"I'm sorry for slapping you like that, Magi. That was so uncalled for. It was very unlike me. Thank you for the cup of tea too, Ravendor." Mara said to her friends with a clearer head and a steadier voice.

They had moved into the impressively-sized kitchen within the castle, a room large enough to accommodate a dozen chefs comfortably but only holding three people without the slightest desire to cook. Mara was sitting beside the cold stone table used for animal butchery and preparation, a cup of steaming tea within her hands. Ravendor was clearing up the slight mess he had created in making the tea and Magi was standing away on his own, leaning against the wall beside the door. The handprint upon his cheek was still starkly visible.

Mara felt like a fool. In the one time she had needed to act like an adult she had thrown a tantrum like a frightened child. The more she looked back on it the worse that memory became. She could hear the echoes of the children playing within the corridors and bedrooms, far enough away to give the grown-ups some space but close enough for the adults to keep half an ear on them. They were happy voices, hoping they'd continue to miss out on their lessons today.

The fair-haired ranger closed his eyes and sighed, folding his arms. "I shouldn't have come here. I should have stayed in the forest and hunted Sister Margaret's alastor on my own. I don't have the time to give an extensive briefing to either of you. Suffice to say that Sister Margaret asked me to kill her once her alastor was born. It was a reasonable request."

"No it wasn't." Mara argued calmly with a hint of irritation in her voice. No matter what anybody else thought she had a say in this. She had known the nun closest of all. "Sister Margaret is still Sister Margaret no matter what she has become. Calling her an alastor won't change that fact. How would you like it if you became a monster and were treated like-"

"A monster?" Magi cut in sharply, losing a little of his own patience. He knew very well how he would like it, thank you very much, because it was going to happen to himself one day. It could be in ten years time, it could be in three. All he knew was that it was largely unavoidable. He didn't like Mara judging his choices like that because she would never have the slightest idea of what lost souls went through. He walked over to the table and slammed his palms down upon it in an interrogative manner. "A monster is a monster and you cannot call it anything else. Will you wait until her alastor kills some innocent people and then condemn her to death? You don't have that right to decide, Mara!"

"And you don't have the right to kill her for merely existing!" The young woman shot back just as sharply, ready to argue on Magi's own terms if that was what it took. "For all I know you could have made up everything that she told you!"

"Wait, wait, wait! Let's not delve into wild speculation! We are all friends here, right? Mara, please calm down." Ravendor exclaimed as he closed the cabinet he was searching through, whirling around and raising his hands a little to mediate. He also took a seat at the table, away from Mara and Magi.

He didn't particularly want to get involved in the argument but now he felt he had no choice. "I agree on Magi's point, about not shirking on a promise and destroying the alastor before it can harm any innocent people," Magi smiled at getting some backing but Ravendor continued, "yet I also think that there is merit in remembering Sister Margaret for who she used to be. You are both right."

"So what do you think we should do?" Mara asked the elder ranger.

"It's simple, really. We must slay her with mercy and remembrance in our hearts. That's the only real solution I could think of. Poor Margaret, I can't believe she is gone." Ravendor put his elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand.

Even for a lost soul Ravendor was a bit of a mystery. Long ago he had been found extremely sick and feverish wandering aimlessly in the forest. Nobody was quite sure how long he had been there, including Ravendor himself. It was usual for a lost soul to come into the world and experience a debilitating sickness, sometimes jokingly referred to as a morning sickness as the alastor became established and settled in the body, but Ravendor's sickness had been unnaturally long and severe. Sister Margaret was more than certain that he would not be able to survive it. With or without the fever crippling him he still seemed an incredibly sickly man, his immune system completely trashed.

But time passed and instead of fading away Ravendor gradually began to recover. His constantly tired appearance faded (or at least was greatly lessened), he gained back his appetite and the abysmal amount of weight that he had lost from the wandering and the illness, and his wit sharpened back to the edge of a knife blade. Sister Margaret started to realise that she was dealing with a remarkably intelligent individual. He seemed closer to her own age so maybe they had been able to find a common ground with that, as they soon became good friends.

Once Ravendor became healthy enough to live on his own confidently he went straight back into the forest and was initiated into the ranger colony. After some trials and tribulations he became a competent hunter, which further improved his health tremendously, and all his money and spare time he dedicated to becoming a schoolteacher. It was his own, completely private way of thanking Sister Margaret for the care that she had once given him.

