Up ahead, Lester was still fighting off the men by himself as Liz came to his side.

Other bandits had gotten off of their horses to fight him, but he was doing a good job at keeping them at bay.

Jon noticed that Lester didn’t seem to use mana at all, using large swings to keep his enemies at bay.

Unfortunately for them, one of the bandits got too close and tried to deflect Lester’s sword with his own.

His body immediately flew up in the air and away from Lester.

Wow. Jon thought. Definitely not like Hector.

Jon could even see why Hector would be jealous of something like that.

As they got closer, Liz’s magic began to push away at the group to make room for the carriage.

“We’re going straight through!” Tallow yelled.

As they passed through the line, the carriage shook, and Lester pulled himself up back into the wagon.

“Missed me?” He asked everyone, giving a smug smile.

“Not long enough!” Tallow yelled from the front.

The wagon eventually ended up back at the large wooden cabin that was the bandit’s base of operations.

“Why’d we stop?” Lester asked.

“The horses…” Tallow explained, “They’re tired…” She suddenly fell off the wagon to the ground.

Jon quickly jumped off the wagon, forgetting to be scared of the fall as he landed hard on his feet and ran to her side.

“She used so much mana, trying to turn that wagon around,” Liz said, also kneeling by her side. She put her hand on Tallow’s head.

Jon remembered his mother saying the same thing when it came to Mallory. Jon could see her face warming up.

“Bring her inside,” Liz said. “Come on!”

Jon and Liz put Tallow on their shoulders and lifted her up. Jon could feel her heavy breathing on his shoulder.

Everyone else stepped out of the wagon and hurried along.

Lester came by Liz and Jon. “I can-”

“No!” Liz said. ‘Just go ahead.”

Lester grimaced, but he went forward, bracing himself for the door.

As he did, Liz then pointed behind her.

A line of magic shot from her finger into the ground, expanding into a purple sea.

There was no explanation for it, but Jon didn’t mind. He trusted Liz at this point.

“Ready?” Lester asked.

Liz nodded.

He shoved the door open and came in with his sword drawn.

The first thing Jon saw was Ray, along with some other people Jon didn’t recognize. They all wore plain clothes.

“...Uh…” Ray looked around, stunned until he noticed the Armistand family enter as well.

“I… I…” He was interrupted by Thalia throwing herself into his stomach.

“Oh yeah.. ah….” He stared at Mr.and Mrs. Armistand. “Hi…”

“...You’re so tall,” Mr. Armistand said. “Were you always…”

“Yeah, Dad, at least I think,” he said.

He walked up slowly to Ray and also hugged him as Jon and Liz helped move Tallow to one of the beds available.

“It’s the boots, really,” Ray continued. “ You were always so tall yourself. But you never learned how to fight.”

“Did you?” Mr. Armistand asked.

“...No…” Ray looked sheepish. His father stepped aside as his mother came up to him and held him as well.

Jon couldn’t help but watch and be reminded of his own family. And yet, he couldn’t the time that they had spent away from each other.

Ray eventually came to the bed.

“...She has a fever?” Ray asked.

“Extended mana use,” Liz explained. “She needs… is there anything for mana users?”

“I don’t think so,” Ray said. “Nobody here uses mana…”

“Maybe they stole some!” Liz said. “ Maybe we overlooked something! Help me!” She began to search around the building.

Something clicked in Jon suddenly.

He looked down at Tallow’s hip and found her bag.

He reached inside and found the orange gem taking it out and focusing his mana on it.

A familiar voice finally echoes out of it.

“...Hello? Tallow?” Mallory seemed distracted.

“Hi,” Jon said quickly.

“Jon! Hey! What happened?”

“Tallow…. Mana… she…”

“Alright, hold on…”

There were some hurried footsteps from the gem.

“Say again?”

“Tallow… out of mana…” Jon didn’t know how to explain.

“She puckered out using her mana?” he asked.

Jon nodded.

“...yeah,” he quickly amended. “She’s burning.”

“Mallory?” Liz asked. “Is that you?”

She walked up and grabbed Jon’s wrist, holding up the gem to her mouth as she spoke.

“Liz? Hey, Liz! Give me the situation.”

“We just had a massive battle,” Liz said. “We’re still in the middle of it. We’re fighting several waves of men. It’s insane. We’re trapped.

“Oh my God. Really? Do you need-”

“Just tell me how to save her, Mal,” Liz said.

