“Who might this mysterious opponent be?” I asked.

“He’s called ‘the boss.’”

What kind of silly name is that...?

Hayla sounded very confident that her information was valuable, but I had to seriously wonder whether it actually was. I had never heard of a “boss” here, and the claim that this person was somehow more dangerous than the Fighters seemed dubious at best.

I briefly glanced at Berla, who signaled to me that she didn’t know what this was about either, indicating that it might be fabricated. However, looking at Hati, he seemed to believe her to be telling the truth, and he was nodding his head quite vigorously, as if he was very sure of this guess.

“I’m privy to information you won’t get easily from anyone else,” she said. “Did you know that the Rulers have secret weapon storages? And what do you know about black stones? I’m serious when I say that I will make it worthwhile to you.”

Wait, what? Black stones? I thought, and while I tried to control my facial expressions, I had no doubt that she noticed my surprise.

I didn’t know what information she could possibly have about black stones, but the fact that she knew anything about them was intriguing. People hiding weapons could also be potentially problematic. Nobody but the Fighters was supposed to be armed, and as per Alarna custom, the Rulers didn’t ignore this law either. At least not openly. Perfectly ordinary weapons could still easily kill us though, and if anyone might be carrying something more potent than a small knife, that could be dangerous. Lastly, there was this mysterious “boss,” who was supposedly a big threat as well.

When we talked to all the important people in town, I had been focused on learning how the town worked, and less on the people themselves. I thought we were doing well, because we had gotten all the technical information we needed, but unless she was making all of this up, I had obviously made a mistake by not looking deeper.

She knew which buttons to press, I had to give her that. I was very curious to learn more, and who knew what other knowledge she might have. Marriage didn’t mean much to me, so I naturally considered the pros and cons of such a deal, and there really weren’t all that many cons from where I stood. I assumed that she had been prepared well for the leadership role, she was clearly smart, and she appeared to have quite a bit of information that would be of use to us. Not to mention that being engaged to her would presumably give us more legitimacy in the eyes of the opposition as well. Maybe we could at least think about how we can make use of this, though I needed more information about her intentions.

“Out of curiosity,” I said, “what are the exact terms you have in mind?”

“Let’s not make it complicated. I will accept your proposal and help you in any way I can. In exchange, you will join the Varant family by way of holy marriage, with everything that entails, including making me your number two. And should Lilly and you abdicate, you will endorse me as your successor. That’s all I need to ensure my family’s future.”

I hadn’t been too interested in how the Rulers managed their command structure, but I did know that Berla’s aunt, the king’s deceased wife, had essentially been the first lady and vice president in one, and that her mother, the king’s sister, had taken over that job to help her brother. Based on what Hayla said, it sounded like it was normal or expected to make your spouse your number two. Though that was more or less what I would’ve expected, with the new king or queen becoming the second most powerful person.

“Would you give us a few minutes?” I asked her. “I’d like to discuss something with the others.”

For the first time, she glanced behind her, at Berla and Riala. “With them?” she asked suspiciously. “No, I believe I would like an answer now. My husband must be able to make decisions on his own,” she said with a mischievous smile.

Putting a gun to my head? Meh, that’s low. And I didn’t like that look you gave Berla just now...

I put my hand on the desk and signaled Tomar that I wanted to hear his opinion, while acting as if I was deep in thought.

‘Huh? You want to know what I think...?’

(Yes,) I gestured inconspicuously, by briefly raising my index finger.

‘You’re thinking about it. Of course you are...’ he said with a sigh. ‘But you have Berla. You wouldn’t suggest that we actually marry her...’

(Yes.)

‘So you want to agree, get her help, learn what she knows, but not go through with it.’

(Yes.)

‘Hm... I want to say that sounds a little mean, but I’m annoyed by how she’s ignoring her own cousin, and she still gets a good deal by getting out of prison right now... Do it.’

Good man.

