In a small village, homes are side by side, made from brick and clay. Throughout the town, shouting had echoed. The smell of smoke and burning flesh filled the sky, alongside giant stacks of black smoke. Villagers were carrying pitchforks, hoes, and other gardening tools. A fire reflected in their eyes. A woman had been strapped to a pole while the flame beneath her grew hotter and stronger. She looked among all the villagers and noticed a lone girl sitting at the top of a hill. Tears were flowing down her face as she watched the spectacle before her. 

“Wake up, Rielle.” The woman whispers to the child.

Rielle jolts up, halfway out of bed and tremors with pain. She looked down at her stomach which was scarred. Despite looking healed, for the most part, it was still painful, just moving around. She readjusted her body so that she was sitting at the edge of the bed.

“Urgh. This sucks. But it’s better than dying.” She says.

Knock Knock!

“Come in.” Rielle mutters.

Artorius walks into the room and stands before Rielle.

“How are you feeling?” He asks.

“Better now that my guts aren’t falling out.” She says.

“Are you feeling any pain?” He asks as he strokes his chin.

“A little, but it's nothing I can’t deal with.” She says. “Is it just you here?”

“Nah, Maira and Erica are here too. They’re sleeping in the living room. After I finished healing you, they were waiting to see if you’d wake up, so they fell asleep late.”

Rielle smiles.

“I see.” She says.

Artorius notices something sad about her expression.

“Are you okay?” He asks.

“I’m fine for now, I’d rather tell all of you together,” Rielle says.

Things might get a bit rowdy today… I can feel it. Rielle states.

Maira enters the room with her bedhead and her dress tucked into her underwear.

“You’re alive.” She throws her hands up in cheer, while half asleep.

Erica enters after her, with her hair down.

“Maira… Fix your dress…” Erica says with her bangs covering her face.

After allowing the others a chance to wake up, everyone gathered in Rielle’s workshop.

“I know you call it a workshop but isn’t this just the master bedroom?” Maira questions.

“Yeah… It’s still a work in progress. For now, all I’ve got are these extra stools in here.” Rielle says.

The others seated themselves around Rielle.

“So, what I wanted to share is that I’ve lost a lot of my accumulated ether,” Rielle states. “And it seems the memory of a good chunk of my spells is also gone.”

“How is that even possible?” Artorius tilts his head. 

“Yeah, how does someone just take something like that?” Erica mutters. “We all know how much time you’ve dedicated to magic so, we understand.”

“It’s okay if you wanna cry about it,” Maira adds.

“No, it’s fine. If anything, it’s my fault. It’s been 500? Maybe 600 years since I’ve fought another mage. So, I was a bit overconfident and I paid the price with my body and my magic.” She states. “I’m lucky to have escaped with my life.”

“So what’s the plan now?” Artorius asks.

“Well, I’m gonna be training my magic again. With all the methods that I’ve tried, I’ve optimized the process, so it’ll be much faster.” Rielle states. “As it stands, right now, I can’t deal with Mikhail, and I’m sure it’s the same for him.”

“What do you mean?” Artorius states.

Erica smirks.

“Ether that one has spent their lives accumulating is specifically theirs. Think of a fingerprint, from a distance, they don’t look any different but close up they’re a complex pattern that is different from person to person.” Erica explains. “Essentially, he’ll need the ether to match his wavelength, so it’ll take him a while to convert it.”

“Meaning, we have time,”  Rielle states.

“We? I don’t like the sound of this.” Maira says while sweating.

Rielle walks over to Maira and places her hands on her shoulders.

“We’re all gonna be learning together!” Rielle states.

“Noooooooooo!” Maira exclaims palming both sides of her head.

“It’ll be fine. Learning magic will allow you both to defend yourselves.” Erica says.

“But I can shapeshift, I’m fine!” Maira states.

Rielle lowers her head near Maira’s.

“You’d be even stronger if you could use magic on top of that.” She whispers.

Maira racks her brain for any sort of argument she could use. After moments of nothing coming to mind, she sighs.

“Fine. You win.” Maira says. “When do we start?”

