“Uhhh…” Wule said, looking between Hiral and his mother. “I’d say I would come back later, but I don’t think this should wait.”

“If anybody should come back later,” Hiral started, looking right at Sera and trailing off.

“No,” she said simply. “I’ve been patient. However, we need to talk before we go after this A-Rank trial. It should’ve happened prior to even entering this raid zone at all, but you’ve been avoiding me.”

“Funny, why don’t you tell me how that feels?” Hiral said. “Oh wait. I already know. Because you did it for ten years.”

“I…” Sera started, but Hiral’s hand snapped up to cut her off, and he forced himself to take a deep breath.

“Fine,” Hiral said. “Fine. We’ll talk. You’re not going to like what I have to say, but if you want to hear it, sure. After Wule tells me what’s on his mind, since it sounds like it’s actually important.”

“Acceptable,” Sera said, crossing her arms where she stood. She obviously wasn’t going anywhere, but she also wasn’t going to push until Hiral and Wule were finished.

Hiral took a second deep breath so he didn’t explode at Wule from the pent-up frustrations at his mother. The healer didn’t deserve that. Finally, when he felt himself back under control, he looked at his friend. “What did you want to talk about?”

Wule looked to Sera before answering, like he was trying to decide if he could talk in front of her or not. Whatever the topic was, the man seemed to conclude it was okay for her to hear.

“It’s about Politet,” Wule said, stepping in closer to make sure his words wouldn’t carry over the din of the hundreds of people setting up camp. “He’s been asking questions.”

“Okaaaaay,” Hiral said slowly. “Questions about what?”

“About you,” Wule said. “I think he’s trying to be sly about it, but he’s not half as bright as he thinks. Problem is… he’s twice as dangerous.”

“What kind of questions?” Hiral asked. Politet had never been a huge fan of Hiral – or anybody living – but he’d fought with them, and hadn’t done anything particularly suspicious. Then again, everything the undead did was suspicious, so maybe that was why it didn’t stand out?

“At first it was just about your – Seena’s – party,” Wule said. “Asking us about when we were part of it. How we all fought together, that kind of thing. That moved into how much stronger you all were now compared to then. How much stronger we thought you were than us now.

“Then it became why you were stronger,” Wule continued. “Not the party. You. After we fought Big Al, more questions came. And, after Right did his thing with that Shaper, more questions. This time about your gear.”

“Do you think he’s planning something?” Hiral asked, reaching out with his sensory domain. The other parties were just at the edge of it, and he felt Politet and the rest exit his range of influence.

“I don’t know,” Wule admitted. “As soon as Nivian and I noticed his questions were starting to fixate on you, specifically, we stopped answering much. Not enough to cut him off or let him know we were on to him, but we didn’t want to give anything away.

“And I wanted to give you a heads up.”

“Thanks, Wule,” Hiral said, considering. “And you think he’s dangerous, or you wouldn’t be telling me this.”

“In a straight-up fight, against you?” Wule asked. “I think you could take him. Thing is, Politet doesn’t do straight-up if he doesn’t have to. I’m sure he tried slipping things into our food back when he first joined, and you’ve seen how he argues with Nivian. If he could take over leadership of the party, he would in an instant.”

“Does he want to be raid leader?” Hiral said.

“Could be,” Wule said with a shrug. “Whatever it is, though, just be careful. He’s sneaky, and his poisons can be deadly. Like I said, you could beat him if you see him coming. He has to know that. Which means – if he’s going to do something – he’s going to come at you in some way he thinks you don’t expect.”

“You need to be careful in any large-scale fights that involve all three parties,” Sera said from where she stood. “Accidents happen when things get chaotic.”

Hiral looked over at the woman, expecting her usual emotionless mask whenever she spoke to him. Instead, her brows were furrowed like she was deep in thought.

“I have a buff that increases resistances to poisons, venoms, and the like,” she continued. “I’ll make sure to use it.”

“That could help,” Wule said when it was clear Hiral wasn’t going to thank the woman. “I guess I could see him accidentally attacking you in the middle of the big fight. He uses a lot of gases that aren’t great for people who need to breathe. Just… he could try something else.”

“I’ll be careful,” Hiral said. “Really, I will.”

“We all will,” Right said beside Hiral.

“Yeah,” Hiral agreed. “Thanks for warning me, Wule. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that, but I’ll be ready for him.”

“Good,” Wule said. “Nivian and I are trying to keep an eye on him, and I think he’s mentioning it to Seena too. We’re hoping we’re wrong – not good to not trust somebody in your own party – but…”

“But the alternative is to get caught unprepared,” Hiral nodded. Hopefully Seena wouldn’t just incinerate the prickly undead on the spot. “Do you think one of the others could be working with him?”

Wule actually chuckled despite the serious nature of the conversation. “It’s not just Breathers the man doesn’t get along with. No, I don’t think anybody else is involved. Bash likes you. Mainly Right, but Hiral is close enough for him.”

“How does he like Right more than…?”

“I smash better,” Right said immediately.

