"I can't ever reveal what Curse and I spoke about that night. That was one of the requirements imposed on both of us." I confessed. "What I can say is that it gave me a unique perspective on what I would do going forward. Not unlike knowing you would die within the year. But that would be just as inaccurate a representation as it is accurate. Just as much as the lies you all told me fueled my curiosity, Curse shifted my goal from observation to friendship, even if that was not his goal." No one said anything to these thoughts, but it didn't matter. "Still, if I'd awoken alone, found myself abandoned in that town, or felt that I was an unwanted burden… I cannot say I would have let go of those barriers I'd built. I guess fate knew that, though."

(Chapter 78: Mask, Age of Heros, Room in besieged town)

I awoke slowly in a room I didn't recognize. The ceiling was a bare wood that mirrored the floor. The walls were white, a blank wallpaper covering them. I was lying in a bed, set closer to one side of the room, but not entirely against the corner. When I looked left, I saw a mostly empty space. Aside from a small light fixture letting out a dull buzz, the only thing over there was a window sharing the same wall as the bed's headboard. I found a wall and a small nightstand when I looked to my left. Outside of these things, the only thing of note was a door leaving the room directly opposite the window.

I could tell Curse had moved my body. He never bothered to put my coat back on correctly. I wasn't even sure he knew how. If he could avoid it, he'd never remove it properly either. He used its destruction as a small protest against my use of such tools. Still, after he'd done whatever it was he did, he'd at least tried to put it back on. That was all I could tell about what actions he'd taken. I wasn't allowed to know what he'd done or what conversations he had; both were obscured from me as per our deal. For now, it was enough to know he hadn't hurt anyone. That was also part of the deal.

I expected some damage to my clothes. I'd seen how badly the horde of monsters beat me before falling unconscious. But when I inspected them now, the Arachne silk proved it was worth its weight in gold. The silk itself wasn't unique, but the process of imbuing it with a self-cleaning and repair functionality was costly, time-consuming, and prone to failure. Most would never make clothes with it in the stitching, let alone the entire outfit. I felt I owed a further debt than I'd ever honored while delivering that letter.

But such thoughts would have to wait. I could no more honor that debt today than I could walk a straight line.

While my coat and mask had survived this encounter, my new leg was not so lucky. My misuse of it had twisted it at the knee, and the metal was warped horribly in some places. Considering the visible distortion on it, I'd hate to imagine what would have happened if The Gnomish woman had given me what she called the cheap one. But even more, I'd hate to imagine what I'd have done if I hadn't met her at all.

While fate had taken my leg, it had allowed me kindness in that meeting. For that, it would have my thanks.

Still, using this leg as it was would be nearly pointless. With the knee twisted, I would be incapable of bending it. And with the foot the wrong way round, it would do nothing to assist my balance. I felt it would be no better than strapping a wooden peg to the residual stump of my lost limb. I'd need to fix it or find a replacement. But neither seemed like something I could do today. So I'd use it as is, at least to investigate the current situation.

Thinking this way, I tried to turn my body to stand from the bed.

Clunk

The metal foot hit the wooden floorboards loudly. I hadn't expected my body to feel so heavy, and I'd let my prosthetic leg almost fall to the ground. It was similar to muscle fatigue, but the fibers laced around my bones didn't function under those rules. Whatever caused the feeling left my limbs slow, clunky, and almost dissonant. I'd have loved to investigate and see if it had anything to do with the information Curse used to bargain with me. But I didn't appear to have the time.

I heard a few light footfalls from outside the door. I had to imagine someone heard my leg hit the floor. That, or a ludicrous coincidence occurred, and they were planning to come in here before I woke up anyways. If I were placing bets, I'd go with the latter. Though I didn't feel it mattered if I was wrong. Someone would enter the room in a moment regardless.

Slowly the door opened. As if the one pushing it in was cautious of waking me. Or maybe they were scared of seeing me. Either way, they didn't burst into the room but attempted to peek in from outside. Unfortunately for them and that idea, the door opened inwards, with the door's hinges closer to me. So the one trying to peek in needed to open the door wide enough to poke their head around it to see anything.

A head of brown hair poked through the open door. Then a set of brown eyes followed. In them, I saw the light of worry. When she saw me sitting on the edge of the bed, that light dwindled but did not vanish. I could see it in her, a spark of distress surrounded by a bed of relief. It'd been a long while since someone directed a gaze like that my way. It felt nice, despite how little I felt I knew The Hero.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, failing to keep her voice even.

I moved to respond, to move mana into golden letters for her to read. But I found my reserve not empty, but still useless. I could pull on that void when the gem is devoid of mana and feel a near equal tug back. But that feeling wasn't what I received when I tried to pull mana from the gem behind my mask. My attempt only returned an empty feeling, like the gem wasn't there at all. And when I stuck a single finger through my mask where the gem should be, I found it wasn't there. In its place was a single shard of a larger whole.

I don't know when or how it happened. Maybe I'd overfilled or emptied it too quickly in my maddened state. Neither one was guaranteed to break it, but the gem was older, so those might have let it crumble. The other option I could think of was that I'd taken a blow to the head that cracked the crystalline structure and left it worthless to me.

No matter the reason, without this, I currently lacked any way to communicate my condition to The Hero.

So I did the only thing I could think of; I shrugged and waved my hand in a so-so fashion to answer her question. And then I mimed writing on something to ask her for a pen and parchment.

"Oh, that's good." She responded to my condition in an almost sad tone. "You need something to write with?" She asked, her voice indicating she was clearly confused.

I nodded.

"Can't you just...." She paused before waving her hand around like she was writing in the air. "You know?" she finished her question.

