First thing tomorrow, I’m trying this out, Daniel thought to Hunter as the ringcat disconnected from him. I still haven’t been able to get a good view through your senses.

Why do you care about this? Hunter asked warily.

Daniel ignored the question that had an obvious answer. How did it feel to fire the crossbow? Through trial and error, the ringcat had managed to coordinate aiming and firing to a degree, although reloading was outside of Hunter’s current ability to control Daniel. So far, the nimbleness Hunter possessed with Daniel’s body could only be described as janky. The sensation was eerily similar to when Rorshawd had taken over Daniel’s arm to attack.

Strange.

That’s the word you use to describe everything the bond does.

It describes it well. Hunter was looking at one of his paws, upturned. Hunting makes sense. Stopping time, using you. Speaking. Not normal.

I wouldn’t call my hands turning bird-like normal either, but I’m not complaining. It’s just something you have to get used to. I’m looking forward to it because it’s a new experience. Something I never thought I’d be able to do back home.

Had enough of new experiences when the mountain exploded.

That’s… fair. Daniel tried to act casual by tapping randomly on his phone. You’re still good with letting me try out the reverse tomorrow, right?

To his surprise, Hunter replied with borderline enthusiasm. You should join as I hunt. I doubt you could do better, but you could observe.

Huh. He didn’t know how to feel about that. On the one hand, a joyride with a jungle predator sounded amazing. On the other, being there for the experience of eating raw meat was less appetizing. I guess I could leave before the second part, Daniel thought privately. Yeah, that sounds fun. The only downside is we’d have to wait until tomorrow night. Hopefully, I won’t have to use a lot of mana before then. Or that Claire doesn’t kill me.

Both looked at the faint aura belonging to Rorshawd, still roughly where it had been when Daniel had fled the city. We will probably be fine.

Yeah. We should head back.

The look Tlara gave Daniel when both he and Hunter returned was middling, compared to the overall scale of glares she’d given him. It was an impressive feat, the breadth of her expressions, considering Tlara didn’t have proper eyebrows and the beak spoiled any possibility of a grimace. There was something else to the look apart from the hostility as well. Nothing Daniel could define, though it was clear something had changed between them. Whatever was mixed in with the suspicion and despise diluted it all the same. I guess once I maxed out Tlara’s hatred all that emotional energy had to go somewhere else. He thought more about that and shook his head. No, I’m pretty sure that’s bullshit.

Lograve’s implication of a bond forming between Tlara and him stopped Daniel dead as he had the sudden fear his phone was going to vibrate. After a few seconds, nothing happened. Huh. Dodged a bullet there. Since it was already out, he took a look at the settings tab. Nine advancements, seven from last night alone despite not even killing anything. Did the Octyrrum recognize how insane a threat Rorshawd had been and rewarded him for just surviving it, and if so, how many of these points were from his poking out an eye? Either way, the total was enough to bring up any of his lagging attributes, even charisma, to level two. Or I could supercharge my intelligence and get to level three. Wait, no. That’s how Kob died. I’ll decide tonight.

Thomas was the first to engage with Daniel. “Hey Guy. Hunter.” Still the same, relaxed Cleric. He hardly seemed phased that everyone had almost died hours ago and that a lot had. Daniel had also forgotten until he just reminded himself. “Murdon’s got the camp on a war footing.”

“Are we going back to kill the dragon?”

“Ah no, nothing like that,” Thomas shrugged. “Just got to kill a Tyrant is all.”

“Tyrant? Wait, weren’t people saying Murdon was a Tyrant?”

“No, see there’s a Tyrant that was going around making everyone think Murdon was a Tyrant. Kinda convoluted. You missed the show. Murdon dragged out the whole thing from the garrison.” Thomas made a gesture like he was pulling several handkerchiefs out of his other hand. That probably wasn’t what he wanted it to look like. “Sounds like the whole fort was against us before we even got there. Scary stuff.”

Daniel looked at the damage to Thomas’ armored robes, not having been replaced like the Cleric’s bow. “Have you gotten a new Focus?”

