“I hear the stream. We’ll be camping down for the night soon.”

  Sej’s voice rang out from ahead, and Nar inhaled sharply, his senses returning him to the now.

  Crystal. This place reminds me of the Pressure during the tutorial, he thought. He had almost fallen asleep while walking.

  “Are you alright?” he asked Rel.

  The archer stumbled on her feet besides him, but though lidded, her eyes were still open. Or should he say, forced open, her face contorted in a rage filled frown.

  Rel gave him a grunt, and Nar left it at that. On his other side, Jul walked with a frown of her own carved deeply into her features.

  “They’re not real,” he said, patting her head.

  Jul startled in surprise, but her frown soon returned.

  “I know that, but I still hate them,” she muttered.

  “And they fucking deserve it,” Mul said from in front of them.

  The brawler’s tone was rendered emotionless by his suppressor, and that told Nar everything he needed to know about what, or who, Mul was seeing. The twins walked hand in hand, and between the two of them, Nar couldn’t tell which one was having the worst time of it.

  “Ugh! No! I—”

  He looked up in time to see Jasphaer slapping an aura coated hand against the back of Viy’s head. The halberdier struggled weakly to get free from his touch, but Gad held her in place as Jasphaer flooded Viy’s mind with his own aura, erasing the accumulated dream aether in her brain.

  Is that what? The tenth time? Nar thought, wincing in sympathy.

  Viy’s lacking [Ego] was making itself more than evident. Others had needed the healers’ purifying skills as well, of course, in the hours since they’d entered the Dream, but none had succumbed to the [Dreaming] more than twice, let alone ten or whatever time this already was.

  Viy slackened, and she went soft in Gad’s arms. The tank switched to holding her body under her arms with a practiced movement and held her up with her impressive [Strength].

  “Clear,” Jasphaer said, his expression unreadable as he pulled his hand back, strands of Viy’s sweat-slick, long dark hair clinging to his hand.

  “Thank you,” Gad said, giving him a heavy nod.

  Kur motioned for their group to keep moving without a single word. Deep shadows lined his own eyes, and he was the only one in their individual party that had already needed Jasphaer’s intervention twice.

  “You guys okay back there?” Raf asked, glancing backwards.

  Kur gave him a thumbs up, though from the light shaking in his hand, Nar wondered if his party leader was getting close to succumbing to the [Dreaming] status effect again.

  From what he had been able to gauge, the aethermancers had thus far taken it well enough, not needing any aid from Era or their potions, while amongst Row’s people, Jaz, Teb, Cor and Row herself had required the help from Leta’s needles when they’d fallen to the [Dreaming], with Row, like Kur, also needing it twice.

  Tuk, who had taken to walk behind the group, seemed to be enjoying a nice stroll amidst the flowers and decaying and sleeping beasts, and like Raf, he seemed wholly unbothered by the colorful motes rising up from the flowers all around him. The ring tosser was even whistling a happy tune to himself, and he checked on the rest of them once in a while.

  Tuk’s non-chalance had surprised Nar at first. But, then again, maybe it shouldn’t have. The trugger had always been the freest and most unconcerned amongst them after all. Sure, Tuk got frightened now and then, as much as any normal delver would, but in terms of baggage, and future, big worries, and concerns? The guy was as free as a bird, as the saying went.

  Despite everything she carried in her mind, Rel was another one that had surprised Nar. Her eyes had been half-closed for hours now, locked in that heavy frown that looked as though it would mark her features forever, but with her jaw clenched and tightened fists holding firm at her side, the alfin was powering through quite well under her own willpower.

  Is this the difference between one who has accepted their guilt, and thinks they’re making amends for it, and one who hasn’t showing up again? Nar considered, discreetly looking between the archer and Viy.

  It was not the first time the thought occurred to him. Rel had a much easier time in the den of the psaelis than Viy did. Her high [Ego] had helped her sail smoothly through it, and even the corrupted illatrian hadn’t been able to breach her mind. In fact, Rel had fared far better than even Kur, Jul and Gad during their first fight outside of the B-Nex. Since [Ego] was essentially one’s understanding, and some might even say acceptance, of oneself, perhaps he was right.