Mara supposed that he was one of the Void's more notable success stories, but nothing came from an easy path. She would never forget the afternoon when she and her friend had found the deliriously weak man and had led him home. Ravendor had repaid her by providing Mara with an excellent education. Things worked themselves out, time passed and now there they were, the three of them, together. One was gone, but that would not break the bond that they shared.

The dark-haired man seemed wistful. He could not allow himself to even experience the sadness that came with grief. This was just the way things were, he was used to it, but that wouldn't stop him from mourning later on, privately, preferably with a bottle and a long night before him. "Margaret. She was a strong woman. She had very cold hands. That is mostly what I remember about her, well, that and the amazing way she managed to shout without actually raising her voice. If she hadn't been a nun I definitely would have-"

"Courted her?" Magi intrusively inquired.

"Why must you insist on interrupting people so often? It's very annoying." Ravendor pointed out stolidly.

"I can't help it; I interrogate people. It used to be my… well, I think it used to be one of the things that I did before all of this. Perhaps I should have joined the Acheron Inquisition instead of the Elmdynirim." The other ranger admitted without seeming sorry at all, a modest smile on his face. Ravendor's own interruption had killed the argument but it was probably better that way.

Magi focussed on Mara again. Even when she was miserable with her eyes all puffy from the tears she still looked beautiful. "Look Mara, I'm not a sympathetic person. I could try but it would come off more as pathetic rather than sympathetic. I feel for you but I need to be able to do my job."

"I know. I know what you mean. You have to do what she asked of you or you will betray her trust. I… I'm just stalling you because I can't bear the thought that I'll never see her again. Once you kill her that will be it, she'll be gone." Mara pushed away her cup of tea and rubbed at her eyes. Despite how wretched she seemed she felt terribly calm inside. "If you want me to believe that Sister Margaret asked you to kill her then you must believe what I am about to tell you as well."

"What is it?" Ravendor asked patiently, standing up again. He went back to the cabinet and started rifling through their private inventory. The dark-haired archer had a feeling that very soon they were all going to need a stiff drink, and he remembered that Margaret always kept a bottle of the good stuff high up on the shelf, away from the hands of children and reserved for special occasions. This was quite a special occasion, although not a very happy one.

Magi was wordlessly waiting for Mara to talk. He had relaxed somewhat and now he just looked at her with steady blue eyes. The young woman suddenly felt very self-conscious, just like when she had used to give oral reports or speak in a debate at school. She wasn't quite sure if either of the two men would believe her. After all, she was just a girl. "Um, Sister Margaret left a gift for my birthday just before she departed. I think that gift was half a request, subconscious maybe, but it's not something I can simply ignore. I think she wanted me to kill her, too."

For a few moments there was silence. Nobody said anything, even Ravendor had stopped his searching through the cupboard. It made Mara feel uncomfortable, like they didn't believe her but didn't want to hurt her feelings by saying so. "Lost souls aren't the only ones on this island who are able to fight. When they were alive my father was a skilled swordsman and my mother a talented magician. My entire life I've avoided fighting because of how they met their end. I don't want to do that anymore. I want to go with you, Magi, see Sister Margaret again." She elaborated quietly.

"That's out of the question." Magi replied stubbornly, straightening himself up. He preferred to fight alone but he could stand to have a partner or fight within a team, provided they knew exactly what they were doing. Mara was a Void native, a woman, and she was completely unskilled in combat. Ravendor might not mind babysitting but he was not going to have it.

Mara seemed surprised at being denied her wish. "But why?" She asked in a desperate kind of puzzlement. "I promise that I won't be a burden to you! Please give me a chance!"

"Bringing a person with no combat experience to an alastor hunt goes against everything I have learned as a ranger of Elmdynir! Has it even occurred to you that you might get hurt? People can die on hunts, Mara! You will be a burden to me whether you promise or not. I don't want to risk the chance of something happening to you." The ranger blurted out before he could realise that his stubbornness illustrated just how much he cared for her.

Ravendor took a bottle from off the shelf along with three clear glasses. Deep amber liquid sloshed about inside the bottle. It was not quite full but it was far from being empty, either. "Using that same reasoning you could say that I was a fool for bringing you to an alastor hunt with no prior experience, Magi, and when my own guide, rest his soul, did the same for me. We were all callow novices at some point in our lives, you cannot deny that."

