“Nice of you to drop in on us like that,” Benita smiled when Lena finally regained consciousness. “Rook told me of your adventures in the other land… That was rather gruesome,” she looked somber. “So I suppose you are here to chase after your heart?”

“How do you know all this, Benita?” Lena tried to sit up but the wound in her chest was still raw. “Even if Rook told you every detail…” she shot him a glance, but he only smiled. “Even then…”

“It’s obvious, dear,” Benita shrugged. “To anyone who is paying attention, which, admittedly, is rare enough. Our world goes through a simple pattern… and you know what – I don’t mind a bit. It is still a nice place to live.”

“I am sorry that I shall have to destroy it again in order to regain my heart,” Lena smiled apologetically.

“Pay it no mind, for everything will be rebuilt overnight once you’ve completed the cycle,” Benita gently pushed Lena back onto the pillows. “Now, you should rest. That wound is real and unless you allow it to close and heal, it will kill you before you see the dragon again.”

Lena tried to protest that she had to get up and go looking for Scorpio, but Benita would hear none of it. “Scorpio will wait for you in the Rift,” Rook tried to reassure her too. “All is back to where it should be for the moment.”

…

A few days later Lena was well enough to walk around and her initial foray to the beach outside Cassardis didn’t go too badly. Of course, this was mostly due to Rook shadowing her everywhere with his healing spells. “Accompanying a new Arisen is my job,” he would dismiss her protests. “The only way you can get rid of me is to throw me off a cliff.” And since Lena had no intention of doing it, she stopped protesting.

Arriving at the encampment West of Cassardis and to the main riftstone in the area, they found everything as it had always been – the place was buzzing with soldiers and pawns. Some people seemed to have recognised her, but didn’t find it strange to see her again, she answered their greetings and went about summoning Scorpio. She approached the riftstone and heard a familiar voice.

“Well met, newly Arisen! Can you hear our voice? We speak to you over a great distance…” The voice continued telling her a few basics about being an Arisen, then asked her to demonstrate the strength of her resolve. Lena snorted and turned to Rook.

“Do you think it is a recorded message?” She squinted at him. “They didn’t seem to realise who I am.”

“It may well be a recorded message,” Rook nodded. “With the trial pre-arranged as well. I do find it suspicious how it is that a very particular marked cyclops appears just outside the encampment immediately after a new Arisen touches the riftstone for the first time. But no matter – we still have to slay it because the havoc it is causing is quite real!”

The encampment was indeed in a bit of a turmoil with soldiers running back and forth, some towards the gates leading to the cyclops, others in the opposite direction. Out of the gates they joined the fight, and soon the cyclops was slain, gaining Lena a nice piece of hide, a rugged task and two misshapen eyes…

“Two eyes?” Lena looked at Rook in astonishment. “From a cyclops?”

“Never mind, pick up your loot and let’s go back to the riftstone,” Rook grinned. “Perhaps he had a spare in his pocket.”

Back at the riftstone another pre-recorded message congratulated Lena on a successful completion of her trial and invited her to select a companion for the journey ahead, a pawn who would serve her and her alone. “Now, that’s a lie,” Lena suddenly noticed that line. “Pawns serve other Arisen as well when they are called for duty. I wonder why the Legion would lie to us like that…” She touched the riftstone and entered the Rift.

…

“Here to select a pawn?” A clerk started shuffling some papers without looking at Lena. He’d done this countless times before. “Male or female?”

“Scorpio.” Lena said in an even tone.

“What..?” The clerk finally looked up. “You again!” He scowled. “You can’t have the same pawn over and over again,” he shook his head. “Choose another.”

“Scorpio.” Lena repeated with more urgency in her voice.

“I said no,” the clerk looked stern. “You’re not supposed to be here, even. You’ve been assigned to the other world. We can just send you back there if you continue being a nuisance.”

“Is there a problem?” Lena heard Scorpio’s voice behind her. “You cannot overrule an Arisen’s call.”

The clerk buried his face in his hands.

“Fine! Have it your way!” He grabbed a pile of papers and dropped them into a desk drawer, locking it. “Let’s say, I never saw those. I am no fighter. I cannot fight an Arisen and her pawn…”

“Fight?” Lena was taken aback. “What are you talking about? What were those papers?”

“You’re not supposed to be reunited with your pawn,” he looked up at her. “Those are reports from the worlds you’ve been in about all the trouble you two make. The Legion decided to split you up. And if you refuse, I am supposed to fight you.” He pointed at a rusty sword behind his desk. “What a joke!” He smirked. “You’ll kill me, I’ll respawn elsewhere in the Rift, you’ll come back for your pawn and we’ll be doing it until the end of time.”

“Let’s go,” Scorpio put his hand around Lena’s waist preventing her from lunging at the clerk. “He’s just a clerk. We’ll talk elsewhere.”

…

“You took your time!” Rook was standing by the riftstone looking worried. “What happened?”

“Not here,” Scorpio shook his head.

Back in Cassardis they were sitting around the table in Pablo’s inn with Pablo fussing over the food and drink.

“It’s good to have you back, cousin!” He kept repeating. “Truth be told, we missed you and your pawns,” he grinned at them. “You bring excitement to our quiet village!”

“Aestelle still glares at us though,” Scorpio smirked. “Even at Rook!”

“Aestelle is like that,” Pablo shrugged. “She’s doing it out of habit more than anything. Yet she doesn’t think twice about calling on Rook for every bruise and scrape she gets, which happens all the time!”

“Why is Aestelle getting bruises and scrapes?” Lena looked up in surprise. “She’s a shop keeper! What’s so dangerous in her shop?”

