Archive of Our Own ^omega

She loves the smell of the sea-salt. It is a comfort to come here to Talys nowadays. Even if you can sometimes smell the fish being hauled in on the easternmost pier, the smell of the sea is prevalent and the sight of so many brightly colored sailing ships on the horizon, as the ships maneuver in and out of the harbor, is a hearty sight. There is a part of her that wouldn't mind retiring to live here every day.

Shepherd Rose the Peacemaker, she is called by the most recent Celestial Record, and this year is her twenty-fifth year as a Shepherd. She is taking it somewhat easy this year, as she has two other Shepherds to help her with her duties and she hasn't been feeling quite so good this year. A debilitating infectious illness in her lungs over the winter knocked a lot of the wind out of her sails, so to speak, and so she is slow to get back up to speed.

She is here in Talys today hoping for a reunion, and she can see that her timing is perfect. There, out in the harbor, is the familiar silhouette of a ship she recognizes. That ship, trimmed with bright green and white sails, is called the Dragonsbane and is becoming increasingly famous throughout all the coastal towns of Glenwood.

The owner of that ship is her former Squire and dear friend. He is a celebrated Shepherd now, has been one for over a decade, but she still remembers him as a sullen, cranky teenage boy. During his Squireship with her, he was known as Scout, but upon binding with his Prime Lord, he opted to take the name Sorcha. It has been quite some time since she has had a chance to really talk with him, and she is eager to catch up with him, to hear his stories of the hellions, drakes and dragons he's defeated in the year or so since she last saw him in port.

Shepherd Sorcha, aided by his Prime Lord Malachite and their large team of Sub Lords, has made a name for himself by trawling the waters off the coast of all of Glenwood, and finding deep-sea beasties. He has put to rest more than a dozen local hellraisers all around the continent's coastlines and has made a nickname for himself as the “dragonslayer” which she knows amuses him greatly.

As she leans on a post on the wharf and watches the green-sailed ship draw closer to the pier, she feels her seraphic partners manifest beside her.

Zaveid has the biggest, dopiest grin on his face as he watches the ship moving toward the dock. “It'll be good to see old Malachite again. Oh, and Scout too. Think I can ruffle his feathers by calling him that?”

“I doubt it,” Mikleo says as he lets his long ice-blue hair down from its bun so that he can feel the sea-breeze comb through it. “He isn't particularly fussed about what you say anymore, you know.”

“He does like to keep trying, though, doesn't he?” Lailah says with a smile. “Zaveid, you are so predictable sometimes.”

There is a cracking noise as Edna smacks Zaveid (gently enough to not hurt him, but firmly enough to be audible) with her umbrella; “Good old Grampveid, being a perv even toward other males. Classic equality.”

Zaveid has a long history with Sorcha's Prime Lord, a strange earth seraph named Malachite. (The two seraphim like to try and one-up each other, each claiming to be older than the other.)

Rose is looking forward to seeing how Sorcha has been getting on since she visited him last year. Surely things have been better for him. Last year, she found him at a nearby port city, with his ship hoisted out of the water and on a drydock, being rebuilt because it had sustained heavy, near mortal damage in a dragon fight. Sorcha himself, she found, was not in the mood to see her, as he was badly injured in the fight, losing his Squire and nearly losing his own life and that of his Prime Lord.

She feels a substantial weight on her shoulder as her fifth seraph, Inkitatus, rests his head on her shoulder in an equine gesture of affection. She reaches up and pats his cheek. If someone twenty years ago told her she would have a horse for a seraph partner, she would have called them crazy. But Inky is just as valued a member of her team as the other four seraphim, and his various horsey habits are charming.

They hear a whistling overhead and look up to see a large bird in the air, riding an air current around the Dragonsbane. It looks a great deal like Sigrun, one of Sorcha's wind seraphim.

“I think our friend must know we're here,” Mikleo says with a smile.

They wait patiently as the ship pulls into the dock and arrives at its berth, and a ramp is lowered from the deck of the ship onto the pier. It is only once the ship is docked and the crew can be seen securing it to the berth that Rose and her seraphim move toward the pier, to cut down the distance between them and the reunion in front of them. Then, they pause and wait, watching.

From high up on the ship, they see a bright, soundless flash of light, and then they see a figure trimmed in white swirling down a rope with gusto. Rose grins; Sorcha may be a grown man in his mid thirties now, but he still takes boyish delight in some things. Being too impatient to use the ramp or ladder and instead just using a rope thrown over the side of the ship, is something he would definitely do.

There is a loud, gusty thump as a tall, broad-shouldered man lands on the deck, ducks into a roll to use up the momentum and comes up on his feet. His face, roughly furred with a thick beard, is cracked wide in a grin and his dark eyes sparkle with delight.

“Rose, my dear friend!” He sweeps her into a hug, physically lifting her up and twirling her around. “It's so good to see you!”

He does this with so much energy and gusto that Rose's seraphim are forced to scatter, to avoid being knocked off the pier by him swinging her around like a sack of grain.

Then, he sets her down, allowing her to regain her senses. “Lailah, everyone, it's good to see you all too. It's been too long, hasn't it?”

“Barely a year,” Edna says mildly, but she is smiling. She is also standing back, refusing to approach, because she knows Sorcha is big on greeting hugs to his friends, and she doesn't like to be touched. As expected, Sorcha does just that, giving big hugs to Lailah, Mikleo and Zaveid, and grasping Inky by the face and giving him a gentle headbutt in greeting.

All this is conducted right there in the shadow of the Dragonsbane, as his crew works around him. As he is greeting Inky, there is a flash of light as Malachite manifests beside his Shepherd.

Malachite is a very old seraph (old enough to remember when seraphim were called “malakhim”) and he does not look particularly human, for all that he is humanoid in form. Although he is an earth seraph, not a wind seraph, his dominant color is green (though you can see golden-yellow highlights to his eyes and his hair-like mane) and the pupils of his eyes look like those of a dragon. He has a human-shaped face (though his nose is exceptionally large and flat) but his ears are shaped like the frills of a lizard, and his nostrils resemble those of a snake. His eyes are large and reptilian, and his skin looks like it is made of scales, though it is soft to the touch, unlike a reptile's hide. He has fingers (including opposable thumbs) but instead of standard nails, he has large black claws. His feet are unshod due to the size of the claws on his toes. He has no visible tail, unlike lizard hellions, though Sorcha insists Malachite does have a tail, it's just extremely short and thus can be hidden by clothing.

When Rose first met him, years and years ago, she thought he was a hellion, and tried to attack him to purify him; it was only Zaveid recognizing Malachite (and then Lailah realizing who he was as well) and refusing to attack him, that prevented Rose from making a terrible, terrible mistake.

Steady as the earth he represents, calm and rational, Malachite is slow to anger, but when sufficiently cornered, he can fly into a rage, and he hits extremely hard when he attacks. His earth powers surpass Edna's because he is offensively built rather than defensively built as she is. At the time that Rose met him, it was Zaveid's disobedience – refusing to armatize with her – and Lailah's frantic warning that prevented Rose from putting Mikleo into mortal danger, as Malachite had the water seraph dead in his sights. Had Rose followed through with her attack, Malachite was prepared to kill her water seraph to stop her from hurting him; he is powerful enough that a full-scale attack on Mikleo would likely kill the water seraph.

Fortunately, the encounter ended peaceably enough. It took time for Scout to convince Malachite to give him a chance, but in time, he won the seraph's trust and entered into a Shepherd pact with him.

Right now, Malachite is greeting Rose's seraphim. He gives Lailah a deep, respectful bow (and she responds with a curtsy, almost giggling in her delight); to Mikleo, he gives a shallow but still respectful bow; to Zaveid, he exchanges a complicated hand gesture (similar to a hand shake); to Inkitatus, he gives a respectful nod of the head; and to Edna, he gives a less respectful, but still acknowledging, nod of his head. In their responses, Mikleo returns the shallow bow in kind, Zaveid accepts and repeats the hand gesture, and Inkitatus nickers a wordless greeting. Edna, for her own reasons, only raises her eyebrows at Malachite, otherwise refusing to acknowledge him. (There is bad blood between them, stemming from Malachite's stern condemnations of her brother Eizen.)

“C'mon, let's get out of here,” Sorcha says abruptly. “We're in the crew's way standing here, and I've got something to do before resting. Come with me, Rose, please. I promise, there's something I want you to be part of.”

“Really, Sorcha?” Malachite retorts, shaking his head in resignation. “You're not going to let us rest before you start dragging him all around Talys?”

“Hey, zip it, fishlips. I'm fulfilling a promise I made a loooooong time ago. You got a problem with it, you and the others can either ride along and shut up, or you can go find the inn yourselves and wait for me. But I'm doing this right now. Rose, you coming with?”

“Not sure why you need to drag me around, but sure, if it's important to you, I'll go.”

The seraphim around the two of them proceed to dissolve into light mist and retreat into their Shepherds. Then, Sorcha cheerfully grasps Rose's hand – surprising her – and pulls her along as he marches up the pier and into the town proper. They are stopped briefly by a small crowd that has seen the Dragonsbane dock and wishes to cheerfully greet him.

As they maneuver through the crowd, Rose notices that Sorcha's Shepherd mantle has some rips and tears in it. It will need to be mended. His cloak is designed differently than Rose's, to fit his broad shoulders and his different combat style. It is also trimmed in dark green instead of navy, as Rose's is. Otherwise, they are very much the same mantle, with the same patterns and designs, and proclaim the Shepherds' rank to anyone who recognizes them.

He leads her through the streets to an elevated section of the town that is carefully cordoned off. There is a small stone shrine to a seraphic town guardian there. And as it happens, the guardian in question is in residence, sitting on top of her shrine and watching the town. She waves to them as they approach.

“Welcome, Shepherds. It's good to see you. This place livens right up when you're in town. I wondered what all the sudden excitement was. They must have seen your ship coming in.”

“I'm glad to see you well, Lilybell,” Sorcha says. There is no rancor in his words anymore, unlike some seventeen or eighteen years ago, when Rose brought him before this tiny earth seraph to confront his painful past. There is genuine warmth, but still some distance. Lilybell is still here, at this little shrine, because Sorcha has repeatedly declined her offers to join him. He says Malachite is all the earth seraph he will ever need (which is of course untrue, as he has more than one of each type of seraph with him) and that Lily is better served staying here and watching over Talys.

“So what did you drag me here for?” Rose asks. “You said you wanted me to be part of something.”

“I did. Lily, Rose, there's someone I want you to meet. My newest water seraph.” He thumps his chest. “Come on out, Zeke.”

Zeke? That name means something to Rose.

What emerges from Sorcha is a lanky, young-appearing water seraph with incredibly vibrant blue eyes, and the appearance of scales on the skin of his face; his fingers are webbed too. There are faint marks that look like gills on his neck. He looks like he is recovering from being a fish, if that makes sense.

“Zeke, this is my mentor, Shepherd Rose. And you may remember Lilybell, the guardian of Talys? Rose, this is my brother, Ezekiel.”

This young-looking, vaguely fish-like water seraph is indeed the long-lost foster brother that her one-time Squire lost almost twenty-five years ago.

The seraph looks at him, and then at Rose, and he smiles widely; “A pleasure to meet you, Shepherd Rose. Sorcha has told me a lot about you.” He promptly bows deeply. “Thank you so much for taking care of my brother for me.”

Lilybell claps her hands in excitement; “You found him! Oh, what a relief! I was so sure you'd never find either of them. Did you happen to find any news of Xavier too?” She speaks of an older seraph who adopted Ezekiel, and then Sorcha, and tried to raise them together, before the entire village was attacked by a wandering hellion. The wandering hellion, Bucephalus, forced Lily to hellionize, and her transformation corrupted and hellionized Xavier and Zeke in turn. All of this happened nearly twenty five years ago, so it makes sense that Zeke hasn't fully recovered from his hellionization.

Sorcha has been looking for them both for more than a decade; searching for his foster brother and father is the entire reason he does what he does as a Shepherd. His mission in life is to purge the waters of hellions, drakes and dragons, in hopes of finding his lost foster family and either saving them, or bringing them to peace by slaying them. That he has finally found one of them, after all this time, is an unexpected delight.

At Lily's question, Zeke's expression grows sad, and Sorcha looks away, out toward the waters of the sea. His eyes flicker briefly toward where the Dragonsbane is docked, but then return to the glittering waves far out on the horizon.

“No, I haven't gotten anywhere on finding him. But there are a lot of hellions and drakes still out there. I just have to hope he hasn't dragonized. If he dragonized, I'll never know if I've put him down. Dragons don't revert when you kill them. They just… die.”

This is hardly news to anyone. Rose has slain dragons before; she knows that once a seraph has dragonized fully, there is no reversion. There is only one fate for dragonized seraphim: death. They never regain their sense of self; you can only put them out of their misery and stop their rampage.

There is another light as Malachite emerges again. He puts a hand on Zeke; “Please go back into dormancy, Ezekiel. You need your rest. You will have your chance to explore Talys later.”

The water seraph nods and vanishes, returning to his vessel.

Malachite's eyes then harden and his pupils become very narrow; “Damn you, Sorcha! Do you have any idea how hard this is on me? It's going to take months to purge all that residual malevolence, and you're just recklessly trotting him out, exposing him to further corruption. He needs to stay dormant for a long time until he gets some defenses built up again. He's extremely fragile.”

“I'm sorry, Malachite, but I made--”

“No! Bugger your stupid promise!” Malachite growls savagely. “You made me a promise too – a binding one! Don't go recklessly putting us all at risk over your stupid nostalgia! That fight was awful and it's still technically not over.”

Uncomfortable with this conversation she's witnessing, Rose backs up a few steps to give them some illusion of privacy. She hates watching Sorcha and his Prime Lord argue like this. Her former squire and Malachite do not get along as well as she does with Lailah; pretty much every time the two Shepherds spend any time together, Sorcha ends up getting into a big argument with Malachite. She can only assume that the two of them argue regularly, even when she isn't around. Inkitatus has told her that it isn't impossible for Shepherds to have poor relationships with their seraphim.

This time, however, Sorcha isn't fighting at all. He just stands there and lets Malachite give him a verbal dressing down. When the seraph is done, the Shepherd just holds his hands out in a gesture of helplessness. “I'm sorry. I'll try to be better at it. You know I'm a giant idiot. I'm trying my best.”

“Try harder, damn your eyes. You're going to get me killed one of these days. You're not a Shepherd without my power. Don't forget that. You're wearing me out with all these Sub Lords you have me rehabilitating. You really should release some of them. I think Blue's about ready to go on her own.”

“Can we not talk about this here?”

Malachite makes a deep, guttural noise in his throat (likely an exasperated sigh crossed with a growl) and shakes his head. “Fine. But I'm warning you. I can't handle any more. Twelve is too damn many and now you want to hang out here, in a town, and you want to trot him out when he's got no defenses against potential corruption. If he hellionizes again, we're all in trouble.”

He vanishes without another word, returning to his vessel.

Lilybell has both eyebrows raised in surprise; “Twelve Sub Lords? You have thirteen seraphim tucked away in that body of yours?”

Sorcha looks uncomfortable for a moment; “Yes, at the moment I do. I'll let a couple of them go just as soon as they're ready to be on their own. We're rehabilitating all the drakes we quell. It's no good to put a water seraph back into water where they can get attacked by a deep sea dragon.” He rubs the back of his head self consciously. “I know I'm putting a lot on Malachite, but… I can't abandon a seraph I've saved, can I? And Malachite doesn't refuse the pact.”

Rose approaches him, hoping to make him feel a little better, since he looks so contrite right now. “Let's go to the inn I'm staying at. I'm sure you'll want to get something to eat, and the room service there is really good. Not even all that expensive, either!”

“I need to unload on a merchant first.”

“You can do that later. C'mon, your seraphim want to rest. I'll show you to the inn, and you can stay with me; I have a suite.”

Abruptly, Sorcha pulls his hand away when she reaches for it, and gives her a very hard, confused and uncomfortable stare. (She feels a tiny flush of embarrassment when she hears Zaveid snicker in the back of her mind. No doubt Sorcha is getting an earful from Malachite as well.)

“Don't get the wrong idea, my friend. I said I have a suite, right? That means there are two beds. I rented it because it has its own bathroom and a really nice balcony with a view of the harbor. If you insist on paying for your own complete room, I won't stop you, but you're wasting your money. There's plenty of space, and I get room service. However, if we're feeding all your seraphim, you're gonna have to chip in. You have more than twice as many as I do, after all.”

Sorcha frowns and looks away for a long moment; “All right. If you insist, I won't say no.” He is very careful not to look at her right now. “Most of my seraphim don't eat much, if at all. You'll remember that Malachite is a vegetarian, so he's used to not eating right now, and most of the others are happy eating raw fish if necessary. Me, I'd rather not even see a fish for a while.”

She sticks her tongue out playfully; “They also have a good wine selection. I had a glass of their house specialty and I suspect you'll like it. It's very sweet. It's also pretty potent, so you'll want to be careful.”

“Indeed.” He looks very uncomfortable again. “I did say I'll join you, if you insist. No need to keep trying to convince me. However,” he looks down at himself and then out toward the harbor, “I do need to go collect some personal belongings from the ship and give some orders to the crew. Which inn are you at?”

