The first sign of civilization I noticed was the scent of wood smoke. My first thought was , and my second was .

  Followed by the realization that I had no idea how far out in the

  wilderness we actually were. For all I knew we could be in a big park

  surrounded by city. I doubted it, but I couldn’t be sure. None of my

  companions had looked at maps that I’d seen.

  I glanced at them, and they all seemed pretty calm, so I settled myself.

  “Ah, we’re getting close to a town finally,” Ever

  commented a couple of minutes later, taking a deep breath. Huh, was her

  sense of smell not as strong as mine? I guess back home they said dog

  noses were pretty crazy good.

  We didn’t walk much longer in the shade of the woods till

  the scenery changed drastically. The sky above us opened out as the road

  arrived at a steep, rocky hillside. As the terrain dropped away we were

  able to look out on a wider vista. The road wound its way down the hill

  in a long series of switchbacks, and the forest spread out to either

  side, curving into the arms of mountain slopes that fell away in about

  the same direction as the land directly before us. But in the bottom of

  the valley ahead a stream became visible, and then the settlement I’d

  sniffed. It was hard to guess just how big it was from here, but I

  thought I’d call it a town, maybe on the small side. There was a wooden

  palisade around the outside, raised up on grassy berms. The wood smoke

  curled from quite a few of the buildings, though nowhere near all of

  them. Not too surprising since the weather was warm, and the sun was

  still high in the sky.

  I’d paused unconsciously to take in the view, and the rest of the party patiently waited for me.

  “Yay, we should be able to get to a bath and a bed well before nightfall!” Ever said.

  I looked at the road ahead, and the angle of the sun, not

  sure I agreed with her assessment, but everything here felt a little

  unknowable.

  Fiddle, meanwhile, had an abstracted look on his face,

  staring off to the right. “I’m not so sure about that, Ev. I think I

  found where that wasp of La'a’s came from, and we should probably take

  care of it.”

  “Wasp?” I asked. Ever sighed, and La'a brightened.

  “While you were in the grotto, a radii-charged wasp

  wandered into our presence,” she explained, holding her thumb and

  forefinger about as far apart as the width of her palm. “I zapped it,

  easy enough, but it’s not surprising that where one was tainted there’s likely to be a whole nest. Is that what you’ve found for us, Fiddle?”

  “I believe so. And it’s worryingly close to the town down

  there. Not terribly strong yet, but there’s no reason to let it build up

  if we’re here.”

  “Um,” I started.

  They all turned to me, and I swallowed heavily.

  “I don’t know anything about fighting giant wasps. Or any

  other kind of monster. I mean, if you guys can deal with it—” I trailed

  off hopefully.

  “Ah, but this is a perfect chance to start changing that, Anne!” La'a enthused.

  “Yeah, these wasps are no real danger to you,” Fiddle

  agreed, “And even the central concentration isn’t more than a two, so

  nothing could happen to us that Ever can’t fix up in a snap.”

  “A two?”

  “The second rank of power, or of radii concentration, if

  you will,” Ever piped in. “If you’ll recall, we are each in the midst of

  the fourth rank, and the scale is not a straight line. That means that

  we have more than four times as much mystic power as the being that

  makes up the core of the affected wasp hive.”

  I looked around at their expressions, ranging from

  perfectly calm to mildly excited. “This isn’t something I can say no to,

  is it?”

  “Why would you say no? Monster fighting is fun!” La'a said.

  “I just don’t think I’m built for it. I don’t fight

  things. When I find bugs in the house I scoop them up in something and

  put them outside.”

  That got me much more confusion.

  “Why not give it a try, Anne?” Fiddle coaxed. “Maybe you’ll be surprised.”

  I sighed. “If they’re so harmless, what’s the point of hunting down these wasps anyway?”

  Ever coughed. “They’re relatively harmless now. But given

  time they’ll accumulate more and more radiance until they become a

  serious threat. Without the steadying hand of a fairy, creatures that

  become charged with radii become more and more violent and dangerous.

  The whole point of our hunting work is to keep people safe from such

  things.”

  “Oh.”

  “If you’re really uncomfortable, you don’t have to

  participate this time,” Ever offered. “But we do need to go deal with

  it, so you might as well come along and watch.”

  I felt my ears flattening down to my head, and my tail drooping. “Okay.”

  #

  By the time we got near the hive, I’d given in and agreed

  to try helping. They weren’t unkind about it—except for La'a who gave

  off an impressive amount of “Git gud, newb” energy without ever

  insulting me directly. But the casualness with which they approached

  the whole thing started to melt my resistance. And then there were the

  horror stories.

