It didn't take Maylia and I long to finish gathering up all the dead garglemacers and took them to the castle to drop them off. We also found a lot of people that needed healing of some kind and directed the castle's healers to the most critical ones. After taking care of the ones I could and stabilized the others while they waited for major healing, I found Diofra and she did what she could as well.

Of course, some of them were too much even for healing spells, so I left Maylia with her and went looking for Josh. I found him and Jessica near exhaustion as they sat on a snow-covered step, and Kara and Steven were holding off angry people that pleaded with them to heal their family members.

“Thanks for waiting.” I said loudly as I approached them and I saw the relief on Jessica's face and the slight annoyance on Josh's. “I gathered all the carcasses and found a lot more people to be healed.” I held a hand out for Jessica, and she took it without hesitation. I shared my mana with her and she hopped up with renewed energy.

“Thank you.” Jessica said and gave me a quick hug, then she stepped back and chanted something and cast a healing spell over the gathered people. That calmed them down and they brought forward someone with a broken arm. I reached down and grabbed Josh's wrist and gave him some mana, and he started healing the arm. After only a few minutes, the people trudged through the snow and went back to their homes.

“I'm glad you showed up.” Jessica said. “We were being swarmed with requests for scratches and bumps and we couldn't focus on the people that actually needed healing.”

“That mass healing you just did must cost a lot of mana.” I said, and she nodded.

“Even with my mana pool, I can only cast it three times.” Jessica said. “With Josh nearby, he can boost it to double its effectiveness. With you nearby...”

“You can keep casting it without having to rest.” I said.

“Did you really find people that need our healing?” Josh asked.

I nodded and led them back to the worst cases and pretty much became a mana battery for them.

“This is so great!” Jessica said ten minutes later and cast a major healing spell on a woman with several breaks in her leg. The woman hissed at her, and she laughed and pat the woman's hand. “I meant with Hunter helping, we can heal these major injuries without having to wait for our mana to recharge first.”

The woman gave her an odd look, like Jessica shouldn't be happy that she was hurt, then her leg was healed and her own face became happy. I assumed because now she understood what Jessica meant about her not having to stay in pain any longer. Josh finished with the man he was healing as well, and with that done, everyone that had been hurt had been healed.

“This really was great.” Jessica said and hugged my arm. “Thank you for helping us so much.”

“Yeah, you said that before. I wasn't helping you, though. I was helping them.” I pointed at the last of the people that had been healed.

“But... you did help us.” Jessica said, slightly confused. “I don't understand what you mean.”

I sighed. “I know you don't. You've been kind of out of it since your goddess blasted you with that charm spell or whatever it was she hit you with.”

“What are you taking about?” Steven asked.

“When we were up there and Josh and Evangeline summoned their goddess, she tried to put me under her power. Jessica was right there and she took the brunt of it instead.” I explained. “She's been a little glossy-eyed since then.”

Jessica laughed and hugged my arm tightly. “You're so funny.”

I shrugged my shoulders and motioned to her. “You see? I even gave her some of my energy to make her start breathing again; but, it hasn't done anything for her state of mind.”

“Jessica? Are you all right?” Steven asked.

“I'm fiiine.” Jessica said with a big smile and rested her head on my shoulder.

“It's almost like she's drunk.” Steven said, concern in his voice. He snapped his fingers up above her head and then down low by her chin, and she giggled. “She's definitely high on something.”

“That would have been me if god hadn't protected me.” I said, and saw the regret on Kara's face. “Yeah, I know you would have liked that.”

“That's not...” Kara sighed. “To have you not be confrontational every time we talk? Yes, I would like that. It would be a nice change.”

“You know why I'm like this.” I said. “If I stop fighting her influence, even for a second, I'll start getting sucked into the same trap Jessica is now in.”

“She looks pretty happy to be trapped.” Josh said.

“Right now she does.” I said. “Watch.”

“What are you...”

“Jessica, please let my arm go.” I said to her.

