“She’s right, Kayden wasn’t representing Shadow Seekers, well at least wasn’t presenting himself in that way it. He met with us away from the entrance and offered a temporary guild ID for a decent price, you know how you can’t enter unless you’re affiliated. Kayden can disguise himself well enough, its not like he would get caught. But that’s not too important.

“When we got to the twentieth and ran into Kayden again, he passed along a letter from Ylandyr telling me we’d speak about what I found when I got to the fortieth floor. He said we’d meet on the fortieth floor and that the Shadow Seekers could be trusted.

“He must be somewhere high up within the guild at the very least. Ylandyr didn’t state his intentions clearly. So, all I have about the situation is theories about the connection between our investigation and the tower. Frustratingly the implications are so wild it’s honestly hard to believe.”

“What do you mean?” Brick asked, stuffing food in his sister’s mouth this time to stop her from interrupting.

She frowned but kept quiet and ate.

“You know how the climb has been stalled for over three hundred years?”

They nodded.

“It’s because Winged Mercy is stalling things, not because the floors are too difficult to pass. But the why, is what I think he was trying to figure out. And what he did find was just making things even more confusing.”

“The task was frustratingly difficult on its own.” He sighed, “The humans have such short life spans now adays that even the nobility don’t last long, so there were far too many generations to research. And due to all their frivolous wars, and their horrifically poor record keeping abilities, the amount of records that we could even search through were hard to find.”

“What we did find was that many children from various noble families had entered the tower in the past. And because of that, the inheritance of titles is very messed up and complicated.”

Lefty frowned, “Are you saying that the human nobles, sent their heirs into the tower?”

Paeris shook his head and finished chewing, “Well not their heirs but their second born or even third born in some cases. But we didn’t know what that had to do with Winged Mercy. Everything, including the party information of their kids, and the guilds was all in reference to a guild called Hallowed Grave.”

No need for me to interrupt Paeris, especially when his tendency to rant was currently acting in my favor.

“But Hallowed Grave disappeared around the same time the climb stopped. The only documents that referenced their connection was from back then. But those were only found in the records of an old almost broke noble family. The head of which, let us look because his grandfather had passed and so he no longer felt any obligation to protect his great uncle.

“He also mentioned that he had heard that Winged Mercy had visited them at one point when he was younger, but that there was no documentation of that happening. With Hallowed Grave, the only guild with its name all over their documents being gone, Winged Mercy was the only link that was left between the tower and that family.

“After a lot more investigation. We found countless families of nobility that were either paying Winged Mercy for something related to living expense or had trade contracts with the guild for materials sourced in the tower. But it seemed that any documents from when Hallowed Grave was still around, were gone, or at least well hidden.”

Dot chimed in pretty quickly, “That’s why we climbed, Wasarera- I mean the Mage tower on the border of the beast kin lands and the dwarf’s had a lot of contact with them. Well, an affiliate guild.”

Paeris’s face scrunched up “I thought the mage tower avoided having any hand in efforts made to climb the tower, talked about there being more important problems in the real world?”

Lefty scoffed, “They hardly deal with any problems that they find in the real world anyway. The only reason they said that was because they didn’t want any of their younger mages entering. I think we’ve only heard of a few upper rankers that have entered the tower before.”

“So, the mage tower is holding hands with Winged Mercy? What for?” I asked.

“Research,” Dot said cooly “the only thing those bastards care about. The untapped reserves of mana stones from the tower would’ve been enough for their cooperation, but I’m sure there’s quite a few that are after the more living resources that Winged Mercy has access to.”

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“Slaves huh?” Dodger growled.

Lefty nodded, “if it wasn’t for them being researchers at heart, I doubt we would’ve even found such detailed notes.”

“So, what do you think that they’re holding the nobles hostage or something?” Brick asked.

“I don’t know, it doesn’t really make sense. Most of them would be dead of old age anyway. And if they really wanted to leave, I’m sure that with enough people they could just overpower the people guarding the elevator on the twenty first floor” Paeris scratched his head.

“That’s the other thing that Ylandyr hinted at. The nobles are still alive. Remember Kayden asked about that one Earl’s son?”

“Right, it was a bit weird that he asked for a name specifically… Does that mean that guy’s still alive? He’s got to be at least two hundred by now.”

I shrugged, “Nobles are generally obsessive with regards to their bloodline. Holding different family’s members captive and extorting the nobles for money isn’t foreign between humans themselves. Who’s to say that Winged Mercy isn’t participating.”

