Prince Rellington snuck through the palace grounds until he reached the kitchen cellars. The old stones were chipped away from the mortar, but according to the reports, all the buildings were in good repair.

The light from above didn't push much further into the dim gloom so the Prince lit a small flame in his hand. The flickering light revealed rows upon rows of wine casks, ready to be opened at any time if his family required it.

"Fader, are you here?"

"Back this way, my prince."

The man's voice came from far into the rows of casks and he realized that if he went there, no one would be able to hear him. I can trust, Fader. No one could have gotten to him surely. He started walking, but his footsteps were slow.

Fader had changed recently. He'd thrown himself into training with a fervor and had returned to his gruff self while working with the squires in the training grounds. The most obvious answer was he was prepping himself to help the Prince, but could that be all?

He passed the last row of casks to see Fader sitting in an old oak chair that seemed to be made entirely from splinters. Looking up, his gaze was indecipherable, but he gestured to a similar chair beside him. I can trust, Fader. His thoughts were incongruous with his actions as he sat down and looked for any obvious ambush.

"What's this about, Fader?" There was a little more bite in his voice than he intended, but something was off about this clandestine meeting.

"You know of the Knot?"

It was a strange question. Everyone did. Prince Rellington even went so far as to pull up his status which showed the three orbs. His Soul was the strongest being a Minor Soul. His Heart was a Half Step and his meditation hadn't yet opened up his Body, but he suspected it would after he passed the twenty-fifth level. Soul then Mind then Body that was the basic truth of cultivation.

Fader must have not expected an answer as he continued. "The twenty-fifth level will be dangerous. With an experienced group, we will have no issues making it through, but if there is any unfortunate circumstance, we could be in trouble."

His eyes bored into the Prince and he knew what he was asking. Could we trust the adventurers that will be coming with us? The Prince wanted to confidently say yes as he'd gathered people from as far outside the circle of other nobles as possible.

But with his Leadership skill, it would be a party of six. Not including those present, that was four potential avenues of betrayal.

"What choice do we have? I have to push into D-rank before my father passes or the Kingdom suffers."

"There is always a choice if we have the resolve to take it." Fader said in a way that almost sounded as though he was reciting scripture. He pulled a small crystal out of his hand. It resembled a red quartz with an abundance of sharp edges and it seemed to move with the flickering of the torchlight near Fader himself. Something about the crystal drew the Prince and he was halfway to grabbing it before he stopped himself.

"What is it?"

"Did you know that monsters can cultivate?"

Despite the tension he felt, the Prince laughed. "Preposterous. There is no way that a monster would meditate long enough to cultivate the Knot."

Fader was uncharacteristically serious. "They don't meditate. They use catalysts. An attuned item invades part of their being. If they survive, their cultivation improves."

If they survive... The Prince looked from Fader to the crystal in his hand. "What are you suggesting?"

"Take this. With luck and will, you'll force some part of your cultivation to improve. Then we'll be better prepared to take on the twenty-fifth."

Despite the draw of the crystal, he could feel its power and the warmth that radiated through it. When Fader said, "if you survive" and "with luck," the Prince could feel the danger emanating from the tiny crystal. If anything, Fader was vastly understating it.

"That's madness."

"This is the best way. With this, you should survive no matter what."

The Prince's voice grew shrill and accusatory. He hated the fear that trembled in his voice and he snapped down. "If it's so powerful, why don't you take one!"

"I've already taken two." Calmly, he shared his own status page. His three orbs were listed there, but what the Prince saw was impossible. His mind interpreted what he felt as text.

Body: Major - Steel

Heart: Major - Shadow

Soul: Half Step - Combat

But how? You couldn't cultivate your Heart past your Soul nor your Body past your Heart. Yet, Fader's screen proved that to be a false statement even as he looked on. Two of the three aspects of his very being were Major. That was something only the greatest cultivators would achieve before the twenty-fifth if they ever explored the Dungeon at all.

Fader held out the crystal again. "Take it."

This time when he felt the dangerous emanations from it, it felt more like an opportunity than some bomb about to explode. The shifting edges of the crystal danced as though they were actually alive.

With only a slight hesitation, he grasped the crystal in Fader's hand. Fire exploded in the room, licking the ceiling and bursting with a great fountain of light and heat. That fire turned into a stream and burrowed into his body, burning his very being.

His mind took a back seat to the pain.

****************

Danna sat on a rock overlooking a gentle river. A tree provided some shade from the sun above. She dipped her toe in the river and watched its flow wound around hills covered in flowers of every shape and color. Her imagination added little otters into the river and she smiled.

This was a good Heaven.

With nothing else to occupy her attention, her mind wandered. She could see Richard and Poe making their way back to Igna. The actions that he'd been taking concerned her, but she'd been spending most of her burgeoning power on keeping Richard alive. Even now, she had a trickle going into Poe so that he'd make it back for proper medical care.

Unless Richard got into an altered state, it would be difficult to send him a message.

As important as he was, Richard hadn't been the only person in her life. She dipped into the river of Truth. Time was wobbly between the different dimensions, but it never extended into the future. Her present was much further removed from her time on Earth than she'd have expected.

Her parents had passed away some time after her own death. They'd been sad, but her sisters had families of their own. Her nieces and nephews were already adults, living their own lives and even starting to have children themselves. She watched their lives for a bit before wandering to old coworkers and friends from school.

By the time she'd learned about the history of her middle school crush, she had to admit that she was stalling.

She lay down in the fields of grass that surrounded the river and closed her eyes, listening to the light burble of water as it flowed over rocks. The Truth opened up to her and she saw him.

Noah.

Her son had thick curly hair that he tied back into a bun. Like Danna herself, his eyes were dark, but at the moment she saw him, his mouth was upturned into a smile. Her son was eating dinner with a woman with plain features, but to see him smile at her, she could tell that to him she was the prettiest woman in the world.

That woman was his fiance. Treading further back, they'd been on the cross country team together before they started dating. Tears streamed down Danna's face. As a boy, Noah hadn't liked running more than any other child, but apparently that had grown into a lifelong hobby for him.

His job was an accountant. He was far more successful than either Richard or Danna had been. As she explored her son's life, it felt bittersweet. His life was good, happy, and simple.

And she'd been no part of that.

He'd done well despite her and Richard not being present. He was a stranger to her that just vaguely resembled her little boy. Her crying had turned into sobs, but she didn't take any effort to control her body. She let the motion flow through her.

The sight of him hurt. When Richard was sick and when he passed, Danna should have been there. She shouldn't have been drowning her mistakes in whiskey.

As a penance, she watched Noah's entire life, getting to know the son that she'd lost through her own weakness. Days went by as she viewed it. Sometimes, she laughed as she saw some part of him that reminded her of either her or Richard. Sometimes, she wept again, watching him struggle through something that she should have been there for him with.

His childhood was the worst. The times when she'd been there and just after. She tried to watch it, but her guilt became unbearable and she eventually drifted away.

Still floating in the river of Truth, she touched on one more person that she had questions about. Her mentor. Like he'd said, searching information about other gods was difficult. Everything felt fuzzy as though Truth was relative or perhaps, the nature of divinity is to be obscured from Truth.

There was nothing for her to discover and only made her wonder more... who was he?