Chapter Text







Buck stirred his noodles gently with his chopsticks, waiting patiently. It was polite to let the guest take the first bite, but his strange otherworldly guest was staring at the bowl before her as if her meal was the strangest thing she had ever seen, odd, since she was blind.

“So… do you prefer vegetables?” The monk asked.

Seris’ eyes lost focus and drifted upward slightly, trying to find Buck. She muttered something under her breath.

“Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.” replied Buck.

Seris’ brow moved in curiosity. After a silent moment, she spoke up, “You are Jenos’... acquaintance, yes?”

Buck nodded, “And Jenos asked me to keep an eye on you until he gets back from his sermon. I promised him I’d feed you, but if there’s something you prefer eating, I can make that for you.”

“I am not a child.” Seris snapped.

“I, uh, didn’t say you were. What do you want to eat though?” Buck rubbed his bare head.

Seris muttered something under her breath again. Deciding that his guest wasn’t going to eat anything, Buck began to slurp down his own noodles. Seris’ expression turned to one of disgust for a moment, before she seemed to lose focus again.

Buck swallowed down his mouthful before attempting again to start a conversation, “So… how is it in the Abyss?”

“Normal.” was her reply as she touched the lip of her teacup with her index finger. She dragged her fingertip along the edge slowly.

“Normal? How so?” Buck asked.

“The Abyss makes more sense than this Realm ever will.” She sighed softly.

“I thought the Abyss was all chaos and stuff, how does that make sense?” Buck rested an elbow on the table.

Seris gazed up from her teacup and responded, “This Realm is so… finite. You wander, and you find yourself anywhere but where you were. The Abyss is endless, its time is endless, its space is endless. When one wanders, one arrives where he is meant to be. When one ponders, he does so for as long as he is meant to ponder, and no time passes for his allies, they do not miss him.”

Buck nodded, pretending he could make any sense of her words, “So, is Jenos your only friend? Do you have other friends?”

“I have friends who are not yet.” Seris replied, “And friends who were before. I have a lover who has lost her life, but will never be gone from me.”

“I’m sorry to hear your partner died.” Buck replied as he took another bite of his noodles.

Seris smiled, her teeth the only thing paler than her skin, “Do not be sorry. I have killed her.”

Buck wondered when Jenos would return, hoping the Ascended would float through the door any minute and Buck wouldn’t have to entertain his guest anymore.

“W-why did you do that?” Buck asked. He stirred his noodles slightly with his chopsticks.

Seris shook her head, “A dear friend of mine has killed her. She is gone… a marvelous riddance. A goddess fallen from grace. A godslayer standing in the darkness.”

“Sooooo, what about you and Jenos?” Buck asked in an attempt to change the subject, “How did you meet?”

Seris’ jaw tightened. Suddenly she pushed herself from the table and floated from the room, leaving Buck in stunned silence.

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The soft eastern ground gave way to the hooves of thousands of horses and the wheels of hundreds of wagons. Why a portion of the Ruby Knights, a portion of the Thousand Hand Guild Samurai, and a portion of the Magistrate’s knights were required for the tiny little mission at hand was a confusion to Khan. So many soldiers, all to approach a tiny little monastery in the mountains. Had the Monks of the Silver Moon been the target, then maybe at least an army would be necessary, as those monks were experts in the art of ninjutsu, but the Tau Kor Monastery was simply a little rehabilitation centre hiding away in the mountains. Armed forces for such a raid seemed like overkill.

Khan glanced around him. Beside him rode Lian, now dressed in a bit of armour a less formal than her usual garb. She rode a silver unicorn, having rejected a ride in a carriage in favour of moving alongside her troupes. She sat side-saddle on her mount, her chin raised, her gaze calm, her round hips bouncing along with the movements of her steed. Her blue eyes were focused on the long trail ahead of them, on the mountains in the far distance which housed Ascension Peak and the monastery of Tau Kor. Behind her, a pair of draft horses pulled a massive wooden cross, the reason for which Khan had not bothered to ask.

He caught another warrior’s amber eyes locked on the cross. The woman knight, one of the Magistrate, seemed disinterested in the chitter of the other knights around her. Another woman knight seemed to be trying to tell some fantastical story, but this one was disinterested, her eyes moving from the cross to the landscape around and back, her gaze wistful as if she was trying to recall a memory that may not even exist.

Khan moved his steed closer to hers. She did not notice.

“Hi.” Khan spoke. The single word shocked her back into the Realm and she looked up at him, her expression growing cold and emotionless. She smashed a fist into her chest as a salute and bowed her head slightly, “Sir Ash, ‘the War Machine’.”

