Mithel stared at the ceiling in her bedroom, half admiring the curved architecture that adorned even the ceilings of the immaculate room she was provided, and half considering the events of the day. In all honesty, she was happy to be on this adventure, even with the difficulties that came with it from time to time. She’d meet good friends, potentially a man that she might spend her life with - though she knew it was premature to fully commit to that thought - and had found a path to growing in power. Before this, she’d just been one gnome among many others, granted one especially skilled in chemistry and science. However, that wasn’t a field of study that she wanted to fully bury herself in a second time.

Before she died the first time around, she’d been a chemist on Earth. Her life hadn’t been especially complicated, but it wasn’t a bad one either. She worked a lot, but that was because she liked the work, and she didn’t have a family to speak of, though that wasn’t for lack of trying. Mithel, then Agatha, lived a long life, and only when she was in her twilight years did she vaguely regret having put aside her personal wants and relations in favor of her work. Being alone was better when it was a choice, but she hadn’t managed to deceive herself into believing that she could have fixed that problem if she just put her mind to it.

Then, one day, she passed away quietly in her sleep and heard a whisper call out her name. She could barely remember the sound and words for how indistinct they were, but they were a promise for a new start, an opportunity to try again. It gave her no requirements except to do her best.

‘My best… At what though?’ Mithel frowned at the ceiling, ‘My best efforts at living life? Did I miss something? Or is what I’m doing right now… fine?’

She couldn’t be certain, and she’d never thought she’d ever hear the voice again, or feel the touch of what she now recognized as its essence.

But as Skye had used her Wyldform pattern, she recognized the mildest sensation that she hadn’t been able to forget even after so many years. Mithel rolled over onto her side, guesstimating the chances that her closest friend was a reincarnator from Earth, too.

“Not a chance in hell… Well, maybe if she was an edgy teenager?” Mithel shook her head, “No, she doesn’t get any of the hints I’ve been dropping. Unless we’re from totally different time periods?” She chewed her bottom lip in thought, focused in thought.

After another review of her memories, Mithel decided that Skye was, at the very least, not a reincarnator from Earth. Perhaps from another world, though even that seemed a stretch at best. She didn’t understand a lot of the simple principles of science, laws of physics, and general knowledge that Mithel had referenced. She refused to believe that such critical pieces of information wouldn’t be timeless, so the odds that Skye had never really comprehended many of her jokes was a huge point against her. Unless she was a master at concealing herself, but what would be the point of that? Would it be a safety precaution, and if so, why?

She pulled back from that rabbit hole before her thoughts raced down it. Whether or not there was a reason to not be detected, Mithel wasn’t absolutely certain. Her ‘parents’ knew, and they accepted her nevertheless, calling her a gift from The Deep Mother, a variant of the pagan god that Skye referred to as The Great Mother. Whether or not Mithel’s current body was the result of simply inheriting the memories of Agatha, or if the soul of Agatha had taken over, Mithel had received that answer during the pilgrimage’s initiation.

She was two souls intrinsically connected, two sides of the same coin, and after having become aware of that, her own introspection into her actions revealed much. All the times when she slipped into acting as a child easily, the vulnerability exposed, rather than the wizened age and wisdom she’d earned after so much time being alive on Earth, explainable by the part of her that was just a child.

‘Not that it matters. It’s not like I’m suddenly talking to myself,’ Mithel nodded to herself, before pausing and correcting, ‘Well, I guess I am talking to myself, yes, but not actually having a conversation with myself… Yeah.’

Mithel wasn’t concerned that she was sharing a body, or any such thing, with someone else, because she’d been literally born into it at the same time. As a baby, her soul and another, nascent soul, were in the same vessel. While she wasn’t consciously aware of it at the time, it seemed that it had grown attached to her own, literally, and thus her ‘Twinsoul’ was born. Having grown with all of her traits, just a little bit younger and more naive. To say she, the then nascent soul, was just another aspect of herself would be as close to the truth that Mithel could think of.

‘We’re both Mithel, it’s just… too complicated otherwise. Yep. Better to leave that there.’ Mithel thought to herself, unwilling to complicate matters even further.

None of the members of the Wyldwalkers were what she could consider regular, just like herself. Ronald was, frankly, a monster with essence manipulation, better even than Niko, who was literally a beast born to be able to interact with it. He also reminded her of the stereotypical main character that was something like a paladin, a knight in shining armor, with a little bit of a twist. Of all the humans she’d met, Mithel was very glad to be able to call the man a friend, not simply because he was easy to be friends with, but because he was the type to be doggedly loyal to his friends.

