"Come closer. Let us take a look at you." Tristan asked Sophia. She was using the same tone of voice people use when they're talking to a scared animal.

  The noblewoman, who had been hiding behind a tree for a good twenty minutes, finally stepped closer. She was holding her arms over her head.

  "Drop your arms and let us take a look at you," Vral demanded.

  "Be gentle!" Tristan hissed.

  With a deep, resigned sigh, Sophia did as she was told. Lifting her head, she asked, "How's it look?"

  All three of us whistled.

  "Damn, Soph. Who knew?" Vral asked.

  "Really, really good," Tristan added.

  Her eyes met mine. "Alex?"

  "Fantastic."

  Her shoulders perked up. "Are you all sure?"

  "Don't fish for compliments. We said you look good, you damn wimp." Vral walked away as Sophia blushed crimson. Looks like Vral knew her friend well.

  Looking Sophia over, I marveled at how well Tristan had done. It took an hour and quite a bit of fussing, but by the end, the noblewoman was left with a rather flattering pixie cut on her head. At least I think that's what women called it back home. Her hair stopped just above her eyes and ears and was short all around, but kind of feathered. At her request, Tristan had kept a single longer strand that was currently brushed behind her ear. It was far less feminine, but it gave her an edge she didn't have before, especially with that thin scar under her eye.

  Sophia brushed her hair away from her eyes, but it flopped right back to where it had been before. "This may take getting used to."

  Tristan sighed. "Yeah, I went short for a long time, but it didn't work for me. I looked like a boy." She side-eyed me. I gave her a shrug back. It wasn't my fault! "But I got good at cutting it that way over the years. You make it work."

  Sophia ran her fingers through her drying hair. "Was the dye necessary?"

  Vral smirked from a few feet away. "Very. Purple suits you."

  Vral had disappeared when Tristan began cutting Sophia's hair. Right when she finished, the goblin reappeared carrying a handful of dark purple berries. Without asking, the goblin smashed them in her hands and smeared the resulting thick purple liquid into Sophia's hair. A short while later, the berry juice soaked in, leaving the noblewoman's hair a dark purple color.

  "What do you think, Alex?" Her blue eyes settled on me again.

  I hadn't noticed her eye color in the keep, but out here, I was struck with how similar they were to Tristan's. They weren't as sapphire and were more of a light sky blue, but they definitely seemed similar. "You look lovely. You don't look like a duchess anymore too, so I think Vral did good."

  "Will I truly pass as a pilgrim in Llyn?"

  "Not without this." Tristan knelt and fished in her pack. A moment later, she pulled out her old brown robes that she'd retired when we'd returned to Light's Hope Temple.

  "I... I've never worn anything so plain."

  "Come on, princess. You're a nobody now." Vral pulled down on Sophia's ruined dress. "Stop acting like a queen."

  The woman barely managed to catch her dress before her breasts were unleashed from their cloth prison. I turned my head as quickly as I could.

  "Vral!" Tristan shouted and stood in front of Sophia.

  "What?!"

  "Not with him watching!" She whined.

  Vral cocked her head. "Why? He's seen tits before."

  Sophia's jaw dropped as she glared at the goblin, then looked at both me and Tristan with a horrified expression on her face.

  "Vral, you're impossible," Tristan huffed. "Wander off with Alex for a bit." The priestess shoved the goblin away and pointed toward the Great Tower far to the east. "That way. Go look at the orb or something. And keep him away."

  Vral rolled her eyes. "Oh please. Your noble breasts are anything special. Plus, those utters aren't his thing anyway."

  "Get!" Tristan fluttered her hands and shooed us away.

  "Come on, Vral." When she looked like she was going to protest, I reached down and picked her up by the collar. She kicked and squirmed as I walked away from the girls.

  I carried her until we rounded the few remaining chunks of wall left from Embermist Keep and set Vral down.

  "Ugh, big baby."

  I reached down and lightly swatted her ass. "What's with you? You're always blunt, but you're outright mean to her. Why?"

  Vral rubbed her butt. "She drives me nuts. She acts like such a prim and proper little lady, like she doesn't eat and sleep and shit like the rest of us. She needs to toughen up."

