The hug feels like home, and it takes every ounce of willpower Leah has to not immediately burst into happy tears. She can’t see Seffon’s face to know if he’s going through the same, but by how tightly he squeezes her even when he puts her back down, she wagers that the feeling is indeed mutual. Was there a part of me that ever doubted it would be? I know I’m not people-smart, but come on. That one was easy. She squeezes him right back, ignoring the soreness in her arms.

A tiny head surrounded by a mane of curly brown hair pokes out of the doorway. “Shield?”

“There’s my little Spock!” Leah pries free from Seffon and kneels down in front of the girl. “Show me the tooth!”

Areiu’s eyes light up. “E’sh dere!” she says, pulling her mouth open to show the tiny gap at the front of her smile. “Dere wasz shoooo mush blood!”

“That’s awesome,” Leah says, mussing the child’s hair. “What happens to the tooth now?”

Areiu withdraws her finger from her mouth, where it had been poking at the gap. “We bury it and a white lily grows.”

“How?”

Areiu shrugs. “That’s just what happens to teeth.”

“Of course it is,” Leah says, standing up and holding her heart. “I mean, how silly am I, of course that’s what happens next.”

Areiu reaches up the non-drool-covered hand and Leah takes it, allowing herself to be led inside. Seffon gives a word to the guard and closes the door behind them.

Sewheil stands and takes Leah’s shoulder, kissing her on the cheek. “Can yu explain ui yu ã ba? Õ ʁau?” she asks, sitting back down and clearing a space for Leah beside her. Areiu crawls over to sit in her mother’s lap, and Seffon sits on Sewheil’s other side, opposite Leah.

“I got very lucky mixing my magics, I invoked the name of a deity, and I wished really hard.” Leah shrugs. “I didn’t even spend a day home and I knew I’d made a mistake. Well, not a mistake, it needed to be done, but…”

Seffon pushes a glass of the dessert drink towards her. “But how?”

Leah shrugs even higher. “Leah Talesh left this world because she desperately wanted to escape, and we dragged her back. That was wrong of us; it wasn’t for us to decide where she needed to be – and besides, I needed to be here.”

“Ui?” Sewheil asks.

“Because everything I hated about my life back in Quebec, Leah Talesh either loved or got rid of, and everything Leah Talesh hated about her life here, I either loved or got rid of. We didn’t just step into each other’s lives, rearrange things, and then abandon all we’d made. What would be the point? I got to see a small piece of the home she made for herself there, and it didn’t interest me in the slightest, but she loved it. And here…well, judging by your reaction at the door, she wasn’t too happy with how things turned out.”

“Meserable, mõ lie,” Sewheil says. “An rathẽ reu.”

Leah takes a long sip of the drink, fingers slipping from the condensation on the glass. “I had to go home for a day. I needed to make sure my parents weren’t too distressed by my change. I didn’t really believe that…well, that someone from here could blend into my life. And she couldn’t, not really, which is why I had to give her some of my memories – ”

“What?” Seffon sits a little straighter.

“Nothing from here; stuff from home, that I wouldn’t need anymore. I’ve seen you do enough variations on Bitter Dream, I know how this stuff works.” She finishes with a wiggle of false confidence, grinning over the rim of her glass.

“But are you here for good?” Seffon asks. “With all the things that are bound to happen, now that knowledge of the battery is spreading, and Cheden seems ready to have a civil war?”

Leah spreads her arms wide. “Who else would you rather have?” She sits normally again, tucking her heels under the cushion. “But yes, I believe I’m here for good. At the very least I won’t be invoking any more universe-shifting spells. I’m happy here.” She blushes a bit.

“But – ” Seffon sighs and shakes his head with a small smile. “I’ve been working so hard for a month to send you home?”

“Seffon, not to be too sappy,” Leah takes another sip, “But you failed successfully. Your task was to put me in a place that was home; instead of sending me back, you just…accidentally made here home.” Seffon blushes a bit as well, at that.

Sewheil reaches out a hand and holds Leah’s, her long palms wrapping oddly around Leah’s human ones. “I amnau so sữ abou ‘accedenal,’ b I uellnau complain ef e myns yu stay.” Leah smiles and gives her hand a squeeze.

