“That would be right." Algra turned to Ulla and nodded her agreement.

Ulla smiled at her for the first time and squeezed her arm across

Algra's shoulders.

For the first time in a long time, Algra actually felt clean.

Gregory's new sword felt strangely comfortable in his hand as he carried it back home in its sheath. It wasn't something he'd ever have thought he'd need, but now he had it he knew that he would probably seldom ever be without it again. On returning to his camp, he found a few orcs and humans settled by the fire telling stories about the departed whilst enjoying a fresh cask of beer. He recognized NulLik and

ULf amongst them, but he didn't go to join them. The gift of the sword had turned his mind to the future, for it was difficult to receive such a thing without turning one's mind to what they planned on doing with it.

Ducking under the canopy of his tent, he saw Janette lay in their bed reading the beautifully bound book about elves that Valise had loaned her. She still looked a little pale, and her hair spilled down across her shoulders as she hadn't yet had it tended to since she had died. It made her look a little wilder, and he liked it. Without saying hello, he instead walked over to the side of the bed and kissed her on the lips. She contentedly shifted her head on his approach, and the kiss raised a fresh smile from her. It was only then that she noticed he was carrying a sword.

"Oh, Talina finally gave it to you?" she asked, evidently pleased.

"You knew about it?"

“Of course I did. It'll go very well with your new suit of armour.

Can't go wrong with black on black."

He followed her gaze to the corner of their tent, and saw the armour had been mounted on a stand. It seemed like they had received some dark guest, as it was properly mounted and wasn't designed to show any part of the human beneath. It stood in the corner, and Gregory approached it to carefully place a hand on the chest-plate.

“What's up?" Janette asked.

“I just had a conversation with Tragoth Ironheart about this. He said that it was practically brimming with magic from the ring. I wondered if I touched it I might be able to feel it. I can't. Is my hair sticking up at Least?" He looked back to her expectantly.

“It's not a Van De Graaff generator, you dope.”

“Wow, someone paid attention in physics class.”

“I got smarts, buddy. Real good smarts." She stuck her tongue out at him.

“Hey, don't go thinkin' I don't appreciate them. Hell, I was impressed when you made a Dragonball Z reference.”

“Huh? Oh. When I said you'd gone super saiyan after..." she paused for a moment, and it looked like some invisible weight descended on her shoulders. "After I'd died.”

Gregory put down his new sword propped up next to the armour and turned back to her. They hadn't really talked about what happened since she'd woken up. Conversation between them had been aimed more toward forgetting about the whole thing. Talking about it wasn't easy. It wasn't just that it brought up some difficult emotions, but rather that neither of them could fully recall what exactly had happened. At least not in the degree of detail required to talk it over. In order for him to understand her side of what happened he would have to know what dying felt like and he didn't. On the other hand, for her to get what he went through she'd have to put on a magical ring that gave her unimaginable power and the ability to process information beyond anything she could conceive. It wasn't exactly easy to talk about something that neither of them understood.