“How could you? You’ve had the Listen card this whole time?” Max yelled.

“What? No I don’t,” James sputtered.

“Don’t try and deny it,” Max yelled and slammed his gauntlet into the wall. “I thought you were my friend. How could you do this?”

“I didn’t... you are being..."

Yang tapped James’ shoulder with the flat of her blade. “If you don’t have the Listen card, you must have the Sonic Bolt card slotted. Show us. Blast that wall right now.”

James’ eyes went wide and he looked around the room in growing horror. The expression was mirrored by Lily and she took several steps back from James.

He took several deep breaths, trying to control his panic. James pushed Yang’s sword away from his shoulder. He took a step back out of her range.

James threw up his hands. “Alright, fine! I have the damn card. Sue me. You guys were being stupid about it. It’s a valuable card. I needed to use it, it saved our lives in this very room.”

Gus roared and pointed at him and then his ears. This is what he had been talking about earlier.

“How could you?” Max repeated in disbelief.

“I had to!” James said and clenched his fists. “You don’t get it. I’m not trying to spy on you all, I just need to understand what people mean. You know I have trouble understanding people. My brain tells me everyone is making fun of me. With the Listen card, I know that’s not the case. I can talk to people now. Did you even notice that I talked to Bisrat as soon as we met her? I never would have done that before.”

Max blinked in surprise. James had been more outgoing and affable recently. Max had just assumed that his friend was coming out of his shell. He should have known better. James had been dealing with social anxiety for all of his life. You don’t get over that in a few days.

“What’s this about a Listen card? Are we talking about a Bell card with mind reading?” Bisrat said.

“Yes,” Max said sourly. “We came across this card when someone used it against us. We all agreed to never use it. But then this pervert stole the card and has been using it on us all this time.”

James looked at Max with hurt on his face. “I’m not a pervert. You know me. I’m just using it to help, to deal with people and to save us from monsters. I saved you all! How can you call me that?”

“You violated our privacy.” Yang said with a cold voice. “What is that but the actions of a pervert?”

James flinched back. “I...” He shook his head and took a shaky breath. “I can take the card out most of the time, and only use it when we are hunting monsters.”

Max put his palms to his temples. “I can’t deal with you right now. Just go. Wait on the other side of the room. I can’t even look at you.”

James blinked in shock and looked around the hallway. He found no friendly faces. He took a step back and hesitated. Max was thinking unkind thoughts as loud as he could. James turned around and hurried around the corner.

Shock continued to wash over Max in waves. How could James do this? He never broke the law, never took drugs, never even disobeyed his parents. Why would he violate them like this?

Max's heartbeat was roaring now, his skin warm. He found himself pacing back and forth along the hallway. Gus was growling and clenching his fists. Lily was sitting up against the wall, blankly staring. Bisrat was watching Max pace, curiosity on her face.

He didn’t know what to do. This was James, his best friend. He had known him since they were kids. If this was anything else, Max would have forgiven him already. This though. This was too much. He felt like someone had broken into his house and rifled through his stuff. Nothing was taken, but he felt... violated.

Gus interrupted Max’s musings with a pained growl. He turned to him to see the troll’s skin rippling. He fell on his hands and knees and shrunk down. Gus went from a tall troll down to a bearded human with a gut. His backpack and clothes returned from wherever they went when he transformed.

When the transformation was completed, Gus stayed there gasping like he had just run a marathon.

Max swore and said, “I guess your estimate of how long your troll form would last was off, huh, Gus?”

He caught his breath and said, “No, actually. This was an accident. I was thinking I wished I could talk so I could tell you I told you so!”

“So you threw away our tank so you could say I told you so?”

Gus rocked his hand back and forth. “Kinda. I mean yeah, I did tell you so. But it really was an accident.” He moved to the hallway wall and sat down up against it.

“How soon can you change back?”

“Not today. It really takes a lot out of me. Speaking of, gimme some food? I need to refuel.” Gus said and held out his hand.

Max grumbled and dug into his belt. He tossed Gus a small sack of rations and sat down up against the wall as well.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Bisrat nervously looked at everyone and slithered over to the wall near Max. She wrapped her centipede tail around herself and sunk down, like she was sitting as well.

Max pulled his knees up and dropped his face down. He wished everything would just go away.

The hallway was silent except for the sounds of Gus eating. There was a heavy presence in the room, like someone had died. Max felt like he might have lost a friend. He wasn’t sure if he could ever forgive James. It wasn’t just the invasion of privacy, it was the lying. James had that card for a long time and never said a word to him about it.

After about twenty minutes, Lily stood up. She wiped off her tears and said, “I’m going to go talk to James.”

Gus lifted his head. “Gonna beat him up? Don’t do it alone. I’ll come with you.”

“That’s not... no. Stay here,” Lily said and hurried away.

Gus rolled his eyes. After a bit he lay down and used his pack as a pillow. Within minutes he was snoring.

Bisrat wriggled closer to Max and softly said, “A Paj merchant once told me that humans and Igra don’t like Bell cards. He knew he could always underbid on them and still win. He would get a good deal on Bell cards up on the first layer and come down to the second layer to sell them.

