“Ok, buddy,” Hunter said on their first evening camping, sitting on his duffel and trying to figure out how to unfurl the tent-bag. “You’ve been a lot of, umm, help. Helperbot, right. That’s what you do,” he trailed off.

Trips skittered over from where it was clearing dry brush away from the side of the road, and with a click of one of its clamps, opened the buckle Hunter had missed on the rolled up bundle.

“See, just like that,” he mumbled, mostly to himself. Hunter spread out the tent and looked at it, more of a long sleeping bag that angled up at the top so someone could zip themselves all the way in and have a little space to themselves cozy I guess. “You do good work, little guy.”

The bot stayed at his feet, waggled two of its arms around, and then dipped its head in a nod, or its body in a bow, Hunter wasn’t sure. Trips was basically just an elongated softball on three skinny legs, and sometimes it was hard to translate its movements.

“But like,” Hunter paused, bit his lip, “I’m looking forward to going back home, don’t get me wrong. But I’m not staying too long, and after that? Things are probably going to get weird and dangerous.”

Trips looked up at him with the black band that went across its middle in place of eyes pretty sure it’s looking at me, then did its tiny bouncing shrug thing, definitely different than its larger bouncing affirmative thing.

“So, you know, you’ve got a decision to make, bud. You can hang around in Willard when I leave, stay safe, play with your cousins the farmbots, take care of Jacky who I’m sure has been making one constant mess since we left, or you can come with me. And, you know, see the world, get shot at, and make Mom worry.”

The little guy just stood there, mechanisms whirring into a faint groan, not a new sound but one Hunter hadn’t figured out yet, and then held out one limb, clamp closed and angled down. Hunter grinned, leaned forward, and bumped his fist against it.

“I kinda hoped so, but,” Hunter chuckled, “I didn’t want to jinx it. Ok, so let’s figure this out? How this is gonna work, I mean.”

He pulled out his notebook and flipped to a couple pages he’d painstakingly copied out of one of the college library books, squinting in the low light until Trips pulled the lantern he’d bought out of the duffel and turned it on. Once he had the right page, both teen and robot peered at it, neither moving for a little while.

“I think, maybe, we can do it?” Hunter broke the silence. “I’ve got enough crystals to do that part,” he pointed, “and the rest of it’s just channeling affinity? I think? Which I’m not great at but we can go slow. We can use the rod for that middle part, yeah?”

Trips just looked at him I think, then shrugged before holding out a clamp. Hunter hesitated, not entirely sure what the bot wanted, but after a moment he maybe figured it out, so he emptied the small essence crystals from his account into the pouch he kept looped on his satchel, and then handed it over. The helperbot started to walk around the freshly cleared dirt, plucking crystals out of the pouch and setting them down in a complicated pattern, occasionally coming back to check the notebook. Hunter picked up the metal staff and carefully laid it in the middle of the design, then sat at one end of it to prepare.

He hadn’t used the focus he’d bought from Pete as much as he wanted to, because he honestly found it too distracting. He was still getting used to how his affinity felt with his spells running, quick and static and ready to jump with one spell, strong and powerful and rocking from one non-direction to another with the other, and with his focus out it was just another effect on his channels he’d have to learn to ignore. It seemed to pull at him, in a weird way. Hunter could feel an odd sensation, like the cycling affinity moved more quickly on its journey, and there was a phantom tug when it swept past his left side, where the focus hovered.

He pulled it off his arm where he wore it when not in use and let go of it in the air, watching as the two dull concentric rings started to spin before it darted over to his side. It was so weird, he thought, how something smaller than his head could apparently fit so much power in it. He’d tested it, running full out, up and down buildings, really putting Zen Runner Explorer to the test, and the floating, faintly humming device never strayed more than three or four inches from its position, and he maintained his meditation perfectly.

Hunter centered himself while Trips finished laying out the crystals, finding it much more easy when he wasn’t actually using his affinity at the same time. The robot finished, eventually, and joined him on the opposite side of the staff, then with a nod maybe at each other, they both touched the metal and Hunter began to expel the essence from his body.

The crystallized essence on the ground lit up, two or three pieces at a time, in seemingly random patterns not random, can’t see it, and Hunter focused on simply keeping his affinity release steady. He noticed his helperbot twisting from side to side, but it left one limb pressed firmly on the channeling rod, so he hoped it didn’t matter.

