“What? Are you out of your damned mind?” Theresa demanded. “You’re not leaving me behind!”

Alex winced, looking up from his spell-guide for Planar Doorway. He swallowed, feeling the full power of Theresa’s ‘death stalker’ face.

‘You can’t budge on this one, Alex.’ He thought. ‘You can’t.’

He met her gaze head on.

The two of them were alone in their apartment in the insula after Alex’s alchemy class and Theresa’s shift at the beastarium. Claygon and Brutus were on their way to the junior school to surprise Selina, which left Alex alone with Theresa to tell her about his plans for Cretalikon.

A day had passed since Baelin’s talk with him about Kaz-Mowang, and that conversation had brought him to one firm conclusion, one that involved Theresa, one he knew she would fight him on.

He’d tried to break the news to her gently, but directly.

There were certain things he could have done in an attempt to ‘soften things’ if he wanted to. He could have made her a favourite dish, or offered her a relaxing foot massage while she sipped some fresh pine needle tea. But, what awaited him was hard and dangerous.

She deserved to get the hard truth of it.

“I wish I didn’t have to bring anyone at all that I love with me, but I don’t have a choice, I have to bring Claygon.” Alex said. “We talked about this: what I’m doing is gonna be…crazy dangerous. I’m going down deep into the hells, Baelin won’t be there as a safety net because his focus has to be on Ezaliel.”

“Alex…” Her nostrils flared as her frown deepened. “That…that doesn’t make any sense. That’s more reason for me to come with you: we’ve been protecting each other since before the Cave of the Traveller, and now you want to go down into the hells without me? How would you feel if I said I was going to do something so deadly by myself? And I don’t mean my hunts, I mean, literally going down into a place like the hells with mostly strangers.”

“I know you won’t like this but, yeah, Claygon’s going to be waiting in reserve at a portal, since he can’t be right beside me.” Alex said. “Baelin and I talked about the best way to do things: a war-golem wouldn’t have worked with the plan we came up with, but he can be part of the plan if Baelin transports him to a different part of the domain with a couple of summoned monsters that he’ll be conjuring. They’ll be killing any wild demons that are waiting anywhere near thatportal. Claygon’ll have a spell-mark that’ll teleport him to me the instant I call him, and he’ll be bringing the summons with him.”

“So Claygon’s not going to be at your side?” Theresa balked further. “Even more reason you need me. Come on, Alex, you’re not the kind of guy that would just turn to me and say ‘this is too dangerous’. You’re not, so where’s this coming from?”

Alex winced. “I…I don’t wanna say it.”

“Come on, talk to me.” She slid into the chair across from him at their little table. “What’s going through your head? Tell me, because I can’t understand this. It doesn’t make sense to me.”

He sighed, closing the spell-guide. Alex looked into his partner’s eyes, his hands sliding across the table to take hers. “The thing is…” he said slowly. “I don’t want to risk anyone close to me: It bothers me that I even have to bring Claygon along, but both he and Baelin said it’d be rash not to have at least one close ally down there.”

“Then I can wait with Claygon. Baelin can put a spell-mark on me too, and you can call me and him. If things go wrong, I’ll be there to back you up.”

“It’s…jeez, listen Theresa, I’m thinking about our family, about Selina,” he said. “Look, I’m going on this mission, and I’m taking a big risk. I know that. If things go wrong…and…by the Traveller I don’t want to even think about this—if you, me and Claygon die down there—then what happens to Selina? What happens to Brutus? That’d be almost our entire family wiped out…just like that.”

The huntress winced, squeezing his hands. “I get that. But we fight together against dangers all the time. The demon attack here in Generasi. The Ravener-spawn back home. By fighting together, we made sure we both came back together.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Alex said. “But this is me trying to infiltrate a greater demon’s palace—at his party—to get my hands on information about the Traveller that could help us. It’s risky, it’s dangerous and…honestly, I think taking you with me would be pretty selfish. I want to fight by your side, but…Brutus, Selina…your parents. I just want to hedge all my bets. I’m taking people along to back me up. Baelin’s going to help me. I wouldn’t be doing this at all if I didn’t think I had a good chance of pulling it off. But, I want to make sure that—if something does go wrong—that your parents still have a daughter, that Brutus still has his mom and…”

He took a deep breath. “...and that Selina has someone to come home to after school. I promise, this isn’t going to become a habit, but like…I dunno. Just give me this, this one time.”

Theresa remained silent for a time, looking deeply into Alex’s eyes. A thousand thoughts seemed to brew behind her eyes, most would be left unsaid.

She finally spoke. “Alright. It is hard, Alex, and I hate having to think like this. I hate it. But, if I go with you, it would be selfish. I’d be going for you and me, not for Brutus and not for Selina. I wish I didn’t have to make this decision…but you’re right. This is different from Thameland, or when we were attacked in Generasi.”

“Yeah, and I hate it too,” Alex agreed. “Listen, I want you to come with me, but…you saw what happened in Cawarthin, in Ikharrash’s fortress.

Her hands squeezed his. “We were affected by the terror-field and the demons swarmed us. If it wasn’t for Baelin’s spell-marks, we’d all be dead. And you say this Kaz-Mowang’s as powerful as Zonon-In?”

“Yeah,” Alex’s expression was grim.

She shuddered. “If she’d been really trying against us, we would’ve all died in the Crymlyn, even with Cedric and the witches’ trees helping. If things do go wrong, we’ll be gone, me, you and Claygon…and if the worst does happen…”

“Brutus and Selina are going to need someone to comfort and support them, someone who understands what they’re going through, not three corpses.”

“Yeah…” Her grip on his hands was so strong, they ached. “Alright. I trust you to come back to us. Go…but make sure you come back.” She leaned forward, kissing his forehead across the table. “Come back to me.”