“The White Flower.” She doesn't need to tell him any more than that; he knows the three major inns in Talys, so he'll know which one. “I'm on the top floor. Like I said, I splurged on a suite, in hopes that I'd see you from my room window.”

He nods crisply. “All right. You take care of adding me to your room registry so I don't get kicked out, and I'll go take care of my duties to my crew. Shouldn't be more than an hour or so. I hope.”

“I'll have one of my seraphim escort you up, if you like. Inky likes to loiter around outside and so he can let us know when you get there.”

It is early evening (as it is close to summer, the sun is still high in the sky and will not set for several more hours yet) and Rose is contentedly ensconced in a chair in her room, surrounded by seraphim. Out on the balcony, Sorcha is racked out in the wicker chair, his feet propped up on the railing, and from the faint snoring sounds coming from there, he's sound asleep. A half-finished glass of wine sits on the table next to his chair, forgotten about in his exhaustion.

Rose's own seraphim are lounging around the room (except for Inkitatus, who is downstairs and outside, where he will be until after sunset, when he conducts his nightly ritual of a nocturne, before coming home to roost inside his vessel for the night; Edna, who does not like crowds, has also decided to step outside; she says she's going to keep Inky company, but Rose knows better.) and several of Sorcha's are also manifest. The bird seraph Sigrun is perched out on the balcony railing, while Sorcha's main water seraph Siren is huddled under a blanket (she's always cold) near the fireplace. Lailah and Sorcha's two fire seraphim are gathered around the fireplace (or, in the fireplace, in Agni's case) talking.

Agni is dancing in the hearth as he usually does. Dancing and singing to himself. He is a tiny seraph, little more than a fire sprite. He is an odd addition to Sorcha's team, but his power in seraphic artes is peerless, and he enables Sorcha to cast excruciatingly powerful fire spells.

Corvex is a human-form fire seraph. His eyes are a remarkable shade of golden yellow, and the tips of his rosy hair flash bright red, especially when he moves quickly; it catches the sunlight with a brilliant flash. At the moment, he is alternating between talking with Lailah, and staring incredulously at Siren where she huddles under a blanket. For some reason, he seems astounded by how she is behaving.

Siren is an odd seraph who looks vaguely human, though her skin has a bluish tint to it, until she gets into the water. Then she looks like a human-fish hybrid. She does not have a fish tail; she has legs. But when she swims, she swims like a fish, and some have called her a “mermaid”. Also, like Inkitatus, she loves to sing. Right now, of course, she's not singing, because she's busy shivering and snapping irritably at her male allies when they get too close to her.

Sorcha's other wind seraph Collin (a young-looking seraph with moss-green highlights in his eyes and hair), and his void seraph Ariadne (small, dark and feisty, she is one of the most energetic of the seraphim on Sorcha's team), are clustered with Mikleo, discussing healing techniques; Ariadne is the main healer for Sorcha's team, but Collin is keen to learn, and Mikleo is something of a scholar on seraphic healing by now.

Malachite and the other water seraphim (six water seraphim! Shepherd Sorcha carries seven water seraphim with him right now! Siren is his only permanent one, though the seraphim are saying that Sorcha intends to make Ezekiel a permanent addition to his team, once his rehabilitation is complete) are still dormant in their vessel because they are being rehabilitated and Sorcha doesn't want them wandering when he and Malachite are both asleep.

Rose was surprised to learn, when the seraphim first came out to greet her and mingle with her partners, that Sorcha's other earth seraph has since been let go and is no longer a part of the team; Malachite is his only earth seraph right now. The way Siren explained it, it seems that disagreements with Malachite prompted the other seraph to ultimately decide to part ways with the team.

It sounds as though the parting was not bitter, however. It just seems as though the other earth seraph's tenure had run its course and the three (Shepherd, Prime Lord and Sub Lord) came to the mutual agreement to end their pact.

Rose closes her eyes for a long moment, enjoying the atmosphere. She likes being around seraphim; her own partners are very precious to her, but Sorcha's partners also add to the atmosphere, and it is very lively and invigorating.

Then she hears a slapping sound, and a grunt from Zaveid.

“I've warned you a thousand times, creep.” Siren's voice cuts the air.

“I wasn't doing anything! Goodness but you're jumpy!”

“Then what were your hands doing there? Do that again and I'll pound your damned face in. I don't mind giving Mikleo an actual injury to heal, you know. Malachite's not awake to stop me. I dare you to tempt me. I dare your Prime Lord to stop me.”

“Wow, and I'm not even weak to your element!” Zaveid taunts, before swirling off to give her some space.

Lailah just sighs. There's little she needs to say anymore, after so long together with her team. Rose just suppresses a grin. Taking a pull at her wine and savoring the sweet, crisp taste, she peels one eye open and looks over at the still shadow draped out on the balcony.

“Tell me more about that last drake fight,” she says to the seraph nearest her. “I saw there was some damage to the Dragonsbane, so it must have been a hell of a fight. I don't want to bother Sorcha, since he's clearly exhausted. But I'm curious about how that went down.”

The nearest seraph happens to be Corvex, and he blinks owlishly at her. “Well, uh, I wasn't involved in it, since, you know, weakness to water and all. But it was pretty bad. Honestly, we all thought we were fighting an actual dragon. It wasn't until the creature reverted under that purifying power, instead of dying, that we realized it was still a drake. Earthfall usually kills dragons, but this thing didn't die, it reverted. Looked like a beached fish on the deck of the ship. It was the weirdest thing for a moment.”

Rose has seen Malachite's armatized Mystic Arte, Earthfall, in action. It is a terrifying attack that makes Edna's Earth Revolution look like a lovetap in comparison. It has a weakness, of course: Earthfall is as powerful as a slab of bedrock, and that means that it has a rock's weakness to pinpoint strikes. By striking with a strong wind attack (like Zaveid's armatized Mytic Arte, Sylphystia) in the right place, Rose can cut the Earthfall in half and deflect it. But it's difficult to do and requires more precision than most enemies have. Dragons almost never have that. Almost.

Siren, burrowing under the blanket she's commandeered, pokes her head out briefly. “That drake was tricky because it wasn't behaving right. Now that we know who he really is, I guess it makes sense why it seemed to periodically stop fighting and just stare at us, and then get mad at itself.”

“Why's that?” Rose takes another sip of her wine. “Why does it make sense?”

“It's Zeke,” Siren says, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. “He must have recognized Sorcha and so he was conflicted.” (Siren has the unique distinction of being Sorcha's only water seraph who has never hellionized. She dislikes humans and has long avoided them, but she has never hellionized. She therefore speaks with an authority she doesn't really have, having never suffered thus.)

Rose frowns; “Considering how much time has passed, I'm surprised he did recognize him. Sorcha has grown a lot in the past twenty years that I've known him. He's almost as tall as Zaveid now, you know. He used to be shorter than me.”

Siren sticks her tongue out; “Obviously he still recognized him somehow, because when he was purified, the first thing he did was ask if Sorcha was his brother. I've never seen Sorcha look so stunned.”

By now, the conversation has drawn the other seraphim into range. Ariadne flops in enthusiastically, having abandoned her conversation with Mikleo; “It was so adorable, seeing them reunited. I just hope we can heal Zeke all the way, because that was a really, really close thing. But Siren, you're also not saying it right. He recognized Sorcha's name.”

“Ehn, same difference. He recognized him and asked if he was his brother. Or something. I don't know. You idiots forget that I'm always the bait so I wasn't exactly idle enough to sit back and watch! I don't have the luxury of recording what's going on.” She then pulls the blanket back over her head and huddles down, as if hiding from the others.

Corvex sighs; “Well, at least you get to see combat.”

The way Rose understands it, Sorcha has a huge team of Sub Lords, but only uses a few of them in combat for the most part. Malachite is the main seraph he uses all the time, due to water hellions being weak to earth attacks. Sigrun serves as his aerial scout, lending him her keen eyesight and a unique perspective from above. Siren, who swims faster than the fastest of dolphins, operates as an underwater scout as well as a lure for deep-sea monsters and dragons. Agni is only ever called upon to deal with wind hellions that sometimes interfere, because he can blast even wind drakes apart with a single armatized Mystic Arte. Ariadne is deployed in emergency situations for healing. As far as she knows, none of the other seraphim ever see combat.

The room falls oddly silent except for Agni still singing to himself in the hearth as he wriggles around happily. It dawns on Rose that he's singing a very inappropriate tavern ditty, and that he's describing women's body parts in a rather spectacularly crude manner, one that would make even Zaveid a little uncomfortable (in fact, Rose almost wants to look at her wind seraph to see if he's squirming yet).

Siren's hand darts out from under the blanket, pointing a finger at the hearth, and then a stream of water jettisons out and hits Agni square in the face. The fire sprite gurgles and hisses in alarm and stops singing immediately. Corvex dutifully rescues him, setting the sprite onto his shoulder and glaring at Siren as she retreats under her blanket again.

“Well,” Zaveid says after a moment, “that's one way to shut him up. Hell of a way to do it, Siren.”

“Like I give a...” Siren says before uttering an obscenity. It seems living with sailors has influenced her.

The conversation is spared from becoming any more awkward by the unexpected appearance of Sorcha in the doorway, rubbing his eyes sleepily. “Seems I'm a lot more tired than I thought I was. I guess I should just go to bed, shouldn't I?”

Without any noticeable commands, his seraphim start to retreat into their vessel. Corvex actually physically hands Agni to the Shepherd before going into his vessel, and Agni whines briefly before following suit. Within seconds, the only seraph left of Sorcha's is Siren, who is stubbornly hiding under her blanket.

Sorcha is looking at his hand that was holding Agni, which is wet from the water that dripped off.

“Siren, did you spray him again? You know he's not a cat.”

“He was singing that song he learned from the ship crew, about exploring sacred mountains and plowing the blessed valley.”

Abruptly, Sorcha's face blossoms with color. “Oh.” And then he utters an obscenity. He is very careful to not look at Rose for a while. “I wish he'd never heard that one. I really wish sailors weren't so damned crude. Anyway, Siren, I'd appreciate it if you just came back to me, so I can go to bed.”

“Ugh!” The seraph flops miserably on the sofa. “You don't trust me to not run off? When have I ever?”

“I sleep better knowing all of you are safely in place. You know that. It has bugger all to do with trust. Now, please, just… let me rest. You can come out tomorrow and mingle all you want.”

“You're a jerk,” Siren snaps, but complies, retreating into her vessel.

“Wow, Sorcha, how many of your seraphim act like they don't like you?” Zaveid inquires. “I know Siren's prickly and all, but...”

“Siren's exhausted and cranky, so she's lashing out. She does that. I've learned to just put up with it. And she has a reason to be annoyed with me; I've been using her and Malachite way too much lately. Malachite's none too thrilled with me right now for that reason.”

“Yeah, we saw that. He gave you a right royal earful earlier.”

“You'll notice I didn't fight him, yes? He's right, I'm an idiot who overuses his seraphim. I just...” Sorcha shrugs helplessly. “We just kept finding drakes, and I can't not quell one when I find it. You never know when it'll fully dragonize, and I'd rather save the seraph if I can. Plus, dragons tend to smash my ship up; drakes are easier to fight. But… I'm wearing my whole team out. That's why we had to come ashore, and we're going to stay ashore for just as long as I can afford to. I should arrange for releasing some of the others too, but that'll have to wait. I can barely see straight at this point.”

To Rose's substantial surprise, Sorcha begins to disrobe right there in front of her (Shameless as ever, he is!), though he fortunately doesn't remove his trousers. As he sets his boots, belt and sword scabbard in the corner by his bed, Rose notices something she hasn't seen before: a massive scar across his back. It looks like he was raked by gargantuan claws, and it must have been a heinous injury.

Mikleo apparently has noticed it as well; “Sorcha? Can I… May I see that scar on your back? It looks really awful.”

“Which one?” The tall Shepherd says without even looking at him. “I've got a fair few scars now.”

“I… think you must know which one I'm talking about. It looks bad enough that it must've hurt terribly, and I can't imagine how your spine didn't get broken in something that bad. How recent is that?”

There is a sudden, tense silence. Sorcha doesn't respond immediately, except to reach behind and brush his fingers across his back, right across the hideous scar in question.

“I'll give you a hint: the dragon who did this to me, damned near sank my ship. Siren still hasn't quite forgiven me for having to carry my ship on her back all the way to shore.”

That means he is talking about that fight just over a year ago with a massive and dangerous deep-sea dragon, a fight that tore giant holes in the Dragonsbane and also killed his Squire. Sorcha was in such a terrible state after that fight that he really didn't allow Rose to talk to him when she found him, and so Rose had to content herself with finding out what happened by talking to his seraphim, namely Siren and Ariadne (Malachite was gravely wounded in that fight as well, protecting his Shepherd). It was a traumatic fight, and none of the survivors like to recall it, even now, it seems.

Out of respect to how bad those memories must be, Rose signals to Mikleo to stand down and let the other Shepherd rest. “We can talk about this when you're not falling over with fatigue. I think I'm going to go out and take an evening stroll. You'll be okay on your own, of course?”

He smirks as he climbs into his bed; “Yes, Mother Rose. I'll be fine. I'm a big boy.” He makes a slightly suggestive gesture with his hands and then flops down and gets comfortable in the bedding.

Zaveid snickers and then bursts into outright guffaws at that. “Rose, my dear, you're blushing.”

“Shut up, Zaveid. Let him rest.” She seizes her wind seraph by the arm and drags him along with her toward the door.

Lailah and Mikleo follow behind them, and are silent as Rose drags her wind seraph all the way down the stairs and out the front door of the inn to the courtyard.

“Zaveid, I know you're not an idiot. You can see that he's uncomfortable. Please don't tease him about this. You can tease me if you must – to a point – but you're putting him in a difficult position by teasing him. It's not his fault, and we all know Malachite doesn't approve.”

A number of years ago, during their annual meet up to exchange news and to just spend time together as friends, Rose and Sorcha had a bit of an unfortunate romantic interlude… or rather, an alcohol-fueled mistake. They had been stranded together during a nasty storm and had hunkered down to ride out the storm together, sharing a bottle of potent whiskey between them.

With alcohol to loosen his tongue, Sorcha admitted to a deep attraction to her; he no longer viewed her as a big sister, and instead had very adult desires that centered on her. And Rose, with alcohol to addle her responses and inhibit her reservation, found herself physically craving things she shouldn't, and thus she allowed things to go a little too far.

Fortunately, they both came to their senses before things could go too far (at least, too far for Sorcha to be comfortable with; Rose honestly would not have minded if things had gone the whole way at the time. Sometimes a woman has needs, you know.) and so sex never actually happened between them, but ever since then, every now and then, Sorcha will become supremely uncomfortable around her for a little while. She can only assume it is him experiencing desire for her, desire he is ashamed of. When it subsides, things return to normal between them.

Rose does sometimes like to lowkey tease him (like earlier today, when she suggested they share a room, before she pointed out that her room has two beds), but she does it by teasing herself as much in the process; Zaveid ensures that. And she stops whenever it becomes clear that he's uncomfortable, because she doesn't want to upset him. It's not his fault he feels this way.

Everything is compounded by their Prime Lords' very different responses to the whole thing. Lailah, when Rose sat her down and talked to her about it, said that she does not mind if her Shepherd is romantically and sexually involved with another Shepherd, as long as both are consenting adults and know what they're getting into. Honestly, Lailah's biggest problem with what nearly happened in that cabin years ago wasn't that something nearly happened; it was that she felt Rose took advantage of Sorcha's affections without being honest about her own feelings.

Malachite, on the other hand, was furious about the whole thing. He does not approve of his Shepherd having any sort of romantic interaction with another Shepherd. Rose has never heard him say why he disapproves so much, only that he finds it to be wildly inappropriate.

Rose herself has no real regrets about what almost came to pass between her and her former Squire, because she now sees him as a grown man, and she is an aging woman who sometimes has needs. But she does regret that she may have unintentionally played with Sorcha's heart, and she has a slight fear that their mutual indiscretion may have driven a wedge between Sorcha and Malachite.

She shakes this off for now.

As she crosses the courtyard of the inn toward the benches near the street, she sees Inky nosing a flower bush. She smiles to herself. While her human-form seraphim eat meals with her, Inky does not. Seraphim do not need to eat in order to survive, but they do enjoy eating tasty dishes. Inky, being a horse, does not eat human food (though she has managed to get him to eat sugar treats before, but he will never seek them out) but he does sometimes eat flowers. Flowers. It amuses her so much that he eats flowers. He likes small ground-cover flowers like violets, but he will nibble on flower bushes too. (In fact, he teases her sometimes that he likes roses because of her, implying her name. She usually just punches him gently when he says that.)

She whistles softly, and his head shoots up abruptly. Looking over at her, he nickers a greeting and then trots over to her (his hooves, as usual, make no sound on the flagstone beneath them; his stealthy movement is nearly peerless) and nuzzles her affectionately. Notably, he doesn't ask any questions. Inky rarely talks much anymore. He can go entire weeks without actually speaking. He sings regularly (particularly in the evening. He celebrates each sunset with a nocturne dedicated to someone he loved centuries ago, but he also sings in the daytime when the mood strikes him) but he doesn't talk much anymore. However, his lack of talking is not a sign of displeasure; on the contrary, it is a sign of his contentment, that he doesn't need to voice his needs.