Dachna, of course, was amazing. She felt her heartbeat quicken at the thought of him, and mentally wondered just how much of that was the dazed and naive younger soul, or her dried waterbed of romantic experiences that was her original soul finally breaking through the drought of all droughts. Either way, the man was funny, loyal, romantic - in his own way, the dork - and admittedly checked a lot of her boxes. He was good looking, had just enough of the ‘dangerous’ vibe mixed with ‘relaxed and adventurous’ to get her thoughts really moving. Even better, he was smart enough to have started picking up the knowledge and tidbits she was putting down. Regrettably, he wasn’t any kind of reincarnator, transmigrator, or a possible regressor, all various terms she’d come to learn of through popular fictional novels in her life on Earth, but that wasn’t a demerit. The only concern she had was if she’d ever have to tell him that the woman he was dating wasn’t exactly a young gnomish woman, but actually someone who was probably five times as old as he was, in totality.

That would be a bridge to cross at some other, hopefully very distant juncture. Or not. Though the doubt and indecision continually gnawed at her. Even if she’d never really had much of a relationship before, Mithel knew enough to recognize that keeping a secret like this buried for the long-term might not be the best thing to do. But, at the same time, everyone had secrets that they took with them to their graves.

Which brought her back to Skye. With a huff, the gnome considered the woman who was her best friend in this life, in spite of having not really known her for that long. She wasn’t easy to be friends with all the time, but there was something about her sarcastic nature and mild tsundere tendencies that just tickled Mithel. The half-elf was friendly to those who knew her, and with all the people Mithel would dare call friends, loyal to her companions. It was almost funny how well she fit into the archetypical stereotypes of a woodland elf from old fictions Mithel had read, but she broke the mold in many places well. She wasn’t overly arrogant, nor was she especially demanding of others. Skye was antisocial with people she didn’t know, but she also wasn’t willing to turn a blind eye to others' problems.

And, in spite of her relative age, was surprisingly mature in many aspects, but woefully inexperienced in others. She was also, admittedly, a little fun to tease when Mithel had the chance.

Then came Niko, someone that Mithel had at first expected to just be a bizarre, one-in-a-billion beast that was not only fully capable of thought and speech, but was also dramatically more intelligent than something his age should be. At first, Mithel had chalked that up to being some kind of strange Aberrant trait - the others seemed to be willing too - but over time, it became clearer and clearer to Mithel that there was much more to the Phorus than met the eye. The sheer number of patterns Niko had was alarming, and beyond that his woefully exaggerated ability to devour essence was more than she’d thought should be possible for something of his tier and size.

Moreover, he was friendly, smart, sassy, and could engage with her on several points that the others couldn’t keep up with. Jokes and phrases that Mithel had dropped for the others Niko had understood, though at first Mithel thought that perhaps he’d been giving her responses that he thought she’d want to hear, just like the polite chuckles to phrases the others would have found nonsensical without the background knowledge. But Niko knew scientific principles, he knew words for elements and broader strokes of information such as media that Mithel now belatedly realized he wasn’t laughing at out of politeness, but because he genuinely understood them. That meant that he was almost definitely a reincarnator, but in spite of all of the evidence piling up in her mind, she still had a shred of self-doubt remaining.

Then, all of a sudden, Mithel kicked her legs off of the bed, still fully clothed, and made up her mind.

“Alright, I’ll just have to ask him.” She declared aloud, not willing to play the mind game any longer. ‘Skye isn’t like me, but the damn two and a half meter tall predatory bird is. Sure, why not?’ As she stood up, ready for the door, though, she paused in thought and eyed her medical bag.

“Better to have a good reason to be making a housecall, though.”

She exited the room, just in time to see Dachna exiting his, dressed up in some nicer clothes that had been provided to him. They were loose fitting and airy, considering that Mithel was relatively certain they might have belonged to something vaguely humanoid appearing and been rapidly taken in for human guests.

“Hey,” Dachna said, smiling his crooked smile tilting his head just slightly to let his bangs hang down. In a very brief moment, she felt a wave of adoration and want that came from when her Twinsouls were both in agreement.

