Stella adjusted herself on the rilk’s back. The mount had been carrying her for several hours now and she was worried the creature was going to get tired soon. It was still daylight and Yaga had shown no signs of relenting. The woman had set a rather intense pace for a while, pushing their mounts as they crossed fields of grain and rolling hills. Occasionally they would pass a rilk nest and Stella would feel the faint echo of the minds within resonate with her own. According to her mother there had been a time when the rilks were wild and monstrous, it was hard to believe given how industrious they were now. Their nests extended above ground and formed what almost looked like towns with tall spires of amassed stone and biologically produced cement stretching to the sky.

Viira had never properly explained to her why they did that, though as she watched the sparse nearby trees sway in the heavy wind, she wondered if it was a way to draw some excess heat out of the tunnels below. Paraklytus had taught her a great deal about science during their tutoring sessions and the idea of a ‘heat sink’ wasn’t exactly foreign to her. Apparently, most of that knowledge came from Nephral and her mother’s homeworld. It was crazy to think about. She cleared her thoughts and turned her attention back to the route ahead of her, Yaga about fifty feet away on her own steed as it zipped over the grasses. She watched the woman’s back for several heartbeats and eased into a smile.

She urged her mount forward and came into line with her. Yaga’s intense expression faltered as Stella drew close and she glanced over, “Something on your mind?” She asked Stella.

“How did you and Mom meet?” She asked, her antennae twitching once while she observed their surroundings. She’d long since dropped the disguise she’d used to try to sneak out. Her mother’s test had only lasted until she met up with Yaga.

“Did I never tell you that story?” Yaga laughed, “Wow, I figured I would have.”

“You’ve complained about just about everything else,” Stella pointed out.

Yaga’s lips twisted into a smile, “Well, it’s a bit of a strange story. We hated eachother, though I certainly did myself no favors in our first encounter. I tried to scare her off.”

Stella blinked, “Really? But you’re so close!”

“Our first romantic entanglement was after a fist-fight Stella,” Yaga said bluntly, “She knocked me flat on my ass.”

“Why would you want to fight mom?” Stella asked, bewildered.

“Well,” Yaga said thoughtfully, “I raised Azrael and the way the two of them interacted, Azrael had never behaved so openly around me when she was little. I was jealous. Very jealous.”

“You raised auntie Azrael?” She hadn’t realized that Yaga was so much older than her mother. Weren’t Azrael and her mother sisters? She tried to wrestle with that for a moment and found it hard for it to settle in her brain.

Yaga laughed, “Don’t think so much about it,” She said, “Your mother and I love eachother, what else is there?”

Stella shrugged, she had a point, she was about to ask another question when Yaga held up a hand and pointed toward a large shape in the distance. It looked like a thick wave of darkness on the golden sea of grains. Stella squinted, not able to quite make out what the shape was. She hesitated and then leaned forward a little, “Is that… is that Uncle Conrad and his soldiers?” She asked, taking note of the large winged creature that was leading the mass of moving shapes.

“We’ve caught up, good,” Yaga said, “How’s that timer?”

Stella paused and glanced at the status bars in the corner of her vision, the little symbol indicating the [Legacy of the Fallen Queen] was almost completely colored in at this point. She’d already been through two seizures and wasn’t looking forward to the next one. She exhaled and shook her head, “Any minute now, thanks for reminding me,” She said warily. Yaga nodded and pulled on the reins drawing her mount to a stop. Stella frowned and stopped as well, “Why are we stopping?”

“We’re safe here in the wildlands and it won’t take very long for us to catch up with Conrad even if we take a short break. Let’s get you comfortable and then we can move on. I’m not taking any risks here and I won’t have you trying to manage a mount while enduring that,” Yaga said, hopping off her mount and stepping over to Stella. She held out her hands, “Come on down.”

Stella sighed, “I’m not an invalid,” She grunted, throwing her legs over the side of her mount and hopping down on her own. “This sucks.”

“You wanted to come,” Yaga pointed out. “The only thing we can do is manage it. Now lay down.”

Stella sat down in the tall grass and fell backward, staring up at the sky. She sighed and glanced again at the status effect, bracing herself. The seconds ticked by until finally the wave of pain came. She grit her teeth, closing her eyes and clenching her fists. Her world swam around her as she tried to resist it as much as she could. It didn’t help in the slightest. Agony wrenched its way through her limbs, her muscles tensed and relaxed rapidly, her whole body began to ache and she felt like she was drowning. When it stopped, she let out a loud gasp and wrenched herself to a sitting position, wiping the sweat and tears from her face.

Yaga was sitting next to her, a frown on her face.

“What?” Stella gasped.

“That was longer than last time,” Yaga said evenly. “I don’t like that.”

“How much longer?” Stella asked, “I feel like I was out for part of it.”

“Three minutes this time,” Yaga grunted, glancing back to the west and to Osan. “Damn it.”

Stella tried to get to her feet but her muscles screamed in protest. She gasped and fell back, covering her face with a groan of irritation. Her vision swam and she shook her head, “Can’t get up.”

