"Fuck," said Beth, looking at his body.

"Never gets easier, girlie," Baelvyr said, walking over and leaning down to gently close Delonne's eyes.

"You've lost people," Beth said, a question, but from his tone, she made it more a statement, understanding he certainly had.

"More than I can count," he rumbled. "Lay them to rest to bless them on their new Path, and to give a way for us to honor and remember them. Too many funerals for me to count, but we keep the traditions."

"We didn't know him that long, but it still hurts," Beth said with a sigh.

"I can take him-" Baelvyr said, but Beth interrupted him.

"No. No, that's fine. We have somewhere where…he'll be at peace," Beth said, thinking of the small stone house he had taken them to some days before.

"Don't matter how ya do it, girlie. Just do it with respect," he said, patting her shoulder before straightening up and turning to walk over to Megoria.

"Beth," Sera said quietly, leaning down and hugging her where the shorter girl sat as she wiped at her eyes. "We'll take care of him."

"We should clean up, first. Then, we can take care of him," Beth said, reaching forward gently and touching Delonne's body, drawing it into her necklace before standing up.

Beth and Sera helped with the beast cleanup, the two of them better suited for it than anybody else in their little group. Megoria was almost exclusively water focused, and Baelvyr was…well, Baelvyr, so he was no help. If either of them needed to clean a place up, they would use some kind of quick-deploy formation and chemicals to burn away the bodies, while Megoria had the option of scouring everything away with weapons, enchantments, and chemical dumps from her ship.

After they had cleared out the bodies and gotten everything taken care of, for the time being, Beth and the girls loaded up on her ship. They washed off first before Blood started piloting them, slowly, to the coordinates they had been at once before. Beth was still exhausted and injured and, after Sera carefully washed her, she fell asleep in bed in the dragon girl's arms. She slept for many hours, Lordly Reconstruction running subconsciously as she slept, Sera very gently caressing her as she recovered. More than a day later, Beth woke, stirring slowly in Sera's arms before turning further into her embrace and gently kissing her. Sera returned the love, giving Beth sweet, gentle kisses until she pulled back and sat up.

"We should take care of Delonne," Beth said quietly.

"He'd be happy that you cared so much," Sera said quietly.

"I…I'm sorry we couldn't help him," Beth said, scooting to the edge of the bed and curling forward a bit over her knees.

"It's okay, Beth. It's okay," Sera said quietly, hugging her from behind.

"Come on," Beth said after relaxing into the hug for a while. "Let's get this done."

They grabbed Blood from the bridge, where she was napping in the pilot's chair, as if afraid that she would be booted out. Exiting the ship, Beth left it where it was, not intending to take long for what they had to do. She walked up the hill to the barrier that Delonne had used to keep his home safe, touching it gently. To her surprise, the barrier opened up at her touch, allowing the three onto the hilltop. Beth surveyed the area for a moment, looking around before finding a small open space to the side and front of the house, a little flat patch of ground with a few flowers at the edge. Beth moved over and equipped her gauntlets, digging into the dirt and rock, able to move it away easily.

When she had moved enough dirt, she stood back with a nod, getting ready to place the body. Sera stopped her, moving away for a minute before coming back over and pulling out large pieces of rock from her storage power. She sliced two of them with her claws, easily able to cut through regular stone, especially some from a low-mana world such as this. Cutting a third large rock, Sera laid that at the bottom of the pit before laying the two other long, thin pieces upright along the sides. She carved two thin pieces that she placed at the head and foot of the grave, and then gestured at Beth, who summoned Delonne's body into her arms and gently laid him down. Sera carved a sixth piece of rock to seal his impromptu sarcophagus, and then Beth filled in the dirt over the top of it. Blood picked a few flowers from further away at the base of the hill and planted them on the freshly turned dirt while Sera produced one last hunk of rock.

Sera and Blood worked together on the rock with their claws once Blood was done with the flowers, carving a simple shape. Sera engraved onto the front of the stone, placing Delonne's full name at the top and the current Universal Date below that. She then carved a few words below that before setting the stone at the head of the grave. Beth read it when she was done.