“He's a glutton today,” Edna says. “He's gorged himself on some of those flowers. Does he look fat to you? I think he's getting fat.”

“No,” Rose laughs, scrubbing her hands through Inky's silky mane, “he doesn't look fat. Are you getting fat on me, Inky?”

The stallion pins his ears back and shakes his head briskly, raising one hind hoof in a mild equine threat of kicking, but still does not speak. It is like a game sometimes; the others will try to goad him into speaking and he just finds nonverbal ways to communicate instead.

She finds a bench to sit upon and spends the next couple of hours through sunset watching the people pass by, happily conversing with whoever stops to chat with her, and generally enjoying an early-summer evening. Then, as the sun sets, Inky quietly takes himself off to conduct his evening ritual (he prefers to be alone when he sings his nocturnes; even though everyone can hear his song, he prefers to be physically isolated from any audience during the song) and so Rose waits on her bench, listening to the song. Then, as the daylight fades into full darkness, stars begin to shine overhead, and nearby lanterns are lit to illuminate roads for late-arriving visitors, Inky returns to her, nuzzles her, and then retreats into his vessel for the night.

After that, Rose and her other seraphim return to the inn, climb the stairs to the top floor, and return to the suite she rented. By the time she reaches the room, Lailah and Mikleo are the only seraphim manifest (Zaveid and Edna are tired and have already curled up in their vessel to sleep) and so they are surprised that when they walk into the room, Sorcha is not asleep as expected. Instead, he is propped up on his bed, with Agni on his shoulder (providing light), and is reading his copy of the Celestial Record.

When he was still her squire, Scout resisted learning how to read (he was mostly illiterate when Rose took him in) but did eventually submit to it. However, because he was nearly an adult when he finally allowed himself to learn to read, he has struggled with it ever since. Even now, he needs help with reading, and so it is no surprise that even though Sorcha looks like he's deep in the book in his hands, he has a seraph nearby to pronounce or explain something he doesn't recognize. She has seen it before; when he reads something, he has a seraph nearby so that he can point to a word or phrase he needs help with. It is the best way for him to handle his learning deficiency.

He looks up at her as she comes into the room, greeting her with a nod.

“I expected you to be sound asleep, even raising the roof with your snoring.”

“Excuse you,” he says with a faint smile, “you snore louder than I do. And I was asleep, but...”

There is movement out on the balcony, and then the doorway is full of an imposing figure; “That's my fault. I woke him, and he hasn't been able to get back to sleep.” It is Malachite, and he looks as melancholy as ever. “Every now and then, my nightmares wake him up, and this appears to have been one of them. My apologies.”

“You say that like I don't have nightmares of my own,” Sorcha retorts mildly. “It's fine. I don't have to get up early tomorrow, so I'll just get my sleep as I can. If there is a pressing emergency, I'm sure Rose can handle it.”

He snaps his book closed with a thump and sets it aside. Then, absurdly, he reaches up to where Agni is perched on his shoulder, and pats the little seraph on the head like he's petting a cat. To compound the absurdity, Agni hisses in displeasure (or embarrassment).

“My little buddy here,” Sorcha says affectionately, as Agni hisses again and then retreats into him, going dormant. Then he looks up at his Prime Lord, who is lingering by the door to the balcony. “Are you going to stay out all night or what?”

“I think it might be wiser if I stay awake for a while. Go ahead and go back to sleep. I won't go far, you know.”

Sorcha grumbles but obediently wriggles down into his bedding and pulls it up over himself. Malachite bends over him briefly and puts a hand on his head, possibly using seraphic artes to help speed his slumber. However, it also looks like he's tucking his Shepherd into bed.

“I'm going to go take a bath, so I'll leave you to whatever it is you do,” Rose announces, since a bath sounds really good right now, and the reason she rented this suite was because it has its own bathroom, with a copper bathtub.

“Of course, Shepherd Rose.” Malachite gestures for her to not worry about him.

Lailah and Mikleo assist her in filling and heating the bathtub, and then they retreat into her to allow her some privacy. She climbs in and relaxes into the hot water and suds, and takes her time washing up. A nice hot bath at the end of a day is one of her great pleasures in life now.

After a good long soak, enough for the water to go cold on her and the candles in the room to nearly gutter out, Rose gets out, drains the tub and wraps herself in a soft robe. Then she returns to the bedroom, which is pitch dark because all the lights are doused. Moving as quietly as she can so as not to wake Sorcha, she gets to her bed, turns it down and then climbs into it.

It takes her time to fall asleep, but she does soon enough succumb to the need for slumber.

She awakens the next morning to the sound of conversation. She is still half asleep and so she remains still in her bed, trying to shake off the remnants of a dream. Also, to not intrude on the conversation going on nearby.

“I hear you; I'll do what I can. But I can't just dump them at the side of the road. And I can't ask Rose to take them on.”

Malachite's response is bitingly sharp; “I wasn't suggesting that, you know. I've talked to each and every one of them. They're all worried about the residual taint from Zeke's long hellionization. You know what I really want to do, but I know you won't allow that.”

“Zeke is my responsibility. He's part of the reason I became a Shepherd. I--”

“Yes, Sorcha, we've been over this. I understand. I will rehabilitate him, but I need help doing it. I need to be able to focus on him. And that means reducing the strain on me. I'm sorry, but I need you to consider letting Corvex and Collin go as well. They don't benefit much from being with us, and the fewer seraphim I have to maintain pacts with, the better I can focus on rehabilitating Zeke.”

Sorcha sounds hurt when he speaks; “They're so young, Malachite. Are you sure? Collin's really little more than a baby. He's been trying so hard to learn healing so that he can take some pressure off Ariadne. It feels cruel to cut him loose now, when I'm not sure he's ready to be on his own.”

“We barely even need a wind seraph, Sorcha. Sigrun is far more wind seraph than we'll ever need, and you do need her. You shouldn't allow yourself to become a seraphic nursery. It's a terrible, terrible habit. I appreciate your commitment to seraphim, and I admire your desire to rehabilitate and educate all seraphim you can, but I have limits, and if Zeke means as much to you as he does, you have to make some changes. For now, if you can find a way to release the water seraphim we've been rehabilitating, I will do my best to make do with the other two along as well, but in the long run, we need to consider removing all other seraphim except the ones you plan to actually utilize.

“You can't get rid of me, of course, and you need Sigrun and Siren. Agni and Ariadne are also necessary, and you've made it clear that Zeke is especially important. Unfortunately, any other seraphim are only along for the ride and are ultimately – I hate to use this word, but it's true – a burden. Seraphim without an actual role in the team have no permanent place. I'm sorry, I know it's hard.”

There is a bit of a silence before Sorcha responds and his voice is soft, regretful; “You've warned me about that bad habit before. You warned me about that habit at the very beginning, didn't you?”

“I did, and many time since then, Shepherd of mine.” There is the sound of a faint smile in Malachite's voice. “I would call this your worst and most destructive trait. You have a compassionate spirit and a giant golden heart, and I admire your desire to make the world a better place. I do. The problem is that you continuously forget that I have my limits. I have served many Shepherds in the past, and you do stand out as one of the most compassionate and empathetic. Some of the Shepherds I have served have had worse habits than you can imagine. Your bad habit is tame compared to theirs, but it is still dangerous and destructive in its own way. I really need you to start remembering my limits.”

“I just wish you'd hold me accountable a lot sooner than this. It doesn't help when you go along with things until you're at your breaking point. I can't babysit you, Malachite.”

A brief silence again, and then Malachite's voice is soft, almost unbearably tender; “A terrible habit of mine, I admit. You're right, I should be more aware of my limits too. I do forget or underestimate my own limits. But remember this, Sorcha: you can't take this burden from me and carry it yourself. I know you want to. I know how strong you are, and if it was possible, I believe you could do it. But these pacts are my burden, not yours. You are merely the vessel; I am the vehicle by which it is all conducted. I took this burden on willingly, but it is still my burden to bear. You and I are a lot more similar than I sometimes want to admit. I need you to watch out for me, Shepherd of mine.”

“I'm sorry. I know I'm terrible at this.”

“You're not terrible. You're just forgetful. You need to get better at it. And I need to get better too, I know that. We need to prop each other up, not blame each other for things. You and I are in this together, for better or for worse.”

Sorcha heaves a sigh that is remarkably loud; “All right, so we'll release the five water seraphim, and consider Corvex and Collin at a later time. I feel bad letting them go, since I promised to teach Collin the ways of the world, and Corvex has nowhere to go. I just...” His voice hesitates. “I really wish I could take them to Elysia. They'd be safe there and could rehabilitate, or learn, in peace and at their own pace. But there's no way I can be away from the Dragonsbane that long.”

“You could arrange an escort.”

“An escort?” Sorcha laughs ironically at that. “Who? You're not suggesting I ask Rose to escort five water seraphim and two baby seraph tagalongs all the way to Elysia, are you?”

“Rose isn't the only other Shepherd of Glenwood. There is another, you know. He might be able to help. Both Rose and Geoffrey have seraphim in their parties who originally hail from Elysia.” His voice changes; “It's just a suggestion, Sorcha. Don't get so upset.”

“I already owe Rose more than I can ever repay for all she's done for me. You can't be serious. That's asking far too much of her and Geoffrey, for them to clean up my mess for me. And don't go on about the fact that I've quelled more drakes and slain more dragons than either of them. That doesn't change that it is my responsibility to care for seraphim I've taken on, not theirs.”

Rose wonders why they're having this conversation so near her. Surely one of them must realize that she can hear them (do they both think she's sleeping so deeply she isn't hearing this? And even if she's asleep, if any of her seraphim are awake, they can hear through her senses, so she can still find out) and so she wonders briefly if this is being held in this manner, right here, for that reason.

'Yes.' That voice is Mikleo's. 'I'm pretty sure that's what Malachite is doing. He wants you to know his plan but he doesn't want to make Sorcha feel forced into something because you witnessed or overheard it.'

Before Rose can come to a decision about what she is going to do, the room is filled with the loud screeching of a sea bird. It's Sigrun, perched on the balcony railing (and the balcony door is open) flapping her wings and crowing. She doesn't speak in human tongue, but can communicate telepathically with her Shepherd and Prime Lord (she can communicate with anyone with resonance, but is very, very shy; Rose has only heard her voice twice) and also screeches like the sea bird she is.

Startled by the noise, and using it as an excuse to be awake, Rose flails in her bed and sits up, rubbing her face in confusion; “What on earth is the racket?”

“Sorry about that, Rose,” Sorcha says, having gotten up and gone out to where Sigrun is perched, reaching out to her. “What's the matter Sigrun?”

The only thing Rose hears is the word “Cloak” briefly, before Sorcha and Malachite have effectively shut her out of Sigrun's communication. However, before she has any time to decide if she's annoyed at being shut out when she's right there, or impressed that she heard anything at all, Sorcha turns around and faces her.

“She says she just saw a Shepherd's Cloak out on the wharf.”

There are four Shepherd's Cloaks in existence as far as Rose knows. Her own, of course, is hanging in the wardrobe. Sorcha's, which is tattered and needs repairs, is laying across a rucksack on the other side of the room, clearly visible.

The third one she can think of belongs to her predecessor and went with him into hibernation, so it's very unlikely his.

This means the cloak Sigrun just saw must belong to her successor, her former Squire who a little over a year ago contracted with a wind seraph Prime Lord and became Glenwood's third active Shepherd.

“Geoffrey! He's here already!”

She discovered Geoffrey a number of years ago, surrounded by hellions drawn in by his and his daughter's grief. His wife and son had both just died of a terrible illness, and he was doing his best to protect his young daughter, who was all he had left. The two of them were being overwhelmed by hellions when Rose and her seraphim arrived to put things to rights.

Sadly, Geoffrey's daughter did not survive the encounter in the end. Mikleo managed to keep her alive until they reached a proper healer, but she died shortly thereafter.

Because of his heavy losses and his acute survivor's guilt, Geoffrey was a lost soul after his daughter's death, and so Rose took him in. She learned very quickly that he had higher resonance than he'd let on at first, so she made him her Squire properly, and in the end, he proved to be the most competent Squire she'd ever had. For five years he served as her Squire (not as long as Scout, to be fair, but he was far more competent as a Squire and required little teaching, other than learning how to fight with seraphic partners) until at last they found a seraph capable of becoming a Prime Lord for him.

Geoffrey is older than Sorcha but younger than Rose, and has been something of a scholar, in a sense, before becoming a Squire and then Shepherd. He is an extremely intelligent, well-read and learned man, far less suited to violence and combat. He took years to learn how to fight properly, and is far more suited to seraphic artes than martial artes like Sorcha is, but he is still a potent Shepherd now that he has found his strengths. Rose has every confidence that he is serving Glenwood as well as she and Sorcha are.

Rose still finds herself missing Geoffrey, because she came to rely on him so much during his Squireship. The prospect of seeing him and his team (hopefully he has added a new seraph or two to his roster) fills her with even more delight than the excitement of seeing Sorcha did.

(In a tiny part of herself, she feels slightly guilty that she has these feelings, especially given what she knows about how Sorcha feels about her, but her affection for Geoffrey is entirely platonic, out of respect for his still-substantial grief for his lost family. Her feelings toward Sorcha are a great deal more complicated, and she does her best to not think too much about any of it.)

Scrambling out of her bedding, she reaches for her clothing without even thinking of it. “Let's go say hello to him, Sorcha.”

“Y-Yes, that'd be… a great idea… Excuse me while I go use the lavatory.” He makes a hasty retreat into the bathroom. The manner of his speech and abrupt departure betrays that he was having Thoughts, and her decision to start getting dressed right in front of him has flustered him.

(Malachite has an absurdly confused look on his face. Surely he knows what's going on, but he's clearly playing dumb at the moment.)

“Sorry,” she says, knocking on the bathroom door to let Sorcha know she's right there, “I didn't mean to do that right in front of you. But let's go meet up with him. I'm eager to hear how he's been getting on and I'd really like you to come with me.”

“Yes,” he says through the door, “I understand that, but I'm not coming out until you're dressed, Rose. You'll just have to forgive me if I'm a little uncomfortable with the alternative. Make it snappy if you're in a hurry. I promise, it won't take me long to get dressed and I can do it while you use this bathroom.”

Laughing, she agrees to this and finishes dressing herself, then knocking on the door. “Time to change places. I'm going to brush and rinse my teeth so you can get dressed. Then we need to go catch up to Geoffrey.”

He pulls open the door and greets her with a sardonic smile; “About time. Women, I swear. You take forever to get ready for something.”

She punches him lightly in the gut; “Don't talk to me like I'm your wife. Now move, you giant monster. I have teeth to brush and you have clothes to put on.”

They switch places, and she proceeds to cleanse her mouth out, brushing and rinsing multiple times to give him plenty of time. When she finally finishes and steps out, he is fully dressed and is combing his hair before the mirror (she notes that he has cleaned up and trimmed his beard too, hopefully while he was hiding in the bathroom, though she didn't notice it when he came out and she went in). Malachite, still manifest, is standing beside him, smoothing the Shepherd's Cloak across his shoulders.

“This needs some repairs I can't make, Sorcha.”

“I know. I'm not sure who to ask, but I'll get around to it. We're going to be ashore for a while, I'm sure there's a tailor here that can clean it up.” Then he spies her in the mirror and grins through the beard; “Is it time to leave already?”

“I'm ready to go.” She grabs her cloak and swings it up over her shoulders, carefully clipping it into place. As she does this, Zaveid and Lailah pop out of her. They are both grinning with excitement. Her entire team loves Geoffrey and will be glad to see him.

Because he's a showoff, Zaveid insists on vaulting off the balcony rather than taking the stairs, but Rose and Sorcha, along with their Prime Lords, choose the safe way to the ground. Once outside, Inky manifests himself and sets off for his morning exercise constitutional, which he loves to do.

The walk to the wharf is brisk and energizing. Rose is heartened by all the people who enthusiastically greet them, and Sorcha manages to avoid being waylaid by admirers. As they come close to the wharf, Rose spies the bright white of Geoffrey's cloak. It is trimmed in blue, like Rose's, and is fluttering in the sea breeze. He is standing by the railing and looking out at the bay; he is probably searching for the Dragonsbane, which Rose realizes belatedly is not where she last saw it docked.

“Sorcha, I don't want to alarm you, but your ship isn't where you left it.”

“I know that,” he chuckles. “They moved her overnight. She needs some repairs, so they moved her to another dock where she can get those repairs. No sense taking up prime real estate in the harbor for a ship that's going to be docked for a while. She's over there.” He gestures off to the left.

By now, they are close to the wharf, and the figure standing there, looking out over the harbor. Then Sigrun, airborne above them, cries out her bone-rattling bird cry, and Geoffrey turns around, looking up to where she's calling. He spies the two approaching Shepherds, and both arms come up, waving enthusiastically.

Rose breaks into a swift trot (not quite a run, she's not quite physically up for that, but a quick trot she can do) and upon reaching his location, throws herself into his welcoming arms and hugs him joyously. Seeing his big, toothy smile makes her feel as good as she did seeing Sorcha yesterday.

