Lyn slammed the glass mug down. A few drops of beer splashed onto the dark marble tabletop, while some customers next to her jumped from the sudden sound. Ignoring the dirty looks from them, Lyn's head slumped onto her palms.

She was weak.

So what if she had the ability of one of the rarest special elemental magic in the world? So what if she possessed the raw power that people vied for, along with all the coveted training and credentials? None of that mattered. She still did not stand a chance in the duel; she was still too weak.

"If you ever want to beat me, you should learn to rely on skills beyond your magic."

Her jaw clenched. She took another giant gulp of alcohol and slammed the mug down once again.

What the hell did that even mean? If she was weak, she was weak, what else was there to it?

A bunch of jumbled-up thoughts flooded into her brain, flowing and splashing around an unending spiral of darkness. Lyn reached into her pocket. Her mind was going wild again, like so many times in the past few months, and there was only one item that could calm her down: Cydney's eye-fone. Or, at least, that was what the petite woman had called it. It was left behind during that fateful night, and Lyn had kept it a secret from everyone since then.

She pressed the button on the palm-sized metal block. As usual, the surface lit up with the picture of Cydney, knocking the air out of Lyn's lungs.

Her large, round eyes, their color dark like the night, but sheen bright as the sun; her soft, rosy lips, smiling so widely, pushing against her cheeks so much that they were going to burst; her black, silky hair, dancing in the wind, outlining the most perfect face in the world...

A small whimper escaped Lyn's throat, as her hand tightened around the eye-fone. This used to be Cydney's most treasured item, and now, this was Lyn's.

The more Lyn stared at the image, the more her heart was tugged out of her chest. Where did Cinna go? Where was she right now? How was she doing?

Why did you leave me?

Maybe Cydney knew how weak Lyn was. There was no way she could ever protect Cydney in this state. Not from the Pussy Gang, not from fighters like Neil, not from the QA. Maybe that's why Cydney left. Lyn was too weak.

Her fingers began to caress the surface of the metal block. The picture darkened and the words "Enter Passcode" appeared, followed by the numbers zero to nine. Whoever enchanted this item must be powerful; Lyn had spent months trying to figure out this "passcode", or other alternative methods of getting past this riddle, but to no avail.

As she mulled over what combination of numbers she should try next, a voice startled her, almost causing her to drop the item.

"Lyn? Is that you?"

Lyn quickly slipped the metal block back into her pocket. She spun around and her eyes widened in shock.

"Em?"

The blonde woman was standing behind her, a slight furrow in her brows. Next to her was a tall brunette, who looked very familiar. The two of them were holding hands.

"Oh hey." Lyn forced out a grin. "Good to see you. It's been a while."

"Yeah, it is," Emily said. She glanced at her girlfriend and squeezed her shoulder. "Why don't you grab a seat first, babe? I'll join you soon."

The woman gave the two of them a reassuring smile before leaving them alone. As she trotted away, her curly, brown hair bounced on her bare back.

Lyn let out a tiny whistle. "Damn, Em, she's gorgeous. I feel like I've seen her before though. Is she from Dawn Avengers?"

"Yeah, her name is Becca. She's a healer. She joined right before you quit."

"Oh wow, a fighter-healer pair from Dawn Avengers." Lyn laughed. "You two are one hell of a power couple, aren't you?"

Emily rolled her eyes as she settled on the seat next to Lyn. "Don't you dare flirt with her."

"What? You know I won't do that to you, Em."

"I find it really hard to trust you on that."

Lyn chuckled and took a sip of her beer. "Say, what do you want to drink? I'll get drinks for both of you. My treat."

Emily gave her another eye roll. "You don't always have to offer to treat, you know." Her face softened. "Anyway, how have you been, Lyn?"

"Oh, you know, not much. I- I was suspended from questing until recently, as you probably know, so I'm just chilling around for now. Can't wait to be back to work though. I got our team a really good fighter and stuff, so it'll be great, I know it."

"That's good to hear." Emily nodded. She peeked at Lyn with a peculiar, uneasy expression. "Lyn, I'm... I'm sorry I didn't come see you at all."

