Ayn leaned against the wall outside the Crawler’s Guild, watching the horizon as the sky slowly turned to morning and dried the chill in the air. She’d realized, shortly after Kayara had left her house the previous night, that she had yet to give the ranger the bow she’d found on the second floor. Considering how flustered Kayara had been, it was probably a good thing. Yet it was the memory of her mood that had Ayn standing next to the Crawler’s Guild before sunrise, hoping Kayara would be as early as she’d been the previous day.
Ayn admired her new gear as she waited. The level three hauberk she’d got hugged her body like a second skin. Layers of dark red leather plating drew her outline, with larger patches of black leather layered over her shoulders and chest. A few leather belts, more for looks than function, finished the armor. It was a sleek piece of armor she’d imagine a rogue wearing over a swashbuckler, but the added stats for dual-wielding suited her perfectly even if it clashed with the plain brown of her gloves and her faded farm boots.
“Nice chestpiece.”
Ayn’s head shot up, a grin already in place. “Kayara! I was right. You get here early.”
“An old habit from being part of a traveling band. You want to keep up and get paid, you get up before the sun does.”
“You were an acrobat, right?”
“Eh. Still am. I just get to stab things now.”
Kayara bowed, her bright green cap materializing in her hand as she placed it back on her head with a flourish.
“Maybe you could tell me about some of your shows later.”
Ayn was genuinely interested. She’d heard of traveling bands of entertainers among the non-combatant Rebirths. Some devoted entire lifetimes to it. Unfortunately, her previous life had been so short, and her current one in a town too small to attract such groups, she’d never got to see one.
Kayara stiffened and looked away. It seemed she had crossed a line.
“I…uh…. Here. I picked this up on the last floor.” The bow she’d held on to popped into her hands. Ayn’s face heated up. That had to be the most awkward subject change she’d ever forced, but the last thing she wanted was to make Kayara relive more bad memories.
Ayn almost sighed in relief when Kayara took the shift without batting an eye. The tanned wood of the bow’s arms was nearly the same shade as Kayara’s skin. Simple, yet elegant silver plating covered the front of the bow, looking almost dull in the presence of the ranger’s colors.
Kayara’s body relaxed, and that carefree grin returned as she inspected the new weapon. “Shortbow of Accuracy? Did I get a bit too close with my arrows?”
“What? No, I—”
“I’m joking.” The bow vanished. “There. Equipped.” Kayara drew closer and placed a hand on Ayn’s shoulder. “Thank you.”
So close, Ayn could see flecks of red in Kayara’s eyes, standing out in the sea of green. A fresh wave of heat crawled up her face.
“You two get up early.”
Bren’s voice shattered the stillness of the air. Kayara turned to greet him, leaving Ayn to shake off the unexpected hitch in her thoughts.
Because of Kayara’s sudden exit the previous night, and Ayn’s pre-occupation with talking to her, Ayn hadn’t turned in their quests, or got new ones, and none of the party had gone to the market to prepare for the next floor.
After a breakfast at the Crawler’s Guild, which mercifully contained no stat-up drinks, the four lost themselves in the market's chaos. Bren and Sheyric disappeared into the crowd, while Kayara flitted back and forth across Ayn’s path, talking and haggling with every vendor within reach, as they walked toward Tav’s stall.
By the time they reached his ramshackle mess of a stall, Ayn was tired of the noise. Still, she managed a smile as Tav appeared from behind a pile of stuff.
“Welcome back!” Tav said. “I assume the last floor went well, then? Congratulations.” Tav’s enthusiasm fell at the last word as he studied Ayn’s face. “Something the matter?”
“Huh? Oh…no,” Ayn said.
Tav frowned. He looked like he was about to say something else when Kayara took the moment of quiet to hold out three kebabs.
“I picked these up at one of the food stalls,” she said. “Smells pretty nice, yeah? Take one, both of you.”
