Rhen dozed in and out, the train home rocking him to sleep after a night of hard work. He clutched the inflammatory leaflet he’d gotten from the Delver’s Guild on the Zephitz dungeon.

“Young. Inexperienced. Foolhardy. Don’t delve with Zephitz,” read the title of the pamphlet. Welsh must’ve spent at least a two hundred marks getting this pushed to the front page of the delver’s digest.

Of course, Rhen had gone to the D.O.G. and the Delver’s guild to do just the same, to find what he needed to put Welsh in his place: off Rhen’s back. He’d found just that in the tax archives, as he knew he would.

The Welsh cluster was dry, save for one dungeon going on its fifth level. He paid lower and lower wages each year, approved by the delver’s guild only because of a signed petition from the delvers themselves requesting to allow it. Welsh had used the “small town spirit” against them.

He must’ve tricked the delvers into signing it somehow, or maybe they hadn’t signed it? Either way, he was bringing that proof back to Yu, and posting it on every quest board he could find. Rhen hadn’t wanted to stoke the flames of Welsh’s anger, push him to dig any deeper into Rhen’s past, but he wasn’t going to roll over and let the nexus node slip through his fingers.

The Yu delvers were good people, from what he’d seen so far, if not a bit underpowered. If he could get at least half of them out of the Welsh cluster and into his dungeon, he’d have what he needed to take down gigafish.

The train bumped hard and Jakira startled awake. Her eyes were red and the skin around them puffy. She squinted, groaned, and covered her face with her arm.

“Too much beer?” Rhen asked.

“Uh-huh.”

“Why’d you keep drinking it if you knew you’d feel like this?”

“I’ve never had it before.” She groaned and resituated the pack behind her head.

“Any alcohol?”

“Nuh-uh.”

“I find that hard to believe given your line of work.”

She pulled her arm away from her face, glaring at Rhen. “Are you calling me a liar?”

“No, just, you were surrounded by it for years. Never got curious?”

“Never could. Leery watched all us maids like a hawk; she portioned our food and drink so we wouldn’t get too fat and made sure we were presentable every day before dawn.”

Rhen was stunned. He never imagined that an inn maid would be under such strict control. “So… why did you decide to try it last night?”

“Because I wanted to have a good time.” Jakira sighed, apparently annoyed with him.

“Okay.” Rhen sat back and looked out the window.

He thought of Jakira looking down at a small plate of food, hardly enough to fill her howling stomach after a hard day of tending to the inn. It made him angry.

Jakira growled. “We’ve been working so hard, and you’re stressed out! I’ve seen the people who drink beer being all smiles and laughs, having the best times of their lives. I just wanted that for us for a night.”

Rhen leaned forward and scooped her hands up into his. “Thank you, Jak.”

The creases in her forehead smoothed, and her eyes glossed with tears. “You’re welcome.”

“I want to have fun too, but now isn’t the time. We have a nexus node to unlock, and twenty-seven days to do it.”

She sniffled, nodding. “I know.”

“We can’t get experienced delvers with specific power sets, so we’re going to need more people.” He placed one of his hastily drafted up leaflets in Jakira’s hand.

Her brow furrowed as she read. “The Welsh Cluster is Dry, but your wages don’t have to be. Rhen, is this slander against Welsh? Isn’t this dangerous?”

“It’s not slander, it’s all true. Look,” he said, pointing to the body of text that explained the decreased tax dues year over year for the last five years.

“What’s this about a Desedra deal?” Jakira pointed to the juicy bit in the middle.

“Wyland told me that Welsh was working on a merge deal with Desedra for the other four dungeons because they were too big and profitable, that he needed more professional delvers there. I found no such records of any deals in the D.O.G. archives, so it’s obviously false.

“That combined with the tax information, it’s obvious he’s about to dry up. He’s setting himself up for retirement, working the people of Yu to the bone while he makes land purchases in Shin’Bara.”

Jakira scowled and set the paper aside.

“What? This’ll get at least half his delvers to defect and work for us. Half is all we need.”

“What about your secret?”

“What do you mean?”

Jakira raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. “How you’ve vehemently guarded your age, no one sees you shirtless—ever, and how you wouldn’t answer me when I asked about your emancipation.”

The breath caught in Rhen’s chest.

“Rhen, I would never do anything to compromise your freedom, no matter how you got that id, but I have to know… did you kill him?”

Rhen sighed, the fear binding his chest releasing him.

The jig was up.

“No. I loved him like my father.”

Realization donned on her. “Your sponsor.”

Rhen nodded. “His illness was uncontrollable and… it came back, even after resurrections. It was as if the universe were telling him his time was up, at just twenty-nine years old. That was eleven years ago.”

“And you’ve been pretending to be him all this time, Rhen.”

