The Inside of William’s Soul Space was similar to before with two stars in an abyss of black that mixed with a mist of smoke the color of metal. Last time he had seen the space, the mist had been a grey-white. It had deepened in color since then. The two stars were present and as William took in the pale green of the pair, he saw a third form from a tiny flicker grow into a solid mote of light to match the other two in all but color. William remembered that the star for his shield hadn’t been fully green like his main soul had been, but it had become the same over time. The new star for his sword now formed, connected to the main soul star with ethereal chains, the same as how the shield had connected.

William wanted to touch the stars, a strange curiosity overtaking him. He wasn’t in any form within the Soul Space however. He could see the changes to his soul, but couldn’t interact with it. The link made the whole space shudder, but after the long moment that followed, William felt tougher mentally, like there was an extra layer protecting his soul.

He left his Soul Space after a few moments of watching the formation that was beginning to form a shallow V shape. Opening his eyes, he found his head laying on something warm and soft. William took in the sight of a smiling Stacey as William realized that he had been dead to the world for a moment while his mind was elsewhere. Stacey’s lap was an amazing pillow he had to admit.

“How long?” William asked, regaining his composure.

“A couple minutes, not long at all,” Stacey replied, running her hand through his hair.

It felt good. William wanted to close his eyes and bask in it, but he still had to keep watch. William sat upright, feeling a tiny sense of loss at the action, but he could enjoy the experience again later on, he hoped. Flicker lay sheathed on the ground next to his original spot, making William consider the fact he didn’t need to be holding the item while the soul bonding happened. It seemed to only require touch to trigger the bonding effect. That could be useful in the future. William couldn’t think of how exactly, but having more options was never bad.

The rest of the watch was blissfully quiet and as the morning sun peeked over the horizon, William’s party went on to the final leg of the journey. They were all pleasantly surprised at the peaceful walk. No ambushes from man nor beast, no traps or hazards, just green woodland and musical chirping of birds in the tree canopy overhead.

Jane, John, and Stacey, were all talking about something, but William’s mind was on Garrin. Could he have done things differently? Would he have been able to persuade the guy to live? Maybe, but also, maybe not. There was no perfect solution that he could see. William’s main mood dampener was the thought of Garrin’s family receiving the news. With the guards he had already killed, how many had families waiting for them at home? Bandits were one thing, an acceptable type of person to kill as they wouldn’t be missed. It was kill or be killed in GAEA. He knew morals in those terms were redundant, but he was still apparently human enough to recognize a waste of one’s life. If he ever had to do what Garrin mentioned and battle Fort Boulder, then he would protect the innocents. Those innocents would end up being protected by the one who killed their loved ones. He doubted many guards, and much less, the grieving families would be as friendly as Garrin was. William hoped that it wouldn’t come to be and he could just not deal with Fort Boulder. Thinking about Garrin’s family made William think to his father. He hadn’t really considered the shit that went down after the first day, post siege, as he was distracted from the many other things that needed resolving. He didn’t truly know how to feel. There had been estrangement between the two for years and when things were starting to go well, William had lost the man to his enemy. The enemy was there because William had triggered the event accidentally. Even though it was accidental William felt the weight of responsibility for the deaths of his people. His weakness made him unable to save his father. More speed and strength would have changed how the battle went.

The worse part that ran through William’s mind was that he didn’t know if the sorrow he felt was mainly from the weight of the accidental event pressing upon him, the loss of his father, or the loss of the opportunity to truly reconcile things properly with his father. William was stirred from the mental war of emotions as he felt Stacey’s warm hand on his shoulder as the two were walking beside each other.

“William? What’s up? Why you crying?” Stacey asked, her question conveyed from a face of concern.

Crying?!

William felt his eyes and noticed the skin running down from his eyes was damp. When had he started crying? William took a moment to properly wipe his face and compose himself.

“Sorry Stacey, Just...thinking about my dad,” William said, having regained his composure.

“Oh. I’m here if you want to talk okay?”

“Of course, thank you. You’re truly an amazing person.”

Stacey gave him a warm smile and seemed to step in a little bit closer to him. He wanted to voice his thoughts but now wasn’t the time. They were still exposed out on the trail and he didn’t know what Everglade held in store for them either. He knew that sometimes you needed to get stuff of your chest, but there was a time and place for it. For now he had to be strong and act as an anchor for his friends.

They continued the walk only making idle talk while William stayed vigilant of any threats or hazards. As the sun was a few degrees past its zenith, the group arrived at a massive copse of trees. The branches and bushes intertwined in layer after layer, thick wooden trunks, three times the width of a typical person braced the entangled foliage from behind. The mix of flora created a natural wall of vines, wood, and foliage that spanned out for a few hundred meters each way, before curving out of sight. Looking above proved to be incredibly interesting. Buildings made with the same wood protruded what must have been roughly thirty meters up and out of the thick trunks. William noticed arrow holes along the edges of the buildings and had no illusions that behind them were people with bows.

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“Those are watch towers built into the trees. The natural plant life around here seems to have been worked into some kind of natural wall,” William said, stating his observations for his friends to hear.

Jane frowned and glanced between John and the wall before replying, “Seems risky. Wood can be set alight right? Isn’t it dangerous to not use stone or something not flammable?”

