Immediately upon waking up to a rather worryingly tall wooden being sitting on the bed by his feet, staring at him with brightly glowing green eyes, speaking in what sounded like a language he didn’t know and for some reason eating his mage-detection medallion, Hasta understandably reached for the sword hanging from a hook on the wall beside his bed. Grunting from pain, he quickly unsheathed it, but as soon as he had to support its entire weight on his own, it fell from his weakened fingers onto the floor. Likely intending to be some sort of defensive spell, blue sparks gathered around his other hand, but sputtered out before anything beyond an unimpressive little lightshow happened. Already dizzy and exhausted from the effort, he could barely keep his eyes focused on the being before him, but wasn’t about to succumb to whatever horrible fate his paranoid and wearied mind was trying to come up with. In a desperate struggle to get his sword back, he leaned over the side of the bed when the world started to black out in his eyes. Certain that he would fall but without the strength to do anything about it, he let out a gasp and prepared for the impact with the floor – which somehow never came. Instead, he felt something catch him by the chest and gently move him back up.

“Careful there! Please don’t die.” Sorbus said and laid Hasta back down on his bed. “I’ll get that for you.” They hurriedly picked up the sword by its blade. The well-maintained metal edge dug into the thin bark of their fingers, but the spriggan was far too preoccupied to even really notice such a minor scratch when they handled the weapon.

His eyes still blurry, Hasta couldn’t see much to focus on other than the bright green eyes burning in the shady hut – which he found oddly captivating. For a brief moment his mind didn’t focus on the threats it perceived in anything unfamiliar, the tightness around his wrist wasn’t there to remind him of his past and the handle of his sword was briefly out of reach. It would have been foolish to say he felt at ease, but it may well have been the closest he had been in years. While the spriggan puzzled over where to put the weapon, the familiar scent of freshly dug soil and sap reached Hasta and brought him back to what senses he had. Warily reaching towards the green energy flaring up before him, his shaking fingers reached the smooth bark on Sorbus’ chest and only pushed it enough to know it was really there and not some sort of hallucination. “It’s you…” He whispered almost inaudibly.

The magical energy within Sorbus grew tenfold in a blink of an eye upon being touched, almost seeming like most of their body was engulfed in green flames. “It’s me?!” They responded quizzically but very excitedly.

Neither of them knew how to continue the conversation from there. Sorbus still hadn’t come up with anything to say and Hasta was rapidly going through all the times he had suspected someone had been helping him from the shadows in an attempt to somehow understand the situation while holding on to the spriggan. The excitement of the situation started to become more taxing on the weary elf and his already limited strength finally ran out.

Sorbus noticed his slowly sinking posture and took Hasta’s hand to let him properly settle down into the bed. “Would you like some berries?” They asked, distraught that there was nothing they could do to help and pulled out a bundle of them out of their hair.

Hasta tiredly accepted the gift and inspected the cluster of bright orange fruit. During the years he had spend in the forests hunting spies and smugglers, he had become familiar with a vast variety of fruit the nature had to offer, and recognized rowan berries when he saw some. He also knew of their bitter taste, but also that they weren’t inedible. “We used to have a few rowan trees behind our house when I was little. My mother made all sorts of things out of them.” He uttered and put one in his mouth. Unlike certain spoiled necromancer, he could stomach the bitterness, in fact he almost found it pleasant as it overtook the taste of vomit still lingering in his mouth.

“Oh?! I can learn to make something out of them too! You can have more, I have plenty!” Sorbus excitedly offered and started piling up more and more berries into Hasta’s lap. Despite their long life, the fox never really had much to offer for anyone and having someone at least seem grateful for a gift they had given was exhilarating.

Meanwhile Anastacia had spent a while just sitting on a rock outside with the water she had first boiled and then cooled with magic. It hadn’t taken her much time at all but when she was about to return, the mood inside had seemed too nice to interrupt – and she was somewhat worried about the sword Sorbus was waving around. With the mood finally starting to get settled, she made her presence known with a knock on what remained of the doorframe. After a brief flash of panic, the elf recognized his second guest even before he had the chance to even really try and act on the unwelcome intrusion into his abode in his current state.

“Before you pull out a second sword out of somewhere or something, I want to say sorry about this whole poisoning ordeal.” Anastacia said and kept her distance from both Sorbus and Hasta.

Surprisingly enough, the elf didn’t seem upset in the slightest. “I suspected this would happen since I’ve done the same before, so you aren’t to blame. It does still ease the pain more than it causes discomfort. If anything, I should…” He started to explain but stopped to take a better look at the doorway. “What happened to my door?!”

“It was disarmed.” The necromancer shrugged, poured some water into a cup she found on the table and handed it to Sorbus. “For some weird reason some asshole had cast a trap on it.”

