Ryan’s chest felt like it was tearing itself apart inside. Kyle was hurt but apparently, he could regenerate with some wicked tattoo like all the vile witches and raiders he’d heard about all his life.

And it didn’t even matter!

Because— because, if that had been anyone else, Micah could have healed them, but they still would have been scarred for life. With burns, if they were lucky. With lasting damage if not.

“It’s like they tried to evacuate the second we got there,” Parker said, catching his ally up while they checked the tunnels for hiding Kobolds.

Ryan sped up until his wounds hurt.

“Why?”

“I don’t know, man. They were panicking. A large crowd stampeded over the broken podium to get to the loot. Good for [Fireballs], I guess, but we had to hunt some that ran off with things.”

“Did they break the podium?”

“Maybe?”

No.

They were headed in the same direction toward the pens on opposite sides of the chamber, and the scouts were closer. Four people sat on gaps in the fence or rested against the pillar there. Only Micah was visibly doing something, helping Nick, the only scout to have taken him up on his offer of first aid.

“But why? I mean, I get why they would be afraid of me, leading our attack—”

“Oh, shut it.” Parker shoved him, and he smiled. “There’s no way they panicked because five people got close to their camp.”

“We were pretty fast, but there were also the other two? Ryan, and that Jason guy said the Kobolds sent an entire Prowler wave after them. Ryan led them away?”

“Mm. But the entire camp panicked because they made one resource management mistake?”

Silas hesitated. “ … And you didn’t even see the Summoner?”

“No.”

Ryan dallied near a pillar in case he needed to lean on it. He felt like he was going to throw up. Even though he knew he wouldn’t, some part of him wished he would, just to get it all out.

Paranoia clawed its way past of the mound of filth inside him, up into the skin of his throat, and he risked a glance even while he feared a glance would be all it took for them to catch on.

They were staring at the group, though. Nick? There was no concern in their expressions and Micah had finished treating the guy. Behind them, then … Lisa.

In one of the ‘windows’ of the gallery, Jason spotted their impromptu gathering and headed their way.

Bluth and Adrian were near the loot hoard, already beginning to catalog things as they insisted on keeping to schedule, but she shot them a glance.

Jean scried in his bowl near them, distracted.

“Anything?” Nick asked.

“Nope. The area right around the camp looks clear, but we were thinking we should move on to stage two of that plan of— yours.” Parker turned to Ryan when he got there, though it wasn’t his plan alone. He had just done most of the talking. “We want to root out the runaways and start disabling traps, though we suspect we’ll have to do the brunt of that on our own.”

He didn’t look happy about that, but they hadn’t expected much, either. Of course, they would have to chase after some Kobolds. At least this time, they had secured the loot beforehand.

Ryan glanced back and was surprised to see Lea headed their way. She was leaving the loot unsupervised?

“And the Summoner?” Micah asked.

Ryan froze and stared at Bluth as she walked up, acting like he wasn’t listening at all. Of course, Micah would ask.

“Max is looking, but we don’t want to send him out too far on his own, especially once his witchfire wreath wears out. We chased them pretty far ourselves.”

“Do you think it knew—” Micah started.

Lisa spoke up, interrupting him, “Yeah, I was thinking about it and maybe, I killed the Summoner …?” She said it loud enough the others immediately looked at her, but her voice sounded somehow off. Too innocent. Almost blatantly so, and Ryan slowly turned. What was she doing?

“I don’t know, it was pretty chaotic and I was throwing [Fireballs] around. One of them or any of my summons could have killed it without me knowing right away.”

No. Why? She had to know, didn’t she? She’d seen him through her summon, hadn’t she?

“Did you see it?” Parker asked.

“No, no,” she rushed to say and stuffed a strand of hair underneath her helmet, “I never even saw it, but I was thinking if we can’t find it, that must have been what happened.”

“Mm.”

“Or if we find its crystal …?” Micah piped up, and Lisa nodded. “Then we would know for sure.”

“That would have been my suggestion,” Bluth joined them when she got there.

“How would you know it’s the right crystal?”

In near unison, all three replied with variations on, “We’d know.” Micah smiled at the coincidence, but nobody joined in.

While Parker considered, Lisa looked at him, nothing in her expression except a blank, all-encompassing question mark.

Ryan nearly jumped. He shuffled back to hide it and scraped some mud off his boot against the pillar, his heart pounding. She knew. And she had lied?

Say something.

Silas nudged Parker. “So they panicked on their own and we killed the Summoner before it could wrangle them?”

He considered for a second and said, “Maybe,” without a single note of conviction in his voice. “Anyway, you said you could help root out the Kobolds with your summons? You mentioned that one Skill, that lets you attach miniature explosions to them. ‘Think you could lend us a hand?”

“Oh, yeah. [Fire Charge]. I could, but it’s comparatively expensive. I’ll do it with a few and have you, or my other summons, lead them to any hard-to-reach cracks if that works for you.”

“Yeah, that works.” He shot his ally a look that said it all: they thought Lisa had sent a summon ahead to take the Summoner out on her own, to steal the kill, not him, and sent the camp into a panic.

Say something.

Rocks tumbled as Jason stumbled off the wall toward them. Then they were nine, almost all of them.

Silas gave the guy a nod in acknowledgment, and Parker said, “Alright, we’ll hurry up and split up into groups, then—”

“Uhm,” Micah interrupted, actually raising his hand a little like they were in class. “I wanted to take two minutes to make sure Kyle was alright …? And also like, treat the rest of the wounded.”

