“It was nice spending a few years with you, old man,” Henlen said with a bittersweet smile as he watched his old friend’s descendant disappear from the holofeed.

He hated that the last three floors of the dungeon were hidden from outside observation, but it was probably better this way. While it would have been nice to see what was happening, most agreed that keeping the last few tiers-worth of growth private was in the challengers’ best interests.

Nobody wanted all of their secrets exposed, after all.

Henlen glanced at his longtime friend and smiled. The dwarf was roughly the same age as Henlen, but nobody would guess that he was nearing the millennia mark just by looking at him.

That applied to both of them.

It was a mixture of advancing quickly through the lower tiers, which went a long way, and regular rejuvenation treatments.

Henlen would probably give the dwarf another treatment or two before he ascended, but even without it, Heph was capable of easily living a few millennia longer. That would give the stubborn dwarf more than enough time to ascend and join him in the next realm.

“Who are you calling old, Time Mage?” Heph replied with a grin. “You’re older than I am!”

“Barely,” Henlen replied dismissively before standing up. “I suppose I might as well head back to the sect and get things prepared. How long do you think we have before the girls leave the dungeon?”

Heph scratched his thick beard as he contemplated the question. “Based on the message I just received, probably not very long. Zavira had to force herself to reach the eighth floor. I’m not sure how long Emie will manage to keep her there.”

Henlen glanced at the now-darkened holoscreen. He’d made note of the young Force Smith’s struggle to progress alone on the seventh floor several times, so he couldn’t say he was surprised by the news.

“I should probably hurry, then,” Henlen commented as he extended his hand forward. “I’m sure Zavira will welcome a break in the Hot Spring before leaving, so we probably have at least a few months, but that won’t equate to much outside of Sira.”

Emie had found the resource a year or so earlier, and he had no doubt she’d ensure her friend got the opportunity to buff her regeneration before calling it quits.

Heph grasped his long-time friend’s wrist firmly. “I’ll wait here, just in case they decide to leave before word can be sent. I doubt it will happen, but you never know,” he added wisely.

“Contact me immediately if that occurs,” Henlen said. “The tasks I need to accomplish shouldn’t take very long, but they’ll still take time.”

After one last goodbye, the Time Mage departed, heading directly for the local portal. It would take a few connections to reach his first destination, but that was fine. He had plenty of things to occupy his minds.

----------------------------------------

“…we will be leaving the dungeon next month. We’re timing it to coincide with the message exchange because Master Kairos plans to meet us. I’m not sure how long it will take for me to get to Hadier since Master Kairos said I need to stop by the sect headquarters first. I think I’m officially going to be transitioning from a disciple into an Elder.

It’s a little weird, right? I don’t really have any experience with the sect outside of interacting with Master Kairos and his assistants back on Earth. How am I supposed to suddenly become an Elder?

Master Kairos promises it’ll be fine. He said it’s more of an honorary thing anyway, given my situation. I’ll still be expected to teach some, but I won’t have the same kinds of obligations that most Elders have.

Do you think they’ll resent me for that? I would probably resent me for basically jumping ranks if I were a normal sect member.

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I think I’m psyching myself out a little.

Zavira said nobody would care. If anything, the fact that I’m Tier Eight and have progressed in the Realm Dungeon will be a point of pride for most of them. I hope she’s right.

I made a few new trinkets for you guys. I know you said that what I’ve saved is plenty, but I don’t see it that way. I can’t wait to sit down with Bell now that she’s spent a few years getting officially trained as an Enchanter. She’s always so weird about sharing what she’s learned.

Yes, I’m calling you out, Miss Advanced Enchanter!

I can’t wait to meet the twins! I know I say that a lot, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. I hate that I’ve missed their whole lives!

And, yes, I know! You’ve said several times that I should just leave the dungeon as soon as I was eligible. Yes, it’s my fault that I missed more of their lives than I had to. I have no excuses. Unless you were there with me, I don’t think it’s possible to understand.

And I’m glad you weren’t there. The seventh floor, in particular, was… rough.

Jeez, I’m all over the place. Sorry about that. It’s times like this that I regret making a promise not to edit my messages to you guys!

Don’t think I’m too weird, okay? I know I’ve changed a lot, but I’m still me, and I still love you all. Expect a call when I leave the dungeon – or maybe Sira. I’m not sure how real-time communication works between Sira and other non-dilated worlds.

Regardless, I’ll talk to you soon.

Love,

Emie”

“She sounds more stressed than usual,” Bell commented as Justin sent the message to the printer. They had a week to reply, but they tried to do it the same day they received a message to avoid forgetting.

While missing a week here or there might not seem like that big of a deal to them, they knew it was important to Emie. And the time dilation involved didn’t help very much, either.

They’d forgotten a few times over the years, and though Emie never said anything, Justin and Bell suspected the oversight had hurt her feelings.

It was just hard to remember, sometimes, especially when there were other things happening when the message came through. It was so easy to lose track of things between all the other little aspects of life.

“She does sound pretty stressed out,” Justin replied as he slid the printed sheets into the folder he used to hold all of their correspondence with Emie. “I can’t say that I blame her, though. It’s only been eight years and change for us, but for her, it’s been more than forty. Can you imagine being away from everyone for forty years and then returning? The subjective time difference doesn’t help, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, just waiting a year between visits is bad enough.”

Justin nodded in agreement. “And your family has come to visit us a couple of times, too. Mom and Dad moved here because they couldn’t take the distance, and that was with the ability to call regularly.”

“That’s not the only reason,” Bell reminded him before asking, “How different do you think she is? It’s harder to tell in letters, but audio and video messages make the changes more obvious.”

Neither had mentioned the distinct lack of such messages over the past few years. There had been a couple here and there, but the overwhelming majority were regular written messages.

At first, they thought it was a financial issue, given the exorbitant costs associated with sending such messages while Emie was in the dungeon. However, once they realized the value of the materials that Emie was working with, they understood that cost was less of a factor than they thought.

“I don’t know,” Justin replied after releasing a deep breath. “Like she said, she’s still Emie. That obviously hasn’t changed. But we both know that time has a way of changing people.”

He looked through the open door leading to his home office. “I often try to imagine what it would be like to be in her place. Not just because she saved me from that fate, but because I’ve tried writing stories from a similar perspective. It’s hard.”

Bell slid her arms around Justin’s waist and rested her head against his chest. “We’ll just have to be there for her. We owe her so much.”

“We do,” Justin agreed. That fact had never been in dispute. Their lives would be unrecognizable without his little sister’s intervention.

“So… a week from now,” Bell said neutrally, still resting her head against her husband’s chest. “Should we plan some kind of welcome home party or something?”

Justin huffed out a laugh. “I’m sure Mom has that handled. I can’t imagine Emie didn’t tell her she was leaving the dungeon soon.”

Bell squeezed Justin’s waist lightly before releasing him and stepping back. “She mentioned having to go somewhere first. Should we reach out to the liaison for the sect to find out if that’s something we need to get involved with? You’d think becoming an Elder would be a big deal.”

Justin shook his head. “No, they’ll contact us if they want us to go. I don’t think that kind of ceremony is open to non-members anyway.”

Bell frowned but didn’t argue the point. Though they’d lived on Hadier for eight years, they were still outsiders in many ways. There was a lot about the culture, especially related to sects, that they just didn’t get.

Maybe eventually, that would change. For now, they’d prepare for a reunion that was a long time coming.