“But what will you do?” Seffon asks. “You have options, certainly, and I’m sure you could get back up to fighting-trim in short order, to go adventuring again with the five, but – ”

“Oh yeah no, Leah Talesh gave me all her fighting memories, I think.” Leah looks up and runs through them in her head. “Huh. Weird. Someone else’s memories in my head. Oh! And I speak Algic now. Do da Iebar, et na abetsei Havrous ieta hai alea. Oha! Vessaie…”

Seffon laughs a bit at her expression, but his smile falls away quickly. “So you’ll go?”

“What? No, I don’t want to go, I just got back,” Leah says, setting down her glass.

“There’s nothing to keep you here now,” Seffon says with a small shrug. “Your magic lessons, I suppose…if you’re inventing things with such frightening regularity we ought to find someone to teach you discipline. If that’s possible,” he adds with a cheeky look, and Leah giggles. “It might be an odd change, to go from your enemy to your friend to your teacher – ”

“You were never my enemy, Seffon,” Leah says gently. “And I don’t think I could take you seriously as a teacher, not after what we’ve been through.”

He inclines his head a bit. “Then you are very welcome to stay as a friend, until we can find something to keep you busy.” Sewheil rattles of a quick string of Olues, and Seffon chuckles. “Or you can start training in the hospital right away; apparently Soren heard impressive testimonies of your role during the siege. Or,” He holds up a finger, struck by a thought. “Since we’re a bit low on scouts, we could pair you with Soren to train. You have the magical aptitude, obviously, and if you’ve got Leah Talesh’s fighting skills…we definitely need more people along the Devadiss border, at least for the next little while – ”

“Stop trying to send me away,” Leah says, frowning. “I came back for you guys. I won’t leave unless you tell me to; and I don’t want to leave, so please don’t.”

Seffon goes still. “Leah, we won’t send you away.”

Leah hangs her head. “I was an only child, and I never really realised what I was missing out on until I got here.” She picks the glass up again and takes a slow sip. “I’ve already said goodbye to all the five, and that was rough, but I couldn’t stand saying goodbye to you. I couldn’t do it. I begged a favour from a Goddess to come back here, so I wouldn’t have to move on with my life and never see you again.”

“You did what?” Seffon asks, tone clipped, eyes wide.

“Frankly I don’t know all the details, it’s a little daunting to think of.” Leah smiles at him. “But I want to stay with you, if you’ll have me.”

Seffon splutters for a moment. “I beg your pardon?”

“Not like that,” Leah says with a cheeky grin. She tilts her head in a half-shrug. “Adopt me.”

“What?!” he says, laughing.

Areiu perks up suddenly from where she’d been slumped against her mother’s side. “I could have a sister!” She beams, looking between them all. Then her face scrunches up in serious thought. “Wait, no, but she’s older than me. You said if I got a sister she’d be younger!”

Seffon blushes immediately and hides his face behind a sip of his glass. Sewheil stammers out something in Olues and then covers her mouth with her hand, lightly blushing as well and shaking her head ruefully.

Leah bops Areiu’s nose and chuckles. “Not as a child, as a sister – if that’s possible.” She reaches across the table for Seffon’s hand. “For the first time in my life, I’ve had a brother. That’s pretty nice. And even if you don’t accept, I am going to start calling you my brother in front of everyone until it catches on and everyone agrees to act like it’s official.”

He sighs with a resigned smile. “I know you would, Leah, and I’d expect nothing less annoying from a sister.”

“So do I have a sister?” Areiu ask the room at large.

“No, you have an aunt,” Seffon says. “Which means you may eventually have cousins, although I highly doubt it.” He raises an eyebrow at Leah.

“Oh!” she says, suddenly blushing. “Speaking of, I might have left Adan standing in a hallway somewhere back, uh…” She nods to the door. “I should go, um…”

Sewheil snickers, and Seffon’s eyes widen momentarily before crinkling in a smile. “I imagine you will want to work on your Olues as a priority, then? I will not stand and translate for you.” He holds his hand up firmly at that.

“Yes, that…that’s a priority.” Leah hesitates, half-up from her seat, looking between them and the door.

“But it can wait; if you’re here to stay – and to stay as family – then you may as well be useful and take on some of the work of the coming weeks.”

Leah sits back down and focuses. “Work?”

By this point the atmosphere has gradually returned to a more comfortable familiarity. Areiu has slumped down, her chin tucked against her chest, her eyes closed. Sewheil rearranges her in her lap, and the child mumbles vaguely, holding the fabric of Sewheil’s dress in a tiny fist.

