The cavalry arrived in time to save the Enchanter, much to Chesu’s disappointment.

As soon as they were within range, Lars stopped to coat the golden-braided woman in that soothing green aura and her wounds slowly closed.

Meanwhile Tabeth did what she could to distract the Plantlings, gathering their attention with a few well-placed slashes of her blades. She became overwhelmed quickly by the number of attacks coming her way, since there was also still a Cicadossum and Goosalope trying to take her down, but the Plantlings were weak in comparison. A half dozen arrows and dagger stabs were all it took to thin the herd, and then the group was able to focus their attention on the larger mobs.

While they took care of the monsters, Lars comforted Likara.

The Enchanter’s chest hitched with sobs as her arms covered her eyes. “I don’t know what came over me!” She wailed the words, as if her regret would undo the mistakes she made. “I was just so determined to kill that bird!”

“You’re alright,” Lars said, touching her arm gently as if to coax it from her face. The Enchanter refused to comply, but he was persistent. “We were just worried about you.”

“She’s going to yell at me!” Likara howled.

“Damn right I am!” Tabeth slammed the flat of one blade into the Cicadossum’s groping hand. As it flitched and drew back, the Rogue’s daggers slammed into the back of its head. The Cicadossum staggered before activating Feign Death.

Both Urkin and Human immediately ignored it, as one was apt to do when their enemy died.

“What were you thinking?” Tabeth continued as she whirled on the Enchanter.

Likara whimpered. “I told you, I don’t know! All I know is I just wanted to kill that bird for touching me! Maybe it was a spell!”

Gem thought at Chesu.

“Adventurers,” the wisp said in return. “It figures. They never want to take responsibility for their actions.”

The wisp made a noncommittal noise. “Might be something we can work on later, although your Plantlings are going to need to be a lot stronger.”

Gem sent an image of a nodding gem.

“It depends,” Chesu said. “You’ll just need to absorb the requisite items once they’re in your area of influence.”

Gem looked at Tabeth. Her armor would be a good prototype for what he wanted the Plantlings to have.

“Right. And there are rules for that. It’s… complicated.” Chesu looked at the action happening below them before shrugging. “Depends on your rank and their rank and then there’s a bunch of math and ultimately it comes out to if you try it and it doesn’t work, they were too close.”

“That’s the rules of the cosmos for you!” The wisp barked with laughter. “But if you want to try it… I believe a certain Goosalope might have the answer.”

It took Gem a moment to figure out what Chesu meant. But suddenly he ripped his attention to the Goosalope in question, who was currently standing in Magi’s Boss Room. The creature was preening, cleaning its feathers as it stood over the Elementalist’s staff victoriously.

Gem asked the feathered creature. He didn’t want to just steal its prize without warning.

The Goosalope honked in response and took a step back from the staff.

Chesu instructed Gem on how to absorb the staff. It wasn’t too difficult, but the act felt wrong. Gem had to draw the staff into his consciousness, to transport it over the distance to his core via whatever cosmic magic allowed him to move around. Doing so felt a little uncomfortable, as if he were sharing his mind with a foreign object, until suddenly he knew the properties of the staff and how to recreate it.

“Makes sense. Let me guess, Amplify Magic property, right?”

Gem confirmed wordlessly.

“Yeah. You saw how her lightning got much less scary after she dropped her staff? Enchanters are, in theory, stronger than other magic users at lower levels, because they have access to an element instead of just using unaligned arcane energy. So most of them spend a bit of coin to get something with the Amplify Magic property, so they can be useful. Means those twins likely came from money.”

“The Enchanter and the Archer. See their braids? Sisters. Likely twins.”

Gem looked back down at the group, who hadn’t moved much at all. They were still comforting the Enchanter, although Mark seemed to be looking around for something.

“Before the Ostrum showed up? No.” Chesu’s tone grew stiff. “But now people don’t have a choice. They’ll allow their kids to go off and risk death together, just to stave off the potential death of their planet.”

Below them, most of the group still soothed the Enchanter while Mark searched the area, although neither seemed very passionate about their task.

“Are you sure you dropped it over here?” Mark asked with a huff.

The Enchanter whirled. “I don’t know where I dropped it, okay?” She bared her teeth at the Rogue. “I was attacked, remember?”

“Jesus, Lini, take a chill pill. It’s fine. I just don’t see it anywhere. Underbrush is kind of thick.”

Likara’s tone changed. “No, no, we have to keep looking. I can’t have lost that staff. It’s priceless.”

“No, not priceless,” her twin said with a large grin. “It’s just got a very large price tag and our father will be quite cross if you don’t come back with it.”

The Enchanter emitted a whining sound that grew in volume when no one agreed to continue looking for the staff.

Tabeth sighed. “Alright. Let’s do this efficiently. Partner up. No wandering off alone. Likara and Dinara, go with Mark. He’s got the best chance of finding it, and you two know what it looks like.”

“Leaving you and Lars alone, hm?” Mark made a kissy face and hugged himself, running his hands all over his arms as if simulating a lover’s touch. “Oh, Lars! Kiss me in this creepy forest while my friends find their staff! Maybe I’ll find a different one…?”

“Go,” Tabeth said, obviously biting back whatever else she wanted to say. Her hands were balled up into fists at her side.