After a long night of Andromeda getting teased, the sun finally set and everyone went off on their own. Andromeda sat on the edge of her large new bed and got ready to lay down for the night. She looked around the room, soaking in that this was all hers. She had boxes stacked up against the far wall full of new clothes, books, materials, and everything else she could asked for. In retrospect, she might have gone a little too wild with it. But the excitement was there regardless.

Something she hadn’t considered until only a few days ago was the fact that as an Arch Mage, she was technically an agent of the state. That meant that not only did she had a high standing in the government, she was employed. Seeing as how she had been busy at Cylas keeping her cover, and then immediately got caught up in the assassination attempt, she hadn’t gotten a chance to actually finish all the legalities of her position. Simply put, she had a lot of back pay, and with how “Arch Mage” was a political position only a few steps below the royal family, each paycheck by itself was a hefty sum. Let alone several months worth of them.

Having only been in this world for a few months at most, she wasn’t super familiar. But it wasn’t too different then her own world. The currency was based on four coins.

The lowest denomination was iron, a single coin was the equivalent of a dollar in her world. Ten iron coins, called “clicks”, equaled one Silver coin. Ten Silvers then traded up to Gold, and Gold traded up to Platinum. Anything higher then that traded into paper currency, but that was apparently a relatively new creation in this world. The predecessor in that case being increasingly large blocks of platinum, when she was collecting her pay a few days earlier, the clerk looked at her strange when she took the paper money rather then five blocks of platinum. Which, on that note, was how much she had owed to her, with some extra thrown on due to “clerical error”. Something she assumed was due to Ferdinand’s interference. She didn’t have a strong grasp on precisely how much this was until she told Alice, after which Alice explained that some nobles won’t earn earn that much in a year. Ignoring the bonus, she made that in three months.

So, she spent an entire day in King’s Grove Proper with Alice buying pretty much everything they might need to fully furnish an entire large guildhall. The justification for this in her mind is that she pretty much had no worldly possessions. Literally until a few days ago the most she had to her name was a single set nice looking robes. The few things she did have beyond that were destroyed at Cylas.

However…

There was that small part of her, looking at all the new things she now had, in her fully furbished home/building, in a peaceful remote region, that felt guilty.

Alice’s entire life was turned over, and her face is all over every rag from coast to coast. Chi and Garret had the mother of all wrenches thrown into their lives and it crashed around them, Eli had any chance of a peaceful life ruined through following his own best interests, and Albert’s entire life was over. He had to start over from nothing. All of that was nothing to say about Gram, who’s mind was shattered for just being involved with her, and the millions that were affected by The Vague. Even then, she could feel White and Whisper doing everything in their power to convince that she wasn’t being selfish. She quite literally died to help as many as she could, but that didn’t feel like much. Now she got to sleep on a brand new bed in sleepy little town, while others had to put their lives back together.

Andromeda finished putting on her evening clothes, and folding her robes. The sun set an hour ago, and it was already almost too dark to see. She laid her head down on the pillow and felt her eyes grow heavy. She drifted off to sleep.

Alice sat on the bench out front, she knew it was night time already, but the only difference between the day and night to her was how quiet and cool everything was. But she wasn’t just awake because of that, she was waiting. As she was getting ready to sleep earlier, she noticed that someone was walking up the road, they were roughly half way between there and Hoviss, so instead she came out to meet them. She knew it wasn’t Albert, she already knew what his soul felt like. This was the other one, Elias. A few minutes later, he arrived just before the full darkness of the night set in. He held a small torch in his hand to see, and looked around.

“Hello?” He called.

“Yes?” Alice called back, Eli swung his torch around to illuminate Alice, who was sitting there in her evening clothes and her hair down.

“I’m looking for Andromeda, is she here?” Eli asked.

“She’s upstairs, asleep.” Alice said.

“Oh damn, I was hoping to catch her before everyone went to sleep.” Eli said, he scratched the back of his head and looked around. “So… should I come in until morning, or… what?” He asked. Alice didn’t say anything, and instead stood up. She walked over until she was standing a few paces away and stood there.

“What?” He said.

“I want to make something clear, Andromeda may have forgiven you, and let you stay here. But I haven’t, and as long as I breathe I won’t agree with your presence.” Alice said.

“Who are you again?” Eli asked, surprised by aggressive statement.

