After finishing their harvesting, the Party picked up the Crystals from the mound in the center of the Crystal chamber. It was a fair haul. Nowhere close to what they'd taken from the Trap Delve, but with a Supreme at the peak and a Factor of 3 the take was better than in Ana's first Delve.

By long-standing tradition, Jisha, as the youngest and least experienced member of the Party, was the one to take the peak Crystal and trigger the collapse of the Delve. She'd been a little nervous to do so — apparently the sudden collapse of the Trap Delve had shaken her — but she'd steeled herself and taken it. She'd then tumbled halfway down the mound the Delve had been suspended above when they were unceremoniously dropped back into the real world.

She didn't seem to mind. When Ana helped her to her feet, she declared that she'd gotten another Achievement, Party Delver. Ana couldn't help but smile. That had been her own first Achievement, and now she herself had a notification telling her that she'd gained the next tier.

[Congratulations! You have completed the Achievement Party Delver II! 3 Advancement Points awarded!

Party Delver II: In a Party, clear a total of three Delves.]

She intended to make that tier number go up again before she left this Splinter. Three months, she figured, should be plenty of time.

They'd been inside the Delve longer than Ana had thought. It was morning now, but they were all pretty tired, and decided to take the day off from travel. Rayni and Omda found a good site for a camp nearby, next to a clear stream. There they set up their tents, cleaned up as well as they could — water could only do so much for Ana's bloodsoaked clothes — and had a meal before splitting their gains.

"Woo!" Kaira cheered when the Party had all the Crystals spread out on a sheet between them. "Those death-cult bastards really made a mess, but the Waystone not doing its job properly really let some mana build up in the Delves, huh? What a haul!"

"This is… about 40000 Experience total," Ana said, pausing to let Acuity step in and help her with the math. "Are we selling the Supreme?"

"That's usually only pick-up groups," Tor said. "At least our Party never did that. I'm sure we can work things out so everyone's happy."

"Alright. In that case we have a bit more than 6500 each for the six of us, though I should probably take a cut to 6000 to compensate for Messy."

"Forget it," Kaira said with an imperious wave of her hand. "She can't have made that much of a difference, you did more than your share of the work, and trying to figure things out fairly with silver versus Experience value in mind would take forever. Agreed?"

She looked around the group, getting their approval, then asked Jisha something in Wanteul. Jisha looked shocked and asked a question of her own. Kaira laughed, replying quickly before turning back to the others and barking, "She wondered why I was asking her opinion. She didn't think she was getting a cut!"

"What?" Rayni asked, one corner of her mouth pulling up sharply. "Where'd she get that idea?"

"She thought that, since we've been carrying her, the combat rewards and Skill Levels was all she was getting! Like we're not getting half carried ourselves!"

Jisha was understandably excited at the news that no, she was getting a full share.

They ended up with Rayni taking the Supreme Crystal to sell and some lower Crystals to consume. The gold she'd make should help put a small dent in her family debt, so she was very excited. Jisha, after having had everything explained to her, took a single Greater, also for the money, and the rest in lower Crystals. She'd been bitten by the Leveling bug, and Ana loved to see it.

The girl also wasted no time getting herself to Level 9, gaining two Levels at once from her total rewards. At least she'd specifically set aside a high-value Crystal to sell this time.

Ana herself ended up with an even 7000 points, taking 10 each of the Lessers, Minors, and Mediums. Counting up the Crystals she had in storage, she felt a familiar excitement. She was two thirds of the way to Level 18 now. If they took the long way home…

She was about to speak up when Kaira said, "So are we looking for another Delve tomorrow, or do we put it off for another day?"

"That last fight was a lot easier than it had any right to be," Tor said. "I say we start searching tomorrow morning."

Omda looked up from the trousers he was stitching. They were Ana's, but her needlework had never been more than barely adequate. "Same."

