Jeroinin was like a steamroller once she got started, an utterly unstoppable force that all gave way to lest they be trampled. As the leader of the settlement, Jeroinin knew exactly who to talk to when she wanted something done and used her smile like a gentle but unyielding baton that had everyone working in perfect harmony. Priscilla watched, a little in awe as Jeroinin gathers up enough food and water for three people for a two week-long journey, found a donkey to help carry said supplies, and found a lost map of the area hidden underneath the seamstress’s extra cloth by lunch time. Jeroinin had disappeared into Allasan’s bakery, muttering something about goose down.

  Kavil had gotten swept up in the preparations when Jeroinin dryly asked him if he had enough herbs for healing salves and he shot off into the forest with a frantic look in his eyes, dragging a complaining Theodore with him. Sulaiman had been shuffled to Priscilla’s side, as the villagers were insistent they take the time to relax before they had to get back on the road.

  They watched the bustling town from a bench that had been dragged out for them. Sulaiman’s gaze hadn’t turned towards Priscilla once and she wondered if she had upset him by not asking his opinion before inviting Kavil. Priscilla tapped her fingers before deciding sitting here not talking was too much for her.

  “Do you want to stop at the same place in Grazda and get that sweet bean bun again?”

  “Did you ask Kavil to come with us to protect him?” Sulaiman asked after a moment, totally ignoring what she said.

  But Priscilla bit back the urge to complain, thinking over his question to try and see how he came to that conclusion. She had implied that Kopica’a and the cult were interested in Kavil yesterday, so Priscilla could see how Sulaiman had come to a reasonable, if wrong, conclusion about her motivations.

  But Priscilla wasn’t going to complain, not when it made her life easier.

  “If people don’t know where Kavil is,” Priscilla said, “or where he’s going, then it’ll be a hell of a lot harder to kidnap him.”

  Sulaiman looked up sharply, eyes narrowing.

  “So he was the ‘treasure’ the bandits were searching for,” Sulaiman said, studying Priscilla’s face.

  She couldn’t technically give an affirmative, so Priscilla gave a casual shrug and said, “Sure seems like it. I mean, have you ever heard of anyone being that good at healing magic at his age without any formal training? If I was an evil mastermind – which I am not, don’t give me that look – then I’d want him on my side.”

  Sulaiman considered her words, his gaze drifting to where Kavil had disappeared into the woods earlier. His brows were furrowed in contemplation.

  “If you do this,” Sulaiman said, “then you better see it through to the end. Don’t give him hope and take him away from his home just to abandon him.”

  “Do you take me for such a fickle person?” Priscilla retorted, crossing her arm over the sling to glare at him. “Of course I’ll see it through, I’m not the type to give up half-way – it’s perfection or bust for me.”

  That earned Priscilla a wry glance, Sulaiman’s black eyes glittering with an emotion she couldn’t identify.

  “Strangely,” Sulaiman said, “I think I believe you.”

  “Strangely?” Priscilla repeated in a mocking tone. “Do you not believe me every other time I speak?”

  Sulaiman rolled his eyes, and his posture relaxed as he leaned back on his hands.

  “Nonsense is what comes out of your mouth most of the time,” Sulaiman retorted.

  Priscilla mimed being shot through the heart and dying tragically due to his cruel words.

  “Case in point,” Sulaiman said dryly. Priscilla died a little harder and that made Sulaiman snort in amusement.

  “Stop dying so you don’t aggravate your shoulder,” Sulaiman said, “and tell me what your next harebrained scheme is, you ridiculous idiot.”

  Her shoulder did twinge painfully due to her theatrics, but she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was right, so Priscilla acted normally as she straightened.

  Priscilla debated about how much to tell Sulaiman, how to explain things in a way that he could accept. But as Priscilla watched Sulaiman arch an eyebrow at her silence, she realized that she wanted to be honest with him and wanted to stop pretending that she was still like the original.

  “Before I left,” Priscilla said, wetting her lips and pushing away the anxiety, “I made a promise to travel with someone.”

  Sulaiman gave Priscilla a look that said, ‘I’m waiting.’

  “I…” Priscilla swallowed and inwardly berated herself for being a coward. She could talk shit for hours when it didn’t matter but she shied away from difficult conversations when she truly cared about the other person’s opinion. Priscilla looked down at Asha and took a steadying breath.

  “I know I’ve been a real bitch for most of my life,” Priscilla said, “and only ever cared about myself but I really am trying hard to change into a better person and… a better sister, since Illnyea told me she’s willing to give me a second chance. She said she wanted to travel together and I told her we would.”