He glanced at him again, then eyed the scouts who had their fair share of scrapes.

Ryan was in pieces. They probably thought it was because he had fended off an entire Prowler assault alone, or found his own way into the camp. He had to clear that up but … he was confused. They thought Lisa had screwed them over but they weren’t pressing the issue?

Say something. Come clean anyway, because it’s the right thing to do.

“We’re fine.”

“But thanks,” Silas quickly added, staying amicable even as he said, “and you don’t need everyone to check up on Kyle, right?”

“Yeah, but—”

And as the conversation moved on, Ryan didn’t do anything. He couldn’t open his mouth to speak. An anxious energy filled his every muscle. Even if he tried, he had no doubt he would panic as he stuttered his way into an early grave. He couldn’t do that to himself. Not today, never tomorrow.

You fucking coward.

“We need to keep to hurry up,” Parker said. “We made a plan and you said we would stick to it—”

“We’re already off-course,” Micah said. “Nothing ever goes the way you want it to—”

Parker snorted at the younger guy trying to spout wisdoms at him. “So that makes it fine to break more promises?”

“We didn’t—”

“You promised you would do this with us. We had an agreement.”

“Yeah, I meant—” he tried to get a word in.

Parker just raised his voice again, “Look, kid. If you want to take a nap or talk about your feelings, you can do that later, but we have a job to do right now, and—”

“Dammit, Parker!” Ryan roared at him. Micah hadn’t even glanced his way, but he couldn’t stand still while his own mind tore him apart. He pointed at Kyle and his voice shook for all the wrong reasons as he pushed through it, “One of our own nearly lost an arm. Can we get five fucking minutes to make sure he’s safe before we run headlong into even more traps?”

The scout stepped back and raised a hand, saying, “Jeez, man. Relax, I didn’t—” Silas elbowed him, hard, and he switched tracks. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to step on any toes. I’m just impatient. I don’t want to miss anything.”

“Neither do we?” He took a deep breath to settle his voice. In the corner of his eye, Micah shot him a grateful glance, but the others looked almost concerned. Kyle being the exception. He leaned on the fence away from the others and glared like he was plotting murder.

Which he might actually be doing, Ryan realized, plotting murder to keep his secret. It sounded strange, but they had no idea who the guy even was. They didn’t know anything about him, his family, his circumstances, or even … his Class?

Because he doesn’t have one. That was why he had never shared it? If he was from the North—what, was he a spy, or some kind of criminal that fled south?

He doubted the first idea, but the latter seemed likely. A petty thief. Depending on his answers, they would have to figure something out for him, whether it be tying him up for the night, or sending him out with an escort to Ms. Denner to tell her what they had seen on his hand.

Or maybe even bringing him to the guards?

He almost stumbled on the anger he felt there, like touching a hot pan, and shoved the thought aside to finish what he’d been saying, “There won’t be a lot of Kobolds anyway. It looks like you guys made sure of that. And all the fallen crystals won’t go anywhere on their own.”

Parker huffed and glanced away, jumping on the chance to switch topics. “It’s going to be a hassle and a half, collecting all of those.”

“I can help?” Lisa offered. “I can send my summons out from here—actually, that would be better. I have Skills that help me regenerate mana near other people. Once we root out the Kobolds, my summons could help you look for any crystals in the mud and show the way.”

He hummed, apparently unsure how to treat her while he harbored his suspicions.

“Wait, you can collect mana …” Micah mumbled in a somewhat sore voice, like he was coming on with something, but broke into a smile, “Ah! You’re like Ryan.”

“Huh?”

He frowned, too.

“With his [Strength in Numbers]? He draws strength from allies, you draw magic from them.”

“Uhm. Yes?”

Sure? He supposed.

Parker rolled his eyes. It wasn’t quite annoyance or condescension but … definitely dismissive. It was an easy trap to fall into when interacting with someone two years younger than everyone around them. He’d seen many of their classmates do the same without meaning to. Himself, even.

Ryan could have said something but honestly, he just wanted to move this along. He gave Parker a look and said, for both their benefits, “Can we catch up, then? Or maybe you guys can touch base, too. Two minutes.”

“Sure.” He sighed. “Thanks for the good work.”

A stab in the chest.

“You, too.”

As he left, Parker smiled and of course, couldn’t resist the chance to get a conscious dig in, “And maybe get yourself checked out first? It looks like you had a rough time getting here.”

Micah jumped on the suggestion, “Exactly!” He patted the ground where Nick had sat with a fervor like he would drag Ryan there if he didn’t hurry. “Ryan, you should have let me treat you first before you ran off to do the next thing.”

Reluctantly, he sat and let himself be doted on when he didn’t deserve it. He took his armor off before Micah could do that for him, too.

I need to get it together, he told himself. I screwed up enough today. No more.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice that,” Kyle spoke up for the first time once the scouts were out of earshot. “‘Make sure he’s safe,’ because the ‘evil’ half-breed might be a danger. Nice play on words there, Payne, but it’s no wonder a faggot like you is good at dancing around the truth.”

The moment between then and now went missing. Suddenly, Micah was trying to drag him back, and Jason stood between them, pushing at both their chests, and Kyle had his axe. Everyone was yelling something and he couldn’t hear any of it over the roaring in his ears.

He was standing but didn’t remember getting up, and trying to throw himself at the other guy to beat him or strangle him— And he stopped, sagging in surprise with a heaving chest.

The dull thump of Jason’s fist hitting Kyle sounded, and he sent the guy sprawling back against the fence.

“Jason!” Micah said.