  “—but then the three badger-zombies that got away from

  them came back in the middle of the night and dug up the entire

  graveyard, and all the town’s dead got animated by their saliva, and

  that was when we went out along with six other teams to clean up the

  mess and help re-home what few residents were left.”

  “Okay, okay, I don’t need any more stories, La'a. You’ve convinced me,” I gave in.

  “Good, because we’ve arrived,” Fiddle put in.

  “Oh.” I stopped in my tracks. “We have?”

  “Yep. The nest is about three trees thataway,” he pointed ahead.

  “So how do we do this?” I noticed I was wringing my hands

  together and forced myself to stop, then couldn’t think what to do with

  them instead.

  “Okay,” Ever stepped up between all of us, taking charge

  so smoothly I figured she must be the usual tactical director, or

  whatever you’d call it. “They are small and numerous, but not very fast,

  and most of them should be near the hive. We go in quietly, let La'a

  take the first strike and fire-burst the biggest collection of them.

  I’ll be right behind her with a life-denial aura to keep them from

  swarming us, but all the strays will head our way as soon as they notice

  us, so Fiddle, and you Anne, will be right behind me. Fiddle will point

  them out as they approach and Anne your job will be to swat down the

  ones who get close to us. I’d recommend not bothering with the sword for

  this, since you won’t need all your strength to kill them and you’re

  not familiar with the weapon yet. Just an open hand should do fine. Try

  not to let them sting you, but any hurt you take I can take away in

  moments, so don’t worry about that.”

  “Stand in the back with Fiddle and swat the ones that get

  close. Simple enough.” I nodded, sounding far less assured than I

  would’ve liked.

  “Anne,” Ever put a hand on my bicep, raising her chin to

  look me in the eye. “Are you sure you’re willing to do this? It’s okay

  if not, no one will hold it against you.” Her eyes strayed towards La'a

  at the end.

  I took a deep breath and patted her hand gently. “Yeah,

  I’m good. I’ll just pretend they’re mosquitoes. Mosquitoes deserve no

  mercy.”

  She gave me a quick flick of a smile and turned to La'a. “On your pace then.”

  La'a gave us a manic, crocodilian grin that did not in any

  way soothe my fluttering stomach and turned to stride delicately toward

  the nest.

  “Any advice, Fee?” I murmured to the little fairy tucked behind my ear.

  :No, Bonded. This one’s purpose is to assist you in

  choosing, igniting, and improving your powers. What you do with them

  is entirely up to you.:

  “Okay then.” I stepped up after Ever.

  La'a’s first strike was a literal fucking fireball. Heat

  washed across my face with the burst of moving air as the ten-foot paper

  wasp nest engulfing the trunk of an oak tree ceased to be. The tree

  caught on fire, but not as catastrophically as I would’ve expected, and a

  horrible buzzing filled the air, seemingly closing in from all

  directions.

  Ever, at my elbow, muttered something and gestured with

  her hands, seeming to conjure a ball of golden-yellow light within them,

  then pulled her hands apart and the light grew to surround the four of

  us, its edges shading out of existence at around twice the reach of my

  arms.

  “La’s got the biggest clumps, just go for the closest

  ones,” Fiddle reminded me as I looked around frantically. “To your

  right.” His calm warning gave me something to hang on to as I focused to

  the right.

  Sure enough, a bug a solid six inches across was making

  its wavering way toward us, already a bit past the edge of Ever’s

  circle. I stepped toward it and swung my open hand through the air it

  was taking up.

  Crack. A sound like an egg hitting the floor, and my hand

  was covered with goo that could easily be mistaken for an egg’s contents

  if you had no sense of smell, and very poor vision. “Eugh.” I shook the

  bulk of it off, but there wasn’t much time for that, as Fiddle’s calm

  voice drew my attention to two more coming in from the other side.

  When I hit the next one, with my right hand this time, I

  caught it on a couple of claws instead of my palm, and the sound was

  softer, but the eviscerated body tried to stick to the ends of my

  fingers and I ended up hitting the third bug with the remains of its

  sibling. They both fell lifeless, so I moved on.

  I ended up turning around so that I was facing the

  opposite direction from La'a, the better to watch our sides and rear.

  Fiddle guided me, but I’m pretty sure he was doing other stuff at the

  same time, because I’d see bugs he wasn’t directing me toward kinda hang

  up in the air and then just drop for no apparent reason. I noted it and

  let it go, keeping focused on my task.

  Lots of the insects farther away were heading toward us

  but then veering off before they got close, I assume thanks to Ever, but

  more and more were getting through whatever effect she had on them.

  When I had to deal with a tight pack of seven all at once I got a bit

  overwhelmed and ended up paddling

  at them with both hands like I’d suddenly gotten into a slap-fight, but

  however silly it looked it eventually banged them all into my hands and

  each other and stopped them coming.