“I will,” Alex said, kissing her lips. “I swear on the Traveller, I'll come back to you.”

For a moment, they held each other’s hands in silence.

…and then the apartment door began creeping open, its hinges squeaking.

In a wild moment, Alex thought demons were at the door to kill him since he was an associate of Baelin’s, or else as revenge for Cawarthin and Tenebrama. Or maybe it was the Ravener’s clawed monsters sent from across the sea by Thameland’s ancient enemy, claws ready to gut him.

When a horned figure loomed in the doorway, his thoughts went even wilder, imagining Burn-Saw or even Kaz-Mowang himself there to murder them in their apartment.

It was Theresa’s voice that returned him to sanity.

“Thundar?” she asked.

Alex blinked.

The horned figure standing in the doorway was the towering figure of his friend. Alex’s sigh of relief was so strong, he nearly doubled over. “Thundar, you scared the soul out of me! Holy shit.”

“Jumpy, much?” Thundar’s hooves tromped across the threshold as he slammed the door behind him. “Is it because you’re about to go down to the hells to face some greater demon by yourself?”

Alex winced. “You heard?”

“I did. I certainly did.” He dropped into a chair beside his shorter friend. The minotaur glared down at him. “You know, you’ve done a lot of crazy shit, but this might be the damndest, most foolish, craziest thing you’ve ever talked about. Which is why I’m coming with you.”

“Yeah, it’s—wait what now?”

“I heard everything you said from: ‘Theresa, I’ve got to protect all my friends by going down to the hells with a bunch of strangers.’, but you’re going to need at least one person with you to watch your back, Alex. And I get why Theresa can’t come—if I was in your shoes, I’d have said everything you said to her, that all makes perfect sense. If all of you die, it’d put your sister and Brutus in a real bad way. But me? I’m the perfect guy to go with you. As I said, you’re gonna need someone right there with you to watch your back.”

“Thundar, I—”

“Remember when we were cooking for the last Festival of Ghosts? I told you: If I die in battle protecting a friend, then I die in battle protecting a friend. There’s few better deaths than that. That’s how I feel, and my ancestors would praise me for it. And me?” He pointed to his chest. “I don’t got a girlfriend or little sisters, or dogs to worry about. If I fall, my family will mourn, but if they know how I fell, they’ll be as proud as my ancestors.”

“Thundar,” Theresa cut in. “You can’t just say you’re expendable.”

“I’m not, what, are you nuts?’ He looked at her like she was nuts. “I’m just saying I’m well positioned to take the risk. And, I got skills he’ll need. I can fight, but that’s not the point. Remember the terror-field? I resisted that. I taught the rest of our team how to get through the wrath-field: when Cretalikon’s mania-field hits, you can guarantee I’ll keep my head. Can you say the same for a bunch of strangers? You got mercenaries, but you’ll need one good friend to keep an eye on them and you.”

“Thundar, if anything happened to you, I’d never forgive myself,” Alex insisted.

“Good.” The minotaur clapped his friend on the shoulder. “That’ll give you an extra reason to be real careful so we get back home. Because if you let me die down there, I’m gonna become the nastiest demon-marked ghost you ever did see. I’ll haunt the shit out of you.”

“What if I’m dead too?”

“Extra haunting. There’re no rules saying that ghosts can’t haunt other ghosts. Besides.” He nodded toward the apartment across the insula’s courtyard. “You know that when Khalik finds out you’re leaving him behind, he’s gonna hit the roof, right? Isolde’s gonna lecture you about only taking mercenaries down there with you.”

“Oh, she doesn’t have any ground to stand on when it comes to ‘not bringing people with you to dangerous places’.” Alex scoffed. “She didn’t bring Hogarth or Svenia on our trips to the hells.”

“Um.” Theresa cleared her throat. “Alex…can you think of one single reason why Isolde might not have wanted to bring…extra protection from her household with her?”

Alex paused, the memory of Cedric’s arm around Isolde’s waist returning to him. “...oh.”

“Huh.” Thundar chuckled. “I’ll need to use that against her. Point is. You need at least one person at your side for this crazy quest. I got the skills, I’m volunteering, and I wouldn’t be leaving behind responsibilities. Plus, it’d make Isolde and Khalik feel better. Come on, man.”

“Alex…this is selfish, but it’d make me a bit more comfortable if someone that we know was with you.”

He paused, considering everything Thundar had said, and what he was offering. “...Yeah, okay,” Alex agreed, at last.”

Wrapped in a wave of guilt, a surge of relief also came over him knowing that one of his friends would be with him. He made a vow, promising himself that nothing dire would happen to Thundar. “But if you die, and I don’t, I’m coming to the after-world to kick your ass, and if I also die, I’ll already be right there beside you kicking your ass.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Thundar grinned. “Now, I didn’t come here to bully you: I ran into Baelin earlier and he wanted me to give you a message.” The minotaur drew himself up, trying his best to mimic the chancellor’s dignified voice. “I am to inform you that your chance to recruit minions—his word, not mine—will be coming shortly. I am also to inform you that—unless they belong to races with natural fur—that Kaz-Mowang does not tolerate facial hair on his performers. Zonon-In has informed me that he thinks smooth-skins should be smooth-skins.”

He slumped his shoulders as he finished. “And that’s the message.”

Horror stricken, Alex clutched his beard protectively. “What the hells other details did she leave out? Wait…that means…I have to shave?”

Thundar nodded gravely. “You have to shave.”

“Oh no.” Alex murmured.

Theresa’s eyes shone, and a dreamy smile took her face. She looked up toward the sky as though she could see every deity in the world above her.

Releasing Alex’s hands, she collapsed her palms together in prayer. “Thank you, Traveller. Thank you.”