Tomorrow, the Expedition Team is setting out on the mission to rescue and escort Arza, the Queen of the Red Wolves, across the Abyss to the safety of Haven. This is also a decoy mission, to provide cover for the other groups of the Red Wolves as they fan out across their numerous outposts to bring the youngest children in their care to Haven.

To facilitate this, Wolf Pup scouts from Haven and the Capital have fanned out across the western Abyss, forming a chain of reconnaissance and communication from the Capital to Haven that can get a message from one end to the other in just a few hours.

The Capital's all ready for evacuation on their end. Everything that can be carried has been packaged up and will be taken with the Pups. Everything that can't be carried… will be taken care of by Arza, somehow. Probably involving her summoning magic, but as for where she intends to put all her stuff, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

The most immediate challenge is the 20-or-so young children from the Wolf Pups who will be living in Haven now. The largest population spurt in the town's history. We have more than enough space in the second bunkhouse that we built in record time, but it will still be a strain on all of us to take in so many at once. We planned to receive the Wolf Pups over a longer period of time, but circumstance has forced our hand. While the older Wolf Pups will remain in their outposts scattered around the centre of the Abyss, the younger ones that aren't capable of fending for themselves will be brought to Haven.

The Wolf Pups that had already settled into Haven were bursting with energy to help their comrades make it here safely. Well, all of them tried to help, including the ones considered too young for such a mission and the still-injured Magpie, so some of them agreed to stay behind so Magpie wouldn't feel left out. The rest set out to join the scouts and couriers to link up Haven with the Capital.

Rabbit and Crow stayed behind; Rabbit because she's the purest, sweetest child imaginable, and Crow because he's picked up a not-undeserved reputation of being a bit "unlucky" in his encounters out in the Abyss, so he was also convinced to stay in Haven.

Still, Magpie wasn't happy about having to stay behind, and I spotted the three of them in a corner of the tavern after lunch, so I figured I should go over and check on them.

Not my brightest idea, apparently.

It turns out the greatest injury Magpie took that day was to his pride, and the last person he wanted to see was someone who was leaving Haven tomorrow on an important mission when he was denied that very same thing.

So here I am, seated across from Magpie, Rabbit, and Crow, with Magpie refusing to even make eye contact with me, as Rabbit and Crow try to get him to stop sulking.

"Magpie… c'mon. She just wanted to check on you. Rabbit and I stayed behind so you wouldn't sulk on your own about being left behind." Crow pats Magpie's shoulder awkwardly, who's sitting with his arms crossed, cheeks puffed, and gaze fixed firmly away from me.

"You haven't healed from your injury yet, Magpie. You need to be at full health to be able to go on a quest!" Rabbit nods, patting Magpie's other shoulder, making it difficult for him to ignore either one of them.

"Quest…" Magpie scoffs, then sinks down into his chair. "There'll never be another quest as important as this. We're leaving the Capital behind, for good. The Queen herself is heading for Haven. Everyone is taking part. Everyone except me…"

"I mean, we stayed behind too…" Crow pouts, leaning on the table. "Apparently if I went out, I'd just lead the Breakers right back to Haven like I did with the Keepsguard…"

"Oh! I heard of something like this before, Crow, where a party member keeps drawing in enemies when they do not wish to engage in combat. Have you tried disabling your aggro? Rabbit asks with absolute sincerity.

"... What?" Crow gives Rabbit a weary, confused look, one he's likely given her many times before whenever she says something so strange with such certainty.

"While I don't think it's your fault, Crow, you might be a little… unlucky, given you ran into me with my wings, and then later Ryvon, who might have some kind of magical detection trinket…"

"That's what I want to know, Marina." Crow suddenly rounds on me with an indignified tone. "I went and asked the Keepsguard that came here how their leader found me, and he said something about magical trinket thingies. I know you don't have anything like that on you, because I checked, so how did you know I was in the roof that day? How did you know I was following your group back to Haven?"

"What do you mean you checked?" I squint at him.

"D-don't change the question! How did you know!" Crow doubles down, trying to brush past my question.

"When I said it was a gut feeling, it wasn't that far off. You just might not be happy with the real answer…"

"Happy or not, I want to know!" Crow triples down on it.

"My wings told me." Well, he wanted an answer, he'll get one.

"Wh- No they didn't! How!? They can't even talk!" Crow is taken aback, but is unsurprisingly unhappy with this answer.

"They can't talk… out loud, at least. They have ways of letting me know things they want me to know."

"What do you mean, "things they want you to know"? They're part of you, aren't they?" Crow only looks more confused as he keeps asking questions.

"If only it were that simple…" I sigh, letting my head slump.

"I-It's not…?" Crow actually sounds a little worried now.