“Well,” I said, “we’re under a bit of time pressure right now, so we would have to wait a little.”

“That’s fine, we have four months after all,”

Four months? Why four... Hm, whatever.

“Very well,” I said, agreeing to the deal.

“Let me ask you officially then,” she said. “Will you marry me, in the eyes of the gods?”

“Yes.”

As the word left my mouth, I noticed that Berla’s head snapped in my direction, her eyes wide. “No! Miles, wait!” she yelled as she propped herself up.

It seemed like a bit of an overreaction to me, since I expected her to know that I didn’t mean it, but I guessed I would just have to explain it to her in a minute. She would surely understand, seeing how she wasn’t the type to get hung up on me messing a little with someone in this way.

However, it only took a second until I realized that I had obviously missed something. Out of nowhere, right above the desk, an Omega script appeared in the air between me and Hayla. It looked just like the ones the gods would draw, but there was no god in sight. What was more, I didn’t recognize half of the characters in it, and it was already starting to fade away, while I was still wondering what was going on.

With half a mind, I managed to push out a “Riala!”, just in case she hadn’t been looking. The script had appeared, flashed up, and then faded away. After only a couple of seconds, it was already gone again. Even though the script was relatively short, I didn’t have enough time to memorize it, and I could only hope that she had gotten it, just like she had been able to remember Gallas’ script in Cerus.

Hayla smiled at me contentedly. It didn’t seem like this had been a surprise for her, and Berla presumably knew something about it as well.

“What was that...?” I asked.

“Oh, you haven’t seen it before? It’s the engagement scripture,” Hayla said. “To think that you of all people wouldn’t know it.”

... Engagement scripture...? What the hell? Okay, back up. She said we would make it official... In the eyes of the gods... Did she say “holy” marriage? Does that have... a special meaning? Oh dear...

“Ria, you got it?” I asked with a slight panic.

“Yup!”

“Good...” I said as I let out a sigh of relief.

Okay, relax. Whatever just happened, we have the script.

“Hm? Got what?” Hayla asked.

“Oh, don’t worry about it.”

“There’s no need to keep secrets from me anymore,” she said. “I would never betray my fiance.”

“That’s good to hear, but forgive me for being a little careful for now.”

“Alright, I understand.”

I saw Berla let herself fall back on the couch, with wide eyes and an angry expression.

Need to get Hayla out... Need to talk to Berla... For better or worse, the deal is over, right...? Okay, let’s go from there.

“Well, how about we give you a room for now, let you freshen up a little, and we’ll talk more later, once you’ve settled in?”

“Very well,” she said, and we both stood up.

I called for Bren and gave him quick, roundabout instructions to essentially accommodate her, feed her, and get her some fresh clothes, while making sure she behaved. Even though this didn’t sound very trusting at all, she didn’t seem to mind.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know you better, Tomar. Until then,” she said, and left the office.

Both Berla and I were staring at the closed door, waiting for Hayla to get a little farther away from it, before we looked at each other with mixed expressions.

“Why didn’t you listen to me!?”

“What was that!?”

Berla and I asked simultaneously.

“It was an engagement sanctioned by the gods!”

“Your warning came too late!”

We said at the same time again, and I quickly continued.

“What did I just do!?”

“A holy marriage means that you involve the gods! It’s like... a contract between the fiances! Damn it...” she said in frustration. “I saw that you were talking to Tomar, but when I realized that you probably both don’t know what this is, it was already too late... You didn’t want to actually marry her, right?”

“Of course not! But what does this mean exactly?”

“You two need to marry within half a year, or you’ll suffer the wrath of Kyu.”

“That sentence sounds ridiculous...”

“That’s what the priests always say, blame them!” she said, exasperated.

“Kyu... Hm. Which one was that... Oh, of course, the god of love and families... Fuck. Me.”

‘Fuck us...’

“Right... Sorry, Tomar,” I said, before focusing on Berla again. “What else? That’s not all, is it?”

