“Oh, Cassidy! Thank God!” Shakira practically flew from her horse to envelop Cassidy in a hug. “When I heard you got involved with Cheimals… I thought you were gone for good.”

Cassidy was working to pry Shakira’s arms off. “Yeah, thanks for warning me about them by the way.”

Shakira just tightened her arms all the more and nearly sobbed into her shoulder. “They’re all socialites! What was Tremaine even doing in that dungeon?”

Cassidy just renewed her efforts. “You mean driving me insane? I don’t now, he seemed pretty determined about something though.” Shakira finally let go.

“I’m so glad your safe! Tremaine—” She cut off as she caught a glimpse of the woman behind Cassidy.

Finally free, Cassidy stepped back and gave introductions. “Alera, this is my friend Shakira from the Northern City. Shakira this is my new acquaintance—” Shakira glanced back to her at the labeling.”—Alera, another Initiate.

Alera stepped forward with her graceful demeanor and gave Shakira her quiet little smile. Shakira frowned at this. “Hello Shakira, it’s nice to meet you.”

Shakira plastered a smile across her face and stepped forward to offer her hand. “And to meet you. Please call me Adal.”

Alera wasn’t fazed. She just nodded and returned the handshake with an elegant dip of her arm. Cassidy figured it must all come from her Dancing Skill Set.

Shakira spoke to Cassidy. “Your new acquaintance seems oddly…” Soft? Delicate? “Composed for a trip this far out from the city.”

Cassidy answered back. “Well like I said, she’s an Initiate she can’t help where she turns up.” Shakira was nodding at this and Alera’s smile looked shaky as she accepted the fact, they were talking like she wasn’t even there. Cassidy continued. “We were going to stop at my home before I take her to the Southern City.”

Shakira did not look happy. “But we’re much closer to the North!” Cassidy just stared at her. Shakira continued much more softly but all the more adamant. “Everyone you know is there and the Cheimals won’t be a problem for much longer.”

Cassidy was shaking her head before Shakira even stopped. “I’ve had enough of politics and blundering my way into them. I’m headed South.” But maybe she could send Alera North with Shakira or Norcross?

Alera almost spoke up at this. The nearer option sounded much better. But they kept talking and she lost the courage to interupt.

Shakira met her gaze. “And you truly don’t think you’ll have any less trouble down there? You don’t know a soul! You’ll be on your own.”

Cassidy looked away, down to the South. “I’ve been managing just fine on my own.” She said a little sadly.

Shakira had nothing to say to that so she moved on. “Well, I’m hunting Norcross. He sent for me to help out with Tremaine but what do I find? No Tremaine and no Norcross. A tip told me he headed down this way.”

Cassidy remembered him staring at the map in the Bureau. With a wince the pressure she’d been feeling finally made sense. “I have a guess as to where he might be.” Cassidy didn’t feel like elaborating. She felt like cursing the dust into, well, dust. “Alera and I are headed to my home to rest before we go South.” Suddenly remembering she left her kettle with Berthold. “And stock up.” She said grimly. Through ground teeth she continued. “He probably went down the road to meet me so my guess is we’ll run into him along the way.”

Shakira gave her a queer look but burst out in all of her bubbles, “Well that sounds like a good reason for me to go with you!”

Cassidy nodded her head. “I’d be happy for the additional company.” Turning over to Alera she added on, “Shakira is a Tier 5 Knight. We’ll be safer with her than anybody else on these roads.”

Shakira was, of course, beaming at the compliment and pulled Cassidy into another unbreakable hug.

Cassidy bore with it until Shakira broke away, she then took a few steps back to get out of range.

Alera spoke up. “If we’re about to hit the road again, would you mind if I stepped away to finish up some… business?”

Cassidy just looked at her. What was this? A school trip? “Sure.” She said, trying to be cordial. “We’ll wait for you here.” Alera turned and headed back into the woods. Cassidy looked back at Shakira only to find her eyes narrowed, watching the woman leave. “Do you have something to say?”