  “Behind you!” Fiddle sounded less calm, and I spun around

  on one foot, wobbling and swinging my hand out before I’d even seen the

  target. Sure enough a bug was right there, up in my face already, and I

  realized at the same time I made contact, its butt was flexed forward, a

  stinger the size of a ball-point pen aimed right at me.

  It impaled my palm with all the force of my own swing. I

  don’t recall screaming, but my throat burned as though I had. My whole

  hand felt like I’d shoved it in a fire, and I couldn’t think, eyes

  tearing up so bad I couldn’t see either.

  “Anne, Anne, it’s okay, I’ve got you,” Ever’s voice was

  the first thing I could make out as my senses returned to sense. “It’s

  okay. You’re going to be okay.”

  “But may not,” La'a’s snap might not have been meant for me but I heard it clear as day.

  I was sitting on the ground, legs splayed, holding my

  right hand with my left at the wrist as though I could squeeze hard

  enough to keep the pain from spreading. The light around us was sharp

  and golden, and Ever was crouched in front of me, doing something with

  more of it. I blinked the tears away and looked around, seeing that the

  haze of gold had been replaced by a solid bubble, against which quite

  large numbers of giant wasps were banging with little glass-like ’tink’

  sounds that would have been funny under other circumstances.

  Fiddle was focused outward like La'a, waving his hands in

  gentle circles. The bugs near him were starting to act disoriented,

  focusing less on our protective bubble and starting to stray off in all

  directions. As I watched, the effect spread, following the curve of our

  shelter.

  I felt a tug on my hand and turned my head to see Ever

  tossing the dead wasp’s back end away. A thick puncture in the middle of

  my palm started to well with blood as she clasped both hands around it

  again.

  “A little warning would be nice, I was in the middle of another lightning fan,” La'a complained.

  “You can still get it off.” Ever’s tone was suddenly much

  colder as she addressed the drake, though her focus didn’t shift from my

  hand. “The shell stops life, not forces”

  “It’d be pretty hard to get it off if you’d managed to slice off my fingers!”

  “But I didn’t, did I?”

  “It was a fuck of a lot closer than I’m okay with.”

  Ever pressed her lips together, ears folding down to her skull, but didn’t respond.

  The screaming pain in my palm began to recede as Ever did

  whatever it was she was doing with her life magic. Healing me, duh. What

  a crazy thing to imagine, let alone experience. Some blood dribbled out

  from between her hands, leaving dark splotches on the dusty grey fur of

  my thigh.

  “Boy, I sure wish I’d gotten around to putting on some

  pants,” I mumbled, mainly trying to distract myself from the strange

  fiery feeling in my palm.

  “Why didn’t you?” Ever asked, utterly calm. “You seemed rather bothered about it this morning.”

  “I dunno. By the time Fee opened up the pocket I was

  covered in dirt from crawling around in that cave and it felt weird to

  put on clean clothes over that. But to be honest, I guess I’d just

  gotten used to it by then.” I hesitated, staring at the top of Ever’s

  head as she concentrated. “And I guess I wasn’t excited about wearing a

  dead woman’s pants.”

  The fire subsided and she released my hand, glancing

  around. My eyes followed hers to a field full of ugly bug bodies, mostly

  speared through by glass-like spikes that I realized after a moment

  were icicles. Behind me, La'a was tossing out more of the frozen darts

  in fans of four or five, and Fiddle seemed to be doing his “just die,

  okay” routine on larger collections of them. Not many of the bugs were

  left.

  I rubbed my palm with the fingers of my other hand,

  finding no sign of the injury that had put me in white-out pain a minute

  ago. “This setup seems real effective. Why didn’t you start off this

  way, Ever, just for my benefit?”

  She looked briefly guilty as she stood up and turned away from me.

  “Not just that.” She reached out and knocked on the golden

  barrier with her knuckles. It sounded a lot like the bugs had before.

  “This defense is great, but it takes a lot out of me, especially if it

  gets hit hard or repeatedly. The wasps are pretty weak, and La'a had

  taken out the majority of them when I swapped to it, so it’s fine now.

  But I try to save this for emergencies.”

  “Oh.” I clambered awkwardly to my feet, finding the roof

  of our spherical protection too close for comfort. Bending my legs some

  more helped.

  Ever took a long, deep breath, her back still to me, and

  then announced in a louder voice, “I’m going to drop the life-block if

  everyone’s okay with it.”

  “Sure,” Fiddle responded.

  “Absolutely,” La'a snarled.

  A moment’s silence. “Yeah,” I chimed in, surprised to be included in ’everyone,’ given how little I’d contributed.