“I kind of want to be jealous that you didn't throw yourself at me like that,” Sorcha says dryly as he greets Geoffrey. (Geoffrey hugs him despite Sorcha being not as enthusiastically affectionate with him. Geoffrey likes to greet everyone with a hug, and Sorcha is clearly just going along with it to be polite.)

“I didn't have to,” Rose retorts. “You threw yourself at me and then swung me around like a sack of potatoes! Don't you remember? We almost knocked Malachite off the pier!”

“I think you may be remembering things a bit wrong,” Malachite says quietly, but he is smiling. “It was not me that was in danger of being knocked of the pier. It was your own Prime Lord. A terrible shame that would have been. Waterlogged fire seraphim are not a pretty sight.”

“Oh hush, you!” Lailah says, blushing.

By now, Geoffrey has called his entire team out. Rose is slightly disappointed to see that he has no new seraphim for her to meet; just his Prime Lord Aeolia, his earth seraph Stonegard, and a lightning seraph (technically a void seraph, but unlike Inky, who has no elemental ability, this one manipulates electrical currents) who used to live in Elysia, named Corsaro.

Sorcha allows most of his team out, including almost all of his water seraphim (except for Zeke) though Agni apparently is not interested in coming out, as he never appears. Geoffrey takes a step back when he sees the size of Sorcha's team, and murmurs; “That's a lot of seraphim. Are you all right, Sorcha? That must be very taxing. I only have three and sometimes it's almost too much for me.”

Corsaro grins at that; “We're difficult for you because Stonegard and I keep getting you into hellion fights you don't want to have because you forget that you're a Shepherd and not a scholar!”

Geoffrey asks to see the Dragonsbane up close, since he has a scholastic interest in ships and hasn't seen the ship in a while, and so as a group, the three Shepherds and their collection of seraphim move off in that direction. The three Prime Lords cluster together at the back of the pack, talking among themselves.

“What inn are you staying at?” Geoffrey asks as they walk. “We got in late last night so we just grabbed a room at the inn at the edge of town, but it's a little crowded and Aeolia didn't like the place, so we left as soon as the sun came up.”

“We're staying at the White Flower. I'd offer to let you room with me too, but the suite only has two beds, so you boys would have to double up and I imagine Sorcha takes up a lot of space in the bed.” She grins at both of them. “Sorry, Geoffrey. Sorcha got the offer first. It's not fair of me to kick him out for you.”

“No worries, I can probably arrange for a room there, assuming they have space. I'll look into it.”

They arrive at the far pier where the Dragonsbane is now docked. Its sails are all furled and tucked away, and the anchored and tethered ship is riding on the waves, not hoisted out of the water, but there is already the sound of hammering. Standing by the ship's hull, Sorcha whistles sharply, and a rope ladder is flung over the side and down to them.

At first Rose hesitates to climb the ladder; she's not a huge fan of ships, and she's still not feeling in absolute perfect health, but after the two other Shepherds climb the ladder quickly to the deck of the ship, and with Zaveid giving her an upward momentum boost, she follows them up the ladder to the deck of the Dragonsbane, where the ship's crew are busily scurrying around.

Sorcha is pulled away from the others by his crew, tasked with overseeing something in the repairs. Malachite takes advantage of his absence by motioning the two other Shepherds and their Prime Lords together.

“I am going to ask you this, because Sorcha is afraid to. You know full well how deep his pride can run, and so he just cannot bring himself to ask this yet. We are going to be releasing several of the Sub Lords, the water seraphim who are being rehabilitated and two young seraphim who are not benefiting from being with us. We are doing this because he and I are both idiots who take on too much work for ourselves. Sorcha would like to see the seraphim go to Elysia, where they can complete their rehabilitation or education in peace, but we cannot make the journey ourselves. I would like to ask either, or both, of you to escort them to Elysia. You know the way.”

Geoffrey's eyes light up and he looks at his Prime Lord immediately. She smiles at him and nods in acceptance, and he turns to Rose. “I would be delighted to do this, but I'm a little afraid to do it by myself. Would you be willing to give me a hand, Rose? That's a lot of seraphim for me to escort when I don't have a full team and I'm not great in combat. I'd feel much better if you were along with me, to help out if we get into a scrap, and to help keep everyone in line.”

Rose considers this, looking to Lailah for any objections; her beloved Prime Lord just smiles serenely back at her, offering nothing but her blessing, and so after only a brief consideration, the Shepherd nods. “I think that's fair. This will be your mission, since you accepted it, but I'll help you out. Sounds to me like Sorcha needs a break. I could hear you talking with him this morning, Malachite.”

“I was counting on that,” the old seraph says with a shadow of a smile on his face. “Apologies for the apparent deception. It was the only way I was going to get Sorcha to open up like that. He gets stupidly stubborn about asking for help from you in particular.” There is a moment where his expression becomes very cold and judgmental, but he corrects himself immediately and even looks contrite.

In the meantime, Corsaro and Mikleo get into a brief conversation about Elysia while they wait for Sorcha to be done with his duties to his ship crew.

Both seraphim grew up in Elysia under the firm but gentle guidance of Zenrus, at different times. Corsaro is a fair few years older than Mikleo, and is a nature-formed seraph (versus a human-born seraph like Mikleo), but he was away from Elysia on a journey at the time that Sorey and Mikleo departed the village on their fateful mission. He returned to Elysia after the defeat of the Lord of Calamity to find his home in ruins and spent a few decades helping it to rebuild. He took an instant liking to Geoffrey when they met, and so when Geoffrey became a Shepherd, he returned to Elysia and convinced Corsaro to come with him as a Sub Lord.

As for Geoffrey's other Sub Lord Stonegard, he isn't originally from Elysia, but he and Corsaro go way back, and he spent a lot of time there in the past couple of decades. They bonded during their adventuring, and so when Corsaro agreed to make a pact with the new Shepherd, Stonegard decided to go with him as well, to stay with his best friend (and to see what a Shepherd journey is like).

A powerful wave rolls in and the ship sways, causing Rose to lose her balance and cling to the nearby railing. “I think I want to get back to the pier. I don't like ships. Geoffrey, are you staying?”

“I think I will stay until Sorcha's done, yes. I'll discuss the details of escorting his seraphim.” He is grinning at her and makes a playful shooing motion. “Go ahead, Rose. We'll catch you up.”

Rose really wishes she could argue, but her stomach is starting to flip as another wave swell causes the entire ship to shake violently and creak loudly. She does not like it here. With help from her seraphim (namely Mikleo using some healing artes to steady her internally, and Zaveid's physical strength to steady her externally) she hurries down the rope ladder before nausea can make her do something disgusting.

As her feet touch the boards of the pier, she sighs with relief. Almost immediately, however, her leg buckles and she nearly tumbles to the dock; she is caught and steadied by Zaveid's gentle hand.

“You sure you're okay, Rose?” He looks at her with concern. “You have been pushing yourself pretty hard lately, I think.”

“Oh quiet, you know how easily I get seasick.”

“Uh-huh,” he says, unconvinced, and maintains his position next to her as her other seraphim manifest and gather around her. Inky has finished his morning gallop and is now trotting toward them, his hide gleaming beautifully in the morning sunlight. The stallion nuzzles her as he arrives, and flicks his ears around in inquiry.

Because the seraphim have a little game going between them to try and get Inky to talk when he is determined to not, the other seraphim all just silently stand there and wait, and finally Inky relents, sighing loudly in resignation.

'Where's Geoffrey?' (He doesn't bother to ask about Sorcha, of course, because they're standing beside the Dragonsbane, and Sigrun can be seen in the air overhead.)

“He stayed on the ship to talk with Sorcha. I had to get off; the thing was making me seasick.”

Inky's ears flop sideways in a telltale gesture of concern. 'Rose, you have not been well for a while. I wish you would let me carry you more often.'

She frowns at him and then looks around at her other seraphim; “Okay, we're not going to discuss this anymore. I don't want Geoffrey or Sorcha knowing about how sick I was over the winter, okay? You know how Sorcha gets, and Geoffrey worries more than he needs to. Come, let's get off this dock. The boys will be done soon enough and I guarantee you, Sorcha can find us easily wherever we go.”

Up on the deck of the Dragonsbane, Geoffrey waits patiently for Sorcha to finish his business with the crew. His Prime Lord is perched on the railing, surveying the water and enjoying the sea breeze. Stonegard and Corsaro are nearby, within sight, but eagerly investigating the ship's layout. Stonegard's childlike glee at being on a ship tempers Corsaro's apprehension at being around moving water. His seraphim are all older than he is, but he still sometimes feels like a father in this oddball family, and it is comforting. His seraphim (and Rose's) have been instrumental in healing his broken heart.

He still misses Elizabeth and the children – misses them terribly, and dreams of them regularly – but he comforts himself with knowing that he is making a difference in the world now.

The ship rolls and bucks in the waves beneath them, and he has to steady himself against the railing. No wonder Rose couldn't stay here.

After a fair amount of time, Sorcha concludes his business and returns. Geoffrey is focused on watching the water on the horizon, but when he hears boot steps and feels a seraphic presence, he turns to see Sorcha approaching him, his mantle fluttering in the sea breeze.

“Couldn't handle the movement, could she?” The taller Shepherd says with a grin. “She never did like being on a ship, as I can recall. But I'm done here, so we can head back to shore and rejoin her. I just had to authorize some repairs, since I'm the one paying for them.”

“Makes sense,” Geoffrey says. “Before we go, though, I thought I'd talk with you real quick. Your Prime Lord indicated you need some escort services for some of your seraphim, that you want to take them to Elysia. I'm more than happy to escort them there for you if you'd like.”

To his surprise, Sorcha looks furious for a moment; “Malachite, I said I would handle this, didn't I?”

The old earth seraph doesn't even flinch; “The opportunity presented itself and so I took it. Geoffrey seems eager to help us. Perhaps instead of getting angry with me because I did what you couldn't, you should just accept the offer of help.”

Geoffrey knows that Sorcha is a very proud man who doesn't like to ask for help. He spent a large portion of his youth alone and unwanted, learning to rely only on himself, and it took many years for Rose to teach him to trust and rely on others. He has been self-sufficient for years now and despises seeming to be helpless or in need of assistance.

Sorcha then looks at him; “You don't have to do this, Geoffrey.”

“No, but I want to. It gives me an excellent excuse to go to Elysia again. And anything I can do to help with the restoration of former drakes, I am eager to do, even if it's just helping seraphim get to a place where they can be rehabilitated. I am not good enough to quell dragonizing hellions, but I can help out in other ways. I just want you to know that.”

“I want to be clear about something,” Sorcha says. “We're talking about you, with three seraphim to your team, escorting seven defenseless and fragile seraphim. Five water seraphim who have hellionized before, and two very young seraphim who have never even been deployed in combat. That's a tall order to ask of you.”

“I realize that. That's why Rose is going to help me. She told me that it's my mission but she'll assist me. You don't need to worry, Sorcha. Now, shall we get back? I'm sure she's getting impatient by now.”

“I'm going to need to get something to eat, too,” Sorcha says. “Rose dragged me out of there before we could get breakfast, because Sigrun saw you. Now that we're done, my stomach is letting me know just how upset with me it is that I haven't put anything in it.”

“Allow me to treat you.”

“Absolutely not!” The bigger Shepherd puts his hands on his hips. “You're going to do me a huge favor as it is. I'll be treating you, not the other way around. I am not destitute, you know. We're standing on my ship, after all.”

“All right, I'll let you treat me this one time,” Geoffrey laughs. “Let's go.”

They make their way down the ladder to the pier and proceed up the wharf to the bench where Rose is sitting, with Inky standing beside her.

She smiles brightly at them. “Are you boys done with your business? Can we go get something to eat? I'm afraid I'm famished now. We rushed out here to meet up with you, and now I'm feeling how empty my stomach is.”

“I think that makes three of us,” Geoffrey says with a big smile. “Sorcha has insisted on it being his treat. Correct? Or am I mistaken?” He is careful not to put Sorcha in a bad position.

“I don't see how you can be mistaken, I said it very clearly that it's my treat,” Sorcha retorts. “All of our seraphim can attest to the fact that I said it, and I meant it. C'mon, let's get something before my stomach starts making noises loud enough to wake the dead.”

As Sorcha starts in the direction of the food cart stands further inland, Geoffrey plays the gentleman to Rose by offering her his arm as she stands up. She glares at him.

“I'm not a weakling, Geoffrey.”

“I think you fundamentally misunderstand my intentions, milady.” He bites his tongue against mentioning that he visited the Diphda estate on his way here and heard that she spent several months there over the winter, recovering from an infection in her lungs. Lady Alisha expressed concern to Geoffrey over Shepherd Rose's condition when she last saw her, and so Geoffrey has been low-key worrying about his mentor as well. It is good to see her right now, but he still can't shake his worry entirely.

Nevertheless, she moves with her usual grace and energy, and Inkitatus greets him with a headbutt and then nuzzles him while nickering.

Although he loves his seraphic partners dearly and would never give them up for even a second, there are times when Geoffrey misses working with the seraphim from Rose's team; her team is far more combat-oriented than his is (meaning he feels safer with them in combat), and most of her seraphim are far more powerful. Zaveid's combat prowess completely overwhelms Aeolia's wind powers, and Stonegard's defenses are a great deal less solid than Edna's. Inkitatus is the linchpin in everything, too, because he has the ability to amplify his team's strengths. The one time Geoffrey tried to go toe-to-toe with Rose using armatus, shortly after contracting with his seraphim, he used Aeolia's armatus against Rose armatized with Edna, and despite having the elemental advantage on them, he and Aeolia were unable to penetrate Edna's defenses. It was only later that he realized that Inkitatus had been providing passive amplification buffs to Rose and Edna at the time, because that's just what Inky does in combat.

As they catch up to Sorcha, who is looking mildly impatient at their dawdling, Geoffrey has a momentary instance of remembered pain, a reliving of distant loss, as he thinks of his lost son, who would have thought it so cool to see a Shepherd like Sorcha standing in front of him, looking so imposing and regal in the morning sunlight. These momentary resurgences of his survivor's guilt and his deeply buried grief are rare and mercifully brief, but for just a moment, he lets himself feel his loss again, and it brings a tear to his eyes.

'Are you all right, Geoff?' Stonegard's voice rings in his mind, and he feels a wash of affection from his partners, like three pairs of invisible arms encircling him and squeezing the pain away.

'Of course I am. Just a moment there, is all.'

Geoffrey is able to rent a room at the White Flower, on the same floor as Rose and Sorcha's suite, and so they will be able to spend a fair amount of time together for as long as they are all in port. As the sun begins to set and they settle around in chairs in the suite, wineglasses in hand, the topic of conversation turns to the escort mission Sorcha needs of his fellow Shepherds and how it will be done.

The seven seraphim will remain contracted with Sorcha until Geoffrey has procured clean vessels for them all. This is to protect them from any residual malevolence they may encounter (and gives Sorcha time to come to terms with parting with those he's reluctant to release). Although they likely would be safe enough if released early, it is for everyone's peace of mind that they remain bound in pact to Malachite, who can continue to monitor their rehabilitation. Geoffrey is eager to scour the surrounding area for some small trinkets or objects that seraphim can each use as temporary vessels (he is very good at this), and promises to be as quick as possible about it.

Once things are figured out completely, they turn the conversation to more relaxed topics.

“Oh, hey, Geoffrey, have you done any of the Shrine trials yet?” Rose asks, as it dawns on her that she doesn't know if her former Squire has powered up either of his elemental seraphim yet. Her memories of those four shrines are fuzzy at best (since she didn't have to do them herself; she inherited those upgrades, along with the full pact with Lailah, from her predecessor Sorey).

“Morgause, the Earth trial, yes. We found Guinevere and attempted it, but… well, we didn't do so well.” He ducks his head sheepishly, and Stonegard rolls his eyes. “I can't very well do the other two right now, since I don't have the right seraphim to receive the blessing of the shrines.”

Sorcha is grinning now. “Is this an appropriate time to boast about how Malachite got me through all four of them pretty much on his own?” He gestures at Rose and Lailah, his dark eyes flashing with amusement. “Lailah, I love you, you're wonderful, but you ain't got nothin' on my Malachite!”

“You lying sack of shit!” Siren retorts, folding her arms defiantly. “I got us through the fire shrine, and Agni is the reason you passed the wind shrine! Malachite couldn't do jack there!”

Laughter all around, as several seraphim corroborate Siren's account over Sorcha's. Malachite is the only one who refuses to speak against his Shepherd's “mistaken” account. It is all in good fun anyway.

As the night progresses and they get deeper and deeper into the bottle of very sweet (but very potent) wine, Geoffrey, who has a very poor tolerance of alcohol, becomes quiet and withdrawn. After three glasses, Aeolia stops him from refilling his glass, and he just sits there, looking broody and sullen.

Setting his glass aside for the moment, a pleasantly-inebriated Sorcha grins across at Geoffrey; “I think you need to go to bed and sleep it off, friend. You look very tired.”

“'m not tired,” the newest Shepherd murmurs, slurring slightly, “'m drunk. Rose, that stuff is too powerful.” He manages to get the words out without screwing them up, but it's a clearly a struggle.

Rose's experience with both of her Squires-turned-Shepherds when it comes to alcohol is that Sorcha becomes a happy, singing drunk (until he reaches a threshold, at which point he becomes silly and unstable on his feet. He rarely is aggressive, angry or sad when drunk) while Geoffrey becomes a very sad, withdrawn drunk.