It was only when every crystal was bright, crackling and hazy like oldtech road flares that Hunter looked up, and he saw that

he wasn’t actually seeing. Everything past the little dirt clearing he and Trips were in was gone, just a solid black wall on every side, not even reflecting the sparkling lights. The entire scene was projected through an Infra screen, it had taken over his senses fully I knew it, and he was somehow experiencing everything through the shimmering interface.

“Whoa, weird,” Hunter said.

“whoa,” Trips agreed, and the both of them startled, not quite losing contact with the rod, but it was a close thing.

“Hey, buddy, you can talk,” Hunter murmured, thinking quickly, “in here. That’s pretty cool, at least.”

“yeah,” the robot said, its voice some kind of low, monotone, modulated whirr.

“I mean, umm, we need to come to some kind of agreement, the paper says. It’ll be a lot easier to agree to anything if we can talk.”

“sure.”

“Ok, yeah, still not a chatterbox. I get it,” Hunter nodded, then noticed the crystals at the edge of the clearing were winking out, one by one. “We should figure this out.”

“yeah,” said Trips, then a moment later, “help.”

“Right, you want to help. So do I. We just have to figure out how. So I was thinking, umm, you’re small and you’re quick and you can see like, everything around you, or something?”

“yeah.”

“Cool, yeah. So the ritual says you can, like, be almost as good as me at one thing, or category? I think maybe it means base skills but I’m not totally sure.”

“sure,” the bot said and nodded.

“Ok,” Hunter nodded and bit his lip, looking around. The inner crystals were all still flaring, but most of the outer ones had gone. “So maybe you can be a scout? Sneak around places and then tell me what you see?”

“nope,” Trips whirred.

“No?” he paused a moment huh, “Then, umm, what do you want to do?”

“help,” it insisted. Then, while keeping one foot on the end of the rod, it lifted the other two limbs, one up and one down, assuming greet the sky and ground. “this.”

“You, umm,” Hunter mumbled in reply, “you want to help me fight, little guy?”

“yeah,” Trips said, and nodded.

“Ok, ok alright,” Hunter spoke slowly, “we’ll work it out. If that’s what you want.” He started to focus the affinity that he was already pushing out, and the metal staff started to glow as more crystals went dark.

“want,” said the little bot, and then it did something what, because the rod lit up the rest of the way, the rest of the essence littered on the ground flashed

and then Hunter realized they were back on the side of the highway, or had never left.

“Gosh,” he mumbled, “rituals are weird. Let’s do less of those, unless it’s important.”

He already had notifications flashing, but a new one popped up briefly at that moment, just the word, “sure,” blinking in and out of his awareness, accompanied by Trips’ soft little voice.

“Ok, but that?” he nodded. “That’s going to be helpful.”

You have earned one (1) achievement! [Companion] You have made a metaphysical connection with a non-sapient that Infra cannot, and now share your manifold conduits, neural connectors, and fate with it. companion shares part (50%) of your bonus stats, all (100%) of a chosen base skill set [Devilborn Soft Style], and most (75%) of the effects of related and synergy talents, +1 companion talent You have one (1) talent available from earning the companion achievement. Please pick from the following pool of companion talents. [Binder's Guard] You and your spirit have come to an agreement, it protects and you bolster. companion gains [Audacity] skill at max rank, +one hundred percent (100%) efficacy on spells you cast on companion [Ranger's Bond] You and your chosen animal work together in harmony. you and companion share all sensory data (toggle), +fifty percent (50%) efficacy to special attacks used simultaneously [Witch's Gambit] You and your familiar have a strange, mystical connection. companion gains some (50%) effect of all beneficial spells cast on you, companion may channel all (100%) effects of your touch attacks

“Huh, alright,” Hunter scratched the back of his head, then yawned as he climbed into the tent-bag. “Want to just figure it out tomorrow?”

“sure.”

Walking for long distances was boring, Hunter concluded. Walking with a fully-packed duffel, a rolled sleeping bag, his trusty satchel, a giant metal staff, and wearing an armored coat was boring and tiring. At least he’d figured out how to work the temperature control in the coat, and it was slowly circulating chilled air from his neck to just above his knees. On the plus side, he was gradually getting used to the presence of the focus just off his shoulder, because with the extra vigor regeneration he could keep up a slightly less mind-numbing pace.

