Sandra held Spike's right hand between both of her own. "I'm the one that brought you here."

"No, really… you were just… Not even that, really." He lifted his shoulders in a bit of a shrug. "Look, stop looking down like that. You're a friend, that much is for sure." He pulled his hand away just to get it under her chin, raising her view. "And we don't give up on friends."

"Even when they ask you to," she continued with a little smirk. "Stubborn dragons."

"Stupid humans," he returned fire, though they were smiling at each other with confused feelings. "Don't you know? Dragons don't surrender what is theirs, and you're ours, our friend."

"Oh, woe is me," she jokingly cried. "Seriously, how do you plan to get past the tower? The others aren't giving up."

"And I won't either. I just need you to not give up either. You with us?"

She gave him a flat look. “I asked you a question.”

“That-that was my answer,” Spike said, avoiding her gaze.

“It wasn’t much of an answer… you just said not to give up.”

“Well, um.” Spike rubbed the back of his head. “The reason why is because we don’t exactly… know what is going to happen? I’m not quite sure what Logue’s actual plan is. I don’t know how to beat a plan we don’t know about.”

“He’s still going to show up at sixty for a question, right?”

“... Maybe?” Spike made a dubious face. “Unless he doesn’t, or unless he tries very hard to not answer the question usefully, or I need more questions than he gives me to figure it out.” Spike’s expression became more panicked with each suggestion. “How can we beat a plan we know nothing about? Nothing about what the enemy can do, nothing about what he’s going to do…”

“Spike,” Sandra laid her hand on Spike’s shoulder. “Relax. We have a while… maybe rather a while, to think about it. We aren’t even past sixty yet… Asking him what his plan is might be the best idea, the most direct question to the answer.”

“He had to have thought about this and has a good answer,” Spike said. “He has to know we are going to try to stop him. If we do what he wants he’ll win for sure, he can’t not have a plan.”

Sandra smiled a little. "Well, so what?" Spike looked at her with sudden fresh confusion. "I mean if. If we rise against him, that's still pretty heroic. If he's… decided I'm one of those, which, well… maybe my parents did, whatever, doesn't matter. I got that, maybe I have to act it, one way or the other. If I don't do it my way… I do it his way."

"Can't say I like his way," admitted Spike with a rueful smirk. "So let's do it our way."

"Our way," she echoed, grabbing his hand, not between her own, but in one, firmly, shaking it.

----------------------------------------

Sandra hoisted up her latest tribute to Tabitha: a glittering shield. In order to make it, her party had to take a few side jobs, but those were becoming more common anyway. Apparently that was how it went as the tower got more challenging, to keep up you wanted materials from outside of it.

She wondered, idly, if they should get more aggressive about that after they passed floor sixty. A question for later, she supposed.

She came back into the agreed upon meeting place, a back room in the guild. Tabitha was sat down, a dark countenance on her face, mindlessly thumbing a gauntlet removed from her hand.

“Uh… hi?” Sandra said, and Tabitha looked up bleary.

“You’re here.”

“Yeah… I am, and so are… you?” Sandra said, confused.

Tabitha held out her hand. “Well, do you have it?”

“... Yeah,” Sandra said, presenting the shield. “We reached floor fifty, and it’s only ten more floors and I’m done with the thing, you’ll see I’ve done it.”

“Yeah…” Tabitha said, looking over the shield listlessly. She didn’t even really move to leave.

“... What’s wrong?” Sandra said. “This isn’t the normal flavor of surly.”

Tabitha scowled a little at that. “No, it’s not. I reached floor sixty.”

“Well congratulations!” Sandra clapped her hands. “This is a cause for celebration, right?”

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Tabitha glared at Sandra, as if debating about what to do. “There was no stairway up. Where there should have been a door there was just a fancy plaque. Had some nice jewelry for us, but no stairs going upward.” She sat herself back in her chair. “I can’t climb the tower any further.”

Sasha mouthed a few silent words before her voice returned, floundering, "No! No… You… You're supposed to keep going."

"You think I don't know that?!" Tabitha snapped. "You think… I haven't… They… They left, all of them. I thought they were with me, to the top." She ran a finger over the table towards the shield, but not touching it. "They were smiling, gloating, smugly satisfied. 'Look at us, we got 60, we can do anything…'"

"They couldn't do anything," Sandra murmured. Tabitha hiked a brow. "What? Obviously they couldn't get up to the top."

Tabitha smirked at that. "Rubbing that in my face too?"

"Tabitha, seriously." Sandra set her hand on the table. "Stop it. I know I messed up before, but we're past that. Even if you're ready to shove me aside when I hit sixty, I consider you a friend. I care, alright? Maybe I don't even deserve to do that, but too bad, get over it."

"The irony is thick enough to die on." Tabitha sat up in her seat. "You, of all people, telling me to get over something? How far have I fallen…?" She grabbed the shield suddenly and violently threw it aside to bounce off the wall with a loud metal clang. "Are you going to be happy at sixty?"

