When Aria woke up the next morning and rolled out of bed, she immediately knew that today was going to be a pain.

Her. Legs. Were. Sore.

She'd thought her second day on Denduron had been bad, after Jani had chased her all over the village. This ache made that ache feel like the morning after leg day at Del Aurum High by comparison.

Uncle Press was already up, and was putting on his shoes. "Sleep well?" He asked.

She tried standing up, flumped back down, and groaned in pain by way of reply.

"Oof," he said sympathetically. "Legs hurting you, I take it?"

She nodded. "You know where the festival ground is?"

"Yeah."

"You know where the mine entrance outside the marketplace is?"

"Yeah?"

"Double that distance. That's how far I sprinted yesterday with an angry mob on my trail."

He seemed to think about it for a moment. "Hmm. I take it you're not up for a nature hike today."

She shot him a look that clearly said, what do you think?

He laughed. "I'll order up some breakfast and leave you to stretch." Then he picked up his stuff and made for the door.

"Hold up," she said, and grabbed her satchel. "Do you want to send off my journals?"

He shook his head. "I'll let you do that. Here," he said as he reached around his neck and pulled a long string off. On it was…

"A ring?" She asked, eyeing the silver loop around the string. "Like the one you have? Like…Alder had?"

He took it off the string and held it out to her. "Just the same. All Travelers have them, and so do their acolytes."

"Acolytes? What, like a follower, or an assistant?"

He nodded. "Like an assistant. You remember how I asked you who you would want to know what happened to you? Kar? Well, she has a ring just like this one. Just say the name of the territory you want the message delivered to, in this case First Earth – that's ours – and the ring will do the rest."

She recalled how Alder had delivered her journals, so she wasn't worried about that. But the implications of him giving her a ring of her own made her uncomfortable. She grabbed it when he tossed it to her but said, "Wait. These rings are for Travelers, and…"

But he was already gone, out the door. She sighed, pulled her journals out, and held up the ring. The little grey stone in the middle glinted innocently. It didn't look like a trans-dimensional messaging device, nor did it look much like some grand symbol of a group of people who went around saving territories. Despite this, it was both.

She frowned as she examined the ring more closely. The band was etched with symbols, all of which seemed strangely familiar. She wondered why. It didn't they look like they were a part of some eldritch, forgotten language like the Elvish on the One Ring to Rule Them All. They all seemed totally unique and unrelated, and there were eight in total.

She frowned at it. She just didn't want to use it. She felt like if she did it would be like signing a contract saying, 'I henceforth agree to flume around the universe battling a shapeshifting demon'.

She set the ring down next to her journals and sat down to stretch.

It took a long time to loosen all the muscles up, and by the time she was about finished she heard a knock on the door. "Breakfast is ready whenever you want it," came Press' voice through the wood.

She jumped up and winced in pain. "Thanks! Be out in a minute!"

She heard him walk away, and looked at the ring again. She really didn't want it, but…

With a sigh, she picked it up again. The journals, too. She scowled at the little loop of silver but set it on the ground, stepped well back, and said, "First Earth."

The ring came to life, turning diamond clear and shooting out rays of light. The music started, too, and it seemed to Aria that the jumble of notes had featured in her dreams last night. As the ring grew, opening up a dark portal to her best friend, she reached out cautiously and dropped the two rolls of paper in.

Well, she dropped one roll in. Her aim had been bad enough that the other piece bounced off the edge onto the floor. She felt about as comfortable sticking her hand near that thing as she felt about putting it in the garbage disposal while her cat was sitting next to the switch, so she nudged it in carefully with her toe.

As soon as it fell in, the ring snapped back. She picked it up, looked at it, and shook her head. There was no way she was putting that thing on her finger. She'd find a chain or a string or something, like Uncle Press had. The idea of a portal opening up while she was wearing it freaked her out. Then she recalled – she still had her quig whistle necklace. She pulled it off, untied it, looped the ring through that, and put it back on. Then she grabbed her satchel and went to join her uncle.

He was sitting at one of the tables with their breakfast. She joined him and the two spent the next hour just talking. It kind of felt like things were back to normal…except they were talking about medieval/scientific/social advancements on an alien planet rather than the possible ramifications of the last Avengers movie or some recent political scandal.

When they finished talking Aria asked, "So, you want to head down to the lab, right? Have you met Steric and Kahlin yet? I'd love to introduce you."

He stood up and said, "Kahlin I've known for a while. I saw her yesterday while I was talking with Nyja, but I haven't met Steric yet. And that girl at the table yesterday, was that Jani? Are you two friends or enemies? It was a little hard to tell from your story." He sounded amused.

"Friends," she clarified, and was glad to be able to. "Definitely friends." She tried to focus on the fact that she'd at least made a few good friends here, since she sincerely doubted that Tarek would ever want to talk to her again.

