The knock on the door broke him out of his stupor, his attention briefly falling on it.

  But what point was there in opening the door?

  He laid back down on the couch, staring up at the ceiling mindlessly, hoping he could empty the thoughts from his head completely. He’d been unsuccessful so far, but maybe if he kept going something would change.

  More knocking.

  “Open the door, Islwyn! I know you’re in there!”

  Hmm. More persistent than anyone else had been so far.

  More knocking.

  “Islwyn!”

  With a sigh, he forced himself up off of the couch and made his way to the door, opening it if only to get this over with.

  Pink eyes greeted him. The irises, anyway, with the whites and skin around them being reddened from what had no doubt been days of crying. Long, dark purple hair that was normally done up in a ponytail now hung loose, and the vibrant outfits she normally wore were replaced with a solemn black dress.

  The two of them just stared at each other in silence for a moment, her gazing up at him with emotions on her face he couldn’t decipher.

  He didn’t know what to say. What could he say?

  This was the sister of the man he’d gotten killed, after all.

  Eventually, she was the one to speak, her eyes narrowing. “You reek.”

  He should be offended, but… that probably had something to do with the fact that he’d been sitting in his apartment, just rotting away for… two? Maybe three days now? Honestly he’d lost track. He hadn’t bathed since before the… the fall or crash or whatever they were calling it now, however long ago that might have been.

  His voice was raspy as he eventually settled on saying “...sorry.”

  Her eyes softened. “It’s… I get it.” She took a moment to compose herself. “They told you it was today, didn’t they? I asked them to, but I…”

  He nodded. “They told me.”

  A knight had come by to inform him when the funeral would be held. That was… yesterday? Or maybe the day before…

  “Then why aren’t you getting ready? It’ll be starting soon.” She looked genuinely confused. “I haven’t seen you at all since…” she trailed off, “but I got kind of worried when I still hadn’t seen you today. If you don’t leave soon you’ll be late.”

  Did she not know? Surely they must have told her. She must hate him.

  “Katriona… I’m not sure that it’s a good idea for me to attend.”

  She frowned at him. “You’re going. I know it’s… hard, but… please? For me?” She pleaded.

  He bit the inside of his cheek, reaching to grab– nothing. To grab nothing. To hide the awkward motion he brought his hand further up, running it through his hair instead.

  She didn’t seem to know, and Katriona knew how to get what she wanted, looking at him with a face like that. He’d feel guilty for attending, but now he’d feel more guilty for not going.

  He’d just… stay out of the way or something.

  “Fine. Just give me a minute to clean up.”

  Hopefully that suit still fits him.

  /~/~/~/

  It felt like half of the capital was in attendance at the funeral. Maybe more than that, it was hard to judge numbers when crowds got this large.

  A sea of black had overtaken the cemetery, tucked away in a corner of the capital with a cloudy, overcast sky and the forest serving as a backdrop.

  Islwyn tugged at the collar of his suit nervously, hoping that nobody around him would recognize him in it. He didn’t see any familiar faces at a glance, not while lingering at the outer edges, his back to the streets where life went on as usual. He forced himself to look up at the clouds, hoping that refusing to make eye contact with anyone would prevent them from recognizing him.

  Katriona may have managed to drag him here, and she’d no doubt check to make sure he hadn’t bailed part way through, but she was needed along with her family at the center of it all, allowing him to fade into the crowd on his own.

  He couldn’t bring himself to step any closer. He couldn’t bring himself to cast his gaze upon the gravestone with no body to bury.

  The people who knew Bhaltair, who really knew him, would want to be close to it. Their disappointment and disgust wouldn’t be able to find him so far from the stone. He just needed to endure until Katriona said something to him again.

  He couldn’t get her brother killed and act like he didn’t care.

  Because he did care. It was basically the only thing he cared about currently. The last few days had mostly consisted of Bhaltair’s final moments replaying in his head over, and over, and over again.

