(Zack)

Upon waking, I find myself lying on the Flame Altar in the Dark Temple, wearing just a pair of pants. I sit up, then turn and slide off the altar. My body is mobile, as if I didn't just spend a month unconscious, recovering from…

Resurrecting Bryce, despite how long he had been dead.

I turn and kneel in front of the altar, sending up a prayer to Big Flame thanking him for protecting me and my body as I recovered. Then, I exit the chamber and promptly warp myself into Big S's temple. He looks as if it was expecting my arrival, since he's manifested his dragon avatar and is looking quite sheepish, apologetic, and scared.

"The brothers are me and Bryce."

"They are," Big S says softly.

"That's why you didn't want to tell me," I say. "You spun the lie that Bryce and I existing at the same time and place interfered with the visions. That was a lie which you told even the other Crystals. It wasn't that we were interfering with it, it's that we were the brothers of the vision."

"You are."

"Yeah," I say. "And you didn't tell me because as far as you can tell, the brother of realization doesn't end the war against Alexander, but for him."

"That's all my searching says," he nods. "It's the only explanation for why realization ends the war. I… was afraid knowing it might turn you against us. So I hid the truth."

"Big S," I say. "Alexander is a jackass who deserves to die. If Bryce is the one who's getting the glory, I have no damn problem with it. Alexander might have come after me, he might have arranged for my team to die, only to fail. He might have put me through hell. He killed Bryce. To be honest, I'm glad to know that the vision, which is nigh impossible to divert from happening, is us. It means I know that Alexander will die, because I'm not going to join him. It also means I can finally relax and rest. I might stress about Bryce, but honestly? He can take care of himself. He has a Spook Sword, after all."

Big S starts to shake, and it takes me a moment to realize he's trying not to laugh.

"I don't hold it against you," I tell him. "So don't worry so much about that, Big S."

I take a deep breath, then let it out, and I feel like most of my stress is now gone. Bryce will kill Alexander, and his own power burst likely rivals mine, possibly even exceeds it, for him to do that. But he has an advantage – he's going into Lost Territory, and probably already has a full month ahead of me.

Yeah, I know that happened, even if I only just woke up. How do I know this? Because I'd do that if I were in his boots.

Because of that, and because he's probably training his ass off, Bryce is going to gain Experience at an accelerated rate. He's probably going to earn a lot of Bonus Experience, too, since I know there are probably plenty of Special Boss Monsters out there for him to kill.

"Alright," Big S tries for a smile. "What are you going to do now?"

"Head home," I answer. "Stretch for a bit. My team's probably preparing for us to move out as soon as I wake, so I'll let them have some rest first, then we'll head into the Lost Territory. I might be done training my ass off, but I've got a brother to catch."

Big S laughs at that, then I give him a pat on the snout before warping myself home. There's no one around, so I head to the bath and scrub down. Being on the altar in recovery, I haven't had a bath in a month.

After scrubbing down, I soak in the bath, closing my eyes and using my sight to check on my team and friends. First, I check on Kit. He's with the servants of the Dark Order right now, learning how to speak from Gold and Theodore. Max is there as well, though I think he's more interested in his pet rock than he is the lesson.

Then again, Max learns to speak better by listening to others talk than he does through lesons.

Aurum is currently shopping for groceries, indecisive about which apples to buy because to him, all of the good ones look damn delicious. In the end, he'll probably buy all of the apples, then realize he has more than he needs. After that, he'll probably bake a couple of apple pies.

I turn my attention to Gavin, who is in the mines right now, training hard with Luca and Kylie, though a check shows he spent a lot of time with Peter, too. It seems he's trying to keep Luca from tormenting Kylie too much, so I make a note to apologize to her later. And to make Luca apologize to her for it. I can guess his reason for it, and while it's amusing, it's also a bit wrong.

Finally, I turn my attention to Braden. He's shopping right now, and he is not in his usual outfit. He has on leather pants, which is new, and leather boots. They seem to be made of the same type of leather. He's also wearing a sort of headdress made from a white liger pelt, with its maw hanging over his head, almost as if it wishes to be a mask, but isn't. Part of the back of the liger hangs down from the headdress, still attached from when the beast was live. It covers the top half of his back and his shoulders, but that's it. Braden isn't wearing a top. At all.

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He is wearing a leather necklace with bone beads strung on it, as well as several leather bracelets made from woven leather cords, in addition to his leather bracers, though these ones are new. Their leather matches the rest of his leather, and I'm going to take a guess that it's all from that white liger.

Damn, he managed to find and kill one. I use my sight to look back in time and check out the event, and my amazement grows even more. I knew Braden was talented with a bow, but damn! That fucker is awesome! It seems he's attempting to take on Druid now. I'm pretty sure he can wear stuff that isn't made of the beast, too, but I guess he's going all the way. That outfit is probably helping him deal with his shyness, too.

