Allia pauses as she leaves the gangplank and deeply breathes the salty air. “It smells cleaner than Newflor. Not much, but it’s there,” she says, smiling at Sarrah.

  Sarrah follows her lead and inhales too, nodding in agreement. “Yeah, I think it’s a trick of the water’s chemistry or something, is what I heard. But it is nice.”

  There’s a boardwalk leading from the pier to the small town of maybe three dozen buildings, most of which being shops, and then to the main beach a few hundred feet farther along where about a hundred colourfully haired mages are enjoying themselves.

  Their two new acquaintances give them a brief tour of the touristy spots before finding a launching point for their self-propelled boards and zooming off around the island. Allia and Sarrah start by buying a tub of gelato, enchanted to keep frozen, and a bag of fish kebabs.

  They quickly find a vacant spot and set up the contents of their bags and Allia’s large parasol, laying underneath it on their towels and applying sun lotion, before just sitting there for a while munching on skewered fish and veggies.

  “So, you going to tell me why you wanted to come here all the sudden?” Allia asks after they’ve been sitting for a while.

  Sarrah bites her lip and looks away. “What do you mean? I’ve always wanted to come here. I mean, exclusive beach only available to mages, who wouldn’t?”

  “Sarraaah.” Allia says her friend’s name with a long drawn out flair as she plops back on her towel and stare at her with a stubborn expression.

  “Alliaaa.” Sarrah returns the exaggeration pronunciation of her friends name as she plops back next to her and looks into her eyes a foot away.

  Allia turns on her side and props her head with her hand to level a more serious look. “Come on, I know you. We’ve talked about what you were going to do once you blossomed a ton, but you never mentioned wanting to come here.”

  Sarah chews her answer. “Yeah, well, it might not have been a major goal, but it is nice, isn’t it?” She gestures around.

  Allia nods, conceding the point. “Yeah, but, I mean… I never got the impression that you’d want to go into danger.”

  “Heh, what’s dangerous? Look around, Allia. With all these certified mages about, it’d take a kraken to get us on this beach.”

  “You’re saying you aren’t going in the water then? After coming all this way? I hear it’s fantastic.”

  “I… um… I” Sarrah stutters, then puffs herself back up. “Yeah, I’ll go. Of course. What’s there to worry about. I’ll have my shield, right? And there’s medical mages nearby. I’ll be fine. Everyone says it’s dangerous, but hardly anyone actually gets seriously hurt, right?”

  “Yeah, except for that juvenile kraken, right?” Allia prods.

  Sarrah pales. “Yeah, well, you know. I’m sure the MDC won’t let another sneak up. It’d be too embarrassing for them.”

  “Right, so let’s go.” Allia rolls forward to stand, but pauses to see if her friend is following, then sighs when she sees that she’s completely stiff at the suggestion. Plopping back down, she leans over to loom directly over friend. “Come on, let’s hear it. Why are you here if you’re afraid? For that matter, why’d you try to start that fight with Jakes?n. I mean, what were you thinking, suggesting that his ‘glorious leader’ should abdicate? You know how east Chthonians are about that. It’s not like you to be so…”

  “Confrontational?” Sarrah suggests.

  “…Yeah, I guess. Look. It’s obvious that this is about last night. Or, not about it, but about your reaction to it. You’re taking risks because, what, you don’t think you acted good enough in the crises? You want to prove yourself?”

  Sarrah rolls her eyes at her friend’s stab in the dark. “Don’t be ridiculous, you know I don’t care if I’m a good fighter. Why would anyone care if they didn’t behave perfectly in a crisis like that when it wasn’t even their job to deal with it? All things considered I think we performed unreasonably well.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “I think you know that, but do you feel it?” Allia asks.

  Sarrah bites her lips, then nods. “Yeah, I think I do actually. It’s funny, I don’t think I actually knew that until I said it.”

  “Okay, glad to narrow it down. So what is it then?”

  She turns away and, after a few seconds, mutters. “You know, I think I’m like my parents. I need to feel like I’m in control.”

  “Yeah, everyone does,” Allia says, “Nothing to feel bad about that.”

  “Yeah, but we know, are constantly aware that we aren’t actually in control, and it is just a feeling. But we need to feel it anyways. So, the only way we can keep the control feeling is by preparing for everything. Learn all these spells for every situation. Even better if you never use them. But nothing prepared me for last night. It just seemed so surreal. I mean demons? Come on. The closest demon should have been 5,000 miles away!