  But then, what’s going to happen to Viy? Nar wondered.

  She mumbled her thanks and went back to walking on her own, her head bowed. [Ego] was one of the most important attributes that any of them could gain, responsible for protecting the sanctity of their minds. Without it, they were open to a lot of nasty things, and he worried what that meant for Viy’s future.

  I’m sure there’s people out there with mind control skills, too… Not indirectly, like Jul’s fear or Era’s nightmares, but real, true mind control, Nar thought, twisting his lips. They would likely meet someone like that eventually, and the thought of it made him all the happier for all the [Ego] he’d been accumulating as of late. Just the thought of someone controlling him… or the others?

  He shook his head. It was enough to strengthen his already certain decision to seek out the priestess again, despite her role in a plot he still needed to understand, and subject himself to whatever was necessary in order to further continue boosting his [Ego].

  Until nothing can get in, Nar thought, passing a hand over his slick forehead and grimacing as he inhaled a particularly honeyed mouthful of air and aether.

  As for Viy, the Master of Emotions, an Ascendant One no less, had taken Viy under her wing. If anyone knew what they were doing, and how best to help Viy and her path, it was her. So, for now, it was best to just let things progress and see where Viy’s path took her.

  “I’m so happy that you’ve made it out. Now live your new life, alright? Be happy.”

  Every fiber in his being tensed at the words.

  The tone was perfect. The word choice spot on. Even the kindness, flooding and swelling from that tone, bursting with pride that his son had made it felt real.

  Nar looked back in time to see his dad fade to nothing. The apparition had trailed him for hours, and even though he knew it was not real, he had still derived comfort from his presence. From seeing his dad again.

  The fake Bey hadn’t uttered a single word in reproach, or accusation, or to stir in him any guilt, want or need. The illusion had been perfect in every aspect, and even now, as Nar’s own aura likely burned through the dream aether that had accumulated within him, all that his dad showed was happiness that his son had made it out, and the wish that Nar would find happiness outside the B-Nex.

  “Nar?” Tuk asked, his tone gentle. “You alright?”

  Nar blinked away the sudden moisture in his eyes.

  “I’m alright, Tuk. Thanks.”

  But he wasn’t, was he?

  And within him, without him realizing it, his aura and [Ego] continued the silent battle against the invasion Nar was still unaware had transpired, all the way back in Haven. It was a nearly insurmountable war that was being raged, but bit by bit, with every gain made in [Aura***], with every point that bolstered his [Ego], that wall was being chipped at, its foundations eroding.

  **********

  Nar peered down at the placid, lilac and purple waters of the thin stream that cut through the fields of flowers. There wasn’t a single ripple or disturbance across its mirror-like surface, but while his reflection stared back at him, somehow it didn’t look quite right.

  “Stay away from the water,” Sej warned him uselessly.

  He gave the guide a nod, and she lumbered on to help with setting up camp. He had no intention of even touching the aptly named Running Dream.

  And there’s another one suffering from it, Nar thought, eyeing the guide’s back. He was still trying to decide if it was surprising that it was the combat class Sej, and not the non-combat researcher class Sarke, who had needed to be purified of the [Dreaming]. Especially given that Sej had a good chunk more [Ego] than Sarke, too. Who knows what she saw… Maybe a future in which she and Sarke can stay together?

  Setting up camp was by now an easy and well-practiced affair, and by the time the lilac glow in the air had at last dimmed to a sort of dark twilight, everyone was cleaned, fed and three quarters of them were fast asleep. As expected, the [Dreaming] had taken a hold of every single one of them, even Era herself, and Nar’s [Hearing] was filled with mumblings, whimpering, and mutterings of things he probably shouldn’t be listening too, but which he had little choice over the matter, given that he was on watch.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “You deserved… Deserved to die… and I killed you!” a voice rose above the others.

