We found Rik waiting for us, his bare feet taking a cold bath in the running river of deadly water. He didn’t seem scared by it at all.

He seemed older than he had been three days before.

“Ah!” He finally spotted us. “Elle! Vi! Oh Nielle you look much better.”

“I ate some meat, it helped.” I responded to the [Wood Elf].

“That is great. I have some good and some bad news.” He smiled at us.

“Yes?” I asked.

“Good news first please.” Gaëlle demanded.

“Well, after beating me up senselessly…”

“The good news?” My sister immediately cut him off.

“Wait, I’m coming to it. So after beating me senselessly my father realized I was right. We didn’t need you to protect the village. We were attacked so much because of the animals, and by extension monsters, fleeing from the [Ground Drake]. Now that it’s dead, things have become much more manageable.”

I smiled wildly. “That’s great!”

Vi wasn’t as enthusiastic. “So, what’s the bad news?”

Rik squirmed under the gaze of the tall frehan.

“Well, people noticed you three were gone, and, well suddenly the monsters stopped coming…”

“You have to be kidding me!” Gaëlle rolled her head in complete furious amazement.

“My father was forced to exile you. Well, just Vi, actually, we hadn’t changed the law for Nielle and Elle yet. You’re not welcome in the village anymore. I’m very sorry.”

Vi gave him a dark look. “What about my belongings?”

“…It was mostly stolen, but I managed to grab that back.” He opened his backpack and pulled out a matte, golden circlet that looked a bit like an abstract representation of laurels.

Vi picked it up immediately. “Thank you.” She clenched it firmly in her hands.

“If there is anything else you need, describe it to me, I’ll try my best to get it back.” Rik said.

“There is one thing. A dress, red…I know who has it. I’ll get it back myself.”

“How? You…”

“What do you think my class is, exactly?” She stopped him.

That shut him up.

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“Are you going to kill someone?” Gaëlle asked.

The frehan had a fierce look in her eyes. “No. But I’m going enjoy scaring her.”

“So, we’re not welcome anymore.” I tried to confirm again with the young hunter.

“For many of us, that is not true.” Rik shook his head. “But it would bring discord to the village, and right now, that’s the opposite of what we need. Even my father couldn’t come, as the temporary leader, he can’t act outside the law.”

“I understand.”

Gaëlle scoffed at my words. “Well, I don’t. Fuckers.”

“I apologize on…” Rik began.

“Don’t. You have nothing to apologize for. Despite everything that happened, and every reason for you to hate us, you’ve been a good friend Rik. You shouldn’t associate with those assholes.”

The [Wood Elf] smiled. “If you ever come back, in a few years when the village is better, I’ll happily leave with you and explore your world.”

Gaëlle put a finger on his chest. “That’s a promise?”

“It is.”

She smiled. “Good. See you around then, Rik Nut.”

“You’re leaving now?” He asked.

“What? No.” Elle shook her head. “We need to train our Ascensus skills. Plenty of time that freed itself. You can stay and watch if you want.”

“I’ll be back in three hours.” Vi nodded. “I’ll help you if I can at that moment.”

“Sure. Have a nice burglary?” Looking at her expression, I wasn’t sure if the burglary wouldn’t finish in arson and murder.

Seeing my look, Vi laughed, her face losing all its anger. “I’m really just going to scare her, Nielle. Don’t worry. See you soon. [Invisibility].”

And she disappeared out of thin air.

“That’s so cool.” Gaëlle exclaimed out loud, sighing as if she had just seen her high school crush.

“I’m pretty sure she can still hear us.”

“Oh, yeah.” My sister blushed slightly.

Rik looked at us for a moment.

“Can I watch you train?”

Elle gave him a smile. “Sure!”

Like that, our semi-holidays got a three-day prolongation, Vi had come back with a magnificent red ochre dress, a vicious grin on her face, and we had seen Rik every day at the river when we trained for our ascent; We also trained on how we would make a road of ice on the sea. Vi explained that normally Ascensus’ aimed for the inner harbour of a City, making that an unneeded process, but we were unaffiliated Ascensus’. In Solace, that meant we would be questioned heavily, probably [Inspect]ed then, as they would realize our worth, we would be taken in as political assets with our freedom quickly becoming a faraway concept.

So we would need to aim for the City’s lower quarters, or more likely, miles beyond the City in the Upperseas. Moving to the skies then walking on water sounded hard, but in truth, we just needed to ask the System to raise the platform to where we wanted it to go, and it would do exactly that. Same with the seawalk.

We took Vi to a few other spots in LA, made her eat pizza, and very quickly, the fateful day arrived.

Over our heads was Solace. We couldn’t see it, the weather was bad, grey clouds obscuring everything.

“It shouldn’t matter. Be precise in your words, and do not forget about the zero zone.” Vi reminded us.

“Yup. Rik, I hope to see you again.” I told the wood elf watching us from afar. “And to you too.” He answered me before addressing Gaëlle. “Elle…”

My sister blew him a kiss, then said out loud: “[Move] a five-meter diameter, ten centimetres thick disc rises thirty centimetres above the river.”

The water obeyed her, forming exactly what she wanted.

“[Freeze] that disc.” I then called in turn.

We now had a platform of ice levitating above the river. The rising river rose to it, trying to push it upwards, but slipping and gliding away from the platform. Quickly, a wall of inverted water made like a curtain on top of the platform, as if to separate it from the outside world.

As we climbed on top, wetting our clothes in the process, the platform wobbled a bit, but continued levitating firmly in the air.

“So it stays frozen thirty minutes. The ascent will take two hours. You can…”

“Vi, calm down. We know.” I reassured her.

“Sorry, it’s just…I’m finally going back.” She looked at the greyness above with flames in her eyes.

I smiled.

“[Move].” I began. “Get this frozen disc to the southern outskirts of Solace, the City in the Upperseas.

The platform rose, slowly, making the curtain of water ripple and phase out.

And like that, we began our ascent.