Jess walked up the stairs with her shield ready and her sword drawn. Matthew, their [Explorer], had gone on ahead and checked that there was no portal before coming back to tell them. He also said the stairs didn’t look long enough to lead to another floor. That could only mean one thing — treasure.

Unfortunately for their little group, they hadn’t killed any particularly powerful Golems on their way up here. That meant the ones guarding the chests had to be waiting inside the room, to fight them right in front of their chest. That could be good and bad. Sometimes, you could fish useful loot out of chests during the fight, while your comrades distracted them. But with stairs at your back, you had to be careful that you didn’t trip or fall during the fight. Tumbling down them in heavy armor wasn’t exactly fun. Plus, some monsters fought more ferociously when they protected something.

She kept that in mind as she stepped around the bend and looked into the room. She frowned. There was no treasure chest, or monster for that matter.

“Uh, Matthew,” she called back. “The room is kind of empty.”

“What?” he walked up to stand beside her and peered inside.

“Maybe they’re hiding near the entrance? Like on either side?” James suggested from near the bottom of the stairs. He was clutching his mage’s stuff that he never used in his hands and looking up at them nervously.

“That’s stupid. When have Golems ever done that?” Jess asked. Still, she didn’t want to risk it. She considered the rumors she’d been hearing about strange things in the Tower and turned to Matthew. “Cover each other’s backs?” she asked.

He nodded, and so they walked up the rest of the stairs back to back and jumped into the room at the same time.

Aha! Jess thought, and found nothing. No monsters. No golems. They looked around and the only thing inside the room was a small desk in the center of it.

Or rather, the board game that lay atop of it. Checkers.

What? She scratched her head. Who had set it up here?

Jess looked to the other side of the room and saw a locked door that led to the fifth floor. Would her key open it yet?

“It might be a trap,” James said, suddenly behind her, and Jess jumped.

“James!” she shouted. “You’re supposed to wait down there until we know it’s safe!”

“I got bored,” he complained.

“You’re a [Mage]. Of course you’re boring.”

“Bored, not boring.”

“Guys? Focus?” Matthew interrupted them.

They ignored him, trading a few more insults before they broke off in frustration and turned back to the checkers board, curiosity brimming. There was even a small cushion on their side of the table. Not on the other, though. That raised even more questions. Was only one of them supposed to play? Had other climber’s been resting here? Who would bring a board game along into the Tower, though?

She looked over at Matthew and asked, “And?”

“Huh?”

“Is it trapped?”

“Uh, I don’t know, I mean, no. I don’t think it is.” He shook his head and stopped rambling. “I couldn’t tell without a closer look.”

“Well then go look,” she insisted.

“What? No. What if it’s trapped?”

“Yeah,” James insisted. “It might be deadly.”

“Traps are never deadly, you idiot,” she said. “They only weaken you for the monsters to … finish you …off.” She finished off and looked back the way they’d came, towards the stairs and the bend that could hide any number of Golems. The others followed her line of sight. “Alright, James keeps you safe while I watch the stairs. Then you check for traps. Does that sound like a plan?”

“Sure,” he sighed.

“James?”

“Huh? Oh, right.” He raised his hands over Matthew, concentrated for a moment and casted, “[Safeguard].” A faint sheen of light flashed over Matthew’s silhouette, but that was it. Afterward, you wouldn’t even know he had been spelled.

“That’s it?” Matthew asked. “One spell?”

“I’m not wasting all my Mana on buffing you,” James insisted. “I barely have any left. How would I defend myself if it’s a trap?”

Matthew scowled, but walked towards the board. Jess watched him from over her shoulder, glancing back towards the stairs every other moment, as he stalked around the small bit of wood in circles.

“There’s definitely some kind of enchantment on this,” he said and frowned. “Doesn’t seem hostile, though. But some types of magic don’t really show intent, so it could be a trap … Only one way to find out.”

He leaned over and pushed a single piece forwards on their side, then skipped back a few steps. Jess was watching full-time now, the stairs forgotten, until suddenly a piece on the other side of the board slid forward as well, all of its own accord. It was as if there was a ghost pushing it.

But Anevos didn’t have any Wraiths in its Tower.

Her skin prickled.

“I think the enchantment is just to make the stones move,” Matthew said hesitantly. That was … somewhat reassuring?