"Plenty of potions left," Rayni said. "Same for the dried foods, and the hunting is good out here. And the rewards so far… the sooner, the better, I say! Uh… assuming…"

Everyone's eyes turned to Ana. Including Jisha's, who looked like she mostly wondered what everyone was looking at.

"So?" Kaira asked. "What do you say, Ana?"

"Another Delve?" she asked. She hadn't expected it. They all said that they were fine with doing more Delves with her, but she hadn't thought that they meant immediately. She'd expected everyone to want to return to the outpost and think it over, especially since this outing was already a resounding success.

And she'd been looking forward to returning. She missed Messy.

Four days. She'd been away for four days, and now that they had some real downtime her thoughts were already back on Messy to the degree that she was seriously considering demanding that they'd return. She was pretty sure that they'd listen, too, or that she could convince them if necessary.

Was that healthy? Did she care if it was?

Was Messy right? Was Devotion or some other aspect of Ana's Class making her obsessive? Ana didn't want to think so, but she'd never felt so dependent on anyone before. She'd never had her happiness and comfort be so connected to someone else's presence. In some ways it was like she'd lived in constant cold her whole life, never knowing how frozen she was until she'd felt Messy's warmth. And now, with dozens of miles between them, she was cold again.

Was that all her Class? She didn't see how it could be. There had to be more to it. It had to be more real than that.

But at the same time, she couldn't let it rule her.

"If Jisha's alright with it, sure," she said, careful not to let any of her distress and doubt show. Maybe the city girl would be done with sleeping under the open sky and hacking at monsters for a while, and Ana could take her back without it being her own fault.

No such luck. Jisha was more than alright with another Delve. Of course she was.

What a fucking mess I am, Ana thought. Wood cracked and snapped as her fist slammed into the trunk of one of the beech-like trees. When did I become such a sad, clingy coward?

She'd already stripped a foot-high section facing her of bark. Now the tree shuddered and wood splintered with every blow as Ana's feet, knees, elbows, and fists slammed into it. She'd wreathed them in mana, toughening the skin so it wouldn't split as she slowly wore the trunk down.

Embarrassing. It was fucking embarrassing, the way she'd laid the decision to go on or not on Jisha. Ana wanted to return to the outpost. She wanted to return to Messy, and their tiny apartment, and their narrow bed, and she should have just said so. But the others had been so determined to go on that she hadn't been able to tell them that. Instead she'd left it to an excitable girl and somehow expected her to make the decision Ana herself wanted.

How stupid could I be? she cursed herself, unleashing a rapid left-right-left followed by an elbow strike that scattered shards of wood across the mossy ground. When did I become so fucking scared of disappointing anyone? Is this how my life is going to be from now on? Fucking pining for Messy? Constantly sick with worry that something might happen to her? Miserable whenever I'm more than five minutes away from her?

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Taking a step back, Ana snapped a vicious side kick at the wounded section. It was the kind of kick where she could just feel the power; the kind of kick that drove her foot inches into the ground as she made herself a conduit for the strength of the very earth below her feet. Through herself she pitted that strength against the enduring solidity of the tree, and the earth won. Chips and splinters of wood flew. The tree shuddered and groaned.

Ana barely noticed as she thought, Why doesn't that bother me more than it does?

With a crack, a groan, and a series of deep, popping snaps, the tree slowly toppled towards Ana. She leaped to the side, her surprise not stopping her from putting some distance between herself and the trunk that fell right where she'd been standing.

As the tree crashed to the ground, then slowly settled, she became aware of a stinging pain in her knees, elbows, and hands. When she looked at her hands her knuckles were scratched and bruised. Two were bleeding. She hadn't realized. She hadn't noticed how long or how hard she'd been beating on that innocent tree, or at what point the force behind her blows had become too much for her protective Shaping.

Embarrassing, she thought as she regained her breath. Fucking embarrassing.

"Feeling any better now?" Kaira asked from behind her. Ana whirled. She hadn't noticed the Evoker's approach.

