“Before you start, Glorp already told me. Luckily since the squad still isn’t full, adding Maud to it is simple enough. What I am worried about, though, is you. We’re nearing two weeks of time used up, and you’ve regressed in terms of what you can do. I was kind of counting on you to pull off something amazing on that tenth floor,” Pryte said as we walked toward the back of the house for a private chat. I had promised Glorp I would meet his family over breakfast ter. After that, I wanted to talk to Sanquar.

  “Elody gave me an idea, so don’t count me out just yet, but yeah, sorry you joined up right before we might all be screwed,” I said with a shrug, not knowing how to apologize for something like that.

  “Eh, not that I had the biggest choice there, but I got myself into this. Dave, like I told you before, this is fun in a way that nothing else has been in so damn long. But on that topic of the tenth floor, there are three real possibilities for how it can go the way I see it,” Pryte said.

  “And those are?” I asked after his pause. There was obviously win and lose. What was his third option?

  “Technically, there’s a fourth possibility, but that one doesn’t matter as much to you. Actually, maybe it does. I know some species are reassured knowing there are pns for their death,” Pryte answered, looking at me intently.

  “Ah, so you have a way to save my family if I die?” I asked. That was a somewhat comforting thought. It just meant only most of the pnet was riding on me.

  “If the squad loses and you die, I’ve discussed a pn with Timon, which should be easier now that I’ve hired Trolke. Everyone still here will be making their escape to the Golden Mountain Hammerfists’ homeworld and petitioning for refugee status. Mel, myself, and any other survivors still in the Arena will be stuck figuring our own way out, but there won’t be much we can do to pn that ahead of time. I’m partial to a run for chaotic space, but I’m not sure how much the others will be on board for that,” Pryte said with a glint in his eye that suggested he was more than just partial.

  “I won’t cim to like the idea of being dead, but I’m gd you thought ahead for my family’s sake. What are the other possibilities?” I asked, trying my best to ignore any thoughts of impending doom that were cropping up.

  “There’s the easy one that we’ve touched on a lot already: you win, everyone comes back here, and we figure out the future. The other two are the more difficult ones. We win, but you die. In that case, your daughter inherits the faction in a much worse pce than it’d be had you lived. I’m willing to promise you that I’ll stick around and do everything I can there, but I don’t know that everyone else will. The final possibility is we lose, you live. Now, that pys out simirly to the first option, but you are really going to have to disappear if it goes that way. Refugee status won’t save you, and anyone stupid enough to grant it is risking themselves,” Pryte expined, looking at me silently after he finished.

  “What do you suggest?” I asked, having a feeling I knew exactly where he was going with this potential outcome.

  “You, me, and Sanquar, at the very least, are off for chaotic space. They won’t ever chase us, and considering there’s a good chance we will be dead in a year anyway, why would they?” Pryte asked, clearly not expecting an answer. I wasn’t sure if that was the correct move or not, but I also didn’t know enough about the Spiral still to know a better one. If that was the way this pyed out, I decided I’d follow his lead.

  “Well, if it comes to that, I’ll follow you, barring something massive changes, but let’s uh try to get the best results we can and not count ourselves out yet,” I said, trying to reassure myself far more than Pryte. I wasn’t sure I could give the man a pep talk. He had his own future pns and didn’t seem overly worried about what could go wrong, just that he acknowledged that it could.

  “Good, that was all I wanted to talk about with you for now. Let’s go get that breakfast. I need to have a discussion with Maud shortly,” Pryte said, circling back toward the house. I knew he’d wanted to get a feel for what kind of css would work well for her, as well as a potential mana orb on top of it. Could she even use those at level one? I wasn’t entirely sure how mana skills worked versus regur skills in that regard. Something to read up on ter, assuming it mattered at all in the future.

  We were already out of seats in the house, so Pryte and I made do on the ground after grabbing our ptes of food. Glorp, his younger brother, and his five younger sisters were taking up the couch, all chatting happily. It was hard to hear everything they were saying, but from what I picked up, it sounded like they saw him as a returning hero. And who could bme them? Glorp had managed to get them here. They had no idea that it was likely far more precarious of a position than they were in before, and I certainly wasn’t going to tell them that was for Glorp to decide. Not when they looked so ecstatic just to be eating breakfast with their big brother.

