The Last Experience Point

Chapter 125: Boom

With almost perfect timing, the thunderstorms halted and the clouds parted in tandem with the first rays of early-morning sunshine. Zach, getting into casual clothing for the first time in days, noted the change of weather through one of the clear glass windows in the master bedroom as he slipped into a pair of baggy shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. Kal had left his equipment and his sword in the walk-in storage closet across the room, and his rings, necklace, and bracelets had been safely stowed in a jewelry box atop the dresser beneath the viewing screen. Zach could just as easily put everything in Bank and Storage, but since he didn’t plan on leaving the grounds of this large, three-floor, eight-bedroom home today, it wasn’t even worth the effort.

Stretching his back and neck muscles, he exited into the hallway on the first floor of this expansive, palace-like property that Kalana had somehow had built in just a matter of days. The Gods only knew how much it must have cost to not only build a home like this in the first place, but to transport the construction materials safely through the island's invisible barrier along with the construction DEHVs—while also paying an extra premium on top of it all so it would be done in under a week.

Tens of millions of gold at least, Zach thought with a shudder. She probably spent between 20 and 30 million. And to think: she lectures me about being greedy. How the hell did Kal even get that much gold so fast in the first place?

Located at the back of the home, a single wide hallway outside of the master bedroom led all the way into the living room and kitchen on the opposite side of the house. As Zach stepped over the newly laid hardwood flooring, he walked quietly so as not to wake up anyone who might still be asleep. Yet it turned out not to be necessary, because as he ambled his way into the living room, he spotted Rian, Lienne, Trelvor, and Seiley; all four were seated together on a silk, wheat-colored sofa, and they were speaking softly but animatedly to one another.

On the other end of the living room, Ruby and Fluffles were still asleep. Ruby was on her belly face-down on a separate sofa and Fluffles was passed out on the raptor’s back. “When food?” the cat moaned as he snoozed. Either through coincidence or subconscious hearing, Ruby’s tongue exited her mouth and licked the air as though in response to the question. It caused Zach to wonder why sentient NPCs like Grundor and Ruby even needed to sleep and eat in the first place since the mindless ones did not. Was something fundamentally different within them?

Probably a question for Mr. Oren, Zach thought.

Waving good morning, he entered farther into the room and said, “I didn’t think you guys would all be up so early.” As they turned to face him, he took a seat on the opposite couch across from the four of them. With a brief snicker, he added, “Well, at least not Rian and Lienne.”

Lienne folded her left leg over her right and sighed. “These two won’t let us sleep in.”

“It’s true,” Rian said, a touch of grumpiness in his words. “As soon as Seiley woke up, she made me wake up too.”

“Elvish tradition,” Trelvor said. “If a partner rises, you rise with them.”

Rian rubbed his eyes as though tired. “Okay, well, Seiley needs to stop ‘rising’ before seven.”

Zach laughed at the exchange. He was glad that Kalana either did not know or did not care about any such customs. Not wanting to disrespect the Elves, he decided not to comment on how ridiculous it sounded to him—the idea that if your partner or spouse woke up, you needed to do so as well. No way he’d ever go along with that if Kal tried to push it. That would be grounds for a fight.

Or at least a heated confrontation.

Between where he was sitting alone on the couch and where the other four were lounging together, a glass coffee table with a built-in holo-tab resided to fill the space. Zach, against his better judgment, leaned forward, extended his arm, and then thumbed the button labeled “news” on the holo-tab before sitting back up. This caused a 3D image to project into the air above the glass table. He was amazed Kal had spent the money on one of these, as in addition to being stupidly expensive—up to 15k gold for just one of them—their lackluster image quality and poor viewing angles made them less enticing to use for extended periods of time when compared to a traditional, wall-mounted screen. They were very much a novelty device.

“Why did I just do that?” Zach grumbled to himself, causing Lienne to raise a questioning eyebrow. He looked at her. “I shouldn’t have turned this thing on.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’ve been watching the news since I woke up a few hours ago, and now I feel like I can’t stop. It’s why I never should’ve started. Truth is, I’ve been trying to forget about all the bullshit going on in North Bastia, and now, here I am, getting roped in again.”

Lienne nodded. “I actually know exactly what you mean.” She glanced down at the 3D, holographically projected image, where the news was continuing to provide a live look from behind the battle lines in Shadowfall Coast. “Everything’s just gotten way too crazy lately. That’s why I’ve also started tuning a lot of it out, especially after I heard what happened to you a few nights ago at the…” Briefly, and without meaning to do so, Zach winced as though struck. Lienne must’ve taken notice of this because her words trailed off into silence, though only for a moment. Now, with a lower, gentler voice, she said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up.”

Rian also gave him an empathetic smile that disturbed Zach because the last thing he wanted was for them to feel bad for him. “What did you hear?” he asked them both despite the fact that he didn’t actually want to know. Truly, he didn’t. Thus, when neither of the two replied, he should have just dropped it. Instead, for a reason he did not fully understand, he felt compelled to pressure them into a response, and so for the second time, he asked, “What did you hear? Just tell me.”

Lienne licked her lips as though trying to form her words carefully, though it was Rian who ended up speaking first. “Well, we already knew the gist of it from the media, but Fluffles told us the rest of what went down. He told us how you had to…defend yourself.”

“And you’re okay with that?” Zach asked. He knew he was giving Rian an icy stare, but it wasn’t intentional. Thankfully, Rian rolled his eyes and defused some of the sudden tension that Zach could feel forming between them.

“Why wouldn’t I be? Because I’m from Shadowfall Coast? Zach, I hate that city and the people who run it a billion times more than even the Royal Roses do. Did you think I would be angry with you?”

Zach lowered his eyes. He really didn’t want to discuss this at all, but he also didn’t want to admit that to them. He’d already made himself look crazy in front of Kalana, and he didn’t want his friends to see him in that light as well. Yet, try as he might, he couldn’t control the way this topic made him feel jittery and ill.

“It’s not that I thought you’d be angry,” he explained. “I just thought that, you know, since you’re from there, Rian, and given how badly the city’s been damaged…I was worried you might feel differently about me now.”

“Huh? Why would I?” Rian asked, sounding genuinely perplexed as to why Zach would suggest such a thing.

“I don’t know,” Zach breathed out after a short pause to gather his thoughts. “Maybe because I was ‘technically’ fighting on the same side as the people who blew up—who are still blowing up—the city where you were born.”

Rian shook his head. “First of all, I know you have nothing to do with that, man. And second of all, I’m an adventurer, like you, and our people were attacked. That’s how I look at it. And I do feel bad about all the destruction, but none of that’s your fault.” Rian crooked his thumb at his sister. “And just so you know, Lienne doesn’t blame you either.”

“That’s right,” she agreed. “Not one bit.”

Rian chuckled. “She doesn’t even blame the Elves, if you can believe it. Actually, Li’s changed a lot over the past few days. She’s miraculously stopped being raci—”

There was a slap as Lienne hit Rian across the shoulder while a look of alarm and fear crossed her eyes, and as though catching himself, Rian gave her an apologetic nod and let his words cut off—but not before earning a skeptical look from Trelvor and also Seiley.

He almost called her racist, Zach realized. Right in front of her new boyfriend.

Before meeting the tall, handsome-looking Elf, Lienne had held some pretty harsh views towards the Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Merfolk, and basically all other non-human races. It was actually kind of crazy how radically she’d changed in just a matter of days. It was also pretty damn funny, too. It seemed that all it took for Lienne’s entire belief system to become completely inverted from its starting point was a kiss from a flute-playing, white-cloaked Elvish warrior with broad shoulders. Of course, this now put her in the unenviable position of having to hide all her past thoughts, views, and social-media comments from him.

At some point, Zach reckoned she would have to come clean about it with Trelvor, especially because it was only a matter of time before she failed to cover one or more of her old tracks and he found out. Honestly, this seemed like the sort of thing where, the longer she took to address this with him, the worse it would be for her relationship when she finally did. Right now, Zach could see her visibly squirm on the sofa as Trelvor leaned towards her and whispered a question into her ear. And though Zach couldn’t hear what he was telling her, he knew it was likely a question about what Rian had been about to say.