“Why? I like hugging it.” Jessica said.

“I need to go. I have to meet up with the rest of my party and then get Afyne and Evus from the castle.”

“You don't have to do that.” Jessica said and gripped my arm tighter. “Just stay here with me, okay?”

“I'm sorry, I need to leave.”

“You don't need them.” Jessica said, her happy tone had a touch of seriousness to it. “All you need is right here in front of you.”

“Even if that were true, I have commitments that need to be settled first.” I said and tried to pull my arm out of her grip. “Please, let me go.”

“Hunter, don't leave me.” Jessica said, her happy tone completely gone. “I love you.”

“I know you do.” I said and cupped the side of her face.

Jessica sighed and closed her eyes, then she almost purred as she rubbed her cheek on my palm.

“It took you a long time to fall for me, didn't it?” I asked and she nodded. “You can't expect me to just fall in love with you right away.”

“Why not?” Jessica asked and opened her eyes to look at me. “Don't I deserve your love?”

“It has to build up a little. It has to grow.” I said and let her face go.

“I don't want to wait that long.” Jessica said, her voice filled with sadness. “I want you to love me right now.”

I held in my chuckle. “If it was that easy to love someone completely, we'd all be in a hell of a mess, wouldn't we?” I asked, and she sighed. “It's okay. If you let me go now, I'll show you a secret about myself that very few people know.”

“I already know all about you.” Jessica said and her grip on my arm eased. “What could you...”

I absorbed the solid Presence I had around the blast shield over my eyes and used a hand to slide the black metal off of my face. “Surprise.”

Jessica let my arm go and covered her mouth with both of her hands. “By the Goddess! Your eyes!”

Kara had almost the same reaction and stared at my completely unmarred face.

I stepped back and out of Jessica's reach. “It started as part of a disguise to hide my identity, then it evolved and became a part of my uniform.” I said and slipped the blast shield back onto my face and covered it with solid Presence to make it look like it was embedded into the skin.

“Th-thank you.” Jessica said, her mouth still covered with both hands. “Thank you for showing me.”

“There, you see? We're that much closer now, aren't we?”

“Y-yes.” Jessica said, and she almost vibrated with excitement. “When can... I see...”

“There's no rush.” I said with a smile and started to walk backwards. “With all the places I have to visit for the queen in order to solve this cracks mystery, I'm going to be here for years.”

“Y-y-years!” Jessica gasped. “We... we could...”

“I'll see you around.” I said and gave her a little wave. “Josh, try and heal her, now that you know what happened to her.”

“I doubt I can heal something like that.” Josh said. “We got our powers from the Goddess. I can't heal an effect she created.”

“Why not?” I asked. “If she broke your wife's hand while inhabiting her, you could heal that.”

Josh opened his mouth to say something, probably 'of course', and he smiled. “I'll try.”

I nodded and turned around and ran back to the last spot where I had left Maylia and Diofra, which was just around the corner of the closest building. “Thanks for not running over to my rescue.”

Diofra laughed. “We knew you needed to handle it on your own.”

“Plus, we didn't want to add to the conflict.” Maylia said. “I wanted to smack Jessica around to make her let you go.”

I snorted a laugh and gave her a hug. “Thank you for showing restraint.” I said. “We need to head back to Imiryl and then to the castle to pick up Evus and Afyne.”

The three of us walked carefully through the foot thick snow back down to the docks and met Imiryl where we had left her and Allirynn and Sam were already there.

“Good job, you two.” I said. “All clean kills.”

“You know my view on specimens.” Sam said.

“I'm surprised you didn't want to keep one of them alive.” I said.

“Only if there was a chance to not harm anyone, would I try to capture one of them alive.” Sam said. “All of them had already started to loot and you saw the destruction even a half-sized one can do.”

I nodded and looked down at Evangeline. “What do we do with her?”

“I gave my word to watch her.” Imiryl said. “I'll stay here while you go up to the castle.”

