Orina was absolutely sure that Alicia was asleep, she slowly slid herself out of bed. As enjoyable as it was to cuddle up with her girlfriend, she had only been up for a few hours and wasn’t the least bit tired. The other day, Alicia had made an offhand ent about getting po figure out their daily routines, and the thought had stuck with Katrina.

  She didn’t literally want a phat felt like overkill, but she’d been thinking a lot about her noal nature. In a stereotypical Human schedule, a persos eight hours of sleep and sixteen hours for everything else. However, as a creature of the night, Katrina had spent years only funing while most of the world slept, which meant she routinely had less time each day to be productive. While this hadn’t been a problem before, as she’d spent most of her time in a depressive haze, now she had friends, and a partner. Heck, Alicia had even found a way to include Elias in their little Dungeon adventure.

  If she woke at dusk, ao sleep at dawn, Katrina would have fewer waking hours on average than the rest of the popution. Thankfully, the days were slowly growing shorter now that summer was winding down. However, while she might have more time on average during winter, did Alicia? Katrina knew so little about Dryad physiology.

  Would Alicia hiberhrough the wihe thought of going months without seeing her girlfriend didn’t sit well with her.

  Of course, we did just agree that we’d both be open to going poly, which might ge some of the specifics. Tabitha certainly wouldn’t o hibernate, so I would at least have some pany.

  Katrina had been overjoyed to talk about the retionship with Alicia, but the thought of polyamory had caught her off guard. She was gd Alicia agreed with her, that they should take time for themselves before deg if they wanted more. Still, at the moment, it felt like she had more thoughts in her head than she’d had for years, and she ime to sort everything out.

  Thankfully, there was a lot she o do tonight, and there would be plenty of time for refleost importantly, today was Grocery Day, and she o catch the train back to her pce. After gathering all her things, and making sure that she’d added her Delver’s ID to her purse, she took off for the train station. She really hoped she wouldn’t o visit the hospital downtown again, but at least now she could fly if she o.

  The train ride was short, as always, but she appreciated having time to herself. Tabitha joining their little group had been more transformative than she’d expected; not only was she incredibly capable as a delver, she was also pushing Alicia and Katrina to have serious versations about their retionship. Was Tabitha holy just ied in dating them? Or was she the kind of person that absolutely o make a spsh wherever she went? If the tter were true, it could possibly have adverse effects on their Dungeon efforts.

  I guess trust is something we build over time. Maybe I o have a talk with her at some point, just something to build a bit more trust between us.

  As Katrihe train, her instincts tried to take her into the skies, but she fought the urge. Now that she had spells to figure out, her mana recious resource that she couldn’t afford to waste. The alternative, walking amongst light crowds of squishy, blood-filled humanoids, wasn’t the most appealing option, but Alicia and the Key Dungeon had to be her first priority.

  Closing in on the local ic, she immediately noticed the ck of a lihis had happe week, and had been an unfortunate herald of her difficult trip to downtown Chicago. She hoped today would be different, but steeled herself for disappoi.

  She approached the window, the her cooler down on the ter and leaned against it. After a few seds of waiting, a familiar Human face walked over to join her.

  “Kat! Long time no see. Looks like you survived the trip downtown, hopefully that wasn’t th for you,” Dennis said.

  “Holy it retty terrible, but I survived without any issues.” Katrina paused for a moment, her thoughts drifting back to st week. “Oh, by the way, thanks for the… y’know. It was a really big help.”

  “Gd to hear it! Thankfully, we won’t need anything like that this week, got our shipment of ratiht on time. Send your cooler through, I’ll get it filled up!” Dennis grabbed the cooler and walked off, only needing a few minutes before returning with a full week’s worth of rations.

  “Are these the 300 or 350 mL?” Katrina asked.

  “Still 300. Sorry I fot to warn you st week, I just had way too much going on. How are things? If you don’t mind me saying, something seems different with you today. You’re carrying yourself differently.”

  “Geez, is it that obvious?” Katrina paused, blushing profusely. “Yeah I, uh, met someone.”

  “Like, a friend? Or someone someone?” Dennis asked, grabbing Katrina’s donor card and running it through his puter.

