Light duty meant boredom. No hunts. No fights. Not even long walks. My ribs protested if I so much as stretched too fast.

  Nana sat with the boy while Noma sat with me in our house.

  “Believe me, Lucia doesn't do days of rest,” Keagan said. “Getting her to take one day off is hard enough.”

  I flicked my tail. “If I sit still too long, it feels like I'm wasting time.”

  “Do you not want to play games?” Noma inched closer to me, betraying her own restlessness. “I like playing games.”

  “No, I don't.”

  Nana propped herself on her elbow in her chair. “With your injuries you're not doing anything serious.”

  Keagan slapped his forehead. “I forgot to ask about the healer.”

  “They hadn't arrived,” I said. “Lily headed south, not east. She went to meet up with them.”

  Noma laughed. “You're so smart.”

  I looked at the kappa. “So why are you still here? Is this purely a social visit?”

  “Nana said we needed to go to the office yesterday.” She bounced lightly on her legs. “I wanted to see you!”

  Business and pleasure. Great.

  Keagan pointed to the older woman. “You said you were here for me. Did you want to train together or something? Oh, thank you for the room and helping with Lucia last night.”

  Nana smiled. “While having them train together would be very helpful for Noma, your monster is in no condition.”

  “I can still work Arcane.” This is my chance to do something today. “What kind of training does Noma need?”

  Noma jumped up and spun around. “We've been training so much. I've grown so much since we met.”

  Physically maybe, but you still act like a kid.

  “She could use some agility training,” Nana said. “But this feels like we are enabling a bad habit.” She gave the boy a wink.

  Keagan shot to his feet. “You’re going to rest!” The boy never raised his voice at me, but this time he did. His jaw trembled after, like he expected me to bite his head off.

  Instead, I stretched out on the rug, ribs aching, and blinked. “What are you doing?”

  He shrunk down. “It's for your good.”

  I lowered my voice and flicked my tail on the ground with a resounding thump. “You raised your voice.”

  The boy sat down and averted his gaze. “Um, I thought I could be more like you and you might listen to me.”

  “Don't.”

  The boy touched his fingertips together. “Okay.” He paused. “Will you rest—for me?”

  “No.” I slammed my tail on the ground. “This is your warning. I will take it easy, not because you asked me, but because I'm still in pain.”

  The boy squirmed in his seat. Nana just watched, almost like this was a test she gave the kid. “Keagan, a word of advice: don't change your training style with your partner. You bonded with her already; you didn't mess it up.”

  Why does she care?

  “If you promise to take the day off, I will pay for the healer,” the boy mumbled.

  He's resorted to extortion. “Rude. Are you seriously withholding treatment from me?”

  Keagan wrung his hands together. “Your injuries aren't life-threatening; they just need time.” He found his courage again. “I won't make you, but your injuries will hurt for a couple of weeks, longer if you don't rest.”

  My lip curled up. “You were doing really good during the tournament. When are you going to learn? You do well, and then you screw it up. Don’t change, kid. Don’t try to impress me. Stop being someone you’re not.”

  He sagged. “I’m sorry.”

  “Kid, when you made me promise not to follow you and confront Tanner—that was who you are.” I turned my head. “The right words are more effective than any tone or aggressive posture. Yelling shows that you don’t have control.”

  “You yell a lot,” the boy countered

  “When have I been an example of control?”

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  The room went silent. Noma even distanced herself from me and moved towards the door.

  Nana stood up and shook her head. “I will take my leave. You’re young, Keagan. Maybe too young. Even still, I had expected better from you.”

  Noma waved to me at the door. “Get well soon, Lucia. I want to play with you soon. I will show you how fun it can be.”

  I didn’t respond. It was all a test, and the boy failed. Why test him? Who is Nana really? There's more to her than meets the eye. Another problem for another time.

  Keagan stayed seated after the kappa and her trainer left. The light through the window caught the dust in the air—tiny golden motes that drifted between us. The quiet wasn’t peaceful. It was heavy, full of all the things we weren’t saying.

  Finally, the boy spoke. “You are right to be mad.” His voice was low, rough around the edges. “I shouldn’t have yelled. I didn’t mean to talk to you like that.”

  “You meant it,” I said flatly. “You just didn’t mean to feel bad about it afterward.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck, staring at the floorboards. “I just—sometimes I feel like you won’t listen unless I push back.”

  I turned my head toward him, just enough to see his expression. “That’s because you pick the worst times and wrong ways to push.”

  He looked up, meeting my eyes. There was only regret in them. “I was scared. You’re hurt, but you keep pretending you’re fine. I thought if I sounded serious enough, maybe you’d take care of yourself.”