He picked himself up and tried to tackle him, but Jason just shoved him back, shouting, “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“The fuck is wrong with you?!”

“You are! You almost got yourself killed acting like a brat just now, and now you’re picking a fight, saying horrible stuff for no goddamn reason. What is wrong with you? Why would you insist on trying to fight a Guardian on your own to the point where it burns your arm off?”

“Why do you think? Why would anyone? To level, you idiot!”

“And you think that’s how you’re going to get it done?”

“What else was I supposed to do?”

“Work with us—”

“I’m a [Rogue]!”

Jason stepped back in surprise. It was just a moment, long enough for Ryan to frown and say, “No, you’re not.”

But his voice was lost when Jason doubled-down and shouted, “Well then say something! Communicate with us, you idiot! Don’t—”

“I did!” he insisted and got into a shouting match with Jason of all people. “I told you to back off, I told you to stop it with the arrows, I tried to—”

“So we’re supposed to drop everything in the moment because you said so? We had a job to do! Tell us beforehand, so we know!”

“As if I could!”

Ryan didn’t get it. Why was he still lying? They had all had seen the tattoo. He was a Northerner. They didn’t get a Class. They didn’t have that privilege.

But when he looked at Kyle, the only thing he wanted to do was punch the guy, and he doubted he could get a word in edgewise, so he turned away. The scouts stood and stared in the distance at the spectacle visible beyond the pillar.

Parker gave him a thumbs-up.

Briefly, he panicked about how much they had heard but even shouting, they hadn’t said anything sensitive.

Except the comment that had started it all. But that had been in an indoor voice and when he looked at the others, they were ignoring him and staring at the two as they went at it.

Just another insult.

He hardly felt any relief.

Micah looked away, then gestured back to the pillar, urging first aid, and Ryan shook his head. He didn’t want him to touch him right now.

It had only been a few moments, but that was a few moments too long when they were supposed to be getting answers.

And it felt wrong to be watching Jason shouting, especially since he hadn’t really lost his composure and was doing a good job of it, tearing Kyle down. Had he learned that from them?

But, Kyle also had his axe. Ryan doubted he would try anything after having gone for the insults first, and Jason wore the raincoat, but he didn’t feel comfortable with him having a weapon. Could they disarm him, maybe?

Shouldn’t have taken my armguards off.

Through grit teeth, he forced out a more diplomatic approach, “Guys!”

Lea seemed to have the same idea, because she stepped in at the same time, louder and with more confidence, “You two need to stop. This is getting us nowhere.”

Jason took the interruption in stride and lifted a hand to gesture at her, “Listen to her—”

“I meant both of you.”

“Even she—and no offense here, Lea— But she told us about her level beforehand so we could adjust. We could have done the same.”

“And how would you have ‘adjusted’ to me? Would you have respected my wishes, the same way we respected yours when you wanted to go all [Adventurer] on that sign?”

“That was different.”

“Yeah,” he laughed, “yeah, it was. You don’t think I know how it goes? I know how people treat each other, whether it be about this shit”—he lifted his hand—”or the stigma [Rogues] have. It’s all the same!”

“It’s not—”

“But you’re not a [Rogue], though,” Ryan spoke up. It was ridiculous to play along with this. “Stop lying. You’re nothing.”

“I am,” he growled and opened his mouth to add something else, but shut up when Lisa spoke.

“He is.”

“What?”

How did that work?

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a [Rogue] or not,” Jason said, “it doesn’t matter if we would have given you a hard time, it doesn’t even matter what’s on your hand; what matters is that you didn’t tell us, you didn’t give us a choice. You assumed and went off on your own.”

Kyle laughed. “What, do you think this is the first time I’ve done this? Are you really that stupid? Like I said, I know what people are like. How the fuck do you think I ended up here? Look at where I am!”

That meant nothing when they didn’t know where he had come from. Probably some gutter, come to think of it, in which case this was a definitive step up.

“Kyle,” Micah spoke, and his gentler voice cut through the noise for a moment, “if you had told us you were a [Rogue], we would have accommodated you. You didn’t have to try to become team leader to get your way.”

Ryan rounded on him, remembering what Kyle had said. That was the real reason for his antics?

“Oh, yeah? We adjusted to your needs as an [Alchemist].” He nodded at Jason. “Why didn’t you ‘accommodate’ his?”

Micah frowned. “We kind of did?”

“Bare minimum, and this camp was a stroke of luck.”

Micah opened his mouth and closed it. He glanced at Ryan again but from the look on his face, it was still about his wounds, not this argument. He was pulling back.

Ryan crouched to remove his leg guards without taking his eyes off him. If Micah trusted Jason to handle this, so could he. Besides, he had enough reach with his spear to stab him from afar.

“You’re not being fair,” the guy said, “you’re lashing out instead of giving us a chance, just like you aren’t listening to our arguments.”

“Arguments? There’s nothing to argue about. You can all go to hell.”

“There is. We have to talk about this.”

“Well then illuminate me, you lunatic. Choir boy. Fanatic,” he spat out insults as if to see what stuck.

Jason scowled. His expression seemed more pained when he glanced at Lea. “As I was trying to say, don’t you think Lea was embarrassed by her level? Telling us about how her friends reacted, knowing full well we could do the same?”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

She shifted, clearly uncomfortable about being used as an example. It was a shitty thing to do.

“I’m not embarrassed,” Kyle hissed.

“But she did it anyway! She was honest. And honestly, she was right from the start. I told her she would get used to the way we ‘communicate,’ but none of us should have to.”

