If Sylver wasn’t watching the ground below him move, he wouldn’t have thought Mora was walking. During the rare times that Sylver required the use of a horse, he found the experience painful, irritating, and more often than not, the animal hated him for no apparent reason.

Even when Sylver used undead horses, the hardened muscles made them strong, but also made it very uncomfortable to ride them. Undead might be incapable of feeling pain, but there were certain places where undead men preferred not to be hit, regardless of whether they had anything down there or not.

Mora on the other hand made Sylver not just comfortable, she adjusted the saddle until it fit Sylver perfectly. On top of that, she wasn’t moving her back as she walked. Sylver’s ride was smoother than if he had been walking on his own two feet.

Sylver didn’t even need to keep his body straight, Mora already had her strings gently wrapped around his limbs, and for whatever reason, was encouraging him to take a nap. Sylver was tempted to accept her offer, but even though he trusted Mora with his life, her inexperience wasn’t something Sylver could ignore.

He allowed his body to become lax but remained awake and kept his eyes and ears open. It was hard for even Sylver to spot an ambush; he didn’t doubt Mora’s instincts, but it wasn’t a risk he was willing to take.

Apart from staring, no one had an issue with Sylver or his pale steed. They passed through the crowded streets undisturbed.

Mora started to transform the moment they were out of sight; her legs made a wet squelching sound as they split into two. Her hooves and horseshoes dissolved away, as her claws spread out and silently clutched at the moist earth.

She shook her head and her 6 eyes opened up, and as she twisted her head 360 degrees on its axis, thin lines appeared down her forehead and sides. The reins Sylver had been holding onto disappeared from his hand, and in the distance, he heard that familiar slicing sound that indicated Mora was spreading out her strings.

The threads that she used to pretend to have hair lost their fluff and lay down until Mora looked slick with oil. Sylver noticed she did the same to him, and through their connection understood that this was to help against air resistance.

Mora shook her head again, and with the speed of a released arrow, her body was flung high into the air. She timed it in such a way that Sylver just barely felt the sudden increase in speed, he honestly couldn’t even tell if she was using wild magic to do this, or if she was just that good at manipulating her body.

“You’ve been quiet,” Sylver said, as Mora continued accelerating, and continued going higher and higher into the air.

“You’re on your way to kill two people, and all you know are their names, and what they look like. You didn’t ask why you’re killing them; you didn’t ask whether they did anything to deserve this, you didn’t even blink when you said you’d do it. What if they’re completely innocent? And they were chosen completely at random?” Ria asked as Sylver tried to figure out a way of explaining himself without making it sound like he didn’t care.

“You’re asking the wrong questions,” Sylver said.

Mora was just a little higher than the clouds right now, she seemed to feel that this was the best height for “flying.”

“What’s the right question then? No, wait, I know… If you don’t do this, you won’t be able to get Edmund. And with that in mind, the who, and why, is irrelevant,” Ria said.

Her tone was very strange, Sylver couldn’t tell if she was mocking him, or if she was just making sure she understood his thinking properly. She didn’t sound snide, but she didn’t sound relaxed and neutral either.

“That’s the long and short of it, yes. It’s also a great reminder that the weak suffer what they must,” Sylver said, as Ria moved her whole body out of his robe and sat down opposite him on Mora’s neck.

Mora didn’t seem to mind and covered Ria in air resistance reducing strings before the liquid metal woman was done forming her face.

“I see. You’re weaker than that Owl person, so you have to do this,” Ria said. Sylver once more couldn’t tell if this was a dig at him, or if she was genuinely asking.

“I’m more worried about the people backing him up… You’ve been acting very strange lately, is everything ok?” Sylver asked.

Ria, who currently looked like a child covered in shiny black metal, with a golden mask, looked away from Sylver for a moment.

“You’ve been around for a long time, right?” Ria asked.

“You could say that, yes,” Sylver said.

“And you do things the way you do because you’ve learned from past mistakes, and found that your current methods are the best, right?” Ria asked.

“I’m more comfortable saying that they work, I wouldn’t call them the best,” Sylver said.