But Mara unlike them had a long happy future to look forward to. Her life was far more valuable than theirs, that was why lost souls felt they had an obligation to protect people like Mara from harm. Magi wasn't very certain on how to explain this without trivializing his own life and Ravendor's. Still, if Sister Margaret wanted Mara's involvement then she had just a right to be there as he did. "What do you think, Ravendor?" He sighed.

"I think that instead of sitting around here organizing the circumstances of Margaret's death we should spend our time celebrating our beloved Sister's life. If you think it dangerous for Mara to follow you by herself would it make any difference if I accompanied her? I would protect her with everything that I have." Nobody had asked him to be a part of this but he felt that sometimes chance and circumstance were just as loud a voice as the most vehement of summons. Ravendor didn't want to sit idly by and do nothing while the alastor was hunted and killed.

"He's right, you know. She did so much for us. She gave so many people a home and even more people a future. I hope she understood just how much of a difference she made before she left." Mara intoned as she watched Ravendor pour three straight glasses of drink professionally. It was a shame that they didn't have any ice, that was a rare luxury within their side of the Void.

Magi scowled, but his resolve was slipping. He could argue comfortably against one person but he was outnumbered by two. The archer respected Ravendor and his opinions but he thought that perhaps his attachment to Sister Margaret might have clouded his judgement. "Alright. Alright, as you wish. I care not. We will go and hunt the alastor together as a team. I only ask that Mara ventures with us with the utmost of care. The forest is no place for an unskilled woman."

Mara smiled as Ravendor corked the bottle of liquor. He had a feeling that this was meant to be Magi's first solo alastor hunt and they were ruining his opportunity to advance his standing within the ranger colony. Ravendor would figure out a way to make it up to him later. "Splendid! It's decided, then. It might take a short while to get prepared, I'll have to go to the storeroom and dig out my spare hunting clothes, and some kind of babysitter must be organised, but for now let us toast to the memory of an extraordinary woman!"

He raised a glass of drink high into the air. Mara hesitated to take hers, because somewhere in the back of her mind she still thought of herself as an underage child. She didn't particularly like the idea of drinking but then Mara found this to be another test of her value and worth to the other two men. Anything that they could do she would have to at least match them. "To Sissy and her kind heart!" She declared as she raised her own glass.

Magi finally gave in. He stopped looking so grumpy and took the last glass sitting lonely on the stone table. For today everything was about Mara, not himself. He couldn't believe that he had completely forgotten about Mara's birthday! Magi rarely drank and when he did it was always socially. He thought it pointless to drink alone. "In memory of a saint whom we all love." He intoned.

"Cheers!"

Glasses clinked together and they drank. Mara could only manage a small sip or two. The liquor was far too bitter for her liking, but one thing that was sweeter were the two rangers willing to help.

Someday soon she would prove her worth. Someday soon she would make them proud.

†††

The next few hours were both hectic and boring depending on who you were and what sort of responsibilities you bore. Mara went back to minding the children so they would not get in the busy rangers' way, and Ravendor vanished briefly to the eastern tower for a spare change of clothes. Magi had absolutely nothing to do, he had been prepared shortly after dawn and there were no last-minute errands to run. All he could do was sit aside and whittle a small piece of wood away with a carving knife. He knew that he was wasting precious time but what could he do about it? Nothing, really.

He had been considering crafting something out of wood as a birthday present for Mara, despite not knowing the slightest thing about carving when Ravendor left the castle grounds. He took a carriage and two of the pet stock horses, remarking that he needed to pick something up from Aria before they could leave. He was dressed for travel and combat now, cloaked in dark forest greens and worn leather. As he drove out of the courtyard he shouted to the other ranger; "I left the storeroom key in the lock in case you needed to retrieve something! I shall return soon!"

The younger archer sat on the steps of the side door into the castle and watched the elder archer depart. What could possibly be so important in Aria that he needed it right now? Magi should have been gone well over an hour ago, he hadn't the time. Well, at least one good thing had come from this, he could go into the storeroom and pick up the weapon he had put away months ago for its rarity and power. He hadn't even thought about it until the storeroom had been mentioned.