Lienne opened her mouth and raised her pointer finger, the unease plain on her face. Luckily for her, before she was forced to come up with an answer, she was saved by Kalana. Trelvor, Seiley, and Rian lifted their heads and began glancing somewhere behind Zach. Turning somewhat in the couch and looking over his shoulder, he saw her strolling down the hallway, a smile on her face. Happily, she took a seat right next to Zach, rested her head on his shoulder, and then with a bubbly tone of voice, she said, “Good morning, everyone.”

“Good morning, Your Highness,” Trelvor said, performing an awkward “sitting bow” on the couch.

“Morning,” Seiley said in a way that was moderately less formal. Rian and Lienne merely smiled politely.

For roughly half a minute, Kalana exchanged pleasantries with the two Elves, and then, with a big, happy grin, she regarded Rian and Lienne. “I’m so glad I finally have the chance to talk to you two. We only really spent a few minutes together when I met you guys in Angelica’s. But now we can finally get to know each other like we were supposed to before that mean dragon spawned.”

Zach felt a mix of contrasting emotions as her words reminded him of how things were originally meant to have gone down. Having cleared their very first dungeon boss, the three of them were supposed to have met Kalana in Den of Ziragoth. They’d been planning on spending a few days together, too, and then Zach and Kal were going to come here to the island. None of that had ended up happening, of course—at least not in the order and way it was supposed to. Instead, Zach had ended up hit with a whirlwind of pain, death, and devastation: a chain of events that were kicked off with the loss of his arm and his eye. Few people would ever know how much it hurt to have one’s eye and arm simultaneously ripped off their body while they writhed in pain on the ground of a blood-soaked street. In fact, if he allowed himself to think about it, he could still vividly recall the exact way it had felt when he’d…

Don’t think about it, he told himself. None of that matters anymore.

Zach redirected his thoughts back to the here and now, and with that, he engaged in light chatter as Rian, Lienne, and Kalana finally had the chance to interact with one another. “I wanna know everything,” Kalana said. “Tell me how you guys met Zach and what the dungeon was like.”

Rian and Lienne briefly exchanged glances, and then the two of them worked together in obliging her request; they took turns in recounting the entire ordeal in the Catacombs of Yorna. As they spoke, Kalana listened intently as Rian laughingly described his very first interaction with Zach along with how Fluffles had baited them all into PVP, which ended only after they mutually realized that none of them actually wanted to hurt the other. Afterwards, the siblings described their foray into the dungeon. A few of the things they said were things that Zach had already told Kalana, but Rian and Lienne gave a far more detailed retelling that included a lot of things Kalana was likely hearing for the first time.

“…and then we were in this staircase that went on for like ever,” Rian said. “And the only reason we ended up making it through was because Zach came up with this crazy idea with his sword to get us down safely.” He then explained the large drop at the bottom and Zach’s crazy stunt that’d allowed the three of them to survive the plunge.

“Incredibly brave,” Trelvor said, looking sincerely impressed. He nodded his head approvingly. “Daring, bold, and heroic: exactly as my father said you were.”

Zach laughed, though he couldn’t help but feel the sting of self-bitterness rising within him. It was amazing how wrong the perception was that people had of him. Anyone who could see into his heart would know that he was none of those things. They didn’t understand how many times he’d tried and failed to conquer his fears: how badly things still rattled him despite his constant attempts to mentally power through them.

“My buddy is brave all right,” Rian agreed boastfully. “You should’ve seen him run straight at the dragon all by himself. I never would’ve done something like that. I was so scared all I could do was try not to shit myself.”

“Fluffles fight the stinky dragon too and was also very brave,” the cat blurted out, his unexpected voice coming from behind and to Zach’s left.

He was now sitting directly on top of the backrest of the couch, having silently woken up at some point and making his way over to them. Zach had no idea how long he’d been there, but by now, he was used to Fluffles appearing without warning. Cats were sneaky little creatures and tended to show up wherever they pleased and whenever they wanted.

Ruby was also awake—though only slightly. She was still in the exact same position, lying on her belly on the couch on the other end of the room, but now her eyes were slightly open. She seemed content to simply lie there and watch everybody as though happy and grateful just to be here around them, desiring nothing else. As much as Zach hated Ziragoth and wanted to hate her for being a spawn of it, she was starting to win him over with the innocence and love in her eyes.

“Ruby, come hang out over here with all of us,” Kalana said, patting the couch.

Her tail started thudding against the sofa, and then she rolled off it, stood up on her two legs, and darted over as if overjoyed to be invited and wanted. A moment later, Zach realized he was patting her head without even consciously choosing to do so; it wasn’t until this point that Zach realized she’d managed to fully sway him.

For the next five minutes, Rian and Lienne told Kalana, Seiley, and Trelvor all about Yorna and their adventures in it. During this time, Zach periodically glanced downwards at the image projected by the holo-tab to see if anything new or noteworthy was going on in the world. So far, nothing much seemed to have changed. The North Bastian guilds were apparently making steady progress in Shadowfall Coast, and there was a brief update regarding the Bridge of Torment, which was now reopened for travel. Other than that, there didn’t appear to be any major developments.

Not that they’d necessarily tell us right away if there were, he reminded himself.

The troubled state of world affairs aside, Zach found himself immensely enjoying the downtime. It was nice to just sit here with Kal and the others, make small talk, laugh, exchange stories, and just generally have a good time without needing to rush off to fight some existential threat before it ended all of civilization. Slowly but surely, Zach found himself relaxing in a way that he hadn’t been able to do for a good, long while.

And that was when a knock came from the front door.

Trelvor sat up, alarmed. “Are you expecting company, Your Highness?” he asked, suddenly appearing alert; his back straight, he looked ready for combat.

Kal got up from the couch. “Yep. Everything’s fine, don’t worry.”

Trelvor did not seem entirely convinced; his eyes became narrowed, and his posture further stiffened. Seeing him in this hyper-vigilant state, Zach was simply unable to resist. “Hey, Trelvor,” he said.

“Yes, Zach?”

“Maybe you should get your flute just in case.”

Trelvor turned his head to give Zach a confused stare as Rian immediately slammed both his hands over his mouth but still ended up choking out a laugh with such force that saliva escaped from the cracks between his fingers, some of it spilling onto his pants.

“That…was a joke, I see,” Trelvor said, appearing annoyed. “You don’t think my choice of weapon is very intimidating, I take it.”

“Sorry,” Zach said, holding out his palms in a gesture of peace. “That’s just how I joke around.”

“I understand. But let me please make clear I’m not partial to that. I’ve never found insults against others or name-calling to be very funny.”

“Got it. I apologize.”

“I appreciate the apology. All is forgiven and well.”

Zach lowered his arms then made a mental note not to kid around with Trelvor in the same way he did with Rian and Lienne. Not all people were the same, and not all people could take a joke. Clearly, Trelvor was the type to take offense very easily, and Zach would respect that. Rian, on the other hand, seemed to be trying and failing to stop his giggling, but it only seemed to make things worse. In between laughing fits, Zach heard him whisper, “I’m sorry, Li, but that was so fucking funny. You have to admit it. Look. You’re trying not to laugh too. Zach’s such an asshole, hahaha.”

Taking his attention off the others, Zach watched as, with a spring in her step, Kalana hurried across the living room, through the kitchen, and towards the open foyer at the very front of the house, where she then grabbed the handles to a set of gold-adorned doors, pulling them open. Immediately, her mood seemed to become even brighter and more upbeat.

“Hi!” she called out cheerfully, letting the word drag on so it sounded more like hiiiiiii. “I’m so, so, so glad you came. Oh no! You’re soaked. I’m so sorry.”

“Oh, stop, it’s fine,” said an energetic voice that was just a touch raspy. Zach leaned over in the couch to get a better look, and then his mouth opened slightly in both confusion and surprise by the sight that greeted his eyes.

Into the large home strutted a woman in a yellow raincoat who was at least six feet tall if not taller. Though the storm had stopped a short while ago, she was still a bit wet. In her left hand, she held an open umbrella, and in her right, she gripped what looked like a massive battle-axe: one even larger than the one wielded by Donovan. Its blade was alight with a smokeless flame, and the grip glowed with an on-and-off pulse that alternated between a soft reddish color and a slightly brighter orange. Quite clearly, she was an adventurer. But what was she doing here?

