Author's Notes: So, I'm back. I know I haven't been much involved in this story for a long while, but my interest in One Piece has been…flagging, to say the least. But I won't be discontinuing this story, not to worry.

Instead, I will be doing the next 50,000 words of this story for NaNoWriMo, which should get me more hyped up for this story! This chapter will be the last one I focus on and get out, before doubling down on my goals. But hopefully by December, I should have at least 7 new chapters all shiny and edited enough to put out into the world.

Occasionally, when it comes to POVs from people who are not the Straw Hats or Kelly, I will be using italics to show when the POV switches to them. Just so you know!

Chapter Twenty-Six:

summitate autem mundi

(on top of the world)

The clouds hit like a brick wall.

Kelly closed her eyes, wrapping an arm around Shere and placed a hand on Gin to steady him. She hummed a little as the water washed over her skin. Water always felt so good, and this was just another form of the stuff that could be found down in the ocean proper.

The Straw Hats' yells of terror were muffled by the clouds, but Kelly simply smiled and let the water stream over her, curving her Magic around Gin and Shere to spare them some of the indignity of being soaked.

The ship exploded through the cloud, the constructed wings shattering to splinters beneath the force, before falling back. Kelly snaked her magic out, cushioning the ship as it hit the clouds, the wood bouncing a little.

She was the only one on her feet, the rest of the Straw Hats sprawled out on the deck in puddles of water, gasping for air.

The air was a little thin here and it made her feel a little strange and weak at the knees. But that was no matter. She had gone to depths of the ocean that would have killed Sea Kings, thin air was no barrier.

Kelly curled her magic out, around her lungs, letting it pump through her blood and wrap around her bones, and felt for a moment as though she was in the depths of the sea, invincible, utterly untouchable.

Glorious.

Being a Magi was remarkably convenient, she thought with amusement, and went to help Nami stand upright.

Her fellow Magi sagged against her, and as unobtrusively as possible, Kelly reached out her magic. She felt Nami's respond, reaching tendrils out through the younger Magi's body, and soon Nami was able to stand on her own.

As the other Straw Hats began to regain their composure, Kelly looked around and shook her head.

"Physics, what physics," she grumbled.

For miles upon miles around, there was nothing but a thick 'sea' of clouds, endless and somehow strong enough to hold up their ship. The sky above them was so blue as to almost hurt the eyes, though the sun's heat didn't seem too much closer. She could feel animals 'swimming' in the 'ocean' below her.

This was impossible. And yet, it was very much happening.

She rubbed the bridge of her nose, and went to go pluck Usopp off the side of the railing.

"Ciel, what're you doing?"

"Idiot," she chided, flicking him on the forehead. "What if this sea doesn't have a bottom? You'd go straight through the clouds."

Usopp stared at her for a long moment, and then went dead white. Kelly raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"Ehhhhh, really?!" A pair of rubbery arms wrapped around her neck. Kelly staggered a bit as Luffy attached himself to her back. "How do you know that, Ciel?"

Kelly glared, trying to pry the rubbery idiot off her back. "Are you even a little bit aware of the concept of 'personal space'?" she snarled, before finally giving it up. "And considering we got launched through the bottom of the clouds all of thirty minutes ago, I'd say I have some authority on the matter. We are still above the sky, if you remember."

Usopp shivered.

"T-Thank you, Ciel," he said, and Kelly waved it off.

"Just don't be Luffy, please, and try to use some of that common sense I know you have," she said, wincing as Luffy protested. "Don't start with me, you dumbass monkey. You have less sense than a goddamn peahen, ow, ow, ow, OW FUCK OFF YOU MORON!"

She thrashed as Luffy pulled at her ears, his weight dragging them both back to the floor, where he drew her into an impromptu wrestling match.

Proved her point quite nicely, about him not having an ounce of common sense.

As Zoro pulled them apart, she caught sight of Nico Robin, her hand covering her mouth as her eyes twinkled with laughter. Kelly glared at her, and Robin's hands came up in a defensive gesture.

Kelly looked away. She did not want to think about Nico Robin smiling. She did not want to think of Nico Robin at all.

(Kelly had just snatched away Robin's opportunity to appeal to the crew by saving Usopp, and she was shamed by the rush of petty amusement she got from that knowledge.)

"AAAAHHH, THE SHIP WAS DESTROYED!" Chopper's sudden scream had her head snapping around in a hurry. So soon?