The castle on the edge of the forest had at least a hundred different rooms, most just locked up and forgotten about while others served as storage areas or served the mundane repetition of everyday life. Magi sometimes wondered why such a large place was used to house one or two dozen children and a small handful of adults, surely a big cottage or estate would have been good enough for them? He guessed it was better than letting this castle crumble and fall to ruin due to neglect. In this strange land he was now living in the laws of salvage were paramount.

He himself was one of the few adults who practically lived here anyway. Technically his real home was in the forest amongst the other rangers, for he loved the forest and the security that it gave, but too often he found himself visiting this place and staying within the castle's cold blue walls. He had heard a theory one night in Aria's tavern that some lost souls developed a deep attachment to the places they first woke up in, much like how a baby chick will identify the very first thing it sees as its mother. There had been much debate and agreement over the concept that night, and as Magi always felt a greater sense of 'home' when he was surrounded by the castle's stones he couldn't discount the idea as mere drunken fancy.

Frankly he was surprised that Sister Margaret had allowed him to stay. Orphans came in many shapes and ages, he supposed. Maybe as a lost soul herself she knew how it felt to be so dislocated from all that was familiar and all he once knew. Sister Margaret. He'd never hear her stern and principled voice ever again. Magi had hunted many alastors in his job as a ranger but this would be the very first time he'd be shooting at a familiar face. The fair-haired archer entered the tower and climbed the stairs to get to one of the storage rooms. It was musty up there, it smelt of age and forgotten memories.

The cruelty in the in the creation of alastors ran deeper than Magi would care to fathom. Sometimes he was more than convinced that the god of this world held a heartless kind of amusement in this sport. He could see no lesson in needing to hurt and kill slavering abominations that had once been friends and loved ones. The ranger colony had been formed to spare people that kind of distress, but when the friends and loved ones of the rangers themselves became involved, well, all they could do was put on a strong face and do what needed to be done. Euthanasia to save other lives, rangers hurt themselves in order to spare the innocent the pain.

This was all that Magi was ever good at doing. He suspected it stretched even further back than the three years he had spent as an inhabitant of Void, all the way to his former life. Being who he was now felt right, so going after Sister Margaret's alastor as repayment for all the kindness she had paid him was the very last and only thing he could do for her. He couldn't let a stranger take her life away.

When Magi had adapted to his new life he had left everything behind. All that he had once owned, or all that he had been found with was kept in a box within one of the storerooms in the eastern tower. It was difficult to throw things away when they had become your everything, so they collected dust and age conveniently out of sight and mind. There was no telling when he might need something from the past, anyway. He ascended to the correct level of the tower and briefly looked down at the progress he had made, out of one of the windows. He could see some of the children playing in the courtyard, not yet knowing that their matron had been lost.

The door to the storeroom was left slightly ajar. That was odd, as all the unused rooms were usually locked up tightly. It laid open just a crack so the door would not lock itself from the inside. There was only one set of keys and they belonged to the caretaker of the castle. Magi's eyes flicked down to the floor and scrutinized, as rangers who were paying attention were wont to do. He had been too caught up in his own thoughts to see a second set of footprints other than his own printed firmly in the thick layer of dust. Somebody else had been up here. It was probably Ravendor, he kept most of his old things packed away in storage too and he had said that he visited the storeroom before he left.

He wasn't breaking any rules by being in this place so Magi did not hesitate to go inside. On conventional alastor hunts he was happy to arm himself with just a bow, arrows and his pair of daggers, but this next mission was so important that he needed to be as precise as possible. He needed his extra weapon, the one he had brought with him from his past life. Magi took hold of the door handle and swung it open to the musty room within.

Magi paused, looking inside, and then for a short moment he just stared. His archer's reflexes were usually as sharp as a knife, but just like any other flesh and blood man in the world he couldn't help but mentally shut down and stare. He blinked once as Mara turned around slightly and the girl screamed in fright. The sharp sound seemed to snap Magi out of his confusion and he slammed the door shut as quickly as he could, the primitive locking mechanism in the door sealing it tight.

He heard Mara scramble to pick her clothes up off the floor through the wooden barrier of the door. Magi's hand was still glued to the door handle. Well, that was the very last thing he had expected to see. He felt kind of embarrassed, though not nearly as embarrassed as Mara must be feeling right now. His own embarrassment was obligatory, or he'd feel like a rat otherwise.