“But if there were better alternatives, you would be using them, right? And since you aren’t, then that means that what you do now is the best out of all your available options,” Ria asked, and Sylver could hear the frustration in her voice as if she was on the verge of crying.

“We’ve already discussed this Ria, if you have a problem with what I’m doing, talk to me. I’ve been nothing but reasonable with you, since the very first day we met,” Sylver said, as Ria lifted her hands up to her face and just held them there for a while.

“Is this what I’m supposed to be like?” Ria asked with a gesture towards Sylver. “If I want to do something meaningful in the world, do I have to act like you and do the things you do?” Ria asked as Sylver shook his head.

“Of course not,” Sylver said, and for a moment Ria’s body lost its shape as she didn’t get the answer she was expecting. “While I appreciate the compliment, I’m not perfect Ria. I make mistakes, my pride can get in the way, I have blind spots, I can be impatient, I can miss something obvious, there are a million ways I could approach any situation and fuck it up,” Sylver explained, as Ria moved her hands away from his face.

“But you said…” her voice trailed off as Mora continued silently moving at a speed Ria would later compare to an airplane.

“You don’t look at the world with the same eyes I do. You will have options available to you, that I won’t. You also have something I never will,” Sylver explained.

“What?” Ria asked.

Sylver gestured at himself and spooked Mora with the sudden movement.

“Me. If you ever need help with something, you have your very own Sylver Sezari to ask for help. Life will be difficult Ria, you will fail, you’ll be tricked, you’ll make mistakes, you’ll learn that there are some things you can’t do, you’ll find lines you’re unwilling to cross. And when that happens, just tell me what you want, and I’ll get it for you,” Sylver explained with a wide grin plastered on his face.

“But if I ask you for help, and you do the things you do…” Ria gestured at Sylver while she tried to find the right words.

“That will be something you will have to decide for yourself. Not everyone is willing to receive help from me. Even in the Ibis, some would rather fail than ask me for help. There have been times when people asked for help and didn’t know what they were asking. There were also those that regretted asking for my help,” Sylver explained, as Ria just stared at him.

“Why did they regret it?” Ria asked.

Sylver’s face softened as he was reminded that, in some ways, Ria was a child.

“They refused to accept that sometimes you can’t have it both ways. I’ve already explained to you how important it is to be specific in your requests, right? It isn’t just something you do out of politeness, the purpose of being specific when asking something of someone, is that you’re not disappointed when you get what you asked for. You want to give SAM a soul,” Sylver said, and Ria’s whole body tensed up, as well as her soul.

“You said you can’t do it,” Ria said.

“What if I said I can do it, but I’ll need to kill 500,000 people? Would that be a result you would be happy with? I would have done as you asked after all,” Sylver asked, and could tell right away this was a terrible example.

Because Ria would have accepted it, Sylver could feel it in her soul. He could also tell she would never forgive herself for being indirectly responsible for that many deaths.

“No,” Ria said. The word slid out of her mouth with a bitter aftertaste.

“How many deaths would you be comfortable with? 1? Would you be happy if I killed 1 person, and was able to give SAM a soul?” Sylver asked.

“I hate this hypothetical,” Ria said as her golden face contoured into a scowl.

“I’m not sure why I chose it either. But the point I’m trying to make is that you can’t get something for nothing. But the methods of payment we have available aren’t the same. I can’t talk my way into a secret rebellion, but I’m sure Aether could. I can conquer a city without destroying a single house, but Edmund can’t,” Sylver explained, as Mora sent him a very strange warning through their connection.

“So, you’re saying that just because you choose to use violence, death, threats, theft, dishonesty, and deception as payment for what you want, I don’t have to?” Ria asked as Sylver decided not to take her words to heart and nodded at her with a smile on his face.

“That’s a good way of putting it,” Sylver concluded.

***

Sylver shielded his eyes from the blinding sunlight as Mora continued running through the air. They had traveled through the night, and because of Mora’s gradual acceleration, were in the area the ruins were said to be by the time the third sun had finished rising.

