Chapter 1

Jules was sitting across from him. Adrian’s sense spread around and he knew they were safe and nothing could sneak up on them. Jaracol, being locked away felt terrible.

“Why don’t you tell me about it?” she finally proposed. “Talking about it helps. It helped me.” Her face fell as she struggled to hold back tears.

The ghosts of Kozzie and fair enough.

“I don’t know,” he stuttered. “It doesn’t feel right.”

“Go easy,” Jules suggested. “Don’t talk about your interface, just about how your journey had been.”

Adrian thought long and hard. His mind kept reliving the sacrifice that Jaracol had made and everything that had happened before that. The interface had done a lot for him. Prodded him to get stronger, pushed and helped him conquer his fears and silly issues.

“I was lost when the change came. It’s all a bit of a blur now. I think in hindsight the interface manipulated me into getting the right skills. Fighting the imps was scary and then returning to town to get you guys even more so. Everyone was so scared, and the world was so different. I spent most of my time observing and sneaking. Even killing some stuff, but I knew there was bigger stuff out there. Then there was the octopod.”

He stopped talking for a moment, but Jules did not interrupt. She had heard it all before but was being polite and listening. “And…”

“It was attacking a family, and it is my biggest regret. It was too strong for me to fight and I was frozen with indecision.” He looked into Jules’s eyes. “I still beat myself up about it daily.”

“You shouldn’t. Everything was so scary back then.”

“I should have acted immediately, but fear delayed me and…” He hit the ground as he remembered the consequences. “By the time I responded they were almost dead. Then, when it was already too late, I fought.” Adrian laughed at himself. “I should have died. The octopod was too strong. I ran, and that was the first time Jaracol saved me. Convincing me to crawl away and get to safety.”

Adrian paused, tasting his own words. The interface had rescued him. When he was hurt beyond measure, it forced him to crawl to safety.

“Then I got to town—”

“Then blah, blah,” Jules interrupted. “Adrian was a big hero and killed the Bird.”

Adrian looked at her till she lowered her eyes. “I’m talking about Jaracol, and he gave me the ideas I needed for that plan. All of it apart from shoving the potions into its mouth, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was also his intention.”

Jules nodded. “Everyone in Wagga owes you for that.”

“Then we planned to leave straight away, but my interface encouraged me to stay and learn Flame Sprout. I hated it for those delays, but I have since learnt they were required. I needed Flame Sprout for the trolls, bears and shintopurs. Then there was the dersbrawk .”

“Was your interface involved in that, too?”

Adrian shook his head. “I saved us from the plant and it changed our relationship. I think it started respecting me after that. Then it returned the favour against the shintopurs, stopping time to let me work out how to save myself from an ambush.”

“Shintopurs still make me shiver. Even though they are ridiculously easy to kill now.”

Adrian ignored her. “Then we celebrated.”

“Don’t,” Jules said her hand grabbing his mouth.

Adrian deliberately did not mention that Kozzie had been killed and instead skipped forward. “We found out about Albury with Jamal and with Charlotte’s help we killed Adhava’s kids and in-laws. Eliminated all those she had soul bonded so we could hunt her down without reinforcements coming from behind.”

“Jamal knew what he was doing.”

“And my interface,” Adrian reminded her. “Without the Mind abilities, without the thief stone, they were all things Jaracol planned for.”

“Sure.” Jules sounded unconvinced.

“We won; Steve lost his foot. We got through the dungeon.”

“We all got gifted immense power,” Jules interrupted.

“It was one level.”

“For you.” She laughed. “And you must be about to get a second.”

“True,” Adrian agreed readily enough. “I think he saved us by helping us find all those traps.”

“You think?”

“Just a suspicion… But.” Adrian shrugged. “At the very least, he made sure I had the skills for it.”

Jules nodded. “Then we got rich from looting the bitch.”

“You can’t say that she’s dead.”

“So…” Jules looked affronted. “She was a…”

“Respect the death!”

“No. Not after what she did. She was a bitch.”

Adrian considered his response. “She was a horrible person.”

“Bitch!” Jules repeated.

“Then we used the trainers.” Adrian ploughed on. “And both of us got internal haste ability.”

“Yeah, but yours is ridiculous.”

“It was like every step in my development was for that purpose.”

“Then we got richer.” Jules smiled. “And then ran into some shintopurs.”

“And a bloody snake.”

“And now your interface is gone.”

“It’s unfair.”

“You know the rest of us never had a Yoda whispering universal truths in our ears for every step of the way.”

“Unfair on him,” Adrian clarified. “Not me. I had it good and I’m already missing him. A wall separates us. I know he’s in my body, but he’s locked away.”

They sat in silence before Jules smiled sadly. “It was his choice and I’m glad he made it.” Her eyes were glistening. There was another period of silence. “And now we can finish the journey to Melbourne.”

“If we can get past that echidna,” he reminded her.

Jules shifted, a smirk on her face. “Don’t worry, I’ll bash it into submission.”

Adrian laughed. “I am sure you will. But… are we really almost there?”

Jules shrugged. “A couple of weeks, that’s nearly.”

“You are just parroting me back to me.”

Jules giggled at the accusation. “Sometimes you need someone else to say it in order to believe it.”

“Two weeks,” Adrian whispered.

It was so close. He would be home soon. Home!

‎