A few minutes passed and Magi was beginning to think that Mara was going to hide away in there until she heard him leave, but then he detected the tinkling of keys and a small voice saying; "Can you let me out, please? The key only works on your end so you've locked me inside." There were a few more tinkles then a small ring decorated with keys of varying size, colours and ages was pushed through the little gap between the floor and the door.

Magi knelt and picked up the key ring. It weighed more heavily in his palm than it actually appeared. "Which one is it?" He asked earnestly, trying to match the size of the lock to the correct size of the keys visually.

"Um, I think it was one of the silver ones. Keep trying until you find it, I don't want to be locked in here forever." Mara murmured through the barrier. Judging by the size of the lock and the correct colour of the key Magi had about six of them to test. The first one was a bust so he moved on to the second. Funny how the locks were made to keep the children out but now it had managed to lock one of those children firmly inside. Only Mara was not a child anymore, heck no, not according to what Magi just saw.

There was an awkward silence as Magi worked to set Mara free. On the other side of the door the girl was blushing so hard she was convinced that she must look like a tomato. "I'm sorry that I screamed at you." She apologized bashfully. "I, um, I don't own any clothes besides dresses so I was looking for some clothing that would seem a little more practical for when we go and look for Sister Margaret. There isn't enough time for me to go into town and buy or make some new clothes, so…"

"So you thought you would settle for discarded clothing instead." Magi finished for her as he fit the last key in the lock and heard the satisfying 'click' as it finally gave way. "Anyway, there is no need to apologize. It is my fault, I walked in on you."

Mara pushed the door open. She was back to wearing the pale green dress she had put on in the morning. There were still faint traces of a blush on her cheeks as she looked up at Magi standing there. She folded her arms protectively across her front. "Discarded?" She asked hesitantly, wondering if there was a double meaning to Magi's choice of words. The people who came to this island generally accepted the term 'lost souls' for what they were, but there was another word for them used in the two big cities of the archipelago and their neighboring provinces. They were Discards, people dropped and left behind because nobody had any use for them anymore.

The young girl had a few pieces of neatly folded clothing draped over one of her crossed arms. It was possible that the owners of those old clothes were still out there somewhere on the islands, or perhaps they had already undergone the process of becoming an alastor and were destroyed. Magi noticed that she was carrying a piece of his old uniform, the light blue shirt that he had first woken up wearing. "Is there any other term for it?" He replied carefully, answering the question with a question. "You shouldn't come with us. It will be dangerous, far more than you will ever be used to. Sister Margaret will not greet you with a smile, she will kill you as soon as she sees the chance."

"That's exactly why I have to come. I feel that Sister Margaret chose this day to leave for a reason. I need to figure out what that reason was. You weren't around when she said goodbye to me, you can't possible understand how I feel right now." Mara confessed. It was true that compared to the skills of the rangers she was no more than an extreme novice when it came to combat and fighting, but she trusted that they would protect her, and if necessary, she would protect herself. She just needed to see Sister Margaret one last time. "You… earlier, you didn't see anything, right?" She added shyly, averting her gaze now that she had mentioned everything that needed to be said.

"Not really. Your hair is too long so I couldn't see anything in particular." Magi reassured her, then realised the horrendous structure of his words and backtracked sharply, nearly slapping a hand over his mouth in dismay. "N-not that I mean your hair is too long, it's a good thing that I could not see anything, and I was not attempting to see anything in particular, uh, but I am also not saying that I would not want to either." He faltered, trying to remove the foot from his mouth but just making it worse.

The ranger brushed past Mara and made his way into the storeroom. It was better to get moving now than continue to say the wrong thing and look like a fool. Half a dozen of the boxes were opened and plenty of clothing was left lying about, across the chests or on the floor. It looked like Mara had broken into his own stuff and Ravendor's too. She had intended on cleaning it up afterward but she had been rudely interrupted. "Why are you up here?" She asked. If she had known she just would have gone out into the forest wearing a dress, no matter how troublesome it became.

"I came to get my gun." The archer replied as he looked through his few former possessions. The pistol was still there in its holster-belt. He pulled it out and checked the weapon's magazine. It was strange how he knew how to use a gun, how it worked and how to take good care of it, but he could remember only two or three times in which he had ever actually fired the weapon. Those times had always been within the Void. There were only two shots left. He had used it sparingly over the three years that he remembered but ammunition did not last forever.