Surely, she’s not the…

Kicking off her combat boots, the woman gently placed the battle-axe down and then closed the umbrella, after which she peeled off her raincoat so that what stood before them on the welcome mat was a beautiful woman with an athletic build and medium-length black hair done into a ponytail. Judging from her appearance, she looked to be in her early twenties; she also wore a sleek pair of square glasses and a medium-sized backpack.

“Don’t worry,” she said as she and Kal hugged. “I got your message. I didn’t kill anything on the way over here. Had to outrun a few things, though.” Raising her hands to the length of her shoulders, she removed her backpack then held it in front of herself. “Food should still be dry, too,” she said, giving the bag a little shake.

Taking a single step into the home, she lifted her head and looked across the way to where Zach sat with the others in the living room, smiling at the six of them. Her eyes briefly passed over each of their faces, and when they settled on Zach, he felt a bit awkward and uneasy. Her gaze lingered on him for a just a moment longer than it did the others, and before looking away, she gave him a confident wink. Then she turned her attention to Fluffles.

“I brought food for everyone,” she announced. “We've got sweet honey rolls, cornbread, some muffins—tons of other goodies, too.” She looked down towards her feet, where Fluffles now stood before her almost as though he’d teleported. “Yes, Fluff, I brought you a big, juicy piece of salmon.”

He brushed against her leg. “Hi Jascaila,” he said with a purr. “Give fish.”

“In a minute, pretty boy.”

“I wait for you in the kitchen.”

“Okay, you got it.”

Fluffles turned around and ran into the kitchen and remained there as if wanting to be ready the moment she fed him. Zach watched all of this unfold with uncertainty, wariness, and a great deal of confusion. Surely, this woman couldn’t actually be the therapist that Kal had told him about. She did not look the part. She looked like an adventurer through and through. Yet…it must have been so, because the possibility of a different woman showing up with food at this time in the morning—it was unthinkable. It had to be her. Nothing else made any sense. And so now, studying her carefully, Zach felt his guard and mistrust rising.

I need to prove to Kal I’m not crazy.

Deciding to operate off the assumption that this woman was, in fact, the therapist that Kalana had brought here, Zach knew that the time had come for him to put his emotions and “jitters” on lockdown. He needed his behavior to be perfect in order to get a clean bill of health and set Kal’s mind at ease. There was no room for error or mistake. He had to present himself as the most normal person to ever walk the planet.

For the moment, however, Zach decided to remain where he was in the living room and “scope” out the situation as he prepared himself for whatever came next. Right now, Jascaila was standing across from Kalana, and the two began to snicker as they chatted about girly things for a little bit, their voices gradually rising in volume until Zach could clearly make out Jascaila excitedly describing a new dress she’d bought in Plains of Mist and Kalana asking her what she thought of the zebra-pattern countertops in the kitchen, to which this woman, this “Jascaila,” claimed she thought it was a perfect match for the cabinets.

Just from observing her briefly, Zach could tell that she was a highly sociable, intelligent, and outgoing person. She was charming, but without being too overbearing. She likely had the ability to disarm people and make them feel at ease: exactly what she’d need to break into his head and start fucking around with his thoughts. He’d need to be on guard at all times around her to prevent that from happening or else something bad could leak out of his head, exposing something he didn’t want exposed.

I just need to keep my shit together long enough to get a good report. Then we can put all this behind us for good.

Look. Here was the truth, okay? Despite what Kalana believed, Zach didn’t actually need therapy. That was just a fact, all right? Sure, he couldn’t deny that, every now and then, he had a little, uh…you know, a little “hiccup” here or there where he’d get a bit nutty. But truly, it was nothing that he couldn’t—or wouldn’t—get over all on his own with a bit of time and the growing of a thicker skin. He knew that if he just toughed it out a little bit longer, he was going to revert back to how he’d been before all the awful shit recently put these damn jitters into him. It made sense, too. After all, when something was shaken up, it needed time to settle. That was all there was to it. And as long as he kept it together today, he would prove that in good time.

“Wow, that smells so good,” Lienne said, getting up from the couch.

“Human food is my weakness,” Seiley agreed, a trickle of drool escaping her lips.

Rian patted him on the back. “Let’s eat.”

Zach nodded and followed behind them, and as he did so, he kept his cool, walked with an air of nonchalance, and tried to keep front and center in his mind why he was bothering to allow this at all. It was because, at the heart of it, the only thing he really wanted was to reassure Kal. Even more important to him than his ego was his desire for her to be happy because he loved her and didn’t want her to keep having to worry about him. That reason, and that reason alone, was the only reason he was willing to put up with any of this. And so, for that to work out, he knew he needed to behave as normally, casually, and calmly as he possibly could. He needed to present himself as the very picture of sanity, rationality, and stability.

With all these thoughts in mind, he followed the others into the kitchen and sat with them at a large rectangular dining table where Jascaila had laid out a whole bunch of sweet honey rolls for anyone to take as they pleased. Right off the bat, Zach had to try his best not to be disarmed as he was overcome by the incredible flavor. Gods be damned, it was good. He could tell from Kalana’s reaction—as well as everyone else’s—that they thought so as well.

As breakfast commenced and everybody ate, Zach was thankful for the lack of tension and the general sense of happiness from everyone in the kitchen, including Fluffles and Ruby, who were sharing a piece of salmon. Eating slowly, Zach remained mostly quiet as those around him made joyful conversations with one another, but in particular, with Jascaila, who everyone seemed to find fascinating and interesting. The woman spoke to all of them in turn, and occasionally, she’d set her gaze on Zach to ask him a benign question or two, but so far, she paid him no greater attention than she did anyone else, for which he was grateful.

“So, what do you think of those ones, Zach?” she asked him. “I bought them fresh this morning.”

“They’re great,” he said politely and softly. “Thank you.”

“You’re totally welcome. Want another?” She lifted the edge of one of the plates stacked with rolls so that it would be easier for Zach to grab. Not wanting to be rude—and also because he was really loving them—he decided to take another. And with that, she turned to look at Trelvor to resume a conversation she’d begun with him a few minutes earlier. “So, I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but I still can’t believe you and the other Elves were living on Archian Prime all this time and most of us had no idea at all. The Explorers Brigade sure loves keeping their secrets.”

Trelvor chuckled. “Secret-keepers or not, their guild is well liked by my people. In fact, before our Galterran brothers and sisters arrived, what little news we received of modern Galterra was thanks to Zephyr. I’ve heard we’ve traded with him on numerous occasions over the years, though it was before I was born. Truth be told, I’m actually surprised no one in your guild has ever made contact with us.”

“Former guild, actually,” she corrected.

“Oh, are you not an adventurer anymore?”

“Yes and no,” Jascaila said. “I’m mostly retired from adventuring. These days, I adventure with some of my girlfriends maybe once every two or three years to get more anti-aging creams and skincare drops from a rare spawn, but aside from that, I mostly put the adventuring world behind me somewhere around twenty or so years ago.”

Seiley, who had clearly been too busy eating to participate in the conversation about Archian Prime, suddenly put down the roll she was about to bite into, and now her eyebrows rose and her pointy ears twitched. “Wait, how many years?” she asked. “Did you just say twenty?”

“I sure did.”

Seiley blinked as if in disbelief. “And what were you back then, like four years old?”

“How old do you think I am right now?” Jascaila asked her, a look of amusement coming through clearly on her lips.

Seiley shrugged. “Twenty-five, probably. Maybe twenty-four.”

“A little bit older.”

“Twenty-six?”

“Older.”

“Twenty…seven?”

“Try adding about three decades onto that.”

“No fucking way,” Zach blurted out before Seiley could voice a reaction of her own. Immediately after speaking, he mentally chided himself for getting sucked into whatever mind game this woman was obviously playing. Now he’d be forced to interact with her unnecessarily. In order to get a perfect bill of health from her and put Kal’s mind at ease, he needed to avoid any unnecessary showing of emotion, which he worried could maybe cause her to, like, “see” something or whatever that he didn’t mean to reveal. But even still, what she was saying was so intriguing that he couldn’t help it.

