Kazue knocked on the door to her mother’s room with a stra of mixed emotions that she couldn’t have that moment. Then Akahana opehe door and pulled her daughter into an embrace. All of Kazue’s initial thoughts about how to start the versation fled, and she shortly found herself practically curled into her mother’s p as she cried.

  Kazue hadn’t been pulled away from her home and magically transformed. She’d died. And while she couldn’t remember most of it, what she could remember was unpleasant and painful. She’d never really dealt with it, but now she was aloh her mother and that dam finally broke. Casey even got up from her he bed and did the best she could to cuddle with them, though her avian body was not well shaped for this room. But being ‘trapped’ between fur aher was o feel again.

  It took several minutes for Kazue to pull herself together and her face of tears. “I’m sorry Mom, the whole thing with me having, well, drowned, it hit me hard right then.” She sniffed. “I’ve missed you a lot. And my first week as a dungeon, I didn’t have Mordecai and Moriko, so I was really lonely. And the Lady had promised me I’d find peace here, but it was so hard at first.”

  “It’s alright my darling. Oh sweet little Kazue, momma’s here, and it’s alright.” Kazue allowed herself to wallow in being her mother’s little girl again for a few more mihen sighed and slowly withdrew, pulling herself off of the small couch they’d ended up on and moving toward a chair where she could sit fag her mother and have a proper versation.

  Then before she could sit Kazue had a bit of her dignity ripped away, suddenly filing with a yelp and falling partway to the ground, catg herself on the chair as she gasped. “Don’t do that!” She practically yelled in her head, and got giggles and a irely-sincere apology iurn. Oh, that woman was earning herself a special punishment ter.

  “Kazue?!” Akahana had jumped up and rushed over to help, but Kazue waved her mom off as she gathered herself back up and sat in the chair with a bit less elegahan she’d pnned.

  “It’s alright Mom, my wife was just being badly behaved.” Kazue grumbled and shot a gre in the general dire of Moriko. “It caught me off guard. At least it caught Mordecai off guard too.” It would have been somehow worse if he’d weathered that with ion.

  “Um? Okay…” Akahana didn’t know how to process that immediately but sat back down in her seat. “Well, I guess that sort s up what I wao first ask about. I don’t really want to pry, but a mother worries, and while I may not always act it I am an elder druid. I also am aware that you were, um, inexperienced. And your marriage didly start as something romantic, though your letter is g in some details there. So I feel I have to ask, is there anything I should know?”

  Well. Wasn’t that a hell of a question. But it also made sense, especially since her mother didn’t know as much as Aia did. “Um, there’s nothing like that. They were patient, wait, no that’s not quite right. They were tent to wait on my schedule. That’s better than patience, do you see what I mean?”

  Akahana nodded, if a bit hesitantly. “I think so love. So, ah, things went well I take it?”

  This ainfully awkward versation to be having with one’s mother, but at least it wasn’t her dad. That would be so much worse. “Yeah, hehe, they were even ‘mean’ in a very nice way.” Kazue gri the memory. “They made me ask. I think we’d have been fine anyway, but yeah, it robably the right idea, to make me choose when.” And where, and a bit of how. But there was no way she was getting into that.

  “I, see? Oh! I see!” Akahana had taken a moment to work through the i phrasing, but she rexed with relief and giggled a bit. “Okay, I see how that’s sort of mean, but yeah, that’s a good way to do it. I mean, you arely a kid, but your letter did say Moriko was 36. And Mordecai is, well, a lot older than that. So I was worried. But now we drop the subject. I just had to be sure, you know?”

  Kazue nodded and was just as happy to move on. “So, well.” Crap, she’d had a couple of approaches in mind but they’d all disappeared. The hell with it. “So at lunch, Mordecai gave me a cup of tea. Only it was a really, really strong and trated tea. It wasly instant, but my head started feeling clear without any effort to make it feel clear.” There, that hahe versation over. Kazue wao see what her mom had already figured out, because Kazue had started developing her suspis earlier today.

  “Oh. Wait, could I – no, I suppose not, I’m guessing that sort of tration would be hard to do without the right sort of magic.” Akahana shook her head. “Well, I guess that verifies things. I wish I had noticed sooner. But you weren’t ag like I did, so I thought you were fine. I guess I should go back to when I was a kid. My head gets like that too, but you were always so well-behaved, and when I was young it was getting into trouble that made me feel better. The riskier the better. It’s a good thing my talent for druidic magic came in early, because I liked to head out into the forest a lot without the adults. When I was fifteen I sort of ran away from home, I o find more excitement. And I did find that. I also learned another way to clear my head for a bit.”