Hasta said nothing in response, but accepted the drink offered to him despite his prior experiences.

“Since they botched their own introduction, this is Sorbus, the friend I was talking about. As the spriggan in charge of this area, they’ve taken notice of you and wanted to make themselves known. Now I know you said you don’t need-“ Anastacia was about to explain the benefits of having Sorbus around, but was interrupted.

“I know what a nature spirit is and what they do. I’ve never actually seen one, but there are stories in my family.” The elf explained, visibly growing in strength as soon as he finished his first drink and reached over to pour more, before being blocked by Sorbus, who insisted on helping out.

“You’re taking this awfully well, I was expecting having to fight you on this. How come I get interrogated and swung at but they just get a free pass?” Anastacia asked a fair question, maybe slightly offended by the difference in attitude.

Hasta expressed some amount of regret over how he had acted before, but not enough to say anything after seeing what had happened to his cabin. “There are good days and there are bad days, more bad than good really. It’s hard to explain, but sounds, situations, scents and the like can bring back memories – and sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s in the past and what isn’t. Even on a good day I might just snap over something you might think is insignificant, I might snap and hurt someone even if I didn’t mean to…” He said, clearly extremely ashamed of it and physically tried to distance himself from Sorbus in the bed. “Pain… pain makes it harder to come back. Sometimes a flash of pain somewhere brings be back to… places I’d rather not be in and I don’t know how to come back from. I know it’s not real, I really do, but that means nothing in the moment.”

Anastacia nodded compassionately. While nowhere near as intense and certainly not enough to invade her waking moments of life, she did still frequently suffer from nightmares that brought her back either to Mournvalley or to the steps of the temple in Crescent. King had learned to notice such times and did what he could during the night, and it must have been somehow visible in her mood in the morning as both Emilia and Rosie could often point it out. Though harrowing in the moment, they had largely become figments of past times in her daily life, something the elf didn’t seem to have the luxury of.

“That sounds awful! Can you try not thinking about all of that?” Sorbus unhelpfully suggested. “When I feel bothered, I dig holes and plant blueberries. Blueberries don’t actually need to be dug all that deep, so usually I have to do the two separately… So maybe try that? We could go right now!”

Hasta sighed. “Thank you, but I don’t think that would help.”

“Wouldn’t do you any harm though, would it?” Anastacia pointed out. “I think it’s a good enough idea. Obviously not right now, but tomorrow or the day after maybe. I’ve done a fair bit of walking in a forest with a spriggan and it’s a whole different experience than doing it alone. You two could get the lay of the land together, plant some blueberries I guess, chat and such – you have a lot to catch up on without me being around, I’m sure.”

The spriggan was immediately excited by the idea. “YES! I could show you the foxes!”

The elf frowned, clearly not thrilled by the idea for his own stubborn reasons, but a moderately murderous glance from Anastacia made him reconsider what to say instead of immediately declining the offer. “Maybe… But I don’t think you should waste time on someone like me, you spriggans must be busy after all.”

“Very! That is why I am here though! It is my purpose to fix this glade, I must make sure everything in it can prosper!” The spriggan explained and leaned towards the elf while staring directly into his eyes, a bit more ominously than they intended – and still with the sword in their hand. “I will understand why you are sad and I will make it better.”

Alarmed by what sounded like a threat more than anything, Hasta glanced at the necromancer for help, not that she could do much. Anastacia confiscated the sword and safely stored it in the opposite corner of the room. “Sorbus, how about we give him a bit of room, maybe some fresh air?” She suggested to hopefully get the spriggan to back off before they caused another panic attack.

“Oh, okay!” Sorbus nodded and stood up from the bed, at first seeming to understand, but then tossing the pile of berries onto the floor, leaning back over the elf, effortlessly picking him up over their shoulder and marching out of the cabin – in a way that had no chance of being comfortable for Hasta, but he seemed far too baffled to say anything about it. “There!” Sorbus proudly declared after planting their quarry in the middle of a patch of grass near the hut by the door they had tossed away earlier.

While getting out of the stuffy cabin and sweat-drenched sheets definitely helped, the elf was extremely conflicted by both getting tossed around like a bag of flour and by the sight of finally seeing what he was dealing with in broad daylight, instead of just a silhouette against the light coming through the doorway. The already fearsome form he had caught a glimpse of in the shade was bordering on menacing as it towered over him with its hands confidently on its hips and a worrying grin on its face. He again tried to turn to the necromancer for some kind of a lifeline but only received a knowing look back from the girl who was similarly averting her gaze.

“Food! That will help!” Sorbus realized suddenly. “Would you like an apple?” They asked and pointed at an apple tree on the other side of the glade.

