After a meaningful look around at everyone individually, I make a gesture to follow me, and force myself to walk off Main Street, doing my absolute best to steady my feet and avoid limping. I still barely make it a few meters before Emily's at my side, helping support most of my weight. "Thanks," I huff painfully through my teeth, and continue on, a few blocks further, until the crowd dies down. The whole way, Emily and Beth continue shooting glances at Effy. I stop as soon as I find a little grassy spot between a few upper class houses without anyone nearby, sitting down with breath heaving just from that effort.

Beth immediately kneels down by me, and begins stripping off my clothes so she can treat my wounds. Even as her hands move quickly, dropping my bandages and metal disks to the ground, I begin to explain. "Sorry, I know it's not a good time, but I should tell you guys." There is no good way of doing this, is there? Keeping my voice down since there are still some people passing on the road, I say, "Please, don't freak out." And with a small gesture of my hand... "This is Effy."

Beth's practiced hands jerk, and I grunt when she yanks on one of my bandages. "S-sorry," she stammers automatically, even as her attention is drawn off of me like I've never seen before. She stares briefly at Effy, who just looks back, raising an eyebrow slightly in confusion. "So..." she swallows hard. "So this is...?" Then her jaw clenches, and she shakes her head, forcing her gaze back down to me, and continues working to treat my wounds.

I turn to look at Emily, and wince when I see her. She's staring, wide-eyed at Effy. Unmoving. Just staring. Her breath is rapid and panicked. I wait a bit, letting Beth work, while Emily continues staring. My mouth opens on reflex, but I bite my tongue for now. Something tells me to... not interfere here. Effy, for her part, just sits there, faintly confused since she doesn't know either of these two, patiently waiting for an explanation. She doesn't even know humans hate rail units, does she...?

Bit by bit, Emily's breathing slows, while Beth continues treating my wounds. Burn ointment for my burns, other stuff for the cuts and bruises, bandages everywhere...

Then Emily blinks, swallows, and shrinks down a little closer to the ground. When she speaks, her voice is low and suspicious. "...Hi."

"Hi?" Effy responds, eyes searching Emily's face. She's still confused, but I can see a little hurt creeping into her expression. So as soon as Beth finishes with the last of my bandages, I shift over to Effy and hug against her side. The uncertain, worried expressions that brings from Emily and Beth make me kind of mad.

"Effy, meet Beth and Emily," I refer to each of them with an outstretched hand. "Beth's a 'doctor.' That means she helps people when they get hurt. Like you just saw, she helps me too. And Emily is my best friend. And... kind of like my older sister. Wait, you don't know what that is, do you...?" I mutter the last part to myself when I realize. "Uhh, anyway. They're some of the only people in the world I've told everything about us. And they accept me." Then I turn the question on them, frowning but trying not to glare. "Do you accept Effy, too?"

"..."

There's a heavy gap of silence, which is unexpectedly broken by Effy.

"I'm Effy. Thank you for taking care of Aria. I'm sorry I couldn't protect her better, I'll try harder next time." Of course, that's followed by another stretch of awkward silence, before Beth sighs loudly, a hand to her face.

"Ok, fine," she practically groans, "Come here, Effy, you're injured too." This time, it's Effy who hesitates, looking to me. It's like she's asking for reassurance and permission, in one look. I nod and urge her forward, Beth arching an eyebrow at our silent exchange. Effy shuffles over to her, and Beth takes her by the arms. They're both still kneeling, Beth quickly bandaging a cut on Effy's forearm, then looking her up and down uncertainly, before glancing back toward the road where people are walking past.

"Actually, we should probably do this somewhere more private."

"Private? Why?" I ask.

That just makes her sigh again. "Because Effy is an adult, Aria."

"O-oh, right..." I stammer, remembering how Emily taught me that humans are weird about people being naked. Especially adults, for some reason. Wait, but what about all those injured men at the field hospital? Plenty of them had little to no clothing on while being patched up... Despite my questions, we all head north together. The clinic isn't all that far of a walk after all, and Beth carries me this time, which makes it a lot less painful. Emily comes along, but I'm worried. She still hasn't said anything...

When we arrive, the building is empty and Beth has to unlock the door with a key. She brings us all into the back, sits Effy up on the table where she always treats me, and helps her pull off her robe. She stops short at the sight for some reason, her face reddening slightly. I tilt my head up at her. Effy's wounds aren't all that bad, especially not compared to what she's seen happen to me before. So what's so surprising?