And just like that, he turned his back on Kyle and addressed the rest of them. Kyle seemed just as surprised as Ryan was.

“We should be able to talk, but we’re all so driven, we push it aside. Look at us. Do any of you think we’re going to get a good grade for this mess? Because I don’t. Micah basically hounded us through the traps to get here quicker, some of them deadly, and ran off on his own—”

“Not on purpose.”

He paused and gave him a look, the chance to defend himself even while he had condemned Kyle for doing the same.

“I stepped on a net trap.”

He frowned. “Why would you do that?”

“I didn’t— It was dark. I was in a hurry to get here faster, to get to—” He glanced at Ryan and stopped. “Nevermind, go on.”

To get to me. Ryan had heard him calling his name. Not loud enough to carry, as if he feared the others would hear him, but often enough to be a shot in the dark.

Why was he so obsessed with him anyway?

But wouldn’t and couldn’t linger on that. Jason turned to the next person. Him. “Ryan ran off on his own again. For what, the third time this exam? God knows why. He just tried to start a fight with Kyle again. And you two are covered in blood from wounds I hope you’ve treated already?”

Unlike the others, he kept his mouth shut and undid his bootlaces. Micah took his helmet off for him. He barely noticed the fresh air as he tried to ignore his fingers against his skin.

“And when he gave me the slightest excuse, I abandoned him and ran off on my own because I desperately wanted to be part of the excitement, and now those wounds are on me.”

“No, they aren’t,” Ryan grumbled.

“Lisa tried to fight the giant slime on her own—”

“You mean I defeated the giant slime on my own.”

“That’s not the point.”

“It should be.”

“And Lea did the right thing in trying to help her, and so Lisa threw her away to help the others. And it didn’t matter anyway because Kyle acted like a brat and got his arm burnt off!”

He finally turned back to the criminal who had been standing behind him with an axe the entire time.

“In what should have been a sure fight. This isn’t just about you Kyle. We’re all fuck ups. We’re all at an eleven out of ten and it’s hurting us. Obviously, it is if we’re all running off on our own to chase what we want.”

“Assuming we even know what we want,” Lea mumbled, interrupting the flow of his impromptu monologue.

Ryan grunted in agreement, earning him a surprised look from Micah. He wondered how much Jason had been thinking about this, if he could put it into words this clearly, and if this really was an embarrassing moment where he got to act out a daydream. They would all realize it later and cringe at the memory, or laugh at him.

Or maybe he was just good at speaking from the heart. He wondered what that felt like.

“Yeah,” the guy seemed to agree with her, “assuming we know. But can’t we bring it down to a nine anyway? Slow down, communicate?”

“No issue here,” Lea said.

“Micah?”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay …”

Jason sighed and apparently, this was going to be a thing because he went around the group. “Ryan?”

“Sure. Whatever.”

“Lisa?”

“Huh? Oh, sorry, I’m still kind of stuck on the slime, and some other stuff, and the, you know, Kyle having a … tattoo thing. Where do you come from, again?” She turned to him.

“Lisa,” Jason interrupted her. “Focus.”

“What?”

“Agree to bring it down to a nine? And communicate.”

“Yeah, sure,” she said in a tone much like Parker’s earlier, and then muttered a more subdued, “Yes.”

He turned back to Kyle. “See?”

“Fuck you,” Kyle said. “See what? This has nothing to do with me. I don’t owe any of you anything, least of all you. What have you done except act as a glorified compass?”

“It would be nice to know why your hand is glowing?”

“Yeah. That’s all you ever care about, what you’re all afraid of.”

“I don’t, I’m not—”

“I do!” Micah spoke up and again, his tone was enough to cut through the tension. He dropped what he was doing and brimmed with a sudden energy, “I have so many questions. Like, why does it glow, and why does it look that way, and where does that kind of magic come from, and what’s that essence inside you? I’ve never seen it before.” His voice cracked from a sore throat. “And like, how good is your regeneration? Because we were told in class that some people with [Lesser Regeneration] have to be careful if they get the Skill early since it can heal wounds the wrong way like a middle-grade healing potion might, and uhm, that was a pretty bad burn wound—”

“I have Skills,” Kyle said.

“Oh?” Micah had hesitated at the mention of the burns but lit up again and scooted closer, further away from Ryan. A few months ago, he wouldn’t have gone anywhere near Kyle after those wounds.

“Which Skills? And like, I read that there are different tattoos with different strengths and stuff. Do you know which one’s yours? And uhm, I have to ask but”—he lowered his voice—”you aren’t royalty, are you?”

Wait, what?

Kyle made a face. “What. What? No, I’m … What?”

“He’s not,” Lisa said, and Micah’s face fell, but he hid it behind his own small smile of relief.

Had he actually been hoping Kyle would be a … what? A runaway prince who fled south or something? The idea was so jarring, in so many different ways, looking at the piece of shit that was Kyle. Especially considering what Ryan thought of princes and knights.

“Though he probably is distantly related to them. Most people with that kind of ‘tattoo’ are,” she said, and Micah’s hopes visibly rose before she crushed them again, “You know, a hundredth cousins or so.”

“Oh.”

Kyle had lost his composure a little, guessing by the way he shifted on his feet, but tried to regain it as he said, “What would you even know about this stuff?”

Lisa shrugged.

“Lisa knows a lot,” Micah said, beaming with trust. “But we would know more if you told us about it …?”

He hesitated, clearly lost in the sudden tone shift, and frowned like he was going to insult them again.

