A welcomed array of new nightmares plagued her sleep, and she spent most of the night on watch. Having those nightmares ensured that she was still herself. That after everything she had done, those human emotions of regret and guilt were still there.

They stayed a few days near the battlefield, Ana working with several others to bury the corpses in mass graves while Ice and others finally returned to the land of the living. With Angel there they only took two casualties, everyone else recovering. The severed body parts could not be regrown sadly, or if they could it was beyond what Angel could accomplish.

Artillery didn’t mind the loss of his hand, already thinking about designs for an artificial limb. Bard had lost an ear, but his hearing was still there, and it only made him look like a veteran that had survived a bloody battle.

Coal had it the worst, losing a leg below the knee meant his mobility was cut. But the military had a solution for that as well. While Angel couldn’t, there were those in the employ of the military who could in fact help regenerate missing body parts. Another great incentive to join.

After another day and night, they set out in the morning, heading towards the closest city of Ahok. They stuck together as even without the Targs there were dangers on the road. On the day they left, with a few nights of sleep and food, she had finally gotten her magic back. Testing out the wild part of her magic brought a surprise as it was no longer a green-red mist. The chaotic magic within her now manifested as a greyish mist, not returning to its original green. She needed Nathaniel to understand why, so the change got put on a shelf for now.

It was also the first time she expelled everything she had, so much so that she ended up unconscious. She was glad that the corpse-like features of the pale skin and blackened nails had gone unnoticed during the night and the day after. The blood that was smeared on her face helped that a lot.

Two days later they had to cross a small bridge and had decided to rest there for a few hours giving everyone a chance to wash up. The water was cold but with some ingenuity, Ana created a walled-off part that she could heat up. She figured out how Nathaniel made the magical items, but she also figured out why no one else was sporting such items.

You had to have magic to power such an item, and Nathaniel's home back in the capital had many such items he could power just by being in the house. An ingenious design that gave Ana the idea to do the same thing with stones she had found in the bank, etching them with magic and making them into portable heaters around her.

Everyone had room to wash up and then relax in some hot water, a blessing that meant they could all go right through the city without stopping. So they decided to stay there for the rest of the day, cleaning their gear and clothes. During the night Razor’s band caught up with them, having dispatched two groups they could find. The third splintered group got away, and with their numbers being less than a tenth of what they used to be they were able to hide from Razor.

And with the arrival of the mounted band, the entire group had stayed another day at the bridge. That gave time for the mounts to rest up while Ana and Nimble doubled back to check if they could find the last group. Luck was on the side of the Targs as there were no signs of the third group, and after spending half a day looking the duo headed back.

They continued the next morning, fresh and with vigor in their steps. It took them a little over a week to reach the city, Stone leading the way towards where they would stay. While similar, Ahok was a smaller city and so was their stay there. It gave Ana just enough time to see that there was nothing in particular to see before the orders to head back were issued.

Usually, their stay would have been longer, but the Targs had disrupted the trade on the road and had created a backlog of merchants and caravans. With their group heading back home anyway, they got a new assignment playing escort. It meant that they wouldn’t see home for the next two months at least.

Thankfully Ghost’s war band wasn’t solely in charge of the escort, with Razor and another group joining them, it got their numbers close to seventy capable fighters. It also meant that the forts Ana was used to making needed to be more than twice the size than usual.

That cut down her flying time which annoyed her to no ends. She had rejected an offer to escort ships for private merchants, an offer that would have made her rich in a few years, only to do the same thing here without the extra pay. The bodies of their friends were buried in the city. Jic was never the same after losing his brother but he was able to forge ahead thanks to Ana. Having to save her strength to make a fort in the evening, she was riding on Jic’s cart after they left Ahok, forming a strong bond of friendship between them.

The two brothers were always inseparable and had spent most of their time together. So instead of moping around, he got to training more, using his free time to practice and to learn how to fight. And he had the time to do so, as days slowly passed while their column of carts and wagons snailed along the road.

Two weeks of the monotonous journey passed without much happening. They weren’t stopping to look for monsters, focusing on the escort instead. That gave them enough time to sit around and relax, the journey turning into a vacation.

In that time both she and Angel got a lot closer to Ice, even joking around and calling her Melted or Melty instead. It was all in good fun. Wind and Jic had become a part of their clique as well. Several tournaments in chess were had, with Ana always ending on top. While she wasn’t a pro player, she knew the famous moves and had the proper mindset for playing such a game. Going for long-term benefits instead of easy early victories.

Ghost and Sunny were the only ones to come close to winning against her, and the more they played the closer they got. But for now, she was the reigning champion. The game had even spread through the larger group, with several other boards that looked less impressive but were still functional being made.

