John didn’t realize how awkward the long minute of silence when he hugged Charlotte really was until Lena coughed, breaking his mind’s resounding empathy with the healer.

“Umm, sorry, I hope you’re okay Charlotte,” he almost felt how red his face had gotten from embarrassment, “I just mean we’re a team, and as the leader of said team I will make sure you’ll be ok, alright? No one else should judge you for being born as you are, you’re not a bad person,” his cool returned to him as he spoke.

She nodded her head a little, then looked over to Lena and back to John, “I’d like to talk to Lena for a little while John. Is it okay if I meet up with you in the dining hall?” for the first time he didn’t sense any hesitation from her, and so he happily agreed. Leaving the room with cautious steps.

He wandered through the hallways, first heading towards the classroom they had last been here. John had hoped that Ember was still there, he wanted to talk to her as well. Clear up just as much as he managed with Charlotte. But the universe, or she perhaps, had different plans.

Ember was there, in the classroom, but she wasn’t the only one. Ingrid was there as well, a smile on her face upon seeing John, “I heard you picked up hiding Mana just as easily as adding your will to it, good work,” she looked him over, “and I hope Ember has been helpful. She requested to join your team, and I hesitated at first. Yet it seems the addition of someone more experienced has been useful. Good.”

“I do appreciate her addition, Ingrid. But are you getting at something?” John looked at the leader of the Council with slight suspicion.

“Oh, not at all, but I’m glad to see your team is forming well. There is another member I must discuss with you. A pilot by the name of Ruby Hunt, she will accompany you on your exploration. She’s from Earth, but has vast experience with the second Plane and its equipment. I hope you will learn to use your “newtype” abilities from her,” Ingrid said monotonically, then stepped out of the classroom, “I will see you at your next lesson.”

John was left with only Ember, and an awkward silence followed. Ember broke it, “that’s enough standing around, we have less than a day and a half left to prepare. Let’s go find the others,” she was being practical, but it was odd.

“Wait, Ember, was what you said yesterday true? Did you really want to stop being a spy, to stop working for Ingrid?” he hesitated to leave this opportunity with unanswered questions still on his mind. Whether they were his to ask or not.

“Yes, it was, John. And just like none of us question you on the topic of Alice, please don’t interfere in my personal business,” she almost huffed at first, and walked to the door. John felt guilty about asking, she was right of course, but he felt a duty to her just as much as to the rest. Just before Ember left, however, she turned back, “no, that’s unfair. You’re the first person to actually care enough to ask. And all I can do is just push back. I guess I can’t say I don’t understand Matthew. John, I promise one day I’ll tell you why. I’ll tell you who I really am. But for now please understand that this is far better than my alternatives,” she turned her head back, but the gamer caught the shred of a smile.

He accepted it, there was nothing more he could do, so John followed. A walk in silence followed until they arrived at the dining hall. Where they found the rest of the team waiting. Charlotte was also there, and he saw the trace of a smile on her face. Bass called out to them as soon as they arrived.

“You guys are late, Boss,” as both John and Ember sat in the two free seats at the edge of the wooden table. Apart from them, the room was unusually empty. A couple soldiers sat in the edges of the halls, but no big groups were rushing in and out of the room. John wasn’t sure what to say to the rest, after everything that he had discovered today it seemed strange to disregard it. Yet it wasn’t his to tell.

“Is everyone ready for the final prep? I hope we can get as much as we can finished today. What do we still have on the list, Bass?” he saw her pulling up a small purple notebook where she had stuck a piece of paper with the list.

“Not much left, basic food and water seemed to be covered, even a bit extra. We have the power generator and guns for self defense. Got some Abyssal medical supplies from Strong. Shelter is dealt with, so think it’s just mapping supplies and the arcane beacon left,” she finished, looking at each of them according to their requests.

“Right, so a bit more work for Strong, I have a question for him anyways. Are you all ok with that?” a couple of nods were returned. Matthew didn’t even object though he had a sour look on his face.