That upset her. It really did. Although they hadn't gotten a lot done together – he'd spent most of his time with Alder – she found that she really liked him and hoped that they would be able to move past what had happened. That probably wasn't likely, though.

Uncle Press seemed to sense the dip in her mood and said cautiously, "Hey, let's drop by the barracks, see Talrind. It's been a while since I've talked to her."

"Alright, sounds good."

He kept talking as they brought their dishes up to a scowling Kren at the front, "And we can grab Tarek. The three of us can head over to the lab together."

Great.

Not wanting to sound like a Debbie Downer, she said with forced enthusiasm, "Yeah, alright. I'll grab Jani, too. I'm sure she wouldn't mind dropping in to see her dad."

Her voice was a bit too hearty, but if Press noticed it he didn't let on. As they turned to leave, Aria remembered something. Reaching into her satchel and pulling out her remaining quills, she took quick stock of how many more she had and how many more she'd need before they left. She had plenty, and figured she could spare five or six. She scooped them up, set them on the desk and said, "Thanks for everything," with a smile that she was fairly certain wouldn't be appreciated or returned.

Kren glanced up at her, looked down at the money, looked back up at her, and then just looked confused. "What's that for?" He asked gruffly.

Aria explained, "It's a tip. Back in my village when we really appreciate the service, we give a tip. Extra money. To say 'thanks'."

He just stared at her.

Her smile tightened as she started to feel more and more awkward. "Uh, you know, I just didn't really have anyone to stay with for the last few days, so it was nice to always be able to come back here. Home away from home."

She smiled more widely. He just kept staring.

Okay, well, gratuities delivered. She turned around and left.

Press was standing outside the door biting his lip to keep from laughing. As the two departed he said, "Yeah, they don't really have tips on Denduron."

She let out an exasperated breath. "I could tell by the way he was staring at me like I'd just sprouted an extra head."

Now her uncle laughed in earnest. "Ah, well, I'm sure the gesture was appreciated. Or at least it will be once he comes to the conclusion that you aren't going to ask him for anything in exchange."

They started in the direction of the barracks, though Aria insisted on making a quick pit stop by Chariti's house to thank her again for the dinner and to introduce Uncle Press. When they got there, Sera, Tirk, and Tinil were all out front running around outside and playing, so after saying 'hi' to Chariti and introducing her infamous uncle, she decided to entertain the kids while those two took some time to chat.

After a few riveting games of tag that left her legs in agony, she said goodbye to the munchkins and Chariti, promising to drop by again tomorrow.

"She seems nice," Uncle Press commented as they walked away. "I'm glad you've managed to make some connections here."

She smiled and waved once more to Tinil, who was being held back by his brother to keep him from running after her. "You can never have too many friends," she said. It was an old maxim, but one she really believed. Of course, not having many friends back home she'd never run into the problems associated with having 'too many'. Maybe it would happen eventually, but probably not anytime soon.

Her uncle nodded. "Agreed. I have a fair few myself, though I don't get the chance to visit as often as I'd like. I'm looking forward to introducing you."

She looked up at him suspiciously. "Here in the village?"

He seemed to think about it, an innocent expression on his face. "Ah, nope, think you know everyone important here."

"The Bedoowan town, then?"

"Nah, you've already met Nyja, Tolk, and Kahlin."

"Back home, then?"

"Some of them."

Uh, huh. Unless she was mistaken, he was referencing friends on OTHER territories. Places besides Denduron or Earth. "Okay, well then, you can introduce me to some of them."

He snickered. "Looking forward to it."

Pretty soon they reached the barracks. Aria tried her best not to let it affect her when they passed by the spot where Alder had been killed, but found herself glancing at it anyways. She could have sworn she still saw flecks of blood in the grass, but it was probably her imagination.

Press must have realized where they were. His tone was gentle as he said, "They'll be holding a funeral up at the town tomorrow. I expect a lot of people will show up."

She didn't doubt that last part. So many people she'd talked to had spoken fondly of Alder, it made her feel even worse about his death. It wasn't just her and Press and Tarek who were grieving; it felt like everyone had suffered a loss.

The made it to the barracks and found Talrind fairly quickly. She looked fairly worn down, but brightened upon seeing Press. He walked up to her and said, "Tal, it's good to see you. How are you holding up?"

She slapped him on the back by way of greeting. "Things have been better. But they could also be a lot worse. So, I heard you were arrested?"

He grinned sheepishly, and the two got to talking.

While Uncle Press was regaling her with all the jokes he'd used on the guards in an attempt to get them to laugh – Bedoowan knights, not really known for their humor – Tarek walked in. He saw Aria and Press and paused like he wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to walk right back out. He didn't get much of a chance to decide, though, because as soon as Press saw him he went, "Tarek! We were just looking for you. We're going to head down to the lab soon, grab Jani along the way. Care to join us?"

