After Sophie had hashed out the plan for going on the quest the next day with Linden and Ingrid, the others made their way back to the path to Caulis, and Sophie was left with one extremely displeased shrine spirit to deal with.

“Midsummer is less than a week away, and we haven’t even announced that there will be a class festival. You said we’d do one this year! How are you going to plan for one now?” Elowen complained, as soon as the others were no longer in sight.

Acacia had actually been the one to bring the festival up earlier. Sophie had nearly entirely forgotten about it, and the baker had reminded her of the matter. She had mentioned that they only had a few days left until Midsummer officially started, and that she’d do her best to make some initial preparations while Sophie and the others were gone.

Sophie felt a little guilty about that. She hadn’t meant to push all of the responsibilities of the festival onto Acacia, but the other woman seemed excited about the idea of planning it.

Now, after the others had gone, Sophie thought that Elowen seemed awfully upset about the festival… Especially considering that she hadn’t seemed to care one way or the other earlier when Acacia had first mentioned it.

“We’ll do it when I get back. I promise,” Sophie reassured her as she made her way back into the shrine to start getting some items together for the morning.

“Are you sure there will be time?” Elowen complained.

Sophie nodded, but she wasn’t really all that sure. She sighed. “I am sorry, you know. I suppose I got so caught up in learning purification…”

But she had good reason to… A festival was nice and all, but something seemed seriously wrong with Elowen. Not only was she bound, which seemed like a very bad thing to everyone when Sophie mentioned it previously, but she also seemed absolutely terrified by corruption. Sophie thought it best not to mention any of this at this particular moment.

“Besides, Linden said the quest will likely bring in a bit of money if we’re successful. I’d like to actually pay for things for the festival, you know. Acacia can’t keep giving us free baked goods forever.”

Elowen did not look pleased at the explanation, but she also didn’t argue that point. Instead, she continued pouting and hovered over Sophie’s bag that she was packing.

Sophie honestly wasn’t even sure what to put in the bag. She made sure to grab her Tailored gloves, even though Sterling seemed to think they weren’t of much use to her. She also added a change of clothes and a sachet of dried Magewort. She scanned through the cabinets trying to find anything food-related that might work, but quickly realized she was sorely lacking in that area. Luckily Linden had promised to bring fortifications for the group when they met up at the city gates tomorrow.

All-in-all, it was a bit weird to be packing to go on a trip. When she lived in Seattle, she would make yearly holiday trips to visit her father and her sister back in Iowa and occasionally she had traveled for work, but that was an entirely different scenario. There were maps and cellphones and airplanes. Here, she had at least seen a map, but she had no idea how they’d even know where they were going.

Besides, she had been here for a few weeks now, and she hadn’t explored the surrounding area at all. She really didn’t know what the terrain would be like or if there were other dangers that she was unaware of. And she would be leaving Elowen behind for the first time since she had arrived…

She glanced up at the spirit, who was very carefully not meeting Sophie’s eyes.

“I’ll be back,” Sophie promised, trying to put as much confidence into her voice as possible. “I truly will.”

Elowen sniffed a bit at that, and Sophie thought maybe she had figured out the real issue. Elowen didn’t want Sophie to leave – not that she didn’t want Sophie to go on a quest, specifically, but she didn’t want Sophie to go anywhere. It had been worse those first few days, when Sophie had first come to this fantasy world and Elowen hadn’t even been sure if Sophie would stay, but they had developed some sort of trust since then. Sophie could generally go to Caulis and be gone all day without Elowen worrying too much – although Elowen had been particularly annoyed this week with all of the new training.

But now Sophie was pushing the boundaries of their arrangement. She would be traveling much farther than she had ever gone from Elowen since coming here, and she honestly had no idea what to expect. Linden and Ingrid seemed to think it would be safe enough, otherwise she doubted they’d let her join in, but she really couldn’t blame Elowen for being worried, she supposed.

In fact, if she thought about it too hard, she was worried. What would she encounter? They would be walking on foot after all with no protection. Sure, it sounded like it was only a few hours journey, but she wasn’t even used to walking that far. Would she slow the group down? She had an awful lot to worry about, but she dared not to let it show in front of Elowen.