"How long have you been there?" Ana grumbled.

"Oh, a few minutes. Ever since Jisha got properly worried. She was scared of embarrassing you, though. I'm not. So: are you feeling any better?"

Ana looked at the tree, then her knuckles, and finally back at Kaira. "Yes and no," she said honestly.

"Oh? Want to explain?"

"I knocked down a tree. Pretty impressed with myself over that."

Kaira gave her one of her creepy grins, too wide and too full of sharp teeth. "Yeah, that's not something you see every day. And the 'No', is that about Messy?"

Ana scowled at the tree. "You know it is."

"You wanna go back."

"Yeah."

"Alright." Kaira sighed, rolled her eyes, and gave Ana an exaggerated shrug all at once, as though the whole situation was ridiculous but she couldn't be bothered to argue. "I'll tell the others."

Ana let Kaira turn and take a single step before she forced herself to say, "Don't. Please don't."

Kaira brought her right foot forward to join the left and stopped, then half-turned. She said nothing but raised her eyebrows at Ana, inviting her to explain.

"I'm a big girl," Ana said, barely able to look at her friend. "I'll deal. I can't be hanging onto Messy's skirt for the rest of my life, anyway. If nothing else, if I let myself be clingy she'll get tired of me sooner or later. Let's go on. We'll find another Delve and clear it. Get everybody another good payday. Then we can go back."

"You're crazy, you know that?" Kaira asked, with a little laugh and a fond smile. "They say I'm unstable, but you're the crazy one if you think Messy will ever get tired of you. You could keep her in that twenty-foot bubble of yours for a century straight and she'd never complain once. That said: yeah, you should probably get used to being away from her sometimes. And I appreciate the effort. I really don't want to head back yet. I barely even got to pop anything! You keep hogging the kills!"

Kaira delivered the last two sentences with such a straight face, and with such earnestness, that Ana couldn't help but smile back at her. "Psycho reason," she said, "but I get it. Let's head back."

"You could have picked a dead tree, you know?" Kaira scolded as they returned to camp. "We could use the firewood."

"You know what's been bothering me about that Delve?" Tor asked as they hiked south-east through the rolling forest. "I forgot about it, with the barriers and all, but now it's back and I can't let it go. The wolf pack!"

"Uh… oh, yeah!" Kaira agreed. "That was weird!"

"What was?" Ana asked, looking between the two.

"A whole pack of wolf revenants in one place," Tor mused. "It's rare enough to see two of the same species of possessed creature in the same place. Two revenants is exceedingly rare. To see a whole pack like that… I mean, there's only two options, really, and both are almost impossible. Either a whole pack of wolves died in the same place, and then enough spirits invaded the Splinter there to possess all of them, and then they stayed together. Or, six revenant wolves just wandered into the Delve one by one and gathered at the entrance."

"Huh." When Ana thought about it, he was right. She couldn't remember seeing two demons of the same species together before. "There's a third possibility, though. Maybe, at least. Is it possible to summon the possessing spirits into the Splinter intentionally, with a ritual or something?"

"I mean, yeah" Kaira said with some confidence. "I've never seen it, but they dragged you and Jisha here, soul, mind, and body. Just a spirit seems like it should be easier."

"So, could someone have used some kind of ritual on a pack of wolves to possess them?"

Tor and Ana both turned to stare at her. "Ana," Kaira said after a while. "If we hadn't just been through this whole insanity with Karti and his damn cult, I woulda said you're crazy for even thinking that someone might willingly create a demon. Please don't be right."

Well? Ana asked silently. You're the goddess of the Splinters and all. Even if you really dropped the goddamn ball on that Delve.

She got an answer. Not a great one, though. It was tired, strained, distant, and very simple: Go to the damn temple.

"You know what else is weird?" Tor said into the silence between them. "No changelings. Where did they all go?"