Whatever it is, Beth doesn't make any comment and shakes it off after a moment. Since Effy healed herself in battle, all that's left are discolored bruises and scabbed over cuts, ranging all across her torso, and a few nasty stab wounds in her arms. Those look more serious since they came after the healing spell, so Beth treats them first, cleaning and bandaging them carefully.

Beth speaks up as she works. "Does it-" Pauses, then tries again. "Does she have the same magic food issues you do?"

My heart flutters. Even so, I have to answer, "I don't know, actually. The way she uses mana is different."

"Mm. In that case, I'll stay on the safe side. Does she heal like you do?"

"I... don't know that either," I scratch my cheek. "She's usually already healed from battle when I see her again, so..."

"Hmm... Any history of infections?" This question sounds like it's actually directed at Effy, but she doesn't know what infections are, so...

"Umm, that means- basically, have any of your injuries started hurting more, or gotten all red and nasty looking before?" She gives a faint shake of her head, while Beth glances back at me for some reason. At my side, Emily raises an eyebrow too, but continues remaining silent.

"So, it's likely you don't get infections either," Beth concludes. "Maybe it's just rail unit thing. It would make you more effective weapons..." Beth continues working a while longer, only speaking again when most of Effy's wounds are wrapped in bandages. "So, Aria has told me a lot about the treatment there. It doesn't look like the food has affected you like it did her."

It's not much of a question, and Effy clearly doesn't know what she's talking about so I respond instead. "Our manastones are supposed to keep us from needing food and water. So, I'm assuming they take care of nutrition too, somehow."

"Nutrition?" Effy finally questions the new word. Despite it not mattering to Effy, Beth takes some time to explain how some food makes humans more or less healthy and how it affects their growth, and I chip in how I've been eating really healthy food lately, since my manastone is broken and I need to.

"So that's why Aria is so small?" Effy asks, and I flinch a little.

"That's a big part of it. But you also have to remember, she didn't age as fast as the rest of you," Beth starts, her hands continuing their steady movements wrapping a bandage around one particular cut in Effy's shoulder as she speaks. "Looking at her physically, she's about seven, while you're more like fifteen, I believe. Even though you're really both-"

Beth stops. She stands there for almost a tick, just staring at Effy, and even looking up at her from the side, I can see a realization hit her. She doesn't say it aloud, but her it may as well be written on her face.

'You are five years old.'

With a jolt, Beth's suddenly back to normal, continuing to bandage Effy's wounds like nothing happened. But I know now, just how good she is at hiding her feelings... I slide a little closer to Emily, bumping shoulders with her, and she glances my way, looking confused and conflicted herself. I show her a smile, and she manages to return an uncertain one of her own.

Then I look back up at Beth when she speaks again. "Effy, how long have you been away from the program?"

When Effy hesitates, probably not understanding the question or how to answer, I try to explain for her. "She never really left. She just goes out into town during the day when the rail units aren't doing anything."

"Oh, I see. So, how long has it been since you started going into town?"

This one, Effy can answer. "One hundred seven days."

"Uhh, that's..."

"About three and a half months," I answer for her. "Since around the middle of of Bora." As I speak, Effy looks back and forth between us. Right, she wouldn't even know what we're talking about. I never explained weeks or months to her... "Umm, Miss Beth?" She glances my way again, which gets me to go on.

While she finishes the last of Effy's bandages, I explain how I learned all the basics of, well, everything, from Marrianne, Francis, Emily, and the others around me, pretty much before we ever met. She never knew me before I could convincingly pretend to be a human child. I try my best to make it clear that Effy is not at that point yet, even though she looks like an adult.

While I speak, Effy just stares at me, the slight expression on her face being something like awe about all the people and things I talk about, which I've never mentioned to her before. Maybe I should have? Like, tried harder to talk to her more, or... something. I don't know, but the more I talk about it, the more I feel like I've failed her...

By the time I'm done explaining, Beth is cradling her face in her hand. "Gods..." she sighs deeply. She looks up again, between the two of us. "I'm going to think about this more. But now that I'm aware of the situation, I can't not do anything about it. Just give me some time, alright?"

"Sure. Thanks a lot, Miss Beth. I... never really knew what to do..."

"Of course you didn't," she groans, "you're seven." She shakes her head, before turning her attention to Effy once more. "Come now, let's get you dressed." That really just means throwing Effy's robe back on though. And Beth's voice, is she speaking to Effy more... sweetly than before?

