“Thank you for your time, Miss Antierre. As always, we value your continued support of this organization and our cause.” The female AWW representative jotted down the last of Nora’s report, looking at her with a plastered smile.

Nora sat uncomfortably in the office space, eyes wandering around the barren white room for a distraction of some sort.

“Can I go now?” Nora asked. The woman looked through the papers on her clipboard and folded it closed.

“Yes. We’ll acquire the rest of the report from Mister Hansin after he’s finished with another quest.” The representative bared her teeth this time and Nora recoiled. Nora jumped out of her chair and zoomed out of the room into the hallway of the AWW headquarters in Immockalee.

She watched some representatives walk around the building with papers and items in hand, few walking around making small conversations with one another while others gave their designated ‘partners’ a wide berth.

Nora emerged from the building and embraced the afternoon sun. It was pleasant to let the rays shine down on the skin after spending a couple of hours in a frigid room.

“Nora!” Someone called out her name, the sunlight making them grossly incandescent.

“Liliana. What are you doing here?” Nora walked down the steps and joined up with the housewife.

“I’ve been waiting out here for you. I have a couple of questions I was hoping you’d be able to answer and I didn’t know how long you’d take so…”

“So you stood outside in this heat for hours to catch me coming outside?”

“Nothing else I could have done. The representatives inside weren’t all that helpful. They kept thinking I was asking for you by name to settle scores with the Cienmiedos quest and they’d clam up. Or they thought I was trying to request you for an issue.”

Nora rolled her eyes. The Association of Wizards and Witches ran under a strict business mindset. The thought that Incants could have friends interested in having idle chats wasn’t a registered interest of the organization.

“Talk and walk then. Can’t kick you when you’re down and tell you no when you’ve been waiting around for me.” Nora took off her coat and relished the fresh air.

Liliana looked at Nora’s physique and shook her head.

“This first one isn’t mine. It’s for the rest of the town.” Liliana couldn’t start asking her question without Nora letting out a suffering sigh. “We want to know if the AWW is planning to help the town rebuild. Since it was their fault that the whole place burned up.”

Nora laughed, “Why would they do that?”

“Excuse me?” Liliana replied.

“The contract was about eliminating the rogue wizard. I responded to the call and then that other fuckwit wrapped things up. As far as they care, they took care of the situation.”

“But they burned the town down!”

“You’re right. But who are you going to take this issue up with? The wizard did their job and your contract didn’t have anything about damages. You requested an emergency contract and they responded to your emergency.”

Liliana fell silent. It was tough shit but that’s how the organization operated. Goodwill with the masses was irrelevant when they were the only ones capable of taking care of the supernatural garbage with any level of competency.

“This isn’t fair.” Liliana muttered.

“No. It isn’t. But that's the way of things. Just pick up the pieces and move on.” Nora shrugged.

They walked in silence down a beaten path. Crabgrass stamped by years of foot and bike traffic, with pedestrians walking around the overgrown roads with packs and parcels. Workers wearing drenched tank tops stacked pallets of goods into reinforced warehouses with town militia standing watch with their weapons.

“It’s all my fault.” Liliana sighed.

Nora raised an eyebrow, “Not following how it was your fault the town burned down.”

“If…If I was a trained wizard like you, I could have been a deterrent. Maybe-”

Nora scoffed, “Maybe take him on? Give him a stern look and fight him to the death? Or maybe just push the problem to another small town incapable of defending themselves?”

Liliana couldn’t bear to look her in the eye but she nodded.

“I want to be strong enough to defend the town.” Liliana said.

“You were plenty strong in keeping your people safe.” Even if they were ungrateful, pious fuckwits.

Liliana shook her head, “That wasn’t enough. I wasn’t able to chase him out of town. If I had some AWW training maybe I-”

“You want to join those blowhards?” Nora was incredulous. She looked into Liliana’s eyes and saw the manic determination. “You’re serious.”

“None of this would have happened if I had the power to stop that maniac. You learned your skills at the AWW so why wouldn’t I take the chance myself?”

Nora rubbed her temples but approached the situation seriously, “Look. Let’s say you register as an Incant with the AWW. They’ll invest their resources to make you a passable witch. Do you think they’ll put in the effort to teach you the ins and outs of this life and let you go back to living in the middle of nowhere?” She wasn’t willing to mention the personal costs that came with the lifestyle, the increased ostracization she’d get from the people she wanted to protect.

