Walking through the gateway was as jarring as ever. This time, I decided to catch a glimpse of the tunnel between worlds, and it was just as surreal as it had always been.

When I opened my eyes during the transition, there were hundreds of thousands of similar mirror pairings floating all around me. It seemed like I was staring at a world of fractals, the whole place folding in and mirroring itself, yet whenever you turned to look it was normal.

The dozens of glassy panes all seemed to stare at me, unsettling me, like a thousand distant eyes staring straight into my soul. Except, this time, I felt the glass underneath my skin shift. Well, there was no skin in this realm, since I didn’t exactly have a physical body, but the glass was still there.

Fio from Nemahan was locked in the mirror behind me, Fio from Eden in front of me. The two bodies themselves were almost identical, but Eden-Fio had a much more pronounced core, as well as far better Qi circulation aperture. It was mainly the suppression on the other side that made that difference.

Yet, despite me being in neither of those bodies, I felt the glass shift beneath my skin. It reflected the hungry gazes all around me, turning back onto themselves, until I felt alone. I didn’t know which was better. Stared at by many thousand pairs of hungry eyes, or completely alone in a world of equally as many mirror pairings, infinitely twisting in on themselves.

I didn’t think the thought to conclusion, before my scarce moments in between worlds ended. Landing in the body of Eden-Fio was always quite the experience, and I stumbled out from the gateway gasping for air, stabilizing myself with a hand on the wall.

Taking some more time, I waited until I felt more comfortable. It only took a minute or two, but by the end, the discongruity faded away. This body felt like fully mine again, my consciousness having properly settled.

Shaking my head, I wondered if I’d ever get used to that.

[No.]

‘Thank you, Cass. Very helpful,’ I snarked right back, and instead of a proper reply, the word in my head just sent me vague fulfilment, like she was very happy with herself.

I decidedly ignored her and instead made my way through the stone hallways. It was a saturday, so everything was empty. Most people liked to spend their weekends back on the other side, where they could spend all the money they made from Eden on fancy drinks and getting hammered with friends.

It was somewhat ironic that for me it was the other way around, but whatever. I had bigger fish to fry than whether or not my habits regarding Eden were weird. Instead of delving further down that line of thought, I began heading for the temple of Lurelia again. The goddess had given me advice once, maybe she could provide some more answers.

Like last time, I got in very easily, though it was with much less fanfare. No wounds to tend to meant I was largely ignored, and since I wasn’t wearing armor, none of the other visitors paid me any attention. I was just a regular worshipper, coming here and kneeling in front of the big statue.

Taking a second to get seated properly, I went over everything I wanted to ask again. About what happened with the keeper I was assigned. What Cass actually was. Whether she’d helped when I was interviewed by all the gatekeepers. And, finally, if she’d be willing to help me in the future.

Yet, before I had the chance to properly voice any of those thoughts, I heard Lurelia speak to me.

‘It is brave of you to seek me again so soon, child. Yet it is also a wise decision. I can tell you seek wisdom, and while I would usually send you to my sister, perhaps my words suffice this time,’ the flowery voice spoke in my head.

‘Thank you for your patience, goddess. I wished to ask-’

‘Yes, yes, it’s quite alright, child. You’ve made yourself heard, loud and clear. You know, it doesn’t matter so much whether you word your thoughts when praying, and much more how much they occupy your mind.”

I felt a bit embarrassed at that. It meant she’d been privy to my entire line of thinking before I actually decided to properly address her.

Once again, I heard her voice before I properly gave the answer. ‘It’s more than fine, child. I have read much more nasty thoughts. Your mind is quite straightforward in comparison, which I appreciate. Now, for your questions. Yes, when you were to be assigned a keeper, I used some authority to keep all other keepers unavailable. Higher rank ones may control more than a single gateway, and quite a few of them would have loved to add you to their collection.’

The thought made me shudder. I certainly could do without being a collection piece.

‘Indeed, that would be quite a waste of your talents. Now, for your little assistant, Cass as you call her, she will be very useful to you, because she has proven her loyalty. The keepers have formed her from your latent memories, think of her as someone who might feel similar to your sibling. You two think similarly because of upbringing, but not the same.’

I nodded.

‘Good. Cass can give you advice herself, it is not my duty to do what she should. Finally, I am willing to help again, but not by much. If I overextend myself, the keepers may turn against me. But you are more than welcome to use your experience for levels here, or at any other temple, despite the regular class boundaries.’