No one was answering his messages, which usually didn’t bother him, but with absolutely nothing to do except put one foot in front of the other, he was starting to get annoyed. At least Ernie had answered a couple questions in the training room, and he could sort of almost have a conversation with Trips now.

“So,” Hunter said, dragging his stick through the dirt on the side of the highway, “Ernie said audacity is some kind of fancy class skill.”

“what,” said Trips, as it ambled along beside him. Hunter was going to have to get used to the lack of inflection when it spoke, but it was still much better than having to sort out which bobs meant what.

“Yeah, I mean. I don’t get it either? But it makes stuff mad at you, more likely to take a swing atcha. I don’t think it sounds like a good thing.”

“nope.”

“Plus, I don’t have any spells to cast on you. So, maybe not that one, yeah. The ranger talent would have been pretty cool if you wanted to scout, but that’s a nope, right.”

“nope.”

“We don’t have any special attacks anyway,” Hunter muttered, swinging his staff at a stray piece of asphalt and sending it off into the dirt. “That woulda been cool.”

“sure.”

“So, that makes you, umm, a familiar. Always wanted to be a witch, I just didn’t really know what it meant. Guess it means I was supposed to get a cat.”

“meow.”

“Ok, that was pretty funny,” Hunter chuckled, then trailed off as one of his windows flashed.

You have entered the [cool kidz of Willard] messaging group.

[Ellie]: hey guys. good news bad news kinda thing.

[Ellie]: got myself transferred. again. dunno what everyone’s prob is.

[Ellie]: anyway that’s not it. so i’m moving again. by myself this time. buuut i just found out i can take detours, as long as i get to the next place on time.

[Ellie]: so good news i’m in town tonight! willard. not like another town. bad news it’s just tonight. either of u gonna be around?

[Miracle]: Dang, really? The group’s way out in Stillwater for another week and our port allowance is emergency only. Gosh, I would have loved to have seen you two.

Hunter had been making good time, half of it jogging, half walking to let his meters build back up. What would have taken a caravan two days of travel with all the breaks they’d be forced to endure, he had done in one, eating and drinking on the move, and only sleeping about six hours the night before. He looked up at the late morning sky, out at the giant silver flare that was the heart of Topeka, and then at the detour that he’d have to take well around it, another sixteen hours at least before he’d be home, early in the morning. It would be less than half that to go straight through, though.

[Hunter]: i’m not that far out. i’ll be there by dinner

“In my defense,” Hunter said as he hopped from one giant piece of rubble to the next, Trips stuffed in his satchel, “it’s not like this place is dangerous all the time.”

He waited for a moment and then slid down the jagged piece of concrete, his sneakers leaving faint streaks of yellow on the rough surface, and then tried not to flinch as another airburst went off where he had just been. He moved out of the way of the shimmering blue ribbons that reached out as they drifted down, ignoring how they sizzled and sparked once they finally struck the ground.

“SysPol comes through and sweeps it every couple months, you know,” he said as he took off running again, darting in between fallen buildings, rusted cars, and huge craters in the ground. “Sometimes there isn’t even anything to get rid of. We could have been fine.”

Two more explosions went off in front of him, blocking off the street he was about to take, so Hunter kicked off the remains of a telephone pole in mid-stride and dashed out of the way until he found another relatively clear path toward the middle of the city.

“It’s not like it’s a guaranteed dangerous monster spawner or something,” he panted, vaulting from car to rubble to higher rubble and finally pulling himself up to the top of a building with a good view of the problem, looking like nothing more than a flickering, silver candle flame about six stories tall. “Sometimes they come, and there’s just flowers, or seashells, or other weird stuff lying around. One time it was chickens, with four wings, but almost regular chickens.”

He could see the flash, about two blocks away now, that always preceded one of the weird attacks, and so he dropped down the side of the building, kicking off at the last moment to vault onto the next one and roll across the roof. He took one peek back to see that the airbursts were getting closer, the last one having gone off not where he was standing, but a bit down the building, like it was tracking him on the way.

