Rhen scrubbed his curly brown hair dry with a towel and sighed. “It feels so good to have that out of the way.”

“Mmhm,” Jakira replied, her back to him as she dressed.

Rhen got the sense something was up but wasn’t sure if it was the time to press it. If she wanted to talk about it, she’d bring it up, right?

“I’m going to see Zeichen out and then maybe you and I can spend some time checking over the Hexguard abilities?”

She half-turned with a half-smile. “Sure.”

Rhen tried not to let any of her unspoken behavior get to him. They would talk about whatever was going on later, maybe even give her a little time to think more about what was bothering her. She hadn’t been like this before the raid… what could’ve happened?

She finished strapping on her breastplate and turned to give him a kiss on the cheek. He held her a little longer and pecked her on the lips. “I love you.”

Her face brightened a little, and she gave him a longer kiss. “I love you. I’ll be in the kitchen baking some herbs when you’re done.”

She left the bath a little happier than when they’d gotten there. That was something at least.

Rhen finished getting dressed and waited around in the tavern for Zeichen. She emerged from the bath entrance in a long, silky black gown that was far too low cut for even a modicum of modesty. Zeichen was out to manipulate someone.

Rhen kept his eyes firmly on her face, but when she signed… he had to look down.

“I have a benefit tonight, how do I look?” she asked.

“Pretty good,” he said with an uncomfortable smile. “Like a dungeon owner.”

She beamed.

“Let me show you out,” he said, gesturing toward the exit.

“That was fun,” she signed with a smile.

“Yeah, it was great. You were incredible.”

“The way you went straight for the heart and bit it!” she paused, silently laughing. “You were like a beast! Driven and determined to kill that thing, no matter the cost.”

“Well, dying would’ve meant far less to me than failing. Mandi and the other Hexmothers can’t respawn as far as I know and losing them forever would’ve been catastrophic for the dungeon. I’m willing to suffer and endure personal setbacks for the things that matter.”

She nodded appreciatively. “I like that about you.”

They stopped at the stairs to the exit. Outside the sun was blazing a few degrees above the horizon, casting pinks and purples over the snow-dusted trees. It was chilly, but Zeichen didn’t seem to notice or care about the temperature.

She tucked a bit of her dark hair behind her ear. “I’ve been thinking about a proposition, one that would be beneficial for both of us.”

Here comes that manipulation…

“Oh?”

“Don’t reject me before you’ve even heard the idea,” she sign with a playful scowl.

Rhen chuckled. “Sorry, I’m listening. Well… paying attention.”

She inhaled deeply. “I think we should—” He didn’t understand the sign. She joined her hands together, then flipped them and opened her palms.

“We should what?”

She took a tentative step closer and put one hand on his side, and the other on his chest.

Knowing dawned on him and he took a herky-jerky step back. “What? No. Why do you think that?”

“It would be good for both of us. It would be good for the realms.”

Rhen shook his head and swallowed to wet his dry mouth. “Look, I’m sorry if I’ve been… if I’ve been sending you signals that just aren’t there. I love Jakira. I won’t marry you.”

“Do you remember the first Protectorate meeting?”

“Yeah, of course, but how is that relevant?”

“You spoke. I enforced. We got it done. We are powerful together.”

Rhen took another step back. She hadn’t enforced, she had just forced. She forced their agreement by using cebrum spells and threats. “Zeichen, you go about things in a way I’m not so sure I agree with…”

She scowled. “Because it’s the only way to make progress. They’re going to destroy the Tree of Being if we don’t stop them, because they won’t stop themselves, and it’ll be too late when everyone else realizes what’s going on.”

“Yes but…” he sighed, holding his tongue. He had seen who the Protectorates were. He’d seen inside the “justice” system and the corruption within. How Sen had paid the deliberator to silence Welsh and prevent his implication. He’d seen how even low-rung owners like Welsh treated his people, and knew it was that way in many places.

Maybe she was right.

“I understand that your heart belongs to someone else, and I wouldn’t stop you from loving her, ever. Our marriage would be like business.”

He exhaled hard his gut tight with worry.

She touched his shoulder and he looked up to her face. “Just think about it.”

