A serries of clangs echo through the bunker followed by the hatch opening and Rachel calling down. “You can come out. They made an announcement – the baited breath has withdrawn past its cannon range.”

  The girls slowly climb up out through the hole, Sarrah giving her mother a questioning look as she does. “I thought the bunker was more about imagined assassins than the warship at our border?”

  Rachel hesitates. “Er, well… we can talk about it at the table.”

  They go up and sit down. The parents glance at each other, unspoken words said by expressions. Rachel seems hesitant while Gerrald urges her. Finally, she sighs. “Look, Sarrah, with your blossoming you’re technically an adult. That means I need to trust your judgement even if it’s not the one I would have in a similar situation. That means that if you want to deal with problems on your own, I need to let you do that. Just know that we’ll always try to help you the best we can.”

  Sarrah nods and smiles, her voice cracking a little. “Thanks mom. I guess I should have told you. I just… didn’t want you to worry.”

  “Sarrah…” Gerrald says with a warm but pained smile. “We always worry – maximally. Meaning, nothing you can say or do or get yourself into can cause us to worry more than we already do, because it’ll just push out lesser concerns.”

  “…Thanks dad… actually, no. I don’t think worry works like that. It doesn’t have a maximum. It just…” she’s interrupted by a nudge by Allia, who’s face is soaked with tears.

  “Just let them say they love you, silly,” Allia says through the crying.

  “…Right… Thanks mom… dad. I’ll um… I’ll let you know in the future. Promise.”

  Rachel smiles. “That’s all we ask. But now to practical matters. First, we’ve activated the house’s shield.”

  “Mom! The discreteness!... Wait, we have shield generator besides the one in the bunker?”

  “Yes.” Rachel says matter of fact, as if a shield generator of that size isn’t expensive to build, much less operate. “We’ll leave it up until you return the orb. Until then, we advise you not to leave the house. We also got in contact with some friends from clear teams. They said they’d be here in a bit and watch over the house. Now Allia, do you have any plans?”

  “Um… I guess I’ll need to get my mail.”

  “We’ll get it for you.”

  “And the army said they might want a follow up interview.”

  “Ignore them. They can’t coerce you unless the mayor declares martial law, and the League won’t let that happen.”

  “They might not have a choice,” Sarrah points out. “Two major incidents in as many days? The army must be putting pressure on. I’m sure they have lots they want to do under the guise of keeping order.”

  “You let us worry about that.” Gerrald says, then reconsiders. “Or rather the League. If it does happen though, then we can figure out what to do with the situation.”

  Sarrah looks at him for a moment, then nods. “Alright. We’ll leave it be.”

  Gerrald smiles. “Good… just one more thing Sarrah. I understand you not wanting to worry us before. But I want you to know that even if you weren’t involved, we would still want to know about what J is doing. So please don’t consider telling us anything involving her a burden. If she asks you to do something, we want to know, both to protect you and to keep an eye on her.”

  “…Alright. I promise I’ll fill you in should anything like this come up again.”

  “Good.” Gerrald smiles and Sarrah stands to give him a hug which she then extends to her mother.

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  “I um… it’s been a long day. I think I’ll go to bed now.” Sarrah says.

  The parents watch her go up the stairs then turn to look at Allia. Their expressions turn harder, but are not devoid of warmth. Rachel speaks. “Allia, we want you to know that we’re glad you’re our daughter’s friend, even if you dragged her into a bit of trouble. But we need to know; how strong do you think you are?”

  Allia tilts her head at the sudden turn. “I’m um… pretty strong. In the monster gauntlet at the school, they had to throw a dragon at us to stop us, and we nearly beat it. I think maybe I might be able to handle it on my own in a similar circumstance now that I better understand my power.”

  The parents look at each other silently and shrug. “Stronger than us then,” Gerrald says.

  “Which means we don’t feel bad about saying this,” Rachel says, her eyes staring directly into Allia’s. “If you are going to be dragging her into trouble, then you have to protect her at least as much as the trouble you lead her into.”

  Rather than point out that she hardly had to drag Sarrah anywhere, she just smiles and says “Of course. I’ll always protect her no matter what. That’s what friends do.”

