The campfire continued crackling after Crysha's arrival.
Her anger lasted only long enough for her to sit down.
She lowered herself beside the fire, still covered in dirt and twigs from the long chase. Her hair remained tangled, her cloak was uneven, and her tall rabbit ears drooped behind her. When she looked toward Mia and Sphinx, the anger in her face began to break.
She looked as though she might cry.
Sphinx watched her for a moment before trotting across the camp. The magical collar around his neck began to glow as he stopped in front of her.
"We are not creatures who enjoy taking sides," Sphinx said. "But you called our master a monster. An abomination. You called Mia and me anomalies."
Crysha looked down at the small cat wearing the red top hat.
Sphinx calmly met her eyes.
"Why would we give you a ride after hearing what you think of him—and of us?"
For a brief moment, Crysha had no answer.
She had expected anger from Lenora. Suspicion from Lewd. Perhaps even a threat from the Calamity book resting nearby.
She had not expected judgment from the cat.
Worse, the cat was right.
Crysha moved away from the fire and lowered herself onto both knees. She bent forward until her head was bowed and the ends of her long rabbit ears rested in the dirt.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I was wrong to consider you and your master monsters and anomalies."
Sphinx's tail moved once behind him.
Crysha remained bowed.
"Until I meet him for myself, I will consider him to be a normal human being."
Sphinx stared at her.
Derpy was not entirely human.
There was very little about him that could be considered normal.
Still, the apology was sincere.
Mia walked over before Sphinx could answer. The magical item she had purchased began glowing, carrying her voice clearly through the camp.
"Rabbit god who is as cold as ice," said the center head, "tell me something."
Crysha slowly raised her head.
"It has been bothering me since we entered this world. We sensed your presence, yet you never revealed yourself."
Mia moved closer.
"What bothers me more is that you saw our master when he first arrived. He was scared. Afraid. Curious about everything around him."
Lenora's ears twitched when Mia looked in her direction.
"Do you know why my master chose to travel with Lenora?"
Crysha lifted herself from the ground.
"I had my orders," she answered. "I was not permitted to interfere with the young hare's travels. I only intervened because Lenora broke her vow never to use her god form."
Sphinx's eyes narrowed.
"I call bull."
Crysha looked at him.
"My animal instincts are telling me that explanation is a load of crap."
"Sphinx," Lenora warned.
Crysha's face tightened, but Sphinx did not look away.
Lewd sat forward slightly.
Orders from whom?
The question came easily. She almost asked it out loud — and then she remembered a glowing map, and an ice goddess with her face in one hand, whispering a name into her own palm as though saying it quietly might make it less true.
Eclipsa is going to kill me.
Lewd looked at Crysha, then at Lenora, and closed her mouth.
Not tonight.
Lenora watched the two pets continue putting her aunt in her place. At first, part of her had enjoyed it. Crysha had watched her from a distance, judged her decisions, and then appeared only when she believed Lenora had failed.
But this was becoming something else.
Something that no longer felt right.
Lenora reached down and picked Sphinx up before he could continue. She placed him against her chest and began stroking the fur between his ears.
Sphinx tried to maintain his accusing expression.
The first purr escaped him almost immediately.
Mia continued questioning Crysha.
"You felt Master's presence as soon as he entered this world."
Crysha said nothing.
"As soon as he landed on Lenora."
Lenora's cheeks became warm.
Lewd glanced toward her.
Lenora looked away from both of them.
Mia then turned toward Lenora.
"And you."
Lenora froze.
"I know you have been sleeping in Master's clothing."
Lewd's eyes widened.
"I have not," Lenora answered too quickly.
Mia tilted her head.
"I know my master's scent."
"I carried some of his clothing. That does not mean I slept in it."
"You slept in it."
"I did not."
"His scent is all over you."
Lenora's face turned completely red.
Sphinx purred louder in her arms.
"That proves nothing," Lenora insisted.
Mia's body began to change.
She rose from four paws as her shape stretched upward. Her smaller form grew until she stood on two legs, but the jester mask that normally accompanied one of her transformations did not appear.
Her face remained uncovered.
Mia turned away from the flustered Lenora and walked toward Crysha.
A red mist began rising from her body.
It spilled across the ground around her feet and moved through the camp like smoke searching for something to smother. The playfulness left Mia's expression. Her eyes remained fixed on Crysha with an intent that made the ice goddess straighten.
Mia was no longer teasing.
She looked as though she might end Crysha if the next answer displeased her.
"Tell me, Crysha the Ice Empress," Mia said. "What would have happened if Master had landed on you instead of Lenora?"
Lewd's imagination answered before Crysha did.
She pictured Derpy falling out of the sky and landing directly on top of her. His face close to hers. His body pressed against her before either of them understood what had happened.
Her black ears stood upright as her cheeks turned red.
Lenora remembered the real moment.
The sudden weight.
The impact.
The frightened, confused stranger who had fallen into her life before either of them understood how much that meeting would change.
She blushed too.