“...Okay. Jon?”

“Yeah.” Jon tried not to nod.

“In your bag, there should be some mana root. Do you know what mana root is?”

Jon could barely remember.

“Don’t worry. Just take the whole thing and dump it in some hot water.”

“I got it!” Ray said. “I was boiling tea earlier!”

“You were boiling tea in the house of the people that kidnapped us?” Mrs. Armistand asked.

“I get nervous, Ma.” Ray frowned.

Jon had run back out of the building to find his bag. He rummaged through with one hand to find a small jar full of manaroot, or at least from what he remembered. There seemed to be other things as well, but it didn’t seem important.

“Jon.” Jon turned to the orange gem in his other hand.

“I’m gonna hang up to conserve energy. Hector’s on his way already. He should be there soon.”

“Alright,” Jon said.

“Bye.” the gem fizzled.

Jon ran back into the house.

“Jon!" Liz held up her hand.

Jon tossed the jar to Liz. Liz snatched it from the air, opened it, and dumped some into her palm.

She passed the jar to Ray without looking at him. He caught it.

“Dump that in the water!” Liz said. “And get a washcloth!”

“Right…” Ray nodded quickly and ran off.

Liz snapped her fingers with the hand that held the mana root. A small blue fire ignited over her hand.

She held it over Tallow’s head.

Tallow’s nose wrinkled.

“Stinky…” Tallow commented, her eyes still closed.

Jon was happy to hear that she was at least okay. He was also glad to see Liz taking such good care of Tallow.

The door flew open, grabbing everyone’s attention. Macy walked in with Liston on her shoulder.

“I should have known it was you guys,” Macy said. “The smell coming from here was disgusting.”

“That’s the mana root,” Ray said from the pot of boiling water. He was already dumping the washcloth in. “It’s being made for… ah… you’re insulting us.”

“Manaroot?” Macy asked. “Where?” She dropped Liston to the floor and walked up to the stove.

Macy took off her glove, dipped her finger in, and sucked on it.

Her body shook in reaction.

“Whoa... She had a dreamy look on her face.”

In the meanwhile, Liz had come to Liston.

“Sister, we tried to hold them off!” he said. “We... “

“Calm down, Liston.” Liz also felt his head with the back of his hand.

He quickly knocked away her hand.

“We diverted their attention,” he continued. “And we’ve thinned out their numbers…”

“I got him.” Lester didn’t wait for permission this time. He just picked up Liston over his shoulder.

“Let me go… you brute…”

“I hear ya.” Lester pushed Liston off of his shoulder onto the bed.

Ray came back with the washcloth.

“That was fast,” Liz said as he put it over Tallow’s forehead.

“I was already making tea for everyone,” Ray said.

Liz looked at the other people who aimlessly stood in the corner.

“Why are they here?” Liz asked.

“...I convinced them to come with me,” Ray said. “Help chase away the bandits and find my parents. We’re tired of constantly being harassed, but all of them seem to be busy at the moment. When we came here, people were already flooding out.”

Jon took a moment to look at everyone.

They all seemed extremely exasperated. Even Macy had a ton of sweat matting her hair, although she didn’t seem to care too much at the moment.

She sat down on the bed across from him.

She eventually noticed Jon and smiled at him.

Jon tried to smile back when he felt a hand caressing his face.

“Where were you, you idiot?”

Jon looked at Tallow. Her eyes were still closed.

“We need you… Jon’s in trouble… Hector’s getting married… it’s hell in here…”

She rubbed the back of her hand against Jon’s cheek.

Is she talking to Sabez? Jon sympathized. He wished that Sabez was here too.

“I don’t care if he’s cute!” Tallow said. “He just needs help.”

Her eyes suddenly opened and she sat up.

“Whoa!” she yelled. She pulled off the washcloth and stared at it.

“I feel… what’s in here?” She was breathing heavily with her mouth open. She then looked at Jon.

“...Where’s the horse?” she asked.

“Resting,” Liz exclaimed. She then put her palm to her nose and sniffed it.

“That’s not just mana root in here,” Liz noted. She turned to Jon. “Where do you get this stuff from?”

“Jon’s mother,” Tallow answered. “Apparently.”

Liz looked at Jon. “Your mother’s a tradesman of sorts?”

My mother? Jon couldn’t imagine what more was put into the jar that wasn’t mana root.