  "Sure, but she's been through a lot. You can tell this has been hard on her."

  She snarled. "Who hasn't been through a lot?" Vral looked up at me. "I was born on the streets, was bought to be an obedient playmate and guard dog for a future duchess, then was cast out and clawed a life together. Did I have it easy? Tris's grandma was kidnapped and forced by a noble to bear a child that killed her, her cousin almost got sold by slavers, and Tris was forced to grow up in a temple. Did she have it easy? And look at you. You got struck by lightning, took damn near a year to heal, and have fallen face-first into one pile of shit after another and almost got killed a dozen times, twice of which were on me. And I don't even know what much about you before you got here. From what you've said, your life on Earth wasn't great either. Did you have it easy? No. So why should she get a pass? She grew up with gold in her mouth and silk in her bed. She doesn't know what it's like for the rest of us."

  I understood her point. I did. But... "You're right. She probably did have it easy, but you don't know what her life was like inside her head. We all have troubles in life. And yeah, some people are far more lucky than others, and it's not fair. That sucks. It really does. But she didn't choose her life, and neither did we."

  "But we're strong. She's a wimp."

  "Sure, the hard shit we've been through made us who we are. We're strong. We're resilient. But we're damaged, right? I know I am. Should everyone have to eat shit as hard as we have before we give them respect? Of course not. I can pretty much guarantee this is the worst her life has ever been, and that's enough. We can be there for her. We can help. But if we go into every interaction half-cocked because she didn't suffer as much as we did, then we're just being assholes. We need to be better than that. I want to be better than that."

  "But—"

  "But nothing, Vral." I knelt and looked her in the eyes. "I'll be honest. My life back home wasn't great. I hated a lot of it. But every single time you and I have talked, I've gotten the sense that there's nothing I could have gone through that would have been as hard as what you have. Are you going to judge me too? Because if you're going to go after her, come at me too. I'm no better." I put my hands on her shoulders. "And you know what? There are people who look down on you for the shit you've gone through. For who you are and where you're from. They see you as less because of it. But I never have, and I never will. I take you as you are, and I love you for who you are. You're the funny, sassy, strong, and deserving Vral, my first goblin friend, and the one I offered my hand to."

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Her eyes grew misty. "Stop. I know you didn't mean anything by that."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Your hand. You didn't mean to. I knew it then and know it now. How could you? You're just some dumb traveler who doesn't know a thing about me or my people." She swallowed hard and blinked the tears away. "But when you offered it, I was so happy. For a moment, I've been able to pretend I have a place I belong. Vral, Tristan, and Alex, the unstoppable trio, great and noble heroes known far and wide for the shitty peasants of the land." Her eyes dropped. "My little family." She swallowed again. "But now, we have a new straggler, and I know you two. We're going to take her in. We'll help her. She'll end up sticking around. We'll win too, because that's who you are. Then, what'll you need me for? She'll end up being a duchess. Tristan's a powerful priestess. You're you. And I'm nothing. I don't bring anything to the table." Her head dropped.

  "I'm just some guy who picked up a sword and a shield one day and decided to go on an adventure, Vral. My mom was a drunk, my dad was a piece of shit, and my sister died when we were kids. I worked at a burger cart before coming here. I'm no one."

  "But you will be someone. You see that, right?"

  "Vral, I'm not—

  "Don't be stupid!" She thrust her finger at me. "You were chosen by the Goddess herself! You were brought from another world for some big purpose! Some holy dragon thing called you her champion!" She took a deep breath. "You're special. And worse, you're good. You're kind, and sweet, and thoughtful. You've got this big, stupid heart. You help people and support everyone you meet. You take chances on people and save them when you don't have to." She stepped up to me and placed a hand on my cheek. "You're going to be someone they'll write stories about one day. I know it. Tristan knows it. Everyone back at the temple knows it. Hell, I'm sure even the damn cult knows it at this point. You're someone, Alex. But I'm nothing. I'm barely even stronger than you anymore, so I can't even call myself your muscle. I'm just some dirty goblin." She spat the final word out. "But I love being with you. I love it so much. This is the first time I've felt good about my life. So let me pretend this is where I belong until I can't, and let me put her in her place until I'm gone. It makes it easier."

