They did not make it far past the Great Camelot Bridge before trouble found them. Just a few days later, as Sorey's group made camp for the night, Dezel suddenly perked up. "There are people behind that hill," he informed the others. His head turned toward a giant boulder next. "And over there as well."

"A hellion too," Zaveid added. "Feels like a lamia." Only Edna noticed him pausing suddenly, seeing that everyone else began to discuss amongst each other.

"All of them are armed," Dezel relayed thougthfully. "Including us seraphim, we are outnumbered about five to one, not that it matters much."

"Perhaps we should announce that we noticed them?" Mikleo mused then. "That might scare them off. Then again, I doubt it'll work with that many people."

Rose scowled at nothing in particular, fingers twitching as she tried not to grab her dagger. "Bandits ought to be stamped out," she declared quietly. No one argued that they were dealing with anything else, though Dezel put a hand on her shoulder.

"Many of them turn to banditry due to a lack of options," he reminded the redhead, whose expression softened somewhat. Sorey recalled hearing something similar, but being confronted with the real thing was still different.

Sighing, he suggested another approach: "How about we do something blatantly superhuman, then question them while they're confused?" He reasoned that such a display would make the bandits stop to reconsider, even if they outnumbered his group. They kept discussing the idea back and forth, no one certain about how much merit it actually had. This went on long enough for the bandits to close in further... and suddenly slink away again. When Dezel told them, he earned bewildered stares from all around. Sorey made a snap decision and turned toward the hill. "Zaveid, back me up!"

There was no verbal response, but the wind seraph settled within Sorey moments later; he channeled his power through his body, beginning to feel lighter and faster as he had so often. Then Sorey leaped twenty metres into the air, clearing the hill and the two dozen people behind it. He landed in front of the startled crowd, whirling up a cloud of sand; taking the moment of surprise to study them, he found a group of men and women. All were dressed in reasonably well but quite worn clothes. Front and center stood a crimson-scaled lamia whose first reaction was to hiss at him in warning; she cut herself off after a moment, shaking her head for some reason.

"So, uh, who are you lot? And what were you doing here?"

He felt a little awkward, being stared at like that. Rose thankfully took some attention off of him by landing a step behind; Edna and Mikleo jogged around the hill next to form up as usual. Their arrival and subsequent threat made the lamia coil up a little, like an actual snake ready to strike; Rose's eyes narrowed and she put a hand on her dagger's hilt, agitating the other side in turn. Sorey held out a hand in front of her, making his squire back down. Then he introduced himself and repeated his question for the larger group.

The lamia took a calming breath before inclining her head. "I am Rodeen," she introduced herself slowly; her words were clearly enunciated and forcefully kept calm. "This lot here serves the bandit king, van Aifread." Edna frowned at that, though Sorey did not get to ask her opinion; Rose snapped her fingers a few times.

"Could have sworn I heard the name before," the redhead muttered. "And I don't mean your boss, I heard of him alright," she told the chuckling men with a roll of her eyes.

Now that she mentioned it, Sorey felt the same, although he never heard of a bandit king before. Then he remembered, eyes widening. "Wait, Aifread, Aifread. Isn't there a place called 'Aifread's Hunting Grounds' in the west?"

"Right! That was it!"

"Yes," Edna confirmed in her usual deadpan, eyes on the bandits. "This continent was an archipelago a thousand years ago. Van Aifread lived around that time and his pirate crew was well-known to haunt the seas. What we see here is that someone picked up his name to pretend to be more intimidating."

Rodeen snarled in response, surging forward and only stopping herself inches from the unconcerned seraph's face. "Why, you little!" she spat, receiving alienated looks from her own allies and seething at Edna to Sorey's worry.

Edna herself merely arched an eyebrow at the lamia. "What? Humans don't live that long, and I know for a fact the real Aifread died long ago." Rodeen shook, but kept herself in check to the point she retreated from Edna's personal space. The bandits behind her were muttering quietly amongst each other.