“But who is making the decisions?” she asked. She knew the answer to that question herself, but she couldn’t really press the topic. Not with most people anyway.

Matthew just shrugged.

“So do we play?” James asked.

“I guess,” he offered. “Do you want to? Jess and I can keep an eye out in case it is a trap.”

She immediately glanced back at the stairs and sighed in relief when she found no monsters there.

“Yeah,” she said. “Go for it.”

James slowly sat down on the cushion, glancing back at them every other moment.

“I just play to win?” he asked.

“Do you know the rules?” Jess asked him.

He nodded.

“Then beat that game’s ass like it’s any other monster.”

James smiled a little at that and started playing.

Jess watched with half an eye and the stairs with the other, though she doubted anything would follow them up. Most monsters didn’t unless you were headed into a treasure room. She didn’t know if this counted as one.

She winced at some of the moves her companion made, but a few turns later they turned out to be traps that caught him a bunch of the board’s figures at once.

Checkers was simple, really, despite that. Both players figures were on the same color of checkered tiles and had to leap their figures over the enemy’s to capture them. If you could leap, you had to leap or else you lost the figure. If you could leap multiple times, you also had to pull through to the end. At least, that was the way she knew it. If your piece reached the other side of the board, you could stack another stone on it to queen it. Then it could move as many tiles as it wanted at a time, but it still had to stop right behind any figure it leaped over. That way the other player could make traps to catch them. They fell just like a regular piece, after all.

James won surprisingly quick, although Jess would have liked for him to take more time and think about his moves. Still, a victory was a victory.

They all turned to the low table in anticipation. Then there was a sound like a jar’s lid losing its suction, or maybe air escaping quickly, and two drawers on either side of the board shot open. James jumped back in fright, hitting the table with his knee and making the board jump, but the contents of the drawers glowed and they all knew what that meant — treasure. One of them held a large, tan crystal and the other a pair of glasses that quickly lost their sheen. They were probably enchanted, but there was no way she was going to put them on in here. Best to have them inspected by the Guild later so you knew exactly what they did.

“Hey, the board moves now,” James said, while they took the two items out.

Jess supposed it was some sort of complicated treasure chest. One that required you to solve a riddle before you could open it. She had heard of rare locked chests before, but this?

“It didn’t before?” she asked, considering the wood.

James put all the figures into the two drawers after they emptied them and she saw that they were made of good stone. It gave her a hunch. After he closed them again, Jess turned the table over, looking for something small and specific.

When she found it, she let out a yelp of joy and almost dropped the game, which would have been catastrophic. There was a small signature in one of the legs, from the individual who had made it. This board game would sell for hundreds of coins at a curiosity auction. Autographed items always did. And if it was a known autograph, collectors would pay ridiculous sums for them.

The sound must have been the board game loosening, not just the drawers opening. The Tower wanted them to take it with them. As a reward, no doubt.

“Thank you,” she whispered, quiet enough so the others wouldn’t hear. They were all too excited by the signature anyway. Religion wasn’t very popular, considering what it had done after the Third, but this was a cause for prayer.

Her smile faltered when Matthew asked an all too important question.

“Huh, what would have happened if we hadn’t won?”

The sounds of combat rung out through pitch black tunnels as Ethan’s small group of three cut down snarling monsters. This was their territory. He was the intruder and they were practically invisible in the Dark, and yet they would find no advantage against him and his. Ethan could hear every sound they made, from the scuffle of rocks as they scaled along the ceiling, to the way their breathing slowed when they readied themselves for an attack. Ameryth said she could see and sense heat, and Bastian … well, Bastian was Bastian. He was weird.

Ethan heard the grown man talking to himself in the distance, muttering prayers and speaking with someone who wasn’t there. Yeah, definitely weird. But he was a companion and a friend, so it was a good kind of weird.

Ethan manifested a scythe at the tip of his Black Iron staff where it lay resting against his current opponent’s neck. By the way the thing paused, he thought it might know what was coming. It had seen him fight. It tried to pull back. Too late, he thought. The blade forced itself into being inside of its unmade flesh, pushing out blood that turned to smoke and making the monster halt like a puppet with cut strings. While its head began to loll, he pulled through and severed it. He kept the momentum going through the smoke, cut past a second monster going for him, and finished the arc by bringing the blade down on a third that lay prone on the ground. Something clinked. The crystal of the first. The blade pushed through the third’s empty eye socket, where it was most vulnerable. It didn’t burst.