The reindeer was bouncing up and down on the deck, a pair of binoculars by his feet as he flailed. Beyond him, Kelly could see the cloud of smoke that was all that remained of the ship that the Shandian warrior – fuck, she couldn't remember his name – had destroyed.

And there was the warrior now, rocketing along towards them across the clouds. Magic surged in Kelly's veins.

Wiper – ah, that was his name, she remembered it now – was a goddamn thing of beauty. He would have put any of the parkour artists she had seen back home to shame, moving like physics was merely a suggestion, instead of a law.

Of course, she mused as Wiper kicked Luffy into the mast, most of the One Piece world is like that.

Wiper darted towards her, and she bent her knees just a bit, getting ready to move.

He was good, yes, but not nearly as good as her. She stepped to the left, letting the Shandian slide uselessly past. He turned on a dime, lunging for her again, and she stepped forward to meet him, her fangs showing in a vicious smile. Her fist slammed home, punching the air straight from the man's lungs, and knocking him flying.

Wiper got his feet under him before he hit the clouds beyond the ship, and glared up at her as she rested her arms on the ship's railing.

"I'm not impressed," she teased him.

His only response was to leap into the air, and level the gun her carried at her. She raised an eyebrow at him, and then she felt the air shift.

Gan Fall's lance crashed into Wiper's shield, which the Shandian had gotten up just in the nick of time. The warrior went flying yet again, and Kelly stepped back so Gan Fall could land on the railing.

The man was leanly muscled, which suited a man who had to be well past his sixties far more than did the ridiculous eight (twelve?) packs that men like Rayleigh and Newgate sported. His cape was the same black and yellow she remembered from the show, his hair and beard still white, and his armor still archaic, but something was off.

Gan Fall's face was terribly drawn and gaunt, far more than she remembered, and his armor-

Kelly stopped and stared. The man's armor and his lance was speckled with old blood.

Old Daemon blood.

She would know the smell anywhere, the faint odor of decaying things and sickly flowers. But why on earth did Gan Fall wear armor and carry a lance that had seen battle with Daemons?

"Impressive," a voice interrupted her thoughts, and she looked over and down at the man. He nodded at her.

"I could return the sentiment," she offered with a straight face. "Haven't seen a man your age move that fast in a while."

His eyes narrowed. "Is that supposed to mean something, youngster?"

She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. "I mean, you don't really expect to see a man of your advanced age doing those sorts of tricks, and you are a beautiful creature," she said, her attention turning completely away from the older man and to his companion.

Pierre was a weird ass looking bird, but she knew that it – he? – had eaten a devil fruit, so that was only to be expected. Still, his feathers were very soft, and he crooned pleasingly as she stroked her hands over his back.

Then she got another shock, breathing in the scent the pink and red-polka-dotted bird carried with him. More Daemon blood, and Magi charms wrapped around his neck and tied into his reigns. Old Magi charms – the magic hadn't been renewed in some time, but they were still powerful. Gan Fall carried similar ones, etched into his lance and armor.

What the blithering fuck was going on here?

She pressed her face into Pierre's neck, humming a little as Gan Fall spoke with the others. Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji were still flat on their backs, panting for air.

"Why can't…" Zoro seemed to have trouble finding air. "…my body…"

"It's because of the thin air," Kelly said, leaning back against the bird.

"He is right," Robin said. "For those not accustomed to it, it takes a while to adjust to higher climes."

"You must be Blue Sea Dwellers," Gan Fall stated, sitting on the rail and looking over them all with a keen eye.

"Blue Sea Dwellers?"

"Those who live beneath the clouds," Gan Fall said. "If you did travel from there, I am not surprised you feel so weak. This is the White Sea, which is 7,000 meters higher than you were last…though, your strength in particular is a surprise." The last comment was aimed at Kelly, who shrugged.

Maybe she had little to fear from this man – if that had remained the same, and had not changed along with everything else – but she was not going to bare her scales for him to see. The ones on her neck were visible enough, as she had forgone the covering suit she had worn for close to a decade under her other clothes.

She had not become that comfortable enough in her own skin.

"I'm just stronger," she said casually, and Sanji made a noise like a (rather tired) teapot boiling over.

Pierre nuzzled her hair as Gan Fall watched her. His eyes were as keen as Kureha's had been, back on Drum, and it nearly made her bristle. Then he turned away, and kept talking to the Straw Hats. At least that was the same – extols, his shock over their having ridden the Stream, and his giving a whistle to summon him as a present.

He also looked suitably badass as he turned to leave.