“And if I wasn’t carrying all this stuff,” he whispered, tightening his the strap of his duffel across his chest, then bolted between two gaping holes in the roof he was on and leapt off, sliding down a traffic light that only tipped over when he let go of it, “this wouldn’t even be hard. It’d probably be fun.”

Hunter made a quick run past another building, trying to circle whatever it was that kept shooting at him, and then slid to a stop in the middle of an intersection. His mystery attacker had doubled back on him and was now standing in the road a mere twenty feet away or so, and he really wished it had stayed a mystery.

He had a brief moment to look at it and in a way immediately regretted it. At first glance, it looked just like one of the four-winged chickens he’d seen when he was a kid, light brown, feathery, kind of fat like every other chicken, with scrawny, scaly legs. Except this one was at least twice his height, and instead of a head, it had a gaping hole with hundreds of those burning blue ribbons crawling out of it, waving and crackling each time one struck another. The worst part wasn’t that it was a giant bird with what looked like magical parasites wiggling around in its neckhole, the worst part was that he saw the nameplate in his Infra.

[Infected Artillery Essence Beast - Level 153]

The beast leaned forward, braced itself on two of its wings, and its body seemed to swell even further, from ordinary chicken-fat to grotesquely obese, but by the time its orifice flashed and it shot another explosion, Hunter had already heaved himself through a broken window and was well out of the way.

“Ok, so, here’s the plan, buddy,” he continued to whisper under his breath as he found a stairwell and ran up it, “This thing’s been shooting at us for like twenty minutes, which means if I touch it, it dies. Except I don’t think I’ll be able to land a regular hit it on it. Need to counterattack.” He dove to the ground as another burst went off outside the building, the sound so loud and so deep it felt like it made his bones rattle. He crawled toward another broken window slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible.

“Opportunist says I can deliver a touch attack after I dodge. Witch’s Gambit says you can do all my touch attacks. Do they combo? I mean, can I dodge and then you touch for free? That’d pop Oncoming Storm and paste it.”

“boom,” said Trips, even more quiet than usual.

“Yeah, boom,” he mumbled. “Except, I’m not sure we can risk it. I was probably only dodging that thing so cleanly because we had cover, so if it doesn’t combo, you’re stuck close to a fully broken through ascendant and I’m too far away to help.”

“ouch.”

“That’ll be plan B then. You stay here, watch me. If I start running away, you see if you can’t get a poke in,” Hunter grit his teeth, pulled his duffel off, then the sleeping bag, waited for a lull in between the probing explosions, and then tossed the bag out a nearby window. He saw the flash from outside, and then he leapt.

Out of the corner of his vision on one side he could see the spinning focus, keeping pace with his two-story descent, and on the other he could see what happened when one of the beast’s airbursts actually hit something. The sleeping roll was first ripped outward in every direction as the initial attack centered on it, then when the waggling worm-things sprung from that point in space, bright blue and angry, then each grabbed a piece and ignited it. By the time Hunter had hit the telephone pole he was aiming for, slid down it, and then rolled to barely a few feet away from the giant, angry, headless chicken, the last pieces of his brand new tent thingy were just dissolving to ash.

He faced the beast, feeling his affinity thrumming with all three spells running for that little extra edge, spinning the rod lazily as he moved through his forms. As it turned to face him, he was already approaching, his steps much more confident than he felt, forcing his eyes to watch the disgusting, gaping hole at the top instead of the thing’s body.

Then it ducked low, fast but not as fast as Hunter, and one just one? of the shimmering blue worms, looking less like a hazy heat ribbon and more like an extradimensional parasite from this close up, swung at him. The jumping, flickering nature of his affinity pulled to the right, the shifting waves he felt in his channels swung that way as well, and so he stepped closer, twisting his body slightly and sensing more than seeing as the attack swept just to his left. The waves went out, and then rushed back in to the left just as quickly, and he let them pull him, deftly and lightly flicking the end of his heavy staff into the monster’s bulky middle before the worm had even hit the pavement next to him.

He’d fought Breaker for long enough periods that Oncoming Storm started to build up, where each of his touches first hurt a little, then gradually more. They’d never gone the full forty minutes and change in one bout that it would have taken to test what the instant defeat clause of the talent actually did, though. Before he got his focus and trained his meditation this much, Hunter couldn’t really hope to last that long in the intense spars Breaker gave him.

