It takes a couple of days for Xander’s wounds to heal. Once the doctor finally releases him, he limps towards the cafeteria. Once inside, he sees Kayde and Drakthar already eating at a table.

“Hey guys, got room for one more?” He greets them as he takes a seat.

“Of course, it’s good to see you upright,” Drakthar takes a break from gnawing on a chunk of meat. As they eat, they hear the whispering that, at this point, they assume is built into the cafeteria aboard this airship.

They watch as a younger soldier with ashy brown hair approaches them, “I just wanted to thank you for getting Cenred run out of here. That guy was a dick and everyone around here knew it”. Xander looks up at the soldier; maybe he was someone who had the displeasure of working under Cenred before.

“If you really want to thank someone, do not thank me, thank Grayson,” Xander tells the young man.

“You call the former commander by the first name? That’s bold,” the soldier starts to get a little familiar with him.

Suddenly Xander notices the soldier’s brown eyes get wide with fear. He looks over his shoulder and sees Grayson standing behind him. The soldier awkwardly bows and scurries back to his table intimidated by Grayson’s mere presence.

“Can we talk?” Grayson addresses Xander, carrying a stern look on his face.

“Yeah,” Xander agrees, waiting for Grayson to take a seat with them.

“Somewhere more private,” Grayson clarifies, this isn’t a conversation he wants to be overheard.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Xander gets up leaving half his food on his plate.

Grayson leads Xander into a room with a single table in the middle of it. Grayson beckons Xander to take a seat in one of the chairs at the table.

Xander sits down, instead of sitting as well, Grayson kneels before Xander, “I apologize for putting you through all of that. My daughter warned me about Cenred, but I did not want to listen to her. It was my own fault, and I almost lost my daughter because of it. I want to thank you for saving her when I could not”.

Xander looks down at the proud man kneeling before him; it makes him feel uneasy, like this sort of thing shouldn’t happen.

“I understand, time travel is not the most believable thing,” Xander hurriedly says, trying to downplay the compliment.

Grayson gets up and sits down opposite Xander at the table.

“So do you want to spar now?” Xander asks not sure what else Grayson would want.

“Maybe another day. I watched your fight with Cenred, rest assured you would be able to land a hit on me,” Grayson sets him at ease.

“Wait how did you know I was training to land a hit on you?” Xander is surprised before he realizes, “Gwendolyn told you”.

“I take it as a good sign that you put in so much effort to make a good impression, but don’t worry son you will do fine,” Grayson gets up and begins to walk to the other side of the table.

“Do fine at what?” Xander isn’t sure what he means.

Grayson puts a hand on his shoulder as he passes by, “You know”.

Xander sits in the room for a couple of moments after Grayson has left. He ponders Grayson’s words before rejoining Drakthar and Kayde in the cafeteria.

“How did your talk with Grayson go?” Drakthar asks him when he sits back down.

“I do not get what is with that guy and trying to get his daughter married,” Xander comments offhandedly, more focused on his conversation with Grayson than the question Drakthar asked.

“Speaking of,” Kayde gets them to quiet down as he spots Gwendolyn enter the cafeteria. She notices them, smiles and sits down with them.

“Hey guys, my dad is going to continue to look after things so I can continue to travel around with you guys,” Gwendolyn informs them cheerily.

“Uh huh, anyway speaking of traveling, where do we want to go next?” Kayde steers them towards planning their next move.

Drakthar speaks up first, certain of what he wants to do; “I still want to track down Sharn and challenge him”.

“Too bad we have no idea how to find him,” Xander sighs. Everyone gets a little silent knowing what Xander said is true.

After a couple of seconds, Kayde comes to a realization, “Wait! We do know where to find him. Remember guys he was in the ruins when we were”.

“Yeah, but would he really go there if there aren’t distortions anymore?” Xander questions how that changes things.

“He could, the Cult of Chaos could still be hanging out there. Either way, it is the only lead we have so it is worth checking out,” Kayde insists, not seeing any other way they are going to track down Sharn.