  He wondered if it would ever stop.

  So caught up in reliving that night, he didn’t even notice as the cemetery started to clear out, the service complete.

  Not until someone stopped right in front of him, clearing their throat.

  Shit.

  When he brought his gaze down from the sky, he was surprised to see a black dress over blue skin. A Veska?

  Breaking her polite smile, she opened her mouth, hesitated, closed it, then opened it again. “Apologies, but I’m afraid I never caught your name?”

  Never caught his name? Did he know this girl? Where would she have…? He gave her another once over. White hair. Green eyes. Things that would be impolite to think about at a funeral.

  “Oh. You’re that doctor chick. Uh… Hey-this, right?”

  Her polite smile grew a bit more stiff. “Eydís, actually. Eydís Vindheim.”

  He cringed. Damn Veska names… “Ah, my bad, sorry about that…” Then, he finally remembered that she had asked a question. “I’m Islwyn Sadwrn, it’s…”

  Was he supposed to say it’s nice to meet someone at a funeral? Though technically they’d met beforehand, even if it wasn’t much of a conversation. Ugh, he didn’t know how to handle situations like this, he always left social interaction to Bhal–

  He flinched.

  She didn’t comment on it, thankfully. Instead, she looked around warily before continuing. “I apologize if this comes off as insensitive, but we had… questions, and it seems you might be best suited to answer them.”

  In what world was he best suited for anything? They’d had a single conversation before this, and only because she knocked on the wrong door. What could she possibly know about him?

  “What sort of questions?” Something about this was strange, but she seemed nice enough. “Wait– we? Who is ‘we’?”

  “She means me, jackass.” A voice called from behind him as a hand… smacked against his back? “Tch, too damn tall. Kneel down so I can grab your shoulder threateningly before I take your knees out and force you to do it.”

  Islwyn tensed up, but Eydís merely frowned. “I told you not to threaten him, ?sahild.”

  “Well I don’t really care about what you told me, I care about answers.” The girl replied, and yet she took her hand off of him and walked to his front, joining Eydís, if with a much more sour expression.

  ?sahild… she was the girl who flirted with Bhaltair the other day, wasn’t she? That must mean…

  With two of the people who had seen him that day standing before him, he had a sinking feeling that he knew what these “questions” were going to be about. Standing on the fringes of the crowd hadn’t saved him from scrutiny. But in a way, he deserved this, didn’t he? Why should he be allowed peace after what he did? “What exactly do you want to know?”

  ?sahild scowled, her golden eyes piercing into him. “The truth. Something isn’t adding up here.”

  Eydís sighed, palming her face. “What she means is that there are some gaps in the story we heard, and we’d like a bit of clarification. We know you were the last one to see him.”

  The story they’d heard? Now that Islwyn thought about it, he had no clue what they were telling people.

  So he explained what happened, keeping his voice down so as to not disturb the other people leaving the cemetery, and skipping over the part with his necklace and the voice he had heard. He wasn’t sure that he could handle other people agreeing that he should have been the one to die, and those details would have all but cemented it.

  By the end of it, the girls were frowning, clearly distressed by the story.

  Though not for the reasons he expected.

  “Tch. I knew there was no way a stupid slyme got him.” ?sahild muttered.

  Eydís’ brows furrowed. “They didn’t say how he died?”

  “Well, the flash of light, right?” Islwyn supplied, even if her words made him doubt himself. “After the flash he was…” He reached up to– to run his hand through his hair.

  ?sahild squinted at him like he was stupid. “How does light kill someone, moron?”

  He flushed a bit, flustered by the line of questioning. “I don’t know, but they told me he was dead! I figured… well, Veska turn their dead to ash, right? The flash of light could have been some sort of fire magic that was so hot it did it in an instant.”

  “You didn’t mention it getting hot…” her red fists clenched.