"They are a part of me, but they have a bit of a mind of their own. It's why they act the way they do sometimes. They're also very aware of what's around me, mostly. No, I don't know how. I don't have any more answers than that."

"... You really are that witch's familiar—" Magpie speaks up, only for Crow to quickly cover his mouth.

"I told you not to call her that here! She'll hear!!" Crow hushes him frantically.

"That witch? Is that what you were calling her when you went back to the Capital, Crow?"

"N-no! Never! I respect that wi- I mean the Chief of Haven! I would never say anything bad about her! I don't think she can listen in on me whenever I'm in Haven so I don't want to say anything bad about her…!" Crow panics, practically falling over his own words as he nervously looks around for the Chief.

"Don't worry, she's busy looking over the second bunkhouse. She can't magically hear you say bad things about her, either, not that you should say such things about her."

"Marina's wings are very friendly, Magpie. They're very soft, as long as you don't touch their swords!" Rabbit nods enthusiastically, and I feel a happy shiver from my wings against my back. They're always a sucker for compliments.

"I heard about the swords from Crow, but I never really got what he meant. How do wings have swords in them?" Magpie asks, finally looking up at me after all his sulking.

Well. He's asked, and you seem plenty eager, wings, so you can show him. Only the right one, though, since only the wall is to my right. I'd rather not have anyone walk into a bunch of swords sticking out in the walkway of the tavern.

As always, my right wing complies, stretching out from under my cloak and showing off its four blade-feathers by extending them out a little beyond my wing's normal reach. The orange firelight from the candles around the room catches and shines on their metal surfaces, standing out against the red-black feathers. My left wing bats against my shoulderblade, unhappy about being excluded.

"They're…" Magpie squints, leaning forwards over the table as he stares at my wing. "Part of… your wing? Did you strap them to your wing? Didn't that hurt?"

"It might have, if I didn't wake up with them already on my back."

"You have to explain this same thing over and over again, don't you Marina?" Crow comments, leaning on the table. "I'm pretty sure I've heard you say all this before."

"I haven't heard this before! I didn't know she had swords in her wings or anything, I just heard you say Haven has some winged de… person!" Magpie complains, but chooses that last word very carefully before a different word almost slips out.

"A winged demon, hmm. Is that what Crow was saying about me in the Capital…"

"Marina is not a winged demon!" A young voice calls from behind; one I quickly pick out is Irie's.

Irie, with her friends Mei and Adri in tow, marches up beside the table the Wolf Pups and I are sitting at, looking very cross with Crow in particular, even though she's so short she can barely see above the table we're seated at.

"Is that how you talk about the person who saved you from those knights?" Irie demands to know from Crow, who has to sit up a bit to see her face.

"Th-that was before she saved me! I don't call her that anymore! It was Magpie that called her that anyway!" Crow immediately passes the blame off to cover his skin, but Irie isn't having it.

"But you started it…" She frowns, standing on the tip of her toes so she can properly glare at Crow.

"It's alright, Irie, Crow didn't mean anything bad by it. Come sit up here, you three."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I scooch over to sit against the wall as my right wing withdraws into my cloak, making space for the three kids as they hop up and shuffle over beside me, with Irie right next to me.

"I mean, I did kinda mean a little bad by it, but you're nice enough that I take it back…" Crow mumbles under his breath loud enough for me to hear.

"What brings you three here, though? It's well after lunchtime now."

"Irie had something she wanted to—Ow!! Mei, that hurt!" Adri speaks up, only for Mei to elbow him in the gut and tell him to hush.

"Well, you're heading out with the Expedition Team tomorrow, aren't you? I heard it's a really important and dangerous mission to rescue the Wolf Queen and all the other Wolf Pups…" Irie asks, placing her hand on my arm and looking up at me worried.

"I am, yes, but don't worry. We're not going to do anything that'll put ourselves or the Wolf Queen in danger." I smile to reassure her.

"I thought the whole point of the mission was that the Queen wanted to use herself as a distraction… how are you going to distract them without being in danger?" Crow asks, gesturing quizzically.

"Well… not too much danger. The plan is that we'll leave an obvious trail to follow for a while, then we'll cover our tracks once we're far enough from where the other groups are headed. This will lead anyone who wants to follow us in the wrong direction, so everyone can safely make it to Haven at their own pace."

"So… it will be dangerous…?" Irie gives me a worried look.

"The Abyss is always dangerous, Irie. It's always a risk to go beyond Haven's walls. But this is something we have to do. For the Wolf Queen, and all the children of the Capital."

"Then…!" Irie's eyes light up, as she quickly reaches down and produces something from her pocket. "I asked Tiffany if she could help me make the flowers you gave me into a charm, so that it could protect you when you went out into the Abyss!"

