Back in the cave.
Valeria woke up to the heavenly scent of… sweaty socks, mana burnout, and someone muttering "never again" in a near-death whisper.
Her eyelids fluttered open.
She was lying on the rocky cave floor, her face down and mouth full of moss.
Elegant.
She blinked, dazed, trying to recall what had happened. There had been... tension. A hug attempt. Then an entire anti-sibling aura wall.
Then—
"The patriarch sucker-punched me," she mumbled.
"Oh good," Clara's voice hummed nearby, "she's awake. Graye, you owe me five chocolates."
"Dang it," Graye groaned from somewhere to Valeria's right. "I thought she'd be out till dinner."
Valeria pushed herself up with all the grace of a drunken goat. Her eyes roamed the cave.
Most of the party were scattered like dropped laundry after a teleport spell gone wrong.