So it came as some surprise when his blow landed, feeling like nothing more than he tapped a huge, fluffy chicken with a stick, not something he’d ever actually done, but it fit. The chicken itself, however, erupted. It flew like literally flew across the street, slamming into the building opposite the one Hunter had exited, in two giant, splattering pieces. Everything above where his staff struck hit the third floor, and everything below collided with the first, leaving a huge, disgusting smear on the building in between the two impacts.

Hunter just stared for a moment, letting out a weak chuckle, still holding the channeling rod out as he watched the pieces of the essence beast begin to dissolve. He leaned on his staff, pretended he didn’t feel a pressing need to throw up, and cleared the page of notifications he had flashing before he ran back upstairs.

“Hey, Trips,” he shouted, “did you see that? That moron could shoot at us from half a city away and it tried to slap me? What the flip, right?”

He grabbed his duffel once more, then his robot leapt onto his shoulder and said, “late.”

“I know, that took too long. We can still make it by this evening.”

When they left the building, the beast had faded away to nothing more than two large piles of bones, nothing like any chicken skeleton Hunter had ever seen why is everything so weird. They jogged around the silver tower of flame, the former entrance to a broken Source, an anomaly that somehow stayed around instead of fading like the rest, and took off toward home.

The sun was still a fair bit above the horizon when Hunter caught sight of the huge walls around his birthplace, but it was summer and that meant he was still later than he’d have liked. He waved to the gate guards when he reached Willard and wandered in, finally slowing his pace to a relaxing walk.

When he neared the street that would take him home, he saw Miracle’s dad talking to a Pol, someone he didn’t recognize from behind, but definitely a member. She was wearing their usual uniform, the snug, dark gray pants with all the pockets up and down the side that his mother insisted he never ever wear a pair of, the stiff bronze breastplate over a shirt in the same color as the pants, and their signature red scarf was looped around her waist like a belt. He was tired, and not thinking as clearly as he would have liked, and could only wonder if Gary had gotten transferred out while he was gone. That would have been a bummer, because Hunter kind of liked Officer Gary, he was a good guy for a Pol.

Then she turned, and Hunter’s first embarrassing thought was that she was beautiful oh, with huge brown eyes, warm brown skin, shiny, wavy hair in a ponytail, and an upturned nose that reminded him of nuts-

“Ellie!” he exclaimed, and pulled his childhood friend into a hug hopefully before she could notice the hot blush on his cheeks. “It’s been like, for real, forever. Hey, Mr. Guillen.”

“Hey, Red,” she said softly as she held onto the hug, “you made it.”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” he mumbled as he pulled away, rubbing at the back of his head. “Wouldn’t feel right about it.”

“You,” she said, teeth at one corner of her mouth showing as she grinned, “need a shower. Did you run all day with that hoodie on?”

“Oh, umm,” he chuckled a little, blushing again, “yeah? It’s ventilated, but yeah. Whoops?”

“Come on, then,” she said as she took his free hand and tugged, “I haven’t gotten a chance to see your folks yet either. Oh, and, hey, I like your hair, Red. Oh! And your little buddy.”

“Oh, right,” he said, glancing down at the robot peeking out of his satchel as they walked. “This is Trips, it’s cool. Gave me the haircut, actually.”

“heya,” the bot said as it waved one limb.

“It says hey.”

“Figured that one out, Red,” giggled Ellie, bumping him with her hip as they walked. “So, you’ve been in the big city, huh. How was that?”

Hunter had to think about that for a moment, because he honestly didn’t know know what to say right away and what’s that mean, and then they arrived at his front door before he had a chance to answer. His family came out, hugged the two teenagers in every possible combination of mother, father, little brother, and then quickly ushered them inside.

“So, kids,” his dad said, after giving his mother a look oh no, “we’ll have plenty of time with Hunter tomorrow, but you’re heading out in the morning, right Ellie?”

“Right, Mr. Schmidt. They’ve got everything scheduled so tight, it makes me crazy,” she nodded.

“We’re going to get out of your way, then,” his mom said with one of those smiles that usually accompanied one of his parents’ private jokes. “There’s a bed all made up in the attic, if you haven’t squared away a place to sleep, dear, and you know that you’re always invited to breakfast if you can spare the time in the morning. Hunter can show you up after he puts his things away.”

