Leahna shivered as she limped through the cool fog, her hands rubbing over the leather that covered her upper arms. She'd left her midnight-blue cloak with her brother, and already missed the warmth it provided.

Some errant dark-blonde strands from her mussed-up braid fell in front of her eyes and she absentmindedly blew them away, mentally preparing for the role she had to play. Literally.

The temple loomed in front of her, and as she limped towards it, really exaggerating the dragging of her left leg, she suddenly heard a jaunty whistle.

It wasn't hard to act startled at the sudden sound. She cleared her throat. "Hello? Is-Is anyone there?"

In the silence that followed, she could feel her heartbeat in her throat.

Footsteps approached at a leisurely pace, and a long moment later, Dash appeared from the swirling fog with his blade drawn but his posture relaxed.

He was objectively handsome, with a strong chin and the kind of baby-blue eyes that Leahna's colleague Zimone would have drooled over. Even she had to admit that with his blue-lacquered armour, he struck a heroic figure.

"Ah, thank the spirits," Leahna breathed, bringing a hand to her chest. "You startled me, milord!"

Dash's eyes trailed over the quiver and bow on her back, then darted left to right, seemingly scanning for any hidden threats. He wouldn't find any; Rylan was well-hidden. "My apologies," the man finally spoke in a smooth baritone. "It is not often one has a visitor on a post this remote. Might I ask what brings you out here?"

"It is a rather embarrassing tale," Leahna said with a sigh. "I seem to have fallen off my ship."

Dash blinked at her. "I beg your pardon?"

"I was hired to guard a vessel tasked with an urgent, overnight delivery," Leahna explained glumly. "Unfortunately, we were set upon by a giant mistbat. I was leaning over the railing, trying to get a bead on the miscreant, when something bumped the boat and rocked it. I tumbled right over the edge, sprained my ankle on the landing too."

"You... only hurt your ankle?"

"Lady Luna really smiled at me tonight," Leahna replied, shaking her head. "I actually landed on a sandy slope. Still, I owe my life moreso to Ethereon; my Mana Shell caught the brunt of my fall."

Dash's eyes narrowed. "So milady is a Quinthar."

Leahna raised her hand to her face, touching her outstretched fingers to the corner of her eye. Dash did the same, and after a brief moment, the world turned monochrome, while the spirit inside his chest burned a bright blue.

Having seen her own Emerald spirit, Dash seemed to finally relax a little, sheathing his sword. "Where are my manners? The name's Milo, Milo Fleetfoot. Although you may also catch the people of Cliffport referring to me as Dash."

He smiled at her, showing off the dimples in his cheek.

"Your reputation precedes you, milord. My name is Leahna Hawktalon," she replied, wincing exaggeratedly as she performed a curtsy.

Dash made a sharp click with his tongue. "Apologies, I'm being a dreadful host," he said, shaking his head. "Let's get you off that foot, shall we?"

Rather than straight back to the main entrance of the temple, he gestured towards her right. It seemed he did not wish for her to enter the main hall with the staircase down to the Dungeons. Just like they'd hoped.

Leahna nodded eagerly, then started limping in the indicated direction.

Dash was quick to offer his arm, and she clung to it like a kite in a storm.

"That is quite a limp you have there," he said conversationally. "Makes me wonder if you've yet to spend Credits on Ethereon's healing, and if so, why you haven't."

"Ah, I'm afraid I'm temporarily embarrassed," Leahna lied. "I got a little overexcited and purchased my Core Upgrade the other day, the second I could afford it. I have perhaps three Credits right now..."

"Say no more. Ethereon, please transfer 10 Credits to Miss Hawktalon."

《Incoming local transfer of 10 Quint Credits. Do you accept?》

"You're too kind, milord. Yes, I accept."

It was kind of a shame that she then immediately had to waste the donated Credits to purchase accelerated recovery that she did not need, but at least she could stop limping quite so badly as Dash brought her around to the temple's side entrance.

And either way, it was all worth it to give Rylan the time he needed.