Ayn’s attempts at a smile grew strained, but Kayara was nothing but happy, and why shouldn’t she be? She had no way of knowing the woman who worked the kebab stall had hit Ayn in a fit of rage, screamed at her mother for not controlling her child, and had been one of the loudest voices calling for Rav and Neu’s banishment, easily drowning out the few dissenters.
Ayn took the kebab anyway. “Thanks.”
Tav did the same, his grip on the kebab’s stick tighter than necessary. “I just ate, so I think I’ll save this for later.”
The food vanished into his inventory as he flashed a friendly grin. He was a lot better at faking than Ayn was. He’d been the leader of the dissenters once, his flag raised high against any actions he saw as crooked, or unfair. A noble crusade doomed to failure.
The kebab in Ayn’s had smelled sweet and savory, with pieces of light and dark meat staggered between chunks of fruits and vegetables. It smelled and looked appetizing enough. If only she didn’t already have a sour taste in her mouth. She glanced up at Kayara, who was happily eating the third kebab, and sighed. If both she and Tave refused to eat her gift, she’d get suspicious, or upset. Ayn choked the food down past the lump in her throat.
“Good, isn’t it?” Kayara asked.
“Sure.” The word came out flatter than Ayn intended.
Kayara’s eyes narrowed.
“Uh.” Ayn focused on Tav, trying to avoid the ranger’s searching look. “Anything new today?”
“A bit. Let me show you. But first, did you find any metal on the last floor?”
Ayn frowned. She’d forgotten about mining in all the underwater excitement, but now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen any nodes. “There weren’t any mining spots that I saw.”
“Oh.” Tav’s face fell for a second. He quickly bounced back to his professional self. “No matter. Here are a few things I think you’ll be interested in.”
*****
They met back at the Crawler’s Guild that afternoon. Bren did a double take as Ayn and Kayara came into view. A forest green and brown leather hauberk and dull green trousers had replaced Kayara’s iridescent green acrobat suit. The hauberk, a common level two, didn’t have the intricate detail of Ayn’s rare. Instead of scaled leather, it was made almost entirely out of a single sheet molded into a tunic-like shape. Kayara had run out of money before she could get boots, so she’d kept the bright, lightly soled shoes she’d started with. Her shoes, along with her cap, added an odd emphasis to her top and bottom even as they clashed with the middle.
Bren’s face scrunched up as he took in her new look. A smile played across his face.
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“Not. A. Word,” Kayara said. “As you know, non-combatant clothes don’t give any armor or bonuses, no matter how nice they look. I’m doing this for the party. If you’ve got a problem with it, you can swap with me on the front line. Understood?”
Bren kept silent.
Sheyric cocked his head in Kayara’s direction. “Efficient.”
All eyes turned to him. The words came out flat as ever, and Ayn couldn’t tell if the healer was being serious, or sarcastic. Kayara seemed to take it as the former and plopped down next to him at the table with a clipped “It is.”
“Looks like you found some new clothes, too,” Ayn said.
A gray tunic had replaced Sheyric’s hooded robe, with an added, and of course hooded, blue cloak. “Yes.”
Ayn knew better than to wait for him to elaborate. She took quick stock of what everyone wanted for lunch and walked off to order from the guild’s food counter. Bren wanted the most complex dish on offer, Sheyric the most bland, and Kayara a handful of snacks. For herself, Ayn order the strongest drink to wash the last hints of the kebab off her tongue.
As she ordered, the party at the nearest table got into a heated discussion, their increasing volume making it impossible not to overhear.
“…she found him, but he didn’t remember her at all,” one member, a gilded warrior, said. “His memory had been wiped clean.”
“She thought she found him, you mean,” a mage, complete with pointed hat, shot back. “Just because the kid was at the spot her buddy had promised to Rebirth at doesn’t mean it was him. If the kid had no memory, it was clearly a new Rebirth with closed data, not her old flame.”
“Rumor has it they were inseparable before he died, though,” a woman with a harp said. “They nearly made the rest of their friends gag for their sweetness, or so the rumors go.”
“So what?” the last party member said. “Rebirthing is a new life. Maybe the guy realized that and took the initiative to disappear. Or maybe she was the clingy one, and he only made the promise to get her off his back.”
