Val healed Arzak’s wrist wounds while looking cautiously over at me. I’d almost expected an accusation from her—something like ‘why in the hells didn’t you stab your mother in the heart?’—but instead it felt more like I was getting some sympathy.

  ‘You OK?’ she mouthed at me.

  I nodded in answer.

  ‘We head north,’ Corminar was saying, and not for the first time. ‘We travel directly to Auricia, and we remove the head from the Council. We strike quickly and fiercely. We put an end to this.’

  ‘Agreed,’ Val said, now concentrating back on her healing efforts. ‘Styk and I spoke about just this, and—’

  ‘Now you two married, you leave us out of these talk?’ Arzak asked, looking more than a little perturbed. I imagined it was less about me and more about her not being Val’s number one confidant anymore.

  The witch glanced up at the orc she was healing. ‘It was about the baby.’

  ‘Mm, OK. You two can talk about baby.’

  ‘Sooner or later,’ Val continued, ‘I’m gonna be all big. Probably not that good in a fight. And after that, well, do we want to be fighting a Council of evil Players with a baby in tow?’

  Lore nodded. ‘We gotta protect the baby.’ Maybe he should be the guide-father, I thought at this point, in reaction to his fierce protective instinct. ‘But keeping the baby safe means—’

  ‘I am glad we all agree,’ Corminar said, interrupting Lore as perhaps he’d sensed, like I had, that Lore was going to offer a compelling counterargument. ‘We head to Auricia immediately, and we—’

  ‘No,’ Arzak said. ‘There is other problem. We head north to kill Players and I think we see someone again.’

  The team went quiet, then all looked at me, sat down on a log. I think it wasn’t until that moment that Arzak and Corminar realised I’d not been speaking. All four of them waited for me to comment on the situation.

  ‘I… couldn’t activate Closed Reach,’ I said, my eyes trained on the dirt.

  ‘Were there magicks at play?’ Corminar asked.

  ‘No. I just… Couldn’t kill her.’

  Again, the farmyard was quiet.

  I continued, ‘But Arzak’s right. We’re gonna run into her again. We’ve got to stop Tana and her Council, and my mother, of course, is the person charged with stopping us.’

  ‘She made no attempt to eliminate us,’ Corminar said.

  ‘And how long do you think that will last?’ Val asked. ‘She got what she wanted. She protected Elinor, who, I’m guessing, is pretty important to whatever Tana’s got planned. So why kill us?’ The witch’s eyes drifted over to me. ‘Why kill her own son if she doesn’t have to?’

  ‘If she doesn’t have to,’ I repeated. ‘If we keep on this path, then we’ll soon be at a point where she does have to.’

  After another moment of quiet, this time due to everyone processing this information, Lore said, ‘She’s too strong.’

  I nodded. ‘She is. I thought we’d outgrown these Players, that these days we could handle them. But I’m guessing that we’ve not been targeting their strongest. You know, the ones that Tana needs for her plan. We need to find a weakness. We need to find my mother’s weakness. And then…’ I looked up at my friends, glancing at each of them in turn, before finally landing on Val. ‘One of your four is going to need to exploit it.’

  My wife spoke first. ‘You want us to kill your mother.’

  ‘Yes.’ It wasn’t a question, but I answered it like one, for avoidance of doubt.

  Corminar glanced at Arzak, but the orc didn’t notice; her eyes were trained on me. A lot of our communication was happening through looks, these days; I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

  ‘Then we search for a weakness,’ Corminar said. ‘We ensure that we can deal with your mother—’

  ‘Cleo,’ I said. ‘I don’t want to be reminded of her relation to me.’

  ‘We ensure that we can deal with Cleo,’ the elf corrected himself, ‘and then we head north. We put an end to this scheme. Are we agreed?’

  Val nodded first. Lore waited until I’d done the same before agreeing himself.

  ‘Mm, agreed,’ Arzak said. ‘This is what we do. But have one request first.’