“We should start after Rielle’s fully recovered,” Artorius says. “Knowing how reckless she is, she might just use a method of growth that could hurt her and maybe even reopen her wounds.”

“I… Won’t deny that.” Rielle says. 

“Alright, then we’ll get out of your hair and let you recover,” Artorius says.

He stands up and as he’s walking past her, he grabs her by the waist and steals a kiss from her lips. The sensation left Rielle standing there frozen after being caught off-guard. Erica and Maira immediately rise from their seats.

“Seriously, Artorius?!” Erica exclaims.

“Yeah! At least let me go first!” Maira exclaims before standing on her tiptoes to kiss Rielle on the forehead. 

“Maira…!” Erica growls.

Erica grabs Rielle’s hands and as she’s expecting the kiss to come, Erica kisses her on the neck before leaving. After everyone else leaves for the day, Rielle walks over to her bed and collapses in.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!” She groans into the pillow.

“I was so focused on everything happening that it slipped my mind. I still have a choice to make. It sucks, but I can’t just keep leading them on forever, I need to properly settle this. How am I supposed to decide?” Rielle thinks. 

Meanwhile, Artorius, Maira, and Erica arrive at the bar, taking their usual table at the back wall. They all sit down and place their orders.

“I’m surprised we came without Ri,” Maira says.

“Well, there was something I wanted to talk about with you both,” Artorius states.

“‘Hmmm…? I’m pretty curious!” Maira says, poking her head around near Artorius.

“You rarely do something like this,” Erica states. “What did you have to say?”

He takes a sip of his ale and exhales.

“Just that, no matter who Rielle loves in the end, I wanted us to have no hard feelings between us.” He says with a mustache of foam.

“It will suck if someone else wins her heart, but I think it’d suck even more to lose you guys as friends,” Erica states while peering into her mug of ale.

“I’m not so sure I could do that,” Maira states. “Even if I do understand that we agreed to ‘win her heart’, I don’t know if I could forgive one of you guys so easily.”

Artorius places his hand on Maira’s.

“I understand where you’re coming from. It’s not easy for me and Erica to say that either. But we understand that it’s something we’ll have to live with and move on from.” Artorius states.

“Damn it, Arty. Why are you being so rational?” Maira guzzles the entire mug of ale in seconds and swipes Erica’s, drinking hers too. “Well… It ain’t like I’ve lost yet.”

“Neither have I,” Erica states.

“Nor have I,” Artorius adds.

Erica pokes Maira in the nose.

“You’re buying me another ale.” She states.

“What? You snooze, you lose.” Maira scoffs.

“It's all on me tonight.” Artorius cuts in. “I invited you both, after all.” 

They both turn to Artorius in surprise.

“I’m watching you Arty! Trying to woo one of us if things don’t work out.” Maira states.

“Heh. As if.” Artorius chuckles.

“Where’s the waitress? I’m ordering the juiciest steak they’ve got!” Maira exclaims.

“What’s the point? You always get them well done!” Erica states.

“What's so wrong about a well-done steak?!”  Maira questions slamming her hand down. “You calling it juicy is what’s wrong! You drench it in steak sauce, because of how dry it is!” Erica exclaims.

“How rude! The sauce adds to the flavor! Don’t get mad because your steaks are undercooked!” Maira exclaims.

“Maira…” Artorius mutters while shaking his head. “How many years have you been cooking again?” 

“Three… Maybe Four hundred years…?” She mutters.

“Maira let's take things one recipe at a time okay?” Erica asks with genuine concern in her eyes. 

“LeTs TaKe ThInGs OnE ReCiPe aT a TiMe!” Maira mocks. “I could outcook you any day of the week.”

“Oh yeah?” Erica questions. “When I worked with the other knights we had to take turns cooking and people were always excited when my nights came around.” Erica gloats.

“Alright then, put your coin where your mouth is,” Maira exclaims. “We both cook a dish for Rielle and Arty and whoever has the best dish, wins!”

“Don’t regret it later,” Erica states.

“There’s nothing I regret!” Maira exclaims.

“Are they seriously doing this? Oh dear…” Artorius thinks. His stomach hurts just thinking about it.