“Farmer…” Jon answered.

“I suppose that makes sense, but…” Liz put her palm back up to her nose and sniffed again.

Tallow suddenly collapsed back on the bed.

“There’s enough to kick start you up,” Liz said, as Ray tried to put another washcloth on Liston’s head. Liston grabbed it and shooed away Ray.

“But you still need to rest,” Liz added.

“Sure. While a whole bunch of bandits come and slaughter me in my sleep.” Tallow, despite her protest, still relaxed her body.

“...Jon.. Amalia….” Liz called. “ Lester-”

“Outside,” Lester said, rolling his eyes. He made his way to the door.

“Outside,” Liz repeated quietly. She stood up and went to the door as well. Macy and Jon followed.

Outside, the rest of Liz’s guild was waiting around, most of them not on their horses.

“How are the reinforcements coming?” Liz asked.

“They’re coming by,” one of the spellcasters said. She was tending to her horse. “We haven’t been communicating with them so that they can reach here faster.”

“Of course. What’s the count?”

“We dispatched much of the group,” another spellcaster said. “There’s an unknown section of the mercenaries left, followed by the remains of the mercenary group and both of their leaders.”

“She’s still out there?” Liz sucked her teeth. “Fine.”

“Hector… is coming…” Jon added.

“Did he say how many?” Liz asked.

Jon shook his head.

She sucked her teeth again and looked around at everyone.

“...We have to hold out,” Liz said. “We can’t move everybody at once. For whatever reasons, their horses can catch up to ours quicker than usual, even in this forest. Outrunning them won’t work too well.”

“Shall we take them out by force, milady?” one of the guild members asked.

“...We’ll do both,” Liz said. “They have a priority, which is the wagon. I assume they were trying to ransom the Armistand family for their share of magical items. What they didn’t expect was that the Rare Artifacts guild are full of hobbyists, and don’t have much to their name,

She sighed. “I wished they tried that with one of our members. But I realize that we’ll have to use that to our advantage.

She put her palm in her hand. “We’ll put our collection of magical artifacts on the wagon. That will make sure they make the wagon the complete target.”

“I thought the goal was to free the family,” Lester said. “You want to lump them with the items? Then they’ll focus on the items.

“That’s what we want,” Liz said. “We’ll pick them off. All while heading towards Resden.”

“I doubt we'll make it all the way,” Amalia said. “My father’s kingdom is still a way off.”

“We don’t need to,’ Liz said. “We’ll finish them here. If we divide their numbers enough, we should have enough time for reinforcements to arrive from both sides.”

Liz turned to the spellcaster who spoke up before. “Their numbers should be smaller now.”

“They still exceed ours,” the women spellcaster explained, “but since they’re thinned out, we should be able to put out a fighting chance. It’s just that most of our group is exhausted.”

“...I should have brought more manaroot,” Liz said. She turned to the rest of the group. “I’m sorry. I have failed you all as your leader.”

“Of course not.” There were murmurs from the rest of the spellcasters, who all bowed down to Liz.

“We’ll serve you to the end.” They said in unison.

Liz rolled her eyes. “We’re a guild guys, not an army, we should be like this...”

“Well, you sure tricked me,” Macy said, crossing her arms. “You’re more effective than an army.”

Liz grimaced, but she didn’t answer.

“...Get ready soon,” she said. “Load the wagon. I’ll plot out our course towards Valta with the natives. There’s mana root inside, but be sparse in how you use it.”

She walked back inside.

Jon was ready to follow her when he felt a tug on his arm.

It was Amalia.

“Can you come with me, Jon?” she asked. “For a moment.”

“Okay,” Jon answered.

She continued to pull on his arm and led him to the back of the building.

When they stopped moving, she let go of his arm.

“...I don’t know how to say this..” she started.

Jon waited for her to speak.

“...When we were in the carriage.. Before it tipped over… no, I mean… the entire time we were there. I felt… I felt…”

Scared? Jon wondered. He still decided to wait.

“Can we sit down?” she asked.

She and Jon sat down with their backs against the wall.

“...Have you done this before?” she asked.

“...Kinda…” That was a hard question to answer for Jon. What was this?

The fighting? Sure. He had been in a fight before, even though this fight was way different.

A mission? He didn’t know if that was true either. He supposed helping Mercy was a mission, but he also had his own agenda in helping Mercy.

