Just as Afina put her hand on the bathroom knob, she suddenly halted. Ellie didn’t have to ask why, as she quickly heard the hushed tones on the other side of the door. They both pressed their ears against the wood.

“…ell of an operation you’ve got here Viscera.”

“Chev, I am so, so so sorry! I swear, I’ll have the rest of the house inspected to make sure nothing like that happens again…are you sure you’re ok?”

“I’m fine! Ellie’s the one I’m worried about!”

“I-”

“I mean what the hell was that?!”

“I’m sorry Chev!”

They heard him sigh, “…Sorry Viscera. I know it wasn’t your fault, it’s just…it’s been a long day. A long week, actually.”

Viscera seemed to accept the apology, though a bit sourly. “Obviously. What’s been going on with you anyway? No one heard from you for awhile and then suddenly Errol came barging in saying that you were on your way. And where’d you pick those two up? Especially the…um….”

“Elves. Just call them elves Viscera. And you talked to Errol?”

“Yeah, he came by last night. Why?”

“Nothing. Well, as for where I’ve been, I got stuck hiding out in an old bunker for a few weeks thanks to a run in with a gang of bandits.”

“That’s all? You-”

“There were fifty of them.”

“Oh.”

“One of them caught me with a poison dagger.”

“Oh dear.”

“I ended up holing up for awhile to recover from that.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine now. I’m just behind schedule is all. Which reminds me, did Errol seem mad at me when he talked to you?”

“Hmm…” she seemed to choose her next words carefully, “…Not that I could tell. Why?”

“I dunno…he’s been acting weird. At first I thought it was because I was behind, but now I’m thinking it’s over something else.”

“Well, you did disappear for a bit. He was probably worried you were dead. You are his favorite.” She trailed off a bit before continuing quietly, “You know, I was worried to.”

There was an awkward moment of dead silence. Ellie glanced over to Afina in confusion and met eyes with the elf.

Chevias coughed, “…I-”

“N-Nevermind!”

“Viscera, we’ve talked about this-”

“I know, I know! I’m sorry I brought it up! Let’s uh…anyways, question two! Where’d those two come from?”

“Wow,” Afina muttered.

“Ah-right! Well, I found Ellie on the road and the elf asked to go to Northwind with me.” He sounded relieved at the subject change.

“She just asked you? She’s not paying you?”

“Well-”

“I’d have charged her an arm and a leg.” She gave out a crisp peel of giggling, “Literally. And maybe those piercings while I was at it.”

“Vis-”

“And the purse. I do like her purse.”

“She’s not paying me ‘cause I’m not charging her. And she couldn’t have paid me even if I did-that purse of hers is looking pretty light.”

Ellie glanced over to Afina to see that she was nervously patting the rabbit fur purse at her hip. It almost completely flattened under her hand, save for a tiny bulge at the bottom. Light was an understatement. Afina was nearly broke.

Viscera scoffed, “You’re too nice. I mean, she’s a Yundashist, right? You know what that-”

“Yes yes, I know. Look Viscera, can….” Chevias trailed off for a moment before launching into full Witch Speak.

Ellie felt Afina shudder as he spat out several sentences before Viscera responded. Her voice was so much lighter than his. The words were still sharp and slithering, but her voice didn’t carry the same weight that Chevias’ did. It gave the impression of something lightly gliding up your spine rather than razor sharp knife arching towards you. Ellie wasn’t certain which was more unpleasant, but she could understand a bit why Yundashists thought witches were wicked; their language just sounded evil.

The two witches kept talking in Witch Speak after that. Ellie would’ve gotten bored if it wasn’t for the fact that their tones became hushed and tense. They seemed to be talking about something important for about ten or fifteen minutes before they started getting louder. ‘Are they…arguing?’ Viscera started raising her voice at him before he cut her off and growled something at her.

There were a few minutes of more bickering before Chevias spat something out and Viscera gasped. She didn’t even bother trying to be quiet after that, she just yelled something at him and stormed off.

Ellie felt Afina grab her shoulder and drag her to the back of the bathroom, against the opposite wall. “The hell was all that? Were we supposed to hear that? I’ve never heard witches being that chatty. And why’d they switch to Witch Speak in the middle?” She was talking in hushed tones to try and keep Chevias from hearing them.

