After getting home, I took the chance to spend a little time with Aveline. Our time together had been lessened somewhat by the degree of how busy I was these days. I tried, I really did, to make sure that I made time for her every day, but it had grown increasingly difficult with the founding of the Polaris Reach. A combination of my new duties and an unexpected breakthrough on her behalf in befriending her classmates led to our daytime encounters growing rarer. As the months had gone by, Aveline had grown more comfortable with her place in Herztalian society, young though she may be. I still saw her every day, still said goodbye every morning, and still did my best to read to her every night…

  But it was hard, even with Bait.

  Hopefully, Ringed Mind would interact with Umbra Gemina Exactoris the way I wanted it to.

  So, before Itzelan got here, I took the time to cook dinner together with Aveline. Rachel was on one of her few days off and seeing to some personal quality time of her own out in the city. Azarus, meanwhile, had been acting a bit…shifty lately. My understanding was that the Dwarf was up to something with an old friend of his. I’d never had the opportunity to meet him, but I think he might be someone Azarus had known back during his time in the Holds. Kargath Gravelfoot’s nephew, T-something or other. While my best friend had done his best to help found the Polaris Reach’s Crafting division, lately it had been obvious to everyone that he was preparing to step down from a leadership position. I’d gotten reassurance from the Dwarf months ago that he wasn’t intending to leave the Order altogether, just…step back into a more supporting role. I got the impression that he wasn’t interested in further lifelong commitments in addition to being the Envoy of Tarus. He’d already been out a few times in the intervening months on short expeditions to hunt some local Primes at the behest of his patron.

  I can’t believe I was saying this, but I think I was jealous of Azarus. Not the Envoy bit, but the monster hunting expeditions. It had been nearly five months now since Renauld had benched me from combat, and I was starting to actually miss it. There was truly nothing like the thrill of combat, especially when you had a Status and gained tangible rewards for slaying literal monsters. I only had a month left on my Healer enforced combat hiatus, and I was really looking forward to getting back out there. I even had an entire organization to support me doing so. It was outright expected for Marshalls like me to seek further strength, even with the strangeness of the Polaris Reach in comparison to the rest of the Martial Orders. I’d only gotten away with not doing it so far because I’d publicly stated I was on medical leave from such endeavors.

  First thing I was going to do when it was up was get the old team together and go on a rampage.

  A figurative one.

  …mostly.

  Since both of our housemates were out, it was just Aveline and I in the kitchen, as I whipped up our dinner with her ‘help’. It had taken me a while to source the right ingredients out of the Herztalian markets to make it, but after long experimentation, I had finally triumphed.

  “Behold!” I cried dramatically, holding a large, flat, circular tray of baking steel in the air above Aveline’s head. She clapped delightedly as I slowly lowered the sheet to her eye level. “The true food of the gods. A delicacy so beloved that millions of people cry out in joy at the mere mention of it! The perfect pie! Pizza!”

  Aveline oohed and ahhed appropriately at the sight of a steaming hot, somewhat oblong-looking example of my old favorite food. I’d been trying to nail something like this for a long, long time now, and I think I might have finally done it. Sourcing the right kind of cheese had been hard, but actually finding tomatoes had been a challenge all by itself. I’d been sure they existed, having glimpsed them briefly in a Silvercrest stall last year. But I’d had to go on an outright quest to find them in Blutstein. Then there was the problem of equivalent herbs and spices, oils, and toppings…

  Needless to say, my housemates were so used to my failures getting thrown over the cliff and fed to the fishes that I was often subject to long suffering looks when I said I was going to ‘experiment’.

  Ha! Serves them right to be gone when I finally got it right! At least Aveline still had faith in me!

  Oh, and Fade. The wolf had poked his head into the kitchen now that the baking had finished. Judging by the laser-focused look the canine had fixed on the pie in my hand, I was guessing it smelled particularly good to him.

  I was a bit surprised, though, when his ears twitched, and he turned back around to look behind him consideringly for a moment.

  “Might want to put that down, Nate,” He eventually said to me. “You’ve got company.”

  Ah, I see. I did as he asked and set the tray down on the counter, while I heard a knocking coming from the front door of the main building. The kitchen was on the bottom floor of the lighthouse, after all. I approached the door leading outside, and after opening it, I poked my head through the crack.

  Sure enough, the tall, cloaked form of Meia Itzelan, the most enigmatic Orc I’d ever met, was knocking on the front door of my home. To my surprise, she looked a bit…awkward standing there, holding a bag in her proportionally massive grey hand as she used her free hand to rattle the wooden surface.

  I interrupted her before she could knock a hole in the damn thing. “Hey, Itzelan!” I said, causing her head to snap over in my direction. I waved her over with a smile, as I felt Aveline peek out around me curiously. “We’re in here. Come join us.”

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  I could see the Orc woman hesitate for a moment before she cautiously made her way over to us. I stepped back to let her in, navigating my way back over to the counter where I’d set the pizza down. It only took me a few seconds to slice it with a kitchen knife I’d prepared for this purpose, and when I was done, I turned back around, expecting the woman to have taken the implied invitation and sit down at the small table.

  Instead, I found that she had paused just inside the doorway, awkwardly holding her bag and locked in a staring contest with an interested Aveline. She must have felt my attention fall back on her because she tensed when she saw my raised eyebrow. “You can come and sit down, you know,” I said, crossing my arms and leaning against the counter, amused despite myself. “She’s not going to bite.”