"I am the Knight of the Sky, Gan Fall," he intoned, and then looked at Kelly. "Peace be with you, and may the goddesses give you strength in these times."

The words were ominous, like a prophecy, and Kelly shivered despite herself as Pierre moved to his master's side. And then they were off, leaping into the sky in a frankly comical display of less than elegant polka-dotted Pegasus and elderly knight.

Kelly muffled a burst of laughter into her arm as the Straw Hats gaped at the display.

After a while, they got the ship moving, this time to the strange waterfall in the distance.

Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper had a great deal of fun bouncing on the clouds that hid the path to the waterfall. They only came back when they brought word of two paths towards the waterfall – one through a strange gate on the right, and the left path, one that took a longer way around.

As they sailed through the clouds, something prickled over Kelly's skin, and she hurried to the front of the ship. Everything looked fine – beyond the strange look of the enormous, semi-solid clouds towering around them – but Kelly knew better than to trust in her sight alone.

The strange feeling lingered in the air.

Gin?

(I feel it too, Mistress.)

Shere buried deeper into Kelly's arms. :My fur itches: the tiger complained.

"Nami, get us moving to the left!" Kelly ordered, and the navigator looked at her in confusion.

"Ciel, wha-"

"Just get us moving to the left, that's the path we need to take! Move, god damn it!" she thundered, her panic slowly beginning to rise and no one moved.

They could not take the path through the gate. She did not know how she knew this, or why it was so insistent, but they could not take that path.

"Ciel, what are you talking about?" Nami said, sounding concerned. "Why shouldn't-"

Kelly whirled on her. "Did you not hear me?! I said get this ship to the left path, right fucking now!"

Magic infused into her voice, and the result was instantaneous. Nami's shoulders snapped straight, and she began barking orders at the others. Where Kelly had failed, Nami did not – the men began to hurry around the ship as she directed, and the ship itself began turning in the direction of the left path.

Kelly remained where she was, her hands gripping the rail so hard splinters dug into her palms, but she ignored them. It was only when the ship glided onto the cloud-path that led to the waterfall, far away from the gate, that the feeling eased.

Not entirely, but enough.

"What did you sense?" Kelly's head snapped to the side, where Nico Robin stood, leaning against the opposite rail. The woman had been smart enough to remain a fair distance away, but her eyes were focused on Kelly's face.

"I…don't know," Kelly said, turning away, and releasing her grip on the railing. Blood from her palms stained the fractured wood, and she cursed, wiping it away with her sleeve.

She knew better than to let her blood lie around where anyone could get at it.

"You don't know?" There was nothing condescending in the woman's voice, only something like curiosity.

"Something bad," Kelly allowed, and turned away. "Something very bad."

She tugged her sleeves down and pulled her collar up, turning away from the woman as they approached the immense spiral leading into the sky.

"How are we supposed to get up there?" Nami asked, coming to stand beside her.

Kelly spared a look for her sister Magus, before casting her magic out into the strange water around them. Nami shivered a bit, rubbing her hands over her arms.

"I'm seeing if I can get us a ride," Kelly said, concentrating.

Then she grinned as her query was answered.

Enormous - yet surprisingly gentle – claws exploded from the water, clamping onto Merry's broken wings. They were red and green spotted, belonging to an over-large shrimp that size of a school bus. An order from Kelly had the shrimp zooming towards the heavens, keeping a fair distance away from the sight of anyone (or anything) that might have been lurking at the gates below.

The ship zoomed along at a speed that came fairly close to the one they'd reached while traversing the Reverse Mountain, the wind blowing her hood back and whipping at her hair. The sun's light was absolute brilliance, blinding her, and Kelly threw up a hand to protect her eyes.

As they landed, the shrimp bidding Kelly a fond farewell in its own way, she could have sworn she smelled the stench of dead things, of rotten flowers-

But then it was gone, and Kelly was staring out over a vista of heavenly beauty. Domed buildings and pointed towers spiraled into the sky, perched on suspiciously sturdy looking clouds. Twirling vines greater than skyscrapers that formed the 'roads' of this place vanished beyond even Kelly's range of sight, their destinations hidden by the clouds.

But closer to them still was a smaller island, one populated with lush trees and swaying palms. There was a cool, refreshing breeze on the air to take the bite away from the sun's heat, and a faint, musical sound carried to them on that selfsame breeze, like flutes.

Kelly breathed in, and the uneasy feeling returned. There was something wrong here, but she had no idea what.

Why had Gan Fall had old Daemon blood on his armor?