With Effy's robe back in place, Beth speaks up again, "Let's lighten the mood, shall we? How are you two feeling? Can you move enough to go out? Would you like to see the festival?"

Effy looks at me. She seems fine - better than me at least - so I answer, "I'd like that. I can't walk much on my own, but if someone carries me, I should be fine." Besides that, there's Effy's rail unit robe. It's all sorts of gray and brown from going through battle and getting soaked in blood, so it's not at all recognizable as the same robe from the ceremony. So it should be fine, I think.

Then I turn to Emily. Her gaze has sunk down toward the floor. "Just... one more thing. Emily?" She jolts a little and looks up at me. "Are you ok with this? You haven't said anything..."

The air around her is heavy and awkward, and her eyes go back to my feet. "I... don't know." Her arms slowly wrap around herself as she continues speaking. "You've said what it's like there... I know what Effy's been through but- But..." Little by little, her voice quiets until I'm probably the only one who can actually hear her. "I know I shouldn't be, but... I'm still scared..."

I step in, wrapping my arms around Emily and holding her lowered head against my shoulder, up on my toes so I can speak right into her ear. "I know exactly how you feel." It's just like my fear of water... "Miss Beth taught me that I have to make good memories to overcome my fears. Want to try it too?"

She's silent for a long while, then she nods into me. "Mm." I step back, taking Emily's hands and squeezing as she meets my eyes again, then looks over at Beth and Effy. "Let's... go."

Beth's smile is soft, a hand rubbing Emily's head. "Sure. Let's go have some fun." She kneels down and picks me up, settling me gently in her arms. A couple steps toward the door though, and she stops. "Ahh... Effy." That has Effy perk up, waiting for whatever Beth has to say. "The story will be..." She looks her up and down once more. "...That you... lost your memories, due to shock or injuries. If we say that, people shouldn't question your lack of knowledge, probably." There's a somewhat uncertain note to her voice at the end, but...

"Wait, can that actually happen?" I ask. We said something like that after my first battle, but I didn't know it was actually possible.

She shrugs. "I've read accounts claiming so, but I've never seen it happen myself. But it sounds somewhat believable, and it's not like anyone would be able to prove otherwise..."

"True..." I murmur. Once more addressing Effy, Beth gets her to understand the idea, to just apologize and continue claiming she doesn't understand if anyone challenges her, and Beth will cover for her by saying she's a doctor watching over her since she's lost her memories.

Wait, now that I think about it, isn't that basically what happened to Emily earlier today? She said she got kidnapped, but couldn't remember what happened after that...

Once the story for Effy's 'condition' is straightened out, we leave the clinic. Beth locks the door behind us, then leads our group toward the center of the city. When I recognize our direction, I warn her about the central plaza and Catherine Lundrum so she'll avoid that spot, and keep us on the surrounding streets instead.

It gets louder and louder, and I put a hand on Effy's shoulder when I notice the faint lines of tension in posture. That calms her somewhat, despite the quickly thickening crowds all around us. We stay a bit south of the central plaza, keeping to the streets of the central district, but they're still packed.

"Before anything else, I have to check on my children," Beth explains as we walk. "I'm sure they're fine, but I should see them anyway." Beth's... children. I feel like I shouldn't be surprised, I already knew she had children. But somehow, I still am...

We arrive at one house in particular, where Beth hands me over to Effy and has us wait outside for a bit. I don't really want to eavesdrop or anything, but I still can't miss the talking inside, multiple voices overlapping as they call 'Mom' or 'Mommy.' How many children does Beth have anyway? I never really wondered about that before. Except for the time one got sick, she's never talked about them...

"Thank goodness, you all look fine. Has Kelsey been taking care of you?"

"Yes!" they all say at once.

Then there's another woman's voice. "Much of the staff were drafted, and they haven't returned yet. Master Taylor paid the exception. He's in his office now."

"I see," Beth responds. "Well, I was about to go to the festival. Can you help get the kids ready? Then you can all have the rest of the day off. Just... could one of you stay for the night? Alta, you don't have a family to check on, do you?" There's a brief bit of discussion, other women's voices a bit too low to make out clearly, but I think I hear them giving thanks, before Beth continues speaking to her children. "We'll all be heading out now, alright?"

There's another chatter of 'yes's and 'yay's from the children, amid the sound of movement. It doesn't last too long, before Beth comes back out, three children with her. Two older kids following, with one little kid in Beth's arms.