Rose knows that she herself is an obnoxious drunk, so she is careful to not drink as much as she seems (she actually gives some of her wine to Zaveid, who has a much higher tolerance than she does) and so when she sees that both of the men with her are now completely drunk, she puts the stopper in the bottle (there's still a good portion left; it really is very powerful) and asks Mikleo to set it aside somewhere.

“You're going to snore tonight, aren't you?” She asks Sorcha and grins when he glares at her.

“Not as loud as you do, old hag,” he retorts. “But just for that, I'll make sure I snore for you.”

Geoffrey's team are helping him to get up; Aeolia and Stonegard support each arm as he stands up and wobbles, and Corsaro pulls Mikleo aside for some last-minute advice avoiding a terrible hangover. Rose hears Mikleo tartly remind his old friend that the best way for humans to avoid hangovers is to drink lots of water while their bodies detox. “Just make sure he drinks at least two or three liters of water, at a minimum, between now and the morning, and he should be able to avoid the worst of a hangover. That's what I do for Rose.”

Ultimately, Mikleo chooses to help Corsaro and the others to get Geoffrey to his room and settled, so he steps out for a bit.

As the room clears out (most of Sorcha's team have gone inside their vessel for the night, so now only Malachite and Zeke are manifest), Rose grins at her Prime Lord; “I guess I kind of screwed up, didn't I? Why'd you let me do that, Lailah?”

Lailah is having none of it. “You're an adult, Rose, and I let you make your own mistakes, as long as they don't compromise your Shepherdhood.”

As Zaveid finishes off Rose's glass (with her permission, of course), Malachite folds his arms and glares at them. “That's cheating, Zaveid. Rose, don't think I didn't see you giving him more than half of your wine, so you look like you're drinking more than you are.”

“You're just mad you didn't think of it to protect your Shepherd from getting drunk!” Zaveid grins.

“It's a defense mechanism,” Rose says serenely, and manages to suppress a grin at Malachite's mild outrage. “It's a habit, Malachite. When you're the only Shepherd around, you get a lot of people trying to manipulate you, however they can, and social drinking has a strict structure. People try to ply me with alcohol to get me to do things for them, and they get upset if I don't drink enough. I started having Zaveid help me out due to his high alcohol tolerance, and the fact that he's harmless when drunk. It's become a habit now. I didn't mean anything insulting by it, but it's a habit – whenever I drink, I give some of it to Zaveid.”

“Harmless, huh?” Malachite raises an eyebrow at her wind seraph. “Didn't you try to fistfight a dragon when drunk?”

“Wrong on three counts there, sport,” Zaveid laughs. “It wasn’t a real fight, it was Eizen when he wasn't a dragon yet, and I wasn't drunk. He was, but I wasn't.”

“Knowing you, you tried to fistfight him because you'd misplaced your pendulums while drunk.”

To everyone's surprise, the one who comes to Zaveid's defense is Edna, of all people. “Don't act like your fighting style is any more noble, Malachite. You're both brawlers. You don't even use a weapon. And I don't recall you trying to help put Eizen to rest.”

Hearing Eizen's name, Sorcha intervenes by shushing Malachite before he can respond; “I think that's enough arguing. I don't know what you're so upset about, Mal, what they did is no different from what I do with Ariadne.”

“What Ariadne does is entirely, completely different, but I'll take your point if you're not offended. Zeke, do me a favor.”

The water seraph who is situated on the floor next to Sorcha's chair, watching everything going on around them, perks up. “Yes?”

“Go in to the water closet there, get the drinking glass, and fill it with water from the faucet. Sorcha needs to drink a lot of water tonight or he'll wake up in a dreadful state, and I'd rather not ask Ariadne to detox him if we can just dilute it.”

Zeke leaps to his feet eagerly and attends to the task with gusto. As he disappears into the bathroom to do the chore assigned to him, Rose looks at Malachite; “So what does Ariadne do for you guys in this context?”

“She detoxifies Sorcha if he drinks too much and needs to focus. It's hard on her, though, so we don't like to do it unless it's really important. We've only had to do it a few times, for the very reason you claim to use Zaveid. That social drinking thing isn't restricted to land-based Shepherds, you know. However, I don't let him ask Ariadne to do it if he got drunk like this, because he's an idiot. Now, you idiot,” he turns to his Shepherd, and his affectionate tone of voice takes some of the bite out of the name-calling, “are you too drunk to go to bed on your own? Do you need me to carry you?”

“Nah, fuck that,” Sorcha says, spitting the obscenity out so easily it's startling. “I can walk just fine. I'm not that far gone. Just pleasantly buzzed.”

“Yes, and I have wings and a long tail. Come along, let's get you into bed. You need to drink a lot of water and then sleep this off, and then tomorrow I'm going to beat some sense back into you. You need it.”

As Sorcha stands up with Malachite's help, he nods; “Yes, I think we need to spar again. I've been idle a little too long.”

Rose watches with interest as Malachite proceeds to herd his Shepherd toward his bed, and Zeke effectively forces him to drink two tall glasses of water before he is allowed to lay down and get comfortable in the bed. When done, Zeke retreats into his vessel, and Malachite plays nursemaid, tucking Sorcha in like a small child – despite the Shepherd's protests – and then when he is settled, the seraph uses some seraphic artes to put him to sleep quickly. Rose decides to take a quick bath, to give her roommate time to settle into sleep.

When she comes out, ready to climb into her own bed, she notices that Malachite is still manifest, watching quietly over the silent room. Sorcha is clearly sound asleep; he is snoring softly. (He doesn't snore loudly, but he does snore, especially when drunk.) This seems like a good opportunity.

“Malachite, before I turn in for the night, I have a question for you. You're free to not answer if it bothers you, but…”

He looks at her and quirks an eyebrow in invitation.

“In the past, Sorcha and I had a… shall we call it, an indiscretion. I was wondering if my indiscretion with him has tarnished your relationship with him. You seem to argue with him a lot, and it makes me worry.”

“Indiscretion?” Malachite repeats the word incredulously. “An odd description. And to answer your question, it has only damaged my opinion of you.” He says it so frankly that it takes her aback momentarily. “You needn't worry about my bond with my Shepherd.”

“Guess I can't ask for much more than that, can I?” She says, a trifle awkwardly. Her seraphim are very quiet in the whole conversation; even Zaveid does not barge in to make a comment.

“Sorcha is deeply conflicted about you, Rose. He thinks himself in love with you when he is near you, and yet when you are far away, you are out of his mind. He is a superb Shepherd, as long as he has no thoughts of you clouding his judgment. And I want to be clear: his affection for you is unhealthy. He thinks himself in love out of gratitude. He feels he owes you his love. And no amount of reasoning has changed that.”

She knows what he means when he says “gratitude” and “owing” of course. Sorcha, in a way, owes everything to her. He would have died young and angry if she hadn't intervened in his life and turned him around. It was a long and painful journey for him to come from that poverty to what he is now.

She doesn't believe he owes her anything at all, of course, as it was her duty as a Shepherd to help anyone she could, and he was a high-resonance person who could have eventually become a Lord of Calamity if the situation had twisted enough. But clearly he still feels indebted to her.

“Aside from avoiding him forever, which is unfair, is there anything I can do?”

“No,” Malachite says firmly, “sadly, there is nothing any of us can do. He must do it himself. Actually, I take that back: It would help if you stop teasing and flirting with him. Stop giving him a reason to think about his feelings for you.”

She sighs. Best not to engage Malachite in this. She turns her bed down and climbs into it, settling down and getting comfortable. She hears Malachite huff in mild indignation at being ignored (he is a steady seraph, but when he gets angry about something, he has difficulty letting go) but she is not prepared to deal with him, especially without Sorcha awake to keep the seraph in check.

She hears Lailah softly compliment her for not rising to Malachite's bait. She relaxes into her mattress. She has just enough wine in her system, not enough to addle her, but enough to sedate her and make her feel pretty chill.

She goes to sleep in fairly short order.

The next morning dawns bright, and she grudgingly rises with the sun. To her surprise, she sees her roommate is not in his bed, though several of his seraphim are scattered around the room. Agni is in the hearth again, Siren is visibly huddling under a blanket on the sofa, and Ariadne is braiding Collin's hair. Out on the balcony, Sigrun is perched on the railing, preening her feathers. There is no sign of Malachite or Sorcha anywhere, oddly, but the seraphim in the room are all trusted members of the team who do not need purification or rehabilitation, so there is no need to worry about anyone's safety.

Inkitatus is starting to agitate inside Rose, eager to get to his morning exercise constitutional (despite the fact that it's still plenty early). As she sits up and stretches, she notes that she has an obnoxious headache. It's not a hangover, it's far too mild to be a hangover, but it's still there and it's probably from not drinking enough water to purge out the alcohol last night. Even more obnoxiously, Zaveid isn't in any way effected by how much alcohol he had, but here she is, clearly still detoxing.

Sitting up enough to put her feet on the ground, Rose looks around the room. The seraphim barely take notice of her, though Sigrun turns briefly to glance at her, before returning to her preening.

“So, where's your Shepherd?” She asks. The bathroom door is wide open so it is clear he's not in there.

Siren is the one who answers; “He woke up cranky, so Malachite dragged him out to rough him up a bit before breakfast. Men. So predictable.”

Rose grins at the last comment, and decides to take care of her own business. She gets up and goes into the bathroom to do a quick washing up, brushing her hair and getting dressed for the day. As she finishes, she hears the door to the suite open and pokes her head out of the bathroom. She is expecting to see Malachite frog-marching his Shepherd, but instead, she sees Sorcha and Geoffrey entering the room. Geoffrey sees her immediately and gives her a small wave in greeting. By his bright-eyed expression, he is no worse off for his overindulgence last night. She is glad to see both of them interacting (since she knows Sorcha is prone to bouts of jealousy) without her.

Geoffrey speaks; “I was afraid Thunderhooves here might wake you up with his stamping, but I see I didn't need to worry after all.”

“Thunder-- Geoffrey, what the actual hell?” Sorcha puts his hands on his hips and glowers at the other Shepherd, who then laughs merrily. “Your footsteps are heavier than mine, I'll have you know. I live on a ship, and have to walk lightly.”

There is a snorting sound from nearby.

“Never you mind what Siren says,” Sorcha adds. “She loves to needle me. The point is, we came here to collect you, Rose, because I've worked up a ferocious appetite and the diner just opened. Rather than order room service, I thought we could have breakfast together in the dining hall.”

Grinning at him, Rose puts her hands on her hips; “Siren tells me you woke up in a bad mood. Are you feeling better?”

“Of course Siren thinks that. I'm fine, Rose. I'm grumpy with her and Ariadne because they kept waking me up at night and making me drink so much water I damned near burst, but I get why they did it. Now, come on, let's go get something to eat before I wilt.”

“You're still a walking stomach, I see,” she laughs.

“Have I actually changed, you old hag?” He retorts with a comically exaggerated frown. “Okay, I'm leaving with or without you, because yes I am a walking stomach who hasn't eaten since last night and just did an hour of intense exercise with a cranky Prime Lord. I'm starving.”

As he blusters out the door, Geoffrey laughs and offers his arm to Rose; “Shall we, milady?”

“Stop that!” She pushes his arm away gently. Then, noticing that Sorcha's seraphim are still in the room, she hurries to the door he just walked through and calls down the hall to him. “Are you really just going to leave your partners behind in the room? You didn't even wait for them either!”

“Yes,” he says curtly, pausing before the stairwell, “because they chose to stay there. They could have come with me if they wanted to, and they chose to stay there. I trust them to be able to maneuver around this inn without problem, Rose. Now, are you two coming with me after all?”

Laughing merrily, Geoffrey replies, “We always were, you know, you just flounced off so fast we couldn't keep up.” He grasps Rose by the arm and pulls her toward the other Shepherd, barely giving her time to even latch her room door.

Geoffrey's momentum sweeps Sorcha into its wake and the three of them descend the stairs together, arriving on the first floor with rather more flourish than Rose usually likes.

Their breakfast is one of fine quality, as Rose has come to expect from this inn, and the three of them have a lovely time enjoying their meal. The seraphim remain dormant to avoid crowding the room (though Inky is getting more antsy by the minute) and wait until the Shepherds are outside.

Once they are done eating and venture outside, Rose lets Inky out for his morning run, and it seems that Sigrun decides to go with him, as she speeds off after the stallion.

Sorcha is rolling his shoulders in eagerness as the two seraphim disappear from view. “You must've felt like you had ants inside you,” he says. “Sigrun makes me feel straight-up unable to sit still when she wants to get out and move.”

“I must be lucky to not have that problem,” Geoffrey says with a bright smile. “Corsaro sometimes gets cabin-fever if we get stuck indoors for long periods of time, but nothing is like dealing with Inky's exercise regimen. Yes, I remember what it was like. There were mornings when Rose made me go with him. She'd kick me awake and make me take the horse out for a gallop.”

“Yes,” Sorcha replies, side-eying Rose, “she did that to me too. Sigrun isn't quite as demanding; she just demands to be allowed to go flying for long periods of time, and she stays near me, in sight most of the time anyway. Siren gets that way too, actually, when we're out at sea.”

“Taking care of your seraphim's needs is important for a Squire to learn,” Rose says defensively. “I had to teach you both how to care for a demanding seraph.”

“Oh bullshit,” Sorcha retorts, crossing his arms. “You just have a lazy streak when you have a Squire. I'm surprised you don't have a Squire right now.”

She points to Geoffrey; “He was my Squire. How quickly do you think I can replace Squires, Sorcha? It took me years to find a replacement for you, and more years to find him. Honestly, I'm surprised both of you don't have Squires.”

Geoffrey holds his hands up in a defensive gesture; “I don't even have a full team yet. I'm far from ready to train a successor!”

For his part, Sorcha has turned away from her, and Rose feels a pang of guilt at the abruptness of it. “I'm going to my ship. If either of you crave entertainment, come see me. I could use a good sparring with a worthy partner.” Then, before either of them can stop him, he strides away, his mantle flaring with the wind of his passage.

“Er,” Geoffrey murmurs, “was it something I said?”

“No,” Rose sighs, “it was something I said; I should never have mentioned him having another Squire. I guess you don't remember that he used to have a Squire, and his Squire was killed in action last year. Apparently Sorcha and Malachite nearly died as well; they survived, but their Squire didn't, and Sorcha clearly still blames himself.”

“That's very true,” Mikleo says as he manifests beside his Shepherd. “I was talking with Ariadne. That scar that I noticed the other night? She could heal it better and reduce its visibility, but he won't let her. He has a number of scars he won't let her heal for him, because he wants them as reminders of his failures. I didn't get much time to talk about a lot of it with her, but it sounds to me like Sorcha still carries a lot of guilt with him, and based on that scar on his back, and how he just behaved, I'd say that the death of his Squire weighs very heavily on him.”

“It does, at that,” Ariadne says from behind them as she, Siren and Collin emerge from the inn as well. Siren glares at them all before stalking off in the direction of the piers. Collin looks confused and stays close to Ariadne, who drifts over to Rose. “Sebastian's death was traumatic for all of us, but it tore Sorcha apart, and he won't even listen to any suggestions of replacing him.” She runs her hands through her violet-tipped hair. “No matter how much Malachite wants a Squire to help shoulder the burden of so many Sub Lords, Sorcha won't even allow the conversation.”

Collin timidly picks up the narrative; “The night before we pulled into port here, Malachite suggested trying to find a Squire here, and Sorcha...” He rubs his neck nervously. “Sorcha threw a punch at him. Didn't hit him, Malachite is good at dodging, but...”

Rose winces. Sorcha and Malachite have a very combative relationship, which makes sense given how they were first introduced to each other long ago, but it still is not a good sign that Sorcha feels in any way justified resorting to such violence with his Prime Lord; it doesn't even matter if he knows Malachite will dodge. Rose herself has never attempted or even threatened to harm Lailah (she has raised a hand threateningly at Inky and Zaveid many times, but has only ever struck Zaveid when he needed it, to slap some sense into him, and Inky has never needed a physical strike to come to his senses), and it worries her that she's hearing this about Sorcha.

On the other hand, just last night he told her on no uncertain terms that his bond with his Shepherd is just fine.

“They are exhausted, both of them,” Ariadne murmurs. “Shepherd Rose, please do not worry so much about them. That is my job. I can see you worrying. I will take good care of Sorcha.”

Aeolia manifests at that point, smiling brightly; “We have work to do Geoffrey. Collin, would you care to join us? You can learn how we search for temporary vessels. It's a good life lesson for any seraph, especially one who will not be bound to a Shepherd.”

Collin is very young. He looks physically older than he is. He is what is often called a “baby seraph” who was born of nature, and spent several years drifting aimlessly before he was scooped up by Sorcha (apparently Sorcha saved him from an attacking water hellion, and then took him into his team after that, as it was the safest thing for Collin) but because Sorcha has no need for a second wind seraph, he has to move on now. Aeolia seems to have chosen to take Collin under her tutelage, since Sorcha's wind seraph Sigrun rarely interacts with the other seraphim much, and so Collin does not know much about being a seraph.