  The golden dome popped in slow motion, dissipating from

  the top down in sparkles and fading mist, and the last few

  bugs…continued wandering blindly around the vicinity of their former

  nest. I glanced at Fiddle. He seemed to be watching the whole area at

  once, his head swiveling smoothly around. I cleared my throat and flexed

  my newly healed hand. “Is it safe to smack the rest of them, or will

  that bring them all down on us at once?” I asked him.

  “Go right ahead, Anne, I am,” La'a responded as another fan of deadly icicles flew from her fingers with a snaky hiss.

  I took a deep breath and stepped away from the others,

  carefully “hunting down” some of the last survivors, although with how

  few were left it hardly even felt dangerous to me. Maybe ten minutes

  later we weren’t seeing any further movement through the nearby trees

  and Ever called us all back to the hive to collect our spoils.

  There was a brief but heated exchange between her and La'a

  when La'a complained that I hadn’t carried my weight and didn’t deserve

  a full share. I didn’t speak up. Personally, I could only agree with

  the lizard woman.

  “We have collected equally, and that does

  not change now, La'a,” Ever stated with extreme firmness, and though the

  drake snarled wordlessly, that was apparently the end of the

  discussion. I felt my face burning under the fur.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  “Alright folks, send them off,” Ever directed, returning to her usual warm, school-teachery tone.

  Each of their fairies lifted off from their usual spots,

  behind an ear or horn in Ever and La'a’s cases, from somewhere out of

  the vast plume of Fiddle’s tail for his. After a moment’s hesitation, I

  told Fee, “Okay, go do your thing I guess, pal.” She moved away to join

  the others.

  It was a little slow, but fascinating to watch as the four

  fairies collected at the trunk of the tree where the nest had

  been—blackened and smoldering a bit, but no longer actively burning. I

  wondered if La'a had done something to put it out. They bobbed and

  circled in complex patterns, interweaving with one another and slowly

  moving farther and farther from that center point as they covered the

  whole area of the fight.

  Ever grabbed my attention and drew me off to where a few

  bug bodies had spread the farthest away from that epicenter. “If we

  bring the outliers in to the messier area before they get to it, they’ll

  be a bit quicker over all,” She explained.

  So I helped go around and pick up giant bug blobs,

  scooping up a palmful of dirt underneath each as she showed me, and

  tossing them into the central area. “Helping” like that probably didn’t

  make much difference, but it made me feel a little bit better to

  contribute, which may well have been her primary purpose. She seemed

  very concerned with my emotional state, which I honestly couldn’t help

  but appreciate.

  Once the fairies had finished their dance and returned to

  us, Fiddle took the lead and we headed back through the woods in the

  direction we’d come from, making our way back to the road.

  “So, what’s the news, Fee?” I asked.

  :This one’s collection has increased by fourteen orange

  motes and two yellow motes. Now settling them in you, Bonded. This will

  produce sixteen motes of my own wavelength once fully assimilated:

  “Oh, wow, that seems like a lot.”

  She didn’t respond, but I felt a subtle, warm feeling coming from her.

  #

  Rather than returning us straight to the road, Fiddle led

  us further West and downslope, and I eventually realized he was taking

  advantage of our party’s athletic ability to bypass the long switchback

  section of the road we’d seen and just scramble straight down the

  hillside.

  My guess proved out when we finally emerged from the trees

  onto the road we had been following on near-flat ground a bit past the

  base of that long, open cliffside. I tried to guess how far we were now

  from the town we’d seen but really had no idea.

  “Cool shortcut, bro,” I commented. “How far are we from that town now?”

  Fiddle gave me a smile for the compliment. “Less than another hour’s walk I think.”

  “Nice. Is there going to be someplace in town where I can get clean, or should I just rinse myself off in the next stream we pass?” I asked.

  “Oh, there’s sure to be a few spas there. They’ll be happy to take care of our needs, for a price,” La'a answered.

  I gave her a quizzical look for the odd emphasis, but her

  small grin didn’t change and didn’t tell me anything. I shrugged and

  settled back into the silence.

  Fiddle’s guess was right on the money. We arrived in view

  of the town’s Eastern gate as the sun was starting to fall below the

  highest roofs, making it pop in and out of blinding me as we approached

  the couple of obvious guards standing just outside it.

  Despite the guys in armor being furry anthropomorphic wolves much like me, the scene seemed highly medieval. They wore steel breastplates over blue and white fabric pants, but their feet were bare. Their steel helmets reminded me of the Spanish Conquistadors, with smooth crowns arched high on the sides to leave their ears free, and curved brims around the outside edge that matched the ridge plate running from back to front and offered at least some protection to the ears. They each held a pole-arm straight from a Dungeons & Dragons illustration, resting easily against the crook of a shoulder when they were standing still.