"Will you two please stop calling down evil on our heads?!" Kaira said, shoving Tor hard enough to make him stumble a half-step off the path. "Who cares where they are? They're not here. Good enough! We can't take prisoners, and I'd rather not kill any more people if I can avoid it. Don't tempt fate!"

Some Wanteul poured out of Jisha, and after Kaira answered her the girl told Ana, completely straight-faced, "She's surprisingly superstitious. She's thinks you two are calling down a curse on us." When Ana's reply was a single bark of laughter, her face scrunched up and she asked, "What's so funny about that?"

"Think about it," Ana said. Jisha's comment had filled her with grim humor, and she leaned into it. "Kaira's a demon-killing sorceress. I can fly, absorb the wounds of my allies and fell trees with my fists and feet. You yourself were cured of a magical disease that turned you into a mana-eating zombie, and you've spoken to a goddess. If Karia is worried about curses and bad luck, I'm going to take her seriously."

"Merde, you're not wrong. This place…"

"Yeah," Ana agreed. On a sudden impulse she closed in and wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulders, pulling her into a side-hug as they walked. "You're going to be fine, though. You're smart, and you're tough. You won't let this place wear you down."

Jisha turned to look at Ana, and despite her armor and her poleaxe she looked both younger and more vulnerable than Ana had seen her since they first met in the cells under the guard house. "That's only around you, though," Jisha said. "When you're around… and I know that you have some ability that gets into my head and makes me brave! But even when it's not affecting me, when we weren't in a Party, you still make me feel like I can do this. Like I can handle all this crazy shit." Then she looked away and muttered, "But only when you're around."

It took half a second for things to click, and for Ana to frown and say, "Shit. Someone told you that I'm leaving."

Jisha neither confirmed nor denied, but her body language spoke volumes.

"I wanted to wait to tell you until you'd settled in properly," Ana said. "It's true, though. Once the cycle ends in a couple of months, I'm out."

They walked beside each other, not saying anything for a while, listening to the low conversation of the others. Then Jisha asked, "Do you have to?"

"No," Ana said frankly. "But I want to."

"Where will you go?"

"No idea. The Core Cities or some other Splinter where I can Level in peace for a while. Don't get me wrong. I like this place well enough. I like the people here, most of the time. But I'm sick of being stared at. I'm tired of their expectations."

"So you're running away?" Jisha asked, but there was no heat in it.

"No," Ana said, not letting the accusation provoke her. She even put some cheer into her voice, to show how much she was looking forward to the day she could move on. "I'm walking away with a smile on my face. There's a difference."

After another few moments of silence, during which Jisha looked like she was about to burst, Ana said, "Are you going to ask or not?"

"Take me with you!" Jisha begged.

"That's not a question."

"Can I go with you?"

"Sure."

"Please! I—" Jisha stopped, her brown eyes growing huge. "Wait, what?"

"Don't slow us down," Ana said, and Jisha started moving again, not taking her eyes from Ana's. "I said, 'sure'," Ana repeated. "You're welcome. On one condition."

"What?" Jisha asked eagerly.

"You can't be a liability. When it's time to go I expect you to speak Inter-guild well enough to work with a Party, and I expect you to be a good enough frontliner to hold your own. You don't have to be exceptional, but I need to know that I can trust you to stay alive and protect whoever we have in the backline."

"I can do that!" Jisha answered eagerly. "How many months?"

"Three."

"Alright. Three months." Jisha slowly nodded and turned her eyes to the path ahead, ignoring or oblivious to Kaira and Tor's curious looks. "Three months," she repeated under her breath. "Merde, a language in three months?" Then her eyes locked onto Kaira and she let out a torrent of Wanteul, where Ana recognized exactly one thing: "Inter-guild," said with a heavy French accent.

Yeah, Ana thought as she listened to the two women talk. Despite Messy being so very far away, she felt a little less alone. She's going to be just fine.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.