  Like the others on watch with him, Nar pretended not to hear Tun’s feverish words. The past was the past, and whatever had gone down in those cubeplants was of no one’s concern. Of course, it piqued Nar’s curiosity, but he would never question the big man about that. Row had always operated a strict open and honest policy in her party, and he was sure that whatever lie buried in Tun’s past had already been talked about, discussed, and accepted.

  “You shouldn’t have touched her!” Tun muttered again.

  Still… It makes you think, doesn’t it? Nar thought, as he checked the cards in his hand. Everyone here has their own story, even if all the stories knot together.

  As for those on watch, Mach and Tuk had convinced Jul, Leon, Sarke and Nar to join them for a game of cards, another one in an endless procession of games that could be extracted from a single, simple pack of cards. Before the Brightnight, someone had given Tuk a pack with a list of rules for several different games, and it had quickly become one of Tuk’s, and many others, favorite pass times in a place where they had no access to outside entertainment. Mach and Eum were also well versed in several more different games, and Tuk had been delighted to slowly play them all.

  After the fourth round, Nar excused himself to go outside and stretch his legs, and wandered over to the Running Dream. The air was thicker now, even more honeyed than before, and it was slightly cooler, as though to be even more inviting and welcoming in order to draw them all into a sleep they would never wake from.

  If the place wasn’t so deadly, it would have been Nar’s favorite so far.

  No rain. No Miasma. No deadly monsters stalking noisy delvers. No ravenous beasts. And, apparently, not even the assassins had wanted to follow them into this flowering place.

  The stream glowed with an intense lilac in the twilight darkness, motes of color dancing from its deceptively fast running waters.

  Are all domains as crazy as this? Nar wondered. In comparison, the forest they had struggled to get out of now seemed like a basic tutorial, and he couldn’t even refer to those sea and beach themed dungeons in the same breath as that first forest either.

  The Running Dream glowed brightly, and yet, somehow, Nar still found his own reflection looking back up at him with perfect clarity. As before, however, there was something that didn’t quite match… something about the eyes that made them feel as though they belonged to someone else. Someone who—

  He heard the flap of the tent, and turned his head from the waters to find Leon walking towards him.

  “Sick of playing?” Nar asked.

  “More like sick of losing!” Leon grumbled, rubbing his eyes. “How does she keep winning like that? If Jul’s not using her senses, I swear she’s just looking into the damned future!”

  Nar chuckled.

  “Jul’s not the kind to cheat,” he told the paladin. “As for the future… who knows. That’s something she and we still have to figure out. If that’s even what’s going on. I doubt she even knows what it is.”

  Leon nodded tiredly, and cracked his neck. “Ow. That was a shit crack.”

  “Language.”

  Leon waved it off.

  “So, what do you see?” he suddenly asked, turning his glowing eyes to Nar. “Or who?”

  Nar arched an eyebrow at him. “I thought that was rude to ask?”

  Leon shrugged. “I’m curious. And bored. And trying to stay awake.”

  Nar considered his paladin friend for a moment, then he too shrugged.

  “Eh, sure. Why not? I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours. But a word of warning, mine’s pretty boring,” Nar told him.

  Leon stared at him in mild surprise.

  “What? Can’t tell me?” Nar asked.

  Leon heaved a sigh. “I guess I didn’t really expect you to agree… Oh, what in the Abyss. Why not?”

  The aethermancer folded his arms and his eyes seemed to get lost in the peaceful, glowing waters before them.

  “Her name is… actually, that doesn’t matter,” Leon said, his tone gruff. “What matters is that I met her about three years ago and I… well, we fell in love.”

  Nar’s eyebrows rose. Of all the things he’d been expecting, that one hadn’t even made onto the list.

  “What? I’m not with a celibate order. How am I going to inherit the family business if I can’t produce an heir?” Leon asked. “Uh… do you know what inheriting means?”

  Nar gave him a slow nod. “We also inherit things where I come from. Well, sort of anyways.”

  Leon pursed his lips, but he left it at that.

  “And this girl… she’s a problem?” Nar asked.

  “Why do you assume that?”

  “I’ve just come to expect the worst I guess,” Nar said, sighing.