“I… yes?” Hasta uttered mostly just to get some breathing room.

Excited to be able to finally help directly, the spriggan cheerily pranced across the glade and began looking for the perfect apple.

“This… this is not what I expected based on what I think you said last night.” The elf said and stretched his bedridden body while the sun warmed it gently.

“Even I’m not sure what I had in mind to be honest, but I’m still amazed you seem to be taking it so well. I wagered there would be a lot more sword swinging and screaming involved.” Anastacia admitted and sat down on the rock in the middle of the yard. “How can you be sure Sorbus isn’t a spy without interrogating them first?” She snarked.

“Like I said, old stories about spriggans run in my family. I’m not entirely sure where it started from, but I know they have a higher calling than doing the bidding of the people I worry about. Supposedly they bring good fortune as well – which I can’t really deny at this point, can I? If this one is behind half the things I assume they are, I owe my life to them.” Hasta explained almost lamentingly. “I just don’t think they know what they’re signing up for. Right now I’m feeling thankfully clear-headed and can at least somewhat handle all of this, but on most days… there would be times I might say that will change how the spriggan thinks of me, I might even hurt them. I can’t even guarantee I’ll recognize them.”

Anastacia shrugged. “I can assure you they have no idea what they’re doing, but this is all well and truly out of our grubby mortal hands no matter what we think. I personally don’t understand what Sorbus sees in you, but obviously they do see something, so I’d advice you to just roll with it in whatever capacity you can. I can’t really claim to know much about this myself either, but it’s a heck of a hand you’ve been dealt for once, so maybe just see where it goes? I’ve started my life over once with the help of other people, so maybe look at this as a chance to do the same and end this penitent hermit thing you’ve started.”

Before Hasta had the chance to say anything back, Sorbus returned with a singular, small but carefully selected wild apple they thought would perfectly fit the occasion. They handed it over to the elf and sat down by him to keenly follow what would happen in a rather disturbing manner.

“Thank you…” Hasta said and inspected the bumpy and spotty fruit that certainly wasn’t the most appealing one the tree had to offer. However, since it didn’t appear rotten, he bit into it and tried to ignore the gleeful grin in the periphery of his vision.

With all excitement of someone who had convinced their new pet to eat something they offered for the first time, Sorbus turned to the necromancer and proudly pointed at the apple they had chosen.

Anastacia rolled her eyes and could only hope this wasn’t how she and King appeared to everyone. “You know what, you two seem to get along well enough, so I’ll just get out of your hair since my part here seems to have ended.” She decided after not being able to stomach any more of the scene. “There’s still plenty of water left, make sure you drink enough. Sorbus, don’t do anything stupid. Hasta, don’t stress over it and try to actually enjoy life for once.”

“You’re leaving?” Hasta asked worriedly, not being a fan of the idea of being left alone with the spriggan already, which came across clearly in his tone.

“Yup. I only came here to make sure you didn’t completely lose it, and have things I need to figure out elsewhere.” The necromancer said, got up and started heading for the part of the forest they had been using to travel to and from the grove. “No need to thank me, you two having fun is all the thanks I need.” She declared and tried to make a cool and mysterious exit while the two were left to watch as she disappeared into the treeline.

It took a moment for her to realize that she wouldn’t be able to get to the grove without Sorbus. She considered just sitting down and waiting until the spriggan was ready to leave as well, but that may have taken days for all she knew. After while of walking around hoping that enough nature magic had rubbed onto her to make it work, she finally gave in and returned to the edge of the glade to try and covertly signal the spriggan of her troubles. This obviously yielded no results as Sorbus was entirely transfixed on finally being able to talk to the elf they had stalked for years now. A bit more deliberation later, she swallowed her pride and returned to fetch the spriggan, who didn’t waste time and shoved her across the magical barrier and returned to the elf.

Extremely annoyed that what was likely to be her last ever interaction with Hasta, made her look incompetent after all the trouble she had gone through, Anastacia opened her eyes in the grove. She was a bit further away from the rock than before but still within sight of the central clearing, which was fine by her as the walk back gave her the chance to once more acclimate to the lack of detectable life and the almost unbearable humidity. Her return immediately gathered some interest from the few spriggans that had been minding their business away from the clearing. She could feel that something about the figures studying her from afar was different from before, but couldn’t immediately point it out and chalked it up to just being a different set of spirits from the ones who had followed her before or that maybe they had found the courage to come a bit closer now that she was alone for a moment, or perhaps she just hadn’t paid them enough attention and was only now noticing the nuances in their movements. It had always been more or less inevitable that the more curious ones would make their approach sooner or later, and only grew more likely now that Sorbus was otherwise occupied.