“Yes fucking way,” she replied to him. “Don’t just assume an adventurer is the age they appear. We live longer lives than most people, and those of us who start at an early age end up aging even slower. For me, I not only started when I was fourteen, but I also go pretty aggressively after the cosmetic drops.”

Amazed, Zach struggled to come to grips with the idea that this woman, Jascaila, who looked like a college senior, could possibly be in her early-to-late fifties. He was equally as surprised as Seiley, who for some reason, also seemed to find this hard to believe. Zach wondered if it was because the green-cloaked Elves were less experienced and newer to the world of leveling when compared to the white-cloaks who were born into it. Or maybe it was because the cosmetics made her look too young for a woman in her fifties even taking that into account. Whichever the case, Zach remained skeptical, and as if sensing his doubt, she asked, “Just how old do you think Fluffles’ daddy is, Zach? Assuming you’ve met him, I mean.”

“Maric?” Zach asked. “Yeah, I’ve met him. And that guy’s pretty old. Maybe sixty or seventy.”

Fluffles lifted his head from the big bowl of fish he was sharing with Ruby, and then he meowed. “Zach wrong. Daddy is 122 years old.”

Zach dropped his fork on the plate. “Okay, no way,” he said, shaking his head and becoming fully drawn into the conversation. “Impossible.”

“Not impossible,” Jascaila said, also placing her fork on her plate, but only so that she could lean in and raise her pointer finger. “When I was first starting out, my guild-leader was pushing one-eighty before old age finally got to him. Right now, I think the oldest adventurer who’s still active is Miss Britethorn. She’s this really nice lady who—”

“Hey, we actually met her!” Lienne called out—then apologized directly afterwards for interrupting Jascaila.

“You did?” Jascaila asked, seemingly taking no offense.

Lienne nodded. “Yes, uh, me, Zach, and my brother met Mister and Misses Britethorn and even had tea with them in their home in Angelica’s. I think I remember them living in room 3007, right?”

Jascaila gave her a thumbs-up. “That’s right, Lienne. So, you did meet them.”

“Oh, we definitely did,” Rian said, chiming in. “I know because it’s impossible to forget the fact that they built an entire mansion in their inn room. Personally, I can’t wait until I have enough points to make my own little paradise world.”

Zach felt much the same as Rian. He too wanted to take possession of an inn room and use points to create a kingdom of his own making. There were basically limitless possibilities of what could be done within a single inn room—assuming you had the points to afford it. Of course, to even unlock the ability to transform it, Zach recalled that it first required you to “book” the room for 100 days or more, at which point the Britethorns claimed you’d receive a tablet that would contain all the functions necessary to create any kind of home you wanted.

But in what came as a genuine shock to Zach, there were actually people out there who did not absolutely love the idea of an infinitely customizable home in a room on the edge of the universe—or at least one person in particular. This, he discovered as he spotted Seiley openly frowning at Rian, who didn’t even appear to notice her glares until after he’d finished elaborating in detail on the kind of world he’d like to make inside of one of the rooms.

“I don’t like that, my human-pet,” she said.

“Don’t like what?” Rian asked her.

“You wanting to build a home there. I don’t like it.”

Rian made a strange, goofy-looking face as though he was both puzzled and outraged simultaneously. “Why the hell not?”

“Because,” she explained, “it’s wrong to live in some kind of ‘pocket dimension’ away from reality. It’s too disconnected, Rian. You should want to live in the real world.”

“Pfft. The real-world sucks. Especially now with all the shit going on. I’d rather be in my own custom ‘pocket dimension’—nice term by the way, Seiley—then be around Galterra right now. Did you see the images of those bombings?”

Seiley’s expression turned sour. “Humans,” she said. “Revolting as always.” She opened her mouth as if to say something else of a likely disparaging nature, but then abruptly, her expression shifted, and a fair degree of warmth came over her as her voice softened. “Wait, you were born there, weren’t you?”

“Yes,” Rian said, his tone becoming somber. “Li and I grew up just two blocks west of 5th avenue and Ocean Street, which has been completely destroyed.” A hint of sadness entered his words as he continued to speak. “Actually, a friend of mine used to live in one of the apartment complexes that got bombed. Thank the Gods, though, because he’s okay.”

Lienne cocked an eyebrow. “Wait, you’re not talking about Ultril, are you, Rian?”

Rian met her eyes. “You remember Ultril, Li?”

“He was the boy with the really big teeth, right?”

Rian sipped some orange juice out of a glass in front of him then wiped his mouth with a napkin and nodded. “Yeah. That’s him. He posted on social media this morning that he’s all right. Apparently, he doesn’t live there anymore. But…”

“But what?” Lienne asked him, sounding worried.

Rian blew out a sigh, and there was a touch of real sadness in it. “I hear his dad got killed, though.”

“Oh no,” Lienne whispered, covering her mouth for a moment. “In the bombing?”

Rian shook his head. “No, he died a few days ago in the fight.”

“What fight?”

“The one that Z—”

Rian flinched of all things, and a look of hesitance immediately crossed his face. He and Lienne had gotten so deep into their side conversation that it was as though Rian had forgotten the existence of those around him; it gave Zach the impression that Rian had just caught himself an instant before saying something he didn't intend to say in front of the others.

No, not the others, Zach thought, feeling slightly alarmed. But me, specifically.

“Actually, I’m not sure how he died,” Rian muttered. “I think I’m confusing him with someone else.”

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean, Ri?”

“It means I don’t fucking know,” he snapped, his tone coming across as urgent, heated, and aggressive from seemingly out of nowhere. More quietly, but still audibly, he hissed, “Li, will you please shut the fuck up and drop it?” Following those words, he quickly tilted his head in Zach’s direction: fast enough so that he clearly thought Zach wouldn’t see it, but Zach did see it, and it caused a sinking feeling to begin appearing in his chest at the worst possible time.

What is Rian trying to say? he wondered. What is he trying to imply? Tell me he’s not trying to say that I’m the one who…?

Immediately, what felt like a thousand jolts of electricity shocked Zach right in his chest as it dawned on him rather quickly what was going on here—or what was being implied. It took a second for him to register it. But really, it was obvious, wasn’t it? Of course it was. This random “friend” of Rian’s—his dad must have been one of the level-1 troops that stormed the dinner party. Which meant it was very possible that Zach had been the one to kill him. That was what he was trying to say, wasn’t he? That mother fucker. Why would he start this shit now? Why would he put this in Zach’s head now of all possible times?

Just forget it. You never heard it. Everything’s going great.

Zach took a deep breath. He wasn’t bothered. Mind over matter. He was not about to lose his shit in front of this woman. Another time, sure. But not today. Literally any time but here and now. This was the absolute worst moment to have a return of the jitters. Stupid fucking Rian and his big fucking mouth. Lienne too. If only they could understand the weight on his shoulders. So, he’d killed their friend’s dad, did he? Okay, well, did they know that their friend’s dad participated in gunning down a bunch of unarmed people for no gods-be-damned reason? Did they know how badly Zach didn’t even want to be part of that in the first place?

But wait, I couldn’t have killed him, Zach realized, thinking back if for no other reason than to reassure himself. I don’t think I killed any level-1 troops. I was too busy with the members of the Guild of Gentlemen. Right? Or wait…

Horrified, Zach was once more reminded of the fact that he’d slain so many people so fast that he couldn’t even be sure that he didn’t kill any level-1 troops. He might have. He might’ve cut the man’s head right off his shoulders—and he couldn’t even know if he did or didn’t.

“You’re mad,” Rian said with a moan. “Ah, shit. I can see it on your face. Dude, it slipped out. I keep forgetting you were there because it still feels so strange to think about.”

“Huh?” Zach asked, trying his best to play it off. He remained still, calm, and he kept his voice even. Inside, however, he felt like he was plunging down a thousand-foot drop upside down. His head even began to swim as he contemplated the idea that he might’ve killed the father of one of their friends. It made it real. It made it personal. It took the distance away from the deed. Even still, he held strong. He tilted his head sideways to make it look like he was confused. “Rian, what are you talking about?”

