After many hours, Rhen had dug out most of the foundation for the inn. It would be six rooms to start: the kitchen with a small basement pantry—which still needed to be dug—the entertainment room, and three bedrooms. Though Aki didn’t sleep, Rhen felt it would be nice for him to have someplace to put his things.

Rhen stood up straight, his spine creaking as he did. “I shouldn’t feel this old yet,” he complained as he rubbed his lower back.

“How old are you, anyway?” Jakira asked.

Damnit, she must’ve heard that fluffer Welsh talking about it. Who could blame her for being curious, but… Rhen couldn’t tell her the truth. He couldn’t tell her a lie, either, for if she said anything at all to Welsh or his goons, he’d know he could act on his suspicions.

“Not old enough for my bones to sound like a rusty door, that’s for sure.”

“Oh, avoiding the question?”

A flicker of fear shot through him. “No, it’s just, not important.”

Jakira hummed, carrying the dirt-filled buckets to the boat-cart. “Maybe you’re just not as young as you think you are.”

Rhen rolled his eyes, feigning calm annoyance. “I’m old enough, but not so old.”

“Well, you have the personality of a twelve-year-old.”

“Just because I have fun doesn’t mean I’m immature. What do you call this?” he said, gesturing at the inn foundation. “That, right there, is maturity.”

“No, it’s capability. You’re a very capable twelve-year-old trapped in a fifty-year-old’s body.”

Rhen laughed. “That sounds about right.”

“C’mon. Tell me or I’ll find out for myself.” Jakira reached for his jerkin.

“Don’t.” Rhen snarled and jumped back, hand pressed against his side.

Jakira’s smile melted. “Whoa, I was just messing around.”

Rhen pulled down on his jerkin, securing it. “Yeah, who’s twelve-years-old now?”

“Both of us, I suppose.” She scooped more dirt into the buckets and carried them to the boat.

They cleared the dirt in silence for a few minutes. Rhen’s reaction played over and over in his mind. Her sad expression, how he snapped, and now the distrust that was now growing between them. But he couldn’t tell her… the truth could undo him, and the lie on his id syntial wasn’t as believable as he wished it were, even with the excuses he could craft.

He didn’t know Jakira and what she could be capable of for money. Aki, too, who was dying to get on with his pilgrimage. Or perhaps he was being too arrogant. What were the chances the delver’s school was still looking for him after all these years? They had to have assumed little Maddox died by now.

“Are you okay?” Jakira asked, timidly.

“If you’re truly my friend, you won’t press this.”

She nodded. “I won’t. Just know that you can share anything with me, when you’re ready.”

Aki emerged from between the trees with all-too-conspicuous timing, though he didn’t comment on the exchange. His watery body was bulging at the center with a variety of berries he’d collected.

“Have you seen these before, Jakira?” Aki held out a few of the variations.

Jakira looked at the berries by the firelight. “Poisonous… poisonous… Oh, I’m pretty sure these are Kelimynew.” She held up the green pod with gold flecks, scowling at it. “How many of these did you find?”

“Only a single plant. I collected twenty of the fruits.”

“They any good?” Rhen plucked one of the berries from Aki’s arm and tossed up, mouth open.

“No!” Jakira snatched the berry out of the air. “Just because I didn’t say poisonous, doesn’t mean you should eat it! Kelimynew is the unprocessed plant for Goddess Fruit.”

“I do not understand. What is the danger?”

“It’s for divination rituals, communicating with other realms, spirit seeking—”

Rhen scoffed. “And for Desedra goons that want to cut loose. It’s drugs, Aki.”

“Drugs? I do not know this word.”

“It’s only drugs when misused, Rhen.”

“Will they not be profitable if they are used in important rituals?”

Rhen sighed. “Yes, but we can’t guarantee that’s all they’ll be used for. I’ve seen what too much of this stuff will do to your head, and profit or not… I don’t want to be part of that.”

Aki collected all the Kelimynew in his hands. “Then we will not grow it.”

He tossed the berries into the fire.

“No, no, no!!” Jakira dove for his hands, splashing into them and catching only a few of the pods.

The berries landed in the fire with a sound like popping corn, and the flames turned green. Golden smoke lifted from the pit and surged toward them. Jakira ran, mouth and nose covered. Rhen stepped back too, covering his face. She coughed a few time, and Rhen’s throat was tickling too.

After a few seconds, the green flames burned off.

Rhen’s head swelled, feeling too heavy for his neck. “Great. Just great, Aki.”

“What have I done?”

“You gassed us.” Jakira’s horns were growing and wiggling like Father’s Fennel plants.

“I’m going to tent.” Rhen said, stumbling toward his white canvass triangle.

He tripped on a fish and splashed into the dirt. He rolled over, eyes finding the sky between happy trees, waving their farewell. He accelerated into and then past the clouds, the light of stars whipping past his vision so fast his stomach turned. He slammed to a halt beside a green cloud full of glowing light. His body was weightless in the black, and he couldn’t catch his breath.

Aki swam past the nebula. “Are you unwell?”

“I’m in the heavens.”

His body careened sideways, colors blurring past his face. Nausea rippled through him and Rhen rolled to his side to vomit. Purple smoke filled the starlit sky until Rhen was emptied. The cloud of purple collapsed in on itself, exploding in brilliant light. Rhen tried to shield his eyes, but his arms were gone, his body—gone. He had turned into stardust.

The light dimmed, revealing a massive star, encircled by twelve, shimmering planets. Anima roots snaked through the system, connecting the planets to their star, and the star straight up into… Rhen.

He fell backwards, arms pinwheeling as he screamed. Hundreds of years and a second later, he landed back in the dirt beside the low embers of the fire. Rhen clutched at his thundering chest. What in the absolute fluff had just happened?