“Lunuk pretend not to like them but they were his best customers. Paj are more neutral on the subject. They are a tool like anything else, but dangerous tools need restrictions. How about you, personally? Do you hate Bell cards?”

Max tilted his head. “After the kidnapping, I kind of expected to be traumatized by Bell cards. But really, no. I don’t hate Bell cards. I wanna destroy the overpowered Suggest card, but I’m glad Yang has the Camouflage card.” He turned to a fuzz of mana on his right. “You are getting better at that, Yang. I had to look for you to find you.”

Bisrat flinched as Yang’s color returned. The corner of Max’s mouth twitched up. The half smile didn’t last long before it slid off.

He said, “It’s not about the cards. It’s about James. I can’t believe he would do that to me. To all of us. It’s not even the invasion of privacy, although that’s bad enough. It’s the fact that he lied to me about it, for days.”

Yang cleared her throat. “I did not choose to come here. Most of you did, but I did not. I lost everything when I jumped through that portal. My money, my job, my family.” Her voice cracked. “Even my clothes and gun. Everything was taken from me. One of the few things I thought I had left was my privacy. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy the Camouflage card so much. I get to be on my own even when I must stay with you for safety.”

She paused for a moment and then softly said, “And now even my privacy is gone.”

Max blinked and put his hand on her armored shoulder. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about how hard this all must be for you.”

Yang nodded and said, “I know he is your friend, Max. But this has hurt me deeply. I do not know if I can forgive him.”

Max nodded and said, “Thank you for telling me. I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. I don’t know if I can forgive him either.”

They sat in silence for a while longer. They let Gus sleep since there was no longer any rush. Max used his Augment card on a tool every time he had enough mana. The tools didn’t need to be stronger, so he improved the magic spell on each one. When a third tool was augmented, Lily returned, holding the Listen card.

She held it out. Without looking him in the eyes, she said, “James wants to apologize. He wasn’t thinking about how you would feel, he just wanted to use the card to get around his neurotic thoughts. He sent me back here with the card. He said you could put in your belt and not use it for a day. That will destroy the Listen card, right?”

Max stared at the card but didn’t get up. Eventually he made up his mind. “I’m not going to make it easy on him. I’m not going to destroy the card and pretend everything’s all better. Give him the card back and tell him to come help us clear the last room. We have to kill the boss before we can get out of here.”

“Are you sure you don’t want the card?” Lily asked.

Max shook his head. “I’m sure. With or without that card, James has lost my trust.”

Lily slowly dropped her hand.

Gus had woken up during the conversation. “Hey! I didn’t agree to that.”

“It’s not up to you. Besides, destroying the card won’t change anything. Could you ever trust your thoughts were private around him again?”

“Uh, no. But I’d still feel better if I had the card myself.”

Max shooed Lily away and said, “We need someone to use it in case there are more monster ambushes. Might as well be him.”

Gus grumbled but didn’t stop Lily from going to get James. A bit later he returned, peeking around the corner.

Do you have the Listen card slotted? Max loudly thought.

“Uh yeah,” James said and hesitantly took a step forward. “I have the Listen card slotted like you asked. Whenever I’m close I can hear your surface thoughts. But I can't hear anything you aren't focusing on."

“Whatever. Bisrat, go over the makeup of the twelfth room again. I want to make some adjustments to the plan,” Max growled out.

...

Once everyone was in place, Max slapped the hexagon in the middle of the door. The wooden door fell into the floor. He pressed himself up against the side of the hallway, just out of sight of the doorway. He tapped Lily on the shoulder.

A blue mushroom appeared in the doorway. It confidently strode forward until it made it five feet. A pair of blade traps activated, sending spinning half moon blades flying everywhere. Mushy was eviscerated. A puff of mana was all that was left. Lily sent in her drop bear a moment later. It met the same fate.

Once the final blade clattered to the floor, Gus took a step forward.

“Wait!” Max hissed. “That was only three traps. There are four of them near the entrance, right, Bisrat?”

“Right,” she replied.

“Yang, do you think your little crab can set off the last trap?” Max asked.

“Probably, but Crabby doesn’t like to be used like that,” Yang said reluctantly.

A little blue crab appeared on the ground and skittered over to Max. It waved its claws around and then crossed them.

Max knelt and said, “Please? If we spring a trap we will be dead forever. If you do it, you will be back in a half hour.”

The crap skittered back and forth. Then it held up a single claw.

“That means he’ll do it just this once.” Yang said.

“Thank you, Crabby.” Max said seriously.

The little blue crab skittered sideways into the room. It headed towards the right side of the room and found a barely hidden plate in the floor. It jumped on it to set it off. A half dozen new crescent blades joined the others embedded in the walls and ceiling.

Gus looked to Max to double check and Max nodded. Gus stepped into the room and slid to the side, hugging the left wall. As Bisrat said, there were a few crates and barrels there he could hide behind. James entered after him, hiding to the right.

Max took a deep breath. This should work, but it was nerve wracking entering the room without armor. Particularly after seeing four traps explode in spectacular manner. But Gus and James were already in the room, he needed to go now. Max breathed out and dashed into the room, straight down the middle.