“It’s been a long day.” Shadara dropped to the ground with her back to a wall. “And every time I think Rina can’t get any more insane, she proves me wrong.”

Elara floated over to me. “But your clothes are ruined. We’ll have to get those fixed right away.” She then turned to the panther woman. “Don’t worry. I'll get you to a wonderful bed and you can sleep it off. What did Rina do?”

I pulled a spare jacket out of the bag of holding and put it on. “There are these mimics down there, and we couldn’t tell what was a mimic or not. So, since I can heal myself with my nanites, I went first everywhere.” Elara’s eyes went wide. “After the third mimic jumped out at me, I kind of stopped caring about the pain.”

The ghost maid shook her head and put on a smile. “Don’t worry. No mimics up here. You are perfectly safe and sound.”

I looked down at Shadara, who had her eyes closed as she held the back of her head against the wall. “Should I tell her or you?”

Shadara waved her hand towards me. “You do it.”

“It turns out we are not safe here,” I started. “While we were down there, we found Gary. He had a warning for us. He said that there was something on this floor that could potentially threaten the sphinx and cause this entire floor to be purged.”

Elara shook her head. “No, no. That’s not possible. The sphinxes are powerful. There’s no way someone can threaten one of them. If it could, why now? Why not on the other levels?”

I held up my hands. “Sorry, but I can’t answer those questions. Gary didn’t give us much information to work with. He just said there was a threat, and he was certain about it.”

Our guide kicked her foot through a stray rock. “Arg. Just when I finally have someone to spend time with.” She turned to me with a pleading look in her eyes. “What does that mean you’re going to do?”

“Since Gary likes Rina, he warned us. We heard what being purged means.” Shadara cracked open an eye. “As I see it, we have to leave as soon as possible. Tomorrow, most likely. We don’t stand a chance to complete any challenge the sphinx gives us in our current state.”

Elara pouted. “So you’re only going to stay the day? Did Gary tell you how long until the purge?”

I shook my head. “It could be tomorrow, or basically never.”

Elara let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t want to be the reason you die, but I don’t want to be left alone either.”

“You could join us,” Shadara said. “You don’t have to fight. You could just, I don’t know, follow us around, and we can spend time with us all you want.”

“I can’t.” Elara balled her fists. “As much fun as that sounds, I can’t leave this floor. I don’t even have my system anymore.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Anymore? As in, you had a system before?”

Elara nodded. “I was a climber like you, but well, there are fates worse than death. And sometimes the Soul Nexus recycles souls. Well, technically, I’m not the original Elara. She died a long time ago. I’m a spirit modeled after her personality. With some slight adjustments to make me a more useful servant. You could say I was created to like my job.”

Shadara bolted to her feet. “The Soul Nexus created you? Is that even possible?”

Elara recoiled from the beast woman’s sudden movement. “Why not? The Nexus creates monsters constantly for you to kill. It also creates the golems that work throughout its entirety.”

“Are you a monster?” I asked without thinking.

The maid gasped and covered her mouth. Then she deflated. “Technically, yes. You could, if you wanted to, kill me and earn stats and shards.” Her arms hung at her sides as she floated towards the door.

I held up my arm and dashed to stand in front of her. “No. Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it. We won’t hurt you—not that I think we could. You’ve been friendly to us. Why would we hurt you?”

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Shadara nodded. “Yeah. There are some things about the Nexus we don’t understand. Why do you not want us to leave?”

Elara’s expression immediately softened. “Because I thought you would—kill me—once you found out you could get easy stats and shards.” She pointed to the dungeon entrance. “Isn’t that why you went down there in the first place?”

“Well, yes.” I held up my hands. “But I won’t kill sentient life.”

“The word I think you’re looking for is sapient,” Shadara interrupted.

I frowned. There’s a difference?

Sentient life means one is capable of perception and thought. Sapience is about reasoning, communication, and self-awareness. The human definition of sapient is flawed and biased. More entities fit within the definition of sapience than not.

Orange… I feel like you need to vent about something. Later, okay?

Orange didn’t answer me. Ignoring the obviously annoyed AI in my head for a later day, I turned my attention back to the events happening outside of my head.

