Helnion was sitting in Salis' usual spot. Ever since they took Salis she had sat here and watched, hoping her friend would come down one of the paths.

“So you are still sitting here,” sat down next to Helnion.

Helnion glanced at Perrinu and then at the entourage and other men that had followed her.

"I wonder which of these paths Salis will walk down when she frees herself?"

"Salis will be jumping from rock to rock," Helnion imagined Salis jumping towards them.

Perrinu laughed lightly, "Yes, I suppose you are right." Perrinu's expression saddened. "If she can get past those powerful men Martu mentioned…"

Helnion looked at Perrinu again, "No need to worry."

"I know, but even the men I have helped leave this place over the last few days has not helped my sadness."

Helnion had been a little curious about how and why they left, but she had let other things distract her.

"Try taking lessons from Martu,” a scowl appeared on Helnion’s face at the memories of Martu's increased training that had come after Salis' capture.

“I do not think so.” Perrinu looked just as disgusted with the thought as Helnion felt, “I have seen how hard Martu has been driving you these past few days.”

"I hate training with the sword and bow."

"Yes, I can see why. Your body does not seem to enjoy doing that kind of thing."

Helnion nodded in agreement. Her body still refused to do anything exactly the way Salis and Martu had been trying to teach her, and her rich background had meant letting servants do everything that required much work. So, physically demanding things were foreign to her.

She knew that her problem was that she needed to concentrate more on the things she was doing, but life seemed much more pleasant if you did not worry about one thing for too long. A part of her had wished that she had been pushed harder when she was younger. Maybe if she had, she would not have been as bad as she was now?

The one thing she regretted now that she had had so much time to think these past few… months? Was that she had never tried hard to make friends. Before she met Salis, she had thought having no friends was fine, but now that she had one true friend in Salis and was now getting close to Perrinu she realized how much more fun life was when you did things with someone else.

She knew how lucky she had been getting that cute little white-haired girl as her friend. She knew Salis hated being around people, maybe even hated people in general so becoming her friend in of itself meant much to her. Of all the people Salis chose as her friend, it had been her.

Helnion did not quite know exactly what Salis thought of her, but she did not care. Neither of them were talkers, so it was not surprising. It was probably one reason they had become friends.

Over the time that the two had been friends, Helnion thought she had changed for the better. Her grades had gone up in math and even her other classes. Salis had not enjoyed teaching much, but she was good at it, or at least Helnion thought so.

Salis had also helped her in other ways. The biggest one had been that she was better at concentrating. Aside from Concentration Mode, she found that her mind wandered less now, and she got more done than before.

While some of her improvement had been during their year at school, scheming their next project, this place had helped, there being fewer distractions. Her training with swords and moving the stones had done it, or so she thought. While Salis trained, she had forced herself to watch her every move.

Now that Salis was gone she thought more and more. At first, she thought about saving her, but Martu and Perrinu had stopped that plan and now she often thought about the past.

She thought about all the fun things they had done together like she had dozens of time in this place, but now she thought about her family more.

This was because when she had first come she had had dreams about her family. This was not unusual, so she never paid much attention to them, but now she wondered how they were doing. If they were still looking for her.

"What are you thinking about?" Perrinu asked.

"My family."

"Do you mind if you tell me about them? I have been meaning to ask you for a while now but have been so busy lately…"

Helnion nodded, "Papa travels a lot at Flae or inspects our land and Mama is usually with him or her friends."

"So you do not get to see your parents much?"

Helnion shook her head.

"Oh," Perrinu gave Helnion a sympathetic smile, "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

Helnion nodded, "Two big brothers and a younger brother and sister."

"What are they like?"

"Big Brother Ata is always at school in Flae training to take over for Papa so he I never saw him, but NiNi always played with me and he would take me to forests to explore."

"NiNi?" Perrinu looked confused at the name.

"Big Brother Nie," Helnion had forgotten to use her brother's real name.

Perrinu smiled, "What a cute nickname."

"He calls me Helny."

"Helny? That is cute too. Maybe I should use it too."

Helnion scowled.

Perrinu laughed. "Okay. So only Nie can call you that."

"Yes."