Shakira looked back at Cassidy and whispered as if she was in on some great conspiracy. “I’ve seen plenty like her among the socialites. The women that get along by being delicate and dainty.” Cassidy felt a pang. Would she have wanted that if she ever had the option? She looked at her two dogs. For them to be safe and enjoying the simple things in life?

Shakira continued. “I don’t like dealing with people like her.” She focused back on Cassidy. “I much prefer you. People who know what it takes to get the job done.”

“And what job would that be?” Cassidy asked.

“Anything!” Shakira stepped back arms spread wide. “That’s the point. Socialites never know the actual costs of their fancy furs and fragile cream puffs.”

This was beginning to sound like something more personal for Shakira but Cassidy smiled. She wished she could see things that way. Maybe it was just her grieving her past when no one knew the true cost of anything, but it still hurt. One day she could take Shakira’s view too but that wasn’t today.

Cassidy turned to face the trees that stoically guarded whatever was happening inside. “This trip should give us plenty of time to get to know each other. If my guess is right, Raylen is 5 days away at our speed.” She looked back at Shakira. “You could probably make it in 3.”

But Shakira just shook her head. “No, I’m not leaving you alone to take care of that little flower.” A look from Cassidy. “I’ll be civil!” She threw up her hands when Cassidy sent a glare her way.

Cassidy looked back at the woods again with some frustration. Some part of her agreed strongly with Shakira. But that was a mindset for this world. Back on earth, Alera’s behavior would be entirely expected. There were monsters here after all and thanks to guns, very few people were used to having to fight so closely with their enemy. It was natural to be afraid. To be ‘delicate’.

Still she didn’t know why Alera’s delicacy grated on her so much. Her housemate, Danielle, used to be a freaking beauty pageant winner. And her friend was always killing everyone’s spiders without a bother. Not to mention they were all three girls who loved to dress up and go dancing together. Maybe, she was ashamed to admit, she was just jealous. It wasn’t Alera’s ‘delicate nature’ that bothered her. The woman had survived in the woods for five days without so much as a scratch. She herself knew how tough that was.

No, she was upset that Alera had kept that form of femininity when all things went to hell. That she had anyone at all when Cassidy herself had been cut off. Alera didn’t come into this world broken and alone. She had been taken care of, protected. No one took care of Cassidy. She had to get down and dirty all on her own. There was no one to support her when she broke her leg. No one there when she came back bleeding out after a fight with a freaking bear.

For all its sins, the city had been a break from that, at least. Someone else got her water, did her laundry, made her meals. The city wasn’t entirely bad.

She watched the woods, waiting for the poor woman to return. Despite Shakira’s attitude, it was time to be a little nicer.

After Alera came back, Shakira mounted up and they started down the road together. With Shakira here it didn’t make sense to travel through the forest anymore.

“I saw your work by the way.” Shakira spoke up after a while.

Cassidy looked up to her for clarification. Shakira just smiled before continuing.

“The bandits on the road. How’d you take them down so quickly? They hadn’t broken formation yet and they never had time to dodge the arrows. Nearly everyone was killed by a single one.”

Alera turned to look at her in awe but Cassidy just looked off to the side, feeling uncomfortable. “I’ve got some Skills.” Which was obvious. “And I broke my Speed bottleneck in that fight.”

Shakira let out a low whistle. “You must have been really burning to break through a bottleneck.”

Cassidy was frowning as she remembered the fight, growing a little colder still. “Its not like I had much else as an option.

Shakira just gave a nod at this and Alera went back to watching the road as she tripped over one of the rare divots.

The day did not continue in silence. Shakira never allowed for that.

For all of her apparent hatred over socialites, she really tried with Alera but she ran into the same vague answers Cassidy did and got fed up. All Alera ever said was her boyfriend protected her and died. No name, no type of death. And then some explanation about singing to the animals and then fleeing.

All the same that Cassidy got. She didn’t begrudge Shakira staying mounted, ‘to better survey the land.’ Cassidy was guessing it was just an excuse to ignore Alera and for the moment. Cassidy felt the same. She practiced her own ‘surveying of the land’ and stared off over the boring plains. Leaving the poor girl in silence. Alera kept looking at her hands and biting her lips. Flashing back to Bertold, it seemed Cassidy's attempts to 'be a little nicer' were always doomed for failure.