The last part made me frown a bit. I was valuable enough for the keepers to turn against a full fledged goddess if they couldn’t control me? That was a scary thought. But there was still hope.

Clearly, Lurelia wanted to help me. With a little luck, Eden’s other deities agreed. I’d wager they did, since I was offered to level at any of their altars. Usually, that was seen as a privilege only for paladins or higher ranked order members.

I could probably consider myself lucky for their support. Some of the divines were terribly fickle, but it seemed they also agreed on some things. Except… why? Luckily, I had someone to pose the question to right here. I was just starting to actually try asking, when Lurelia already answered.

‘Child, you are not the first person to reclaim a gateway. You will most likely not be the last. The keepers have taken lives for this, and we believe it to be cruel and unnecessary sacrifice,’ she explained calmly.

‘Why do the keepers do it, then?’

‘That is a matter which I cannot speak of. Our pact forbids it, sadly. I have been treading its boundaries for some time now, and I will continue to do so, but this is a mystery you must uncover on your own.’

I could almost hear her smile radiate through the message. Lurelia was a goddess of healing and peace, but that meant she also had an adventurous spirit. Something like a home you could come back to and tell your stories. An enabler of exploration, even. Many of her clerics also travelled to heal people.

There were no more questions I had for the goddess, for now at least. I gave her a quick expression of thanks, and felt something like a warm pat on the shoulder in return when I slowly stood up. A few people had been kneeling next to me, all wrapped up in their own prayer.

Perhaps they were hearing the goddess’s voice, too. I had a light smile on my face as I began walking away from the statue. These kinds of divines, fickle as they were, seemed much more real than whatever religion back on the other side preached. I wondered if there was some divine there, and decided that it didn’t matter. They hadn’t helped the planet, nor my family. I didn’t need to care for it, if there was one.

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Instead, I focused my thoughts on the agent of Lurelia approaching me, a middle-aged woman in white and gold garb. “You have not forgotten your debt, have you, child?”

It brought a smirk to my face. Even in Eden, you couldn’t quite escape your debts. I hoped it wouldn’t be too bad. “I haven’t. Anything I owe will be done. How much is required of me?”

She gave me a polite bow of her head as she spoke. “The goddess seems to favour you. We were told to ask for little, only a moderate contribution to the cause, paid in deeds. The goddess also told us to inform you of a location she would like for you to visit and do good in.”

I felt the mental equivalent of a wink in the distinct corner of my head I now associated with Lurelia, and shook my head at her antics with a smile. She’d found a good way to circumvent the pact she told me about, apparently.

“Where should I go, then?” I asked.

“You must venture into the frontier. Go to castle Arhan, then north from there. You will find a nest of monsters. Do what needs to be done,” the cleric told me, and I had to suppress a sigh. Of course it couldn’t have been eastward, further into civilization.

“I will, thank you,” I told the agent with a somewhat resigned expression. The woman simply nodded and walked away, off to deal with some other duties. Meanwhile, I finally exited the temple, enjoyed the fresh air of Eden, and began descending down into the city proper.

This time, I took it slow, reading through some of my screens during the slow walk. There were just a few things I wanted to take a look at.

[Name: Fiona Bellum

Class: Spearwoman (6) / Gateway (3)

* + Techniques

* - Stats

* - General

* - Strength: Low (Superior)

* - Agility: Medium (Lesser)

* - Endurance: Medium (Basic -> Greater)

* - Resilience: Medium (Inferior -> Basic)

* - Manipulation: Low (Superior)

* - Capacity: Medium (Lesser)

* - Absorption: Low (Superior) -> Medium (Inferior)

* - Qi

* * * - Gold

* - Purity (Intermediate)

* - Realm (Golden Core)

* - Stage (3rd Step)

* - Path (Voyage through the Golden Shores)

* * * + Mirror

* -Disposition

* * - Covenant

* - Familiarity (Kind to the known, distrustful to the new.)

* - Temperament

* - Impatient (Time ticks and you wish to be ahead of it.)

* - Disciplined (Your command over yourself is admirable.)

* - Hardened (You persist through hardships, your mind unbroken.)

* - Iron Will [Replaces Hardened!] (Your tenacity is incredible, even among the outstanding.)