‘Down girls, business first!’ Mithel mentally chastened herself, but couldn’t help but smile and approach him.

Then he noticed the medical bag, and his mildly tilted head went a little farther, along with an eyebrow arching up inquisitively, “Uh, everything okay?”

“Yes, honey,” Mithel walked up to the man and took him by surprise by stepping directly into his personal space and nuzzling up into his neck, “I’m just going to check on Niko. You smell nice.”

“I–Uh, thank you,” flusteredly, Dachna replied, but didn’t pull away, instead he chuckled while wrapping her up in his arms, “You’re real direct sometimes, you know that?”

“Only with what I want,” Mithel teased, blushing slightly in spite of herself. Part of her old soul chortled, while her younger one wanted to hide away in sheer shyness.

Dachna flushed redder, but his cute smirk only expanded, “Damn, you are smooth tonight.”

“You don’t know that… yet.” Suggestively, Mithel stared up at the man’s eyes.

Speechless for a moment, but quite enraptured, Dachna put a hand up and started to fan his red face exaggeratedly, “Whew, that, wow, it’s–uh it’s quite hot in here, yeah?”

Mithel laughed, before hugging him, “I’ll try to be quick, but… Which room do you want to meet in?”

“Mine,” he said quickly, almost suspiciously so, “Just, err, just because.”

“Sure,” Mithel didn’t press for the reason, guessing that she’d be finding out soon enough. She pulled his head down, giving him a few soft, gentle kisses on the lips, “Love you, be there soon.”

“Love you, too,” Dachna’s face and expression warmed, like a light lit up from within him. Mithel didn’t doubt she had no room to talk, but he was very smitten with her.

They broke apart, reluctantly, but they’d promised that their work would still have to take priority in their relationship. That was the other reason why Mithel had been willing to try this out, Dachna was surprisingly more mature than he should have been for his age. Given how rough the man had grown up, that was understandable, but thankfully he hadn’t hardened himself too much.

She avoided making the dirty-old-woman jokes then, and turned herself down the hallway, trotting away in high spirits even as she heard Dachna had opened the door to his room and, far longer than was necessary, left it open.

‘How’d that song go? Hate to see you go, but love to watch you leave?’ Mithel snickered to herself, before looking over her shoulder to see Dachna still standing in the doorway. She smiled brightly at him, and he returned it, while suddenly finding a reason to excuse himself and close the door.

Then she returned her attention to Niko’s door in front of her, and took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing…”

—------------------

Niko was having a hard time sleeping. He’d realized that he hadn’t actually been alone in a room for… weeks, maybe months now? Even while they were in training, he’d tended to sleep on cushions provided for him in the same room as Skye, at the very least. And while they were in the wilds, they were all present. So suddenly having his own room provided to him was odd to him, jarring even.

He was just about to poke out of the room and check to see if Skye was awake, in spite of his nervousness about bothering her, when he heard a knock at the door.

Happily, he sprung to his feet, before catching himself with an amused shake of his head. ‘Wow… that’s some high grade lonely energy we’ve got going,’ Niko chirruped to himself. At the very least, he could admit that he was becoming much more dependent on the others than he’d thought he was. Perhaps ‘dependant’ wasn’t the right word, but he definitely had become more and more interested in keeping their company than before.

“Coming,” Niko said, trotting over to the door, ignoring the light pulsing of pain through his feet. They’d mostly healed from their escapades in Greenleaf during the hornet invasion, but they were still a little achy. It was fortunate that he could heal much faster thanks to essence, because otherwise he was certain he’d have been laid up and unable to move around much for several days, if not weeks, after the level of punishment he’d put them through.

With his tri-clawed wing, he pressed down on the lever and pushed the door open ever so slightly, the large wood moving without so much as a creak.

He did not expect to see Mithel standing there with her medical pack.

“Oh! Hey, Mithel,” Niko blinked in confusion, “What’s up?”

Given how long they’d all been around each other, and the familiarity between their essence, Mithel and the others were more or less able to understand what he was saying now even without Skye around. “Just wanted to check up on you and chat, can I come in?” The woman shifted on her feet awkwardly.

The Phorus ushered the woman in by backing off from the door, “Sure, come in.”

He sat down on the large plush cushions of his bed, allowing Mithel plenty of room to move around and close the door as she entered. Immediately, Niko felt that she had something more on her mind than a simple chat, and felt his chest tighten as he considered what she might want to talk about.

