Lily tried not to bolt, and failed. Sunica grabbed her by the arm. Which was fair. This was her mess to deal with. But everything suddenly was happening all at once.

  A screaming goblin covered their head and ducked behind the couch. There was an insistent pounding on the front door. Lily was trying her hardest not to panic. Get control. What is happening?

  Then she heard the words.

  “Don’t cast a spell on me! I’m awake! Don’t kill me! We can talk about this!”

  “Open up this instant Miss Human! I’ve brought the guard to sort this out.”

  Adelina was yelling from outside. The goblin was yelling from inside. Sunica was staring at the goblin with an odd expression on her face. Oh right, this is the first time she’s probably understood what a goblin was saying.

  “Uh. Sunica! Get the door. Stall them, okay? Step outside or something. Don’t let them see. I’ll take care of this.”

  “No, don’t take care of me! Please just let me go!”

  Sunica groaned but moved towards the door while Lily shushed the goblin.

  “I’m not going to hurt you! Shush! The people outside might. Stay behind this couch and don’t say a word, okay? I’ll try to get them to leave you alone. I promise.”

  The goblin stared at her with wide eyes, but nodded in response and quieted down. Lily was about to turn to go when she thought of one more thing.

  “Oh, and whatever you do, don’t attack them. I can’t stop them in a fight. I think.”

  The goblin nodded back, then winced and held a hand to their injuries. Lily frowned, but had to go take care of the door first. There were sounds of arguing outside. Sunica was probably doing her best to send them away.

  Well, she had the [Lady] class now. Time to wield some authority!

  Lily practically kicked the door open. The arguments immediately stopped, and three heads swiveled to look at her. Outside stood Sunica, Adelina, and Avea. Instantly, she regretted getting the attention. Panic burbled up in her chest. Shit! She thought she was used to Adelina and maybe even Avea, but having everyone staring at her was…

  Sunica cleared her throat, and the tension broke. The red scaled girl ended the silence too.

  “Uh… Hey. We were just talking about you.”

  Lily nodded. But somehow, not being the first one to speak felt like it had taken the spotlight off her. So she tried to start the conversation.

  “Good Morning Adelina. Av– Mister Avea. What’s up?”

  Adelina sputtered.

  “What’s up? You know damn well what’s up Miss Human. You’ve got a goblin in there. I brought a guard from Veni to talk some sense into you and take care of it!”

  Avea waved politely.

  “Mornin’ Miss Flamewalker.”

  Lily turned to him.

  “You’re going to talk some sense into me?”

  Avea rubbed at the back of his neck and put on his best work smile.

  “Ah, well, you know. Miss Nor insisted that someone come along to check things out. But the boss thought only one guard was enough for a single goblin, and I already know you.”

  Lily laughed. That made sense. Poor guy was in a really awkward position though. She didn’t want to make it worse, but it was a little funny.

  “So… Any chance I can convince you to just not do anything?”

  The [Guardsman] gimaced.

  “Well, Miss Adelina is pretty insistent there’s danger. Do you disagree?”

  “Wholeheartedly.”

  “But there is a goblin in there?”

  “If I say no, are you going to search the place? Or do you legally need our consent?”

  He looked thoughtful for a minute.

  “It’s a bit of a grey area, I guess?”

  “What do you mean, you guess?”

  “Miss Flamewalker, we live in a pretty small town. Our laws are simple and straightforward. No stealin’. No killing. That sort of thing. [Guardsmen] by and large are just around to protect people and keep order. If there’s anything more complicated than that we use our best judgement and hash it out in front of the village head or the [Matriarch] if it’s intense enough.”

  Adelina looked smug. Lily almost wanted to punch her. That was weird. She wasn’t used to having particularly violent thoughts. She’d need to put some thought into that later. But for now…

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  “Okay. Well, I mean, you’ve always been pretty straightforward with me Mister Avea. Can I just tell you the truth?”

  Avea grinned back at her.

  “Please Miss. It’d really make things so much easier for me.”

  “There’s a goblin in Sunica’s house. They’re injured, and I’m not going to let anyone injure them further. The goblins that were murdered yesterday were speaking thinking people, and the goblin in there is just a kid. A kid that I can understand. I’m certain they aren’t a threat to me, and I can’t just sit by and watch a person get killed.”

  She saw Sunica wince out of the corner of her eye when she mentioned murder. Shit. Right. Sunica was a part of that. She didn’t mean to… She’d apologize later. Avea, for his part, was just nodding along.

  “Oh. Alright. Sounds fine to me. Hey, whatever y’all cooked in there smells really good. You wouldn’t happen to have more would ya?”

  Adelina’s smug look immediately vanished, and she grabbed Avea by the arm and nearly shouted into his ear.