"What of your little sister?"

"Miro is too young for me to play with."

"Oh? How old is she?"

Helnion thought. It had been over a year since she had seen her little sister so… "I think she should be six by now."

"Oh wow. I wish I had had a little sister."

Helnion had expected Perrinu to get a lonely look in her eyes at the mention of her family, but she kept smiling.

"What about your little brother? Were you close to him?"

Helnion shook her head, "He thinks girls are gross."

Perrinu laughed, "I have always wondered why so many boys think that way."

Helnion began to feel a great sadness now that she was thinking of her family. She thought about many “what ifs.” She wondered what it was like to be in a family where you saw your parents and siblings every day. A family where the only interaction a child had was not with just servants and tutors.

"Is something wrong?" Perrinu leaned forward to get a better look at Helnion’s face.

Helnion shook her head. She did not want to put her worries on Perrinu when she already had so many of her own and the gross-looking men.

Helnion had one thing to make her happy because Salis had become her family. Salis liked her for who she was. Salis, even in her own way, had helped her with her problems. She knew she would not admit to helping her, but it was one thing she had noticed.

Now Salis was gone. Was she even alive? Helnion knew in her gut that she was alive and fine, she just wished that there was something she could do. Salis had done so much for her and now Helnion wanted to do what she could and help her friend. For now, all she could do was train, no matter how bad she was or how much she hated it. If it meant helping save her, she would do it.

Helnion stood up and stretched. Martu and Perrinu were all she saw now. Martu's training was long and hard, but it was something she would do. She hoped that she would soon be good enough to go with the rescue party they were planning. She needed to show him she could handle herself.

"Do you know when Martu wants to do another rescue?" Helnion asked Perrinu.

Perrinu shook her head, "Martu and the others are still trying to find out how to fight off those strong men and are trying to convince more men to join them in the attack."

Helnion looked at the men gathered just far enough away to not get attacked by whoever was Perrinu's bodyguard at the moment.

Perrinu sighed, "I did not realize how much they hated Salis. Many of them will not even do it if I ask."

“Are you going to see Martu?” Perrinu said after a moment.

Helnion nodded.

“Can you tell him I want to see him after your training? I want you to come too.”

Helnion watched Perrinu for a moment before starting her walk to where Martu would be waiting. She hoped that the meeting would be about rescuing Salis.

The training went as usual. Helnion had gotten better at not randomly dropping the sword and, while she had improved significantly, she was still clumsy when compared to Salis. Even Martu without a sword easily bested her. She just hoped she had improved enough to make it through a fight without getting hurt. Most of the men here were untrained, but the enemy had numbers so she worried.

The training had improved her athletic ability. At first, she had a hard time breathing in this place and just walking tired her. Now she could run and leap from rock to rock almost as well as Salis, providing she did not slip or trip on something.

Helnion soon found herself in the meeting place where Perrinu and Martu would be waiting. The meeting place was just outside The Inner Sanctum and was a large circle surrounded by stones, had many rows of stone benches, and a scattering of rock “chairs” that she used when they ran out of rocks that were the right size for benches. This was also the one place in the Rock City, as she liked to call the field of rocks they now lived in, that Salis refused to come.

Right now there were only a few people in the meeting place. Perrinu and Martu were here but there were several others. These others were those that, from what Helnion could tell, had been some sort of leaders before they had died and had now found themselves in the same position here and helped maintain order or whatever leaders did. They were also all good fighters too.

There was one last man in the group, called Bug by Salis and Ernon by Perrinu. Unlike the others, he had nothing to contribute to a meeting where one planned war stuff like this. Normally Helnion thought a man like this would not have even been invited to the meeting. He probably never got invited and had just come.

Still, everyone ignored him because they were so used to seeing him as he followed Perrinu almost everywhere she went.

He did not talk much, so no one knew what went on in his head but there were two things obvious about him. The first was that he saw Perrinu as almost a god.

Perrinu had at first tried to convince him to stop and that she was just a normal person who did not deserve such attention just because she was trying to help. When that did not work so she, and everyone else, had given up and let him do what he wanted.

