“It’s not bad!” Bronwyn said, licking the edges of her cone and scooping up all the dripping vanilla ice cream.

“Not bad? It’s better than any ice cream I ever had on Earth!” Olivia leaned back on her left hand, enjoying the cool scrunch of the springy grass under her fingers. She savored the treat, happy that the colonists were starting to grow comfortable and settled enough to begin exploring non-essential goods and services.

They sat on the northwestern slope of Bronwyn’s Hill, watching the crowds outside Alec’s tavern. A colonist from Idaho, of all places, had built a cart with a built-in, Energy-powered freezer and was selling cones to passersby. “Well, are you going to tell me what it said?” Olivia asked, gesturing to the tiny roll of paper Bronwyn still clutched in her free hand.

They’d only been sitting for a minute or two when one of the long-tailed, brightly colored birds commonly found sweeping through the air over their pond had landed with a flutter at Bronwyn’s feet. Olivia wasn’t sure how, but Bronwyn immediately seemed to realize it was there for her, and she snatched the little rolled parchment from its talon. The funny creature had made a “cheep-chirp” sound and then launched back into the air.

“I’m trying to pretend I didn’t read it.” Bronwyn took another long lick of her ice cream, then closed her eyes and held her face to the warm sun.

“Well, that’s not going to solve anything. Come on, what did it say?” Olivia made a grab for Bronwyn’s hand, trying to pry her fingers apart, but Bronwyn squeezed her fist tight. “Are you going to make me cast a spell on you?”

“Oh, fine. Read it!” Bronwyn relaxed her fingers, and Olivia took the little paper. She unrolled it, turned it front to back, and frowned.

“It’s blank.”

“No, it isn’t!” Bronwyn snatched the paper back and held it open, reading, “Daughter, there is one in your community named Cal Jennings. He seeks a friend, and it is vital that he is successful in his quest. Aid him.”

“First of all, that paper is blank. Second of all, who is Cal Jennings? Oh, and third: daughter?”

“I have no damn idea, but I’d rather have some time off to spend with you.” Bronwyn blew some loose strands of red hair out of her eyes.

“That answered one of my questions,” Olivia pressed.

“I don’t know why you can’t read the paper. Maybe the queen didn’t want others to see my message. She calls me daughter sometimes. Usually ‘daughter of summer.’”

“That’s sweet!” Olivia laughed and bumped her shoulder into Bronwyn’s, jostling her enough to make her stretch out her hand, holding her ice cream precariously, to maintain her balance.

“Are you trying to start a food fight? Because this is how you get a food fight started!” Bronwyn held her cone threateningly.

“No! No, please!” Olivia held up her free hand in mock surrender and took another big lick of her cone.

“Alright, sheesh. I wish you’d get a little serious, though—I feel like I have to do what it says here, which means I might be out of touch with you for a while.”

“Bronwyn. Sweet, fiery, Bronwyn,” Olivia said, reaching out to run her fingers along Bronwyn’s jawline, pushing her breeze-blown hair back. “You know I have to go back to the academy, right? We’ll see each other soon, but in the meantime, I think we both have important things to do. That’s alright, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, of course, but that doesn’t mean I like it,” Bronwyn said, leaning forward to kiss her. Olivia returned the kiss, enjoying how Bronwyn’s lips were cold and how she tasted like vanilla. She reached a hand up and gently caressed Bronwyn’s ear, rubbing the pointed tip between her thumb and forefinger. Bronwyn groaned softly and then pulled away, her cheeks flushed. “You’re going to get something else started if you’re not careful,” she said, then laid down in the grass, resting the back of her head on Olivia’s thigh, and continued eating her ice cream.

Olivia had just crunched the last bit of her cone when Bronwyn growled and sat up with a deep scowl. “Damn it! I feel like I have ants in my pants. I feel like I have to get going to figure out what’s up with this Cal guy. It’s driving me crazy! I’m sorry, Liv.”

“Alright, but Bronwyn, it sounds like you’re on a quest. I’m planning to activate my teleport back to the Academy tomorrow morning. If I don’t see you before then, don’t beat yourself up about it, okay? I’ll make sure I visit again soon, and, besides, Morgan is working on something—he said he might have a way to connect his tower to the academy and that I should be sure to speak to him before I leave.”

