s hand. “Frances, dear, I love that you always try to put on a brave face, but you are lying on my lap because it’s too painful for you to sit normally. I think the time for acting like you’re fine has passed.”

Exhaling heavily, Frances let herself go limp across her mother’s legs. But she couldn’t help, but whine, “This sucks.”

“It does,” Edana agreed.

Frances did her best to look up from where she lay. “Alexander, Ayax, can you both please apologize on my behalf to Don for ruining his dress? I loved it, but I don’t think it can be salvaged.”

Alexander waved his hand. “Oh. It’s not your fault, Frances. If you hadn’t acted, Ayax might have been badly hurt.”

Ayax shook her head. “Dad, it’s my fault. I attacked Robert and—”

“Lass can you stop it.” Eleanor met her granddaughter’s black eyes and grabbed her by the shoulders. “You should not have lost control, that is true, but he insulted your parents, whom you still love very much. You caused this, but it’s not your fault. You know what, let’s ask Frances. Frances, do you blame Ayax?”

Frances shook her head. “Why should I? He was bullying you. Speaking of… how did he know who your parents were?” Frances blinked. “How did he know I can’t go home?”

Edana paused in her efforts to spread cream on her daughter’s back, her brow furrowed. “I don’t think he knows the details, Frances. He would have mentioned your parents if he did.”

Frances clasped her mother’s hand. “But then how could he have known that, but not my parents, mom? I mean… nobody who knows would have told anybody.”

“Salpheron does trade with Seaskimmer merchants. It’s possible that some information got out that way,” Eleanor suggested.

“Yes, but not about how she can’t go home,” Edana said.

“It might not be that he knows, it could be a good guess,” Alexander pointed out.

The creak of the carriage’s springs and the rumble of iron-clad wheels against cobblestone were the only sounds as the Windwhistlers pondered this question.

Ayax suddenly straightened and met her cousin’s eyes. “Frances, can you tell us how badly you were hurt by your parents?”

“Why do you need to know?” Frances asked.

“Well, if you arrived in Durannon badly hurt, perhaps people noticed?” Ayax asked.

Frances frowned. “I don’t think anybody did. I know mom didn’t realize until um, she saw some of my bruises.”

Edana nodded. “I’m not sure how you managed to hide it for so long. You were so malnourished and hurt.”

“I… I don’t know either, mom.” Frances winced. “Um, yeah my parents starved me and beat me a lot. I think maybe a few more months and I would have just collapsed. I was really lucky that you found out so quickly and could start helping me get better.”

“How long before you recovered?” Ayax asked.

Mother and daughter exchanged a glance, and Frances signalled Edana with a squeeze of her hand.

“Frances is… actually still recovering.” Edana gently ran a hand through Frances’s hair. “She has to eat a certain amount of food every day and do daily exercises. For about a year when she arrived, I had her on a rather intensive food and training regimen to heal the worst of the damage and malnourishment.”

“Wait, a year? What kind of…” Eleanor spluttered and muttered unintelligibly.

Ayax looked rather sick and Alexander was staring at Frances with newfound respect.

“Wait, Frances, if you were recovering for a year, and clearly on some kind of regimen, someone would have noticed,” Ayax stammered.

“You’re right,” Frances muttered, looking up at Edana. “Most of… well everybody knew I was on a food regimen in Salpheron, and they had plenty of times seeing me do physical therapy. They didn’t ask why, but it wouldn’t be hard for them, or anyone else to guess.”

“This is worrisome. Still, I guess it should be expected they would have done research on you two.” Eleanor’s shark-like grin returned. “At least we’ve also done our research as well. Rest up both of you. We’ll show you what we have on Robert, Jeffrey and Ophelia tomorrow.”

Frances was almost asleep, her consciousness drifting into dreaming when she heard a knock on her door. She groaned, and rolled over, only to wince as her nightdress rubbed against the still tender skin of her back. Thanks to her mother’s ministrations, it’d healed, but it felt like she was being pricked with hot needles.

Groaning, she dragged herself out of bed and yanked her door open.

“Ayax?” she murmured.

Her troll cousin stood in a black nightgown, hands wrung behind her back, tail dragging on the floor. “Frances I’m sorry for waking you, but um…”

“Look, if it’s about today, it’s not your fault. Nobody blames you,” Frances said.

“I know. It’s just… I do.” Ayax’s mouth opened and shut, as if she wanted to say more, only to bow her head.

Frances blinked and gently clapped her cheeks to wake herself up. “Come in.”

She led Ayax into the room, but instead of sitting by the table, Frances laid stomach-first on the bed and patted a spot in front of her. Ayax sat down quietly.

“Why do you feel like it’s your fault?” Frances asked.

Ayax winced and opened her mouth again, only to close it and shrug helplessly. Frances pinched the bridge of her nose. “Ayax, what do you think you should have done differently?”

The troll arched an eyebrow. “Not attack Robert.”

“He insulted your parents, though,” Frances pointed out.

Ayax shook her head. “Should have held my tongue. I got you hurt.”

“He hurt me because he’s an asshole. You had nothing to do with it. You could even argue I got myself hurt because I bent Robert’s arm,” Frances explained.

“You were only trying to protect us—Oh.” Ayax stared at the wall of Frances’s room, eyes wide. “Oh.”

Frances smiled. “So, why do you blame yourself?”

Ayax frowned and continued to stare at a spot on the wall of the room, lost in thought.