  Priscilla didn’t dare look up, stomach twisting into knots the longer the silence lingered. Asha sent reassurance through their bond but Priscilla barely felt it, too keyed up and afraid of Sulaiman’s harsh words. She was waiting for him to tell her to stay away from Illnyea, to not cause a mess for Illnyea to deal with.

  “I see,” was what came out of Sulaiman’s mouth instead. Priscilla was so shocked she finally looked up at him.

  Sulaiman was staring her straight on, his face serious but without judgment.

  “Illnyea is soft-hearted and far too trusting when she shouldn’t be,” Sulaiman said and Priscilla winced, “but from what I’ve seen, you seem to be truly trying to change. I don’t think she’s wrong to forgive you but…”

  Sulaiman leaned in suddenly, black eyes boring into Priscilla.

  “You better not prove me wrong,” Sulaiman said, a threat lurking behind his mild tone.

  “If I break her trust,” Priscilla said, “feel free knock me the fuck out because there must be something wrong with my brain and I need a cognitive reset.”

  They stayed like that for half a second more, before Sulaiman left her space, saying, “I’ll hold you to that promise.”

  “You better,” Priscilla said, the tension draining from her body at Sulaiman’s acceptance. That conversation had gone so much better than she could have hoped.

  “So your harebrained scheme involves Illnyea,” Sulaiman said, “and where exactly are we going this time?”

  “Oh?” Priscilla purred. “Are you that eager to keep traveling with me, Sulaiman?”

  “Between you, Illnyea, and Kavil,” Sulaiman drawled, “there’s not a lick of common sense. Someone has to make sure you three don’t get into trouble.”

  Priscilla snickered, smiling wide. “I’m sure we’ll still get into plenty of trouble.”

  “Gods help me,” Sulaiman muttered.

  “And for where we’ll go,” Priscilla said, “I’m still not sure yet. I have some ideas, but ‘till we see Illnyea again in Meadowyar, nothing’s written in stone.”

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  If they met with Illnyea in Meadowyar and didn’t have to travel all the way to Harosaw City.

  “Oh joy,” Sulaiman said flatly, “I’m following a leader with no idea where she’s steering us.”

  Priscilla tried her very best to shove Sulaiman off the bench but with only one arm, it proved to be a fruitless endeavor that only earned her a lecture about not straining herself before she was fully healed.

  Lunch was mainly leftovers from last night and were just as tasty, though Priscilla stayed away from the roast pig again. One day she’d work up the nerve to have meat again, but that day was not today, no matter how much Holly said it was delicious.

  The rest of the village seemed to be slowing down and people kept coming by to say goodbye to Priscilla and Sulaiman, giving them small gifts before continuing on. The highlights of Priscilla’s mound of gifts were a jar of vanilla honey, a pillow stuffed with goose down, a small wooden bear statue that had been stained to be the color of her hair, and several beautiful ribbons.

  Priscilla thanked each villager profusely and elbowed Sulaiman when he stared dumbly at the gifts. They packed them carefully into their bags and as Priscilla placed the ribbons into the dimensional pocket, her fingers brushed against the locked book, reminding her she brought it with. But Priscilla couldn’t whip it out in front of Sulaiman, who stared at her with an expression that said to get on with it, so Priscilla resolved to look at it later.

  Kavil came back from the forest with a bag stuffed to the brim in his hand. He gave an enthusiastic wave to Priscilla and Sulaiman and started towards them before getting waylaid by his aunt, and then he was swarmed by people coming to say goodbye, slapping his back and giving him tight hugs.

  Sulaiman and Priscilla watched Kavil stumble out of the crowd and finally make his way towards them. He was sweaty and flushed, with a smear of mud along his face.

  “Sorry,” Kavil said, “I meant to come right over–”

  “Don’t apologize for being loved,” Priscilla said. Kavil looked embarrassed but happy, ducking his head.

  Sulaiman tsked as he stepped forward, whipping out a handkerchief from and titled Kavil’s head back up, saying, “They ought to have cleaned you up while they were at it.”

  Sulaiman wiped away the dirt from Kavil’s face roughly before nodding proudly to himself.

  “Much better,” Sulaiman said, tucking away the cloth into his pocket. Kavil was staring open-mouthed at Sulaiman.

  Sulaiman crossed his arms. “What?”

  “Nothing!” Kavil said quickly, shaking the surprise off his face. “So, we’re leaving tomorrow, right? What time should I be ready?”

  “Dawn,” Priscilla said, “so we can maximize travel time in the sun.”

  “We’ll use the donkey as a pack mule,” Sulaiman cut in, “and put Priscilla on the horse.”

  Priscilla rolled her eyes and scoffed.

  “I hurt my shoulder, not my legs,” Priscilla said, “I can walk perfectly fine.”