Her nightly activities increased as well but in an unexpected turn. Getting relieved from the watch during one night, she made her way towards her tent. Tired and with the nightmares finally leaving her was hoping for a peaceful night of slumber.

But then two hands reached from the tent and pulled her in. She found herself in the pitch darkness of the tent getting tickled and kissed by both Angel and Ice. With the help from Lia, she got into their personal dual think tank, communicating faster with thoughts while giving time for Ana to decide what to do in the physical world.

It didn’t help that Lia was all for fun, and she had to admit that sex was the best stress relief they had. By observing she already learned that it was a common occurrence for some. It boiled down to an individual’s sex drive and views on the matter. For most, it was just a fun pastime, but with both genders being present, everyone was extra careful not to get pregnant on an assignment.

Still, their bodies offered more than one way of pleasure, to some even better ways than the norm. Again she found herself in a situation where only her insecurities and fear were holding her back, so she decided to expand her horizons. With Lia there her insecurities about being inexperienced in such a casual past time were lifted, the spirit even showing Ana a few of her own memories of what she could only describe as a seductive jumble of limbs. Dozens upon dozens of limbs.

So nights went by with their little group expanding from time to time. There was no order to it. If a night when they all needed to blow off some steam came, they would gather naturally. It coalesced into a sixsome? Sextet? She didn’t even know the word for it. But she would be damned if it wasn’t fun. And she had to give it to the Bard, the man knew his way around. They all did in fact, causing her to thank Lia several times for helping out.

With Lia there, it might even make it a sevensome. She got rid of the labels, just saying it was a good time. The slow-moving group and the long breaks they were all taking had given them the opportunity to explore each other. And so it continued for the rest of that month. Nothing happening by day and a lot of something happening by night.

While her libido was young and healthy, she took brakes now on then. Not wanting to make a habit that she would miss later on. By the end of the month, they had reached a military fort in the north. Supplying the soldiers and taking the excess materials they had collected from monsters took only a few hours, and they were off again.

After that their journey got a little hot with two monsters being spotted and hunted down. Ana was only present for one hunt, left behind to protect the caravan during the other. But they were simple and went without a hitch with how much manpower they had right now.

The one she was a part of hunting was some fast-moving feline-like creature, and it had worked them to the bone. Killing it was easy, but catching it was much harder. They finally got it once night had rolled around, so getting back had left her filled with adrenaline, which was promptly drained that same night. And she had to give to it Lia, sex after a hunt or a battle was one of the most awesome experiences she had in this life.

The following weeks went on like the first few had, with not having much to do but slowly walk and talk. When they finally reached home it had been over ten months since she got stuck in this world, and for the first time, she found herself not hating it. The resentment was there since she got into this world, the anger of the injustice that was done upon her.

But now it had faded in the background. So much so that she didn’t consider herself a stranger in a new world anymore, but a regular Lagionian. The most common name for the world being Lagiona. In truth that name encompassed more than just the planet, some saw it as the word for the universe if their concepts reached that far. Ana felt safe knowing that outside of this planet was a solar system, one of many in a galaxy that it itself was a minor player on a universal scale.

The night sky had encouraged her belief that she was still in the Milky Way galaxy, but even if she wasn’t, it didn’t bother her that much. It just meant there would be more possibilities.

So much time had passed and she was doing completely different things in her life now. Before, she liked spending her time with some colleagues at the university as they tackled things like the Riemann hypothesis. It was mostly for fun and to share perspectives from different fields.

She remembered when someone had accidentally invited Sharon, who was a professor and had a Ph.D. in literature, while they were tackling a math problem. While funny at first the woman had some good insights and a very good handle of math, which had made her a regular in their meetings.

And now her funny stories came from watching Frost trying to arm wrestle Hammer for the thousand time. She had new friends with new ways to have fun now that everything had changed, and more importantly now that she had changed. It was freeing to not cling to returning back with every breath, and while she still hoped she could, the idea of living here was not that horrible anymore.

The road back had given her a lot of opportunities to practice new spells, perfect old ones, and generally to increase her proficiency in handling magic. With her progress, she couldn’t imagine where she would get in a few years, least of all decades, but it was fun to think about.

Their return was welcomed with fanfare and their parade through the city, with more people there to welcome them than usual. Considering that a group of fifty had battled and won over an enemy over six times their number, the celebration was welcomed.

For their success they were awarded five whole days of free time, having to go on their round once more. Monsters didn’t take vacations, and so they got denied theirs. And with harvest season so close they had the added duty of escorting villagers. Thankfully there were other groups helping in that regard so their round wasn’t extended by much.

