Reed woke with a startled snort when someone touched his bare chest.

Looking up, he found Kar’un smiling down at him in nothing but what the Gods gave her. Damn it, Reed. You done fucked up, was the first thought that crossed his mind. Slapping a hand on his eyes, Reed scrubbed the sleep out of them.

“Daddy said I have to take you to the border today,” Kar’un said sadly. She folded down, putting her head on his chest, her hair tickling his sides.

Reed patted the back of her head, realizing that he was still wearing pants. The leg had ridden up and was chafing uncomfortably in the pit of his knee. “Yeah… I gotta finish some stuff down south.”

She sighed, sat back again, and got out of bed. He realized he was in her room again. Nothing had changed about the room.

Sitting up, Reed cracked his neck, then his back with satisfying pops. By the time he opened his eyes again, Kar’un was dressed and holding his clothes from the day before. Taking the shirt, Reed pulled it on and climbed out of the bed to straighten his pant legs. He wasn’t sure what to say to Kar’un. He didn’t remember the night much past his third story.

Further adding to the awkwardness of the situation was that Kar’un was already pouting about having to leave. How could he apologize for taking advantage of her while he was drunk? Given the state of her room, there was no way she wouldn’t take that poorly. Reed kept his mouth shut and instead got his shoes on, followed her to the dining room, and sat down for breakfast. Alu’rak was not there, but the slenderman intoned mouthlessly that His Majesty is indisposed with a headache and hopes the Astralitar a safe trip.

Breakfast down, Reed was a bit surprised when pink-demon-maid brought in a full backpack.

“Extra clothes, food for two days, some jewels to trade for money,” Kar’un explained. She looked down, picking her nails. “I’ll leave you near where I took you from.”

“Maybe a bit outside of the city?” Reed suggested. “Don’t want to scare people needlessly.”

“What will you do next?” Kar’un asked.

“Well,” Reed said as he shouldered the backpack. “I was going to go steal the Odinsphere.”

Kar’un gasped, hands flying over her mouth. She snorted, then started laughing.

Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she tucked her forehead against his neck. The ground dropped out from under him as darkness, like the depths of the deepest cave, jutted up from the floor like the jaws of a trap. Reed immediately grabbed Kar'un's hips as freefall whipped his hair into his face.

Gravity reasserted itself, and his feet touched the ground lightly, then weight settled onto them.

Reed cracked open his eyes to look around. He and Kar’un were on the bank of the river. He could see the city miles to the south, but then again, this would work just fine. He didn’t have to use roads, and it was a lovely day for a boat ride.

“Thanks,” he told her.

Kar’un looked up at him adoringly, her fingers playing with the hair that had fallen over his shoulders. “Thank you for rescuing me,” she said, then her eyes watered. "What am I going to do while you're gone, though?"

“I ain’t fully rescued you yet,” Reed cautioned. “We’ll get there.” Since he figured he’d done worse already, Reed leaned in and gave her a proper, sober kiss.

She went stiff briefly in his grip, then melted. She had no idea what to do with any of her limbs. Her head wings flapped a little as she tried to press her lips harder against his. Reed drew back with a chuckle. “We’ll work on that later. For now, what you can do for me is learn everything you can about the first Demon Lord. How did they defeat her? What were her weaknesses? What makes new Demon Lords hatch?” He released her. “Gotta go make mischief now.”

Kar’un sighed. “Stay safe, and don’t go kissing those brats! I’ll be really mad if you do!”

“Ten-four,” Reed saluted, then stepped over to the riverbank. “Forchunkt,” he tossed his bigger core at the water, turning it into a small fishing boat with a motor. Hopping in, he stowed his pack under the bench in front of him, then took a seat at the motor. “Bye.” With that, he was off, speeding out through the morning fog that was still clinging to the water.

**

"Ow! Bella! Stop! Please! I'm sorry!"

The sound of Dylan's voice echoed to them before Snow and Meg'ante could see the young man. Because Dylan had ended up in a small town along the river, the pair had decided to take a small sailing ship there. Their ship pulled up to one of the two docks, the captain jumping off to tie it. A short distance away, Dylan was getting pulled in circles by his ear. Bella, clearly furious, wasn't even saying anything while Dylan begged for mercy and apologized.

Meg'ante looked down at Snow with a raised eyebrow. "What's going on?"