“What about the Plains Striders? Aren’t they a solely human guild? Wouldn’t they be the ones to benefit the most?” Dot asked.

“But they could just as easily help Winged Mercy so that the families running the guild would be the ones to benefit.” Lefty pointed out.

“So how does your cousins knowing Quartz is a half elf, and knowing you’re here make things more risky that Paeris said something?” Dot asked steering the conversation back to it’s start.

“If they’re able to keep human nobles hostage, who’s to say they won’t try to do the same with Sailhin,” Paeris suggested.

I shook my head “My parents are what’s called a treaty pair. A marriage between a high elf and a member of the vassal elf tribes’ royal families. It was meant as a way for the highelves to hold power over the other elf tribes, and historically, the children of these marriages would not be the ones to inherit the high elf’s title, even if they would normally be the first heir.

“Some high elf families aren’t happy that I’m slated to inherit my family. My cousins aren’t mixed, so they have more support than I do. They could easily take this as an opportunity to force my family’s hand. And I’m sure there are other high elves within the higher ranks of Winged Mercy”

“And what’s the danger of them knowing Quartz is half elf? You think they’d go after him just for that?” Brick asked.

I looked at Quartz, if he knew, I didn’t want to be the one to reveal it.

But Dot offered her opinion thankfully, “High Elves, hate halfers, didn’t they make a decree banning them from ever even entering the capital?”

“Yeah,” I put my fork down mostly losing my appetite, “I don’t know for sure what the state of the fortieth floor is though I think its similar to the twenty first. Where there isn’t a challenge but instead a space for people to group up. I know that there are theoretically four guilds in charge, but we don’t know how the floor’s layout is organized. If we can’t get to the Shadow Seeker’s section safely with Quartz disguised, I wouldn’t put it against them to try something.”

“So, because you were selfish and thought you could manage this all on your own you didn’t tell us? Is that really it? You thought there wouldn’t be any issue when we got up there?” Dot asked

“There’s also a chance that my cousin won’t remember even if they somehow beat us to the fortieth floor.”

“What? How?”

“It’s just a theory, but have you ever thought about what happens if you fail a floor? I mean I’m sure there are tons of people who have tried to clear a floor and never do, but we’ve never heard of people talking about it right? No one’s ever said what happens when you fail. And none of us know if we’ve failed a floor, right?”

I looked at them for their opinion.

Lefty chewed on his empty fork, “Do you think we forget? That if we fail a floor, we get our attempt erased from our minds? So, since your cousins lost, they might forget they met us?”

Dot shook her head “but we’re only saying that because we haven’t met anyone who failed. Those people could just as easily be stuck doing the same floor over and over again and aware of it. Even if you’re right there’s only a small chance that he won’t remember meeting us. If that was your theory, that doesn’t really explain why you think he’ll forget.”

“Is that why you tried to kill him?” Paeris asked.

I nodded “What if dying is what makes you forget. Killing him initially was out of anger because of the threats towards my family he uttered during our fight. Only afterwards did I alleviate any guilt by considering that it would be a test for a cryptic statement about life and death in the tower in Ylandyr’s original note to me.”

“But we can’t confirm either until we meet them again, right?” Dot sighed, “this whole thing is a mess.”

“It’d probably be best if we didn’t meet them at all.” Paeris said.

“Quartz being half elf can’t be the only reason it was important to hide him.” Dodger said.

We all looked at her, shocked she had considered that.

“You hesitated when answering earlier.”

I looked at Quartz, who was staring a hole into his plate.

“It’s only because what I’m thinking is merely a guess, and since it’s about Quartz… I wasn’t sure if he knew and was hiding it. Which he has every right to, or if he doesn’t and if I said my guess and was wrong…”

“How did you know?”

That was the first time Quartz had spoken since outside. He stuck to ijanoin, so out of respect, I decided to match it.

“Your ears. They are longer than typical half elves… but its not just that. Your accent in ijanoin…. your eyes… your hair color…”

No one said anything.

It was one thing to reveal my own information, but this was a topic that Quartz himself didn’t seem to know everything about. He didn’t know he was half goliath until Dodger figured it out.

Speculating on the parentage of someone who clearly didn’t remember them, just didn’t feel right. There were a lot of mysteries around him. How on earth did a high elf and a goliath meet? Why is it that his accent matches that of high elves, but he doesn’t seem to remember his parents?

And to take into account his eyes and hair… a preposterous thing to even consider. But if it was true, I really hoped my cousins only noticed his ears. Otherwise, my actions are probably even worse than they appear.

There was a ding.