Two days pass and Glyn awakens in a small bed, shooting up to find himself in an odd small room. The sound of waves echoes through the windows as he sits up and stretches. Taking in a breath, he looks up to see a small light shining in the room's corner.

  “I see you're doing well Pepper.”

  The light flies before taking the shape of a miniature young woman standing on the edge of the bed. “You’re not confused at all, are you?”

  “Nope. I knew there’d be a surge of mana from taking in the other Piece. And I knew my body would need to adjust to it. But I didn’t quite expect that much.”

  Pepper nods. “You defeated Fenwick.”

  “And?”

  “Your allies have been clearing the isnd of what remains of Fenwick’s mercenaries and helping with the remaining mines.”

  Glyn nods. “I expected as such.”

  “You hold high hopes for them.”

  “They never fail to meet my expectations. But it’s only based on who they are as people, anyway. Zanrit might look scary but he’s a nice guy and sweet on kids. Tisha might have a stick up her ass but when she rexes, she’s…”

  The door to the room sms open with Tisha entering the room. “Who has a stick up what?”

  Glyn stares at her and smiles. “Sometimes you have a stick up your ass.”

  She clenches her fist. “It’s for beating asshole Half-Elves with!” She screams, running in.

  Before she can get close, a rge tail wraps around her pulling her back as Mi rushes into the room. She wraps her arms around Glyn and covers him as Glyn counts the tails, counting three as they rex to the ground.

  “Glyn.”

  “Hey, Mi. How’re you feeling?”

  She nods. “I’m fine. I was more worried about you since you weren’t waking up.”

  “It’s fine. I just had to adjust to the new power.” He says, staring at her. “And it looks like I’m not the only one.”

  “Huh?” Mi asks.

  Tisha pulls Mi off. “Isn’t it time for you to check the vilge? Their reconstruction should be progressing.”

  Mi sighs. “Glyn. I’ll be back ter.”

  Mi leaves as Tisha looks to Glyn, who sighs.

  “What’s going on with her?”

  “The tails. I had a feeling the rush of mana might cause something like this, but she seems to be calmer than st time.”

  “You told me that when her tails come out, her personality changes. But I didn’t expect it to be this drastic. Before she was shyer and demurer, but now she’s taking charge and took over while you were out.” Tisha says.

  Glyn leans back. “Good. I was worried she’d go battle baffling or something.”

  “Battle crazy!?”

  “Yeah, the st time when she had about four tails, she could only think of fighting. It was kind of worrying.”

  “I’d say. She’s already powerful, but if she keeps getting stronger like that, do you think we’d be able to reign her in?”

  “Possibly.” He leans forward and nods. “I’ve been trying to come up with counters for situations like that. But what’s troublesome is that I don’t know any way to fix it without restricting her mana flow.”

  “And that’ll only be a temporary solution.” Tisha sighs. “Mi is a rather troublesome girl.”

  Glyn smirks. “Yeah. But I’m happy she’s doing better than she was before.”

  “Anyway. Outside of the Mi situation, here’s what’s going on around town.”

  “Oh, Pepper already told me.”

  “Pepper?”

  Pepper flies up, nding on Tisha’s hand and bowing. “It’s been a few days, Ms. Tisha.”

  “When did you reform?”

  “About a day ago. I was worried about everything, but I no longer sense Fenwick’s Queen Piece in my system and with Glyn being my current contract holder, I could imagine how everything went.”

  “Yeah, the idiot insisted we keep Fenwick alive. And those Shadow guys came and took him the other day.”

  “Good. Now the isnders can’t kill him and he’s back home, so he can’t do any more damage.” Glyn says.

  “What’re your pns now?” Pepper asks, flying over to Glyn and bowing. “As my……”

  Glyn raises a finger. “We never stiputed the conditions of the contract, did we?”

  “No. If you want, I can make an addition.”

  “Alright then.”

  Tisha sighs. “Glyn, what’re you up to?”

  “My only stipution that I want to be added above all others is that Pepper gets the right to choose things for herself,” Glyn says.

  Pepper shoots up. “Huh?”

  “I said you get to keep your right to choose. Stealing away people’s free will isn’t my thing and since you need my Bishop Piece to stabilize until you fully recover, we’ll just go with this until I can remove it.”

  Tisha shakes her head. “Seriously. I should always expect something like this from you.”

  Pepper bows as tears roll down her face. “Thank you. Thank you so much, Master Glyn.”

  “And don’t call me Master Glyn. I hated it when the servants at home did it and I refuse to let the people I’m fighting with call me that.”

  Pepper nods. “Okay, Glyn. Once again, thank you. I don’t know what the future holds for me, but I’m gd to be looking at it with you.”