Seffon reaches over and pats the girl’s hair. “You’re from a strange world, but a fascinating one,” he tells Leah. “I only saw vague glimpses, but I gather from them, and from what you’ve told me, that there are a variety of laws, political systems, cultures, so on?”

“Yes, but I suspect most of them would not be palatable to someone of the Gulf,” Leah says, confused.

“I would like to hear them nonetheless,” he says. “We’ve received word, since you’ve been gone. Master Edvellu has expressed interest in visiting the Contested Lands, and captain Nedies wishes to pass by and pay her regards.” Seffon raises an eyebrow, and Leah shrugs with a tiny blush.

“I didn’t ask for any of those memories,” she says. Seffon snorts a laugh.

“Either way, over the next month we can expect a number of visits by foreign dignitaries. The Contested Lands are beginning to be recognised as an independent nation, which means we will have to more formally codify some of our laws – which means that those visiting dignitaries might notice that our laws are awfully similar to Volst’s. They may decide to interpret that as evidence of usurpation.”

Leah nods sagely. “First things first: come up with a better name.”

“Pardon?”

“‘Contested Lands?’ Why accept an outsider-applied name that emphasises a bitter history? Choose something positive, something self-identifying. Don’t name it for your family, though, that would be pretentious.”

Seffon smirks. “Noted.”

“Second thing: I really don’t think there’s reason to fear that your laws are too close to Volst’s laws. I’d have to look at a list of both and compare them, but I mean, between inheritance laws and allowing magic, you’re pretty far distant already.” She sighs. “I’d have asked Solace if she knew anything about the history of this area, if I’d known…”

“We have history books, you know.”

“Yes, in Olues.”

“Some are in Old Volsti; it’s a bit closer to Volsti, and you might be able to read them.”

Leah hums, rubbing her eyes, holding her hand in front of her face. “Goody, that’s right, I’m back with these eyeballs.”

Seffon gives her an odd look. “Something wrong?”

Leah sighs. “I need glasses. I can’t see things clearly up close.”

Sewheil chuckles. “Yu thautnau teu tell us thes?”

“I haven’t noticed any reading-glasses since I got here; do they exist?”

“I don’t know what you mean by that, no,” Seffon says with an uncertain look. “But there are spells that can correct it. Complicated spells – ” He looks over to Sewheil; she purses her lips and nods. “ – but we can try.”

“Huh. I should write to Vivi…”

“Any other conditions you’ve been hiding from us?”

Leah laughs then shakes her head. “No, nothing. But even before any laser eye surgery, I could start into some research, looking at your laws as an outsider to give my opinion on if they look too Volsti.” She frowns in thought. “Why do you need my knowledge of other cultures for that?”

“Because I would like to better understand how government and society are organised, in a world without magic. Such a world might arrive upon us very soon.”

“Gods I hope not,” Leah breathes out.

“Lord Valerid has been far too accepting of magic as of late, and Volst will respond. Their laws may change in the next few months, and if so ours will have to as well, lest we come across as belligerent in our adherence to old traditions of liberalness.”

Leah nods. “If Devad never really knew about your…alternate laws…and you had to keep them a secret, then are there any laws actually written down?”

Seffon scoffs. “Of course? You cannot govern without clearly specified laws.”

“But the inversion laws are not specified.”

“They are religion-based, and our religious institutions have not had a classically trained cleric in centuries. I don’t technically have the authority to write them down.”

“Well, I’m not about to volunteer to be a cleric,” Leah says, smirking to herself. “But it brings up an interesting point.”

“Which is?”

Leah steeples her fingers in thought. “There are laws for crimes, and laws about religious injunctions. Presumably all cultural taboos fit in there?” Seffon nods. “What about…bigger ideals? Human rights?”

Sewheil clears her throat.

“Sentient being rights?” Leah corrects herself.

Seffon’s face is blank. “There are criminal laws that protect the right to life and property, but…”

“Okay so, you don’t have anything that resembles a Charter of Rights? Intrinsic sentient being rights, that come before all other laws?” Seffon and Sewheil both look blank, and Leah sighs heavily. “A list of things like: all people are equal in the eyes of the law; you have the right to a free life; you have the right to practice whatever religion you choose; you have the right to dignity; you have the right to petition your government; you have the right to be treated without discrimination based on sex, race, or handicap?”