  "You don't have to pretend, Vral. You belong here." I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a hug. For once, she didn't squirm. Instead, her arms wrapped around my neck. "You're not going anywhere."

  I felt heard her throat hitch, and her body shook. My cheek got wet. She was quiet for a long time. Finally, I heard her sigh. "You sure?"

  "Did I stutter?"

  "No..."

  "This is where you belong. Got it?"

  She giggle sobbed. "Got it."

  ***

  We stood like that for some time. After Vral calmed down, I sat her down, and we tried to walk back to the girls. The second we rounded the corner though, Tristan shouted at us.

  "Not yet! We have to make some adjustments!" She was using a needle and thread on the robe. Beside her, Sophia was intently watching her as she worked. "Just a bit longer!"

  Vral took my hand and guided me back around the wall. "Let's give them some privacy."

  I smiled down at her, and she smiled back.

  Once we got back where we had been, we walked to the edge of the castle grounds had been where the wall was lowest. Looking over the broken wall, I was struck by how thoroughly the keep had been destroyed. Several hundred feet or more below, I could just make out the large stones that made up the castle. But for the most part, everything was either dust or buried under rubble. It was like the earth itself swallowed it whole.

  "The Depths reclaimed it," Vral said as she peered over the side next to me.

  "The Depths. I know a bit about them, but not enough. Do you know anything?"

  Vral frowned. "Yeah. My first memories are of big glittering caverns. I don't remember much though. It comes in flashes."

  "You've been?"

  "I was born far below the streets of Arante."

  "Seems like an odd place to be born."

  "Goblins give birth as far into the ground as we can get. The calling comes to us as easily as breathing. While a few feet in the ground is good enough, the further the better. If we can't, then childbirth is really hard on us."

  "I had no idea." I caught myself stroking my beard. "What are they like?"

  "They're kind of scary. Big, endless chasms, nasty monsters, wild magic. The mist stuff Tristan was talking about is thick down there too. I heard from the elders that the deeper you go the more things get weird. Go far enough, and you end up somewhere else."

  I raised a brow. "What do you mean?"

  "No one knows for certain. The old legends say that that's where souls went before the Goddess came. The Old Gods didn't collect our souls when we got killed, so our souls slowly sank into the Depths until they ended up in that other place. Everyone has a different name for it, but I know it as the Shadowlands." She shrugged.

  "But now the Goddess preserves our souls within the towers, right?"

  "Something like that. At least, that's the story."

  "You don't believe it?"

  She frowned. "It's not that. It's just that they say my people didn't get that privilege until this age. Makes me wonder if it's real at all. And if it is, who knows how many goblin souls are stuck down there."

  I put my hand on her shoulder and squeezed. She reached up and placed her little hand on mine. For a long while, we stood and looked out at the rubble.

  After some time, Tristan called for us to return. Rejoining the two, Vral and I inspected our newest companion's outfit. Unlike when Tristan had worn it, the old brown robe fit the duchess well. It was far from shapeless now. Despite that, she looked every bit the pilgrim she was pretending to be.

  "Do I look good?" She looked uncertain.

  "Beautiful."

  "Lovely."

  "Like a brown cow."

  I smacked Vral. "Be nice."

  "Never."

  "We should really get out of here." I looked at each of the women. "There's a giant open hole going to somewhere thirty feet away that I'd like to get us away from."

  "We should be able to get back to the wagon by nightfall." Tristan nodded to Sophia. "If you're able."

  "I'll manage. I'm more concerned about you." Sophia's eyes shone with concern.

  "I'll manage. Let's get going."

  ***

  "It's all gone, eh?" Borun grumbled in his deep bass. "A shame." He stroked his beard and puffed on his pipe. "As poorly as that is for us, I suppose you two purifying the old keep is a turn in the right direction for Istaera." He pointed his pipe's stem at Sophia and Tristan.

  "Indeed it is." Tristan reached out and took Sophia's hand. "And if it weren't for Elowen, I'd never have been able to do it on my own."