Lyn's eyelashes fluttered. "Oh, that's okay, Em, really. I- I didn't actually allow any visitations at all, not even for my parents," she said, forcing her tone to remain as lighthearted as possible. "The prison was a far way out from everywhere, so it's not worth it."

That explanation was far from the truth, but she had to hide the real reason. The cursed place had such a strict no-magic policy that they only allowed a healer to come by once every two weeks. Thus, Lyn had to deal with the pain of her injuries and the visibility of her scars while waiting for the healer's visit. She didn't want people in her life to see her bleeding and suffering like that. She really didn't want the pity.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"I see." Emily tapped her fingers on the table as her brows furrowed deeper. "Well, I'm still sorry anyway."

"What for?"

"I feel that it's partially my fault."

"What? Why would you say that?"

"I've..." Emily paused. Her mouth closed and then opened a couple more times as she pondered her words. Finally, she sighed. "To be honest, I've been suspicious of your fighter for the longest time, but I didn't know how to tell you. If I had cared a little more and looked into her background, then I could've warned you about—"

Emily's sentence was cut short when Lyn slammed her cup down on the bar table.

"Don't," Lyn mumbled. Her eyes were fixated on her abused mug, while her smile was wiped from her face. "Just, don't."

The two of them sat in awkward silence for a while.

"You like her a lot, don't you?" Emily whispered, her head hung low. "I've never seen you this dedicated towards someone before. We were together for four years and you- you were never like this with me. You won't even take my side whenever I was quarreling with Irene."

The atmosphere around them became even more awkward, if possible.

"Uh, s- sorry, Em," Lyn said. It had been a while since she had thought about their relationship. "L- Look, I- I know I was a terrible girlfriend back then..."

Thankfully, Emily decided to cut her off. "Yeah, whatever, I don't want to hear any of your stupid excuses. I'm over it, so let's not dwell on it any further, okay? Where is Irene anyway? You're always with her."

"Oh, I, uh..." Lyn scratched her hair. A little bit of some leftover soot fell out, but she pretended not to notice. "I needed some alone time, so I decided to come alone."

"Oh." Emily blinked. "Oh, well, I'm sorry to bother you then. I could leave if you want."

"No, no, stay, please!" Lyn grabbed Emily's hand. "I do need someone to talk to, just... just not anyone from my team."

Emily's ears turned pink. She pulled her hand away and muttered, "What, had a falling out with them? Not surprising, I would be unhappy too if I'm forcibly put on hiatus for half a year."

Lyn shook her head. "No, that's not it. I mean, I'm very thankful that they waited for me, but..." The bitterness of her defeat came back and she washed it down with a few gulps of beer. "Anyway, Em, do you... is it okay if I join you in your training one of these days?"

"What?"

"You know, like, the training you always do in the DA studios. With your group of fighter friends."

"Why?" Emily frowned. "You've never wanted to train with my friends."

"Well, I... I thought that maybe I should train with a bunch of fighters once in a while, you know?" Her voice lowered as she added, "And I think I got a bit weaker after a six-month hiatus..." Finally, with a small whisper, she admitted, "And I also just lost a duel to a fighter, so..."

"Really?" Emily raised her eyebrows. "That's interesting. You never lose."

"Well, I did." And I have been losing for a while now.

Emily shrugged. "Alright, join us then, same time, same place, you should know it. And if you challenge me, I'll beat you too, just letting you know."

Lyn laughed. "Sure."

"Also, when you get there, tell the front desk you're with me, they should let you pass."

"Aw, look at you, Em, such a big shot."

"Shut the hell up." Emily snorted. "Speaking of which, you should talk to your parents more. They're constantly bombarding me with messages because you're ignoring them."

"They are?" Lyn felt her blood drain from her face.

She had been keeping the contact with her parents at the bare minimum, for the sake of her sanity. The one month she had spent at home had been utter hell; at no moment was Lyn alone, and if she were to stay in the bathroom a few seconds longer than normal, her parents would start to bawl and cry about how they were being abandoned.