“Sir Khan, ‘Primus of House Aico’.” The massive warrior responded. He raised his gaze to the surrounding mountains and spoke, “Have you been to this land before?”

“I-I don’t know.” She spoke, her voice oddly soft. Her heels clicked on the horse’s flank and the beast sped slightly, moving away from Khan. He was annoyed by such a show of impudence, but his mind filled with questions about this woman. Her spiky black and red hair was already caked in mud and filth, and despite her short, stocky stature, she held her back straight and her pointed chin up and forward. A mask resembling a goat head rode beside her on the saddle, but its scars and wear did not match the wear of her armour: it seemed she preferred going without protection on her head and face.

Khan pushed his horse forward, and the woman knight noticed. She kicked hers as well, moving farther from him.

The giant veered his between the rest of the group and the Ash’s, herding her on to the outskirts of the marching troupe.

“What?” Ash snapped, clutching her reins sharply and allowing Khan to travel beside her.

“You intrigue me.” Khan chuckled, watching her with a calm expression, “Tell me, what made you decide to join the Magistrate’s knights? I’ve heard of their ability… it’s rare to find a woman among them.”

Ash scoffed, “The little kid, reading all the tales about knights saving damsels from dragons, isn’t that everyone’s story?”

“Is it yours?” Khan responded.

Ash frowned, she watched him for a long moment, before looking back at the trail ahead, “I don’t know. I don’t remember my childhood tales.”

“Were you the damsel?” He spoke softly.

Ash glared, “Why, because I’m a woman?”

Khan shook his head, “It’s easy to tell apart those who chose knighthood because they wanted to slay dragons, from those who chose knighthood because they were the damsel, male or female.” He motioned toward the other knights she had been walking with. One, a tall Spirish man with dark hair and a spark in his eyes, was telling an amazing story of some creature he had defeated recently. The other knights with him would cut him off or call him out on the parts of the story that seemed too made-up.

“It’s the look in the eyes.” Khan spoke, “It’s the pride in the smile. It’s the thought on the brow. This morning, you were up before dawn training. They were moseying around the campfire drinking coffee, but you woke up to the feeling of dirt on your face, if I recall. You have been saved, haven’t you? Do you remember the name of the knight who saved you?”

Ash shook her head sharply, “No, no, I was a little girl, I don’t remember.”

Khan watched her cold eyes. He spoke slowly, “What was his name?”

“Sir Mason… Sir Mason of the Greenscape.” She sighed, “I wanted to serve him as a squire as soon as I reached the age, but… he was one of the knights who travelled on the quest to the Dragonfang and… well, you know how that story ended.”

“I recall his name from the legends, I would have loved to meet him.” Khan replied, “As well, I offer you my condolences, Sir Ash. But… there is one thing I would like to ask, if you do not mind.”

Ash nodded, “Shoot.”

Khan looked away, not much willing to watch her expression as he asked her, “What does your family think of this? I’ve never understood what woman knights give up by taking their mantle.”

“And what do you think I gave up?” her tone was sharp, but humoured.

Khan smiled sheepishly, “I cannot much see how a body battered by the teeth of beasts and weapons of men could… bare children. Your parents must be-”

A laugh cut him off. Ash raised a hand to her jaw to stifle herself before replying, “Yeah, that’s not happening. I don’t do kids. Or men. Or anyone. Or romance. Or… you know. Also, my parents died when I was a little girl, so they don’t really get a say in the matter, hmm?”

“My apologies.” Khan coughed in embarrassment.

The two shared a laugh, before hurrying to catch up with the other knights in the troupe.









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Ying shrieked in alarm as the Cutthroat’s teeth nearly caught her arm.

“I’m trying to help you, calm down please!” the tiny elf whined, clutching her arms to her chest nervously. The pink-haired half-Tigron who Ying had been trying to help snarled in return and hid the scrape on the back of her wrist from Ying, “I fell from a tree, I do that sometimes, I don’t need help!”

Ying frowned and held out a hand, “Please, let me help you, it could get infected and get worse.”

The Tigron girl snapped at her again, before darting away. Ying considered summoning an Illusion to follow her, but decided against it.

The elf lifted off of the ground and levitated through the camp, eventually coming to her own little green tent. She began to pack her clothes into her knapsack in preparation for the group’s departure from this place. As she reached for a white nightshirt, a hand suddenly grasped her shoulder.

