"I am not going to apologise for the words I spoke two weeks ago. But I believe I begin to understand why you do not wish to be near your sister."

Alisha stared into their oversized campfire after saying her piece; the flames crackled almost merrily that evening, as if to mock her. A boar the size of her slowly turned over it, freshly killed after trying to tear the four of them to shreds. "This makes seven giant beasts I never knew existed coming for us."

She earned a snort from Eizen and a groan from Symonne. "Or the dragon that almost landed on top of us when its wing cramped up," the water seraph added.

"Or the sudden earthquake and chasm opening up beneath us." Margaret threw up her hands in exasperation. "I didn't even know there were underground tunnels beneath Aifread's Hunting Grounds!" Alisha quietly agreed with her friend; many horrifying things happened these past months, with them only still alive through a mixture of luck and being inhumanly powerful. The dragon still gave them an incredible fight and a hunt over several days to prevent its rampage through Lothringen.

"It certainly isn't pulling its punches," Eizen agreed with them solemnly. "It never does." He put aside the book he was reading before to shrug at them, then pulled out the coin he retrieved from Zaveid. "Back when I was traveling with Aifread's pirates, we lost fifty good men in three years to my curse. I don't care what you think of it, I'm not going to risk Edna's life like that." He flipped it, but the coin came up tails as always; then Eizen took note of Alisha's surprise, which drew an understanding smile. "I made my choice long ago and it hasn't changed."

"To the point you'd rather turn into a dragon and die?" Symonne inquired curiously, receiving a nod. Meanwhile however, the reminder of how long ago Eizen lived made Alisha wonder. Symonne shared a few bits and pieces about the Age of the Gods, but never much; perhaps, she reasoned, Eizen would be more accomodating.

"Say, Eizen? Would you indulge my curiousity about the last age?"

"Sure. Ask away."

She well noticed the odd looks her fellow women held, but paid them no mind; Alisha pondered what to ask first for a moment before deciding on her own role models. "Seeing that you were a pirate," she began carefully, "did you ever have to, well, clash with Shepherd Artorius? Or Saint Eleanor?" Her eagerness took over, which made her miss the grimace Margaret sported momentarily; Symonne and Eizen did not, though the reaper merely grinned back at Alisha.

"Oh, I met Artorius alright," he confirmed. "Even fought him a few times. There hasn't been a greater swordsman in the last thousand years."

"Greater than Margaret?!"

Her shocked question made him chuckle darkly in a way that drew heat to Alisha's cheeks. She was not just embarassed, though; by herself, she since admitted that Eizen was quite handsome. Meanwhile, Symonne laughed about both other women; Alisha for blurting out such praise and Margaret for blushing about it. The youngest of their group averted her gaze, fingers running over the pendant she never took off outside of bathtimes.

Once he was done laughing, he nodded. "Greater still. Margaret is too young to stand Artorius' equal, even if she could reach that high." Alisha's amazement received another odd reaction, though; Margaret kept her gaze averted, clutching the pendant. Eizen noticed as well and changed the subject: "Anyway, I've met Eleanor as well... but she ended up terrorising the crew in a different way. Speaking of her, I noticed that your spearwork is quite similar." Hearing him say so made warmth surge through Alisha; she could not help but smile.

"The style I was taught is said to be descended from hers directly. It seems this is true."

"It is."

"Who exactly was Saint Eleanor, then? What kind of person, I mean?"

Alisha leaned forward in anticipation while Eizen mused. "I'm never going to call her Saint," he began thoughtfully, "but she deserves the moniker nonetheless. Eleanor was upstanding and hard-working, fiercely loyal, but also willing to change her mind when she realised she was wrong. She was well-read, but never condescending about it; all the same, she loved to share her knowledge with others to help them improve." He paused there with Alisha hanging on his lips. "I first met her when she was your age, actually. I think she mellowed out over the years, but back then she could get quite hot-headed and abrasive when something got under her skin. Or someone, heh."

Eizen chuckled over some kind of memory he did not elaborate on; Alisha mulled over his words in the meantime. She also lamented the fact she would never get to meet this woman. "Hot-headed in which way?" she ended up asking. "You sound like you two were close."