Delonne F. Smith

5.8.445990

For the world and sky I loved, I sacrificed

"Thank you, Ser," Beth said quietly.

"Even knowing someone briefly, their passing can still sting," Sera said quietly. "It's not the first person I've known and gotten along with that I won't be seeing again on this Path."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"What does that mean, anyway?" Beth asked quietly, leading the other two over to Delonne's home.

"A lot of people believe that when you die, you're reborn again, not knowing or remembering any of what happened before. You can start to walk a new Path, with a new destination," Sera explained as they entered the house.

"It's a nice thought," Beth said simply.

"It's true," Blood added.

"How're you so sure?" Beth asked.

"It's known among the beasts. If you haven't given up, you will walk forward again," Blood said, but refused to elaborate further.

"What do you want to do in here?" Sera asked Beth.

"Just check for anything he might have left that we or others would really need to know, ya know," Beth said. "If he left anything important, even a note about stuff."

"Alright, let's look, but respectfully," Sera said.

Spending about an hour looking around the house, they found nothing. There weren't any old papers or documents of any kind, just a few old books that Beth looked through but didn't find anything unusual. It was sort of depressing, really, to see someone's life, or the remains of that life, the little bits and pieces that were left behind. Delonne had been alone for a very, very long time, and he had clearly not had much extra in his life. What little he had was on him or with him when he passed, now buried in the yard out front.

"Nothing," Blood said once they reconvened.

"Let's head back," Beth said with a nod, leading the way back down to the ship. Blood hopped in the pilot's chair while Beth took a quick shower, wanting to get the last of the dirt off. They had resealed the barrier around Delonne's house after leaving, which wouldn't keep anyone seriously trying to break in out, not at their level, but it would keep the beasts and most of the locals away. Hopefully, he could rest quietly for a time.

Blood flew them back to where Megoria had first landed, parking them in the same place near her ship. The shark woman wasn't there, and neither was Baelvyr, but the latter sent them a message to come meet them in the buildings they had been to when they first landed weeks ago. Beth led the other two down the path, not needing any guards to escort them this time, or the guards having finally figured out they were a little bit out of their weight class. The buildings were swarming with people when they got there, and Beth had to muscle her way through to get into the building that had the command center.

They found Baelvyr in the room with two large tables, Megoria there as well, the rest of the place filled with natives of Red II. Baelvyr was standing at the back, arms crossed, though he wasn't leaning against the wall, as that would likely bring the whole building down. Megoria was in front of whoever it was that was in charge, though Beth recognized at least one of them, and was arguing about…Hall locations. Beth gave Baelvyr a questioning look.

"Part of the deal, girlie," he said quietly, which was still loud enough to be heard the next continent over. "We clear this up in less than six months, they accept a set of CRA Halls for the first time in a thousand years."

"Well, that's nice," Beth commented, leaning against the wall next to him.

"If we fixed what they broke, we could get more, but I ain't an Enchanter," Baelvyr grumbled.

"We could go get somebody," Beth said, giving him a bit of a questioning look.

"Nah, not worth it," he shrugged. "We already got enough. Ain't worth the time and effort to push for a little more right now. Not when we have an advantage, but that's somethin' we can chat about later. For now, we gotta get this done, then we're out. Go pack yer ship up if ya ain't already and then come back here. We'll take Meg's ship back for the couple days it'll take us to get somewhere civilized. Then we got another part to do before we're all done."

"What's that?" Beth asked when he went quiet.

"Oh, yeah, we gotta escort the people settin' up the Halls back over," he said, staring off into space. "Then, we got another two quick jobs to do before I let ya three go back to yer own, uh, recognizance er whatever they say."

"I'll go get the ship. Just let us know what's up," Beth said, slipping out of the building and back out of the compound.

She returned to the ship and packed it away, glad it automatically shed water when it folded in preparation for storage. After that, she headed back into the buildings, finding that Megoria was still negotiating with the leadership. She rejoined Sera and Blood standing by Baelvyr, all of them standing back and waiting. The planetary government was trying to drive a hard bargain with the shark woman, but the display of power from her, and the rest of them, had quelled their arrogance to an extent. The group having killed both the monsters in the same day, at practically the same time, after just a few weeks on the planet was a very impressive feat, especially to the natives who had basically been waiting for death.

