EV B2 Chapter 8:

I took another step forward, and Astrid took yet another step back. She was only a step from the wall. She didn't recognize me when I stopped, realizing that I should. Looking up, I realized why—the place was covered in shadows. And, well, I was probably dead in her mind. So, I didn't advance any further, just unthreateningly holding my hands up and off to the side.

"Astrid," I said in a soothing voice as if I was trying to calm a frightened cat, "it's Miles."

Her mouth opened in a perfect 'O' of surprise. She stared at me. A second later, she blinked and frowned.

"Miles?" she said, disbelief clear in her tone.

"Yeah. Come on. We should probably leave," I said, turning on my heel and striding out of the alleyway.

A second later, she was—she had dashed past me, and in the light of the street, she stopped, turned, and stopped in front of me, blocking my path as she looked up, studying my face.

"Miles," she said, this time more of a confirmation than a question, but I nodded anyway.

"Come on. Let's not talk here," I said, looking around at the relatively seedy part of town. "I don't like this area."

She stepped to the side slightly, and I continued on my way, her falling into step next to me. She was quiet for a whole dozen paces before she exploded with the questions burning in her.

"How? Where have you been?" she practically shouted after the first breathy word.

I put my fingers to my throat, a finger to my lips, and shushed her.

"Later," I said. "For now, let's get out before those people come back."

Astrid looked over her shoulder and then scoffed. "Ah, don't worry about them. Now that they think you have this," she said, holding the bag, "They're not going to come after you. They have no idea who you are. And you certainly did a great job of terrifying them."

I looked at the bag. "What is that, anyway? I assume it's something important."

Astrid shrugged. "Not really. But they probably want their storage bag back."

"What?" I said, confused.

She stuttered for a step and looked up at me. "You thought I was stealing this?" she exclaimed, indignation clear in her tone.

I raised my eyebrow. "Yes, I got that impression. And you did say they'd probably want the bag back."

"Yeah," Astrid huffed, stomping her foot before striding off ahead of me, making—this time making me scurry to catch up. Walk quickly for a few steps to catch up to her.

"Yeah, the bag, sure, but everything in it is mine."

"Oh. Can we talk about this later when we talk about your thing?" she said testily.

I rolled it over in my mind and shrugged. I supposed if I could make her wait, I could wait as well. But my thoughts continued to spiral as I tried to figure out what I had broken up and if it wasn't Astrid thieving something. I supposed I was grateful that she hadn't been robbing people. It would have been harder to trust her, but honestly, it wasn't that big of a deal. I wasn't like I cared—working with Loki, I was already resigned to dealing with shady parts of life.

Astrid and I walked for five minutes or so in silence down several streets, covering a surprising amount of distance with our stats. Apparently, her speed stat had significantly improved since we last met as well. We found a bar and ducked into a booth at the back. I didn't have any coin so it was a little tricky.

The bartender looked at us, but I made a motion indicating that we'd get drinks in a bit. He shrugged, looking at the otherwise empty establishment, and went back to wiping his glasses with his grimy rag.

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I had intentionally chosen one of the places not actually manned by a member of Valhalla but rather some sort of puppet for whoever owned the store. Astrid leaned forward and studied my face.

"You look the same," she said before anything else, and I nodded.

"Yeah. I didn't think we aged."

Astrid pointed to a slight scar on her face. "Yeah, but… well, most of us accumulate marks that fade slowly. Healing doesn't fix everything." She yanked my hand across the table and pushed up my sleeve. I was slow at taking it back, but she noticed. But I got it back before the sleeve got up to my elbow and exposed my tattoo. But that wasn't what she was looking for. She frowned.

"Are you really Miles?"

"Yes," I said. "Why?"

Before giving her a chance to answer, I told her that Bjorn, Jonas, and Helga were in a group. Helga wanted to work with the sword and a few other fun facts sticking out of things that would have—people would have realized from the commotion we caused when I had to flee.

After a while, she cut me off. "Okay, okay. You definitely know things that no one besides Miles should know. But you should have a faint scar on your arm. I should see it. Especially since I was the one who healed it."

I frowned, not remembering that. "When was that?"

She waved her hands. "No, it wasn't a big deal. It was when we were fighting one of those bear things early on."

I raised my eyebrows, and she shrugged. "Hey, some of my spells let me know when I heal things."

I didn't ask for elaboration. I wasn't sure how private she wanted to be about that sort of information.

"Okay," I said. "So I'm Miles. I look the same because I am the same. I haven't really taken many wounds since we last met," I said, slightly unsure if that was the truth or not. But it was an explanation that was sort of true. I might have to explain more to her to get her on my side. But first, I really wanted an explanation.

"So, if you didn't steal that," I said, pointing to the bag under the table by her hips, "what the heck is going on?"

"Well," she said, drawing out the word slightly, "I suppose I might have stolen the bag, but everything in it is mine."

I raised my eyebrows.

"Well, the bag is spatially expanded," she said. "It's worth quite a bit. It was part of a joining bonus for the team that they used to get me on board, but things weren't really what they advertised. So when I left, I figured I could keep the bag for my troubles."

"That was your team that was chasing you?"

"My former team," Astrid corrected me testily. "Fucking dick bags," she muttered under her breath.

I winced, not necessarily wanting to know the details. Looking at her, I expected she might try to cut me if I asked if she was okay, so I let the matter drop.

"How have things been since I left?" I asked. "What happened after the riot?"

I was still debating how much I should tell her. It felt a little premature to just come out and say that I had worked with the God of Deceit and Trickery to spend time in another body, on another world besides Earth. I wasn't sure if she even knew about other worlds. Presumably, they came here as well. As long as they were human. But honestly, it would have been kind of hard to tell where someone was from just from talking to them. At least I would have been—at least with how many time periods were available.

Astrid shook her head. "Yeah, that was an ugly business," she said, glaring at me.

"What?" I said, raising my hands. "I didn't know the rule. That was against the rules."

She sighed. "Yeah. That's fair. I guess I can't really blame you. But for the most part, they left us alone. They didn't—most people didn't put together that we were at a party until afterward. And even then, the hype, the excitement had died down. Your face was on posters for a couple days, but everyone seemed to forget about it. We took them down once we could, but we couldn't ever find you. And, well, things kind of fell apart," she said, her voice trailing off as her expression crashed from annoyance and frustration to something that looked suspiciously like depression.

I frowned. "Yeah, I found Bjorn first. He didn't look good."

"Yeah," Astrid said. "He was… well. Things didn't really work well with him. I don't know if you—he just hadn't gone that far down and you being here would have helped, or we were already lost. Turns out he has a major problem with alcohol. Not just enjoys it but literally can't stop. After a week of dragging him out of bars, hungover to try to run dungeons with the rest of us… well, Jonas eventually had enough. And then he and Helga got together, and I may have said some things that I regret," Astrid said, looking—not meeting my eyes. "And then I've been bouncing around teams, trying to scrape up some levels and avoid having to get punished."

There was a moment of silence after that depressing story.

"I found Jonas and Helga's party," I said hesitantly. "They seem to be getting along well, but I didn't want to—"

"Interrupt them?" Astrid finished for me. "Yeah, those two are doing okay," she said grumpily and then looked at me. "Was I the last one you looked for?"

"Well, I didn't really look for Helga first. I just found Jonas and she was there. I didn't get to talk to them, they were 'busy'" I said with air quotes. "But can you blame me?"

She didn't exactly look thrilled, but at least I was being honest. A second later, her expression passed, and she met my gaze, this time with stubbornness written all across her face.

"Okay, enough. You have to tell me now. What the hell have you been doing all this time?"