They reached the tram station, and the weird vow of silence ended. The Samson family, father and daughter, turned to address him.

"I hope you understand why granny did what she did the way she did it," Amanda said, almost stuttering. He could tell she was worried about his reaction.

Robert stared at her for a few seconds before replying. "I do. She didn't trust me therefore wanted to test me. She didn't want to spend the time to do it the right way so she decided to speed up the process and get some amusement on top of it. She needed to see if I was trustworthy and strong enough to defend the future of this company."

"And you passed," Jeremiah said, not helping at all to ease Robert's mental state.

"It's no small feat to earn granny's approval," Amanda added.

"I am sure she measures people by the highest standards possible," he commented, unwilling to either accept or outright refuse their compliments.

His pride was hurt. Robert needed a break. He went to the liminal void. There, he sat on a bench that faced away from the Samson family and went into deep thought.

*

*

Robert felt like shit. His broken bones and internal injuries helped a lot to make him feel that way, even though he'd already healed them.

He had been a fool for trusting these people. Desperate as he was for validation and a place to belong to, he was blind to their manipulations. Amanda did the least of that but he could see how the others gaslighted him. Jeremiah, for example, staged that scene with his assistant to use the Kraven threat as a way to push Robert into signing that contract. And now this crazy old lady. But in the end, he sold his dignity for a big wad of cash.

Even the elation of getting a raise soured in his mouth. But aside from running away into a passage and never coming back, he only had one choice. He needed to get stronger. Fast. He needed to work and develop his affinities, train his spells, reinforce his body, and get some real combat skills.

This was where multiple-affinity Archhumans slowed down due to decision paralysis and surpassed by their single-affinity peers. Those with one affinity honed that one into a sharp and effective weapon. They have one specialty and were masters or it. Robert and those like him, on the other hand, had a broader range of options but all of them felt underdeveloped. Jack of many trades, master of nothing.

Gathering several types of wisps wasn't that big of an advantage. Water Archs would go to rivers, ponds, lakes, and the ocean to gather. Wind Archs to places with wind and so on. Robert could gather four types of wisps but all of them were as rare as Water in a desert. You could still find them at specific spots like near an oasis, but that was that. And when in a long-term party, clashes of affinities led to so much grief they often avoided the issue altogether.

Robert could get as strong in each of his affinities as another Arch with only, say, the Fire affinity. But he needed to put in four times the effort, resources, and essence investment. Meanwhile, the Fire Arch was reaching up into the second star and onward. Most famous Archhumans were known for a single affinity.

He had to remind himself he was an Archhuman for a less than a month. His advantage was the fact he had plenty of time to study and prepare, along with the fact he didn't need to sleep in real life. From that angle, he had half as much time as everyone else before adding the extra time his talent gave him.

That led him to decide on one thing. He needed to take as much as he could from the Samson, then make himself so valuable and dangerous that they would have no choice but give him a golden parachute once their relationship ended. The cost of eliminating him must become higher than the cost of paying to keep him away.

He needed to learn to live with what life gave him. That was what everyone else were doing. Titania could treat him like shit because she was Titania Samson, four-star Arch and CEO of the powerful company. Jeremiah could trick him into signing the contract because he had Robert cornered. And Amanda...

It could be that Amanda was innocent in all of this. Or too young to become completely died in black. Or maybe he just hadn't seen past her subtle manipulation. Or Titania and Jeremiah were both playing the bad cop role to Amanda's good cop. They didn't care about what he thought of them or the company, so long Robert cared about keeping Amanda safe.

In his mind's eye, he saw bridges burning, the connections he made with them breaking apart. One question remained untouched. Would he become as heartless as these people once he reached their level of power?

Stolen story; please report.

Only one way to know.

*

*

He returned to the real world sitting on the bench with a book in his hand. Robert stood up and made his way back to the Samsons' side. With a faint pop of air, he made a show of taking the notebook where he took notes of the context he left behind when entering the liminal void. He read a few pages, the sent the notebook back to his ring.

"Nothing I could do would steer that meeting away from its intended course," he said. "It happened as it should."

"You seem much calmer," Amanda said.

"I had two days to think about it," Robert replied with a grin, glancing at the bench he reemerged from the liminal void.

Amanda nodded, while Jeremiah displayed surprise for a moment. Robert seized the initiative.

"When is a good time to discuss the things Mrs. Samson offered?" He asked Jeremiah.

"The pay raise and the bonus?" Jeremiah asked.

"I would prefer the bonus as an item instead of cash," Robert said. "A bigger storage ring."

"That can be arranged."

"One with a cubic meter of capacity."

"Deal," Jeremiah agreed without hesitation.