"I don't know." The shrine maiden shook her head, then tucked her long, dark hair behind her ear.

"Thought you had your bird watching him?"

"Whatever happened was inside the Astrallium," Snow explained.

Their boat sufficiently tied, the Meg'ante hopped off, then reached back to grab Snow and help her down. Their boat wasn't big, and the young man who had given them the ride was entirely unaware of who had paid him to take them out of town. However, he'd been paid well for it, so he wasn't too upset about losing out on whatever work he'd intended to do that day.

"Bella, Dylan," Meg'ante called as she strode over.

The pixie stopped dragging Dylan, but did not let go of him. "Oh. Hi," she said in a clipped voice.

"What's going on?" Meg'ante asked, looking down at Dylan's red, tear-streaked face. He gripped his ear, trying to pry Bella's hands off.

"Well, Dylan. Care to tell them?" Bella asked, leaning in.

"Please—let go?" he begged. "I'm sorry. I won't do that again!"

"You shouldn't have done it in the first place," Bella snapped. But she did let him go finally.

Dylan dropped to his knees, gripping his red ear.

Snow knelt beside him to take a look and heal the damage.

Folding her arms, Meg'ante looked down at the boy. "Well? What'd you do?"

He looked down. "I threw her..." he mumbled, hanging his head.

"Why would you do that?" Snow asked, softly aghast at his behavior.

"She lied to me," Dylan said, rallying his pride now that he was no longer in pain.

Bella sighed, folding her arms. "And you aren't telling the truth now either."

"Then how would you explain it?" Dylan demanded, looking up at her. He got to his feet.

"I was explaining the situation," Bella said flatly, "And admitting my fault in it."

Dylan flicked a cold gaze toward Snow, then Meg'ante. "So why don't you repeat what you said to them?"

Bella shrugged. "You're not the Astralitar anymore because you died, and Reed was summoned."

"And what about why I died?" Dylan growled, fists clenched.

Meg'ante sighed, looking away. "You died because we fucked up," she said, startling Dylan's angry teenage angst. She looked down at him, meeting his shocked gaze. "We confined you to the castle instead of taking you to get trained in your powers. We played games trying to make you choose one of us so we could have the power of the Di'alletta. We... pretty much forgot that the Demon Lord was even an issue in our fight for who would rule the four kingdoms."

His lips trembled. "And now... you're in love with that new guy."

"Also part of our fight," Meg'ante said. "He had no idea his power did that."

Snow looked down, twisting her hands together. "We took advantage of him the same way we did you," she said softly. "The spell isn't his fault."

Meg'ante was sure Saffron would have argued with that statement, but that was a revelation for later. She suspected Dylan didn't know how the spell had been cast, nor did he need to right now. But Bella's statement that Dylan was not the Astralitar anymore made it clear that Dylan had not been resurrected by the gods to reward the princesses or replace Reed.

"Well. If this ain't a sight," Reed drawled from nearby.

Startled, Meg'ante snapped her head around to look for the source of that voice.

She finally located him in a boat near the dock they stood on. He was shirtless, pants folded up to his knees, bare feet kicked up, and dark glasses covering his eyes, lounging like he hadn't just been in mortal danger from the Demon Lord.

"What the hell?!" she blurted.

"How did you get away from the Demon Lord?" Snow asked, voice shaking.

Reed laughed. "She just wanted to introduce me to her dad. No big deal."

"Gods... above... You met the Demon King?" Meg'ante asked, horrified. "And lived?"

"He's a nice guy," Reed shrugged. "Completely misunderstood. Y'all really ought to learn how to do diplomacy or something. But that's outta my wheelhouse."

"You." Dylan's growl was unexpected. Suddenly, he was running, launching himself off the dock to land in Reed's boat. Before he could do more than reach for the man, Reed put a foot into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Collapsing to the other side of the small boat, Dylan clutched the edge where he'd knocked his head.

Meg'ante glanced around, realizing that Bella had disappeared.

A rumble and bubble from Reed's direction snapped her gaze back toward the Astralitars. Reed's boat had turned and was quickly moving away from the shore.

Furious, Meg'ante roared. "You son of a bitch!"

Reed cheerfully saluted back at her, "That's my name!" His boat suddenly picked up speed, water flying behind it in a spray.