Listening to Arphin narrate what was going on, Rylan shook his head at the waste of Credits. Then he quickly pushed the thought away and focused on what was important.

Dash seemed to be buying Leahna's story, but the man was clearly on his guard as well. So while he wanted nothing more than to rush in and head for the console, he decided to wait a little longer.

His prudence paid off, as not two minutes later, Dash sprinted a circuit through the temple and around its exterior, effortlessly moving at shocking speeds.

'How's Leahna doing,' Rylan asked after Dash had passed by the ruin he was hiding inside, thankfully without seeming to notice anything.

[Leahna is sitting by the firemetal stove, Boss,] Arphin sent. [She appears to be warming her hands!]

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'Right. Good. Can you tell her I'm about to go in?'

[Ehm, not from here, Boss; I can't reach that far, and I'm not tethered to her like I am to you, you know?]

Rylan frowned. 'How close are we talking?'

[I think I could stretch maybe thirty feet or so?]

Well, that was a little inconvenient. But he would just have to trust that she would do her best to keep Dash occupied regardless.

Just to be sure, he decided to wait a bit longer, to see if the Sapphire-Grade Quinthar would settle in. 'Let me know what they get up to, yeah?'

[You got it, Boss!]

Thankfully, it didn't take long for his opportunity to materialise. Or rather, for Leahna to create it.

[Boss, Big Sis is acting weird!]

Rylan's brows drew together. 'How so?'

[She's taken off her shoe and put her bare foot up on his lap—so gross! And now he appears to be kneading her ankle like it's dough!]

Rylan was simultaneously proud and a little worried. He shook his head. Leahna could handle herself, and he wasn't about to waste the window she'd created for him.

'It's called a massage, Arphin; haven't you witnessed one before?'

[I don't know, Boss, I wouldn't call that a massage. I'm starting to wonder if he's witnessed one before!]

Rylan shook his head, deciding to table his questions about Dash's questionable massage technique for later. 'All right, we're going in. Let me know if anything changes.'

[Sure thing, Boss!]

Rylan crept towards the temple's main entrance, keeping his eyes and ears peeled.

He passed by the corpse of the massive foghorn—definitely a Malequint—and kept going. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any boobytraps, and he quickly made his way to the doorway.

Any door that may have once been there had long rotted away, so he stepped inside unimpeded.

As he did, his gaze was immediately drawn up.

Like Iliana had said, the inside of the main temple was a sight to behold. Pinpricks of light shone through the pitch-black stone dome above, their light weak and shimmery through the fog, but all the more ethereal for it.

However, Rylan wasn't there to sight-see. He set off towards the middle of the room.

Seconds later, he froze mid-step at the sound of laughter echoing out from the dark. The fog dampened the sound a little, but the acoustics of the dome were still quite powerful. He would really have to be careful not to make any noise.

He continued moving, taking extra care to place his toes first on the thin layer of sand that covered the stone floor, and to avoid stepping on any intact shells or anything else that might crack beneath his feet.

In the centre of the room, he could vaguely make out a low, dark silhouette. As he crept closer, it slowly resolved into the railing of the spiralling staircase down to the basement. And next to that, embedded in a small pedestal, stood a transparent hexagonal prism.

The console!

Rylan closed the distance with excited yet careful steps. Glancing around one last time, he placed his palm on the prism. "Ethereon," he whispered as loud as he dared. "Activate console!"

After a brief moment, the prism lit up, spreading a deep purple glow that shimmered eerily in the fog.

《Administrator detected,》Ethereon's voice spoke, once again sounding a little livelier than usual.《Welcome to the Peronia region local network. What is your command?》

Rylan swallowed. Time to see if all this effort had been worthwhile. "Ethereon, please release Quinthar Artoran Hawktalon from his Restrictions."

《Parsing. Order to remove the Restrictions on user Artoran Hawktalon registered. Warning: Restrictions were placed by another Administrator, and removal cannot be undone. Confirm order?》

"Yes, confirm!"

《Restrictions successfully lifted.》

It worked? It worked!

Rylan's heart soared. For a few seconds, he allowed himself to bask in the joy of it. Then he focused back up. He'd prepared a lot of questions this time around.

