'Nadezdha' came out to join her at the cottage gate whilst they waited. Sheilaktar glanced at her. Sometimes it made her laugh, knowing that behind this mask, this beautiful and exotic girl, was in truth a knavish boy. Not a particularly flimsy boy either, not anymore. Homen had grown into a tall and athletic young man.

'Young man.' Not 'boy,' not any longer. He'd been on the cusp of adulthood when he'd first washed up upon her doorstep like a drowned rat, and it had been five years, and now he was anything but a child. No matter how cute he-or-she-or-whatever looked in that dress.

Where had the time gone?

The minutes stretched by. The weather was starting to turn comfortable, and Nadezdha was in tights instead of trousers. She sat on the garden fence, and kicked blithely at nothing. Sheilaktar rolled her eyes. Nadezdha winked.

"So, I've been meaning to ask thee something," Sheilaktar began. "Both in general, and about Nythra in specific. Thou have been, eh, bosom friends for quite some time now." That was true. The two always ended up sitting together, sharing pastries and holding hands.

"We have," her pupil agreed wryly. "Is there some sort of anniversary party one ought to throw?"

"Thou seem mutually touchy. Art thou attracted to her?"

Nadezdha was so silent that Shielaktar presumed she'd hit the nail on the head.

"If there is any girl who has caught more than just thine idle fancy, whom thou cultivates deeper feelings for, thou should speak to me of it before anything has the chance to go wrong." She turned and then blinked, for the Thay-child's expression was not guilt but rather estrangement. He looked at Sheilaktar as if the necromancer had abruptly sprouted two heads. "What did I say to evoke this bewilderment? Thou hast given up your liking of women?"

"I am not particularly attracted to Nythra," Homen told her in a curiously repressed monotone, or as if refraining from emphasizing the wrong word of the claim.

Sheilaktar raised a brow. Then she tilted her cheek up and eyed him suspiciously. "Someone else, then?"

Sheilaktar's cottage had a suspicious tendency to appear when one rounded this corner or that, but it always looked a gem of rustic country life in an otherwise foreboding wood. Nythra smiled to see it, and smiled more when she saw Sheilaktar and her companion waiting for them at the garden gate. Nadezdha was veritably hopping in place, and Nythra ran ahead to meet her.

The two girls hugged! "Nadezdha! Why do you keep getting taller!? Didn't I forbid that?" She tugged a braid.

"Perhaps I am not! Could it be that you are shrinking from advanced age?"

Egads! This was unfair, for though Nythra was fast approaching her thirties she made every effort to pretend otherwise. "Well I'd never! Do you wear makeup every single day?" she criticized.

"No," Nadezdha dismissed this as absurd. "Sometimes I throw the whole formula out the window and simply slather the upper part of my face in colored glitter and and call it a day. Well and maple leaves, of course, I'm not some heathen."

Nythra was bent over double laughing betimes Yhelbruna even got there and gave a respectful greeting nod to Sheilaktar.

"Hello, my Dusk Dragon. I'm sorry to impose."

"I'm sure thou are," Sheilaktar muttered with a glance towards the (slightly) younger generation.

An awkward moment passed. Yhelbruna gave a little cough. "May we come in?" the illustrious Orthlor was forced to ask at last.

"Well. Thou hast already come all the way here," the necromancer assessed. "So I suppose it would be a waste of all our time and energy if thou did not." And with that she turned about and re-entered the cottage grounds.

"Who'd like some tea?" Nadezdha asked with a disarming smile towards Yhelbruna and expression that most probably ought to read 'please forgive my master.' "Blueberry? Jasmine?"

"Jasmine would be lovely, thank you dear."

...

Nythra had never been invited inside Sheilaktar's little estate on social call or for any other reason before, though she had met the peculiar witch at the gate on many occasions: for several important missions against the Durthin, over negotiations with hags and fae, and on trips for important spell-components. But Sheilaktar was a private person.

Inside, the cascade of tiny bottles and sachets and numerous other objects all neatly packed away from floor to rafters to eaves was a sight to see. It certainly explained why the nearby villages all knew Sheilaktar as a herbalist first and a tamer of dark spirits almost as an aside. There were few books on these shelves, but the lore each tiny label and herb represented was tremendous, and reminded her just how many topics Sheilaktar strove to master. She was doubtless her own sternest tutor.

"Would you believe that being her housekeeper is a full-time job?" Nadezdha whispered conspiratorially, and Nythra grinned. The former wove past the latter on her way to the stove, and poured that tea she'd promised everyone: Sheilaktar's blueberry, and everyone else's jasmine.

"I see solitude has not slowed your progress in academical pursuits, Dusk Dragon," Yhelbruna mused aloud. "I have heard men say your healing draughts can stave off afflictions worse than death."

"You presume solitude should hamper this? It gives me time to work. Tell me, Yhelbruna," Sheilaktar took her tea and settled into a chair draped with a dire bear fur. "What business aside from idle chatter brings thee here on such short notice?"

The Orthor turned to her with a knowing smile. "I've come to recruit you, if possible. A Durthin bastion has proven unexpectedly sturdy and loud to the north, and creeps alarmingly near Mulptan. We are facing at least a coven of Ice Hags, in addition to once-Sisters making ample use of blood and sexual sacrifice with spirits of darkness. We need your strong-arm."

"Thou hast invited me to battle before, Yhelbruna, and at times I have come; but never did that require thou coming here on short notice. What is the special occasion? I do hope it is an emergency."

The smile did not leave the Orthlor's eyes. "I would speak with you alone," she explained.

"Is that so? Well." Sheilaktar glanced to the (slightly) younger generation. "Nadezdha? Did thou hear that?"

"I heard that I and Nythra should go and get terribly lost in the woods and meet all sort of wonderful carnivorous creature!" Nadezdha parroted extremely faithfully.

Sheilaktar waved her pupil off with permission to do just that. "Do apply thine usual flair for dramatics. Doubtless it is through her loyal robin that she intends to 'evaluate thine annual progress' regardless." She turned a dark stare back to Yhelbruna.

Nythra opened her mouth to say something in her own defense, but a blithe Nadezdha had already tugged her out the door.