“Or yourself,” Jason added, nudging him away from that. “You’re part of this team, even if you are a [Rogue] and have to … work alone sometimes? It’s not like you’re a [Hermit]. We want to know you.”

“Yeah, I’ve only met one of them and he sucked. So uhm, can I see?” Micah nodded at his hand. He must have been holding the question in for a while, because it came out of nowhere.

Kyle scowled and hid it behind his leg. “I’m not about to whip it out where the scouts can see.”

He patted the ground on his other side, hidden behind the pillar, and Ryan tried to give him a look but the guy wasn’t paying attention to him.

Kyle hesitated, and the others gave him the time he needed to work through it. Ryan didn’t get why they cared so much anyway. They should have been demanding answers. He busied himself with cleaning his wounds, trying not to wince like a wimp, so he wouldn’t say something and ruin this for them. He still couldn’t help but scowl at the entire situation. It was stupid.

When he finally did speak, Kyle said, “Let me make one thing clear: I’m an Ostfeld citizen, born and raised in Redwood to the south. I’ve never stepped beyond the border and I never intend to. This is my home.”

“Yeah, duh,” Micah said. “How else would you be here?”

“He could be lying,” Ryan grumbled. “He’s lied all this time. Why would we believe him now?”

“He didn’t lie,” Micah said, “he just … didn’t mention the truth. Besides, Ms. Denner has to know about this. I don’t think she misses anything about us.”

“She doesn’t,” Kyle agreed.

“She doesn’t?”

“Of course, she misses things,” Lisa said.

“No, but she has this like, uhm, Skill that enhances her senses a lot like me, to sense emotions and stuff?”

“Emotions you carry. And it doesn’t make her omniscient?”

Wait, their principal could sense emotions?

Lea spoke up, “I doubt Kyle could have snuck his way into our school, for various reasons.”

“With the way they were scrambling for replacements after the changes?” Lisa said to her.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jason cut between them. “Kyle was saying?”

He gave him a look of what might have been gratitude. “She knows about me. It was her idea to invite me in the first place. She thinks I have ‘potential’, and the Registry wants to study bloodline abilities and how they might interact with Skills, mine or in general since the nobles can be pretty uptight about that sort of thing … probably hopes I’ll feel indebted to her too …”

He sighed and glanced at the scouts, who were presumably still watching this all and making up their own minds about the dysfunctional group they were stuck with.

“I didn’t even know you could have both,” Lea mumbled. Silently, Ryan agreed with her.

“You know how there are people with levels in the North?” Kyle asked. “Well, I’m the opposite case. I inherited it from my Grandma, and who knows where she got it from. One of my great-grandparents probably slept with the wrong person like an idiot and now, I’m stuck with this.”

He flopped his arm.

“I don’t know,” Micah said, “it saved your arm. It’s like a free healing potion, so that’s cool, right?”

Kyle scowled at him, but Micah just patted the spot again. When he actually started walking over, Ryan began to gather his things and move away. Kyle saw and smirked, so he dropped everything and stayed.

Easier to reach over and throttle him if he had to.

He eyed his axe Kyle leaned against the pillar and tried to sneak Lea a glance where she stood closest to it, after they crowded together. He got the feeling they were on a similar page.

“So you’re from Ostfeld?” Jason asked.

“Near Ostfeld. Redwood, it’s mostly a lumber town since we can’t get wood, or much of anything really, out of our Tower like you do. We rely much less on it.”

“My parents would love that.”

“Mine didn’t care. My dad was a woodcutter. It seemed like every other adult I knew was one and … I’m one, too.”

He smiled. “I knew it.”

“So what?” Jason asked. “Principal Denner heard about a young [Woodcutter] with a northern mark in Ostfeld and sent a letter because she thought you would be a perfect fit for her school in Hadica, with our Gardens?”

He chuckled. “Not quite. I was in Anevos when she contacted me, and I sincerely doubt I’m ever going to see the Gardens in our school time, at this rate.”

“How did you end up there?”

He groaned and wrenched the glove off. “That’s the question, isn’t it?” The vibrant color drew the eye to a pale hand littered with scars. His voice was a mumble, “It wasn’t even a real ‘tattoo’ at first.”

Despite his words, it was unmistakably there. It looked like someone had inlaid his hand with glowing, metallic veins that faded to pink along the thinner lines wrapped around the sides. A single, thicker line extended across his palm but … only half of it glowed, with faint flickering dashes outlining where it may have been, like scratches on a crystal surface only visible from a certain angle. Ryan could have sworn the entire line had been glowing earlier.

Micah reached out to get a better look, fascinated. His eyes traced the light like text instead of color, and he tilted his hand as if he could look past the glow inside, copying the guy by tracing them with his thumb.

Kyle shifted.

Ryan frowned. “What?”

“What?” Kyle snapped back at him. “What do you want?”

“Why are you squirming?”

“I’m not—”

Micah noticed and let go. “Oh, does it hurt? Like a wound?” He glanced at Lisa for help.

Again, Kyle had that look of bewilderment after Micah said something without any reasonable context. Why the fuck would it hurt like a wound?

She shook her head.

“I’m not used to people touching the mark, is all.”

Ryan made a disgusted face. “Don’t tell me it’s a fucking ‘private zone’ for you or something.”

“No. Fuck you, Payne, you jealous prick. It’s just weird.” To Micah, he said, “Don’t let him tell you what you can and can’t do, what’s acceptable.”

“He doesn’t …?” he said. But even so, he pointed instead of touching him again. Just like how a few subtle comments had been enough to get him to stop touching him, since he was overly-afraid of annoying or offending the few friends he had now. “It’s just, it looks like a window.”