She sat down on another cushion, and the both of them stared off at nothing in particular, silently, as the other waited for someone to say something. Niko had wondered when this might happen, but he figured that he might have a little more time. He wasn’t mentally prepared for this conversation, though he kicked himself in thinking that he’d ever be prepared for this.

“How are your feet?” Mithel asked quickly, glancing at the shadows of scars along the bottoms of them.

Niko clucked in surprise, “Oh, uh, they’re fine. Yeah. Just some aches and such, but I’m healing up well.” He paused, mind racing for something more to say back, and failing to find any social-footing to speak of.

“Oh, good, that’s… good.” Mithel nodded, shuffling her pack onto her lap, half holding it like a warding talisman.

They sat there for another minute, before Niko finally couldn’t take it anymore, “Just ask.” He sighed, more than a little resignation in his voice.

Mithel stilled at that, before she took in a deep breath of confidence and straightened her spine, “Alright.” Her mouth opened and she hesitated for just another moment before finally asking, “Are you someone who has been reincarnated, transmigrated, or otherwise came from another world?”

There were a lot of ways that Niko thought that question could come out, but somehow it still took him by surprise. He visibly winced, before nodding slowly, still trying to work out what to say. Mithel, to her credit, didn’t say anything, but Niko could easily tell the combination of excitement and anxiety that rolled off of her in waves.

“Yes, from Earth,” Niko finally verbalized the words, and felt an immense weight lift off of him, along with all of the rushing anxiety that came with it. He then turned the question around, “Are you, also… y’know…?”

She nodded, and the same hitch that had kept him from speaking immediately seemed to hit her, but she pushed past it just the same, “Yep, same. I came from Earth, lived a long life, heard a whisper of something offer a second chance and to just do my best, and… voila, here I am. What was it like for you?”

Niko felt his heart thunder in his chest upon hearing that, a mixture of sheer envy and guilt at the fact that he was feeling jealous about nearly every one of those parts of her statement. “I–I didn’t have a good anything…” He almost stopped there, but whether it was the tiredness built up over time, or the ability to finally, finally, release his burdens to someone who might understand, Niko let the dam break.

He spoke of his parents disappearance, how his sister followed suit, the even harder life that followed, wracked by cancer and loneliness, only to be taken out in the end by ebola and a nurse that, begrudgingly, believed she was doing the better thing if not the right thing. Try as he might to understate what he’d gone through, for Mithel’s emotional wellbeing perhaps as much as his own, he knew that there was only so much he could say, and only so many ways to phrase things, before everything boiled down to one simple thing. He’d had, by any metric, a very rough life.

“That’s… pretty awful,” Mithel answered quietly, her face paling as Niko finished recounting the sheer detail of everything, including his hatching as a Red Hawk. He didn’t mention his mission from Alterra, though, and judging from the way she was eyeing him, that hadn’t been missed. Still, she didn’t ask, probably because even this much was a lot to digest.

After another minute of silence, Mithel cleared her throat, “Well, that’s a lot more intense than I expected. Honestly, I was kinda hoping that there were more people like me… Like us. But I’m starting to regret hoping for that.”

Niko snorted, “I don’t think I’m a good standard for how things go. Your experience is probably a lot more common. My situation with Alterra is… a little different.”

“So, Alterra is that voice I heard?” Mithel asked, to which Niko nodded, “Is that the same thing as The Great Mother Skye talks about?”

“The same,” Niko nodded, “She’s generally neutral, but I don’t think that the Gods are necessarily friendly with her.”

Mithel breathed out a low curse under her breath before saying, “That’s not concerning at all… So, basically, people get put over here to help somehow sort essence for this Alterra figure by just existing and doing their thing, is that right?”

Niko shrugged, “Well, yeah, it is what it is. Anyways… I’m not telling you my story to earn pity or sympathy, but thank you for listening. I think I just needed someone to talk to.”

The young gnomish woman nodded, “I get that. I used to be a chemist, right? But, well, I was a little too committed to my work…”

In turn, Niko listened to her story, and while hers was longer, he felt the weight of the years behind the stories she told. The fact that she’d been also alone for much of it, with no meaningful companions, resonated with Niko. Other parts of her story that she mentioned, like memories of her new parents in this world and the shenanigans she and other children had gotten up too, warmed his heart. By the end of her recounting, the two of them found themselves sitting in a shared, companionable silence for a few moments.