  “I mean this literally, Allia. It didn’t seem real, but it also seemed more real than anything I’ve ever experienced. I can’t stand that tension, but I can’t make it less real. So, the only option is to make it more. I guess making the danger normal, taking myself here, trying to provoke the Chthonian, is just trying to normalize what we went through last night.”

  Allia leans back and nods. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

  “Reall?” Sarrah asks, surprised at her friend’s reaction. “I thought I was going… well, not insane. Not yet. But definitely not something healthy.”

  “Of course it does. Sarrah, we live in a world where monsters could, in theory, attack us at any moment, but never do because of our civilization’s momentous efforts to keep them at bay. You just got reminded of its reality, but it didn’t make sense. So, you need another reminder that does make sense, one that also reminds you that you’ve proven yourself capable of living in this world for nearly the last 20 years.”

  Sarrah stares silently out to the sea, then inhales sharply. “Yeah, I think you’re right, thanks.”

  “No problem. Do still go to actual therapy though. For all I know all of this could be completely counterproductive.”

  “Heh, yeah. We’re probably both going straight to the asylum after this.” She giggles and shimmies about to nudge Allia’s shoulder with her head. Feeling this, Allia reaches over and rustles her hair.

  “So,” Allia asks after a while, “is just being here enough, or do you think you need to face the reality of the world head on?”

  “You mean go into the water?” Sarrah asks, tensely.

  Allia shrugs. “That too, but no. I mean, go find a monster to kill.”

  Sarrah turns to stare at her friend, mouth agape. Whatever she’s about to say though is interrupt by… well, not screams. That would be overly dramatic. Shouts maybe. Declarations of excitement that draw the girl’s gazes to the shoreline directly in front of them to a crab-like monster emerging from the waters.

  It’s really not that horrific, just a 3 or 4 foot wide crab, covered in a few molluscs with a pair of 5 foot tentacles coming out of the back. There’s nothing inherently abhorrent about its form, but the effect can’t be overcome with sheer rationality. The tension and hostility felt at the sight of it.

  “You want it?” Allia asks.

  “Um…” Sarrah hesitates.

  “Shouldn’t have asked. Yoink!” Allia gestures and covers it with a golden dome. It tries to batter its way out, but Allia barely feels the strain. “It’s ours now.” She makes another gesture and creates a spear over it, which she impales it with non-fatally. She then creates a chain extended from the spear to a point behind them, finally yanking the crab creature towards them, maintaining the dome as it goes. “There you go, it’s all yours.” Allia gestures at the captive beast, trying desperately to get out.

  “Thanks… I think…” she pulls out her pistol and levels it at the monster, but then pulls back. “Sorry, I don’t mean to be fussy, but I don’t think it’ll work to just… shoot it in a barrel, I guess.”

  Allia raises an eyebrow, but shrugs. “Yeah, sure, I’ll drop it whenever you’re ready. Just, don’t take too long. I’m feeling the hostility from the effect, but that doesn’t mean I like keeping it trapped.”

  “Yeah, me either. Just let me cast my shield.” She quickly chants the effect into being, then Allia hands her a second bullet wand, with the reasoning that it might be too bulky for one to finish off quickly enough at this distance, then she drops the dome.

  The creature immediately attacks, and Sarrah opens fire with both wands, sending spurts of ichor flying from the chitinous armour. A tentacle lashes out, wrapping around an arm, but it lacks the constricting strength to crush shield, nor the pulling strength to yank her off her feet, so she just calmly adjusts her stance to lean backwards, then drops a bullet wand to draw her enchanted survival knife and lop the offending appendage off. After that it just takes a few more shots and it’s over.

  Sarrah pants triumphantly over it, her hands resting on her knees, and smiles. “You know, I think these things are supposed to be a delicacy,” she says with a laugh. “The claws and tentacles at least.”

  Allia joins her laughter. “Yeah, I could make a spit and skewer it, and you could make a fire spell underneath… actually I think I can raise the temperature of the constructs. Maybe I could cook it from the inside out. That might be interesting.”

  Sarrah laughs. “Or we could just sell it. There was that shop that said it would cook your kills for you.”

  “Oh, yeah, that would probably be easier, wouldn’t it?”

  The two giggle together, finding Sarrah’s earlier tension resolved, at least for now.