Especially with how bold he's being with the shopkeeper and the haggling.

Turning off my sight, I finish soaking in the bath, enjoying the heat soothing my muscles. When I finish, I climb out of the bath and dry off, then dress and head up to my room, just to see if everyone's created a Luca-pile spot in the middle of the room.

There's no sign of that, but there is something on my bed. It's peeking out from under the pillow, just a small corner, and I walk over and pull it out. A letter? I turn it over and find my name on it. I sit down and open the envelope, pulling out the pages inside.

Zack,

Dying was NOT fun, let me tell you that! Heaven was pretty alright, I guess. I didn't actually go in, but just hung out at the gates, chatting with people who made their way in. Braden, Luca's brother, is there, hoping to wait until Luca arrives before reincarnating. He doesn't remember anything of the Boundary – those memories aren't from reality, after all. Did you know that people born in the Boundary are automatically either reincarnated or their souls are destroyed (considered the ultimate punishment) based on their actions there? I guess it's because they technically shouldn't exist outside of the Boundary, and their memories don't transfer with their souls. Seems our dad made it so that souls formed in the Boundary can exist in reality.

I talked with Braden a bit, about you. He was surprised you had a brother, especially one as friendly as me. Then he saw you in me, and his guard went up. Went waaaaaaaay up! By the time we finished talking, he realized that he'd always only thought about how you treated him, and realized that you actually cared for Luca. I told him about what you did after their parents killed them, how you basically took Luca in and protected him from the world. He forgives you.

Anyway, don't worry too hard for me, Zack. I'll be just fine, especially with the Spook Sword and Spook Knife (yeah, I took them, and yeah, I know you probably guessed that on your own – they're mine!).

We have a long, yet short road ahead of us. I've talked with our dad before, a few times, and I asked him if there was an easy way to defeat Alexander. Annoyingly, he kept telling me that you already have the answers. I told him that if it was easy and you had the way, there's NO WAY you'd let him keep living on. I think he just likes doing stuff like that. One of our sisters told me about what he was doing to you.

So anyway, Zack, seriously – don't worry too hard for me. Try to catch up, though, or I'm going to leave your punk ass behind! And if I don't see you again before we end this thing, then I'll see you again at the end! Don't pass on until we talk again in person, alright?

Your brother (obviously),

Bryce

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(Braden)

When I return home, I notice someone inside the upper level, in our room. I can't make them out, and they seem to be pretty still, so I sneak my way upstairs. When I arrive, I find Zack sitting on his bed, reading a letter. Luca stores it under the pillow when he's not here to ensure he doesn't fall into the temptation of opening it, and I don't think Gavin or Max realized it.

It's only natural Zack would. He has tears in his eyes, and I don't think he noticed my arrival. A few tears drip down onto the letter, adding to the wet spots already formed on there. Zack rubs his eyes with his sleeve, then looks at me.

"Trying to get over your shyness?" He asks.

"Yeah," I feel my face heat up as he reminds me of my outfit. "I had just managed to forget I was wearing it. I only finished it last night."

"It looks nice," he tells me.

"Thanks," I say. "Brandon helped me make it. I have a vest to go with it, but I wanted to try the outfit without it. I know we'll probably leave the Cities behind and all, but I still wanted to work on this."

"The choice is yours," he gives me a sad smile. "It's one thing to know that Bryce would go into the Lost Territory because it's what I'd do, it's another to have him tell me in a letter he did."

Zack folds the papers back up and sticks them back into the envelope, which he then sends into his Inventory, before giving me an amused look.

"How easy is it to move with that on your head?"

"It's not that heavy," I tell him. "And I haven't been fighting much in it. I mostly just walked through town today. Everyone's been preparing for your waking and announcement that we're heading into Lost Territory, by the way. All we have to do is wait for everyone to return, then get whatever food we need. We all bought supplies. Well, Luca, Gavin, and I have. I don't know about Max, he's been doing a lot of stuff out of the City, and no one really knows where he's been going. He has been back the last week, but I think he's spent more time with the Dark Order than doing anything else."

"Alright," Zack laughs. "Thanks for the update, Braden."

I dip my head to him. That was a lot of talking, and I can tell by his expression he knows that I'm probably talked-out for the rest of the day.

"I'm rather starved," Zack says. "Seeing as I haven't eaten in a month. I'm going to head downstairs and make a lot of food. Want something to eat, too?"

I dip my head to him.

"Alright," he tells me. "I'll holler when it's done."

He heads downstairs, and I pull off my headpiece and set it on my bed, before climbing up and sitting on my bed as well, letting my feet hang over the edge. Zack's a pretty decent guy. He didn't say it, but he left partly so that I can have some time alone and deal with the stress and anxiety I put myself through today.

Hopefully, I gain Animal Form: White Liger pretty soon. The headpiece is really uncomfortable, but absolutely necessary. It's the one piece that I must have.