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As they separate again, Emily and Juliana’s attention is drawn by an awkward cough next to them. They turn to see Tom and Hester staring at them.

“We didn’t even get to say hi,” Tom says with a teasing grin that lasts until his sister clips him round the back of the head.

“Welcome back, I hope the trip was fruitful,” Hester says with a smile as if nothing happened.

Emily grins at their antics.

“It was great! We went deep into The Crystal Waters and I even got to fight a third circle beast.”

Tom, Hester, and Juliana all look at her with eyes wide in shock.

“What do you mean you got to fight a third circle beast? You wanted to?” Juliana asks narrowing her eyes.

“In my defence,” Emily says, raising her hands placatingly. “I didn’t go looking for it. It was already hunting us, I just killed it.”

“You killed it!?” all three of her friends cry, glancing to Ivor behind her for confirmation.

After he nods with a proud smile, Juliana sighs and looks back to Emily.

“Fine, I guess I can’t really blame you if it was hunting you.”

Emily goes to respond and is cut off by the loud screeching of brakes as a train rolls into the station. Everyone gravitates towards the platform’s edge.

“Looks like we’re leaving,” Emily calls over the noise, wrapping an arm around Juliana’s waist and slowly following the crowd.

They join everyone waiting at the train doors, before entering and finding an empty booth for the five of them. After they settle down and the train slides into motion, Juliana leans into Emily with a shy grin.

“I know it’s not as impressive as killing a third circle beast, but... Notice anything different?”

Emily looks at her slightly confusedly for a second before her eyes open wide in shock as she focuses on the unconcealed magical auras around her and picks out Juliana’s.

“You reached second circle?!”

Juliana nods proudly.

“Amazing, well done!” Emily says happily, pulling her in for a hug.

Juliana giggles, snuggling into her chest and enjoying the praise.

“Congratulations,” Ivor signs once Juliana sits back up.

They catch up with each other, chatting about the expedition and the lessons they missed, as the train races towards the noble district. When it stops, they follow the crowd out and through the winding gangway towards the Salvia estate.

Arriving at the estate, the doors are wide open, lined by servants guiding the gathered mages into the main hall. They file into the large room, crowding around the stage as Oscar walks up onto it, gesturing for the expedition’s members to join him.

Emily and Ivor leave their friends for now, stepping up onto the raised stage. Emily stands beside Oscar, and Ivor joins the others in lining up behind them. Once everyone is in place, Oscar raises his hand to ask for silence and the noise in the hall quickly dies down.

“First, I would like to say thank you for the warm welcome back,” he starts with a wide smile, receiving a small applause. “I won’t speak for too long. There will be plenty of chances to regale you with the details of our journey after letting you see our discoveries. But first, I would like to give proper thanks where it’s due.”

He turns to Emily and she groans internally, predicting where he’s going.

Can we not skip this? I just want to get paid so I can take a shower and sleep in a real bed.

“I speak on behalf of myself, my family, and I believe the rest of the expedition group.” He pauses and looks at the lined up mages behind him, receiving nods of confirmation from all. “When I say that if it weren’t for Emily here, all of us would be dead. Her calm headedness and ability to take charge and direct us to victory when the situation calls for it is admirable and we’re truly grateful for what you’ve done for us. Thank you!”

He finishes by placing his fist on his heart and bowing his head to her: showing the highest respect a mage of The Covenant can give. All of the group behind them copy him, bowing in thanks to Emily, who looks at them calmly but unsure of what to say. The crowd before them give her a round of applause, the most enthusiastic claps coming from Juliana, Tom, and Hester, then Oscar rises from his bow and saves her from having to say anything.

“Now, on to the fun bit!”

Excited chatter fills the hall as Oscar gestures for the carriers to bring their bags forward. They place the four spatial bags at his feet, as he taps his foot, sending a burst of mana into an inactive array on the floor. Thin lines of blue and green mana light the floor below them as a refreshing breeze rolls over the stage.

What’s that for?

“First, we will start with beast materials and corpses.” He turns away from the audience and quietly says to Cian, Callum, Fionn, and Maeve: “Please leave the snake and monster corpse till last and take out all materials.”

They follow his instructions, flipping open the flaps on their bags and pulling out wrapped up bundles of ocelax skin holding tongues, pop frog gallbladders, razor-fanged wolf and rocky howler fangs, and more. Piling them all up in large mounds of magical flesh.

Oh, to stop the smell bothering his audience.

Emily inwardly scoffs as the carriers finish creating a pile of over a thousand grogler eyes that sends waves of shocked gasps through the audience. They finish emptying their bags of beast materials and step back. Oscar flashes a satisfied smile, giving the audience a few moments to properly appreciate their collection before nodding for the carriers to continue.