The question tugged at her bowels like a particularly bad piece of meat. Why had the Knight of the Sky been fighting Daemons? Were there Daemons here? They couldn't be strong ones, if a human – albeit a human with Magi charms – was able to fight them and survive.

"CIEEEEEEEEEEEL!" the whining yell dragged her out of her thoughts, and she scowled at Luffy, who was perched in a tree on the shore. "COME HEREEEEEEEEEEE."

Then there was a stretchy hand attached to her jacket front, and Kelly was cursing the little idiot with every foul word she knew as she was hurtling through the air, to crash headfirst into Luffy's chest.

"What the FUCK was that for, you fucking JACKASS?" she snarled, not even bothering to try and escape his vice-like hug. She knew better now.

"Ciel, open this," he demanded, shoving a fruit in her direction. "It's hard, and I'm hungry."

Her glare upped three levels. Luffy was absolutely unmoved.

"You dragged me over so that I could open your food for you." It wasn't a question.

"Yep!"

"You are the biggest fucking idiot I've ever met in my entire life. Fine, let me go and I'll try," she said.

Luffy released her arms, but kept his grip tight around her waist, resting his head against her back. They must have made a ridiculous picture, Kelly thought, trying not to think about how warm he felt against her scars.

She did know how to open these things, and quickly went to work. Her claws served her well as a knife to cut open the bottom, and she peered inside. It smelled sweet and tangy, like orange juice.

Orange juice? She shrugged, and held the fruit up to her mouth. It spilled out over her cheeks as she drank, ignoring Luffy's protests of "NOOOOO, MY FRUIT GREEDY-CIEL!"

She passed it over and wiped at her cheeks. "It's good," she told him, and he let her go entirely to clutch the fruit to his chest, glaring at her. She leapt down from the tree and helped Usopp with his own fruit, laughing as he rhapsodized over the taste.

The day went on, the Straw Hats and Kelly lazing around, the more boisterous members of the crew roughhousing and playing. Zoro pulled Kelly into a friendly spar, Kelly barely just hiding the fact she was pulling her punches so as not to break the green haired man.

It was only when Sanji was calling them all in for dinner when Kelly realized something was wrong.

Where was Conis?

The Magus stopped and looked back at the beach. The girl hadn't appeared once through the day, though Kelly knew full and well she should have. Could she not have appeared because they hadn't gone through the gate, and because that old hag who watched them hadn't known?

But that was irrelevant, as Enel had Kenbunshoku Haki. He would know they were there even if the woman hadn't told him. So why hadn't Conis come, to start the trap for the Blue Sea Dwellers as she had done in canon? Did Enel have other plans for them, since they'd taken another path? But even that had led to the same place as in canon.

The sight of the Magi charms on Gan Fall's lance came back to her – signs for strength, for accuracy, for death itself – and she bit her lip.

No sign of Conis or her father.

No sign of anyone.

What the hell did it mean?

"Ciel, fooooooood!"

"Keep your shorts on," Kelly snapped at the open doorway, and turned away from the beach to join the pirates.

There was a light in the kitchen as Kelly plodded sleepily past the door, heading for the crow's nest for her watch. She stopped, and peered inside.

Sanji was bent over the counter, his fingers gripping the counter. His back was a tight line of tension, and he was…Kelly stopped dead, her fatigue fading away, and she stared. Was he trembling?

What the fuck?

She pushed open the door, letting it close silently behind her. Sanji wasn't just trembling. She could smell tears, the taste of salt on her tongue curdling her belly.

"Blondie?" she asked, her voice quiet and worried.

Sanji snapped around, and when she saw the red eyes and tears tracking down his face, her heart ached.

"What?" His voice was ragged too, hoarse and painful, like he'd been crying for a while.

"Didn't expect to see you up this late," she said, her voice neutral.

"Leave me alone, you shitty scoundrel," he said, but his voice broke halfway through the sentence. He rubbed his hands over his face as his breath hitched.

"Le-leave me…" the words couldn't even come out before his mouth clamped shut, his teeth grinding.

Kelly walked over to him, and took his hands in hers, drawing them away from his reddened and swollen eyes.

"Sanji, what's wrong?" she asked, stroking her thumbs over his wrists.

"Why the fuck do y-you care?" he got out.

Because you're in pain and it feels like a knife in my heart, Kelly didn't say. Instead, she shrugged.

"Because I can? Not entirely an unfeeling monster here," she said wryly, and Sanji let out a watery snort.

"Shove off, bastard," he said. There was a very well hidden tinge of fondness to the words, and Kelly grinned.

