The room was dark. The only touch of light that stained it came from a bulb of trapped fireflies. These weren’t normal fireflies, not the ones indigenous to this world. They were immigrants strayed from too many cracks in the world. They were like unwanted guests with a desire to stay so strong they would not be evicted.

That the room was too dark for how bright the world outside was didn’t seem to bother any of its occupants. They sat in it on chairs of wood and iron and something too strong but flexible for any of their collective knowledge to know.

Amongst them no one had spoken in a while. Silent mouths rested silently beneath six pairs of sharp colorful eyes. Finally, one of them spoke.

“So what you’re trying to say is you want to become a solo adventurer.”

Seth shook his head slowly. He’d trimmed his hair just a day ago so that the bun he held it up in today was neat and clean.

“What I’m saying, Tao Mei,” he said. “Is I intend to go out in search of…”

“What matters is that you plan on doing it alone,” she interjected.

“Not that we’re complaining,” Beth offered quietly.

She sat beside William who had a hand around her shoulder, stroking her bare skin with his thumb. The top she wore was without sleeves and it made the action easy, simple, almost natural. Still, all parts of Seth found it unnecessary.

Beside her William nodded in strong affirmation.

“Unfortunately, I am complaining,” Tao Mei said. “You’re still Iron. You wouldn’t last a day adventuring on your own. Not without a team. And what are you going to do when you run out of bullets.”

Is this chick serious? one of Seth’s minds raged. What are we going to do when we run out of bullets? The audacity. Has she forgotten we’re souled, too.

Seth waved its displeasure down mentally. To Tao Mei, he said, “You do know the reason I use a gun is because you all needed a range support and none of you was capable of it.”

“Watch it, kid,” William warned. “We’re still older than you in all the ways that matter.”

Seth’s gaze panned slowly to the Silver. Again, not for the first time, he wondered how far he would go in a fight against the mage. He wouldn’t win. That much was obvious. Where his mind led him was to how much of a mark he could leave on him.

He left the thought to itself, abandoned it like a poisoned fruit offered by a rotten corpse. One day it would lead him to the stupidity of chasing the endeavor. And knowing his teammates, it would not be long.

Arms folded over a simple cotton shirt, Drew had his eyes closed in thought. He was unarmed today, his longsword nowhere in sight. His lips were held in a thin line not necessarily a frown. He was mulling over Seth’s words, thinking things silver leaders thought over Iron mage decisions. When he was done, it expressed itself in the opening of his eyes and the downward turn of his lips. He did not like his decision.

“You’re trying to get us to come with you,” he said. “It’s why you’re telling us.”

And they said people who wear glasses being smart was just a stereotype, Seth’s mind snorted.

It is, another objected.

And Drew doesn’t wear glasses, a third added.

Well, he used to.

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Seth restrained his smile, not that any of his companions would’ve seen it behind his shawl. That Beth and William hadn’t figured it out was no surprise. Half the time Beth was trying to run him off. The other half saw William throwing verbal jabs at him with the subtleness of a beggar’s odor. Tao Mei had proved slow but she would’ve gotten it in time, maybe a day or two.

“Not entirely,” Seth disagreed. “This is me informing the team that I might have to be absent for a while.”

“But not you seeking permission to be absent.”

Seth nodded.

“His audacity just keeps growing,” Beth scoffed.

Seth’s hand twitched slightly. He carried no weapon save his twin blades strapped to his back, yet he found himself wondering if [Quick Strike] would reach her before anyone else acted.

Seth sat with them a while longer.

After Beth’s words, no one spoke. They waited in the silence, panning out thoughts only adventurers could, or perhaps they were merely thoughts anyone could think. But Seth’s were different. He was a boy with four thoughts, a mage with a broken mind. And each mind thought their own thoughts and bickered in their own words.

One wished he would challenge Beth, show her that authority was not all there was to power. Another sought William’s blood. Not in death but simple combat. There was the mild desire to test himself against the arrogant and strong. A strong will to belittle Beth by belittling the man beside her. His other minds thought thoughtful thoughts without dire consequences. One wanted a taste of barley beer with a drop of cinnamon and the other hoped for a hot meal on the roof of The Willow’s Tripe under the countless stars of a velvet, moonless night.

The poetry of the last left Seth momentarily muddled but he ignored them as a collective. Neither thought served him any purpose, not in his waking or in his dreaming. Not here nor there. What he needed were thoughts that whistled in the tune of manipulation. Thoughts that would guide him on how best he would garner the assistance of one of the adventurers he sat with without having to ask for it, so that the possibility of death while embarking on the quest of the beast glades was significantly diminished.

It was disappointing to find that with four minds, none proved deceptive. They could lie well enough, guide him through the action like a sage in their art. But deception was, in itself, a kind of complexity beyond them. It was the ability to string sense and logic into falsehoods and half-truths. Deception was not necessarily a lie. It was a whore that pranced about as a lady.

Seth touched his shawl gently, adjusted it though it didn’t need adjusting.

Tao Mei perked up beside him. “I’ll go with you,”

Drew turned bland eyes on her. “You’re our strongest fighter, Mei. Without you we might as well cease most of our expeditions.”

“And we still have that one request from the guild,” Jaola pointed out.

Tao Mei poked her cheek with a small slender finger. “Which one’s that, again?”

“The one to the south,” Drew explained. “Past the Darnesh mansion and into the boundary lines.”

Do you think they’ll have to stop by the house first? One of Seth’s minds asked.

“When is this?” Seth asked.

“During your absence,” Beth answered, smug. It seemed there had been an eagerness in his voice he had not been aware of. One she’d caught.

Luckily, not everyone here sought out his downfall. Jaola turned a page of his book. “Three weeks.”

Seth nodded like a man who’d just been told his child had done something he’d explicitly requested he not do. Saddening as it was, Beth was right. He would not be present for it. A pity.

“Why don’t you get one of those semi-solo adventurers to fill in while we’re gone,” Tao Mei offered.

“Because they charge too much,” Drew answered.

“And their teamwork is shitty,” Jaola added casually, he could’ve easily been commenting on the taste of a meal he ate every day.

“That’s too bad,” Tao Mei said without a touch of remorse. “Because I’m going with Oden.”

“Why?” Drew asked, brows tilting downwards where they met.

“Because what he’s doing sounds fun.”

“But you don’t even know what he’s doing.”

“Nope.” Tao Mei crossed her hands over her torso and shivered excitedly. “Doesn’t that just give you goosebumps.”

William sighed. “I know you’re smitten with the kid, but don’t forget he’s still just an Iron. It couldn’t possibly be that interesting for you.”

Tao Mei tilted her head to the side with a twisted smile. “And yet, I’m still going.”

“Mei,” Drew complained, he almost seemed to whine. “It won’t be easy getting another damage dealer for the team if you go.”

“And yet…”

“…You must go,” Seth finished for her, as if opposed to the idea.

Seth rose from his seat, tired of their constant rants. He and his brothers never talked so much on any matter. They didn’t agree on a lot of things but they were always to the point. Drawn out conversations were not a part of the seminary. They suggested indecisiveness, a quick way to be on the receiving end of Igor’s cane or whichever medium of violence stoked the Reverend’s cold heart on the given day.

“And where are you going?” Beth asked as Seth neared the door.

He took the knob in his hand without pause and turned it. There was a mild click as all doors with no rune modifications make.

“Out,” he answered. “You all don’t need me for this part of the conversation.”