Instead, she grabbed a tin of tea down from one of the cabinets and stuck it in the bag as well.

“Maybe one day soon, we’ll get this all figured out, and you’ll be able to come with me,” Sophie added, hoping she sounded encouraging.

Elowen finally looked up at that and nodded but she didn’t say anything further. Sophie sighed and turned back to her bag.

She wondered how well chocolate croissants would travel.

***

Sophie was supposed to meet Linden and Ingrid and the rest of the group at the gates first thing in the morning, so she was particularly surprised when Acacia and Linden both showed up on her doorstep, right as she was getting ready to leave.

Elowen had been pouting all morning, and Sophie had just gotten finished giving the Magewood tree some mana to tide it over for the few days that she would be gone when she heard the bell at the front of the shrine ring.

“What are you doing here?” Sophie asked, confused and slightly concerned at seeing the two after rushing to open the door. “Is everything alright? Are you joining in the quest?”

“What! Of course not.” Acacia put her hands on her hips, looking downright affronted. “I’m here to see you off!”

Sophie gave Acacia an incredibly skeptical look before Linden laughed and hooked a thumb to point at his satchel. “She brought us mana bread. Met us at the gates this morning. I got there a bit early myself, so we thought we’d come get you.”

Sophie was still questioning Acacia’s true motives when Acacia reached into her own bag and pulled out a familiar little box. “Besides, I wanted to stop by here before you left. I brought cakes. For Elowen, of course. I know she can’t eat them without your help, but Hollis wanted to send her something.”

Elowen zipped forward, faster than Sophie had seen her move previously, nearly pouncing on the box. Since she was unmanifested, this meant she ended up going partially through Acacia and Sophie had to repress a laugh. Sophie accepted the box for Elowen, who was babbling her excitement about the treats. “Thanks,” Sophie said. “She’s very pleased.”

Elowen was, indeed, extremely happy about the prospect of more cake.

“Sorry you’ll have to wait for Sophie to get back,” Acacia said, and Elowen looked completely mollified for the first time since Sophie agreed to go on the quest yesterday.

“You’re too kind!” Elowen replied and twirled in her delight.

“It won’t take us that long,” Linden added. “We should be back the day after tomorrow, if not earlier as long as we start out for it soon.”

Elowen’s face fell at the mention of the trip, and Sophie took that as her cue to shoulder her bag which had been sitting next to the doorway, ready and waiting. It wouldn’t do to drag it out any further.

“Right,” she said. “I’m ready. I just need to put these somewhere safe.” She gestured with the cakes towards the shrine, but Acacia stepped forward.

“I can put them back in the kitchen for you,” Acacia offered, taking the cakes back from Sophie. “And I’ll stop by tomorrow morning, Elowen. Just to keep you company for a while.”

Elowen perked up a bit at the offer, but she still looked uncertain at the idea that Sophie was actually going to leave.

Sophie nearly wanted to make a joke about how Acacia seemed to like to leave the bakery to Hollis more and more lately, but she thought Acacia’s gesture was too sweet to tease her for. “Thank you,” she said, honestly appreciative.

“We’ll head out then,” Linden said. “The others are probably already waiting for us.”

“Okay.” Sophie nodded, glancing back to Elowen one last time before she left. The spirit looked torn between excitement over the cakes and utter despair at Sophie’s departure.

“See you in a couple of days,” Sophie said, trying to make her voice sound light.

“See you,” Elowen all but whispered. She looked like she was about to cry, and Sophie couldn’t stand it.

“Good luck, you two!” Acacia replied. “I’ll save some croissants for you, Sophie.”

Sophie couldn’t help but smile at Acacia’s words, and she turned to go. She followed Linden to the edge of the courtyard, turning back once more to wave goodbye again before she walked down the stone steps and onto the path.

“Be careful, Sophie!”

Sophie heard the spirit call out the words, and she turned around to see Elowen hovering at the top of the staircase, her bond preventing her from taking a step forward. She had a brave look on her face now though, and Sophie felt slightly relieved. It would only be a few days. Surely there was no need for Elowen to worry so much.

“I will!” Sophie promised, and with that she turned back to the path and followed Linden to the gates of Caulis.