  “Because it didn’t! Or– well, I didn’t feel it anyway. But someone using fire magic doesn’t mean I’ll feel the heat, right? It could be concentrated.”

  “No, that doesn’t work.” Eydís muttered, staring at the ground, her hand rubbing at her chin. “Fire hot enough to instantly cremate would have burned you as well if you were in the same room, and even then bones don’t turn to ash. If there was anything left behind then we wouldn’t be visiting a cenotaph. The knights said they killed the slymes in question, so the option of them being dissolved is gone as well, it wouldn’t have been long enough…”

  Now Islwyn was getting worked up. “What exactly are you saying? We both went into that place and now he’s– now he’s gone.”

  She looked up in a panic. “Oh! No, no, apologies, I didn’t mean to imply anything, it’s just… well, like ?sahild said, something about this isn’t adding up. I work at the medical office and not the morgue, so it’s not quite my field, but I know enough that the whole thing is ringing a little hollow. If it’s as you say and he was last seen in a flash of light, and they’ve not been able to find any traces of his remains, then… as far-fetched as it may seem, I suspect that he isn’t actually dead.”

  Islwyn just stared at her slack-jawed. Eventually, the shock wore off, quickly replaced by anger. His fists clenched, he grit his teeth, and he restrained himself from… well, he wasn’t sure what he might do, but something stupid for sure.

  “I can’t believe that you have the audacity to show up to my best friend’s funeral and tell me that he isn’t dead. Get out of here, both of you.”

  ?sahild rolled her eyes. “Some friend you are, giving up on him so easily.”

  The next thing Islwyn knew, he was staring up at the sky again.

  Laid out on his back, his right hand and face hurt. “Wha–?”

  His view of the sky was quickly taken up by a grinning red face, purple starting to blossom around her left eye. “Heh. I’ve been waiting to knock you on your ass for days now.” Her grin morphed into a frown. “Didn’t expect you to have such a nasty hook, though.”

  ?sahild was shoved out of the way, quickly replaced by Eydís. “Damn it, ?sahild! Would it kill you to listen to me for once?” Her hands grabbed the sides of his face, tilting and tugging it while she inspected every inch. “Doesn’t look too bad, but I don’t like that you blacked out…” she muttered under her breath.

  “He hit me first!” The Wessk girl defended.

  Eydís turned to give her some serious side eye. “Yes, there was definitely nothing you did to provoke that.”

  At that point Islwyn had mostly regained his senses, brushing Eydís out of the way as he sat up and forced himself back on his feet. “Get off of me. You two need to get out of here before his family hears something like that.” He’d never been on the receiving end, but he knew that Mr. MacNaughton could easily dish out a good beat down, and he’d be more than willing to give a demonstration if he heard someone talking about his dead son like that.

  Eydís tried to fuss over him a bit more, but she seemed like the more reasonable of the two, so she started inspecting ?sahild’s eye instead. The ginger glared at him, allowing Eydís to work. “Sure, we’ll leave. But you’re coming with us.”

  Eydís sighed. “Why do you insist on making an ass of yourself?”

  She smirked. “It’s in the name, isn’t it?”

  “It’s really not,” the blue girl deadpanned.

  He looked at her like she was insane. It was shaping up like he’d given her a black eye and she’d dished back worse. And she wanted him to come with them? “Is that some sort of joke? I’ve had just about enough of you two.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  She scoffed, turning away from him– only for Eydís to harshly turn her face right back so she could continue her inspection. ?sahild rolled her eyes but didn’t fight it. “Just because you refuse to accept an obvious truth doesn’t mean that we will. Bhaltair is alive, and we’re gonna find him. We need you to tag along because you’re the only one who knows where it happened. Knights won’t tell me shit, the bastards.”

  Islwyn was on the verge of giving her another black eye to match the first when another voice spoke up.

  “What do you mean, Bhaltair is alive?”

  The voice was weak. Disbelieving. All too familiar.

  All three of them winced as they turned towards Katriona, on the verge of tears.