“That’s exactly what it is,” Lisa told him.

“Why? I mean, why would it do that, and where does it come from, and how does it stockpile essences like that in his hand, and uhm—”

“Later,” Lisa told him. “There are books I can recommend you, but I want to hear him out first. That’s an unusual mark. You said your Skills interacted with it? Did they change it?”

Micah frowned. “Is it not supposed to look like this?”

“No. Not necessarily because of the design itself, there are all kinds out there, but the coloration is unusual. And the essence within are … off, from what I’ve seen in the books I read.”

Kyle frowned but did nod. “It was just a faint pink slash at first, in my palm. It looked like a stretch line, a scar, or something else, like some people with darker skin tones have, but … with a slight sheen, you know? You wouldn’t have noticed during the day, only in the dark, and even then, it could barely heal a few scratches before it lost its glow. It needed to regain its strength.”

That explained why only half of it was glowing now and seemed to be dwindling. So it was like a font of health for him? A refilling potion in his hand?

Which meant it could run out.

“It was easy to hide, most of my life. Of course, there were rumors, but that was kids being mean and people told them off, defended me. My teachers, friends, Mrs— the woman who wrangled us kids for the festivals, some of my dad’s friends …”

He trailed off. For someone who had complained about not owing them anything, he had changed his mind surprisingly quickly.

Ryan almost wanted to insult him again to make him change back. But the others had crowded close and were listening, aside from Lea who stood off to the side and kept an eye out for the scouts. He should have joined her.

“And then?” Lisa asked.

“And then I turned twelve,” Kyle mumbled, “and I got my first Skill. [Lesser Regeneration]. And it became this”—he waved his hand—”much harder to hide.”

He should have left for more reasons than one. Now, he couldn’t help but glance at the scars on his hand, reflected by those on Micah’s next to him.

“You obtained the Skill most [Fighters] hope for from level twenty when you were twelve years old?” Lea asked.

He looked at her. “It wasn’t a good thing. They found out. And those who defended me? They were the worst afterward. I think they felt betrayed. I don’t know. But I couldn’t stay. ‘Figured with my Skills, I’d become a climber. I went south and barely worked for two weeks in Anevos before the changes happened, but it didn’t matter because I screwed up keeping the secret. ‘Caused trouble. The guild got word from Ms. Denner she was looking for promising students, and they hoisted me off on her before I could cause more trouble.

That’s why I’m here.”

Assuming he was telling the truth. Ryan didn’t, but the others seemed to be gobbling it up.

Except for Lea, who shifted her stance and asked, “One last thing. I don’t want to be rude or start a fight, but can you prove any of this before we check with Ms. Denner after the exam? Do you have any active Skills you could show us?”

It was a good thing she was here, because Ryan couldn’t have asked that without starting a fight.

He scowled and glanced at Parker before saying, “Not really. I have [Power Strike] but any idiot can act like they have it by clenching their butt and shouting.”

“Hm.”

“Oh, what are those other Skills you mentioned?” Micah asked. “Those that help you heal burn wounds?”

“There were two, both from my Path. They consolidated. [Bill of Health] and [Surge of Regeneration] into [Lifeline] which helps me heal faster if I’m wounded badly.”

“So the first one made sure your [Lesser Regeneration] healed you right? Is that like [Healthy Body]?”

“I was told it could have consolidated into it, someday? I don’t know. I don’t meditate much, but I can meditate on my body and sort of … feel how everything is working, relative to this.”

Lisa spoke up, “I’ve heard of it, when researching Skills. If [Healthy Body] is like the perfect machine that works and repairs itself without fault, then [Bill of Health] is like having the blueprints lying around to know how it should be working, in comparison to how it works now. Any source of healing could check with the Skill to heal you right. As could other Skills that check up on you, or you yourself apparently, through your Path. It helps with medical appraisals.”

Kyle shook his head. “It’s not perfect. Strong enough potions have their own opinion of how things should work, I’ve been told. It just … remembers the last time I was healthy, I guess.”

“Cool,” Micah drew the word out.

“Definitely,” Jason joined him.

“Not really, and it still isn’t proof,” Ryan grumbled.

“If you want proof,” Lisa said, “how about you light up that axe there, Kyle? Lea can do it after him.”

“My axe …?” His frown turned into a scowl as he caught on. “Sure. It’s not like you’ve seen me do this a dozen times before, assholes.” He gripped the handle. After an embarrassingly long moment, flames lit up around the edges of the head.

Bluth took it after him, but the guy still had a dozen knives and she only inspected it for a moment before handing it back.

So that was it? He lit up the axe, proving he had a bit of mana in him, and they were just supposed to believe him?

But Lea said, “Good enough for now, I suppose. I’m going to check in with the scouts, see what we still need to do.” When Kyle shifted, she even assured him, “Don’t worry. I got my answers, now I want to move on with the exam. I wouldn’t say anything.”

“Really?”

“Ah!” Lisa said. “Shoot, I was supposed to be making summons.” She fished a mana ring out of her pocket and handed it to Jason with her thanks, then began to craft lizards and Teacup Salamanders one by one to send after her.

Lea headed off without an answer. Micah and Jason started bothering Kyle about his Skills and apparently, he had a [Bloodline Path], because that wasn’t suspicious at all.

They were just taking it in stride.