  Eventually, after several introductions and variations on the name Glorp that I knew I was going to confuse many times before I finally got them all right, I excused myself to go the find the bird who was still noticeably absent from breakfast. He was exactly where I expected him to be, sitting in the back of the bus staring at one of the mana orbs, a look of desperation on his face. I’d seen that look before, in the mirror many times immediately following the divorce. It wasn’t remotely a good headspace to be in for anyone, human or bird.

  “That doesn’t look like it’s going very well. Wanna talk about it?” I asked, startling Sanquar who had been so focused on the orb he apparently hadn’t noticed my approach.

  “Not particurly no,” he answered, anger in his voice for the first time I had heard it.

  “Well, I think we should anyway. You look ready to implode, and that isn’t going to help anyone,” I replied, sitting down across from him.

  “I gave you something incredibly precious to me to give you a chance at saving your world. Is it so much to ask that I have the barest chance at fixing myself now that that goal approaches?” he asked, his eyes pleading with me for the healing he wanted that I didn’t know how to provide.

  “Nope, we’d all be long dead without you. I owe you a lot, and healing your core is one of the giant entries on my to-do list. I just don’t think we have entirely what we need yet. First, I think you need to let all of those who are capable of scanning your core work on figuring out exactly how it’s broken. From there, we can likely start the path to a potential solution. Sitting here staring at this mana orb that you clearly can’t use isn’t going to make you feel any better,” I said, reaching my hand out to take it.

  Sanquar sighed loudly but withdrew his wing, letting his head droop. He looked as exhausted as he did depressed. Had he even slept since finding this orb? “Thank you, Dave” he said as I pced the orb into my System storage.

  “No problem, so why don’t you tell me everything you can remember about what happened to your core,” I said, not sure the information would mean anything to me, but knowing that for someone like Elody or Pryte, it likely would.

  “I can remember that I was invited to something. Several people offered me a deal that I found reprehensible. What that deal was or who the people were, I can’t remember. There was a very rge fight, and somehow, they managed to subdue me. If what I can remember of my abilities is anywhere near accurate, I don’t think that that should have been possible. But as I can’t remember their identities, it’s hard to say exactly who I faced,” he answered, closing his eyes as he spoke.

  “Do you think they were heads of powerful factions?” I asked. That seemed like the most likely guess to me, especially with Korl’s involvement, assuming Mel was right about the man.

  “It would seem the logical answer, but at the same time, it doesn’t quite feel right. I believe they were involved, but I’m not sure they were the ones to directly attack me. As for what came after, all I can remember is a blinding hot pain, and then slowly finding my ability to think again, trapped in this form and universe,” he answered, the pain of the event coming through in his voice.

  “Wait, that’s not your normal form?” I asked. I had just assumed that was what his species looked like and that, coincidentally, it was close to a normal rger bird.

  “No, my species is able to shift forms as we mature, generally growing more powerful as we do so. We start simir to this once we hatch but quickly grow past this stage,” he answered.

  “Well, I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do to help at the moment, I really am. Why don’t you come inside and get some food and help us figure out some css and mana combinations for Maud and Glorp? You’re more of an expert than Mel is, even if you can only remember a tenth of what you once knew,” I said with a smile, trying to coax him inside.

  With a nod, he stood up. “After you.”

  “Can you do me a favor and figure out the names of Glorp’s family, I’m not sure what name belongs to who, and I feel bad asking now,” I said as we left the bus.

  “I will make you a family tree, my friend,” Sanquar answered, his voice back to the usual calm and caring tone I had first heard from him.

  The Combat Rogue css boasts a versatile mix of abilities somewhere between agile and quick thinking. Often used as a support css in the Arena, it is more commonly seen in the members of the squad held back for emergency position changes, as it can be used to counter several unsuspecting builds. It is one of the few variations of the Rogue css not banned in most universes.

  Csses Volume 1 by Zolinjar