“So what, I’m just supposed to give up? Let the town be vulnerable and pray away the problem?” Liliana spat back.

Nora frowned, “I didn’t say anything about giving up or defaulting to prayer. Just don’t join the AWW if you’re unwilling to cut youself off from your former life because they’ll make that choice for you once you’re done with the training.”

Before Liliana could make another objection, Nora reached into one of her coat pockets and pulled out a pocket book. She pulled the pen attached to the book's rings and wrote down names and places she was familiar with. Nora ripped the sheet of paper from the bindings and handed it to Liliana.

“What’s this supposed to be?” Liliana asked.

“Those are your alternatives. The AWW has a stranglehold on the Incant market but they’re not as far reaching as they’d like you to believe. Offhand, I can think of three freelance Incants willing to train you if you’re willing to accept some shit and trade for the opportunity.” Nora informed her.

“Is there anyone on this list you’d recommend first?”

Nora thought about it, “The hag, probably. She lives in the Summerland Swamps in the south. Bring stars if you can, cooked food if you can’t. The woman’s a bit batshit but she’s good at her craft and familiar with the hunting grounds down there.”

Liliana folded the paper into her pocket.

“You’re gonna be on the backfoot with the spell you’ve slotted if you’re hunting on your lonesome so maybe this’ll level the playing field for you.” Nora handed the woman the knife. She’d judged the weapon too harshly on first impressions. “Found it in Ernesto’s walls. Think he’d prefer one of his own to hold onto it. Make good use of it.”

Liliana looked at the sheathed weapon and back at Nora. She embraced Nora with a long, warm hug.

Nora slowly returned the embrace.

“Thank you.” Liliana whispered.

“Stop that. I just can’t stand motivated people kicking themselves around without knowing what to do.” Nora avoided looking at Liliana with a smirk on her face. “Speaking of kicking people around, how are things between you and the Father?”

Liliana pulled herself away from Nora and frowned, “Vincente can’t even look me in the eye. Every time I try to sit him down to talk about what happened, he gets this pained look on his face and walks off.”

Nora chuckled, “Good. Serves him right for leaving his fucking wife behind for dead.”

Liliana punched Nora’s arm, “He didn’t leave me to die so callously, Nora. There wasn’t anyone else capable of leading the flock here and I was the one that suggested I stay behind.”

“When push came to shove, he chose to abandon you instead of sticking around. Doesn’t matter what the rest of the flock wanted. You’re meant to be a higher fucking priority to him.” She wasn’t going to budge from her position. She probably never would. “Whatever, I’ll drop it. You’re going to forgive him and he’s going to run back like a wounded puppy and accept your forgiveness but he knows and I know that he was willing to hide behind his duty to abandon you.”

“Do you think he’s going to accept my forgiveness soon?” Liliana asked excitedly. Selective hearing, in one ear, out a compliant statement.

“Yeah. Whatever. Dropping it.” Nora avoided souring her mood any further.

The two stopped their walk in front of the large metallic warehouse, its hangar-sized double doors open with crowds of tents and people inside and in the surrounding areas outside. A common enough occurrence they needed buildings constructed to make the whole situation procedural.

“Some of the folk were planning to celebrate the good fortune. Home or no home, we have our lives and health. We need to eulogize those that have lost their lives and do something to thank your hard work.” Liliana extended her invitation.

Nora winced. Even though that pompous fucker swore up and down that the wizard already succeeded with his ritual and that he was too late to save the controlled townsfolk, all of their evidence went up with the flames.

You made a promise.

And I didn’t keep it. She promised to come back and rescue the man, the rest of them, and she failed.

“No. No, thanks.” Nora inched away from the building and Liliana.

“Are you sure? I was surprised to see Annabelle was invested in seeing you there. Along with her kids.” Liliana said.

Nora shook her head, “I don’t need the celebration. Just worry about keeping the morale up and move past this.”

“Where are you heading off to, then?”

“Home.”

Nora gave Liliana a hug.

“Take care of yourself. If I find out you’re still taking shit from those assholes in town, I’m taking it up with them directly.” Nora warned.

Liliana laughed, “I’ll miss you too, Nora. Stay safe.”

Nora let go and walked past the refugee shelter, taking the long road back home.