Bonny stumbled out of the carved, stone archway on shaky legs. Travelling through the Gates connecting the Rings was a nauseating experience, and in the past three weeks, she had gone through five of the damn things. Yeah, blame it on the gates, she thought, cradling her stomach.

The city of Exodus greeted her with the smell of sweat and the sound of hundreds of overlapping voices. She was standing on a raised platform that led out into the cobbled stone streets below, the tall buildings of dark oak and stone standing like sentinels on either side of the street. Her already sick stomach turned.

“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to step down from the platform,” a guard said to her right, his tired brown eyes drooping with boredom.

Bonny mumbled her thanks and stepped into the semi-crowded street. She had dressed casual today, her thief leathers no longer as loose as they had once been. Instead, she wore a loose green shirt and brown pants. She was not so far removed from the streets as to dress like a mark for any potential thieves.

Her shoes made little sound on the cobbled street, and as she walked past shop after shop, her mind turned towards the reason for her journey to the First. For a time, she had considered staying with her brother Horace in his shop in the Fifth Ring, but Ryu would have found her there easily. Not to mention, she had no intention of staying in Haven ever again. The muddy streets and dirty buildings held no special place in her heart. No, she was headed towards the one place Ryu would never go: his home.

Bonny did not hate Ryu. She loved him as much as her heart could handle. The man was just in a rough spot, and though she wished she could be there for him, the other love of her life had demanded a change. Living with a lying, bloodthirsty man was no place to raise a family.

A wandering hand caught her attention. She snatched the wrist, looking at the dirt-smeared face of the small boy. An orphan, not too dissimilar from herself as a child. She let him go with a sigh. He would not realize it now, but she had placed a decent-sized Qi crystal in the pocket of his raggedy shorts. Perhaps she was not in the best place to be a parent, either, but for better or worse, fate had taken that decision from her hands.

From Exodus, Bonny hired a carriage to take her to House Ishida lands. With the speed of the enchanted carriages, it would only take hours to reach the place Ryu grew up in. She settled into the plush leather seat with a sigh. The scenery started to roll past from her window.

The First Ring was divided between a multitude of factions, their borders shifting with every dispute, skirmish, and squabble between the major players. Exodus was considered a neutral zone, but as she travelled, she headed into territory patrolled by men in plate armor on horses. Then came a city of steel and glass buildings, its lights sparkling like a thousand stars. On and on, the scenes changed, and after a few hours, she grew disinterested, turning instead to a book she had kept in her storage ring. For a long portion of her life, Bonny had not known how to read, and she was determined to make up for lost time now that it seemed she had retired from the active combat scene. It was a temporary retirement, however. She would not abandon Ryu, though he probably believed otherwise.

She had fallen asleep when the enchanted carriage halted. It was self-driven, only needing to be commanded by one of the Classers at the station she had rented it from. She sighed. The carriage had stopped at a sister station to the one in Exodus, and she climbed out of the vehicle, looking at the walls of the city in front of her. Matsumoto, the capital of House Ishida lands.

Matsumoto was built onto the side of a mountain, and from her spot below the city, it looked like a staircase, each layer of homes and buildings rising above the previous row. She admired their gently curving roofs and enchanted paper doors as she entered the city. It was a shame Ryu had never spoken of the place; it was quite beautiful. Still, she would only be here for the night. Her destination was an estate hours away from the capital.

She found an inn to stay in for the night, and the next morning, she was forced to hire a carriage with an actual driver to take her to the estate. It seemed Jinn was a private man, and he had not allowed the enchantments needed to produce a signal for a self-driving carriage to be placed in his home. She only hoped he felt more welcoming to other intrusions.

Jinn’s estate turned out to be a small town. Hundreds of homes and shops surrounded a modest, walled keep, and Bonny walked past the gently curving roofs of the stone houses with a smile. The place seemed like a fairytale, the lush forest surrounding the town a far cry from the misty mountains of Matsumoto. Her joy seemed to carry her to the gates of the keep.

“Halt! What business do you have with the Lord Jinn?” a guard cried. He stood by the open wooden gate of the keep, looking at her with a puzzled stare. She figured they did not see many pale redheads like herself out here, and the thought would have made her laugh if she was not confused, too. How many lords did the House Ishida have? She knew there was a sort of hierarchy with Ishida Haru at the top, but it still felt odd to see for herself that Ryu was nobility.