“When did he tell you that?”

“After dinner last night, when you were in the bath.”

“Ugh, dammit! I gotta get going. Olivia, if I miss the council meeting, please explain that I’m doing something important!” She hugged Olivia again fiercely, and they kissed for a long moment, and then Bronwyn turned and ran down the hill toward the tavern. Whatever purpose the Summer Queen had put into her seemed to be affecting her palpably.

“Not too sure I like that,” Olivia said, wondering just how much the queen could make Bronwyn do. Maybe it wasn’t so much direct control but a feeling of urgency that she somehow shared with Bronwyn? “I wonder if I could meet this patron of hers someday.” Olivia sighed and stood up, brushing the dew and grass from her robe.

She’d planned to spend the day with Bronwyn and still had hours to kill before the council meeting. She was clean, rested, and had a full belly. “What to do,” she asked aloud, then she looked north at the activity around Morgan’s tower. Issa had contracted some builders to make a stable and corral on the grounds nearby. “I guess I could go say hi to Blue.” She walked over to the steps and lightly descended. She was sad that Bronwyn had been called away but overall very happy with how things were going for her.

Morgan’s new stables were about half-built, and the wood being used was kind of rough and a natural reddish-brown. Olivia asked one of the workers, a short-haired woman in a gray smock, “What kind of wood is this?”

“We don’t know what the natives call it, though I suppose there’s plenty of them around to ask. Anyway, we just call it new cedar 'cause it smells like it and seems to hold up good to weather.” She shrugged.

“Really? Is it plentiful?”

“Yeah, half the trees in the Gresh Woods are new cedar. You wouldn’t know it, looking at them—they’re tall and skinny with white bark and blue leaves.”

“Things are so colorful here, aren’t they?”

“They sure are, ma’am.” Olivia was taken aback by the woman’s deferential tone. She’d earned a lot of respect in academia but rarely had strangers treat her that way. Was it her advanced race? Her clothing?

“Oh, you can call me Olivia.”

“Olivia Bennet, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, I’ve heard of you. I mean, I knew about your name before we even left, what with the cryo pods and all. Still, I’ve heard you’ve been giving the locals and monsters the business, so I appreciate you standing up for us humans and doing us proud.”

“Oh, I . . . ” Olivia didn’t really know how to respond. Finally, she just settled on, “Well, thank you. What’s your name?”

“I’m Heather. Um, Heather Taylor.” The woman looked embarrassed for some reason, and Olivia decided to leave her to her work.

“Nice to meet you, Heather. I’m going to go visit my feathery friends over there.” She pointed to the three roladii staked not far away in the grass.

“Oh wow, one of them is yours?”

“Yep! They’re very sweet and easy to train. You should get yourself one!” Olivia waved and then walked around the new construction toward the three roladii. Blue perked up when she drew near, sensing her even before she entered his field of vision. She produced a brush from her storage ring and began to scrub at his rough, gray skin, scraping away flakes of loose dry skin from around his feathery mane.

Munch and Gopp started edging their way over when they saw the attention Blue was getting, and Olivia laughed. “Oh, you want some loving too?” She began to rotate her attention among the three roladii, laughing at how they jostled for attention.

“They’ll take up all your time if you let them,” a woman’s voice said from behind her. She turned, smiling, only to see the woman who had chained her with Energy when they’d first stepped through the portal. Her smile fell away.

“Oh, hello.” She straightened and put the brush away, resting her hand on Blue’s rump.

“I wanted to apologize for the way we met yesterday.” The woman came another step closer, and Olivia regarded her carefully. She was an Ardeni, though shorter and slighter than Issa. She had dark hair, but her eyes were bright green, which was unusual. Most of the Ardeni Olivia had met had eyes that reflected their hair coloring. She wore a silky black blouse with glittering turquoise buttons up the middle. The top two buttons were loose, and the shirt had fallen open to the left, exposing the smooth curve of a breast. She was, all in all, a beautiful woman.

