Another new girl, and another potential enemy, who was now transitioning into a potential ally. Watching in relative silence, I saw Miles do his usual thing, though he didn’t seem to realize how much of an effect he had on people. One moment she seemingly tried to kill us, the next we’re sitting there, making smalltalk and discussing medicine and scripting. Even if she hadn’t been herself at first, it was unreal. And it wasn’t the first time of course. Berla had tried to kill us, and she became his girlfriend. Hati tried to kill us, and now Miles treated him like a pet. Lilana... Bren... Aelene... Hayla... Grym... What was it? Why were they all coming around so easily, regardless of the ridiculous situations we were in? Regardless, it usually worked out, and it seemed like this would be the case once more.

“Well, I think we’re good now. If you’re feeling fine, and the doc doesn’t have any complaints, you can go,” Miles said eventually, during a natural break in the conversation.

He and Shadi glanced at Nym, standing on the other side of the bed, nodding.

“From my side there’s no reason to keep you here. Aside from the obvious, of course. Don’t forget: you’re hired. Don’t you dare try to find work elsewhere.”

She had become pale when Miles mentioned the option that Shadi could also move to other towns for work, like ones that possibly didn’t have proper doctors. Or that she could become a traveling healer. For a Sourcerer, this was actually an option, since the risk of getting attacked was minimized, and they would also be able to defend themselves. To the doctor’s relief, Shadi had no intention of leaving Alarna, and Nym immediately pitched the doctor’s office as the ideal working environment for her. Though Miles also made it very clear that he wanted to talk more to her about scripting.

In the end, we left Nym behind with her dreams of a better future for her department and walked back to the stairs that led up to our office. Since Miles had sent Bren in advance to inform Reurig, he and Shadi’s friends were already waiting for us.

“Shadi!” Tyra shouted the moment her friend came into view. Disregarding everyone else, she made a beeline for her and hugged her neck. “Are you okay? Are they letting you go?”

“Yes, everything’s fine,” Shadi replied, petting Tyra’s back. “We can go home now.”

Switching from her neck to hugging her arm, Tyra pulled her along towards Calom. “We were a bit worried about what happened there... Just a little bit,” he said.

“Sorry about that,” Shadi said and turned around towards us once more. “We can go, right?”

“Yea. You’ll come over tomorrow, so we can go into more detail about your job and other things?” Miles said.

“I will.”

“Alright. Do you know the way from here?”

“We do, thank you!” Shadi said, and started walking down the long hallway towards the front door with the other two.

‘I have to admit, it does feel a little weird to just let her go like that now,’ I said.

“She even asked for it. What are we supposed to do?” Miles responded. “Well, except... Reurig, you’re going to keep an eye on her?”

“Of course.”

Miles nodded contently. If anything happened, we would learn about it. If only Riala hadn’t been convinced that Shadi was dangerous somehow, maybe I would’ve been more at ease as well. Miles trusted Hadi on this matter, but it was weird that Riala of all people didn’t like someone. All we could do now was wait and see, however.

“Alright, let’s get back to it,” Miles said. “I guess we’ll head to the prison now, and then we’ll make preparations for tomorrow.”

“What about Riala and Hati?” Berla asked.

“Oh, right. Hm, maybe have her go over this if she doesn’t want to go back to Zara yet. But tell her not to use unknown functions.”

He handed her the stack of papers with the scripts from Shadi’s back.

“Okay, that should keep her busy until you’re back,” Berla chuckled.

Riala would undoubtedly go crazy over seeing entirely new scripts, though she wouldn’t be able to read them in their compressed form. I smiled internally, having a big advantage over her for once, somewhat understanding the logic behind it. She would still give it her all though.

“Hopefully. See you later,” Miles said.

Our group dispersed in different directions, with Berla and Brie heading upstairs, Reurig preparing to follow Shadi in secret, and us and Bren heading towards the prison. With the rituals done, our next order of business was to get back to our biggest problem at hand: Arax. Or at least it had been the biggest one, before that weird encounter with Gallas. I wasn’t sure how to rank him in all this, or what his behavior meant for us.