Her spirit sinks the further she goes, watching their faces; most of it seems new to them, while some parts she gets the impression sound radical to them.

“Oh dear.” She picks up her drink again. “You don’t have those?”

Seffon runs his fingers through his hair. “I can understand some of them. Most of them, in fact. I think some of them are a little too dependent on your, ah, ‘elections’ system?”

“I’m not trying to topple the hierarchical system of government seconds after having joined it, Seffon, but you asked me for ideas from my world. You don’t have a list of basic rights granted to all sentient beings? I advise you make one. At the very least, it would definitely prove that your laws are not Volst’s laws. You could even take the opportunity to establish an age of consent, which I think is sorely lacking here. These laws are essential for any civilised nation; they prove you care about your citizens’ lives and wellbeing.” She sips her drink. “Besides, you’re already partway there.”

“How so?”

“You’ve said you don’t deal in indentured servants here. Is that just an economical decision, or an ethical one?”

“It’s an economically poor decision to not use indentured servitude, but we don’t anyways because it is cruel and goes against the moral fabric of society.”

Leah raises her hand in a shrug. “Article one, on the Contested Land’s Charter of Rights: every individual has the right to a free life; no individual’s freedom may be held ransom for their labour.”

Sewheil tilts her head, eyes narrowed. “Ƃau uou yu transla tha?”

“Gaus hel my, I uell have teu deu tha, uellnau I?” Seffon sighs, but smiles. “Hurry up and learn Olues.”

*

Sewheil carries Areiu to bed not long after. Leah and Seffon remain at the table, scribbling out ideas they can both agree on for what a culturally coherent bill of rights would look like.

“What do we title it?” Leah asks, and Seffon raises an eyebrow. “Well, I mean, it ought to have the name of the country in the title. ‘Contested Land’s Charter’ just doesn’t sound right.”

Seffon groans a bit. “Another thing I’ll have to decide. Politics…”

Leah pats his arm reassuringly. “Seffon, you’re a good teacher and a brilliant caster, but I don’t think you’ve ever really been cut out to be a politician.” She pauses. “I’m more than a little horrified to find out I am.”

That gets a laugh out of him. “I’m not uneasy with politics, it’s just the scale of these decisions that’s a little daunting. The last time something like this happened was when Probesc split from Valerin, and even that was just a sub-division, not a secession.”

“When was the last time a whole new country appeared or disappeared from the map?” Leah asks. “I suppose Welleslass?”

“Welleslass was a province of Bair that defected to join Volst, after the genocide – not directly because of the killings, but motivated by them. The last time a country was created…” He sighs, thinking. “Cheden. Claiming the island in the Gulf. Almost a thousand years ago. No, even that doesn’t count…”

“Why not?”

“Because there was no lifting of the borders.”

Leah blinks a few times. “Pardon?”

Seffon grimaces. “I don’t know what it would be called in a chaos-world like yours, but it’s when you use pure alcohol to draw the ink up from an old map, then draw in new borders and names. It’s a hugely meaningful moment in any region’s history, and doing it without the permission of all the Gulf’s nations is tantamount to usurpation.”

Leah’s jaw goes slack. “Is that why it’s taboo to pour alcohol on a nation’s symbols?!”

Seffon laughs.

“Okay wow, I get it now, okay, yes.” Leah laughs a bit at herself. “But it raises an interesting question.”

“Oh?”

“What will the land be called?”

“We were just talking about exactly that.”

“No, not its name, I mean its…designation? Like, will it be a country, a nation, a kingdom, a ‘Nations of,’ or what? Is there a practical difference?”

Seffon shakes his head tiredly. “Don’t make me a King. I beg of you, don’t make me a King.”

Well I didn’t vote for you, a tiny voice in her head says, and she smothers it. “Or, how about ‘autonomous collective?’”

“Ohh, that’s quite good. I might – aaaand you’re smiling. You’re smiling like it means something different in your world, something silly.” Seffon sighs with a soft smile. “Another thing to decide. Stop distracting me; we’ve got to finish this before we go any further.” His smile fades as he looks over the list. “And this is plenty foreign enough.”

Leah sobers up and tilts her head to read it. “If you want to make it really solid – and since your family’s whole thing is that magic lets them give back to the people – then you should put it to a vote. I don’t mean an election, I mean a referendum.”