Then however, a particularly tall man shouted over to them: "Hey man, quick question!" Sorey turned his head. "You the shepherd?"

"Um... yes?"

Rose immediately groaned and muttered about him being too honest, though Sorey's sheepishness was pushed away by confusion about the excited chatter. Rodeen turned as well to watch how several people clapped each other's shoulders; there were "told you"s to be heard and money changed hands, the sight of which had the lamia bend down with a defeated groan, followed by her muttering about incompetence and idiots. She was eerily similar to Rose in her display.

"Wait," his squire chimed into the chatter dumbfounded. "You guys were betting that the shepherd comes by?"

The tall man shrugged back at her as he pocketed some coins. "Desert is kind of boring outside of raids, so we make do," he admitted. "We heard the shepherd was around, so it was only a matter of time. Thanks for making it so quickly, by the way!" The men and women who just lost money grumbled, but no one seemed actually angry. It was an odd moment for Sorey, not to mention confusing. He figured he should rather get everyone back on topic.

"So, uh, why did you leave us alone?"

"Aifread's orders," Rodeen replied with a shrug. "They... we... only rob juicy targets. A pair of travelers aren't worth the hassle unless they come in a carriage. Even more so when they have seraphim with them." She sneered down at Edna afterward, the previous slight obviously not forgiven. "And just for your information, you little shrimp: this is the real Aifread, reborn to this time after a thousand years."

Edna just grinned up at the looming lamia. "Really? Did he bring any recipes for fried shrimp along with that story?"

"...as a matter of fact, he did."

The response threw Edna for a loop, regardless of the fact Rodeen was visibly unhappy about having to give it. When the seraph girl made to continue her taunts however, Zaveid materialised with a hand on her head. "He's the real deal alright," he confirmed matter-of-factly. Rodeen scowled.

"You!"

Rose nodded sagely. "Ah, so Zaveid was around these parts before."

"Looks like it," Mikleo agreed.

The lamia was clearly agitated now, but instead of attacking she simply turned. "I had enough of this," she spat. "Just, just follow if you must." Sorey felt sympathetic, this day was clearly not going well for her.

A long, awkward walk later, they entered a dilapidated village by the name of Horsa. Some more people were milling about and one figure in particular stood out as they approached; the moment they were recognised, he sauntered forward to meet them with a feral grin. "Now what do we have here?" he called jovially, studying the travelers with clear curiousity before bumping fists with Zaveid. "Good to see you again! I didn't expect you back so soon. Who's that lot?"

Knowing that he ought to say something, Sorey piped up: "Ah, I'm Sorey. The shepherd," he added after a moment of hesitation, then motioned for the others. "These are Rose, Mikleo, Dezel, and-" he was cut off when the bandit king picked Edna up by her armpits. "Uh..."

"Hm." Aifread studied the blank-faced seraph girl up close, clenched fists clearly indicating her displeasure. She still stared at him blankly, held so far up they could evenly look into each other's eyes. While Sorey still wondered what to do, the man raised his friend a little higher. "And you are Edna, without doubt. Same face, same hair, and there's the frown, too." She was put down at that point while Aifread laughed heartily, but her mask remained broken.

Sorey glanced between his friends, but neither Mikleo nor Rose appeared to know what this was about; moreover, Rose still seemed somewhat busy drinking in the sight of van Aifread. Zaveid nudged her before motioning for the bandit king. "You gotta know that Eizen used to be part of his crew once upon a time."

"Oh yes, he was." Aifread began to pace with a nostalgic grin. "And we heard lots about little Edna from him. That man was obsessed with his darling sister." Edna turned away now, hiding behind her umbrella as she sometimes did. Perhaps the snickering bandits around them added to her embarassment, which in turn annoyed Sorey a little. Then however, everyone paused when Aifread continued: "Bastard hasn't changed the slightest bit since way back when!"

Edna whirled around at that, eyes narrowed to slits; Sorey took a step back in surprise while she snarled at Aifread: "My brother turned into a dragon ages ago!"