“Nah.” Thomas rooted around in his pack. Instead of some kind of partially formed Focus, he came up with some wrapped jerky.

“That doesn’t bother you? We’re about to, wait. What are we doing?”

“Nothing today,” Thomas said while chewing. “It’s fine, Guy. I can’t get a new Focus for a week. Worrying about it won’t change anything. I’ll just have to let you do all the heroics.”

“You can still shoot your bow,” Daniel pointed out.

“Sure, just need the arrows. Ammo’s so low they gave it all to the people who could use it best. Alost almost fought Quala off of him when it looked like people had forgotten to give him any.”

“Should I turn in the bolts I have?” It’s not like I have a lot anyway, Daniel thought. He had his standard twenty shots after replenishing from the fort’s supply, as well as what Hunter carried. It was a miracle Hunter had made it out with his new pack, especially since the heliorite was stored within it. In the long run, it was just a stone, worthless in the face of how many lives had been lost, but he’d made a promise. Hunter, where’s Khare? Thomas was giving some easy-going statement about how almost no one was stupid enough to use a crossbow when they had plenty of bows, so he had time for a side conversation.

Went into the earth while you were sleeping.

They died!?

No. Aura is there.

“What?” Thomas asked as he misread the look on Daniel’s face. Daniel relaxed as he confirmed Hunter’s sighting. Khare’s aura was indeed just below the ground.

Weird. Thanks, Hunter. “Sorry, I just noticed a weird aura.”

“You mean Hunter did.”

“How did you know that?”

“I thought I told you about that lie detecting power I had.”

Daniel blinked. “I thought you lost your Focus.”

“Yeah, but I also never said I needed it to read you like a book.”

…

Murdon called for a break in the camp shortly after, deciding that greater distance from the dragon balanced losing the advantage of being at the top of the sloped path to the former city. No solid plan had been put forward as to how the inevitable confrontation with the Tyrant would go, but there were whispered guesses made during the march.

Khare had come out of the ground when it had been time. They’d almost fully regrown and walked close to Daniel instead of hitching a ride on his back. The gestalt hadn’t said a word since Kob had died and Daniel wasn’t going to rush them either. The conversations on bonds had reinforced the idea that there’d been some kind of connection between them and the fallen titan.

Thomas and Evalyn were walking with him as well and the group moved in a more organized fashion compared to the retreat last night. If this was a game, they would have made a decent party. Cleric, Bard, Artificer and… Fighter? Martialist seemed pretty close to that. Hunter didn’t fit though. It wasn’t like the five were filled with adventuring spirit anyway. Even Evalyn was quiet, leaving most of the talking to Daniel and Thomas.

As far as the others, Claire was awake now. Quala was sticking close to her, whereas the others who were wounded were able to move by themselves to some degree. Even Tak’s mangled leg had returned to a degree of functionality, benefiting from the Mana Burn effect of his Regeneration. How Tak had managed to rest through the dragon fight Daniel didn’t know, but he’d done it and was the only one here with more than half of his mana remaining.

“Thomas, I’m worried about Claire,” Daniel confessed in a low voice. The others could hear him, but they were his friends.

“I know, I took a look when Quala was examining her. Completely passed out. You were talking with her right before, what happened?”

“I-” He couldn’t lie, Thomas would know, apparently even without any powers. That was probably a bluff, but did he want to lie, or just not tell the truth? Then he realized it didn’t matter. Tlara had witnessed the promise. If she knew he didn’t want people to know she’d shout it from the top of the wyvern she was riding. He’d tried to hide from this, tried to put off thinking about Claire, but in the end, the Beastmaster would prove his undoing like always. “When the dragon first attacked I asked Tlara to take her out of the city. She went, but Claire wanted me to save a draconoid named Parduc. They were close or something, but he died with Kob.”

“Oh,” Evalyn sighed in somber realization. “I didn’t notice. That was her brother.”

“How could he have been her brother?” Daniel asked, feeling the pit within him grow deeper.

“How’d you know?” Thomas added.