"I can't," whispered Sandra, licking her suddenly dry lips. "I have to keep on, to the top, the very top."

"And if there are no stairs?" growled Tabitha. "What will you do then?"

Sandra knew, from what Spike had said, the odds of that were basically none, but that also wasn't the answer to give in that moment. "I'll look for another way. I owe them."

"Owe who?" she barked. "Who? You have no family. You owe nobody anything. What are you talking about?"

"My friends, the dragons?" Sandra looked genuinely baffled at the confusion. "I owe--"

"You summoned them. Yes, I get it, they're adventurers, great, free will, also cool, but free will also means they can do what they want. Why do you owe them anything?" Tabitha pointed at Sandra with each pause, thrusting at the air between them, clearly agitated. "Especially enough to insist 100 is your goal."

“No!” Sandra said, her hands slamming on the table. “I owe them because they are my friends. Because they have a life to get back to outside of all of this and I need to give it to them, and because in service of that they have not stopped helping me. They would help me to the tower and I will help them because that’s the only way we know to do it!”

“You don’t owe them!” Tabitha stood up, the chair clattering behind her. “You went up, they went up, you got gear, they got gear. If at sixty they can’t go up and you can’t go up you let them go!”

“If it’s so clear and you think nobody owes anyone anything, why are you in such a bad mood because your party was fine with leaving!”

“It’s not like I stopped them. They’re gone, I didn’t try to stop them. So what if I’m in a bad mood because I am forced to accept that I’ll never go up the tower.” Tabitha grit her teeth. “So what if I was kinda hoping that we’d make it all the way or at least they’d be as disappointed that I was that this bid for greatness ended like everyone else.” Her eyes got hard and she composed herself. “I just forgot the lessons I learned from you.”

Sandra leaned back, something feeling cold inside of her. “The lessons.. From me?”

Tabitha cursed under her breath. “That nobody owes anyone anything else! You don’t drag people to places they don’t wanna go, you don’t ‘hold out hope’ they’ll get better. You do things that benefit each other when you do, and as soon as it’s not what you want you leave.” She made a tch noise. “This friendship crap you’re on is bullshit.”

Sandra blinked, her eyes searching, like trying to figure out what to say. “So… so… none of your party even asked you to come with them? Nobody said that they had something lined up and you could come?”

“... It isn’t the tower.” Tabitha said, coldly. “It’s just random jobs, it’s not the tower.”

"It isn't," admitted Sandra in a hushed whisper. "You really want to see the top."

"You're just noticing that? Tell me something else." Tabitha crossed her arms, glaring sideways at Sandra.

"What… was the wish you wanted to make?" The anger Tabitha had was not echoed at her, the question gentle. "You don't owe me that answer. I'm asking as a friend, if you can believe anyone means that."

"I… It would have been good," She snapped, partially at herself, admitting that she never thought that far. The wish was just a goal, and that had been enough to drive her forward. "It would have been the stuff of legends." She banged down on the table, making it jump under her fist. "A legend you're going to take."

"I made a promise." Sandra put a hand to her chest. "And I'm done breaking those. I will get them to the top, and from there, home, to a magic place that's better than here. I'll say goodbye, and never see--"

Tabitha's finger was on Sandra, touching her face. She was feeling a running tear. "Why… are you crying about winning?" Her tone was not one of accusation, but growing confusion.

Sandra swallowed hard, taking a breath. Should she say anything, it didn’t feel like it was something there.

"Fine, I don’t need to get it," fumed Tabitha, denying Sandra the chance to answer. "But it's important?" Sandra nodded. "On a scale of 0-10, where 0 is you got a papercut and 10 is the world is reduced to dust, this would be…?"

"A solid… 7? 10 for the people involved." Sandra crossed her arms, trying to figure out that scale. "It's very personal."

Tabitha grabbed Sandra by her collar with both hands, one on either side of her neck. "Will people tell stories about this?"

“I uh… I…” Sandra grimaced. “To be honest… p-probably not?” She looked away from Tabitha’s intense expression. “People don’t even know that my parents made it to the top…”

Tabitha’s grip only intensified. “And then they were talked about forever, how is that not people telling stories?!”

Sandra finally grabbed Tabitha’s hands, futilely trying to push her arms away. “I’m sending away literally every bit of evidence that anything is happening. Nothing… nothing will be left to tell.”

“You’ll still be left!” Tabitha nearly shouted.

Sandra’s expression was conflicted, looking back at Tabitha with fearful eyes.

Tabitha finally released Sandra, backing up. “Just what do you think…” She staggered back a step. "You'll still be there…" But Sandra didn't have the confident look that she expected.

"Gotta go." Sandra fled rather than face Tabitha, fleeing outright from her estranged friend. "Later!"