“We don’t show up there for two weeks. It looks like we have some time to kill,” Xander observes remembering the date.

“It takes two days to reach the ruins from here. We could stay here until then,” Gwendolyn suggests, the airship being more comfortable than a random inn.

“We should allocate some time in case something goes wrong, so let’s leave in a week,” Xander accounts for shenanigans.

Gwendolyn gets up from the table, “I will let my father know we will be here for the week”.

Drakthar stands as well, “I’m going to go train. I don’t want to get soft while I’m here”.

“I will go with you,” Xander follows him.

“Okay, bye guys… What the hell I am going to do here?” Kayde thinks out loud, remaining at the table alone to ponder what he is going to do stuck here for a week.

“I’m surprised you’d want to spar with me,” Drakthar comments as he picks up a wooden axe from the weapons rack.

Xander grabs a wooden sword, “While I was fighting Cenred I think I realized that I was not strong enough, or rather that I am not as strong as I want to be. Beating someone like him should have been easy, but it wasn’t. If I want to change things I need to work at it”.

“That is good to hear,” they turn to see Grayson has entered the room.

“Looks like I will have myself a sparring partner for the next week. Gwendolyn filled me in on your plans,” Grayson comments.

“While you guys are here I want to get to know all of you better. So, to start, how about you all join me for dinner tonight?” Grayson offers, although they probably don’t have a choice.

Xander and Drakthar share a look before Xander responds, “It would be our pleasure”.

“Great then it is settled. I will see you two and your other cyborg friend at dinner,” Grayson leaves them to their sparring.

After they finish up, they head to Kayde’s room to tell him about dinner. They knock on his door, but no one is there.

“Where could he be?” Drakthar starts to think, not knowing where Kayde would go on the airship.

They hear the sound of metal hitting a steel floor and turn around. The clanging was caused by Kayde, or more specifically the fine jewelry and kitchenware that he has in his hands that fell to the ground.

Kayde begins to pick them back up when Drakthar asks, “What are you doing?”

“Don’t tell me you just stole all that stuff?” Xander starts to panic, not wanting Grayson to think bad of them.

“Calm down Xander, I’m just trying to get you on Grayson’s bad side,” Kayde quips, knowing exactly what will get Xander to react.

“WHAT?” Xander is more shocked than angry.

Having gotten the reaction he desired, Kayde starts to laugh, “I’m just messing with you. I had all this free time so I went around to a bunch of the people here and asked them if they wanted me to sell anything for them. I explained that I’m an excellent trader and that I could get them a deal if they gave me something to sell. There is this event coming up soon that happens every year on a mesa and I remembered that it is happening pretty soon this year, actually in a week right when we plan to leave. So I was thinking I would swing by there and make myself and the Silent Brotherhood some gold”.

“Okay, well we have been invited to dinner by Grayson,” Xander finally tells Kayde what they came there to tell him.

“What? Why do Drakthar and I have to go?” Kayde isn’t too enthused about dinner.

“I do not know. Maybe because Gwendolyn is traveling with all of us, not just me,” Xander speculates correctly.

“I guess... man this is going to be weird. It’ll be like we are reverse fifth wheeling,” Kayde pouts, not wanting to go.

“I am sorry what?” Xander doesn’t quite understand Kayde’s made up terminology.

“Reverse fifth wheeling. Having a fifth wheel is when there is only one single person there, but in our case, there will only be one couple there so it will be like reverse fifth wheeling,” Kayde explains like it makes perfect sense. Xander and Drakthar just share a look of confusion.

They go to the room specified for dinner and find Grayson and Gwendolyn sitting at the table.

“Sit down you three,” Grayson welcomes them warmly.

“The reason I invited you all to dinner is to learn more about the people who will be traveling with my daughter,” Grayson explains.

Xander, Drakthar, and Kayde all tell Grayson all about their different backgrounds and upbringing. While all are interesting and colorful, Kayde being an android proves to be the biggest surprise.

“Now that you’ve all told me about yourselves let me tell you more about myself and how I got involved with the Silent Brotherhood. The original members of the Brotherhood were immortals,” Grayson begins his tale.