Not that the tattoo was the problem, really, or that Ryan knew what it was. He just hated Kyle and hated how much they doted on him when he sucked, but how else were they supposed to react? This was what they did, Lisa and Micah. They were kind and good, and he …

What, did he want them to pay attention to him? Definitely not. He just wished he had said something earlier. He wished he could apologize to Lisa now but didn’t know how.

He needed to hit something. Maybe if he insulted Kyle, could he get him to throw the first punch?

One look at them thanking Kyle for telling them, and not running off on his own earlier, and them giving him a hard time in general was all it took for him to know he couldn’t interrupt that.

It was like his own embarrassing daydream, distorted and playing out for someone else.

“[Woodcutter] and [Rogue]. Is that why you wanted to find the Fields? Oh, maybe we can find some awesome Treant for you to fight tomorrow?”

Kyle shrugged. “I’m also a [Fighter], but I want to consolidate it. I’m not sure into what.”

“Whatever it is, we can help.”

“You guys sound surprisingly supportive about this,” Lisa said. She sounded pleased, but there was a hesitation there. “So are you fine, with him?”

“Sure,” Micah said, “why wouldn’t we be? He was just unlucky.”

Jason nodded along at first but frowned. “Unlucky?”

“Yeah, It’s not his fault he has Northern blood in him. As bad as it is, at least the mark is useful and interesting to look at. Uhm, can I study it some more later?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Oh. Maybe means no, doesn’t it?”

“Maybe.”

“Why would it be bad at all?” Jason asked.

“Huh? Oh, no, I meant like, not the mark itself, but because of it, you know he has some Northern blood in him and that’s bad.”

“Why?” Lisa asked.

Ryan frowned and looked over. Why were the two of them getting so inquisitive about this?

“Because … the North is bad? They attack us all the time, invaded twice to try and take our Towers from us, once while we were still in ruins from a revolution and they saw a chance, and they kidnapped people for levels.”

“‘They’,” Lisa said.

“Yeah! They, not Kyle. It’s good to know he isn’t one of them, that he got the tattoo from his Grandma instead of having mixed parents or something, so we know for sure where his allegiances lie. Actually, turning things around and stealing their magic is a good thing.” He shot him a smile. “You could start a noble house someday.”

Kyle scowled. “Why would I want that?”

“Because, uhm,” Micah floundered, “I don’t know. You could.”

There was a reason Ryan tried to stay away from discussions like this. He could see the unspoken words building up in Jason and Lisa’s expressions.

“Micah, you keep on saying ‘they’ or ‘the North’,” she said, “do you even know which nations the Tower city-states fought with?”

“Uhm, all of them? I mean, we didn’t fight-fight with all of them, but some supported the others and stuff …”

“And their names?”

“What does it even matter?” Kyle asked. “I don’t care about them, and I already told you I don’t plan on ever crossing the border.”

She shook her head. “This isn’t about you. I’ll get to it in a minute. Micah, or any of you, how many nations do you think are in the ‘North’?”

“Seven?” Micah asked. “Or was it six … I’m sorry, I don’t know. I know I’m still behind and—”

“No,” Ryan assured him, “we barely study this in classroom. It’s more a second-year thing, as far as I know.” She shouldn’t expect him to know the answer.

“It’s seven,” Jason said.

“Try sixteen.”

Now, Ryan frowned. “That’s not right, Lisa. We had to study a little and there are only seven nations in the region we normally refer to as ‘the North’. I’ve seen maps.”

“Yeah, because the nations inside the Mother’s Forest and the ones on the northern end of the continent toward the sea aren’t counted, but even seven is still a lot of people you put under one roof. Now guess how many of them fought you.”

“Six,” Jason said. “The second time around. That was probably the six Micah thought of earlier. Only one abstained. Four fought directly, two indirectly. The first time, it was three, one of which was the one that later abstained. So it’s right to say that all of them have fought us at one time or another.

"But that is also what I would have said: one of them fought us the first time around and objected in the second war, for which they got in trouble, politically. Things can change. They’ve been tentatively reaching out, I think? So maybe if we cooperate or trade with them someday, we should be careful about blanketly calling them evil. Some could be our allies, someday.”

“Please. You assume we want anything to do with them,” Kyle said. “What could they have to offer? The only thing we want is for them to leave us alone.”

Micah nodded.

“I was trying to say that it shouldn’t be ‘blanketly,’” Lisa said, “because one of the six nations the second time around was forced to participate. The north-western region is mostly flatland, farmers, and shepherds. They have like, four cities and the rest is hut villages. They were forcibly enlisted to bulk the other nations’ numbers. And when you don’t even know the context or the names of the nations you’re talking about …”

“I know, I know,” Micah said, “and I’ll learn them all someday, but I’m still catching up on so much else and like, when I say ‘North’ it’s just … shorthand for the bad guys, I guess. For now.”

“It doesn’t really matter,” Ryan said. He had the sneaking suspicion this was just Lisa being pedantic again, and he could see she wanted to say something, argue the point, but guessing by her hesitation, she didn’t have a neat and tidy argument prepared. Better to end this sooner, before either side dug too deep a hole in a pointless discussion where nobody was prepared. They could save that for the bars and classrooms.

“As much as I hate to agree with Payne,” Kyle said, “he’s right. I don’t know how to stress this enough: I don’t care about them.”

He said that but had a [Bloodline Path]? Ryan would have said something, but he wanted them to drop it.

“Now, if you’re done with your interrogation,” Kyle said, “can I get back to work, or is there anything else?”

Lisa shook her head with an almost dejected expression. “And you, Ryan? You never answered my question if you were fine with him.”

Shit.