As Geoffrey and his seraphim head off to start their searching, Rose looks to her team; “Well, what do you think we should do? I'm all for going right back to bed, but...”

“No, Rose,” Mikleo says, folding his arms. “No going back to bed. You could help Geoffrey on his search. Or you could help Sorcha, with whatever he might need help with.”

Rose is hesitant. After last night's conversation with Malachite, and then the awkward conversation just now, she feels she should give Sorcha some space. “I think I'll leave him alone for a bit. Let's see. I suppose we could visit a shop and see if there are any potential upgrades we could use. Or I suppose I could write that letter to Alisha that you've been bugging me about, Mikleo.”

Her water seraph has been nagging her for days to write a letter back to Alisha, to inform her of their safe arrival in Talys, and now to inform her of Sorcha's safe arrival here too. Alisha knows both of them from decades ago, and appreciates any correspondence she can get from them. It's not like Rose doesn't like communicating with her dear friend, or that she hates writing letters; It's just that it's never a priority.

Zaveid takes his leave to roam as he desires (he does not like to be cooped up, and roams fairly widely whenever they stop for long periods of time, but he checks in regularly and returns when called) and Edna soon quietly moves off to do her own thing. Lailah and Mikleo stay with their Shepherd, however, and Mikleo goads Rose into writing that silly letter, posting it and sending it off.

The next day, Sorcha arranges to have the Dragonsbane hoisted out of the water onto a makeshift drydock, to repair some damage done to the lower part of the hull. He has it done by using his water seraphim working in concert to swell the waves and raise the ship high enough, carrying it forward and setting it down on the drydock. With the ship now safely stationary out of the water, Rose agrees to a couple of quick sparring sessions with her two proteges, on the deck of the hoisted ship.

Sorcha's crew pauses in their work (with his blessing) to watch the battles, since it's a rare sight for them to see their master in exhibition combat.

Armatizing with their seraphim, the three Shepherds square off against each other in paired battles – Rose versus Geoffrey, Geoffrey versus Sorcha, and then Sorcha versus Rose. The results are not much of a surprise, in the end. Rose gives Geoffrey an elemental advantage by using Mikleo, while Geoffrey uses Stonegard (the only seraph on his team that is powered up by a Shrine of Trials), but Geoffrey is not much of a fighter, nor a strategist in combat, and Mikleo is far too wily and competitive to let him win. In the end, Geoffrey throws his hands up in defeat.

He suffers a much quicker defeat at Sorcha's hands. Despite Aeolia having an elemental advantage over Malachite, and Sorcha deliberately not using his full power, Aeolia is unable to scratch through the thick plating of Malachite's Armatus and exhausts herself. The lack of Mystic Arte doesn't help

The real battle comes between Rose and Sorcha. There is no elemental advantage here, since Lailah and Malachite are diametrically opposed. And Malachite – while not being quite as defensive as Edna, he is still an earth seraph – is a very powerful defender. In the end, despite having more years of experience, Rose has no way to overcome Sorcha and Malachite's sheer force, and they surrender.

Thus, the tally for the three fights is Sorcha with two wins, Rose with one, and Geoffrey with no wins at all.

“I should know better,” Geoffrey mutters as he rubs his shoulders. “I'm not a fighter, and Sorcha very much is. You clobbered the hell out of me. I don't think I'll ever be strong enough to defeat you.”

Aeolia consoles him by reminding him that his purpose as a Shepherd is different than the other two. Sorcha raises his eyebrows in question at them, but chooses to not ask, and Rose can hardly blame him for the suspicion, since she has had that very question herself for a while.

Geoffrey is the first Shepherd since Sorey to have a Prime Lord of the opposite sex, and Rose actually has wondered if romance between Shepherd and Prime Lord is at all common. (Of course, Geoffrey is adamant that Aeolia is only his partner, not his mate; his heart still belongs to his late wife. Aeolia scoffs at the concept of having any sort of intimate relationship, outside her pact, with a human).

Getting answers out of Lailah was pretty difficult when she asked shortly after Geoffrey and Aeolia set out on their own.

“Not to my knowledge, no,” Lailah responded when asked if it was a problem for Shepherds and Prime Lords to become romantically entangled. “I'm afraid I've never seen it happen before. Our bonds with our Shepherds are unique and do not lend themselves well to romance or sexual contact.”

“Meaning you never had a romantic fling with one of your Shepherds, huh?” Rose teased.

“Oh, by the way! Why did the cat cross the road in such a hurry? Because he had to get to the other side right meow!”

Of course she did that. That's how Lailah deflects from talking about forbidden topics, such as her previous Shepherds.

Back in the present, it is clear the thought has crossed Sorcha's mind, but to their credit, both Malachite and Aeolia seem to have noticed his reaction, realized what he is about to ask, and both of them glare at him, keeping him from speaking on the matter.

To hide his embarrassment, Sorcha (who has a strain of showmanship in his blood, apparently) decides to put on a display for his friends.

Evicting all of his seraphic partners to, as he says, “clear some space” (an odd and unsupported concept; it is likely to create a larger audience) he proceeds to armatize with Zeke. Then, cloaked in a shimmering armatus, he challenges all earth seraphim present to spar with him at once, provided he can demonstrate his water Mystic Arte, Maelstrom.

Edna refuses immediately, without even consulting with Lailah. She doesn't like sparring or showing off, and she wants no part of this. Stonegard tries to accept, but Aeolia refuses adamantly to condone this or allow her Sub Lord to take part.

“There is no call to Mystic Arte another seraph, Sorcha,” she says. “Stonegard is strong but I don't want him hurt. I cannot abide this. I do not care how good your healer is. This is unnecessary and I will not stand for it.”

“I agree,” Lailah murmurs, “even though Edna has already refused. I disagree with this display. If Malachite is fine with it, let him be the one to take the attack, but I will not accept any of my Sub Lords subjecting themselves to something like this.”

“I'm not keen on this,” Malachite says in response, “but if you want to show him off, Sorcha, I'll do it. They have a point; this is my responsibility and I will discharge it myself. However, I will not fight back. I will be strictly defensive. See if you can scratch my defenses with his power.”

“Fair enough.” Sorcha shrugs. “I just want everyone to see what kind of power Zeke has.”

The resulting spar and attack is utterly breathtaking. Malachite is not as highly defensive as Edna at her best, nor even as Stonegard, but he trades defense for sheer bulk and capacity, and he is a very old, very steady seraph. He also has the elemental advantage here. He should be difficult to defeat.

Nevertheless, Sorcha and Zeke's armatized attack knocks him off his feet and throws him to the back of the ship deck, smacking into some boards and cracking a few. When he gets up, he is clearly wounded, with some blood dripping down his face and several of the scale-like appendages on his shoulders damaged.

“And that,” Aeolia mutters, “is why I said no, Stonegard.”

Geoffrey, in the mean time, is staring agape at the spectacle in front of him. “I … is that your own power that hurt you, Malachite, or was that Zeke?”

“That,” Malachite says, huffing a bit laboriously as he comes closer; Ariadne is already tending his wounds. “That was all Zeke's power. I give them purification power and the form of the armatus, but the power behind the strike is all down to the seraph in the armatus. How do you not know this yourself, Shepherd?”

“Because I don't use armatus very often, and never against another seraph. Aeolia has minute control over the armatus, after all. I've never tried to use it without her help. Damn, Sorcha, do you need all that power for a water seraph?”

Sorcha's face contorts instantly in defense; “I don't know what you're suggesting, but yes, I fight dragons, in case you forgot. The power you just saw on display is part of why my ship is banged up; Zeke as a drake would have torn holes in my ship if not for his own inner conflict and Siren's abilities. He is far, far more powerful than any other water seraph I've ever been around. His combat power outstrips Siren by magnitudes, and if he went toe-to-toe with Mikleo, I don't think you'd like the outcome, Rose. He is exceptionally powerful.”

Rose happens to hear Corsaro mutter under his breath; “That power is wasted in his hands. He's already got a full team.”

“Shush,” Stonegard hisses. “It's not our place to judge. Don't suggest it! Aeo, stop him from saying what I know he's gonna say!”

Sorcha, overhearing that, frowns at them all. “I am not sure what you're talking about, but Zeke is my brother and I intend to keep him with me through his rehabilitation.”

Malachite groans and claps a hand over his Shepherd's mouth. “We are not having this discussion here. This is a discussion for another day, when you aren't so up in arms.”

It takes Geoffrey two weeks to find enough suitable transport vessels for the seraphim he is going to be escorting. He refuses Rose's assistance in finding the vessels, as it is more his specialty than hers (he has a knack for finding artefacts; he has found three Void artefacts thought lost to the ages, and has found all the artefacts he will ever need for his own team), and it is his mission, not hers. Rose contents herself with sitting back and enjoying the peace of the town. There are no hellion attacks (well, there is one time when a hellion gets close to Talys, but Sorcha and his team destroy it, healing the creature that was hellionized and restoring peace.) to ruffle her feathers, and so she decides to accept this and take it easy. Perhaps she is becoming sedentary, but it has been a long, difficult quarter of a century for her, and she has two wonderful fellow Shepherds to help her with her duties. Surely she can afford to take it easy for a little while?

Then Geoffrey announces he's about ready to leave and take his charges to their permanent home.

It is a clear, bright sunny morning when the three Shepherds and their teams gather at the small, modest shrine to Lilybell, the town guardian. There, Malachite releases several seraphim into Geoffrey's care.

The first to be released is Corvex, the scrappy young fire seraph, who immediately turns to Aeolia and offers to become her Sub Lord. Over the past two weeks, he has taken a liking to the gentle Shepherd Geoffrey and his motley team. He wants to see what a real Shepherd journey is like, and he wants to put his combat prowess to the test. He does not have the seraphic artes powers of Lailah or Agni, but he makes up for it in enthusiasm and physical strength.

Geoffrey and Aeolia gratefully take him in, and Rose – out of respect to the intimacy of a pact being formed – closes her ears so that she does not hear him tell Geoffrey his True Name. It is not a name she has any right to know, and so she endeavors to not learn it.

The next seraph to be evicted from Sorcha's team is young Collin. Like Corvex before him, he turns to Aeolia and asks to become her Sub Lord. Like Corvex, he is young and still learning, but he wants to learn via a Shepherd's journey, and he has something unique to offer the team. Aeolia and Stonegard have basic, rudimentary healing spells, but no one on their team is a dedicated healer. Collin aspires to be as great a healer as Ariadne and Mikleo, and so he promises to focus on that, to justify the burden his presence will give, by being the best healer Geoffrey could ask for.

After that, the next seraph released is a water seraph named Azul. He is followed by Aqua, Cerula, Bluescale and Lazuli, all water seraphim being rehabilitated. They, unlike the first two, are uninterested in a Shepherd's journey. They want to live in Elysia, free of corruption, overcoming their trauma.

Then, at the end, Sorcha hesitates, and his eyes fill with tears. His lip quivers briefly.

“I… I don't want this.” He presses his hand to his heart. “Zeke, are you sure this is what you want? We can work this out. I'm still a Shepherd. I can heal your problems, even if it takes time.”

“We could,” Ezekiel says calmly, touching his arm briefly, “but you don't need me. You need her. You know you do. I will only be in the way and a burden to you. Do not forget what your Shepherd journey is about. We have different paths to walk, my brother. You must let me walk my own, on my own.”

“I only just found you again. I'm not ready to lose you again.”

“You're not losing me. I must walk my own path. This is my choice. Please, Sorcha.”

Sorcha hangs his head and everyone around holds their breath collectively. Then the Shepherd nods. “Do it, Malachite. Do it now, before I lose my courage.”

The deed is done quietly, with no fanfare or even any visible show of the dissolution of a pact. Between one moment and the next, Ezekiel is freed from his pact.

He pats Sorcha one more time on the shoulder, and then turns to Geoffrey and Aeolia. “Please, Miss Aeolia. I would like to become your Sub Lord. I wish to learn from you and your Shepherd. Please let me be your water Sub Lord.”

Aeolia hesitates a moment, confirms with her Shepherd, with Malachite and with Sorcha, and then extends her arms in a maternal gesture. “I would be honored to take you as a Sub Lord. Come.”

Rose obligingly covers her ears, so that the pact is made without her hearing the True Name. She waits until she sees the flash of light symbolic of the pact sealing, and Ezekiel transferring himself to a new vessel. He settles into the Divine Artefact Geoffrey found months ago for his eventual water seraph, a gleaming silver lance emblazoned with serpents on its shaft.

Sorcha's pain is palpable, but he is doing the honorable thing. All of his rehabilitating seraphim are afraid of what he does; even Ezekiel does not wish to return to the ocean with him. He wants to experience a Shepherd's journey, but is utterly terrified of being near drakes and dragons again, because their corrupting power is so pervasive.

It is because of this that when Corsaro convinced Aeolia to approach Malachite about them taking Ezekiel off of Sorcha's team, the final deciding vote was caste by Zeke himself, who saw an opportunity for a safe rehabilitation and education with a pacific Shepherd who is dedicated to the recording of Shepherds' deeds and the restoration of their cultural order. Geoffrey avoids conflict as much as he can, but he can use all the power he can accumulate to keep himself and his seraphim safe when trouble rears its ugly head. There is absolutely no question that Ezekiel is safest with Geoffrey and his team.

Sorcha resisted, but as evidenced by now, he is a wiser man than he lets on, and he knows this is what must happen. He knows this is what is best for everyone. It frees him and his team to focus on his purpose, to fulfill his promises to Malachite and himself, and it frees Zeke to pursue his own future, to become whatever seraph he wants to become. They are no longer chained to each other.

Rose notes that Mikleo has a stony, troubled expression on his face. Ever since word got back to him of Zeke's decision to leave Sorcha and join Geoffrey, it is clear that the news has shaken the Elysian water seraph. Rose can only imagine how this must be hurting Mikleo's tender heart, reminding him of his childhood with Sorey, and how deeply he misses Sorey's presence. To see Sorcha and Zeke (who were raised, even if only briefly, under similar circumstances) reunited and happy together must have given him hope for the future of being reunited with Sorey, and yet now, to see them divided like this, clearly breaks his heart.

With the pact sealed and done, Zeke turns to Sorcha; “Sorcha, my brother, know that I love you, but I cannot stand in your shadow. Neither of us will grow that way. I need my freedom. I need to grow. We were children together, but you've gone and grown up, and I haven't yet.”

“Yes, I know that. I just… hoped you'd be at my side when we find him. If we ever do.”

Malachite intervenes; “He would never be useable in combat against a water drake or dragon, Sorcha. That's why we need Siren.”

(Siren is not a combatant, per se. She is similar to Rose's Inkitatus in that she serves a supportive purpose. She boosts her team's abilities, buffing their strength and speed, and debuffing the opponent. Her speed in the water as a lure to the enemy, and her entrancing song that can confuse an enemy, enable her to entrap water beasts so that Sorcha and Malachite can smash them with Earthfall. Sorcha's team is so highly specialized specifically for fighting large underwater beasties, and Siren is one of the most important parts of it, due to her incredible speed in the water and her bravery. She can fight if cornered, but she is far better suited to strafing and supporting.)

“I know this is hard, but this is best for him. And for you.”

“I fucking know that, Malachite, don't treat me like a child,” Sorcha snaps, wiping his eyes. “I'm doing this for you, you asshole. I would throw everything away to live with Zeke, if I thought for a moment I could live with myself for stopping now and turning my back on you. But… I couldn't do that.”

Malachite sighs and steps away to give him some space. “I wish you wouldn't say things like that.”

Geoffrey approaches, and gives his fellow Shepherd a deep, respectful bow; “I swear to you, I will take good care of Ezekiel. No harm will befall him on my watch. We'll get him rehabilitated, and in a few years, if you want him back, we can make a deal.”

Slowly, Sorcha shakes his head; “No, I'm not lending him to you. He wants to go with you. It's up to you to tame him and put him to work. If he proves to be too much for you, I will take him back, and Malachite can bloody well get stuffed about it. But if you and Zeke develop a bond, I will not be the one to sunder that bond. But… he is my only family. You had better take good care of him.”

There is an awkward moment as Rose considers the reality that Sorcha and Ezekiel are the only people present who even have family of any real sort (outside of the family-like structure of a Shepherd's team). Mikleo's family are either dead (Zenrus) or out of reach (Sorey), Edna's only family is long dead, Zaveid and Lailah apparently never really formed any form of family attachments, and Inkitatus doesn't have a family, probably never did. Geoffrey's family has been dead for years, and none of his or Sorcha's seraphim have ever expressed having any family. And of course Rose herself has no blood relatives, and has long since lost contact with her Sparrowfeathers and Scattered Bones family.

“I will be safe with him, Sorcha,” Ezekiel says quietly. “I look forward to hearing tales of the monsters you defeat, but for now, I need peace.”

Taking a deep breath, Sorcha continues as if Zeke hadn't spoken: “Next year, this same month, I will return here with my team. You'd better be here, Geoffrey, or I shall be sorely, sorely cross with you.”

Geoffrey smiles brightly; “I can promise that, yes. If for any reason I cannot make it, I will have word sent here to Lilybell, so if you don't see me, she can tell you. Right, Lilybell? You'll be a messenger for me, won't you?”

The seraph in question nods vigorously; “I would be honored.”