The second thing that everyone knew about Bug was that he hated Salis. No one knew all the reasons, but Helnion knew one was the fact that he was one of the several that had been killed repeatedly at that one time at the pool of black watery stuff and he remembered it. It was that, or he was jealous of how Perrinu gave Salis more attention than him.

Helnion still bet on the killing thing.

Thinking about this reminded Helnion about the time when Bug had kept attacking Salis and an annoyed Salis finally killed him. Perrinu had scolded Salis, but Salis walked off and disappeared for a few hours.

Perrinu had become worried because she had seen neither for a long time. It was normal for Salis to go missing for hours on end, but it was unusual for Bug to be away from Perrinu for so long. So Perrinu had gone off to see what was wrong. Helnion had also gone to look for Salis, suspicious that she was off to something and wanted to watch.

Helnion had found Salis on the outskirts of the Rock City after asking a few of the men. She was sitting on a rock with her bow out. Helnion said nothing and sat on a rock nearby and watched, wondering what the other was up to.

A while later Salis readied an arrow. Helnion looked to see what she would shoot and saw a silhouette slowly growing in the haze. From the shambling gait, Helnion had a good idea who it was. It was probably Bug and Salis intended to shoot him, probably for a third or fourth time considering how much time had passed.

Before too long it was obvious it was Bug. With that broken leg at an odd angle and the gash on his stomach, there was no way it was not Bug. The poor man was enraged. Despite being obviously out of breath, he was moving as fast as he could towards Salis, who watched and waited.

Helnion knew what the result would be and it would not be good for Bug. If Salis had been showing emotion on her face, she bet Salis would grin in anticipation of the kill to come. Well, maybe. The girl's emotions were still a bit of a mystery even after being with her all this time so she could not be too sure.

Bug had gotten within ten paces of Salis when it happened. In an instant, she had readied the bow and fired. The arrow lodged right in Bug's chest and an instant later he collapsed into a pile of dust, right next to three other fresh piles.

So Salis had killed him three times before Helnion had come.

Helnion had expected Salis to sit back down on her rock, but she instead stood up, grabbed the arrow she had shot, and then headed back inside Rock City.

Helnion followed her, having no reason to stay, and soon found herself in the Inner Sanctum eating a meal with her friend as if nothing had happened.

Perrinu never found out that Salis had been shooting Bug like that. There was no way no one else had not seen Salis doing what she had done with how many aimlessly walked around everywhere, but no one brought it up. No one talked very much anyway, probably because not very many people knew the same language or they had nothing to say.

The only clue that said that others had seen her shooting Bug was that a new nickname for Salis began circulating after that. It was “Bug Killer.”

To that, she replied, “How simple. 'Bug Exterminator’ would have been much better.”

She never mentioned it again because the men had already given her several other nicknames. Most of them involved the word demon, emotionless, and killer in the various languages.

Salis almost seemed proud of this.

In time as the men grew used to her, and she got attacked less by random men, therefore killing less, the mutual hate had lessened and the name-calling with it. The only problem was that this had made her more restless so she patrolled even more.

The months had passed like this until Salis' capture. Her aimless wandering had led to the current situation. Helnion just hoped it would turn out well and that they would rescue her friend without too much trouble. She did not expect it to, unfortunately.

So now here she was. At a meeting to see how to rescue her friend.

None of the men at the meeting spoke the same language so there was not too much talking going on. They had decided to all learn Perrinu's language, and she had gladly agreed to it but it had turned out to be much harder than they had thought as the magic translator that Usui had given her translated everything she said into their languages and so she ended up having to teach them her alphabet and then going from there.

This had made some progress and the men could say basic things to each other. Helnion was sure they would have known a lot more now, but Perrinu had discovered how to make the men disappear and had devoted most of her time to that now. She wondered how big of a problem this would make the meeting.

Helnion was the last one to arrive. Everyone saw her and as soon as she sat down Perrinu stood up from her rock and started speaking.

“I have called you all here so we can make a plan on how to rescue Salis,” Everyone nodded but not all looked like they cared, “I asked you all after the first rescue attempt to think of any ideas. I know Martu and others have already started on this but I feel a formal meeting will make more progress.”