  “Fair. Though that’s not a great way to live, if you ask me. Of course, I’ve mostly become the same,” Leon muttered. Then he heaved another heavy sigh. “She’s not a problem. It’s just that she’s not on the same… social level as me, shall we say.”

  “Now that I’m not sure I understand,” Nar confessed.

  “Well… she works for my family,” Leon said. “She’s a regular person, from a regular background.”

  Nar stared at the paladin.

  “It’s exactly what you’re thinking,” Leon said miserably. “And that is a problem.”

  “I actually just blanked there to be honest with you,” Nar told him. “Because I expected something a lot worse. Like she’d died, or she was sick or something like that!”

  A startled laugh escaped Leon.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. I just forget how different our lives are,” Leon said. Another laugh escaped his lips and he shook his head. “It’s easy to forget it all when you’re busy worrying about your survival and gains.”

  He clasped Nar’s shoulder. “Things will be better out here, okay? Life will be good to you.”

  Nar tutted and pushed the hand away. “Stop being annoying and explain why this girl working for your family is a problem!”

  Leon groaned. “Being rich comes with its own set of issues.”

  “Yes. Of course.”

  “No, I’m being serious!”

  Nar waved his hand dismissively. “Go on.”

  Leon glared, but he continued.

  “One of those issues is that we’re not free to just go about and be with who we want to be,” he explained. “Do you know what marriage is?”

  “Viy told me about it,” Nar said. “Or what is Cen? Something from a show…”

  “Well, then you need to understand that to us, marriage is not about love. Marriage is a tool of power, just like any other. You use it to secure allies, funds, access to resources you need, or you use in order to open the way for new ventures.”

  “You’re getting married to make friends?” Nar asked.

  Leon scratched the back of his neck. “That’s one way to put it…”

  “What other way is there?”

  Leon shrugged. “Fair. So, circling back to my problem as you put it, she’s not… ugh. By marrying her, my family gains nothing. And that’s not okay.”

  “What? Is your happiness not good enough for them?” Nar asked.

  “My happiness is of no consequence,” Leon said, his tone hardening. “My family has a history that spans across eras, Nar. Eras! We command fleets. We have untold people working for us and whose livelihoods depend on us. We have agreements that have been in place for hundreds of thousands of years. Our records even detail the fall of a God! I can’t just risk or throw it all that away for something as small as… As happiness.”

  “Damn,” Nar whispered, his turn at squeezing Leon’s shoulder. “Not gonna lie. That all sounds way beyond my understanding.”

  And like something you shouldn’t be telling me, Nar thought, his heart taking a strange, sudden gallop. Did he just say that a God… fell? What’s that even mean?

  Leon passed a hand over his golden-brown mane of hair. “We’ve been meeting in secret all this time… but that’s not fair to her, you know? I’ve tried to break it off so many times, so that she could find someone better, someone she can actually be with, but she always says that she’d rather have this time with me, as little as it may be, than live without it… And I-I just let it go on like this. Because I can’t let go of her. I love her.”

  Nar grimaced and patted Leon’s back, not knowing what to say before the rawness in the paladin’s voice, even as his own thoughts threatened to spiral due to Leon’s casual revelation.

  “I doubt my parents aren’t aware of it. Especially my mother. She runs a tight ship over the family and keeps close tabs on all her children…”

  Nar frowned at him, finally managing to put a chokehold on his mind to give Leon’s heartfelt pouring the attention he deserved.

  “You said before that your own family could be the ones who hired the assassins,” Nar said, in a hushed tone. “And your own mother spies on you, too? Wait, that can’t be the right word…”

  “That is exactly the right word, and yes. Pretty much she does. A lot is at stake for a family like ours,” Leon said. “The holdings, the companies, the people under us, the bindings… Our image. My parents can’t afford for everything that our family has built over the course of eras to be thrown out the window by some reckless child in love. Especially one that is a potential heir to inherit it all. Fame, wealth and… responsibility.”

  “Damn… That sounds rough,” Nar said. “Crystal. That’s crazy!”