----- ----- ----- -----

Raylen went around back to find Victoria. The small woman was staring at the door in frustration but turned as she heard him near.

“It’s locked!”

“Of course, it is. She’s not home.”

She glared at it. “But it has a hole in it.”

Now Raylen was looking it over in confusion. “A hole? What hole?”

Victoria pointed to the boarded up doggy door. “A hole right there! See?”

Now he just looked at her in disappointment. Inquisitors were supposed to be better than this. “It’s obviously boarded up. Therefore, no longer a hole.”

“But it was cut intentionally.” She walked up to it and crouched. Hand following the frame. “Who would do that to their door?”

Raylen was getting impatient. “It doesn’t matter; they boarded it up. Obviously, they didn’t want it anymore.”

“They?” She turned back to him.

“I don’t know. Do you have a pen and paper?”

She stood up to walk towards him. “What do you need those for?”

“I’m leaving a note and heading back.” He said indignant.

“Too bad.” She said and flounced back to investigate the door. “No pen and paper here.”

He was severely certain she was lying.

She continued as she counted out the nails. “Guess we’ll have to stay and be creeps after all.”

----- ----- ----- ------

Shakira watched the fire take off as she put down more firewood. She looked straight ahead as the flames grew. “So, you’re really going South after this?

“Yes.”

“But we were going to go into business together.” Shakira whimpered.

Cassidy raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were just going to show me how to get my dresses patented.”

“Exactly.” Shakira spun around to be beside Cassidy, crouching to be at eye-level as she gestured to the horizon. “Imagine it. I handle business. Finding all the contacts. Handling merchandising as I talk you up at all the fancy parties and you just share all the tricks and styles from your world.” She spun again to look Cassidy eye to eye. “We’ll start with the nobles before leaking simpler designs to the more common market and Boom!” She smacked her hands together. “We’ve got a roaring business!”

Cassidy just stared at her wide-eyed, working to find the words. “I never knew you had such a mind for business.”

“I’m an Adal.” She said proudly. “Our minds are always ready for business.”

“So, how’d you wind up with Norcross?”

“Raylen?”

She nodded.

“We were playmates. Our parents were hoping to form closer political ties for the future. The Norcross needed our caravans to get the alchemic ingredients from the west and we needed their knights for protection. In fact, I even trained with Raylen to be a knight. It’s how I got to Tier 5 so young. I might even hit Tier 7 before I die.” She boasted.

“So then why did you guys waste time escorting Bertold and me?”

“Well just to be chivalrous, you know—knights and all. But then Bertold started telling all those stories. I would have thought he was pulling our leg but you looked so embarrassed, blushing and everything! Edel and I would whisper about everything and we figure it was real. Heber just called us fools.” She let out a laugh. “Guess you proved us right. Tearing through those bandits the way you did. I still want to see those dogs in action though.”

Cassidy smiled and looked over at her babies. She saw Alera, hands around her knees, listening in rapt attention and frowned. Sugarbear picked up on her mood change and walked over with a whine. Shoving her cold nose under Cassidy’s arm, wanting to know what was wrong. She was all smiles again as she told her dog to sit and began rubbing on Sugarbear’s back. Koda following quickly to get some attention of his own.

Shakira just started laughing again as she watched the two giant dogs nearly swarmed her friend. She was still laughing as she went to get the rest of the firewood they’d need for the night.

Something had been bothering ever since Alera kept parroting her vague answers. She never mentioned her ‘boyfriend’s’ name. She never said how he died and she never told Cassidy everything Song did. Just gave one answer like she hoped it would be enough. And images of the pied piper continued to run through Cassidy’s head. The woman even had the flute for goodness sake!

Shakira had gone to get them firewood so Cassidy just took her swing.

“So, you’ve never even thought about manipulating people with it.” She asked, going with her gut to dig through Alera’s bullshit.

“My what?”

“Your Song.”

“Oh no,” she whispered looking down. "That would be terribly wrong.” A pause.