“I wish to speak to the lord. I’m his nephew’s… wife.” It was a lie, but she was sure Ryu would not mind. They had lived together long enough to be married in the eyes of anyone not a priest.

“You’re married to Ryu?” the guard said. “How is the lad? Haven’t seen him in ages.”

She smiled. “You know Ryu?”

“Know him? Hells, I practically helped raise the boy. Hold on, I’ll send someone to go grab Jinn.”

The guard disappeared behind the gate for a moment before returning with a smile. Bonny burned to ask the older guard- who she learned was named Aizen- questions about Ryu as a child, but she held herself back, making small talk until a bear of a man walked out from behind the gate.

Jinn was a tall, well-built man with black hair that was starting to gray and wrinkles at his eyes from smiling. He smiled at her now, standing in front of her in plain clothes.

“Your Ryu’s wife?” he asked in a deep baritone.

“Yes, sir,” she said. He looked like Ryu but without all the sharp edges she was used to.

He laughed. “No need for that. Come on in. Family shouldn’t stand out in the street.”

Family. The word warmed her, and she followed Jinn past the keep’s courtyard and into the well-lit wooden keep. He led her into a dining room, where lanterns hung from the ceiling. A boy already sat at the long wooden table, looking no older than eight or nine.

“Dad, who is that?” he whispered to Jinn as they sat at the table.

“Have some patience, my boy,” he said, rustling the kid’s hair. He turned to Bonny. “This is my son, Itsuki. So where’s Ryu?”

She thought for a moment, unsure how to start. “Nice to meet you, Itsuki. My name is Bonny. Ryu is in the Sixth Ring,” she said.

“The Sixth Ring? That’s so cool,” the boy said. “Dad, can we go see him sometime?”

Jinn’s eyes never left her, seeming to see something in her expression. “Itsuki, would you mind going to help Ms. Ito make lunch? You didn’t hear it from me, but she has chocolate in there.” The boy gave Bonny a wide grin and rushed from the room. Jinn sighed. “What’s happened to my boy?”

“Ryu is… He’s fine. Physically, at least. He’s just caught up in a certain kind of lifestyle, and I’m…”

“Pregnant,” Jinn finished. He smiled, though she could see the worry in his eyes. “I don’t mean to be rude, but if Ryu didn’t bring you here, then why did you come?”

She blushed, despite her efforts not to. Why indeed… “I don’t have much family,” Bonny said. “And I want our child to grow up like Ryu did.”

He leaned back into his chair. “Any friend of Ryu’s is welcome here, and like I’ve said, you are family. I’d love nothing more to see my grandchild grow up in the same home my boy did, and one day I’ll talk some sense into my son and get him to come home, too. In fact, I had plans to do just that, but I’ll postpone them until you’re settled.”

“You were going to talk to Ryu?” she said, rubbing the small bump of her stomach.

Jinn laughed. “I did. I guess you wouldn’t know, but the boy just turned up to the Ishida branch in the Sixth and joined the Aristocracy’s military. Now that I know where the idiot is, I plan on making the trip myself and talk to him. We’ve written back and forth some, but twelve years is too long for a father to not see his son, even if he doesn’t think of me that way.”

“He does. He’s always called you his dad.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Jinn said, rubbing his beard like Ryu did. “My brother is… Well, he’s not a good man, if I’m honest. Always worried that Ryu’s hate for him would send him down a darker path. But enough of my fool son. How’s my grandchild?” The excitement was evident in his voice.

Bonny laughed. “Good.”

“I can have a physician brought in from the town, and oh, Ms. Ito is going to pester you something fierce when she hears your Ryu’s wife. She was friends with Ryu’s mother, and when Hana passed away, she took it upon herself to spoil the brat. Suppose she’ll want to do the same for his kid, too.”

The two continued to talk, discussing what Bonny would need in the coming months and getting to know each other. It was a strange feeling for her. Ryu had talked about Jinn so much she almost felt like he knew him, and now, she was going to live under the same roof all of her love’s stories had happened under. She only hoped she was making the right choice.

“Milord, we have received a missive from the capital,” a servant said, peeking into the room.

For the first time, Jinn’s expression went flat.