“I wouldn’t worry about that, little lady, the walls are properly warded against flames and other magical attacks,” A third voice said, the source appearing from a nearby tree.

The party turned to gaze upon the newcomer and all but William were taken aback by the person. William assessed the man before him, an old dude with a grey bushy beard and eyebrows, bearing matching colored hair, and donned a pointy hat, wooden staff made of a branch of some kind, and clothing made out of leaves and vines. The guy had to be a druid or something. The sight ticked a mental checkbox of cool fantasy shit William wanted to see in GAEA. The others had no clue in the slightest what the appearance represented and were all stupefied as to why someone would be dressed like the druid was. The man was human and looked kindly, but William had a feeling that you wouldn’t want to fuck with the guy in the woodland.

“I expected that kind of defense to be honest, otherwise this place wouldn’t be as picturesque I imagine,” William replied, feeling like the guy wasn’t hostile to them at present.

The old man smiled and scanned the party with his eyes. William assumed the man was using [Identify] on all of them. When he scanned William, his eyebrows rose in surprise.

“Oh you’re Sir Bloodbane, It’s a pleasure to finally meet the man who defeated the bandit vermin.”

“Sir.” William liked that, and even though he was conflicted on the region title he was given, Sir Bloodbane sounded really fucking cool. He should try and act a little it more knightly, William decided.

“The pleasure is mine, my Druidic friend. Apologies, I never got your name,” William said, doing his best partial bow of greeting.

The older man chuckled at that and William thought his act had made himself look bad.

“You’re quite perceptive Sir Bloodbane. I am indeed a Druid. Welcome to my grove. You can call me Wylton,” the wizened Druid said, extending his arms out to the large wall of greenery and fortifications along the trees themselves.

“So, Wylton, I don’t suppose you could give us a tour of Everglade, could you?”

“Of course I can. Welcome to Everglade by the way. I will go and inform the guards of the situation and will be back momentarily.”

With that, the druid melded into another tree and vanished once more.

William turned to face his party and after putting his hands on his hips and puffing up his chest, William said, “You may give tribute to Sir Bloodbane when ready. Swords are a preferable gift, but anything will do. Go on, help stroke my ego.”

John and Jane sighed with exasperation as Stacey chuckled quietly at the act.

John spoke up first, “Stroke your ego? Bro, you probably do a lot of stroking already, just not your ego.”

“Ew, I don’t wanna think about William doing that. That’s really gross,” Jane said quickly, trying to change topic.

“I do wanna think about that. Particularly about what I can do to help in the process,” Stacey said, walking up to William and letting him wrap his arm around her.

Jane looked shocked that those words had come from her friend.

“Stacey! You were so sweet and innocent,” Jane said, struggling to believe how naughty Stacey could be. William had come to learn that Armine’s influence on her had been really strong, and had awakened something in the girl. William enjoyed it a lot.

“It’s a good thing my innocence was...worked out of my system then,” Stacey replied with an impish grin.

As the two girls spoke back and forth with John looking unsure what to say, William looked up at the canopy, picturing Armine. He had suddenly started thinking to the night before the attack, the look on her face as she learned of John and William’s mistake, and the fear, pain, and sorrow on her face as William impaled it. He had to do it, didn’t he? Was there a way to any reconciliation? He didn’t know. There was a lot he seemed to not know, and in Armine’s case, would never know. Killing someone you had been intimate with up to the night prior was something that messed with one’s head, yet the decision to kill her had come swift and cold. He could kill wave after wave of people without a single care about their existence, and he was scared that the same views would apply to allies who would wrong him in the future because the way he saw it, there would always be someone to betray him and Greenwell.

William couldn’t afford to let the killer inside of himself loose around those he intended to keep safe. The more he thought to the losses and violence in his short but already bloody history being on GAEA, the more he struggled to maintain Earth’s typical principles and morals. This was his world now and William knew that he needed to complete that mental shift. When he thought on it, he felt that his introverted lifestyle from before was helpful in that transition. If you isolated yourself from the world, does your abode not become your new world? There were no traditional morals when you were alone in your personal space, and the same principal could be applied in GAEA, within reason. That emotional disconnect should then in theory become easier to adopt when dirty work needed to be done. William’s biggest concern was about his friends and family. That disconnect would be significantly harder for them than himself. It also wouldn’t sit well with him to force such changes upon them through battles and arduous events. They all would need to grow the capacity to kill out of necessity. William was completely stumped at a good way forward, but people had integrated into the world before, so he had a hunch that if he could just find the right person, then he could get guidance, or maybe something close to it.

William decided that he would ask around about integrated people while at Everglade. It was added to the tasks in his mind. They had to negotiate a suitable working relationship or trade agreement first, then establish a plan of growth between the two settlements, and after that, the questions about integrated people would be task three.

Wylton returned shortly after William had regained his sense of surrounding and the old druid spoke up, “Thank you for Waiting, Sir Bloodbane. I have cleared things with the guards and you may follow me inside.”

William and his party did so, approaching the large wall of living matter. A wave of the druid’s hand opened a large door from the wall of entangled vines and greenery, astonishing William’s friends and making even him raise his eyebrows at seeing those shenanigans with his own eyes. Games were one thing, but seeing it happen was truly an experience. Wylton gestured for the group to follow him through the new doorway.

As the group entered, William’s attention shifted to anticipation of what was to come of their grand tour.