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It was a mildly chilly and misty autumn morning when the Mighty Nein turned up on his doorstep. It hadn’t been the first time, but it would prove to be the last.
It wasn’t only his doorstep, not really. He shared it with Toya, Orna, and Bo, this floor above a rundown theater in one of the smaller port towns halfway between Nicodranus and Port Damali. There wasn’t nearly enough room for all of them in the one rundown floor above the stage and seats, but that was nothing new. The theater hadn’t even been in use before they’d moved in, cleaned up the place, and started putting on shows regularly. The local Lawmaster had only halfheartedly tried to charge them rent, and given up on that when Molly took a respectable chunk out of the gold the Mighty Nein had sent him on his way with to buy it outright.
Coincidentally, or maybe not, Molly’s dreams had been troubled and restless the night before and he’d been up early anyway. He’d gotten water boiling for tea and cooked up a quiet breakfast for himself and had just been settling down to eat it when the knock came.
Grumbling, he went to open it, only to find himself confronted with his seven wayward friends outside the door, all crowded on the stairs. Caleb was carrying Nott in his arms, Fjord was leaning heavily on Caduceus’ staff, and Beau had her hand half-raised to knock again. Molly took them all in at a glance, and a glance was all he needed to see how very, very tired they all were.
Beau stood frozen in surprise, staring at Molly as he stared at her, seeming faintly poleaxed.
“Hey,” she said. “So, ah, can we come in?” She gestured vaguely over his shoulder.
Momentarily at a loss for words, Molly stepped aside and motioned them all in. They walked past him more-or-less single file, offering him tired smiles and hesitant greetings like it had been years since they’d last seen one another rather than maybe a few months. As they passed close, he was able to see that Fjord was limping and using Caduceus' staff for support, that Nott had a heavy bandage wrapped around her head, that Jester was leading Caduceus by the hand because Caduceus couldn’t see anything and that the white tips of Yasha’s hair had gone entirely black.
What the fuck happened to you all, he wanted to say as he stared at them in dread. He didn’t say it, because he was not entirely without manners. Instead, as everyone got settled in what laughably passed for the living room, Molly stepped around and over them and back into the kitchen, poured out what tea he had ready – enough for about three cups – and got it passed out to Caduceus, Nott, and Fjord before he started water boiling for more. Then he realized that he had to figure out an actual breakfast for eleven, now, gods damn it.
Feeling Yasha’s looming presence behind you would probably be frightening to most people. Molly didn’t even feel enough surprise to twitch, just looked back at her with a smile. Some of the harried feelings building up in his chest must have shown on his face anyway. Even as he opened his mouth to order her to go sit down, she slipped into the kitchen next to him, and there was just enough room for her to stand beside him and help chop vegetables for a stew. Anything else would have required going back downstairs to deal with the chickens.
The sound of a door creaking open did make him flinch, wincing. The general chatter in the living room abruptly cut off, so that he was able to hear Toya’s weak, rasping voice ask: “Molly?” from the door to her room. And then, obviously spotting the Nein: “Oh. Hi.”
Molly hastily poked his head out to reassure her. “Just an unexpected visit. You can go back to sleep, dear, I’ll let you know when food’s up.”
She stifled a yawn with her hand. “Okay.” Then she went back inside, presumably to burrow back into her nest of pillows. A couple of tho others offered her waves of farewell before they returned to talking in low voices amongst themselves.
Molly and Yasha said nothing between themselves. Then again, they’d never had to. For all that things felt precarious and strange right now, the two of them side-by-side chopping vegetables had happened too many times to not feel familiar and natural. Whatever else had happened, that had not changed, and Molly took comfort in that as he thought about what might be coming next.
“Smells nice, Molly,” Fjord said, sniffing the air appreciatively as he finally came back into the living room. Yasha took a seat next to Beau, and Molly went to lean against the wall by the door, mostly because that seemed to be where there was the most room.
“Shouldn’t be terrible, at least,” he said, inclining their head towards their old roommate in gratitude for the praise. “So. Something tells me this isn’t just any old visit. What’s brought you lot back into town?”
His heart skipped a beat as the others exchanged anxious glances. It was Beau, of all people, who took point in explaining the facts of the matter.