  “The future, huh?” Glyn whispers under his breath.

  Glyn leaves the room, realizing he’s in a small cabin near the beach. They walk up to the nearby town where spot Zanrit carrying around lumber for the vilgers. He stops and walks to Glyn, looking down at him cautiously.

  “You seem healthy.”

  “Healthy enough. I could use some food, though.”

  Tisha looks around. “Where did Mi run off to?”

  “She’s in the town center again. They wanted her to burn away some more rubble.”

  “Burn away rubble?” Glyn asks.

  Tisha nods. “Yeah. After you passed out, she made a big dispy and burned Fenwick’s manor down to the ground. Since then, the isnders have come to respect her.”

  “They call her Lady Mi now,” Zanrit says.

  Pepper flies around. “Huh? I already thought they were trying to be pilots to me.”

  “Come on let’s….”

  “You’re awake now, huh?” Ricard asks, appearing behind Glyn. “And even Pepper’s come back.”

  She flies down and bows to him. “It’s good to see you well, Ricard.”

  “Whatever. Listen, while you were out, we worked on your boat and hauled that Mythril from the mines for you.”

  “Thanks. I assume you guys want me gone as soon as possible.”

  “Not gonna lie. That’s part of it. Another part is the old folks wanting to say thanks for all your work. They’re never going to say it, but they do seem to like you, at least better than Fenwick.”

  “That’s good. And with some time without Fenwick’s meddling, the isnd’s environment will recover and everything can go back to normal.” Glyn says.

  Ricard nods. “We’ll see. But just make sure you take care of yourselves out at sea.”

  “Oh, we have some experienced sailors with us.”

  “I wouldn’t say any of us are experienced,” Tisha says. “It’s more like we’re just good at not sinking.”

  Zanrit nods. “I swam most of the way when I came out here originally, so I’m not even sure I qualify for that.”

  “I could use you guys to back me up in times like this,” Glyn says.

  Ricard shakes his head. “Come on, you must be hungry. It’s not much, but we have a bit more than before, so I’ll treat you.”

  “Thanks. I’m famished.”

  The group walks into the vilge where a crowd stands in the center watching as a rge stone burns away. Mi stands in the middle of the crowd as she controls the fmes, extinguishing them with but a motion of her hands. The crowd appuds as she turns past them to spot Glyn and the others.

  “Thank you, everyone.” She bows and moves away from her spot, moving over to Glyn.

  “Hey there. What’s that about?”

  “They wanted me to burn away the miasma clinging to that structure. My fmes are effective against it.” She stares at him cautiously. “Are you good to be moving around?”

  He smirks. “I’m fine. Just need something to eat, then we can talk about going back.”

  “Yes. It’s almost been a week and I’m still worried about Brother.”

  “It’s fine. We’ll head back right away.”

  “Lady Mi!” one Elder rushes forward. “About what we discussed before….”

  The others follow as they all pause, staring up as Pepper floats around Mi.

  “Lady Pepper!” They all scream out in unison.

  She flies over to the group. “I’m sorry if I worried you.”

  “We’re so happy you're alright Lady Pepper. We were scared you were gone for good.”

  “Please don’t worry about us like that again!”

  “Just stay on the isnd with us. No more fighting!”

  Ricard rolls his eyes. “Come on, you're acting like she’s your granddaughter or something.” He turns his head away. “But it is good to have her back.” He whispers to himself.

  Glyn ughs. “Let’s leave them alone. Come on, we’ve got a lot to get ready for.”

  After checking on the condition of the isnd and a day of preparations, the four gather around Tisha’s ship once again. After one st check on supplies and the condition of the ship itself, they board as Pepper, Ricard, and the Elders watch on. Glyn and Mi are the st two to take off, waving off the group as they set off, leaving the isnd behind once and for all.

  “Are you sure you can leave him with that Piece inside of you?” Ricard asks.

  Pepper shakes her head. “Glyn said it was fine. Besides, my current self is still recovering. A trip across the ocean might be too much for me.”

  “Whatever.”

  She ughs. “What about you Ricard? Are you sad to see them leave?”

  “Nah. Those sorts stand out around here too much. But it’s not like this is goodbye forever.”

  “Oh?”

  “Their little war is still going on. And who’s saying we won’t be dragged into it just because Glyn and his sort want to leave us out?”

  “Oh, what do you propose?”

  “Nothing yet.” Ricard turns to the sea. “But once we get our mess figured out. We may have to look beyond ourselves.”

  The Elders nod, with one walking forward. “For too long, we’ve been caught in our ways and staying out of the other isnd’s affairs. But maybe that time is coming to a close?”

  “All I can say is as long as these noble brats are running across our isnds, we’ll never really have peace,” Ricard says.