Two down.

Ethan turned on the third.

Sometimes, he wondered why these monsters even had eye sockets when they had no eyes. Long ago, he had decided that all of these creatures had to be made by design. What else were patterned crystals but schemes for magic to build off of? Objectively, he knew that the beasts could be found outside of the Tower as well, which was frightening enough on its own, but even so, he wouldn’t let go of his beliefs. The Tower made these creatures. Why design them like this? Their skin was tougher than most mail, the eye sockets just a liability.

Either way, Ameryth must have picked up on the blood scent already. Either that or something else happened in this Dwarf-forsaken place that he did not understand. When Ethan turned to finish the middle monster off, the dark grey blood running down its chest sparked and ignited. He quickly turned away to block his eyes against the sudden burst of flames.

The creature wailed as its whole body went up in it and it threw itself on the ground, thrashing about before waving its hands towards its mouth as if splashing up water from a stream. It was trying to put itself out. Won’t work, Ethan thought. The thing could eat light and fire all it wanted, unmade or not, he doubted it could gorge itself on these flames. Not when they were fueled by Ameryth.

Ethan was quickly proven right when the things body sagged and its head fell to the floor. Soon it just lay there, hunched over as still as its brethren. One last shiver went through its body and it popped.

He fetched up its crystal when it bounced off the floor, closed his eyes and listened as the clink traveled through the tunnels. Three bodies. Three heartbeats. He relaxed and released his scythe, which was rarely a good weapon in the Tower anyway, before sheathing the weapon on his back. He wouldn’t need it. If there was anything else nearby, it didn’t make a sound.

“Ameryth, light?” he asked into the darkness.

Green ornamentations bloomed along a heavy armor, flowing like flowers and calligraphy around several likenesses of a young woman’s face on the metal. Bastian, not Ameryth, walked up to him and saluted him with his sword. Good enough. Their last teammate joined them from the darkness soon after, holding half a dozen black crystals in her arms and smiling.

“Good loot,” she said.

“Two more here, though one’s covered in soot.”

“I’ll carry it,” she happily offered.

“Right, you’re the weirdo who likes the smell,” Ethan remembered. His lip twitched to keep himself from making a face as he tossed her the stone.

“I do. What’s wrong with that?” Ameryth asked, catching it and dumping them all into her satchel.

Ethan didn’t know where to start.

“How long do we have?” Bastian asked. He knelt as he spoke, sheathing his blade and pulling out his sidearm instead. He began to cut into the last corpse, searching for its crystal no doubt, before Ameryth even answered. Ethan looked up as he remembered what else they needed today. Only hands and feet, right? The alchemists wanted nails to work with. He told Bastian as much.

“I have a meeting with the Schools Guild in an hour,” Ameryth said, pulling off one of her gauntlets to check her wristwatch. It didn’t have the same style as the ones you found in the Tower, though. It was too bulky and, quite frankly, ugly. It could have been imported, maybe, but Ethan didn’t think Ameryth liked foreign wares. Had someone made it for her?

“So we’re in a bit of a hurry,” she went on. “I still have to get ready and run some errands. Where’s the exit?”

She looked to him.

Ethan sighed as he pulled off his weapon again and slammed it into the wall. He listened to the sound travel, checking for the exit again just to be sure. He’d checked once they arrived, and sometimes during the battle, but you never knew in the Tower. The exit wasn’t far off at all, maybe a fifteen-minute walk. Less if they hurried.

“That way,” he pointed and told them as much.

They waited for Bastian to finish before they made their way towards the exit. More of those things would be coming soon, Ethan knew, spawning just outside the reach of his hearing. If that alone wasn’t proof of intelligent design, he didn’t know what was. How was there even a debate about this?

This far up, the monsters didn’t even have things like names or even conformity. Each and every one was a unique shape of abomination with its own tricks up its sleeve, though it was mostly a combination of a set number of traits, some rare, some more common, all of which had been documented already. That being said, the beasts did have few similarities, like being generally human in shape, with grey skin and no eyes, but all the appraisal Skills the Guild had access to came up blank when they tried them. Escorting the registrars and zoologists was more effort than it was worth, and had resulted in more than one unfortunate death, so they’d given up on trying it.