“I'll stay, too.” Allirynn said and put an arm around Imiryl's waist. “For warmth.”

I chuckled. “All right, we'll be back soon.”

“What about all this snow and ice?” Imiryl asked. “Do you want me to start absorbing it?”

“No, it will let the people remember what happened here for a while.” I said and she smiled.

Diofra, Maylia, Sam, and I walked up the road towards the castle and I pointed to the side courtyard where the carcasses were and we went in through there. Sam the monster expert stopped walking and stared at over three dozen dead creatures.

“Enjoy.” I said and pat her shoulder, then took Diofra and Maylia inside the castle and up to the queen's personal chamber. Workers were already trying to clean the place up and Gavell's body was covered with a sheet and had several flowers on it. Milly had her arms around her mother's waist, which broke normal social protocol, and it meant that the man's death had hit her very hard.

“Your majesty, we need to talk.” I said.

Afyne walked over and hugged me for a moment, then held her arms up. I picked her up and propped her on my hip as I held her close. The queen turned to look at me, almost in a daze, and I saw that she still wore her torn clothes. She didn't look any less regal than she had before. Maylia and Diofra picked up the unconscious Evus and hung his arms over their shoulders to carry him between them, and I saw Maylia use Levitation on him so he would be weightless.

The queen looked around the room for a moment, then she did the same thing as I did and picked Milly up and propped her on her hip to hold her close, then she led us from that room and down the hallway to the meeting room that had chairs for us. We all sat down and the queen put Milly on her lap, so I kept Afyne with me as well and put her on my lap.

“As you no doubt saw, this crack was a lot different from the others.” I said.

The queen nodded. “It was completely different from the other descriptions I've heard, especially the part where normal people needed a Truesight square to see it.”

“That's right, your majesty. Only someone that wouldn't need the spell to see would miss adding in the inherent illusion that all the cracks have.” I said. “Or realize that there should be an illusion to hide what was inside the crack.”

“What was inside?” The queen asked.

I told her about the green sky and the garglemacer breeding pit, and how it was nothing like the other worlds with cracks.

“You know why it was different, don't you?” The queen asked me, and I nodded. “I'm not going to like the answer, am I?”

“No, your majesty.” I said. “The Emissaries of Light's goddess opened the crack.”

The queen was silent for almost a full minute before she spoke. “You have proof?”

“I've felt her energy a few times now, and when I was near the crack, I felt it again. When she helped close it, I felt the energy return to her.”

“What else?”

“She said she couldn't close the crack by herself, and she didn't lie.” I said. “I think that's why the crack was so big. She wanted to make sure that it couldn't be closed by her alone, or by me asking god for help.”

The queen fell silent again and I saw Milly's arms tighten around her neck. The future ruler fought against shedding more tears, only this time, I suspected that it was because of the senseless loss of her guardian and not more grief over his death.

“You're saying she wanted to work together with you and caused this.”

“She said that she hoped it enlightened me to what it means to be a part of a team that was designed to work together.” I said. “I told her that it did.”

The queen sighed. “Imagine causing so much destruction in a city full of people, just to give a lesson on teamwork.”

“She should have done what you did with the emissaries.” I said and smiled for only a moment. “People wouldn't have died or been hurt that way.”

“How many?” The queen asked.

“We won't know unless Sam cuts open the carcasses and checks inside.”

“Sam?” The queen asked. “You mean Samantia.”

“The monster expert.” I said. “She's in the courtyard now with them.”

“I'll have her properly examine them first thing in the morning.” The queen said. “What are you going to do now?”

“I think my party needs to rest for the night to recover completely, then we'll head out to work on the rest of your list.”

“You're going to leave without the emissaries?” The queen asked, a little surprised.

“I don't really need them.” I said.

“Didn't you just say you told their goddess that you understood what teamwork was?”

“I did and I do; but, that doesn't mean I want to work with them any more than I have to.” I said. “The team I already have, that came together naturally, works really well together.”