“I smash pretty good,” Hiral grumbled.

“Igwanda and Drahn are like this now,” Wule help up a hand and crossed his fingers. “Ugh, maybe not that close… oh hell… I imagined it. Why did I imagine it? Get it out of my head!”

“Wule, focus,” Hiral said.

“That’s the problem, I am focusing! White rabbits. White rabbits. White rabbits. Okay, that’s better. Sorry. Where was I?”

“Finotol?” Hiral asked.

“No way she’s involved,” Wule said. “He dislikes her more than he dislikes me, and that’s saying something. Nivian basically had to put him on a time-out because of how he was talking to her. They’re at least working together now, but only in the loosest sense.”

“Why is he even still a member of your team?” Sera asked. “It would make sense to remove the chaotic element and replace him with somebody you can trust.”

“It would, wouldn’t it?” Wule said. “But, we’ve been through a lot together. And we could be wrong about this. The world’s already a bad enough place without us going around killing party members just because we’re worried they might do something bad.” Wule shrugged. “Doesn’t mean we won’t be ready for it if we see the signs, though.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“I agree with you,” Hiral said to Wule. “We’ll deal with it if it happens.”

“Okay,” Wule said. “That’s all I wanted to talk to you about. I guess… uh… I’ll just leave you four alone then?”

Hiral looked from Wule to his mother, then back to Wule. “Yeah, we’ll be fine. This won’t take long.”

“I guess I’ll see you in a bit then.” Wule gave a quick nod to Sera, small wave to Left and Right, then turned and walked towards where the others had gone.

Hiral kept an eye on the man through his sensory domain – mainly so he didn’t have to deal with his mother yet – and waited until Wule vanished before he finally turned his attention to Sera.

“This isn’t going to go how you want it to,” Hiral told her flatly.

“And how do you think I want it to go?” she asked.

“You’re going to apologize for what happened to me,” Hiral started. “Blame the glyph, say you didn’t know how it would affect your unborn baby. I’ll even concede you couldn’t have known. Then you’ll talk about how desperate you and Dad were to have kids, so you begged Arty to do the glyph. Maybe he’ll have argued against it, or maybe not. It doesn’t matter. You got it done.

“Then I was born, yay,” Hiral said the last word with absolutely zero fan-fair. “You took me to the measure, and wow, S-Rank abilities. Phew. Safe. No unexpected consequences of your actions. Lucked out. You and Dad were so proud, yadda yadda, and inked me with all the tattoos I’d need to be the most well-equipped – and possibly powerful – Shaper Fallen Reach had ever seen.”

Hiral looked at Right. “Sound good so far?”

“I think you’re on track,” the double said without taking his glare off Sera.

“So, then,” Hiral continued. “Then comes the day of my first Shaper test, where you and Dad were so ready to be proud of me.”

“We were always…” Sera started.

“Not finished here,” Hiral interrupted. “Ready to be proud. Then I didn’t pass the test. Couldn’t Shape. Not a single thing. Went back to the Measure and… Solar Output unavailable? What does this mean?”

“Nothing good,” Left said from beside Hiral. “Consequences.”

“Exactly, consequences,” Hiral said. “It was probably right around then you realized your choice to have the glyph done was connected to this. You were probably already worried about the girls too, since they were just babies, and their first meeting with the Measure had gone like mine – normally.”

“Lucky for them,” Right said. “And you, they did turn out normal.”

“True, but we’re not to that part in the story yet,” Hiral said. “No, cause here’s the important bit. It was at this point, when I was crushed from failing the Shaper test. When I was confused what it all meant. When I was hurt by what the other kids – and their parents – were saying about me. ‘Oh look, Hiral the prodigal son can’t even shape a simple dagger, ha ha ha,’ and ‘That’s what you get for thinking you’re so special’. That was when you decided to abandon me.

“I was nine.

“And so for a year, I had no idea what was going on. The person who was supposed to be there for me during anything – the good, the bad, and the worst time of my life – was… absent. You didn’t even leave a note. You just cut yourself off from me. I tried everything to get you to talk to me. I worked myself until I bled. I broke things around the house. I ran away for a week. I almost jumped off the damn island – and I would’ve too, if Dad hadn’t literally held me down.

“Anything to get you to talk to me. To hold me like you did before the Shaper test. I thought you hated me because I was an embarrassment. I thought the only way I could get you to love me again was to pass the test.

“So I made that everything. It became my entire identity.

“Then the second test rolled around. You came to the watch. I couldn’t believe it. I thought… I thought I’d done enough. Worked enough. Fought enough. That I could pass this second time, and it’d just been some stupid mistake the first time. Then you’d love me again.

“Except I failed. Of course I did. And you were gone again, before the result even got announced. You didn’t even stick around long enough for my new moniker to get spoken for the first time.”

“Everfail,” Left and Right said at the same time.

“Yeah, Everfail,” Hiral said. “A pretty terrible nickname that spread across the entire island in record time. Of course other people had failed for the second time too – Gauto was right there with me – but, he wasn’t the son of Elezad and Sera, the two up and coming Artists. He wasn’t covered head to toe in S-Rank tattoos. Useless S-Rank tattoos.