“I had to visit the same dungeons he had, get the same syntials and learn his fighting method. It was a long journey and a lot of sneaking around. I sent a small payment and a letter of apology to the training school stating that I, that Maddox, had died. They didn’t believe me and demanded full restitution of my debts, five thousand marks, and a loss of expertise fee of ten thousand marks.

“Seems I was worth more to them dead, but after a few years of running, they gave up. It wasn’t worth their time to try and hunt me—Rhen—down, so the Delver’s guild put a mark on his record and we all moved on.”

“But if the delver school ever discovers you, Maddox, are still alive and it’s Rhen that’s dead…”

“My five thousand marks of debt’s been accruing interest for eleven years. They would take everything from me, oh, and not to mention there are serious fines that come with impersonating another delver. The D.O.G. would have a riot with me, fine me into oblivion. I’d be working Desedra for the rest of my miserable life, all my wages garnished.”

The trains tooted their arrival at Yu and the speed decreased.

Jakira snapped her fingers. “If you found a new realm, no one would be able to touch you no matter the crime.”

“That’s the hope. I’ll be rich enough to pay off whatever debts mar my record… Rhen’s record.”

“You wouldn’t want to be Maddox again?”

Rhen watched the village pull into view. “He’s dead.”

“But you aren’t!”

“He never even lived! I was Maddox for thirteen years—a name assigned to me by the school. I fought, trained, delved, and died for them as Maddox the slave. Rhen is who I really am. Never call me anything else, please.”

She took her dagger to one of her horns and cut into it.

“What are you doing?” Rhen grabbed her hand.

“Making the most binding promise I can.” She cut away a sliver of her horn, wincing as tears filled her eyes and blood trickled down her forehead. She handed the piece to Rhen. “I promise I’ll never betray you, Rhen.”

Rhen looked at the other crack in her horn with new eyes. “You’ve made a promise like this before. Is it a Cadrian thing?”

She chuckled. “Yeah, it’s a Cadrian thing.”

Rhen remembered the Cadrian guard, hornless… what had she promised?

He dismissed her from his mind. That Desedra lifer was of no importance when Jakira sat here right in front of him, bleeding. He opened his bag and ripped off the bottom of the button-down shirt he’d planned to salvage. This was a better use for it, anyway. He stood and tied the cloth around her wounded horn, then handed her the rest to wipe the blood away.

She looked up at him, eyes wide and sparkling. “Thanks.”

He smiled. “It’s no problem.”

The train hissed to a stop, jostling Rhen back into his chair.

Jakira cleared her throat. “So, what are we going to do?”

“We’re going to spread these pages all over Yu and steal Welsh’s delvers. I’ll suffer whatever consequences come of it after we’ve unlocked that nexus node.”

“And if they come sooner?”

He held up the chunk of her horn. “We’ll figure it out together now, right?”

“We would’ve figured it out together sooner if you’d just let us in.”

Rhen imagined Aki on the outside of the secret now, unaware and unable to help.

He handed half of the letters to Jakira. “Let’s get these distributed quick, then get home.”

Jakira went to the market side of town while Rhen went to the crafter side, starting with Wyland.

“I knew it! I tried to tell’em!” Wyland’s bushy brow nearly climbed off his face. “That damn Welsh, he ruined my business when it was all true after all!”

“What happened?”

“He called me an incompetent, irresponsible, blight of the Yu community. He commissioned an order from me for somethin’ well outside his delvers’ anima capacity. He used it anyway, killin’ a girl and seriously wounding her father.” He removed his hat, grimacing.

“Killed, like kill killed?”

Wyland blew a raspberry. “No, Welsh resurrected her, of course! He didn’t want his reputation tarnished, just mine.”

“What was it? The thing you made for him?”

The old crafter moved to the locked back door and motioned for Rhen to follow with a conspiratorial glimmer in his eyes. Rhen followed. Through the door and down a set of stairs Rhen found himself in an immaculate workshop, everything in its proper place, everything clean. Tools he had no name for lined the walls above workbenches covered in intricate machines.

“Woah,” Rhen gasped.

“Far cry from above, eh?” Wyland knocked his arm, then hurried over to one of the many armoires that lined the far wall. He pressed his hand on a glass panel on the front of the cabinet. It glowed to life, drawing anima from Wyland’s body. There was an audible click and the door popped open.

Inside was skeleton of metallic wings, folded up and attached to a thick harness.

“Anima glider, for crossing big fissures. They’re only supposed to be used for short bursts. Like I said, glider, not flier.”

“So, the man tried to fly?”

“No, he was usin’ it to ferry the delvers across instead of building a permanent structure like I told him to. The man he picked to do it ran out of anima mid-glide… Boom.” He slapped his hands together. “Miracle the man survived, not in good shape, a’course. Years of recovery, vicious scars.”

They stared at the wings in silence for a moment.