“I’m sorry what now?” Kayde has never heard of people being immortal before.

“Immortals, they come from the island of immortals in the Marshlands. I am surprised none of you have heard of this, that guy you are tracking down, after all, is one of them,” Grayson thought they knew.

“Hold on Sharn is immortal? Great how is Drakthar supposed to win if he is fighting an immortal guy?” Kayde throws up his arms at the futility of the situation.

“Just because Sharn is immortal doesn’t mean Drakthar cannot win. Perhaps the term immortal isn’t exactly correct, but it is what they call themselves. It is not that they cannot die, but rather they do not age. A head cut off a body kills, no matter who you are,” Grayson explains.

“Okay… so how does this relate to you?” Kayde forgot how the topic was breached.

Grayson is more than happy to continue the story he tried to start, “I don’t know if you noticed the scar on Sharn’s throat, but the cost of becoming immortal is the removal of your larynx, taking away your ability to speak. All of the immortals are like this. Over the years, they have observed many artifacts in this world fall into the wrong hand, so they decided to form a group to protect them. They called it the Silent Brotherhood because of their inability to speak. While they were all strong warriors, they didn’t have a unifying voice that is where I came in. I became the voice for all the immortals in the Brotherhood, the leader they needed”.

“If that’s true then how come I didn’t notice any immortals here now?” Drakthar observes, knowing he would have noticed someone with a scar on his or her throat by now.

“Sadly there are no longer any immortals in the Silent Brotherhood. You see, soon after I was put in charge, the Brotherhood started gaining renown. People were interested in joining, but when they heard of the price they walked away. Quickly I found that there was too much work for the number of people in the Brotherhood, so I was forced to make a decision. I chose to let people in who weren’t immortals. As we grew and grew, the number of regular people began to vastly outnumber the immortals. This caused them to slowly leave the Brotherhood. That is the reason it is what it is now,” Grayson finishes his explanation.

“So… you and Sharn are like friends or something?” Kayde asks, inquisitively as he shovels down some food.

“I would say comrades would be more accurate a description,” Grayson explains.

“Did you know Sharn?” Xander turns to Gwendolyn.

“Yeah, the immortals all left when I was about six, I remember some vague stuff about Sharn because he was one of the best, but it’s not like they would interact with me much,” she recalls.

“If there are no other questions, that is all I had to say to you all. I look forward to sparring over the next week to see just how sharp your abilities are,” Grayson ends the dinner, standing up to leave.

In the following days, Drakthar and Xander spend most of their time sparring with Grayson. Kayde shows him how good of a shot he is, before lounging around for most of the time.

On their fifth day, Xander takes a break from sparring to have lunch with Gwendolyn.

“I’m sorry that my father has been working you guys so hard,” she apologizes.

Xander waves it off, “It’s fine. I probably need this anyway, although it is really tiring”.

Gwendolyn reaches across the table and grabs a hold of Xander’s hand. He looks down at it before looking back up to see Gwendolyn starring him straight in the eyes.

“Why don’t you tell my father that you want to skip sparring for the rest of the day? That way we can finally have some time together,” she suggests, using her deep blue eyes to her advantage so Xander cannot refuse.

“Okay, I will let him know,” Xander agrees, never having a chance of resisting.

“Great, I’ll wait for you in the surveillance room then,” Gwendolyn merrily finishes her lunch, looking forward to finally spending some time with him.

Xander returns to the sparring room and finds Grayson inside waiting for him.

“I was wondering if I could take the rest of the day off?” Xander requests.

“No, come on, let’s spar. You wouldn’t want to ruin that good first impression you are making on me right now would you?” Grayson’s question sounds more like a threat.

Scared for his life Xander looks directly into the security camera, where he knows Gwendolyn is watching, and shrugs. They start to spar for about an hour before Grayson tells Xander, “I’ll be right back”.

While Xander is waiting in the room he sees the camera starts to move back and forth. He deciphers that it must be a message from Gwendolyn. He exits the room and cautiously heads to the surveillance room a couple of doors down.