“Actually,” she said, her voice high and tight and anxious in a way he wasn’t sure he’d ever heard from her. “This isn’t so much a visit, as, uh, a friendly heads up that we’re moving into the neighborhood?”
The story came pouring out from there. Molly had suspected that he would know some of it, and was proven correct. About two weeks ago, the night had fallen pitch black, devoid of moon or stars. Chained, snarling monsters made of shadow had come pouring down out of the sky, and the sun hadn’t risen until well past noon the next day. The entire continent of Wildemount from snow-capped north to the beaches where Mollymauk Tealeaf had retired had been left in shadow, until the Mighty Nein had brought back the sun.
“So we kind of killed a god,” Jester finished. “I think?”
“Two gods,” Caleb said. “Sort of.”
“I summoned a goddess that killed another god,” Caduceus added, nodding sagely. “I’d say that counts.”
“Y’know what?” Molly said. “The stew smells about done. Let me just go and get that.”
Beau called after him as he ducked back into the kitchen. “The Crawling King is as much of an asshole as you’d expect! Just for reference!”
“Was,” Yasha corrected quietly, and he glanced at her just in time to se a triumphant grin flashed across her face, brief and bright as summer lightning.
Fortunately for Molly’s nerves, the shout had awoken Bo and Ornna. They came to investigate the noise, found the crowding in the living room, and eventually there was nothing for it but to retire to the little vacant lot behind the theater to finish breakfast. Bo offered to carry the stew pot downstairs, Beau simply hung it over her staff with no sign of effort, and Toya scurried downstairs ahead of the crowd to get started gathering eggs.
And that gave Molly some more time to think and dwell on some things that no one was saying but which were increasingly obvious anyway.
Ornna brought a pan down. Bo brought some plates, a jar of pickles, and half a loaf of bread. Together they got a fire going and started frying eggs to dish out as Toya brought them over. Just like with Molly and Yasha, they had obviously also fallen back into old habits learned in the circus, quickly serving up as much food as possible to feed a hungry throng. Everyone tucked in with a will as soon as a plate was pressed into their hands. Molly didn’t think they’d come anywhere close to starving, but judging from how weary and haggard they seemed, he wondered how long it had been since they’d had anything like fresh, non-magical food.
The conversation turned more general from there, asking one another how they’d been and what they’d been up to when a dark god wasn't on the verge of swallowing all life. Ornna and Bo spoke as if getting a theater up and running in a mid-sized port town was anything like that in scale or danger. Privately, the part of Molly had had never left the circus steadfastly agreed with them.
“And hey, I hear you’ve been busy too, Molly!” Beau said. “People are still talking about you down in the bar.”
“Kept the whole damn place safe yourself when those monsters came calling,” Fjord added, nodding in an impressed sort of way.
“We used your name to get free drinks,” Nott said around a mouthful of egg. “We knew you wouldn’t mind.”
Molly snorted and waved a hand dismissively, as if the memory of that night didn’t still wake him up in a cold sweat weeks later. “I didn’t handle the entire mob alone. You stick a hatchet in a sailor’s hand and tell them that some bastard’s coming for his favorite watering hole, and then you stand back.”
Of course, it hadn’t been quite that straightforward. More than a few sailors and shopkeepers and fishwives had indeed taken up whatever weapon they could easily grab to hand and fought back the best they could when monsters had come pouring into town. Molly had done what he could to rally them and keep them fighting. But he was the only one in this town who was even a former adventurer. More than that, he was the strongest, or at least capable of enduring the most damage. He'd always had that going for him, at least.
And so he’d fought until he’d been nearly overwhelmed, until he’d been nearly drowned beneath the weight of enemies to die a third time – exactly the sort of fate he’d retired to this town to escape. But people had needed him here at the edge of the world, and so what else could he have done?
He'd passed out at some point after the dust had settled, and woken up on Bo’s back, being carried home.
“Obviously we won’t be staying here, Molly,” Jester said, chin in her hands, tail swaying behind her. “Since you don’t have the space. Caleb can still make his fancy mansion! And we’ll stay there while we wait for them to build us our real house.”
