After a bit of recuperation; sped along, no doubt, by the rainbow serpent’s blessing, both Seth and Nyt help me to my feet. There’s still a bit of tenderness whenever I put weight on my right foot where the lead bullet had shattered a couple of the bones there, and on the thigh of the same leg where the spear had pierced and scraped against my bone; but I was able to stand upright. Once the fighting was all finished Seth crumbled the wall of ice into a pile of snow. The aftermath of the fight was something to behold; creatures frozen in midswing or impaled through the middle with spikes of ice. He pats my shoulder with a single hard slap as I hobble out of the small enclosure he had made.

Red slush stained the gray stone, and bodies lay frozen; their frozen faces contorted in fear and pain. I hobbled over where I had dropped my staff, bent down, and pulled it out from beneath the broken and mangled body of a satyr. It was still in excellent condition. I also find my dagger where I had dropped it a few feet away. I sheathe it, and take up one of the short swords; sliding it and the sheathe from the dogman it came off of into the belt.

“Can we look around for a moment?” Seth asked, “I lost my armor when I was brought here, and figured I could probably pick a few pieces up here and there.” He motioned to the dead.

I glance at Nyt and she shrugs and I mirror her movements, so he begins to pick through the armors. I do the same. On one of the dogmen: dead through an icicle through the throat,, I find two things; shin guards, and a pair of gauntlets; both made of the dark metal of the other continent. I undo the laces and buckles on both and adjust them to fit.

“Can you help with these?” Nyt asked as she carried a breastplate pulled off a satyr, and a bit of chain that looked as if it had been cut open and torn to size to fit her.

“I had thought you were too good to loot the dead.”

“What made you think that?” She said as she dropped the plate over my arm, turned around, and pulled off her green hoodie.

“I don’t know. You strike me as more….” I search for the word as I help slip the chain jacket over her head. She pins her pointed ears to her head so their tips don’t snag against the chain as it passes through. She shifts her shoulders until the chain rests against it comfortably, “...more regal, I suppose is the right word.”

“Regal? Really?” She scoffs as she turns around picks up the plate hangs the apron-like thing over her neck, and ties the leather straps around her neck. “This is war. It’s better to use this stuff than to let it rot here, no?”

Two buckles needed to be done to keep the breastplate in place. They’re a bit too long, so I use my dagger to cut away the excess straps and poke new holes in the leather so the tine of the buckle could fit. After tugging on the last one as tight as it could go, Nyt slips her hoodie on.

“Thank you.” She said. “And, I’m sorry for my reaction earlier.”

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“It’s okay. I’m sorry for running ahead like that.” I answer.

Though I wasn’t really. My life has no meaning compared to the wider scheme of things. Nyt and Seth would get along fine without me, and if I weren’t here, then attention wouldn’t have been called upon Arville. I still don’t understand why she would react like that. I guess I never will. The mechanizations of other’s minds were always difficult for me to grasp. The intricacies of communication. The subtleties of expression. Nothing really...clicked with me.

Seth settled with a chain jacket that he stuffed into a leather belt, and a pair of heavy chain and leather pants, and boots. I helped strap on a pair of pauldrons, and a brass breastplate. He also picked up a kite shield to use with his sword. He looked like a proper warrior now.

We spend the next hour or so looting the corpses of all the golden rings, necklaces, and the like and stuffing them into Nyt’s bag. It practically jingles as we make our way down the streets toward the port. We stashed it in the grove against the wall connected to the wooden door of the shed that would lead us back to Earth once the godbeast was dead.

The buildings; which had been set together in two neat rows, begin to spread out to encompass the near entirety of the coast of the small alcove in tiered walls. Staircases wind into labyrinthine streets, so taking to the roofs would be a more direct roof. As the three of us hop onto the roof of the closest building to the top, I stop them.

“Hold up, I’m going to re-up our shields..” I turn to Seth, “You that bind the all, move for me.”

Mana floods into my body from all around, and then pushes through the staff and surrounds Seth’s body in a shell. I turn to Nyt and do the same, and then, at last, myself.

“Lawrence. Please don’t join the front lines this time.” Seth says before we head down the side of the cliff to the coast.

“Why not? I’ve been fighting at the front since the beginning.”

“You’re not specialized in close combat. I am.” Seth said, “If I have to fight while worrying about you, I won’t be able to go all out.”

I sigh. Seth is strong. I can see that much.

“Fine. I’ll stick to the back ranks.”

“Thank you.” He hops down onto the roof ahead, “It suits your Build.”

My hand moves to my gut unconsciously. Still a small bump. I figure that’s what he meant. I didn’t have the stamina or the endurance that he did. It’s true.

Nyt and I follow after him; hopping from building to building. Layer by layer. There’s a bit of beach right before the waters, and that’s where Seth stops. I stop on one of the buildings about two layers up to Seth’s right, and Nyt takes a position to his left, a layer down from me. Seth stared valiantly out toward the sea; the two ships still moored rising and falling with the ebb and flow of the tide. He turned his head toward me and raised his voice.

“How do we get it out of the water?” Seth calls back.

“How the fuck would I know?” I respond.