Almost three weeks later, Luna and Agnès were spending time together as usual while Luna’s arm healed. The two going over tips and tricks on how to embroider and add cute and cool designs to their clothing. Over the course of a couple of weeks, Agnès would try to teach Luna about embroidering runic symbols to add enchantments to the clothing, something that flew a bit over Luna’s head but tried to keep up with the best she could.

The two have been bonding over their shared passion for tailoring and herbs, though Agnès for healing and medicine and Luna for adding taste to food with benefits to temporary adding extra stamina recovery and other things. The both sharing fun experiences about the things they learned and discussed what could be used for what as they shared their knowledge with each other.

As the two talked, they would sew cute little clothes for the goblins, gushing when they had the cute little things wear them. Luna’s arm had healed enough to be mostly useful, a combination of having a proper doctor around and her own healing factor, mixed with her training to increase that healing factor even higher. So while a bit slower than Agnès, she still was able to deftly move her fingers in and out of the cloth, slowly adding another frill or cute design to the simple dress in her hands.

But as all girls were want to do, after a while, they would discuss gossip and other things out of boredom and curiosity. Luna asking a somewhat personal question of Agnès.

“Soo… “ Luna began, wondering how she was going to ask this. She knew that Agnès had a different view of things, but she didn’t fully understand it, so she had to ask for the sake of her own curiosity and to better understand her new friend. Who she genuinely enjoyed getting along with.

“I heard you don’t want to have sex with Van... But… no offense… but you… your body that is… well… you say you don’t want it, but it’s kinda clear to everybody that your body says something different… you almost look like you're on withdrawal. I’m mean… I know we probably don’t give you enough privacy for you to take care of it yourself, and Van and the girls and myself constantly doing it probably makes it worse… but… why not just join us? Honestly speaking, unless you have someone else in your heart, it should be fine. And I honestly wouldn’t mind you having sex with Van if that’s what your worried about. So maybe… you know… you should do it for your own health? I mean… Why are you so against having sex in the first place?” Luna asked in a meandering way, her voice clearly worried about Agnès’s well-being, as she saw her friend's body look more haggard by the day.

Agnès at first looked confused, then blushed a deep red, then redder as Luna continued. She did her best to reign her expression in as Luna spoke, and at the end, realized that Luna was actually really worried about her, which embarrassed her further, while at the same time being touched by her friend’s concern. She also wanted to laugh a bit near the end but thought that would be rude, in the end though, it was that last sentence that made her pause. As Luna clearly looked like she couldn’t understand why any woman wouldn’t be interested in sex.

It was things like this that made Agnès feel alienated. At first, she just thought it was just her mother that was the weird one. After all, she was very young when they first left the forest and the coven to explore the world, looking for a cure to her problems after that… incident…

They even went and found people who could help them, though the price wasn’t something they could easily afford, and not many would want to help a witch and her daughter… so all that moving around, didn’t really give her the time to pick up on the social cues of society. Then spending the other half of her life stuck in this forest with no one else but her mother and the fairies for company. She had some hints of it before with the fairies, but always chalked it up to their being mischievous little things… But it was times like these that made it clear… that perhaps it really was her that might be the strange one in this world…

Agnès thought about how she was going to respond to Luna’s question for a long while… even her sewing stopped as her mind focused on an answer that could satisfy her friend. In the end, she sighed sadly, her eyes going hollow as her mind entered a dark place. She decided to share some of what happened to her all those lives ago, though she was fearful that Luna might not understand. But she was going to do her best to explain anyway…

“As I think you have heard… I was killed by a monster…” she shivered as the memory flashed through her mind. “But before that… my village… was attacked by bandits…” tears slowly forming at the rim of her eyes. “ I remember running… running away… the look on his face… he… he was going to rape me…”

She went silent for a bit before continuing on while trying to go into more detail...

“I ran into the forest as he chased me… I ran as fast as I could… but he was always behind me… I ran as my village burned… and when I was finally cornered, with nowhere to hide or run to anymore.” her body began to shake. “That thing appeared and killed the bandit… and…”

Agnès was stopped by something smothering her. Something soft and warm had cut her off. It was Luna, she had moved over to give Agnès a big hug. And she continued to do so, whispering gently in her ears that it was going to be okay, and that she didn’t have to continue anymore. That she understood, and that everything was going to be okay…

That brought tears to Agnès’s eyes, she was afraid, deathly afraid that she wouldn’t understand, that to her, being raped by a man would be something good, not bad. And yet… Luna DID understand… she DID understand… and that filled her with such warmth that for some reason… she began to cry…

She didn’t even tell her mom this, or Van who should also understand this. No, she told someone she only knew for barely over a month… but during that time… they had really gotten to know each other. In truth, it wouldn’t be so far-fetched to say that she was jealous of Luna and the life she lives. A loving husband, a large family and community that loves and takes care of her, standing tall and with pride and confidence, taking what she wants and doing her own things, yet still having time to look out for her and take time to play with or keep company with someone like Agnès…

Even if Agnès only knew Luna for little over a month. That month was enough for her to figure out that Luna was an amazing person, and in some ways… someone she wished she could be…

After Agnès was done crying, Luna slowly released her and looked her in the eyes.

