She couldn’t stop smiling under her hood as she got back with all of the logs. A level up to her magic was more than she’d expected from their trip and she immediately felt its effects as she floated the logs back. She still needed breaks as she went, but the entire task just felt simpler, and she was looking forward to testing how that increase improved her overall magic control when she got the chance.

That could come later as she was hunting though, first she placed the logs down gently in front of Fontesh’s home, being gawked at by a wide-eyed Delair as she did.

Ben came over after finishing whatever task he was on and gave it all a look over. “This is fantastic, thanks guys. Just need to dry them out. Oh but first, your staff.”

He held out his hand and she handed it over, watching him as he examined it before finally reapplying the sacrificial enchantments she’d broken on the walk over.

“It looks like the structure received a bit of damage, but it shouldn’t be a big deal. As long as you don’t aren’t doing anything like that without me there to manage the enchantments then everything will be fine.”

“Sounds good, anything else I can do to help you out in the meantime?”

“Well I need to apply some enchantments to the logs to dry them out, do you think you could work on brushing down the last wall with oil while I work on this?”

“Sure, no problem.”

“Fantastic! Delair, think you can show Thera how it’s done?”

“Yeah, come on!” The small girl said with enthusiasm, excited to show off her work. It seemed she’d been helping Ben while they were all gone and was looking forward to showing just what she’d learned. “You just do it like this.”

She watched as Delair haphazardly brushed the areas she could reach before taking the other brush and dipping it in the oil, trying to take a bit more care to get everything covered.

“I think I got it, thanks,” She told the child, trying to be encouraging as Delair beamed with happiness, renewing her efforts to work on what she could reach.

Since Thera was a fair bit taller, she took over getting the higher areas, leaving anything out of her reach for Ben to figure out. There had to be a ladder somewhere, but she couldn’t immediately see it and focused on what was in her range as she humoured the child with her as they spoke about the day.

As the night began to fall it was time to begin their hunt, though this time Ben stayed behind while Skoe was brought in tow, adding more combat power to their group.

She wasn’t thrilled with the change but knew that it would help get the work done quicker, she just had to deal with him for a few hours a night as they worked to chip away at the population and hopefully keep the forest safe so Sachel could complete her quest. She could play the teammate for that long at least before she got to go back to her normal routine of hunting with Ben, and it wasn’t like things had been particularly bad the previous night, there was no harm in some optimism.

Without Ben there though the walk out was far more quiet and tense, the conversation breaking down to Sachel explaining how they were going to do everything for Skoe’s sake until they finally made it to the edge of the sacred woods.

“Is everyone ready?” Sachel asked, getting nods from everyone. “Alright Thera, you’re up.”

She took off her cloak, letting it fall to the ground and having her staff ready in her hand, waiting for anything to fly out as the others also stood prepared for their fight, and after a few short minutes a group of frost bats, around ten in number began to pour out of the woods and make their way to her as she prepared a life spell to disorient them, at least until she spotted another preparing to attack out of the corner of her eye as the woods lit up.

You can’t be serious. There’s no way he’s that dumb.

If only she could be so lucky. The light she saw was Skoe, his body covered in his fire augmentation as he prepared his swords to attack, and without a moment of hesitation on her part, she stopped her own spell to quickly wrap herself in her coat again.

Neither Sachel nor Ralia had been expecting her to not go with the same plan they had yesterday, and without much choice, they started attacking the bats immediately as they closed in.

Sachel threw her water spell as Ralia transformed and went on the attack, killing four of the bats themselves as Skoe threw himself into the brawl, slicing through two more bats with his swords wrapped in flames.

It wasn’t a bad turn of events, but without Thera drawing them in with her charm or disorienting them with her magic, the remaining four were able to shake off enough of the effect they were under to fly off into the night and back to safety.

“Not bad for our first round of the night, is it?” Skoe asked, feeling cocky about how well that went before being brought to the ground as Thera swung her staff at his leg with all of her might.

It hadn’t been a planned action, but she was so filled with rage she couldn’t help but act. “You fucking idiot! Do you just not think about your actions, or are you actually braindead?”

“Hey what the hell do you think you’re-”

“No, what the hell do you think you’re doing!” She yelled at him before reaching down to pick something up, only to immediately whip it at his face. “What the hell do you think that is?”

He was struck square in the forehead and looked like he was ready to get up and fight as he looked at the item. “What, isn’t this just the stupid amulet?”

“Just the amulet? Oh my god you absolute tool, let me spell it out for you. You burned off the cord for it while I didn’t have my cloak on, what the fuck did you think was going to happen?”

His anger subsided as he realized what she was saying, but didn’t disappear. “Alright, my bad but chill out, it was a mistake.”

“Oh yeah, because I’m sure if I didn’t rush to throw on my cloak as soon as I realised that you really are that stupid, you’d be able to react appropriately and accept it was your fault when you fell under my magics effects,” She told him, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Just hurry up and go back for the night ‘cause now we can’t do anything with you here.”

He tried to get up to argue with her, but even if she wasn’t strong, a blow to the knee with a metal bar did a fair amount of damage and he could barely support himself.

Sachel ran over to apply her life magic as Ralia stepped in to scold her. “Thera you went too far, it was a mistake but everything turned out fine, you didn’t need to blow up at him.”

“Well, there’s two things you need to keep in mind. A, even if I’m playing nice right now I fucking hate all of you, and B, in case you’ve forgotten everything that happened while I was being harassed by Roan, since I’m the one with the passive magic, I’m also the one that gets the blame for other peoples mistakes. Now are we continuing the hunt tonight or not?”

Sachel briefly looked to Ralia before giving an answer. “Maybe it would be best to finish for today and start fresh tomorrow night.”

“Fine,” She wasn’t particularly in the mood to continue anyway, so as the others worked on treating him she stormed off back to the village.

When she got back she went straight to the room, feeling Ben there and finding him laying down, writing notes about something or other.

“Hey Thera, you’re back- what’s wrong?”

Even with her cloak on he saw right through her, though it was probably easier than usual given how she felt. Stress and anger the likes of which she hadn’t experienced since dealing with Roan’s harassment and the subsequent isolation bubbled up, and she couldn’t trust herself to talk.

Not bothering to change, all she did before getting into bed was take her cloak off as she wordlessly buried her face in Ben's chest and let herself cry.