“You probably heard all this – I mean, how could you not have? – but what did you do? Did you try to comfort me with my favorite food? Did you come to me at night and tell me it would be all right? Did you stand up for me when the other adults said those things?”

“Nope,” Left and Right again said in unison.

“No, you didn’t,” Hiral continued. “You pulled back even further. Meals? No, you weren’t there anymore. Always too busy with work, or Nat and Milly. You still hated me, but you loved them.

“I watched you with them, you know. From places you couldn’t see, using the things Loan was teaching me. Watched how you smiled with them. Played with them. Loved them. And then I imagined that was me. Was it really so much to ask for?”

“Pretty normal for a kid,” Right said.

“Pretty expected for a kid,” Left added.

“Part of me even wanted to hate those two,” Hiral said. “Nat and Milly. For not being broken. For getting all your attention. I couldn’t, though. They were my little sisters. My family. No matter what, I was supposed to love them. And, even if that wasn’t the case, I still did. Still do. They are amazing people who will do amazing things.

“So, I couldn’t hate them. It wasn’t their fault I was broken, after all. Just meant I needed to keep working. I needed to pass.

“And I kept taking the test. The first few years were to prove to you I was worth loving. By the sixth test, that changed. I wasn’t trying to earn your love back anymore.

“I never hated my sisters, but I was sure learning to hate you. My training, my work, my tests – even when I kept failing – became about proving you wrong. About showing you your mistake in abandoning me. So I could rub your damn face in it.” Hiral’s voice picked up some of the heat in his chest.

“Except we never could’ve passed that test,” Right said.

“We weren’t Makers,” Left said. “We were set up to fail from the beginning.”

“We still succeeded,” Right pointed out. “Just in a different way.”

“You’re both right,” Hiral said to his doubles, then focused his stare on Sera. “The choice you made on that day to get the glyph of fertility changed me from a Maker to a Builder. Changed my entire future. I’ve come to terms with what that all means, and in a way, I’m thankful. Without that choice, Fallen Reach would probably be gone, now. Everybody would be dead.”

“They aren’t,” Left said.

“We saved them,” Right said.

“We did,” Hiral agreed. “And you don’t get credit for that,” he said to his mother. “Just because the result was good, you don’t get to ignore the ten years of how you treated me. It doesn’t go away. And it doesn’t magically mean you can start talking to me again now because it’s convenient for you. You had plenty of chances when I needed you.”

“We don’t need you anymore,” Right said.

“We aren’t the same, crying nine-year-old who just wanted his mother to hold him,” Left added.

“And we certainly aren’t the Everfail,” Hiral said. “So, no, I don’t forgive you. No, I won’t forget how you left me when I needed you the most. You may be Nat and Milly’s mother, but you’re not mine. Not anymore.

“Now, unless there’s anything else…”

“There is,” Sera said, her face a mask of pure neutrality. She’d barely reacted during his tirade, and if she felt anything about what he’d said, she didn’t show it. Then again, why would she start showing any caring towards him now?

Hiral, Right, and Left all crossed their arms, but none of them moved to walk away.

“Fine, let’s hear it,” Hiral said.

Sera nodded. “I won’t ask you to forgive me,” she started, voice even. “Nor will I ask you to forget how I behaved. It was not how any mother should act towards their child, and there is no excuse for it. Your father tried over and over and over to get me to change, but I was too stubborn. Too afraid. Too ashamed.

“But never of you,” she said, voice cracking. She blinked several times quickly and took a steadying breath before she continued. “You were never the broken one – it was me. It was always me. And the fact you turned out as well as you did, that you didn’t hate your sisters, and that you came back when Fallen Reach needed you is a testament to how well your father raised you by himself. And how good a person you turned out to be.

“I don’t expect us to be family again, because I don’t deserve that. I just wanted to tell you – one time if you would listen to me – how proud I am of how you’ve turned how, despite what I did to you. Despite all the hardship you faced.”

“You don’t get to be proud,” Hiral said. “You don’t deserve that either.”

“Maybe not,” Sera said, straightening her shoulders even as a single tear ran from each of her eyes. “But I am a very selfish and stubborn woman, and I look forward to seeing just how far you’ll go now that you’ve proven everybody wrong about you.”

Before Hiral had a chance to say anything else to that, Sera spun on her heel – hand coming up to wipe her eyes – then stalked away so fast she was almost running. And, all he could do was watch her go, emotions boiling in his chest. Part of him wanted to yell at her shrinking back, to rail against her getting anything out of what he’d done.

But, somehow, his anger had dimmed. Not at her, exactly. Just, overall. Seena had been right about confronting her and getting it out of his system. He hadn’t held anything back, and it felt like a little more of the pressure he’d bottled up had siphoned off.

No, he wasn’t completely past his troubled past – he may never be – but he was sure closer.

“I still kind of want to punch her,” Right said.