‘Moving crates is too boring to describe,’ John thought to himself as he put down the last of the crates for the hour of work they had left to do. At least he had gotten one point in endurance. But even that wasn’t really worth it, what was is the knowledge they were finally done, ’it’s almost evening again too, but I need to talk to Strong and Bass before I leave. The money is important,’ finding Bass among one of the shelves he talked to her as the others were wrapping up their tasks.

“Hey Bass! Do you know much about Abyssal computers? I might have a question or two?” he tapped her on the shoulder.

“Oh, lots, why? You looking to join me for some gaming?” she smiled.

“Well, maybe. But first I need to get one, hopefully a laptop. Since apparently I get paid fifty thousand dollars every month for being an explorer, I should use it,” he felt embarrassed even saying the amount.

“You shouldn’t worry,” she saw through him immediately, “that’s good, but stuff like that is normal in the Abyss. Hell, we get paid like twenty thousand a month too. Though now that I know you get paid double, you’re gonna pay for drinks!”

“Sure, sure. So is that enough? Any recommendations?” he asked.

“I can help you look for something, if you want,” she offered.

“That would be great. Anything else you think is useful that I could buy?”

“Maybe a couple of things, a ManaPad for sure. Maybe some enchantment scrolls. Could even choose some books that might help you learn more magic?” her enthusiasm grew as she spoke.

“Umm, alright, sure. Let’s do that. Maybe just the essentials for now though, think the rest can wait for after the trip to XR2,” he tried reasoning.

“Ugh, fine,” she responded with a chuckle.

John messaged Alice he would be a bit late, but would absolutely come. And then Bass dragged him into her own room. It was way different than he imagined. None of the Council furnishings remained. Even the bed had been replaced by a smaller one, to make room for the two TVs in the room. One was attached to the wall in front of the bed, and the other stood on a small TV stand. Where a variety of things that looked like councils were stored. Though John recognized none of them. Next to it in the corner of the room was what looked like a chair from a Sci-Fi movie, and a PC far smaller than what he expected. At least the keyboard and mouse were typical, a Corsair model he recognized, along with something resembling a VR headset. Every single wall was covered by movie, game and TV posters. Some that John could recognize, and most that he couldn’t.

“This is awesome Bass! Didn’t know they let us change our rooms this much,” it was awesome. Like her own personal gamer dimension in the middle of the Victorian HQ of the Council.

“Once we oficially become agents we probably won’t have this much space. But most of this is easy to move with some stuff I bought,” she huffed proudly, “anyways. I saw you texting your girlfriend, so let’s make this quick. You’ll get to see what real gaming is like some other time.”

“Umm, sure, so where should I start. I already have an Abyssal Auction account set up on my phone,” John asked, a little more curious about the consoles than the explanation.

“The Abyss Auction is pretty easy to understand, it’s like Ebay. With both genuine auctions of valuable items and small purchasable goods up at all times. For now let’s just see what kind of laptops are on the market, that’s most important,” he nodded his head in response, and they began looking together.

It took them a while of scrolling on Bass’ PC before she found something she agreed to. Though the specs John saw made him want every one, despite him now understand even less about computers than in the mundane world. Every Abyss Auction ad started with flashy words like ‘five hundred terra bytes’, or ‘the graphics card can go up to three giga hertz!’. But quickly Bass told him it was all marketing crap. While they were much more powerful than mundane computers, the requirements for Abyssal programs and games were even higher.

Eventually they settled on a laptop named the ‘Rana Model 02’ apparently referencing an anime. It looked cool as hell, and the specs were up to par according to Bass, so there went twenty thousand of his hard earned dollars. The site itself mentioned it would arrive to any location, within or without Earth, in twenty four hours. And John really hoped that was the case. He already wanted to try it out.

He finally got to Alice’s around eight. What was waiting for him was surprising. Hanna was nowhere to be seen despite the late hour. Instead Alice opened the door, wearing a less casual attire. It was more like a dress than anything, black with a blue tints with just a hint of frills. Despite being long it showed her figure well.

“I’m a little underdressed, you should have told me it was this kind of date,” John laughed, but it was an awkward one.