  “Ah, you’re born into it, so you don’t really see it until—”

  “Until it affects you?” Nar asked.

  Leon nodded.

  “My mother will allow me to have my… fun, and to get it out of my system,” Leon said, spitting the words. “But she already has someone suitable in mind for me, and when that gets publicly announced… it will be the end.”

  “Crystal,” Nar said. “And you—I mean, is that what you want?”

  “What I want doesn’t matter, Nar,” Leon whispered. He passed a hand over his eyes, and Nar saw the glimmer in them. “I envy you, you know? You and the others. It might seem like I’m mocking you in saying so, given all that I have and hold, compared to you all. But… you’re free. Yes, you have your delving contract, but the guild’s never going to tell you who to marry, nor when to start popping children, nor what to name them according to your family’s tradition… You’ve got a whole future ahead of yourself, and you will shape with your own hands. Meanwhile, no matter how hard I work or struggle, mine will always remain bound by who I was born to be.”

  Nar grimaced, considering his next words. “Well, I’ve also heard about something called a side piece? If that’s an option…”

  “Ugh! No! Do not refer to her as a side piece!” Leon said, split between outrage and the laugher seeking to burst from him. “Azzin! I was not expecting that!”

  “Sorry,” Nar said.

  “Ah, it’s alright. To be fair, that kind of stuff is rife within my circle,” Leon said. “But that is something that my vow as a paladin does not allow. It is a corruption of the sacred vows of marriage, and it is a lie and a betrayal, even if for a loveless, arranged marriage. So no, there won’t be any side pieces for me, nor would I allow her to become one. I want her to live a full and proper life, and not just be a mistress to some n—To someone like me.”

  “Uh… I don’t really know what to say,” Nar mumbled. “I’m sorry to hear that. It’s rough, man.”

  “Bah! It’s just life, isn’t it?” Leon said. “Uh, more importantly, actually, can you not mention that bit about the God stuff that I told you?”

  “What? That there’s a God that fell?” Nar asked, trying to keep his tone casual.

  “Yeah. Just forget that, please. You and I could get into a lot of trouble for even mentioning it, so try to forget it and don’t tell anyone,” Leon said. “I shouldn’t have said it in the first place, but being here is messing with my head a lot more than I expected it would.”

  “It does make me very curious… but sure, I’ll keep my mouth shut,” Nar said.

  “Cheers, man,” Leon said. “But I told you mine. Now you tell me ours!”

  “Ah… right.”

  “No pulling out now, man!”

  “It’s not that,” Nar said, looking down to the glowing lilac waters below them. “I just don’t see him anymore.”

  “Him?” Leon asked, looking around the empty stream bank. “You resisted it? All this aether?”

  Nar shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because my nightmare came true, and I have nothing else to dream of.”

  “What do you—”

  The opening of the tent flap interrupted them.

  “Come on, guys. Back inside,” Sarke said, her head poking out the tent. “It’s not good for you to be alone out here. Plus, we’re being forced to start a new round.”

  “Hey! No one is forcing anyone,” Tuk protested from inside the tent.

  “Coming!” Nar said, heading over. Then he stopped to glance back at Leon. “I don’t see anything special. Not like you, anyways. I just see the past, and the dad I couldn’t save. That is all. See, I told you it wasn’t interesting.”

  “What? But—No, I mean…”

  “Come on,” Sarke called again.

  Leon followed silently after Nar, considering what he’d just been told, the tiny glimpse he had been given into the mystery that was Nar… As well as why Nar was holding himself back like he was. Consciously or unconsciously remained to be seen, but Leon was more and more certain that Nar was someone that needed to be broken out of incredibly heavy and powerful chains, and if he could be the one to do that for Nar…

  I’ll get the truth out of you yet, Nar. And I'll do anything I can to help you get through whatever’s shackled you, Leon thought. I need your help, yes, and your friendship if possible. But a sword like yours deserves to be free, and I know there are depths to your path that I have yet to discover. So, hang tight, Nar. Before the end of this delve, I will set you free, no matter what it takes.