  The

  wooden wall behind them was simply built, of whole logs pounded into the

  ground side by side, and stretching up maybe thirty feet to sharpened

  top ends. The head of the occasional guard bobbed back and forth along

  the top, indicating some kind of walkway up on the other side.

  There weren’t any other travelers visible on this stretch

  of road, and as we strolled toward the entrance to the town I could see

  one of the guards getting more and more impatient, glancing between us

  and his partner, presumably hoping that they could close up as soon as

  we were dealt with. I told the couple of butterflies in my stomach to

  shoo, that this was not a situation likely to devolve into violence or

  other complications. There was no reason I was about to be attacked or

  thrown into prison for someone else’s crimes, or any storybook nonsense

  like that.

  The butterflies didn’t listen.

  In fact, the closer we got to the gates, the more both

  guards seemed to be focusing on me, even though I’d fallen back behind

  all three of my companions. But their stares weren’t hostile. In fact,

  it took me a while to put a name to the expressions, but more than

  anything, they seemed awed. That was weird.

  Ever was in the lead as we crossed a log drawbridge and

  came to a stop in front of the two wolf guards. By that point I could no

  longer overlook the ridiculous difference in our size. I’d been

  assuming most of the height difference between myself and my companions

  was down to our being entirely different species. After all, Fiddle the

  squirrel was most of a head shorter than Ever the cat, and I was a wolf

  or dog of some sort, it didn’t seem too unreasonable. But these wolves

  at the town gate were no more than a head taller than Ever, not even

  coming up to quite my armpits. Jesus, what kind of mutant giant did this

  girl turn herself into? And why?

  “Do you see her?” one of the guards whispered to the

  other, oblivious to the fact we could obviously hear him from here. “She

  could rival the queen herself!”

  La'a coughed suddenly, as Ever elbowed her in the ribs.

  Under the wolves’ continuing stares, my hands tried to creep down to tug

  on the hem of my not-quite-long-enough tunic, but I stilled them

  against my thighs.

  The less jittery guard huffed and didn’t respond to his

  coworker directly. “Lights up, travelers,” he said to us instead. “Make

  yourselves known if you wish to enter Graidal town.”

  My companions each sent their fairies into the air above

  their heads, their glows intensifying more than I’d seen them up to this

  point. I followed suit, Fee’s leftover orange light pallid in

  comparison to theirs.

  The guards looked them over, seeming puzzled by Fee, which

  didn’t surprise me, but they dismissed the incongruity and focused

  their attention on Ever, who was introducing each of our party by name.

  This was when I got to hear each of my traveling companions' last names

  for the first time, but I was so busy being nervous I didn’t catch

  anything beyond their existence. I took a deep breath as she got to me,

  but Ever simply introduced me as “Anne, our friend.” I nodded politely

  at my name and both guards gasped and stood up straighter, as though I’d

  done something unusual. .

  “Be welcome, Esteemed. Your names will be recorded as

  entering today, the tenth day of rising six, forty-fourth year of Her

  majesty Varkona’s reign.” The guard glanced up toward a head above the top of

  the wall—another wolf—who nodded solemnly back to him, and then the two

  before us stepped aside and gestured us inside the town. As we moved

  on, I concentrated on keeping my expression and stance neutral, so as

  not to make any more unintended social gaffes. But my eyes were moving

  everywhere, trying to take it all in.

  Sure enough, as we cleared the gate the two guards came in

  as well, swinging the gates closed behind us, and several people on the

  wall began turning winches to bring the wooden drawbridge up, leaving

  the growing night outside.

  Most of the buildings inside the town wall were single

  story, but quite a few were two, with a couple near the center rising to

  three and even four. Only one appeared to be made from anything other

  than wood, brick and plaster. That was a low, blocky stone building just

  visible near the main crossroads. Well before getting that far, La'a

  was pointing out a two story building on our left with many colorful

  drapes of cloth hanging off its walls, and curly script spelling out

  “Approved by Madam Laufernay” where I would have expected a name for the

  business. La'a turned around and grabbed my hand, doing her best to

  drag me straight into the brightly lit doorway.

  I didn’t see a whole lot of point in resisting, although I

  kept our actual speed to a calm walk no matter how hard she yanked,

  taking the time to examine the facade further. One of the first things I

  noticed—with concern—was that the front and entry of the building was

  lit up with little iron cages holding .

  Glancing up and down the main thoroughfare of the town, I

  saw similar setups all over. None of the travelers looked at all

  perturbed about it, so I guessed it wasn’t likely some local perversion.

  My stomach dropped and my steps slowed further.