Not having anything else to do up here, I was reflecting on everything that had happened, what was going to happen soon, and what might very well happen any moment, while we made our way out of the temple.

‘There’s so much going on...’

“Yup.”

‘Sure would be nice if it could be one problem at a time.’

“That’s just life. Problems don’t necessarily come in neat little arcs.”

Break glanced back at us, walking ahead. “Huh?” he asked.

“Oh, sorry. I was talking to Tomar.”

“I see. I’m not used to that yet. Actually, may I ask something about that, Lilly?”

“Go ahead. But don’t call me Lilly in public.”

“Of course, I apologize. My question is... Or rather, we’ve all been wondering. Will you ever leave Tomar’s body? With yours gone, will you have to share it forever?”

‘Funny how he’s bringing up our original problem right this moment.’

Miles nodded. “We’re looking for alternatives, but this is how it has to be for now.”

“Hm. And are you two alright in there?”

“Heh. We are. Thank you for worrying, Bren.”

This particular problem had taken a backseat of its own lately. It had been the catalyst for everything else that happened over the last few months, and it was still on our mind, but we always had more immediate ones that needed our attention. Not to mention that we had yet to find any good solutions. After all, Miles would either need to share a body with someone, or we would need to essentially kill the owner of the body. We both preferred to proceed like this for the time being, and we were also used to it by then. We talked, we switched control from time to time, and I actually found it quite relaxing to just sit back and watch.

Leaving the temple through the front door, we saw Shadi and her friends on the other side of the main square, heading into the southwestern part of town, where the Raising Site was. Before they disappeared from sight, Shadi briefly glanced back at the temple and us.

‘We could’ve accompanied them if we were going out anyway,’ I realized.

“Yea, I didn’t think about that either,” Miles said and shrugged. “Whatever. Let’s visit Oryn.”

***

“They followed us out...” Shadi said.

“Will you tell us what’s going on now?” Tyra asked. “You can’t just say the codeword and then clam up!”

The three came to a stop on an empty side-street. Shadi’s mind was racing, unsure whether she was safe now. At the very least, they had let her go though.

“I had to tell them way too much to get them to trust me... Attacking him was a mistake...”

“Why did you do it then?” Tyra asked, exasperated.

“Isn’t that obvious? She’s a Sourcerer! Imagine if she had beaten him! And what Ten would’ve said!” Calom said. “That was amazing by the way.”

“No, it was stupid,” Shadi said. “I was high on the ritual, I couldn’t think straight. I didn’t even realize that he isn’t a Sourcerer.”

“Huh?”

“What are you talking about?” Calom asked. “Aren’t they the ones who came up with that name? Being the first ones and all.”

“I don’t know what they are, but I know I don’t share a Calling with that guy. What he can do isn’t normal.”

“And how did you get them to let you go after trying to kill him?” Tyra asked.

“I pretended that it wasn’t me, that someone else did that.” Her friends looked at her in continued confusion. “It’s going to take a bit longer to explain all of this to you, but I think it worked. We’re out, and hopefully they believed me. But we should still head to the mini temple for now,” Shadi said and walked on.

“Tell us what that Calling is like then!” Tyra said, hurrying after her. “You’re acting way different than before, it’s a bit weird.”

“I know... I’m sorry. I feel like I can’t relax, my mind just can’t calm down due to the mana. That... energy that lets Sourcerers use these powers. Your body has to get used to it first. Sitting in there all quiet and making friendly smalltalk was torture in this state. But the things I know now... They are amazing, and what I can do... This is so much better than becoming a Charmer. Sorry, guys,” she chuckled.

“I bet that it’s better,” Calom said, laughing. “And Ten will be very happy.”

“I hope so,” Sadi said, a smile on her lips.

The Raising Site soon came into view, and they mentally prepared for spending one last day here, before they would be allowed to head out into town and fend for themselves. Just one more day until they would see their idol again, and they would learn what was expected of them going forward.