I dismounted Inara, pulling a lead from my inventory and quickly securing her bridle to the fence outside Lukas’s house. My inventory was full of supplies, and I was more than ready for the journey.

Now, I just needed my travelling partner.

The night before, Lukas had stopped by Beacontown just like he usually did every few days. He’d become quite the little hermit out there, holed up in his woodside cabin, but he still visited often enough.

I had already explained the map and the false town to him, and he didn’t seem surprised that my search had taken me nowhere. When I told him about Petra’s letter (which I had not burned, contrary to her wishes) and what she’d said about the Order’s old temple, he’d immediately volunteered to go with me.

He’d nonchalantly mentioned that he didn’t have anything else going on and that he could do with an excuse to get out of his house, but his expression said it all: He was hoping for a new adventure.

I made my way quickly up the small steps and knocked briskly on the door. Something rubbed against my leg, and I glanced down to see a young ocelot looking up at me, purring quietly.

Typical Lukas. It was just like him to have managed to domesticate a wild cat.

The door opened, but to my surprise, it wasn’t Lukas who looked out. It took me a few seconds to recognize the tall, brown-haired man, and once I did, I couldn’t hold back a small glare.

Aiden. The same man who, seven years earlier, had wreaked havoc on Sky City, which included sending me falling to what he believed would be my death.

He looked very different than when I had last seen him. His hair had gotten significantly longer, the messy brown waves gently brushing his shoulders, and his pale green eyes seemed…calmer, somehow. The largest different was that he wore a simple blue t-shirt and jeans- there was no pretentious leather jacket in sight.

Honestly, I’m not sure why I was surprised. I knew he was in Beacontown. I knew he and Lukas were together. Yet his appearance that morning still managed to catch me off-guard.

Several months prior (four or five before the whole Admin adventure), Lukas had decided to pay a visit to the new Sky City civilization. I’d turned down the opportunity to go with him, for really no other reason except that I’d had something else going on at the time. While he was there, he’d apparently been able to finally mend things with the Blazerods, and began exchanging letters with Aiden once he returned home.

He’d gone back there several times since, and at some point, his views towards Aiden had…changed, shall we say. I don’t know what actually happened and I don’t plan on asking, but ever since then, they’d been far more romantic than platonic.

Needless to say, everything about their relationship bothered me. For one, I wasn’t too keen on having Aiden back in my life, especially not as a best friend’s significant other. I didn’t care if he’d ‘changed’ or whatever; it did not alter the fact that I didn’t really want him around.

Second, I didn’t know Lukas was interested in guys at all, until the day he’d told me that he and Aiden were together. It wasn’t that much of a problem, but I’d felt slightly hurt that he’d never said anything about it to me.

Third, Aiden. Just…Aiden. Of all the men Lukas could’ve chosen to go out with, it just had to be him?

To put it simply, I didn’t trust him, especially not with one of my best friends.

All of this flashed through my head in a matter of about two seconds. Aiden gave me a genuine, if somewhat nervous, smile and leaned against the doorframe. “Hey, Jess. Lukas’ll be right out; he’s just collecting supplies for the trip.”

“I’m almost done, I swear!” Lukas’s voice came from inside the house.

“You’d better be; I’d like to get going.” I called in reply. I was doing my best to ignore Aiden, though he didn’t seem to get the memo.

“Lukas told you I’m in the process of moving to Beacontown, right? He said he would, but…” he glanced briefly over his shoulder. “…you really never know with him.”

I had, in fact, been told over two weeks ago. If I remembered correctly, my response had been little more than a noncommittal grunt, but I chose not to say that right then.

“Yeah, I know.” I replied simply. Lukas appeared in my field of vision then, brushing gently past Aiden. He was wearing his casual armour; the dark-lensed goggles, sturdy boots, and the iron-accented black jacket over his ordinary clothes.

“Are you calling me a liar?” he asked insincerely. The brunette shook his head. “Not at all. I wouldn’t dare.” He said affectionately.

I sighed and crossed my arms. Lukas caught my gaze, and I nodded in the direction of the road, signifying that I was itching to leave.

Lukas turned away from me, to address his boyfriend again. “Alright, well, I’ll be back soon. Ah, soon-ish. I guess it depends on what’s there, but I should be back before dark.”

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“I’ll be here.” Aiden said with a shrug, casting another slightly apprehensive look at me.

My dark expression didn’t change as I turned away and went to untie my horse. Lukas leaned up to tap a quick kiss against Aiden’s lips, murmured something to him that I couldn’t hear, then quickly followed me to where his own dark-brown steed was tethered near Inara.

I swung myself up into the saddle, paying little attention to Lukas as he did the same. The whole encounter with Aiden had put me in a rather sour mood, and I hoped Lukas would catch on that I didn’t much feel like talking.

--

At first, he left me alone. We rode in near silence for a while, heading in the direction of the temple. The weather was slightly strange that day- a multitude of clouds covered the sun, though it didn’t seem like rain was on the horizon.

We trekked across a plains biome for a little bit, then had to jump across a small creek. We could’ve been travelling much faster if we chose to, but I didn’t really see the need.