Ravendor was lucky. The gun he had brought with him to the Void was remarkably primitive in comparison to his own, but because of that it was easy to maintain with the limited technology available to them. There was a gunsmith northeast of the city of Dainan that Ravendor bought his bullets from. Magi had once brought his own weapons down there one summer to be checked out but the gunsmith for the life of him could not devise a bullet that didn't jam the chamber and cause a misfire. Instead Magi had become as wickedly good at archery as he could, as fast as he could. There was no way he was going to live in the Void without a weapon.

Two shots left. After that this weapon would become an empty husk and the last tie to his former life would be severed. Magi snapped the magazine back into place and slipped the weapon into a fold of his green tunic. He stood and closed the chest containing all his things. "I'm ready now. Once you are prepared and Ravendor returns from Aria we will depart. You do understand that as you have formed this party you will be our leader. Our lives will be in your hands and yours will be in ours."

As Magi walked over to Mara and placed a hand on her shoulder in a friendly fashion she smiled at him. "I'm not scared. Not really." She said.

"Let's get out of this dusty place, leader." Magi suggested. Mara nodded and they left the tower together. It was best not to leave the children on their own for long periods of time, there was no telling what they might get up to unsupervised.

But Mara was scared. She was terrified. She had heard of many alastor accounts over the years and she had even seen one before, so long ago on that night eleven years in the past. Behind the smile of every lost soul lurked an alastor just waiting to come out.

Mara knew that even Magi, over time, would lose his humanity and turn into just another snarling beast. As he touched her gently an alastor touched her, and somewhere deep inside she hated him.

†††

It was about two in the afternoon when Ravendor returned to the castle from the nearby village of Aria. The small carriage and pair of stock horses he had taken from the stables rattled up the pathway and into the castle walls, the dark-haired ranger sitting in the driver's seat and holding the reins, humming a local folk song as he pulled into the courtyard. The two reliable old mares Socks and Stockings were eager to get out of the harness contraption and head straight back into the stalls for a good bite to eat and some rest. They were not as young as they once used to be.

Several children playing in the courtyard dropped what they were doing and ran to the carriage to see what was going on. The horses were usually only taken out once a week on market day, or for a rare outing down along the Lethe river, so whatever was going on must be a surprise. The horses were only going at a small walk now and one of the children, Iyosuke, got a foot on one of the carriage steps and managed to swing himself over to sit beside Ravendor. He didn't seem to mind, they were almost home anyway.

Time was not quite on their side. The day had reached its prime and was beginning to grow old, which gave the alastor they were hunting even more time to stockpile its strength, grow used to its new existence and maybe even breed. If the alastor bred then they would be in for a whole world of extra work. At the ranger colony Ravendor specialized in rapid and mass destruction of alastor spawn. They would be okay. He sang to remind himself that everything would be okay.

"What's that song mean?" Iyosuke asked as he held onto the rail of the carriage to keep himself from being rattled around. Some of his other friends, class and playmates were following the carriage on the ground, walking alongside it. It was possible, they thought, that maybe Sister Margaret and Ravendor were going to take them out for a fun little drive to celebrate Mara's eighteenth birthday. Iyosuke wasn't really interested in that, he had seen the stinky old river dozens of times in the past.

"Hmm, I don't know." Ravendor admitted as he clicked briefly at the horses and lightly pulled on the reins. From the main gate, or more accurately the side door to the main gate as nobody had the strength to open a door that big Magi Magemere made his way down the steps to stand in the courtyard with the others. He was a nonchalant giant in a crowd of little expectant faces. Ravendor turned to Iyosuke and offered his opinion. "I think it might have something to do with the changing of the seasons. Keep note of it, it may turn up in your lessons later in the week." He hinted.

Iyosuke groaned and hopped off the carriage. Of all the schoolteachers in the Void he and the others had to end up with one who turned everything in the world into a lesson. Socks whinnied in almost a greeting as Ravendor uttered a low 'whoa' and the vehicle ground to a halt. One of the older, more dutiful boys from the orphanage came up from the side and looked up at the ranger patiently. Tony liked horses, he was practically the stable boy when he had the spare time. "You want I should give them a rub-down and some feed, or are you planning on taking them out again today?" He asked.