The queen nodded. “You can stay here in the guest rooms.”

“I might take you up on that if we can't find an inn with rooms.” I said and stood as I switched Afyne back over to my hip. “We need to get the horses into a good stable and then have baths all around, not to mention I want to hold those close to me while I sleep.”

Milly's eyes twitched and darted to Afyne and then back to my face, which made me smile.

“I'll stop by first thing in the morning to check if there are any changes to your list.” I said and we left the castle.

We met up with Allirynn and Imiryl, who said that the emissaries had picked Evangeline up, so we gathered up the horses and headed to a different stable than the one Afyne had stayed at. We got the horses settled and went to the cheap inn Maylia and I had stayed at before. She had several rooms free, so I rented three of them and we put Evus in one and left Diofra to take care of him, at her request. Allirynn and Imiryl took the next room and Maylia, Afyne, and I took the last one.

We didn't say a word to each other as we undressed, then we washed each other in the large tub, then we sat down and tried to relax. That didn't really work, so we dried off and dressed in our nightgowns, then we climbed into the bed and cuddled up close with Afyne in the middle. She didn't protest the several kisses she received on the forehead and cheek from me, even though I thought she would, then we held each other tightly and drifted off to sleep.

*

“Ha. That actually worked.” Josh said as he moved his hand away from Jessica's forehead, then he saw the tears as they started to flow out of her eyes. “Hey, you're okay now.”

“I know.” Jessica said and didn't try to wipe her eyes or catch the tears to save for later. “How could I act so stupidly in front of him?”

“He knew you weren't yourself.” Steven said. “I told him...”

“I don't have memory loss, Steven. I know what happened.” Jessica said. “I just... I wonder...”

“What?” Josh asked.

“Will he keep his word? Will I... will we see him again?” Jessica asked and put her hand over her heart. “Years, he said. He'll be here for years.”

“He also said he was working on the crack mystery.” Kara said. “So are we.”

Jessica looked at her. “I need a book about mana crystals and their uses. If they are as powerful as Diofra said, then I'll need at least one of the crystals, if not more. I can cast the crack locate spell and we can find where they all are, and not just the ones in the local area.”

“That last one sure was something.” Steven said. “I've never seen one that big before.”

“The creatures were big, too. Maybe that's why?” Josh asked.

“It was the first time so many came through at once, too.” Kara said. “Perhaps whoever is behind them is getting bolder, now that we're closing off a lot of the small cracks.”

“We could ask the Goddess for guidance and...” Josh started to say.

“No.” Jessica interrupted. “She was just summoned and we can't bother her so soon.” She said. “I'll go looking for the book I need in the morning, then I can make a map of all of the cracks.”

“You're being a bit forceful, aren't you?” Josh asked.

“I think this is the first time that I know what to do next.” Jessica said and stood. “I'm going back to bed.” She said and walked over to the door of the meeting room in the church basement. “Goodnight.”

Jessica didn't wait for their response and quickly went to her room. The comforting Presence that held her every time she entered the church, grated on her nerves now. She wasn't sure what Josh had healed in her head; but whatever it was, it had given her a clear mind for the first time since she came to this world. She knew that everything Hunter had told her was the truth and she wanted to desperately to go to him and tell him she believed him.

She also knew that she wouldn't be allowed to do that.

Jessica had memorized all of the spell books that she had received and none of them contained a spell that would help her retain her own mind and will, and she also didn't know a spell to do what Josh had just done to her with his ability. If she was lucky, she would find something in the morning when she looked for the book on mana crystals. She smiled, because she also wouldn't have an acolyte of Light apprentice that looked over her shoulder and saw everything she did.

To ensure her best chances of not being influenced during the night, she made a modified sleep spell that stopped her from dreaming, then she climbed onto the bed in her room and cast the spell on herself. She fell asleep immediately with a smile on her face.

Sometime later, Steven looked into Jessica's room and saw her smile. That made him smile, and he went to his room to go to bed, too.