Phoenix and Dazien managed to find a shop that sold the ritual materials he would need to summon Rex again. She was happy for him that the Sapphire Caste materials were indeed cheaper here than in Tulimeir, and his pleased mood at being able to afford all of it himself was a nice change from what she was beginning to suspect was the false cheer he would display for others.

  They had even been kind enough to provide a ritual room for use so he didn’t have to wait any longer to resummon his companion and was once again walking around with golden scales trailing down his spine and those gold yearling antlers sprouting from his hairline.

  With her fears and anxiety over reuniting with her party members were finally feeling completely lifted from her shoulders now, her mind seemed to have also shifted toward observing those members more consciously. Being alone with Dazien now helped her reflect on not just his current state but also reflect on their history together.

  The conversation earlier about his past was eye-opening in a lot of ways. Despite only being a little over a year older than her, he had experienced so much more, especially when it came to relationships. It made her feel a decade younger than she actually was.

  He and the rest of their party members had also been expected to behave as completely independent adults much earlier than her or really any other kid she had ever met. It had taken her a while to really understand the different age brackets this world seemed to recognize compared to her original country. While most sixteen-year-olds on Earth were focused on school, sports, and getting a driver’s license, the ones here were expected to have their own home, work a full-time job, and deal with the existence of literal monsters.

  She’d never had to worry about any of that before, and even after arriving in this world, she had leaned heavily on Paul to help with all of that. He had arranged her housing, trained her personally for a job as an Adventurer, and taught her not to fear the monsters roaming the wilds or the cities.

  Only now was she beginning to wonder if he had also brought Dazien into their family for her, too. She didn’t really believe that was the case, especially when talking with Dazien about him, but she was currently acutely aware that Dazien was fulfilling a lot of the duties that she relied on Paul for. Losing him, even temporarily, had made her feel lost and overwhelmed.

  With him at her side again, her very being felt… settled. She didn’t need to fear falling when she knew he would catch her… but now there was that look she would catch on his face when he thought she wasn’t looking. That faraway look that seemed like all the happiness had drained out of him.

  Phoenix tried to think of ways to give some of that happiness back to him. She remembered when he had been there for her in some of her darkest moments. The first time she had started to subconsciously think of him as not just a friend but as a brother had been when he’d sought her out alone at her dorm and confronted her while they drank coffee together. He had refused to leave her when she was so obviously distressed, and it had been the first time she had opened up to any of her party about the trauma Murinah had inflicted on her.

  Now, he was the one dealing with a trauma she knew very little about.

  Thinking through all the things she knew could bring a smile to his face, she remembered about the quest reward she had received from the Lover for finally reuniting everyone. Pulling Dazien toward a small cafe that served various castes of magical drinks, she bought both of them the Sapphire version of this world’s mocha equivalent and sat him down for another chat without the distractions of shopping.

  Dazien took a sip and seemed to perk up. That helped her know she’d like it before she even took her own sip. Despite a lot of their differences, she had noticed their tastes in food, drinks, and coffee were nearly identical.

  “Do you think they sell this in powder form for us to stock up on?” he asked conversationally. “It’s really good, but I’d like to add those mint leaves you found back in Tulimeir.”

  She grinned. “Mint does go great with chocolate and coffee,” she agreed. “Jin was actually the first one to introduce me to it, though she got in a lot of trouble for it.”

  “Because you were sick?”

  “Yeah,” she confirmed with a sad smile. Shaking those thoughts off, she held out a hand to show him a ring of woven gold strands.

  He raised an eyebrow as he finished his sip and asked, “What’s that?”

  “For you,” she replied. “It’s a Bondweave Ring. One of a pair that I got from the Lover’s quest to find all of you.”

  “The Lover?” he asked, leaning forward to gently take the ring from her and examine it closer. “She showed up to give you a quest?”

  Phoenix shook her head and smiled. “No, she signed her name in my book.” The look of surprise on his face was priceless, but she conjured her [Guide Book] to show him what she meant and also display what the rings actually did.

  “You said you only got two of these?” Dazien asked after a long moment of contemplation.

  She nodded. “Yeah. I wish I could have gotten one for everyone, but since I didn’t, I want you to have it… if you’re okay with me wearing the other.”

  He slowly met her eyes, initial confusion shifting to a concerned frown as he seemed to think over the implications. She wasn’t sure whether he wanted her to have a direct line to what he was feeling or not, but she hoped he trusted her enough with it.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Dazien glanced back down at the ring in his hand, idly twirling it between his fingers while he thought.