A purple strand of light so fine it looked like a hair wiggled between Rhen’s fingers and shot off toward the dungeon.

The trees waved hello, and the wind whispered, “Come find me.”

Rhen grabbed a coil of rope and stumbled toward the dungeon, following the thin purple light coming from his chest. He slipped down the ladder and turned to the cave. It glowed with otherworldly purple like his heartstring, inviting him in. He staggered down the hall, his hands gripping the strand coming from inside him like a wayfinder string.

“Down here,” the dungeon wind said.

Rhen dropped to his knees. Water wet his pants and flowed into the gaping hole that glowed with the light of a new star. Rhen leaned over the edge and shielded his eyes. The cavern opened below to a massive lake, filled with all manner of monster. Deep within the lake was a node…

“Nexus node,” Rhen whispered.

“Yes.”

“How do I get you?”

“Give of your anima and open the way. Connect the roots. Grow the Tree of Being. Save Life. The alignment will fade in twelve cycles, and this chance will be lost.”

“Twelve cycles? Roots?”

Water swirled up around Rhen, cocooning him. The water cocoon jerked him away from the hole, from his node.

“No,” Rhen mumbled, reaching for the crystal as the purple light faded from his chest.

“What are you doing? Trying to die?” Aki asked, his skin flaring bright orange.

Rhen’s senses returned to him like popping the air from his ears. Suddenly, he realized just how completely stupid he had behaved.

“It’s the Goddess Fruit. It makes you do stupid things.”

“Yes, I realize now. Jakira has not once, but three times attempted to jump out of the trees and fly! I cannot climb and my vertical water control is limited! I have been chasing her all over the forest.”

“Where is she now?” Rhen asked.

“I have tied her up in her tent.” Aki set Rhen down, leaving him soggy and cold.

“I suppose that’s the best thing for her until she’s better.” Rhen’s stomach growled, mad with hunger.

“Oh, yes. And I have spent several trips to the river cleaning your vomit.”

Rhen chuckled weakly. “That’s your punishment for drugging us.”

“I did not realize… I did not understand what a drug was.”

“Now you do. Let’s go get some more fish. Jakira will be hungry, too.”

Aki turned away for the dungeon entrance, his fins fluttering madly.

“Here.”

Rhen spun around, eyes affixed on the hole in the ground. It must’ve been a trick of Aki’s receding light, but Rhen could’ve sworn he saw a purple glimmer wink out down in that hole. He shook his head and followed Aki. What the heck had that Goddess Fruit done to his brain?

When they emerged, Rhen could see the first light of dawn on the horizon. Had he really been blacked out for so long?

“Not funny, guys!” Jakira cried from her tent.

Rhen jogged across the grass and stopped at the opening to her tent. “Can I, uh, come in?”

“Yes, get in here and untie me!”

Rhen pulled back the opening and ducked down into her tent. Poor Jakira lay on her side, flopping like a fish out of water. Aki had hog-tied her, and the wet rope had expanded as it got warmer, making the knots tight.

“Are you sure you’re not still high?”

“I’m very, very, aware of myself and my present situation,” she said through gritted teeth. “I’m also very aware of the Prelusk right outside who’s ass is getting kicked as soon as these ropes are off!”

The glow from Aki’s body dimmed as he walked away from the tent. Rhen struggled with the tight ropes, but they didn’t budge. Finally, he pulled his crescent blade from its holster at his hip. He didn’t want to waste the rope, but didn’t want to leave her tied up another moment.

With delicate care, he cut the rope from her wrist, and untangled the rest from there. Jakira rubbed her wrists, her face flush with gold flecks. She eyed the tent exit, her teeth gritted.

“You were jumping out of trees trying to kill yourself.”

Jakira glared at him. “And would I have been if Aki hadn’t thrown the Kelimynew in the fire?”

“No, but he didn’t know. I said I didn’t want anything to do with them, so he… disposed of them.”

Jakira growled, her frustration having no target. “Fine. You’re right. It was an innocent mistake that almost cost me my life, or limb, and you”—she sniffed—“Blech! what happened to you?”

“I threw up on myself… probably a lot.”

“Smelly delver, as usual,” she said, the anger fading from her voice. “Ugh, I have to get away from you.”

She flipped open the tent opening and breathed deep the fresh air.

The wind blew past their camp and Rhen felt something stir inside him. A memory of something just outside his reach. Purple strings, crystals, huge monsters. What was it?

“Did you have a dream?” Rhen asked.

Jakira scowled, eyes closed. “I think so. It’s so hard to remember after waking up thinking I’d been abducted.” Her eyes snapped open, fiery gaze pinned on Aki.

“I am sorry.”

Jakira laid into him, but Rhen couldn’t focus on what she said. The wind blew away her words and replaced them with a deep pulsing, like a beating heart. Purple light glowed from the dungeon opening.

“Time is running out. Twelve cycles.”

Images flashed through Rhen’s mind: an exploding star, planets rich with life, strings connecting him to the dungeon, monsters swimming, biting, shocking. Rhen’s stomach dropped as he realized what it all meant, remembering his trip to the sky.

“There’s a nexus node down that drain.”

Jakira stopped mid-rant. “What?”

“The hole in the ground in the dungeon that was too dark and deep to see down, I think there’s a nexus node there, but not for long. There’s an alignment, the strings, roots, whatever they were coming out of my chest…” Rhen pressed a hand to his sternum.

“Are you sure you are well?” Aki asked.

Rhen grinned from ear to ear. “Absolutely. Come on!” He gathered up the cut rope and dashed toward the dungeon.

Jakira gasped. “Rhen, did you divine something?”

“I think so. Goddess Fruit might not be so bad after all… if it proves right.”