Ying shrieked in alarm and crumbled to the ground. The soft dirt became a stone floor, the sounds of the camp around her became a cold and desolate echo, the tent before her became a matress on the floor, no pillows or blankets against the harsh and painful winds that came through the only window. Ying crawled to the corner of the prison cell, huddling her arms around her knees as she tried to get her bearings. Was this the cell of the Thousand Hands Guild? No, no, she knew this place: the jail cell of the Bandit King of the Greenscape… what was his name? Did it matter?

Someone was coming to the high stone door before her, she could feel the footsteps. Had she been bad again? Had she misbehaved in some way she wouldn’t understand?

A tear dripped down her cheek as the lock on the door unlatched, the handle turned.

Her lips quivered as she tried to remain silent, a task she found not difficult as there was no air in her lungs with which to scream or plead. The door opened and Ying buried her head in her hands, tears flowing down her cheeks. What did her king want with her this time?

Her skirt felt sticky and hot, and a bad smell filled her nostrils. She had wet herself, her King would be furious, he’d double the lashes.

The guard was standing before her now. He knelt down to grab her and wrench her from the floor, she braced herself in preparation.

“Y-Ying?” The voice was feminine, carrying a Northern accent.

“Ying? Wha- are- are you okay?” A hand touched her knee gently. Ying opened her eyes and raised her head. She wasn’t in a cell, she wasn’t a prisoner, she was in the camp of the Paladins and there was no guard about to take her away, only a blonde-haired Northern woman with a look of utter horror in her sapphire eyes.

“Y-Ying?” The woman gasped. Her lips quivered as if she was trying to find something else, anything else, to say.

Ying inhaled as slowly as she could muster, before letting out an equally long exhale. She moved a hand behind her to support herself and whimpered, “I’m okay, Tyra… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Scare you?” Tyra cried, “It looks like you’ve been attacked! I only wanted to ask if you needed any help packing, but I touched your arm and you went down like colt to a Gorlock!” The warrior glanced down, before looking back up to Ying and attempting to make eye contact. Ying’s face grew red as she realised Tyra must have noticed her mess. The elf closed her legs tightly, deciding that the sight was more shameful than the feeling.

“Do- uh- do you need some privacy?” Tyra stood up and took a step back. Without a word, Ying dove into her tent.







About half an hour later, Ying emerged from her tent. She had finished packing, changed her clothes, and decided to take a small break before packing down her tent.

The elf floated through the camp, watching the others.

“Ying, are you okay? What happened?” came a voice behind her. Ying turned to see Cassie, the flame-haired Huntress.

“Uh, nothing happened, I’m fine. Why?” Ying replied sheepishly, hiding her hands behind her body.

“Tyra said you freaked out and collapsed and had an accident, are you sure you’re okay?” Cassie replied, holding out a hand to Ying, “I’m here to listen if you need me.”

Ying floated away from Cassie without a word. The elf’s face felt hot.

She found the Northern warrior covering up a fire pit with dirt and mud.

“You told Cassie?!” Ying snapped at Tyre. The warrior looked up from her work, “Oh, hello Ying. Yeah, I was worried about you, I let her and a few other people know you were upset so they’d know to be careful with you.”

“You told her I made water!” Ying attempted to keep her voice lowered in her angry screech.

“Um, yes, of course.” Tyra replied.

“What do you mean, ‘of course’?”

Tyra shrugged, “If you smell like urine, you might attract predators. Where I’m from, we don’t hide these things, we don’t keep secrets. Any little thing could put the group at risk.”

Ying collapsed on the ground and hugged her knees. She buried her head in her hands.

Tyra’s hand touched her shoulder gently as the warrior spoke, “I didn’t mean to embarrass you, I was only trying to help. I’m just… not used to you Southerners and how you keep everything so quiet. It was an issue I had in the Magistrate too… secrets do nothing but get in the way, and the bigger they are, the more dangerous releasing them becomes. I don’t like them at all, I don’t keep them.”

“I’ll remember to never confide in you.” Ying snapped, before her expression became soft, “I’m sorry, that was mean, but I’m just frustrated. It’s why I wanted to come to Tau Kor with the group.”

“Oh?” Tyra sat beside Ying.

Ying sighed, “Tau Kor is a place for healing, both mind and body. I thought the Ascended might be able to help me learn to get over what happened to me.”

Tyra opened her mouth as if to speak, but seemed to decide against it. She placed a hand on Ying’s back softly.

“Well, I should let you get back to your work, and I need to pack my tent.” Ying raised from the ground, feeling a bit better. Tyra nodded and turned back to filling in her firepit as the elf floated away.