"Better," she chided, and guided him over to the table. "Now, sit. Where do you keep the tea?"

"I don't need you to baby me," Sanji protested, and Kelly nearly rolled her eyes.

"Christ, you're as bad as Beth," she muttered.

It only stung a little to think of her best friend back, who had rarely accepted help or care from anyone. It had been a bitch and half of sneaky sabotage to get the girl to submit to 'babying', even when she was severely ill. Alex had been better about getting her to listen to him, but Kelly was no slouch.

She hadn't had practice in a while, was all. All it took was finding the right buttons to press.

"If you don't tell me, I'll just go crashing around your lovely kitchen and mess everything up," she threatened, and Sanji's head shot up, his eyes shooting fire.

"You wouldn't dare," he began, and Kelly smirked at him.

"Try me, Blondie," she teased.

His lips were twitching with barely concealed humor, and Kelly's grin became a touch less mocking.

"The pantry, left wall, a box secured to the wall. They have labeled jars," he said finally, and Kelly went to find them.

It smelled of food and dried spices in the dry, cool room, and the Magus took a moment to stand there, remembering how her father's kitchen had smelled, the scent of the herbs he grew.

Then she went in search of the tea box, and found it where Sanji had said. She gingerly opened the lid, and saw several opaque jars. She picked one up, and peered at the writing on the label. It was the careful letters of a young boy, written in a childish hand.

And for a moment, she saw a man and a boy, as though the image was imprinted on the insides of her eyelids. The man – who had a remarkable mustache - was guiding the boy's hand as he mixed powders, pouring the mixes into the jars, and watching carefully as the boy wrote the names on the jars.

Zeff and Sanji, she realized, and felt her heart turn over as she watched the two together.

Sanji and his father, she thought, and the sheer sentimentality of it all made her want to turn to mush.

Instead, she continued searching, and found a jar labeled Chamomile. It would do, she thought, closed the lid, taking the jar with her back out of the pantry. Sanji was still sitting at the table, but now Gin was in his lap, and Shere was curled up on the table, letting Sanji rub his hands through her fur.

Sanji had a curiously soft look on his face, and Kelly's heart really did sigh the sight, even as she felt another vision seeping before her eyes. Sanji, barely older than a toddler, cradling a turtle in his arms and carefully feeding it strips of lettuce.

This boy is going to be the death of me, she thought with a sigh, and went to find the tools she would need to make the tea. She didn't speak until she had two cups of steaming tea and set them on the table.

"Drink," she ordered, and so he did.

There was silence for a time, before Sanji set the cup down.

"I dreamed about her, it," he began, his voice ragged. "Th-the monster. The Daemon."

Her fingers stilled, and she set down her still full cup. She had never really liked hot tea, after all.

"The Daemon?"

Sanji was trembling again. Gin clambered up to wrap himself around the cook's neck, and Shere curled up in the space Gin had just vacated.

"In Arabasta, the one who-who attacked me," Sanji said and shuddered.

Kelly went very, very cold, and she remembered that day, the laughter of the Daemon she had fought as he told her what his sister would do to Sanji-

But Ace had told her that he had been able to get to Sanji before the thing had managed to-to do what those things loved to do to helpless people.

But Sanji had been injured, she thought, remembering what Ace had hinted at.

Ace had used a gift from a Magi to help heal Sanji quickly, was all he had said, and he'd refused to say anything else on the subject, distracting her quite thoroughly. And she'd hidden from the Straw Hats for the rest of their stay in the country, barely able to look any of them in the eye-

She knew what Daemons could do.

She knew what Daemons could wrought on a person's mind.

While her nightmares nowadays mostly consisted of M-Mina and those strange ones where she inhabited other bodies and minds, before she'd come to Aratuck they'd been of her time in the slave pens and in the castles of the Daemons.

"I dreamed," Sanji took a long, shuddering breath. "I dreamed that Ace didn't save me. That it…that it…"

He could not finish, and tears began to spill down his cheeks again.

"W-Why am I so weak," he sobbed, and Kelly couldn't breathe for the hurting grief in her chest. "Why am I so pathetic and-"

Kelly stood, and walked over to Sanji. Gin and Shere had leapt free the moment she had moved without her even having to say a word. They knew her very well, her Familiars.

Effortlessly, she pulled him up into her arms and sat back down.

