Olivia couldn’t believe her eyes. She watched, helpless, as Cadence took the fight to Hellesa, and was stunned as they fought like a completely different person. She had seen the celestial do something similar during the caravan attack, when they had saved Olivia from Aton, but this was on a whole different level.

  Cadence moved with the speed, strength, and skill of someone much higher leveled, and there was only one way they had managed that. They had somehow stacked up so many buffs that they could fight Hellesa on even footing–but that much power came with a cost.

  Olivia had seen how just a single Soul Surge drained Cadence. To use this many at once… that cost would be lethal, there was no doubt about it.

  The squire struggled, desperate to help, but she just couldn’t. The hag had broken off her focus on Olivia and ended the torment she was inflicting on the eclipsed girl, but her body still wasn’t working right. Every movement was agony, crooked bones and torn muscles protesting, and Olivia was sure that the shoulder she had dislocated weeks before had torn free of its socket again.

  So she could only watch as Cadence risked everything to save her and Allana and Tenebres. She couldn’t help when Cadence was disarmed. She could barely even cry out as Cadence’s last gambit failed, helpless to do anything but sit in place as Hellesa lashed out with magic enough to kill the celestial.

  And she could only stare as that attack failed. As Adeline, Adeline, impossibly appeared and put an end to the hag.

  She was as beautiful as ever. More so, now, after months apart. The hag’s purple blood seemed as unable to stain her as the outsider’s withering magic, and Adeline fought with the sort of grace and skill Olivia normally would’ve been thankful to watch.

  But not now. Not with so much riding on the knight's work. Even as Hellesa finally fell, her head, torso, and legs going in separate directions, Olivia felt no joy. Not with Tenebres and Allana both down, with Cadence’s life still in the balance.

  “Adeline?” Olivia managed to whimper.

  The knight turned to Oli, worry marring her gorgeous features, but she didn’t get the chance to talk to her, not before Cadence spoke. The celestial mumbled a couple confused words Olivia couldn’t quite make out–then she simply passed out.

  “Adeline!” The knight blinked in surprise, looking from Olivia to the apparently unharmed, but abruptly unconscious, Cadence.

  “They overused an ability!” Olivia explained, her voice hoarse from screams, panic giving her the energy she needed to force out the words. “Stamina and focus–they put off the cost, but they couldn’t do it forever!”

  Adeline’s bright silver eyes finally widened in understanding, and she rushed to Cadence’s side, her hands already glowing.

  Olivia could practically feel the magic flowing from the knight into Cadence. Olivia had felt the Adept’s gift of passion work its magic on her soul before. Adeline had the rare ability to restore stamina and focus thanks to the Artist’s blessing, and she was the only person Olivia had ever met who could’ve both finished off Hellesa and saved Cadence from the cost of their own abilities.

  Cadence would’ve called it fate that the knight got here just in time, and in that moment, Olivia couldn’t refute the claim. She could only hope that the celestial’s belief in something greater guiding them was right, that Adeline had come here for a reason.

  Tears of pain and helplessness and despair rolled down Oli’s cheeks as she watched Adeline try to pull the celestial back from the edge–and then, finally, it worked. Cadence’s back arched, and they took a sudden, deep breath, and their eyes opened.

  And then a gentle, familiar light began to glow around Olivia. A soft green light of healing magic like she hadn’t seen since she and Cadence had left the remains of Hugo’s caravan, weeks before.

  “Shhh,” Rose said, her voice gentle. “Shhh, it’s okay Oli. We’re here now. Everyone’s going to be okay.”

  Another ragged sob racked Oli’s body, and she accepted the young warden’s words, and she slipped into the blissful peace of Rose’s magic.

  #

  Everyone survived, in the end. Apparently Farris and Adeline had arrived in Jellis only hours after Rose and the survivors of Hugo’s Trading Company, just in time to fight off yet another hag’s attack on the trading town. In the aftermath, Elway had been unable to field a force to help find Olivia and Cadence, but help had still come, if from a surprising place. Aton, having been spared by the pair weeks before, offered to help Adeline find them.