“I am Alice Magrisal, I was Andromeda’s classmate at Cylas, and now I’m working with her here.”

“Right… She talked about you a lot on our trip. So, what are you talking about?” Eli said.

Alice felt her eye twitch, “I’m saying that if you hurt her again. Even if she doesn’t care, I will.” Alice said. Eli loudly sighed and took his backpack off his shoulder.

“Look, I honestly don’t want to be here myself. The only reason I even agreed is to avoid the hell I’d have to deal with otherwise.” Eli said.

“Exactly, so you should be thankful you got a second chance in the first place.” Alice said, and Eli facepalmed.

“Oh will you just shove it, the whole reason this shit happened to me in the first place is because she couldn’t stop throwing herself AND me into harms way. Don’t act like she’s doing me a favor, Whether it’s jail or here. I don’t get to breathe.” Eli said.

“How dare you! She had the good graces to forgive your attempted murder and give you a job, both of which you do not deserve. How do you get it in your mind to not be thankful?” Alice said.

“Who are you to tell me that? You said you met her at Cylas right? So you knew her for all of a month tops, and then me and her had to run off to Betel. I’ve known her longer then you if you wanna count hours. For every hour you were sipping tea and giggling like school girls, we were marching through stormy dirt trails. There were at least two separate times where we would have died without some massive stroke of luck. So don’t act like she’s some beacon of goodness. I’ve only known she’s existed for two months and she has actively ruined my life.” Eli said.

Alice felt her heart start to burn in her chest, “Do not talk about her like that. She has went through so much more then you could know.” Alice said.

“I’ll bet she did, but you know what? I couldn’t care less. When I stabbed her, I saw the sky break, and she broke me. If I don’t focus myself, time just runs away from me. I could be sitting in a chair for a minute and feel like a year has passed, or blink and have a whole day pass me by. What has she done for you? Huh? Made you feel better about yourself? You’re just a holier-than-thou CapDan telling me I should be grateful to the person who ruined me. I’ll never be the same as long as I live, and its because of her.” Eli said.

Alice was going to speak, but her words failed her. She was angry but couldn’t of what to say next. Eli put his backpack on his shoulder and walked past her.

“Now, I’d love to stay out here and argue with you all night, but I just got done marching fifty miles from Verdant Keep, and half of that was uphill. I’d like to at least sleep in peace. So am I allowed in or should I pitch a tent?” Eli said.

“Just go up stairs, take the door on the far right. The empty rooms have their door’s open.” Alice said, Eli didn’t say another word and went inside.

Alice felt her heart hurting, she wanted to cry and scream. The things he said hurt so much to hear, but she couldn’t in good conscious argue any more. She stood there until she knew he settled in an empty room, she didn’t want to take the chance to catch him in the hall, but when she walked inside, she heard something. She didn’t sense it, only heard.

“Alice…” Andromeda said, Alice’s blood ran cold. Andromeda’s solid form in her senses emerged beside her, just inside the front door of the hall. She was leaning against a wall.

“How did you-” Alice started, but Andromeda stepped away from the wall.

“Did you think I wouldn’t notice you guys yelling outside? We all just went to bed.” Andromeda said.

“But-”

“Just… please stop… I know you’re not happy with him. If I’m honest, I’m not happy either. But he’s not wrong, I did hurt him. We both have to live with that.” Andromeda said.

“But you still gave him a second chance, and he still hates you.” Alice said.

“Alice, I want you to think about something. Imagine that you’re back fighting the Medea, what if you got hurt?“ Andromeda asked.

“I wouldn’t blame you! You didn’t know that would happen.” Alice said pleadingly, but Andromeda shook her head.

“It doesn’t change the fact that it did. If I had gotten you seriously, irreversibly harmed, I’d be devastated. But I did irreversably harm Eli. I don’t care if he hates me, but I owe him at least a chance to live a life.” Andromeda said, she turned away and started back toward the stair well, but before she left, Andromeda stopped.

“Alice, I trust you, and I value your opinions, but I want you to do the same for me. I’m not asking for you to forgive him, I’m asking that you not take this chance away from him. Now please, get to bed. We have some long days ahead of us.”

Then she left, and Alice sat there until she was gone, not because she didn’t want to meet her in the hall, but because she couldn’t bring herself to move. She wasn’t sure if she would cry.