Around forty-five minutes into the journey, Lukas sped up, now riding directly aside me. I had been slightly ahead, making it a little harder for him to force me into a conversation. He hadn’t seemed to mind earlier, but he began eyeing me with a contemplative expression.

“You seem quieter than usual.” He commented placidly.

I shrugged, looking straight ahead. “Just don’t have anything to say.”

“Really?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “You’ve normally got at least something to talk about.”

He said this in a fairly cheerful way, and I shrugged again. I still didn’t look at him, though I could practically feel his blue eyes assessing my expression.

“Wait a minute. Is this about Aiden?” he asked.

“What makes you say that?” I returned defiantly.

“Well, you’re kinda making the same face you did when I told you he wanted to move to Beacontown.”

I sighed slowly. I didn’t really want to go into everything I was thinking, especially since he seemed to be in such a good mood. Plus, I didn’t want to start causing problems when we had other things to focus on. “Yeah. I’m just not really sure how comfortable I am with your whole…whatever.”

“Relationship?” Lukas supplied.

“Yeah, that. It just seems kinda weird to me, and I…guess I need some time to get used to it.” I said carefully. This was a colossal understatement, but he didn’t need to know that right then.

Lukas looked at me for a moment, suspicion written all over his face. “Okay, hold on. You’re not freaked out by me being bi, are you?” he asked. I turned to give him a baffled glance.

“What? No!” I exclaimed with a small laugh. “No, not at all. Hell, of all of us, you were the one most likely to turn out gay.”

He laughed as well. “What is that supposed to mean?”

I shrugged yet again. “Honestly, I don’t know. It’s hard to explain. But what I’m trying to say is…I don’t wanna talk about it right now. What I think about it all doesn’t matter at the moment, and I’d rather not discuss it. Is that alright?”

“Sure. We’ve got something else to deal with.” he agreed amiably.

After that, we settled into the usual mix of easy conversation and comfortable silence. This was the first trip we’d taken together in a long time, and as it turned out, I did find things I wanted to discuss. Though we still saw each other every few days, we didn’t have as much time to really talk, to feel like friends again.

It was pleasant, for lack of a better word.

The journey seemed to go much quicker once I’d calmed down, the scenery changing swiftly from spruce forest to more plains (where we stopped for a lunch break) to the beginnings of a small mountain. Well, not really small, but as far as mountains go. Small-ish.

Rather than needing to go over said mountain, we went around, entering a long valley. And there it stood- the temple of the Order of the Stone.

I had been there only three months before, deposited from the portal in the Underneath. I commented this to Lukas, and he replied with the observation that we didn’t seem to have a lot of good memories about the place.

We were forced to leave our horses behind as we scaled the vines that led up to the entrance to the temple. Honestly, I’m not sure why none of us have ever come out here and rebuilt the original stairs, but I guess we don’t exactly go there often enough for it to be a necessity.

The traps had all been long disabled, though, so there was no panicked dodging of flying arrows this time. Just eerily perfect silence, interrupted by the tapping of our boots against the stone floor.

“This is so bizarre. I haven’t been here in five…six years?” Lukas whispered.

I gave him a funny look. “Why are you whispering?” I asked in a low murmur.

“Why are you whispering?” he shot back.

“Because you were whispering first?” I countered uncertainly. He let out a small laugh. “Fair.”

We stepped into the large library, and Lukas shuddered violently. “Hhh. What do you call that feeling that’s like nostalgia, but not in a good way?”

“All-consuming dread!” I contributed enthusiastically. My voice sounded far too loud in the empty silence of the temple, and I slowly covered my mouth.

He shivered again. “I wonder if this place was any less creepy when it was still…y’know, functional.”

“Who knows. Might not’ve been. You gotta remember, it was built by Soren.” I replied. Lukas made a quiet dismissive noise.

I glanced around at the rows of books, feeling suddenly intimidated and a little claustrophobic. I didn’t see anything that immediately jumped out at me, and I wasn’t sure where to start looking. Would it have killed Petra to have told me where the ‘thing’ was?

Lukas seemed to sense my hesitancy. “Why don’t you check upstairs, in that open-air map room thing? I can glance through here; I’ve got a pretty good idea of how Soren organizes things.” he offered.

“Sure, thanks. Call me down if you find anything even remotely suspicious.”

I weaved through the rows of bookshelves, heading up to the second floor. It was nearly exactly how I’d remembered it, the crumbling stone brick walls and the large map that dominated one wall. Far in the distance, I could see the gates of Beacontown, now even more conspicuous because of the large tower in the center of the town (thanks, Romeo).

I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, though. I spent a few minutes examining the row of levers that activated the tracking system, then the little podium that the amulet was supposed to sit on.

Nothing.

I then looked intently at the map. It didn’t offer any immediate clues, but I wondered if there could be anything behind it. I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to destroy it, though, despite the fact that it was rather old and outdated now. It was a key part of this temple, and it seemed…wrong to ruin it.

Before I’d made up my mind, I heard a shout from downstairs.

“Jess? Uh…I think I just found what Petra sent us here for. Jess!”

I turned and hurried quickly down the quartz stairs, hoping that Lukas really had more success than I did.