With that, she turned away and headed into the setting sun, her black dress shimmering with the reflected colors. When she was out of sight, Rhen dropped into a squat, breathing hard to calm himself down.

What. The. Hell.

Marriage?

Rhen knew that partners shared a lot of things, and it was possible that their actual power could grow from a joining. Not just that, but Zeichen, head of the Desedra family, married to a Nexus owner. That would put her in the same league as her brothers, but what else might it do for her? What would it do for him?

What would it do to Jakira?

Rhen turned and looked down the tunnel toward the inn. Before he thought anymore on it, he had to talk with her.

He marched down the hall, running through how he’d break the news.

Hey, so Zeichen just asked me to marry her. Not to worry, I told her no!

But… he hadn’t told her no. Not at the end. She’d asked him to think about it and he was thinking about it. They could save the Tree of Being together.

Zeichen would like to partner with me, like a business partnership except its marriage… she totally gets that I love you though, and won’t get in the way of that.

Nope, that wasn’t any good either.

Rhen found himself standing in the kitchen, staring at Jakira with a scowl. She turned to him and her expression melted to penitence. They both started talking at the same time.

“Hey, I’m really sorry—”

“We need to talk—”

Jakira chuckled nervously. “Sorry, you go.”

The orbeye crept into the room and Rhen pushed it away. “Let’s go hunt some Whismics for a bit.”

She looked at the oven, her herbs roasting inside. “They still need twenty minutes. Can we go look at the Mastery options first?”

“Sure.” Rhen reached out for her, and she took his hand.

“Is everything okay?” she whispered.

“Let’s wait until we have privacy to talk.”

Jakira squeezed his hand tighter, and her eyes teared up. Rhen hated himself for not even giving her a little comfort, but he didn’t want to share this with anyone else. The dungeon was big, and people were all over the place. Anyone could overhear anything and then it would be awkward for everyone.

He squeezed her hand back a few times and she sniffled, then smiled at him. A few others from the raid were lingering near the node.

Derk beamed. “We waited for you!”

“Thanks man, though you didn’t have to. You guys are free to unlock new abilities and do whatever you want with your earnings. No need to wait on us, it could be a while,” he said with a chuckle that roused laughs from the others.

Rhen stayed back with Jakira, who still had watery eyes. “You guys go for it, let’s see what they’ve got.”

Derk stepped up to the node and placed his hand on it. “Show me this monster’s abilities, please.”

The garnet core in his hand burst in a shower of sparks. The red light traveled up his arm and into the node, then popped out the top as neat lines of text.

[Syntial Additions and Expansion]

Available Options: 46 {Expand? Y | N}

Recommended Options: 3

{Tracking Pulse}

Prima I | Active | Kinse and Cebrum | Light | Cost: Variable

Nothing can escape your grasp with this powerful pulse. Send out a wave of anima light that can return several different bits of information. Designating what information is desired before casting the spell is required, or it will default to the most frequently used method.

{Spell Configurations}

Detect Heartbeat | 30ft Radius | Cost: 2.5% Anima per Pulse

There are many vibrations in the world, but heartbeats are unique. This configuration will find anything with a heartbeat and highlight it in your vision. Highlight lasts for thirty seconds and is visible through most barriers.

Detect Anima | 20ft Radius | Cost: 10% Anima per Pulse

While anima is everywhere, living beings and powerful items have it in higher concentrations. Highlight high concentrations of anima in your vision with this configuration. Highlight lasts for thirty seconds and is visible through most barriers.

Detect Spell | 10ft Radius | Cost: 25% Anima per Pulse

Yes, spells are made of Anima, but this detection will tell you what spell is being cast. That information will be saved to your core and retrievable at a Mastery node within twenty-four hours. Cost for making the detected spell available at the Mastery node varies based on the spell.

{Acid Sting}

Prima I | Weapon Aura | Mana | Death | Cost: 15% Anima/minute

Enchant your weapons with acidic mana, letting every strike sting. The corrosive acid will burn away organic material at a rate of n=10%, where n is how much acid was applied in the strike. Quick strikes leave behind less. Long gashes where a blade is fully coated will leave more. Blunt strikes will splatter, so beware of friendly fire!

*Warning: Acid Sting does not differentiate between friend or foe.

