Crusader Mei Devins was a seasoned veteran. A half-elven oddity, her father was a citizen of the Empire, her mother was an Aestori, a race of elves that lived within the Empire whose name translated to Starfallen. Although easily over one-hundred years old, she was youthful in appearance. I found myself distracted by her beauty more than once. Her porcelain skin and silky violet hair framed a slender face and long ears in a way that made her look like a sculptured masterpiece.

Crusader Alistaire Alcotts was very personable. He greeted both of us with enthusiasm. He looked young, in his early twenties, with a mess of reddish-orange hair on his head. His features were soft, and unmistakably foreign. The most striking of which were his eyes, I couldn’t help but be smitten with them: green on the right, red to the left.

His presence was a quandary to be sure, but if Hanna and Hailey trusted him then so would I.

Crusader Soren Jameson’s personality was the polar opposite of Alcotts. He was incredibly shy and reserved, Alcotts did most of the talking for him. He looked younger than his partner, but the way he carried himself gave an air of maturity. His hair was styled short around the front and sides, coming together into a long tail in the back.

Julius’ took the next turn to speak, "I will take the role of Initiator, as I’m the only one in the party with a guardian specialty. Airis will take on the Operator role, and uniquely as a hybrid specialization she will assist Hailey in healing, while also keeping her protected with some newly acquired blade skills."

He continued, "Luke will be our Field Monitor, he’s the only one with a rogue specialization that can track enemy movements and watch for traps or ambushes. Alcotts and Jameson, you are both with me. As you’re both Warriors, you will switch out with each other during combat to keep your cycle times low. If anything happens to take us by surprise we’ll always have one of you ready to resolve it."

Both warriors gave Julius an odd look.

"What about that isn’t clear? Address it now so we don’t have misunderstandings later." Julius said bluntly.

They both sat there, silently, as their faces turned more red.

Alcotts was the one to speak up, "I don’t believe either of us have heard the term ‘switch out’. Would you explain that, High-Protector?"

Jameson nodded his head in agreement with his partner.

Since neither of them were officers, they wouldn’t have attended VxA. It makes sense they maybe wouldn’t be familiar with the terms… But they have to had someone managing combat cycles on their previous team.

Julius had already started explaining the overall concept to them before I had a chance to ask about their last party.

“I understand. During combat, your stamina will decrease the longer you stay engaged with an enemy. That is referred to as a combat cycle. Typically once your stamina is past a certain point you will begin to suffer short-lived penalties. If it hits zero, you’ll start to gain long-term fatigue. And if you continue fighting after you’ve starting stacking fatigue effects, you may fall unconscious… or worse."

Julius tapped his wrist and his rune lit up, the space above the table filled with aetheric mist. A visual depiction of a stamina bar was projected onto the mist.

"Anyone with an OVERSIGHT skill, like Airis,” he pointed a finger at me, “can see a party member’s stamina gauge. She can watch these during combat and could call out for members to switch places in a fight."

He placed his finger over the rune and the mists dispersed.

"Cycles prevent either of you from suffering any penalties, and it will also ensure that one of you is always un-engaged to address any unexpected issues. Make sense?"

Both Jameson and Alcotts nodded. Alcotts leaned into Jameson and whispered something in his ear. The timid warriors eyes lit up and he let out an ‘ahhhh’.

As I suspected, they had been doing this already but didn’t understand Julius’ use of phrase. I allowed the brief doubt in Hanna’s party forming abilities to fade away.

Julius continued his assignments review. "Lastly, Devins. As a ranger specialty you’re going to be responsible for keeping pressure on targets Luke calls out. As I understand from Hailey, you have an Eagle companion, correct?"

Devins stepped into view from a place in the back of the room.

"That is correct. Her name is Valiance, she's a Ebonfeather Eagle. She has a STEALTH skill, as well as a MARK TARGET passive ability."

Whoa, that's one special companion.

Now I was curious. I missed whatever conversation Julius may have had with Hailey about that. I interrupted Julius before he could continue ahead,

"An Ebonfeather Eagle? That’s incredible. Would you mind telling me how you managed to tame such a rare animal?"

The elven ranger shook her head.

"I did not tame her. She is my paerir. A soulmate from the day we were brought forth to this world. In the Starfall Forest I was raised as a sylvae caetos. A Forest Guardian. This is quite common."

Julius and I both exchanged looks.

Was he impressed?

His normal stone-face demeanor had been shaken a little, his eyes had widened slightly.

"That’s… quite something. Thank you." I set my whole attention to Julius, "Is there anything else you wanted to add, or are we all set?"

"I think we’re all set. The last thing is," Julius pointed at the other soldiers at the table, "You will get party assignments tonight after I finish unit inspections."

Hailey pointed at Hanna, "Hanna, you’re going to be the acting outpost commander once we get a foothold at Tolin. I trust you to keep things orderly while we’re busy."

Hanna gave a salute and a head bow in response.

I tapped my rune and brought up a party interface and added my new party members.

Julius had gotten the team recommendations from Mitchell while they were preparing our tent earlier. I trusted his judgment, we’re going to succeed at this.

Hailey dismissed everyone and they filed out of the command tent.

Rias had fallen asleep during our meeting. I gently shook her awake, and arm-in-arm with my sleepy eyed sister I let Julius lead us to our tent.

It wasn’t as big as the command tent, but it was noticeably larger than the other tents in the camp. It stood next to two other tents of equal size, Hailey’s and then Mitchell and Hanna’s.

