Ana woke to song.

  It was familiar. A melody she’d heard more than a few times now, in a language that she didn’t understand a word of. The voice that sang it was clear, bright, and trembled so badly that the song itself became almost unrecognizable.

  But only almost. Ana would recognize Messy’s voice singing her favorite song anytime, anywhere, no matter what.

  Ana’s head was on a pillow, but she could feel the warmth of Messy’s body behind and around her. One hand rested high on Ana’s chest, and the other stroked her hair as Messy kept singing through her tears. I’m in her lap again, she thought, and for a few seconds she just melted back into the safety and comfort that she always felt when Messy took care of her.

  But those feelings didn't last. Hearing Messy cry hurt too much, which was a strange, uncomfortable thing in itself. Messy crying wasn’t the greatest sign of Ana’s own state, either, nor was the fact that her whole body ached. Joints, muscle, skin, everything was sore. She would have sworn that even her nails and hair were in pain, if she didn’t know that was impossible. It wasn’t an unbearable pain, just a dull, all-encompassing throbbing that she could ignore if she put her mind to it.

  But the fever? That was gone. So was the ache from the bite on her neck, replaced with the same pain that she felt everywhere else. That had to be good, all things considered.

  Ana made a few abortive attempts to speak, finally managing to croak a weak, “Mess?”

  The singing stopped, and Messy sniffed behind her.

  “Mess, I think I’m okay.” Ana’s throat was dry and scratchy. Speaking hurt, like everything else. But Messy was crying, so Ana had to try. With a great effort she put her hand on top of Messy’s, resting on her chest.

  “Angel?” Messy sniffed, then her hand turned and grasped Ana’s. “Angel! You’re awake. SHE’S AWAKE!” Messy called at the open door, then wrapped both arms around her, burying her face in Ana’s hair. “It worked. Oh, gods beyond, it worked!”

  “What happened?” Ana heard rapid steps on the stairs but didn’t want to wait.

  “You fell asleep. We couldn’t wake you. And, gods, you were burning up! Nothing Touanne did helped!”

  As if summoned, the Healer came through the door, a smile of relief and absolute joy splitting her face. “It worked!” she exclaimed, running to their side, then leaping on the bed and wrapping them both up in an excited hug. “Ana, it worked! The ritual works!”

  “Tou, please—!” Ana felt like she was being crushed. In a good way, sure. She was being crushed with joy and kindness. But after getting so used to being inhumanly strong, it was a strange feeling. She felt so weak that she feared that something was terribly wrong, but checking her Summary showed that all of her Attributes were just as they should. Including her Connection, which sat back at 22 base.

  Oh, she thought. Oh!

  She somehow hadn’t quite understood Touanne. “The ritual works?” Of course it worked. That was what they’d been making sure of when Ana crashed. But now the pieces slowly fell into place.

  “You used the ritual on me?” Ana asked from inside the press.

  Touanne pulled back, sitting down on her heels and adding her hands to a three-way clasp with Ana’s and Messy’s. “We did,” she said, a little more soberly. “You didn’t respond to either magic or any potion I could think of, and this morning… gods, Ana, we thought we might lose you. Your body was destroying itself trying to deal with the infection, but the crystals were still spreading. Not just on your skin, but in your lungs, your heart, your brain… But the girl from yesterday, she woke up! She’s confused and frightened, she seems to speak several languages but I can’t understand a word of any of them, and she still doesn’t have a Class. But she’s alive, and lucid, and responding just like you’d expect from a person in her position. So… we tried. We couldn’t wake you to ask, but we agreed that it was what you’d want. And it was that, or watch you slip away, so your wishes didn’t matter much one way or another, anyway.”

  As she spoke, Touanne had filled a cup from a pitcher by the bed. She gave it to Messy, who helped Ana drink. It was different from the medicine she’d been drinking for a few days now. Instead of herby it was citrusy and refreshing, and Ana drank it down as fast as her poor throat would allow.

  “Thanks,” she sighed once the cup was empty. “For the drink, and for saving my life, probably.”

  Touanne snorted happily. Her mood was leaps and bounds beyond anything Ana had seen from her for weeks — since they brought in Jancia, probably. “You’re welcome, on both counts. How are you feeling?”

  “Better,” Ana said. Even speaking was an effort. “And worse. Feels like the fever’s gone, and my Connection’s back to normal. But everything hurts. And I feel weaker than I have in ages.”

  “That’s to be expected. The fever may be gone, but you've not recovered from the ritual yet. It puts a lot of strain on the body, but that's easy to deal with. We’ll get some food, some Healing, and some strengthening medicine in you, and you’ll be just fine. Knowing you, we’ll have you on your feet by tomorrow.”