  “S-start explaining. Now!”

  /~/~/~/

  He was going to make them regret doing this to Katriona.

  It was nice to see the girl smile again, laughing and excited as they trekked through the woods. But he knew that her happiness was built on a false hope sold to her by those two. No matter how much he argued, she had desperately clung to the lie they had given her, making it clear that either he could join them in the “search for Bhaltair” or they’d do it themselves.

  He knew that place was a deathtrap. Knew that a group of three girls wouldn’t be enough to keep safe, especially if they were set on exploring every inch until they found Bhaltair. They’d take stupid risks, hoping that “maybe this time” they’d be able to find him.

  It would be safer for Katriona if he went along. If he got them in and out as fast as he could. If he kept close to her, ready to physically drag her out at the first sign of danger. She was small enough that it wouldn’t be too hard, even if she’d no doubt fight him with every step.

  Eydís had told them to meet up at the forest’s edge an hour after their meeting at the funeral, giving them all a chance to change into something more appropriate than funeral attire and grab what gear they thought they might need.

  With the star having yet to hit the high of noon, Islwyn had put on a slightly loose blue shirt and some baggy beige shorts covered in pockets. He ran hot as it was, and he didn’t need to be distracted by melting under the sun when he should be focused on protecting Katriona.

  His self-imposed charge had put her hair back up into a ponytail, the long purple strands secured by a pink band that matched her eyes. Light blue pants and a vibrant pink shirt ensured that there was no chance he’d lose track of her.

  ?sahild had donned a yellow crop top that showed off her toned stomach and black shorts with a hole cut out for her tail that clung to her in a way that was distracting.

  And Eydís herself… was wearing the same white tunic he had first seen her in. It didn’t really seem like good attire for this sort of thing in his eyes, but he wasn’t going to be the one to delay the stupid journey to have her change and give Katriona more time to convince herself that her brother was still alive.

  “Is it just me, or does it seem like the woods are kind of… empty?” Katriona eventually asked.

  Islwyn frowned. “Now that you mention it, we haven’t seen a single monster have we? There was only a single magl slyme the last time, too.”

  ?sahild scoffed. “Bhaltair gets himself in a mess like this and you think the knights are just gonna stand around? They’ve been running themselves ragged, clearing out everything to the other edge of the forest.”

  Islwyn’s eyes widened. That was no simple task. The capital’s forest was basically a ring that stretched around the city’s perimeter, going on for quite some distance before thinning out into empty plains. He wasn’t certain of the exact area, but it would be several times that of the capital itself.

  “I imagine the impact itself probably did quite a bit to help. Something like that would have frightened off most creatures in the area, monster or not.” Eydís added.

  “Speaking of the impact!” Katriona excitedly shouted before running ahead.

  “Wait!” Islwyn shouted after her as he tried to catch up. “Don’t just run off on your own!”

  The others followed behind him as Katriona led them into the clearing. It looked quite different with the light of day.

  The charred trunks that had been at the edge of the clearing were chopped down, leaving small stumps behind. They’d been tossed into a pile along with the trees and other plants that had been further destroyed, the lot of it now completely blackened and reduced to a dusting of ashes off to the side of the clearing, some of it still smoldering. They must have burned it all to clear it out. The piles of dirt that had been dug up and scattered about by the object burying itself into a crater had been leveled out for the most part.

  The object itself was still a mystery to him, even if the details were much more clear now. The way that the light reflecting off of it eagerly sought to blind him cemented it as Hensiktium in his eyes. Sharp, angular carvings perhaps the depth of his finger’s width completely covered it, none of them being anything recognizable. The top of it still supported the odd bowl thing, a black matte that swallowed light whole in opposition to the Hensiktium that reflected it all. With the added light of day, he could now tell that the “bowl” was not as smooth as he first thought, hard angles making up something like steps that allowed rings of the material to get larger with each incrementation. He estimated that at its widest, the top ring could fit him stretching his arms as far as he could and then some.