He hesitated, but all eyes turned on him, even Kyle with a hint of a smile, and he couldn’t stand lying to them any more than he already had.

“I don’t really care,” he admitted. “I wouldn’t even care if there was a whole family of nobles with marks like his running around, like Micah said. But … I still hate his guts. Him. And that has nothing to do with the shit on his hand, and everything to do with the shit he does.”

Kyle huffed out a laugh, a single note, and shifted to stand as he scoffed, “Likewise, faggot.”

Micah pushed Ryan back when he leaned forward and swatted Kyle’s head. “Stop being mean. Can we add that to Jason’s rule? Nine, and we don’t insult each other for the rest of the exam.”

Ryan glared, an inch away from breaking the guy’s nose. His chest heaved, urging him to move.

Kyle rubbed the back of his head with a scowl and got up, mumbling, “Whatever. I’m out of here.”

“Ah—!” Micah started.

“To work, not to leave.”

“Ah.” He smiled.

Before he left, Ryan noticed his glove and said, “You better not go anywhere. You still need to give my glove back, you degenerate trash.”

Kyle flipped him off.

“Flipping someone off still counts as an insult!” Micah called after him.

Ryan sighed and let his head fall back. After wearing a helmet all morning, his hair was compressed and disgusting. His entire body hurt from cramps, bruises, sores, and flesh that felt stitched from healing.

Patchwork fighter, it reminded him. He hadn’t managed to bring the disparate pieces together after all, even without the rain jacket. What a complete failure today had been.

After a moment of silence, Micah poked him. “Nine, remember? You agreed. And you can’t break promises …”

“What?”

“Part of the promise was to communicate, but you look like you’re running off on your own again, just sitting there. Are you … okay, Ryan? You gave Jason your rain jacket.”

He hesitated, but he had known this would come eventually. “So?”

“So, you made a promise to your dad, to your parents.”

“Fuck them.”

He wasn’t looking. Even so, Micah reacted as if he had physically slapped him. “What? Why would yo— Ryan!”

“They abandoned me here, the moment I was old enough to fend on my own, to start a new life with the child they actually wanted. So yeah, fuck them; them and their stupid new life out there.”

Micah stared, and Ryan didn’t look at him but didn’t want to look away either, so he stared stubbornly ahead while his heart pounded.

“Ryan, you know that isn’t true,” Micah said, “Yes, they … left you here, but they love you.”

“Oh, yeah? And how would you know? You don’t know anything. You don’t—”

Lisa pushed past Micah and reached out. For a moment, Ryan didn’t know what was happening until he felt her helmet bump past his burning ear and her hands wrapped around his waist.

It was the last thing he deserved, after the way he had acted, but he still hugged her back and buried his face in her shoulder. Something cracked in his chest, a pain so similar to the feeling he’d felt walking up here, but so much better.

When he breathed, he mumbled, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright,” she said. “I love my family, too.”

He did. He loved them so much. But sometimes, he wished he wouldn’t because it would make things so much easier.

Lisa hugged him just long enough so it wouldn’t be awkward before she pulled away. She checked him up and down and said, “You look exhausted. You’re burning up. Can you try pushing your Skill down?”

“I am trying.”

Behind her, Micah packed his supplies with his eyes to the ground, avoiding looking at them. Giving them space.

“If you’re trying and it still doesn’t work, that’s not good. How about you take a break while we—”

“No.” He tried to push himself up but didn’t have the right leverage with Lisa leaning on him. “I have work to do.”

“It’s okay to take a break,” Jason said in the same tone as he’d used with Kyle, “‘nine’ remember?”

Fuck ‘nine’, Ryan thought. That was such a stupid concept. But he couldn’t say it out loud without upsetting them more so he admitted, “I’ll feel worse if I do nothing.”

“Then something light? You could help Bluth with the cataloging—”

He already began to shake his head.

“—or patrol the gallery, where we can see you? You could listen in and see if you can catch any Kobolds trying to sneak back.”

“That.”

Lisa summoned another lizard and it darted across his shoulders, glanced at him with its tongue out, and jumped off onto the pillar to run away. While he was distracted, she drew away.

“Is it alright then if I hang onto the raincoat for a little while longer?” Jason asked.

“Please.”

“Thank you.”

Micah hefted his backpack up, a few loot sacks tied to the sides and bottom. He had more in one hand, and a glass jar with a hole shattered in the bottom for some reason in the other.

“I’m going to ask the scouts where they need me,” he announced. “I still have this to help with rooting Kobolds out of their tunnels”—he shook the jar a little—”and I can help with finding traps and stuff.”

“I’ll come,” Jason said. “We can catch up later?”

“Sure,” Lisa told him. “Later, then.”

Micah hesitated, but Jason put a hand on his shoulders and led him away. When he left, Ryan let out a sigh of relief and slowly started putting his armor back on.

“I am sorry,” he mumbled at his shoes. He changed his mind and looked her in the eye. “Really, Lisa. Thank you for covering for me, and I’m sorry.”

“I think I understand. I did the exact same thing today, and a year ago, and two years ago …”

“So it never gets better?”

“I think,” she said and mulled it over, “I don’t know actually know. I think I want to go home over the summer. I miss my family. Maybe I can give you my answer then?”

“Oh.”

He opened his mouth, hesitated, and closed it again. Would it have been weird to ask her if he could come along? He had other plans anyway. Instead, he asked, “Can you tell me about them, sometime?”

“Sometime, sure. Maybe later, tonight. For now, we have work to do.”

He smiled. That they did.