  He guided Farris, Adeline, Rose, and Beryl to the ruins of Culles, and the experienced warden officer had been able to follow their steps from there to the cave system Hellesa had holed up in. The sounds of battle they had heard earlier, the very sounds that had distracted Hellesa so effectively, had been the wardens giving battle to the hag’s minions, opening a way for Adeline to enter the compound.

  With Rose and Adeline both on hand to lend their healing magic, not only was Cadence saved from their own sacrifice, Allana and Olivia were mostly healed. The squire was left with some lingering soreness, but Rose promised that routine healing sessions would be enough to see her through. Tenebres hadn’t even required that–the hag had apparently not actually tried to kill the former cultist, instead using her magic to jolt his soul hard enough to knock him out. He came to on his own while the healers were still putting Oli back together.

  “How is it possible, though?” Olivia asked in the aftermath, once the entire group was once more on the surface, with some distance between them and the remains of Hellesa’s horde. “I mean, the timing of it all…”

  “Fate,” Cadence said simply. The celestial’s near death experience had dampened their endless enthusiasm for the first time Olivia could remember, and they delivered the word with monosyllabic exhaustion.

  Adeline’s answer was more straight-forward. “The knight-radiant must’ve somehow known that this was going to happen,” she explained. “I received a letter telling me and Farris to make for Jellis immediately–if not for that, we would’ve left the situation to all of you.”

  “But how did they know?” Olivia asked.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Adeline shrugged. “They're the head of the Argent Order for a reason, Oli. They just… know things sometimes. They did ask me to keep an eye on the trial duels in Correntry last spring, after all.”

  Olivia didn’t know how to respond to that–but she did notice the way Cadence looked up sharply at the words, their eyes thoughtful and calculating.

  #

  It was a solemn camp that night. Even with the bright spots, like Beryl’s recovery and Aton’s assistance, the four young adventurers had simply come too close to death in the hag’s lair. Cadence remained introspective and brooding, an odd change for the celestial, and though Olivia ached to help them the way they had helped her, the squire simply didn’t know the right words to do so.

  Still, she sat with Cadence for a while, keeping her company while the wardens bustled about, setting up camp for the emotionally and physically drained party of young adventurers.

  “I want you to know… I realize what you did in there,” Olivia finally told her. “I know what you risked. And… Thank you. For being willing to do that, for me and for the others.”

  Cadence nodded, the gesture vague and empty, and Olivia bumped the celestial with her shoulder, the way Alyssia always did. Not knowing what else to do, Olivia simply said, “I’m here, if you need to talk.”

  Cadence had, after all, taught Olivia the value of a willing ear.

  Tenebres and Allana became distant again as well, the appearance of so many strangers once more making them defensive. They, too, had come incredibly close to losing their lives at Hellesa’s hands, and they were both obviously and profoundly impacted by the experience. When Olivia saw the two start to drift away from their little camp, the squire couldn’t help but follow them into the darkness beyond the campfire light.

  “What do you want, Oli?” Allana asked sharply once she noticed that Olivia was following them.

  Olivia fumbled for words, not sure what to say to the acerbic girl and sullen boy. “I just… I wanted to say thank you.”

  “For what? Almost dying?”

  Olivia shook her head. “No. I don’t know. For trusting me, I guess. And Cadence. For fighting alongside us. Without you two there…”

  Allana’s face softened a little at those words, and the girl looked away.

  Tenebres eventually replied, “It was good working with you, Oli.”

  The eclipsed girl frowned. Was? “Then… are you…?”

  The broken question hung in the air, jagged and uncomfortable, and neither gave a clear answer. “We’ll see you in the morning,” Allana said simply.

  “We just need some time right now,” Tenebres explained, his voice tired.

  Olivia swallowed. Those weren’t answers. Then she noticed that Allana had slipped her hand into Tenebres’s, their fingers entwined. In fact, the two were standing very close… Flushed with sudden understanding, Olivia nodded and retreated, leaving the two friends–and lovers?–to the time alone they clearly needed.