Mumbled agreement and half-hearted opposition answered him.
“Well, what do you say about the sudden influx of new Rebirths, then? I’ve even heard the numbers keep increasing.”
“You shouldn’t take such stock in hearsay. How would we know what causes an influx, anyway? Perhaps there’s an epidemic in the old world.”
Their discussion shifted to more possibilities, losing Ayn’s interest, and making her realize she’d been standing at the counter for a while. Thankfully, NRCs weren’t programmed to care about loitering, and the one behind the counter continued to wait patiently.
Ayn finished her order and returned to her party, a dark thought forming in the back of her mind.
Kayara raised an eyebrow as Ayn dolled out the food. “You okay?”
“Yep. Let’s eat.”
Kayara continued to stare at her as Ayn sat down. Ayn ignored her, blocking her line of sight with the tankard in her hand as she tipped it back and guzzled.
*****
Ayn avoided the questions Kayara held in her gaze the rest of the day, deflecting the ranger’s curiosity onto her other two party members, what the next floor might be, and when that ran dry, what Kayara had planned for all the cooking ingredients she’d gathered on floor two.
The last proved the best for Kayara, and the worst for Ayn. The ranger happily recounted every sample and snack she’d talked out of the food vendors in the market. Their ingredients, spices, cooking methods. Ayn did her best to focus on the minutiae. Her mother had always done the cooking, leaving Ayn with more time to train and get into trouble, which left her with little desire to learn. Still, hearing the differences in char between open roasting and closed grilling was better than focusing on the townsfolk who made the food.
When Kayara showed up the next morning with a platter of sunny-side up Shricken eggs and charred Tuna-Cow steaks, Ayn wondered if she shouldn’t have asked Kayara her feelings on the townsfolk instead of their cooking methods.
The eggs were nearly green under a thick layer of herbs and spices, all competing, and failing, at being the strongest scent. Kayara had managed to cook the steaks in such a way that while the outside was black, the inside remained red, near-raw meat tasting of saltwater in a shell of bitter char.
Bren had refused to touch the food on sight, and no amount of insults slung by either him or Kayara would make him budge. Sheyric had eaten it without a word, leaving Ayn to break the stalemate. Fortunately for her, it numbed her tongue by the third bite.
“A little heavy on the spices,” Ayn choked out.
Kayara nodded with all the intensity of a student to her master. “I see. Which spice do you think went best with the eggs? I couldn’t decide between the ten I picked up, so I used them all.”
Ayn coughed. She didn’t even know ten spices. “I’m not sure. Probably best to use one or two at a time, though.”
“Was the meat too crusty, or too bloody?”
“Both. Definitely both.”
Kayara grinned and slammed four stat-up drinks onto the table. “Great. Thanks. Good to know one of you guys will try new things and share.” She glared at Bren, who glared right back.
Ayn grabbed the offered tankard and, for the second time in less than twenty-four hours, used the toxic brew to wash something even worse off her tongue.
*****
QUESTS UPDATED
QUEST ONE: KILL TWO SEA LIONS
QUEST TWO: COLLECT EIGHT PIECES OF SKY CLAM MEAT
Blinding blue stretched out above, to the left, and to the right of Ayn. The shock of color when the party had teleported into the floor had almost convinced her they’d rolled another underwater level. Then the heat of the bare sun kicked in, and something soft squished under her feet. Clouds. White, fluffy, rolling clouds dotted the blue expanse. The one the party stood on was quite large, probably twenty to thirty feet in any direction, with another fluffy cloud bumped up against its far end. While the entrance cloud was mostly flat, Ayn could see peaks and odd shapes among the other clouds in the distance.
“Whoa,” Kayara said as she wandered over to the nearest edge. The wind chose that very moment to pick up, pressing against Kayara’s back, blowing her multi-colored ponytail across her face like a banner, and bringing with it the scent of salt and fish.