  “Fee, they’ve got your siblings locked up in cages, for light.”

  :Indefinite containment without destruction is acceptable use,:

  “Really?”

  “Indeed.” It was Ever who answered me the second time,

  moving up right next to my non-being-dragged arm. “The fairies take no

  harm from the use and do not mind. They are actually free to leave if

  they choose. The cage is decorative, and shows them where they are

  wanted, but an un-bonded fairy can choose to pass through any un-living

  object.”

  “Oh. Okay, if you say so,” I said, thinking, “So what’s this place La'a is so excited about?”

  “That spa you wanted!” La'a called back over her shoulder.

  “I didn’t think we’d find an Approved this far out in the boonies, but

  it’s the best we could’ve hoped for. Now come on! I need a full-body

  massage like you need a bath!”

  Ever just nodded agreement, and I let myself be dragged forward a bit faster.

  The entrance to the ’spa’ was quite wide, and seemed tall

  from a distance, but when we got there I found myself having to crouch a

  good bit to enter. Not hands and knees or anything, but more than just a

  reflexive ducking either. It made me wonder how common that was going

  to be.

  Inside was well-lit too, mostly with candles and oil lamps

  though. I didn’t have time to wonder why before a ferret-like woman in a

  many-layered pink and red dress approached us, her hands crossed palm

  to palm in front of her.

  “Good evening, gentle travelers. How may our humble

  establishment soothe your spirits tonight?” Her voice was very

  controlled, lyrical and low, with a particular lilt that put me in mind

  of exceptionally high-end wait staff.

  “Ahh! I’ve got this!” La'a chirped, sounding utterly

  unlike her usual attitude. “This one needs a thorough bath, full body

  deep tissue massage, and the best grooming package you’ve got!”

  I opened my mouth with the intention of objecting, but

  honestly that sounded pretty amazing, so I just closed it again and

  nodded.

  Ever piped in, much more calmly, “In fact, I believe we all deserve the same treatment today, don’t you, La'a?”

  The drake looked completely surprised at this development,

  but after a moment’s utter stillness her smile returned in force. “Why

  yes, I think you’re right, Ev.”

  Fiddle chuckled. “I can live with some pampering for a change I suppose. It has been a pretty stressful few days.”

  The hostess’ smile was more professional—and more than a

  touch covetous to be honest, I imagined the local equivalent of dollar

  signs replacing her eyes for a moment—than my companions’, but her gentle

  bow as she turned to lead us inside was just as calm and elegant as

  before. “Of course, right this way, dear guests.”

  She brought us to a pleasant, but not very elegantly furnished waiting room sort of area. It had numerous wooden chairs in varying sizes and heights but all with smooth, curved seats like tilted bowls.

  “Please, be at ease in the before room, my dear guests. An

  attendant will return momentarily with tea and tidbits while we arrange

  your accommodations.” And with one more bow she slid the door closed

  and left us to our own devices.

  I stood awkwardly in the middle of the room while the others all instantly plopped themselves into one chair or another. They left the largest of them free, presumably for me, so I cautiously walked over and settled on the edge of it. The curved surface creaked slightly, but to its credit didn’t move, let alone break under my weight.

  “So—”

  “The Approved by Madam Laufernay are the best quality

  bath-house, spa, massage parlor and bordello you’ll find anywhere in

  Ulthara! Heck, maybe anywhere on the continent,” La'a enthused.

  “A cathouse!” I exclaimed. Then looked at Ever. “Oh, um. I

  suppose you don’t likely call them that, huh? But these folks are

  prostitutes too?”

  “Not all of them,” Ever clarified. “Folk specialize. But

  yes, this establishment will offer night companions as well as masseurs

  and grooms.”

  “That’s not what you signed us up for, right?” I asked La'a. I had no idea what terms might be euphemisms for what around here.

  “Of course not!” She said from her ridiculously relaxed

  sprawl on a green chaise, “Not this early in the day. We’ll want to get

  clean, have a solid meal someplace and arrange for rooms for the night

  before we think about that sort of thing.”

  “Of course,” I said, with much less enthusiasm.

  “Don’t worry, Anne, I won’t let her drag you here or

  anywhere else for something like that,” Ever soothed. Her ears flicked

  down, “Not against your will, at least.”

  “Thanks.” I gave her a smile more relieved than I’d expected it to be and settled slightly farther into my weird, round chair.

  A moment later, another weasel- or ferret-like man entered

  through a different door than the one the hostess had used, smoothly

  carrying a large tray with a tea set and several plates of small, fancy

  looking finger foods. Wordlessly, he slid it onto the low table in the

  middle of the room and began pouring out cups of a steaming, pleasantly

  herby drink, setting them out for us with practiced elegance. Once he’d

  finished that he rose, bowed smoothly, and retreated through the same

  door, leaving us to our ’treats’.