“Shouldn’t take too long,” Beau added. “Not with the platinum we threw at ‘em. Real estate here’s way cheaper than Nicodranus, too.”
“I thought the plan was to settle in Nicodranus,” Molly said. “I mean, I didn’t know this was actually a plan, but I dimly recall that was the idea you batted around.” He remembered it dimly from the last few weeks he’d been with them, before racing first into and then out of Xhorhas had finally, fully soured his stomach and tainted the thrill of adventuring with the threat of a third (final) death.
“Well,” Jester said, drawing out the word as she tried to muster her thoughts. “Papa finally decided to come back for Mama, so she’s not there anymore, so…there wasn’t really any reason I’d want to move back, you know? It’s not like I ever knew much about it except when I was there with you guys. So we thought we could move somewhere smaller, and with less guards around the place, and less boats blocking our view of the sea.”
“And somewhere closer to you,” Yasha added with a soft smile. “That was important, too.”
“So of course, Mollymauk, you’re welcome to stay in the magic mansion, too,” Nott said, magnanimous as ever. “Caleb kept your old room open.”
The wizard in question ducked his head to hide the color in his cheeks. “It was just, ah, it was easier than getting rid of it, honestly.”
Ornna snorted. “Been a while since any of us have stayed in some place fancy. Are the three of us invited, then?”
“If you’d like,” Caleb said, with a lack of hesitation that left Molly feeling gratified and grateful. He offered her a cautious nod. “Really, ah, I have used barely half of the space available. I can add more rooms.”
“I wouldn’t be in a hurry to move out for good, though,” Caduceus said. “It’s a nice mansion, but…after a while, you really start craving a floor beneath your feet that’ll still be there the next day.”
“So we’re gonna make a big house for us all to live in for most of the time, and then we have a fancy mansion to relax in when we want to just, y’know, get away from it all!” Jester chirped. She leaned over to nudge Molly in the ribs. “You can stay with us in that house too, Molly!”
“If you wanted,” Fjord added hastily. “We wouldn’t want to drag you away from your friends, or mess up anything you’ve got going for yourself here. I’m sure putting on shows, just the four of you, it must take a lot of practice.”
Bo laughed, deep and amused. “Oh, please do take him off our hands. Ornna and I could use the extra leg room.” Toya, of course, had gotten her own room of the two they’d been able to fashion up there without anything having to be said of it.
Molly rolled his eyes then jabbed him in the chest. “You are the worst.” Glancing at Fjord, he added. “And you are talking like you idiots aren’t my friends, too.”
Family would have been a better word, a word they’d earned just as much as his old circus crowd had. But somehow, this didn’t feel like the right time to say it when everything and everyone felt a little fragile and on edge. There would be time enough for that later.
“I mean, hey,” Beau said, and the cheer in her voice didn’t sound entirely false for the first time all morning. Molly inclined his head to her, curious despite himself. “If we’re hanging out here from now on, we probably need jobs, right? At least something to do so we don’t get so bored we kill each other. What if we joined the circus, guys?”
Caleb actually laughed, soft but real. “It would really seem to be the only logical next step.”
None of his friends had come out and actually said why they’d decided to retire, but throughout the morning Molly had gotten more than enough pieces to put together. He knew their thoughts had finally fallen along much the same lines as his had, when he’d gotten his first glimpse of the sun after they’d stumbled back over the Xhorhasian border with Yezza in tow.
The Mighty Nein had fought because they had to, fought because people needed them, and sure, because fighting could be fun. But it was only fun up to a point, and the same weariness that had crept over Molly after he was dragged back to life for a second time had clearly finally taken hold of them, too. Adventure and danger had lost its lure, they had gone as far as they could on that path. Now, all together, they were going to find a new one.
Deep in his selfish heart, Molly was glad they had come back to him in doing so. He might have bowed out of the game early, but maybe he could help them figure out the rules of this new one. After all, so far a quiet life had not meant an ordinary one.
“Well, we’d certainly be happy to have you,” Molly said, sprawling into an easy sitting position between Jester and Fjord, offering all his assembled family a smile. “But I should warn you – I am very strict with my auditions.”