{Silk Weaver}

Prima I | Active | Anima | Chaos | Cost: .5% Anima/foot of silk

Weave the fabric of chaos anima into silk as strong as magnite, but flexible like a blade of grass.

Intrinsic Weave Patterns available at Prima I:

Basic Harness Small Net Rope

You may attempt to teach yourself new Weave Patterns by experimenting and practicing. Once a Weave Pattern is well defined, it can be shared at the Mastery node for others to learn at an anima cost.

Woven Silk will persist for [2] hours, then disintegrate.

Woven Silk can be stored inside the body in statis, then deployed at will any orifice or extremity.

-----

Any… Orifice…

Rhen saw horrible visions of Eli vomiting silk all over Olliat at dinner as a prank.

He shook it off and looked back at the spells again. They were all pretty incredible. Detect Spell was insanity! There was no way he was going to pass that up. Sure, it was expensive to cast and he’d have to be right on top of the spell—which meant he was probably getting slapped in the face with it—but he could replicate anything… if he got back to a Mastery node within twenty-four hours of detecting it.

Okay, so there were a lot of stipulations, but it was still useful for the other two abilities, too. Detecting heartbeats was useful in the whismics forest if they wanted to be the ones sneaking, and detecting anima could really help them find high concentrations of ores in the walls and more. It was a great ability.

Acid Sting was also great for him. If he could infuse his arrows with it, too, even cooler. He’d get it eventually, but Tracking Pulse was first up on his list. Silk Weaver was interesting, but not really Rhen’s mug of brew. He saw the utility in it though and might grab it if he had the capacity to spare. It was definitely something that Bort and the other crafters would probably want to know.

“Know what you’re going to get?” Jakira asked in a quiet voice.

“Tracking Pulse first, then Acid Sting. You?”

“Acid Sting doesn’t do me much good, since I’d burn myself and anyone else nearby. I think I’ll get Tracking Pulse and Silk Weaver. I could see some fun surprise net deployments on hapless fish. We are running dreadfully low on fish… with Aki still gone,” she whispered the last bit.

Rhen hadn’t forgotten his promise. “Do you think it’s time to go in there and get him back?”

“He may already be dead.”

Rhen wanted to tell her that wasn’t true, of course Aki was fine. He was strong and capable and believed in himself. But nothing came out. His voice was caught in his throat.

“Your turn, Deo,” Paul said, pointing to the node.

Rhen shook himself out of it and stepped up to the Mastery node for his selection. He wasn’t as overflowing as he would’ve liked, so he just stuck to Tracking Pulse, which took up residence on the top of his left foot—and stung like all hells.

Rhen tapped his foot gently, thinking, “Heartbeat” as he did. A red anima wave rippled out and up from his foot, bouncing around the room. When the wave hit someone, a soft red glow hung on them in their chest, beating with what he guessed was their heart’s rhythm. Jakira’s heartbeat was all over the place, faster, then slower, then faster again.

She stepped up to the node and got both Tracking Pulse and Silk Weaver. The Silk Weaver syntial glowed purple on the palms of each of her hands, with little accompanying swirly circles on the tips of each finger. She activated the spell and purple light danced between her fingers. She moved them like she’d always known the spell, delicately pulling the threads of chaos anima around and around until she had a little three-foot rope.

Jakira gave her best smile, then whipped Rhen with the end of the rope. Everyone chuckled, but Rhen could see that her heart was hammering up and down, wild and fearful. He had to get her out of here and clear this whole thing up.

Rhen cleared his throat. “Alright, thanks again everyone for the raid. We’ll have a debrief about what’s next sometime tomorrow. Jak and I are going to go do a little duo fighting in the alpine chamber. We’ll be back after dinner.”

He grabbed her hand and turned away from the group. They passed the inn and made it down to the beachhead. The train cart waited off to the side, but Rhen spied the jetski prototype off to the left, bobbing in the still water of the shallows.

Maybe he could make it a little fun for them.

They climbed on and Rhen took off across the lake with Jakira holding tight around his waist. He weaved this way and that, dodging the shadows of fish that might think they were something tasty. He whooped at a spray of water that hit him in the face, laughing, but Jakira didn’t laugh.

Great.

This was not going to go well.