Crysha looked from one woman to the other before returning her attention to Mia.
"I probably would have taken him to Carrot Field," she answered. "I would have introduced him to my sisters and asked what they thought of him."
Mia waited.
"What would have happened after that?" Crysha continued. "I honestly don't know."
The red mist stopped spreading.
Mia studied her face before the pressure surrounding her slowly disappeared.
"That seems like a reasonable answer."
Crysha released the breath she had been holding.
Mia returned to her smaller form and settled near the fire. Lenora continued petting Sphinx while Crysha watched them both.
How are a cat and dog this calculating?
The thought moved through her while she gritted her teeth.
They always seemed eight steps ahead of everyone around them. They remembered insults. They held grudges. They tested answers before deciding whether someone could be trusted.
They could also defend those grudges in combat.
Crysha remembered Mia and Sphinx fighting Lenora while Blood Lust controlled her. The two pets had faced the Red Hare Executioner without using everything they possessed.
They had been holding back.
If either one attacked Crysha alone, she believed she could win.
If they attacked together—
No.
Not both.
A vibration pulled everyone's attention toward Lewd.
Phantasm's book trembled in her hands. Its pages shifted without opening, and Phantasm's voice echoed inside Lewd's mind.
Ask them if they know anything about Derpy after he returned from Ms. Kline.
Lewd looked down at the book.
Phantasm's curiosity pressed through their connection. She was not asking casually. She wanted to know what happened during the part of Derpy's past she had not witnessed.
Lewd looked toward the pets.
"Phantasm wants to ask both of you something."
Mia and Sphinx turned toward her.
"She wants to know whether you remember what happened to Derpy after he returned from Ms. Kline."
The pets stared at Lewd.
Then their attention shifted toward the book in her hands.
Their eyes seemed to pass through its cover and pages, peering directly at the Calamity soul hiding inside.
Mia and Sphinx spoke together.
"We can tell that story another time."
The book vibrated again.
Neither pet changed their answer.
"Now that the entire party is here," Sphinx continued, "what do you plan to do next?"
Mia opened her mouth to add something but yawned instead.
Sphinx yawned too.
The lights around their magical speaking items flickered.
"These artifacts have a drawback," Mia said, her voice becoming quieter. "Speaking through them makes us tired after a while."
Sphinx's eyes closed while Lenora was still petting him.
Within moments, he was asleep in her arms.
Mia curled up near the fire and fell asleep beside him.
The camp became quiet again.
Lewd looked toward the darkness beyond the trees.
"We travelled farther from Whisperfen than I thought," she said. "It should be about forty minutes from here."
She stood and brushed the dust from her clothing. One of her black ears twitched toward the distant settlement.
Lenora looked up at her.
"Do you want to wait until morning? We can all go together."
Lewd shook her head.
"I'm going ahead to see how my caretaker is doing. I haven't spoken to her in a year. She might think something happened to me."
"It's dark," Lenora said. "I'll go with you."
"It's forty minutes." Lewd tucked Phantasm's book against her side. "I've walked through worse than dark."
She looked from Lenora to Crysha.
"Besides. Don't you and your aunt have some catching up to do?"
Lenora's expression tightened.
"I'm sure you girls have a lot to talk about," Lewd continued. "I'll be okay."
Before Lenora could argue, Lewd ran into the trees.
Her footsteps disappeared quickly.
Lenora watched the place where she had vanished before grinding her teeth.
"Damn," she muttered. "I was hoping to avoid talking to her."
Crysha slowly turned toward her.
Neither woman spoke.
The fire filled the silence for both of them.
Then Crysha said, "Your dress is beyond saving."
Lenora looked down at what was left of it.
"I know."
"You could have chosen anything in that shop." Crysha's voice had lost its edge somewhere along the road. "Any weapon. Any relic. Anything that would have made the next fight easier." She looked at the ribbon tied around Lenora's wrist. "You chose something to keep a ruined dress clean."
"I did."
"Why."
Lenora's hand settled over the sleeping cat in her lap.
"Because he was the one who thought I looked nice in it."
Crysha closed her eyes briefly.
When she opened them, she was not looking at Lenora anymore. She was looking at the fire, and at something considerably farther away than the fire.
"Forty years," she said quietly. "Forty years we watched you walk, and you never once looked back at Carrot Field." Her fingers curled against her knee. "I have been trying to work out how to tell you something since the clearing. I keep deciding the timing is wrong."
Lenora's ears lifted.
"Then stop deciding."
Crysha drew a breath.
"Lenora, the reason I was sent—"
A sudden pressure passed through the forest.
Lenora's ears stood upright.
Crysha's hand snapped toward her sword.
The sleeping pets did not move, but the fire bent as though something had disturbed the air around it.
Then a distorted cry rose somewhere in the distance.
A broken piano sound followed it—warped notes dragging behind the voice as though the instrument were screaming with whatever had made the noise.
"Yahhhhaaaaaaa—!"
Lenora was already on her feet.
Lewd had gone that way.