Then, like a stone, Geoffrey drops to the ground in a dead faint. The only reason he doesn't hit his head is because Ezekiel catches him at the last second.

“Shit!” Sorcha's voice rings out loudly. “I forgot about that! He's not fully balanced and… we just overloaded him while he's still learning to control a Shepherd's powers. Son of a… Rose, why the hell didn't you shut me up? We shouldn't have kept him out here this long. Hell, we should have done this at the inn!”

“I'm not your babysitter,” Rose snaps, unwilling to admit that she's forgotten about the early difficulties of a Shepherd. Geoffrey would probably have been fine with taking one contract at a time, with a few days between them, but three pacts in a row in one day will have overloaded his body, and he will be out for a few days, most likely. He won't die from this, but it will be a miserable time for him.

Aeolia and Stonegard are tending to their Shepherd, while Corsaro consoles the newly-contracted seraphim.

Clearly feeling guilt for having unloaded seraphim on Geoffrey, Sorcha steps in; “I'll carry him to the inn. No sense scaring people with him floating unconscious.”

No one stops him from scooping Geoffrey up and carrying him toward the White Flower, though Rose trails behind a little bit, and most of the seraphim retreat into their vessels to reduce crowding, except for Geoffrey's team (who don't want to overload him during this time).

“I'm sorry, Aeolia,” she hears Sorcha say.

“Stop that. Stop acting like this is your fault, you giant oaf. Taking care of my Shepherd is my job. Geoffrey knew this would happen, and we talked about it last night. We as a team agreed that this was a necessary price to pay for everyone's peace of mind. I want to repeat that so you understand: this was his choice. He is the one who brought it up.”

It takes Geoffrey several days to recover from his collapse. During that time, Collin tends to him around the clock, assisted at intervals by Ariadne and Mikleo (and supervised by Aeolia, who stands guard over her Shepherd, as per her pact). Zeke assists at times too (as it turns out, he has an affinity for healing magic as well, and is very interested in learning, but has a very, very long way to go to learn it) and, to hear Mikleo tell of it, the whole situation gives Geoffrey's new partners time to bond with the existing team, so that when Geoffrey finally rises from his sickbed three and a half days later, filled with new vigor, his team have already settled themselves into a dynamic.

Sorcha offers to spar again with Geoffrey, but Aeolia refuses.

“It is far too soon, and you do not hold back enough. Give us some time to get accustomed to each other. We are not combat-ready yet.”

“Such a pity, too,” Corvex says with a grin. “I really, really want to see Zeke trounce the hell out of Agni. I think he could, too.”

The water seraph in question looks confused and glances between Shepherds, perplexed. Since arriving here in Talys his rehabilitation with Malachite and then with Aeolia has been going very well and he looks much more human. The gill-like patterns on his neck are extremely difficult to make out now, and the webbing between his fingers is finer, receding. His eyes are still vibrantly blue, but they look more human now. He still looks fish-like, but with each day, the piscine features are fading away. Given time, he will pass for a normal human to those who can see him, as his hair is still black and shows none of the typical seraphic color tinting.

“How could I trounce him, if Geoffrey's water armatus is not complete? No offense, Corvex, but I think you expect far too much out of me. The last time they sparred, Sorcha was overburdened, and he still overwhelmed Geoffrey. Now he's not overburdened.” The seraph holds his arms out in a helpless gesture. “How can you expect the outcome to be different?”

“Cuz you're really stupidly strong. And you have an elemental advantage on Agni. Look, it was just wishful thinking. I can wait a year or two if I have to.”

Corsaro steps up and bops him on the head; “Easy there, tiger. I get into enough trouble for picking fights with hellions; don't go picking fights with other seraphim. You don't want Aeolia mad at you.”

Sorcha is looking at Geoffrey's team with appraising eyes. In the past several days, he has become accustomed to Zeke's choice to leave him and appears to be at peace with the choice now. There is no further sign of pain on his features (he has always had extremely expressive eyes) but in this moment, there is something else there.

“Make no mistake, Corvex. If you challenge me and Agni, you will be in for the fight of your life, and Zeke as he is right now would be no match for what Agni can do, elemental advantage be damned. I'm...” His face becomes sorrowful. “It's my fault you didn't learn that critical difference. I'm sorry. I was a poor Shepherd to you, shutting you away so you were forced to learn by observing from a distance and drawing your own conclusions. I hope that Geoffrey can teach you where I could not.”

To that, Ezekiel puts forth a brilliant smile and drapes an arm across Corvex; “Worry not, dear brother of mine. I'll look after him. I looked after you all those years ago, didn't I?”

“Is that supposed to comfort me?” Sorcha grunts, though he is grinning. “I thought you two were human, remember. In fact, I had to learn what seraphim even are from Rose, years later. Neither of you taught me how to read either; Rose had to do that too! You barely even taught me how to fish! Now that I think about it, you and the old man both did a piss-poor job of teaching me jack shit, so don't go pretending you're some amazing teacher.”

This brings laughter all around, including from Corvex, who is spared the embarrassment of being singled out. Geoffrey affirms his promise to take care of his seraphim, and to teach the young ones.

Ariadne looks them over; “Aeolia, I feel a little bad for you. You're the only female there. Again. Still. I know I only have Siren and Sigrun, who are far from normal, but it's nice to have some gender balance on the team.”

It does seem a little odd, when they look at it. Rose and Sorcha both have (unintentionally) balanced teams. Rose has two female seraphim and three male; Sorcha has two male and three female. Geoffrey, who now has the largest team, has only one female and five males.

Aeolia shrugs; “I'm used to it. These boys,” she jerks a thumb playfully at her two veteran Sub Lords, “know what happens when they misbehave.”

Feeling sassy and energetic, Sorcha assumes a bold pose; “Ariadne, come on. Look at us. You're the only normal one on this team, and that's debatable. I mean it, look at us. A bearded barfly, a mermaid, a tiny sprite, a bird, and a dragon-faced lizard man.” He then sticks his tongue out at Malachite. “I'm sorry if that bothers you, but you ought to remember that I legit mistook you for a dragon when I first saw you.”

“Ugh,” the Prime Lord grumbles, “of all ways to describe me. I'm not even a damned lizard, let alone a dragon! Someone remind me to describe him as something disgusting. A zombie perhaps?”

“Bearded barfly,” Zaveid repeats, laughing. “That's far too tame, Sorcha. Malachite's right, you deserve to be described in the most insulting way. Didn't know you were even a barfly, for that matter.”

“Naah, bars ain't my thing. I do look like one, though, don't I?” He shrugs his shoulders briefly. “If not for my cloak, I'd look like a scoundrel or ruffian. A rogue. A pirate. You know, that kinda thing.”

“Implying you don't already look like one, cloak or no cloak,” Malachite spat. “Cloaks don't mean much to most people. Now, we could spend all day coming up with insulting nicknames for you, and I would be highly amused, but I think we would all be better served getting this ship into the water.”

“Do you need any help?” Mikleo asks of Siren, who gives him a rude gesture.

“Piss off, landwalker. I've got this by myself.” The sea-born water seraph hurls herself into motion and spins off the boardwalk into a sharp dive into the water below, vanishing beneath the foam. Moments later, the water of the harbor swells and the drydock is filled with seawater.

The Dragonsbane slides effortlessly out of the drydock and into the waves of the harbor, which calm down almost immediately. The galleon shudders in the waves and, with the crew's expert hands, the ship heels into the wind and comes up alongside the dock.

“Time to go, Sorcha,” Malachite says. “We've tarried here long enough. It sounds like the wind will be just right for only a short time.”

Sorcha hesitates only a moment, looking at his fellow Shepherds; “Well, unfortunately, my friends, I don't have time for a long goodbye. This time next year, let's meet again. I hope to hear your stories of how you swept through the shrine trials with your new team, Geoffrey. And yes, I will tell you all about the drakes and dragons I've quelled, though I always hope to find few.”

“I will be praying for your safety and success,” Geoffrey says. “And I will take good care of your brother. Hopefully the next time we see you, we will be able to show you how much he's grown.”

Sorcha turns to Rose and his smile widens and softens briefly; “Rose and friends, as always, I'm sorry to leave you. I do miss all of you. Yes, even you.” He winks at Zaveid. “Next year, let's spar again, Zaveid. Just you and me, no Malachite or Rose involved.”

“Sounds like fun! You gonna let me go all out on you like last time?”

“Like I'd do it any other way.” He raises his arms. “Until next time, my friends.”

Then, extending his arms outward as if unfurling a pair of wings, Sorcha purses his lips and lets out a shrill whistle. From within, his wind seraph Sigrun surges up, cloaking herself around him in armatus. With a tremendous upward leap, Sorcha activates Sigrun's special armatized seraphic arte, which gives him the power of temporary flight. He soars up and into a draft of wind, and then glides to the deck of the Dragonsbane, landing out of their sight.

“I want to learn that arte,” Collin murmurs as they watch the ship unfurl sails and angle into the wind, sliding through the waves and out across the harbor. “Aeolia, can we learn to do that?”

With a sad smile, Aeolia shakes her head; “We do not have Sigrun's blessing, so we cannot learn an arte like that. Flight is not something you can learn through sheer will; you must have the ability to fly to begin with. And none of us has that ability. Corsaro has an interesting trick, but it's not actually flight.”

“Oh?” Collin looks at the void seraph in interest. “What trick?”

Laughing, Corsaro shows him. He gathers electricity in his feet and then, manipulating the power of magnetism, he levitates himself off the ground. He can rise no more than a handful of centimeters off the ground, but it is clear that he is hovering.

“Zenrus taught me this one. He never really used it himself, said it was an unconscionably showy arte and would negatively influence all the youth, but that's a load of hogwash. It does, however, take a lot of energy to do this.” He cancels the arte and lands with a thump. “Zenrus was also waaaaaay stronger than me, so I'm sure it cost him next to nothing to do this.”

“Can you do that when armatized with him?” Collin asks Geoffrey.

The Shepherd shrugs; “I have no idea. I've never tried. I don't use Corsaro in armatus very often; he's far more effective on his own. Honestly, I just slow him down.”

Corsaro grins; “I wish I could disagree with you on that, Geoff, but… you really are no good in a fight. Lucky for you, you have us seraphim to do the fighting for you. I'm looking forward to seeing Corvex and Zeke show me what they can do in a fight.”

Zeke is still watching the ship vanish into the horizon, with an indescribably sad expression on his face, but when he hears his name, he shudders; “If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not get into any fights for a while. There's still so much darkness in me… I need time.”

“That's perfectly fine, Zeke,” Aeolia says kindly. “Take all the time you need to heal. We can handle things ourselves. Stonegard and Corsaro are surprisingly effective against fire hellions.”

“I'm effective against all hellions,” Corsaro boasts, and receives an elbow to the gut from Stonegard. “Well it's true; you're just jealous! I am equally effective on all hellions regardless of their element.”

Collin, wide-eyed, looks at them both; “What are you, again? Aren't you a lightning seraph?”

“He's technically a void seraph,” Stonegard says, “who happens to have affinity with electrical currents. I guess you can call that a lightning seraph, but keep in mind: he has no elemental weaknesses like you and I do, but that also means no one is elementally weak to him. He's also very weak to martial artes, so if you hit him hard enough, he goes down in a squawking heap.”

“The trick is to hit me,” Corsaro retorts with a grin. “You've only landed a few blows on me in any one spar. At least my weakness I can train up to evade, unlike you!”

“We're not getting any closer to Elysia by standing around admiring Corsaro's combat prowess,” Rose says coyly. “We've already checked out of the inn, so we might as well get hoofing.”

On the deck of the Dragonsbane, Sorcha pauses and looks back, at all that remains visible of Talys: the lighthouse high on a rocky outcrop just outside of town.

There is a heaviness in his heart, but with his complicated and painful emotions addressed and purged, he feels no further regret. He will miss Ezekiel, and all the catching up they had planned to do, but he knows his brother is in good hands. Despite what he said when he released Zeke, he does cling to a vague hope that someday, they will be reunited. However, if that doesn't happen, he will live with it.

He has a job to do and promises to fulfill. He gave a solemn, binding vow more than a decade ago to Malachite, a vow to find, quell or slay every water dragon in the ocean around Glenwood and rid the world of their malevolent corruption, in exchange for the seraph's strength and purification powers. And later that same year, he gave a similar solemn vow to Siren, to rid her beloved oceanic home of the many dangerous monsters that infest its depths. This vow earned her allegiance.

Siren hates humans and only tolerates Sorcha; she agreed to help him in his quest for only as long as she believes he is actually fulfilling his oath to her. The moment she believes he is no longer honoring his word, she will break her pact and leave, returning to the ocean.

Sorcha has five seraphim, and of those five, only two have any love for humanity. Sigrun does not hate humans; instead, she is indifferent. She is loyal to Sorcha because he saved her life and nursed her back to health. She is not a powerful seraph, but her scouting capabilities are second to none. Her ability to grant him the power of flight (if only briefly) during armatus is also a key strategy in his arsenal.

Agni is similarly indifferent to humans (in fact, he is slightly smug about humans and their fragility) and his exact motives for being a Sub Lord are unclear. He is affectionate toward Sorcha, but is indifferent, to the point of rudeness, toward anyone else, even Malachite.

In contrast to the other three, Malachite – by far the oldest member of the team, easily several thousand years old – has warmed to humanity again in their years together. He was jaded toward humans due to the dark ages of chaos before the end of Calamity. However, over a dozen years ago, a chance encounter with Shepherd Rose and her near-Shepherd Squire began to revitalize his faith in humanity. In binding with him in a Shepherd's Pact, Sorcha revived his hope, inspiring in him the desire again to protect humanity from corruption. It is Sorcha's solemn vow to protect humanity and seraphim alike by destroying dragons and quelling drakes that roam the ocean – far from any other Shepherd's reach and thus many of them have been there a long time – that gives Malachite the strength go to on after so many years of desolation. Before meeting them, Malachite had nearly lost the power of purification due to his lack of faith and drive, but now he has it in spades thanks to their bond. For all their bickering and disagreements, Sorcha knows that Malachite needs him as much as he needs the seraph. Their bond and friendship is unorthodox, but it is strong, unbreakable and unshakable.

And of course there's Ariadne, who is full of nothing but love for everything living. A void seraph with affinity for blood and flesh, she has dedicated herself to using those abilities to heal and restore damaged and broken bodies. She is an old friend of Malachite's, which is how she came to be here on this team in the first place, and Sorcha knows he is very lucky to have her.

Turning his back on the shoreline, which is no longer visible, Sorcha strides forward toward the prow of the ship, where his captain and other ranking crew are waiting for orders of a direction. Sorcha is the owner of the ship, but he does not have enough experience sailing himself to warrant any official command position, so he employs an entire crew (and charges stiff fees from various shipping and fishing guilds of Glenwood in order to pay his men) to command his ship while he searches for dragons and drakes. His captain is a brave, loyal man who trusts his Shepherd's judgment and translates Sorcha's commands into viable orders to the rest of the crew.

“Where to, sir?” The ship captain salutes him.

“Let's go east for now, parallel to the coast. I'll send Siren out tomorrow to start scouting the waters for corruption, but for today, let's just put some distance between us and the port. Unless you have any other ideas, that is.”

The captain grins through his own scruffy beard. “Aye, milord Shepherd, that sounds like a good plan to me. Ahoy, ye seadogs, let's get this ship into the west wind!” He proceeds to bark orders to his crew, who leap into action. The ship lurches as the sails fill and propel them around to the starboard and then forward through the waves.

The Dragonsbane is a galleon, with four masts full of sails, and a full crew of experienced sailors. She effortlessly cleaves the waves with her gleaming, lacquered hull, and her green trimmed sails billow with wind. She is a magnificent vessel now, though she was a run-down wreck when Sorcha first obtained her. Bartering with shipwrights and the like at Glenwood's many ports, he got his ship rebuilt into the powerful vessel that she is today.

Taking up his usual position on the forecastle, Sorcha ascertains that his seraphim are in their usual places. Siren is perched at the bowsprit, while Sigrun is circling overhead. Ariadne is over by the capstan, while Malachite can be seen standing motionless at the base of the mainmast. Agni is tucked into his vessel, but manifests to perch on Sorcha's shoulder briefly, before complaining of discomfort from the sea-spray and retreating again.

It is remarkable, Sorcha reflects, that he can be so content to watch endless waves before and around him. He is never truly bored watching the waves as the ship sails. There is a sense of peace and purpose out here, and he feels so comfortable on a ship. To some degree, he wonders if he was always destined to be on a ship in some capacity. He has so few memories of his life before the catastrophe that took Xavier and Zeke from him.

Regrettably, the peace is shattered a few hours into their voyage when Siren abruptly dives from her perch into the water of her own accord. Moments later, she surfaces with news that there is a beast below them. She believes it to be a common hellion, not a drake and certainly not a dragon (they know when they're in range of a dragon; dragons have huge domains that corrupt all around them and can be sensed dozens of kilometers away), but it must still be quelled.

Calling his other seraphim to him, and drawing his saber, Sorcha prepares for a fight.

The fight doesn't last long (most fights don't; only powerful drakes and actual dragons take longer than about ten minutes of combat to quell) and it doesn't take much. Siren's chilling song of paralysis freezes the monster in its attack, and Sorcha doesn't even need to resort to armatus to finish it off. One good Lion's Howl (a gift taught to him years ago by an old friend, as per a promise made even longer ago) puts it out of its hellionized misery, and the purified seraph, a fish-like creature, flops off the deck into the water below and scurries away.