"Aria, Emily, these are my children," Beth explains, "Joseph, Koll, and Mia." She goes down in age, making Joseph the oldest, maybe... ten or eleven, with Mia about five. I offer a small wave from my own spot, held in Effy's arms, while Beth does the introductions again, in reverse to introduce us to her own children. Saying we're kids she knows from her work at the clinic. As for Effy, she just... doesn't mention her, and the kids don't seem to question it...?

There's a bit of chatter out of them after the introductions, but they mostly just go along with things, and we start on our way toward the heart of the city.

Walking through town, it's... wow. And not in a good way. Everyone is filthy. There's blood and debris everywhere, and every other person we walk past is bandaged, or visibly distressed, even as stalls of crops, and large fire pits of roasting meat pass on either side of the road. Or, very strangely, some seem completely unaffected by the dark atmosphere, lifting sloshing mugs into the air, laughing and wobbling through the streets like there's absolutely nothing wrong. Sometimes, in whole groups...

"It's... weird to have the harvest festival like this... right?" I finally ask, looking from one side to the other. On our left, a group is roasting chunks of meat on sticks around a huge fire made of what looks like a collapsed building. On the right, a man weeps and howls at the sky between long drinks from the mug in his hand.

Beth sighs, her kids looking between the two of us curiously. Do they... not know what happened? If they were kept inside all day... "Yes. Yes, it is," she says. "I suppose they're trying to lift everyone's spirits, but... Well, we technically were victorious today, and looking at it logically, what else are we supposed to do with all the animals, let them rot in the streets? I get what they're thinking, but the whole thing still feels forced."

"But... we're still going to have fun?" I ask uncertainly.

Before Beth can answer, Mia, who's still sitting in her arms, reaches up and grabs her face. "Mommy, what happened?" she asks, looking all around in confusion.

Beth smiles at her daughter and answers, her tone way sweeter than I'm used to hearing. "Some bad and scary things, but the guards already dealt with it, so everything's fine now, sweetie." The little girl frowns and doesn't look too pleased with the answer, until Beth rubs her head. That gets her to giggle and settle down.

I send a glance back, at the two boys following behind Beth. Koll looks about seven or eight, looking all around in wonder, while Joseph, the oldest, is the only one who looks like he actually has some understanding of the seriousness of the situation. He's maybe... ten or eleven, I think again. It's a bit hard to say, actually. The boys both look like mini versions of Taylor after all, so they're pretty tall, even though they have chubby kid faces... They have his thick build and dark brown hair and everything. In fact, they barely look like Beth's kids at all. Only Mia resembles her mother, with hair lighter, more similar to the bright blond of Beth's.

"Yes," Beth suddenly says. The word is directed at me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Huh?" Yes what?

She chuckles. "You asked if we're still going to have fun. Yes, we will. Even with everything that happened today, we have to enjoy the festival while we have the chance." With my earlier question answered, she addresses Effy too. "It's your first harvest festival, right?" Of course, Effy asks what a harvest festival is, which leads into a whole explanation like they gave me earlier. It doesn't help that Effy doesn't know what crops are, or anything about food or... anything else really. So Beth has to keep explaining more things, just to get Effy to understand. Her kids keep looking back and forth between the two women, clearly baffled by Effy.

She notices, sending a few faintly nervous glances back their way, but clearly puts most of her focus on learning, so she won't be so clueless in the future. It's just like it used to be for me... Beth keeps speaking as we push further into the crowds, herding our little group so we don't get split up. We're reaching the center of town by the time she's more or less explained things so Effy will understand.

The entire area around the central plaza is still overflowing with people, jostling bodies wall to wall between the buildings, everywhere except where they've set up stands with big crates of crops or huge fires for roasting meat. Or the random buildings, which Beth explains are for 'smoking' meat, when I point one out.

As she explains the concept, we push closer through the crowd, up to the front of one such building. A whole team of people work in a small cleared space near it, taking apart a moose. They dress the gigantic animal and skin it, multiple people cutting at various parts of its body all at once to get chunks of meat sliced off, with others dumping the meat into big bowls that look to be filled with salt. Still more people buzz all around the little building, still getting the thing built.

"It's quite a process," Beth comments, one hand petting the top of Mia's head as she says 'ew' and turns away, burying her face in Beth's chest. Paying that no more mind, she points and explains some of the process as we watch. Apparently, it can take weeks from start to finish, so people will probably be working at this for a while to come. Besides Mia, and Emily who must already know about this, the rest of us watch and listen closely, fascinated by everything that goes into it.