  “Like, I have a girlfriend now. Ran into her st week after pig up my rations, and we really hit it off. It’s been kind of a crazy week, holy. I’m also a certified Delver now? I got ed up in some Dungeon business with her.”

  “No kidding? That must have been one heck of a week. You certainly seem excited, you’re practically glowing.”

  “Oh? Are you saying I was cold and b up until now?”

  “W-well, no, I didn’t mean—”

  Katrina cut him off with a ugh. “I’m just kidding, Dennis. I was a sourpuss and I know it. I tried to hide it whenever I came here, but now? Things are really ing together.”

  Dennis slid back Katrina’s donor card, along with her rations, and she quickly put everything away. He spoke up again as he leaned against the ter. “I’m really happy to hear that, Kat. I’d love to meet her, if the opportunity ever es up. Though, I’m not sure a visit to a Race ic ts as aing date.”

  “Please, we got our Delving Lises together. A trip here sounds like a walk in the park paratively.”

  “I’ll hold you to that. Now, in all seriousness, be careful, okay? Delving is insanely dangerous. I don’t see nearly as many delvers as the hospital downtown does, but I’ve seen my fair share of injured patients. And I’ve got a list of all the ohat stopped visiting after a trip to the Dungeo south.”

  Katrina looked up at Dennis, smiling as warmly as she could. “I appreciate that, Dennis. I’ll see you here Sunday, that’s a promise.”

  The two waved goodbye, and soon Katrina was b the train back to Alicia’s pce. As usual, she waited until she was aloo open up her ration; even with a mostly empty train car, she still wao avoid drinking in front of other people when it could be avoided. She’d only just gotten fortable drinking in front of Alicia, which had been a big step for her.

  Once she made it back tirlfriend’s pce, she quietly snuside, grabbed her guitar, aled down on the front wn.

  She began by pying through some old favorite songs. No magio spellcrafting, just enjoying the instrument she’d fallen in love with years ago. She’d found forum posts from Bards that grew to resent their assigned instrument after treating it like a job, and Katrina was determio not let that happen. There was actually a pretty big discussion in the Bard world about the mental health bes of taking a Sedary Method of Inspiration, simply to avoid feeling trapped by your Css.

  Thankfully, there was still plenty of enjoyment to be found. Not only ying an immense joy, but she was still marveling at the craftsmanship of the guitar Alicia had given her. After nearly a solid hour of simply appreciating the music, she finally decided to get back to her spellcasting.

  She now had four spells ready to go, which meant she was halfway towards her limit for this level. By taking Bonus Spells, she increased her limit from five to eight, and was thrilled to tierating.

  The spell she began w on was slightly more involved, and she’d purposely waited until she was aloo begin practice. Partially because she wahe pead quiet to help her trate, and partially because she’d wanted spells to show off to Alicia when sparring practice had ended.

  She hoped that, by the end of the night, she would have figured out how to create small illusions.

  After creating four spells for herself, Katrina was growing more and more fident in her ability to ect with her magic. When she’d first hit Level Three, it had felt like this nebulous well of energy that spoke a nguage she didn’t uand. It wasn’t something she had direct trol over, it was something she had to ask permission from, and thee a cradle of music to serve as the delivery method. The more she practiced, the more she reized how the magid the music worked together.

  In many ways, it felt like acquiring a brand-new instrument that was fwlessly made, but all the strings were horribly out of tune. With enough time, her magic began to resonate more and more powerfully with her musid it became easier to weave the two together.

  Her first attempts to create illusions were ughably simple. The first goal was to make anything at all; a cherry blossom, a small rock, or perhaps a stick. It took nearly an hour before she could sistently make any visual at all, and that was only the first step. After growing fident with simple shapes, she o practice how an illusion might move.

  The idea of a moving image seemed to fuse her magic. It felt like hitting a wrong note every time she tried; the magic would buzz and the image would fall. She struggled with how to rey the thought tisure what method would work best. Should an illusion be built on a series of still images, or a single image moving fluidly through space? Her magic seemed to want these answers, and it wasn’t something she had prepared for.