  Phoenix simply waited patiently for him to work through it, for once understanding how he might be feeling about the potential risk. She would need to trust him as well for this, giving him a peek into her emotions the way Saiya already saw through both of them. While she had gotten used to Saiya’s empathic nature, she could already feel a sense of impending vulnerability at her brother having the same capability.

  “If I agree to accept this, can you promise me that you won’t panic whenever I might need to take it off?” he finally asked, looking back up at her to read her reaction. She knew it showed her surprise when he elaborated, “I don’t want to wear it at night.”

  She shrunk slightly, her shoulders dropping in realization. “Right, I’m sure you don’t want to feel my nightmares.”

  He chuckled and shook his head. “You’ve got that turned around. I don’t want you feeling mine. They’ve been pretty bad without Lady Saiya there to calm me.” After another moment of quiet understanding passing between them, he softly asked, “Why do you want me to have this?”

  “Aside from you being my brother?”

  Dazien snorted. “I don’t believe that’s your reason. If you’re just worried about losing track of me again, then Uriel should equally need this, and you obviously trust and care about him enough for the emotional link. Why not give this to him? It’ll work over his current gloves.”

  “I’m not just worried about losing track of you,” she whispered, stirring her coffee just to have something to do with her hands. Glancing up at him, she admitted, “I’m worried about you, Daze. I can easily see how Uriel’s beating himself up… the despair he’s feeling is plain for even someone as dense as me to see… You’re better at hiding it all.”

  He frowned at her words but didn’t argue. He didn’t agree either, though, as he stared back down at the ring, still not putting it on.

  As the minutes passed in silent sips of mocha, Phoenix decided to shift the subject. “Are you going to try and comfort Uriel when we get back? I’m hoping Saiya helped him get some sleep after his bath.”

  Dazien looked hesitant at first but said, “Lady Saiya’s aura does wonders for us to sleep calmly, but I doubt Uriel would let her sleep so near like she was with me. She’s trained her aura to stay restrained while asleep, so the contact is required to get its effects. However, she might be watching over him as he sleeps since I know she would have been able to sense his mood.”

  Phoenix looked over at him curiously. Not because she questioned or disagreed with anything he had said but because it reminded her of something she had been meaning to ask him for a while. “Why do you keep calling her ‘Lady’?”

  “Because she is one,” he instantly answered.

  “Yeah, but you don’t use titles for Rayna or me.”

  He snorted a laugh, a small smile tugging at his lips. “Rayna actually did punch me after I didn’t listen to her about that. Threatened to use the tails next time I called her that.”

  “I’m not sure if I should praise her for standing up for herself or scold her for the violence,” she said with a barely restrained giggle.

  He chuckled as well and replied, “If you go with the scolding, please wait until I am far away.”

  “So, why not me? I didn’t punch you.”

  “You forget, you already hold a rank higher than Noble or Regent, which I often address you by,” he replied, and that small smile shifted into a smirk as he looked back up at her.

  She rolled her eyes at him. “I’m not actually a Princess, Daze.”

  “Not yet, but someday, I hope…”

  “So, you call Saiya ‘Lady’ just because she won’t punch you or be your sister?”

  He contemplated that for a few long moments as they took more sips of coffee. Finally, he seemed to decide on his answer and said, “Well, at first, it was mainly a reminder to myself that she does, in fact, stand above me in the social hierarchy. I didn’t want her to think I was so full of myself becoming a king that I wouldn’t show her the respect she was due. Perhaps now it’s just a habit…”

  “So why don’t you break that habit? You did pretty quickly with Paul.”

  “I—” He hesitated again, an almost panicked expression flitting across his features momentarily, and she wished he would put the ring on for her to get a better read on him. A moment later, he quietly admitted, “I think now it’s to remind myself to maintain the distance between us. She is very physical with her friendly affections. I need to remind myself that she doesn’t intend for there to be anything other than friendship.”

  “What else are you… wait, you don’t mean like adding romance things into the mix, do you?” she asked, tilting her head in confusion. Then his earlier story about Martin came to mind, and she teased, “Does just sleeping in a bed also equate to wrestling on a training mat? What is with this place making everything about romance?”

  He chuckled and shook his head at her as she gestured to the tower all around them. “It’s just part of their culture, Phoenix. Romance is part of a lot of cultures, really. Some just emphasize it in different ways. Here, it is open, overt, and passionate. In Tulim, it was more subtle and symbolized with trinkets and whose name you shared. It’s always there, though, in its many forms. There is love between you and me that is familial and displayed openly with our name.” He gestured to her curls as he added, “Which you tried to display further with your hair, remember?”