“You’re mad that I brought up the…the you know. I can see you glaring at me.”

Zach laughed. “I’m not.”

Rian, shut the hell up, he thought, becoming irritated at his dumbass friend.

“Look, with all that’s going on right now, it’s gonna come up. I know you’re mad, but it’s the elephant in the room, buddy. And I didn’t…it wasn’t on purpose. But like how are we not going to talk about it? It’s the number-one story in the world right now.”

“I have no problem with you talking about it or about anything, Rian. It’s cool.”

Please just shut up. Why won’t you shut up?

“Really?” Rian asked him. “Because you look like you want to stab me, Zach. I’m sorry if I brought it up too soon. But like, come on. It’s impossible not to talk about.”

Zach wrapped his fingers around his glass, ready to take a sip of his own cup of juice. And for a frightening moment, he honestly feared he was going to pick it up and throw it at Rian’s face for continuing to make him look bad in front of everyone. He was doing everything he could to present himself as level-headed and calm, and Rian was provoking the shit out of him. Maybe if Rian had been forced against his will into taking part in an act of mass murder…maybe then he’d understand that it wasn’t exactly a fun thing to be reminded about—especially just days after it happened.

“You’re being crazy,” Zach said with a laugh. “Everything’s fine.”

“Okay, so we’re cool?”

“Of course we are. Talk about whatever you want.”

“You sure you don’t mind me talking about it? I hear what you’re saying, but I just feel like you’re pissed at me, man.”

“You’re imagining things. Why would I be mad about this?”

“You know,” he said, lowering his voice a bit. “The…the fact that you, um, you know, killed my friend’s dad?”

“Is…is that what you think I did?” he asked at a whisper, so close to the edge now and at such a bad time, too.

Rian’s face softened. “I’m so sorry I brought this up.”

“Why do you think I did it?” Zach demanded.

“Just forget I said anything.”

“No, it’s okay. Tell me.”

Rian stared at him as though uncertain. “You…so you kind of did do it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you took out his whole squad. But…but it was self-defense, so you didn’t do anything wrong.”

He’s lying. He’s lying.

“I didn’t do it.”

Rian nodded compassionately. “You’re right,” he said, looking at Zach in a way he never had before. Was that fear in his eyes? Was he afraid? Of Zach? The person who’d saved his life? The person who’d rushed through Yorna and was willing to die for him? Was he actually afraid?

“My mistake,” Rian said, swallowing nervously. “I haven’t been sleeping. I must’ve gotten confused about the—”

And then it happened. Gods damn it all, it happened. Zach lost control and snapped—or at least he thought he did. It all came and went in a moment of confusion. He was sure he’d gotten to the point where his brain registered the action that he wanted his hand to take, and his hand had only needed to move. In this moment, his animalistic side had won out, and despite his restraint, he consciously made the decision to throw his glass at Rian’s face. Part of him tried to resist: a huge part of him. All of him, in a sense. Especially because this was the absolute worst possible time for Rian to start this shit. Yet the accusation broke through his self-control in a way he couldn’t have anticipated. He scowled, gripped the glass tighter, and even as he internally screamed at himself to chill the fuck out, his body was forcing him to vent.

But then, for some reason, he didn’t do it. It didn’t happen. And it led to a moment of confusion—a moment that lasted only until he realized that he felt a woman’s hand squeezing his own just as his arm began to move.

“Hey, you all right, kiddo?” Jascaila asked him, her tone exceedingly kind, her words soft-spoken. At some point—and Zach was not sure when—she’d reached over across the table and grabbed him.

Zach snorted as if the question was absurd. “Of course I am.”

Rather than reply, she merely smiled for a moment. “Yeah you are,” she agreed with a playful wink. Then she took on a bit more of a serious look as she turned her head towards Rian. “You’re being really inconsiderate, uh, Rian, was it?” she asked him.

As she spoke the words, she squeezed Zach’s hand with Donovan-like strength, though in a way that was more supportive and not painful. Kalana, sitting next to Zach, stared at the both of them in confusion as if wondering why she had abruptly leaned over the table and grabbed his wrist. To be honest, he was kind of wondering that himself—and so too was Rian from the equally mystified expression that was planted on his face.

“Huh?”

“I said you’re being very inconsiderate.”

“Me?” he asked, pointing a finger to himself.

“Yes, you.”

“How so?”

“Well, for starters, have you ever been in a war, Rian?”

“Well, no, but why do you—”

“Your friend has. You don’t understand the horror of battle, do you? You seem like you care about your friend, though.”

“Well, of course. Zach’s become one of my closest friends. But I don’t understand what you’re—”

“So, if you could tell that he was bothered by the way you were approaching this topic, why did you continue to push it? You embarrassed him, provoked him, and prodded at his wounds, and then you refused to take accountability after the fact, choosing instead to lie and tell him what you thought he wanted to hear, which only insulted his intelligence. That’s really unkind, Rian.”

Rian’s mouth popped open as if in shock. “It was an accident, lady. It came up naturally in conversation.”

“You seemed to know it was upsetting him, though. Right?”

“I got that sense, yeah, but…like how are we not going to talk about it?”

“By simply not talking about it,” she said. “By being considerate and realizing that maybe it’s too soon for him to discuss this with you. I think you should apologize to him and your sister for trying to divert the blame onto her as well.”

Wait, is she actually defending me? Zach wondered, bewildered. Is she on my side or something?

Rian wet his lips as both Lienne and even his girlfriend, Seiley, glowered at him. “Uh…sure. Right.” To Zach, he bowed his head. “Sorry. And sorry to you too, Li.”

Zach released his grip on the glass, and Jascaila removed her grip on his hand. “It’s fine,” he said, releasing a breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding. “I’m not upset.”

Rian opened his mouth to reply, but then Jascaila shot him a look of warning. “You should stop challenging him on whether or not he’s actually upset. You’re prodding.”

Whatever Rian had been about to say, the words never emerged from his lips. Instead, he merely nodded and returned to his breakfast while Kalana still looked around between all of them as if all that had transpired only served to further increase the confusion she was already feeling.

Embarrassed, Zach said, “I really am okay, though.” Now, he spoke directly to Jascaila. Having been put on the defensive, he knew he needed to address her head on. “I wasn’t going to do anything.” When she didn’t reply, he felt even more awkward and said, “I don’t know if you thought I was going to throw my…uh…never mind.”

She scrunched up her lips then made a playful laugh. “Don’t even worry about it, tough guy. You’re all good.”

Zach sighed. He hoped he didn’t just elevate his diagnosis from “a little screwy” to “batshit insane.” Somehow, this woman knew he was going to throw his glass right in Rian’s face. It wouldn’t have hurt his friend, of course. Clearly, Rian had enough constitution to where even a shard of glass directly on his eyeball could do no damage. Even still, it would’ve ruined the entire morning. Nervously, Zach hoped she didn’t tell Kalana what he was going to do. He was just so embarrassed.

“I just…” He paused, struggling to think of something he could say to talk his way out of or justify this. “Sometimes, I just get so mad, and—”

“You’re all good,” Jascaila said again with a laugh. “We’ll talk about it later.” She spoke the words as though they were not subject to debate.

“It’s just…”

“You’re good, kiddo. Relax.”

She reminds me of Donovan.

“Okay,” he whispered, feeling a bit awkward.

Trying to come up with a way to revert things back to something a bit more pleasant, Zach thought to bring up the Britethorns again. Yet before he could figure out a natural-sounding way to return to an earlier point in the conversation, something odd took place across the table, where Trelvor began to shift uncomfortably in his seat as though something was bothering him. He opened and closed his mouth several times before seemingly taking a deep breath and releasing it. And then he spoke.

“I am sorry to pour fuel on whatever fire was just put out,” he announced all of a sudden, causing all heads to turn his way. “I’ll be honest. I don’t really understand the dynamic here or what just happened. But I want to say that I like you very much, Rian, and I’m glad to have met you. Even if I had never met Lienne, I would still want to be your friend. So I say this only in the interest of friendship. Sometimes, Rian, you truly can be insensitive to the point of cruelty.”