"We were. The six of us made an odd group, but somehow our various talents and backgrounds helped in overcoming all hardships. It's a bit like the four of us now," he explained with a motion for Symonne and Margaret. "Humans, hellions, seraphim, all mixed together. None of us lived even remotely similar lives, yet somehow we found our way into the world together."

Symonne hummed at that, chiming in thoughtfully: "We argue a lot about our approach, yet none of us shy away from ugly truths or uncomfortable subjects. Like that?"

"Aye. But back to Eleanor, she had an odd sort of forcefulness about her. Back then, she got it in her head that the crew was not clean enough, so she single-handedly bullied dozens of grown men into looking after themselves." By this point, Alisha could not help but chuckle; the sound soon turned into haltless giggles. Eizen's already fond smile grew a size.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Velvet had a hand in that one," Margaret quipped, coaxing a laugh out of Eizen. The implications were not lost on Alisha however, whose eyes widened. Their previous subject was forgotten, the therion scrambling to put words together

"V-Velvet is that old?" The others turned back to Alisha, who backpedaled after realising what she said: "I mean, I figured she would be older than Sorey and I, and maybe any human, but I did not think, um, well..." Her babbling trailed off there, leaving behind an uncertain woman waiting for her friends to help.

The hesitant silence that followed was broken by Symonne, who shrugged at the other two. "I think it's only fair she learns of this. We all knew anyway."

"Wait, you did?" The grimace that followed was not intended and Alisha quickly smoothed out her features, but she knew her displeasure had been noticed. They knowingly left her out of this matter despite being aware of it. Velvet filled in everyone but her.

As if reading her mind, Symonne shrugged again: "Yeah, but it's not because she told all of us. We're just old enough to have met her back then." Her words were somewhat reassuring, though Alisha still felt a little down. She inclined her head regardless, forcing the bleakness away.

"I guess I can see that," Alisha answered thoughtfully, gaze wandering from Symonne back to Eizen. Then her eyes fell onto the only human in their group. "What about Margaret?" Just as she asked the question however, Alisha recalled past conversations. "Was your last life in the Age of the Gods as well?" Her friend paled considerably; Eizen and Symonne both frowned for some reason, which drew the therion's curiousity and then her displeasure. "Is this another matter only I was not informed about?" Truthfully, Alisha was starting to grow incensed about the secrecy regarding her. She understood keeping the Bloodwing Butterflies and the gods from her at first, but it took nary more than a week until she learned of both.

Margaret's gaze slowly rose from her lap, seeking not Alisha's but Symonne's. The water seraph arched an eyebrow almost condescendingly. "Did you really expect me not to figure it out?" she inquired gently; Alisha hesitated, uncertain where this was going. Symonne took her partner's hand. "Listen, I'm not stupid. Even if no one told me of your past memories, I'd have figured it out by now. You don't act fifteen. You learned a style since forgotten from a woman who can't actually reproduce the motions, then displayed near-mastery in it after but a few months." Margaret's expression fell, but Symonne did not stop or let go. "Your deepest feelings become mine whenever we armatise, I know you were anguishing about this for a long time. But honestly? I figured it out after Hexen Isle. You could have been Claudin himself otherwise, but he never knew how to operate the Caelix. Only three people did and I'm one of them."

The seraph girl made an expectant pause, but Margaret refused to respond; Alisha could clearly see the tears brimming in her eyes, all anger forgotten. Symonne embraced her friend, delivering the final verdict in a whisper: "And of the two that remain, I always knew you could not have been Melchior. You're too kind to have been him, past life or no. That only leaves Artorius."

The name echoed in Alisha's mind. She knew it, had known it since childhood. The man she so idolised, returned from beyond the grave in the form of a girl on the cusp of adulthood? For a moment, Alisha rejected the mere notion while also refusing to believe her friend a liar. As she made to ask however, a strong hand grasped her shoulder; Eizen mutely shook his head. Seeing how deadly pale Margaret had become, Alisha saw his point and kept silent.

Minutes passed as none of them moved.

"I'm... sorry," Margaret finally mumbled. Her arms hung limply in Symonne's embrace, face blank. "I'm sorry. I w-wanted to tell you, b-but... but..." She trailed off, her clear distress making Alisha's heart ache; the therion berated herself silently, she ought to have known this was not an easy subject. At the same time however, she did not understand why having been such a great man would bring Margaret such sorrow.