“No... there’s much more once you actually get married... but that’s not going to happen, right?” she said with a scrutinizing look.

“Not if I have anything to say about it... I just wanted to get her knowledge!” I said with a sigh.

“Done!” Riala said all of a sudden and held up a piece of paper, which I grabbed immediately.

“Good job, Ria! We would be lost without you,” I said, which elicited a proud grin from her.

I looked at the script that had appeared in the air and tried to read it, but my initial impression was right, a good portion of these characters I didn’t recognize.

“Great, custom characters... Even the gods use the base characters in their scripts, but not this one? Why!?”

“Maybe to make it impossible to break the contract...” Berla said.

“Yea, probably...”

Whatever this script did exactly, we now had another problem on our hands. Sure! I thought. Why not? Let’s have magically enforced engagement and marital contracts! Sounds like a nifty idea! What. The. Fuck!

***

Late in the evening, Berla and I were sitting on the couch in the office alone. After spending the better part of the afternoon discussing things with her and trying to decipher the new script, Tomar and I paid a brief visit to Hayla, to let her know that we would start working together tomorrow. We didn’t stay long, however, since I was mad about what had happened, even though I didn’t really blame her. It had been a careless mistake on my part.

“I promise you, I’ll do whatever I can to get us out of this,” I said to Berla next to me.

“You said that a few times already, you know?”

“Yea, I know...”

She had been angry at first, but she understood that it had been an accident, and she trusted that I would do what I could. Really, at this point, it seemed like I felt way worse about it than she did.

“There’s no reason to be mad about it now, right? I can still punish you if you don’t succeed...” she said, half joking and half threatening.

“Yea...”

We sat side by side like that for a little while, without either of us saying anything. There was something else I had wanted to talk to her about, however.

“Maybe it’s weird to bring this up after today... but we didn’t talk about us yet...”

“Us?”

“Well, Lilana is gone... and I’m back in Tomar’s body. Is this... weird for you?”

I had noticed that she wasn’t looking for physical contact as much since Lilana was gone, and while I could blame this moment right now on me getting engaged to her cousin a few hours ago, there had been other situations where I felt like something was wrong.

“It’s a little weird, I guess,” she admitted.

Of course it would be... I thought. How could it not be weird?

For all intents and purposes, I was a girl when we became a couple, and in a way, that girl was now dead. Technically, I was still here, but I couldn’t possibly imagine how she must’ve been feeling about me being in a different body now.

“Listen, if this... changes things for you... I would understand,” I said.

It had always been the plan that I would go back to Tomar at some point, and she knew that, but theory is one thing, and it actually happening was something else entirely.

When I couldn’t quite interpret Berla’s facial expression, I prepared for the worst. Though it quickly became clear that I was two for two on making mistakes today.

“If it changes things...? Oh. Because... Miles, do you mean that?”

“Of course. The situation changed... and... I changed, kind of, and... you know...”

“Ugh, you’re an idiot,” she said dryly.

“What...?”

“How can you be so confident that you’re going to kill a beast that seems unkillable, or that you’ll figure out some new script you can’t even read, but so insecure when it comes to your love life? Miles, the way you are now is how we met, remember?”

“Yea, but...”

“I didn’t come onto you because you were inside a cute girl. I’ve liked you since our second night in the Wildlands, and I always knew that it would be a little weird with your situation... That's why I was holding back in the beginning.... But you being in a different body doesn’t change anything between us. Nor that you messed up and got engaged to Hayla...”

She came a bit closer and leaned her head against mine.

“Everything is a little weird,” she said, “and I feel bad about Lilana... but don’t you dare think that I would go anywhere. Just make sure you don’t actually marry someone else accidentally...”

A smile crept onto my face, and as I took a deep breath, I realized that I must have been quite anxious about what her response might be. All of a sudden, all tension was gone and I embraced her.

“I’ll do my best.”