  “WHAT. What the hells do you mean? She has a goblin in there! Isn’t it your duty to kill it?”

  Avea shrugged in response and took on an apologetic tone.

  “Miss Nor, I’m sorry. But Miss Flamewalker is a [Lady] from some other nation. If she says it’s fine, I’m inclined to listen. I’m not out here to start a diplomatic incident. Besides, I spent an afternoon with her and she seems like a total nutcase, but pretty smart and with some magic of her own. I doubt a goblin is a threat to her. With Sunica here too, and you, and me… Well. Yeah. Uh. Can you stop like, tryin’ to make my head pop off with your mind?”

  That was a pretty apt description of Adelina’s facial expression, and getting called out on that fact just made her more obviously angry.

  “You absolutely can’t be serious. I demand as a representative of the Nor Family that you enter that cabin and put your spear through that goblin at once!”

  Avea shrugged at her again, and then dug around in his ear for a moment.

  “I’d love to Miss Nor.”

  “Then do it!”

  “Can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well, the goblin jumped out the window around the time Lily admitted it was in there. So, problem solved..”

  Everyone turned to look into the cabin. The door to Sunica’s room was open, and so was the window next to her bed. Lily opened her mouth to say something but couldn’t find words. Sunica groaned. Adelina went off.

  “Go after it! Don’t let it get away!

  Avea laughed.

  “Oh yeah, I’ll get right on starting a diplomatic incident with a foreign [Lady] that you want to get to talk to the [Matriarch].

  Adelina glared back.

  “I am ordering you to go after that goblin, in the name of that very [Matriarch].”

  Avea rolled his eyes dramatically and started into the woods. He clearly wasn’t in a hurry. Which meant…

  “Sunica, can you please go find the goblin? You should be able to talk to them now. Just, try to bring them back here safely?”

  “Lily… Maybe this is…”

  “Please. Sunica?”

  Sunica bit her lip for a moment, then seemed to resolve herself and took off into the woods at a run.

  Adelina and Lily just stared at each other for a minute. Well, the only way out of this was through it. Lily cleared her throat and broke the silence.

  “Can we… talk about this?”

  Adelina scowled at her.

  “As a diplomat and dignitary, or as friends?”

  That stung. But, Lily had to ask. Her mind was screaming the question even more now than last night.

  “Are we still friends? You don’t hate me?”

  She hadn’t expected that voicing that emotion would hurt as much as it did, but tears came to her eyes just trying to get the words out, and they came out a lot more fragile sounding than they were in her head.

  Adelina looked completely surprised for a second, before stammering a response.

  “What? Of course we’re still friends. Are you stupid? Duh.”

  Relief filled Lily’s heart. It was so stupid. But she had really enjoyed getting closer to Adelina, and the thought that she had stomped out a blossoming friendship right away was painful. She wasn’t used to having friends. She…

  “I’m not used to having friends. I’m sorry. I don’t know…”

  The harsh tone left Adelina’s voice as she looked Lily up and down for a moment. Then, it seemed like she decided something.

  “Ugh. You’re so… Fine. I’m sorry for hurting you too. But we have to solve this if we’re gonna keep being friendly. And I want to. Okay?”

  Lily tried to smile. She wasn’t sure it looked right, but that was fine.

  “Yeah. Okay. Sorry. I don’t… I’m not used to other people. Let’s talk about this then.”

  “No. Let’s solve this right now.”

  Huh? Lily looked at Adelina. The girl seemed like she was focusing hard on something.

  “What’s that supposed to–”

  “Shut up. I’m doing something!”

  Lily shut up. Although, she wasn’t sure what was happening. Maybe she should be interrupting. The girl in front of her wasn’t going to cast a spell was she? Just as she was about to open her mouth and ask, it happened.

  “[Momentary Peace]! [Binding Negotiation]! [Impasse Breaker]! [Bought Time]!”

  The younger girl doubled over into the snow, breathing hard. She looked like she was going to pass out. Lily lunged forwards and grabbed her.

  “Adelina! Are you okay?”

  Then, her mind caught up with what the girl had said.

  “What did you do?”

  Adelina grinned up at her, still breathing heavily.

  “I told you. We’re solving this now.”

  Something was different. Lily looked around. The world had a strange haze to it. Like she was seeing everything through sunglasses, or the whole world was under a giant invisible tinted window. Also… she stared at one of the trees swaying lightly in the breeze. Was it moving… slower? What the hell.

  “W-was that magic? What the hell kind of spells did you cast?

  Adelina shook her head.

  “I used all my best skills. I won’t be able to do this again for at least a month. But, you want to be friends with me so bad? Fine. Let’s work it out. Stupid.”

  Then she stuck her tongue out at Lily. Was she… embarrassed?