Anastacia neatly folded her violet cloak and gave it to King to hold while she repaid the goblins for their efforts and loyalty. She warmed herself up by hopping in place for a bit and spinning her arms before climbing the steps of the throne mound and gazing over the sea of goblins, shrieking and screaming outside the castle’s wall. The wall would prevent the fire from spreading or harming the goblins, or at least it should.

The show started with a bang when she stomped on the ground with all her might and sent out a wave of fire in every direction. When the waves hit the wall, they were deflected upwards and created a huge pillar of flame. She continued to stomp and flail, shooting fire in every direction and not noticing that with every cast, the fire appeared closer to her hands and feet. The show was just as fun for her as it was for the goblins, and she may have gotten a bit too into it, as charred spots began to appear on her clothing from the intensifying flames around her. When she had finally spent everything she had, the show ended with a final massive fireball that exploded in the sky and only through sheer luck didn’t cause a wildfire.

Both Anastacia’s gloves and boots had gotten charred in the flames and the hem of her shirt had caught on fire briefly. She patted out the embers and crashed down on her throne to take a breather. The goblins outside were louder than ever and ran around, trying to catch the last few sparks that hadn’t fizzled out while falling from the sky.

The fire had no doubt been visible from Valor against the dark sky, and the guild would more than likely send someone to investigate the situation. Though seeing a mage train outside the city wasn’t exactly uncommon.

Gobby rushed into the castle while croaking happily. “Holy fire over?” It asked and stumbled up the stairs towards the goblin queen.

“Yeah, I’m beat. Did you guys like it?” Anastacia asked and used the soot from her gloves to draw two horizontal lines on her cheeks as war paint because that felt like something the leader of goblins would do.

“Yes? Yes. Yes! YES!” The goblin screamed and copied Anastacia’s war paint with the soot from her boots.

“I think it might be about time King and I leave. I’d rather just stay here forever with you guys, but there’s a battle coming that I need to train for.” Anastacia explained and picked up the goblin chief.

“Goblin fight for queen and king!” The critter screamed.

“No. It’s our job as rulers to do the fighting, so you guys just keep building, digging and licking frogs as much as you can.” The goblin queen ordered. “I honestly don’t know when I’ll be back, or if I’ll get back at all. The one I’ll have to fight has like a thousand years of experience on me, so it can go either way really. That said, if neither King or I come back, you are in charge of the tribe. Don’t cause any trouble for people, okay?”

Gobby had some trouble understanding what Anastacia had just said but looked worried, so the core point of the message had probably gotten through. “Queen leaving goblin?” It asked.

“No… Well yeah, but not because I want to. You probably won’t get what I’m saying, but no matter who you are or how strong, there’s always someone trying to play you. Well I’ve made myself pretty easy to play by this particular someone, and there’s nothing I can really do about it. That’s one of the reasons I like you guys so much, you’re just too chaotic to really do anything with. Even if I tried to do something with you, it’d come crumbling down on me within a week, so it’s just better to let you guys do what you want and sort of guide you along to not ruin into a bonfire.” Anastacia explained while carrying Gobby out from the castle. The goblins grouped around her as soon as she came out and began piling on each other to get closer. She cleared her throat and declared their departure. “Okay, guys! King and I have to leave. It was great seeing you again. Keep doing gobliney things and always remember to chew whatever it is you’re eating… unless it’s rocks, I guess!”

The goblins fell silent after hearing that, and the silence continued just long enough to become awkward, until one of the critters flopped over a pile of its friends and approached Anastacia. It handed over a stick with a dried zucchini tied to it and a tiny pebble.

Anastacia accepted the gifts and gave the pebble to King, since it was him who usually dealt with them. “Thank you… What is this?” She asked and waved the zucchini around.

“Mighty weapon! Goblin defeat many enemies!” The goblin said proudly and started picking its nose.