  Sulaiman ignored her. “Kavil, you’ll need to give Priscilla a check up in the morning and evening to make sure she hasn’t worsened her injuries. You will be in charge of our breaks because I doubt Priscilla will tell us when she needs to rest.”

  Kavil nodded faithfully, eyes gleaming with sincerity.

  “Do I get a say in this?” Priscilla asked.

  “No,” Sulaiman said, giving her the stink eye.

  “I’ll make sure you’re healthy in no time,” Kavil said, leaning forward, “and I’ll make the whole process as painless as possible!”

  Priscilla wanted to keep arguing but she was a weak woman when it came to Kavil when he looked at her like that.

  “If you’re insistent on micromanaging me,” Priscilla muttered, “fineeee, I won’t complain. That much.”

  Kavil gave Priscilla the smile that made suffering through the sling worth it.

  “Will you two look over what I’ve packed?” Kavil asked, glancing between them. “I think I have everything I need but I keep having this little voice in my head telling me that I’m missing absolutely everything.”

  “That sounds like a great way to pass the time,” Priscilla said without consulting Sulaiman because she was petty, “lead the way!”

  The rest of the day went by quickly. Sulaiman helped Kavil figure out what he should take with when there was no telling when Kavil would be back to visit his home. Priscilla lounged on Kavil’s bed (it smelled like dried herbs and was the softest thing she’s sat on in this world) and added to the discussion occasionally, mainly trying to rile Sulaiman up by telling Kavil that, yes, he should take every single wood carving he’s made over the years. Kavil found her interjections delightful and Sulaiman declared her a menace.

  Priscilla said goodbye to the rest of the villagers and assured Sulaiman she was already packed and ready to go during dinner. Jeroinin offered Priscilla the use of her house for one final night, so Priscilla was finally alone as she shut the door firmly behind her.

  “Hey do you sense anything weird with this, Asha?” Priscilla asked as she pulled out the slim red book. “This is something that the original had in her room and it’s locked, so I’m hoping it has something that might give me a lead about what happened to her.”

  Now that Asha knew that Priscilla wasn’t the original soul for this body courtesy of Jeroinin’s magic eyes, Priscilla felt more comfortable referencing the original character and admitting when she didn’t know something.

  “I don’t sense anything magical,” Asha said.

  “Do you think you could turn into a key to unlock this?” Priscilla asked.

  “Bring me closer so I can mold my shape.”

  Priscilla did as Asha bid and the artifact obligingly shifted into a malleable, silver material as her hand drew close to the lock. The lock opened with a quiet click and Priscilla’s hand was shaking as Asha reformed into a glove.

  Holding her breath, Priscilla opened the book.

  And stared, because Priscilla couldn’t read a single word.

  When she came into this world, Priscilla was glad to see that she could read this world’s language and could write it well. But as she looked at the book, Priscilla couldn’t identify any of the letters. At least she thought those were letters, the long looping squiggles that rose up and down at random intervals and sometimes stretched beneath what could be a word. It didn’t look like any language Priscilla recognized, even from her old world.

  “Asha do you understand—“

  “I can’t read, master.”

  “Right,” Priscilla said as she flipped through the book. Pages upon pages were filled with the strange language from top to bottom. Some sections were written with strong emotions, the pen digging into the page so hard that it indented the next page too, and others were so light that Priscilla struggled to see the ink.

  She was about twenty pages from the end when something broke up the monotony.

  A large circle had been drawn over two pages, with a six pointed star scratched into the center. More of the strange language dotted the page, looping around the points where the edge of the star intersected with the circle. In the center of the star was the only symbol Priscilla recognized, a winged serpent eating its own tail – and she jolted when she realized where she had seen it before. That symbol had glowed above Asha when they had confirmed the bond.

  “Do you recognize this, Asha?” Priscilla asked, tilting the book to give her artifact a better look.

  “No?” Asha said. “Should I?”

  “Maybe,” Priscilla said, “it popped up when we underwent the bonding ritual.”

  “I’m sorry, master, I don’t know why that appeared.”

  She flicked through the next few pages to see if there were any more clues. But the rest of the book was frustratingly blank.

  “Well,” Prisiclla said, flipping back to the drawing, “we’ll just have to follow this lead – and maybe we both can find some answers. But for now, let’s sleep. We have a long day ahead of us.”

  “Can we read a little more about monsters before we sleep?” Asha pleaded and Priscilla chuckled.

  “Only because you’re so cute,” Priscilla said, tucking away the red book and pulling out the bestiary. “Okay, so monkey-tailed newt is a strange amphibian that lives in tropical forests and uses its prehensile tail to travel through the trees…”