There was no known record of a patterned crystal being found, either. It was as if this far up, the Tower had run out of colors.

“You don’t have to get ready,” Bastian said while they walked. Ethan let the man’s deep voice pull him from his thoughts. It was deeper than his even. Well, not deeper but more … resonating? Bass. Was that the word he was looking for?

“I can’t show up covered in blood and smoke,” the woman said and gestured down at herself. Ethan could barely see her armor in Bastian’s low green light, but she didn’t look that bad to him. Nothing was bent or broken, so there was that.

“Why not?” the other man asked. Ethan agreed.

“Yeah, sends a message,” he said.

“I want to open a school, not another climbing group,” she said.

“Right, ‘cause you would never replace us.”

Ameryth looked over at them lovingly.

“Guys,” she said.

“You already have, haven’t you?” Bastian asked.

“It’s more like I’m cheating on you with twelve other groups,” she said without missing a step.

They both chuckled.

Ethan would have been more insulted, if not for the fact that he honestly didn’t care. He hopped from group to group himself as he needed but always came back to Ameryth because they were friends. Plus, fire was her thing and that was kind of cool. Bastian probably didn’t care because the only company he needed was the ghost lady that was in his head.

“Well, building a school takes work,” Ameryth said, mumbling “and money” under her breath, “and I need to get good teachers from somewhere.”

“You’re hiring climbers as teachers?” Bastian asked. “They won’t even have any levels.”

“You can have skill without having Skill, Bastian,” she said.

“Yes, but teachers have Skills-”

“Why do you want to open a school anyway?” Ethan interrupted their discussion. If he didn’t, she’d start describing the charts and figures again. No, thank you to that. “That’s so boring.”

“You’ve heard about the changes,” she said. “Apparently, everyone in Anevos is learning a board game to climb their Tower.”

“And?” Ethan asked. “Let them play their games, we can stay here and fight.”

Ameryth glanced at him. “And what if the Tower here changes, too?”

Ethan mulled it over for a bit before he answered. “I can learn how to play a board game,” he said. “No biggie.”

Bastian grumbled something disapprovingly.

“What?” he asked.

Ameryth chuckled. “That’s the point, Ethan. It isn’t about you anymore. And it isn’t about us either. It’s about the ones that come after us. The truth is, we’re old. It’s time we stepped aside and let the next ones lead the way.”

“She’s right,” Bastian said. “We need to teach the children about these changes so they might benefit us all. Already, the Northerners at pushing at our borders more. We need more defenders. Plus, the children have a much better chance of adjusting than we do. They don’t have any levels. It’s time for us to create a stronger next generation, to conquer the Towers in our stead, educated, trained, flexible.”

“I am so going to steal that at today’s meeting,” Ameryth said. “Educated, trained, flexible, was it?” she repeated the words to herself a few times to commit them to memory, as if she was still a little kid in a classroom, or the teacher saying them.

Repeat after me, Ethan imagined her say, receiving a chorus of tiny voices in return. He chuckled. It fit a little, didn’t it? What else?

LISTEN HERE, TIMMY, he imagined her bellow as her burning hair floated over her head and her fists singed the teacher’s desk.

Yeah, OK. He supposed she had some educator-ly traits, but that only made him more annoyed about her decision. All of his peers were retiring from climbing, and for good reasons. Before he knew it, he would have to join a company and go on boring month-long expeditions into the desert of the edge of the Gardens. He didn’t want that. He wanted his Climber’s Group to stay the way it was.

“Will you credit me?” Bastian asked.

“Nuh-uh. Sorry, ser [Knight].”

“The Tower always credits people …,” he mumbled.

Ethan brushed past them and their stupid thoughts. He had no reason to retire. He had achieved level 47 just last year. He was barely in his thirties.

Old, he heard Ameryth’s voice echo and grimaced.

Bastian called after him to be careful, but Ethan waved it off, too deep in his mood to care. He couldn’t hear anything nearby anyway, and he could climb as far as the eighteenth floor on his own. He could take care of himself … even if all he fought were abominations. He barely found any chests on the upper floors, either, and the ones he did find didn’t have any relics or good enchantments, just generic loot.

He sighed. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to climb anymore. He wasn’t stuck, but … maybe Ameryth was right. Maybe he should just retire, become a [Hoplite] and defend the borders against weakling raiders instead. That sounded noble, but then he would lose his [Fighter] Class wouldn’t he? He’d always wanted to reach level 100 ...