“I was honestly afraid that you were going to be mad that I kept this secret.” Niko said, while feeling his stomach still relaxing from the anxiousness that had gripped him.

“I mean, I don’t exactly think telling everyone you’re not from around here is always the best idea.” Mithel chuckled, before she cringed, “I’m… very sorry about what happened to you, especially when we all first met.”

Niko gave a huff, “Hey, I said I'm fine. And even if I was just a bird born in this world the normal way, I'd still say the same thing. Sure things went pretty fubar, but you hadn't meant for me to eat that whole snake in one go. You hadn't intended for that overdose or any of the side effects to happen. And because you hadn't wanted to harm me I can forgive what happened. So... Let's just put that behind us, alright? Besides, how many times have we saved each other's tail feathers now?”

Mithel chuckled quietly at that before following up, “Well, I don’t have feathers, so…”

“Har har,” Niko flatly stared at her, “Point being, we were friends before this conversation, and we’re still friends after. There’s no point in complicating things too much.”

Emotional, Mithel nodded, before lurching forward and hugging Niko, “Thank you, I just-yeah, I’m glad that someone else understands all of this.”

Niko leaned his head and neck down and over her after a moment, “Me too. But, I’d say we should probably not tell a bunch of other people. Maybe the others at some point, but no one we don’t absolutely trust.”

Mithel pulled back, blinking away relieved tears, before frowning, “You’re saying that like there’s a big reason for it?”

With a sigh, Niko nodded, “There is, but… I’ll tell you another time, after I sort myself out a bit.”

She looked like she wanted to press, but she stopped herself, and nodded while rising, “Alright, yeah. That’s fair. You gotta promise to tell me soon, though, okay?”

Niko snorted, but nodded, “I’ll try. Good night, Mithel.”

—---------------

Mithel left the room, feeling both lighter and heavier at the same time than she had before. On the one hand, she was right! He was a reincarnator!

On the other hand, she was wrong! There was definitely a reason to not be detected!

‘Ugh… Is there some secret organization out there swiping up transmigrators or something?’ She groaned internally, but counted her lucky stars that she hadn’t done anything too particularly eye-catching.

She then put all of those thoughts away, not certain that she could even really fully address them right then, and strode through the hallway.

Halfway, she stopped walking, freezing as she realized she was supposed to go into Dachna’s room.

“It hasn’t been that long, hopefully,” Mithel grimaced, before walking up to the door and opening it gently.

The room was illuminated with several candles, and, she rapidly noticed, specially polished gold coins that sat around them. They were concentrated around the bed, in which Dachna currently lay.

With his head leaning back over a pillow and snoring lightly, with his robe mostly open.

Mithel appreciated the sight for a few moments before she quietly closed the door behind her and entered the room. She changed into her night garments - little more than standard pajamas, really - and slipped into bed next to him.

And then, with a little mischievousness, pressed her currently, lightly chilled hands against his chest.

Dachna’s eyes opened, a glint of alarm in them, before he realized where he was, and who was touching him.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you that much,” Mithel apologized, internally cringing at the realization that he’d probably gotten used to people trying to steal from him when he was sleeping, or worse.

The dirty blonde haired man smiled, before wrapping his arms around her and kissing her forehead, “You’re fine, I just dozed off a bit. Niko okay?”

“Clean bill of health, nothing another day or two of healing won’t fix,” Mithel declared, only slightly obscuring the truth, given that she hadn’t really done any examination. “I like the candles, the coins are an… interesting touch.”

Dachna smiled, “Well, they’re a little gaudy on their own, but watch this.”

Curiously, Mithel watched as Dachna’s essence moved, barely perceivable to her senses, and likely only because he wasn’t trying to conceal it. Slowly, but beautifully, the coins began to glint in the reflected candlelight, seemingly filling the room with a gorgeous glow. A sense of whimsical wonder overcame her, and, if she had to compare it to anything, it was like seeing her first christmas, with a room full of warmth and love and cheer. The lights refracted with the touch of Dachna’s essence, not so much drawing her eyes to the coins, but more as though to everything at once.

It was an impressive use of his ability, but the only thing that Mithel could say was, “Beautiful.”

Dachna smiled, the lights dancing across his face and skin, and Mithel decided that business was very done today. ‘Alright, girls, sic’ em.’