"Who the hell does he think he is, calling me a bitch?"

Noelle stormed off towards one of the smaller forests of the Dome, her face red and angry. Sofia followed close behind her.

"Noelle, he probably didn't mean it, he's been a little weird the last few days, and you did hit him first."

Sofia tried to calm Noelle down, her view of the whole ordeal in a much wider perspective than Noelle's since she was watching from the side.

Noelle snaps her head around and glares at the pale redhead, exhaling heavily.

"No, you saw the way he looked at me, he's just like all those other men. Stuck up, whiny and a fucking idiot."

Sofia tried to think of anything she could say to calm down the raging Noelle, but nothing came to mind. The situation was just too delicate to use some half-arsed reasoning. With no idea why Kai was so upset and winded up earlier, she's left with no other choice than to side with Noelle.

"Noelle, just calm down and look at the whole thing differently. Kai obviously sees you as a friend, otherwise he wouldn't have bothered trying to stop you from going on a literal suicide mission."

Noelle hesitated slightly, but only for a moment, she waves her right hand frantically and exclaims:

"You think that's his choice? I was the one going, I don't need some 'man' to protect me from every little thing. I am going to kill Rashik just like I did my uncle if it's the last thing I do, and if Kai tries to stop me he can join them."

Sofia winced.

"Noelle... not every man is like your uncle or Rashik, think about Gabriel, didn't he show you that?"

"Don't you dare use his name!"

Noelle screamed, tears threatening to spill out of her deep, blue eyes. She curls her fingers into her palm, feeling her nails sink into her skin.

"Don't you forget you're part of the reason he's dead! You have no right to imagine Kai as him, Kai will never be him! No one will! As soon as I kill that bastard I'll finish what I failed to do in the white room."

Sofia flinched.

"Noelle, just calm down and think, we all know what happened last time you brashly made a choice and executed it."

Noelle's eyes narrow, the deep blue orbs radiating danger.

"What do you mean by that?"

Sofia sighs and tenderly touches her temple, closing her eyes as she takes a deep breath. She had to be very careful with how she communicated what she was about to say, otherwise, it would just make Noelle's mood even worse.

"You're uncle was never going to use Gabriel as bait-"

"You're lying!" Noelle snaps. "Yes he was, that bastard was going to use Gabriel, he is a selfish bastard who ruined my life!"

"No! Noelle, I can't believe someone like you can be so naive, you'd think being placed in a cell by yourself would improve your mental clarity, not make you blind.

If you kept secretly listening in until the end of the meeting instead of running off in a panic, you would know that your uncle said no to the plan, Rashik is the one who proposed it in the first place. Hell, the only reason Rashik was second in command was because he had control over the men, your uncle hated Rashik."

Noelle's face pales slightly, but she grits her teeth and continues her attack.

"Then why lock me in a cell? I was alone for years! Do you know what that did to me?"

"Noelle!" Sofia shouts, exasperation creeping into her tone. "I think you already know what would have happened if he let you out, you know how the men around the compound saw you. A pretty little thing with her innocence intact, how do you think they would've acted?

Just look at Mr Ganim, the first man to see you other than your uncle's two food deliverers wanted to fuck you, incredible, right?"

Noelle's eyes light up slightly, fueling another attack.

"Exactly! My uncle sold me to that pervert just for some cash, how does that show he cared about me?"

"You're uncle didn't know!" Sofia cries out, exasperation clear in her voice. "Rashik went behind his back, you're uncle had no idea about any of that! Hell, when he found out he nearly put Rashik in a coma with how hard he beat him!"

"Then what about when he punched me? After all the time I spent locked in the cell, the first thing he did was strike me! That's not love!"

"If the others realised he favoured you it would have been even more dangerous than it already was, a man with something to lose makes a much easier target."

The blood rushed from Noelle's face, her skin growing whiter by the second. A new emotion appears in her wide eyes, something unexplainable.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Then why not just let me go? Give me some money and send me off somewhere. I could've had a life that way!"

"Noelle" Sofia whispers softly, her expression almost a pleading one. "You already know the answer to that. You were marked as dead for years and your uncle's rivals knew about you if they got hold of you... your uncle didn't want to risk it."

"No..." A new thought flashes in Noelle's cracking mind, a new rebuke in this argument. "The- the day my parents died he whispered in my ear about 'how sorry he is' and how 'this is the only way', what about that then?"

Sofia flinched slightly, casting her gaze away.

"That... I don't know, but I know one thing for sure."

Sofia throws her gaze right into Noelle's, catching the girl's eyes in an almost intimate embrace.

"You're uncle loved you, more than anything. He just didn't know how to show it properly."

Shattered.

Her heart, mind, will, everything was crumbling right before her. Falling to her knees, Noelle grasps at her face as the tears which threatened to form earlier come spewing out.

"No... you're lying, he was a bastard, he didn't love me. If he did, it would mean-"

Noelle lifts her head, looking up at Sofia. Pure, unadulterated anguish deep in the depths of the sea of her pupils.

"I killed him, I slit his throat, if everything you say is true... then I-"

"You killed the person who cared about you the most."

Noelle tries to speak, but the words just won't come out. Every emotion she's going through right now is just too much to comprehend.