When Megoria eventually wrapped up the negotiations, after a lot of heated exchanges, most of which Beth tuned out, she led the way back to her ship. They all boarded and then were on the way for the nearest system with a teleportation network. Baelvyr talked with them, minus Megoria, once they were well underway and out of the system. He gathered them in the rec room, taking a chair that Beth thought the shark woman might have onboard specifically for him, or people of his bulk and mass, at the least.

"Couple things," he said to them.

"Alright, shoot," Beth said.

"First, good job," he said, giving them all a nod. "That was well done, even if ya weren't ready for that second monster. Good job on the first, that was impressive, even considerin' yer strength."

"Thanks, boss," Beth said, waving a hand idly.

"Don't let it go to yer head, though, it wasn't that impressive," he said, giving her a certain look.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear you," Beth said, rolling her eyes.

"That job counted as two Gold missions for all three of ya. If anybody asks about it, it was on my authority, but ain't nobody gonna ask. I'll have ya file yer own report each and append it to mine," he explained. "Ya need ten Gold missions, a year of service refereeing matches as a provisional or interim ref, and to pass both a written and combat test to get to Gold. Most people, we'll usually make do a series of interviews as well, helps to figure out their character, but ya three are vouched for. Just keep the interviews in mind; ya'll likely have to give 'em to others down the line."

"Good to know," Sera said.

"Right. As to what happened, well, I don't think we need a long after action. Any of ya three have any questions?" he asked.

"Nah, I'm good," Beth said, looking at the other two.

"I've got nothing," Sera added, shaking her head.

"Any better way to detect powerful enemies like that? I didn't like being surprised," Blood said.

"Well, that's a bit tricky," Baelvyr said, rubbing his gut. "Ya have a couple options, but the best is to combine an increase to yer eye power and some other sensing skill. There's a lot of skills ya could get, but I'm talking about more than just an enhanced hearin' or somethin'. Don't get me wrong, enhancing yer other senses is great, but there's stuff out there like Universal Detection or even Mana All-Knowing. Shit that just lets ya detect things better, especially mana. Ya learn to use some of the mana sensing stuff really well, ya can sense anythin'. Quick example; punchin' knees here has a spatial mana detection skill. She works on that, she can detect any kind of fluctuation in space; she could detect a fly farting a lightyear away, if she got the skill high enough."

"I thought it was just for spatial mana," Beth said with a frown.

"It can detect space, girlie. Ya gotta think outside the box, sometimes," he replied, tapping the side of his head with a pillar-like finger.

"I'll work on it," she said, huffing out a loud sigh.

"Ya do that," he said. "Last thing for now; I know I ain't gotta tell ya three, but I'll do it anyway. Don't look down on people from low-mana worlds just because they ain't got as many opportunities. Bad bit of business when ya start thinkin' of people as lesser. Just givin' ya a warning. Sometimes stuff happens like on Red II what they did a thousand years ago; lot of that shit came from some Platinum Emblem thinkin' he was the Blood Stars' gift to the universe and the people on the planet were just a bunch of shit. Don't go thinkin' like that."

"Understood loud and clear," Beth said, the other two agreeing with her immediately.

"Good. Now enjoy some downtime. Ya ain't gotta come out when we pick the people up and take 'em over if ya don't want. I'll let ya know when we're back at Red II again; ya can come help with the initial setup of a Hall," he said.

"You guys don't just teleport one in?" Beth asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nah. We get some assistance from the Path on a new world like yers was a few years ago. Older, established worlds? Way too expensive. We'll pick up a small group and take 'em there; couple high-level people with the right skills and knowledge and some advanced tech and enchantments can get a Hall up and runnin' in a week, or even a day, dependin' on who they send," he explained.

"Oh, that'll be interesting to watch," Sera said.

"Not much for construction," Beth said.

"Well, ya don't gotta participate, but ya should watch. Yer free until then," he said, waving them off before pulling out a tankard bigger than one of Beth's thighs and starting to drink from it.

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