“Agnès… why don’t you come with me on my next outing? Just the two of us. Two girls against the world!” Luna joked, but her eyes meant it, she truly wished for Agnès to come with.

“We won’t go anywhere too dangerous… no fighting powerful monsters or anything like that… just you… and me… and the forest around us… maybe explore a bit, fight… I don’t know… cute little bunny rabbits? Then cuddle with them as the price for their defeat! Doesn’t that sound nice?” still in a happy manner with mirth in her eyes, but also clearly wanting Agnès to say yes.

Agnès giggled at the image of fighting rabbits and then cuddling with them afterward. The whole scenario sounding a lot funnier than it probably was in reality.

“So? What do you say?” Luna asked, her smile wide as she got Agnès to cheer up.

Agnès hesitated, but in the end, she returned Luna’s smile back, though tentatively. “I guess we can go… though…” she blushed a bit in embarrassment. “But If I have to be honest, for all my years living here, I don’t really know much about this forest.” Her smile slowly turned upside down as she felt like a bit of a coward and a loser, who was too afraid to even go out and explore her own front yard. That one time running out of the house and into the forest, being one of the few exceptions to that rule.

“That’s fine! I don’t know much about this forest either!” Luna laughed. “I guess we both will be learning more about this forest in the days to come!” she said in good humor. “It shouldn’t be too long now either,” looking at the small cast leftover, from the bigger one she first had. “In fact… I think we can go tomorrow! Isn’t that wonderful!”

Agnès smiled nervously and nodded along with Luna’s good mood. Her heart was beating fast as she felt like it was too soon for her, but not wanting to turn tail now after everything and look like a coward in front of Luna. wondering if she should have agreed so quickly…

---

A torrent of flames washed over the area, engulfing the incoming monsters in a sea of fire and pain. The half dozen or so giant beetles that sprung out of nowhere to attack the hapless adventurers, now experiencing the gruesome fate of being baked alive in their own shells.

The heat was so great, that within seconds, the shells themselves started to blacken and flake away into pieces. The damage from the attack leaving a path of destruction that continued on well past the ambush point of the beatles, and scorched several tree’s behind their now charred corpses.

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WAS THAT!?” Luna exclaimed in shock and awe at what Agnès was able to do acting only on impulse. “I said beat them up a little, not burn the forest down! How did you even do that!?” she asked, completely taken aback by the sheer firepower of her friend.

Agnès blushed deeply in embarrassment, pulling back her staff from where it was pointed in the bug's general direction and rubbing the back of her head, patting out some of the flickering fire that seemed to combust out of her orange-red fire-like hair.

“S-sorry about that… I don’t deal with bugs very well…” she said. “A-and they came out of nowhere! What else was I supposed to do!” doing her best to explain her panicked reaction to having a bunch of big ugly bugs attack out of nowhere.

“Not burn the forest down at the least,” Luna said somewhat sarcastically, but with no real bite so as not to make Agnès feel any worse. “And you still haven’t told me how you did that… or why your hair is partially on fire…” she added at the end. Noticing how her friend seemed to be completely uncaring that her hair was aflame in some parts.

“Well…” Agnès hesitated but in the end, with slumped shoulders, realized she couldn’t hide it. “I guess the cat’s out of the bag…” wondering how she was going to explain this as she absent-mindedly patted out the last of the fires.

She gave a quick glance over to Luna to see if you should let this pass, but only found her instead looking like she was willing to wait till the end of time should need be. With a somewhat defeated sigh, Agnès began.

“Okay…” now looking at Luna directly. “You know how I have black hair and this hair?” pinching a few strands and pulling them to show Luna the orange-fire-like hair she had that was mixed in with some of her normal colored hair. “Well… you see, I’m also contracted with a very powerful fire spirit, and it just so happened that… due to some circumstances, the pact or connection I have with it, is displayed through these hairs.” Agnès began to explain.