"Noelle" Sofia starts to speak again, her tone a hint softer than before. "You have to learn that when you act brashly, those around you get hurt. YOU are the reason Gabriel's dead, YOU are the reason Kai snapped. You have to learn to control yourself."

"How?" Noelle cries out. "I have no idea what I'm doing, if I can't be me then who am I?"

Sofia shakes her head softly.

"I don't know, it's up to you to figure that out."

With everything said, Sofia tenderly places a hand on Noelle's trembling shoulder before walking away, leaving the girl all alone.

...Again.

Painfully picking herself back up, Noelle trudges towards the forest again, eventually making it to her hammock. Once inside, she clamps her eyes shut and submits to her tiredness, finding solace in the numbness.

*****

"Well, that didn't look very fun."

Feeling a vague sense of deja vu, Kai slowly opens his eyes. Since he's mainly been in the Dome the last few days they adjust much quicker to the bright light.

Looking around, the familiar sight reminds Kai of where he is. Bright blue, cloudless sky, a patio with a table and a couple of outdoor chairs, and a boy, who looks to be around his age, with silky brown hair sipping on a cup of tea.

"I know it wasn't," Kai grumbles while walking towards the table. "But it's not like it's my fault, she started it."

Honestly, Kai was quite happy to see his master. He wanted someone who had a lot of wisdom to talk to, and since Failure was excluded and Aldred was busy, it left-

"Oh, Kai," The Ever-changing tuts. "It's not about who started it, you're not children, it's about who finishes it. Those who emerge on top are always the ones who thrive in the gruelling game of life."

"Didn't know you were so... what's the word? Sentimental?" Kai mumbles while taking a seat across from his master.

The Ever-changing shrugs nonchalantly as a fresh cup of tea appears on the table in front of Kai, steam rising from the brown liquid.

"I'm not, it's just it's been a long time since I've spoken with someone so I'm trying out different ways of speaking. Does it suit me?"

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Kai lifts his gaze from the tea and towards The Ever-changing. Well-kept hair, smooth alabaster skin and the signature twinkle in their eyes.

"Not really, but if you were to change your appearance it probably would suit. You wouldn't catch a teenager speaking like that."

The Ever-changing chuckles.

"Oh Kai, aging changes once you finish the tutorial. Everyone ages slower, simple as, you could catch a two-hundred-year-old looking as young as an eighteen-year-old."

Kai stares blankly at his master for a few moments.

"Why?"

The Ever-changing blinks.

"What do you mean why, they just do. It's the way of the world, who am I to question that?"

Now it's Kai's turn to blink, looking at the attractive figure weirdly.

"Are you not a God?"

The Ever-changing raises an eyebrow.

"Was I not imprisoned?"

Touche...

"Well, alright then, what is it you wanted to talk about?" Kai asks as he picks up his cup of tea, tenderly taking a sip of the still-steaming drink.

The Ever-changing shrugs and places their tea back down on the dinky little table.

"Am I not allowed to bring my apprentice and best friend to have a perfectly normal conversation?"

Choking on his drink, Kai stares blankly at The Ever-changing.

"Best friend?"

The Ever-changing stares back blankly at Kai.

"You are the only person I've spoken to in who knows how long, I think you're the only person who fits the category."

Kai squirms slightly, but gives in and sighs.

"Fine then, call me your best friend. But as you know, best friends don't hide things from each other."

The Ever-changing tilts their head.

"Uh huh."

"So why did you tell me where the diary was?"

The Ever-changing blinked.

"That... was a selfish request on my own part. I needed to know something, and now that I do I think I'm finally ready to leave this place."

Looking around the vast space again, the only things that remain the same are the outdoor chairs and the dinky table, honestly its-

"It's pretty nice here, I don't know why you'd want to leave."

The Ever-changing snorts.

"Heh, yeah, try spending a..." They freeze, as if counting. "Long time here."

The Ever-changing then waves their hand and says:

"Anyways, back on topic. Seeing what's in the diary helped me out, now I'm going to leave and tend to some business. That's the reason I brought you here again, Kai. I don't know how long I'll be gone for a while so this could be our last meeting for a while."

Silence.

After a few moments, Kai exhales softly and says:

"Really?"

"Yes, really. I have a lot to catch up on and a lot to do, so I'll have to spread myself thin to get it all done. Plus, once I leave this place I wouldn't be able to contact you anyway until you leave the tutorial, stupid rules and stuff."

The air around the table distorts, with four new items appearing on the table between them. Two glasses with ice in them and-

"That's why I think we should throw ourselves a little party, to me escaping this place and to you... to you not being dead yet."

The Ever-changing takes one of the cans of beer and pours it into his glass, the sight of the golden liquid flowing through the ice makes Kai swallow.

"I've, uh... I've never drunk before, though."

The Ever-changing blinks.

"Well, you'll have to get used to it. One of the main tactics of recruiters outside of the tutorial is to get potential prospects drunk, then get them to sign one-sided contracts. I guess I'll be a good master and get your tolerance up."

The Ever-changing fills up Kai's glass with the enchanting beer, even though it looks exactly like normal Earth beer, it almost seems as if it's glowing.

"So drink up, Kai. Live like you're going to die tomorrow, because there's a chance you could and since you're in a dream it's not like you can get a hangover anyway."