"I know?" he returned with visible and audible confusion. "But he's back now, isn't he?" Seeing the uncomprehending faces all around, he slapped his forehead. "Ah, you haven't heard yet! Didn't ask how they did it, but he walked in here just a few months ago. Couldn't have been anyone else."

The silence that followed his announcement was deafening. Sorey barely noticed Zaveid's grin, being more concerned for Edna; she began to shake, wide eyes focussed solely on van Aifread. Several aborted motions to speak later, she forced herself to calm down first. "Is this the truth? Are you sure this was Eizen?"

"Damn right I'm sure! No one throws punches like Eizen does, I'd recognise these fists anywhere!"

Sorey did not understand; the silver flame could not quell dragons, but someone must have found a way to do it anyway. There was a general state of confusion around them when he explained that tidbit to Aifread, who merely shrugged. Rose glanced between them. "So we have a dragon that spontaneously turned back into a seraph?" she asked, only to receive another shrug.

"It really makes no sense," Mikleo muttered. "Who could have done such a thing?"

"I'd reckon the Empyreans, don't know which one except it ain't Maotelus."

Sorey wanted to inquire about that statement, but he was distracted from it by Edna; his friend remained mostly unresponsive, tears brimming in her eyes while she clearly tried to break the bright smile on her face. Mikleo made to say something, but Zaveid pre-empted him; the wind seraph carefully touched Edna's shoulder to snap her out of the fugue, his eyes on Aifread. "We're gonna take a little walk," he declared. "Don't rob the shepherd while I'm not looking, ya hear me?"

"No promises!"

Aifread laughed while Zaveid and Edna walked off; she let herself be led just like that. The others watched with mixed of emotions, though none of them really knew what to say. Rose spoke first when they were almost out of sight: "Are you sure that's a good idea? This is Zaveid going with her."

"She'll be fine, Edna's a tough one." Aifread appeared completely certain of it, so much so that Sorey felt reassured. A moment later, he himself was under the bandit king's attention. "Now, I was thinking, how about a little spar? I'm curious what our shepherd is made of."

. .

. .

Were Edna in a normal headspace, she never would allow herself to be led by the hand like a child; not that Zaveid would have cared, she knew he just did as he pleased. Right now however, she was drowning in joy to the point she cried; her vision was too blurry to notice much of anything, only the telltale sensation of a teleportation arte remained clear to her. A moment later, the dry air had become cooler and more humid. She tried to blink her tears away as they walked, but more kept coming.

"There you are," Zaveid broke into her circling thoughts, tugging Edna forward and into a pair of small arms that wrapped around her immediately. "Coulda told us about Eizen before, y'know?"

"I see." It only took those two words to recognise Laphicet; the moment she did, Edna immediately gave him a crushing embrace and a passionate kiss. Zaveid whistled in the background, but she could not care less. Laphi did the impossible, just like he promised he would. For her.

When they separated after what felt like eons, he gently wiped off her tears with a handkerchief; the moment Edna could see again, she found him wearing a gentle smile to match her radiant one. "It was supposed to be a surprise," he admitted sheepishly. "You're in luck, actually; he's here today. Come on." Again she followed without complaint, though holding Laphi's hand felt different to Zaveid's; it was smaller, smoother, and somehow made her feel warm inside.

"You lovebirds go ahead," the other seraph called after them. "I'll find you later."

Marching through the Crowe's Nest felt agonisingly slow this day, but they reached the upper floors eventually; Edna slowed down a little as her joy was overtaken by fear of being rejected again, but then she shook it off with determination. She was not a child anymore. Nonetheless, she let Laphi knock and enter first. "Ah, there you all are," he addressed the room cheerfully. "There is someone wanting to see you, Eizen."

"Who is it?" A dark voice queried; it was his without doubt; she still remembered it clearly. Laphi tugged at her hand and she followed to stand in the door with him; a group of four looked back in surprise, but the three women around the room were ignored. She only had eyes for her brother, who stood near a wall he was likely leaning against before. He had not changed one bit.