Irie hands me a small square of paper, with a hole cut in one corner and a ribbon tied through it. One of the small white flowers I gave her has been carefully pressed into one side, and on the opposite side is a carefully written note, reading "Marina's Stay Safe Charm!" in small, delicate handwriting.

I never took that close a look at the flowers I gave to Irie. I just grabbed a handful because they were the first flowers I'd seen in this world that weren't red, and I had a promise to keep. On closer inspection… it's indistinguishable from any ordinary daisy that grew in any wide open grass field in my previous life. It could even be the exact same kind of daisy. The ones my sisters would make daisy chains with, and the ones my mother fought every day to keep out of her meticulously-kept flowerbeds.

It's one of the most common flowers imaginable, yet down here in this muddy sea of reds and browns, its white petals are treasured. A reminder that there is a world beyond the black cliffs, a world that isn't so dangerous and monotone. There's green. White. Blue. Colours that, were it not for a scant few exceptions, just don't exist in the Abyss.

I smile, and tuck the charm into my shirt on my left side, near my heart. It'll keep me safe there.

"Thank you, Eirene. I'll bring it back to you safe and sound." I ruffle her hair.

"I-it's for you to keep! You don't have to give it back!" Irie gets a little flustered over the praise.

"I'll bring it back safe and sound, because I'll get home safe and sound. It'll keep me safe from whatever the Abyss will throw at me."

"Still…" Irie pouts, twiddling her fingers. "It's yours. I wanted to make one for all the Expedition Team, but that's the only one that came out good, and I didn't have enough flowers anyway…"

"I can always get you more."

"Really?! But… You're going to rescue the Wolf Queen tomorrow! You need to save your strength! And I don't think the charms would all be ready in time…" Her eyes light up again, before she quickly backtracks with all sorts of reasons why I shouldn't just go on a quick trip out of the Abyss to get her some more flowers.

"I'll go get you some after we come back. It's not like the flowers are going anywhere, and there's more flowers up there than you can imagine. As far as the eye can see." Okay, maybe not that many as they were mostly growing around the ruins of the crane, but I'm sure I could find more not too far.

"What's it like up there? Outside the Abyss." Magpie speaks up, his curiosity piqued.

"Where I went, there were just grassy fields in every direction from the Abyss' edge. There were mountains in the distance to the north, but it was mostly just… grass. Grassy fields beneath blue skies. And the white flowers I gave to Irie."

"But… no people?" Magpie tilts his head.

"No people I could see.. I imagine people don't want to live anywhere near the giant stinking hole in the ground we live in."

"But don't people up there know that people live down here? Why don't they come help us? Why hasn't anyone come looking for the Wolf Queen? She's a princess, isn't she? Why do we have to get ourselves out of here?" Magpie pushes, asking the same angry questions that many, many denizens of the Abyss have asked before.

"Why would anyone come save us?" Crow scoffs, crossing his arms. "Those Azorii or whatever can't even be bothered rescuing their princess, our Queen. Why would they care about anyone else down here?"

"According to some of the books in the Chief's library, there is the belief that only the worst of the worst among the Damned are reborn in the Abyss. No one comes looking for us, because they think we're the worst kinds of people."

"But only kids have been waking up down here lately! Wouldn't they come help us if they knew that?!" Adri blurts out in anger.

"What, you're expecting a bunch of adults to go out of their way to rescue kids in trouble? If that was true, then half the Wolf Pups wouldn't even be down here. Adults don't care about kids, especially not some stranger's kids, and they care least of all about orphaned kids." Crow huffs with genuine disdain. Given his short life before he came to the Abyss, he understandably doesn't have a favourable view of adults.

"But Crow, the adventurers of Haven are going out of their way to help us, and they're all adults…" Rabbit raises the obvious point with nothing but sincerity, which just makes Crow's cheeks redden as he falls silent.

"The adults of Haven are good people. Some of them are a little scary, but they look out for us. Marina's an adult now! You trust her, don't you?" Irie asks, still holding my sleeve.

"I…!" Crow tries to retort, before sinking back in his chair, embarrassed. "I mean… she helped me with those knights… I guess…"

"While I was concerned about you, I also wanted to make sure Ingrid didn't do anything to get herself killed…"

"Why did she try and fight the knights on her own? I know she's weird, but I didn't think she was stupid enough to try that." Adri asks, a question I assume is for me given I was the one who jumped after her.

"Because she was kicked out of their group, Adri. Don't you know how they have to keep her and that other guy from the knights on opposite sides of town? She hates them." Mei answers for me.

