Being there for Aerion ended up meaning sitting beside her for a long while. I don’t think she even noticed my presence at first, but she did eventually. Maybe I just imagined it, but it felt like she crept a little closer to me bit by bit after that.

  “I thought I’d made peace with Emma,” Aerion muttered at last. “Thought I’d… moved on. I suppose I never truly did.”

  “I didn’t know her long, but she was a noble soul. That much, anyone could tell. I can’t even imagine what this Trial must be dredging up within you. I—honestly, I should’ve thought about this. I shouldn’t have proposed coming back in here. Not like we stand a whole lot to gain from this delve, anyway.”

  “No, it’s—it’s good that we’re here,” Aerion said. “We’re helping the people who helped you, and we’re learning more of our strengths. Especially you.”

  “I don’t disagree, but I have to wonder if it’s worth it. Could’ve just relaxed somewhere. Like normal people.”

  Aerion chuckled darkly. “Since when have you and I been normal?”

  Our eyes met for a brief moment, before we both looked away.

  I really couldn’t ignore this for much longer, could I? Now that Richard and Philip pointed it out… she really did like me, didn’t she? The awkward glances, her sulky behavior when I brought up Eskil’s proposal—it all made sense, in retrospect.

  Man, if that was all true, then I’d misread her reaction badly. She wasn’t actually thinking about marrying Eskil. She was thinking about me. About us. Or maybe I really did have it all wrong and she was gonna marry the guy. If I said no to her, would she go after Eskil?

  My chest clenched at the idea. I shook my head. Dark thoughts, Greg. Pointless thoughts.

  “Just… promise me one thing,” Aerion said after a moment. “Whatever Rocky ends up being, promise me we’ll take care of it? I can’t go through what I did with Emma. Not again.”

  “You have my word,” I said. “I’m done with being powerless. Thankfully, with our experience and powerups, I think those days are long behind us. We’re smarter now. More aware. More capable.”

  Aerion nodded, giving me a small smile.

  Even otherwise, I had the distinct feeling that whatever emerged less than a month from now when the timer ran down would be a whole hell of a lot hardier than Emma could ever have been.

  “Get some rest,” I said, moving to pat her shoulder before stopping myself awkwardly. Like there was an invisible wall stopping me. Just an hour ago, I’d have been fine.

  Goddammit, Richard. Why’d you have to go and put thoughts in my head?

  “We’ve got a long floor ahead of us,” I said, loud enough for everyone else to hear. “Rest up, top up on the miracle water, and fill your stomachs. We’ll move out when we feel ready.”

  There was one other thing I could do for Aerion, and after she and the others had fallen asleep, I touched Aurora’s handle.

  Initialize Aurora [Rare]? Initialization Cost: 49 Essence. Current Essence: 355/410.

  I hesitated, glancing at her pendant, the Soulkeeper she always wore around her neck. As much sentimental value as that had, I honestly couldn’t see it being as useful as Aurora once Initialized. Being considered ‘armor’, there was a chance it only manifested stats, or that it split its power between stats and an ability.

  If it did give her stats, Aerion wouldn’t be able to use them. Only I could. Weapons, however, always granted abilities. I could always Initialize her pendant at a later date, once I had more Essence to spare.

  Helpfully, Rocky’s cost had dropped again, yielding me a few extra points. That made Aurora’s cost easier to stomach. I’d debated between initializing her sword and one or two of my articles of silk clothing, but Aerion had waited long enough. Moreover, I worried for the condition of her poor weapon. Initializing it would give it more durability, and hopefully something that synergized well with her existing abilities.

  Praying to Cosmo, I confirmed the Initialization.

  Aurora [Rare]

  A beautiful blade made of Mythril, the exotic elven metal. Elegant and perfectly weighted, this ancient blade has seen its fair share of blood… But it’s about to see a whole lot more. Good luck finding a smith to repair it, though!

  Essence Cost: 49

  Condition: 400/400

  Abilities:

  — Echo Blade [Foundation - 0]: Creates up to [1] echo of the blade, mirroring the attack to do extra damage to the same or nearby targets.

  My eyes bulged at that description, and I nearly squealed, almost waking Aerion up. Almost—I managed to contain myself at the last moment.