“Well, thank you for showing me this. There’s several more stops I have to make before I head back to the dungeon for the night, so…”

“Ah, sure. Don’t need any more of this old kook’s stories.”

Rhen turned to him. “You’re not a kook. You’re brilliant.”

Wyland grinned. “That’s what I’ve been tryin’ to tell ya. I’m always lookin’ for work if you’re willin’ to pay my prices.”

“I know where you sleep,” Rhen said, pointing to the bed in the corner covered by a small curtain.

“Ha, so ya do! Good luck out there, sonny!”

Rhen showed himself out and he got on his way. The other businesses allowed him to post the message on their door for a small fee, and Rhen met Jakira at the inn.

They jogged home, using their abilities as they went to help train. Rhen was getting quite fond of using tremor blast jumps, no matter how much it hurt his feet to land. Maybe he’d sneak back into Desedra and get that Vibrational Dampening after all.

Aki was mining when they returned, but came up to the inn at Rhen’s beckon. They let the crafting team take a break from building out the pantry and sat Aki down by the warm hearth.

“Give us a minute?” He said to Jakira.

She nodded with a kind smile, then closed the door behind her.

Rhen took a deep breath through his nose, steeling his nerves. Aki deserved to know.

“I have something important to tell you.”

“If it is about your affection for Jakira, it is fine.”

Rhen waved him off. “That’s not what it’s about. It’s about me… my, uh… gods be damned.”

He fell silent and Aki waited patiently.

Just spit it out. I’m not Rhen. It’s that easy.

“I knew that already,” Aki said, fins fluttering.

“You… I’m sorry, you knew what?”

“That your name is not Rhen, but Maddox. You said it twice, very clearly, the first time we met.”

Rhen’s heart beat faster. “No, I’d thought it.”

“There is no difference to me.”

“No, thinking is inside my head.” He tapped his temple. “And no one else but me can hear that.”

“I do not have a mouth to make words like you. I use my psionic abilities to communicate directly into your mind. I hear the words you say before you speak them.”

Rhen suddenly felt very stupid.

“I did not understand at first, the lie of your name. The more time I spent near you, the more I realized who Rhen was. You dream of him and his kindness often. You miss him.”

“I do.”

Aki moved closer to Rhen and wrapped his tentacles around his neck in a slimy hug.

“You are not alone.”

Rhen patted Aki’s side, not really knowing how to hug him back. “Thanks, buddy.”

Aki released him, then pulled the residual water off Rhen’s face and back into his body.

“So, you knew the whole time?”

“Not the entire time, no, but before I came looking for you here. I knew exactly who you were.”

“But you hid in the bushes and let me duke it out with the defiler on my own?”

“As said, I feared your rejection.”

“Can’t you read my mind?”

“Yes, but not the future. You are welcoming on the surface, the words that you say, but on the inside, the words you think, you distance yourself.”

“Force of habit, I guess.”

“It is time for new habits.”

Rhen chuckled. “That’s yet to be seen. You and Jakira both could make a lot of trouble for me.”

Aki hummed. “That would not serve either of our end goals.”

“Wow…”

“I am just speaking logically for myself. My only chance of continuing my pilgrimage is with you. However… I am not sure I want to continue it.”

“Why not?”

“It is complicated, and I do not wish to speak of it at this time.”

“Believe me when I say I understand. You can talk to me whenever you’re ready, and whatever the decision is, you’ve got my blessing—though it’d be nice if you stayed.”

“Oh, why?”

Rhen shrugged. “Well, just speaking logically for myself, it wouldn’t serve my goals for you to leave.”

Aki paused for a moment, then fluttered and pulsed yellow. “I see what you have done. You made my accidental insensitivity into a joke.”

Rhen facepalmed. “Yeah, it’s not funny anymore if you explain it.”

“I will refrain from explaining the joke in the future.”

“Good. Now please, remember that my identity is—”

“You do not have to say more. I understand the severity.”

“Okay, okay.” Rhen stood, chuckling as he headed for the door. “Too much of me is rubbing off on you, I think.”

“If only the opposite were true.” Aki pulsed between hot-pink and yellow, his fins beating gently against his sides. That smug little fluffer thought he was the new jokester in town.

“I am learning from the best this realm has to offer.”

“I don’t know if they’re going to want you back in your home realm with a smart mouth like that.” Rhen opened the door to see Jakira guarding it.

“One of the many reasons I am considering staying here, among the degenerates.”

Jakira spun on her heel, pointing at Aki. “I’ll degenerate your face.”

Aki leaned close to Rhen. “That is a joke, yes?”

“Maybe…” Rhen grinned.

“Is there not work to be done? We should be working, I think.” Aki skirted past Jakira toward the dungeon.

Jakira shouldered her club and swaggered after him. “Come on, Dungeon Owner. It’s time to grind.”