“Well,” Alera looked up to meet Cassidy's eyes. “I have thought, on occasion… but that’s just not right!” Her hands came up to cover her face. “How could I even think something like that?” She was nearly sobbing now. Cassidy leaned over to pat her. This person seemed as deep as a puddle, she doubted Alera had any natural ability to be manipulative. She hadn’t even been able to hide she had something deeper up her sleeve; which meant all of her pathetic breakdowns were probably real. That wasn’t to say anything about her boyfriend. Cassidy was afraid Alera never gave a name because he was a mere puppet. Which was concerning… But Cassidy wasn’t sure what to do with the broken woman in front of her. Morality now was a much harder concept.

“There, there.” she said. “It’s hard to draw a line. To not do everything you can to keep yourself safe.” She swallowed her annoyance at the turn in the situation. “You must be very strong to turn down that ability every time it offers to help.” The girl just sobbed and fell into her lap. Cassidy found herself in a position she thought died with coming to this world. Confident. She swallowed down all her memories of friends in this same position and let her own tears fall as she pet Alera’s back. “We’ll get you someplace safe where you’ll never have to think about that again.” Her thoughts of shoving Alera off on Shakira were gone. If Alera let any of this slip... She wasn't sure the woman would make it.

Shakira came back to this scene, but Cassidy was too uncomfortable soothing the woman. She didn’t have anything to say at that point. She’d catch Shakira up later. When she wasn’t mourning.

Cassidy offered to hold Shakira’s watch that night. They’d both given up on using Alera for Sentry duty. She panicked at every rustle. Even the wind. And Shakira had learned she could trust Cassidy not to sleep no matter how late she was up. Which left Cassidy the whole night to contemplate everything. She was travelling with a brainwashing sob bucket to her home that was currently invaded by Norcross. Decisions had to be made about Alera, yes. But Norcross was taking precedence in her thoughts. How was she even supposed to handle this? A quick ‘get off my property’ didn’t seem to suffice. Alera would probably be fine as long as Cassidy kept taking care of her and they made it to the Southern City safely. But before any of that she’d need to deal with Norcross and to do that, she’d need Shakira on her side. No way she could take them both on.

The next morning, Cassidy’s mind was still empty of ideas as she bent over to ruffle her dogs’ ears. Breakfast was silent as she had nothing to say, Shakira refused to converse with Alera anymore, and Alera never had the courage to speak up. They had just a few more days to go. She needed to figure out what to do.

Her mind was still jogging around this problem when they broke for lunch and Shakira had enough. Silence was never her thing. “What is it already!”

Cassidy and Alera jumped. Her dogs remained unfazed.

“What?” Asked Cassidy.

“You’ve been needling yourself all morning and I want to know what it is!” Shakira said in exasperation.

“Oh, well…” Cassidy rolled her eyes up as if she might see the answer in the sky but there was nothing there. She looked back to the expectant Shakira and just let out with it. “What’s Raylen’s deal? I mean he was always trying to buy me things back North. It was really insulting.”

“Insulting? He’s a Norcross.” she looked at Cassidy in confusion.

Cassidy waited, expecting more.

Shakira tried to put together an answer that Cassidy might understand. For once the cultural gap seemed too deep to tread across as she just stared at the younger girl before trying again. “You know he bought all of our armor. Heber, Aldric, Mine…” She trailed off as Cassidy furrowed her brow taking in this new information. “Norcross is an Imperator. It’s their job to take care of their followers and prepare them for any confrontation they may face. As a friend of his you’ll get dragged into his kind of trouble all the time and it can be dangerous. Of course, he tried to buy your supplies. He buys everyone’s. He’s just trying to stay prepared.”

Cassidy was reminded how the feudal system worked but she just kept shaking her head. “No, no, no. I’m no one’s follower. Well, I mean, I did follow you and Bertold to the city but that’s not what I mean. I thought we were friends! And friends respect each other to stand on their own.”

“Not even if they have trouble?” Now Shakira was bewildered.

“Everyone helps when there’s trouble but only if asked! Anything else is an insult to their own capabilities!”

That didn’t straighten anything out for Shakira. “But we were friends, that’s why we helped out. Was my business idea an insult too?” She was moving away, looking hurt.