  Rachel nods. “And I fully believe you believe that. Especially after Sarrah told us about how you rushed to her rescue. But just keep in mind, that sometimes the problem with being strong is that you forget how much protection the weak need.”

  Allia looks taken aback. “Sarrah isn’t weak.”

  Gerrald shakes his head. “She is, and so are we. So, we know what it’s like to be dependent on those overwhelmingly stronger than you. You’ll forget her weakness because of how capable she is. But in the face of danger, you’ll survive on your own, while she’ll need you. She won’t be helpless and she won’t be burden, but she will depend on you more than you will her. We just hope that you keep that in mind... heh, but who knows. Maybe her manifestation will turn out to be even stronger than yours.”

  Allia nods. “Let’s hope… and I do keep her safety in mind… and have already taken measures to ensure it. The barrier I had around me last night? I still have it around me, it just turned invisible. I also placed one around her while we were in the bunker. She’ll at least live through any ambush that I do.”

  Rachel nods. “I thought I saw some glimmer around her. Thankyou.”

  “Yeah, of course.”

  Gerrald smiles. “I think we understand each other… Though, one last thing. We don’t want you to think that we only approve of your friendship because of how strong you are. Of how helpful you’ll be to our daughter.”

  “Oh…No, I wasn’t thinking that.”

  “Good,” Rachel says, “Because what really matters is that she’s been happier since you’ve became friends.”

  “…Was she unhappy before?”

  The parents look at each before Rachel answers. “We wouldn’t go so far as to say that. Just less happy. We of course blame ourselves. Our work will often take us away for days, occasionally longer. We would take her with us when it was safe, or have one of us stay behind when we could. But often we needed to go together for a job and so had to leave her in the care of a relative or use resources from the League. That and the moving around made things harder for her.”

  “Oh… she never said anything about that.”

  Gerrald’s smile takes a pained note. “Yeah. We figured. She’s a good kid. Probably didn’t want to worry us, or maybe just figured it was normal since most of her friends growing up had similar situations with their own parents in the League. Heh, you know, I’m actually kinda happy she went off to Crystal Point without telling us about the orb. It showed a bit of impulsiveness that she typically tries to avoid. It’s good for her… so long as she stays in one piece.” He weights the last part heavily as he looks directly in Allia’s eyes.

  “Um… yeah. Don’t worry. Definitely will keep her together… In fact, I think I’ll be putting up some barriers on the doors and windows. You know, to be extra safe. I’ll make it so you leave without getting me, but won’t be able to get back in.”

  Rachel. “Thankyou Allia. That’s a good idea.”

  “Right…”

  Once she’s done, she goes upstairs and finds Sarrah drying off from her shower. “Hey,” she says, “What’d my parents talk to you about? Nothing weird hope.”

  “Um… Yes. But don’t worry. Just normal weird. Nothing embarrassing.”

  “Oh, well so long as you didn’t mind… Thanks for today, Allia. I know mom still thinks going out was stupid, but I think I needed stupid. It helped a lot.”

  “Yeah, of course. Though I mean, you make it sound like going to a beautiful beach and eating gelato with my best friend was some terrible burden. Come on, I’d go anytime, you know that. Especially if it helps you.”

  Sarrah smiles, pulling Allia in for a quick hug. “Yeah, I know. Thanks anyways. I think I’ll be sleeping better tonight because of it at least.”

  “Well, good.”

  “…What about you? Do think it helped you any?”

  “…Not the beach, no. I mean, besides just relaxing, you know. But helping Chaxal? Yeah, that’ll help me for a while.”

  “Yeah…heh. Well at least not having to see his ‘bad face’ in my dreams will be good.”

  “Hey!” Allia protests at Sarrah’s teasing reminder of the words she initially used to describe him by launching into a tickle attack. A few moments of laughter follow before Sarrah protests, causing Allia to immediately stop. They stare at each other a few more seconds, catching their breaths.

  “…Well, good night, Sarrah.”

  “Yeah, goodnight, Allia. Don’t worry. Everything is almost over.”