  “Yeah, but that’s different from what you’re talking about with Saiya.”

  “Exactly, which is why a small reminder of that fact helps keep me from misinterpreting things or pushing beyond the boundaries of friendship.” That hesitant look filled his face again, and he glanced back at the Bondweave Ring in his hand as he said in barely more than a whisper, “I also realize I’m not in a really good place right now either… I don’t want my hurt to make me do something we might both regret.”

  Phoenix looked at him for a good half minute before asking, “Do you want to talk to me about it instead? I might not know your exact experience… but I think I can understand what you’re feeling if you want to talk? Even if you don’t want to wear that ring right away, we can still talk, right? We’re family, after all.”

  Dazien met her gaze for a moment, those amethyst eyes appearing dimmer than she remembered from a little over a month ago. “You’re right… I think I’d appreciate that, actually,” he finally admitted to her. “I—I’m not exactly sure where to begin. I told Uriel everything that had happened, but it was like giving a mission report. I didn’t really… you know, talk about how it actually affected me.”

  “Well, when I met with Priest Jacob early on, he simply asked what I wanted to talk about. Is there anything you need to get off your chest? Just vent about? I’m bracing myself and giving you permission to trauma-dump on me.”

  “Trauma-dump?”

  “Yeah, just verbally dump all the horribleness you’re struggling with, and I’ll try my best to help you carry it.”

  “They—” he stopped speaking. His face scrunched as though the mere memory threatened tears that she knew he didn’t want to fall. He took a deep, steadying breath before saying, “They cut my hair and sold it… it reminded me of when I was very young and got so upset that I cut it myself.”

  Dazien ran a hand through the short locks. “I had gotten turned down for adoption again, and they made it very apparent that it was solely because I was a gemite… Them taking my hair reminded me that a gemite is all they see me as. All I’m reduced down to. People look at me and see an exotic treasure to claim or tear apart and sell for Bits.”

  “You know that’s not true. Paul and I never saw you that way. I’m sure Uriel, Saiya, and Rayna don’t either.”

  “I know, but…”

  He trailed off as though unsure how to voice his argument, and she gently provided, “But it’s hard to convince yourself of the truth your head screams against the pain your soul feels?”

  A slow nod was his only answer at first before he continued on. “It’s the same with the tattoos… I was powerless. Violated. It feels like there’s nothing I can do to make these feelings go away.”

  Phoenix understood that feeling well enough. Maybe not the violation part, but she knew what it was like to struggle with feeling powerless no matter how hard she tried to convince herself she wasn’t and to make herself not dwell on it. “We become stronger,” she answered, glad that her voice didn’t waver at all.

  “Will it ever be enough?” he asked. The look he gave her wasn’t exactly what she expected from her brother, who was normally so confident about his future. She suddenly realized how much his ordeal had truly shaken him at his very core if he was asking her this. It made it clearer to her now how he had been stepping back from his dream. How he was more willing to compromise for a more attainable goal. How he seemed to worry now that he wouldn’t be strong enough to achieve that dream. How his blazing furnace of hope had slowly been reduced to a flickering candle.

  She didn’t need the ring now to see that glimmer of despair threatening to drown him, too.

  “Maybe not, but we can still hope it will be someday. It’s only not enough if we give up,” she said, leaning across the small table and taking his hand in hers. “I don’t think you or Uriel should ever give up on our futures.”

  Dazien seemed to get lost in thought as they finished their drinks but didn’t make a move to leave yet. Before she could suggest they go, though, he squeezed her hand and quietly asked, “Do you… I was curious if you would want to try training against the Silencers with me? I know you’ve struggled with them in the past, too… That’s why you made those Crystal Caste skeleton keys for the Chains of Silence, isn’t it?”

  Phoenix nodded and smiled at the fact that he had moved on to trying to think of more solutions rather than dwelling on the past. “Yeah. I think that might actually be a good thing for all of us to try training against. It’s like you always tell me, right?”

  He looked slightly confused for a moment before breaking out into a grin. “We’re not alone,” he said and finally slipped the Bondweave Ring onto his finger.

  Her cheeks hurt from the smile she couldn’t subdue at the show of trust he was placing in her. “Exactly, my amazing brother. Are you ready to go make sure Uriel remembers that, too?”

  Dazien’s smile turned warm and truly genuine as he replied, “Always.”