“Hey, dumbass, where’s the portal?” Ameryth called and he stopped in his tracks.

He stood on the stairs already, near the bend that led further up. There was no portal in sight. Ethan frowned. He could have sworn it was here. You couldn’t hear portals, but you could hear the sound twist around them. It was like they were taking in a deep breath, which he supposed they were. If people could travel through portals, why not the air? It would explain how the Tower was ventilated, even though there was no draft.

He looked around. The stairs were here. The portal wasn’t. Had he taken a wrong turn?

Ethan slammed his staff against the wall once more to check. The sound made him look up the stairs instead, his frown creasing even deeper. The structure should have led to the thirteenth floor, but it just cut off instead. There was a black wall just beyond the top step, hidden in the shadows. Ethan didn’t have a light source of his own. He went up to get a better look.

“Ethan?” Bastian called.

He ignored the man for a moment and pressed his hand against the rigid wall. His [Fighter’s Blood] kicked in at the last moment and he pulled back after making a second’s contact, cursing and shaking his hand at the immense heat. That was worse than an open fire. It felt like metal straight from the forge.

What the hell?

Then the wall opened in front of him, stone breaking like wrinkled skin and bleeding molten flames and light. A heavy second skin moved and unfurled, revealing an eye the size of his torso. Something living and massive groaned beyond that eye. Its familiar golden iris was blown up to unnatural proportions. He could even spot tiny lines of green inside. It looked like those stained glass windows the Linian were so proud of, and even seemed to glow on its own. No, it was glowing on its own. It had the tell-tale light of magic. Purely breathtaking, really, if not for the alarms going off inside Ethan’s head, years of experience yelling at him to run, fool, run!

That, and the fact that the eye looked angry.

“Fire barrier!” Ethan shouted as he took the stairs three at a time. “Make a damn fire barrier!”

He shouted it at the top of his lungs, hoping Ameryth heard and was on it already, but then he reached the bottom and his companions weren’t even moving to do as he said. They were idling, their weapons holstered. At first, they looked bemused, or amused, even, but then they must have seen the urgency on his face. Funny that they could see it, but not hear it. Assholes. Thankfully, they instantly switched over to battle stance.

“Now, Ameryth!” Ethan shouted as he pushed them along.

“Against fire or with fire, idiot?” she yelled back.

“Against, woman!”

He saw her weaving her spell and brought out Black Iron in front of him. In his mind, he worked on an image of a massive shield while he heard Bastion praying. Or enchanting, as he insisted on calling it. Whatever.

“Oh Spring Weaver’s Kin,

Please do not let these meadows burn,

A flower bloomed upon them yesterday,

It brought a smile to my Lady’s lips.”

Suddenly, Ameryth cast her spell and a rough red dome sprung to life around them. Bastian finished his prayer and green ornamentations grew in the air between them and it, growing like ivies. Ethan spotted some of them growing on his own clothes as well. He could feel them climbing up his face while he manifested a massive tower shield and slammed it down before them, facing the stairs.

Not a second too late.

The fire hit them like a landslide and he threw himself against the metal. He had to shout at Bastian over the roaring flames to grab that damned woman and pull her in so she would be safe. Ameryth stood transfixed just beyond his reach, staring at the fire with a look he had seldom seen on her face before.

Wonder, he thought, just barely on the border of fear, or even lust if it went the other way.

Then the knight grabbed her arm and yanked her back, and they were all huddled behind a shield and two magic barriers while the stones melted around them and the fire rushed past. Something cracked and Ethan pushed his head into his shoulder, to cover at least one of his ears. The sound of a barrier breaking was one the most unpleasant things you could have the misfortune of hearing, he thought, and it only got worse the more powerful the spell was. Ameryth was powerful. She could climb far past the twentieth floor on her own, and yet her barrier still broke.

Bastian’s green spirit-flowers did their best to stop the flames that followed, while red shards of light flew past them and crumbled. The heat was rising. Ethan wasn’t entirely sure how much Black Iron could handle, whether or not the weapon would melt behind them. Was it time to say goodbye to his old friend?

The moment the heat became unbearable, it cut off, along with the sound, the flames, everything else.

