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The empty hallway yawned open before her, lined with countless royal paintings and priceless tapestries and a million other things the Rafiloe of three days ago could have spent months fawning over. 

Eyes on the floor, brows furrowed deeply over her face, Rafiloe paced down the length of the hallway, mind far too occupied with thoughts of her friend to think about anything else. One week. One week, and she’d be his full apostle. And after that…

What, exactly? Go on magical adventures with him across the world, meeting interesting people, learning about the world and its peoples? That wouldn’t be too bad. A year ago, when she first entered purgatory, that had been about what she had expected. Meet up with Kitty, go on adventures, live life to its fullest.

And then the war happened. 

She’d read so much about war in her life, first and second and third-hand accounts of the horrors of ransom and sieges and roving bands of leashless soldiers. City walls being closed off for months at a time, forcing the inhabitants into poverty and strife and famine. The dead and the dying all in a big simmering pot. 

Experiencing it was something else. Kitty didn’t understand. Not really. If she told him that she wanted to end the war, he wouldn’t get it. She knew that well. 

Could she bear to go on adventures across the world side by side with someone who simply didn’t get it? Someone who could see war and death and be entirely unbothered by it?

…No, not entirely. That was unfair. He was bothered, he just didn’t know it. 

She shook her head and turned a right, following another corridor. If she was lucky, everyone was still where she’d left them. If not, she’d have to go on another damn hunt for every person of importance. Though she often considered herself a fairly patient man, going through that sort of hell twice simply would not give her enough grace to then also be kind with the people she’d gathered.

Down a hallway, across a massive room, ignoring the servants and the soldiers gawking at her as she crossed their paths, she made her way to the designated meeting room, where she opened the door with maybe a little more trepidation than strictly necessary.

“What I’m saying is—”

“Evacuating the city simply will not be feasible at this time. Considering that the contravallations have yet to be removed, it would be impossible to—”

“This is a Deicidist region, establishing a hopeful city here…”

Rafiloe, without entering or exiting the door, did a mental check of the members of the meeting. Prog, check, Maggie, check, Leion, check, Garath, check… She looked around. “Hey, where’s Lett?”

Not taking his eyes off the heated discussion between Prog and Leion, Garath jerked a thumb at the glass door behind them, leading out into the garden. In that case, he’d probably be fine. And with the two of them going like that…

Going around the circumference of the round table, Rafiloe reached Maggie where she sat knitting with such speed and intensity that the needles seemed to blur together, and planted both hands on her shoulders, making the older woman flinch back to life. “Oh my—Gecko? You scared the bejeezus out of me! How’d things go with—”

“Maggie, you still know the clean spell, right?”

“Hm? Of course! That’s the most important spell, bar none. Why do you ask?”

Leaning herself across Maggie’s shoulders, Rafiloe lowered her lips level with Maggie’s ear, and whispered, very carefully, “Mind helping me out a little? In private.”

Maggie gave her a long, long look.

A few minutes later, in a small side-room, with the door barred, Rafiloe disrobed, and immediately missed the completely nonplussed way Kitty had looked at her. He hadn’t given a shit. But even someone like Maggie, who she’d known for months and was also a girl, was staring at her like she’d doused herself in gasoline and was playing with a matchstick. 

“Girl, what the hell are you—”

“I dissected Kitty to find something edible, but I got totally covered in his blood which happens to be milk, and I’m way too lazy to take a bath, so please use the clean spell on me and I’ll be super happy and your best friend forever, yes?”

Maggie looked her up and down. “You what? What does that even—no. Nevermind. Whatever freaky shit you were up to in there, I do not wanna know. Now, let me put on my spellring real quick…” 

Always. Always the same kinds of thoughts. Even Maggie. Without the energy to fight it, Rafiloe simply sighed, and waited for her friend to prepare everything. “Thanks,” she muttered, letting Maggie step closer, spellring donning her right index finger. Rookie placement. 

“Now, stand still, I haven’t used this in a hot minute…”

“I will,” Rafiloe said, spreading her arms out, letting Maggie get a good look at her. “You know, I’ve been thinking… Kitty won’t be leaving this place for at least a month. Or, well, he might, you never know, but… Assuming he does stay a month… This place is going to become a hotbed for the hope faith. We’ve already got, what? Thirty, forty thousand people in the city, all completely devout? They’re not going to leave. Not with Kitty here. Not with me here. Not with the whole city renamed after him.”

“Mhm?” Maggie said, carefully applying the clean spell in small, concentrated chunks. Not proficient enough to do a whole body in one go. The Goddess of Beasts didn’t like her that much. “You don’t sound all that happy about it.”

“No, not really, I mean… I’m the apostle of hope. I accepted it, and I ate his bean, so now that’s set in stone.”

“His bean?” Maggie asked, quirking a brow. “Does that insinuate something, or…?”