Fionn approaches his bag, everybody’s attention focusing on him as he reaches his arms in and pulls out the shadow boa’s long, flickering black body along with its head. Gasps and murmurs of intrigue spread through the room as he steps forward and hands the snake to Emily.

“This is a beast that started following us a few days into our expedition,” Oscar addresses the crowd, their mutterings quickly dying down to hear his explanation. “We don’t know much about it, and Emily here dealt with it before it could cause us problems, but we believe it to be a newly discovered species!”

Excited chatter fills the room, and Emily notices several gazes filled with greed looking at her quarry.

“I think it’s only fair that Emily should have the right to name this new beast. Please, do the honours,” he says to Emily, stepping aside to leave her alone in the crowd’s focus.

The system already named it though. Has it been discovered before, or did the system choose? Maybe it’s well known somewhere else in the galaxy, I may as well use the same name.

“Shadow Boa,” she declares, holding up the corpse for all to see clearly.

After a round of applause, she lowers the corpse and Oscar approaches centre stage again.

“And finally, the ultimate prize of our expedition. A never-seen-before monster that dwells in the depths of The Glade in The Crystal Waters beneath.” He gestures for Callum and Cian to bring the wendigo corpse out.

The audience’s anticipation is palpable as the brothers reach into a bag together and slowly pull out a blackened humanoid corpse. They pull it out by the feet, revealing the scorched and mangled flesh of its legs first. Disgusted chatter floods the room as the wendigo’s torso is revealed, a grotesque mix of blackened skin, grey flesh, and spattered red blood. As the monster’s head is finally pulled free of the bag, displaying the flood of blood down its neck and twisted flaps of roughly torn skin and muscle where its jaw should be, along with the violent hole ripped through its brain, the hall falls silent at the displayed brutality.

Revelling in their shock, Oscar continues with a proud smile.

“This creature had the strength of a third circle mage and claimed several members of our group, but after a great struggle we killed it. Once again, the greatest contributor was Emily, so I believe it best she names it as well.” This time, he simply turns slightly to look at her, not stepping aside at all.

I guess he sees this one as more of a team effort.

Emily scoffs internally before calmly stating the name of the monster.

“Wendigo.”

The moment the words leave her mouth, intense applause and excited chatter fills the hall. While the audience is distracted, Oscar gestures for a group of servants waiting at the side of the hall to collect the beast parts from the stage.

“My family’s servants will count everything up precisely and value it, someone will find you tomorrow to discuss your payment properly,” Oscar quietly addresses the expedition group before glancing at Emily. “I’ve already informed my family of your extra cut and they agreed without resistance. Also, the shadow boa, as you so aptly named it, completely belongs to you and Ivor, along with all credit for its discovery. I would advise you research it thoroughly and submit your findings to The Covenant for extra contribution, but it’s up to you to decide if you want to.”

Emily nods as he turns his attention back to the audience, a self-satisfied smile appearing on his face again.

“Quiet please!” Silence quickly descends over the audience at his words. “Finally, we have herbs and magic crystals.”

Without prompting, Cian, Callum, Fionn, and Maeve start pulling a collection of magical herbs from the bags. The herbs they gathered are pitiful in comparison to the beast parts, only a few small piles of luminis, wyrmroot, vothral weed, eartworn, and a couple of other uninteresting finds. The audience quietly watches, unimpressed. However, their eyes light up with greed as the carriers start unloading magic crystals.

They pile up water, light, earth, and even a few metal and ice crystals. They easily collected over three hundred crystals, ranging from lesser to even a few coveted greater crystals, from the wendigo’s lair, not including the cracked ones left in the bags for now, in case they burst.

“We gathered these…”

Emily tunes out the rest of Oscar’s speech about the crystals and herbs, waiting impatiently for his display to end.

Would he complain if I just walked out?

Luckily for Oscar, he finishes speaking before Emily can act on her impulsive thoughts.

“…once again thank all of you for coming and supporting our endeavours. The wake will be held in three days, but for now I think all of us would appreciate sleeping in real beds again, so I shall end it here.” He lightly bows his head to the audience, as they give him one final applause, then turns to the expedition group behind him.

“We’re done now, right?” Emily asks before he can speak.

“Yes.”

The moment he confirms, Emily moves, walking past and patting him on the shoulder. “Cool, see you around.”

She steps off the front of the stage and quickly slips through the audience, approaching her friends. Ivor, Dante, and Enzo all follow her off the stage, leaving Oscar awkwardly to dismiss the rest of the group.

“Let’s head back, I can’t wait to get some real sleep,” Emily says with an excited grin as she takes Juliana’s hand and starts guiding her group out.

