Tanin tightened his lips.

"Is Hei dead?" he asked me.

The petals of the Seekflower bunched together, unmistakably shut. A sign that Hei could not be found. I had asked the Seekflower, looking for an answer to ease my aching doubt. But it only confirmed my fears in the worst ways.

"He's…he's…" I fumbled for words, for thought. It felt like my mind had blacked out.

I knew Saber had once comforted me somehow, telling me things that had given me hope, even convincing me Hei might be still out there. But as I felt myself sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss, those words became like a distant dream, one I could no longer remember or grasp.

"What use is there, scaring yourself like that?" said Roger, Tanin's bearded teammate, with a raspy, flat voice. "If you don't know anything, you don't know."

"No, YOU don't know anything!" I shouted back, scarcely keeping my anger and grief in check. "You don't know me. You don't know him. How many times, tell me, have you seen your closest friend sacrifice themself, to protect you? Just shut up!"

Tanin put a hand to his waist and made a soft "tch" sound.

"You're still here," he said to me. "So at least Hei did manage to protect you."

Roger folded his arms and stepped away with a dismissive scowl. As if he were so hardened and above it all.

"Who knows," Tanin said. "Maybe Hei's in Gold still. Or Platinum. Or he's made it back home, waiting for you. At the end of the day, in his eyes, your life was worth saving. What will you do with the life you've kept?"

"I'll find him," I spat. "I'll find him, wherever he is."

"That's all?"

"I'll find Jack and Atlas too."

Tanin tilted his head. "To bring the party back together?"

"It's my own business," I huffed. "Not meaning to be rude."

"No offense taken."

I evened my breathing. Recollecting my wits and my emotions, I turned once again to the Seekflower.

"Where's Atlas?"

The Seekflower turned to point down the street.

So Mr Atlas was still alive, and he was here. I had no idea the flower was pointing East, West, North, or South, and I had no idea how far away he'd be. But I knew now, I had a chance to see him again.

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

"Where's Jack?" I continued.

The seekflower turned about sixty degrees clockwise.

"Looks like they're in the direction of the Bounty Hall,' James said. "Though I doubt we'd come across them on the way back."

"How far is your place?" I asked.

"A five day's trip, if you know where you're going. About eighty miles give or take. But without the Seekflower, you're gonna get lost, and that'll easily turn into a two week journey."

"How much are you willing to sell it for?" I asked.

"This flower?"

I nodded.

James chuckled. "This is a treasure of the Bounty Hall; I'm just borrowing. If I don't get it back, we'll both end up with bounties on our heads."

"Bounty Hall is a hard-ass place, huh."

"You think? We kill people, throw men in cages for pay. Some of us swear we're good guys, just trying to dish out justice, or whatever they say. But c'mon, let's be real here."

"Can I go to the Bounty Hall with you?" I asked.

"That's gonna be two hundred dollars," James said. "Upfront."

"Deal."

"Darn. Should've named a higher price."

I scoffed. "Too late."

Traveling alongside them had two advantages. First, I'd be able to find the Bounty Hall, which sounded like one of the more important locations in Gold. Second, I could query the Seekflower everyday on our journey, to triangulate both Atlas and Jack. Right now I only knew their direction relative to ours, but by querying the flower from multiple locations along the way, I'd be able to work out their exact locations, just like a mapmaker would. The trigonometry and calculations would get wonky, but I had my own laptop now, so ideally I'd just have to plug my measurements in and let Excel handle the sines and cosines and tangents. Or something.

Tanin's group allowed us eight hours to prepare before setting out.

When I headed back into my house, I found Saber sitting upright on the couch in the living room.

"Hey Saber," I said. "You came down."

"I heard you shouting," she said.

"It's Tanin's friends. They're here to pick him up, get him into another guild or something. I'm thinking of tagging along."

"They're strangers?"

I sighed. "To us, at least."

Saber gave me a glance that told me she didn't like this idea. And after what just happened when we trusted strangers, I couldn't blame her.

"They have a Seekflower," I explained. "We'll be able to find Jack and Mr. Atlas."

Saber rose to her feet. She looked at my house. The shelter and supplies we'd be leaving behind.

"Let me go back to my house first," she said.

"We have a couple hours."

We went about, collecting and managing our supplies. In the end we packed four suitcases full between the two of us, of food and water and clothes. And we brought our tents, kitchenware, bedstuff, and various other things. Most of our supplies had already been gathered for the PvP Challenge, and our things had returned to our house when the match was over. So finding everything to bring wasn't much trouble. And of course I brought my laptop and charger.

Soon it was time for us to go.

With softly gritted teeth, I went into my house one last time, checked that I had everything with me, then exited the front door and locked it.

The others stood waiting in my driveway.

“All set?” Saber asked.

I slid my house keys into my inner pocket. I nodded.

With that, we set off, leaving the neighborhood behind.