Once again, Rian gave off a mystified, innocent look. “What do you mean?”

Thankfully, Jascaila took her eyes off Zach and began studying Rian instead. This, as Trelvor continued to speak. “I know you’re not trying to be malicious,” he continued. “And I wouldn’t bring this up at all if…if not for whatever just happened. But it bothers me greatly when you talk about my father’s sacrifice.”

“His sacrifice?”

A pained look came over Trelvor’s face. “You mean it in good faith. I know. When you pat me on the back and tell me how ‘badass’ it was when my father died during the raid. I know you mean it with honor. Yet you don’t seem to understand that, from my perspective, this was the worst thing I’ve seen in my life, Rian. I watched that happen to him live on your ‘screens’. I watched my father’s blood spill in a way I had never before seen. He was bitten in half. I can never unsee that.”

A look of guilt crossed Rian’s features. “I…I wasn’t trying to upset you, man. I was trying to compliment him. I meant he was a total badass the way he went out.”

“Oh, I know,” Trelvor said. The tall, white-cloaked warrior met Rian’s eyes. “It’s just that, to me, seeing my own father die in such a way, powerless to do aught but scream from where I observed in Whispery Woods. You cannot imagine what it felt like to see this happen to him. It’s something I carry with me. I’ve had trouble sleeping since.”

Jascaila placed a hand on his shoulder. “If you ever need someone to talk to, I’d be happy to listen.”

Trelvor turned his head to look at the woman. “Truly?”

She nodded. “What you’re feeling is actually really normal. Later today, why don’t we have a chat?”

“Thank you,” he whispered. “I’ve heard you can help.”

“I can.”

Zach, stunned by the admission, decided to volunteer a bit more than he ever would have done otherwise. Truly, seeing Trelvor state something like this openly made Zach feel a little bit more comfortable. It almost gave him “permission” in a sense to confess to his own feelings since he could now see that he wasn’t the only one in this kitchen who was a bit “off.” It made him feel less odd and a bit more normal.

“It bothered me a lot too,” he said, causing Jascaila and Kalana to look at him, as well as the others. “It bothered me more than you’d think.”

“My father’s death?” Trelvor asked him.

Zach gave a firm nod of his head. “Yeah. Because that was the moment I realized one of the bravest Elves I’d ever seen was…” He lowered his eyes a moment, unable to believe he was actually speaking about this in front of numerous people. This exact situation was the one he’d been dreading most, yet he felt compelled to continue the thought.

“Your dad, Trelvor: he was the buffer between me and that dragon. I knew that as long as he stood strong, I wouldn’t have to fight it. You called me brave before, but the truth is I’m not. The media, thank the Gods, they didn’t show what I looked like the moment after your dad died. But I am not the person your dad told you I am. I broke down and begged like a bitch. That’s the truth that you don’t know: that no one who wasn’t on that Comm line knows. When it was my turn to step up, I acted like a Gods-damned coward. I cried and begged not to fight it. Because I knew: the moment your dad died, I knew that it meant that I was going to have to fight it next. And I broke down.”

“But you ended up fighting it anyway, right?” Trelvor asked him.

“Well, yeah, but—”

“Then you are brave, Zach. Being afraid doesn’t diminish that. On Archian Prime, we are taught from a young age that bravery cannot exist in the absence of fear. That is known as stupidity.”

Jascaila laughed. “Very wisely stated.”

Zach paused for a moment before he continued speaking. He knew he’d already revealed too much, but he continued regardless. “It’s just embarrassing for me to admit that,” he said. “I humiliated myself pretty badly. I didn’t want to be so afraid.”

“Neither did I,” Trelvor said. “We are not like the green-cloaks. We are more disciplined—no offense, Seiley.”

She shrugged. “None taken. It’s true. You guys are uptight as hell.”

“It’s because we’re trained from a young age to be strong. We live in a world surrounded by hostile enemies and unpredictable events. If we are not strong, we are dead. Our villages are relatively safe, but stepping outside of them, one is immediately reminded that there is danger always and everywhere. Yet by training our bodies and our minds, we grow to become warriors and explorers of our planet. We do not have the peaceful meadows and gentle farmlands to be found here on Galterra. Here, you Galterrans can travel from one place to another on human-made roads. For us, a fifteen-minute walk can take two hours depending where we are going and what we might need to fight to get there.

“But my father, Londril, taught me to control my fear. To channel it into strength. Yet the sight of his mutilated body was a test of his teachings, and it was one that I failed. It has scarred me in a way it should not have. Like you, Zach, I did not want to be afraid. Yet unlike you, I was not there to redeem myself. I would give anything to have traded places with you.”

Zach’s mouth fell open in utter disbelief. “Even after everything I’ve told you?”

He nodded. “Even if it meant doing so with tears in my eyes and piss in my breeches, I’d have preferred to rush into battle and grant myself redemption for my fear. I do not know how I’ll ever remove this…this weight that I feel now. Shamefully, I wish for another dragon to arise and for a repeat of those awful events—just so that I could be present and prove to myself that I would have acted the same as you did in those moments.” Having spoken those words, he craned his neck to look at Jascaila of all people. “Is that normal as well, human?”

She released a good-natured chuckle. “That’s so normal,” she said with another laugh, patting him on the back. “And a very healthy thing to admit to yourself.”

“It’s shameful though, is it not?”

“Not at all,” she said with a firm shake of her head. “All thinking beings, I believe, are fundamentally the same in that regard. Wanting a ‘do-over’ is our way of coping with what we perceive as past inadequacies. A lot of times, what makes us hurt is a lack of control. The desire to change past events is just an extension of that.”

“Strange,” Zach whispered unintentionally, the word slipping out of him.

“Hm?”

“Oh, sorry. I blurted that out.”

“That’s okay,” Jascaila said. “I’m just curious why you find that strange.”

“Oh. I guess it’s because I don’t want to do anything over like Trelvor does. Not a thing, actually. For me, I’d rather just forget the bad shit entirely than experience it again attempting to make different choices.”

“That’s also normal—and unhealthy.”

“Unhealthy?” Zach asked. “How so?”

“Because you’re describing to me what is known as ‘avoidance.’ And avoidance, kiddo, is very unhealthy.” She flicked her eyes towards Trelvor. “Actually, both of your coping methods are unhealthy. They’re still really, really normal, though. Trelvor, it sounds to me like you can’t seem to get beyond what you feel you should have done or wish you had been able to do, and Zach, what I’m hearing from you is that you don’t want to even acknowledge your trauma.”

“That’s…true,” he admitted.

Kalana grinned. “I told you she was good, baby,” she whispered into his ear.

“Whatever,” he muttered, rolling his eyes.

“Here’s something for you to consider,” Jascaila said. “For both of you, the methods are different, but your underlying issue is the same. Neither of you boys are confronting your trauma. Trelvor, you’re trying to change it, and Zach, you’re ignoring it or shoving it away.”

“It’ll go away on its own,” Zach muttered.

“It won’t. It will get worse and take over your life.”

Zach gave a firm shake of his head. “No, you’re wrong about this one. Donovan told me it would get better over time after I fought the dragon.”

“He did, did he?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you should ignore him, because my little brother’s a fuckin’ idiot who has his own problems he refuses to deal with.”

“Wait, what?” Zach exclaimed. “You’re his…”

“Sister. Right.”

Zach laughed so hard that it ended in more of a cackle. Gods it all made sense now. The fact she was over six feet tall, wielded a battle-axe, and was so self-confident. And now that he observed her facial features, he thought he could see a little Donovan in her, too.

“Is Donovan in his thirties, too?”

“Nope. He’s only three years younger than me.”

Amazed, Zach let out another laugh. “Well, this explains a lot—but also brings up so many more questions I have to ask you later. But anyways, I’m not sure what Kal has told you about me, but I’m not avoiding anything.”

“No?”

Kal glared at him. “Stop lying, Zach. You totally are.”

“How much did you tell her, anyway?”

Jascaila chimed in before Kalana could reply. “What she’s told me in our private sessions doesn’t matter. Believe me when I tell you that not a word of it factors into my judgment. Only you can speak for yourself, Zach.”