She used those five days to get drunk. Spending the evenings drunk, the nights with friends with the added benefits, the mornings sleeping, and the days to visit Nathaniel and Lili. Borka had left somewhere saying that she would return, on some business for Adrasteia.

It made Ana wonder if she should have gotten better acquainted with the deity to square off her debt to the deity. And the idea of serving a deity who did good, and not just by her, but by others seemed tempting. But considering she had Lia to deal with, another voice in her head would create a crowd. And the goddess wasn’t likely to forget saving Ana’s life, so their paths were likely to cross in the future.

No new members had joined this time, the chores from the lost friends distributed evenly, and with some persuasion, even Ana got a few of them. She didn’t want to be seen as too stuck up to gather firewood, so she joined others as much as she could.

She did inquire about the change in magic she had observed but the question was left unanswered. Magic was highly individualistic and there was no cookie-cutter pattern she could rely on. Adding the chaotic and the blood magic into the mix had just deepened the mystery.

Their round went off like Ana’s first, without much fanfare or any trouble. They went with another group who was to escort the villagers. The two groups stuck together until they reached the last village, where they continued north while the others started their return with several carts to the south. They would backtrack through the other settlements and then make their way to the city.

Ghosts’ band continued on searching and hunting once more. The old dirt forts have all crumbled into mounds, but the ones created at the foot of the mountain were still standing, and one specific fort with an actual iron gate held a fun surprise for the group.

They hadn’t found any signs of activity and they went on without a significant encounter up until they reached the foot of the mountain. Inside the fort Ana worked extra hard to secure, going so far as to make an actual gate, was now occupied. Some clansmen saw the structure and had claimed it. Going so far as to throw rocks at them when they wanted to negotiate.

With Ana there, fighting over something so trivial seemed pointless. But she saw it as a challenge. With more experience and better control, she began construction on a new set of fortifications, thinking bigger and better this time around. While the same circumference, the walls this time wall taller, thicker, and sturdier. Wanting to outdo her previous success, she added an important addition, a watchtower. Reaching almost twenty meters high, it was made completely from stone.

Her spell was enough to tell her the best way to build, and as she melded the stone it was made from one piece. She didn’t know if it was capable of withstanding an earthquake, but several large tests that included throwing boulders at it showed that it was indeed sturdy.

It was a simple structure in truth, but tall enough to give them an excellent three hundred and sixty-degree vision of the surrounding area. And as a cherry on top, she stole back the door she had created, placing it on their fort instead. It was revenge for throwing rocks at their group instead of being peaceful.

That almost sparked a skirmish with the occupants, but they knew better than to engage someone who just stole a huge iron door and flew away with it. Nothing much came from that, but the watchtower did allow them to spot a monster in the distance. And when Ghost saw that Ana could pull off something like that, it became the norm. With only her hubris to blame she conceded, seeing the importance of such a structure.

In her mind, she was building a castle and not a tower, but whatever.

With the hunt, they stuck around the next day, and Ana felt bad about being so petty as to steal a door while the people there were only trying to survive. So with the cover the next night she replaced their door with a newly created one. This went unnoticed by all, friendly or not.

So their journey continued, with three more kills before they circled the mountain and reached the first village on their way back. Exchanging gear once more with the friendly clan. After getting the village traders their pace slowed once more. The monsters they encountered were similar to the first ant-like one Ana had faced.

All of them resemble large insects. Ghost had reassured her that there was nothing strange about that. The monsters were coming from the mountain chain in the north, and there wasn’t a pattern that any of them followed, except in the ever-increasing numbers.

After that, they entered routine once more with little to no activity. No monsters had ventured south of the Whispering mountain this time, not unusual with how many they encountered while going around it. One village after another and soon they had a whole caravan with them again.

It was a surprise to Ana when they headed towards the village that got turned by the vampire and later exterminated by them.

What was more of a surprise was that the village was once more occupied. New settlers had taken over the fields from the previous owners, and the new hamlet, while smaller than before, had a bustling community to welcome them.

With the smaller community, they were having some trouble with getting ready so the group decided to stay a full day, helping the farmers prepare for the trip to the city. But another surprise had waited for them inside.

A traveler had arrived a few weeks ago and she was sticking around helping the farmers in return for food and lodging. While that in itself wasn’t strange, once she and Ana saw each other, many things got revealed. The stranger noticed the armor and the weapons Ana was sporting, while Ana sensed that this person had magic. And not on the level of Ghost or Wind, but compared to Nathaniel or herself.

Simple eye contact was turned into a tense staring match, without either figure moving. Ghost noticed the tense situation and trusting in Ana he quietly sent Ice to inform the others while he stepped to Ana’s side. Far enough not to hinder her, but close enough to step in.