  I picked up a cup and took a long inhalation of steam from

  the tea, my crazy nose cataloguing a dozen or so different plants in the mix,

  three of which I actually recognized from home. Catnip, in quite a small

  quantity, and chamomile, and a bit of regular spearmint, somehow not

  overpowering all the other flavors the way it tends to do. The rest had

  names in my head, but didn’t really mean anything to me, despite being

  able to connect them with aspects of the tea’s smell. I closed my eyes

  and meditated on the different scents and names while the others ate and

  drank, and chatted about the assortment of delicacies.

  Something about those various known but unknown smells was

  getting to me. My eyes began to water under the closed lids, and the

  muscles in my jaw loosened on their own. I imagined my favorite lemon

  tea from home, and thought about how much less…distinct the flavor had

  been. A bottomless dark well opened beneath my thoughts, tendrils of

  nameless sorrow reaching for me. An old, familiar foe.

  I blinked my eyes open and took a sip of the tea. It was

  hot just shy of the point of pain, and the scalding liquid swept my

  mouth clean. I tried to let it sweep away the darkness too, and focused

  on the people around me.

  La'a pointed to a plate of red and green layered bites near me. “Anne, you’ve got to try those, they’re excellent!”

  I smiled at her, even though I didn’t want to, and picked

  up one of the little squares. It smelled of meat and something a bit

  like pesto. I popped it in my mouth. “Mmm. Yes, very tasty,” I said

  after the morsel basically melted away on my tongue. I ate another of

  those, and settled a little more comfortably into my seat, looking

  around the room. Both Ever and Fiddle had curled up in their

  chair/cup things as though they were nests, and looked extremely

  relaxed. That brought a more natural smile to my face, but I still felt

  awkward, halted and uncertain in this place.

  Only a few minutes later, the inner door opened again, and

  a weasel guy—maybe the same one who’d served our snack, I wasn’t

  sure—stepped inside. He glanced around at us and then gestured to me.

  “Esteemed Anne, may I bring you to your bath?”

  “Sure,” I said, happy to move again, and set down the mostly full tea cup, stood and followed him away.

  This fellow delivered me to a fox woman in a more

  practical looking outfit, in a large tiled room with various amenities.

  She started by taking my soiled tunic and giving me a quick, warm

  shower. I was afraid it’d all be creepy hands-on stuff, but the shower

  setup had a standing screen for privacy, and I just got pouring hot

  water and a little bowl of lemony soap to get myself clean. Once that

  was done, she came back with a fluffy towel the size of a king sheet and

  wrapped me up, warm and soft.

  Next was an actual bath, in a hot-tub sized bowl in the

  floor. It was full and steaming when she brought me to it, a sprinkling

  of aromatic herbs making me imagine it for a moment as the world’s

  biggest cup of tea. The fox woman took back the towel and I climbed into

  the water. She arranged a small towel in a slight depression at the

  edge and guided my head down to rest there, then draped another scented

  cloth across my eyes and face. “Now, just rest, esteemed, and let the

  warmth soak all your cares away.”

  Despite my nerves over…well everything, including being

  away from the only people in this world that I knew at all, I took a few

  deep breaths and did just that.

  I didn’t quite drift off to sleep, but I got close enough

  to be a bit startled when I heard her voice again. “Esteemed, I will

  take care of your hands and feet now, while you enjoy the bath,” and she

  gently lifted my right hand out of the water and began massaging some

  sort of oil into it. “Would you like your nails sharpened or blunted,

  madam?”

  “Hmm?” I wasn’t quite sure I’d heard right, and lifted the cloth from my eyes with my other hand to look at her.

  “Some folk prefer to keep their nails sharp for cutting,

  or we can smooth them a bit so they don’t cut unintentionally.” She

  smiled easily at me, clearly unconcerned by either option.

  “Ah…blunted, I think. Thank you.”

  A nod and she went back to work. I resettled the cloth

  over my eyes and tried not to think too hard about sharpened

  nails—claws—cutting into things. Into people?

  “Hey, Fee, is this a good time to work on unlocking another of those abilities?” I whispered.

  :Uncertain, Bonded. Meditation may require more focus

  than is intended in this activity. This one is willing to try if that is

  your desire.:

  I’d found out from Ever et al. by now that no-one else

  could hear my fairy’s speech, but I still felt a bit weird talking to

  the shiny light bobbing above my head.

  “Yeah, let’s try it. What’s the single quickest one to do, do you think?”

