She then clutched his shirt into her fists, buried her face in his chest, and dissolved into tears.

He wrapped his arms around her.

“What on earth, piccolina?” he asked, torn between concern at her state, and fury at whatever might have caused it.

“Ophelia,” she answered.

Shite.

He drew in breath, and with it, her body deeper into his.

Accept her with mercy, he prayed to The Spirit.

King True

One Hundred Miles over the Border

AIREN

It was not True who woke that night with a start in their tent, it was Farah.

And she sat bolt upright when she did so.

He came up with her, blinking away sleep, and trying to focus on his queen in the shadows.

“Darling,” he murmured.

“They are all gone, save one,” she whispered, before her frame began to shake with her tears.

He pulled her into his arms, asking gently, “What do you speak of, Farah?”

“Ophelia,” she told him.

Gods.

He shut his eyes tight and held her closer.

May she walk in the sun forever, he prayed to Alabasta.

Marian and Jellan

Underground Lair of the Beast

WODELL

Marian felt only a tremor in the veil, though a strong one, for she knew of the veil, just not how to read it.

And she grew wary, for this seemed to be happening far too often of late.

But she had other things on her mind.

Precisely, stopping what was happening just above them, at the surface.

Jellan knew of the veil and how to read it.

Thus, he felt the tremor, and his eyes went direct to the Beast.

The creature had felt it too.

“It is time,” he mouthed soundlessly.

The Beast nodded.

Princess Elena

Night Heights Mountain Range

AIREN

I found her sitting atop a slab of stone at the side of a cliff, the dark shadows of mountains and valleys before her with a backdrop of taller rises in the distance, their black shapes cutting into the night sky.

The two gnomes who had traveled with her, males who had introduced themselves to me some days earlier as Galbdor and Welbrix, were loitering about the top of the slab, strangely as if they were guarding my sister.

They let me pass, however, with courteous tips of their bearded chins.

I dropped down beside her to sit as she was on the slab. Arse to stone, knees up, but Serena had her wrists resting on her knees.

I pulled my thighs closer to my chest and hugged my shins.

I studied the landscape.

She spoke.

“Trust it to be you who was the one who sought me.”

“I can just as easily leave,” I replied.

She turned her head to look at me. “No, you can’t. It would wound you to leave me to my grief, no matter the anger you hold toward me, no matter the spites I have inflicted on you. That is you. That is my sister Elena.”