  I wasn’t sure I liked where this was going. ‘What’s that?’

  ‘We had big day. Need unwind time. We take evening off. Relax. Recuperate.’

  This time, everyone agreed instantly.

  * * *

  We returned to Lonely Hearth at dusk. This time, there was no informant awaiting us on her porch, and I wouldn’t have been interested if there was. The only thing I was interested in right now was a pint of beer. Or several.

  As we stood outside the town’s only tavern, Arzak nodded Val away. Across the street, one of the locals had opened up their home to the public. Wafts of pie and cake drifted over to us. It was over to this miniature festival that Arzak was encouraging Val.

  ‘Val not drink,’ Arzak said to me. ‘But she eat cake. We go there, see if travellers welcome.’

  ‘Oh, I—’ Lore started, and I knew exactly where he was going with this because there was both pie and cake involved.

  So too, did Arzak. ‘We be around men too long,’ she said. ‘We have girl’s night.’

  Lore trailed off dejectedly, turning to Corminar. ‘You think this tavern has pie?’

  ‘Undoubtedly,’ the elf replied, and this cheered Lore up instantly.

  But Val clearly wasn’t totally on board with Arzak’s plan. She hadn’t joined the orc at her side, instead lingering around me. ‘Will you be OK?’ she asked, loud enough that only I could hear.

  I nodded. ‘I will. Go have your cake.’

  Val smiled back at me, then pecked me gently on the lips. ‘Have fun with the boys.’

  I looked over at them. Lore was peeking in the tavern’s window—inevitably to see if they had any pie—while Corminar used the window’s reflection to adjust his hair. ‘Oh, I…’ I couldn’t quite bring myself to say, ‘Oh, I will,’ because with these two, there was absolutely no guarantee.

  The tavern was the familiar sort. Fading armchairs were placed in groups around the room, atop equally—if not more—faded rugs. A fire crackled in each chimney, at either side of the room, and was enough to defend from the bitter frost creeping in. A friendly barkeep stood pouring pints, his part-satyr ancestry apparently of particular interest to the local women.

  ‘Three of your finest beers, good sir,’ Corminar said as he approached the bar. The barkeep’s eyes lingered, just for a moment, before he smiled and poured out three pints that I suspected were just as fine as every other beer he served.

  We took seats in the corner of the room, right by the fire, and I warmed my hands against it. Apparently, our skirmish with Elinor wasn’t enough to put me off fire, not entirely. Not when the bitter winter winds had struck a coldness into my core. I took a sip of my beer, and realised that maybe I’d been too cynical—this really was good beer. You might even call it fine beer. ‘Not bad,’ I said.

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  Corminar nodded. ‘It is still no wine, but for beer… yes, not so bad. What do you think, Lore?’

  But Lore was distracted. The big man was looking over Corminar’s shoulder at a group of women. No, I realised, not at a group of women but at one in particular—a small woman who wore a clearly handmade cardigan with the image of a sheep stitched onto its chest.

  When I tried—and failed—to suppress a smirk, the elf realised something was up. Corminar followed Lore’s line of sight, and a sly smile crossed his lips. ‘Am I safe in assuming you find her attractive, Lore?’

  ‘I guess?’ Lore said sheepishly. No pun intended. ‘She seems cool. What’s not to like?’

  ‘You should consider talking to her. Perhaps she will return the very same sentiment.’

  Lore visibly gulped. ‘Oh. I… I don’t know about that.’ The man faced down hags and neereagles and the like no problem, but ask him to put himself out there, and…

  The elf put a hand on the big guy’s shoulder. ‘If you are nervous, I could teach you some of my ways.’

  ‘You sure?’ I broke in. ‘I dunno if now is really the time for—’

  Corminar glared at me. ‘We seek to do battle with a Council of Players. It is unlikely that we all survive this inevitable encounter. There may be no other time.’ When I snapped my mouth shut, giving up my protest, the elf turned back to Lore. ‘For now, let us keep this simple. Go up to her, introduce yourself, and tell her she is more beautiful than any star in the sky. After that, talk with her. Show interest in all that she says.’