“I’ll get you on my mount, just rest on my back, alright?” Yaga said.

“Fine,” Stella grumbled and allowed Yaga to lift her up and carry her over to the mount. She whistled to Stella’s mount and urged it to fall into place while she climbed up herself. Stella leaned against Yaga, pressing her face into her shoulder and wrapping her arms around her waist. She sighed, “This is going to get worse, isn’t it?”

“Not if I can help it, now hold on.”

They caught up with Conrad not long after that, the massive knight astride his draconic mount. The sun had just begun to move towards setting and Conrad wasn’t quite ready to call it quits for the day. Stella forced herself to sleep through what remained of their travel, waking to the sounds of activity around her. She was on a cot staring up at the ceiling of a tent above her. Laughter carried about the camp, men and women talking among themselves as they prepared for what was to come. Stella hadn’t realized that they’d be traveling alongside Conrad but she supposed it made sense. Sounded like something her mother would plan for. She sniffed, she wished she had her mother’s ability to just put pieces together like that. It seemed so effortless for her.

She sat up and rubbed her face, the pain was long gone. She glanced at her status bars, the status effect had about a quarter of the symbol already filled. She swore, she had to not only deal with it but sleep off its effects in order to recover completely. That meant even more time on her feet lost. How many days would it take to get to the green sea, let alone track down whatever was causing this? How much worse was this going to get? She closed her eyes and let out a frustrated breath, “Stupid, I’m just slowing her down.”

“We’ll see about that,” came a voice from the entry way of the tent, she looked up to see Yaga slipping inside, followed by Conrad. The grim looking behemoth of a man shot her a dark grin and moved to a chair in the corner, sitting down and resting his arms on his knees.

“How you feelin’ kid?” He asked.

“I’m fine.”

“Good, Yaga here just filled me in on everything. You got some guts coming all the way out here,” He said, “Brave.”

Stella sighed, “What’s the point if I’m snoozing too much to help?”

Conrad and Yaga exchanged looks, “Well, I have one thing we can try,” Yaga said, “But I wasn’t going to do it unless it became necessary. I also don’t know how it’s going to interact with your condition.”

“Just spit it out!” Stella demanded, hesitated, and then shrank a little, “Sorry, I’m frustrated.”

Yaga moved to her side and knelt down, “Your mother gave me an Aspect a few years ago, it has an ability that allows me to regenerate someone else's stamina as long as I’m conscious. Your health didn’t drop when you had your episode, right?” She asked, “Just stamina?”

Stella paused, thinking back, “Yeah, just stamina. Can you really do that?”

“The Aspect of the Vigil can definitely do that,” Yaga said, “If you’re sure we’ll give it a try. If I do this, you won’t be able to sleep through your episodes.”

“I’m definitely sure!” Stella blurted, “Please!”

“Okay,” Yaga said with a nod. She drew out a knife and pricked her thumb before pressing it to Stella’s neck. There was a pause as the warm fluid settled on Stellas skin, then abruptly she felt the entire world come into sharp focus. She gasped, grasping at her chest as her heart rate jumped a little for a half second. The last remnants of the ache faded from her bones and she coughed, shaking her head.

“Woah!” Stella shuddered, “Woah that’s a lot.”

Yaga chuckled, “Okay, I’m going to keep an eye on you. If I see that during your next episode it’s too much, I’m going to cancel this effect. You understand?”

Stella hesitated, but nodded, “Right.”

“Can’t believe she gave that to you,” Conrad chuckled, “Poetic if you ask me.”

Yaga glanced back at him, “I think of it as a trophy. Only wish I could have claimed something off the first one.”

Conrad grinned, “I gotta ask, you aren’t just here to do some hunting for wifey, are you?”

Yaga looked away, “I don’t know what you’re saying.”

“You were listening when the scouts came back about the Katali force in the forest,” Conrad said, crossing his arms, “I saw the look on your face.”

“Katali force?” Stella asked.

“Nothing to worry about, we’re going to be splitting off from Conrads caravan before they engage one another,” Yaga soothed.

“No, I want to know what’s out there,” Stella said firmly.

“There’s a human adventurer ascendant among the force I’m about to fight,” Conrad said, drawing a glare from Yaga. He shrugged at her, “Kid deserves to know. She’s practically an adult. Speaking of which,” He turned to Stella and frowned. “When are you going to pick up an aspect?”

Stella’s eyes widened, “An ascendant? Like you two and mom?” She pointedly didn’t answer Conrad’s question, squeezing her arms. She’d inherited a lot of her mothers aspect powers and abilities which even Perry had said was very strange. But that meant that she needed to be even more choosy about what she picked, her mother had also insisted that she wasn’t old enough to endure what could come from taking on an Aspect. She was strong enough without one anyway.

Yaga nodded, her eyes a little hard, “Yes, like us.”

She glanced back at Conrad, “I’ll get my revenge on my own time, Conrad. I have a bigger priority.”

He smirked, “Right, you keep telling yourself that.”