The windows Stella claimed to be near Vur’s butt were, in fact, not visible to Tafel’s eyes. However, the Light Lord was following them from behind. Her arms and legs were spread, stretching her robes taut. White lights shot out of her palms and feet, propelling her through the air, her hair whipping about thanks to the turbulence.

Tafel furrowed her brow and shouted, “Hey! What are you doing!?” If she didn’t shout, it’d be impossible for Ashley to hear her. In fact, even with shouting, Tafel wasn’t sure the Light Lord could hear her. Ashley flew at the same pace, her posture and velocity unchanging, nothing about the Light Lord indicating she had heard the demon’s words.

Tafel scratched her head before turning back around and walking up Vur’s spine to her spot on his head. She took a seat beside Lindyss, the cursed elf raising an eyebrow at her. Tafel shook her head. “No windows, but Ashley is following us.” Tafel shrugged. “She couldn’t hear me though, so don’t ask me why.”

Lindyss played around with the crystal resting on the backs of her fingers, letting it roll from her thumb to her pinky before palming it and repeating the cycle. “Maybe she wants her skill back,” the cursed elf said and stopped moving the crystal. She frowned as she held it up towards the sun. Within the crystal, there was a translucent sphere, the hidden piece containing Holy Smite.

“Are you going to learn it?” Tafel asked, staring at the crystal.

“I’m not sure,” Lindyss said and shook her head. “You heard what Ashley said. The tower copied the lords’ skills and distributed them without their knowledge. Who’s to say the same can’t happen to us?” The cursed elf’s eyes narrowed, and she clenched her hand, shattering the crystal. She shook off the shards, leaving only the sphere behind. Then, she offered it to Tafel. “If there’s something wrong with these skill orbs, it’d be best for one of us to stay clean to solve the problem.”

Tafel’s expression darkened. “So, you’re using me as an experiment to see if these are safe to consume or not?”

“It’s already too late for you; you already absorbed one of them,” Lindyss said and shrugged. “Absorbing another shouldn’t hurt.”

“Gee, thanks,” Tafel said and took the orb. She stared at it for a bit before making eye contact with Lindyss. “If there’s anything to be suspicious of, shouldn’t it be the root bracelet?”

Lindyss raised her arm. Underneath her root bracelet, a shadowy tendril wriggled out before forming a small hand that waved at Tafel. “One step ahead of you,” the cursed elf said. “I connected the root bracelet to a shadow that I have complete control over.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Tafel blinked. “Are you always this suspicious of everything?”

“Yes,” Lindyss said, a small smirk appearing on her face. “When you get older, you’ll be the same when you realize everything and everyone that interacts with you wants something from you.”

“That’s a cynical way of looking at the world,” Tafel said.

“What about me?” Erin asked, poking her head out of Lindyss’ hair.

“Asked the fairy that steals my drinks,” Lindyss said and rolled her eyes. She glanced at the orb in Tafel’s hand. “If you’re not going to use that, you can always give it to Erin. She’s only good at turning people into fish, so a proper attack skill should give her some balance.”

“I’m not sure whether or not I should be offended by that,” Erin said and turned towards Tafel. “Thoughts?”

“Polymorphing someone is a pretty strong technique,” Tafel said. “But it doesn’t directly harm someone, so….” The demon handed over the orb to Erin.

The fairy queen picked it up and stared at it for a bit. She hugged the sphere, then bit it, then rubbed her face against it. A furrow appeared on her brow. “How do you learn this?”

“Through the root bracelet,” Tafel said, her voice trailing off as she noticed the lack of accessory on Erin’s wrist. “Which you don’t have.”

Erin frowned before using her whole body to toss the sphere back to Tafel. “I bet the learning process sucks anyway,” the fairy queen said and pouted. “Nothing given to you for free is better than things you’ve learned yourself.”

“Weren’t you born knowing how to polymorph things?” Lindyss asked.

Erin nodded. “And I learned how to do it myself.”

Tafel hesitated before placing the skill orb against her root bracelet. It dissolved into motes of white light that surged into her body. Even if the tower copied her skills and taught them to other people, it didn’t matter. Why would it? All she had to do was be better than the people who copied her. Besides, she had a secret weapon. “Vur, if the tower ever upsets me, what will you do?”

“Burn it to the ground,” Vur said, his golden eyes rolling up to look at Tafel. “Are you upset? Should I start?”

“No,” Tafel said, a smile appearing on her face. “Let’s keep gathering all the hidden pieces. If the tower’s going to copy our skills, we might as well learn more skills from it than it’ll learn from us.”

“Obtaining more skills isn’t always better,” Lindyss said. “It’s better to be proficient at one thing than to be mediocre at ten things.”

“Tell that to Vur,” Tafel said and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Vur’s proficient in every skill he obtains,” Lindyss said. “He’s an anomaly. You shouldn’t compare yourself to someone like him who doesn’t have to work hard to master what he’s learned.”

“That’s not true,” Vur said. “Sometimes I work very hard in my sleep.”

Erin glanced down at Vur from her spot on Lindyss’ shoulder. “You said sometimes. What about the other times?”

Vur blinked and furrowed his brow. “The other times I don’t.”

Erin glanced around to evaluate Lindyss’ and Tafel’s expressions. The fairy queen nodded. “I deserved that, didn’t I?” she asked. “Bah, whatever. Why don’t you just go to sleep now or something?”

“There’s a temple down there,” Vur said, angling his head downwards for everyone to see the temple on the horizon. It looked like a slightly large smudge. “I’ll nap on the flight to the next one.”