We all move on, going through the crowd, starting and stopping repeatedly when we arrive in front of different stalls. Some are buying or selling meats and vegetables, anything people can find, while others are actually cooking and serving food, right out in the street.

"Today's probably the only day of the year you'd get away with this, without a permit from the guilds," Beth chuckles at the sight of a few stands in particular, which just look to be serving drinks, or refilling people's mugs, while one other has a roaring flame to rapidly cook up meat people hand over. The sight makes my stomach growl, and I dry swallow. How long has it been since I last ate or drank anything...?

Of course Beth catches it, smiling at me while my whole face goes hot. Her kids immediately perk up. "Mom, Mom! Food!" Koll demands before Beth can even speak.

"Now Koll," she begins to wag a scolding finger at him, before the pleading looks on all three of her children's faces has her sighing in defeat. "Fine, let's get you kids something to eat."

What follows, is a wild ride. We go from one stand to the next, just the ones that cook things, rather than the ones that buy or sell crops themselves. Beth orders a number of things, not just for her own children, but for us too. All sorts of food, from hot roasted potatoes to some kind of meat stew. Some are better than others, but all of it has Emily's eyes shining with pure excitement. And even if Effy doesn't show it much, she's blown away by the food, never having eaten anything but hard bread before. She still doesn't speak up much, but that's fine, as long as she's enjoying herself.

Beth's own children are a lot more difficult, complaining about certain foods, and Mia winds up crying a few times when she doesn't want to eat something in particular. Sometimes in the middle of eating it. Whenever that happens, Beth just keeps comforting her, even as she scolds the girl lightly, saying she can't be so picky about her food. Which winds up leading into her giving me the food to eat and saying things like 'see how well Aria eats?' and such.

It... kind of works? By the third or fourth time, instead of letting Beth give me the food, Mia messily shoves it all in her own mouth instead. Unfortunately, it also earns me a lot of glares from Mia... I try to laugh it off, but it still hurts my feelings a bit... So I just remind myself that Mia's a little kid. And unlike us orphans, she didn't have to grow up super fast, always having a mother and servants to baby her all the time...

Despite the ups and downs, the strangest part of the festival is that the food is dirt cheap. Every bit of it is sold for a handful of small value coins, to the point I start to question how they make any money off of it. When I ask Beth, she just laughs and says that everything is cheap to help everyone stock up to survive the winter. The cooked food is cheap too because it's all sourced fresh from the other stands around town. Lots of people buy crops and bring it right over to the cooking stands, to have it cooked up on the spot. The sudden addition of meat this year is the biggest change from usual.

Despite the sorry state of the town, the further we travel through the festival, the more it looks like everyone has resolved to move forward. Bloody, wounded, and scared as they still are. After all, even with the fun festival atmosphere, the whole holiday is really about preparing to survive winter.

"Can I get a drink?" I ask Beth, pointing at one of the nearby stands that's in the middle of serving drinks to a bunch of men. The group clearly fought together today. Guards still in full armor, and a bunch of others who must have been drafted. They all lift their mugs, banging them together and calling out "cheers!" loudly, even as they slosh a lot of it over their bandaged up bodies and the ground at their feet.

"Not there," Beth responds with a shake of her head, and I pout without really meaning to. We've eaten all sorts of food, but I still haven't had a drink, and I'm really thirsty... Clearly catching the expression, Beth gives me one look that tells me not to pick up bad habits from her children. "Aria, they're serving ale, and ale is only for adults."

"Ale?" Didn't Eryk say something similar? "Then, is there something I can drink?" I ask. "I'm really thirsty..."

"Sure, let's find a well, then," she agrees. After asking around briefly, we find one, but it's completely overrun with people, so we have to wait a little while. As we're waiting, my eyes tiredly follow Beth, who has Mia set on the ground, now kneeling between her three children and chatting happily with them. Then over to Emily, who shares a small smile with me while she slowly chews a bite of roasted potato.

With a long sigh, my head rolls back, cradled in Effy's arms. I gaze up at the sky, watching the sun beginning to work its way slowly toward the horizon, blue steadily creeping toward yellows and oranges. From the corner of my eye, I catch Effy following my gaze upward, like she's trying to see what I see.

A few clouds roll by, at a good speed too. There must be some really strong winds up there today.

"We're alive," I say, without really meaning to.

"We are."

We've been through so much, but we're all still here, aren't we...?

End of Book Nine