From one moment to the next, Edna closed the distance and slammed into his chest. Eizen could only hold onto her as she did with him; she felt she would never let go again. "Eizen..." There was no verbal response to her whisper, but his embrace tightened. At some point however, her elation faded; she had him back, but he would leave again. She knew he would. An ugly resentment bubbled up from beneath, mixing with disappointment and anguish. "How could you?"

Edna pulled back to seek her brother's eyes, vision growing blurry again. "How could you do this to me?" she asked him again. "I've waited for so long and when you did come back, you were a dragon!" A small fist slammed into his chest on the last word. "You're horrible!" Only now did he wince, but Edna merely hid her face against him again and started to weep.

All of a sudden, a hand ran over her head with gentleness she missed so long. "I know," he said, agreeing without argument. "I know what I did to you, but I did it anyway." The admission did not make her feel any better, she just cried into his chest.

"You're staying now."

"No, I won't."

"I don't care about your stupid curse!"

It was a familiar argument, one that they held over letters many a time. This time it felt different, his responses even more heartbreaking when given in person. Edna held on for dear life, being held in return.

At some point however, her brother shifted. His next words stopped even Edna's tears cold: "Why am I still alive?"

A familiar snort told her of Zaveid's presence. The wind seraph must have caught up. "The hell, man? Is it my fault you turned into the biggest, baddest dragon since Innominat? These things take time!" Edna just clung to her brother even more tightly, but he... laughed. It was not much, but she felt his reverberating chest under her cheek. How could he laugh about this? "Besides, how about you stop being an ass for now? There's three people in the room ready to tell you what for, in case you haven't noticed."

"Make that four," Velvet added; turning her head, Edna found the former therion entering just behind Zaveid. Margaret, Symonne, and Alisha all appeared just as unhappy; Laphi merely wore a blank mask.

Eizen sighed in defeat and set her down, kneeling in front of her. "I'm not going to stay," he repeated and her heart throbbed painfully, "but I'm not leaving just yet, either. Let's get to that when it's time and not right now, alright?"

She scowled back at him, but did not dare to give her brother the cold shoulder. Edna knew he would be gone the moment she tried. Having heard about his tendencies from various people however, a devious plan began to form. Edna forced herself to calm down at last and nodded curtly. Then she turned around and kissed Symonne in greeting, for everyone to see; her girlfriend smiled against Edna's lips, clearly aware what she was doing. "You're a naughty girl," Symonne teased quietly when they separated. She just grinned back, then glanced to her clearly agitated brother.

"Anyway, I have a girlfriend now," she told him matter-of-factly. "And Laphi is my boyfriend. And Symonne's boyfriend, too."

"I know."

"Too bad, this would have been better if you hadn't."

Zaveid started laughing about the way Eizen ground his teeth; Velvet joined him moments later and even Edna had to admit it looked funny. He never took that tone with her or had to fight for composure like that. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"...no."

A bird chose that moment to smash into and through the window, raining shards of glass onto Edna; Eizen scowled at once, but her own grin was undeterred as she wiped them off. She had realised how easy her brother was to tease. Therefore, Edna spent the next few hours doing just that to make up for lost time.

By the time they left, Zaveid was shaking his head at her. "You could've been a little nicer, y'know? Poor guy didn't know what to do."

She just shrugged back at him. "It's not like he didn't deserve it."

"It was her only chance anyway," Laphi added from Edna's right; seeing her growing worry, he quickly explained: "Velvet will probably give him some pointers how to deal with you in the future."

She nodded, relaxing slowly. Symonne slung an arm around her shoulder then. "Not to worry," she soothed Edna further. "I'm keeping an eye on him in the meantime. He won't run away that easily."

Thus reassured, she let herself be kissed by her boyfriend and girlfriend before following Zaveid through the portal back to Aifread's base. It had grown late by this point, but they quickly found their friends through following the laughter and song to a feast. Sorey sat with the bandit king and the Forton sisters, a black eye clearly visible; he perked up when they approached, Zaveid wincing. "Ouch. You pick a fight with Aifread?"