“And you stink!” shouted Jack, pointing at Hunter of course.

“I know! Stick it!” he replied, as he went up the stairs with Ellie now it feels like home.

“So, tell me all about the city?” Ellie asked later, as they sat on the edge of the roof, both with all the travel grime scrubbed off, both changed into shorts and tees for the night.

“It was, umm, it was fine,” Hunter mumbled, looking down.

“Hey,” she said, and punched him lightly on the shoulder. “Don’t be like that, it’s me.”

“It was, you know,” he trailed off as he looked for the word, “lonely. But I was lonely in Willard too, for a while.”

“I missed you, you guys,” she murmured, leaning against him, “so much.”

“Missed you too, Ellie,” he sighed. “It’s like, everything made sense here, for a little while, and then it didn’t anymore. And now I’m like, chasing this feeling of things actually being alright that I barely remember.”

“I’m chasing something that it turns out isn’t even real,” she replied. “You know how my mom’s like, cool sometimes? And my dad’s like, ugh, stuck up and kind of a jerk?”

“Ok, yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t say it to his face, but sure.”

“I joined System Polity, ugh, SysPol, to be like my mom. Cool, with a sword, fixing people’s problems.”

“I know,” he nodded.

“Turns out, they’re all just like my dad,” she said and let out a noise that Hunter could only classify as a harrumph and then dropped her head onto his shoulder. “There’s all these rules, like don’t call it SysPol, and eat these foods at these times, and don’t have any fun, like, at all, ever.”

“Oof,” he said, staring off into the distance. “But, you know, what about your mom?”

“She’s an exception. They tolerate her, because she’s been a Pol so long. They told me straight out to not even think about trying any of the stuff she did, I’d be mopping floors until I was fifty.”

Hunter had absolutely no idea what to say oof was about it, but Ellie started quietly sobbing, so he put his arm around her shoulders and just held her until she stopped rocking.

“I can’t even quit,” she said, still sniffling, “because then I’ll disappoint her. But like, she knew it’d be like this, and didn’t even tell me.”

“I don’t think my parents want me to be an adventurer type,” he said. “The whole thing scares my dad I’m pretty sure, and my mom, well. She made a choice, a long time ago, and she’s sticking with it. So like, they don’t think it’s a good idea, but they’re going to let me figure out if it is or not on my own. Maybe that’s what your mom did, is doing? I know she sure didn’t raise you to be Officer Ellie, the girl with a buzzcut and no sense of humor.”

Ellie giggled for a little while at that, quietly at first, then snorted and giggled a whole lot louder, and after, they just sat for a while.

“So,” she murmured, her head still on his shoulder as she poked him in the chest, “what’s this about you being a big adventurer, anyway? You’re still level one. I’ve spent the last six months getting yelled at and confined to barracks for most of my levelling training, and I still made it to fourteen.”

“I made a friend in Kansas City,” he smiled a little, “and he said I’m on a gap year. I kinda like it. A little vacation between being a kid and getting told what to do all the time, and being an adult with responsibilities.”

“You can just do that?”

“I mean, I guess? I’m sort of an adult. I paid for all my food and stuff while I was in the city, and I probably coulda paid rent but they wouldn’t let me.”

“Red, wait,” she said, and sat up a little, still pressed comfortably against him, “you totally can do that. You can do, like, anything you want.”

“Well, umm?”

“For serious, Red. Like, what are you doing next week?”

“Dunno? Got a couple things I wanted to practice, maybe get my mom to help with them. Not much else planned.”

“That is so cool,” she breathed. “I’ve got tons to do, and I don’t even understand why.”

“It is pretty cool, I guess. Thanks for not thinking I’m a slacker or something.”

“Never,” she mumbled against his shoulder, holding back a yawn. “Hey, Red. Make me a promise?”

“Anything, Ellie.”

“Promise you’ll come visit me, up in Rapid City? They’ve usually got my messages blocked for insubordination, so I can’t chat a whole lot.”

“Promise,” he said, “and that’s an awful cool name for a town.”

Ellie giggled at that too, nodding, and then yawned again. Hunter was tired himself, but they stayed on the roof, leaning against each other, until well into the night.