  “Alright. Cool.” Ana sure as hell didn't feel like she’d be on her feet by tomorrow, but a month wasn't enough time to internalize magic. If the Healer said so…

  “What about Jancia? Suren and the others?”

  Touanne's whole aura became more serious. “Tellak's with them, explaining what we're going to do. We’ll start with Jancia, then the others, and finally Suren. They’re all bad, but… I’m worried about Jay. She's getting thin, lips cracking, more and more rage. I haven’t been able to examine her properly for a few days now, but I expect the crystals in her head are growing. Resembling the captives, when I tried to heal them. So, now that you're awake and recovering…”

  She trailed off, but Ana understood. “Now that you're sure it’s… maybe not safe safe, but it works. It’s worth the risk, right?”

  “Right,” Touanne said. But she was slipping again. That fear that something might go wrong was growing.

  “Listen, Tou. I get it. You don't like using anyone to try something you're not sure of, right? But there was no real choice with me, and if I’d been awake I would have insisted. I told you, and I’ll tell you again: I’m glad you did it, and I only hope it works just as well on Jancia. Alright? So, thank you.”

  “Here,” Messy said, holding her arms out around Ana. “Come here. You need this.”

  Touanne looked between the two, then went in for a hug when Ana lifted her own arms as much as she comfortably could.

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  “You’re brilliant, Mistress Touanne.” Messy’s tone was filled with confidence and admiration, and she squeezed until there was no room left for argument or humility. “Don't you dare forget that. Ana’s going to be fine, Jancia’s going to be fine, and so is everyone else. And when we can we'll start on the poor bastards out there, alright? We’ll try to disable instead of kill, and we'll heal them. As many as we can.”

  Ana wanted to tell her not to promise things like that. “As many as we can,” was likely to be a very low number; what she intended to do didn’t lend itself to taking captives. But this was not the time. With the way Touanne relaxed at her words, and the way she said “Okay,” and the way her aura just screamed that she wanted to believe Messy, some hope seemed to be just what their friend needed right then.

  “We’ve got this, Tou,” Ana said, her cheek against Touanne's waist. “You’ve got this. There's some bastards out there trying to destroy this whole splinter, and we're going to beat them, and a big part of that is you. We'll be fighting our way to wherever they are. It's not going to be easy. But it won’t be possible at all if we slowly lose people to this damn plague. And thanks to you, we won't. Thanks to you, we’ve got a real chance. Okay?”

  She felt Touanne shift slightly as she nodded. “Okay.”

  “Good. Now get off me! You're like a damn furnace.”

  “Right, sorry!” Touanne laughed nervously and sat back. “I’ll mix you a potion for the soreness and weakness. Mestendi, could you get her something to eat? There's soup in the kitchen. Just heat it on the plate.”

  “Right.” Messy kissed Ana on the top of her head and climbed out from behind her, and in moments Ana was alone.

  She looked at the little shrine Touanne kept across from the bed. Just a table with a small bowl for incense at the feet of an effigy of the Lifegiver, an androgynous figure holding a swaddled babe in one arm and a sickle in their other hand.

  “You’d better look after Tou,” Ana whispered to the effigy. “Once we leave this place, when we can’t keep her from the blood and the screams and the dying anymore… don’t let her break. Don't you fucking dare let her break.”

  Threatening a major deity now?

  The distant voice of the Wayfarer whispered through Ana’s mind, and she barely needed to use her imagination to see the amused smile on the goddess’ angular face.

  I’ll see what I can do. Get well! Time is short.

  The voice faded like a dream. It had been so weak that Ana might have thought she'd imagined it, but she knew better.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, meaning it.

  She wondered if she'd ever get used to this. Not to the voice of a goddess in her head; that felt oddly normal already, to the point that she’d missed it when losing a few points of Connection had sent her back into silence. No, she wondered if she'd ever get used to the idea of that voice, or any voice in her head, giving her a sense of comfort. There was a god — a goddess, even — and she was demonstrably in Ana’s corner. How was an atheist supposed to deal with that?

  Touanne’s potion did wonders for the physical discomfort, but like most Healing it treated the symptoms far quicker than the underlying problem. So while Ana felt alright after a big bowl of soup and a jug of the herby, faintly tangy liquid, Touanne still wouldn’t let her go anywhere. She’d been allowed to walk around the building for a while, but that was it. She’d talked to Tellak, who’d come by to check on her, and visited Suren in the room she still thought of as Jancia’s. He’d been half out of it, but seemed to understand her when she explained that she’d had the same affliction, and that Touanne’s ritual had cured her. But then it was back to bed. She’d have liked to see the three others, but they were already showing aggressive behavior and were physically well enough to be kept in the cells with Jancia. With how weak Ana was, a trip outside was out of the question.