All I could do was shake my head.

"Umm, alright." She said, concern evident in her posture and tone. "I'll be right back." She continued before darting out of the room. But not a moment later, she pushed her head back into the room, a serious expression across her face. "Don't go anywhere. Wait right there." She commanded before once more leaving the room.

I wasn't left alone with my thoughts for long. Maybe The Hero was more worried about me than I initially assumed. She returned within minutes of leaving the room, her breath the slightest bit ragged as if she'd sprinted around to find what I requested. But her eyes still didn't betray more than a spark of concern. So I couldn't tell.

"One more time, how are you feeling?" She asked while handing over the pen and a small notebook.

I debated lying to her for a moment. I could tell her that I felt fine and ready for anything or any other lie. But for some reason, that felt wrong. Like The Hero was someone who I needed to remain honest with no matter what. That feeling made me tell her some of the truth, but not all of it.

"My body feels heavy." I wrote out for her, to which she nodded. "My leg is mangled, possibly beyond repair." After she'd read this one, I gestured to the blatantly twisted prosthetic limb.

"Is it easy to get ahold of replacements for things like this?" The Hero asked cautiously.

"I acquired this one before we left the capitol. But I am not positive the artisan would make another on such short notice." I responded honestly.

The Hero seemed to stare at my leg in thought for a few moments. I believed she was debating how to break some news to me. Perhaps my leg had become too much of a liability in her eyes, or I'd failed in what I'd set out to do, I didn't know. But when she opened her mouth, it wasn't what I expected.

"That fucking sucks!" The Hero exclaimed energetically.

"Pardon?" I asked, not understanding her meaning.

"Well, that probably cost a fortune, right?" She asked a question but did not wait for me to answer. "If we can't fix it, you'll have to walk with that thing till we earn enough money to get a new one. That would slow us down a bit." She sounded genuinely annoyed on my behalf. And as she spoke, I didn't hear even a hint that she planned on having us part ways. Even with that feeling, I felt a need to confirm.

"What do you mean by us?" I questioned. And as she read the words, I could see it in her eyes; the idea of leaving me here hadn't even crossed her mind till now. But by asking the question, I'd brought something else up she hadn't wanted to think about.

"Are you planning on leaving?" She asked sadly. "I'd understand if you want to. I really shouldn't have sent you into that alone." She started rambling, an almost visible cloud of despair appearing in her eyes. "I mean, it makes sense if you'd want to leave. I doubt this is what you had in mind when you joined. And you were hurt pretty badly by all of this. I just thought you might still want to come with us." She'd turned her eyes away from me, almost refusing to see if I wrote anything in the notebook. "Still, I won't stop you if you want to leave. It's your choice, and you're free to go if you feel it's for the best. I just wish we'd gotten to know each other better." She kept talking, her voice barely more than a whisper, her tone despondent.

I wouldn't try to stop her by writing out a message. The Hero would simply ignore it, its contents irrelevant to her current mood. She wouldn't even look at the notepad or me as her rambling words turned to incomprehensible mumbling.

I wasn't aware of what happened while I was gone. But I didn't need to be. Something had gotten under The Hero's skin and made her doubt herself and the relationships she'd cultivated. If left alone, that would become a disease that would eat her from the inside. Today it may just be this one rambling series of anxious sentences. But what about a year from now, or more? I didn't know, I couldn't say. I didn't know the girl in front of me well enough to make any estimates of her mental fortitude.

And perhaps, that was the issue.

I'd found a way to return to society. But since my first steps within the bounds of a city and my first conversation with someone outside of those who knew my form, I'd never let anyone in or tried to understand them myself. I kept everyone and everything at arm's length because I knew I wouldn't have long with them. But after my conversation with Curse, I felt that it might be time for a change. Now was the time to let people in and call them friends.

So I reached out, grabbed the young-looking girl before me, and pulled her into my arms.

"I'm not going anywhere." It hurt to pull on my real voice without a spell to go with it. The vocal cords of this body didn't move that way. And without the mana to cast a spell with, all I was doing was yanking vibrations from nowhere for my own use. It hurt so much. Without a buffer, using my throat to create any sound except that horrible amalgamation of projected thoughts was nearly as strenuous as holding time in place.

But as I felt the shoulders of the small girl shudder, I thought that the pain was worth it, just this once.

"Thank you." The Hero said, her voice shaking.

I didn't respond. I couldn't. Using my voice once was already close to my breaking point. All I could do was hold her tighter.

"You need a new leg." The Hero chuckled out.

The only response I could offer in this position was a nod of my head.

"Are you sure you want to stay? I really shouldn't have sent you into that situation alone. I'd understand if you want to go back to journeying on your own; we clearly aren't ready for this." She seemed to be trying to convince me to leave, a heavy weight of guilt in every word.

I pushed her away and picked up the notepad she'd brought me.

"Do you think I'd have walked into that horde if I thought I'd die there?" I wrote out a question that I didn't plan to let her answer. "I knew what I was doing. Or I thought I did. But if that situation arises again, I'd as soon throw myself into it as I did this time." I let her read this one before writing one final message. "I plan to stay with you and the others and help wherever I can. All you need do is ask."

A bright smile washed across The Hero's face. It wasn't an innocent smile, not like I expected. But, despite the marks knowledge leaves on the expression, she managed the exact type of smile I'd have once offered everything to protect. The only difference was that this time I would make sure she was ready to defend it herself.

"Thank you." She whispered.

"If that's cleared up, I'd like to know what happened while I was unconscious." I wrote it down, hoping to close this moment neatly. But unfortunately, that didn't appear to be the case.