***

They catch a train back to The Dome, stepping into the artificial, mana filled halls once again. Tom and Hester say goodnight at the transportation rooms, and Enzo and Dante bid them farewell once they arrive in the B-grade dorms. Emily and Juliana walk through the familiar hall to their rooms together in silence, enjoying each other’s company.

As they arrive in front of Juliana’s room, they stop, and Juliana buries herself in Emily’s arms again. Emily giggles, running a hand softly through the smaller girl’s hair.

“You know, I do kind of want to sleep,” she says after a few minutes, when Juliana doesn’t appear to make any move to separate.

“Can… Can we stay like this for a bit longer?” Juliana asks in a small voice, not moving her face from where it’s pressed against Emily’s shoulder.

Emily opens her mouth to respond but freezes when she feels Juliana shaking slightly. Each barely perceptible quiver drives a dagger into Emily’s heart, and after a few seconds of intense internal debate, she relents and suggests something she’d been avoiding.

“Hey, Jules?” she asks tentatively. “Do you wanna stay with me tonight?”

“Can I?!” Juliana’s head snaps up, holding Emily’s gaze, her eyes sparkling with excitement, pulling on Emily’s heart strings.

“Sure,” Emily says, raising her hand to stroke Juliana’s cheek. “Just give me some time to shower and get changed.”

“Okay!” Juliana chirps with a smile, leaning in and kissing Emily before releasing her and happily skipping to her room.

Emily sighs, ignoring her confused emotions and opening her door, slipping into the welcoming space beyond. Her room is just as she left it, an orderly mess with piles of metal offcuts, tools that are commonly used together arranged in small collections, and a few unfinished projects sitting on the workbench.

A small smile forms on her face as she relaxes a little in the comfortably familiar place. She takes a deep breath, enjoying the lack of dust in the air, even after being uninhabited for a month.

“You just can’t beat the smell of a workshop,” she mutters to herself, finally moving from the doorway.

She walks over to her workbench, dropping the shadow boa corpse on top and pulling a small rolling seat out from underneath to sit on as she slowly extricates herself from her battered battle gear. With each piece she removes, she feels a little connection break and a fraction of her strength fade. She shivers slightly as she finishes taking off the last of the metal from her body.

I’ve gotten too used to wearing all of this. Now it feels weird to be so… squishy.

Looking away from her exposed skin, Emily stands up and carries her belt over to her desk. She opens the drawer with a complicated lock and drops the pouch containing the Mensacus into it. As it leaves her person and her intelligence returns to normal, she feels as if a small itch in the back of her mind, that she never even noticed, has vanished.

I need to seal that properly tomorrow, I don’t want my room becoming cursed grounds.

She pushes the drawer shut and takes a shower, emptying her mind as she enjoys the warm water pouring over her head. After finishing, Emily dries herself with a quick cast of cleanse and puts on a fresh shirt and underwear before collapsing on her bed. She lies in the soft sheets for a few minutes until she hears Juliana’s three beat knock at the door.

She slips out of bed and lets Juliana in before returning and inviting her to join. Juliana crawls under the covers, snuggling in close and pressing her face into Emily’s neck. Smiling, Emily wraps her arms around her and closes her eyes.

They lie in silence for a few minutes, only hearing the sound of each other’s breath until Juliana speaks.

“I was scared you know,” she whispers weakly. “I didn’t know if you’d be coming back.”

Juliana’s arms tighten around Emily’s waist as her words tighten around her heart, reigniting the maelstrom of thoughts and emotions she managed to suppress earlier.

I’m going to have to leave her at some point. She’s too kind to become a fugitive with me after I’ve killed the Mandragos. That’s going to break her heart. I don’t want to upset her. I really like her. Fuck, I shouldn’t have let myself get close.

The mounting urge to scream builds up, clogging the back of her throat, making breathing harder, and her heart starts to beat faster. Tears form in her eyes as a dizzying mix of love, anger, confusion, sadness, and dread swirls in her heart. Emily starts to notice a quiver in her fingers, and the air fills with static as the mana around them bends to mirror her distress.

You’ll scare her.

The moment this realisation hits her, Emily floods her system with machina on instinct. The cold energy quells her emotions, bringing a sense of calm disconnect as her heart relaxes back into a steady beat. She kisses the top of Juliana’s head, then reaches up a steady hand and starts stroking her hair to reassure her, unable to give promises of security she can’t keep.

Juliana slowly relaxes under Emily’s touch, and her breath soon falls into a steady rhythm as sleep takes her. Emily soon follows, allowing both of her cores to relax and fall asleep together for the first time in a month, and releasing her machina’s hold over her mind.