“Any damage?” He turns and looks around. The deck is sloshed with seawater from the fight, but there appear to be no visible marks.

“Don't see none yet, sir,” the captain says as he sends crew off to inspect the entire ship. “The bow took a thumping, but didn't feel like it was hit hard enough to do much damage.”

The report comes back a short while later: there is a bit of damage to the bow, but it amounts to superficial scratches and gouges in the finish; the ship is structurally sound, undamaged. Siren bitterly laughs at the “cat-scratches” and Sorcha laments that he bothered to pay for the paint job on the bow to begin with, since it lasted only a few hours before being damaged.

Once they've determined the exact extent of the damage, and that the creature dropped nothing upon its defeat (a disappointment; scales and materials dropped from hellions and drakes sell for a lot of money in port) Sorcha gives the order to resume their trek across the waters, and the Dragonsbane leaps forward again.

It is a very long distance from Talys to Ladylake and Elysia, but Rose has Zaveid and Inky, and Geoffrey has Aeolia and now Collin, so with three wind seraphim and Inky's ability to amplify other seraphic abilities, they are able to move fairly quickly. Although not in a dire rush, they move with purpose and speed because the water seraphim they are escorting are restless, feel exposed and are eager to settle down in a place safe from humans.

The journey is lively and comfortable. Rose has always enjoyed Geoffrey's company, and their seraph teams get along quite well. In particular, Aeolia is incredibly tolerant of Zaveid's more coarse behavior. When he flirts with her, she just laughs and goes along with it, even more so than Lailah ever has. In fact, it seems almost as though Aeolia is flattered by Zaveid's flirting. Where Lailah has always ignored Zaveid except when he is unbearably obnoxious, Aeolia actually responds to his behavior.

They cross paths with a number of hellions because that is the nature of their existence (and because Rose has been stationary for over a month now, it seems that hellions have become bolder and started to spread again) and Rose is able to watch Geoffrey's team in action. Corsaro really is as competent as he has touted himself. He moves about the field of combat with the energy of a hummingbird, and his lightning artes clearly are effective, because hellions crumple under his attacks.

In most fights, Geoffrey armatizes with Stonegard right away and stays that way throughout the fight, due to Stonegard's high defenses.

Zaveid happily joins into all the fights, because he loves a good fight and has always enjoyed dealing with hellions more than any other of Rose's seraphim. Mikleo only deploys when there is a fire hellion to deal with; otherwise, he and Edna stay safely tucked away inside Rose, who tends to stay on the fringes of the battlefield. She is fully capable of handling any of these hellions without any trouble, but she wants to watch Geoffrey and his team in action.

They handle their problems as they traverse the land. They skirt Glaivend Basin and progress into Hyland, stopping briefly at the Diphda estate to say hello to Rose's old friend Alisha, and to restock on supplies. Alisha is delighted to see them traveling together and absolutely insists on them staying a few nights in her home, with her family.

Inkitatus is delighted to spend time with the local Lord of the Land guarding the Diphda estate, since he and Rhiannon go way back several centuries, and it is clear that Rhiannon is every bit as delighted to see him.

Rose is just as happy to meet Alisha's brand-new granddaughter, born to Alisha's son Valery and his new wife at the beginning of summer. A new life is a grand blessing, and both Shepherds rejoice in the presence of a new member of Alisha's family. Valery is starting to take over his mother and father's duties here on the estate, while his sisters will eventually marry off to powerful scions of influential families.

For her part, Alisha is delighted to meet Geoffrey's new team members, especially Collin. Lady Alisha has become a physician in recent years, skilled in non-magical healing, and she takes Collin and Zeke into her library to let them browse the books she has. Almost immediately, Zeke is drawn to a copy of the Celestial Record, an updated copy that has passages about the Shepherds Sorey, Rose and Sorcha. It is not updated enough to acknowledge Geoffrey, but Zeke clearly does not care, as he becomes utterly absorbed by the book, to the exclusion of other tomes.

He barely manages to read through it before they are ready to depart, and he is so sleep-deprived that he is sound asleep inside his vessel when they gather at the gate to say goodbye to Alisha and her family.

As they leave the estate, pockets jingling with fresh cash from selling off materials, and packs bulging with supplies, they set their trajectory toward the Rayfalke and Ladylake region. In less than a week, they will be in Elysia, with proper wind-stepping guidance.

A few nights outside of Diphda, as they gather around a campfire, Rose asks Zeke if he's ready to talk about his life pre-hellionization, so that she can understand what he remembers and what he has been through.

The water seraph agrees, and explains in brief how his memory has massive holes. He knows that he is a nature-born water seraph, born of seawater, and he was taken in almost immediately by “the Old Man of the Sea,” a seraph named Xavier. Xavier adopted him, and they relocated to a seaside village under the protection of an earth seraph.

“I don't remember much, it's so blurry, but I do remember that Xavier taught me his craft of fishing and slipping his catch of fish into the catch of other fishermen, to help a struggling fisherman to obtain a decent catch. And we found this… I guess the term is urchin? This dark little boy, Xavier said he couldn't be more than eight years old, and he was trying to steal from us because he was desperate. He was this odd boy, no one liked him, everyone was suspicious of him and either ignored him or abused him, because… well, I mean, you've seen Sorcha. You can tell he's not from Glenwood.”

“What do you mean?” Geoffrey asks.

“You… you've seen him.”

“Yes, I have. What about him says he's not from Glenwood?”

Ezekiel hesitates. What he is likely talking about is the fact that Sorcha has a dark complexion (his skin color reminds Rose of creamy coffee), coarse and curly black hair, extremely dark brown eyes, and his facial structure is very unique compared to anyone they've encountered recently. However, although Rose suspects that he is in fact not native to Glenwood (since his actual original name is a foreign word, and no one knows exactly where he came from, he might have been trafficked from another continent), he is not nearly so unique as Ezekiel thinks.

As Shepherd, Rose has traveled all over Glenwood and she has seen many, many people. She has seen people much darker and odder than Sorcha. There is an entire village on the outskirts in the far east of Glenwood, of people with skintones the color of wet loam, and eyes so dark that their sclera look supernaturally bright.

All the same, clearly Ezekiel has not seen anyone who looks like Sorcha, and so he assumes his brother to be an “other” sort of person.

Talys, once a fishing village, is now a port town, serving much of its coastal region and villages nearby, so there is a great deal more diversity than there used to be. The efforts of Shepherd Sorcha to clear the ocean of dangerous beasts has made the waters around Talys safe for large ships to come and go, and so the humble fishing village has flourished in the last decade.

Zeke sighs; “Anyway, he didn't look like anyone else in Talys, so the people avoided him and abused him. But he could see us, so Xavier decided to take him in and teach him how to fish properly. It took time for him to trust me, I remember that.”

Zaveid is grinning. “That kid. I remember when we met him. He was such a little bastard. Had quite a foul mouth on him too.”

Rose shakes that off; “Zeke, it sounds to me like you and Xavier didn't tell Sorcha why no one else could see you.”

“We avoided people so that he wouldn't figure out that no one else could see us. We made him do the selling, which was unpleasant but what really could we do? We wanted him to trust us and see us as family. At least, that's what I think was the goal. I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what Xavier was intending to do with Sorcha in the end; I'm pretty sure he had some end goal in mind, but he never really told me.”

“Why did you hide the fact that you're seraphim from him? I had to talk to Lilybell to find out about Xavier and you being seraphim, and Sco… Sorcha denied it instantly. It took some convincing.”

“I'm afraid I don't know. I was just following orders. But…” His forehead wrinkles and he looks away from them, out to a distant horizon. “Now that I think about it, I think… I think Xavier was grooming him for Shepherdhood.”

“I can't think of any other reason a seraph would raise a human child with high resonance. There's a precedent for this, after all.”

“I know,” Zeke murmurs. “I read about that.” He looks over at Mikleo. “The Celestial Record says Shepherd Sorey was raised alongside a water seraph in Elysia, with the aim of Shepherdhood.”

“That is true, yes,” Mikleo says, “though neither of us knew that was Gramps' intention at the time. We didn't find out until after Sorey had already become the Shepherd and I had become a Sub Lord. So, you think you and Sorcha were being raised together in the same way that Sorey and I were?”

“Well,” Zeke hesitated, “there's something… I think Xavier was raising Sorcha for Shepherdhood, but I'm not sure he was raising me for the same thing.”

“Oh!” Aeolia snaps her fingers loudly, drawing attention to her. “Oh my g… Zeke, did you say that Xavier called himself the Old Man of the Sea?”

“Yes, he did. And I remember something that Malachite told me, when I told him about Xavier. He said that he went into hibernation too. He refused to explain that any further so I gave up asking, but, I wonder if he knew Xavier?”

“What are you remembering?” Zaveid looks at Aeolia.

Aeolia's expression indicates she's putting something together in her mind; “Lailah, do you remember Shepherd Xavier? I… think was a good six hundred years ago.”

“Sorry,” Lailah shakes her head, “the name doesn't really ring a bell.”

“I just remember him because he didn't have a team; it was just him and his Prime Lord, no Sub Lords. And yet somehow they were very effective. His Prime Lord was a water seraph who called himself the Old Man of the Sea. I recall that Xavier was killed by the Lord of Calamity of the time. I don't know whatever happened to his Prime Lord.”

“Are you suggesting that the seraph Xavier is the reincarnation of Shepherd Xavier?” Zaveid raises his eyebrows.

“No,” Aeolia shakes her head firmly. “This is pure speculation, mind you, but perhaps the Old Man of the Sea was so traumatized by his Shepherd's brutal murder, that he went into hiding and took his Shepherd's name as his own, maybe as a way to keep a tiny part of their bond alive. And then he waited until he found a new Shepherd, but when he found someone with high enough resonance, it was a young boy, too young to make a Shepherd, so decided to raise that boy himself, to groom him toward Shepherdhood. Again, I'm just speculating, but if the seraph Xavier was once a Prime Lord who lost his Shepherd, it would make sense that he was looking for a new Shepherd. Either that, or this is all a weird coincidence.”

“Wait, are you saying Xavier likely knew the secret of purification?” Mikleo leans forward.

“It's possible, yes. I just find it a little too coincidental that a seraph named Xavier used the nickname of 'Old Man of the Sea' when Shepherd Xavier had a Prime Lord with that same nickname. If Malachite made a comment about going into hibernation, well…” She spreads her hands. “We all know what happened to Malachite's last Shepherd before Sorcha, right? If that had happened to me, I think I'd go into hibernation too.”

Zeke looks confused; “If Xavier knew the secret of purification, why didn't he protect himself, and me and Sorcha, from whatever attacked us? He must have used it to survive all those centuries; why didn't he use it then?”

Aeolia looks down, her expression sad. “Seraphim cannot use purification on their own. We must have a human vessel. Without a Shepherd pact to channel our powers through, we cannot purify anything. I'm sorry, but I can't say any more than that.”

They arrive in Elysia a few days later, and are greeted as they arrive by the entire village turning out to see them. The village elder and current Lord of the Land for the area is an old seraph by the name of Trioc. Corsaro and Mikleo pay their respects, and excuse themselves from their teams to make the rounds, greeting and catching up with old friends. Trioc sizes up the five new arrivals Geoffrey has brought him, and happily opens his arms in welcome to them all.

Geoffrey offers Corvex, Collin and Zeke the option of breaking their pacts and remaining here in Elysia with the rest of the villagers, but all three of them refuse immediately. Corvex is already enjoying living with them and learning how to fight hellions with Stonegard and Corsaro, and Collin is happy to learn from Aeolia. Zeke just states that he feels safest with the group and wants to stay.

With their task done, Rose and Lailah agree that they should leave soon. They intend to stay only one night – two at absolute most – to rest up, and then they intend to leave and return to Rose's duties to Glenwood, searching for hellions and purifying them, to reduce the overall corruption of malevolence and make all of Glenwood safer. They will stay here only as long as Mikleo needs, since this is still his home and he has obligations to his community.

Fortunately for them, Mikleo is ready to leave by the end of the day, so the next morning, they bid farewell to the village of seraphim, and Rose shares a long goodbye hug with Geoffrey. Aeolia and Lailah also share a hug (they are old friends, after all). Then, with their goodbyes out of the way, Rose and her five seraphim depart Elysia to return to her rounds throughout Glenwood.

Watching his mentor leave, Geoffrey feels a very different sense in his gut from the last time they parted like this. That time, he was filled with nervous anxiety. Armed with his new pact with Aeolia and two Sub Lords, looking forward at his life full of fighting hellions and purifying malevolence, he was anxious and a little frightened. But now, he feels only contentment and purpose. He has a full team, six seraphim, three of whom need him to guide them to their strengths. Zeke's rehabilitation will take a long time (Aeolia predicts it will more than a year before he is fully purged of all corruption and lingering doubts), Corvex needs tempering like a blade in a forge, and Collin is like a little sprout just waiting to bloom.

Of the three new seraphim who have joined him, Geoffrey finds an oddly soft spot in his heart for little Collin, the youngest, who is about the same age as Geoffrey's son was when he died. Collin looks like a young teenager, but he is only a few years old, and he clings to Geoffrey and Aeolia as if they are his parents. It is a comforting feeling; his son and daughter are gone to the afterworld, but he has another chance to raise a child, so to speak, and watch it grow.

He is proud of all of his seraphim and once they have Zeke confident enough to not hide from battle, he plans to take on the remaining Shrine Trials.

The intention is to head for Guinevere, the Wind Shrine, to give Aeolia her much-needed power-up, and then to Igraine, the Fire Shrine, to see if Zeke can handle combat, and then finally to Lefay, the Water Shrine, to finish things off. It is hugely ambitious to try to do this within a calendar year, but he and Aeolia are hopeful that their newly-filled team can handle this.

He really wants to have this done, so that in a year's time, when they converge upon Talys to reunite briefly with Sorcha, they can show the Dragonslayer just how much Zeke has grown. But he will not rush his seraphim; if it takes years for Zeke to reach his full potential, so be it.

EPILOGUE:

The Celestial Record shows that Shepherd Geoffrey the Educator achieves quiet acclaim. He is not a household name by any stretch of the imagination, not even at the height of his reign as a Shepherd, but his influence throughout Glenwood is widespread nonetheless. He ultimately becomes a beacon for other Shepherds, a scholastic bastion, and while he does not receive adequate credit for it, he is fundamental in the revival of the Shepherds as a cohesive resource for Glenwood. He trains many of the next generation of Shepherds, and he helps significantly in the rehabilitation of traumatized seraphim purified from hellion form.

In his tenth year as a Shepherd, Geoffrey parts ways with his original water seraph Ezekiel, who returns to the team of Shepherd Sorcha after the death of Sorcha's healing specialist, Ariadne. Ezekiel, who has learned advanced healing techniques thanks to his previous Shepherd's dedication to education, serves for the remainder of his life as Sorcha's healer.

At this time, Sorcha takes a three-month break to write about his experiences, to be recorded in the Celestial Record. He then returns to his ship and continues to quell deep-sea beasts until one fight becomes too much for him. It is recorded that Sorcha takes on only three Squires throughout his entire career as Shepherd, and none become Shepherds themselves, as two of them die in the line of duty, and the third (one of the very few survivors of the dragon attack that kills Sorcha and his seraphim) is too traumatized by what she survived and chooses to give up.

The fateful fight happens off the shores of Talys; a great deep-sea dragon ambushes the ship, and in the ensuing fight, the dragon kills Agni, Ezekiel and Malachite before Sorcha can kill it with the last of his strength; he succumbs to his wounds shortly afterward. Sorcha's remains are brought back to Talys, where he is interred beneath a statue that Geoffrey commissions in his memory. The career of Shepherd Sorcha the Dragonslayer, conqueror of hundreds of drakes and dozens of dragons, is widely celebrated decades after his death, and the impact of his work is felt for generations, as sea travel and trade flourishes with the waters safer. As for the seraphim Siren and Sigrun, it is unknown what their ultimate fates are, but they are known to have survived the loss of their Shepherd.

Shepherd Rose is recorded to have dwindling influence in her twilight years. She mentors several squires but only sees one more rise to take the mantle of Shepherd, before her health deteriorates so far that she retires her title and surrenders her pact. She lives a few years in retirement with her long time best friend, Lady Alisha, and is recorded to have died in her sleep at the age of 65 (ironically, she dies the same year as Sorcha). As for Lady Alisha and her husband, Alisha outlives both by more than a decade each (Sergei succumbs about ten years after Rose's death, and Alisha lives another twelve years after his death). After Alisha's death, her home is turned into a hospital, and the local seraph eventually goes into hibernation.

After the deaths of his dear friends, Sorcha and Rose, Geoffrey decides to settle down and found a school in Hyland (near Ladylake, and also close to the seraphic village of Elysia), a school for producing scholars to help revitalize and perpetuate the Celestial Record. He lives for many, many years in a modest apartment above his new school, becoming one of the longest-living Shepherds. He dies peacefully at the extremely old age of 103, surrounded by his seraphim, and is laid to rest with utmost honor in a tomb within his schoolgrounds.