Amanda grinned. The tram arrived. The doors hissed as they opened. They entered the empty carriage, a fancy one exclusive for company executives. It had a meeting table with comfortable benches on each side. Robert had one side for himself while Amanda sat with her father.

"Tomorrow, I will need to go to the academy for a week," Amanda said.

"I will have the documentation for your enrollment sent to them. It will take a time to process but I doubt they will create us any problem. You will attend with a company scholarship."

"You will also need to get up to speed with the curriculum. Dad, can you have someone bring Robert a copy of the textbooks?"

Jeremiah nodded. "I think we should also make an exclusion on the library limits for you, Robert. You may check out as many books as you want at once, but not from the restricted section."

"Thank you, sir," Robert replied politely. "Only access to the restricted session is fine, no need for special checkout clearance for those books."

"We need to move you to an apartment closer to my house," Amanda said.

"That's not a problem," Robert replied. "All of my personal belongings fit in my backpack of holding."

His spartan apartment was untouched. Robert only used the liminal void version of it.

"I believe we can sort the minor details later," Jeremiah said. "But now, I want to use this time for another purpose."

"One last thing, sir," Robert asked politely. "Amanda, we owe Chris and his party a delve. Could we go tonight? At what time do you need to go to the academy?"

"Can we, dad? I need to go there tomorrow but don't have classes or a set time. I can go there in the afternoon, it's fine."

"I'll make arrangements," Jeremiah agreed. "Anything else? Good. Robert, thank you for taking care of Amanda. I say this not as a member of the board but as a father."

"Just doing my job, sir," Robert replied with a cold tone and regretted it immediately. "No, that's not what I meant. It came out wrong."

He considered Amanda a friend. The younger sister of your best friend. Not related but as close to a younger sister as it would get. Off-limits for anything even closely romantic. She wasn't his type and the baggage wasn't worth the effort. Robert didn't have a "type" but henceforth it was defined as "not Amanda".

Once more, he really hoped this wasn't a “good cop, bad cop” skits. Robert wanted to trust Amanda but he was too hurt for that, physically and emotionally.

"You're welcome, Jeremiah," he corrected himself with a softer voice. "Amanda was helping me at the time."

"It's okay, Robert," Jeremiah said. "I know you must have a ton of things on your mind right now." The tram stopped. "It's my stop. I still need to review some paperwork before I can call it a day. You two should get ready to delve. I will see if Chris and his team are available. If they are, I'll contact the passage facility."

"Thank you, dad!" Amanda stood up to let him pass, then hugged and kissed the executive.

"Oh, and Mr. Samson," Robert called, ready to ask for something. Jeremiah turned. "Can you advance my next paycheck? I think I'll go shopping tomorrow."

"Of course," Jeremiah said as he left the carriage.

Robert knew that was the extent of what he could ask on the goodwill he earned from enduring the crazy old lady's antics.

*

*

They took a public transit (as far as arcology residents were concerned) tram to the lower levels and emptied Robert's apartment. Or better, they reached the apartment's door, opened it, Robert crossed over to the liminal void on his own, put the things he wanted to take with him in his backpack of holding, read more books until he returned, then left. After that brief stop, it was another public tram ride to the fifty-ninth floor where Amanda lived.

"Amanda, I have one thing I've been itching to ask you," Robert said. She hummed her approval and nodded. "What happened to your previous bodyguards? Were they with the other delvers who died to the deviant squid?"

She shook her head. "No. Didn't have any before that incident. It was a point of contention with my dad but I was winning until that. The Mollusk Realm was supposed to be safe."

"No Realm is. Not even this one."

She lowered her head. "That's what dad told me. I caved to his demands but kept the right to pick my bodyguard. People didn't like it."

"People like Tyrone."

"Yes. He thought you stole his spot." She hissed. "And then he went and did that. He's lucky I didn't get him fired."

If by 'fired' she meant sacked or actually cremated, Robert had no idea. He didn't comment on that either. Better let the subject drop.

"Hey, this is the part where you say, 'thank you for trusting in me, Amanda'," she tried to imitate his voice.

Robert found something remarkably interesting on the other side of the window. Amanda deflated and went silent too.

He thought about how she behaved during their first few days. Amanda treated him like a playmate, a servant, a pet, and, on some occasions, a friend. He tried to take a few steps on her shoes. He imagined her growing up with all these expectations and pressure on her, isolated for her own safety and to keep people from influencing her. And yet, she could blend into the students in the LFG area. She even refrained from participating in the bidding war with the other two girls.

But right now, everything felt wrong. The trust, the rapport, the budding camaraderie between the two had deep cracks in it. Everything seemed transactional and detached.

"Thank you for this opportunity, Miss. I really appreciate it," he said, conveying all his feelings between the lines.

The tram stopped. It wasn't their stop but Amanda left anyway.