Ellie shrugged, unsure. “It was probably something they’re not allowed to say in front of non-witches.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, since I met Chevias he’s been dodging questions. He told me that his bosses don’t like it when he talks about witch matters. I’m not sure why that is, but that’d be why they started talking Witch Speak.”

‘Which,’ she added to herself, ‘means that Chevias knew we were probably listening.’

“…Well, what do you think they were talking about?”

Ellie didn’t want to think about it. Her head still ached from her own self-inflicted beating and her stomach ached from where Chevias had rammed his arm into her. She didn’t want to think about what amounted to witch bickering. She wanted to eat, take a bath, and sleep on that wonderfully fluffy bed that was waiting for her on the fourth floor.

“What was that last word she used? Kete-kara?” Afina tried to spit the word out but egregiously mispronounced it, “And that other one they said a lot. It started with the same sound.”

Ellie sighed, rubbing at her dully throbbing head, “I don’t know…I think they were arguing about something. He said something she didn’t like and she yelled that while running off, so it was probably an insult.”

“Why would they fight? They seemed kinda close…then again, she’s….” Afina trailed off awkwardly.

“She’s what?”

Afina made some stiff motions with her hands, like she was desperately trying to pantomime so she wouldn’t have to say it, “I mean that she’s…that she...but he….”

Ellie waved her hand tiredly, “You know what? I don’t care. And I don’t know why you do. It’s not like what they were talking about had anything to do with us.”

“How do you know that?”

“Chevias isn’t allowed to tell me what his family is like, so I know that there’s a whole bunch of stuff that he could’ve been talking about to her. They could’ve been talking about Errol or why he’s going to Northwind, anything.” She sighed, “I…I’m tired. I just want to eat and go to bed. Can we go now?”

“Oh, right!” Afina jumped up and offered Ellie her hand. She took it and stood up, worse for wear but upright.

Afina patted Ellie’s head gently and smiled, “You know you’re a tough girl Ellie. All this scary stuff’s been going on and you’re pulling through it really well.”

Ellie smiled wryly, thinking that if she was really all that tough she’d have moved out from under the chandelier instead of standing there like a scared deer. Or been able to get home on her own, without a scary witch boy or moody elf girl.

They finally opened up the door to find Chevias leaning against the wall with a dark and irritated look on his face. He dropped it when he looked at Ellie, “Are you feeling ok? You’re not nauseous or dizzy, are you?”

She shook her head, “No. I just…I want to go home.”

He patted her head, “I know, but you’re almost there. Just one more day of walking, ok?” He started heading toward the main hall, motioning for the other two to follow, “Come on. Dining rooms this way.”

Ellie shivered as they walked through the main hall and past the twisted metal of the chandelier. Chevias put his hand on her shoulder and tried to guide her around broken glass and crystal shards. She could see that it was an ornate piece, with sharp barbs at all angles and the shattered remains of detailed glass work. About twenty human servants were bustling around it, sweeping up debris and trying to figure out how they were going to get rid of it.

‘I could have been under that….’ It almost didn’t feel real to Ellie. The whole thing seemed like an odd dream now; like a nightmare a few minutes after it’s jolted you awake. But the ach in her gut and the nervous glances from the servants told her that she had almost died. She gulped at a particularly long and jagged spear of metal. ‘If I hadn’t been crushed, I’d have been impaled.’

Chevias swept her past it and into the next other wing. The other wing of this floor seemed to consist of only three rooms. The first door was a wooden one just like the rooms upstairs. It had a sign beside it in Witch Speak, and another in smaller print with ‘Viscera’ written in Common beneath it. The rooms on the opposite side had no doors, and led to the dining room and the kitchens further down. Ellie could hear surprisingly quiet bustling from the kitchens, but didn’t get to look inside as she was guided directly into the dining room.

It was a rectangular room, with a long and narrow red oak table covered in a white lace cloth in the center. The matching chairs had pink cushions and were spaced far apart, with room for nearly two more chairs between them. It was as though there had been more chairs, but they’d been taken away for some reason. The long wall the door sat on was empty aside from more of that pink and rose wallpaper, but the wall opposite was adorned with a massive painting that nearly took up the whole wall. It was a pretty and detailed painting of four children running around through a lush and green garden. Judging from the fact that one of the children in the painting had bright pink hair, another had goat legs, and another had what appeared to be cat ears, these children were either from some odd fairytale or witches. Possibly both.