  In response, I saw Itzelan’s cowled head turn slightly and stare at Fade, sitting on his haunches and studying her. The Spirit Wolf’s antlered head was cocked to the side as he studied the Orc woman, idly swishing his tail. I laughed. “Neither will he. Come on, join us for dinner, and then we can get to work. Aveline, go wash your hands, will you?”

  Aveline jolted from her staring at being addressed, and rapidly nodded before racing over to the sink and tapping the water rune on the spigot. As she washed up, Itzelan finally stepped inside the kitchen slash dining area, closing the door behind her. She slowly approached me and abruptly thrust the bag in my direction. I took it with a surprised look on my face.

  “I…am given to understand…” Itzelan said cautiously. “It is customary to bring a gift when one is invited into a human home.”

  I opened the bag and found a bottle of wine inside. Nothing fancy, just a bottle of simple dinner white. Still, it was appreciated. “Thanks,” I said, flashing a smile at her. “This should go decently with what we’re having. If you’d like, you can hang your cloak up with the aprons over there while I plate the food. You don’t need it to eat here.”

  She was silent for a moment before nodding slowly and approaching the rack. I turned around and set three plates with some slices from my experiment, before laying them on the table. When I was done, I sat down at the small round table next to Aveline and finally got my first look at Meia Itzelan outside of a massive, concealing cloak.

  She certainly wasn’t what I’d been expecting.

  I’m not certain she was a full Orc. Something I’d learned in my time at the Academy was that it was possible for some of the different races to crossbreed. Humans could actually have children with Dwarves, Orcs, and apparently Elves too, though I’m not sure why anyone would want to. The mad thralls of the Mad God were more likely to tear your throat out with their teeth than to kiss you. Gnolls were out, though. They could only really breed with other Gnolls, which made a bit of sense, I suppose.

  Itzelan had the grey, heatherish skin of the Orcish people, as well as the powerful build. She was by far the tallest, most muscled woman I’d ever met. Frankly, her biceps were bigger than Aveline’s head, and I don’t think they were for show. But her ears weren’t quite as large and pointed as the rest of the Indiquan conquerors were, while her facial features were not as strong. They were more…human proportioned, I’d say. The result made Itzelan appear as a woman who would be considered handsome rather than beautiful, especially compared to the somewhat brutish features of most Orcs. Her hair was an inky black, swept back into a short, spiky ponytail with two prominent bangs that hung on the sides of her face. Under her cloak, it appeared she was still wearing her Academy uniform, but she did have a few prominent accessories on her person. From her ears dangled two long earrings, both bearing delicate-looking turquoise feathers fastened in silver that dangled near her collarbone. Around her neck, though, was what looked to be an iron torque bearing a prominent image of an Orcish skull upon it.

  I was knocked out of my inspection of her when Itzelan shifted in place near the rack she’d set her cloak upon, almost looking self-conscious before mastering her expression. I cursed myself silently for a moment for staring before fixing a smile on my face and waving her over. “Come sit with us, Itzelan. I’ll pop the wine and pour some for us.”

  The Orc (?) woman studied me for a moment before nodding and approaching the table. She carefully at the seat before lowering herself into it. The wood creaked ominously for a moment under her apparent weight, but thankfully held. Meanwhile, I did as I said I would and broke the seal on her gift of wine. I poured a glass for myself and then for her, sliding it over to the woman. She accepted it with a nod and then stared at me quizzically. “The…child…” She said, cutting her gaze over at Aveline. “Will not receive any?”

  I shook my head. “Ah, no. It’s not custom with humans to let children drink alcohol before they’re at least sixteen. Sometimes older. This is Aveline, by the way,” I said, causing said child to perk up and resume staring curiously at our guest.

  “I see,” Itzelan said quietly. “Another difference. In Xilochtlan, children are expected to drink from their first steps. It is believed that alcohol strengthens the blood, and in the Dominion, blood is life.” She shook her head. “I…did not know you had children, Hart. Will her mother be joining us?”

  I stilled, and I noticed that Aveline did as well. The little girl thankfully didn’t seem upset at the mention of her mother, but she was staring at me cautiously from the corner of her eye.

  And I could guess why.

  I breathed deeply for a moment before deciding to voice something I’d long since come to understand. “Yes, I do have a daughter,” I said quietly, causing Aveline’s head to immediately snap over to me. I met her gaze with a soft, understanding one of my own. “But her mother won’t be joining us. I…took Aveline in at her last request, and have grown to care for her very much. Very much indeed. She…is my daughter.”

  Silently, Aveline slid off her chair and approached me. When she reached me, she threw her little arms around my midsection and buried her face into my chest. Moments later, I felt her quietly sobbing into it, tears soaking my shirt. I returned the embrace, leaning down to kiss her on her hair.

  Aveline and I…nothing more needed to be said. We understood each other.

  I felt it as Fade approached us and wrapped himself around Aveline, careful not to poke her with his antlers. We enjoyed the family embrace for a moment before Aveline separated to look up at me with reddened eyes. Wordlessly, she leaned up to kiss me on my stubble-roughened cheek before shyly scurrying back to her chair. After all, the food was getting cold.

  I looked up with eyes that were also mildly reddened, and met the gaze of an almost nostalgic-looking Meia Itzelan. “Sorry about that. I…do have a partner, but she’s not in town right now. Maybe you’ve met her? Her name is Sylvia.”

  Itzelan raised one thick eyebrow at me. “The Sculpted woman? Yes, I know her. We’re both in Spatial Magic together.”

  “Interesting,” I said thoughtfully, before shaking my head. “But that’s enough talk for now. The food is getting cold. We can gab more after dinner.”