Eizen shook his head lightly, reading the questions right out of her face. "The greater the man, the greater the sins," he began gravely. Alisha's eyes widened at the implications while Margaret twitched. "The saviour did not fall easily or quickly, but in the end he did. His loss of faith in mankind may just be the greatest tragedy of that age."

Alisha had no words left; she wanted to know the details, but her younger friend appeared so frail the sight tied her tongue. All of a sudden, Margaret's expression firmed and she rose in a fluid motion. "I need some time to myself," she muttered while shuffling away. They watched her go with mixed feelings.

Once Margaret was out of earshot, Alisha turned to the seraphim with burning curiousity. "How bad was it? Just what exactly happened so long ago, and why was it written out of history?"

Eizen pondered her questions for a moment, busying himself with throwing more wood onto the fire. "You and Artorius are quite similar in some aspects," he began thoughtfully, much to Alisha's surprise. "Both upstanding people with an unquestionable force of will. But without all this," at which point he motioned for himself, Symonne, and Alisha's tail, "you might have ended the same way in a decade or two. Artorius was not born evil, but his life continued to rain on him until he broke." He had a point and she knew; life had been failure after failure before she became a therion. The one matter Eizen kept skirting around bothered her nonetheless.

"Then, if Shepherd Artorius was doing bad, who would stop him?"

"...the Lord of Calamity did." Symonne gave her a moment to digest that. "Weird times when the enemy of mankind ended up its saviour, no?"

"Certainly." She had no idea what else to say. In all her life, Alisha never once considered that a Lord of Calamity could be a force of good. "So history was twisted? Shepherd as the source of misdeeds and Calamity as the hero initially?" Symonne giggled in response, Eizen grinned; those reactions confused her.

"No," the earth seraph told her earnestly, "Velvet was no heroine. She never was."

"Wait, Velvet?"

"Yes, Velvet. The original Lord of Calamity, she who set the world ablaze in her rage and struck down Shepherd Artorius." Symonne nodded to Eizen. "That guy traveled with her. As did Eleanor Hume, whom you now call Saint."

"What you have to understand," Eizen took over then, "is that the times were different. There was no clear line between good and evil, just two sides fighting for what they believed in, willing to do whatever it takes to stand victorious." He huffed. "Shepherd and Lord of Calamity, they actually made up those titles to sell a hero and a villain to the common folk respectively."

"Worked well, didn't it?"

"Aye."

Despite their levity, Alisha had trouble following; she understood the words, but learning so much of what most of the world forgot left her reeling. Eizen gave her a minute to work through it before continuing: "Anyway, the lines are clearer today, but we saw that they are still blurry. People have all kinds of reasons to do as they do."

This she understood, at least. "Yes. Even I, whom you call upstanding, threw away my humanity, my mortality, my purity, all of that for power. Power that I plan to use well, but that many would still consider not worth what I gave up with nary a second thought. This is what you mean, yes?"

"...aye."

He threw her a grin over the grim commentary, which Alisha returned. She had yet to regret her choice and doubted she ever would. Into their momentary, companionable silence however, Symonne decided to tease: "Could it be you have a thing for the rogue-ish types? First Zaveid, now Eizen?"

Alisha chuckled in response, a little sheepish but aware the other woman had a point. In the end, she shrugged. "Perhaps a little?"

"Can't blame you, he is quite handsome."

Eizen rolled his eyes at them before focussing on Alisha. "I'm not the kind of man you want to be with, but you only need to speak up if you want to blow off some steam." He delivered the proposition so nonchalantly that Alisha needed a moment to even recognise it; she tensed up ever so slightly, uncertain how to respond while Symonne snorted. Then however, Alisha wondered why not; she had been pondering the matter for months now and from what she saw, Eizen was a good man.

"I would like that. Though I have to admit that I lack any experience in this matter. I hope you do not mind?" He told her no and Alisha felt a quiet relief as she smiled. "Very well. Perhaps I shall approach you tonight." Symonne actually stared at her now, as if Alisha grew a second head. The therion merely returned a kind smile. "I believe I can guess your thoughts. I noticed that I changed quite a bit, too."