  Akahana took a breath, the out slowly. On her breath, she inhaled more sharply and deeply as her fur bristled slightly. The toothy grin she gave Kazue was full of very sharp-lookih. “See, I had a temper when I was young. Whenever I was angry, all the extra noise went away. And even now, I know how to just reach out and choose to pull on that anger, let everything that has ever made me mad fill me.”

  The kitsune closed her eyes as she took another deep breath, only to release this one slowly as she calmed down again. When she opened her eyes that dangerous look was gone. “It’s no berserker rage or battle fury or anything like that. It’s almost more of a triyself, a way to get that jolt of sudden thrill running through my blood again. And while it makes me feel better, being angry usually doesn’t lead to the best choices. And it’s kind of tiring to keep up for long.”

  She rose to walk over to a table where she began rummaging through some bags. “I was off getting into trouble for quite a few years. Then there was this one night, the group I was with had already been up the entire day before and we had to stay alert to figure out what was stalking that vilge in the dark. And the member was this cute guy whom I suspected was trying to stay out of the cities because he’d gotten into other sorts of trouble.” She returo her seat with a small roll of leather in her hands. “He said he had something to help us stay awake and keep us energized. Well, it didn’t make me slightly wound up like it did to everyone else, it was more like what you described with your tea.” She unrolled the little bit of leather to show several leaves carefully tucked into little pockets. “I wao get my hands on more of course, but he was relut to part with any he didn’t have to, or let me know his source.” Akahana smirked. “Did I mention he was really cute though?”

  Kazue groaned and hid her fa her hands. “Please tell me that was Dad at least.”

  “See, I knew I raised a smart girl! All that reading did you good!” Akahana paused, then said “Oh goddess, I am an idiot. Your books, they were all stories of adventure and other sorts of trouble. I got into trouble, you read about getting into trouble. That’s why it was so hard to pull you away from them. You were getting a bit of that thrill that way.”

  That brought Kazue’s head up and made her think about it for a few seds. “Yeah, I think that sounds right. Reading always made me feel better, no matter how messy everything else was. It was always just so easy, even when I was tired.”

  Akahana sighed. “I’m sorry Kazue, I thought you were doier than me. If I had realized, I would have had you try a leaf a few years ago. But anyway, yes, it was your father. Ricardo was 22, and I already had several tails so being nearly 40 didn’t really impact my looks. Sedug him wasn’t a romantic thing for me at the time, but getting to know him, well, there’s a reason I tolerate some of his foolishness even now.” Her smile was fond as she looked off into memory for a moment, then brought herself back to the present. “I did eventually find out his source, and got my hands on some seeds. Getting a couple of pnts to grow while on the road was tricky, especially as the pnts like a warmer climate, but I am a druid.”

  She smiled slightly, then rolled the leaves in their leather tainer back up. “You haven’t seen them before because I grew them in the closed se with my other dangerous pnts. And don’t get me wrong, while for me a leaf a day is therapeutic, they be troublesome for most people. And if I am having a particurly long and troublesome day, I chew on more than one, but if I don’t have at least six hours or so between them, it kind of numb my head instead.” Akahana hahe roll towards Kazue. “I want you to take these, and when I get a ce I’ll e by with some live pnts, and some of the other dangerous ones I didn’t bring on this trip.”

  “Mom?” Kazue took the roll hesitantly, feeling nervous. Her mother was ag sort of strange. Akahana looked down at her p and fiddled with her y hands.

  “Dear, I settled down so I could raise you. From the time I knew I had a life inside of me until the day you were pletely weaned I suffered through the cloudy head and the pain because I didn’t want to take any risks that it could affect you. Your father became a mert because he ’t keep his feet in one pce to save his life, but wao at least be safer so that he could be around for you.” She ughed softly at a thought. “And the prean didn’t want to have me feel obligated to someone who wasn’t around all the time, the idiot has been running around pretending to have a girl in every city and has been an eous flirt all around. But more than a few of the people in his caravan are my friends too, so we’ve let him believe he was fooling me.”

  “Mom. Yetting sidetracked.” Knowing that she was seeing her own habits in her mom now made it easier for Kazue to spot, which was not airely fortable thing.

