"Leo, I need your help."

  I hadn't been positive I'd be able to say those words out loud. While the pain of his departure had faded, he still seemed hip-deep in the insidious philosophy of the [Hunter] cult.

  My former friend turned, his blond locks falling loose against his forehead as he regarded me.

  "You need my help? That's not new," he joked, and for a moment we were both transported back to Woodsten. His smile faltered as he glanced around. Someone had replaced his breastplate. Its polished angles gleamed sharply in the sunlight, like a physical representation of the wall we'd put up between each other.

  "Can we talk somewhere more private?" I asked, looking at the priestess who shadowed him. She regarded me with open suspicion, picking at her fingernail with the tip of her dagger. Richard's tail curled tighter around my neck as though warning me to keep cool.

  Leo looked back at what had caught my eye, and I could tell I'd made a mistake. He stiffened, his feet moving to a wider position, as though he dared me to move him.

  "If you've got something to say, you can say it to both of us." The warmth had bled out of his voice. This was a proud [Paladin of the Hunt], unrelenting and uncompromising.

  Part of me had known this was going to happen, but that didn't stop the disappointment that welled up in my heart.

  Quick, tell him Meredeath's pregnant.

  "Uh," I stammered. My hands were clammy, despite knowing I wasn't the father.

  TELL HIM.

  "It's about Meredeath." I said, my voice squeaking. Leo frowned, surprised.

  "Brother, if you need advice on what to do about Meredeath, I'm sure she'd be willing to educate you." I blushed down to the roots of my hair.

  "She's pregnant!" I blurted out, willing to say almost anything to stop my embarrassment.

  The movement on the sidewalk stopped as several passersby regarded me. The priestess smirked, sheathing her dagger.

  "I'll give you two a moment," she said, self-selecting herself out of my imaginary personal dilemma. "Congratulations, Dad." She threw over her shoulder as she walked away.

  I really hoped Richard had a plan.

  "I'm not sure how I can help you with that if the deed's done. You know how to prevent that sort of thing, why weren’t you using a protection charm?" Leo regarded me and reached out with an armored hand, placing it on my shoulder. "You're going to make a great dad. I always worried I'd be first."

  Tell him you want to send a message to Andrew.

  This was Richard's grand idea? I needed to talk to the Ashborn, but there had to be a better way than telling Leo that Meredeath was pregnant. Freaking Richard probably thought this was funny.

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  "I need to send a message to Andrew. You know Cersapil, can you help me find the local Ashborn orphanage?"

  Leo's hand squeezed my shoulder. "You're not giving it up, are you?"

  Outrage bubbled in my gut. Maybe we weren't friends anymore, but how dare he accuse me of giving up my unborn imaginary child!

  "Calm down, calm down." He stepped back as my outrage must have been pretty obvious. "I'll walk you there. It's down in the lower district. Need to be wary; the plumed one’s presence has increased significantly in the last twelve hours."

  We walked in companionable silence. I'd gotten used to the rounded pebbles they used as the paving stones in the city. My feet, while still sore from the curvature of the rocks, were mastering the stride needed to not roll an ankle.

  "So you made it with Meredeath?" Leo's armor clanked as he walked; there was nothing stealthy about my brute of a friend.

  I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to continue lying to my big friend, but what else could I do? Keeping my head down, I just nodded.

  "Wow. I must say, I never thought the two of you were going to make it," he rambled. It was that statement that made me decide I was going to milk this moment for as much honest personal insight as I could get out of my beefy friend.

  "Why is that?"

  He was silent for a moment, guiding me down an alley. Anyone who would have bothered me was steering clear of the armored [Paladin]. He didn't get the regard of a Stone Warden, but it wasn't too far off. I could almost see why he'd been seduced by the [Paladin's] aura.

  "She likes to play, and no offense, but Cole, my man. You're one to commit. You never do a relationship halfway. Even that stupid slug on your shoulders, you'd die for that mollusk. You have died for the guy, and he's just a banana slug you found in your compost." I hadn't thought of Richard that way. He was my [Companion], my allegedly [Immortal] fanged banana slug.

  I had found him in the compost bin; Leo had me there. As I circled the drain of my self-introspection, I almost missed Leo finishing his thought. "That's why I was so surprised you left me behind."

  If I'd been smart, I'd have pretended not to hear him. A year ago, that's probably what I would have done. A lot had changed.

  "I didn't leave you behind," I blurted the words, my bubbling anger . I just couldn't stop myself from finishing with the hurt that'd been haunting me. "You left me, us, behind."

  My comment was factually true, but a small part of my brain knew he meant in life. In progression and in adventuring. In my new quest chain to become an explorer.

  Our footsteps had brought us back onto a major street. The bustle of traffic rose around us like the walls that had sprung up between us.

  He didn't bother responding. I couldn't bring myself to blame him. Minutes passed as he led me onward, further down into the city. The streets had grown quieter, darker, dirtier. The Ashborn estates, no matter the city, were never in a glamorous part of town. Orphans never received the due they deserved.

  "Here's the Ashborn estate of Cersapil," Leo told me like an escort who had performed his duty, in cool, clipped words. The gated house he had taken me to looked shabby, but loved. This one did not have a tent city in the front garden, thankfully.

  "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you." I finally said the words I'd needed to say to him. Then, in an act of true self sabotage I didn't stop talking. "I'm sorry I'm not the loser you needed me to be." There was so much more that I wanted to say. To rage against a world that didn't treat us fairly, that didn't level the playing field so we could all progress equally.

  It still stung that I'd lost a Legendary path, the world of beasts and creatures. It stung that he'd broken our triad and left the party he named, because he couldn't stand to see me succeeding where he wasn't.

  I turned away from Leo, the front gate swinging open on oiled hinges.

  I didn't look back.

  He's staring after you. I tried not to care. If you want, next time I can bite him.

  I knocked at the red door of the orphanage with a smile. Thank the Everbear Richard was there to pull me out of it.

  "Can I help you, sir?" a grandmotherly matron answered the door, her eyes accented with a bit of feathered plume. This was exactly what I had been hoping for.

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