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“They weren’t related by blood. Both grew up as part of a Sojourn. They wound up joining the initial expedition because of some deal it made with Threst.” Evalyn sounded distant as she explained, a marked difference from the confident cheeriness she normally carried herself with. It seemed like she was depressed, which was appropriate given the circumstances. She was wearing all the emotions Daniel was feeling on the inside and desperately trying to push down. “I talked with her before we went to the mine. It came up.”

“After Daniel started hooking up with her, you mean?” Evalyn stared at Thomas and his laid back attitude withered a little.

“I can have a conversation with someone without it involving sex.” Thomas recoiled at the unshielded malice that accompanied those words, to the point that Daniel wondered if a power had been involved. “No. I was just socializing. There were other people there. Most of them are dead now.”

“Her brother,” Daniel repeated after the pause Evalyn had injected into the conversation.

“It’s not your fault Guy. Crest, you shot out that thing’s eye!” Thomas reassured, more serious after Evalyn’s rebuke. “Her brother chose to fight up front. More than half of us died! She can’t blame you for that when you did your best.”

“You should just talk to her,” Evalyn advised like she was telling someone at a gas station to put out their cigarette.

The thought of doing that made Daniel freeze, just for a moment. Time had only made everything worse, and he knew it would only continue making things worse, but he knew now how he felt about his relationship with Claire deep down and the truth was cutting him in two. It was too much, even to consciously acknowledge, and in his unbalanced state he started to confess something sure to change the topic. “It is my fault. I-” Wait, Hunter, I shouldn’t tell them about the thing in the mines. right? What it did?

You trust, or you do not, Hunter replied to the question directed at him. Do you trust them? You are hurting. I have tried to help, but it is a deep wound. I have not been enough. The ringcat wasn’t talking about the monster god. He knew what Daniel was avoiding but also didn’t directly address it.

Daniel did, opening the crack in his soul, if only to the one closest to him. I just want this to go away. Hunter, I know she hates me. I failed her and everyone in that city because I let myself get controlled by that soul. But, it’s more than that. Evalyn was right, I shouldn’t have been doing anything with Claire in the first place because right now I don’t know if I can ever talk to her without breaking down. I think of her and all I can feel is shame. How will bringing any of that up make me feel better?

I don’t know, the ringcat answered honestly. I just know you were there when I was hurt, and because you were I felt better.

Hunter… The ringcat really cut deep sometimes. The others were looking away, giving Daniel time and space to collect his thoughts. He could probably tell them the truth, in part or in whole, without people overhearing. Unless there were people with sensory powers that improved hearing, in which case he’d be forever paranoid someone was listening. No, it was just the three of them. Thomas, Evalyn, and Khare. He’d fought with all of them. Saved and been saved by some of them. They were all his friends, even if there was no bond of friendship between them to prove that. Discussing the other world part was out of the question, but the rest? If talking about it could make the heaviness in his chest better by any measure, he should do it.

“It’s my fault the dragon attacked,” he said simply, going with the less painful of two truths.

“Is this about you jumping into that hole in the mountain?” Evalyn asked softly, guessing.

“Right! I completely forgot about that. Hand, Guy, we thought you’d been hit by some kind of mind control or something.” Thomas blinked as he remembered something else. “Wait, last night you said the dragon had your powers?”

“What?”

Even Khare’s head turned the gestalt’s first reaction to the conversation. Their lower half was decomposed to swarm across the ground, while the upper half was molded into humanoid form. They didn’t normally travel like that. Actually, Daniel had never seen Khare like this at all. Was this some new kind of power? Daniel was too distracted to question it further. Somehow, he had to explain the insanity and pain inside of him now that he’d opened the door.

“That wasn’t me. There-” Here we go. “There was another soul in me that took control.”

Instantly, Evalyn looked at Thomas. That confused Daniel until the Cleric caught the glance, and whispered, “He’s not lying. Guy, that sounds insane.”

“I know. It’s, it is. Look, just,” he was fumbling again. Daniel had been doing better talking to people in recent days. It was probably the improvements to his charisma, but there was something to be said for the confidence he’d gained as well. Now? It was just like when he’d first arrived in this world. “Only Lograve knows about this,” he said quietly. “Please don’t-”

“Guy, you’ve got a healer’s confidentiality with me, even if I can’t heal right now,” Thomas assured.