Xander stops in his tracks as he hears Grayson’s voice from around the corner. He panics, not knowing what else to do he quickly opens the door closest to him and hides there. He looks around and realizes he is in a janitorial closet.

Grayson goes back into the sparring room and realizes that Xander isn’t there.

“Xander where are you?” He calls out from outside the door.

He goes back inside and thinks out loud, “Maybe someone who is watching will know”.

Gwendolyn, who is watching, starts to panic as well. She sprints out of the room she knows her father is headed towards and sneaks through the door right next to the surveillance room. She runs directly into Xander, who is hiding in that very same janitorial closet.

Xander looks down at her and begins to say something. His words never come out, because Gwendolyn puts her hand over his mouth. She puts her free hand over her lips signaling to be quiet.

“He is not going to stop looking,” Xander whispers as silently as he can.

“I took care of it,” Gwendolyn assures him that they won’t be found.

After finding no one in the viewing room Grayson heads back to the training room to make sure he isn’t going insane from old age. Inside he finds Drakthar waiting for him.

“I heard you needed a sparring partner for this evening,” Drakthar, who was recruited by Gwendolyn, greets him. He had wanted to test himself against Grayson again anyway.

“Yeah,” Grayson doesn’t question it much and is all too happy to spar with Drakthar.

Back in the closet, Xander and Gwendolyn find themselves in a very tight space that barely allows for two people to stand comfortably. After a minute of just trying to be quiet, Xander realizes that Gwendolyn has been in his arms the whole time.

He also realizes how drenched he is from training and apologizes, “I am sorry that I am so sweaty”.

Gwendolyn suddenly realizes that the musky scent she had been subconsciously enjoying has been coming from Xander.

“Huh… Oh, I don’t mind,” Gwendolyn murmurs, starting to realize their proximity and the ...close... position they are in right now.

Xander looks down at her and watches as her face turns a bright shade of red. He soon follows suit, realizing the situation he is in, feeling Gwendolyn’s soft figure pushing up against him, her warmth radiating across his taut body.

Before Xander can say anything that will ruin the mood, Gwendolyn gets on the tips of her toes and starts kissing him. Not like most of the light pecks from before, these are deep, long, and amorous.

When they break off for the first time, Xander asks hesitantly, “Won’t someone hear us in here?”

He looks down at Gwendolyn for an answer and sees her breathing heavily, her bosom rhythmically rising and falling.

“You always have to overthink it and miss what is right in front of you,” Gwendolyn pulls off her shirt, showing Xander exactly what is in front of him.

Xander loses all thoughts he was starting to have and moves back in so his lips are once again interlocked with Gwendolyn’s.

While stuck together Gwendolyn’s hands start to wander wildly all over Xander’s body. She ends up voraciously trying to rip off his shirt, not caring if she ruins it in the process.

With the shreds of shirt falling to the ground, Gwendolyn looks over his exposed upper body that she has seen so many times before and smirks. She wraps both of her arms around his back, pulling him in once again to continue their passionate encounter.

They enjoy the taste of the other for a few more minutes before suddenly the door to the closet is opened.

They stop to turn their heads hearing, “Hey! You can’t be doing…” The voice slowly dies down as the custodian recognizes Gwendolyn as his leader.

He stands there half shocked, half trying to get a better look at Gwendolyn’s chest that is pressed up against Xander.

“I apologize,” he closes the door, still processing exactly what he saw.

He walks down the hall complaining, “How am I supposed to get my mop now?”

Xander and Gwendolyn remain frozen in the same position the custodian found them in.

“We should take this to one of our rooms,” Xander suggests not wanting to be interrupted anymore.

“No, let’s go to one of the empty guest rooms, I don’t want my father to come knocking on either of our doors while we are you know...” Gwendolyn slowly slides a finger down Xander’s chest.

They put their shirts back on sloppily, or, in Xander’s case, the tattered remains, and Gwendolyn guides Xander to one of the open guest rooms, enthusiastically pulling him by the arm the entire way. They quickly get inside, making sure to lock the door behind them.