"I challenged him, old friend. That boy put up a good fight." Paying attention to Aifread, the older man was clearly in worse condition than Sorey. "Anyway, as I was saying, there's just no fun in robbing a lone traveler or two, you know? They usually don't have much on them, either."

"I see." The shepherd was clearly uncomfortable, though Edna decided to ignore his situation in favour of finding the others; Mikleo sat to the side observing people, Dezel stood near some kind of drinking contest... and Rose was in the middle of that same contest, swaying as she held up a mug victoriously; men and women cheered for her as another stumbled away.

Raising an eyebrow, Edna left the men to their conversation and trotted over; Dezel noticed her first, but Rose saw her soon after. "Eyyy, Edna! You wanna give it a go? Doubt you can beat my record, but there's nothing better than a good drink!" Some people looked around to find whoever Rose was talking to, but the hellions at the table quickly filled them in. Now normally, Edna would not consider alcohol, but after the day she had and having in mind that her brother would hear of this sooner or later, she figured she might as well. So she folded her umbrella and handed it to Dezel, then slid onto the bench to renewed cheers. A dozen filled pitchers were lined up before her while Rose leaned back smugly. "I've got ten down by now. Think you can beat me?"

When the redhead opened her eyes, Edna had already thrown back the first mug. The ale left a burning trail down her throat, but she felt little different from before. Arching her eyebrow again, she demonstratively patted her head. "You're a thousand years too early to challenge me," she told the flabbergasted woman, then grabbed for another pitcher. People began to cheer louder by the time she emptied the third and with the seventh, even Aifread and Sorey were heading over to watch.

Once the tenth mug was emptied and added to her little pyramid, she crossed her arms at Rose. "Well? Not so bad, huh?"

"...how? Is this a seraph thing or something? Can you get drunk at all?"

"Oh, sure they can!" Aifread chimed in, clapping Edna's shoulder heartily. Her head almost hit the table when she failed to keep her balance. "But that girl is Eizen's sister alright; the old dog could drink everyone else under the table!" While he reminisced too loudly for her liking, Edna grabbed another pitcher and finished it in one go before throwing it at his head.

"Shut up, you're too loud."

Aifread just laughed, all the while rubbing the spot she hit. Rose was tapping her finger against the table, but then she slumped. "Ugh, fine, you win, shorty. I don't want to get blackout drunk and b'sides, I've got other plans for the night." The other woman rose on somewhat shaky legs, turning her drained mug around to place it on Edna's head like a crown. "There you go, I'm gonna go have some fun now. You and you, show me a nice spot!" She pointed at a man and a woman almost randomly; the two stared at her, then at each other before shrugging and leading a pleased Rose away.

Sorey slowly settled down next to Edna while glancing between everyone. "Did she just... I mean, I got what happened there right, right?"

"Aye, you've got yourself an interesting friend there. She's a little rascal alright." The lamias threw Aifread looks for that comment while Edna leaned back. She had some trouble balancing her crown and felt something sticky in her hair, but did not mind; right now, she contemplated heading back for some fun of her own, but ultimately decided against it. For one, she was definitely drunk; her few experiments with offerings of alcohol people left on the Spiritcrest were enough to know that much. For two, poking fun at how flustered Sorey was sounded like a better idea for the moment. Or, well, she could go spy on Rose, too.

Edna paused for a moment, then decided to go through with that last idea after excusing herself. It was an... informative evening from then on. Although Edna needed a while before she could look her red-haired friend in the eyes again after sobering up. At least she learned a few things for later use.

They left Horsa the next afternoon, looking back at a set of interesting memories in all cases. For obvious reasons, Rose was the happiest of them all that day; Edna remained within Sorey to wait out her hangover, however a seraph's body could reproduce that effect. It hurt far less while incorporeal. By herself however, she knew she had to see her brother again sometime soon. Now that he was back, Edna would not let him vanish again, no matter what it took.