  But seriously, what the hell? Bladed projections that could attack nearby enemies? That was insane! And the number in brackets meant she’d only pile on more as the ability leveled. Why was this so much better than the crap I usually got?

  The answer was obvious. I really needed more higher-rarity gear. Both Light of the Fearless and Aurora got kickass abilities, so it stood to reason that higher tiers naturally got better ones. If [Rare] was this good, what would [Epic] gear be like?

  I couldn’t wait to rack up enough Essence to Initialize one and find out. I also couldn’t wait to see the look on Aerion’s face when she woke up.

  Thanks to the miracle water healing not only our physical wounds, but restoring our mental state, everyone was good to go in just a couple of hours, after gorging themselves on as much food as possible.

  Philip had brought along a small pot and some condiments, and impressed us all with his cooking skills. Thanks to that and the abundance of wood for a fire, we were able to enjoy a hearty vegetable stew with bread, rather than biting into onions and tomatoes raw. It was actually pretty good, all things considered.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Incidentally, the stuff I’d been calling miracle water had about a dozen names, depending on what part of the world you were in. In these parts, they tended to call it Dominion’s Gift, or Dominion Water. Passion Water, Cunning’s Gift, Nectar of the Gods, and a myriad of other terms were used, depending on where the Trial happened to be.

  I supposed it made sense, but I was sticking to calling it miracle water. Easier that way, and thus far, nobody had misunderstood me.

  Aerion's eyes moved constantly back and forth, and to anyone else, they might’ve thought she’d fallen off the deep end.

  I knew she was just rereading Aurora’s description, over and over. When she wasn’t doing that, she glanced furtively in my direction, eyes bulging as if she were trying to say something.

  As much as she undoubtedly wanted to bound over and chat about it, our present company made that tough without raising a bunch of questions. It was kind of hilarious, actually, watching her excitement fight against her prudence. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” Aerion mumbled as we set out.

  “I know,” I said, smiling. “But I wanted to.”

  “T-thank you,” Aerion said, her words barely louder than a whisper. “For everything.”

  “What are friends for, anyway?” I said, chuckling.

  We walked beside each other in silence for a while after that. It was a comfortable silence, the kind you got with people you knew well. It was… nice.

  The moment was cut short when we arrived at the first cog railway platform. Guarded, of course, by our good friends the goblins.

  The memories of our prior harrowing encounter came flooding back. Of our daring escape and the chase, culminating with us going flying off our cart, tumbling to a stop. We’d just barely survived.

  This time?

  Aerion ripped into her enemies, and we all got to see [Echo Blade] in action for the first time.

  The result was even scarier than I’d imagined. A wispy, ghost-like edge manifested for a brief moment, slicing apart the goblin right next to the one Aerion killed. The strike was a mirror image of Aerion’s own, tracing through the same exact arc. Just that it disappeared the instant her strike ended. And so, instead of killing one goblin, she’d just killed two.

  Though there seemed to be a cooldown on the ability, preventing her from invoking it back to back, it was short, allowing her to invoke it multiple times over the course of the fight.

  In the end, she ended up killing half of the 30-odd goblins before I even had a chance to engage, and it wasn’t like I was slouching.

  Even without her new ability, Aerion had a tendency to rush into battle headfirst, even when she didn’t use [Reave]. That always worked fine—until now. Until now, we’d either fought individually, or I was right there next to her in the thick of things.

  The problem was that I was a ranged fighter now. At least, with my current setup. Admittedly, Grace-based armor didn’t seem like it would synergize with firing bullets, but the combination was surprisingly effective. Just that I had to be incredibly aware of where I was and where Aerion and everyone else in my party was at every moment. My darts, and even the pebbles, had a nasty tendency to penetrate through weaker skin.

  Which meant I couldn’t just fire a spread as I’d been doing until now.

  Thankfully, my suit gave me the option of darting past Aerion. Instead of firing a barrage, which would’ve instantly killed the goblins, I used Light of the Fearless to cleave them apart.

  That lava ammo was precious, and it felt unlikely I’d have an opportunity to replace them on this floor or the next. As much as I wanted to rack up a higher kill count—in the spirit of friendly competition, of course—I had to be strategic here.