She didn’t wait for him to elaborate on his answer.

“When you held me…” Jon cleared his head to listen to the rest of what she had to say.

“That was the closest I’ve ever been to a guy,” she said.

Oh…

She continued. “I’ve forced a hug out of Hector, but even then I feel so far from him. And most of the guys I know are scared to get near me because I’m a princess.”

She looked at Jon. “And then there’s Lester. He’s nice, but I don’t like the way he talks about other women. I don’t let him get too close.”

“Hmmm…” Maybe Jon would watch the way he talked about other women, even if he tried to be nice.

“I would let him get close enough to make Hector jealous, but Hector’s never around…”

“Oh…” If Hector was on missions all the time, it would make sense that she didn’t see him much.

“I should stop trying to make him jealous, right?” she asked. “He obviously doesn’t want me around anymore.”

Jon didn’t know if that was true. He couldn’t speak for Hector, but he seemed to at least care for Amalia. From what Jon knew, Hector yelled at people he cared about. Maybe he should tell Amalia that.

“Hector-”

“When you held me…” Amalia cut him off. “Even if you were saving me. It didn’t feel like I was a princess. It felt like I was a comrade… like you were afraid of losing me.”

“Yeah… I…” She moved close to him and put her head on his shoulder.

“I know it’s not much, but thank you.”

They stayed like that for a while. Jon was anxious to move, but he figured Amalia needed to rest, so he didn’t want to disturb her.

“...We should go,” she said after a few minutes. “I’m sure Liz has a job for us.”

“Yeah…”

They both stood up.

“Uhh… before we go…” Amalia said.

Jon had started walking away but stopped himself to listen to her request.

“We go back to the castle after this, right?”

‘Yeah…”

“Then… before we go… Can you hold me? Like before?”

The request made Jon shiver.

“...Sure….” He didn’t see a problem with it. He was just hoping it wouldn’t take too long.

He started to open his arms, but she had already thrown herself into his chest, wrapping her own arms around his back.

Whoa. She was strong. Maybe even stronger than he was, despite being smaller.

He slowly wrapped his arms around her back too. This might have been the closest he had been to a girl.

He looked down on top of her head, waiting for her to let go.

She looked up to see his face above his. She was close.

In fact, she was getting closer.

“Ah-” her lips pressed against his before he could say anymore.

Oh... It was like Macy. Well, maybe she would let go soon?

Much to Jon’s surprise, she held on.

She suddenly broke away.

“I’m sorry, Jon,” she said. “That was sudden.”

“It’s okay…” Jon began.

“It is?” She looked up with surprise.

She kissed him again, harder this time. Jon didn’t know that she could kiss harder.

She pushed against him and slammed him on the back of the wall. It didn’t hurt, but Jon was still surprised.

She let go. “I’m sorry!”

“It’s okay-” Jon began to speak again, but he was interrupted by her kissing.

She kissed him so much she almost fell over but Jon wrapped his hands around her back to keep her held up.

Jon was beginning to feel lightheaded. He’d never done this much kissing before.

“Ah, there goes the princess!”

Amalia quickly broke away from Jon and fixed her hair quickly.

Macy made her way down to both of them.

“Macy, I can explain,” Amalia said.

“Please, don’t, princess,” Macy said. “That’s not the issue.”

She waved Amalia away. “Go, before the Vindazi finds you, trust me…”

She pushed herself against Jon. “Hurry.”

Amalia nodded and ran around the other end of the corner.

Macy leaned in close to Jon. “Hey, buddy.”

“Hey…” Jon whispered.

“Jon!” Jon could hear Tallow’s voice coming from the other side of the building.

He tried to approach her but Macy pushed him back against the building.

“This you and Amalia thing,” she said softly, “make sure to keep that between us, okay? The princess is a bit shy around people, so you shouldn’t go spouting her business around to anyone, okay?”

“...Okay…” Jon responded.

“But for me and you…” she got closer to him. “You can tell everyone everything about that. Heck, I might even reward you… not that you would like a reward anyway.”

Jon was trying to understand what type of reward he would get, but he didn’t want to beg for gifts. He wanted to tell her it wasn't necessary, but he found it hard to say anything.

“Okay…” He also wondered if there was a way to answer questions more definitively.

She slapped his cheek lightly. “Thanks, bud,”

“Hey!” There it was. Tallow had just come around the side of the building.

“Keep your hands off of him!”