“No! I mean no. It was a compliment that you wanted to work with me. That you thought it worthwhile.”

Shakira was shaking her head now. “But it wasn’t a compliment that Raylen thought you were worth investing in?”

“There are other ways to invest in someone rather than buying them.” Cassidy said, trying to explain again.

“And that’s what it was to you? Him buying you?” She stated simply.

“Yes”

“I’m sorry that happened but that’s not what it means to any of us. It means you're with us.”

“Well, I’m glad he didn’t intend to insult me, but it doesn’t mean I can accept it either way.”

Shakira was still shaking her head but she agreed and said she’d explain it to him.

She wasn’t done talking though. She looked over at Cassidy, surrounded by her wagging dog, happy to be on the road again with all new scents. “You do realize what this blood feud actually means though?” Cassidy looked back ready to listen. “It makes him a general, this blood-feud is practically a war and by being associated with him we’re dragged into it. Do you know how many ‘accidents’ there are when one of us goes hunting?

Cassidy shook her head. “oh, come one. How would I know of any?.”

“Well you should. The Cheilam and their allies are clever and underhanded. If they hear someone’s going out, they always plan some way to get at them. That’s why he was determined to get you the best gear and for you to find a party. Any party!”

“But not a Cheilam party?”

“That’s the thing. The Cheilam don’t have parties. I still can’t wrap my head around how you got involved with Tremaine.”

They both stared at the dusty ground together, deliberating over the Norcross problem. Shakira’s eyebrows drew together as some pieces fell into place. It wouldn’t-he wouldn’t… “How do you know where Raylen is, by the way?” She looked back to Cassidy as she asked.

“He saw where I lived when I registered my land and about this morning, I get this pressure telling me someone invaded my property.” Cassidy said frowning.

Shakira’s mood descended on her face like a thundercloud. “He did what?”

Looked like Shakira would be on her side after all.

It took a couple more days of travel, but Cassidy finally saw her driveway and pointed it out to Shakira. Shakira had a hard time staying at a walk and escorting her party down the path as she saw Raylen ahead.

When they were close enough, Shakira just dropped the reins to her horse and the creature stopped as if it were tied to the ground. She on the other hand launched herself forward at Raylen.

Cassidy was able to appreciate the difference between a Tier 1 and a Tier 5 in Speed.

Shakira, on the other hand, had her arm ready to strike him in the face. When he backed up and went to block the blow, she suddenly dropped it and sucker punched him in the gut. Her target all along.

Cassidy was happy to watch. As a Tier 1 this would have hurt her way more than it hurt him. But Shakira was Tier 5, on equal footing, and it looked like she knew how to give a beating.

He was still wheezing when she started in on him. “Now I’ve forgiven this control freak attitude because it’s saved us a lot of blood in the past, but this has gone way beyond that! What do you even have to say for yourself?”

“I.” Wheeze.” Couldn’t find.” Cough “…any paper.”

“What?”

“Couldn’t leave a…” Gasp “Note.” He said standing straighter.

Everyone just stared at him. Cassidy couldn’t even think of what to do. It was just too absurd.

Shakira just punched him again and looked over to Victoria. “And you! You’re supposed to be managing the higher nobles! Not laughing as they make asses of themselves.” The woman’s eyes went big and she started stammering some incoherent response.

Cassidy just left them to Shakira and walked past the chaos to show Alera her home. She unlocked the front door and brought Alera to the room she had lent Bertold. The sheets hadn’t been changed or even more bedding brought over, but Alera just fell on top of it with tears in her eyes.

“Do you know how long…” She said curling into a ball as Cassidy stared.

Deciding this was a personal moment, or at least one in which Cassidy didn’t want to be involved, she turned and left to see what Shakira had done to the invaders outside.

When Cassidy made it to the porch, she met Shakira climbing up the stairs.

“Here.” The taller woman said as she shoved a small bag in front of Cassidy.

Holding the bag up as if she might see through it, Cassidy asked “What…?”

Shakira just turned around and glared at the two huddled back on the driveway. “Renters' fee.”