“Either way, I’d like to limit my killing.” I motioned for the door. “So, how about, Elara, you lead us to a place where we can take a bath and go to sleep? We don’t know when or if the sphinx will be in danger. If it happens in the next several hours, there is nothing we can do about it anyway.”

Shadara nodded. “Right. We need to focus on what we know and what we can do. I know we promised you before, but there will still be some things we need to do after we wake up that you can help with.” She extended her hand to the ghost. “You can still be helpful while we are here.”

Elara gave us a weak smile. “I guess something is better than nothing, right?” She floated around me and opened the door. “Let’s start with baths; that way we can fix your clothes.”

I walked through the doorway with Shadara right behind me. Elara led us to a massive, luxurious bathhouse.

The entire room gleamed with a pristine sheen. The pearl-white marble exuded an almost ethereal luminescence under the soft glow of crystalline chandeliers that hung overhead, casting delicate prisms of light across the room. The walls were engraved with intricate designs of sea creatures frozen in motion.

Elara gestured towards a row of individual bathing chambers, each enclosed by sheer, billowing curtains that danced gently in the slight breeze swirling through the place. The scent of lavender and salt lingered in the air. This smells way better than the dungeon. But why does it smell like salt?

As I stepped closer to the chamber, the marble floor felt cool beneath my feet. The bathing chamber itself pulled the stress from my body. Crystal-clear waters filled the sunken basin, reflecting the soft ambient light in a shimmering cascade from the small chandelier.

Elara floated towards the curtains and parted them silently, unveiling the luxurious bathing area. She smiled as she waved at a basket. "Please disrobe, and I will adjust the settings based on the data collected from your massage.” What is she talking about? “You expressed your concern about whether a massage would do you any good, so I collected information the golem collected on what was most relaxing for you.”

“Uh, okay.” I hesitated as I started to remove my damaged clothes. “I thought you said it couldn’t communicate?”

Elara waved her hand. “I said they wouldn’t talk. But they can provide information that will aid in your relaxation. Even if you are only going to be here for a short time, I’m still going to take my job seriously and make sure you are pampered to the extreme.” She grinned as she placed her hands on her hips. “Now, please, disrobe.”

I complied and stepped into the water. It was lukewarm, and I noticed there were thousands of little, tiny holes in the bottom of the basin. “What’s with the holes?” I asked as I sat down.

The maid’s grin grew even wider. “You’ll be enjoying them soon enough.” She hovered over a section of the wall that spun around and revealed several levers. “This will only take a minute.”

She then moved some levers up, others down, and some she stopped in different spots. The water started warming up, and I could smell the scent of lavender and cinnamon coming from the water. A desire to sprawl out and relax in the bath filled me. So I did. That’s when the water started bubbling.

My eyes rolled up into the back of my head. “Oh, yes.” The uncountable tiny bubbles felt like the golem’s fingers as they messaged my body, but instead of in a few localized sections, it was all over my body. “This is heavenly.” Now I know why people love Jacuzzi tubs.

Elara smiled warmly. “Of course! It’s the least I can do after everything. Feel free to indulge while I arrange for your clothing to be repaired. And if there is anything you desire, I’d be more than happy to provide it.”

“I’ll have what she’s having,” Shadara said as she followed Elara out of the room and closed the curtain.

Elara giggled. “Absolutely. I will prepare another bathing chamber for you. And yes, I can do the same for you too, if you would like.”

“Yes, please.”

Shadara’s enthusiastic squeal faded into near silence. The only sound was the tiny little bubbles popping around me. My eyes closed as I basked in the bliss that enveloped me. The temperature was perfect; warm without being scalding. The scent of cinnamon sent images of Snickerdoodle cookies through my mind. The bathing area left me in a cloud of tranquility that, one by one, relaxed each of my senses.

A gentle drowsiness settled over me. As my eyelids grew heavier, I surrendered to the soothing warmth, letting the sounds of popping bubbles create a soft melody that resonated with the quiet of the room. It wasn’t long before the comforting sensation enveloped me entirely, and I drifted into a serene slumber.

Orange materialized in front of me, in all her mirrored reflection glory. At least she has clothes on. I looked down and saw that I was also wearing my normal clothes, repaired, of course.

“Rina,” Orange began. The voice echoed in the ethereal landscape of my dream. “We need to talk—again.”