§ After my ordeal dealing with the Lady of the Red Tower, my nerves remained frayed for some time. I almost didn’t register the trip back. But I had to fly rather than turn immaterial, because of the fairy warrior with the bead dress who accompanied me as Alwain’s intermediary. That’s right, my negotiation was a qualified success. At least, …

§ I had actually been in bed for several hours at this point, which was unhealthy, so Rhea made me rise. But upon discovering how sweaty I had become, my lady’s maid Genette immediately sent me straight back into the bath. To my embarrassment, she and the chambermaids clearly misunderstood why Mirea and I were so sweaty. My poor pink-haired …

§ For a while, just for a little while, I virtually forgot I was only along for the ride. My self-proclaimed little sister’s mind whirled almost too fast for me to keep up as we zigged and zagged around the cave, keeping Tuck the pooka distracted for as long as we could. I don’t know if the worry I felt …

§ I was still a little salty about the way Sen and the others had been pushing me around. I had a couple sisters back on the plantation, and these seniors reminded me a lot of them. My sisters were at most only distant blood relations, but they raised me. They had been around puberty when I was a baby, …

§ While Kiki continued exploring the cave, my Servant’s concerned eyes remained fixed upon her.  It had begun as a cave, but someone had improved it with square-cut stones forming a drystone wall across the entrance, and cut niches of various sizes into the natural rock. The front wall had partially crumbled where the door once stood, but the stones …

§ I will never learn to like it when Sen suddenly takes over the [Blood Effigy] to make me do or say things like a puppet, but I had to accept that I was out of my depth in this case, and she needed to. Still, when I got a moment, while the fairy knights and the Reladorian mages huddled …

§ It was true that Shindzha’s safety trumped my dislike of acting as a puppet for the gods, and perhaps my elder incarnations, but I was still quite annoyed. I had a right to be! Shindzha was here rather than safe and sound in her cell in Narses due to the meddling of the older incarnations, and now, the reason …

§ I watched in rapt wonder as the horizon gradually expanded into a thin blue arc and the sky above turned to night. The thought nibbled at me that I had seen this site before, although I couldn’t say when. This was not the strange magic projection I beheld from my bed while using [Blood Presence]. Even though I could …

§ I have grown accustomed to the idea that the blood bond makes my Servants a little bit too thirsty. The anti-charm bracelet supposedly helps them counter the effect, but some of them choose to be thirsty anyway. Apparently, it only gives them the option to change their mind.  It seems it’s up to me to encourage them to exercise …

§ The negotiations remained largely meaningless throughout the time that Lhan and Brigitte were at their task. We made no progress until after the two fatalities were back in the care of their brothers in arms. And unfortunately, the only progress we did make in the end was to agree to a short recess. That’s a mischaracterization, I suppose. I …