“Whenever I channel the power of my fire spirit, my other hair becomes more like fire. The fire spirit I'm contracted to is extremely powerful, so it shows itself through… well… my hair… and is a sign of our connection with each other. Not only does my fire spirit allow me to control fire and flames with amazing ease, but it also makes me somewhat immune or at least very resistant to fire and heat. It can also do a lot more than that, but that’s basically it.” she finished.

Luna was quite amazed and impressed, the fire spirit must be either very powerful as Agnès said it was, or Agnès was just that good a user of fire magic. In the end, she couldn’t help but ask how she was able to get such an amazing fire spirit.

“How did you get such a powerful fire spirit! I mean, look at that!” pointing at the blackened ground and dead bugs. “That’s not something a normal fire spirit can do! Unless either it or you, are both very powerful! Or have years of experience.”

“Is it a mid? A greater? A Major? It at least must be a mid, if so, that’s very impressive that you contracted such a powerful spirit, or trained and evolved one up to such a level of power!” Luna continued. “How were you able to convince such a spirit to join you?” she asked, now very curious.

Agnès winced, wondering how she was going to explain this. “Well… the thing is… I actually don’t know how I was able to contract it. I was actually… born with the contract already in place…”

Luna blinked, “wait, so are you telling me… that you were born with black and red hair?” she asked, trying to figure things out.

Agnès nodded.

“Then… What about the fire spirit? What does it have to say about this?” Luna asked, trying to get some more information.

Agnès shook her head looking a little sad. “It doesn’t say anything… I actually never met it, and no matter what I do, I can’t get in contact with it.”

“Well… what about your soul realm? Have you-” Luna tried to ask, but the question died on her lips as she saw the crestfallen expression on her friend.

“I… actually can’t access my soul realm…” Agnès admitted, not looking her friend in the face anymore, almost as if ashamed by that fact. “Unlike Van who only has his access to his soul realm cut off for a short while… I was born unable to ever see or get access to my own… ever since I was born… It was actually one of the other reasons why my mother worked so hard to find me a cure… that and the pain I get from it from time to time…”

Agnès sighed, “I'm sorry, this isn’t probably what you want to hear on our day out. I should go an-” She was cut off as that same smothering feeling came over her again. A nice, gentle, and warm hug enveloped her body.

“You poor thing… I think I understand what you're going through… me and Van have both had our share of problems…” she then drew back to look Agnès in the eye. “You don’t have to keep your pain to yourself anymore! I promise you, it’s not just your mother, but me and Van that will stay by your side! We’ll share each other's pain, and each other's joy! We will figure this out, and give you the life and future you deserve!” then gave the biggest heartfelt smile yet in Agnès’s direction. “You don’t have to be alone anymore, from now on, no matter what! We are family!” she said, proudly and with conviction, doing her best to show a strong front to her new little sister, as if not even contemplating that there might be a chance that Agnès might refuse.

Agnès for her part was stunned, and yet as she looked into those silver pink eyes, she saw an unwavering conviction from Luna to extend her hand and bring her in as one of the family. Agnès honestly did not know what to say…

“Well? What do you say?” Luna asked. “Let’s work together to fix our problems!” she said with a good-natured smile. “We can work together to become stronger too! It would be a lot of fun if I had someone as cute as you to tag along! And your firepower wouldn’t hurt either!” she continued, making Agnès blush. “We can even work on your fear of sex, or how to better control your fire, or get access to your soul realm, or a bunch of other things!” she said with infectious excitement.

Then slowed down when she realized she may be going too fast. “Well… that is… if you want to…” Luna asked, both a little sheepishly and nervous at the same time.

Agnès felt like crying all over again. It honestly wasn’t fair how pure Luna was. It wasn’t doing her heart any good. And with the sheer sincerity that Luna showed her way, how could she say no? “Alright…” she said with a nod. “Let’s do this… together.” giving her own rare smile.

Luna squealed and gave Agnès another one of her patented smothering hugs. squeezing the life out of her, before pulling away. “I know just where we can start! your fear of sex! Can’t start a good day without it! Getting over such a trauma will probably help with your soul realm too! Come on! Let's head back and ask Van for his help!” she said excitedly, dragging Agnès back to camp.

“Wait? What!?” Agnès shouted in her mind. As she was dragged off. “This wasn’t what I signed up for!” but just as she was about to say something, Luna turned her head to give her a dazzling smile, full of happiness, love, and excitement. Stopping whatever Agnès was going to say in her tracks. “That's… not fair…” was the last thing she thought as they made their way back to camp. In the end, she decided to roll with it and see what happens, if it gets too out of hand she will say so, and hopefully, that would be that…