"Perry?"

I'd come looking for her, yet hearing Nexxa's voice still caused me to freeze up in surprise. Might've gotten a bit carried away with the greenhouses. After all the work we'd put in back in Cape Aeternia, setting up a couple simple greenhouses had been easy. Thankfully, I'd still had a bunch of seeds stored away, harvested from our early crops, as backups, just in case. Wasn't a big deal since they took practically no space. I had a spare robe that took up more.

"Hey Nexxa," I said, brushing my hands on my robe. Then I looked down and realized I'd done that a lot since I'd gotten there. My poor robe was more dirt than fabric. Good thing I had that spare. If Calbern knew I'd let my robe get-

"Oof," I said as Nexxa tackled me, almost knocking me off my feet as she wrapped her arms around me. I immediately returned the hug, something inside me unwinding, as I squeezed her just as hard as she was squeezing me, though I found myself unable to match the spinning she was doing.

It was more turbulent than trying to fly through the storm.

We remained like that for nearly half a minute before she finally relaxed her grip. "Perry, what are you doing here? How are you here? Why aren't you at your beacon? Where's Calbern? What happened?"

"Good to see you too, Nex," I said, giving her arm one last squeeze before stepping back.

"Of course it's good to see you, when I left, I… I'm sorry, Perry," Nexxa said, stepping forward and giving me another quick hug. "I didn't… Things got messed up. I meant to go back, to explain, but the Gardener was… she ended up pushing me hard enough I needed to get to the storm. And then getting back was…" Nexxa waved her hand in little circles. "Point is, I messed up. I… I understand what happened to you. And I should've talked to you about it before… before they caught up to me."

“Nex, I barely understand what happened to me, and I was there,” I said, squeezing her shoulder. "Sides, I could've certainly handled how I told you better."

"Sorry I didn't visit, it's just…"

"Yeah. Hash was telling me," I said, nodding towards the surrounding foliage. "Might not be much help with the fighting, but figured I could at least give you a nice place to come home to."

"It's… honestly, it's amazing. I was here this morning. You must've been working non-stop since I left," Nexxa said, looking around.

"Nexxa," I said, unable to keep my concern from my voice. "You've been gone for three days."

"I… what?" Nexxa asked, stopping in place.

"I saw you fighting that dragon, and I didn't dare get close, but I was honestly starting to run out of excuses to keep waiting. Was worried you might actually need me," I said, moving over to a familiar berry bush I vaguely remembered Nexxa liking when she was younger, casting Bloom on it long enough to retrieve a handful of fresh berries. "Glad you finished it off though. Here."

Nexxa stared at the berries blankly for a minute before barking out a hollow laugh. "No wonder I feel so damn exhausted."

"Yeah. I can't imagine what it's been like," I said, squeezing her shoulder. "I'll do all I can. I've got a lot of new spells and enchantments that might help. But right now, you need sleep."

"I… spells are good," Nexxa mumbled, a yawn slipping through even as she nodded.

"Yeah. We'll talk in the morning, let's get you to bed," I said, leading her out of the greenhouse. She was practically asleep by the time I got her back to the main building they were using. Even after I'd built an extra, they'd decided to remain in the one. They were practically on top of each other, but it seemed they preferred it that way. They'd gone through a lot together.

Once Nexxa was sleeping, I went to find Hash, letting him know I was going out.

I retrieved Soaring Wolf from the building across the way, pulling the cockpit closed around me and activating Aegis before taking to the air.

Despite Nexxa's efforts, a lot of the weaker monsters had been slipping through. Figured fighting a freaking dragon would do that, even if it had only been a tier-four.

Ha! Only.

A quick sweep would be enough to eliminate the leftovers. There weren't any in the direction Nexxa had come in from, of course, but I found more than enough around the edges to feed Tetherfall for a week. Probably enough for Nexxa's people to eat for months, if Nexxa only had the time and people to harvest them.

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Thankfully, I didn't encounter anything like the dragon she'd been fighting for the last half-day. It had been terrifying watching her, even from a distance. It'd been like the storm had found its center, except instead of being an area of calm, all the worst of its fury had been focused there. Even with Eagle Eyes, I'd barely been able to make them out through all the explosions.

As I came back to the fortress, I circled around instead of landing. The surroundings had been stripped clean during the erection of the fortress. I'd cheated a lot to build it so quick. Instead of reshaping everything from scratch, I'd cut sections out of the surrounding stone, then had her people help me get everything in place. After the rough shapes were erected, I welded them together and smoothed it all out. It'd been a bit like lining a bunch of metal bricks on end then welding them together.

