“Yeah, nine months is plenty. But whether alive or not, I just want closure. He was like an older brother to me, watched over me when we were orphaned. If there’s even a small chance I could finally find out what happened to him, I’d like to take it,” Kire replied, slinging the sack over her shoulder again. She grinned at Ysaryn’s complaint, waving it off with her free hand. “Come on. I was the stranger who dropped into your lives unannounced with a dangerous mission. This is the least I could do, really.” She grinned at Envy’s comment about the candy. “I’ll set it down there, thanks. And for as long as some candy is left for Aeron, I will look the other way.” 

She listened as she explained how Rab and Gavin had been doing under his care, and she looked over at the Gemini, smiling. “Told you he was a decent lad,” she muttered in Narda’s direction, who only shrugged. “Thanks again, Envy. I’ll show my babysitter around, and then come back for tea. You behave, Nard, this isn’t a pirate ship,” she said, to which the giantess chuckled. 
“No ‘Countess’, good gods above. Just ‘Narda’,” she said to Envy. “Or I will insist that my stubborn friend here be called Her Majesty.”
“Please no, gods above,” Kire pleaded to both of them, tugging at Narda’s arm as the giantess laughed aloud. “I like him. No-nonsense. Good leader, got a strong spine on him. Not bad-looking, either.” 
“You know we aren’t out of earshot of him, right?” Kire said, stepping through to the kitchen. “We’ll be back! We could try the tea together,” she added to Ysaryn with a grin. 

Kire showed Narda around as she’d said, taking her to the camp first before directing her to the surrounding forest. She was about to lead her to the spot where they had first decided to rebuild but stopped, clearly seeing the reason for abandoning that plan. From the way Envy talked about the new place, however, Kire knew they were much happier with their recent choice. “Kay,” Narda said, as they conversed while walking along the stream, “if we don’t find him, or we find evidence of his passing—are you prepared for that?” 
Kire was quiet, pondering on her friend’s question. “I don’t know. It might break my heart. We already lost him once, and it took me a long while to accept it. Now I’ve gotten myself all worked up again at a feeble hope and—well. I don’t know. Finding that he’d died might be better than not finding anything at all.” She glanced up at her friend. “What about you? You two were close once.” 
“I mourned him too, same as you. Or almost. He’s your family. But I’ve known the two of you for practically the same amount of time.” Narda crossed her arms, looking around them. “If it turns out he had died in a place this peaceful, I wouldn’t mind it so much. He’s led a warrior’s life. At the least, I would like to know if he’d had some rest.” 
Kire nodded. Narda looked at her, her mind on another question.
“Given everything that had happened to you, is it so wise, befriending this boy? Gavin?” 
Kire huffed. “He saved my life. And he has no memory of Amria, or he wasn’t born there at all.” She frowned. “Until he breaks it, he has my trust.” 
“It’s just that you used to say the same about Gael.” 
“This is different, Nard,” Kire said firmly. “And he’s just a boy. With the right guidance, he’d be his own man. Not Gemini, not blood mage, he’d be offered a choice. You said you thought Envy was a good leader. Trust in that, too.”

They went back inside to the kitchen, where Gavin had a pot of tea and some meat on a spit ready for them. He glanced warily at Narda, both because of the outburst she had earlier, and out of worry that the food might not be enough. “I won’t bite your head off, boy. On my honor,” Narda promised, catching his look. 
“I’ll bite [i]her[/i] head off if she does,” Kire reassured him. “Now, catch me up to speed on what happened back there,” she said, pointing a thumb outside. “And you tell me what you’ve been learning, exactly.” Gavin grinned at that.
“You got it.” 

Over tea and a meal, Gavin told them about the landslide and sickness, and about how they were able to strike a deal with Cordon that would benefit everybody, including Ysaryn’s people. Kire hadn’t had the ‘pleasure’ of meeting and conversing with Princess Risa the first time, but from the sound of it she didn’t miss much. The bit about Ysaryn being some sort of handmaiden Kire didn’t like, but if it helped the elf go about Cordon without getting harassed, she had no right to complain about it. “I’ve been learning a few basics here and there with Envy, and from Ruli, some enchanting skills. A bit of fighting, too, from Zeke and Ysaryn.” The face he made there told Kire those were harder lessons for him than the magic ones, and she shook her head, chuckling.

“It’s never easy. Especially if your body isn’t used to moving a particular way.”
“Mm. You should have seen [i]this[/i] one in her early days,” Narda said, nudging Kire with her elbow. 
“Ahhh [i]no[/i],” Kire muttered, bending over the table, burying her face in her folded arms. Narda laughed.
“I’ll save it for when we have a bigger audience. Maximize your humiliation, Your Majesty.” 
Gavin snickered. Their conversation continued into late afternoon, after which Kire and Narda went out to hunt and forage to get some exercise and not impinge too much on the camp’s stores. Though with the coin they were getting from Cordon, they were doing much better than the last time Kire had been around. They returned just as the sun was setting, and they prepared the fowl they’d caught for dinner.