Obviously warmer towards her uncle than he was towards her, he said politely, "Yes, of course. Whatever you'd like."

Press nodded then turned back to wrap up his conversation with Tal. They were now talking about recent events, though were also a few throwbacks to some good times they'd shared. In the meantime, Aria stood by and felt anxious. Tarek, likewise, stood quietly, waiting for Press to finish talking.

Wanting to see if he had thawed towards her since last night, she said, "Morning, Tarek. How are you?"

She liked 'how are you'. It was short, simple, polite, and open-ended. He could respond in depth and sincerely, shallowly, flippantly, cordially, however he wanted. Whatever he said, it would help her gauge his mood and make it easier to talk to him.

Unless he didn't respond at all. Which he didn't.

He just stared silently at her, arms held stiffly at his side. Her heart sank. Looks like he hadn't thawed. If anything, it seemed like he'd frozen considerably.

She gave up on that front and just opted to stare in another direction until Press finally said, "It was good seeing you, Tal. I'll drop by again before we leave. The funeral will be on the cliffs at noon tomorrow, right?"

She nodded sadly. "Yes. Alder had many friends, so we decided a more open space would be better. There just wouldn't be enough room at one of the normal places."

Then she looked to Aria, who swallowed heavily. Had Tarek told her what had happened? Had he accused her of running away and leaving Alder to die? Was Tal just as angry at her?

It seemed she wasn't, because her expression held a hint of sympathy. "Aria, I'm glad to see you got through this alright. I know you didn't get to know him very well, but will you be attending Alder's funeral, too?"

Grateful that the knight obviously didn't hate her, she nodded. "Yes, of course." She wanted to say more, try to explain how sorry she was for her loss, how sorry she was for everyone's loss, how much Alder had meant to her–

But she clammed up. That was just as well, because she didn't think Tarek would have been happy to hear it, given his reaction to her grief last night. Still, she got the sense that Tal got it, because she nodded deeply said, "Good to hear. He really seemed to have taken a liking to you, so I'm sure he'd have liked you to come."

She saw Tarek turn away out of the corner of her eye. She appreciated Tal's sympathy, but it certainly wasn't helping things between her and Tarek. They said their goodbyes and started for the village again.

It wasn't long before Uncle Press struck up a conversation, obviously trying to lighten the mood and get them talking. Aria and Tarek walked on opposite sides of him, however, and every conversation he started seemed to turn into separate conversations that one of them was engaged with, or the other was engaged with, but that they were never both a part of at the same time.

He let out a low, frustrated sigh after the fifth or so time he failed to get them talking to each other. "So, Aria, where's your friend's house again? I don't know the way."

She took the lead at once. "It's right on the outskirts, kind of halfway between the marketplace and the festival grounds. I can get us there."

She led them to the house, hoping Jani would be there and not out running around with Dakka and Rill. If that was the case, finding her would be a matter of chance.

It didn't take long for her to reach the place, and to Aria's relief Jani was there. She was out in the garden pulling up weeds, and stood up as Aria approached. She walked over and eyed Press curiously. "Hey, you that uncle that got arrested?"

He answered in the affirmative. "That's me. I take it my niece has mentioned me?"

Jani said blatantly, "Yeah. She thinks you're an arse for leaving her stranded on Denduron for four days."

Aria's mouth popped open. "What?! No! I didn't say that!"

Jani smirked. "You didn't say it, but you were thinking it."

Completely fed up with Jani's total lack of propriety, she flung her fist out and punched her squarely in her uninjured arm. The sadly inadequate blow bounced right off, and Jani started laughing hysterically at the pathetic attempt at fisticuffs. "Was that really you losing your temper? That was the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life! What, do you spar with rabbits?"

As Jani doubled over laughing, Aria turned to apologize to Uncle Press, but he had turned away with a heavy hand on his hip, and was clutching his mouth to stifle his own laughter. His shoulders were bouncing up and down with the force of holding it in, and Aria exclaimed, "Oh, come on! Not you, too!"

At this he let loose, and both he and Jani reared back with mirth. Only Tarek was standing back looking surly.

Finally, Jani took a deep, gasping breath, wiped her eyes and said, "Okay, okay. What do you want? I'm working."

Apparently. She'd gone to town on the garden, giant clumps of weeds ripped out of the ground and tossed in a pile off to the side. It seemed like she was actually trying to make it functional, maybe even presentable. Aria didn't want to tear her away from her work, but she also really wanted more company that wasn't Tarek, so she just said, "Well, would you like to stop working and come hang out with us? Uncle Press wants to see the lab, so we're about to head down."

Jani crossed her arms and rolled her neck as though thinking about it.

It looked like Steric wasn't here, so Aria figured he was probably back down in the lab. "If your dad is down there, we could follow him around throwing tiny little balls of tak at his feet to freak him out, if you want."