  Olivia soon found her way back to the fire, sitting next to Beryl and Rose. For a brief moment, it was like the past few weeks had never happened, like they were still journeying the Flax Road with Hugo. But that wasn’t true. Too much had changed in just a short time.

  “I’m happy you’re okay,” he told Beryl.

  The brawny girl smiled back. “You too. You looked beat to shit in there.”

  Olivia rolled her eyes–but a little smile hung on her face. At another time, the observation would’ve caused an argument, but the two battle-gifted were used to each other after so long together.

  Olivia’s gaze drifted over to Rose, the petite redhead busy staring into the fire instead of looking at Oli. “And on that note,” she added, “thanks for putting me back together.”

  Rose smiled shyly. “Don’t I always?”

  Olivia huffed a little laugh. “Yeah… yeah, you do. Thanks for that, too.”

  Yet another uncomfortable silence stretched on for a few moments, neither of the two acknowledging the brief kiss shared in the last moments before Oli’s departure.

  And then Aton joined the trio, the eclipsed swordsman sitting just a hair closer to Rose than Olivia would’ve expected. Rose fidgeted, then slid a little closer to him, making things clear.

  Surprisingly, Olivia didn’t find herself jealous of the former bandit. She always knew that things wouldn’t work out between her and Rose–the warden recruit was steadfastly moon-drawn, while Oli… Oli couldn’t be what she wanted. Somewhere in her, Oliver would miss Rose, but Olivia wasn’t that boy anymore.

  Instead she gave Aton a small, respectful nod. “Thanks for guiding them to us.”

  The goldblood exile shrugged. “Don’t mention it. We’re even now.”

  Olivia rolled her eyes. Things were different now, already, but they also felt… right, in some ways.

  #

  Later that night, Olivia found herself the one sitting away from the group surrounding the campfire, her back to a tree while she stared up at the stars overhead, replaying the impossible events of the last few days and weeks.

  The raid on Hugo’s caravan. The hunt for the bandits and the fight with Garret. Finally coming out to Cadence, and starting to accept herself as Olivia. Egin and the totems. Culles and the wights. Tenebres and Allana. Hellesa, and the wracking pain of the hag’s spells. Adeline and the wardens arriving just in time.

  It was, in so many ways, just too much. Her mind felt like it had gone into some sort of shock, like she wasn’t properly processing any of it–and like, when she finally did, she’d be left a mess for days to come.

  Somehow, Olivia wasn’t surprised when Adeline sat down next to her.

  “So,” the knight said, her voice as soft and musical as ever, “I guess this mission got a little out of hand.”

  Olivia made a noise somewhere between a chuckle and a sob, not quite managing to stifle either. “Yeah. Yeah, you could say that.”

  Adeline gave her own lilting little laugh, then she put an arm over Oli’s shoulders, pulling her a little closer. She smelled just like she always did, like summer sunlight, fresh-picked fruit, and well-honed steel. “I missed you, Oliver.”

  Oliver–Olivia–stiffened at the name, and he found herself swallowing thickly. “Uhm..” His voice cracked, on the edge of her and him, sun and moon. “Olivia. I… I’m starting to prefer Olivia now.”

  Olivia heard the surprised little intake of breath from the older knight, and it tickled something in the back of her brain, sending shivers down her spine. “Olivia… simple. I like it.” The knight turned, so that she could wrap a second arm around the eclipsed girl. “I missed you then, Olivia.”

  Something about that encouragement, simple though it was, made something crack in Olivia’s brain, the numbness and shock shattering like an egg. Olivia found her arms wrapping around Adeline in return, and then she couldn’t stop the tears anymore. She cried, she sobbed, she wept. Tears of grief and joy and pain and regret and happiness and relief and terror spilled down her face, and Adeline was there, holding her, making soft noises of reassurance and understanding, smelling of warmer days and easier times.