OOM: SAM
She almost misses Sam, at first.
But then, it's been years since she last saw him without all that grease in his hair, even before the whitewashing; most of her mind hasn't been looking for him blond. And she never would have thought to find him in the company of a particularly skittish redhead dressed like she's trying to be a Druid. Granted, now that things have rolled back a bit, she may be succeeding at it; either way, Cata can't fault Sam's taste.
In any case, Sam walks right past her, and she can't be having that, not after keeping an eye out for him this long. So she calls after him, "Took you long enough to get back here."
Sam stiffens, and turns around; when he sees her, he visibly sags with relief. "Oh, good. You're all right again. I hadn't been sure--"
"It was Mizzamir," she says, before he can finish the thought. "Though I think a few of the people he passed that damned spell along to have met a similar end - we've had another wave of people come back."
"Good. You'll have to forgive me for not being here to welcome you all back - he tried to go for me and Arcie, and we decided to cut our losses." The redhead says something to him, and he nods. "Go ahead. I may be a while."
After the redhead leaves, Cata raises an eyebrow. "Must have turned into quite an adventure, if you've got yourself a girl to show for it."
"Oh, you know how it is. Get pulled into saving the world from itself, get into several pissing contests with your cohorts along the way since none of you are inclined to trust each other, find out who your father is just before you fulfill a contract for his head... It was more entertaining than sitting around here and waiting for the Town Council to turn the Guild hall into a girls' school, anyway."
"Your... father finally made an appearance?"
Sam scowls. "He was right in front of us the entire time, more like. Put it this way, if I'd known, I would have made sure he was dead before I left Bistort, and saved us all half the bother."
Something about that niggles at the back of Cata's mind - like it's not exactly news that Mizzamir had his fingers in that particular pie. But she can't place it, so she ignores it for now. "Well. That would explain why he couldn't tell me how the spell wasn't facilitating a rape, anyway."
"How did you fare, in the end?"
"Waking up happily married to a farmer isn't an experience I'm in any hurry to repeat, I must say. I allowed myself the luxury of screaming the house down, under the circumstances, and came back here - I almost feel sorry for the children, but not enough to stay."
Sam smiles a little. "I think I'd have to wonder who you were and what you did with my best friend, if you had stuck it out."
"Well, if it had been you, I think we might have come to some arrangement - but anyway. I might end up teaching once the Guild takes on students again, for want of a better expert. And I found Viola a while ago."
"How's she?"
Cata grins. "Well, being a seamstress spared her whitewashing. Things are settling out again. Are you going to stay, now that you're back?"
"I... don't know yet. Kaylana's not terribly suited to cities, but at the same time, I'm not the best with the wilderness."
"Even after an epic quest? How disappointing."
Sam rolls his eyes. "You know as well as I do that it doesn't suit everyone. Anyway, if we don't stay, I'll at least be back to visit, now that things are getting interesting again."
"Good." She'd like to tell him about Milliways, but that's not a story she wants to share in public; it'll be hard enough to convince him without drawing an audience.
Instead, she says, "How did you find out about... your father? I don't see him volunteering the information."
"It would seem," Sam says, after a minute, "that he wasn't the last Hero standing after all. Only the other one got tired of him forcing everyone into the Light quite some time ago."
"Not the knight, by chance?"
"...And how did you know that?"
Cata shrugs. "A lucky guess." For all she's loath to explain it in such a public forum, she's glad to know that odd dream she had during the Earth holiday with the costumes actually had some truth to it.
They talk for a while longer, and then Sam makes his excuses. Cata lets him catch back up with his girl, and goes on her own way.
It's not a phrase she would apply to any situation lightly, after the whitewashing, but all is right with the world, at least for the moment.