* - Talent

* - Slight Edge (Average is below your standards. Go above, even by a little.)

* - Single-Minded (Your focus is your strength. Once your mind is set, nothing will shake you out of it.)

* - Mirror Mind (You reflect what is around you. Mimicking what you see becomes second nature.)

Current Status: Content]

I looked over my general stats and already grinned. Both endurance and resilience had skipped a rank each, one of the minor realms. Usually, a stat would go from basic to intermediate, then to greater. Same for inferior, then lesser, then basic. But this time, both had advanced two ranks.

It made sense, to be fair. Running on fumes was one of the best ways to train your endurance in Eden, and my resilience was certainly tested given the crawling with broken bones bit. I grimaced at the thought.

My absorption going up was a surprise. Especially since it had crossed the gulf between grades, the major realms, from low to medium, which was notoriously hard to cross. Maybe desperately keeping a cracked core together had somehow improved my general Qi filtration ability? I hoped so. Whatever the case, my absorption was now greater than anyone who still sat at "low", even if they were at the highest end of it.

What had me even more surprised was the fact that my purity didn’t go down. That definitely sounded like my filtration had gotten better. I was sure that it would’ve gone to basic, but it was still sitting at intermediate, unchanged. Must’ve gotten lucky, there, or done something impressive unconsciously.

But what had me most excited was my temperament. Seeing iron will sitting there was nice. Very nice, even. It wasn’t a completely unknown temperament, but saying it was rare would be a kindness. The trait was usually only found among those who’d gone through absolute insane punishment without blinking, and counting myself as “incredible even among the outstanding” was more than welcome.

Overall, I would definitely rather not go through all that again, but it had certainly paid off. My body was tougher, and I felt better than ever, now that I’d fully recovered. Which I was quite glad for, since stats could certainly go down, and there was a limit to how far you should take abuse.

There was a chance that my resilience would’ve gone down after the healing if my muscles had been damaged some more. Luckily, the mirror stuff kept my bones mostly in place and stopped the splinters from grinding through my soft tissue.

Then again, I was still conflicted about that. Sure, the new abilities were nice and all, but was it seriously worth the trouble if I had to somehow get strong enough to stop myself from dying before the gateway was restored?

My train of thought was interrupted when I found myself in front of the door to our guild. The little sign Ann had painted swung in the slight breeze, the words “Dawn of Ambition” on it in white and red. There was some rustic charm to it as I pushed open the door.

No one stood guard, but the hall wasn’t exactly deserted. Liam was draped over the back of a couch like a wrung-out towel or a sunbathing cat. I couldn’t quite decide which applied between the impressive contortion and peaceful expression on his face.

Except for him, though, there was no one in the entry room. The building was sizable, especially for our rather small team, so they could still have been in any of the bedrooms on the second floor. Before I got there, however, our shadow-user stirred, then promptly rolled onto the floor.

There was no loud noise as he impacted, since his body simply faded into the shadow, then reconstituted with him standing. His face was covered again, a black mask stretching over his mouth and distinctly failing to hide a yawn as he looked at me.

“Hi Fio,” I heard him whisper in my ear, and I smirked.

“You know, you should really talk normally sometimes,” I told him, and saw his eyes light up from what I guessed was a small grin.

“Nah. Practice makes perfect,” he said, giving me a fist bump. “Glad to have you back. Others are upstairs or in some inn somewhere. Twins got back to the temple,” he added.

I nodded along. “Cool. Anyone still on the other side?”

“You’re the only one who went, actually. Marie considered it for a while, but decided to simply stay for now,” he told me, as he sat back down on the couch.

Liam and I got along well. I ruffled his hair a bit as I walked by. “Alright, I’ll go pester Ann. You’re looking cute beneath the mask, stop hiding your face so much.” I smiled. He had a large scar running over his lips, down his chin and across his throat.

The rogue remained perfectly cool at my compliment outwardly, but he couldn’t hide the lines next to his eyes. “Thanks, Fio. Now, go off, to your girlfriend. Cuddle or something,” he told me, turning aside as he moved to sharpen his daggers.

Nodding, I made my way up the stairs. They creaked slightly, but I managed to make it to Ann’s and my room with fairly little noise. Slowly, I pushed my ear up against the door. Silence. I grinned.

Then I slammed it open and tackled Ann onto the bed, giving her the biggest hug I could manage.