"Good thing, that." The seraph girl rubbed her forehead, glancing between her two companions. "I didn't notice you changed that much, though. The human you would have been offended at the mere implication of sex."

"Ah, well... I like to think I would have had more self-control than that."

"But poor Margaret, she's the only one who actually has the need and only her hands for company."

"Actually..." Alisha trailed off, able to see the gears turning in Symonne's head. "Well, after the reasoned argument you and Edna made a few months ago, I spent much thought on the matter." This had taken a lot more introspection to work through; Alisha had been taught that she would one day marry a man so her family's line could continue. From there, she always assumed this was the way of the world but masked her distaste at the irregularity when encountering same-sex couples. Now that she encountered similar in her dear friend and lost her humanity, Alisha decided that such notions no longer mattered; she deemed them needlessly complicated and discarded them wholesale. "Do you think she would be amenable to me?"

Eizen shrugged and Symonne followed his example a moment later; they were interrupted by a shout however.

Margaret dashed for their camp, a gaggle of feral hellions hot on her heels; Alisha's eyes widened when she saw the bloody tears all over her clothes, surging to her feet in an instant. She rushed forward, hammering into the werewolf like a force of nature before it could strike again. Alisha had no weapon but her hands, grabbing the beast's shoulder and tearing it in two bloody chunks. The rest descended on her, an oversized snake being caught in Alisha's tail and quickly devoured. Their claws and teeth tore through cloth but failed to penetrate her skin, tentacles trying to ensnare her were torn off. Alisha spewed flame at a wolf, then a lizardman trying to hold her in place was blown away by Eizen's fist. He landed securely, chaining down the last three for Alisha to swallow whole.

The fight ended as fast as it began; Alisha blinked, finding no further enemies to kill. She breathed a sigh of relief at seeing Margaret already receiving treatment, then quickly devoured the hellions. "Are you alright?"

"I am, thank you. My belt got loose and slid off when I left earlier, and they ambushed me while I was thinking." Margaret made a face. "I really need to follow my own teachings and stay on guard."

"Don't beat yourself up over it," Symonne soothed her. "Everyone makes mistakes when they're upset. You can't expect yourself to be perfect." Then she huffed and threw a smirk at Eizen. "Besides, it's never a dull day with the reaper around."

"You signed up for this."

Symonne stuck out her tongue at the other seraph, then ruffled Margaret's bloodstained clothes. "Those are probably a loss, but at least you're still decent. Speaking off, Alisha was asking if you'd want to do the nasty with her."

"Symonne!"

Alisha could not fight the blush that conquered her cheeks after that mortifying statement. She covered her mouth while Margaret became just as flustered, neither knowing how to react. Symonne just laughed at her discomfort, but there was nothing cruel about it; in a way, Alisha knew, she was trying to help. She had not lied, after all. Averting her gaze, the therion slumped. "W-Well, I was inquiring if you were interested. If just to experience it with another woman, I mean. Um, I am not good at this, I am sorry." She settled down on her bedroll, the evening sun casting long shadows over everyone.

The silence lasted a long time; only a few final rays of light remained by the time Margaret answered her gently: "I don't know." Looking up, Alisha found her friend fingering that pendant again. "I don't know if I can," she clarified. "I still remember my... my wife. Celica. I loved her more than life itself. Being with anyone else, I..." A single tear rolled down Margaret's cheek; surprisingly, it was Eizen who gently wiped it off.

"Don't force yourself," he reassured the hurting girl. Alisha felt far worse, not having known just how bad her request was before this point. Then however, Margaret embraced Eizen and put on a brave smile.

"Thank you, but it's okay. I just need more time to think, to come to terms with the life I used to live. Maybe then." Tear-filled eyes met Alisha's gaze next. "I will get back to you once I feel ready. But for what it's worth, if I ever do, I certainly would not mind you." The reassurance coaxed a grateful smile from Alisha.

Then Symonne opened her mouth to ruin it: "It's not like you need to marry whoever you have sex with, you know? You don't need to love them either. It's fun, it's nice, so liking your partner is enough. Stop making so much drama about it."

Unfortunately, those embarassing words kept repeating in Alisha's head for the night, an endless loop that only ceased when she fell asleep.