“No, it doesn’t, it means nothing at—owch! Hey, be careful with that spell, alright?”

“Sorry, sorry, lost focus for a moment. Didn’t mean to fry your cells, sugar. Now, what’s so bad about bein’ the apostle of hope? As long as you stay here, you’ll be treated better than a king!”

“Sure, and I’ll also be expected to act like a king. Speak for Kitty in all matters. Ensure that the city is ruled fairly. Punish the unjust and keep everyone from going insane all over the place.”

“Sounds like a lot of work,” Maggie said, zapping away the grime from her arms. “Did kings really do all that on their own?”

“Well, no, they had whole courts to do their business, not to mention the sheer number of servants, constantly doing everything else they needed for them. Hell, oftentimes, kings could almost completely check out of the responsibilities of a ruler… Like, when… Okay, I’m pretty sure this was Louis the fourteenth, but I can’t really remember, it’s been a few years since I had that particular hyperfixation, but I remember a tangent that whereas other kings and princes would simply let the… It wasn’t the court, but it was a ruling organ… Damn it, I can’t remember, but whereas other kings would simply let the court-thing hold their councils and make decisions on their own, Louis the Fourteenth would sit in on them, actually participating in the more intricate dealings of the whole ruling-France thing.”

“Alright, most of that went totally over my head, but by the sound of things, it seems like kings left a lot of their rulership to their companions and servants.”

“I suppose so.” She gave her friend a long look. “Are you trying to say something?”

“Yeah, but your skull’s too thick for it to pass through, so I’m considering we do one of those… What’s it called when you drill a hole through your skull to vent out the bad thoughts?”

“You want to trepannate me?” Rafiloe thought it over. “Not a bad idea, honestly. It’s starting to feel a bit cramped in here.”

Huffing, Maggie rose to her feet, and planted both hands on either of Rafiloe’s shoulders, forcing her to look her in the eye. “Girl, how damn stupid can you be? You’ve got a whole room of people who gathered because you told them to. Use them.”

“Well, see, that’s the issue,” Rafiloe grumbled. “I know what to do, I know I’ve gotta do it, because if I don’t, then I’m sure Leion’s going to go in and make some bad war-fixated choice, or he’ll bring in someone who won’t recognize the nuance and sensitivity and all, but…” Fuck, when had expressing thoughts been such a damn hard thing to do? Her brain felt like it was encased in resin. Maybe a hole or two would be good for her. “I’ve just got a feeling that if I start ordering people around, then I won’t stop. Because I don’t know when you’re supposed to stop. This isn’t the kind of task that ever gets finished, the city’s always going to have something that’ll need fixing. I mean, what if I get stuck here?”

“Would that be such a bad thing?” Spotting something in her own words, or maybe her thoughts, Maggie made a face. “I mean… Listen, life’s whatever you make of it. In five years you could be back on Earth for all you know, or you could have settled down with a hubby and had a bunch of half-goblin kids, or you might be a big-shot in the Server Alliance. There’s no way to know. But you aren’t there yet. You’re here.” Her strong hands squeezed her shoulders hard enough to hurt. “So. What do you want to do?”

“What do I…?” That was a big question. Surprisingly, Rafiloe barely had to think it over at all. “I want to put the city back together again. I know I’ve been trying to escape this place for over a month now, but… It’s grown on me. Like mold. I don’t like seeing it all messed up. If I can just fix it up a little, then…”

Maggie beamed at her, showing off her two neat rows of teeth. “That’s the spirit! In that case, you’ll be Chief Architect, and I’ll be… Chief Assistant Architect. How’s that sound?”

“It sounds good, but… Are you sure you want to stay? You’ve been as desperate to leave as me. Staying behind, just to be my assistant…”

“Are you kidding? This is all part of the mission! You’ll obviously be busy fixing the city or whatever, so someone in the kitty-court needs to be taking notes of what’s actually happening here. Obviously I’d love to tuck my tail and run, but as co-leader, I have a duty to stay. And so I will.”

Rafiloe chuckled. Kitty was a dangerous beast, indeed. All day she’d been chastising him for being too apologetic, and here she was, doing the exact same thing. They really did match together. Yes, despite it all, if there was anyone she’d like to be in the service of, it was probably him. She trusted him. Even if they had only known one another for a limited time, she trusted him. Totally and completely. 

He was, after all, exactly the same as her.

“Thank you. I really appreciate it. In that case, if you’re done cleaning me off, how about we go and get the others up-to-date?”

“Sounds good to me. Oh, and, as your assistant, I will be sure to keep you from working yourself to death. It’s a bad habit of yours, so you need a strong woman like myself to keep you in check.” Imitating the pose of one of the gazillion magical girls she was an ardant fan of, Maggie threw out her leg, stuck out her tongue, and did the peace-sign. “If you work too hard, I’ll bash your brains in!”

“I’ll hold you up to that one. I’m sure I’ll need it.”