  :Of the remaining forty-six powers previously acquired

  by this body, the fastest to reignite would be protection of a sense

  from extreme effects. This could be either hearing or vision.:

  “Oh, like not being bothered by sudden loud noises or flashing lights?”

  :Indeed.:

  “Yeah, let’s try that. Hearing, I think.”

  So we did. Fee guided me into a ’meditative’ state,

  basically a matter of focusing clearly and unwaveringly on one thing,

  and began the process of reinstating what appeared to be built in

  hearing protection. We did end up getting done with it before the

  attendant was finished with my mani/pedi treatments, but not by much.

  The next step in my pampering session, after I dragged

  myself out of the comfy warm water, was drying off again in the huge

  fluffy towel, and then moving to a smaller room to lay down for a

  massage and brushing. At this point my fox attendant was replaced by a

  pair of weasel girls, wearing similarly practical outfits, who worked

  together to give just about every muscle in my body the pummeling of its

  life, followed by thorough, and surprisingly enjoyable grooming over

  the pummeled areas. I didn’t bother suggesting any more meditation while

  this was going on, as it was far too engrossing an experience on its

  own. By the time they were done, I felt like a puddle of melted butter,

  and my mouth was lolling open, tongue hanging out like a complete goof.

  They covered me with a light sheet, telling me to take my time getting

  dressed again, and set my newly cleaned tunic on a chair nearby before

  quietly leaving the room.

  I let myself enjoy the warm silence for about three long

  slow breaths, and then started getting up, folding the sheet around

  myself and poking around in my magic ’pocket’ to see what other options I

  had to wear. No way was I going to walk around this town half-naked

  anymore now that I was actually respectably clean.

  I discovered that my ’hearing protection’ didn’t do anything about being by sudden sounds when someone knocked on the door to my room.

  “Augh?” I didn’t quite shout.

  “Anne? It’s Ever,” the cat woman’s soft voice came from just outside.

  “Oh! Okay, come on in,” I answered, pulling the sheet a

  bit more closely around my chest. “I could use your help, actually. I’m

  going through Kiri’s wardrobe here and getting a bit confused.”

  Ever opened the door just enough to slip inside, closing

  it silently behind herself. “Ah, I thought you might want some

  assistance with that.”

  It turned out that Kiri had set up her ’pocket’ to be

  searched by touch, which probably made lots of sense when you were the

  person who put each thing in there in the first place, but it had left

  me to fumble through the array of questionable contents with a distinct

  concern for my fingers.

  I’d ended up pulling most of the ’fabric’ feeling items

  out and piling them on the massage table in disorderly stacks. One

  turned out to be a bedroll, and another was a lovely blue and gold dress

  that seemed intended for very formal occasions indeed. I’d set those

  two aside immediately, but there were still a dozen items of clothing

  that I wasn’t sure about.

  I’d kinda settled on a pretty, rose colored tunic similar

  in shape to the one I’d woken up in, but with the addition of darker red

  embroidery along the hem, cuffs and collar. It reminded me a little of

  historic Nordic clothing. The pants, however, were a much more

  complicated question.

  “This goes on my legs somehow, right?” I asked, holding up

  a weird contraption of two large sleeves and a bunch of straps and

  flaps of cloth.

  “Yes, it does,” Ever said with a smile. She took the item

  from me, exchanged it for one of a different color from my piles, and

  patiently helped me get it on. Turns out the folks of this world still

  did pants the old fashioned way: one leg at a time. Each one slid on

  separately, then tied together at the waist, with a sort of U-shaped

  flap of material folding across the gap for easy bathroom use, and

  surprisingly neat tail accommodation, the flap stopping underneath with a

  strap going around my waist to hold it all together. While we were

  arranging it I felt like it would be the weirdest most awkward thing

  ever, but once it was all in place it felt quite simple and comfortable.

  Like everyone else I’d seen I had no shoes to speak of, so

  at that point it was just a matter of tucking away all the other stuff

  I’d pulled out and we could be going.

  While I was doing that, Ever put a hand on the extra fancy dress. “Anne, don’t put on this gown unless I ask you to, okay?”

  I looked at her. She seemed just a little nervous, holding a bit too still. Maybe hoping I wouldn’t ask why. Maybe it was the warm relaxation of my spa day influencing me, but I decided not to ask why. I’d find out eventually. “Okay.” I took the bundle of fabric out from under her hand and tucked it away. “Now let’s blow this popsicle stand!”

  “Huh?”

  I laughed at her expression. “Never mind. Oh! Should I

  leave a tip? How much, I don’t even know what we paid for all this

  pampering—”

  “If you have a suggestion, just tell the hostess on the way out.”

  “Um, no I—You know what, that answers that question. Cool. Tips suck.”