With wistful minds, they left the goblins behind, with a real chance of not seeing them again if everything goes wrong in Mournvalley. Her track record on things going as planned was terrible, so even if she didn’t die while fighting Amaranth, it wouldn’t be great for anyone involved.

“How about we don’t tell anyone about the giant simulacrum? I don’t want people poking around my goblins.” Anastacia suggested, tossed her scorched boots into the woods and continued the trip back to Valor barefoot. “One of these days I’ll teach you to write so you can tell me what you’re up to. I’d say it’s not good to kill your kind but I’m like the least qualified person in the world to say that.”

Suddenly Anastacia stopped, turned around and grabbed King’s hand. “Can you kneel for a bit?” She asked, and the simulacrum complied, the necromancer hopped on his shoulders. “I’ve wanted to try this for a while now. Is this what it feels like to be tall?”

With Anastacia riding on King’s shoulders, they hiked towards the city in the dark. Every now and then stopping to take a look at some night-blooming flowers or nocturnal animals. The sky was perfectly clear, allowing the moon and stars to light the ground just well enough for them to see without a torch. Anastacia pointed out a few constellations Gilbert had taught her to find and use in navigation.

“That one is my favorite, it’s called ‘The King’. It looks kind of like a crown and apparently the brightest star in it sometimes gets a slight red hue to it for some reason. So some ancient dudes made a crown for their king based on it, they even managed to make a magic gem that turned red in synch with the star. But that was like right before their country started declaring wars on everyone and got ganged up on. No one knows what happened to the crown after that.” She explained and looked for another one she could recognize. “Oh! There! That big one with two smaller ones on both sides in a perfect line. It’s called ‘The Progenitor’, it’s the first constellation that appears in the evening and for some reason it disappears like waaaay earlier than any of the other stars. Apparently, that shouldn’t happen, but it does.”

Because they stopped so often and took detours, the short walk from the goblin camp to Valor took far longer than it should. Anastacia had completely lost her sense of time and the passage of time wasn’t really a concern for King, so they only realized how long they had been wandering around when the eastern horizon started to light up.

“Hey King… If we make it back from Mournvalley, would you like to actually get married in Valor? I have no idea if it’s possible since you’re still technically a weapon instead of a citizen, but I could fight the guild for it. And if nothing else works, Emilia can probably do it. I think it’d be nice to have something a little more concrete than the goblins just deciding that we’re a couple. Especially since you’ll get to meet my folks, and hopefully cleave them in half…” Anastacia asked suddenly and laughed awkwardly.

King didn’t react at all.

“You don’t need to answer right now… We’ve been together for a while now, and honestly, I have no idea what I would do if you left. So I figured it’d make you stick around, I guess… Don’t worry about it, I’m just a bit tired and saying stupid stuff. Things are fine as they are, just tell me if you’re leaving at some point, so I can prepare.” The necromancer backed down and continued her awkward laughter.

Anastacia greeted the gate guard with the zucchini stick as they passed him and hopped down from King’s shoulders, so they could enter the inn without her slamming her face into the doorframe.

Rosie and Yulia had already woken up and were preparing for the breakfast rush. The sheep hadn’t quite gotten used to her new hand, but it already allowed her to work a lot faster simply because she could use a knife with it and lift things that required both hands.

Rosie noticed them enter and came out from the kitchen to welcome them, but as soon as she saw the toasted condition of the necromancer and her smudged face, she took out a wet cloth and forcibly wiped Anastacia’s war paint off. “Why is it that you immediately go tribal when no one is watching over you? And why are your clothes all burned? Kitten, I swear I will get a leash for you one of these days.” The tigress sighed and combed Anastacia’s hair with her nails.

“Aye Aye, captain. Can I get a coffee before the lecture?” Anastacia asked and struggled free from Rosie’s grasp.

The innkeeper frowned. “First of all, screw you. And you’ll take a bath before you get anything. You reek like a thousand goblins.”