Seffon raises an eyebrow. “I don’t know that word, but it was in one of your memories. All I know is that the word makes you feel bitter.”

“I actually don’t have that particular memory anymore, but I know that much is true.” Leah smirks. “It basically means you put it to the people; ask them what freedoms they most value, and then include those.”

He takes a deep breath. “You are going to start a war twice in one month, Leah.”

“I may have found my niche.”

He laughs and refills her glass. “I will pass this by the other households; there are philosophers and scholars among the lesser nobles under my jurisdiction who may have something to weigh in. I do like this idea, don’t get me wrong,” He folds up the paper and tucks it in his jacket pocket. “But I worry that it is misguided.”

“Don’t be a dictator, Seffon.” Leah pokes his chest. “Protect people’s rights, and if possible give them a way to voice complaints. Allow yourself to be held accountable. You don’t have to invite usurpation, you just need to reflect the will of the people.”

“I asked for this,” Seffon says to the rafters, ruefully. “I asked her opinion on politics.”

“You must see the sense in protecting people’s rights?”

“Of course I do, but it’s the fact that writing it down implies it needs to be written down…it makes it seem somehow less innate.”

Leah nods sympathetically. “That makes sense. However, consider that your neighbours two days’ ride away probably feel exactly the same way you do about it, yet they do not recognise the individual’s right to a free life. These laws all seem self-evident and universal, but it’s actually cultural. These freedoms aren’t innate, until they are protected.” She laughs. “I can’t believe I spent so much time here and I never knew there were no guaranteed rights or freedoms! I guess it makes my arrest more logical…” She smiles as she plays it over in her head.

Seffon gives her an odd look. “Not often you see someone smiling about their torture and imprisonment.”

Leah drops the smile, and looks down at the table in deep thought. He’s got a point. I was reminiscing. It was a horrible part of my life here, and I was remembering it fondly. Why? The fucking tarot cards? Leah sets down her drink and looks across at him. “I’m glad they sent me to prison. I am! If they hadn’t, I might never have found out about the Hold, and the people here. And if I had never arrived here, the Gulf might never have found out about the usurpation. I had to go through something horrible to find what was worth knowing.”

Seffon sets his drink down beside hers and leans across to take her hand, brows furrowed. “Listen very carefully. You didn’t have to go through anything horrible. You’ve told me that you were already second-guessing your orders by the time they imprisoned you; if they hadn’t ever done that, you likely would have still come looking for me on your own.” He shakes her hand a bit for emphasis. “Bad things don’t need to happen for good things to happen.”

She shrugs a bit and chews her lip. “It makes the bad things easier to accept if we can believe they’re part of the good things.”

“Well maybe we shouldn’t be accepting the bad things at all, and we should be embracing the good things with our whole hearts, on their own terms.”

Leah grins, looking down at their hands. “It’s a nice thought.”

“And it’s only a thought, until you make it real.” He stands up and pulls her into a hug. “I am so very glad to know you, and I’m always going to worry about you throwing yourself into danger for some imagined greater good. You can’t know the consequences. You can only work on being happy now.”

“I am happy now.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.” He kisses the top of her head. “Now go to bed. We can finish this in the morning.”

Leah giggles. “Okay dad.”

“Don’t call me dad, I’m your brother. Apparently.”

“Okay, brother.”

“Nelevai.”

“What’s that mean?”

Seffon chuckles. “It’s my name, Leah.”

She goes still. “Say it again?”

“Nelevai.”

“Nelevai Seffon.” She gives him a tiny squeeze. “I can call you Nelevai, now?”

“Of course.” Seffon pulls away and looks down at her cheekily. “Can I call you Seffon?”

“What?”

“Well it’s technically your last name, now, too – and it’s much easier to pronounce than Aʁmande.”

“Oh shut up.” She hugs him again.

“Make me.”

She pokes him in the side and he twitches with a tiny yelp. “Is that a challenge?”

“I’d return the gesture, but you have a near-fatal wound there,” Seffon says in a haughty tone. “As soon as it’s fully healed, then the challenge is accepted.”

“Oh game on!”

“What?”

“Never mind.” She pats his back and ends the hug. “G’night.”

“Goodnight. In the morning, remember?”

Leah grins. “Ah, politics in the morning. I look forward to it,” she deadpans.

Seffon chuckles. “You are definitely my sister.”