Frances simply waited, watching Ayax’s tail sway. It was swaying slower than usual as if reflecting her drowsiness. That gave it an almost… hypnotic movement… she almost wanted to reach out and touch it.

“I… I feel like I failed. Failed my parents, and myself. I could have done better. Should have done better,” Ayax whispered.

“Maybe, but you couldn’t do any better then. So you shouldn’t blame yourself. It’d be like…” Frances shut her eyes. “Like…like how I blame myself for being hurt by my parents.”

Ayax’s eyes whipped over to her cousin. “You still blame yourself?”

“A little.” Frances sighed. “It’s stupid. I feel like I could have done better but I couldn’t have done anything.”

“But it’s not stupid that you feel this way.”

Frances frowned at Ayax. “What do you mean?”

The troll averted her gaze again. “I mean… it’s not stupid that you blame yourself for what your parents did. I mean, the explanation makes some sense, doesn’t it? That this all happened to you because you deserved it.”

“Yeah, but we didn’t deserve this, though,” Frances replied.

Ayax shook her head. “That’s not what I mean. I mean… we’re going to feel this way, right? It’s not… wrong that we feel this way, even if it’s not true.”

Frances blinked. Ayax raised a rather good point that seemed to echo what Edana had told her before. Yes, she shouldn’t blame herself, but there was nothing wrong with the fact she blamed herself. They were… emotions that she felt about a situation out of her control.

It wasn’t a mind-shattering realization, but Frances did feel a little calmer. With that calm, came clarity.

“Ayax, do you think that you should feel guilty about what happened to your parents? she asked.

The troll girl nodded, teeth clenched in anguish.

“Do you mind telling me? You don’t have to—”

“I’ve wanted to do so for some time, but… I don’t want you to tell me it isn’t my fault.” Ayax glared at Frances. “Deal?”

Frances nodded and made herself comfortable as her cousin took a deep breath.

“My father, called Allaniel, and I were on a training trip. He was quite an old troll, long past his prime. He was eager to teach me all he could about magic before he got too old to do so. When we returned to our village, we found it destroyed.” Ayax shut her eyes, shivering. “Our neighbours, my friends, all dead, butchered, or worse. We found my mother—she… they…”

Frances shuffled over and embraced her cousin, letting Ayax bury her face into her shoulder. There were no tears yet, but the troll’s eyes were wet and she was shaking with grief, or fury, Frances couldn’t quite tell.

“My mom was barely alive. We knew immediately what had happened. My father embraced her briefly, covered her with a blanket and told me to take care of her. I promised him I would and he went off after the Raiders. I… I did everything I could. I used what healing spells I knew, I cleaned and bandaged her. It wasn’t enough. She died within the hour, but before she did, she told me to go and save my father. She ordered me to leave her, but I didn’t listen. I… I didn’t listen.”

Ayax was crying now, tears soaking Frances’s nightgown, but that only made her hang on tighter to her cousin, and rock her slowly. She didn’t say anything, she didn’t want to interrupt Ayax now, but she was so sorely tempted, she had to bite her lip.

“I raced to where my father was. He was fighting. He’d caught up with the raiders. There were so many of them. I threw what spells I could, helping him, protecting him. Only… I failed. I missed it. I missed one spell, and he got stabbed. That brought him down, and the others fell on him. I don’t know how, but he killed them too. Only… he was dying. I killed the last raider, but it was too late. He… was dead. I… I failed him, I failed my mother. I couldn’t take care of them. I couldn’t save them.”

Frances sniffled, feeling her own eyes moisten as she grasped if only by a little, the burden, and the shame Ayax felt. She suddenly understood why Ayax had attacked Robert. It… didn’t make sense, and yet, it did. Of course, her cousin blamed herself for what happened. It wasn’t right, but it seemed almost logical that Ayax would blame herself.

Frances swallowed and bit back the words she dearly wanted to say. She buried the desire to tell her cousin that “it wasn’t your fault.” She so badly wanted to tell her cousin that, but as it was, Ayax wasn’t ready to accept those words.

“What can I do?” Frances asked instead.

Ayax sniffled, and pulled back slightly, wiping her eyes. “I… just be there. Please?”

Frances nodded fervently. “For as long as I can.”

“Are you sure?” The troll averted her gaze. “I… I have nothing to give you.”

“I had nothing to give Edana, and she saved me. Besides… ” Frances lifted Ayax’s chin and smiled. “We’re family aren’t we?”

Ayax snorted, but to Frances’s relief and joy, a ghost of a smile returned to the troll’s face.

“Aren’t they the cutest?” Edana crooned.

Eleanor arched an eyebrow as she peaked into Frances’s room with her daughter. Ayax and Frances were both sleeping, but this time on the same bed. Both slumbering quietly.

“It is quite cute,” Eleanor admitted, closing the door quietly. “So, I bet you are wondering why I asked to meet you so early.”

Edana felt her eyes narrow. “A little, though, I assume it’s Winter Tournament related?”

“No. It’s related to the war, and…” Eleanor grasped her cane with both hands. “Edana, I need you to do me a favour.”

Edana instantly straightened and struggled not to let her lips twist into a scowl. “A favour. I think you know very well my thoughts on doing favours for you.”

Eleanor’s expression didn’t change and she hissed, “Let me explain.”

“I don’t need you to explain the answer is—”

“If you don’t, Erlenberg will be overrun by Alavaria,” Eleanor stated.

Edana’s eyes widened. “I’m listening.”