“Well, she handles crates with merchandise, doesn’t she? Apparently they have all rough corners and edges…” Pablo rolled his eyes and everyone stared at Rook.

“What?!” He looked around defensively. “I cast a healing spell, that’s all! Apparently, that tickles…”

When hilarity finally settled down, it was time to discuss more serious matters.

“The clerk in the Rift said that the Legion wanted to see us split up,” Scorpio summarised the events for Rook. “He had a pile of reports of the trouble we caused, apparently,” he grinned. “What I want to know is what the Legion really wants from Wolf.”

“They want her dead,” Rook shrugged. “She’s a threat to the established order. Not only is she constantly going after the dragon, but she also spreads ideas about the free will. And that is the real threat to the Legion.”

“I don’t actually give anyone free will,” Lena objected. “You already have it.”

“Ah, but we’re being brainwashed to the contrary,” Rook shook his head, rubbing the pawn mark on his hand, bright as ever. “It’s not just the Arisen who are being told that pawns are but empty husks, the pawns are being told that as well. Some even believe it… Well, a lot of pawns believe it, in fact.”

“A lot of people believe something similar too,” Lena sighed. “Soldiers who follow orders without thinking… spouses who defer every decision to their ‘other half’… servants who do whatever ‘their betters’ tell them… It is so much easier not to have to think for yourself, and there’s always someone you can blame for your misfortunes.” She paused, and no one spoke. “I really don’t think that if I tell a few pawns to wake up, it would have a lasting effect on the Legion as a whole.”

“May be it isn’t that…” Rook rubbed his chin. “May be it is rather the fact that you are not from this world. The worlds controlled by the Legion all run in a simple cycle with the dragon and the Arisen, it renews the world without allowing it to change all that much. If pawns start getting ideas and traveling the Rift beyond these worlds like Scorpio here, those ideas may spill over to the inhabitants and ultimately break the Dragon’s Dogma cycle. That would be an issue.”

“Lord Phaesus in Battahl has already been trying to break the Dragon’s Dogma for a very long time,” Lena objected. “I had nothing to do with it.”

“May be not, and may be you have,” Rook gave her a long look. “They also had the elves and the dwarves… Some travel has been happening for eons already. But what is new, I think, is that you taught it to your pawn… in a manner of speaking…”

The day was turning into an evening, and they still couldn’t solve the conundrum of the Pawn Legion.

“You know what,” Lena got up from the table. “May be we don’t need to figure it out. May be we should each just try to live our lives… such as they are.” She smiled, looking around the inn, now filling with people coming for dinner. “One step at a time. I’ll need my heart back first of all, then we’ll see. This time things are better than ever before,” she smiled radiantly at them. “Rook is actually at home. He can come with us for a few days, then return to Benita, and all of that will be happening in real time. This is how life works for the rest of us, Rook. This is the real thing. No more fragments or shards, they won’t call you away while there’s an Arisen right here. And I… I feel at home here too. May be I don’t need to rush the dragon this time..? Less fighting, more eating fish, perhaps?” She looked at Scorpio who seemed confused by such a change in tactics. “We kick Selene out of my house and settle down for a while? What say you, Main Pawn?”

“My all is yours to shape, Master,” he answered automatically. “I wouldn’t say no to fish myself…”

“Flounder and haddock today,” Pablo put a platter of grilled fish on the table. “Hope you like it… we can never tell what the sea will give us, but there’s always enough…”

The inn was getting loud as the drinking overtook the eating, and no one really noticed when Lena and her pawn left the room.

…

“Were you serious about settling down for a while?” Scorpio turned to her when the logs in their campfire were reduced to ambers. The night was beautiful and they chose to spend it on the beach.

“Perhaps,” Lena nodded. “I don’t know what’s the right way any more,” she looked at him. “I am tired, Scorpio… That chase in Battahl took more out of me than I would have liked… And your wound is still hurting.”

“It is… It seems we both need more time to heal.” He put another log into the fire and it flared, then calmed down again. “Perhaps the answers will come all without us chasing after them…”

“Immortality has its perks…”

“I never had any issues with your fangs…”

“Fangs I can deal with,” Lena smirked. “I want a beating heart again.”

“You’ll get it back, I have no doubt.” Scorpio looked quite serious. “It will destroy this world and you will fix it again. You will even be allowed to remain here forever after that… possibly even with me at your side…”

“But..?”

“It’s what Rook said – they don’t want you to leave, they don’t want pawns to leave this sphere.”

“How did you manage to travel to Tamriel?” Lena suddenly realised that she didn’t know how pawns traveled the Rift.

“I simply grabbed another ledge…” Scorpio smiled at Lena’s incomprehension. “Remember the Everfall? The endless well you’re falling through? With ledges and lights along the way? There’s one in the Rift. Possibly even the same one, or may be it just appears differently to different people… I found it and jumped into it, and those ledges and lights led to different worlds. Eventually I landed in the Shivering Isles… It wasn’t the first ledge I tried.”

“Oh…” Lena’s voice fell. “So it isn’t a straight road home…”

“No, we’ll have to find a more secure way,” Scorpio nodded. “I imagine this is why it wasn’t guarded – who would want to jump into the unknown for no reason? I had a reason of course, but most pawns do not.”

“Pawns that go mad with despair on the Bitterblack Isle might prefer to jump in,” Lena objected. “If they knew about it, that is…”

“But that’s the thing with despair – you stop looking for a way out.”

“You need a friend to help you along,” Lena looked up, thinking of her own despair back in Battahl, and how Rook pulled her out. “All it takes is warmth…”