Fresh runs around the basement, gathering up everything that they could possibly need during their travels and at their new destination, leaving only the necessities of what they might need here for the coming days. She doesn’t know how long it will be, but Jubilee is right. They need to be ready this time.

Boxes of magic-crystals, ice-drake scales, snowman eyes, iron-bars, copper-bars, crystal-drakonium, tools, glass weapons. Literally anything that she can get her hands on, that could survive being kept inside of her underwater-inventory, gets thrown into the window. Water splashes out as she hurls the items inside by the fistfuls.

She hates this.

She wants to stay here. She wants to live in this place, together with her friends, forever. They were all becoming really happy, they were becoming safe, they were becoming nourished. Not nourished in body, though that might be true in her case most of all, but nourished in spirit, as all of them have slowly been satiating the inner hunger that has plagued them for so long as individuals. She wants to help the fairies, she doesn’t want to abandon them here to their fates, with only a few dinky tree-houses to keep them safe.

What if they couldn’t find work? What about Veli? Isn’t he going to be heart-broken, after having worked so hard to become a part of their team? It seems unfair to him, most of all, in Fresh’s eyes.

But what can she do?

Of course, the thought of adopting Veli into their party comes to her. But that can’t work. He can’t leave the mountain and it would be a lot to hoist on him, even if the fairies don’t seem to have any preconceptions about witches, if they even know about them to begin with, that is.

She really hates this.

But there is little choice for her in the matter. She’s eternally grateful that her friends saw it the way that they did and that they’re such a supportive, tight-knit family.

Fresh sighs, wiping her sweaty forehead on her sleeve as she stands back upright and looks around the basement.

There’s still the matter of the thing in the water. The crystal that she had made in the midst of her ‘bad night’. There’s still the matter of the body in the chimney. There’s still the matter of the thieves’ guild and her invitation to it, that she has never accepted. Though, in all honesty, she has little desire to accept it to begin with. Are there answers to be had there?

In all likelihood, yes. Maybe even more than she knows.

But Fresh doesn’t care about any answers to any questions about her friends and their nature. She knows everything that she needs to know, this morning was proof enough of that. Fresh makes a mental note, on that matter, to pack Jubilee’s mirror into her inventory before they go.

She frowns, looking at the construction behind herself, the slide which she had spent a whole day making with intricate care, setting up something to make their future easier. Another waste of time. It was like all of the walls she had fixed in their house in the north. In the end, apart from proving her warm intent, it didn’t really mean anything, practically speaking.

Fresh shakes her head, wondering why there’s always trouble wherever she goes. She throws a telescope into her inventory.

By the time the store opens an hour later, a good chunk of the basement has vanished into her menu. Fresh stands upstairs behind the counter, playing with a bottle of coughee, sliding it back and forth over and over.

The others are all still gone and she’s here alone with Veli. Thankfully, business is slow today, being the day before most common people got their pay. She watches him zip around, working himself to the bone as he, even in the empty store, desperately scrubs and polishes and wipes and cleans every little surface, nook and cranny. His arm is finally starting to get better and, while he isn’t able to fully use it yet, he is able to at least hold things with his fingers again, while he works with his other arm.

Jubilee and Basil come back inside.

“Hey guys,” says Fresh, greeting them. Jubilee nods to her and Basil passes with a quiet smile, rubbing her back as she walks by and heads upstairs.

Jubilee snaps their fingers. “Hey!” they call out to Veli. “Come here.” Instantly, Veli zips across the store, landing on the counter next to Jubilee, who is reaching down under it. Using the back of their hand, they gently push Veli to the side and place the ledger down open where he was standing. “I’m only going to explain this once, so pay attention -” starts Jubilee. Fresh stands there, finally opening her coughee. Jubilee explains the basics of book-keeping to Veli, showing them how they write the ledgers and how to document sales and purchases, much to Fresh’s surprise.

Seeing that Jubilee has the store covered, Fresh heads upstairs.

“Hey, Basil?” asks Fresh, looking back downstairs. “What’s going on?” she asks the priestess, who is rummaging through her wardrobe. The enchanted-lantern has apparently escaped from the pantry and is flying after her. Though she seems to simply accept its presence now.

“Just making some future preparations,” replies Fresh’s favorite priestess. “You know what I’m going to miss the most?” she asks.

“Huh? Uh… the balcony?” guesses Fresh.

Basil shakes her head. “The balcony is nice. But what I’m going to miss most is the always hot bath.” Fresh nods in agreement, such a thing is indeed a luxury beyond compare. In the north, the only real bath was present in the adventurers’ guild and going there always brought its own problems with it.

“What’s the east like, Basil?” asks Fresh, stroking the lantern.

“It’s warm, so we’ll need different clothes for sure. These will be far too hot.”

“So it’s a desert, right?”

“Some parts of it. Though the city is in a more lush area. It’s more open.”

Fresh thinks for a moment, scratching her cheek. “Sorry about your planter-boxes, I don’t think we can take them.”

“That’s okay,” replies Basil, shaking her head. “The idea is what matters and besides that, in the east they’ll love the skin cream because of how dry the air is. So I’ll seal them with wax and then you can pack them too.”

Fresh nods.

“What about you?” asks Basil. “What are you going to miss the most?”

Fresh looks around the room. The balcony is certainly her favorite feature of the house, next to the bath. But then her eyes fall to the table. “I’m going to miss having breakfast together everyday at the table.”

“We can still do that somewhere else,” laughs Basil. Fresh isn’t sure why she hadn’t realized this obvious fact before, but hearing it brings her a great deal of relief. Maybe their time in this place is coming to an end, but their time with each other isn’t and in the end, that is what she cares about most.

Delighted, she runs around, accomplishing the rest of her tasks for the day. After another hour, Shamrock returns, covered in twigs and leaves that jut out of his armor from every gap.

“What happened to you?” asks Fresh in a worried tone, picking the sticks out of him.

Shamrock’s chest heaves as he sighs. “I hid. I was followed.”

“Did you manage to hang the houses up?” asks Fresh.

“All of them,” nods Shamrock.

Fresh sighs in relief, plucking out another bunch of leaves. “Nobody saw, right? They’re still a secret? Did they like them? Did they float right? You attached them to the trees, right?” asks Fresh. “Up in the branches where they’re hidden, rig-“ Shamrock stops her, shushing her with a giant metal finger against her mouth. Fresh blinks and then pulls the twig out of his gauntlet.

“It is fine.”

She nods, understanding that he was stopping her from going on another tangent, stopping her from possibly losing herself to her growing panic once again.

Jubilee shoos Veli away, sending him back to the shelves as they close the ledger and place it back underneath the counter. “What was that about?” asks Fresh quietly.

“Business plan,” repeats Jubilee, tapping against the side of their head. “You’re on good terms with the magistrate, right? There’s something I need you to go and talk to him about.”

“But I think he likes you, Jubilee,” replies Fresh.

“Shut up,” snaps Jubilee rolling their eyes and placing their hands on their hips. “Listen. We need to get some final stuff stamped off, so this all doesn’t crash and burn. Work with me here, okay?” asks Jubilee.

Fresh blinks, not sure what’s going on. But it’s rare that Jubilee asks for her help directly. It must be really important. She nods, listening to what they have to say.