"Done. Let's go."

Press shook his head at her in mock disapproval. She decided to turn the Uncomfortable Truth table on Jani and said, "What? She has abandonment issues, and we need to work out her frustration somehow."

Jani turned bright red and Uncle Press covered his face, hiding another grin. Jani grumbled something about grabbing some things, stalked into her house, and came out a few moments later holding two torches for the cavern.

She and Aria ended up picking at each other for the next ten minutes or so as they walked to the mine until Jani finally said, "Oi, Tarek, you okay back there?"

Tarek had been lingering behind the three of them silently, and Jani didn't seem to have much patience for his sullen demeanor, justified or not. Press saw an opportunity to get them talking again and said, "Aria mentioned you two fought off some assassins in the forest. It seems like you make a pretty good team."

Jani snorted as they neared the mine entrance. They'd decided on the central one, the one nearest to town, which Jani had used yesterday to get the Bedoowan contingent to the cavern. "I'd have been fine if it hadn't been for this stupid leg. It gave out just as I was about to win."

Press grinned. "I don't doubt it. Aria said you scared the living daylights out of her when she first got here. Say, Tarek," he said as they started down past the mine tracks. His voice was casual, but Aria got the feeling he wanted to address something important. "Did Alder talk to you about getting yourself an acolyte?"

He'd been looking down at his feet mostly, but his head popped up at the question. "What?"

Press seemed to expect that. As they got to a junction he said, "You know the way to that cavern you guys ended up in yesterday, right? Why don't you take me down there and show me around, and we can meet back up with Aria and Jani at the central mineshaft to go to the lab afterwards. That sound okay to you two?"

He glanced back at them, and it seemed pretty clear he wanted to talk to Tarek alone for a while. Aria nodded, and Jani shrugged. "Sure. Just don't get lost – I'm the one who had to lead him down there, after all."

Tarek looked conflicted, but relented. "Alright. It's this way."

Press looked back at Aria with a strange expression. She thought he may have been trying to say something along the lines of, I'll talk some sense into him or something. Maybe he just needed to do some private Traveler talk, or guy talk, or grief talk, or a combination of all three. Whatever it was, Aria didn't mind it in the slightest. She just really hoped Uncle Press would be able to talk Tarek out of hating her.

Jani gave them her extra torch and the two took off down one tunnel as Jani and Aria headed in a different direction.

They made it past two junctions before Aria was lost. "Uhhh, which way is it again…?"

Jani cleared her throat and spat a huge wad of phlegm against the cavern wall above Aria's head, just missing her. "Man, you are terrible!" she said. "This way."

Aria spent the rest of the walk there informing Jani that she was really, really gross and asking her to please not hurl any more phlegm in her general direction. Jani spent the rest of the walk grinning smugly and occasionally pretending to snort up more phlegm.

As they got to the shaft she said, "So, what was that your uncle said about an acolyte? I missed that bit of Traveler stuff."

Aria, of course, didn't know nearly as much as she would have liked about it, but she said, "I'm pretty sure an acolyte is someone a Traveler trusts enough to take care of their journals and know what's happening to them. They've been pretty insistent about us writing down everything we've been going through, so apparently it's important that someone else knows what's going on."

Jani started walking around picking up pebbles and small stones. "Okay, so do you have an acolyte?"

The idea sounded pretty weird, but apparently the answer was 'yes'. "I guess so. Her name is Kar. She's my best friend back home. She's really into crazy adventures and the supernatural, so I expect she's psyched about this whole thing. That said, I haven't actually seen where my journals go, so when I get home I'll be sure to ask her if she's been getting everything I've been writing."

"Huh," said Jani. She walked over to the edge of the mineshaft and held the torch up to look down into it. "So who's Tarek's acolyte?"

Aria frowned, and figured she had a pretty good idea of what Press was talking to Tarek about. "I don't think he has one, but I figure it's a safe bet that he might ask…you."

Jani's face colored. "What? Why me? Aren't acolytes supposed to be people you trust or something? We just met!"

Aria raised an eyebrow at her. "Yeah, and you also just worked together to save both your tribes from war. You've literally fought Saint Dane, and you already know all about the Traveler stuff. Besides, Tarek told me he didn't really have anyone he trusts enough to be his acolyte. I think you'd make a great choice."

Jani frowned, but stayed uncharacteristically silent. She started chucking the pebbles one after another into the mineshaft. It seemed to Aria that she wasn't hearing them hit the bottom. After all the pebbles were gone she said, "So, what would that actually mean, though? We already saved our world. It's over now, right?"

"Oh, how wrong you are, little girl."

Aria whipped around just in time to see Saint Dane lunge out of the darkness, wrap his hand around Jani's collar, and hoist her into the air.