They had a nice breakfast together in the morning, with Hunter telling fun stories about Ernie, Kiki, and Ajit, Ellie telling slightly less fun stories about training, and Jacky telling a story about a bug he followed around for a day, and then it was time for Ellie to leave. Hunter walked her the short distance to the north gate, where they hugged and she made him promise again to come visit.

“And,” she said with the same crooked, teasing grin as ever, “if it’s really bad up there, you’ll just have to kidnap me.”

“I was already making plans,” he grinned back.

After she had gone, Hunter wandered aimlessly through the little town, not quite feeling up to going back home after some of the looks his parents had been passing each other at breakfast. It seemed like there’d be a talk about Ellie in particular, or a repeat of the one on boys and girls and everything outside and in between, and Hunter was just not in the mood. He bought a tea at the bakery and sat at one of the tables outside before pulling up his Infra.

You have defeated [Infested Artillery Essence Beast]! This has been reviewed and rated as honorable combat. You have received essence for a greater combat feat.

WARNING: your raw essence gain has been artificially restricted by [Debt-Bonder X-09], an Infratech device.

You have been credited one (1) [Fount Shard], three (3) extra large, and two (2) large essence crystals into your currency account.

You have earned five (5) achievements!

You have raised Stealth to one hundred (100).

You have one (1) talent available from maxing your stealth skill.

You have two (2) free talents available from achievements.

[Oncoming Storm] has upgrades available.

Hunter blinked, took a quick look at his currency screen, and whispered to himself, “Wow, guess that paid for the sleeping bag.”

[Not Recommended I] You have defeated an opponent in the tier above yours. +damage to higher level foes [Not Recommended II] You have defeated an opponent in the tier above yours in solo combat. +ten percent (10%) to mitigation scores while fighting higher level foes [Not Recommended III] You have defeated an opponent in the tier above yours without taking damage. +essence gain from defeating higher level foes [Skilled IV] You have maxed eight (8) skills. +one (1) free talent [Quick Learner V] You have maxed eight (8) skills before level twenty-five. +one (1) free talent

“Don’t do this,” he mumbled, “but here’s some bonuses to do it again. Weird.”

You have one (1) talent available from maxing your stealth skill. [Sneak Attack] You hide in the shadows and attack when the moment is right. +damage on unaware opponents [Light-footed] You only make noise when you want to. complete negation (-100%) of all movement sound short of full speed (<90%) [Shadow Dweller] When you hide, you hide well. much greater (+50%) stealth efficacy in low lighting conditions

None of those were really great for him, Hunter decided, but he took Light-footed because it seemed to fit his whole Zen Runner-Kinesthesia skillset more than being an actual sneak. Then he had free talents to worry about again.

“So, if I use both to take either dodge or parry talents, the next one I get can be the Master level of whichever I choose. That’s, umm, pretty good. Too bad it won’t show what they do yet,” he said, then decided he was a dodge first kind of guy and filtered for the best of those, according to his amended conditions, including those that needed prerequisites. He scrolled up and down the list for a while before he chose, not entirely sure about his selections, but excited about them anyway.

[Effortless Dodge] Unlocked (Breath Training taken). You hardly seem to move, and you are already gone. reduce vigor cost for dodging by an additional fifty percent (50%), multiplicative [Move like Water] Unlocked (Water Affinity). Your body is roughly seventy percent water, but it flows like one hundred. +ten percent (10%) of infusion to dodge, while water-aligned infusion spells are active (synergy)

Hunter got up and stretched, then went inside to order another tea before he opened the last notification, muttering as he sat back down, “I wonder if I can make Trips do the next batch of paperwork.”

You have completed the first of the (hidden) conditions for [Oncoming Storm] and it has upgrades available. Please pick from the following branches. [Oncoming Storm A] [Oncoming Storm B] +damage inflicted/received increased to +moderate damage double (2x) modifier for avoiding damage increased to triple (3x)

“So, that one’s a Mom question, definitely. Too bad I’m avoiding conversation with her,” he muttered, and drank his tea, and then another, enjoying a lazy morning after two days of running and little sleep.

He picked up Jack after school, waved off his mother’s attempt to talk with a “we’re gonna be late,” and then spent the afternoon and evening using Water Burst to destroy rocks, branches, and whatever else his little brother could find. He even treated Jacky to a meal from his magic lunchbox he’d bought, the food from his favorite Arax restaurants in the city still steaming as he summoned it out, and they ate by the riverside until it was time for the little guy to go to bed.