  We'd decided on Sophia's cover name as we walked back to the wagon. She was now Elowen, junior priestess of a distant temple in Nolei come on pilgrimage to Istaera.

  "We needed those goods, Borun. What'll we do now?" Vassa wrung her hands and looked at the man at her side. She was worried. From what the trio had revealed, they were hit hard by drought this year. Their village was relying on them selling everything to get them through until the next harvest.

  "We'll manage," Eadrun answered when his father hesitated.

  Tristan patted the woman's hands. "How much will you need to replace the goods?"

  Borun rubbed the back of his neck as he thought. "We still have my steel, so that should cover two-thirds of our village's needs. It'll be a hard year, but we'll survive." The man smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

  "The temple will assist you," Tristan said with confidence. "When you are in need, come to us, and we'll provide you with food."

  "We couldn't possibly—"

  "Nonsense. We exist to serve those in need. Don't hesitate."

  I couldn't help but smile as Tristan spoke. She'd grown so confident in the time I'd known her. I couldn't help but respect how far she'd come.

  "If you're sure."

  "I am."

  Vassa's face relaxed a little. "Thank you, sister." The woman took Tristan's hands in her own. "Our village owes you a great debt."

  Borun nodded at Tristan. "Once Eadrun, Vassa, and I finish our business in Llyn, we'll travel on to back to the village and take stock. Then, we'll go to Light's Hope." He took another long puff of his pipe. "But first, we promised to get you where you need to be. I know you're in a rush, so the boy can drive through the night. We'll get you there as soon as we're able. Likely three or four days if we only stop to feed and water the oxen."

  "I'll also work hard to help them recover faster," Tristan offered, but a cloud passed over her face an instant later. "Ah, well, actually..."

  Sophia didn't miss a beat. "You need to rest, sister. We both do." Lowering her head to Borun, she added, "I apologize, but we are both heavily taxed from our efforts at the keep. Please forgive us if we cannot help your animals on this journey."

  The merchant waved a hand. "Don't worry about it. We've got a few potions to help with that.

  "Thank you for understanding." Tristan looked crestfallen. I reached out and took her hand. She stepped closer and leaned into me.

  Despite my stink, I ended up carrying her the last quarter of the walk back to the wagon. She didn't even protest. She was exhausted. "Would you mind if we find a spot on the wagon?"

  "Of course. Please, make yourself comfortable." The dwarf stood and cleared his pipe. "We'll ready the oxen and head out shortly. In about two days, we'll reach the small town of Fairview. There, we'll stay the night at the inn, then make the rest of the trip to Llyn."

  Wrapping my arm around Tristan's waist, I guided her to the back of the wagon. She tried to climb up but couldn't. Remembering Vral's words in the keep, I grabbed her by her hips and hoisted her into the back. When she was seated, I stripped off my armor piece by piece until I was wearing nothing more than my tunic and pants.

  She watched as I piled each piece in a corner and stacked them neatly.

  "Not a bad view." She said through a yawn.

  I did a little shimmy. "Like what you see?"

  "You know I do." She yawned again. "Now come on up and cuddle. I want to sleep."

  "On it." Climbing into the back of the wagon, I pulled our bedrolls out of our packs and made a little nest. Leaning back against a crate, I barely had time to wave her over when she appeared in my arms and nestled her head into my shoulder.

  "I've missed this," she murmured in my neck.

  "Me too." I pulled her close.

  We hadn't had the time or willingness to sleep together at the temple more than a handful of times. She felt awkward being surrounded by dozens of people who were basically her family, and I wasn't much more comfortable with the constant insinuations and looks. We weren't married, and it was a temple. Thus, we decided it was best to spend our nights in our respective beds, and even the few times we slept together, we certainly hadn't done anything more than sleep. It was like living in your parent's house when you're an adult, but we had dozens of parents instead of two.

  "Let's keep adventuring, okay?" Her voice was thick. She wrapped her arm around my chest.

  "We will." I kissed her forehead. She was already snoring. Smiling, I wrapped both arms around her and drifted off to sleep as well.

  Sometime later, I woke up to Vral curling up against my side. Wrapping my arm around her too, I fell back into a deep sleep.