"You mean that Marco guy? He talks like Marina. Are you related or something?" Crow raises an eyebrow at me, hoping to move the topic to something other than him admitting he does trust me somewhat.

"No, he's just also from the Sovranan Republic. Irie's Sovranan as well."

"Sir Marco is a nice man and always smiles when he sees me, but he doesn't want to talk about his time as a knight with me…" Rabbit pouts, stretching out her arms on the table. "How can I attain the Hero class if I can't learn about the Knight class before it?"

"He does always smile when he sees someone, but the minute they leave his smile goes away… that's what my sister told me. She doesn't like him." Mei nods.

"I'll teach you all the two things about the men from my home country. First of all, they're all very polite."

"And second?" Magpie asks.

"They don't mean it."

"I think…" Irie ponders, as the rest of the kids try and make sense of what I just said. "One of the maids told me something like that once…"

"So he's… bad…?" Crow frowns.

"Marco's… he's fine. He knows not to do anything bad. Don't worry about it."

"Is he fine?" Magpie looks up at me. "Wasn't he your enemy not that long ago? I heard about when those knights showed up at your gate with Crow as their prisoner. Why did he abandon them to join Haven?"

"He had his own reasons for leaving them and joining us. He thought we had an easy way out of the Abyss, which we don't."

"And you don't worry that he might… betray Haven like he did the knights he was part of?" Magpie asks. It's a fair question.

"There is the risk of that, yes. I hope it doesn't happen, but realistically, he has no one to betray us for. He has a warm bed, hot food, and access to clean water. He has settled in here pretty quickly, though we do keep an eye on him."

At least, I'd like to think that. Yes, we don't have an easy way out of the Abyss, but we are looking for one. As for anyone we could be betrayed to… I doubt he wants to go back to the Keepsguard. He's taken to the comforts of Haven, and seems to have little inclination towards throwing that all away.

But we still keep an eye on him. If he was willing to abandon the Keepsguard and cross the entirety of the Abyss on foot on the chance that we'd have a way out that we'd just open up to him, he's certainly willing to take drastic actions for even a small shot at his goals.

I get it, though.

None of us want to be stuck down here.

He was fourteen when he died; his life cut short, only to awaken to an afterlife in hell. The closest thing to the idea of hell, at least. A year younger than me.

Killed for something that wasn't even his fault.

It's quite a bit after lunchtime now, and I do have some chores to attend to before dinner. Most importantly, I need to pick up my scabbard for the fine sword Ingrid made me. I did mean to thank her for it, but she just walked out of her smithy, handed me the scabbard with the sword sheathed in it, and then walked back in to get straight back to work. There is a lot of work to be done, so there's little time for pleasantries.

Across all of town, there's the feeling of business as usual, even if there is a lot more business than usual. This is what we have been preparing for, even if the schedule's moved up a bit. By the time all the Wolf Pups arrive, Haven's population will have nearly doubled compared to what it was when I first got here. Children will outnumber the adults nearly three-to-one. There's more work, more mouths to feed, and more hands to help.

Some have been more strained than others. Namely, poor Yvonne has had to reorganise what was one class into three separate classes, divided by age to account for the influx of new children. The Chief and Tiff have been helping her almost every day to get everything ready. There's all the new furniture made for the second bunkhouse, the blankets sewn, the new clothes made. Anton is looking to take on a few extra kitchen hands as well as some more waiters to deal with the increased numbers. We'll have to go on hunts more often to keep everyone fed.

It's a lot of work, but it gives us something to strive for. We pride ourselves on the fact that we look out for each other, rather than always thinking about ourselves. Every day is busy, but there's been few complaints about it. All this work has led up to what will happen tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the big day. We've planned all we could, prepared all we could, now it's just actually doing it. Usually, it's the leadup to the big day that's the most stressful, and it's no different this time. Everyone on the Expedition team has been at least a bit worried about it. It's a dangerous, high-stakes mission. While things never go exactly to plan out in the Abyss, there has never been a disastrous expedition under Rann's leadership.

… I shouldn't be thinking things like that. That's just tempting fate.

This mission is arguably more dangerous than any we've been on before; we're not tracking a bloodbeast, or gathering lumber, or travelling to meet a Queen. We're rescuing a Queen from the clutches of powerful, opposing, human forces. We're deliberately putting ourselves in danger while avoiding being in too much danger.

I will be honest. I am looking forward to seeing Arza again, even if I don't exactly know why. She is a living reminder that there are people out there, beyond the Abyss. There's a whole world out there. If we do escape this place, we will at least have somewhere to go that isn't red and brown and stinking of sulphur.

Her green eyes, white horns, and blue wings.

The colours of the world beyond the Abyss. The world we long to reach.

One day.

Just not today.

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