  Katriona had stopped short of the object, staring up at it in awe.

  “Don’t touch that thing, we don’t know what it is!” Islwyn called out.

  She turned back and nodded, but ?sahild groaned. “If it was dangerous then the knights wouldn’t have left it here for anyone to wander up to. They’re bastards but they’re not dumb.”

  Eydís joined Katriona in checking it out. “So this is what Bhaltair came out here for…”

  Realizing that he had lost their attention for the moment, Islwyn sighed and took a better look himself.

  The knights had been interested in the other side, hadn’t they? Circling around to the back side, he wondered what had caught their attention.

  Blue. A whole lot of some blue liquid, pooling on the ground and leaking out of one of the grooves on the side. Not a clear, watery blue, but an opaque, sort of cloudy blue that varied in darkness depending on how thick it was. The pool was much darker than what clung to the side of the object. If it weren’t for the strange color, he would almost say that it looked like blood. He didn’t dare touch it, instead joining the girls once more.

  “Can we just get this over with?” He asked impatiently.

  ?sahild scoffed. “We’re waiting on you, dumbass. You’re the only one who knows where we’re going from here.”

  Eydís sighed and shoved the girl. Islwyn ignored their descent into bickering as he walked back to the woods, trying to find that hole overgrown with vines.

  It took him longer than he’d like to admit. He really shouldn’t blame himself, not with how it had taken Bhaltair literally stumbling into it the first time, but he wanted this to be done and over with as soon as possible.

  Eydís kept the group from descending into silence while he did so. “You know, having gotten a proper look now, doesn’t that thing seem familiar?”

  ?sahild gave her a disbelieving look. “No?”

  Katriona squirmed. “Well, maybe…”

  “Can’t say it does,” Islwyn muttered.

  Eydís frowned. “Am I the only one with any interest in art?”

  The rest of the group paused to look at her.

  She pouted. “What? I have hobbies!”

  ?sahild chuckled. “Figures that a stuck up chick like you would be into that sort of thing.”

  Eydís scowled at her. “Don’t give me that, I know who your mother is.” Then it was ?sahild’s turn to frown, but Eydís quickly moved past that. “It’s been a while since I looked at it, so I was hoping for a second opinion, but since you’re all uncultured then I guess I’ll just come out and say that it looks pretty similar to those things in the background of Grove’s Founding.”

  “Is that supposed to ring a bell?” ?sahild asked, clearly disinterested.

  “Is– yes! Of course it is! It’s the oldest surviving painting on record! It’s the central display at the building of the arts!”

  “People actually go to that place?” ?sahild doubted.

  Exasperated, Eydís turned to Katriona. “Please tell me that you know what I’m talking about!”

  “Of course I do!” Katriona clearly lied.

  “You can gush about your passion for art later,” Islwyn interrupted before Eydís could grow even more frustrated. “We’re here.”

  /~/~/~/

  The hallway was just as dark as he remembered it being, even with the starshine beaming down on the surface. The canopy cover was enough to block any of it from beaming down directly onto the reflective surfaces inside.

  Islwyn made sure that he was next to Katriona in the back of the group, ready at a moment's notice to grab her and run. ?sahild seemed perfectly fine with leading, Eydís at her side.

  The blue skinned woman looked back at him. “Bhaltair really saw a place like this and decided to run inside?”

  “Of course he did,” ?sahild responded with no hesitation. “Just another adventure for him.”

  “That does sound like him…” Katriona smiled softly.

  Islwyn couldn’t bring himself to say a word.

  “Pretty damn dark in here though,” ?sahild muttered. “Good thing I came prepared. Come on little guy, work your magic.”

  She held her hand up as it started to glow, the shimmering light of the spirits brightening the hall a bit and reflecting off the surface, reducing the strain on their eyes.