Evalyn followed. “I can’t promise that. But with our history, I feel like I’d be a terrible person if I didn’t give you my confidence now.

For the second time, Thomas wisely didn’t say something, even though he clearly wanted to. What is going on with her? Daniel idly thought. It’s almost like she’s a different person. Like the world can touch her now. I only saw her like this back at the tree when I was being an ass.

Khare said nothing, keeping their gaze forward. Well, two out of three wasn’t bad.

“After the Upswell I kinda woke up where the city was.” Daniel had to choose his words carefully to avoid lying. Saying ‘I survived the Upswell’, for example, would trip Thomas’ power or senses or whatever because as far as Daniel knew he got here after the fact. Unless implicit lies counted too?

“You-“ Evalyn put a hand over Thomas’ mouth as he started shouting, and a finger to her lips. The hand was removed when Thomas nodded, and he continued in a lower voice. “You survived the Upswell?!”

“I’m not sure. I don’t remember much of what happened.” Still the truth.

“What does this have to do with another soul?” Evalyn was reserving incredulity until the whole story was told. There was some kind of knowing look in her eyes that she was directing at him.

Crap, I forgot. Daniel had told Evalyn all about the other world during that night when he wasn’t thinking clearly. She was connecting the dots. At least she can lie to Thomas, and she hasn’t said anything yet. I guess I can trust her. “When-” Daniel coughed. His throat had dried up. “When I woke up I didn’t know. I didn’t figure it out until yesterday. There were a couple of times when weird things happened but I-” Didn’t know what was normal in this world? “Wasn’t sure what was causing it.” Where to go from there? Mention every single weird thing, from waking up to who he had called Ringcat, to the origin beast?

“There were times when part of my body acted on its own. Only when I was about to die, so I thought it was a power or something. My Focus wasn’t telling me everything. I had Regeneration but it wasn’t showing up for example, so…” Daniel shrugged. “With everything else going on I didn’t think too much about it.”

“So this other soul flipped off Tlara?” Thomas asked.

“No, that was me. I think we’re on better terms now, but back then she was just the worst. I’m getting off topic, sorry.”

“Conjoined?” Khare spoke up. Emotion didn’t carry the same in the voices of the gestalt, though the Martialist’s voice didn’t have any energy at all. Daniel also wasn’t sure what the gestalt meant. Roughly, he had a guess, so Daniel carried on and hoped he was right.

“Yeah, turns out when the soul was implanted in me I got its powers and, well, it worked the other way too. My only guess is that happened when I came here since the soul briefly took over just after then.”

“The dragon had that soul.” Evalyn nodded. “That makes sense, in a way that makes no sense.”

“There was something in the mountain the soul worshiped? When I looked down to try and see Lograve I think the soul sensed it and took over to get to it.”

“Worshiped, like a god?” Thomas’ hand was over the spot his Focus had hung on his waist. He shuddered. “I know there’s weird Spiritualists out there but that’s going too far. They were worshiping a dragon?”

“The thing that made the dragon.” No one was quite sure how to respond to that, other than to stop walking and stare.

Evalyn was the first to speak. “This is too much for me. What does that even mean?”

“Tell me about it. You didn’t have a soul ripped out of you.” Daniel fired back, instantly regretting the intensity. “We’re falling behind, we should keep walking.”

“No, wait. What?” Thomas pulled on him to bring them face to face. “Guy, your soul can’t just be removed. That’s not how any of this works. And monsters don’t have souls!”

“Am I lying?”’

“N-no. You’re not. I don’t think so.”

“How do you know without a Focus?” Evalyn asked.

“He has a tell. My power helps me spot them.”Daniel was about to ask what that was when Thomas quickly spoke over him. “So why didn’t this super monster kill you?”

Daniel shrugged. “It just looked like an egg. Taller than the cliffs around Roost’s Peak, but an egg covered in what I think was solid mana. I don’t think it can do too much directly. I didn’t see the dragon get summoned either. That being said, it definitely took the other soul in me. I don’t know if it makes a difference Thomas, but I think it willingly left my body.”