"No, you can take care of them. Go drive the carriage around the side, just let me see how our passenger fares first." Ravendor instructed and jumped off to meet the dry dirt road. Initially he had intended on taking only a single horse and riding to town with only tack and bridle, but part of him declared that he was escorting a fine lady and she would have to be treated like a lady no matter what. Sticking her on the rear of a speeding horse would just be unseemly.

Ravendor walked around to the side of the carriage as Tony checked the horses and kicked out the extendable steps until they touched the ground. Opening the door he took the lady's hand and led her out into the daylight again. She was a fragile looking thing with fair hair and an obviously home-sewn dress and bonnet. "I'm okay, you don't have to do that for me." She reassured him and brushed his hand aside, climbing down by herself.

"Who's this? I thought you were going into town for supplies?" Magi said as he approached his friend. Ravendor was smiling like he just had the most fabulous idea in the world and Magi was not thinking hard enough to figure out what it was. He just wanted to get going. They were wasting time here. Granted, preparation was important but he couldn't risk letting the trail grow cold.

"As you know Mara will be coming with us on the hunt and Sister Margaret is currently;" Ravendor suddenly remembered that he was speaking in the presence of the children and adjusted his sentence accordingly; "… indisposed. You will not be here, I won't be here, so I brought somebody who can mind the castle and the children while we are out." He smiled and slipped his arm fondly around the woman's waist. She smiled sweetly. "I trust Emily very much. She will do a wonderful job."

Ah, trust Ravendor and his penchant for blondes. Vaguely he recalled that this woman and Mara were friends, and it seemed like she was more than just a friend to his friend. Iyosuke looked upset. Nobody had consulted him about this. "A babysitter? We don't need no babysitter! I'm a grown-up! We can be fine on our own!" He declared with a self-righteous air. Several of the other kids agreed with him using exclamations of their own.

"That's probably true but I don't think we should take that chance." Mara said from the threshold of the side door, interrupting their conversation. The others turned to look at her. She had discarded her green dress and now she was wearing a pair of tanned leather pants, a scabbard-belt, hunting boots and a pale blue shirt. The shirt was slightly too long for her so she had knotted it at the front. Finally, she had something strapped to her back that was wrapped up in a length of black cloth. Mara clasped her hands together at her front. "I don't look silly, do I?" She asked.

To Iyosuke it looked like Mara had gotten all dressed up to play a game of 'dragon slayer'. When she was smaller she had played it with him all the time. Seeing as it was her birthday maybe they were going to play it again one more time, after so long. Iyosuke had never really enjoyed seeing Mara growing up, it was like very slowly losing a friend.

Ravendor and Magi had gotten so used to seeing Mara in skirts and ribbons that it was strange to see her looking like someone else. Now she almost appeared like an entirely different person. She didn't look bad, she was very beautiful, but it was still strange. Emily held a hand daintily to her mouth and giggled. "Oh, Mara, no. You look like a boy! Oh dear." It was an exaggeration but Emily had been raised respectfully with standards in mind. If her mother could see her friend now she would most certainly come down with a case of the vapors.

Instead of dismaying her Emily's observation seemed to cheer Mara up. On this day today she was still getting used to the idea of not being a child anymore and having to scout out her own path through life as an adult. There was nobody left to do it for her, not her parents, not Sister Margaret, nobody. In some ways she was no different to a discard, but if that balked her now she would get nowhere. "Good!" She chimed happily. "That's exactly what I was trying for! I was going to cut my hair shorter but then I," she remembered Magi stumbling in on her and going into an uncharacteristic stammering fit, muttering about it being too long, "I, um, changed my mind."

Magi was now back to his stoical self and he was a million miles away from how he had acted earlier, yet she wasn't likely to forget about it for quite some time, as embarrassed as that made her feel. Mara joined the crowd and gave Emily a little hug. They had actually been neighbors before she had been sent to the orphanage and they didn't see each other very often save for some rare market days. "Take good care of the children while we are away. I don't know how long it will be but it shouldn't be more than two or three days."