  “You brought a spirit?” Katriona asked curiously. “What does it do?”

  “No clue!”

  Eydís looked at her like she was crazy. “You have no idea what it does and you’re using it in such a confined space?!”

  “Relaaaax. It’s nothing dangerous, my mom was keeping it in the house. Probably heats tea or something.”

  “If you blow us all up then I’m healing you last,” Eydís huffed. “If I do at all…”

  Islwyn drew his sword as they got closer to the room at the end of the hall, white knuckling his grip on it.

  ?sahild rolled her eyes but drew her sword as well. “Knights said they already cleared it out.”

  “Yeah, well, it was cleared out when we came in too, so forgive me for not trusting that,” Islwyn nervously replied.

  He held out an arm to keep Katriona from moving forward while ?sahild walked into the room, Eydís following behind her.

  “Unrecognized occupants. Provide proof of candidacy.”

  ?sahild turned on a dime, towards what he didn’t know, because he couldn’t tell which direction the monotone voice had come from. It was like it was all around them. “What was that?”

  Eydís frowned. “That voice is familiar…”

  Katriona stiffened, but he didn’t let her move, waiting for it to continue.

  “Unauthorized occupants. Deploying countermeasures.”

  Islwyn tensed, holding his sword before him and glancing at the ceiling…

  But nothing happened.

  “That is so freaky,” ?sahild remarked. “Voice from nowhere, huh?”

  Islwyn didn’t know what to do. Was nothing going to happen? The voice didn’t say anything else, and no slymes appeared. Had they run out?

  Katriona shoved her way past him. “Bhaltair! Where are you?!” She shouted, her words echoing off the walls.

  “Damn it, Kat,” Islwyn muttered as he was forced to follow her inside. He kept his eyes peeled for anything that might sneak up on them as the others investigated the room.

  “The only way in or out is the hall we came through?” Eydís mumbled. “That doesn’t make much sense.”

  “Tch. And no sign of Bhaltair…” ?sahild complained. “There’s gotta be a clue somewhere around here… what does this thing do?” She walked over to the large desk he had seen the first time he came here.

  Without the rush of panic distracting him, he was able to take it in more detail. The “desk” looked to be connected to the floor rather than sitting on top of it, a solid base rising up out of the ground. There was an overhang that went over the seats of the chairs, and the surface was a strange thing. While the form factor was largely correct, he was hesitant to think that it truly was a desk because rather than being flat, the surface was at an angle with strange round protrusions, square indentations, and generally confusing engravings all over it.

  ?sahild poked at one of the round protrusions, and it sank into the “desk” with a click.

  “Unauthorized.” The voice called out.

  Eydís cringed. “Maybe don’t play with things we don’t understand?”

  ?sahild glared. “I don’t see you coming up with anything better.”

  “Well, no, but–”

  Another click, this time from a different circular protrusion.

  “Unauthorized.”

  “See?” ?sahild gestured around them. “Nothing bad happened. Maybe one of these things is authorized. The voice from nowhere is still creepy as hell, though.”

  Islwyn really didn’t like this, but Katriona followed right along, pressing a different one.

  “Unauthorized.”

  And then it practically became a game to the two of them, ?sahild encouraging the bad decision making in the youngest among them.

  “Unauthorized.”

  “Unauthorized.”

  “Unauthorized.”

  “Unauthorized.”

  Over and over they heard that damn voice, with Eydís exploring the rest of the room in the meantime, inspecting every surface and pouring over the inscriptions on the desk as if a clue would jump out at her.

  “Displaying log.”

  “YES!” ?sahild jumped up in excitement, fist in the air. “I called it!”

  Nobody thought to respond to her gloating, because their attention had been taken to the other side of the room. Above the table that sat there, light had appeared. Not like a lantern or chandelier hanging above it, or anything that might make sense. Instead, it was like someone had painted over a window pane, but with light instead of any normal paint. That same greenish light from the hall and the marble. Symbols without any meaning filled the space.

