“There’s not a lot to do on this isnd.” Eliana says walking down the road alongside Glyn and Aoife. “It’s much more fun back home where there’s plenty of things do to and monsters to fight.”

  “Oh, you’re fighting monsters now?” Glyn asks.

  Eliana nods. “Mother’s been training me and while I can’t fight a monster yet by myself. Soon enough, I’ll be strong enough to keep our home safe, just like Mother.”

  “I don’t miss Mother’s old training methods. I’d be exhausted for hours after her drills; I have no idea how she does that at her age.”

  “She takes after her mother. Ari has so much stamina, it can be quite exhausting trying to keep up with her.” Aoife says.

  Glyn stares at her for a moment. “I’m going to assume you mean in the field.”

  “Oh? What do I do? My son has a dirty mind.”

  “Shut it!”

  “Come on, I wanna see the dungeon!” Eliana yells out.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Come on, I can fight! And with you two beside me, we’re invincible.”

  “Quite the opposite. You know I can’t do magic too often, right?”

  “I know, but when you do, it’s super awesome.”

  Aoife ughs. “Maybe it would be a good idea. I still can’t imagine anyone in our family being able to use magic.”

  “Yeah, what’s up with that?” Faye asks, following behind the three. “Aren’t Elves super well-known for some magic connection thing?”

  Tisha and Mi shake their heads as Faye turns to them. “Faye….” Mi says.

  Tisha sighs. “It’s a curse. We’ve been over this.”

  “But Glyn said that curses are just another form of magic. And I’ve never seen a magic that strong before! It must’ve been super impressive to….”

  “Faye!” Miller yells out, rushing up to the group. “This is where you ran off to!?”

  “Hey, Captain.”

  “You're supposed to be training. You can’t just run off whenever you want.”

  Faye rolls her eyes. “What’s the point of training anymore? Glyn said he’s dropping out of the game, right?”

  Everyone falls silent as Glyn takes a breath and steps towards Miller. “Come on, we both knew it was gonna end this way.”

  “I didn’t expect your family to show up out of nowhere.”

  “Neither did I but….”

  “But I knew our alliance was all but temporary,” Miller smirks. “Funny, and I was just starting to like you.”

  “Same. I wanted to help Tisha on her vengeance quest a little longer, but…”

  Tisha sighs and gnces at Aoife. “It’s fine. Besides, it’d probably be easier to move around outside of a rge group.”

  “Zanrit already said he’d stick around until he’d repaid his debt and then he’ll sail off.” Miller folds his arms. “I don’t think Tan likes that idea very much.”

  “They can deal with that ter,” Glyn smirks.

  His smile fades when he turns to Mi. She looks away from him, lowering her head as she rushes to Miller’s side. Both he and Glyn sigh as Mi’s tails shake in the wind, leaving Mi struggling to say anything.

  “What’s going on?” Eliana asks.

  “Let’s be quiet and watch for now, okay?”

  “Fine.”

  Glyn looks at Mi and tries to speak. But he turns his head away and walks ahead. “Let’s go at least check out the dungeon’s entrance. No going inside.”

  “Yay!” Glyn grabs Eliana’s hand and the two walk off.

  Aoife looks back for a moment and then walks behind the pair, with Faye following behind her. Miller looks down at Mi, who hides in his shadow, trembling. Tisha stands beside her, staring down before lowering herself.

  “Mi. Come on, you’re making it awkward.”

  “I…. I…”

  “It was embarrassing,” Miller says.

  Mi goes red and leaps away from him. “I didn’t mean to do that. It was just such a shock that I….”

  “Exploded. You almost made another hole in the manor.”

  A few hours before at breakfast, Glyn made his announcement to the group, decring his intent to quit by the end of the week. With the upcoming weekly check-in, Glyn would quit and return to his homend, leaving Jubert Isnd and the War Game behind him. Everyone stared at him in shock for a moment before accepting his statement. All except Mi. All at once, a flurry of emotions came over her and she leapt from her chair. As she did, two tails grew from her back and she set off an explosion underneath her.

  Just before the explosion, Miller and Tisha moved with the pair, moving her outside where she then exploded in the courtyard. Following that, Glyn took his family around the isnd, with Tisha coming along as a guard of sorts. Mi came along trying to find the words for her feelings, with Faye coming along to ste her curiosity before it was too te.

  “I’ve never seen Mi put on the puppy dog eyes like that before,” Faye says as the four enter the dungeon.

  Glyn sighs and shakes his head, ignoring her. “We’re only staying at the entrance. No, going inside, understood?”

  Eliana nods with a wide grin on her face. “Yes. But it’s so exciting. Mother always talks about how fun dungeons are. I can’t wait till I can go in one myself!”

  “Only she can find a dungeon a fun time.”

  “Glyn,” Aoife says, staring at him. “I don’t mean to pry into your retionships, but you seem to be avoiding that girl.”

  Glyn pauses. “Mom…. I… I knew I’d always leave, so I didn’t want her to get too attached. I knew it’d hurt her if and when I left, but….”

  “You’re taking this awful seriously,” Faye says. “Just tell her how you feel and that’ll ease the pain in her heart. Or take her with you as a mistress or whatever. I’m sure she’d be fine with that.”

  Glyn blushes, turning his head away. “It’s not that easy. Besides, it’d maybe be good for her to be away from me.”

  “Why say that?” Faye asks.

  “Come on, stop being up in your ass already,” Tisha says, entering the dungeon and dragging Mi along with her. “If you have something important to say, then say it to each other already.”

  Tisha tosses Mi to Glyn, who catches her as Mi struggles to speak. Glyn holds her and she takes a deep breath.

  “Glyn I….”

  “Mi… listen I….”

  The two let go and back away, struggling to speak to one another.

  “This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Tisha says.

  “My. Glyn, is she that important to you?” Aoife asks.

  “Mom she’s…. she’s dear to me. I’ll admit that,” Glyn says.

  Mi blushes as her tail wraps around his hand. “I…. I hate the idea of you leaving. But I guess I always realized this time would come. Even though I hate the idea, there’s so much I want to say to you, but…”

  “Mi listen. You know.”

  “When you told me your Elven name, I figured you trusted me a lot. I want to live up to that trust. I don’t want you to worry about me, even if we’re separating forever.”

  “Oh, Glyn. You told her that?”

  He blushes. “I did. What about it? It’s just a stupid name, after all.”

  “I do admit Luvon is just a name nowadays. But we still have to be careful about who figures it out.”

  Tisha’s eyes go wide. “What!?”

  “Oh, dear. I was so focused on Glyn’s retionship I had forgotten that the Elf was here,” Aoife says with a smirk on her face.

  Glyn’s face goes red. “You did that on purpose!”

  “What motive would I have to leak that?”

  “Was Brother’s Elven name a secret?” Eliana asks.

  Tisha gres at Glyn. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner!?”

  “Because of this exact reaction. This is why I didn’t want any Elves to figure out that name.”

  Faye looks at the pair. “Okay, what’s the story behind that name? It seems super important or whatever.”

  “Of course it is. That name, it’s the name of the old Elven royal family. If Glyn has that name, then…. Then that means he’s royalty.”

  Glyn sighs, shaking his head. “No, so much royalty. As much as I am just an extra dose of bastard, honestly. That name is nothing more than a giant pain in the ass.”