  Eventually, however, she figured out the ahe magic began to resoh her ideas, and soon she was able to fidently summon small cherry blossoms floating through the air.

  The st step to practice was increasing the size of the illusion. In a perfect world, she would be able to use this magic to hide doorways, distract monsters with copies of her delving party, or any number of other ideas. Illusion magic was well known for being both incredibly helpful and also entirely depe on the creativity of their wielder. The perfect spell in an arsenal of a jane-of-all-trades Bard like Katrina.

  In the end, as the sun began to peek around the horizon, Katrina had added another spell to her list. Not only did she only have three spells left, but she also felt signifitly better about the various things she’d talked about with Alica.

  It was helpful to know that Alicia had some self-image issues, even if they were incredibly minor, and Katrina was eager to take steps to make Alicia feel good about herself and their retionship. It was especially good to have an open discussion about jealousy sihey’d agreed that polyamory might be in their future.

  After pag up her guitar, Katrina checked her phone as she started walking towards the stairs. She uedly froze when she saw the date on her lock s: August 7th.

  Yesterday was the anniversary of the ge. That means this m is the anniversary of my first time trying to dust myself in the sunlight.

  A wave of emotions washed over Katrina. She had been dreading this day for weeks, operating uhe assumption that her guilt would drive her into the sunlight, just like it had every past anniversary. She thought back to her neighbor, to the woman in the alley, to everyone she’d hurt siurning into a Vampire.

  Katrina walked to the front door, ope, and stared outside. Long shadows crept across the ground, slowly growing shorter as the sun rose high in the m sky.

  Unbidden memories returo her; the feel of skin breaking under her teeth, of blood running over her tohe tless songs of her victims, ending without fanfare or ceremony purely because she o feed. Being a Vampire had pushed her to hurt so many people.

  But it had also led her to Alicia.

  She thought back to her st week, reviewing everything that had happened. She had friends now, people she regurly talked to that wao see her. She had a delving party, ohat was built to help someone in need rather than to seek fame lory. She had a girlfriend, a wonderful partner who knew everything about her past, and had chosen to stay with her. After spending years utterly vihat she didn’t deserve happiness, Katrina had somehow found a life for herself.

  “Kat? Kat?!”

  Upstairs, Katrina heard a small otion as Alicia woke up. Her voice was sleepy at first but had grown panicked almost instantly. Footsteps rang through the house as the Dryad raced through the halls, then dowairs. Katrina had barely paid attention to the noise, she was so lost in her own thoughts, but she returo her senses when Alicia ran in front of her. She was breathing heavily, tears in her eyes, and she threw her arms around Katrina before speaking up again.

  “Kat! Oh my god, I fot it was the anniversary today, please, don’t go outside!” Alicia said, still gasping for air.

  Having been pulled from the past, Kat looked down at Alicia before hugging her back. “Shhh, it’s okay, I’m here Alicia. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “I was so worried! You said that you try every year, and when I woke up you were gone, and I thought maybe I wasn’t enough, and that—”

  Katrina leaned down, cutting Alicia off by bringing their lips together. She ran her hands through the Dryad’s hair, across her face, and finally down her back before embrag her in a hug once more. “You couldn’t be farther from the truth, Alicia. I’m happier now than I’ve ever been. I got so caught up in my life that I had pletely fotten about the anniversary, and when I remembered… well, I guess I got caught up in my memories. I’ve spent years ed up in guilt, I used to stantly wish that I could go bad erase everything that had happened. But just now, when I looked out into the sunlight, I realized I don’t want that anymore. I think, even if I had the most powerful wish ience, I wouldn’t ge what happeo me. Yes, it was terrible, but it also led me to you, and I ’t imagine giving you up.”

  Alicia sniffled again. “You sure you’re not just saying that? I know I’ve beey emotional these st few days.”

  “You’re amazing, Alicia, and I mean every word of it. Now , you still need a few more hours of sleep, and I was just about to go to bed. This time I promise I won’t slip out of bed.”

  After a quiod, Alicia took Katrina’s hand and followed her upstairs. This time, when they crawled uhe sheets, their schedules permitted them hours of peaceful cuddling.