  And so, Aerion went on to slaughter the rest, while I only got two or three more kills in. The satisfied grin she gave me at the end blew away all the worries I had, though. If it meant seeing her this happy, I was happy to put my competitive nature aside… this time. Especially considering the looks of total shock she got from the others.

  In the end, no one brought it up. Philip and Rogar were either too shy or too scared to ask, and Richard was too prudent.

  Needless to say, our subsequent cog rail ride was far more idyllic than our first time. Aerion, Richard, and I followed in our cart, while Philip and Rogar led with theirs, about a hundred feet ahead of us. Rogar picked up the controls in short order, with Aerion giving instructions.

  While counterintuitive, we did this to give us the best chance of dealing with any goblin threats we might encounter. Chances were low the gobbos would have enough time to organize an attack on the lead cart. They’d sure as hell jump on their carts and follow behind, though, giving us the chance to pick them off easily.

  Without goblins to follow us, we dialed the speed back to less than half, taking in the wonder of the illuminated tunnel tubes that ran parallel to ours, or floated above in the inky black ocean. The other benefit of this cart arrangement was Aerion could react to Rogar’s speed fluctuations, instead of the other way around. She’d had a lot more time behind those controls, and was generally just better than most people, so this approach felt safer.

  “Ever wonder where this place is?” I asked my companions. “Pretty clear by now these are real places. Maybe chunks of real worlds, somewhere.”

  “Just like the Cataclysms, huh?” Richard mused.

  “Glad I wasn’t the only one to make the connection.”

  “They are different, though,” Aerion said. “The shortcuts, the Sanctuary chambers—how one collapses after a single delve while the other doesn’t. The gods must have similar means to the Archon. They must have recognized the potential of this form of training tool.”

  “Can’t deny that,” I said, though I had to wonder. “Speaking of differences, any guesses why we ended up facing the Trial Guardian on floor five? Has anything like that happened before?”

  Aerion frowned and shook her head. “Not that I’ve heard of, though my knowledge is far from complete. It was something I planned to look up once we were out.”

  “The mysteries continue to pile,” I muttered. “On the one hand, it makes sense for a high level delving party to have appropriately scaled enemies… Thought that was why lower rank trials were off limits to higher rank delvers.”

  “As Passion explained it to me, it has to do with the caliber of your soul, or something along those lines,” Richard said. “Something changes within you, at a fundamental level, once you cross into Convergence rank. Makes you incompatible with the lower tier Trials.”

  While I’d come across similar gimmicks in games, I just couldn’t understand how that translated to a real-world effect. Though, I’d still planned for it, with that soul seed. I was pretty sure at this point that bauble was why I was gaining levels much faster now. That, and my suit.

  “Just wish there was a way to learn more about—!?”

  “Incoming!” Aerion cried, making Richard and me whip our heads forward.

  In the distance around an upcoming corner were a cluster of bright lights. Thanks to the transparent nature of the tunnels, they blazed like small suns in the darkness. Suns that were steadily growing larger. I was about to extend an arm and get ready for a bombardment, but yet again, thought better of it. There were better tools at our disposal.

  “Richard? You’re up.”

  “Consider it done!”

  “Aerion? Slow down a touch. But not so much that we lose sight of Rogar.”

  “Understood!”

  Rogar’s cart rounded the corner and blurred through the waystation, and then we were up. Even going only around 20 miles an hour, we crossed it in the span of a couple of seconds. I barely had time to take in the four carts and thirty-odd goblins idling about.

  Then we were past. “Uh, Richard?” I asked.

  “Believe I got ‘em all,” Richard said, wiping sweat from his brow.

  I slouched a bit, but kept a keen eye on our tail for another solid minute, when it became apparent that no one was coming.

  “Would you look at that?” I muttered. “The plan worked fine, after all.”

  Aerion sniggered, while Richard put a hand on my shoulder. “Friend… there’s a first time for everything.”

  I couldn’t help it. Even with the sunken castle looming in the distance—our goal and the cause of so much strife—I grinned from ear to ear.

  Maybe this time would be different.