Zach looked at her. He wanted to trust her, but he wasn’t sure he could just yet. “There’s a lot of things I can’t say in front of everyone.”

“Of course.”

“And I don’t think there’s enough time for you to really hear it all, either.”

“I’ll be here for a week,” she said.

“A week?” Zach shifted his eyes to Kalana and fired her an accusatory look. “You told me I only had to do an hour.”

Once more, it was Jascaila who replied in her stead. “You don’t have to talk to me at all if you don’t want to, Zach. Kalana was wrong for trying to force you into it. But if you do, I’m not going to impose any kind of time limits. Usually, I do book hourly sessions, but for a fellow adventurer, we can talk as much or as little as ya want. I’d like you to trust me, though. If there’s a way I can earn your trust, just let me know.”

Zach puckered his lips a moment as he thought on her offer. He was surprised to discover there was actually something. “If you’re committed to therapy, then that means you’ve put it above the code of adventuring, right?”

“Hm? If I understand the question correctly, then yes, of course.”

Sensing an opportunity, Zach asked, “So, if I told you I wanted to know the location of the nearest dungeon that connected North and South Bastia, would you tell me?”

Jascaila grinned. “I take it you didn't enjoy your flight down here?”

“I hated it,” Zach admitted. “I’m never sitting on a ten-hour flight ever again.”

She sat up straighter in her chair and nodded. “I can tell you. But only if you agree to work with me and take a week off from adventuring.”

Zach shrugged. “Well, it looks like I’m stranded here for at least that long anyway, so the second part of that is something I’m going to have to do regardless.” Upon those words, he leaned in closer. “But if I agree, you’ll really tell me?”

“Will you work with me?”

He nodded. “If you tell me.”

Immediately, she said, “Okay then, kiddo, listen up. Shores of Wrath: the grand library in the primary city. In the back room, walk directly into the wall between the seventh and eighth bookshelf. You’ll find yourself on F17 in a dungeon called the Tower of Eternity. Just down the hall and to the left is a door to Angelica’s, and to the right is the Bazaar. A bit beyond that is the stairwell that leads from F17 to F18. Head up to F18 and jump into the swimming pool a bit further beyond and to the left. You’ll surface in a lake in northwest Whispery Woods not far from Pixie’s Point. You can always dive back into the lake and return to Tower of Eternity, too.”

Zach blinked. “Okay then. All right. Well, I guess…I guess a deal’s a deal.”

She laughed. “Don’t tell my brother I told you that. You’re supposed to find all that out on your own.” She took a sip of her coffee. “Now, Kalana. I’ve been ignoring you all morning, my darling. Tell me: how is your new cat, Nila? Is she being a good—”

*****

On the day that it happened, Kenzik Freelon was about to see her. That much, he would always remember. He was going to see her. Maybe if he’d left an hour sooner. Maybe if he’d gotten the kids together more quickly. There were so many maybes, and all of them were manifestations of his undeserved guilt. It wasn’t his fault. That much, he would know from the very beginning. Because how could it be? Even still, he would always shoulder the blame. And it all happened as he stepped out of his lovely home in the small township of Razor’s Peak, which sat at the top of the smallest of six mountains in northeast Giant’s Fall.

Located just thirty miles to the west of Ogre’s Axe—the smaller of the two cities in Giant’s Fall—the town of Razor’s Peak was, for the purposes of taxation, considered to be a part of Ogre’s Axe city just like the suburbs to both the immediate north and south of it. Despite this, nobody here actually thought of themselves as being part of the city, because if they had, the sentence “let’s head into the city” would be fairly meaningless, wouldn’t it?

“We should have been halfway to the city by now,” Kenzik called back into the doorway the moment he stepped out of his home. He tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for his two young sons to hurry up and get down here. “Boys, let’s go! Your mother’s going to have all our heads if we leave her waiting around again.”

“Coming, daddy!” his youngest called.

He heard the sound of footsteps thudding on the stairs as his boy ran out of the door and nearly tripped on the stairwell that led down to his front lawn. “Easy, son. Easy.”

His eldest was not far behind, and once both had exited, he closed the door and locked it. Then he paused a moment to breathe in the fresh mountain air. As a town with a population of just five hundred located in what was quite clearly not the most “convenient” of locations, there were quite a few downsides to living here.

For starters, commuting from here to anywhere—no matter the destination—always required a thirty-five-minute drive down through the DEHV-supported passes that ran down and in one case through the mountain. This meant that anytime they had to go anywhere, the absolute least amount of time their journey could take was thirty-five minutes. But typically, it was longer. Additionally, the town had a dingy little grocery store, an emergency clinic with only two doctors on staff—but no hospitals—and outside of a dentist that was only in once a month, there were very few services or decent shops up here.

But you know what it did have? A view worth all the gold on Galterra.

Every single time that Kenzik left his home, he would always pause for just a moment, turn his body to the east, and stare off the overlook right by his front yard that gave him a full, beautiful view of the entire city of Ogre’s Axe. Even in such a small town, life never felt small when all one had to do was glance out of their window at night and see the city lights that lit up the sky.

And so now, as the mountainous breeze gave him a bit of a chill and fought back against the early-morning summer heat, and with his children to both sides of him, he wrapped an arm around the shoulder of each one and smiled, taking just a quick moment to appreciate all that he had.

And then there was something bright.

A flash.

It was so bright that it defied all common sense. It was so intense that it rivaled the sun in its all-consuming nature. It rendered Kenzik momentarily stupefied, unable to process what was happening or what he was seeing—which wasn’t much, as the flash was so bright that it blinded him. It confused him. It left him addled. It was soundless, consisting of no noise. It was simply a screen of pure white that burned his eyes to stare at.

And then it became orange, and it was at this point the first sense of something horrid and wrong crept into his spine. “Daddy?” his youngest asked.

Kenzik could only remain motionless and baffled, forced to wonder why a fireball so vast it had to be larger than a mile in diameter was sitting on top of the middle of the city. No, not sitting: rising. His kids began to yell out at him, but transfixed, he remained in place, still caught in a state of shock as his brain worked overtime to translate what his stinging eyes were seeing.

More fear. More uncertainty. More confusion. More worry. Yet at this point, it still did not fully hit him. It did not register. He could not know that his wife was already dead. He could not understand that, in just those first three seconds, two-hundred and seventy-nine thousand people had already perished, and nearly two-hundred thousand more were about to die in the next three. He could not know about the radiation sickness. He could not know that a death toll of more than one million people would ultimately be recorded when the numbers finally finished tallying a month from now.

In this moment, he was simply a man standing with his two children and staring in awe at a gigantic ball of fire that appeared out of nowhere. It was a moment of wonder more than anything: a spectacle too flashy and too surreal for his brain to calculate the implications of what his eyes were observing.

But that all changed when the ground began to shake, and when nearly ten full seconds later, there came a boom to end all booms.

Like the cry of heaven, it was a sound so loud that it was like a storm unto itself, causing immense damage and suffering all on its own. The glass shattered in every window in the town, DEHV and home alike. It drew out screams from everyone on the peak—none of which could be heard over the roar of a God that filled the skies. Not knowing what to do: not knowing what he could do, Kenzik grabbed his children tightly, powerless before such an unfathomable display of destruction.

He screamed at them. They screamed at him. None could be heard. Later, he’d learn that his youngest had lost his hearing permanently. His older boy would go deaf in one ear. Somehow, Kenzik would make it out all right. Though he would trade both his eardrums to his children if such a thing were possible.

For now, he could only cry in a form of muted terror, wherein the intensity of his screams, no matter how loud, served no chance of being audibly registered. There was no outcompeting that roar. That boom. And just when his confusion hit its maximum, the shockwave rolled in, blasting him, his DEHV, and his children with such force that all three began to roll on the ground.

Even as they were thrown away, and even as the world flipped upside down and right-side up as he struggled to hold onto both his children while they, along with most of the roofing of his house, were forcibly relocated back towards the center of the town, it was in this moment that Kenzik’s brain was able to form the very first thought that his wife had just been killed. Before this point, it had simply not crossed his mind. Yet from this moment onwards, the soul-crushing sadness and the unbearable reality would at last begin to settle over him—as they tumbled and rolled, and continued to cry out in agony.