“But it was supposed to be a surprise,” Alice almost pouted, but jumped to hug and kiss him as he stepped through the door, “I didn’t make dinner, I ordered it. But I thought if you’re leaving for who knows how long we should do something special. Even convinced mom to leave us alone for a couple of hours,” she dragged him over to the dining table. Which had a pretty tablecloth and candles set on it. It contrasted with the plastic containers of pasta and sauce that were placed across the table. John found it funny.

’She really tried,’ he smiled.

“What are you smiling about,” she first asked, almost nervously.

“Nothing, let’s sit down, everything looks great!” he looked to her.

After a loud sigh, she did, and for a while they chatted while eating the still hot food. It was great, especially considering how little John had been eating recently. Despite him not feeling hungry, now that he ate something in him did relax. When they had first gotten to a lull in the conversation, Alice brought something up.

“You said you’d tell me about the people you met, right?”

“I did promise,” he laughed. Then John told her about his teammates and Orianna, though he spared what details related to the Abyss. It almost made them sound like entirely normal students.

“Bass sounds nice,” Alice chuckled after he told her how much she helped him, “but almost all of them are girls. Should I be worried?”

“Never,” he instantly said. Not even sure if she was serious or not.

“Good, cause I wasn’t,” she moved her chair to sit next to him and kissed him on the cheek. Despite both of them still eating, he appreciated how close they were now.

It wasn’t much longer before they were both finished, and before they knew it a few minutes turned to an hour. Before they realized how late it had gotten, a knock on the door interrupted.

“Alice, are you guys still down here? I forgot my key,” Hannah’s voice penetrated into the dining room.

“Yeah, we’re still here. Let me open the door, just a sec,” Alice responded, though she sounded disappointed.

On the other side of the door was a very rough looking Hanna. She looked like she had been drinking, her hair was messy, and even her ordinarily neat clothes looked wrong.

“Are you ok, mom?” Alice’s eyes opened wide as she saw her mother.

“I’m fine, but I need to talk to both of you for a second. Is that clear?” they both nodded without hesitation.

They had all sat down, after Hanna had cleaned herself up a bit. And she started more calmly then John expected.

“Your dad didn’t die from some unkown disease. I’m not even sure he’s dead, but something happened to him. A few months before he started having symptoms-”

“What do you mean you’re not sure he’s dead? Mom, we buried him!” Alice burst in, already completely rattled. Her mother sighed but continued.

“For now just listen, this is important. Back then he found something strange on the internet, some medical conference he never heard of. When he went to it, he came back different. Something else was always on his mind, he kept disappearing, and he started getting sick. Phsyically and mentally, he wasn’t himself anymore. But whatever it was, I never stopped trying to find out. I looked everywhere, talked to his friends, checked his computer. But nobody knew anything about where this place was, or who else was there. Or even what it was for. When he started getting worse I thought he caught some rare disease, since he was keeping himself locked up. But then, one day he just disappeared.

“I didn’t know what to do, what to tell you. So I told you he was dead. Maybe I hoped he was, just so I didn’t have to find out what the hell had happened. Clean up more of his messes. But I was wrong, you and I both have a right to know what happened to him. And more than that, if he is still alive you deserve to have a father again,” she paused for a second and turned to John.

“The reason I’m even telling you two this is because of you John. Wherever you’re disappearing to, it’s the same. I followed you that warehouse that you never came out of. And while I don’t know if you have any information about my husband, but you are maybe both our best chance to find him. So tell me, where exactly are you going every day?”

John didn’t know what to say, he was still processing the information Hanna had said so quickly. A silence stretched out into minutes, or hours, he wasn’t sure. When he finally spoke, “I will tell you, but not Alice. I don’t want her to face the danger you’re going to be dealing. From what I know, if your husband dealt with anything similar, he was in an extreme amount of danger. He might still be. The best way to keep you two safe is for you to not know. But it’s your choice,” John knew it was Alice’s too, but he couldn’t take that risk. He couldn’t let Ingrid or anyone else be able to make good on the threat to the one person he cared about. As long as she was not in the Abyss, she would be safe. Or so he thought.