Sadly, despite Sylver’s hopes, there wasn’t an obvious clearing or a giant pillar of smoke, it was mostly large orange boulders, and enormous cracks in the ground, any of which could contain the aforementioned ruins.

Even though everyone kept their eyes open, it was pointless. There were cracks, rocks, and that’s about it.

There were a few things to consider here.

For starters, the sheer size of this “desert” didn’t make sense. Other than the Schlagen mountains, Sylver couldn’t see anything anywhere else. He should have been able to see the edge of the desert from this height, and yet to his eyes, it appeared to be endless.

Which meant that either a fae was messing with Sylver, or that this piece of land was made to be this way on purpose. Owl didn’t know what kind of ruins there were here, but Sylver could hazard a guess and now was all but certain that these “ruins” were actually a dungeon.

It would certainly explain why Sylver was lost. His sense of direction had never been perfect, but if it weren’t for the Schlagen mountains being visible, he would have been completely lost.

“There’s something over there,” Ria said, as she gestured in the direction in question with a golden tendril.

Mora silently flew towards the spot Ria had pointed, and after a couple of minutes, Sylver started to see an odd mixture of green and blue. A few minutes later, the shimmering image solidified until he saw a large lake, surrounded by lush green grass and bushes.

Sylver actually hurt Mora a little, as he very tightly gripped her by the back of her neck and told her to stop. She nearly threw Sylver off her from how fast she stopped.

Sylver summoned his ax into his hand and covered it in a thick layer of [Necrotic Mutilation]. He placed 5 shades into the ax’s shadow and launched the weapon towards the crystal-clear pool of water.

The ax fell short, given the great distance between them, and disappeared for a moment in a cloud of orange dust. The 5 shades materialized in the dust cloud, and one of the swordsmen picked up Sylver’s ax, and along with his 4 peers, started to run towards the oasis.

From this height and distance, Sylver and company had a perfect view of the picture-perfect watering hole, as the shades ran towards it.

He was surprised by the range on [Lesser Undead Instruction] as he was able to wordlessly command the 5 shades to pretend to be weary travelers. All 5 undead ran through the dense foliage and jumped into the empty pool.

“Holy shit,” Ria said, as Sylver couldn’t help but smile to himself, as he, Ria, and Spring, watched enormous skin triangles appear around the edges of the oasis.

The triangles slowly and silently became larger and larger, as they closed around the oasis, along with the 5 shades that were mutely splashing each other with warm water. As the giant boulders fell away from the skin triangles, they started to curl upwards.

As the triangles snapped shut over the oasis, and the unsuspecting shades, Sylver expected to hear a loud noise, followed by a wave of intense air pressure.

Instead, he watched as the dead silent flesh-colored dome sunk into the ground and left behind an enormous hole. Sylver and company just stared at the giant hole, and Spring was the first to notice the oddly shaped cracks on the walls of the hole.

“That looks like…” Sylver started, but Ria completed his sentence.

“A city…” Ria said, as the flesh of the dome silently moved back to the surface.

Without making a sound it opened its mouth, and within a minute, not a single trace of its enormous flesh triangles remained. It had wiggled them around, and the sand and boulders covered up any traces of a trap.

Even though Sylver knew they were right there, he couldn’t tell where they started or stopped.

After the 5 shades returned to Sylver’s shadow, he and Mora circled around the once again pristine and untouched oasis and made their way towards the area they had seen the city. Amidst the various cracks and boulders, Sylver’s shades found several entrances.

“If it’s a dungeon, it doesn’t feel like one…” Sylver said mostly to himself, as he peered over the edge of the crack in the ground and could see a street and two buildings down below.

“We’re going down there, aren’t we,” Ria said.

It wasn’t even a question, just a statement.

“We are, yes. I imagine being buried is enough to “ruin” most cities. But who knows? Maybe we’ll find something interesting down there,” Sylver said, as Mora’s shoulders popped as she began to transform into a shape better suited for fighting in confined spaces.

I’ve got a good feeling about this, Sylver thought, as he summoned his ax into his hand again, and dropped it down into the hole they were about to fall through.