"Wha-What are you doing?" Sanji squawked, flustered. "Damn it, Ciel, put me down-"

"I was twelve, when they first found me and brought me to their castles," Kelly said, her voice flat. "I was fourteen when they caught me again, caught me because I was stupid and foolish. I still remember what they did, and I cried myself to sleep every day for a month, remembering what horrors they did to me. I have nightmares still. They are monsters, Sanji. They are bred to seek out fear, they are taught how to sow it in humans. It is part of what they feed on, like what fine wines and deserts are to the rest of us. You are not pathetic for surviving in the face of something that has felled men far greater and stronger than you, and you are not weak for being scarred by it."

"But I keep crying, like a child-"

"Sanji, if that Daemon had left physical scars on your body, and they pained you still, would we be having this conversation?" Kelly asked. "Do you blame Nami for the aches that her scar gives her? For the wounds Luffy has gotten, and how they sometimes hurt him still? Any warrior who has fought comes away with wounds that perhaps may never heal right. You fought in battle, against a foe you could not defeat, a foe who knew precisely how to target your weakest spots, but you walked away, even with scars. Living is not weakness, and accepting care from those who would protect you, even when you have thought yourself unworthy of it, is the strongest thing I have ever known."

Sanji had gone still, and when she looked down at him, he was staring up at her like he'd never seen her before. The vision of Sanji feeding the turtle with carefully chopped strips of lettuce flashed before her eyes again, and she shook it away.

"I have Gin and Shere, Sanji," she told him. "I never would have survived this past decade had I not. I would have slit my own throat if they hadn't been there to take on some part of my burden. I could never have done it alone."

There was silence for a time, but it never grew awkward. Then Sanji shifted in her arms.

"Will I always dream about it?" he asked her, his voice quiet and pained.

Kelly pressed her lips to Sanji's head and sighed.

"Probably," she said, her voice just as quiet.

The warriors who had been out scouting came back, most all of them injured. But at least none were dead.

Hansik was the worst hurt, his skin heavily burned from a lightning blast he'd nearly been caught in. He told us that the priests had been out through the forest, and that they'd been trying to kill a Blue Sea Dweller before Enel killed him.

She tended to Hansik first, as best she could. He would live and breathe normally, but he would bear the looping scars around his torso for the rest of his life.

At least he hadn't gone into the forest. Only the priests of Enel could walk there without being hunted by what lived within, and only they and their master were guaranteed life if they did so.

As the she finished with the remainders of the wounded scouts and warriors, she looked around. Wiper had gone out as well, but he had not yet returned. Panic fizzled down her spine.

He would return, she told herself, brushing her long hair out of her eyes. He was the strongest and fastest warrior in the tribe, and the charms she had etched into his shield and gun were some of the longest-lasting and most powerful she knew.

Then, she saw a form staggering over the boundary to their camp, and hurried to meet him.

It was Wiper, looking annoyed and badly bruised. She didn't bother offering to help him, and instead slid under the arm that wasn't holding his shield, mask, and board.

Instead of taking him back to the tents, she found a shadowy corner to escort him to, and made him sit. She knelt before him, her hands glowing with power, and began to heal the worst of his bruises.

"You should be healing the others," Wiper chastised her, and she scowled at him.

"I already did, for your information."

"Hmph."

"So?" she asked, after healing his cracked ribs. "What news?"

"More Blue Sea Dwellers," Wiper said.

"Idiots," she said, disgusted. "You would think by now they would realize that to come here means death, not treasure."

"They have a Snake among them," Wiper said, and she froze, her eyes snapping up to his.

"You're certain?"

He glared at her, and she fought the urge to smile.

"Were they the one who cracked your ribs?"

The glare intensified, and she fought the urge to giggle.

"Well, in any case, perhaps Enel will be busy with them and not send raids out for a time. Perhaps he'll even spare the mainlanders from the Lottery," she said, and Wiper snorted.

"He can send all of those land stealers to their deaths, as far as I care," Wiper scoffed.

She did not reply. This was not an argument she was keen on rehashing again.

"I should get back," she said instead, and stood to leave.

"Wait." Wiper's voice was quiet, and she looked back at him. Like always, it was impossible for her to read the emotions on his face, even though she'd grown up with him.

"Don't try to go after the Snake. It's too dangerous," he warned, and she bristled.

"I'm not a fool, despite what you may think," she snapped, and walked away, her hands curling into fists.

No matter the years she had spent fighting to protect the tribe, no matter how many years she'd spent battling Daemons, he would forever see her as the idiot mainlander child still clinging to her mother's dress.

She rubbed her stinging eyes, tied her blonde hair back into an efficient braid, and went back to her duties.