  Eydís approached the table, inspecting the top of it. “That’s what the glass was for? Light’s coming from the inside of the table…”

  “There’s glass there?” Katriona inquired as she joined her, getting an up close look.

  “Yeah. Highest quality I’ve ever seen, you can’t even tell it’s there if you’re not right in front of it.”

  ?sahild pressed something else, and suddenly the light painting went away.

  “Whoops.” Another click, and it was back.

  Anxiety filled Islwyn as they played around with their new toy. The light appeared and disappeared over and over, new symbols replacing the old ones depending on which of the protrusions ?sahild pressed, meaningless words being spouted by the voice.

  “These symbols have to mean something, don’t they?” Eydís pondered.

  “They must!” Katriona nodded. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen them before, though…”

  ?sahild pressed something else, and the symbols were gone.

  In their place was a map.

  “Displaying recently marked locations.”

  They all paused at the change.

  “Recently marked locations?” Katriona repeated.

  The map was detailed and high quality. The capital, the forest, the plains, every bit of it was just as accurate as any other map he’d seen. He had never been past the plains, but it did seem to match what other maps he’d been forced to look over during his schooling.

  The difference came in the marked locations. Where the maps he’d seen in the past marked the settlements outside the capital, notable resource rich areas, and locations with great danger, this map only had three marked locations.

  The center of the capital, where he thought their current location should be, and the far off Porthladd Jungle.

  If he thought about it for a moment, this place and the capital being marked sort of made sense. This was the only Hensiktium he’d seen outside of the city, so it could have some sort of relation to that. That was about all he could conclude given that he’d never been inside one of the buildings. The jungle, though? That seemed random.

  Unless there was another hidden structure there?

  ?sahild suddenly slammed her hands down on the table. “I’ve got it! Bhaltair must be in the jungle!”

  Eydís gave her a doubt filled look. “How exactly did you jump to that conclusion?”

  “Tch. Isn’t it obvious? He suddenly disappeared from this place, and he’s not in the capital. The voice said ‘recently’ marked, didn’t it? When was the last time you heard about anyone going way out there? It must be where he was taken!”

  Islwyn palmed his face. “Let me get this straight. You think some random map you got by pressing things you don’t understand and a voice coming from nowhere are going to lead you to Bhaltair, despite the fact that he’s–”

  He cut himself off as he saw the look on Katriona’s face. He should do it. Just say he’s dead. Crush this bit of hope, this lie that they’d fed her. It was why he came here after all. There was no sense in letting it persist.

  But she wanted to believe that lie so badly. She wanted to hope.

  And as much as he hated it, he kind of did too.

  Eydís was right in that the lack of a… a body was strange. This room was strange, the voice was strange, the map was strange…

  He knew better than to cling to false hope like this.

  He’d held onto that damn marble that caused this for fifteen years, waiting and hoping that one day the lies bundled with it would prove to be the truth. It had eaten away at him for all that time.

  Could he cling to another lie for another decade?

  Could he let them?

  This was less than that lie, really. Before, he’d straight up been told that there was something waiting for him. Here, ?sahild was grasping at a whole lot of nothing, trying to force the lie that she wanted to be true. Hoping that if she simply wished for it hard enough, that it would become reality.

  He knew Bhaltair was dead. Knew that following a random point on a random map was a bad idea. Knew that it’d be basically impossible for them to reach the Porthladd Jungle and whatever mystery it might hold.

  But he didn’t want Bhaltair to be dead. He wanted those final words his best friend had shouted at him to be true. That this was his chance, that those words from so long ago weren’t a lie, that this was all connected.

  In the end, though, the choice was made for him.

  “?sahild is right! We’re going to the jungle!” Katriona shouted. “That’s what Bhaltair would do for us!”

  https://discord.gg/Cw2YWKkmNe

  Chapters 2-4 are up on my right now if you want to get ahead