Ethan took in heavy breaths and moved his hand to his neck to feel his heartbeat. Yes, he was still alive. And the flames were gone for the moment. He knew for a fact that the little ones needed a moment before they could breathe fire again. That settled it. Ethan dismissed his shield and put the staff in Ameryth’s hands, who wouldn’t be burned by its heat. Then he curled his arms around the two shapes next to him and fled.

Behind him, something roared. He was glad that his hearing was deafened because he could feel the Tower tremble.

It was changing alright. It had at least one new tenant on the thirteenth floor that was not happy to see them.

Time to find Garen.

Ameryth stormed into the meeting twenty minutes late. She’d lugged off her armor at the Guild, but hadn’t had time to do much else in way of preparing herself. So here she was, still soaked in sweat from the fighting, the torrent of flames rushing past her, and all the errands she’d had to run thereafter. She’d been rushing through the halls of the Climber’s Guild for the better part of an hour, chugging breath potions like a junkie. Turns out fire in an enclosed space can really take your breath away. She knew that, of course, but the Salamanders who could breathe it usually fought in large, dome-like caverns, not tunnels or even stairs. It had never been an issue before, not before this monstrosity came along that attacked cross floors. She wasn’t even sure if that was abnormal. She’d have to check with a registrar. Another drain on her funds.

Bastian and she had been lucky Ethan carried them out, or she might not be caring about any of this at all right now.

She was personally less lucky that the mountain of a man had rún off the moment they got out, with all sorts of misconceptions in his head. Seeing how he was going to find Garen, Ameryth could take a guess what those were. She swore, if he started some weird rumor about that thing in her Tower she was going to singe every single hair off his body that he was so proud of.

She hadn’t had time to run after him, though. First order of business after getting out of the Tower had been sealing it. No one got in. Everyone else got escorted out. By the time Ameryth had left the Climber’s Guild, every corner, every door, every flight of stairs, all the railings and battlements on the walls were manned with [Guards], all looking inwards, ready to fight in case something stepped out.

She’d also gotten a report that there was a cave-in on the first floor of all places, about an hour before she stepped outside. She didn’t know if it was related or just a coincidence, but it was both good and bad. Good, because it would help her case in sealing off the entrances today. Bad, because it damaged her other case. Her long-term case. She was trying to open a school that specialized in climbing, and if these changes to the Tower were putting even first floor children in danger …

Westhill and Riverbend would have a field day.

This was all such a mess. Her breath was trembling a little. She didn’t know if it was from the potions or the memory of those brilliant flames rushing past, the beast’s rage, its heartbeat. She knew how large it was, and it was nothing like they had ever seen before. Not inside the Towers, at least. Maybe she should relocate to Avenos after all. Board games were safer than cave-ins and gargantuan monsters, after all.

Either way, she’d done all she could for today. There was only one problem left to tackle, and it came in the form of a lavish room and a dozen old skinsacks sitting around a table inside of it, staring at her in surprise. Had they heard the news already? Or was because of her appearance? She had black bloodstains, too, on her blouse, from where the abominations had dripped all over her gear.

Or maybe it had something to do with the way she slammed her hands down on the table the moment she saw his lordship, ser Forester’s, smug face looking at her. Old geezer. Better to do that than slam one of them across his face.

“Ah, Mrs. Denner,” he started. “How gracious of you to join us-”

“Shut up, Forester,” she cut him off.

“How-”

“I was just nearly immolated by a Salamander the size of a Linian freight train,” she declared. “So you better do as I say before I do like those hippy-dippy [Alienists] say children act and copy that experience onto you.”

She saw the man open his mouth again and raised her eyebrows in true surprise. A [Candle] the size of a [Fireball] hovered over the palm of her overturned hand. It reached out with small hands towards the table, hungry.

Later, Cal, she thought.

“Do you want to be burned to a crisp?” she asked.

“Ms. Denner,” Mrs. Merryl spoke up harshly. Shame’ that Ameryth liked her. “This behavior is entirely uncalled for.”

“No, it isn’t,” she insisted, letting the flame go. “Forgive me if my temper is a bit high and my appearance not up to your standards, but you have been drowning me in forms and meetings for over a year now and I’ve had enough of it. Listen here and listen well. I will not repeat myself. The Tower is changing, and there is no way we can change with it, neither you or me, not at the levels we’re at, and definitely not with the same old Skills we’ve been getting for the last two generations.

