I stepped into the room, and she pushed the door closed. There was a very soft thump, and I could see lines of mana running along the walls of the room reconnect.

“There’s a sound-blocking charm on the room. Why don’t you have a seat, and we can talk.”

She gestured to the couch.

It was as if she answered my question, even though I knew she had no idea about my abilities. She probably had other reasons for explaining it.

“Don’t say too much, answer their questions but don’t give away too much information just yet.”

Alcoroth muttered this in my ear, despite the fact that they couldn’t even hear him.

“I guess there’s a lot to talk about, where’re you going to start exactly? Chase couldn’t say anything, he just gave me that token and told me to come here.”

“Yeah, we’ll tell you the whole story, you said you wanted to get him a snack, right? I’ll order it from the kitchen.”

“I’ve got his snack covered. But I won’t say no to food for me.”

“Alright.”

I sat down on the couch sitting him next to me and took the blade out casually.

“Even though I don’t frankly like the way she treated Mezu I believe that you should warn them first,” Alcoroth commented.

I had the blade at my fingers as he said this and looked up to see the shocked faces of both the man and Valera. Valera was at the desk paused in the middle of writing something on a scroll. The man seemed to have sat up more from his original position.

“Oh yeah, uhh, don’t worry. It will regrow, Fluffy just likes the taste.”

I heard the clapping sound of what I assumed was Alcoroth's face palming.

“I’m sorry what?” The man asked.

“I can only do this because your friends cut off my leg and arm that time. I’d say more but I think you have a lot more to explain all things considered.”

“I’ll explain that all, just wait a second before you cut anything. Valera, can you order and sit down?”

Valera shook her head to get out of her daze, scribbled some more things down, and then slid the paper into a slot in the wall. When she sat down across from me on the other couch with the man, I turned to Mezu.

“So, it’s just a snack okay? You only get a couple of fingers.”

I was about to cut but Mezu went ahead and latched onto my hand missing only my thumb. He chomped fully and I winced slightly before putting the knife away.

“You get my blood all over you when you do it like that that’s why you need to let me cut it off.”

I held my stump up and away from the couch, so I didn’t spill too much blood. I took out a bandage quickly and roughly wrapped up my hand before wiping his cheeks clean.

“Umm Quartz, could ya’ explain?”

I looked over at both their shocked faces and scratched the back of my head.

“I’d tell you, but why should I explain myself to him? Why the hell are you with this guy? His party was the reason I ended up like this and Lu-”

Valera pursed her lips slightly before speaking.

“Quartz this is Kayden. Kayden is a member of the Shadow Seekers.”

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What?

I felt a slight depression on the couch next to me glancing to see Alcoroth sit down full sized. Which was a bit out of the ordinary. He looked at them intently though. I don’t remember the exact name that the party we met that day gave, but I don’t think it was the Shadow Seekers.

“There’s a lot we need to talk about, and I know Chase wouldn’t’ve been able to tell you much. But now that you’re in the tower you must be aware of the issues with the guilds, right?”

Kayden repositioned himself oddly flexing his hands. I looked at them a bit longer but went back to Valera.

“Yeah, getting into the tower without documentation was a real pain in the ass.”

“I’ll be able to get you some papers, we just can’t use your name... What I mean is that we’ll have to make new papers for you, since technically Quartz is dead. But where do you want us to start?”

“What happened to the guild? When I went there, I went through the back door and Chase was meeting with this strange woman talking about being off probation or whatever.”

“Oh, so he’s off probation, good. Hopefully, his task goes smoothly from now on.” Valera said, seeming to relax into the back of her seat.

“He needs an explanation, Valera.”

He nudged her knee with his.

“Oh right.”

She sat up again but didn’t talk right away. Her face contorted a bit before she spoke.

“Everyone in our old guild but Chase and I, well and you now, are dead.”

“What?”

I thought it was just us who were there that day but they’re all dead?

“Our guild was targeted by Winged Mercy. Surge never wanted to be a part of the large system and declined the multiple offers they gave for our guild to become an affiliated guild. So, another guild, Branded Shield, was hired to keep our main party, us, distracted in a dungeon. And while we were away, they killed everyone else.”

I clenched my fist and looked at Kayden. I wish I could read his expression. I didn’t want to remember that day, and it was aggravatingly fresh in my memory. He was there that day, and it was enough to make me dislike him… despite that, I couldn’t feel hostility from him, and Valera was with him… She wouldn’t do that without a reason.

As much as I want an explanation, I also wanted to just forget about it entirely.

“Kayden was working as a mole within Branded Shield. There were many reports shoved under the rug about them being hired to kill adventurers within dungeons. It was only luck that it was his party that was sent out with us. If it hadn’t been for him, Chase and I would have probably been dead by now.”

I opened my mouth, but Valera spoke quickly to stop me from saying anything.

“I know what you’re thinking but just listen, please. I know you’re mad... but I also know your memory isn’t the best, and you were out of the fight pretty early. So just trust me when I say this, okay? I felt it when we were fighting, Kayden wasn’t giving his all. He kept eyeing their tank Ryker and he helped get rid of their archer for us.”

Kayden spoke up at this point.

“One on one I wasn’t sure if I could’ve taken Ryker on, but if he knew I was going to betray him, he’d’ve used his special skill and I would’ve had no chance. Ryker’s class was berserker, if he wasn’t hurt and was able to use his skill, then there was no way I’d’ve beaten him and the others even with your help.

“It was obvious after we split up that the dungeon was broken. Ryker’s not too bright so it took him a while to realize it. He decided to go after you and when the fighting started, I wasn’t even sure who would get out and how. You went down quickly, and your healer was poisoned. Against a team of B rank hunters, what could I do with a couple of D and E ranks?”

“But then only the four of us were teleported out. Even outside of the dungeon I went after Kay, but he took me down easily. Instead of killing us though he took us to a healer who was part of the Shadow Seekers. Lu-“

She stopped quickly and coughed before moving on.

“Anyway, that’s how we got out of that situation. It wasn’t until quite a bit later that we learned what had actually been going on and who they killed while we were gone. Chase didn’t want to enter the tower, so he decided to take the task of infiltrating Winged Mercy affiliates outside of the tower. He took over as guild master and agreed to their terms as long as they didn’t go after the guild members’ families.”

I just stared at the ground, what the hell was going on? This was a lot bigger than I was expecting.

“I’m not like Chase. I couldn't just pretend everything was alright and be a spy, so I went with Kayden to the tower. And I’ve been helping gather people to join the Shadow Seekers for the past few months.”

I looked back at her.

Months? How long had it taken me to climb the tower? I thought I spent a while on the last floor, but after a while, the days blurred together, especially with Cyrus. I don’t think I even bothered counting.

There was a ding and Valera stood to grab the food that came up in a small elevator. She put it on the table in front of us. This was all too much to think about, and I wasn’t really hungry anymore.

“Then, why? I think I heard that the guilds were controlling access to the tower and controlling who leaves, but its not like they were openly talking about why they did it.”

Kayden sighed, leaning back into the couch a bit.

“They like the power they’ve got, plain and simple. The Plain Striders and Winged Mercy decided that beating the tower would remove them of their status so it would be better for them to not. Together they’re much larger than Midnight Steel and our guild so it's not like we could have done anything to stop them back then. The higher ups decided to play the long game.