It'd also given her people a way to contribute. I remembered that being important, from Books' lessons on the Captain's ship. The crops I'd planted in the greenhouses had been chosen with the help of her people too. Afterall, they needed to be able to tend them once I left.

After one last sweep to ensure nothing would be attacking the fortress for the next few hours, I landed, deciding it was time to get some sleep of my own.

I rose well before Nexxa, who seemed to have crashed entirely. Was tempted to use Restore Form on her, but a quick patrol showed that the horde hadn't yet recovered from her previous onslaught. And I knew from my flight there that Restore Form might take away some of the symptoms from not sleeping, it didn't clear the mental haze that built up.

So I let her rest. Instead, I pulled out the second grimoire I'd made for her. Much like the one she'd made for me. To make it easier for her, I'd created a sort of cheat sheet for the spells I thought she'd find most useful to go with it. I shamelessly copied Keeper's menu format, though I obviously didn't include a jade shard cost. In that spot, I put the page number.

It wasn't up to date. I hadn't added the Aegis spell or any of my changes to it, so I started there.

With that done, I produced several books for her people that would help them tend the new greenhouses. And some books on basic blacksmithing and carpentry, so they could start building things themselves. They had most of the tools but they'd lost their skilled crafters, either to the attack or the subsequent exodus. The books wouldn't make them experts but at least they'd get them started.

And then… I really was just waiting for her to wake up. I could probably do another patrol, maybe throw a lightning bolt or two in the direction of the horde, but that felt… well, Nexxa would be more effective at that with fifteen minutes of effort than I'd be all day. There were better things I could be doing.

I looked towards the river and the lack of a proper dock.

Which is what led to Nexxa finding me up to my waist in the river, the storm whipping around me as I shifted the stone beneath the riverbed into a nice neat platform.

"Having fun playing in the mud?" Nexxa asked, her voice clearly tinged with amusement.

"Yes, actually," I said, finishing the last motions of my hands. I'd technically finished the important parts of the dock half an hour or so ago, and had been making it prettier since. "Good sleep?"

"Best I've had in… probably a month. I'll need to get out there again soon, but wanted to see you again before I left. I'm… I'm guessing you can't stick around?"

"Wish I could," I said, pulling against the muck as I struggled to shore. "But there are people waiting for me. Now that I know you're safe…"

"Yeah. Thank you," Nexxa said, pulling me into another hug despite my mud-covered state. "And… again, I'm sorry."

"No problem. Though I do want to know what actually happened, when you're ready," I said, patting her back. When she let go, I pulled out the grimoire. Across the front was an image of Keeper, which felt appropriate, considering the source of most of the spells within. "But before you go out again, I thought you might want to take a look at this first."

"Of course, I'll tell you everything, I just need to…" Nexxa trailed off, her brow furrowed as she looked over the menu. She flipped back and forth several times, looking over all the spells I'd included. "This is… and after I… Perry, I should be the one getting you something. I'm the one who screwed things up."

"You're safe. That's enough for me," I said, squeezing her shoulder.

She rolled her eyes, swatting my arm. "Course I'm safe. None of this Fronting chaff can hurt me."

"You know, that kinda reminds me. Have you thought of putting up barriers? You know, to funnel them in?" I asked, gesturing at the numerous mountain peaks on the east side of her territory.

She snorted, snapping the grimoire closed. "Like I've got time for that. Too busy just keeping them from rolling east."

"Hmm. Guess I'll have to take a look. How much of your day is spent running around, tracking down stragglers?"

"Half," Nexxa said, narrowing her eyes at me. "You really think you can solve that?"

"Worth a day to check, don't you think?"

"Course I do," Nexxa said, clapping me on the shoulder with one hand. "Don't expect it to help much, but if you can… well, I guess we should look at the map."

Nexxa led me over to her beacon, bringing up the map. She frowned, squinting at the red lines that crossed over most of the map. Mine didn't have nearly as much red. Not even a hundredth. Nexxa really was being swarmed over.

"Can you get rid of those?" I asked, gesturing to the red lines.

"What do you think I've been doing?" Nexxa asked wryly, though she focused on the map and a couple seconds later it was clear.

I studied the map for a while, taking down notes and asking questions about the borders. Finally, I nodded. "It's not perfect, and I'll have to check the mountains and passes, but I think I can block off all these, and then you'll have a sort of snaking route leading in. They'll all funnel into this spot here."

"That… would make things a lot easier," Nexxa said, squinting at the map. "How're you gonna do that?"

"Same way I stopped a monster from escaping my territory," I said, giving her a half-smile. "Drop a mountain."