Ayn frowned, caught between the way the sunlight glittered off of Kayara’s hair, transforming it into an actual rainbow, and the resurgence of the feeling they’d rolled “underwater” again.
“Get back from there!” Bren darted forward, yanking Kayara away from the edge of the cloud.
Kayara flowed with the movement, letting it pull her back before dipping under Bren’s arm and freeing herself from his grip. They stared at each other in equal bewilderment.
“What the hell are you doing?” Kayara said.
Bren looked flustered for a second, then straightened up, his usual look of importance returning. “There’s clearly no railing or wall. What if you fell to your death at the entrance? Where do you think that would leave the rest of us?”
“I’m an acrobat, remember Choir Boy? I think I can handle standing on a flat surface.”
“Well…there’s still no reason to tempt fate, is there?” With that, Bren stomped off to the center of the cloud and crossed his arms, gaze stubbornly stuck on something in the distance.
Kayara narrowed her eyes at his retreat, then shrugged. “Whatever. Hey Sheyric, what do you think of this place?”
Sheyric hadn’t moved from the spot he’d teleported in at. Upon hearing the question, he inclined his head toward Kayara. “Bright.”
Kayara laughed, and Ayn stifled a giggle. One day, she’d get Sheyric to say an actual, full sentence, but today probably wasn’t it. Ayn turned a small circle, found little of interest, then walked toward the next cloud floating closest to them. The rest of the party followed, although Bren kept himself as far from the edge as he could.
As they approached the other cloud, Ayn realized it wasn’t as close as she’d first thought. Instead of butting up against the entrance cloud, there was a gap of two or three body lengths. A thin cloud bridge of a few feet across spanned the gap.
Ayn walked across it with ease. The new cloud wasn’t as flat as the first, with little rolling hills that came up to Ayn’s knees dotting the surface. The smell of fish grew stronger.
“Hey—” Ayn had turned back, intending to ask what the rest of the party thought about the smell, only to find Kayara and Sheyric stuck behind Bren on the other side of the bridge. The mage stared at the bridge as if he expected it to get up and run away. The all-too-recent memory of Kayara putting a death grip on her shoulders flashed through Ayn’s mind. She took a step back and frowned. Everyone had their quirks, yet she was beginning to wonder if The System did this to everyone, or simply liked to pick on her party specifically. It had been over a decade since her last party, and that one had been so short-lived, she wasn’t sure.
“What about I go first?” Kayara asked in a gentle tone. “You can hold my hand, and I’ll lead you across. I’m certainly not going to fall.”
Bren flinched at the word “fall”, even with Kayara’s sweet words. Ayn stared at the acrobat. Was she being nice to Bren for the first time, or did she hold some ulterior motive? Perhaps Bren thought the latter, because he remained unmoved. Kayara grimaced and eyed the distance between her and the other side of the bridge as if she intended to jump.
A jolt shot through Ayn, and she was back on the bridge in a second, hand out. “Kayara’s idea is good. Take my hand and look up at me.” When Bren still didn’t move, Ayn took his hand and tugged gently. “Look at me, Bren. Kayara and Sheyric will be behind you, and I’ll be in front. Will you trust us?” Ayn purposefully left out the “to not let you slip and fall” part, hoping the omission would keep Bren from staying frozen, or bolting.
Bren dragged his eyes away from the bridge and looked Ayn in the face. His dusky skin had gone a pallid brown.
“That’s it,” Ayn said. “Now keep looking up. We’re going to take a step, okay?”
Ayn pulled on Bren’s arm. He resisted. As a Swashbuckler, Ayn’s strength was guaranteed to be far above Bren’s, even at such a low level. She could easily have pulled him across despite his resistance. Yet, she’d already asked him to trust the party, and that’s what she wanted.
She kept tension on his arm, but didn’t move forward until he relaxed a little. So they went, step-by-step, until they reached the other side.
As soon as his feet touched the next cloud, he lunged away from the edge and scurried off to the center, dashing between two small hills and over another. He came to a stop over a dozen feet away from the rest of the party.
Every hill on the cloud grew in size.