Is making friends supposed to be this exhausting? Thera couldn’t help but think to herself as she went through the untamed lands with the other three girls and the archmage.

It wasn’t the hunting that was getting to her. Considering her own strength, along with the fact that the others had awakened skills, it was actually quite easy compared to anything she’d have gone through hunting alone in the past. No, what was really exhausting her was having to deal with the conversation, especially from Yuzu, who once freed from her cultural silence was a ball of energy that seemed to be making up for lost time.

“So your necklace was a homemade gift?” She asked, referring to the bluejay pendant that Ben had made her. “It’s so pretty! Your armband too! Gosh, I wish Jake would take the initiative like that sometimes, I feel like he only ever does anything romantic when someone reminds him to.”

“That’s because he’s an idiot,” Amy told her with a pat on the arm. “The sooner you accept that, the easier it will be.”

“And the armband is an attempt to keep people from going insane around me if anything happens to my cloak and it still needs some work,” She explained, thinking back to exactly what happened during the emergency quest. As fine as she was in Anailia, expecting an average person to have resistances over eleven was a bit too optimistic. Not that it didn’t happen, but higher levels of resistances were still extremely uncommon, at least compared to higher levels of affinities. The most that she could hope for right now was that if anything went wrong in a crowd, not everyone would be taken in by her effects.

Steph seemed like she was going to chime in, but before she could Thera swung her staff to the side, reacting to the raptor-like creature that had jumped through the woods to deliver her attack.

Ever since collaring a leviathan, she’d been attempting more of the same thing, manipulating the earth she used, making flow like water in her spells. It was significantly harder on her, pushing her control in ways she never had before, but the results spoke for themselves as she wrapped the stone around the lizard's face, letting it return to its sturdy, solid form before the creature flailed around until it eventually gave in to its oxygen deprivation.

“Not bad,” Uliel told her, giving out pointers to them all as she watched over them, a free lesson Thera was happy to take considering it came from someone so studied in magic as a whole. “It seems like your earth mana might be being slightly disrupted when you use your attacks though, you might be able to do better if you suppress the dark and life mana without you when you cast a spell.”

“If I could, I would. Unfortunately, it seems like I need more mana control before I can get more mana control. At the very least I can chip away at it by improving my other skills.”

She had been focusing pretty heavily on earth and life recently, she needed to devote more of her effort to her telekinesis as well. As much as she knew she should put a bit more to her dark magic on top of that, it wasn’t something she could make herself do, at least at the current time. After what happened when they were on the coast, she didn’t want to do anything that could raise her charm even further. Any level to it was a level farther she'd be from suppressing it, at least until it got high enough that it could be done without the band.

Still, despite how well she’d been doing with her other two magics, that could take years, not a prospect she wanted to deal with when it could do so much harm, not just to the people around her, but the stress she would go through as a result.

“Still, when things come to a head it would be nice to have you around,” Uliel said, pulling her from her thoughts. “What do you say, Anailia should be well in hand, if you were to defend Allfaith when the time comes I’d see to it you’re properly compensated.”

Nobody had to ask what she was talking about, it was apparent enough to all of them. They knew from history that invasion sites were frequently the more heavily populated areas, and since it seemed every human on the planet had heard about her engagement to Ben that the archmage knew not only who she was, but who her parents were. When the war finally began her father would be able to handle any gate that showed up near her home by himself, freeing their army to go assist other nations, at least for the first two waves. That meant that she’d be left to herself to decide what she wanted to do and where she wanted to fight.

“I’m not really sure what I’ll do,” She said honestly. “I’m hoping that it will be far enough away that I won’t need to worry about it too much anytime soon, but I’ll probably go wherever my aunt or uncle end up, I know they both plan on fighting.”

“Mmh, sticking with family has its pros or cons, but I suppose it’s as good an answer as any. If you change your mind though, come find me, I’ll make sure you’re well rewarded.”

“I will, thank you for the offer,” She told the archmage, giving a respectful nod as she did.

“Good, it should be getting to be about time for you all to head back anyway. We’ve been out here for a while. Yuzu, something’s approaching from the right. Handle it and we'll be on our way.”

“Do I have to?” The young soul mage complained. “I don’t like using my magic that way, it’s much nicer to help people grow than to use it for violence.”

“You need the practice,” Uliel said sternly. “It’s important you’re able to defend yourself and you’re just as valuable of a fighting force as anyone else. You need to work on the death aspects of your magic, not just focus on your life and soul spells.”

“Oh fine,” She wasn’t thrilled, having no taste for killing out of training but still did as the older woman asked, turning to where she felt a creature approach and waiting until it was within view, seeing a monstrosity running towards them.

Bigger than any of them with a thick brown and green shell that was seemingly to help in camouflage itself in the woods, the creature raced towards them, seeming to think it got lucky with its prey as tentacles extended from its throat, shooting towards them and trying to latch on.

And then it stopped, falling to the ground as it did as Yuzu turned to Uliel.

“Happy?”

“No. You didn’t need to let it get that close, you could have handled it before it came into view. Waiting only puts yourself and others in danger.”

“It’s disrespectful to it to end its life out of sight,” She shot back. “I get I need to practice, but how I do things matters.”

“If you can see its soul it’s in your sight. Now come on, all of you, it’s time to go back.”

Thera cast one last look at the dead beast as Steph tore a hole in space to get them back to the gate, in awe of just how powerful a soul mage was. It looked like she’d done nothing, but with seemingly no effort Yuzu had instantly ended the life of the creature in a way that a standard death mage would struggle to accomplish, at least anywhere near that quickly. It was obvious the act was nothing to her, she could likely do the same thing to hundreds of creatures at once and while Thera didn’t know if the thought made her feel comfortable that there were people who was so powerful on the world or not, she was definitely impressed.

Stepping through the gate into the interconnected space that linked them all, she immediately felt her attention being pulled as one of her skills was pointing to within that strange space.

Bind was doing its job, telling her exactly where Ben was as she saw him feel the same thing, turning to them all and giving a friendly wave she couldn’t help but feel the same thoughts flood her head that had been for a while, as well as some new ones ever since she spoke with the other women about him.

You’re more important to me than that.

It wouldn’t feel like home if you weren’t there.

I’m not in love with him. She told herself, shaking the other thoughts from her head. That stupid crystal and Steph just have me feeling self-conscious. This isn’t love. As for if he’s in love with me, well… No, it’s not even worth thinking about.

Even though she told herself that, she was a whirlwind of emotions, making it hard to look him in the eye. Embarrassment at the thought she might be, fear of what that would mean for her, excitement that he might feel the same, all things she would never admit to, not even to herself.

Despite that though, even if she was having trouble meeting his eyes at the time, she couldn’t help but be glad that he’d come to see her out there, at least until he ran over and opened his mouth.

“Hey guys, I kind of need all of your help,” He told them, giving an awkward chuckle as he did. “So long story short I was briefly kidnapped and now I need to keep Greed from being eaten by his son, who’s up to work some magic?”

Thera rubbed her face in exasperation while catching the reactions from the others out of the corner of her eye, all of them seeming to be in different stages of disbelief.

I can’t be in love with this guy, the stress would be bad for my heart.