  I snorted. “So your solution was to try acting like me.”

  “Yeah,” he admitted, his shoulders sinking. “I thought… you respected strength. So if I acted strong, you’d listen.”

  I laid my head down on my paws. “There’s your mistake, kid. You can’t act strong. You must be. And kid, you are. The trick is knowing when and how to use it.” I looked up again, fixing him with one eye. “Don’t confuse stubbornness for strength.”

  Keagan’s fingers clenched in his lap. “You always sound so sure of yourself.”

  “I’m not,” I said. “I just hide it better. Remember how you handled Tanner? Do you remember how you got me to stay behind and not get involved?”

  He nodded.

  I lowered my voice. “You didn't yell. You didn't need to. And you didn't need to now. That isn't why I agreed to that promise. It's all because I trusted you.”

  “You want people to treat you like an adult; that's why you hid that you were starving before you released me from the stone.” There was a twitch in my spine as I continued. “It's why Poppy is so interested in you romantically. She saw you act older than you are. Yelling like that was childish and stupid.”

  The boy sat in silence for a long moment, fidgeting. Then, quietly, “Lucia, I’m sorry.”

  “You should be.” I flattened my ears. “Not just for yelling. For… all the times you keep making me promise things.”

  His head dipped. “You noticed that?”

  “I wasn’t born yesterday.”

  “Multiple times.” He scratched his cheek. “But you never break them. Ever. Even when they’re bad for you. It feels like that’s the only way I can know you’re going to do something. I didn’t realize it before, but it’s like I can trap you with them.”

  “That’s because you can use them to trap me.” I let the words hang there until he winced. “You ask, and I agree, because I trust you. Because I thought you’d be smart enough not to take advantage of that. You’re not supposed to test it.”

  He drew in a shaky breath. “I didn’t mean to.”

  “I know.” I exhaled. “But meaning doesn’t change what’s done. Don’t make me choose between keeping a promise and keeping you safe. You’ll lose every time.”

  That landed hard. He flinched but didn’t look away.

  “My promises are supposed to mean something.” I lowered my head to my paws again. “If I promise everything constantly, what will they be worth then? Nothing. If I make less, each time I make a promise it will mean more if I keep it. That’s something you need to remember.”

  “I don’t want that kind of power over you,” he said finally. “I just wanted you to believe me.”

  “I already do.” My voice softened, not much, but enough. “That’s why I fight the way I do. It’s why I stay.”

  He swallowed. “Then… I’ll stop. No more promises, not unless it’s life or death.”

  “Good.” I shut my eyes again.

  The floor creaked as he got up. A moment later, his hand brushed the fur along my neck. “I’m still sorry.”

  “You’d better be,” I muttered, but my tail gave a slow, tired thump. “Now you better get that healer once they get into town.”

  “I will,” he said. Then he tucked a blanket over me.

  Insufferable boy. I slept longer than I meant to, and when I woke, the pain wasn’t quite as sharp. He was right; I needed that.

  Training summary: Toughness +1.

  — — —

  Name: Lucia Silverbreeze

  Species: Fenris (Dire Wolf/???) [Ice Subtype]

  Level 3 [33%]

  Power: 301

  Agility: 194

  Speed: 219

  Arcane: 154

  Toughness: 113

  Resilience: 110

  — — —

  Night had fallen. I stalked my way to Keagan's room. He was sleeping. His eyelids twitched as he slept hugging his pillow more than he treated his head on it. His blanket had slipped off part of him.

  In perfect silence I walked over, grabbed the corner of his blanket with my teeth, and stretched out over him. He barely stirred.

  I smiled. Sweet dreams, kid.

  Walking back into the kitchen, I noticed a bag sitting on the table. A gentle nudge revealed that it was full of coins.

  It looks like Lily did give us the bounty for the gryphon. It looks like it's about the size of our winnings from the rank F tournaments—about a thousand. I bet that really made the kid happy. How did they have that talk without waking me up?

  I headed to the door. He was probably waiting for them outside. The kid would do anything he can to keep me from waking up if I'm sleeping. However, I'm going to need to find out why he didn't have me healed. If he woke me up for that, I'd be okay with it.

  I shook my head and headed for my actual bed. He can explain in the morning. Knowing right now won't change anything. Maybe with that money we could get me that bed they had in the inn. I really liked that bed. It wasn't my waterbed from my last life, but that was a luxury.

  I laid down to go back to sleep. I miss them. Hopefully they are happy, and The Judge is holding up his end of the bargain and keeping them safe. Killing The Broker is still a far off dream for me. But a deal is a deal. And a deal is just another form of a promise, and I keep my promises.

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