"Yes, Ravendor mentioned that it might take a while. I don't mind, I have plenty of sewing that needs attending to anyway. May I just ask one thing?" Emily inquired as she broke the hug and pulled away. Mara patiently waited for her to continue. The children all listened too. "Where is Sister Margaret? Has she also gone on a journey? The last time I saw her she seemed a little distant. Distracted."

There was a long silence before anyone dared to reply. Of the three adults standing in a circle each of them expected and hoped that the person beside them would clear their throat and clarify everything. Ravendor cursed under his breath. He knew that he had forgotten to explain something and now he couldn't do that in the presence of the children. When Magi shot him a dirty look Ravendor bit the bullet and talked. "Sister Margaret is… actually, we are going to go look for her, like a game of hide and seek. Do you understand?" He touched the bow partially looped over his body for emphasis.

"Not really. Why would she be… oh." Emily began to question further but then realization fell down upon her like rain. She was a delicate girl and in many ways she had an old-fashioned view of things, but she was not stupid. The reality of the world and the eventual fates of the lost souls moving across it like vagrants were very clear to her. The fair-haired girl's eyes misted over. Sister Margaret had not been a close friend but she had still been a friend, nevertheless. "That's horrid. That's… I understand. Very well, I will mind things here while you are out."

"Thank you, Em. We won't be long. Keep all of the extra rooms locked up tight and there should be plenty of food left in the larder. Carolyn is a vegetarian and Iyosuke is allergic to peanuts. The others will eat just about anything except Tony hates lamb and Pippy hates anything bitter. It's best to give Pippy the lamb and Tony the tart food. Now, all the children under ten years go to bed before eight thirty and the children over ten years get an extra quarter hour for every bonus year. If they start to fib about their age just check the growth chart in the main hall. Their ages are written down on the wall." Mara explained carefully.

"If I didn't know any better I would say that you were the governess of this castle, Mara!" Ravendor cut in, laying a hand on her shoulder. Something faintly metallic gleamed from her belt and the ranger looked down slightly. The scabbard she was carrying wasn't empty, from somewhere she had pilfered herself a perfectly honed bastard sword. The castle was big enough that it could have come from anywhere. At least she wasn't intending on meeting the alastor unarmed.

Ravendor held a slight fear that Mara was going to try and reason with the alastor rather than fight it. The sword made Ravendor feel far more comfortable over Mara following them. She turned to him and pushed him away, scoffing. "Do not fault me for paying attention to important things." She chided playfully.

"We're wasting daylight." Magi reminded them seriously, acting as the human clock. He adjusted his cloak so it would not hinder the reach of his arm, then checked the fold of his tunic where his gun lay in quiet wait. "Let's go."

"He's right. Onwards and upwards, as they say!" Ravendor knelt a little, to the height of the children. "This means there will be no more lessons until I return, so I suggest you use this spare time to catch up on your studies. I am not giving you students a chance to relax." He cautioned, knowing full well that not a single one of them would heed his advice and they'd spend their entire time playing or testing Emily's faith in the gods.

About a minute and a half later the three hunters were walking out of the castle walls in a row, intending on following the road until they could cut across country and reach the edge of the forest. The children and Emily were waving their good-byes and shouting cheerful snippets of; "Get lost!" "Stay out there as long as you want!", and "Don't come back!" catching in the wind and dancing around them like dandelion puffs. As far as the children were concerned this was going to be their big vacation from school.

Mara was trying hard not to giggle and even Magi had a noticeable smile on his face. Ravendor didn't know whether to be bemused, upset or hurt. It seemed like he was experiencing a combination of all three. "Bloody hell." He murmured softly by Mara's side. "After everything that I have sacrificed for them, too."

"I don't think they mean it." Mara consoled him, giving the older man a friendly squeeze. "They are only children. In a matter of hours they will be sure to miss us." She had only just left the castle and she was already missing it herself. There was a very thin chance that she might never see it again. If the alastor killed them then that would be it, that would be the end. Despite her warm smile Mara's nervous heart fluttered weakly in her chest.

"Yes, well, they will know who is the boss once this mission is through." Ravendor grumped, then he found some hidden internal fount of cheer and he added; "we will see who gets the last laugh when I enforce extensive catch up lessons to make up for the time they have foolishly wasted."

Magi started to laugh. Ironic and morbid humor was really the only thing which could set him off like that. Mara thought that it was sort of cruel but it was nice to hear the fair-haired archer laughing for once.