They were lucky, of course. His older child got away with a broken arm, his youngest had just a mild concussion, and he himself suffered only bruises. Other families were not so lucky. A few homes collapsed, killing all those inside. Some of those who’d rushed outside to observe the commotion were killed by DEHVs that had been picked up and thrown, crushing several people and flattening them onto the pavement.

There would also be a period of falling debris: a lot of it. Twenty-three more people would die, slain by hazards from the sky—the remnants of what had only just been a city. And as all of this occurred, a cloud of smoke tall enough to reach the heavens became the dominant sight in the world beyond, taking the form of something akin to a mushroom-shaped cloud.

But for Kenzik, he was far too preoccupied with trying to save his children and the instantaneous grief over the death of their mother to waste any time in trying to understand which God they had angered, and why that God had destroyed their city and their lives. Truly, it would not be for a week that he would come to believe that this was a weapon fired by other humans. For seven full days, he would genuinely think that one of the Gods had come down to take revenge for human transgressions.

And even still, through all his pain and suffering, he knew he was lucky. He did not lose a child. Few in Ogre’s Axe could say the same.

Yet at least those who perished immediately were able to escape the sickness that would follow.

Losing consciousness, Kenzik held his bloodied, battered, deafened children close to him as he trembled and shook on the pavement of a town that was now so badly damaged he could not recognize it or even be sure where he ended up. People were running around. Panic and cries filled the air, yet he could only barely hear them amid the intense ringing in his ears.

The city was annihilated. Nearly every tall skyscraper ripped apart in such a way that many of the structures appeared to have practically been dissolved. Simply shredded. Burned beyond recognition.

Why?

*****

“—girl?”

“She sure has,” Kalana said, looking around as if trying to find her. “Nila’s so cute. You have to meet her. She does this thing where she—”

****

Adamus gasped as a silent flash of light filled the viewing ports that ran all across the OMP’s central operating room. Doubt and disbelief merged together to create the blend known as denial as agents of the OMP along with engineers rushed to glance outwards and at Galterra, where a gigantic ball of orange coming from somewhere in North Bastia was visible even from here in space. At the exact same moment, alarms began to blare from the various terminals.

“Contact lost!” shouted one of the agents fearfully. “ALL System communications are offline. We’re completely locked out.”

Adamus ignored their cries as a level of confusion and incredulity blasted into him that he had not felt for a long time. Very, very few things in this world could still catch him off guard, and for something such as this to have taken place under his nose, it enfeebled him in a way that little else could.

How could this have happened?

How could this be?

How could he have not seen this coming?

Walking closer to the nearest viewing port, two engineers quickly parted and made room so that he could stare out of it. Adamus shook his head. This should not be taking place. Galterra had specifically been designed to prevent the creation of this. For he understood what he saw. This was, almost certainly, the result of an atomic weapon. And it was something that should never have happened. It was a matter he could have sworn he’d laid to rest in one of his rare acts of interference—back when he had personally sabotaged Moldark’s attempts to create one nearly a thousand years ago. Such weaponry was forbidden! It was firmly against the rules of the system and had been since the creation of the system.

Eilea! he shouted. What have you done? Gods, what have you done this time? Tell me at once!

“You think this was my doing, Adamus? You deranged fool!”

He could tell right away in just that one exchange that this was not his wife’s doing. My beloved, how can this have happened?

“I’ll tell you how,” she replied. “It happened because of the blind eye you willingly turn to Galterra and those you let suffer. What more is there to say?”

Now is not the time for bickering, Eilea. Even you must realize that this is an existential threat to both of our visions.

He could feel her anger as she reluctantly came to accept his words as truth. “I will find out what I can. I don’t know how I missed this. I’m guessing the same is true of yourself, Adamus?”

It is, my beloved. I’m beside myself. I had not an inkling that this was to occur.

“How much damage have they done?”

It’s only just happened. I cannot say to what extent the system infrastructure has been harmed.

“No, you fool! I meant to the lives of Galterrans. How many have died?”

Annoyed, Adamus did not bother replying. Once again, Eilea was focusing on the wrong issue here. Right now, all that mattered was assessing the infrastructural damage and preventing any further harm. Any lost lives were the fault of whoever had launched the forbidden weapon, and they were not his responsibility. Though it pained him to imagine the extent of death and pain that many on the planet were either feeling or would soon feel, it was, ultimately, a consequence of their own actions. The system, however, had now been directly threatened. This was…unacceptable.

“My children, tell me: how badly has the system been hit?”

“We don’t know,” one of his lead engineers replied. The man angrily banged his fist on one of the terminals. “We’ve lost all contact with the system. There’s no way of knowing from here.”

Adamus calmed himself and began to formulate a plan of action. Nuclear weapons could not be permitted to exist, as they did not arise from the system but from wickedness. Fundamentally, nothing that arose as a result of the system could harm the system. It was simply not possible. Even the World Eater, a so-called “hacked” creation that would inevitably erase all life on Galterra—not even this could actually damage the system itself. But a nuclear weapon, on the other hand…those could, in theory, bring the entire system offline.

Glancing out of the viewing port, Adamus set his sights on the planet before him. From where he stood, he approximated the weapon to have landed somewhere in Giant’s Fall in North Bastia, which inconveniently happened to be a region where one of the eight Nodes upholding the system in Galterra happened to be located.

Though the Node was most certainly invulnerable to the weapon itself, a blast of that magnitude had the capacity to cause seismic waves that could knock it out of alignment and disconnect it from the system along with evaporating all connected lines and infrastructure—all of which would need to be replaced. For the system to remain at optimal functionality, all eight Nodes needed to be connected and active. For the moment, it was impossible to say what parts of the system aside from monitoring and communication had been taken offline, and sending out repair crews was going to be incredibly difficult due to the nuclear fallout and radiation.

Eilea, it must have been Moldark. It could be no other. This must be his doing.

“I thought we dealt with that a long time ago.”

Clearly, we did not succeed. That man must’ve outsmarted us.

“Can…can the humans make more of these?”

I do not know. You must find out.

“I despise working with you.”

You have no choice. Neither of us will ever achieve our goals if the humans begin manufacturing nuclear warheads.

“Even if we learn, I can do little since you’ve locked me away, Adamus!”

You need not act yourself.

“Oh?”

Find out who is responsible, and then throw the boy at them. It’s what you would have done anyway, is it not?

Eilea did not reply, but she did not need to, either. Adamus could sense that his point had gotten across.

****

“—curls up into a ball, and rolls over, and then she bites me whenever I touch her tummy.”

“Fluffles does that too,” Zach said.

Fluffles meowed. “Everyone fall for my trap.”

Zach laughed then let his mind wander, and as a result of doing so, he realized it’d been a bit since he’d last checked up on the news. He decided to feed his addiction. Getting up from the table, he returned to the living room and glanced down at the holo-tab. Then he frowned.

NO CONNNECTION DETECTED

Strangely, Zach realized the same was true when trying to access the news through the viewing screens as well. “Kal, your house is offline.”

She laughed. “Boo-hoo. You’ll live.” More seriously, she said, “The network stuff, umm, they told me this might happen until we can get a proper signal receiver here, but that takes time. The people who built the house said that, until we do, sometimes we might have little outages that last a few minutes.”

Zach shrugged. “It’s fine, whatever. I’ll use my phone to see what’s going…huh? No service. The hell?”

“Use mine, baby,” Kalana said, removing her phone from her pocket and handing it to him.

Zach twisted his lips. “Yours is dead too, Kal.”

“You can use mine,” Jascaila said. “I don’t mind if you…hmm. Mine’s down too. Okay, that’s weird.”

Zach grunted. “Technology really sucks. I can’t believe it’s 7058, and we still can’t make a working phone—like we’re living in the year 6250 or some shit.”

“I know, right?” Rian asked. “Mine’s down too.”

“Caveman shit. It’s literally like living in 6250.” He sighed. Oh well. He’d wanted to be completely disconnected, and he supposed he’d gotten his wish.