  “Sorry. Anyway, I know you are safe and happy now. I bring some precious things to you that won’t do well on the road, and find someoo take care of the garden for the stead of me. Then I want to go and travel with your dad. Losing you hurt a lot, and your dad is human. I only have so much time left to be with him, and if you are happy and safe, then my part as a mom is kind of over.” She sniffed and wiped at her eyes. “It’s a bit selfish maybe, I could spend more time here to help you, but that would be selfish too. You have a new life, literally. So you should focus on that. We ge his route to swing by here easily enough, and probably make a profit too. Heh, I am going to have to thank your husband for stopping me earlier. A lot of these thoughts had beeing for a while, but I his bit of extra time after seeing you in order to put them in order and make my decision. And besides, Aia would have yelled at me if I’d run off like that again. Having aional, g druid running around asking all the spirits and nature guardians in the kingdom if they’d seen her man was maybe a touch upsetting to several people. So I am going to do this the right way, get my stuff in order, then go off to find him like a normal person.”

  Kazue was flicted, but overall thought her mom robably right. It was just her own selfish desire that made her want to see her dad soohan that. “Well, I’ll still get to see both of you.” And for the first time, Kazue was thinking about how short a lifespan her dad had retive to them. She didn’t like the thought, but maybe there was something she could do about it? She’d have to ask Mordecai ter. “And I guess that certainly crifies things. Oh, and you should swing by Riverbridge. Moriko’s parents live there, it’d probably be good for you to meet them, but also they are alchemists and have a garden of their own, so you’d be able to talk shop too.”

  The versation drifted to more casual topics, and they stayed up a little ter than robably best for Akahana, but Kazue eventually ughed when her mom yawned yet again, and told her to get some sleep.

  That left Kazue feeling a bit alo first when she waowards their chambers, since Mordecai’s avatar was still meditating himself into dreamnd while Moriko was doing her owation, then she realized she was fetting herself. They were dungeons, and there was more than one part of them. “How goes your visit?” she sent to the part of his mind that was in their core.

  Ozuran found Zelda and Tsukiko in a small clearing, the kitsune in her fox form, and curled up asleep in Zelda’s p. He had to admit that was somewhat impressive in an amusing way, you had to love sleep a lot to be able to be asleep in your own dream.

  Zelda etting the multi-tailed fox gently, and spoke softly wheiced Ozuraer the clearing. “You do like the whole multi-level choices thing, don’t you? I think I have this one figured out.” Ozuran simply waited in silence, giving the girl a ce to collect her thoughts. “So, in addition to the choice you gave to us, there’s the obvious sub-choice to weigh, of leaving two friends to catch up versus our curiosity about these living dungeons. And then the choice she won’t admit to, of walking away during the time she normally gets to spend with you. And for me, well, simir. I didn’t get a good look, but I think I knoas making tea.” Zelda smiled a bit wanly. “My therapist said I did a good job there.” She tapped her head as she said that st part.

  Ozuran nodded. “Correct. Though given her proclivities, I’m a little surprised the satyr guided you away from Lena. I suppose having a few kids helped settle her down a touch.”

  Zelda nodded absentmindedly and Ozuran just waited in silence for a moment. The girl froze, the him. “That was awful. You didn’t even really mean it, you just wahe pun.” She sighed with all the over-dramatiergy a teenager could muster. “My god has been hanging out with the stupid kobold too much.”

  He couldn’t help but smile. “You and your friends have certainly made my life iing this past year. There’s been a lot of teag to do, and I o do most of it myself. So yes, Drage may have had an influehough Zelda’s situation was remarkable in her ht. The voi her head was quite real and was helping the girl get over her troubles, and had absolutely nothing to do with Ozuran’s intervention. Still, he appreciated the help.

  “Hmmph.” Zelda replied, then looked back down at the sleeping fox in her p. “She’s awfully cute like this, isn’t she? So much more peaceful when she’s asleep.” She gnced up through her blue bangs. “Want to hold her?”

  “No, I think not. While her rea when she woke up would be eaining, I don’t think that would be particurly good for her.” Ozuran replied with a hint of reprimand in his voice.

  The girl sighed slightly. “I guess not. I don’t want to break the kid, even if she makes me want tle her on a daily basis.” Ozuran was amused at Zelda calling Tsukiko a kid, they were barely a year apart, but she was the more mature of them. Barely.

  “Well, I don’t think anything productive will be doonight, so I am going to bid you two goodnight, a you drift off to your proper dreams. But you’ll be able to find your way here on your own iure if you want to and I am not around.” The door he’d led them through haded until he’d wa to, but he ening up the ability to find a door here to them now. Mordecai already knew how to do it, but Ozuran hadn’t missed the relief in the man’s eyes when he saw that he was indeed wele here still. That whole situation was messy, but gettier.

  Zagaroth