The Climber’s Guild is going to open a new school of its own eventually, so why don’t you just end this farce already and let us get on with it? If my ideas are truly so bad as you say, you can gladly watch us crash and burn.”

“This isn’t about you,” another insisted. “It’s about the children you would seek to ‘educate’, Mrs. Denner. If you do crash, as you say, they will burn alongside you. Don’t you understand that? You will have squandered years of their lives. We simply cannot accept a school without the most basic of learning structures, without [Teachers], [Mentors] and [Masters] to guide its students, not to mention a school that is owned and managed by the Climber’s Guild.”

“That is our decision, Denner,” Mr. Forester added, “and the city will respect it.”

They all stared at her, and Ameryth clenched her teeth in frustration. This meeting would not end the same way as all those others. She didn’t have any more time to waste before the start of the next school year. And most importantly, she had not spent a year jumping through these people’s hoops just to be shut down like this, over- over technicalities!

Other nations had teachers that weren’t [Teachers], too. Nations they had come from so long ago. It was in their roots!

“The city can respect this,” she said furiously. “The Climber’s Guild will open up a school soon, one way or another. And if we have to do it in the ashes of your halls, we will do it with pride.”

Some of them gasped. Some got up from their chairs. Others looked horrified. It was her saving grace that Mrs. Merryl spoke up first of them all. If not, they might have had her hauled to prison right then and there.

“Ms. Denner,” she started, her old voice trembling a little. “Surely you, a representative of the Climber’s Guild, did not just threaten the sovereignty of the School’s Guild because of a freely made decision?”

Ameryth had taken a step the moment she spoke, her eyes widening as her mind caught up to what it had just said. She backpedaled faster than she had ever before in her life, even bowed her head a little, tried to put on the most placating face. No judge in the five cities would tolerate tyranny, even only in threat.

“No, no,” she said with a much different tone, sounding a little afraid, a little out of breath. “It was merely a figure of speech, Mrs. Merryl. Much like to ‘crash and burn’. I simply meant to say that the Climber’s Guild could make life very hard for the School’s Guild if they did not grant them this gracious favor of walking in its shadows.”

She swept her arms out a little as she said that, mimicking [Poise] as best she could while threatening and placating them at the same time. She thought she’d done well? Ameryth was no [Lady], but you didn’t need a Skill to have a skill, she believed.

Mrs. Merryl at least seemed to buy it.

Mr. Forester looked piss-angry.

“What are you saying, girl?”

Oh dwarf, he was calling her bluff. That was alright. Hadn’t Ameryth daydreamed so often about telling these people her mind? Now she could.

“I’m just saying,” she said slowly, “the Guild might take affront at this decision and refuse institutional contracts in the new year, seeing as you might not be appreciating the worth of that privilege. Do you want to explain to your students, Mr. Forester, why each and every one of them has to sign up with the Climber’s Guild all the sudden? How many, do you think, would choose to transfer to schools whose headmasters were more … amicable?”

She glanced at those two people in the room, then. One, the headmaster of the closest school to Forester’s, and the other a rival in specialization. Lastly, she glanced at Mrs. Merryl simply out of thanks.

He got the message, she thought, by the way he was glaring at her. He better have.

The ones who had gotten up after her earlier faux-pas were slowly sitting back down, a little less wary of her presence. She could take them all in this room, even with tricks up their sleeves, but she couldn’t take a mob of people burning down her home while she slept.

“Leave,” Forester said. “While we discuss.”

Ameryth didn’t smile when he said that, not until she had turned her back on them. She was still walking on thin ice. But she did smile in the end. Finally, she’d found a language these people spoke. It was one she knew all too well.

She even closed the doors on her way out. Then, she rested her back against a wall and took a deep breath, let her mind drift while she waited. She thought about the new breed of salamander on the thirteenth floor, the way its breath had raged past her and broken her barrier just like that. It had almost killed her, if not for Ethan. No monster had come close to doing either of those things in over a decade.

She wondered what kind of crystal it might drop. Surely, not a patterned one? Having that thing defending their borders would be ridiculous. It would probably take someone of her caliber to even maintain it for any extended duration, and there was no way Ameryth was becoming a [Hoplite].

Still, it had almost killed her.

She couldn’t wait to return the favor.