Thomas looked away, thinking, and didn’t respond to that. He was troubled by what Daniel was suggesting, compounded by the surety that he wasn’t lying to him.

“Grafted?” Khare said. That was completely out of context.

“I’m sorry, Khare, we’ll need more than that,” Evalyn replied.

“No, wait.” Daniel thought a bit more about what the gestalt meant. “Are you suggesting what happened was related to the Grafting?” Khare nodded. “Huh. I mean, it’s kind of similar? Making a monster into something more humanish, but skipping the physical part.”

“If you believe the legends verbatim. I know more than most how stories can be exaggerated. The older a myth gets, the less reliable the facts are.”

Thomas looked skeptically at Evalyn. “Done a lot of research, then?”

“No. I’ve just seen it happen in person. I think I’d understand how stories work better than you would.”

“Fine, look it doesn’t matter. We need to talk to Quala about this. Other high level Clerics too, ideally a proper church. Get out of here and head straight for Aughal. Or maybe Threst? Damn bird country, but it depends on which one’s closer right now. People need to know about this.”

Thomas had undergone a sudden transformation, activating his ‘on duty’ frenetic persona that carried the urgency of an EMS worker arriving at a massive traffic wreck. Like before, it didn’t seem like he was motivated by fear but by the desire to get the job done. That could be a problem. “Thomas, if you want to tell anyone about this you need to ask Lograve first.”

“Guy, if you saw this happen, people need to know. Only gods like the Hand or the Octyrrum undivided can influence souls.”

“You said I had healer’s confidentiality.”

“There are limits to that!”

“What about the fact that he’s your friend?” Evalyn asked. Frowning, Thomas sighed and put a hand to his head.

“I, Hand, we can’t keep this to ourselves. If there’s some new monster type that can steal souls and put them into summoned dragons then people need to know!”

Telling Thomas about this was a mistake. Enough time had passed that Daniel had also forgotten the Cleric was an idle gossip. Combine that with real concern and a deadly secret, and he was about the worst person Daniel could have told. The only benefit was the lingering painful memories from last night were currently being overshadowed by fear of what Lograve was going to do to him in the very near future. “Look, I trust Quala too. Can we at least wait for camp and talk to Lograve about bringing her into the loop?”

“As long as someone higher up in the church knows.” Thomas accepted the compromise, relaxing slightly. “If it still matters, I don’t think it was your fault.”

“Of course it isn’t,” Evalyn agreed. “Daniel, so many things had to happen to make that dragon attack the city. You’re not responsible for even one of them.”

“If it didn’t have my powers, the ballista might have killed it before anyone died.” He was disheartened again, now that the topic was back on Rorshawd. “I didn’t save Parduc. Also, you weren’t here for this, but Hunter almost died because I was an idiot. I thought I could be some kind of badass and I just got people killed.”

“Your Regeneration comes from the other soul, right?” Evalyn asked.

“Yes?”

“While I admit that it marking everyone was terrifying, that was just a snowflake amidst the avalanche.” She winced. “A cold metaphor wasn’t the best choice, I admit. But from what I saw, none of your powers, and I mean your powers, not those belonging to the other soul, killed anyone or made the situation worse than it would have been.”

“Unless you can breathe fire Guy, she’s right. And if you can, then that’d be worth the shame honestly. What?” Evalyn was giving him a flat look.

“The point is,” she said, turning back to Daniel and taking one of his hands in hers, “You’re blaming yourself for the actions and consequences of others. I-” she looked away. “I know what it feels like to be too hard on yourself. It’ll take a while to get over this, but you will. Believe me.”

Whatever good Evalyn did Daniel was immediately countered by what Thomas said next. “Overall about what I’d say too, four out of five. No complaints about your encouragement. That hand grab was probably too much though.”

“Why?”

“Looks like Claire saw it. Guy, she was not happy.” Any weight that might have been lifted from Daniel by having this talk was suddenly thrust back onto him twofold.