The next morning, though, his mother was waiting bright and early for exercises, with a look on her face that promised an unpleasant time. Hunter didn’t even consider skipping them, though, because he both needed some help with his affinity, and because he knew that was something you just didn’t do, not if you wanted to be Devil Hallahan, or Little Devil Hallahan.

“Don’t you think,” she started with, just as she had him by the elbows, helping him balance while he was bent at the middle to the left in look around the tree, while his cycling spells tried to push him in the opposite direction, “that Ellie has grown into such a lovely young woman?”

“Mom!” he replied, and he hated that he blushed immediately, then quickly clamped down on it, still in his combat trance. She kept a steady gaze on him mom look way worse than dad look while he found his footing again after that momentary distraction, and he broke, murmuring, “Yes, ok. She’s very, umm, pretty.”

“You two,” she continued, while she pressed the outside of one leg against the outside of his, making his balance even more of an act of sheer will, “stayed up rather late the other night, didn’t you. I must have been very asleep, because I barely noticed when you climbed down from the attic, at two thirty-three in the morning.”

“Seriously, Mom,” at this point, he was pretty sure only his Kinesthesia talent was keeping him from tipping over, and every thrum of Rising Storm was urging him to snap back in the opposite direction, but he stayed crooked at the waist as far as he could manage. “I am going to move to Alaska, immediately. That’s really far away, right?”

“Are you telling me,” his mother said with a little gasp of laughter, releasing his elbows just enough that he fell into a heap, laughing himself, “that you don’t know where Alaska is, bump?”

“We can talk all about the remedial geography you want me to do this year, as long as we’re not talking about, umm, the other thing,” he said from the ground.

“I get it,” she said softly and sat with him, ruffling his freshly-cut mohawk. “You’re young, and you’re having confusing feelings-”

“Mom! I honestly can’t tell if you’re messing with me or not now.”

“Half and half?” she replied with her head tilted. “It’s just good to remind you not do anything you’re going to regret. I know she’s very important to you, and not just in that brand new way.”

“We already did this, remember? I was thirteen? Dad said I was a grump because of hormones?”

“I know, but this is different, bump. That was about,” she paused oh man to find the right word this is gonna be bad, “you growing up physically. This is about you growing up emotionally, which is just as difficult and inevitable.”

“Can I stop you, or at least jump to the end, please? Ellie is like, the best, ok? And I saw her for the first time in years and I thought ‘wow that girl is pretty’ before I could realize ‘wow that girl is Ellie,’ and I’m already messed up about that. She’s a real person, and she’s one of the best real people I know, like right at the top. And, umm, you know. I’m a little bit of a mess, and I have this uncertain future thing looming over my head. Sure, she’s really great, and I went momentarily stupid when I saw her, but that sort of thing’s gonna happen from time to time. I’m not going to do anything dumb that cuts her out of my life, ok. I’m just not, I can’t do that to her, or to myself. And, I mean, it was one night after I hadn’t seen her for three years. Come on.”

“Oh, bump,” his mom said great, as she pulled him into a hug I made her sad, “you’re such a wonderful kid sometimes, you really are, but that sort of thinking cuts both ways. I know, these days, that you’re technically an adult, but you’re always going to be my baby bump. That’s what I worry about, and why.”

“I don’t get it?”

“I know you don’t, sweetie,” his mom said with a soft, sad smile, then pulled them both to their feet. “I’m going to make you pancakes, and we’ll put a pin in this conversation for now.”

“But I still don’t get it.”

“You’re forcing yourself to make the responsible decision,” his mother said as she led him back into the house, “that you won’t let any feelings you may have,” she paused at the look on his face, “or not have get in the way of your friendship, or your future. That’s hard to do, and very adult, bump. But you could have just as easily said and meant you won’t allow your future or your friendship to interfere in any feelings the two of you develop in the future.”

“Umm, no offense, but that sounds kinda dumb, Mom.”

“Oh, does it?” she chuckled. “If Ellie messaged you a few days, or weeks, or further down the line, and told you she was done with the Order, asked you to come run away with her and make it on your own, how would that feel?”

“Umm,” he thought about that while his mother made breakfast, “oh flip.”