The door on the narrow end of the room opened up and a few servants rushed in to set the table. Viscera was with them, looking tired and troubled. As the servants did their business, the red-eyed witch walked over to Chevias with a grim look on her face. Her normally rosy complexion was a bit pale, “Just in time. Dinner’s ready.”

Ellie peaked around and took in her pallid face and ventured to ask, “Are…are you okay Miss?”

Viscera seemed a bit startled that Ellie addressed her, but quickly hid it and put her hand on her forehead and sighed, “Yes, but I’m a bit…under the weather. I think I’ll take my meal in my room. Did you hear that Francis?”

The male servant with a hare lip looked up and nodded. Viscera turned back to Chevias, “Then I’ll bid you all goodnight now. I’ll see you at breakfast tomorrow.”

After she left, the servants stood back and pulled out the chairs. They had seated them surprisingly far from each other, but not out of talking distance. Food was waiting on the table.

Ellie walked quickly to her seat and scooted it up herself, not waiting for Francis to do it for her, ignoring the unusual warmth radiating off of the seat cusion. Her stomach was grumbling and this food looked delicious. Not that she would know.

It was some kind of meat that was heavily seasoned, with mashed potatoes and covered in a rich looking brown gravy. There was a glass of milk next to it. Ellie started digging in before Chevias and Afina were seated.

Thanks to her life on a chicken farm, Ellie really only had chicken and eggs with the occasional baked good in her life, so she had no idea what kind of meat this was. But she could tell it was juicy and chewier than chicken. The potatoes had been mashed to a completely smooth and chunk-free texture, and the gravy was just the right heaviness. In her opinion, it was the best meal she’d ever had and she wished she could actually taste and smell it.

Afina didn’t seem to agree. After the servants had either left for chandelier clean up or gone back to the kitchen, she frowned at the meal, “This is…bad.”

Ellie looked up, mouth full of potatoes, “Huh?”

“It’s all cooked really well, but this seasoning! It’s all too heavy! The gravy is overpowering and whatever they rubbed on this steak is too peppery. And it looks like they put some kind of powder seasoning in the potatoes…and this smell! You can barely smell any of it over the gravy!”

Chevias frowned a bit as he swallowed some steak, “Yeah, you’re right. It’s weird. The food’s usually better.” He spooned some of the potatoes, “I wonder if they got a new cook.”

Ellie decided that maybe it was better she couldn’t taste and went back to stuffing her face.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong! The ingredients are all pretty top notch by the look of it, and I’ve never seen a steak this perfectly cooked. In fact, I don’t see steak much at all. It’s just a shame to see them mishandle such expensive ingredients.”

Ellie felt her stomach do an odd twitch and she slowed down, waiting for it to dissipate. It didn’t, but dulled down a little. She decided to not let such an expensive meal go to waste and kept eating, slower this time.

“Well, could you do any better?”

Afina’s chest puffed out below her breastplate, “As a matter of fact, I could! My family happens to be chefs, and we run the best restaurant on the west side of The Ring. Even people from Innercirc come to eat at our place.”

“So you’re a cook? Wait, do you mean Galdren’s?”

“Yes! Have you been there?”

“No, but I once helped an elf get his cart back on the road after his horses spooked and he gave me some leftovers he said were from there. It was really good.”

“Do you remember what that elf gave you?”

“Some kind of pastry. It was brown and had a white swirl-”

“That’s a log roll! My cousin Ridla probably made that! It’s her specialty.”

Ellie put down her fork as she felt her stomach bubble again. She swallowed, really hoping she wasn’t going to throw up. She really didn’t want to. If her mother knew that she had thrown up a pricey meal given to her by gracious hosts, she would give Ellie a good whooping before mourning her failure at raising a lady. She reached for her glass of milk and carefully sipped it, hoping that would appease her guts. It didn’t.

Ellie couldn’t really pay much attention to Afina and Chevias’ conversation anymore. She was happy that Afina was too distracted by showing off her cooking knowledge to remember that she despised witches, so their conversation was pretty civil. But right now the queasiness was just getting stronger. Ellie stopped sipping the milk and sat back in her chair, putting her hand over tummy and trying to let it pass.