  ‘...And then what?’ Lore asked, eyes darting between Corminar and the woman wearing the sheep cardigan.

  ‘Then, if all goes well, you encourage her up to your room.’

  ‘To do what?’

  ‘To make love to her, Lore.’

  Again, the big man gulped. Corminar looked to me for support.

  ‘You should do it, Lore,’ I said. ‘Life’s short. Maybe shorter than we know. What are you gonna regret more, being rejected or never even trying?’

  Lore’s eyes lit up a moment later, as though I’d passed on some profound wisdom, then nodded. ‘You’re right.’ He stood up immediately, as though afraid he might lose this newfound confidence, and then strutted over to the table where the two women sat. Corminar and I watched on.

  ‘Hello,’ Lore said, sticking out his hand for a handshake. ‘My name is Lore, and I think you’re pretty like a star. Do you want to talk for a while, and then if that goes well, we could make love?’

  There was a loud thump as Corminar’s head hit the table. ‘Please let me know when this is over,’ said the despairing elf.

  ‘Hey, it was your advice.’ I watched on, bracing myself for a slap to the face of my friend.

  The woman stared back at Lore for a painful few seconds, dumbfounded, before… laughing? I nudged Corminar.

  ‘It simply cannot be over already,’ the elf said.

  ‘No,’ I said, still nudging him, ‘look. It’s worked.’

  Corminar snapped his head up to look at Lore and the woman in the cardigan, and blinked. ‘Perhaps some platitudes hold true. Perhaps there really is someone for everyone.’ My elven friend caught the eye of the barkeep again. ‘Speaking of…’

  ‘You think that guy is the one?’ I asked.

  ‘There is but one way in which to find out.’ The ranger shrugged, picked up his glass, and left me alone by the fire. Some “boy’s night” this was. I wasn’t too upset though, not really. The past few weeks of travelling and intense Player-fighting had meant I’d been living in very close proximity to the rest of the team. It was nice to get some space, even for an hour. I contended myself to stare into the fire, sip my beer, and think about anything but my encounter with my estranged mother.

  But try as I might, those eyes kept reappearing in my mind. Those eyes that looked so like the ones I saw in the mirror, and yet so different. There was something in them that made my stomach lurch, something that I couldn’t quite label. Did I see in them a propensity for evil? One that made me wonder if she hadn’t passed that on to me? No, that wasn’t quite right. It was more than that. But, still, I couldn’t quite place it.

  ‘You alright?’

  I looked up from the fire to find that a woman was sitting in the armchair next to me. It was the friend of the woman in the sheep cardigan, apparently growing bored of Lore taking her company away from her. ‘I’m alright,’ I replied. ‘You?’

  ‘I’m alright, yeah.’ The woman held my gaze. She had pretty eyes; very different from my mother’s. I wouldn’t tell Val I thought that. ‘Your mate is funny.’

  ‘Lore?’ I asked. Funny wasn’t a way I usually described him. Kind, strong, good—all of these descriptors, yes. But funny?

  ‘The big guy.’ She pointed over to Lore and her friend.

  ‘He is big, isn’t he?’

  ‘Yep. And as easy on the eyes as his friends.’

  Ah. Right. Of course. In response, I simply smiled, gracefully accepting the compliment.

  ‘And you are…?’ my new acquaintance asked.

  ‘Married,’ I replied.

  The woman considered this for only a second before asking, ‘...How married?’

  ‘Very.’ I smiled as kindly as I could manage. ‘Sorry.’

  The stranger touched me reassuringly on the arm, just for a second, before rising from the armchair. ‘They’re a lucky person.’

  ‘She wouldn’t say so,’ I joked, though I knew Val thought it really.

  Alone once more, I stared into the fire. Tomorrow, the work would begin again. Tomorrow, we would start figuring out how to kill my mother.