It seemed Robert gave Amanda exactly what she wanted. Whether she would honor that "deal" of hers and pay him half of what she paid the ATA, remained to be seen but he wouldn't ask her for it. Nor he would deny free money.

"Your turn now," he told her. "What's your talent?"

She winced. "Promise me that you won't laugh?"

"Scout's honor," he smiled.

She used a rough deep voice, “Farming! Best farming! Supreme farming! Your crops do better!”

Robert pressed his lips. Then he entered the liminal void with the mattress. When the world turned gray, he burst out in a fit of chortles. He used his time to sleep and read the books in his ring, then eventually came back after some long boring days in bed.

"Farming?"

"Yes. But my father bought the vestige for me in an auction. They have a whole strategy traced for how I'll evolve it. Guess how much it cost?"

"No idea," Robert shook his head. If he had to guess, it would be around six million or something.

"Seventy million dollars."

"No shit," he reeled back. It was more than ten times his estimate! "That's..."

"... because the Prime came with three affinities, just like yours!" She defended her case.

"Nature, and?"

"Earth and Water!"

"Damn, that's a solid combo!" He jested.

She punched him for the joke. "Watch this," Amanda said and opened her hand, revealing a single tomato seed.

She closed her eyes. A clump of dirt appeared, surrounding the seed. The dirt became moist. Moments later, a seedling sprouted. It grew out of the dirt, spreading like a vine. She supported it with her other hand as it grew and grew. The plant matured in less than a minute and produced a half-dozen green bumps that grew into ripe tomatoes in the next minute.

"Come on, eat one," she said.

Robert plucked a tomato out of the vine and bit. It was... the best tomato he ever ate. Firm, sweet, low acidity, juicy.

"Damn, this is good. You can... make food out of ether."

"Yes, but the essence costs are ridiculously high," she said. "These tomatoes took almost all my essence to grow."

"Is it because you had to provide all the nutrients?"

"That, and making it grow this fast. if I had a proper field, fertilized, I can grow an acre of tomatoes from seed to harvest in two days, forty times faster than normal."

"That's impressive. I can see why it cost seventy million."

"It was mostly because Dad and one of his rivals treated the auction like a dick-measuring contest."

"Oh. Yet, with three affinities, it is very good. And I doubt you have any problem gathering wisps. Mine, on the other hand..."

"But it's not considered a combat talent. I hardly gain any aura from fighting. We hope to change that in the second-star ascension. That's why I'm so eager to delve. If most of my growth is related to fighting, it might evolve that way."

Robert nodded. He was eating his third tomato.

"You know Chris is also an Earth arch, right?"

"I do. But I still have Water and Nature, and these don't overlap with anyone. I can leave all the Earth wisps to Chris, it's no big loss."

He smiled. Making sure a party's affinities don't overlap is the first step in ensuring the party remains together for long. Robert plucked the fourth tomato and sank his teeth into it.

Amanda waved her hand and the tomato stalk crept around her forearm and wove around itself, forming a green bracelet. "The plants in the Mollusk Realm are harder to manipulate," she confessed. "But it is what makes that the perfect place for me to train. Dad even offered to lock it for a week for us but I had to refuse. It's dangerous. The Mollusks breed too fast, if we don't cull them regularly, they will make the jungle near the passage too dangerous."

"There's more to that place than just slugs and snails and the occasional squid, right?"

"It's classified. Can't say, sorry."

"You just confirmed it."

"I can't confirm nor deny."

"Sure. Give me another tomato."

*

*

Hours later, Robert was discharged. He gained a week of unpaid medical leave but still had the privileges that came with living in the arcology. To him, the loss of sixty thousand dollars was inconsequential. He spent the first two days visiting the parents of the people he recovered, collecting the bounties for bringing their loved ones so they could be buried, no mention of hidden spatial rings anywhere. The name of the game was keeping appearances. Amanda went with him; her presence forced them to be very generous in their rewards.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The two boarded the Samson limousine and headed back to the arcology. Robert sat with his back to the driver, leaving the back bench entirely for her.

"You're a millionaire again!" She cheered.

"We are not going shopping," Robert said.

Amanda made a face like a cat who ate its mistress' prized goldfish. Her mischievous smile was endearing but Robert kept a professional stance. She was his employer and ward. Any possibility of something else was shot the moment he signed the contract.

"You aren't. I went. I got you some things," she revealed her storage ring.

"Miss Samson, I don't think it's appropriate to get gifts from—"

"These aren't gifts," she cut him off. "If anything, I should apologize for spending the money Tyrone paid as an apology for almost killing you."

"You did what? Wait, what money?"

"You already forgot? Granny made Tyrone pay for the potion and the same amount as indemnity. I just went and bought things I thought you might like. Hard to find things. If you don't want them, I can have them returned."

She produced essence scrolls and tomes. Robert doubted the people who sold these had a return policy.

"Thank you," he said. "I don't think I'll return them, anyway."

"You haven't even seen what I got!"

"Then show me."

She handed him the first scroll. "Okay. I found a Life tempering technique called Biomass Absorption. It should increase the density of your body, making you stronger and tougher."

"it sounds very good." Robert couldn't wait to start using that technique. "I appreciate it."

"There's more. This tempering technique is part of a style. The extra biomass you store can be used for several things."

A group of techniques was sometimes called a style. Someone in the past had painstakingly developed these and passed the knowledge on to the next generations. Many clans guarded their styles with ferocious fervor, like the Kraven and their blood-based style. Amanda handed him the next scroll.