But never would she have thought that, of all people, her parents would be bothering Emily. Emily, her ex-girlfriend!

"I'm... I'm so, so sorry, Em, they're insane..."

"It's alright, I like them, so I don't mind."

"But still, they shouldn't be bothering you." Lyn groaned and hid her head in her hands.

"They care about you, that's all. You should try to care about them a bit more, you know." Emily glanced at Lyn before dropping her gaze uneasily. "And they've... they've also been begging me to help you out a little on your career, so I submitted a recommendation to the higher-ups, for a joint commission I'm leading."

Lyn's head shot up like fireworks. "They what?" she exclaimed. "They asked that from you? And you actually submitted a rec? Of me? Of my team?

"Yeah, I mean, I'm a senior quester in the guild now, and I'm also the team leader for that commission, so I have the power to recommend someone." Emily's eyes bored into the bar table as if she was studying the patterns on the black, marbled surface. "It's another one with the QA, who you've worked with before, so hopefully you'll be roped in, despite the situation you're in."

"Damn, Em-cakes..." Lyn leaned back on her chair and gaped at the blonde woman. "You're a senior quester now, with the ability to pick and choose your own team to work with. And you also got yourself a drop-dead gorgeous new girlfriend." She chuckled while shaking her head. "I guess you were right, Em, you really do a lot better without me."

"Oh, shut the hell up," Emily retorted once more. "I want you to do well too. You could've done so well if you stayed, but you just had to leave because of Irene, don't you? And also, you better perform well this time, and not be an idiot and get stung by poison for no reason. Since I recommended you, it'll look really bad on me, you got that?"

"I know, I know." Lyn winced at the mention of that past commission. She did not need to be reminded of yet another failure in her life right now. "Anyway, thank you so much for that, Em."

Emily snorted in reply and then stood up. "Alright, I'm gonna go back to my girlfriend. Go back to doing... whatever you were doing," she said, gesturing towards Lyn's pocket.

"Ah, y- you saw that?" Lyn gave her a sheepish grin before taking out the eye-fone. "Keep it a secret, Em, but I was, erm, looking at this." She raised the metal block.

The reflection of Cydney's cheerful, dazzling portrait appeared on Emily's surprised, ocean blue eyes. Her face contorted with a strange mix of expressions.

"Lyn, you..." she said with an unusually strained voice. "You... love her a lot, don't you?"

Lyn pursed her lips and brought the eye-fone back down to her lap. "She left this behind that night," she whispered. "Please don't tell anybody about it, Em, especially not Irene."

Emily did not reply, but Lyn had become too entranced by the eye-fone to notice her friend's uncomfortable silence. The world around Lyn dissolved, and the only thing on her mind was the bright image of the Asian woman, and that beautiful, beautiful smile...

Cinnamon...

Once again, she caressed the metal surface, and the cursed "Enter Passcode" words appeared and covered Cydney's picture.

"Oh, come on!" she groaned. "I don't know the goddamn passcode!"

"Passcode?" Emily frowned. "So this image generator is enchanted. What have you tried so far?"

"I don't know, just random numbers, like one-two-three-four, or one-one-one-one, things like that."

"Have you tried her birthday?"

"Oh." Lyn's mouth dropped wide open. Her birthday! Why hadn't she thought of that? "I... I have not..."

Emily stared back at her with equal amounts of incredulity. "Are you stupid? I can't believe you didn't try that first. Wait, do you even know her birthday?"

"It's... it's sometime in August... I think..." Lyn tugged on her braid. "Sometime late August..."

"You are literally the worst person ever." Emily rolled her eyes. "I have no idea how I stayed together with you for so long. Have fun with that thing, whatever it is."

And with that, she stormed off. Lyn's gaze lingered on Emily's short blonde hair before she turned her attention back to the eye-fone. A smile crept across her face. Tomorrow, she was going to ask Millie about Cydney's birthday, and then she could answer this accursed riddle.

Beyond this screen was an entire gallery of Cydney's portraits. Her heart soared.

Finally, there was something to look forward to.