  “The potion will have worn off by morning,” the Healer said as she and Messy firmly guided Ana back upstairs. “Take stock then, and see if the aches and the weakness are truly gone. If they are, you’re free to go.”

  “What if they’re not? I feel bad about taking up your bed.”

  “Please, Ana, don’t worry about me. I have a perfectly comfortable cot set up downstairs, where I can hear if Suren needs me. You’re staying in that bed until you’re well, and you’re both entirely welcome.”

  “Angel, please: Listen to Touanne,” Messy said from her other side. “As much as I’d love to bring you home, I couldn’t stand it if something happened in the middle of the night, and I had to leave you to get help. As effective as the ritual was, and the potion, we still don’t know for sure that you’re entirely cured. So please, Angel. Stay here. Tonight, at least. For me?”

  “Yeah, okay.” Ana had been convinced by the time Touanne was finished, but if she hadn’t, easing Messy’s mind would have been reason enough to stay.

  The next morning Ana felt stiff, but not weak. And she had a few little aches, but she wasn’t sore everywhere. In short, it was a perfectly normal morning, waking in a bed that was too soft for her.

  She was also curled up on her side, the little spoon to Messy’s big one, which was a damned nice way to wake up.

  Ana had slept six hours at most. Outside the window it was still mostly dark, but there was the beginning of a blush in the sky. Thanks to her Willpower she only needed less than four hours now, but she’d been sleeping a lot while she was ill. Maybe her body was just used to it? Or maybe, when she needed so little sleep she could allow herself to be a useless layabout and sleep for hours more than she actually needed, and still get a full day done.

  She chose to believe the second one. It sounded perversely pleasant to be lazy for once.

  She did have a small problem, though. She was awake, and as rested as she’d ever felt. But Messy had gone to bed at the same time as her and had lain awake until Ana herself went to sleep, and Ana doubted that her girlfriend had the Willpower to only need six hours of sleep.

  She was very warm. Messy was like a furnace. And she wanted to get up, but she didn’t want to wake Messy.

  She did her best. She really did. She used all her Attributes and her Stealth to their fullest. Messy had wrapped an arm around her, up and under her shirt and with the hand dug in beneath Ana, and Ana lifted herself on her elbow and knees, then moved Messy’s arm slowly, gently, fractions of an inch per second. All that got her was an unhappy little whine, and Messy’s arm tightening around her stomach, pulling them closer.

  For all Ana’s Strength, and all her Willpower, she wasn’t strong enough to free herself. Defeated, she accepted her fate. She snuggled back into Messy’s warmth, and closed her eyes.

  “Wake up, Angel.”

  Sunlight streamed in through the window. A gentle voice was whispering in her ear, and a soft, yet calloused hand stroked her arm.

  Ana hadn’t expected to sleep more, but there she was.

  “Mess,” she grunted and rolled over, wrapping her arms around the elfin space heater. Ana effortlessly continued the roll, pushing Messy onto her back and getting a little surprised squeak out of her for her efforts. She kissed her on the forehead in passing then continued until her feet were on the floor and stretched, hands high over her head. Her shoulders popped and she groaned with pleasure, then moved on to her back and legs.

  “Someone’s feeling spry!” Messy laughed. She lay on her side, braids scattered around her head, amber eyes shining as she watched Ana stretch.

  “I can move properly for the first time in days,” Ana said, her head almost touching the floor as she folded over. “And don’t think I can’t feel your eyes on me, lecher.”

  “Shamelessly guilty.”

  “Yeah, well, ogling me is the least you deserve for looking after me all this time.” Rising from her stretch, Ana leaned in and slid her hand around the back of Messy’s neck, making the elfin woman gasp softly as she leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Thank you, Mess. I don’t know how to show you how much I appreciate everything you do, but I’m going to try.” She punctuated her words with a soft kiss.

  With a little, “Oh!” Messy tried to follow Ana’s lips up as she straightened, and Ana indulged her, giving her another peck and helping her sit. “As much as I’d love to start trying right here and now… having you sponge me off was lovely, but I need a real bath, alright? And I need to clean out my whole mouth with something.”

  “And there’s a lot to do,” Messy said reluctantly, resting her hands on Ana’s waist.

  “And there’s a lot to do. We need to prepare to move out. The goddess is… I’m not sure. Worried, or impatient. Things are bad, wherever our friends are. We can’t wait any longer.”

  “Captain Pirta isn’t going to like that.”

  Ana sighed. “No, she is not.”

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