I tucked Rias into my bed under a pile of warm blankets, she was back to sleep in seconds.

"Don’t think just because you’re giving up your bed to your sister that you get to steal my bed away from me." Julius joked dryly, his voice low, almost a whisper.

"You’d force your High-Regent to sleep out in the cold?"

"I would do exactly that."

"Ruuude.” I returned in a melodramatic way, “Well it doesn’t matter anyway. I wasn’t planning to kick you from your bed. Rias turns into an ice block when she sleeps, and I radiate heat like an over-stoked hearth. We’re a match made by the Celestials. So, you’ll get your bed all to yourself just like you wanted."

"Fantastic," Julius wore his trademark smirk wide across his face, "I won’t have to worry about coming back and finding out I’m out of a bed to sleep in." His smirk dropped and was replaced with his other trademark face, seriousness, "I’ll be out inspecting the Divisionals and coordinating the party formations tonight. Don’t wait up for me."

"Take it easy on them, Julius. It’s been a rough two weeks for everyone. Don’t get bent out of shape if their beds aren’t made with tight corner sheets."

"You got it, High-Regent."

A deep drawn-out yawn escaped me.

I am going to collapse in this bed and sleep forever. Today has been the longest day imaginable. Julius almost died...

As thoughts of sleep tip-toed through my mind, Hailey’s head poked in through the tent and any chances of getting to bed were swept away.

"Oh! Good, you’re not sleeping yet. Come out here, I have something for you."

I stepped outside slowly, each step heavy with a paralytic nervousness.

She handed me a glass bottle and pleaded, "Come on, have a drink with me."

I looked down at the bottle in my hands. It was semi-opaque, but I could make out the label and pinkish color of the liquid inside. It was a brand of sweet rosé from Axio, Starfury Rubrum Reserve. It was my favorite kind, and only available in the winter from a few merchants.

A wave of emotions crashed down on me. After the day we’d been through I was barely hanging on. A swell of tears threatened to break through my façade.

Hailey inched closer as she waited for a response. Anxiety wriggled its way into my nerves. I didn’t know what to say.

I want to spend time with her, but being near her makes me anxious.

"I know you’ve had a rough day. A rough few weeks, even… So I brought you your favorite wine." Her smile beamed up at me.

My heart skipped.

She knew it was my favorite wine?

Hailey grabbed my hand and my heart started racing.

She led me back to her tent—rather, what I thought was her tent. As I was dragged in behind her, we were met by a very surprised Mitchell and Hanna.

"Look who I found!" Hailey sang out.

Hanna let out a little yelp at the sudden intrusion. "Hailey! What are you doing? It’s late and we’re exhausted."

"We’re drinking, to celebrate Airis’ return from the dead…" She paused, tapping her chin in thought, "annnnd the reunion of two sisters, and to… the new High-Regent!"

Her words were drawn out and a little slurred.

"I get the feeling that you may have started celebrating before us." Mitchell let out a chuckle.

Hailey shushed Mitchell and plopped herself down on the edge of the bed. She pulled out two more bottles from a satchel, hidden under her cloak.

When did Hailey become so rebellious?

I let out a nervous laugh and took a drink from my bottle. The sparkling wine’s fruity aroma was captivating. A perfect distraction to calm my nerves.

“Have I ever told you about the day Airis and I met?” Hailey was leaning towards Mitchell, but looking at Hanna.

Mitchell’s reply was soft, like the tone you’d take with a child, “Often. But we’d never tire of it, Hailey.”

“Good!” Hailey shot up energetically, “Because it’s my favorite story. But I want Airis to tell it this time!” She flopped back onto the bed. Smiling wildly at me, she patted her hand down next to her.

What in the Aether? When did I get demoted to story teller?

I took another swig out of my bottle and settled down next to Hailey.

“Sooo… Where to start?”

“Tell them about the coin thing!”

My hand came to rest against my face.

The coin thing. Oh by the Celestials I had forgotten that I had done that.

Awkwardly I started, “I had just been told my class assignment after aptitude testing. The Magister led me to an empty classroom and told me to take a seat, but I didn’t know where I wanted to sit.”

I shook my head in shame and laughed, “So a few minutes pass by and another girl is dropped off at the classroom.” I glanced over to Hailey, who was grinning ear to ear. “I asked her if she wanted to take a chance on where we’d sit.”

I pulled my coin out from my pocket.

Hailey burst out an excited squeal, “That’s the coin! Oh wow, I didn’t expect you to have it with you.”

Her attention was captivated by the coin.

“I told her that we could flip a coin, we’d each call a side, and whichever side came up got to pick where we sat. I called tails—“

“But I wanted tails! So she let me have tails.”

“And I let Hailey have tails.”

I flipped my coin up into the air. The dull lantern light in the tent didn’t give it much of a sparkle, and it fell back to my hand unceremoniously. I quickly capped the back of my hand with my other.

My three drinking companions watched as I pulled my hand back.

“And I won!” Hailey exclaimed as the crimson-red wings of a phoenix glinted lightly.

“Hailey chose the two front and center seats… And we had to deal with being picked on by the Magister for the rest of the year.”

“I apologized everyday, I felt so bad. It was a nightmare. That Magister did not like us at all!”

“Her excuse was that she was so excited to learn about magick that she didn’t want to miss a thing.”

Hanna and Mitchell broke out into light laughter while Hailey pouted.

“I was excited about magick…”

We traded off telling stories of our time at VxA together. I finished off my bottle of Starfury and was presented with a second bottle, from Hailey’s secret cloak stash.