“Well, you thought you were protecting our town. I’m just glad things didn’t escalate more.” Olivia let the words hang for a minute, allowing the woman to make her own inferences about what Olivia meant.

“Yes, of course, I’m happy as well. Um, Olivia, wasn’t it?”

“Right, and I’m sorry, but I’m not sure I heard your name.”

“Oh, It’s Tanna ap’Cilla.”

“Ap’Cilla? I’m new to this world, but I’ve learned that it’s customary for Ardeni to take their father’s name as a surname.”

“Well, in some cases, we choose to honor our mothers.” The woman’s lips smiled, but her eyes didn’t reflect it, and Olivia wondered if she’d overstepped.

“That’s very interesting. I’m actually quite glad to hear that—patriarchal customs don’t always reflect the best interests of women.”

“Quite. Tell me, Olivia. You’ve been studying at Fainhallow, correct?”

“That’s right,” Olivia replied, noting the quick subject change.

“Are you due to return soon?” She asked, glancing around at the stable construction and the tower.

“Yes, I’m afraid so. I’ll be visiting regularly, though.” Olivia wasn’t sure what made her add the last part, but something about this woman, her companions, and their gigantic airship troubled her, even with the rosy apology she’d just received.

“I wanted to tell you that I was impressed by your ability to resist me. Of course, I didn’t know who you were when you came through that portal, but when I later found out that you were Olivia, a tier-two student from Fainhallow, I was flabbergasted. Did you have some sort of defensive item that helped you to resist my bonds?”

“Hmm, something like that,” Olivia replied, remaining cagey. She felt a slight surge of Energy, so small that she probably wouldn’t have noticed it had she not been so familiar with the affinity—water. She glanced toward the source and saw a few flakes of frost trailing off Tanna’s fingertips, quickly dissipating in the warm summer air. “Oh, a fellow Elementalist?”

“What?” Tanna looked startled, then shook her hands and said, “Ugh! My emotions tend to come out through my pathways. I’ve always had that problem. I do have a strong water affinity, though. You as well?”

“Mmhmm. Yes, I have a water affinity.” Olivia smiled, nodding.

“Well, I’ve never been good at explaining things, or I’d offer you some pointers. I’d never make it as a teacher, I’m afraid.”

“Pointers? Oh, that’s kind of you, but I have good instructors at Fainhallow. Don’t worry yourself.”

“No. No, I won’t.” The woman suddenly seemed distracted, and Olivia followed her gaze to the dark gray iron tower behind her. “I wonder, where did that winged fellow acquire this tower?”

“I believe he earned it as a reward in a dungeon.” Olivia knew exactly where Morgan got the tower, but she didn’t feel like giving this woman a straight answer. Something about her was really starting to rub the wrong way.

“Interesting. He’s of a higher level than you others, isn’t he?”

“Oh, yes, a bit.”

“And his wings? How fascinating. Do all humans gain such as they advance their race?” Tanna leaned closer, and Olivia became aware of her perfume. It was cloying and sweet, and if she liked the woman, she might have enjoyed it, but with her bias, it reminded her of overripe fruit and the flies that feed on it.

“We’re really not sure, Tanna. Not many of us have advanced our race appreciably.”

“I see. I wonder, do you think you could give this to Morgan?” The woman produced a small envelope sealed with a dollop of violet wax.

“What’s this?” Olivia asked, not reaching for the envelope.

“Nothing harmful! Simply an invitation to dine at the captain’s table aboard the Skybreaker. I’d have invited you as well, Olivia, but the dinner is in two days, and I thought you’d be gone to the academy by then.”

“Oh, alright,” Olivia reached out and took the envelope. The woman held onto it briefly as she pulled at it, but when Olivia looked into her bright green eyes, she just smiled and let go.

“Well, it’s been nice to meet you properly, Olivia. I hope we can . . . talk again. Perhaps when you’ve finished your studies.” She smiled, but to Olivia, it looked more like a smirk, and then she turned to walk away.

Olivia watched her go, and when she was out of sight, having meandered toward the center of town, she turned to the steps leading up to the tower door and muttered, “You better hope we never have reason to do more than talk, bitch.”