"Ethereon, what exactly are Restrictions and how are they placed?"

《Parsing. Query understood. Restrictions are the punitive measures applied to users by Administrators. An Administrator is authorised to issue a writ of warning with decrees and Restrictions. When the violation of the decrees within the writ is detected, the listed Restrictions will be put into effect, and the issuing Administrator is notified.》

Rylan's brows tried to climb up into his hairline. "That's it? Administrators can just give any Quinthar a written warning and force them to do whatever it says?!"

《Writs of warning are not intended as a tool for coercion,》Ethereon replied with a stern note in its voice.《Writs must be signed by their recipients to signify their understanding of the misconduct they have been accused of and the resulting decrees. Once signed, the writ must be filed at a local console before it takes effect. Any user who feels a writ of warning has been issued unjustly may refuse to sign and bring their appeal to the Ethereal Council.》

Rylan's mouth fell open. "And, none of this requires a Skill? All you need is an ancient bloodline, writing supplies, and a console? I could issue one right now, if I wanted?"

《As an Administrator, issuing writs of warning falls within your purview; there is no associated Skill. However, it is recommended to follow an official course about the legalities of writs of warning, decrees, and the types of misconduct they are intended to combat, before you issue your first writ of warning.》

Great Spirits... It sounded an awful lot like the Talons were simply creating writs of warning, and passing them off as Contracts. Whatever this Ethereal Council had been, it probably no longer existed, so there was no one to check their rampant abuse of the system.

"Just so we're a hundred percent clear... there is no Contract Skill?"

《Parsing. Query understood. Lookup failed. Skill: Contracting, could not be located in the database. Would you like to file a request for its creation?》

"What? No. Wait, I can do that? I can request the creation of a new Skill?"

《Affirmative. All Skill creation requests are considered by the Ethereal Council. The current wait time for their response is around 773 years. Would you like to file a request?》

"No, never mind," Rylan muttered dryly. "I'm sure they're very busy."

It seemed he didn't have that much authority either. Which was probably a good thing, as it was becoming increasingly clear that he shared his authority with the Talons, and that that was the reason for the excessive bounty on his head. They probably didn't even know he'd inherited the bloodline from his father, just suspected... Actually, no. They probably did know, by now. Tamina had seen him access a console.

Rylan blinked.

Tamina had seen him access a console... right before she'd started avoiding him. And then when he'd confronted her about it, she'd said it had been 'fun to pretend' that they could have something, but that the real world was knocking and their bubble was about to pop.

All this time, he'd thought she'd been angry about the fact that he'd freed Maris, but... what if that had never been the case?

What if at that moment, she'd connected the dots, and realised she'd guarded the door while Rylan's father had been tortured to give up his son's location? And that she couldn't even tell Rylan about it, not without losing access to her Skills and Mana Shell?

But she still kissed me before I entered the Champion's Dungeon...

Well, there had been good odds he would've died in there, while trying to save her and Soren and the crew, so he supposed it was a forgivable transgression.

And she hadn't done it again. Instead, she'd indirectly told him to get away from her before her Contract—no, the decrees in her writ of warning—forced her to try to take him in.

"Ethereon," Rylan started. "Can I... can I negate an issued writ of warning?"

《As an Administrator, auditing and striking writs of warning falls within your purview. Please present the writ of warning you wish to strike to a local console.》

Damn. Sounds like I'd need the actual physical copy...

He shook his head; he was getting ahead of himself. Tamina had chosen to sign those papers herself, and might not take kindly to him suddenly disbanding the agreement she had with the Talons. Especially as her family was being sheltered by them. Moreover, it would paint a target on his back the size of a twincavum whale...

Either way, he was wasting precious time. Time for his next big topic.

"Ethereon, please analyse my Affinity."

《Parsing. Command acknowledged. Affinity analysis started. Calculating, please stand by.》

As Rylan waited patiently, the only sound in the dark, foggy room was that of his quiet breathing.

[Boss, Dash and Leahna are on the move!] Arphin suddenly warned.

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