“Hmm, actually…” She muttered to herself and stopped. Finding the one which appeared to be closest to her, half-hiding behind a tree, she waved at them and waited for a response. When the spriggan waved back, she realized what had changed, the nature spirit had taken the form of a person. Clumsy even compared to Sorbus’ first attempt, but still decidedly shaped like a human. In fact, when she took a better look at the dozen or so spirits she could see, all of them had somewhat of a familiar shape to them, though a few appeared with antlers and tails as likely remnants of their usual forms. The greeting caused some stir among the spirits and some whispers echoed over to Anastacia as excited but unintelligible noise. “Can I help you with something?” She asked.

The whispers fell quiet. “We were just wondering why you didn’t go with Baccata? They’re much stronger than Sorbus or the- the one you came in with. Would it not be better to be with them?” One of the spirits asked, though Anastacia couldn’t tell which one.

The necromancer chuckled and spoke in the tone she used to appear more regal. “I already have all the strength I need in myself, and that wolf was an asshole.”

“You’re not wrong.” The spirit agreed with a giggle.

“If you want audience with me, all you need to do is not be a shit to me or my friends. I’d be glad to get to know more of your kind, not just the big shots.” Anastacia explained. “Wouldn’t hurt if you brought food along too.”

Without further questions, the spriggans dispersed into the forest to find something they thought to be edible by a necromancer while Anastacia continued walking towards the rock she could almost see between the trees already. As she reached the border between the forest and the clearing created by the grand tree, she saw that Acacia had left to do whatever it was that they did with their time and only Xamiliere was patiently waiting for her, sitting on the edge of the rock and swinging her feet in the water around it.

“Must’ve gone well if Sorbus isn’t with you.” The spriggan greeted her with a smirk.

“Dozens are dead, the sky is burning, the seas are boiling and I think we started another war.” Anastacia joked and hopped onto the rock.

Xamiliere sighed. “Oh well, can’t win them all.”

“I think they’ll get along well once that poor guy gets used to the idea of Sorbus being around.” Anastacia gave her honest thoughts on the successful mission.

“How nice, Sorbus does deserve a bit more than they have here.” Xamiliere said, surprisingly implying something positive about another spriggan. “So what do we do now?”

“I think I should have a longer chat with Ulmus about some stuff today, but it can wait.” The necromancer said, took her friend’s hand and laid down. “Did you have anything in mind?”

Xamiliere laid down as well and stared at the branches far above them. “Checking up on Ulmus is fine, I don’t think the curse is leaving my body at all on its own, so we might need to look into some other options – but that can wait as well. For now we could just sort of… wait and see what happens.”

“Anything specific you’re hoping for?” Anastacia asked awkwardly.

For once stern in her tone, Xamiliere anticipated the reason behind the question. “Don’t listen to Acacia. Forget whatever ‘advice’ they gave you. Nothing needs to happen.”

Anastacia couldn’t help but to feel like such a direct rebuttal lifted a weight off her shoulders, which surprised even herself. “Oh… Then I’m not sure anything will happen.”

Xamiliere reassuringly squeezed the necromancer’s hand a bit harder. “Then anything won’t happen. Peace and quiet is pretty nice too.”

“Maybe it is…” Anastacia agreed and breathed a bit more easily.

Both of them spent a while just thinking about their current situation in silence. Xamiliere dreaded the idea that the necromancer thought she had been brought into the grove just to be cornered by her, and would still feel the need to somehow reciprocate the feelings Xamiliere had always been vocal about even when told to not worry about it. Meanwhile Anastacia slowly arranged pieces of the things she had learned into concepts and realizations in her mind. Suddenly a lot of the things Emilia had told her about attraction and other related topics the classical Mournvalleyan education failed to mention made a lot more sense to her. Exposure therapy in the form of Sorbus’ body had added the last few missing pieces and fully explained some of her fixations – but none of it brought her any closer to figuring out what to do with Xamiliere. Obviously, she had found the innocent flirting in the past day exciting, but that could well have been just because it got a great reaction out of the spriggan and because she knew such things wouldn’t have been approved by those in Valor who felt responsible for her. The more mature streak the spriggan had revealed in the grove was interesting to witness as well, and for once being the more mischievous one of the two was refreshing – but for some reason that’s were everything ended for the time being. The more thought she put into it, the harder it was to let go of the spriggan as a dear friend.

“Hey, promise me something?” Anastacia eventually broke the silence.

Xamiliere turned to her friend. “Sure.”

“If I ever become a paranoid forest hermit, will you move into my remote hut to look after me too?” The necromancer asked completely seriously, thinking she might have had an above average chance of it happening.