"This next spell, Reconstruction, works only on the caster. With this, you can burn stored biomass to repair your body. The good thing is that it uses very little essence, and the quality starts at average healing. It's also very fast to use, requiring very little concentration."

That meant this spell had the potential to increase the healing quality to supernatural or even supreme after some evolutions.

"Wow. This is awesome. If I had this spell back then..."

"You wouldn't waste all this time recovering from the punch." She grumbled. Amanda was angry with him and that was sort of endearing.

What Robert didn't know was that Tyrone got away with attempted murder with a slap on his wrist. The two-star Arch only lost two months of wages.

"I am not so sure about this tome, though. It is about Life but..."

"What's wrong with it?"

"This book is called the grimoire of Cerebelon. Allegedly, it was an ancient god of pink brain stems and flesh bending. It describes..."

"How to become a beautician Arch? How to make eldritch abominations? Mutate one's own body?"

Amanda felt goosebumps at the images evoked. She skimmed the book and the illustrations were... Repulsive. "Did you already know about this?"

"Not exactly about this deity but I spent almost a year reading about affinities in the library. Body modification is not so uncommon among Life Archs. I am pretty sure this book will be very useful."

"It's yours," she smiled as she handed the grimoire over.

Robert studied the faces she was making. Amanda seemed relieved for some reason. Whether the source of said relief was his acceptance or because she got rid of the unnerving tome, he couldn't tell.

She took another scroll. "They said this is a good training spell for the life affinity. Revitalize. It can... Do you know it?"

"I don't have this spell but the guides mention it. A spell usually cast on pets and flowers to keep them well-groomed and healthy-looking. Healing is limited to minor repairs to the integument."

He smiled. She smiled. The scroll changed hands.

"This book here describes the magical discipline of chronomancy. I doubt anyone is capable of real-time travel, but..."

"I don't think it's possible too. But Time can be an excellent affinity to gather information. Be it a peek into the future, or a window to the past."

Speaking about peeking into the future, Robert used foresight five minutes ahead and got nothing. Tapping on his crystal watch, he set an alarm four minutes ahead.

"And a window into the past is what this baby is all about. This spell is weird. It was named choice hindsight. You focus on a choice you made and cast it. The spell will tell what would've happened to you at the moment of casting should you have chosen another way."

"Strange, true, but very useful." Robert took the scroll and opened it. Reading it, the scroll started to dissolve as the spell was engraved in his Ethercosm as a shell. "It could be called cheating, even."

Amanda looked intrigued as she watched him. "Are you using it now?"

"Yes, why not?" Robert focused on a particular choice he made a week and a half ago. He saw nothing. Or he did see something, but it was pitch blackness.

"What did you see?"

"Nothing. I think I need to learn how to interpret these visions. And the essence coat is rather steep. Let me try again."

"Say what choice you are considering right now!" She said as she leaned forward.

"What if we let the remaining three delve with us when we found the deviant squid?"He saw himself, scarred and scared, with a missing right arm and a huge gash on the left side of his head. He was sitting on a park bench, rambling and drooling. "Things would have been worse."

"Oh," Amanda said. "What if you had accepted that Kraven guy's job offer at the bookstore?"

He used the spell. Robert saw himself in an alien world, an alien sky. He was in a camp near a gaping hole on the side of a mountain, healing a disfigured guy without testicles. The camp was bleak and miserable. People in paramilitary uniforms watched over some men who looked like prisoners. The vision faded as Robert ran low on essence.

"So far, it seems I made the right choices."

"Really?" She leaned forward. "Hey, can you see if--"

"Out of juice. If I use this spell a fourth time, I won't have any essence and I'm on the job."

"No, you aren't. They put you on medical leave."

"Are you out of the arcology, young lady? Am I escorting you? You can bet I'm billing these hours."

Robert's watch chimed. He used prescience. A major catastrophe was upon them, a minute from now. He unbuckled his seat belt.

He planned for this kind of situation. The first thing he had to do was to bleed all his accumulated liminal void time. He did it, using the few days to read both books Amanda gifted him. And sleep a lot. He had to be fully rested to navigate the crisis he predicted. When he returned, he moved to the seat next to her.

"Ms. Samson, protocol orange. Hold my hand and don't let go."

"What? Are we being attacked?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's worse."

She pressed a button and the glass separating the cabin lowered a bit. "Josie, take care, something is about to happen!"

"Understood, Miss," Josie the driver replied.

Moments later, a peal of thunder rang outside, loud enough to get through the limousine's sound isolation. The world shook and they all felt weightless and then tilting and falling. The windows were covered so they couldn't see outside. The falling down sensation increased but it was as if the limousine was falling front-first.

Amanda screamed. Robert threw an arm over her and held tight. Their ears popped and, for a few seconds, he couldn't hear her scream.

Several heavy objects struck the vehicle from all sides, making it spin while it kept falling. Robert's sense of direction and balance failed, triggering heavy disorientation and vertigo. He felt the limousine crack and split in two like an eggshell. Josie and the front spun away.

Robert saw a light mauve sky with several bright stars shining in the firmament above. He saw the ground dozens of miles away on the other side. Chinks of concrete and rock. Mauve sky. Far away ground. The horizon. A lamppost. Horizon. Ground. They collided sideways with a massive slab of asphalt. Amanda vomited. In the distance, the front half of the car and a flailing chauffeur. Mauve sky. Ground.

They too were spinning wildly. The lamppost came at them, like a jousting spear.

Robert knew it would hit them, probably impale and kill one or both. He had no choice. He entered the liminal void, taking Amanda with him.